III. Some Aspects of the Inner Life of the Human Soul and its Relation to the World

You will understand that with such a movement, which is built on the foundation of spiritual wisdom and where the deeper powers of the human soul are to be awakened for the purpose of isolation, not only curiosity about the spiritual worlds may be connected – that may not actually be the impulse for spiritual research – but also a sense of responsibility. Through this movement, every ability of human beings to shape the future is brought into our time. A germ of the future is being called forth that is not yet ripe in the general public. We must bear this in mind and be clear about how we have to be careful to ensure that, even if the soul may be beautiful and sympathetic within the spiritual movement, we must still be vigilant in the face of impending dangers and must awaken the feeling of responsibility. If the soul approaches spiritual things immaturely, there is still danger. Not everyone notices this danger. Those who are a little more deeply involved in the movement know and must know – if they do not want to break down under the unbearable – how they must always be on guard to say only what has passed through their soul not once or ten times, but a hundred times! It is difficult to find words that are adequate with regard to spiritual matters. A definite opinion must form in the whole circle of Anthroposophists: the opinion that they demand of those who represent the movement that they take the truth in this sense seriously. One must not believe that as a speaker every evening one can simply stand there without letting these truths pass through one's soul again and again, so that they are properly shaped down to the last word. The difficulty that lies in being able to open one's mouth only for spiritual truths is one thing. The other is that those who are in such a movement must, in a certain way, even make sure that this feeling is present in the representatives of the movement. But even those who are not yet deeply involved have to be careful that certain things do not happen to their soul, and people should ask themselves again and again: Am I mature enough to represent a spiritual movement? Do I have to place myself in the movement in such a way that the things of the spiritual world have an even stronger effect on me? No one should be discouraged, but everyone should awaken the feeling in themselves: Even if I have done what is good and right through the compulsion of tradition and education, there is a limit beyond which not only the angels, archangels and spirits of the personality stand when the right is represented, but where Lucifer and Ahriman also stand. Time and again, we see people who were truthful begin to tell lies when they are confronted with spiritual truths, because they have not sufficiently said to themselves: Above all, you must prepare yourself, you must let the spiritual truths take effect on you, you must not let yourself speak! — One must be aware of such responsibility. But it would be cowardly to say: Then I do not want to place myself in the spiritual movement. It is not by evading the duty to observe caution that one behaves correctly, but by observing this duty correctly. Much of what has been said at all times characterizes the progressive spiritual movement.