{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 199/1920-08-14/p017","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"This must be done for two reasons. First, because all that has come down to us from the old Mysteries, all that has been presented to the world by the initiation knowledge of old is lacking in any real comprehension of the riddle of human freedom. Sublime and mighty were the traditions those mystery teachers could pass on to posterity. There is greatness and power in the mythological traditions of the various peoples that can indeed be interpreted esoterically, although not in the way it is usually done. Something grand is contained in the other traditions that have as their source the initiation science of ancient times, if only the latter is correctly understood. One aspect is lacking, however; there is no reference at all to the riddle of human freedom in the initiation science of the ancient Mysteries, in the myths of the various peoples—even when they are comprehended esoterically—or in the traditions deriving from this initiation science. For, whoever proceeds from a present-day initiation knowledge, from an initiation of today, knows how present initiation compares to that of the past. He knows that in the course of its worldwide evolution mankind is only now entering the stage of real freedom, and that formerly it was simply not necessary to give to human beings an initiation science impregnated completely with the riddle of freedom. Today, hardly anybody has an inkling of what this riddle of freedom includes, what condition the human soul finds itself in when it becomes clearly aware of the burden it shoulders due to this enigma. New light must be shed, after all, on all initiation knowledge due to this riddle of human freedom. We observe how certain secret societies carry on in direct continuation from former times, some of them being quite strongly involved in present-day life. They only preserve the traditions of the past, however, only imitating and continuing on in the sense of the old practices. These societies are nothing more than mere shadows of the past; indeed, they represent something that can only do harm to mankind if it is active nowadays.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture IV","site_heading":"Spirit and Matter: Overcoming Materialism Through Initiation","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":"1920-08-14","location":null,"word_count":350,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/199/1920-08-14/p017","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Maria St. Goar","identified_edition":"AP1986","book_title":"Spiritual Science as a Foundation for Social Forms","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA199/English/AP1986/19200814p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","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":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/199/1920-08-14/p017"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/199/1920-08-14/p017","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":"1920-08-14","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 199/1920-08-14/p017","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/199/1920-08-14/p017"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":340,"en_words":350,"ratio":1.03,"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 199/1920-08-14/p017","passage_number":17,"text":"Wir müssen dies aus zwei Gründen tun. Erstens deshalb, weil alles, was aus den alten Mysterien heraus aufgebracht worden ist, was durch die Initiationswissenschaft der alten Zeit vor die Welt hingestellt worden ist, weil alles das ohne ein wirkliches Begreifen des Rätsels der menschlichen Freiheit dasteht. Großartiges, Gewaltiges haben die Lehrer der alten Mysterien der Menschheit überliefern können. Großartiges, Gewaltiges liegt in den mythischen Überlieferungen der verschiedenen Völker, die ja auch esoterisch erläutert werden dürfen, freilich nicht so, wie man es oft macht. Großartiges liegt in den sonstigen Überlieferungen, die ihren Quell in der Initiationswissenschaft alter Zeit haben, wenn man sie nur in der richtigen Weise versteht. Aber eines liegt in alledem nicht, eines liegt nicht in der Initiationswissenschaft der alten Mysterien, nicht in den Mythen der verschiedenen Völker, auch wenn sie esoterisch verstanden werden, nicht in den Traditionen, die sich herschreiben aus dieser Initiationswissenschaft: das ist das Rätsel von der menschlichen Freiheit. Denn derjenige, der von einer Initiationswissenschaft, von einer Einweihung der Gegenwart ausgeht, der begreift, wie Einweihung der Gegenwart sich hinstellt neben Einweihung der Vergangenheit, der weiß, daß die Menschheit in ihrer Entwickelung über die Erde hin erst jetzt in das Stadium wirklicher Freiheit eintritt, und daß es einfach früher nicht nötig war, der Menschheit eine Initiationswissenschaft zu geben, die ganz imprägniert wäre von dem Rätsel der Freiheit. Was alles das Rätsel der Freiheit umschließt, in welche Lage die menschliche Seele versetzt ist, wenn sie das Rätsel der Freiheit völlig klar auf sie abgeladen findet, das ahnen die wenigsten Menschen heute. Alle Initiationswissenschaft muß ja ein neues Licht empfangen durch dieses Rätsel der menschlichen Freiheit. Das auf der einen Seite. Wir sehen, wie sich fortsetzen aus alten Zeiten in direkter Kontinuation, möchte ich sagen, Geheimgesellschaften, die zum Teil recht stark in dem Leben der Gegenwart stehen, die aber nur das Alte bewahren, nur das Alte nachahmen, nur fortwirken im Sinne des Alten, und die doch nichts weiter sind, als Schatten des Alten, die nichts weiter sind als etwas, was, wenn es heute wirkt, der Menschheit schädlich sein muß.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":340,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/199/1920-08-14/p017"}],"english":["GA 199/1920-08-14/p017"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":340,"en_words":350,"ratio":1.03,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6278,"original_word_count":5963,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Maria St. Goar","identified_edition":"AP1986","book_title":"Spiritual Science as a Foundation for Social Forms","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA199/English/AP1986/19200814p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","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 199/1920-08-14/p017"],"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."}}