# Theosophy and Occultism

## GA 90c — 16 October 1903, Berlin

### X. World Justice, a Wisdom-Filled Plan for the World, the Symbol of the Whitsun

The questions are:

- Whether a planned connection can be seen in the external world phenomena?

— Whether one can assume a planned connection?

— Whether the events of the phenomena are in a planned context?

— Whether wisdom or chance rules in the world?

(The questions are) reminiscent of war, earthquakes, a brick falling on a passer-by's head, and so on.

Sometimes things in the world seem to be arranged quite wisely. Man will have to educate himself about the plan of the whole. The world order seems to be a mixture of harmony and disharmony. [Last time I chose an example:] On the bank of a river stands a man. He is full of compassion and benevolence, sees a drowning man in the river, jumps into the water and saves him, but [later] perishes due to a cold. A second case: out of a sense of revenge, a person pushes another into the water [and falls into the water himself]. He also catches a cold and dies [as a result]. We can reflect on the great and mighty plan, but the philosopher Baumann cannot bring himself to embrace the theosophical worldview.

Just think, could we find wisdom in the world if it were not [already] in it? The laws of mathematics can be studied [by a person] in a room, purely by himself, away from the world. We find there [in mathematical study] that the world bodies move according to the laws of the ellipse, which we have explored in the room.

From the world of animal and plant life, we move up to the world of man. But then it seems as if everyone has to go their own way, without any plan. So the world seems to be a mixture of wisdom-filled order and chaos. But even in chaos, we can find such wonderful wisdom that we stand amazed. Take a look at a beaver's lodge. It is designed with tremendous skill. An engineer could not do better. Above its dwelling, the beaver builds dams. They are not always the same, they always follow the course of the river. As a whole, it appears to be chaos, but in detail it is wisdom; the dams are built according to law.

What is a law? Statistics teaches us a very specific regularity in the external world: there are six hundred and fifty Frenchmen for every criminal, a specific number of people die after ten years. Life insurance bases its calculations on the lawfulness of deaths. Such order should seem oppressive. But although an order can be perceived as a whole, the individual is not subject to that law. Therefore, it is not a fatalistic view.

This is an important secret of existence. What I have indicated here also relates to the fifth world secret [of which I have already spoken in outline].

Is there perhaps wisdom in apparent unknowingness? It is perhaps only absent because we have not yet seen through it. Man should never assume that he has reached a conclusion. It is an eternal development. What we do not yet understand today, we may understand tomorrow.

Why do we easily find the law in the external inanimate nature? It is a nature that has not yet developed to the diversity in human life. The further the development has progressed, the deeper is the law and the more difficult it is to understand. I have shown you examples of planned laws. I showed you this at the beaver lodge. Beavers do not have human minds. But animals also have an effective reason. If you examine the animal body, you will not find a soul as in humans. You will not find such a single soul in animals. You have to look for the animal soul in the non-physical. The relationship is similar to that between the hand and the brain. There is no soul reason in the hand, but there is in the brain. It is the same with animals.

What lives in man in man, in the soul, is behind the same in the animal. A scholar said: If I found a nervous system in the worlds and stars, I would believe in a soul, but not otherwise. That is precisely the difference: in man, the soul can live in the nerves; otherwise, the soul lives above the physical world. Therefore, it is not possible for physical observation to perceive the connection everywhere.

It also includes the fact that vindictiveness and compassion have the same consequences in a certain respect. However, the causes lie in the higher spiritual spheres. If the causes from the higher worlds were to fall into the physical world, they would have to appear to us as a wise thing. Whoever works in the world must listen to the One who looks deeper into the world than he does. There are levels. (A genuine hierarchy is naturally established.)

We can only recognize and understand a law as far as we are developed. That world wisdom exists is clear from today's reflection. But if this is there, then we must strive to do everything that lies in the sense of this world wisdom. This is not intended to imply a specific approach, but rather free decision. What divine wisdom has reserved for itself with animals, namely to direct them, it has given up with regard to human beings. This is the descent of the tongues of fire, the descent of the spirit into every human being: The Feast of Pentecost. Each tongue directs an animal order. The animal need only surrender to the wisdom that guides it. Man must express his wisdom by consulting with the worldly powers.

We must listen [to the wise world powers]. We are not here to brood over the divine plan for the world [or to] simply believe, but we are here to work in a wise manner ourselves, to absorb the hidden wisdom within us and to penetrate it. Through human development, the hidden wisdom becomes apparent: through the actions of man, through his work.