{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 138/1912-08-30/p024","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"So once more we see how what emanates from Ahriman cannot, in itself, be called either good or bad, but becomes good or bad according to how men place themselves toward it and enter into relation with it. Through this we can realise how easy it is for descriptions to be superficial when answering questions that show so little real thought as, “What is Ahriman like?” or “What is Lucifer like?” In the higher worlds where descriptions of these beings are only possible, there are really no such utterances, no such questions. Thus is man drawn into the labyrinth of life. Both Lucifer and Ahriman are working in this labyrinth, and man has to discover how to take up the right attitude toward them. This necessity for seeking our right relationship to the beings of super-sensible worlds is just what gives us the power for self-development. Connections with super-sensible worlds are not maintained by striving for a knowledge based on that of the senses, so much as by creating a relationship with spiritual beings in the way we have just described. For this reason men must go into the darkness of life in which beings work who can just as well be good as evil, and who can become good or evil in the effects of what they do according to the way in which we relate ourselves to them. That is what constitutes the darkness of life. Hence, the light of life, spiritual light, can only shine into the darkness of life by our acquiring the right relation to, and getting to know, the several powers of the super-sensible world who play into our physical world. Also, when wishing to speak of super-sensible worlds, we change our ideas and concepts. I should like to bring before your souls by yet another example how differently we must think if we would find the connection between the sensory world and the super-sensible world in the right way.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture VI","site_heading":"Lucifer and Ahriman: Spiritual Beings Beyond Good and Evil","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1912-08-30","location":null,"word_count":326,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/138/1912-08-30/p024","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Gilbert Church","identified_edition":"AP1980","book_title":"Initiation, Eternity and the Passing Moment","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA138/English/AP1980/19120830p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/138/1912-08-30/p024","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1912-08-30","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 138/1912-08-30/p016","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/138/1912-08-30/p016"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":311,"en_words":326,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 138/1912-08-30/p016","passage_number":16,"text":"So sehen wir wieder, wie das, was von Ahriman ausgeht, absolut an sich - nicht gut und nicht böse genannt werden darf, sondern wie es gut oder böse wird je nachdem, wie sich der Mensch ihm unterstellt, je nachdem, wie der Mensch mit ihm in ein Verhältnis tritt. Daraus sehen wir aber überhaupt, wie oberflächlich leicht Beschreibungen werden können, welche den bequemen Fragen dienen möchten: wie ist Ahriman, wie ist Luzifer? Sprache, Antworten auf solche Fragen gibt es im Grunde genommen nicht in denjenigen Welten, wo solche Wesenheiten allein charakterisiert werden sollen: in den höheren Welten. So ist der Mensch eingesponnen in das Lebenslabyrinth. Sowohl Ahriman wie Luzifer wirken in das Lebenslabyrinth herein, und der Mensch hat den Weg zu suchen, um sich in der richtigen Weise zu solchen Mächten zu stellen. Das macht es gerade, daß wir uns entwickeln können, weil wir dadurch zu den Wesen der übersinnlichen Welten Verhältnisse suchen müssen. Und die Beziehungen zu der übersinnlichen Welt werden weniger durch eine nach dem Muster der Sinneserkenntnis angestrebte Erkenntnis erhalten, als dadurch, daß man sich im Sinne des Charakterisierten Beziehungen verschafft zu diesen übersinnlichen Wesenheiten. Deshalb muß der Mensch im Lebensdunkel sein, denn in dasselbe spielen die Wesenheiten herein, welche sowohl gut wie böse sein können, und gut oder böse in ihren Wirkungen werden können, je nachdem wir uns zu ihnen stellen. Das macht das Lebensdunkel aus. Das bewirkt es, daß Lebenslicht, Geisteslicht in dieses Lebensdunkel nur dadurch hereinleuchtet, daß wir zu den einzelnen Mächten der übersinnlichen Welt, die in unsere physische Welt hereinspielen, die richtigen Verhältnisse gewinnen, daß wir uns damit bekannt machen, daß sich unsere Vorstellungen und Begriffe wandeln müssen, wenn wir von den übersinnlichen Welten sprechen wollen. An einem anderen Beispiele möchte ich Ihnen noch vor die Seele führen, wie wir anders denken müssen, wenn wir die Beziehungen der Sinneswelt zu dem Übersinnlichen richtig finden wollen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":311,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/138/1912-08-30/p016"}],"english":["GA 138/1912-08-30/p024"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":311,"en_words":326,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.02,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5516,"original_word_count":5400,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Gilbert Church","identified_edition":"AP1980","book_title":"Initiation, Eternity and the Passing Moment","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA138/English/AP1980/19120830p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 138/1912-08-30/p016"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}