Historical Equilibrium and the Crisis of Spiritual Consciousness

In the age of the Consciousness Soul, man must very soon develop the possibility of having not merely the abstract, dry natural science which petrifies the whole of him—a science which is to-day extolled as the salvation of the world—but a science that can deepen itself to a reverent perception of all the sacred symbols spread out over the world by the Godhead, in all the deeds giving joy to man, but also in everything by which the Godhead puts man to the test. If man is able once more to do his laboratory experiments sacramentally, on a higher level, and to make the operating table an altar, instead of a carpenter's workshop and a shambles, then the time will have come which is demanded for and souls to-day by divine evolution. Hence it is not surprising that at such a time as this much can be misunderstood, misunderstood above all through the aftermath of the Jundí Sábúr Academy, and is therefore taken up into natural science without any wish for a connection with the Mystery of Golgotha. Because of this, natural science becomes a purely Ahrimanic science, corresponding to all the Ahrimanic needs of mankind, corresponding to the state of mind which wants to organise the world according to externals alone. It may be said that the impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha has always to be sought anew; we must take in earnest the words: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”—even to the time when all the cycles of the earth have been accomplished. These words have to be taken seriously. If we wish to remain connected with the Mystery of Golgotha, we must keep our souls fresh, so that we can take up the new impulses which flow out repeatedly from the spiritual world—not always in cycles but because of the wish to approach mankind from time to time.