The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The question that was asked, gentlemen, is quite a detailed one, and we will need to discuss some of its aspects a few more times.

Today, however, I would like to say a few more specific words about the later spread of Christianity. When viewed today, Christianity takes three forms. These three forms must be considered if one is to go back from today's concepts to what actually happened as a result of the Mystery of Golgotha.

Let us first consider the matter in relation to Europe. I already told you the other day how it was: we have Asia over there, and Europe is actually a kind of peninsula of Asia. As you know, it looks like this (a map is drawn). Here would be Norway, here it goes over to Russia, here we come over to the German north coast; here we then have Denmark. From there we come over to Holland, France, and Spain would be here. From here we come to Italy, Greece; the Black Sea would be here, and from there it goes over to Asia. Africa is at the bottom.

Now, you see, in our time it is difficult to talk about the spread of Christianity, because special circumstances also prevail in relation to these things at present. But if you look at Christianity in these areas of Russia, as it was before the world war, then you come to the conclusion that Eastern Christianity still has more of the original religious character of Asia, of which I have spoken to you in its various forms among the Egyptians, the Indians, the Assyrians. Much of what was customary in terms of religious practices, for example, sacrificial rites, which were very well understood in Asia, has been incorporated into the religion that was then permeated by Christianity in these eastern regions. When you get to know the religion in these eastern regions, you immediately have the feeling that the cult is actually much more important than the teaching. The teaching wants to express in human words what belongs to the spiritual world, or at least what human feeling can grasp of the spiritual world. The teaching is also that which the human being wants to approach with his reason. The cult, on the other hand, is something that one has, that remains much more conservative. And where the cult is particularly dominant, religion also takes on a conservative character. So one has to say: Eastern religion here takes on a conservative character, places much more emphasis on the cult than on the actual inner impetus of religion, of religious life in man, than the more Western religions.

Now, the second current of Christianity started from Rome and spread to the north, and was then strongly influenced by Ireland, where the missionaries came from. This southern Central European Christianity, influenced from Rome, also retained the cult, but placed much more emphasis on the doctrine than the eastern essence. Therefore, the cult is felt much less in its importance by Roman Catholicism than the sermon, the doctrine. And there were many more disputes within the Roman Catholic Church about the actual content of the doctrine than in the eastern church.

But this Christianity has also experienced another influence. You see, Christianity originated at the beginning of our era. About six centuries after that, five or six centuries after that, Islam originated. I recently drew Arabia for you. If I draw Asia Minor again, we come down here to Arabia, would go over to India here; Africa would be there, Egypt here. Now, here in Arabia, Islam was founded by Mohammed. This Islam spread very quickly in the second half of the first Christian millennium. It spread from Asia, first towards Syria to the Black Sea, then across Africa to Italy, Spain, and up into western Europe. This Islam has a special peculiarity: it combines the fantastic element with an extremely sober, rational element in its religion. The main tenet of the Muslim religion, which spread rapidly across southern and western Europe and across Asia in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, is that there is only one God, proclaimed to you through Muhammad.

We must now only properly understand what this actually means in world history, that Muhammad proclaimed the principle: There is only one God. Why then was this so strongly emphasized by Mohammed? Mohammed was already familiar with Christianity; and Christianity does not have three gods, but it does have three divine figures. You just don't feel that anymore today. You don't feel today that Christianity did not have three gods from the beginning, but it has three divine figures: Father, Son and the so-called Holy Spirit.

What does that mean? You see, in the Latin language, “person” originally meant nothing other than a figure, a mask, that which reveals itself to the outside world. And in original Christianity, people did not speak of three gods, but of three figures in which the one God reveals himself. And they also sensed how it is with these three figures.

Let us take a look at what the situation is with these three forms. Not true, today, when there is a distinct science alongside religion, one can no longer understand this at all. For science is pursued quite independently of religion today, and one does not really look to religious life when speaking of scientific life. That was not the case in ancient times, nor in the early days of Christianity; rather, religion was received along with all the science that had existed. There were no special priests or special teachers, but there were those who were both priests and teachers. This was particularly the case with what I have described to you as the last mysteries.

Now, it was first seen that man is a natural being. Man is a natural being in that he is born out of the mother's womb as a physical human being with the help of natural forces. These forces are at work in man, as was thought and felt. When I look at how man comes into being as a physical being, I see forces that I also find when I see a tree growing outside, and that are ultimately also present when water evaporates and rain falls. They are natural forces. But in ancient times, people saw spiritual forces behind these natural forces. Spiritual forces are at work everywhere in nature. When a crystal forms inside a mountain, when a stone grows, spiritual forces are at work. When a plant emerges in spring, spiritual forces are at work. When water evaporates, clouds form, and rainwater falls, spiritual forces are at work. The same spiritual forces are at work in man when he develops as a human germ in his mother's body. The same spiritual forces are at work when his blood flows through his veins and his breath comes in and out. In everything that was seen as spirit in nature, which is also seen in the physical human being, the father principle, the father, was seen, because natural science was also religion.

They said to themselves: He who has attained the highest enlightenment in the mystery is an image of this Father-Spirit, who knows everything that is everywhere in nature. That was the seventh degree, the degree that man could take in the mysteries when he had ascended to the dignity of the Father.

The next dignity - I have told you - was that of the sun spirit. What did they understand by the spirit of the sun, which was later called the son? What did they understand by it? I have already explained to you that the Christ called himself the spirit of the sun. They said to themselves: 'Of course, man is born through natural forces, through the same forces that make plants grow and so on; but when he lives on earth, he develops. Just as he is born through natural forces, so, for example, one can no more speak of good and evil in him than in a plant. It will not occur to you to call a deadly nightshade evil because it acts as a poison on humans. You will say: it cannot help it. There is no will in the deadly nightshade, as there is in man. And so one cannot say, when the child is born, that it can be good and evil through the forces of nature. It then becomes good or evil as its human will gradually develops. And in contrast to the forces that work in nature, that which works in the human will, that which can become good or evil in man, was called the son of God or the spirit of the sun. And the one who was able to ascend to the sixth level in the mystery was only his representative. All these individual representatives of the sixth level were representatives of God on earth. And then it was known that the sun is not just a gas body; the sun not only gives light and warmth, but also the forces that develop the will. Therefore, not only light and warmth come from the sun, but also the spirit of the sun. The God-son is at the same time the one who is the spirit of the sun. So that one said: The Father-Godhead is everywhere in nature; the Son-Godhead is everywhere present where human beings develop free will.

But now they felt something very peculiar. They said to themselves: Yes, but does man, by developing free will and being under the son of God, become more worthy or less worthy as a result? - This question was also asked at the time when Christianity was founded.

Gentlemen, just take a look at any natural product, even animals, if you like. Of course, when a cow has grown old, you can still say that you pay less for this cow than you paid when she was young. So she would be worth less than when she was young. Now, that is quite true; but that is not the point. Rather, it is clear that the cow has not become less valuable because of something that works as a will within her, but rather she has become less valuable because of the course of nature. But the person who acts in a bad way, who develops his will in a bad way, becomes less valuable than he actually is by nature! Therefore, man needs a third deity to guide him to make his will good again, to make it completely good, to sanctify his unhealthy will. And that was the third form of the deity: the Holy Spirit, who was depicted everywhere in the mysteries through the fifth stage of initiation, which was thus designated by the people.

And so these old people said: There are three ways in which the deity reveals itself. - You see, they could have said: There is a god of nature, a god of will, and a god of spirit, where the will is again sanctified, spiritualized. - They also said it that way, because the old words mean that perfectly. “Father” actually means something that is connected with the origin of the physical, something natural. Only in the newer languages has the meaning of these words been lost. But then these old people added something when they said: There is a God of nature, the Father; a God of will, the Son; and a God who heals everything in man that can become diseased through the will, the Holy Spirit; but - they added - these three are one. So they said that their most important sentence, their most important conviction, is: There are three forms of the Godhead, but these three are one.

And then they said something else. When you look at a human being, they said, you see a great difference in relation to nature. When you look at a stone, what is at work in it? The Father. When you look at a plant, what is at work in it? The Father God. When you look at a human being as a physical person, what is at work in him? The Father God. But if you look at a person as a spiritual being, in his will: what is at work in there? The Son of God. And if you look at the future of humanity, how it should become, if everything in the will should become healthy: there the Spirit God is at work. All three gods, it was said, work in man. There are three gods or divine figures; but they are one, and they work in man as one unit.

This was the original conviction of Christianity. And if we go back to the early days of Christianity, people still expressed a conviction. They said: Now, this healing, this health-giving Spirit must work in two ways. Firstly, because nature can become ill, it must work on the physical, on that which comes from the Father-God. And because the will must also become healthy, it must act on that which comes from the Son. So they said: This Holy Spirit must work in such a way that it emanates from the Father and the Son at the same time. That was the original conviction of Christianity.

Now, Muhammad actually did get a certain fear. He saw how the old paganism, which had many gods, would degenerate, become corrupt, and ruin humanity. Now he saw Christianity emerging and said to himself: That would also have the danger of idolatry, namely, having three gods. He did not see through that these are three divine forms. Therefore, he entered into opposition and particularly emphasized: There is only one God and Mohammed proclaims him to you. Everything else that is said about the gods is wrong.

This doctrine was then spread with tremendous fanaticism. Now, as a result, in Islam, in Mohammedanism, this thinking of the three divine figures was not there at all. They confined themselves more to speaking of the unified God, whom they then actually felt to be the Father of everything. And that is why Islam has always thought more: Now, just as the stone has no free will to grow as it is, just as the plant has no free will but gets yellow or red blossoms from nature, so everything in man also grows up from nature. - This is how this rigid idea of fate arose in Islam - fatalism is what it is called - that man must actually submit to an absolute, rigid fate: If he is happy, it is ordained by the Father God; if he is unhappy, it is ordained by the Father God. He must simply throw himself into this, as it is called, fate.

You see, gentlemen, that was the religious side of Mohammedanism. But precisely because Mohammed saw everything in man as it is in nature, he was able to absorb all ancient art and all earlier life into himself much more easily than Christianity could. Christianity, after all, mainly saw the way in which human will can be healed. Mohammedanism did not concern itself with that. Why should it? If it is determined that man will become bad, then it is determined by the Father God. In Christianity it has been said: The old pagans, they mainly looked to the Father God; so you have to put the Son of God in contrast. - Mohammed, and especially his later followers, did not say that; they said: The old pagans, even if they had many gods, also worshiped the natural world, in which, of course, the one God also works. Therefore, much of the ancient science and art has continued into Islam. And it was already the case that while, for example, in the ninth century in Europe, Charlemagne ruled in the Frankish Empire, who is known as one of the greatest rulers of the Middle Ages and is mentioned everywhere in history – he had trouble learning the letters, he could not yet write – what he achieved in art and science was a mere trifle compared to what had emerged in Asia under the ruler – his name was Harun al-Rashid – who, during the time of Charlemagne, was active in Islam, in Mohammedanism. There was a great deal of art and science that had remained from ancient paganism. And such art and science then found its way into Europe via the south to Spain.

Now, Christianity spread out from Rome. From Asia, I would like to say, Christianity was bypassed by Mohammedanism. There were also strong struggles between Christianity and Mohammedanism. Truly, Mohammedanism did something very strange there. You know that when an army is stationed somewhere, you can achieve a lot in strategy if you can go around it unnoticed and then attack it from the other side. That is actually what Mohammedanism did to Christianity; it bypassed Christianity in the south and then attacked it from the left flank.

But, gentlemen, if that had not happened, if only Christianity had spread, we would still have no science today! The religious element of Mohammedanism has been repelled, that has been fought through wars. But the intellectual element, which did not deal with religious disputes but which propagated the old science, that came to Europe with Mohammedanism. And what the Europeans learned there has flowed into today's science. Therefore, in our souls today in Europe we actually have two things: we have religion, which was inspired by Christianity, and we have science, which was inspired by Mohammedanism, albeit in a roundabout way. And Christianity was only able to develop here in such a way that Mohammedanism influenced it scientifically.

But this has led to an even greater desire to defend Christianity in this western part of Europe. Wherever cultus is dominant, religion needs less defense; cultus exerts a great influence on man. Here, starting from Rome, cultus was less dominant, although it was preserved; the doctrine became dominant. But now it had to be constantly defended against the onslaught of Mohammedanism. Actually, the whole of the Middle Ages passed under the shadow of these struggles that had been left over from Mohammedanism, struggles that were initially military struggles but later became spiritual struggles. In the second half of the Middle Ages, what is called European culture or civilization gradually developed. What happened gradually?

In the East, as far as Russia and even Greece, Christianity could not but remain true to the old traditions in its cult. But what does that mean? It means performing external acts, even if they are only symbolic. Here one must follow nature. One is much more inclined to emphasize the Father God than the Son God. And just as this principle of destiny arose intellectually in Mohammed, that one must strictly submit to what the Father-God ordains, so this Father-God also came more into his own in Eastern Christianity, in the sense that he came more into his own than the Son-God. Only a remarkable shift in thinking has taken place: these people in the East have always held fast to the Christ, but they have transferred the attributes of the Father God to the Christ. They have somewhat obscured the story here, have not spoken so much of the Son of God, but they have become Christian, recognized Christ as their God, but they saw him with the attributes of the Father God. So that actually for this eastern religion the view arose: Christ, our Father. And that actually lives in all of this eastern religion: Christ, our Father.

And when you come to Europe, a pervasive concept of the three divine persons arose precisely because people wanted to defend themselves against Mohammedanism, against the mere unity of God, which has no three forms.

Now, you see, gentlemen, you will know that you can argue for a while; people can sit down together and argue and argue and argue; one says one thing to the other, the other says another thing to the first! Well, they will argue. But what usually comes of it? They finally separate, go their separate ways! The end of the dispute is that they disagree, that they go their separate ways. Agreement is reached only in the rarest of cases, especially when the disputes are extensive. You know, at first there was a socialist party; they argued a lot. There was a left wing and a right wing. But later the wings became their own party lines. And so it was with the spread of Christianity. It spread. In Asia, that is, in the East, more was given to the Father God, but the Christ was definitely retained; in Europe, more was distinguished between the Father and the Son. There was discussion about it, arguments about it until the 9th or 10th century. Then the great church schism occurred. The eastern church, which is called the Orthodox Church today because it held on to the original, old things, and the western church, the Roman Catholic Church, separated from each other. So first this great difference arose between the eastern church, eastern Christianity, and western Christianity.

This continued for some time. In the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, people became accustomed to this Eastern and Western division. However, an event occurred that, in a sense, confused the whole matter. And that was the Crusades.

The people among whom Muhammad originally worked and who first accepted Islam were the Arabs. These Arabs had a distinct natural religion. They were therefore actually quite suitable for understanding the “Father”, for recognizing the Father-Godhead. And that is why, in the early days of Mohammedanism, this view of the Father-God, who is active through all nature and also through human nature, developed.

But then other peoples came over from the far reaches of Asia, whose descendants are the Turks today. Mongolian, Tartar peoples came. They fought in wars against the Arab people. And the peculiar thing about this Mongolian population, whose descendants are then the Turks, is that they actually had no nature god at all. They had what man in the most ancient times had: no eye for nature, which the Greeks then had so strongly. They have kept that. The Turks brought with them from their original dwellings no sense of nature, but a tremendous sense of a spiritual god, a god that one can only grasp in thought, that one cannot look at at all. And this particular way of looking at God now passed over to Islam, to Mohammedanism. The Turks adopted the Mohammedan religion from their defeated enemies, but they changed it according to their way of thinking. And while the Muslim religion actually adopted much from the ancient world, from art and science, the Turks actually threw out everything that was art and science, and actually became hostile to art and science. And they were the terror of the western population, the terror of all those who had adopted Christianity.

You see, for Christians, the area where Christianity originated, Palestine with Jerusalem, was a particularly sacred area. Many made the pilgrimage there from all over the West, at great sacrifice. There were many people who were very poor who had to pool together what they needed to make a trip to Palestine to the so-called Holy Sepulchre. Yes, but they made that journey! And it was only when the Turks came that this journey became dangerous, because the Turks extended their rule over Palestine, and they mistreated the Christian pilgrims who came there. And the Europeans wanted Palestine to be free so that they could come there. They wanted to establish their own European rule in Palestine. That is why they undertook these great military campaigns, which have become known as the Crusades, which did not achieve their goal, but which actually express the war, the struggle between Western Christianity, and also between Eastern Christianity and Muslim Turkey. Christianity was to be saved from Muslim Turkey.

Well, there were many people who initially moved to Asia as warriors. What did they see there? The Crusades began in the 12th century and lasted for several centuries, falling right in the middle of the Middle Ages. What did those who went to Asia as crusaders or crusaders see first? First of all, they saw that the Turks were terrible enemies. In the Turks, they were facing terrible enemies. But if one or the other of the crusaders had a little time to look around in days free of fighting, they might have some strange experiences. For example, he might meet some old man who had retreated to a poor room somewhere, who didn't care about Turks, Christians or Arabs, but who had continued to develop with remarkable loyalty what had existed in ancient paganism as culture, as science, as religious science. The Turks didn't care about that. All of this had actually been eradicated by official culture; but there were such people, many such people. And so the Europeans got to know a great deal of ancient wisdom, much of which was no longer present in Christianity. They brought this with them when they returned to Europe.

Now imagine, gentlemen, what was there. Even in earlier times, the Arabs had moved across Italy and Spain, bringing with them this art and this scientific way of thinking. It spread and became our science. Now the ancient Eastern science was brought over, and it mixed with our own. And as a result, something very special came into being in Europe.

You see, the Roman Church adopted the cult, although it cultivated it less than the Eastern Church; it adopted the cult, but it also emphasized the teaching very strongly. But this teaching, this instruction, this religious instruction, was dependent on the person in the old church. Right up to the time of the Crusades, it was dependent on the person. Whatever was proclaimed from the pulpit, whatever was approved by the councils that were held, that was taught. And then there was also the so-called New Testament, the Bible. But reading the Bible was actually forbidden to people who were not priests, and this prohibition was strictly adhered to. It was actually something terrible if, in those ancient times before the Crusades, someone wanted to read the Bible, the New Testament. That was not allowed. And so you actually only had what the priesthood taught. The Bible was not in the hands of laymen, of believers.

But now something had come about – because the Arabs had brought science, because people had become acquainted with the ancient wisdom of the East – that made a great many people feel: The priests don't know that at all, the ones who teach! There is much more wisdom than they teach. – And from that came the intention: Now let's see where they get their wisdom from. And so the tendency arose to actually read the Bible and get to know the New Testament. And from that arose the third form of Christianity: Protestant Christianity, which then found a special representative in Luther, but which actually had already emerged earlier in accordance with its intention.

Take, for example, these areas of present-day Czechoslovakia, Bohemia and Bavaria, or take these areas here on the Rhine, from Holland to Germany – I could also name many other areas – where fraternities formed everywhere. Here the “Brotherhood of Common Life” formed in Holland on the Rhine. Here (pointing to the drawing) the brotherhoods formed that were called the “Moravian Brothers”. What did these brotherhoods want? These brotherhoods said: Yes, true Christianity was not actually spread from Rome, but Christianity is such that one must actually first get to know it, through the inner life. - And at first this intention to get to know Christianity originally was actually something that was striven for inwardly. Only later did they say: One must get to know the Gospel. - But both arise from the same.

You see, that is the great difference between Hus, who worked in today's Czechoslovakia, and Luther. Hus paid even less attention to the gospel than to the fact that man experiences Christianity inwardly. Later, this became more externalized into learning the gospel.

But the gospel, the New Testament, was written under completely different circumstances. It was written in a figurative language that was no longer understood later on. Let me give you an example.

At one point in the gospel, it is told how Christ healed the sick. Now, at that time, when Christ healed the sick, there were many more of those diseases in the areas where he taught that are today called nervous, nerve diseases, than those diseases that are actually located in the organs. Now, nerve diseases can often be cured from person to person through encouragement, love and so on. Most of the healings of which there is mention go back to such healing. But then it says at one point: “When the sun had set, the Christ gathered the people around him and healed them.” This passage, when you read it today in the Gospel, seems to people as if it were meaningless, as if it were only intended to give the time. But why is the time given at this point? Because they want to say: The powers that a person develops when they want to heal others are stronger when the sun is not in the sky, when it comes through the earth with its rays, than when the sun is in the sky. - This is a very meaningful passage: “When the sun had set, the Christ gathered the people around him and healed them.” It is no longer heeded. The intention was to suggest how the Christ uses the natural forces inherent in human beings for healing. And so the gospel was only translated at a time when it could no longer be understood. Basically, the gospel is very, very little really understood.

Now, actually it happened in all these areas, both in Oriental Christianity and in Western and Protestant Christianity, as it has happened in some other cases that I had to deal with, where something that was originally well understood was retained later, but no longer understood. Christianity was no longer properly understood in any of its three forms. I would like to say that each of these three forms has taken one thing mainly: Oriental Christianity took the Father God, even if He is called Christ. The Roman Catholic Western religion took the Son God, looks up to the Father only as the old man with a flowing beard, who is still painted, but little is said of the Father God. And Protestant Christianity has the Spirit God. In Protestant Christianity, the main question discussed is: How do you get rid of sin? How is man healed of sin? How is man justified before God and so on? So actually, while Christianity originally had the one Godhead in three forms, Christianity has fallen apart into three denominations. Each confession has a piece, a real piece of Christianity.

But by merely uniting the three pieces, one will not recover the original Christianity. One must rediscover it from the right human power, as I have already begun to show in the presentation I recently gave. But I also wanted to show you this so that you can see how difficult it is today to arrive at original Christianity. Because, if you ask about Eastern Christianity: What is true Christianity? Yes, they will tell you everything that refers to the Father, and then they will call the Father Christ. If you ask the Roman Catholic Church about the essence of Christianity, they will tell you everything that refers to the sinfulness of man, the wickedness of human nature, that man must be redeemed from his suffering and so on. You are told everything that relates to the Son, to the Christ. If you ask what the essence of Christianity is in terms of Protestantism, you are told: Everything depends on the principle of the recovery of the will, of healing, of the recovery of the will, of justification before God. They then speak of the Holy Spirit and call it Christ.

And that is how we came to have everything we have today; not that people thought: Now we have to unite the three different sides of Christianity, but they said: Now we understand nothing at all! And that is how the mood of the present has come about and the necessity to rediscover Christianity.

And in this way I would like to talk to you next Saturday about the mystery of Golgotha. Then I will see that I come to an end with this answering of questions.

Good morning, gentlemen! Now, today we would like to add something about the question concerning Christianity. Unfortunately, I could not speak last Saturday because I had to go to Liestal. We have tried to say something about what can be described as the actual essence of Christianity, what Christianity has adopted in the development of humanity. We then spoke of the struggles that actually arose around Christianity in Europe and which, as I said, were essentially based on the fact that one party emphasized the father principle more, as did Christianity in the East, while the other party emphasized the son principle more, as did the Roman Catholic Church, and a third party, the Protestant Church, emphasized the spirit principle more.

It is actually difficult to talk about these things today because most people think: Is it worth arguing about such things in the world? Today, the world is concerned with completely different things that are worth fighting for; and the fact that people once waged war on each other in the most horrific way for the very reason that they emphasized one principle or the other is difficult for people to comprehend today. But, you see, gentlemen, one must also understand such things, because there will come a time when people will not be able to understand why people fought over today's issues! This will perhaps be in the not too distant future. And when you consider that, you will also understand why the older people fought over something completely different than today. But you should know what people fought for, because it still lives among us.

What then is the outward view that has been preserved in the strongest possible way from Christianity? The strongest view of Christianity was, for long periods, the dying Jesus – the cross, and on it the dead Jesus. Not right at the beginning of Christianity did people look at the dead Jesus in this way. If you go back to the very earliest times, you find that the most common and widespread image of Christ is one that shows Christ as a younger man with a lamb around his shoulders and as a shepherd. And that was called the Good Shepherd. In the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Christian centuries, that was actually the most widespread image, the Good Shepherd. And it was only in the sixth century AD that images began to appear depicting Christ hanging dead on the cross; as they say, depicting the Crucifixus, the crucified one. The first Christians did not actually depict the crucified one.

There is also something important behind this. You see, the first Christians still had the view that the Christ had come into Jesus from the sun, that the Christ is an extraterrestrial being. The whole thing was misunderstood later. Because the whole thing was later turned into the dogma of the so-called immaculate conception, according to which Jesus, when he was born, was conceived and born not in the ordinary human way. Only when this was no longer understood, that Jesus was a human being at first, albeit a very important human being, and that only in the thirtieth year of his life did the spirit, which is called the Christ, come into him as a sun spirit - at the time when this no longer understood this, on the one hand they conceived the idea of depicting the dead Christ on the cross, the dying Christ, and on the other hand they already spiritually placed the coming of Christ at the moment of birth. This was a misunderstanding that only arose in the sixth century. But that gives us a very, very deep insight. For between the time when Christians still depicted Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd and the time when he was depicted as the Crucified, a very specific fact lies in between, namely the fact that at a council it was decided that man does not consist of three parts, body, soul and spirit, but only consists of two parts, body and soul, and the soul, it was said, had some spiritual properties.

This is very important, gentlemen! You see, throughout the Middle Ages, trichotomy, the division of man into three parts, was considered a heretical view. No one who was orthodox was allowed to believe in the tripartite nature of man. One was not allowed to say: Man also has a spirit; but one had to say: Man has body and soul, and the soul has some spiritual qualities. But by virtually abolishing the spirit, the whole path of human beings to the spirit has been blocked, and only today must the science of the spirit arise again to restore to humanity what has been taken from it.

Above all, the first Christians realized that that which lives in them as Christ cannot be born and die at all. That is not something human. Man is born and dies. But the Christ, who has gone in Jesus during his lifetime, was not born in a human way, and when Jesus died on the cross, he could not have been touched by death either, but rather, just as a man puts on another robe and remains, he took on another form, namely a spiritual form. But if you want to depict something that is spiritual – you can't see that with your eyes – then you have to represent it figuratively. And the fact that the spirit watches over man, that the spirit is a good advisor to man, that is what they wanted to depict by depicting Christ Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

And something has remained, it is just that people today no longer understand it. It is very often the case that only part of an image remains. Even today, when speaking of Christ, one often says, “the Lamb of God.” This was seen in the images that were there in the first centuries; part of it, depicting the lamb that Christ had on his shoulders, has remained. And only this part has been retained. In older times, people were referred to by some part of their body. Let us suppose, for example, that there are such names. Someone is called Kappa – Cappa, which was once a small headdress. Certain people got their name from this headdress. If someone is called 'Eagle', it means that they once had an eagle in their coat of arms, and so on. Isn't that right? The name 'Lamb of God' also remained because it was a part of the older images.

Now, in the sixth century, all sense of the spirit had actually already disappeared, and the consequence of this was that people believed that they could only look at what had taken place in the human destiny of Christ Jesus. They did not look at the living Christ, who is spirit, but at the mortal man Jesus and interpreted it as if He were the Christ. Therefore, from the sixth century onwards, this event of dying became particularly important.

Yes, you see, materialism already plays a role here. And we see, especially when we follow the development of Christianity, how materialism develops even more. And as a result, many things came about in later times that would not otherwise have come about.

I have told you, gentlemen, that this knowledge, that the Christ is a being from the sun that lived in the man Jesus, is expressed by this sign, which can still be seen on the altar at every high mass: This is the Holy Sacrament, the monstrance (see drawing p. 128): the sun in the middle and the moon on which the sun is. As long as it was known that the Christ was a being from the sun, it made sense. For what is it that is inside the monstrance? It is caked flour. How could this caked flour come about? It could come about through the sun's rays falling on the earth, through the sun's light and warmth falling on the earth, through grain growing and flour being made from that grain. So that is a real product of the sun. It is really, if you want to put it that way, a body made of sunlight. As long as one knew that, the whole thing had a meaning.

Furthermore, the moon was depicted in this form because the crescent moon appears to be the most important thing. And I have told you: man has received the powers that give him his physical form from the powers of the moon. The whole thing had meaning as long as people knew how these things are. But these things are gradually losing all their meaning. I will tell you one thing that shows you the significance of such things.

Do you think that the Turks, that is, the Mohammedans, as I told you, again merely worshipped the one God, not the three figures; they again attributed everything to the Father God. What did they have to accept as a sign? Of course, the moon! That is why the Turks have their image: the crescent moon.

Christianity should know that in this symbol of theirs it has the one in which the sun conquers the moon. And that was mainly depicted by the first Christians: that the sun has conquered the moon through the Mystery of Golgotha. But what does that mean? You see, now everything is actually going haywire in the spiritual realm! Because if you understand what the image of the sun represents, you say to yourself: the one who knows about this solar image assumes that man has free will in life, that something can still enter into him that has a meaning for life. The one who only believes in the moon thinks that man has received everything at birth, that he can no longer make anything out of himself. Yes, but that is precisely the fatalism of the Turks! And the Turks actually know something about it. In some respects the Turks are cleverer than the Europeans, because the Europeans once had the sun as their sign, but have forgotten what it means.

Now, when you consider that in the 6th century they actually no longer knew anything about the spiritual Christ, then you will also understand why in the Middle Ages - in the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th centuries, and then a little later - they suddenly began to argue: What does it actually mean, this thing called the Lord's Supper? It only means something to the one who accepts a picture of the spiritual. But they were no longer able to do that; so now they argued. Some said: On the altar in the church, the bread really does change into the body of Christ. The others did not believe this, because they could not imagine that the bread, which looked exactly the same afterwards as it did before, had become flesh. They could not understand this. And so those medieval disputes arose, which led to such terrible results. For those who said: It is all the same to us whether people understand the matter or not, we believe that the bread is real flesh – that was the one party that became Roman Catholics. The others said: We cannot believe that, but at most what happens can have the meaning, the symbolic meaning. – Those were the ones from whom Protestantism then arose.

And it was actually over this issue that all the religious wars of the Middle Ages broke out, which came to a head in the terrible Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648. This Thirty Years War began with Catholics and Protestants getting mixed up. As is well known, the Thirty Years War began with the so-called Defenestration of Prague. The imperial governors in Prague were thrown out of the window by the opposing party; they only fell, despite falling from the second floor, so well that it did them no harm because they fell on a dung heap! But the dunghill was not made of cow or horse dung, but of shredded paper and the like, because at that time in Prague there was an order that shredded paper, envelopes and so on were simply thrown out of the window. But it did serve a good purpose, because when Catholics and Protestants quarreled and the imperial governors Martinitz and Slawata, together with the secret writer Fabricius, were thrown out of the window – that was often done at the time, it was something that was not that uncommon – all three were saved. But that was when the Thirty Years' War started.

Of course, you must not believe that the entire Thirty Years' War was just about fighting out religious disputes. In that case, the Thirty Years' War would probably have ended earlier. What was added then were the disputes between the princes. They took advantage of the fact that people were attacking each other. One took the side of one party, the other that of the other, and then they pursued their own aims under the guise of religious disputes, so that the Thirty Years' War lasted for thirty years. But it really started for the reasons I have told you.

Well, you see, it was not until the Thirty Years' War, from 1618 to 1648, that it lasted into the 17th century; it was not so long ago that people fought over such things. And it was actually out of this dispute that Protestantism, the Protestant Church, grew.

You will now say: Yes, but if the spirit was actually abolished, how can you tell us that of the three divine beings, the Protestant, the Evangelical Church adopted the spirit? - Yes, gentlemen, it must be said that the Evangelicals did not know that they were worshiping the spirit, because the spirit had actually been abolished. They did not know it. But I have already told you: just because you are unaware of something, it does not mean that it is not there. And there was a spiritual activity going on in the Protestant Church, even if it was not a very large spiritual activity. It was just that the Protestants were unaware of it. You see, if there were no such thing as what the professors, for example, are unaware of, well, how much would there be in the world? Gentlemen, that is precisely the point: we must be clear that we can speak of something that a person does even if he knows nothing about it! And so, when it comes to the origin of Protestantism, we can already say that this third figure, the spirit, was actually the active one.

You can literally see materialism emerging there! The older people in Christianity did not need to argue that this flattened flour physically turns into real flesh, because it never occurred to them to think such a thing. It was only when they wanted to think everything materially that it was also thought materially. That is very interesting in general. Materialism actually has two forms: First, all spirituality was conceived materially, and only later was the spirit denied. That is actually the path that materialism takes.

It is now interesting to see how even later, even after the 6th century, a much more spiritual view of Christianity is present in Central Europe than later. Christianity first became materialistic in the south. In Central Europe there are two very beautiful poems. One of them originated in Alsace in the 9th century and is called Otfried's “Evangelienharmonie”. The other poem, however, originated in areas that are now Saxon and is called “Heliand”, savior. If you read the “Heliand”, you will notice one thing. You will say to yourself: Now, this monk – because it was a monk from a farming background who wrote the “Heliand” – has indeed described Christ Jesus, but he describes him in a very particular way; he describes him roughly as the Germans describe a duke who rides at the head of German masses of soldiers, fighting and conquering his enemies. When you read the “Heliand,” you feel you are in Germany, not in Palestine. Of course, it recounts the same events as the Gospels, but it does so as if Christ Jesus were actually a German duke, a German prince. And the deeds of Jesus are also told in this way.

Yes, gentlemen, what does that mean? It means that the man who wrote the “Heliand” was completely indifferent to the external facts that could once be seen with one's own eyes in Palestine; he did not want to describe them faithfully at all. He was indifferent to the external image. He wanted to describe the spiritual Christ and thought to himself: It does not matter whether he travels around the world in the human form of a German duke or in the form of a Palestinian Jew. So at the time when 'Heliand' was written, people in Central Europe still truly believed in the spiritual Christ, they had not yet become materialistic. In the south, this was already the case at that time; the Romance peoples, the Greek peoples, had already become materialistic. But in Central Europe there was still a certain sense of the spiritual, and so this Saxon monk who wrote the “Heliand” actually still described the Christ, only in the image of a German duke. From this you can see that even here in Central Europe one finds the possibility of proving that the Christ was at first conceived entirely spiritually, precisely as the Spirit of the Sun, as I described him.

And if one then goes into the character of the Christ in this Heliand, one finds that the main point of view is that the Heliand, the Christ, in this Saxon book is a “free man”, that is, he has the sun within him, not just the moon, so he is a free man.

It is really the case that the whole connection of the Christ with the world outside of Earth has simply been forgotten and is no longer recognized today.

But now I would like to tell you something else. If we go back to those mysteries that I told you about, which in ancient times were places of learning, religion and art at the same time, if we go back to these old mysteries, we find that festivals are celebrated in them that are connected with the year. In spring, the festival of the so-called resurrection was always celebrated. Nature also rises at Easter time. That is when the festival of resurrection was celebrated. People said to themselves: the human soul can celebrate a resurrection just as nature does. Nature has the Father. In spring, nature's powers become new. But in the human being, if he takes proper care of himself, if he works on himself, the powers of the soul become new. And that was what was striven for in the old mysteries, by the people who actually knew, by the people who were said to have wisdom, that the soul should have an experience which I might call a kind of springtime experience in human life. You see, a springtime experience, when you can say of yourself: Oh, what I knew before, it's all nothing! I am reborn! Once in a lifetime, the realization can dawn on you that you are reborn, that is, reborn out of the spirit. As strange as it may sound to you, in the whole of Asia Minor, people were divided into those who were born once and those who were born twice. Everywhere one spoke of twice-born people. Those who had been born only once were born through the powers of the moon and remained so throughout their entire lives. The others, the twice-born, had been taught in the mysteries, had learned something and had known: Man can free himself, man can follow his own forces. - But that was represented in the picture.

You can go back far, far: Everywhere around the springtime there is a particular festival where in the mysteries they depicted how a god, present in human form, dies and is buried, and then rises again after three days. That was a real depiction that was always given in the old mysteries in the springtime. People came together. The image of this god in human form was there. They depicted how the god died; they buried the image. After three days, the image was taken out of the grave again and carried in solemn procession through the area, and everyone shouted: The savior has risen again for us! During the three days in which the savior figuratively lay in the grave, they had a kind of mourning festival, and this was followed by a celebratory festival.

You see, gentlemen, that means a lot; because it means that what happened at Golgotha was always enacted in the mysteries every year.

When it is said in the Gospels that there was a cross on Golgotha, that Christ died there, that is a historical event. But the image of it was present throughout antiquity. And that is why the first Christians felt that what really happened was a fulfilled prophecy. And they said: Those who lived in the ancient mysteries were the prophets of what happened as the mystery of Golgotha.

So you see: even in ancient times there was, so to speak, a Christianity. Only that Christianity was not the Christianity of Jesus Christ, but it was a spiritual Christianity that was celebrated in the image.

You see, one of the most important saints of the Catholic Church is St. Augustine, who lived in the 4th to 5th century. This Saint Augustine was initially a pagan, then converted to Christianity and later became one of the most respected priests and saints of the Catholic Church. Now, in the writings of this Augustine, you will find a strange saying. He says: Christianity was already there before Jesus Christ; the ancient sages were already Christians, only they were not yet called Christians.

Yes, gentlemen, it is something tremendously significant that even in the time of Christianity it is admitted that what was present as Christianity in the ancient mysteries was only presented by Jesus Christ in the time when the mysteries were no longer present, so that it had to remain as a unified event for the whole earth.

And the awareness that Christianity had already existed in ancient paganism has also been lost. Materialism has simply destroyed an enormous amount of what mankind had already found. And in this image, where the resurrection of the dead human god was always depicted in springtime, the wise man of antiquity saw his own destiny depicted. He said: I must become like that; I must also develop a science within me by which I say to myself, death has only one meaning for that in me which has come into being through natural forces, but not for that which later came into being in me for the second time, which I acquire through my own human powers.

There was still something in the early Christianity where people said to themselves: Man must, in order to be immortal, awaken the soul within himself during life; then he is immortal in the true sense. Of course, a false view could not actually be opposed to something like that. But a false view did fight. For while in the first centuries Christianity was spread in such a way that people said: One must cultivate the soul of man so that the soul of man does not die -, later the church preached a different view: It no longer wanted man to take care of his soul, but it wanted to take care of his soul itself! The Church is supposed to take more and more care of the soul of the individual, not the individual himself. This has led to the fact that people no longer see the actual way in which the soul is properly cared for, namely, that the spirit is reborn in the soul, that the sun-like element is reborn. You cannot take care of the sun-like element in a materialistic way. How then could one provide for the soul in a materialistic way? Yes, one would have to equip an expedition and always bring from the sun what one should give to man! But of course one cannot do that. And so the whole thing was presented in a false way.

You see, gentlemen, everything I have to tell you shows you how, over time, materialism has actually become more and more widespread and how the spiritual in man has actually no longer been understood. Today it is already the case that this principle, not letting the soul of man take care of itself, but letting the church take care of the soul, has not yet led to the death of the human soul. But if the same principle were to continue, it would not be long before souls died with their bodies. Today, people's souls are still alive; they can still be awakened when a true spiritual science comes. In a century or two they could no longer be awakened if a spiritual science does not arise, if the old ways continue.

What would happen if materialism were to remain? Yes, you see, gradually this materialism would have to laugh at itself; because even in education one must proceed in a spiritual way. You cannot educate and teach without speaking of the spirit. But if it really comes to that, as it is already evident in some places, materialism will either have to laugh at itself when it speaks of the spirit, or it will have to become honest.

When I and some other anthroposophical friends had spoken at the congress in Vienna in 1922, an article was published afterwards that ended with the author saying, “We have to fight against the spirit!” He wanted to dismiss us by saying, “We have to fight against the spirit!” But if we honestly continued the fight against the spirit, where would it lead? Then one would say, if one honestly wanted to start educating a six-year-old child: Gosh, that's matter, that presupposes the spirit! Let's rather prescribe a powder or something else for the child to change its matter; then it will become clever, then it will know something! That is what comes out when materialism becomes honest. He should let children come to school, and, as one might vaccinate against smallpox today, so one child after another should be vaccinated with cleverness; because if cleverness is materialistic, then it must be vaccinated. So human children should be vaccinated with cleverness. That would make materialism honest. Because if someone says that he does not think with his soul and spirit, but with his brain – and the brain is a material substance – then one must also make the brain clever in a material way, not in a spiritual way. Materialism would end up in such terrible contradictions. The only way to save itself is to learn again to know something of the spirit. A spiritual science was bound to come in our time, because otherwise the human souls would die.

Question: The one question is: why does it heal completely when a person inflicts a wound on himself, a cut, for example, while if you cut off a piece of flesh, for example, there is always a scar left behind; for thirty to forty years the person concerned has had no feeling at such a point. He wants to know how this is possible, since it is said that it renews itself every seven years!

The second question concerns the finds in Egypt. It is reported that a mummy, a tomb, has been found, and that during the opening of the tomb or while working in the passage, two engineers, the main conductors, died of poisoning. In the first case, it was thought that it was an ordinary heart attack or something like that; then later the same fate befell the other. It was mentioned in the magazines that poisons may have been used at the time of embalming the mummy to prevent people from entering the tombs. I cannot believe that poisons would last that long. Or did gases develop in the air spaces, causing death to occur after a very short time? Or could the poisons that were used in Egypt at that time be preserved for so long?

Some clothes were found with them. These clothes were aired: they immediately crumbled to dust. Subsequently, attempts were made through chemistry to prepare these substances again in order to preserve them for posterity.

Then grain was found in the tombs of the pharaohs that had been lying there for thousands of years. This grain was sown and was still said to be viable.

I would like to ask whether all of this was possible under normal conditions.

For example, according to the newspaper reports, it took them eighty days to get to the main tomb and to move the main stone. But it was as if the mountain had collapsed and the tombstone, the large stone, had rolled over it. Or as if everything had collapsed afterwards by detonation, since the burial places were so difficult to reach – how was that possible?

Dr. Steiner: First of all, with regard to wound healing – if we answer the questions one after the other – the incised wounds that one makes when operating: These cuts heal more or less well. That must be stated first: they heal more or less well. And indeed, one can observe how the cuts sometimes heal really extraordinarily well, so that one has to look very closely later when one comes to the place where the cut was and one wants to discover the scar. On the other hand, there are other cuts – and you don't just mean surgical wounds, but also when you cut yourself, right? – that heal extremely badly; the scar is thick and you can often find a very hard scar. Now I'll tell you something. As a boy, I used to carve a lot with knives myself. I had a peculiar habit back then of always having to have a pocket knife – I went a long way to school – you have to have something like that, don't you. But I always lost the pocket knife, and so a lot of knives had to be supplied. I did a lot of carving and, among other things, I cut myself very badly here and here, as you can see from the carving. But you have to look very closely if you still want to see the trace of it; it has almost completely healed. But if you look very closely, you can see this cut, which was a gaping wound and bled a lot. But you can hardly see it anymore. On the other hand, with some cuts the edges, the thick scars, can be seen for a long time. Now, what causes these thick scars? You see, the human body is formed entirely from the inside out; you have seen that from the way I have described the formation of the human body, and I have also told you that everything that has to be formed by the human body has to be formed from the inside, right up to the surface of the skin. Now, what causes colds? I have also spoken to you about this. Colds are caused by the fact that one does not develop one's own warmth alone, but that the external warmth or cold has an effect on one, that one is treated like a piece of wood by the environment, so that the cold comes so quickly that one cools down, so that one perceives the cold merely as a stimulus, that it opposes what comes from within. All of this is foreign to the human body and is fought by it. Now, at the moment when you cut yourself, whether it is through a clumsiness, a mishap, or an operation, at that moment there is still a foreign instrument at the site where only the human body should be at work. The knife penetrates into the space where blood and nerves and muscles and so on should actually be at work. So at this point there is a very lively struggle between the forces that are inside the body and the forces that are penetrating. They are, after all, intruders. And in order to ward them off, the inner physical matter of the human body clumps together all around, creating the scar. It clumps together to prevent these forces from penetrating further. So the scar is a protective covering that is formed initially to keep the foreign forces from penetrating. The scar always develops initially.

Now, suppose you are young, for example, very young, like I was when I made these cutlet stories; I was ten, eleven, twelve years old. Yes, when you are so young, the etheric body is in full activity, it is extremely active. When the etheric body is as strong as it is in early youth, then, when the physical matter falls away, the scar will simply heal gradually; the substance of the tissues is arranged in the appropriate way. Suppose you are older; then the etheric body, especially at the site of the scar, is not so strong as to overcome this. It does it again, does it a second time, because it cannot overcome the place where the scar is attached, because it cannot get over it. Because it always depends on the strength or weakness of the etheric body whether a scar is formed or gradually eliminated. Injuries in childhood will always leave weaker scars than injuries inflicted later. But each person is different; some people maintain an exceptionally strong etheric body throughout their entire lives, and they overcome scars more easily than others whose etheric body is weakened.

If a person is a farmer, for example, who always works outside in the fresh air, who never works hard in carbonic acid air, at most in winter when he is not working, in carbonic acid air - he alternates more between winter and summer in good and bad air - he has a stronger etheric body. It is not the case that the farmer is always only in fresh air. There is the well-known saying, isn't there: Why is the air so good in the country? - Because the farmers don't open the windows! If the farmers opened the windows, the air wouldn't be so good! - But that is just by the way. - The person who lives in the country always has a strong change between oxygen-rich and carbonic acid air. As a result, he lives in completely different, healthier conditions. This is not only evident in the scarring of wounds, but also in other formations. If you go out to the countryside, as you know, people walk around barefoot in summer, without boots. Every now and then someone might step on a rusty nail, but out there it doesn't mean much! He takes off the nail, wipes the blood with a dirty finger – everything is dirty, the nail is dirty, the blood he wipes away is dirty – it festers a bit, but it's done and healed in no time. It doesn't matter.

Someone who is only accustomed to living in the city has a much more sensitive etheric body. It may happen that someone has a small pimple; he shaves, hurts himself – and dies from it! I am telling you the truth: someone shaved, hurt himself while shaving, and simply died from the small pimple because blood poisoning set in immediately. That is, the blood poisoning occurred because of the weakness of the etheric body. The etheric body was no longer strong enough to immediately eliminate the invading poisons and foreign substances in the right way. For that you need a robust, lively etheric body. But that is precisely the case with farmers. Now it is getting weaker and weaker; but when you went out into the countryside in my youth, you could see these robust etheric bodies of the farmers! Of course, when the right age is reached, especially for farmers, they fall apart because the etheric body then falls away and because the astral body is not very strong in farmers. But the etheric body is very strong. That is why everything heals much faster there than in city dwellers. The earth profession has something tremendously healthy.

You see, all this can of course be known; but in our social conditions it cannot be changed for the time being. First of all, knowledge of these things must be spread. It can surely be understood that the scars are more or less pronounced depending on the strength of the etheric body, and that the healing of things that are connected to it as external substances that do not belong in the body also takes longer or shorter. A knife, for example, is an external substance; dirt that enters the body is an external substance – the body must immediately defend itself accordingly, and so on. And when one knows this, then one is no longer surprised that some wounds no longer heal at all, because people then have an emaciated, worn-out etheric body. This comes about in particular from the fact that work is no longer in harmony with nature; it comes not even so much from the carbon dioxide-rich air, but simply from the fact that one is no longer connected with nature. If someone is in the office or workshop all day, what they are dealing with has nothing to do with nature. Think of our incredible culture, which has gradually emerged: it separates people completely from nature; it creates ever more harmful and harmful substances that are ever more alien to what is natural.

A major change has taken place in recent times. We usually do not look at things from a spiritual point of view, but they must be considered from a spiritual point of view. Just think about it: in the past, people wrote by hand. Today, we work with the typewriter. Apart from the movement and so on, what is the most important factor for our health when writing? I would like to say that, among the more hidden things that come into play when writing, the smell of ink is the most important for health. And the smell of ink was not more harmful with the earlier ink production, but in a certain sense it was even corrective. What you have worn out, what you have had through unnatural exposure, that you have strained your hand, that has actually been compensated for by the old ink production, by the gall-apple ink production. What you got from the gall-apples smelled so that it continually strengthened the etheric body, even if not much, but still something. When, as you know, they started making aniline ink, producing purely chemical ink, no longer drawing on nature but, as they say in chemistry, making synthetic ink, then the human being was completely cut off; and aniline ink has an odor that is almost the opposite of what the smell of ink used to achieve. Now, of course, people are switching to typewriters. Of course, the movements you have to make, the clattering – there are already typewriters that type silently, but that is only the latest design – that is not the worst thing, but the worst thing is the dirt that is used to make the ink. It completely ruins the human etheric body, to the extent that people develop heart disease from typing because the heart is primarily powered by the etheric body. Culture is also making progress in this area; but it is never balanced out other than through knowledge that one can have about what is really at work. It is indeed true, is it not, that the present is increasingly resisting progress. Now, of course, that must not be the case; but there is a certain instinct underlying it, which consists in noticing, even if one does not know for sure, that more and more harmful things come up precisely with the progress of the future. It is connected. But it is so. Now, as for your other question, how it comes about that these extraordinarily dangerous things occur first when old mummy graves are uncovered: It is not only the case with old mummy graves, but it is also the case, for example, where there are no mummy graves, as in Egypt, but where otherwise the graves are well preserved and are rock tombs. When you enter such a place, there is an extremely toxic air present, which, if I may say so, comes towards you and is extremely dangerous and harmful. Now, what causes this?

It will seem strange to you, gentlemen, that I have to go to such lengths to explain such a thing, but only in this way can you understand it. You see, man does not live on earth just once, but - as I have already indicated to you - he lives in repeated lives on earth, he comes again and again. But when he returns, man is quite different from what he was before. You would all probably be very surprised if a painter came who knew enough about spiritual science to paint the whole company sitting here in a previous life! You would be amazed to see how each of you looked quite different in an earlier life. It would be very interesting! You will come again, won't you? When you have now lived and gone through death and gone through the spiritual world, you will come again. The power that is there to form the later body - it is not only formed from mother and father, but it is also formed by what is in us now and is carried through death into the spiritual world - this power continues to work. What works within the previous earthly bodies remains.

But now it is so that you can say: Does man really have the power to transform that which is in him today and which is so closely connected with the body he has, so that there is a completely different body? - Today no one could transform the spiritual forces within his body in such a way that the other body could be formed. But you cannot die and be reborn immediately either, there has to be a period of time, and a fairly long period at that, in between. This long period in between really has to be there. All the forces are transformed during that time. And under normal circumstances, if you have not been a criminal or a similar person, this period between death and a new birth takes quite a long time. So when do you come back to earth? You come back to earth when the conditions in which you lived have changed completely. Certainly, some people get back into the old conditions; that hurts them very much. But normally you only come back to earth when the conditions have changed completely. So you are not born back into the old conditions.

Yes, what is it that ensures that these old conditions have become completely different? You see, you never have to just fantasize, but you have to stick to the realities. The forces that we have when we are not living on earth, but between death and a new birth, are such that they also work on earth here. These forces flow to us from all the stars and everywhere. But these are actually our forces. We are just not on earth during that time. While we are on earth, our forces work from the earth; when we are not on earth, they work from the heavens. And these are precisely the forces of destruction. They destroy the circumstances in which we were.

This is easily understood in terms of external circumstances, but it goes further, into nature itself, gentlemen! It goes further, into nature itself!

Imagine, under today's conditions, a person is being buried or cremated. After some time, there is an awareness that there is hardly anything left of this person. And if you finally go to the cemeteries and look after fifty or sixty years to see what is left under the place where someone of our ancestors is buried, you will only find a few remains of bones, which will have dissolved. So there is nothing left of what has to be destroyed; after all, our whole body has to be destroyed if we are to be reborn. But even if outwardly nothing is visible of our body, there is still very much there; and he who can see the finer substances, he finds that in the place where a person is buried, even where a person is cremated, what is simply still present of the person continues to have an effect for a long time. All this must be destroyed first.

Now, the Egyptians had a specific intention behind their practice of mummification. They basically wanted to prevent people from having to come back down to earth. They did not want that at all; because by embalming the corpse, they prevent the descent. They wanted to preserve the comfort of being in the spiritual world. And the result of this was that they not only preserved the mummies, but they used materials with such great knowledge that the physical cohesion remained so beautifully in the form that we still have the mummies in museums today. They are an exact imprint of what the person actually was in those days.

Well, gentlemen, first of all, it is necessary that what has been preserved for thousands of years is like poison, because it is destructive. It actually belongs to the forces of destruction. There are an enormous number of destructive forces in a mummy. In fact, when you look at a mummy, the dust coming out of it is all destructive forces coming out. These destructive forces are there for the reason I have stated, because the human being actually wants to destroy, from the extraterrestrial, that which was there, in that form as well. Now it is there, and he has sent his destructive forces into it. So it already has its destructive forces within itself.

Secondly, however, the Egyptians used very special substances to preserve these mummies. These substances are particularly hostile to destruction. And these substances behave in such a way in a short time that they create a poisonous atmosphere. There is always a poisonous atmosphere around a mummy. This comes from the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians.

Now, of course, something else comes into play. Where did the Egyptians get such substances that turned into poison in a relatively short time, while they themselves could work with them quite well? You see, today's people have no idea about the power of language! The power of language in ancient times, including in Egypt, was enormous. Imagine you have a fire that causes a lot of smoke. If you blow into the fire, you change the shape of the smoke. You can make the smoke swirl in any way you like by blowing lightly; you can thus change the shape of the smoke. The blowing does not matter much. But if you start whistling a little song, then that is also a continuous blowing and so on. In this way you can shape the smoke flames according to the content of the little song. Ancient people always knew that the substance changes completely when they speak into it in any way, and especially when they use certain words. Now they used their spices for embalming, for preparing the mummies. They did not work with these spices in the way we work today, but they always worked in such a way that something was spoken during the embalming process that would be something like this today: “Whoever approaches my body will find death.” But it was spoken in such a tone and in such language that the material took it on, so that during the embalming this power passed over into the substance of the spices. It lives in them. Today's man can no longer believe this, but it is so. So if you have a mummy and you can get hold of the material it is still contained in it today: “Whoever approaches my body will die from it, will meet their death.” And that happens because the material has now received the power that was infused into it through the word.

Today, this is only present in the very last remnants. But go into a Catholic church – there the priest no longer has the power to subdue the spices with the word; but he does use a lesser power: he burns incense. Now the whole procedure that takes place would be completely ineffective if the right thing were done first, then the incense were lit, then certain prayers were spoken into the incense, or thoughts were sent. But that does not happen, instead the incense is made; certain words are spoken into it - they are then in the incense, and they then have an effect on the people who are in the incense atmosphere. Therefore the smell of incense is an important means for the conversion of sinners.

So you see, gentlemen, the last remnants of all this still remain! But this embalming was actually a religious act, and the matter was changed. You see, a man I know well, who approached Asian graves - the Egyptian graves are particularly characteristic of this, but the Asian ones have it too - found that You cannot approach these graves at all beyond a certain limit; you know that if you go any further you will faint or die. So you cannot get close; the toxic atmosphere holds you back. This is because the substances with which the corpses were treated have in fact been imbued with the word, the damaging, destructive word.

But now something else comes. Isn't it true that if man has been on earth, say, ten centuries ago, a millennium ago, his powers change. He passes through the time between death and a new birth. He comes again. Now he has the powers to build up the new body. He has these powers. He only has them because he can overcome all destructive powers in the spiritual. So the power that works from the seed is strengthened precisely by this. Because today a person could not form a human seed into a body that he wants now, but it would just become the body that was there centuries ago. The power that lies in any seed must also be old, it must have been there from the beginning. With the present power, nothing can be achieved in any seed. You see, in order for the seed to have any effect on the plant at all next year, it must be withdrawn from the external forces during the winter and turned towards the internal forces of the earth. These forces are destructive forces for everything external.

Now these grains of corn, which were placed in the Egyptian royal tombs, were actually buried with the destructive forces. So while everything that is the present body is destroyed when the human being brings his body into contact with the destructive forces, what lies in the seed has the opposite relationship. This is particularly strengthened in its life force. As a result, it can happen – it is not the case with all grains, but with many – that the same thing occurs as otherwise only occurs during the winter: that the plant seeds are together with the destructive forces of the corpses and their forces are even preserved, maintained. There they are effective even after a long time like fresh grains of grain.

And so one must realize, especially when looking at such things, that in life things happen that cannot be understood at all with materialistic science because spiritual forces are really at work. And spiritual forces immediately start to be effective when a certain time has elapsed in the course of life.

Suppose the following. Of course, this is something that I can only tell you about, but it is possible for a person to really look back at earlier lives on earth, for themselves and for other people who were with them. But then the people from the past have transformed themselves into spirit. Nothing of them remains. So if, let us say, a person who lived in ancient Greece is now a very wise person, is reborn and can see his form from ancient Greece, how he used to walk around, then he sees it in spirit, sees it really in spirit. If suddenly, through something or other – I don't know, through a devil – what he sees in spirit were to be transformed into a real human being, that is to say, if he were to encounter himself again as a physical human being, he would die from it. You cannot physically meet the past. You will die! And the one who would see a past incarnation as it really was physically, would also face the forces that absolutely want to kill the future, really kill it. That's how it is. Now, this gives rise to quite unnatural conditions. Just imagine, the people who were mummified in Egypt in their bodies, who are now lying there in their forms, have long since returned to earth, have long since returned! So that they have lived, or are living now, and their earlier forms are there. These earlier forms not only have an effect on the people who have returned, but when a person has returned, they also have a destructive effect on other people who are in the vicinity of such a preserved form. So that in reality an enmity actually comes from every mummy against human life. There is no other possibility: an enmity comes from them for human life. People actually do not pay attention to all this. And that is why it can of course also happen that mummies, which belonged to particularly ambitious people with great power and in which much secrecy has been kept, are said to be able to survive for a long time and to have a harmful effect, can actually have such a bad effect that if you come close to them, you can get sick and possibly even die. Hence these inexplicable things that are now coming out.

Now the third point remains: according to this information, it is extremely difficult to get to these graves today. It is indeed terribly difficult. And when we hear about the old mysteries today – as we often do – it is also the case that one can ask: Where are these mysteries? Yes, one would first have to dig deep into the rocks to find caves; in these caves one would see, if one could decipher them, all kinds of interesting writing. Today, all of this is basically covered by rocks, rocks that have grown together so much, with scars, these scars that arise when you work on rocks, have grown together so much that today, if you look at it superficially, you don't even notice that these rocks didn't come from nature, but were actually worked by human hands. And it was the case that the Egyptians wanted the graves to be protected. So they carved them deep into the rock and then made artificial structures over them, which gradually transformed over the millennia to look like natural rock formations or hills.

This leaves only one question, but it will lead you to understand much of the history that would otherwise remain a mystery. Well, I would like to know how it would be possible for a number of people today, no matter how many, to muster such forces as one must imagine were necessary to build these things! Even to destroy them would take as much time as you said! Just imagine, the Pharaohs – as the Egyptian kings were called – had the power to influence people through their strong spirituality. If you can influence people through material things, you can certainly influence people through words. We do not do that today because today people should be convinced of what they hear. But those ancient Pharaohs had tremendous power. Therefore they could have an enormous effect on people's strength, on their ability to work. But now you have to take another phenomenon into account to understand this. You see, the average person can lift and move certain things, and so on. But have you not already seen when someone goes mad that tremendous strength grows in him? You can sometimes be amazed at the strength a person gets for lifting things he would otherwise not be able to lift, for carrying things he would otherwise not be able to carry at all! And what strength he gets when he wrestles with you! You can easily have overcome him when he was not yet crazy; when he goes crazy, he immediately overpowers you. That is how man's strength grows when he has gone mad.

Now the Egyptians were not like that. But they were not as level-headed as we are today either. They lived in a dream-like existence and had enormous strength. And today, people have no idea how few people were needed in ancient Egypt to roll a huge stone, sometimes very high, and bring it to its destination. Man today can no longer imagine that there were times when five people could take an enormous boulder from afar and carry it high up. The powers of people in ancient Egypt were just tremendously great. And of course that could only be achieved by developing the powers of these people by virtually making them into slaves. But slavery was not only used for this purpose; this became apparent when humanity had already weakened and the intellect had already awakened. In the period that followed the Egyptian period, physical strength was already diminished with the advent of the intellect. Slavery takes on the appearance of wanting to keep it going and demanding the right to keep it going. But in the past it was different; then they made the whole nature of man dull and dull and dreamy, because in this way they could increase his physical strength. And with such artificially developed physical strength, things like these royal tombs were created, for which, today, such a huge amount of work is needed just to destroy them!

Not true, the most erroneous views are being spread about all these things for the reason that today, mostly the most materialistically-minded people are approaching these things. They cannot understand what is actually there. Someone digs up a royal tomb and must die. People are terribly surprised by this because they do not know that this was actually intended by the ancient Egyptians, that he would die. They had the means to work through time.

Just imagine this: Let us say you are in Basel and you have a radio telegraph; someone in Berlin intercepts the telegram and hears what you are saying in the radio telegraph. Right, that is far away in space, very far away. Why? Because in our radio telegraph, which we have discovered, we overcome space and are able to act through space. What is transmitted by radio appears quite elsewhere. The radio message goes through space and comes to life in another corner. Yes, gentlemen, imagine, here you release the radio message: Whoever hears what I say dies! And now imagine that a very nervous person, a terribly impressionable person, hears this here. He hears: “Whoever hears what I say will die.” Of course, he must already be very nervous, but he can also really die from fright, especially if the person speaking, the person giving the radio message, is a madman. For the forces that live in the speech of the madman are much more overpowering than the forces that live in the speech of the prudent. So if a madman speaks and someone hears his words, they can die.

Now the Egyptians had the possibility of preserving such things in their graves, of placing such sayings in them. They do not work through space, but through time. And when the Englishman pokes his nose into it, he does not know that the words put into the spices are working in the smell that goes into his nose.

The person who listens nervously to the radio telegraph and hears the radio message from the madman must at least die of fright. But the other person dies without even hearing anything, because it is in the smell. He dies from it. Into this, the “radio message” - if I may use the expression - is conjured up; and one actually puts oneself into temporal telepathy with what the ancient Egyptians did. They wanted to kill the one who poked his nose into it. This only happens because they have known the art of speaking the appropriate words into the spices so that they work.

You see, when you approach what can be known spiritually, you will no longer be amazed at things. But the strange thing is that man, by going everywhere and making his investigations, sometimes comes across, as these last cases show, in a rather unpleasant way, how the spirit works. Those upon whom the spirit has the strongest effect, in that it kills them, would, if they could spread wisdom after their death, speak the truth! Well, that does not work. So we have to express it ourselves, the counsel from the spiritual world.

Good morning, gentlemen! Has anyone come up with anything today?

Mr. Pea: I would like to ask how it is that people today look at the starry sky the way they do, and yet the ancient Babylonians looked at it quite differently?

Dr. Steiner: Well, the question belongs there, to say something at all about the whole turnaround that has occurred in the way the world is viewed. You have this astronomy course here with Dr. Vreede, and you will see how difficult it actually is today to get through the computational and mathematical considerations.

You see, if you want to understand these things, you have to imagine, above all, that the ancients were indeed much, one might say, more spiritual than the present people. For a relatively long time, people were aware of those effects in nature that are actually quite unknown today. I would like to draw your attention to a few things in this regard. For one cannot understand what the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians wanted with their star science if one does not understand certain things that are actually quite unknown today.

For example, Rousseau still recounts the following: In Egypt, that is, in a warmer region, of which we have also heard such remarkable things in the last lesson, he had managed, by looking at them in a certain way, for example at toads that came towards him, by staring into their eyes, to make the toads stand still and unable to move at all. The toads were paralyzed. He always succeeded in doing this in warmer regions, in Egypt, for example. There he was able to paralyze the toads and later also kill them. But he wanted to do the same in Lyon. There a toad came towards him. He looked at it, stared at it, and lo and behold, he was paralyzed! He could no longer move his eye, was paralyzed, as if he were dead. It was only when people came and got a doctor, and he was given viper venom, snake venom, which just pulled him out of the cramp, that he came out of it. Then the story had turned. So you see, you just have to go from Egypt to Lyon for such effects, emanating from nature beings, to simply reverse themselves.

We can therefore say that there are indeed effects that are very closely related to human will, because it is an expression of human will. There are such effects. And these forces are also there. Because what was there a century ago is still there today, will always be there as long as the earth exists. But people today no longer want to know about such things and no longer care about them.

But, you see, gentlemen, this is still connected with a few other things. We have to take into account the place where they are made if we want to understand how certain things are. So in a sense we have to consult geography. But not the kind of geography that is valid today, because it does not talk about the difference between the effects of toads, starting from humans or towards humans, but it only talks about very external things.

Now I will tell you another example along these lines. You see, in the 17th century there was a scholar, van Helmont. This scholar still had much of what had been known earlier. For actually the things of earlier knowledge were only completely lost in the 19th century. In the 17th century they were still quite present, and in the 18th century they began to decline. But it was only in the 19th century that people became quite clever in their own opinion!

Van Helmont reflected on how one could know more than one can have through the ordinary human mind. Today, people do not think about how one could know more than one can know through the ordinary mind, because they believe that the human mind can know everything. But van Helmont, who was a doctor, did not think much of this human mind. He wanted spiritual knowledge.

But to gain spiritual knowledge in a spiritual way, as we try to do today in anthroposophy, was not yet possible at that time. Mankind had not progressed that far. So van Helmont used even older methods. He did the following, which I certainly do not recommend anyone imitate. It can't be done. And it wouldn't be as effective today as it was back then. But van Helmont did it.

You see, he took a certain plant that is a poisonous medicinal plant. It is prescribed for certain diseases. He took that. Of course, being a doctor, he knew that he could not eat this plant because it would kill him. But he licked the tip of the root, the lower part of the root. And now he describes the state he entered into in the following way. He says he felt as if his head had been switched off completely, as if he had become headless. He had become completely headless from it. Of course, his head had not fallen off, but he no longer felt it. So he could no longer know anything through his head. But now his abdominal area began to function like a head. And lo and behold, he received great revelations in the form of images, what we today in anthroposophy call imagination, in the form of images from the spiritual world. And that gave him a great jolt in life, a terrible jolt; because now he knew: you can not only say something about the spiritual world through the intellect, but you can also really see the spiritual world. He did not think through the nervous system, which is in the metabolic-limb system of man, but he looked at it and really saw the spiritual world. He thus received imaginations of the spiritual world.

This lasted two hours. After these two hours, he had a slight dizzy spell. Then he recovered. Now you can imagine that this, of course, gave his life a significant jolt; because from that moment on, he knew that one can see the spiritual world. But he knew something else as well. He knew that the head with its thinking is an obstacle to seeing the spiritual world.

Of course, we do not do it by licking a plant root like van Helmont – some people believe that, but it is nonsense – but through spiritual exercises, the thinking of the head itself is eliminated. The head is there only to grasp what is seen with the rest of the human organism. Thus the same process is evoked in a spiritual way that van Helmont evoked in an ancient way.

Now I am not telling you everything that would be necessary to refer you once more to spiritual training; that can be done on another occasion. But today, in answer to Mr. Erbsmehl's question, I am telling you that the two things I have told you are connected with the influence of the stars. And since the influence of the stars is denied altogether today, people no longer look at these things.

Van Helmont, on the other hand, had experienced this great shock in his life, and because he liked it, he wanted to repeat the experience more often, and he nibbled at the tip of the plant root again and again. But he did not achieve the same result.

Yes, but what does it mean that he did not achieve the same result? You see, it means that van Helmont did something later on that was no longer quite in accordance with the earlier thing. Van Helmont himself has no explanation for this. Of course I cannot tell you when van Helmont first nibbled on the tip of the plant root, because he does not give the date. But from what can otherwise be known from spiritual science, the following can be said.

You see, the first time van Helmont nibbled on the tip of the root, there was definitely a full moon. And he didn't pay attention to that. Later he didn't do it during a full moon anymore, and then he didn't succeed in the same way anymore. Something remained with him from the first time; he was always able to see something in the spiritual world. But he never managed to have such a jolt again as the first time.

Now, in the 17th century, he no longer knew that this was dependent on the moon and believed that it came from the plant root alone. But in older times, such things were known quite precisely. And therefore, in older times, this view was also very much alive everywhere, that the stars have a certain influence on the life of humans, animals and plants.

If one were to examine how such things happen, one would have to say: We do not eat poisonous plants, but we do eat plants, and we also eat the roots of plants. And while poisonous plants can only be used for healing, the other plants, which are not poisonous, are used as food. You see, gentlemen, the thing is this: When you eat a plant root, it is just as the poisonous plant root is under the influence of the moon. The moon has an influence on the growth of plant roots. Therefore, certain plant roots are very necessary for a certain human constitution. You know, for example, that there is also a population of the intestines, that is, the digestive organs, worms that are very troublesome. Now, for people who are prone to worms, beetroot is a good food. When the beetroot enters the intestines, the worms become angry, are paralyzed and then leave with the intestinal waste. So you can see that the root also has an influence on the life of these lower animals, the worms. The beetroot root does not poison us, but it poisons the worms. And again, you will find that the greatest effectiveness in expelling the worms comes from those plant roots that we eat during the full moon. Such things must be taken into account.

Now, you see, you can say: If you study the plant root, it turns out that the plants give us something that has a very strong effect on the metabolic limb system. You could even provide great help to people who have certain illnesses by giving them a root diet, by eating roots and by doing it in such a way that you give them at the time of the full moon and let them rest at the time of the new moon.

Now, you see, everything that can be observed in plants also has a meaning for humans, namely for human reproduction, for human growth. Children who have an addiction to staying small could also be nursed back to health with root food so that they would grow more easily; you just have to do it at the appropriate time in youth, between birth and the age of seven. The forces of the moon have a great influence on everything in the plant world and everything in the animal and human world that has to do with reproduction and growth. So you have to study the moon not only by pointing a telescope at it, but by studying what it causes on Earth. And with the Babylonians and Assyrians, those who were the scholars there, who were then called initiates, knew exactly: this plant is so under the influence of the moon, another so, and so on. They did not speak of the moon as a mere sphere, frozen up there in space, but they saw the effects of the moon everywhere. And these moon effects are mainly seen on the surface of the earth. They do not go deeper into the earth. They go just far enough to stimulate the roots of plants. They are not stuck in the earth at all.

You can find proof, for example, that the moon's forces do not go into the earth at all if you ask swimmers who swim in moonlight. They soon go out again because they always have the feeling that they are sinking. The water is pitch black. It does not go into the water, it does not go deeper at all, it does not connect with the earth, the moonlight. And so you see that the matter is such that the animals and plants are under the influence of the moonlight, which does not even come from the earth, but only from the very outermost surface to the roots of the plants. Now, this gives you a first insight into the starry sky.

Let us now turn to the example I gave you of Rousseau, who could paralyze, even kill, toads in the hot zone, but who himself became paralyzed in the temperate zone, in Lyon. What is the reason for this?

Yes, gentlemen, you just have to consider: when the Earth, which is a sphere, is almost a sphere, when it is illuminated by the sun, the sun's rays fall almost vertically in the hot zone. There they have a completely different effect than in the temperate zone, where they fall obliquely on the earth, at a completely different angle. And just as growth and reproduction in plants and in humans are influenced by the moon, so what its inner animal powers are, what is transmitted to the gaze, is influenced by the sun. These animalistic, bestial forces, which are indeed deeds, depend on the sun. So the sun, with its forces, causes humans in Egypt to be easily fascinated, paralyzed, even killed by toads, while in temperate zones they must yield to the influence of the toads themselves. So that depends on the sun again.

And then you will know that sometimes thinking itself, the whole inner life, is more difficult, sometimes easier. This again depends on Saturn, depending on where it is.

And so we have stellar effects for everything that occurs in human, animal, and plant life. Only the minerals are earthly effects. Therefore, with a science that is limited only to the earthly, one cannot possibly come to really understand the human being in any way. And one cannot know what the stars do if one does not look at the deeds of the stars.

Just imagine – today it's not so bad, but in the past it could still happen – that someone was a great statesman because of me. One could have asked those who lived with him in the house, who cooked for him, the cook, for example, who was not at all interested in statecraft, what the man does. She might have said: He has breakfast, lunch, and dinner; otherwise he does nothing at all, and during the rest of the time he goes out. Otherwise he does nothing. She would simply not have known what else he does.

Today's scholars only talk about the stars in terms of what they can calculate; they only know that. The others, the earlier people, were interested in what else the stars do. And that is why they had such a star science. They knew that the moon has a relationship to the plant in man, the sun to the animal in man, and Saturn has a relationship to the completely human in man. And so they went further.

Now they said to themselves: So the sun has a relationship to the animal in man. When the sun shines completely vertically, then man in the hot zone can have a strong effect on animals.

Now, you see, in Europe, for example, there is a strong effect of man on horses; but it will never be as intimately connected with the horse as it is with the Arabs, in the hot zone, because this relationship between man and animal cannot take place there. It depends on the vertical incidence of the sun's rays, on the effects of the sun.

Please continue, gentlemen. In Babylonia and Assyria, people knew that certain effects and forces emanated from the sun. But now people have observed the sun (it is being drawn). They said to themselves, there is the constellation of Leo, a group of stars out in the sky, and there is the constellation, let's say, of Scorpius. Now there is a certain time of the year when the sun is in the constellation of Leo, that is, it covers the lion, and you can see the lion behind the sun. At another time, the sun covers the constellation of Scorpius, or Sagittarius, or some other group of stars.

Now the Babylonians and Assyrians knew that these effects, which emanate from people onto animals, are strongest when the sun is in front of Leo; they become weaker when the sun moves on and is in Virgo or Scorpius. So they not only knew that there is a relationship between the planets and what people do, but they also knew that there is a relationship between the position of the sun and whether it covers Leo or covers Scorpio, because that is when these things change.

What do we do today? Today we simply calculate: the sun is in the zodiac in Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Pisces and so on; we calculate how long it will be in that constellation, when it will be in it and so on. We know that on March 21, the sun is in the constellation of Pisces, but that's all we know. The ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, for example, still knew that when Saturn is in a certain constellation, called the Pleiades, the human head is at its freest. They knew all this. They could easily judge this because they lived in a hotter area than we do and developed a certain science from which they understood the whole human being from the heavens.

If we can say that this science was such that it was applied to people – well, this science has gradually been forgotten. But in those days, the planetary system was understood, and the fixed starry sky was also understood. It was known that depending on whether a planet is here or there, it means this or that for human life. It was known that when the sun is in Leo, the sun exerts the strongest influence on the human heart.

The thing is this: people have now tried to see how it is with minerals. They have said to themselves: the stars affect plants, animals and humans; they do not affect minerals. Only the earth affects minerals. But the minerals in the earth did not just come into being today; they came into being much earlier and were also plants in ancient times. All minerals were plants. You know from the bituminous coal that it was a plant. But just like the bituminous coal, all other minerals were once plants. The moon had an influence on them, and in even earlier times, the sun also had an influence, and in still earlier times, Saturn also had an influence. And now they wanted to know which mineral, in much earlier times, when it was still a plant, had an influence from the sun. So they examined the effect of the mineral on humans and found out, for example, that when the sun is in front of Leo and has a strong influence on the heart, the same effect on the heart is produced as when gold is administered to humans. From this they concluded that the sun once had a great influence on gold. Or when Saturn is in the Pleiades constellation, then the strongest influence is on the human head. It becomes free. And then they tried to find out which mineral, when it was still an animal – because before they were plants, the minerals were animals – could have had the strongest influence from Saturn. Then they found that it was lead. And in this way one finds out that lead also has the effect of making the human head freer. Therefore, someone who gets a dull head and for whom this is caused by the fact that he carries out certain digestive processes, which should no longer take place in the head, through illness with the head, must be given lead.

And so we get a metal for each planet. And that is why the Babylonians and Assyrians wrote the sun with this sign:®. But they also wrote gold with this sign. They knew that the stars no longer have any influence on the minerals now that the earth is there, but they once had it. They wrote the sun and gold like this:®. We write the sun and the gold with the letters that are in our alphabet; but the ancients always made this sign:®. They also did not write “lead”, but they made this sign:, and that means both Saturn and lead. It would not have occurred to anyone in ancient times to write Saturn or lead with ordinary letters. If he wanted to write that, he wrote this sign Ahin. If he wanted to write “silver,” he wrote this sign: C. That means both the moon and silver. So that the Earth, insofar as it is metallic, was also related to the stars.

Yes, you see, gentlemen, you don't really know very much about man and his relationship to the universe if you can't go into such things.

Now, on to the next point. These things were generally known in ancient times. The fact of the matter is that when Christianity first spread, such knowledge was also spread throughout the more southern regions of Europe. For example, there is a book about nature from the first Christian centuries that contains much of this. Today, we need to know it again, otherwise we cannot find the confusing information there, because it is quite confusing; but it contains much of such ancient wisdom. But then came the time when Christianity limited itself only to the intellect, and gave up everything else for the dogma. That was the time when everything of such an ancient science was eradicated in Europe. Between the 5th and 11th or 12th centuries, work was actually done to eradicate this ancient science in Europe. And to a high degree, they succeeded. You see, it was like this: the people who practiced this ancient science in ancient Greece, in Rome, in Spain, that is, in southern regions, these people were at the same time already quite spiritually and physically depraved people. The history of Rome at that time is actually a terrible one; they were morally completely corrupt people. They still had the old science, but they could no longer maintain themselves as human beings, figures such as the autocrats Nero or Commodus.

The following story can be told about Commodus, for example, the Roman Caesar. This Commodus, like all Roman emperors, was an initiate. But what does “initiate” mean in this case? It is the same as if someone today bears some title by name. Every Roman emperor was considered an initiate from the outset because he was an emperor. This does, however, show that in those days science was held in very high esteem. Except for Augustus, the Roman emperors did not have this science. But they too were initiated into the mysteries; they were even able to initiate others themselves. Now there was a certain degree where the person being initiated had to be struck on the head. This is a symbolic act. The emperor Commodus gave this blow in such a way that the person concerned collapsed dead. You couldn't punish it because it was the emperor Commodus. Just as they were as “initiates”, they were as human beings.

Further north, there were still people who, although they later developed into the Central European culture, were still quite uncivilized at that time. But the Germanic peoples later conquered Italy, Greece and Spain. Only those who worked with pure logic, with pure thinking, were preserved there. That was to be only dogma. The other should not be understood. Thinking was limited only to the most external things. And so it has come about that what was old knowledge has been eradicated everywhere by schools and monasteries. And one can see how, in fact, only by devious means, I would say, through contraband, some of this Babylonian science has come to Europe. But as a rule it did not travel far. In Babylonia, such science was cultivated for a relatively long time.

But even into the Middle Ages there was a Greek empire in Constantinople. Yes, you see, gentlemen, they were strange figures! Just as the Polish Jews sometimes come to us with their caftans and their old scrolls, which are also not very well regarded sometimes, but are profoundly knowledgeable in Judaism, such figures also arrived in Constantinople again and again at a time when everything was being eradicated. They arrived with large, mighty parchment scrolls on which they had written many things. Now, you see, these parchment scrolls were taken from these strange figures in Constantinople and opened there. And so everything that came from Babylonia and Assyria was stored in Constantinople. And no one took care of it. And in Europe, everything was eradicated. It was only in the 12th and 13th centuries and later in the Middle Ages, with the decline of the empire, that these parchments were freed again, and many people stole them. They then traveled around Europe. All that was not yet deciphered by the learned but by the unlearned came from these parchment scroll.

And so a little knowledge was spread again in the Middle Ages. Such a little knowledge then had a stimulating effect on others again, otherwise there would not have been a van Helmont, Paracelsus and so on, if these people had not brought the parchment scrolls they had stolen to Europe and sold them there for a lot of money. As a result, a lot of things came to Europe again. And many secret societies still exist today because of all the knowledge that came to Europe. There are all kinds of orders, freemasons, odd fellows and so on; they would have no knowledge at all if it had not been brought to Europe from Constantinople in the parchment scrolls that were sold for a lot of money back then.

But this knowledge was not appreciated. If you were a learned canon like Copernicus, you did not go to the people who had such parchment scrolls. You were not allowed to do that. You would have lost all respect. Yes, but as a result, the old science also lost all respect. And a man like Copernicus first established the kind of science that we still have today, really still have today.

But then something very strange happened, gentlemen. The most beautiful thing about it is that Copernicus now founded a certain astronomical science, and it was already so that he no longer knew everything that had been known about it in the past, just as we no longer know it today. But the following period did not even understand what Copernicus said. Two sentences of Copernicus were understood; the third was no longer understood. Because if one understands the two sentences of Copernicus, then one believes that the sun is in the center, around the sun Venus, Mercury, Earth and so on revolve. That is taught today in all schools. But if you understand the whole of Copernicus, it is not at all like that. Copernicus himself still draws attention to the fact that the sun is stationary (it is drawn), with Mercury behind it, Venus behind it, the earth here and so on. In reality, all this revolves with the sun through space in such a spiral. You can read that from Copernicus if you want. So there is the strange fact that even Copernicus trampled on the old science, but that the more recent ones have not even understood Copernicus. Now people are beginning to understand Copernicus, that is, to see that he said three sentences, not just two; the third sentence was too difficult for people to understand. And so, little by little, astronomy has become what it is today: a mere calculation.

And now you can imagine: what remained of the old science was not achieved in the way we want to achieve something today. We have to achieve something today with the full clarity of mind. The ancients proceeded more instinctively. And so it is no longer understandable what the ancients meant by knowledge.

A few years ago there was a very interesting example of this. A Swedish scholar came across an old alchemical book that contained all sorts of information about lead and silver. It said that if you add lead to silver, this will happen, and if you add gold, that will happen, and so on. What did the scholar do? He said: Since we have written these things down, let's try to reproduce them! And he imitated them in his laboratory, took lead as it is available today, silver as it is available today, treated them in the fire as described there – nothing came of it!

Nothing could come of it, because what he read there were such signs. Now he believed that this sign © means gold; so I take gold and process it chemically. This sign r. means lead; so I take lead and process it chemically.

But the terrible thing was that the man with whom the Swedish scholar read this, the alchemist, did not mean the metals in this case, but the planets, and meant that if you mixing solar forces with Saturn forces and moon forces – what is described here actually refers to the human embryo – when solar and lunar forces act on the child in the womb, then this and that happens.

Now it happened to this Swedish scholar that he wanted to do in the retort with the outer metals what the old alchemist refers to as germination in the human womb. Of course that could not be right, because he should have seen the development in the human womb; then he could have figured it out. You see, so little is understood today of what was actually meant in this ancient science.

All of this will now show you how this question, which Mr. Erbsmehl asked, is actually to be answered. It is actually to be answered in such a way that one becomes aware: It is all well and good and right with modern science. Today, one can calculate exactly the position of a star; one can calculate the distance between it and another star, and one can also see through the spectroscope what color the light rays have, and from that one can deduce the material composition of the stars. But how the stars affect the earth is something that must first be researched again! And this must not be researched in the way that many people do today, by simply taking old books. Of course, it would be easy if one could simply take old books and find out what people no longer know today. But that is no longer of any use with Paracelsus, because people no longer understand him even when they read him with today's eyes. Rather, it is a matter of learning anew how to research what influence the stars have on people. And that can only be done with spiritual science, with anthroposophical spiritual science.

Then you come back to researching not only where the moon is, but how the moon is connected to the whole person. You realize that the child experiences the influence of the moon for ten lunar months, so ten times four weeks in the womb, and experiences the influence of the moon in such a way that during this time the full moon is experienced eight, nine, ten times. Now, the child swims in amniotic fluid and is therefore a completely different being before it is born, protected from the forces of the earth. That is the important thing, that it is protected from the forces of the earth, and since it also has the influence of the other stars, it has the influence of the moon.

You see, it should be the case that today at our universities and at our schools, and even at the elementary schools in a certain way, as far as that can be, things would be studied quite differently, that above all the human being would be studied, the human heart, the human head, and in connection with that the stars would be studied. And at the universities, there should first be a description of how the human germ develops from the very small human seed through the first, second, third, fourth, fifth week and so on. This description exists, but the other description, of what the moon does during the same period, does not exist. Therefore, one can only have a science of the physical development of man if, on the one hand, one describes what happens in the mother's womb and, on the other hand, one describes the actions of the moon.

And again, one can only truly understand how, for example, teeth change around the seventh year if one not only describes - as is done today - how the milk tooth is, the other grows in after it, and the milk tooth is pushed out, but if one again has a sun science; because this depends on the forces of the sun.

And likewise, when a person becomes sexually mature, today one describes the purely physical processes. But these depend on Saturn; one needs a Saturn science. So one cannot proceed as one does today, describing each thing separately. Because then, of course, it turns out as it did in a hospital in a large European city. A man came to the university hospital with a spleen disease, as he believed. He asked: “Which department should I go to with a spleen disease?” He was told that he should go to any department. Unfortunately, he mentioned in passing that he also had a liver disease. He was told: “You can't have anything from us, you have to go to a completely different hospital, that's for people with liver disease, and the ones we have here are only for people with spleen disease.” He was now “between two bundles of hay”, like the well-known donkey, between two bundles of hay that were the same size and looked exactly the same. It is a famous logical image of the freedom of will! They said: What does a donkey do when he is between two bundles of hay that are the same size and smell the same? If he wants to choose the left one, then he thinks: the right one tastes just as good; if he wants to choose the right one, he thinks: the left one is just as good. And then he goes back and forth and dies of hunger between these two haystacks! So it was with the two diseases, he did not know where to go, and actually could die between his decision inside whether he belonged to the department for liver diseases or to the department for spleen diseases!

I only mention this to show that today everyone only knows a very small part of the world. But you can't know anything like that today! Because if you want to know something about the moon today, you have to go to the observatory and ask the people there. But they don't know anything about the origin of man. So you have to ask a gynecologist, an obstetrician, a female professor. But he doesn't know anything about the stars. But the two things belong together.

This is the source of the misery of today's knowledge: that everyone knows a piece of the world, but no one the whole. That is why it is, and it is based on it, that science today, when it is presented in popular lectures, is so terribly boring. Of course, gentlemen, the subject must be boring if you only tell people what is just a small part of the subject.

Imagine you want to know what a chair looks like that is not here, and someone describes the wood to you; but you want to know how it is designed. Then you will be bored if the person only describes the wood of the chair to you. So today it is boring to learn, as it is called today, anthropology, the science of the physical human being, because what is important is not described. And if it is described, it has no relation to the matter at hand.

So star science will only come into its own when it is combined with human science. And that is what it is about; that is the way I can answer this question for you today in a way that is appropriate to the subject. It is really the case that one must understand such important things as those I have told you about Rousseau and van Helmont - which are there, and which cannot be understood from the earth at all. People have become materialistic even in terms of words. For example, what was it called when someone could paralyze animals with his gaze? It was called magnetism. Yes, but later on the word magnetism was only applied to iron, to the magnet. And when people talk about it in science today, they only talk about leaving it with iron and not abusing magnetism. Only quacks still talk about magnetizing a person; but they can no longer imagine what it means. To see through such talk, a spiritual science is needed.

Next time at nine o'clock on Wednesday.

Well, gentlemen, we still have the last questions left over from the Jewish Sephiroth tree. In this Sephiroth tree, the Jews of antiquity actually enclosed their highest wisdom. And one could say: they enclosed in it the wisdom of the relationship between man and the world. We have often emphasized that the human being does not only consist of the visible parts that can be seen with the eye, but that the human being also consists of invisible, supersensible members. We have called these supersensible members the etheric body, the astral body, the ego or the ego organization. Now, all these things were known in ancient times, not in the way we have today, but people knew about them instinctively. This ancient knowledge has been completely lost. And today we believe that something like this Jewish Tree of Life, the Sephiroth Tree, is actually a fantasy. But it is not.

Now let us try to understand what the ancient Jews actually meant by this Sephiroth tree. They thought of it like this: Man stands there in the world, but the forces of the world act on him from all sides. If you look at man as he stands in the world (it is drawn), we can imagine him schematically drawn. This is how we imagine a material human being standing in the world. The ancient Jews imagined that the forces of the world were acting on him from all sides. Here I draw an arrow that goes into the heart: Thus the forces of the world act on man; here below the power of the earth,

Now the Jews have said: First of all, three forces act on the human head – I have indicated these in the drawing with these arrows: 1, 2, 3 – three forces on the human center, on the chest, on breathing and blood circulation mainly (arrows 4, 5, 6 of the drawing). Then three more forces act on the limbs of the human being (arrows 7, 8, 9), and a tenth force, which acts on the human being from the earth (arrow 10, from below). So ten forces, the ancient Jews imagined, act on the human being from the outside.

Let us first consider the three forces that come, so to speak, from the farthest parts of the universe and act on the human head, actually making the human head round, like an image of the whole round universe. These three forces, 1, 2, 3, are the noblest; they come, so to speak, if you want to use a later expression, with a Greek expression, for example, from the highest heavens. They shape the human head by making it a round image of the whole round universe.

Now, however, we must develop a concept at the same time, which could disturb you if I simply tell you. You see, in these ten concepts that the Jews have placed at the pinnacle of their wisdom, the first one at the top (1) has been terribly misused; for later, those people who succeeded in seizing power dragged the symbols of that power and the words for that power down into the outer realm of power. And so certain people who have appropriated the power of the nations and transferred it to their descendants have appropriated what is called a crown. In ancient times, a crown was a word for the highest spiritual gift that could be bestowed on a person. And the crown could only be worn by someone who, as I have explained to you, had gone through initiation, that is, someone who had attained the highest wisdom. It was a sign of the highest wisdom. I have already explained to you how the orders originally all meant something, but how they were later created out of vanity and no longer meant anything. In particular, however, we must consider this in relation to the term 'crown'. For the ancients, the crown was the epitome of all that superhumanity from the spiritual world has to bestow upon humanity. No wonder that the kings placed the crown on their heads. They were, as you know, not always wise and did not always have the highest gifts of heaven united in them, but they placed the sign on their heads. And when something like this is spoken according to ancient customs, it must not be confused with what has become of it through misuse. So the highest, the highest gifts of the world, the highest gifts of the spirit, which can descend upon man, which he can unite with his head when he knows much, that was called Kether, the crown, in ancient Judaism. Now, you see, that was the highest. That was what spiritually formed the head from the universe.

And then this human head still needed two other forces. These two other forces came to it from the right and from the left. It was thought: the highest comes down from above; from the right and left come the two other forces, the two world forces, which are spread throughout the universe. Now, the one that goes in through the right ear was called Chokmah = wisdom. Today, if we wanted to translate the word, we would say: wisdom. And on the other side, from the world, came in: Binah. Today we would say: intelligence (2 and 3 of the drawing). The ancient Jews distinguished between wisdom and intelligence. Today, every person who is intelligent is also considered to be wise. But that is not the case. One can be intelligent and think the greatest stupidity. The greatest stupidities are thought up very intelligently. In particular, when one looks at much of today's science, one has to say that this science is actually intelligent in all fields, but it is certainly not wise. The ancient Jews distinguished Chokmah and Binah, the ancient wisdom, from the ancient intelligence at an early stage. So the human head, everything that actually belongs to the sensory system in the human being, and also the nerves that are spread out in the sensory system, all this was designated by the three terms Kether, Chokmah, Binah - crown, wisdom, intelligence.

Thus, according to the view of the ancient Jews, the human head is constructed from the universe. There was therefore a strong awareness - otherwise such a doctrine would not have been developed - that man is a member of the whole universe. We can ask, for example, about the human body: What about the liver? Well, the liver gets its veins from the blood circulation; it gets its strength from the human environment. The ancient Jews said: Man receives the forces from the environment, which then, first in the mother's womb and later, cause his head to develop.

Now, there are three other forces (4, 5, 6 in the drawing); these have more of an effect on the middle person, on the person in whom the heart is, in whom the lungs are. So they have an effect on the middle person; they come down less from above, they live more in the environment. They live in the sunshine that moves around on the earth, they live in wind and weather. The three forces that the ancient Jews mentioned come into consideration here: chesed, geburah, tiphereth. If we want to express this in today's terms, we could say: chesed = freedom; geburah = strength; tiphereth = beauty.

Let us start here with the middle power, with Geburah. I have told you that I want to draw the arrow in such a way that it goes into the heart! The power that man has, this heartiness, soul power and physical power at the same time, is indicated by the human heart. This is how the Jews imagined it: When the breath enters a person, when the breath enters the heart, not only the physical breathing forces enter from the outside, but also the spiritual power, Geburah, which is connected with the breath. We would therefore say, if we wanted to express it more precisely: the life force, the force through which he can also do something = Geburah. But on the one side of Geburah is what was called Chesed, human freedom. And on the other side is Tiphereth, beauty. Man is indeed the most beautiful thing on earth in his form! The old Jew imagined: “When I hear the heartbeat, I hear the life force that comes into man. When I stretch out my right hand, I feel that I am a free man; when the muscles stretch, the power of freedom comes. The left hand, which moves more gently and can grasp more gently, brings what a person does in beauty.

So these three forces: Chesed = freedom, Geburah = vitality, Tiphereth = beauty, correspond to that in man which is connected with breathing and blood circulation, with everything that is in motion and always repeats itself. The movement of sleeping, the change between day and night, also belongs to this. This also belongs to the movement; man also belongs to this.

But then, humans are also beings that can change their position in space, that can walk around, that do not have to stay in one place like plants. The animal can also walk around. Man has this in common with the animal. The animal has no Chokmah, no Tiphereth, nor Chesed, but it does have Geburah = life force. And the three that I have described, man has in common with the animal only in that he has the others.

This, that one can go around, that one is not bound to one place, the Jews called: Netsah, and that means that one overcomes the firmness of the earth, that one moves (arrow 7 of the drawing). Netsah is overcoming. Now, the one that has more effect on the center of the human being, where his center of gravity is - it is interesting, you know: that is the point, which is located here; it is slightly higher in the waking state and lowers in the sleeping state, which also testifies that there is something outside when we are sleeping - that which works in the center of the body, which also brings about reproduction in humans, which is therefore connected with sexuality, the ancient Jews called Hod. Today we would describe it with a word that would express something like compassion. You see, the expressions are already becoming more human. So Netsah refers to the outer movement - we go out into space - and Hod refers to the inner feeling, the inner movement, the inner compassion with the outer world, that is all Hod (arrow 8). Then under 9: Jesod; this is now the one on which the human being actually stands, the foundation. The human being thus feels bound to the earth; the fact that he can stand on the earth is the foundation, is Jesod. That he has such a foundation also comes from the forces that approach him from outside.

And then the forces of the earth itself work on him (Arrow 10), not only the surrounding forces, but the forces of the earth itself work on him. This was then called Malkuth. We would translate it today as: the field in which the human being works, the earthly outside world; Malkuth - the field. It is difficult to find the right expression for this Malkuth. One could say: realm, field; but all things have actually been misused, and today's names no longer describe what the old Jew felt: that the earth actually has an effect on him.

We need only imagine that we have the center of the human being here; a thigh bone begins on each side of the human being – this goes up to the knee, where the kneecaps would be. All these forces also act on these bones; but the fact that it is actually pierced like this, that it is actually a tube, is due to the penetration of the earthly forces. So everything where the earthly forces penetrate, that is what the old Jew called Malkuth, the field.

So you see, you have to get close to people if you want to talk about this Sephiroth tree! The Jews called the ten Sephiroth together: Kether, Chokmah, Binah, Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth, Netsah, Hod, Jesod, Malkuth. These ten forces are what actually connects man with the higher, with the spiritual world. Only the tenth power, Malkuth, is sunk into the earth. So basically, this is the physical human being (pointing to the drawing), and the spiritual human being surrounds this physical human being, first as the earth forces below, but then as the forces that are already closer to the earth, but still work in from the surroundings: Netsah, Hod, Jesod. So all of this belongs spiritually to man, as these forces take effect. Then there are the forces that affect his blood circulation and breathing: Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth. And then the noblest forces that affect man, that affect his brain system: Kether, Chokmah, Binah. So that the Jews actually thought of man as connected with the world on all sides, as I have colorfully depicted for you here. Man is indeed such that he also contains a supersensible element within him. And they imagined this supersensible element in this way.

But now we can raise the question: What else did the Jews actually want to achieve with the ten sephirot, that they used to explain man's relationship to the world? Every Jewish pupil had to learn the ten sephirot, but not just so that he could list them; you would have a completely false idea if you thought that the teaching in the old Jewish schools was such that the main thing I have drawn on the board was the most striking thing. If one only wants to answer the question, “What is the Sephiroth tree?” one could quickly have finished it; you would have known it in a flash. People today are satisfied with asking, “What is the Sephiroth tree?” This and that is in it, what I have told you now. But that is not in relation to man! Instead, they just give you ten words and all kinds of fanciful explanations for them! But in relation to the human being, what I have told you is the right thing. But that was not the end of it in schools; rather, the Jewish pupil who was to learn science in the sense of the time had to learn much more about it.

Just imagine, gentlemen, you had only learned what the alphabet is and you would know if someone asked you: What is A, B, C, D and so on? - so the letters A, B, C, D and so on. You would have been able to list the twenty-two or twenty-three letters in a row. You wouldn't be able to do much with that! If any man could only enumerate the twenty-three letters, he could not do much with them, could he? But an ancient Jew who could only say: Kether, Chokmah, Binah, Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth, Netsah, Hod, Jesod, Malkuth, so these ten Sephiroth could have enumerated, would have been regarded just the same. Anyone who had only answered in this way would have seemed to the Jews like someone who could say: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and so on. You have to learn more than just the alphabet, don't you; you have to learn to use the alphabet to read, you have to learn how to use the letters to read. Now, gentlemen, just think about how few letters there are and how much you have already read in your life! You just have to consider that. Take any book, take, I mean, for example, Karl Marx's “Capital” and look at it when you have the book in front of you: there is nothing on the pages but the twenty-two letters, nothing else! There are only the letters in it in the book. But what is inside is a lot, and it is all produced by the fact that the twenty-two letters are jumbled up: sometimes the A is before the B, sometimes before the M, sometimes the M before the A, the L before the I and so on, and that's how the whole complicated thing in the book comes about. If someone only knows the alphabet, he picks up the book and perhaps says: I understand everything in the book: there is A, B, C, only arranged differently; I know everything in the book. But he cannot read everything that is really written there inwardly, according to the meaning. You see, one must learn to read with what the letters are; one must really be able to jumble the letters in one's head and mind in such a way that meaning arises from them. And so the ancient Jews had to learn the ten sephiroth; for them, they were letters. You will say: Yes, they are words. But in the beginning, letters were also designated by words! This was only lost by the people when the letters came to Europe, in Greece.

It was not until the transition from Greek to Roman culture that something very significant happened. The Greeks called their A not A, but Alpha, and Alpha actually means: the spiritual man; and they called their B not B, but Beta, that is something like a house. And so every letter had a name. And the Greek could not have imagined that the letter is something else than what is called by a name. It was only when the transition from Greek culture to Roman culture took place that people no longer said Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and so on. They no longer referred to the letters by their names, where each name indicated what such a letter meant. Instead, they said: A, B, C, D and so on, and the whole thing became abstract. Just as Greek culture was dying out and merging with Roman culture, the great cultural diarrhea began in Europe. In the midst of this huge diarrhea, the spiritual aspect of the path from Greek to Roman culture was lost.

And you see, Judaism was particularly great then. When they wrote down their Aleph, their first letter, they meant the human being. Aleph is that. They knew: wherever they placed this letter for the sensual world, what they expressed with this letter must apply to the human being. And so each letter that represented the expressions of the material world also had a name. And the names: Kether, Chokmah, Binah, Chesed, Geburah, Tiphereth, Netsah, Hod, Jesod, Malkuth, were the names for the spiritual letters, for that which one had to learn in order to read in the spiritual world. And so the Jews had one alphabet: Aleph, Beth, Gimel and so on - an alphabet with which they grasped the outer world, the physical world. But they also had the other alphabet, where they had only ten letters, ten Sephiroth, and with that they grasped the spiritual world.

You see, gentlemen, when I list the names for you, Kether, Chokmah, Binah, Chesed and so on, well, that's like A, B, C, D and so on. But then such an old Jew would have known how to say, as we jumble the letters, Kether, Chesed, Binah. And if he had said: Kether, Chesed, Binah, if he had rolled the dice like that, he would have said: In the spiritual world, the highest spiritual power brings about intelligence through freedom. - And with that he would have designated the higher beings who do not have a physical body, in whom the highest power of heaven brings about intelligence through freedom.

Or he would have said: Chokmah, Geburah, Malkuth - that would have meant: Through wisdom, the spirits bring forth the life force through which they work on earth. - He knew how to jumble all these things together like we jumble letters. So these disciples of the ancient Jews understood spiritual science in their own way through these ten spiritual letters. This tree, the Sephiroth tree, was therefore the same for them as the tree of the alphabet with its twenty-three letters is for us. These things have developed in a very strange way, you see: in the first two centuries after the emergence of Christianity, people knew about all these things. But when the Jews were scattered throughout the world, this way of knowing through the ten Sephiroth was also scattered. Individual Jewish students, who, as you may know, were then called Chachamim when they became students of the rabbi, these Chachamim still learned these things; but even there it was no longer really known how to read through these ten Sephiroth. For example, in the 12th century, a great dispute arose over two sentences; the first sentence was called: Hod, Chesed, Binah. Maimonides held on to this sentence. His opponent, on the other hand, claimed: Chesed, Kether, Binah. So people were already arguing about these sentences. You have to know: These sentences are derived from the Sephiroth tree; one person read it this way, another that, and put the elements together in different ways. But this art of reading had actually been forgotten since the Middle Ages. And the interesting thing is that later, in the middle of the Middle Ages, a man appeared, Raimundus Lullus – a very interesting person, this Raimundus Lullus!

You see, gentlemen, getting to know a person like that is actually extremely interesting. Imagine there was someone among you who was quite curious. He would say to himself: Now that I've heard about Raimund Lullus, I want to read up on him! First, take the encyclopedia, but then take any books that mention Raimund Lullus: Yes, if you read what is written about Raimund Lullus in today's books, you will split your sides laughing, because he would have been the most ridiculous person you could ever imagine! People say: This Raimundus Lullus, he wrote ten words on pieces of paper, and then he took something like you have in a game of hazard, a kind of roulette, where you spin, where you jumble up the story, and he would have always jumbled up these ten pieces of paper, and what would have come out, he would have written down, and that would have been his world wisdom. Well, when you read something like that, that words were simply written on ten pieces of paper and mixed up, and the man wanted to find something special by doing that, you have to hold your sides laughing, because it's a ridiculous person who would do something like that.

But that was not the case with Raimundus Lullus. He actually said the following: You can still go as far as you like with all that your earthly alphabet gives you, but you still cannot find the truth. And now he said: Your ordinary head is not good enough to find the truth. This ordinary head is like a roulette wheel that you spin, but there is nothing in it, so nothing can be found to win. Lullus told his fellow human beings: You have actually all become empty-headed, your head is nothing more, there is nothing more in it. And you must put such concepts as these ten sephiroth into your heads one day; you must learn to turn your heads from one of the sephiroth to the other until you learn to use the letters. That is what Raimundus Lullus told them. It is also written in his writings. He only used a picture for it, and the philosophers took the picture seriously and believed that he really meant a kind of roulette where you turn around to mix the tickets, while this roulette that he meant is supposed to be the supersensible recognition in the mind!

This Tree of Life, this Sephiroth Tree, is therefore the spiritual alphabet. People who lived in the West, in Greece, had a spiritual alphabet even in ancient times. And in the time of Alexander the Great and Aristotle, ten concepts were also given there in the Greek way. You can still find them today in all school logics: Being, property, relationship, and so on, and also ten such names, only that they are different because they are suitable for the West. But in the West these ten Greek letters of the spiritual alphabet have been understood just as little as the ones mentioned before.

But you see, it is actually quite an interesting story that is taking place in humanity. Over in Asia, those who still knew something learned to read in the spiritual world through this Sephiroth tree. And in the first centuries of Christianity, people who still knew something about the spiritual world learned to read according to the Aristotelian Tree of Life - over in Greece, in Rome and so on. But gradually everyone – those of the Sephiroth Tree and those of the Aristotle Tree – forgot what these things actually are, and could only list the ten terms. And now we simply have to use these things in such a way that we learn to read in the spiritual world, otherwise little by little people will be forgotten. You see, the following is a very interesting sentence. When a Jewish sage wrote or said: Geburah, Netsah, Hod, one would have to translate today as follows in German: the life-force hatches the dreams in the kidneys. But when one says today: the life-force hatches the dreams in the kidneys, one means physical forces, physical effects. But when the ancient Jew said Geburah, Netsah, Hod, he meant that what is in man as a spiritual being brings about what appears in dreams. Everywhere it was a spiritual assertion that was expressed by what arose from the random throwing together of the letters.

It is indeed only through spiritual science that it is possible today to get any information about these things. Because no one will tell you today that these ten sephiroth were such letters for the spiritual world. You won't hear it anywhere else, no one really knows it today! So you can say that the situation is such that today's science no longer knows most of the things that were once known in humanity, and they must first be regained.

Take this letter that I have drawn for you here: Aleph 8. What does this Aleph mean for the sensory world? Well, it represents a person. This is how he stands, sending out his power. That is this line (drawing). He raises his right hand: that is this line; he stretches out the other hand: that is this line. So this first letter Aleph expresses man. And every letter expressed something – even in Greek – just as the first letter expresses “man”.

You see, gentlemen, today people no longer have any sense of how things are connected. The first letter for man was called Aleph by the Hebrews, Alpha by the Greeks, and by this they meant what moves spiritually in man, what is spiritual behind the physical man. But now you also have an old German word. First of all, it is used when a person has special dreams. When a spiritual person presses him, then this is called the nightmare, the nightmare. One says that something comes over the person that possesses him. But then, from nightmare, emerged elf, and then elf, the elf - these spiritual beings, the elves; the human being is only a condensed elf. The word Elf, which goes back to Alp, may still remind you of Alpha in Greek. You only have to omit the A to get Alph – ph is the same as our F – a spiritual being. Because the F has been added, we say: the Aleph in man, the Alp in man. If you omit the vowels everywhere, as is customary in Jewish, you get directly Alph = EIf for the first letter. People pronounce: Elf for this spiritual being. One speaks of elves. Of course, today one says: These are beings that the ancients invented out of their imagination. We no longer believe in it. But the ancients said: You only need to look at the human being itself to see the alph. The alph is just inside the body, and it is not a fine, ethereal being, but a dense physical being inside the human being. But people have long since forgotten how to understand the human being.

And so you experience the most droll thing, gentlemen. Just imagine that in the second half of the 19th century the following came about - I don't want to say anything against it, such things can happen -: a table was taken, people sat around it, let's say eight people; they place their hands, which then touch at the outermost ends, on the table top, and then the table starts to dance! Then they count the dance steps of the table, and form words out of them, also out of letters. These are spiritualistic sessions. What do people believe? They believe: Well, when we think, then nothing comes out of real knowledge; real knowledge must fall to us from somewhere. Now, in truth, it is so that the people who say that could certainly say it about themselves, because they are mostly those who are thoughtless and do not want to reflect, who would like the truth to come to them from somewhere without their own work. So eight of them sit around a table, then they have the table turned over, the first time A, the second time B, then C and so on, and from that they then form words – and those are then spiritualist revelations. Isn't that so, the wisdom came to them; they did not achieve it themselves!

But look, what should one actually say to such people? Such people want to recognize the spiritual world; that is their honest intention, to recognize the spiritual world. You cannot see the spirits; you cannot see or hear them because they have no body. So people think: they can use the table as a body, and in this way they can make themselves a little understood. Incidentally, it usually comes out as very general things that can be interpreted in different ways! But in any case, you have to say to these people: There you are, eight people sitting around the table; you want a spirit to come that makes itself heard. But aren't you spirits yourselves? You are spirits yourselves, sitting around there! Look at yourselves and seek the spirit within yourselves. There you will be able to find a much greater spirit. You will not assume that you will only be seen when you strike through a table, but when you use your limbs, your voices, and above all your powers of thought in a human way! Therefore it is indeed the case, and there is no need to doubt it, that when eight people sit around a table the table will begin to dance because the subconscious forces are acting on it. That is how it is, but it does not come out as something that would not come out in a much higher sense if a person were to exert his own Alpha or Aleph within himself.

But in the transition from Greek to Roman culture, people have forgotten Aleph. The first letter means A yes, only believe, the first letter means only A, that is, keep your mouth shut! But nothing comes of it. Once a wife got so fed up with her husband constantly lecturing from science. He had learned a lot and always lectured. She found it terribly annoying. And so one day she said to him: “You always want to lecture!” - “If you want to lecture, then shut up!” - Yes, actually the content has been completely lost. The Greeks did not think of one A, one Alpha, without thinking of the human being. They were immediately reminded of the human being. And they did not have a beta without remembering a house in which man lives. The alpha is always man. They imagined something similar to man. And at beta, they imagined something that is around man. Then the Jewish Beth and the Greek beta became the envelope around the alpha, which is still inside as a spiritual being. In the same way, the body would be the Beth, the Beta, and the Alpha would be the spirit within. And now we speak of the “alphabet” - but for the Greeks this means: “man in his house”, or also: “man in his body”, in his covering.

Well, gentlemen, it is actually terribly funny. Take a dictionary in your hand today, then look up all the wisdom that mankind has in the alphabet. If someone - you won't do it - starts at A and stops at Z, then he would have all the wisdom in himself. Yes, but according to what can this wisdom be arranged in man? According to the alphabet, according to what can be known about the human being. It is very interesting: people have spread all wisdom because they no longer knew that it actually points to what comes from the alphabet. If you translate alphabet, it comes out, if you put it a little differently: human wisdom, human knowledge - again expressed with a Greek word: anthroposophy, human wisdom. And that is what every encyclopedia says. Actually, every encyclopedia should include anthroposophy, because it is only arranged according to the alphabet, according to human wisdom, “the human being in his body.” It is terribly funny: actually every encyclopedia represents a skeleton, where in the alphabetically arranged science the old wisdom has disappeared. All flesh and blood has gone, all the muscles and nerves have fallen away. Now go to the encyclopedia; it contains only the dead skeleton of the old science. Now a new science must arise that does not just have the dead skeleton, like the encyclopedia, but really has everything about the human being again, flesh and blood and so on: that is anthroposophy! Therefore, one would like to throw all these encyclopedias to the devil, although they are needed today, because they are the dead skeleton of an old science. A new science must be founded!

You see, gentlemen, that is what you can learn from the Sephiroth tree if you understand it in the right way. It was very useful of Mr. Dollinger to ask this question, because it has taken us a little deeper into anthroposophy.

Next time on Wednesday at nine o'clock.

Mr. Burle: April 22 was the [200th] birthday of Kant. If I may ask Dr. Steiner to tell us something about Kant's teachings, what the differences would be, and whether they would be a contemporary anthroposophical teaching.

Dr. Steiner: Yes, gentlemen, if I am to answer this question, then you will just have to follow me a little today into a field that is difficult to understand. But Mr. Burle, who also asked the question about relativism, always asks such difficult questions! And so today you may have to be prepared for the fact that things are not as easy to understand as what I usually report. But you see, Kant cannot be presented in an easily understandable way because he is not easily understandable in himself. It is true that today the whole world, which is interested in such things at all (I don't want to say interested, because in reality very few people are interested in it, but the whole world pretends to be interested in it), talks about Kant as if he were something that concerns the world very much in the most fundamental sense. And you know, of course, that a whole series of articles have been written for this 200th birthday, which are supposed to make clear to the world what an enormous significance Immanuel Kant had for the entire intellectual life.

You see, even as a boy at school, I often heard from our teacher of literary history: Immanuel Kant was the emperor of literary Germany! – I once misspoke and said: the king of literary Germany. He immediately corrected me and said: the emperor of literary Germany!

Well, I have been studying Kant a great deal at the moment and – as I mentioned in my biography – I had a teacher of history for a while who actually only ever read from other books; I thought to myself, I can read that at home myself. And once, when he had stepped out, I looked up what he was actually reading and got hold of it myself. That was more economical. I got Kant's Critique of Pure Reason from Reclam's Universal Library; I unbound it and stapled it to my schoolbook, which I had in front of me during the lesson, and now read Kant while history was taught by the teacher. That is why I dared to talk quite a bit about Kant, who everyone actually always talks about in such a way that when you say something that has to do with the spiritual, people say, “Yes, but Kant said...” As one always says in theology: Yes, but the Bible says – so many enlightened people actually say: Yes, but Kant said. – I gave lectures twenty-four years ago; I met a person sitting in the auditorium who always slept, always listened asleep; sometimes, when my voice rose a little, he woke up, and especially at the end. I also said something about the spiritual there – he woke up again, jumped up like a jack-in-the-box and shouted: But Kant said! – Well, it is true that Kant makes an enormous amount of essence out of it.

Now let us try to imagine how Kant actually viewed the world. He said, with a certain amount of justification, that everything we see and feel, in short, everything we perceive through our senses, in other words all of nature outside of us, is not reality but appearance. But how does it come about? Yes, it arises from the fact – and this is the difficult part, so you must pay close attention – that something, which he called the “thing in itself”, that is, something completely unknown, of which we know nothing, makes an impression on us; and this impression is what we actually see, not the thing in itself.

So you see, gentlemen, when I draw it for you, it's like this: there is the human being – you could just as easily do it with hearing and feeling, if we want to do it with seeing – there is the thing in itself somewhere out there. But we know nothing about it, it is completely unknown, we know nothing about it. But this thing in itself now makes an impression on the eye. We don't know anything about that either, but it makes an impression on the eye. And inside the human being, an appearance is now created, and we inflate this appearance to the whole world. (Pointing to the drawing): We know nothing about the red, only about what we have as an appearance; what I now draw as violet, we know something about. So actually, according to Kant, the whole world is basically man-made. You see the tree. You know nothing about the tree itself; the tree only makes an impression on you, that is to say: something unknown makes an impression on you, and you form this impression into a tree, and you place the tree in your perceptions. So consider, gentlemen: here is a chair, an armchair - a thing in itself. What is actually there, you do not know; but what is there makes an impression on me. And I actually put the chair there. So when I sit on the chair, I do not know what kind of thing I am actually sitting on. The thing in itself, that which I sit on, that is actually what I put there.

You see, Kant speaks of the limits of knowledge in such a way that you can never know what the thing in itself is, because everything is actually only a world made by man. It is very difficult to make the matter seriously understandable. And when you are asked about this Kant, it is indeed the case that if you really want to characterize him, you have to say some very strange things. For when one looks at the true Kant, it is actually difficult to believe that this is the case. But it is the case that Kant simply asserts from theory, from thinking: No one knows anything about the thing in itself, but the whole world is made only from the impression we receive from things.

I once said: if you don't know what the thing in itself is, then it could be anything; it could consist of pinheads, for example! – And that's how it is with Kant. You could easily say that, according to him, the thing in itself could consist of anything. But now comes the rest: If you stop at this theory, then all of you here, as I see you here, are only my appearance; I have placed all of you on the chairs here, and what is behind each of you as a thing-in-itself, I do not know. And again, when I stand there, you also do not know what kind of thing-in-itself it is, but you see the appearance that you yourself place there. And what I am talking about is what you are listening to yourself! So, what I am actually doing there – the thing in itself, what that is actually doing there, you all don't know; but this thing in itself makes an impression on you. You then project this impression here; you basically hear what you yourself are doing!

Now, taking this example, if we speak in a Kantian sense, we could say something like the following: You sit out there having breakfast and say, “Yes, now we want to go into the hall and listen to this and that for an hour.” We cannot know what the thing in itself is that we hear; but we will look at the stone there, so that we have this phenomenon - at least for an hour - and afterwards we will listen to what we want to hear. That is actually what Kant says first of all, because he claims: We never know anything about the thing in itself!

You see, one of Kant's successors, Schopenhauer, found the matter so clear that he said: There's no doubt about it! - That is absolutely certain, he says, that when I see blue, something out there is not blue, but the blue comes from me when a thing in itself makes an impression on me. If I hear someone out there moaning and suffering pain, then the pain and the moaning come not from him but from me! That, says Schopenhauer, is actually quite clear. And when a person closes his eyes and sleeps, then the whole world is dark and silent; then there is nothing there for him.

Now, gentlemen, according to this theory, you can create the world in the simplest way and then remove it again. You fall asleep, the world is gone; and you wake up again: and you have recreated the whole world - at least the one you see. Apart from that, only the thing in itself is there, of which you know nothing. Yes, Schopenhauer found that quite clear. But Schopenhauer did feel a little queasy about it. He was not entirely comfortable with the assertion. So he said: At least something is outside - blue and red, and all cold and warmth is not outside; when I feel cold, I myself create the cold - but what is outside is the will. Will lives in everything. And the will, that is a completely free demonic power. But it lives in all things.

So he has already put a little something into “the thing in itself”. He also regarded everything we imagine as a mere appearance that we ourselves make; but at least he has already endowed the thing in itself with the will. There were many people and there are still many people today who do not really realize what the consequences of Kant's teaching are. I once met a person who was really - as one should be when one has a doctrine - completely imbued with this Kantian doctrine, and he said to himself: I made everything myself: the mountains, the clouds, the stars, everything, everything, and I also made humanity myself, and I made everything in the world myself. Now, however, I don't like what I have made. I created everything; but now I don't like it. Now I want to get rid of it again. - And then he said that he had started by killing a few people - he was just insane; he said that he started killing a few people in order to fulfill his desire to get rid of the people he had made himself. I told him he should just think about what kind of difference it makes: He has a pair of boots; according to Kant's teachings, he also made them. But he should just think about what, in addition to what he is now doing as an appearance of the boots, the shoemaker has also done!

Yes, you see, that's how it is: the most famous things in the world are often the most nonsensical! And people cling to the most nonsensical with the greatest obstinacy. And, curiously enough, it is the enlightened who cling to it.

What I have told you in a few words, which are already quite difficult to understand, must be read in many books when reading Kant; for that is what he has now peeled apart in long, long theories; and he begins his book “Critique of Pure Reason” - that is what he calls it - by first proving that Space is not outside in the world, I make it myself, I spin it out of myself. So first of all: space is an appearance. Secondly: time is also an appearance. Because it is said: there was once an Aristotle – yes, but I put him into time myself, because I make all of time myself!

Now he has written this great book, the “Critique of Pure Reason”; it makes quite a nice impression. Now if some Philistine comes along and gets hold of a thick book called Critique of Pure Reason, he'll think it's really something, because it's terribly clever. You become a kind of god on earth yourself when you read something like that! But then, after the introduction, it says: Part One. Transcendental Aesthetics. – Well, no, it says: Transcendental Aesthetics. – If someone opens my Philosophy of Freedom, then the chapter title might just be: Man and the World. – Oh, Man and the World, that's something ordinary, you don't even read that. But transcendental aesthetics! – When the philistine opens such a book, he does so with the feeling that it must be something quite tremendous! He does not usually think about what transcendental aesthetics is, but that is just as well for him; it is a word that makes him trip over his tongue a little when he speaks it. That is the main title.

Now comes the subtitle: First Section. The transcendental deduction of space. - Now, you can't think of anything better for a Philistine than to have a chapter like that. And afterwards it begins in a way that he doesn't really understand. But for more than a hundred years everyone has been saying: Kant is a great man. - So when he reads that, he gets a little something out of it himself, and so he gets a little delusions of grandeur.

Then comes the second section: the transcendental deduction of time. - If you have now fought your way through the transcendental deduction of space and time, then comes the second major section: the transcendental analytics. - And in the transcendental analytics, the main thing is to prove that man has transcendental apperception.

Well, gentlemen, I was asked, and I have to tell you these things, the story of transcendental apperception. You have to read through many hundreds of pages to get everything that is contained in this chapter on transcendental apperception. With transcendental apperception, it is meant that man makes his ideas and is a unity in this presentation. So if everything is just an idea, the whole world, then actually now through this transcendental apperception the whole world must be spun out of the nothingness of one's own being. Yes, that's roughly how it is presented there.

So now we come to it: In the chapter on transcendental apperception, Kant spins the whole world with all its trees, clouds, stars and so on out of himself. Yes, he spins them out – that's what he says. But what he actually spins out and what one always has to deal with in this whole wide chapter are the same ideas, only translated a little later, which I recently wrote down for you on the Sephiroth Tree, but only in the form of a mere alphabet, not in such a way that one can read with it, know something! And what's more: at least there it was something very concrete. But Kant spins it out in such a way that he says: the world consists, first, of quantity, second, of quality, third, of relation, fourth, of modality. Now, each of these concepts in turn has three sub-concepts; for example, quantity: unity, multiplicity, allness. Now, quality has: reality, negation, limitation, and so on. There were twelve concepts – three times four is twelve – and you can spin the world out of them. Good old Kant didn't spin the world out of them at all, but actually only spun out twelve concepts with transcendental apperception. So he actually only created twelve concepts, not the world.

If there were any truth in the story, something would come of it! But the Philistines don't even notice that nothing comes of it, that only twelve terms come out, but they now go around the world with a full stomach and with Kantian philosophy, saying, “Nothing can be grasped!” Well, that can be understood with the Philistines; they feel honored when they are told, If they do not understand anything, it is not because of them, but because of the whole world. If you believe that you know nothing, you are right; but that is not because you can do nothing, but because the whole world can know nothing. - And so these twelve concepts come out. That is then the transcendental analytics.

But now the really difficult chapters are coming. Then there is the big chapter entitled: Of the Transcendental Paralogisms. - That's how it goes on in general. In Kant's “Critique of Pure Reason” you get title after title! It says: There are people who claim that space is infinite. This proves how people who see that space is infinite prove it. But there are also people who say: space is limited. This is also proved, just as the people prove it. So you will find in the “Critique of Pure Reason” - in the later chapters it shows two opposing sides everywhere - on the one hand it is proved: space is infinite; on the other hand it is proved: space is finite. Then it is proved again: time is infinite, is an eternity. Then it is proved that time had a beginning and will come to an end. And so on, gentlemen. Then it is proved that man is free. And on the other hand, man is not free.

What does Kant mean by providing the evidence for these two opposing assertions? He means to say: we cannot prove anything at all! We might just as well assert: space is infinite as well as finite; time is eternal, time will come to an end! - We might just as well say: man is free, or: he is unfree. - So that boils down to the fact that in modern times you have to say: think as you want to think, you will not arrive at the truth, but for you humans everything is the same.

Then you also get instructions on how to think in this way, taught in transcendental methodology. In this way, one can first take on a book by Kant. So one can ask: Why did Kant actually undertake all this? Then one comes to what Kant actually wanted. You see, up to Kant, people who did philosophy didn't really know much either, but at least they claimed: There is some knowledge about the world that can be known. This was countered by what had already come from the Middle Ages, because, as I have shown you, in the Middle Ages the old knowledge was lost. What had already been grasped in the Middle Ages as a thought was that one can only know something of what the senses represent, and cannot know anything of what is of the spirit. You have to believe that. And so, through the Middle Ages and up to Kant, the assertion arose: You cannot know anything about the spiritual; you can only believe something about the spiritual.

The churches, of course, got away very well with this teaching that one cannot know anything about the spiritual, one must believe that, because then they can dictate what man should believe about the spiritual!

Now, as already mentioned, there were philosophers – Leibniz, Wolff and so on – who, up to Kant, asserted that at least some of the spiritual things in the world can be known by mere reason. Kant now said: It is all nonsense to believe that one can know anything of the spiritual, but one must merely believe all of the spiritual! Because the spiritual lies in the “thing in itself”. You cannot know anything about the 'thing in itself'. Therefore, everything that refers to the spiritual must be believed. And Kant also betrayed himself when he wrote the second edition of his 'Critique of Pure Reason'. In this second edition there is a curious sentence in it; it says: 'I had to stop knowing in order to make room for believing.' That is the confession, actually, gentlemen! That is what led to the unknown thing in itself! That is why Kant called his book “Critique of Pure Reason”: reason itself was to be criticized, that it cannot know anything. And in this sentence: “I had to abandon knowledge in order to make room for faith,” in this actually lies the truth of Kant's philosophy. But that opens the floodgates to all faith. And in fact all positive religion could refer to Kant! But those people who do not want to know anything at all can also refer to Kant, who say: Why do we not know anything? Because one cannot know anything! - You see, so actually the teaching of Kant has become a support of faith. Therefore, it was quite natural that I myself had to completely reject Kant's teachings from the very beginning; although I read the whole Kant as a schoolboy, I always have to completely reject Kant's teachings for the simple reason that one would then simply have to stop at what people believe about the spiritual world and never have any real spiritual knowledge. Kant is actually the one who excludes all spiritual science the most and only wants a certain belief.

So Kant first wrote this first book: “Critique of Pure Reason.” In this “Critique of Pure Reason” it is thus proved: we know nothing of the thing in itself. We can only have a belief about what the “thing in itself” is.

Then he wrote a second book: “Critique of Practical Reason.” He then wrote a third book: “Critique of Judgment,” but that is not so important. So he wrote “Critique of Practical Reason” as his second book. There he has now outlined his own belief. So, first of all, he wrote a book of knowledge: “Critique of Pure Reason”; in it he proved that one can know nothing. Now the Philistine can put the book down; it is proved to him that one can know nothing. Then Kant wrote the “Critique of Practical Reason”; there he now builds his faith. How does he build his faith? He says: If man looks at himself in the world, he is an imperfect being; but to be so imperfect is not really human; so there must be a greater perfection of man somewhere. We know nothing about it; but we believe that there is a greater perfection of man somewhere within the earth, we believe in immortality.

Yes, you see, gentlemen, that is indeed quite different from the scientific considerations I give you for what survives in man when he passes through death! But Kant does not want any such knowledge at all; he simply wants to prove from man's imperfection that man should believe in immortality.

Then he proves in the same way that one should only believe that one cannot know anything about freedom, but should believe that man is free; because if he were not free, he would not be responsible for his actions. So one believes that he can be responsible for being free.

Kant's doctrine of freedom often reminded me of another doctrine that a professor of jurisprudence always mentioned at the beginning of his lectures. He said: “Gentlemen, there are people who say: Man is not free. But, gentlemen, if man were not free, then he would not be responsible for his actions. But then there could be no punishment either. But if there are no punishments, then there can be no science of punishment. I present the science of punishment myself – so then I could not exist either. But I do exist, so there is also a science of punishment, consequently there is also a punishment, consequently also a freedom – so I have proved to you that there is a freedom! What Kant says about freedom reminds me very much of the professor's speech. And Kant speaks of God in the same way. He says: We cannot know anything about any power in itself. But I cannot make an elephant; so I believe that someone else can make it, someone who can make more than I can. So I believe in a God.

Now Kant has written this second book, the “Critique of Practical Reason”. In it, he says that we as human beings should believe in God, freedom and immortality. We cannot know anything about it, but we should believe it. Just think about what an inhuman idea this actually is: first, it is proven that knowledge is actually nothing; secondly, that one should believe in God, in whom one cannot know anything, in freedom and immortality! So Kant is basically the greatest reactionary. People use fine words; that is why they called him the destroyer of everything. Yes, knowledge, he destroyed everything, but only as one destroys toys. Because the world still remains, of course! And faith, he actually supported it in a very considerable way.

This went on throughout the entire 19th century and into the 20th, and today, of course, people everywhere are writing about Kant's 200th birthday! And in reality, Kant is an example of how little people actually think. Because what I have told you now is simply a pure presentation of Kant's teachings! But what people say – that Kant was the greatest philosopher, that Kant cannot be refuted, and so on – well, if you take this example, you really get a good idea of how Kant, in particular, can be used by opponents of spiritual science. Simply because they can then say: Yes, we do not start from religion, but we start from the most enlightened philosopher! But it is really the case that Kant could just as easily be the starting point for the most dogmatic teacher of religion as for any enlightened person.

Then Kant wrote other works, one of which was about the question: How will metaphysics be possible as a science in the future?, in which he actually proves again that it is impossible and so on. You actually have to say: All of science in the 19th century actually suffered from Kant; Kant was basically a disease of science.

Now, if you take Kant as an example of how nonsensical intellectual development sometimes is, then you have taken him in the right way. But then you will also say to yourself: one really has to be careful in knowledge, because the world is terribly bent on perpetrating the very greatest nonsense in knowledge. And you can well imagine the difficult position in which a representative of spiritual science finds himself: not only do you have the representatives of religion against you, but also all the other philosophers and those who have been infected by them, and so on. Every philistine comes and says: Yes, you claim this about the spiritual world; Kant has already proved – so they say – that one cannot know anything about it! – That is actually the best general objection one can make. Some people say: I don't want to hear anything at all about what Steiner says, because Kant has already proved that one cannot know anything about all this.

Are you satisfied?

Mr. Burle says he mainly wanted to hear what Kant meant. It is as Dr. Steiner says: one hears so much about Kant, but nothing positive. It is true that one has to work hard to understand it.

Dr. Steiner: The matter then had consequences. In 1869, a book appeared by someone who was inspired by Kant, 'The Philosophy of the Unconscious', which in turn caused a huge stir. And Eduard von Hartmann was already a very clever person! If Eduard von Hartmann had lived before Kant, if Kant had not had such an influence on him, much more would probably have come of him. But he could not actually go beyond this strong prejudice that one has of Kant. So it was, just as Schopenhauer before, also clear to Eduard von Hartmann that one knows nothing of the whole world but one's own ideas, that which one puts out there oneself. But in addition, he had accepted the Schopenhauerian doctrine that one must equip the thing in itself with the will. Now the will is everywhere inside. I once wrote an article about Eduard von Hartmann, and in it I also mentioned Schopenhauer. Now Schopenhauer said: We know nothing of the thing in itself; we have only ideas about it. Only the ideas are intelligent; the will is stupid. So that actually everything we know about ourselves is nothing more than the stupid will.

In the article in which I mentioned Schopenhauer, I said: According to Schopenhauer, everything in the world that is clever is actually the work of man; because man creates everything in the world; and what is behind it is the stupid will. So the stupidity of the deity is the world. But they confiscated it at the time! It was supposed to be published in Austria.

The thing is this: Eduard von Hartmann assumed that the thing in itself must be endowed with will; but the will is actually stupid, and that is why things are so bad in the world. And that is why Eduard von Hartmann became a pessimist, as they say. That is why he had the view that the world is no good, is not good, but is basically bad, very bad. And not just what people do, but everything in the world is bad. He said: You can calculate that the world is bad. You just have to put on one side, on the debit side, everything you have in life in terms of happiness and pleasure and so on, and on the other side, everything you have in terms of suffering and so on: There is always more on the other side. The balance is always negative. So the whole world is bad. - That's why Hartmann became a pessimist.

But you see, Eduard von Hartmann was, first of all, basically a clever person and, secondly, someone who then also drew the consequences. He said: Why do people still live? Why don't they prefer to kill themselves? If everything is bad, it would be much wiser if one day general human suicide were decided upon; then all this that is created would be gone. But Eduard von Hartmann said, on the other hand, “No, you can't manage to set such a general day of world suicide. And even if we set it - people have emerged from animals; the animals would not kill themselves; then people would emerge from the animals again! So we can't manage it that way. Therefore, he came up with something else. He said to himself: If you really want to wipe out everything in the earthly world, then you can't do it by people committing suicide, but you have to thoroughly exterminate the whole earth. We do not yet have the necessary machines for this today; but people have already invented many machines; therefore, all wisdom must be applied to inventing a machine that can be used to drill into the earth, so that one goes deep enough, and then, by means of a special dynamite or similar device, blows up the whole earth, so that the debris flies out into the world and turns to dust. Then the real ultimate goal will have been achieved.

Yes, this is no joke, gentlemen! This is really the teaching of Eduard von Hartmann, that one should invent a machine that can, one might say, blow up the whole Earth, atomizing and splintering the Earth.

Interjection: In America, they want to build cannons that can shoot the moon down!

Dr. Steiner: But what I have told you is a real philosophical teaching from the 19th century!

Now you will say: There was such a clever man - how can that be? He must have been stupid to have said that! - No, truly, Eduard von Hartmann was not stupid, but he was cleverer than all the others. I can prove that to you right away. But precisely because he was cleverer than the doctrine inspired by Kant, this stupidity arose from the machine with which one is to hurl the world into nothingness. This was asserted by a very clever man, only thoroughly corrupted by Kant.

Now he has written this “Philosophy of the Unconscious”. In this “Philosophy of the Unconscious” he said: Yes, it is quite true that humans have developed from animals; but spiritual forces were also involved. Now these forces are forces of will, not clever but stupid forces. And he presented this very cleverly, and in doing so he presented something that contradicted Darwinism.

Now, back then – just imagine, this was in the 1860s! – there was this clever philosophy of the unconscious by Hartmann and the Darwinism that Haeckel, Oscar Schmidt and others represented, but which was the cleverest thing since sliced bread for the rest of humanity. Now all those who were again stubborn Darwinists, came forward and said: This Eduard von Hartmann, he must be thoroughly refuted; he knows nothing about science! But what did Hartmann do? The following shows what he did at the time. After the others had shouted themselves hoarse – that is, on printing paper – a book also appeared: “The Unconscious from the Point of View of Darwinism”. A thorough refutation of Eduard von Hartmann from the point of view of Darwinism! – But no one knew who it was from.

Well, gentlemen, now the natural scientists were all pleased, because it contained the refutation of Eduard von Hartmann. Even Haeckel said: “Let such a person who has written this against Hartmann call himself to us, and we will consider him one of our own, a naturalist of the first rank!” And sure enough, the book was sold very, very quickly and a second edition appeared: the author named himself - it was Eduard von Hartmann himself! He had written it against himself. But now they stopped praising him; the matter did not become very well known! So he proved that he was cleverer than all the others! But you see, the news that people are given is silent about these stories. But such a piece in the history of ideas must be told; then one comes to this: Eduard von Hartmann was a person who was corrupted by Kant, but who is extremely clever.

Now, if I told you that he wants to blow up the world with a big machine that someone is supposed to invent, you might quite rightly say that he may have been terribly clever, Eduard von Hartmann, but for those of us who have not yet studied Kant, it seems like a stupid thing to do after all. And you might well believe that, however cleverly I describe Eduard von Hartmann, he must have been stupid. You could easily believe that. But then you would have to tell and think that the others were even stupider; and then I am satisfied for my own sake! But it can be proved historically that the others were even more stupid than one who proves that the earth should be blown up.

It is important to know such a thing, because today there still exists this peculiar worship of everything that is printed. And since Kant appeared in the “Universal Library” - I was only able to read him because of it, because otherwise I couldn't have bought him; but he was cheap, even though the books are so thick - since then, there's been even more of a devil's mess with Kant than before, because since then everyone has been reading Kant. That is, they read the first page, but they don't understand anything. Then they hear that Kant is “the emperor of literary Germany”; so they think: Gosh, now that we know about Kant, we're smart people ourselves! And most of them are such that they admit: Yes, I have to say that I understand Kant, because otherwise the others will say I'm stupid if I don't understand Kant. In reality, people don't understand him, but they don't admit that; they say, “I have to understand Kant because he's very clever.” So I say, “I understand something very clever when I understand Kant!” Then it also impresses people.

But really, gentlemen, although it was difficult to present this question in a somewhat popular way, I am nevertheless glad that it was chosen as the question, because it showed what is actually going on in the so-called intellectual life of people, and how careful people actually have to be when something like this affects them, which itself leads to the fact that now in all newspapers a lot is made of the 200th birthday of Kant. I am not saying that Kant should not be celebrated – others are celebrated as well – but the truth is as I have told you.

We will continue our discussion next Saturday at nine o'clock.

Mr. Pea: What do the comets that appear from time to time mean? And how does the zodiac differ from the other stars?

Dr. Steiner: This question will lead us a little into the understanding of astronomy. You are attending lectures on astronomy, and it will be very helpful if we can discuss this question from a certain point of view.

When we look at the starry sky, we have the moon as the largest star and also the one closest to us. The moon therefore also has the most noticeable influence on the people of the earth. And you have certainly already heard how the moon stimulates the imagination of people. That is something that everyone knows. But I have told you about other influences of the moon, which it also has on the reproduction of beings and so on. Then we see other heavenly bodies that behave in a similar way to the moon. The moon moves - you can see it move - and the other stars that are similar to it also move. We call these stars, which also move, planets.

Now it also appears that the sun moves. In reality it does move; but in relation to our Earth it does not move. It always remains at about the same distance and does not describe a circle around the Earth either. The sun is therefore referred to as a fixed star. And so the other stars, except for those that clearly change their position, are fixed stars.

If you look at the starry sky, you will see roughly the same view that the starry sky reveals every night – especially on nights when there is moonlight. But there are changes in the starry sky. Especially in certain weeks during the summer, you can see how one star after another – seemingly – moves quickly and then disappears: shooting stars. Such shooting stars can be seen in the sky at other times as well, but they are especially visible in certain summer weeks, when crowds of such small stars light up, quickly move across the sky and then disappear.

But in addition to these, there are the stars that Mr. Erbsmehl mentioned in his question: the comets. These comets appear only more rarely; they also differ in terms of their shape from the other stars. They show a shape that looks something like this, for example: they have a kind of nucleus, and then they have a tail that they trail behind them. Sometimes they also look like they are trailing two such tails. When you look at the other stars that are moving, they have a movement that is relatively regular and you always know at what point in time these other stars appear; at another point in time they are below the earth and do not appear, while with these stars, the comets, you perceive: they come and go away again, without you really knowing where they actually go. So within the other stars they show, so to speak, irregular movements.

Now, these comets were always understood differently by people than the other stars, and in particular these comets played a major role for superstitious people. These superstitious people believed that when such a comet appears, it means misfortune.

This is not particularly surprising, because anything that does not behave in a regular way causes people to be amazed and astonished. It need not be taken so terribly seriously, because people also find that even with quite ordinary objects, which otherwise always behave differently, it means something when they behave differently. For example, if you drop a knife, it usually does not get stuck in the ground but falls smoothly. It means nothing because one is accustomed to it. But if the knife does get stuck in the ground, superstitious people think that means something. When the moon appears – people are used to that, it doesn't mean anything special to them. But when a star like that appears, which also has a special shape, then yes, that means something special! So you don't need to get upset about it when superstitious people associate things with something.

Above all, we must now look at the matter scientifically. And in that respect, the following is true: In not very ancient times, people were more guided by what they saw in the sky and described the Earth as being at the center of the world. I will just tell you how it was imagined. And that the Earth is surrounded by the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun and so on, and that the whole starry sky, as you can see - every star rises and sets again - moves. So you can see the starry sky moving. If you stayed outside long enough, you would see how the so-called fixed stars apparently move across the sky. In the old days, people took it for granted because that's what they saw, and described it as they saw it.

Now, as you know, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Copernicus came along and said: No way! The Earth is not the center of the universe, but the Sun is the center, and Mercury, Venus, the Earth and so on move around the Sun. This meant that the Earth itself was made into a planet. A completely different world system, a completely different view of space emerged. And just like the Sun, the other fixed stars should now also be fixed. Their movement is therefore only an apparent one.

You see, gentlemen, the thing is this: I have already touched on this matter in answer to another question put by Mr. Burle, concerning the theory of relativity and whether there is any truth in these theories and in some of the others that have been put forward. For example, there was a theory put forward by a certain Tycho Brahe, who said: Yes, the sun stands still, but the earth also stands still, and so on. - So there have been other world systems; but we are looking at these two: the old one, which mainly goes back to Ptolemy, the Ptolemaic system, and then the Copernican system, which goes back to Copernicus. So these are two world systems. There is something right about each one. In particular, if you look at the facts very carefully, you cannot tell whether one or the other is right.

The thing is this, gentlemen: I told you at the time that there are people who claim that when I drive up from Villa Hansi to the Goetheanum in my car, for example, it is impossible to tell whether the car is driving or the Goetheanum is coming towards it! Well, it is certainly not possible to distinguish between the two by looking at them, but only by the fact that the car is worn out and needs petrol, whereas the Goetheanum does not. You can tell by looking at the inside. In the same way, when you enter Basel, you can tell whether Basel is coming out to meet you or you are going in because you are tiring. So you can only tell by looking at the inside.

From this it should be clear to you that every world system is actually such that it can be right from one side and wrong from the other. You cannot make an absolute decision. That is how it is! You really cannot decide in the case of a world system which is completely right and which is completely wrong. You will say: Yes, but the facts are calculated! Yes, you see, they are calculated, but the calculations that are made are never quite right! For example, if you calculate how fast a star is moving, you know that after a certain time it must be at a certain place in the sky. So you calculate where a star should be at a certain time, point the telescope in that direction, and now the star should be inside the telescope. Often it is not there, so you have to correct the formula again; and so it turns out that actually no calculation is completely correct. The situation in the world system is such that no calculation is completely correct! Where does that come from? Imagine you know a person quite well. Then you will say to yourself, if he promises you something, you can be absolutely sure of it. Suppose you know a person quite well; he has promised you that on May 20th at five o'clock in the afternoon he will be at such and such a place. You can also be there. You will be quite sure that he will be there because you know him. But now it may happen that he does not come! And so it is with the world system. If you look at small things, then you can say: You can safely rely on things happening as you know them. So if I heat a stove, it will spread heat throughout the room according to the laws of nature. It is not very likely that a fire will not produce heat in the room! But that stops, gentlemen, when the large-scale relationships in the universe begin. There, history is just as certain as it is for the individual human being, but also just as uncertain. So that everything you calculate always has a kink somewhere. And what causes the kink? The kink is not only caused by the fact that these solar systems do not depend on themselves alone. Suppose that on the way he came to you something particularly pleased the person in question. He was delayed. If these planetary systems were such that nothing could occur in them except what the sun, moon and stars do, then they could also be calculated; one would know exactly where a star is at a given time, to within a thousandth of a second, because calculations can be made very precisely. But, as I said, the calculations have a glitch. This is merely due to the fact that these systems are not allowed to be completely uninhibited in space, but comets now penetrate into it, passing through; and with these comets penetrating from space, space gives this planetary system something similar to what we get when we eat: The comet is a kind of nourishment for the planetary system! And the thing is this: when such a comet enters, there is always a slight change in the motion; and so one never arrives at a completely regular motion. The thing is this, gentlemen: the irregularity in the motion or in the rest of the entire planetary system comes from the comets.

Now the comets themselves. You see, people claim: Yes, a comet like that comes from so far away that you don't see it at first; when it comes close to the solar system, that's when you start to see it (it is drawn). So there you see it. Now it moves on; you still see it, then something else, and there it disappears. Now what do people say? People say: Well, that is above the earth, that can be seen; but then the comet goes across like that, becomes invisible and comes back again after a number of years. That is what people say.

If I draw the solar system for you, we have the sun; there are the planets. Now people imagine: the comet comes from far away, from outside the solar system, comes here into the area of the sun; and since you can no longer see it when it is down there, it is coming back again. So they imagine that the planets move in a short ellipse, but the comet in a huge long ellipse. And when it comes in and we have it above us, that you can look up, then it remains visible, otherwise it is invisible, and then comes back again. Halley's Comet, named after its discoverer, appears every seventy-six years.

Now, gentlemen, there is something in it, however, where spiritual science cannot go along with its observations: It is not at all true that the comet goes round like that! What is really true is that the comet is only just coming into being here, and there it separates, if I may say so, the cosmic matter together, there the cosmic matter collects; there it comes into being (pointing to the drawing), goes on like that, and here it disappears again, dissolves. This line (ellipse) here does not really exist. So you are dealing with a form that arises at a certain distance and disappears at a certain distance. Yes, but what is actually happening?

Well, you realize that it isn't true that the sun is standing still! It is stationary in relation to the Earth, but in relation to space it is moving at a tremendous speed. The entire planetary system is racing through space, moving forward. The sun is moving toward the constellation of Hercules. You might ask how we know that the sun is moving toward the constellation of Hercules? You know that when you walk down an alley and stand there, the trees that are in front seem further apart, and then they seem to get closer and closer. Isn't it true that when you look down an alley, the trees seem to get closer and closer; but if you now continue walking in that direction, it is as if these trees are moving apart. The space that you see between the two trees becomes larger and larger. Now imagine that if this is the constellation of Hercules, then the stars in the constellation of Hercules are at certain distances from each other. If our solar system is stationary, these distances should always remain the same. But if the sun moves with the other planets, the stars of Hercules must appear larger and larger, they must appear to move apart. And they really do! For centuries it has been observed that the distances in the constellation of Hercules are getting larger and larger. This shows that the sun really is moving towards the constellation of Hercules. And just as one can calculate here, when measuring with a sighting instrument, how close we pass and how fast - if one walks faster, the distance increases more rapidly than for another - so one can also calculate how the sun passes. The calculations are always very precisely executed. So the entire planetary system with the sun races towards the constellation of Hercules.

But this rushing along is something that affects the planetary system just as it would if you were working. When you work, you lose some of your substance, and you have to replace it. And so it is that when the planetary system rushes through space, it constantly loses some of its substance. This must be replaced. The comets roam around collecting the substance, and it is captured again when the comet passes through the planetary system. In this way, the comets replace the unusable, excreted substance of the planetary system. But at the same time, these comets enter the planetary system and cause an irregularity in it, so that the movements cannot be calculated in reality.

This also shows you that if you go far enough, the matter in space comes to life! Such a planetary system is actually a living being; it must eat. And the comets are being eaten!

What are these comets mainly made of? These comets have as their most important substance that which is needed from the sky within the planetary system: they have carbon and nitrogen in them. Of course they also have hydrogen and so on. But these two substances are particularly important: carbon and nitrogen. We need the nitrogen in the air, it must always be renewed; we need the carbon because all plants need it. And so the Earth really draws its materials from space! They are always replaced.

But the matter goes further. You know that when you eat, you eat things that are still large on the plates; but you chop them up, you bite them. First of all, you cut them up. And you have to do that because if you were to swallow a whole goose, if that were possible, it would not do you any good! You have to chop it up. Likewise, you cannot swallow a whole calf's head; only snakes can do that, humans cannot. That has to be chopped up. Now, the planetary system does the same with its food. Such a comet can sometimes - not every one, but some can be swallowed whole, like a snake. But there are also comets that are chopped up when they come in. Then the comet disintegrates, as for example in August the meteor swarm disintegrates into lots of little stars that come down as shooting stars. Because these shooting stars are nothing but tiny pieces of comets rushing down. And so you not only see the way in which the world's food enters the solar system, but at the same time you see how this world's food is consumed by the earth. So in this way you can really see what significance the comets, which appear so irregularly, have for the earth.

Now, you see, the thing is this – you have to disregard all superstition –: on the whole, what is happening on Earth, the comet has its extraterrestrial influence, which can also be seen. It is indeed remarkable: you know that there are good and bad wine years; but the good wine years actually come from the fact that the earth has become hungry. Then it leaves its fertility more to the sun, and the sun, after all, causes the goodness of the wine. If the earth has a good wine year, then one can be almost certain that a comet will come soon after, because the earth was hungry again and needs nourishment for the other. Then come bad wine years. If a good wine year comes again, a comet comes afterwards. It depends on the state of the earth's substances, together with the way the comets appear and do not appear.

Now the question was raised as to how the zodiac differs from the other fixed stars.

It is not true that if you simply look out into the vastness of the universe, you will see countless stars. These stars appear to be arranged irregularly. But you can always distinguish groups, which are called constellations.

Now, what you see there is actually closer or further away from the moon. If you look at these stars, you can see the moon, right, going through the starry sky. But there are certain constellations that the moon always passes through; it does not pass through the others. So if you look at the constellation of Hercules, for example, the moon does not pass through it. But if you look at the constellation of Leo, the moon always passes through the constellation of Leo after a certain period of time. And so there are twelve constellations that are distinguished by the fact that they are, so to speak, the path that the moon takes, which the sun also takes. They are therefore actually the indicators of the path that the sun and the moon take across the sky. So you can say: the twelve constellations Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, they are the path of the moon; it always passes through them – not through the other constellations. So you can always say: At a certain time, when the moon is in the sky, it is either in front of a constellation or between two, but those constellations that belong to the zodiac.

Now, gentlemen, just consider that every star in the sky has an influence on the earth in general and on people in particular. Man is truly not only dependent on what is on the earth, but man is connected with what is in the sky as stars.

Imagine any random star or constellation out there: It rises in the evening, as they say, and sets in the morning. It is always there, always exerting its influence on people. But imagine another constellation, let's say the twins or the lion, for example: that's where the moon passes. At the moment the moon passes, it covers the twins or the lion; I only see the moon, but I don't see the twins. So they cannot have any influence on earth at that moment either, because their influence is covered. So we have stars everywhere in the sky that are never covered, neither by the sun nor by the moon, but which always have their influence on earth; on the other hand, we have stars where the moon passes by, and the sun also passes by, apparently; they are covered again and again from time to time, and their influence ceases. And so we can say: Leo is a constellation in the zodiac, it has a certain influence on man. But when the moon is in front of it, it does not have it; man is free from the influence of Leo, the influence of Leo does not affect him.

Now imagine you are standing there and are terribly lazy and do not want to walk, but someone pushes you from behind and you have to walk; they are driving you forward, that is their influence. But now suppose I hold back the influence; they cannot push you – so the influence is not exerted on you; if you are to walk, you have to walk yourself!

You see, people need these influences. So what is the story, gentlemen? Let's get this right: the constellation of Leo has a certain influence on people. This influence is present as long as the constellation is not covered by the moon or the sun. But now let's move on. Let's make another comparison with life. Say you want to know something. Let us assume that you have a governess or a tutor who usually knows everything; as a young boy you are too lazy to think, so you ask the tutor; he tells you - after all, he also does your homework. But if the tutor has gone out, if you don't have a tutor and you have to do your homework, you have to find the strength within yourself. You have to remember.

Now, Leo has a constant influence on people; only when the moon covers it is there a lack of influence. But when the moon covers the influence of Leo, then people have to develop it out of themselves. So a person who, while the constellation is covered by the moon, can strongly develop this influence of Leo out of themselves is, so to speak, a Leo person. And someone who can develop the influence of the constellation of Cancer when it is covered is a Cancer person. Depending on their predisposition, some people develop one or the other more. But as you can see, the zodiacal constellations are particularly distinguished: with them, it is the case that the influence is sometimes exerted and sometimes not. The moon, which passes by the constellations every four weeks, also brings about the fact that within four weeks we always have a point in time when this influence is not exerted on any zodiacal constellation; and with the other constellations it is always the same. And because in ancient times people paid very close attention to this influence from the heavens, the zodiac was naturally more important to them than the other constellations. Because the others always have an influence; that does not change. But with the zodiac, one can say: that changes, depending on whether a picture in the zodiac is covered or not. And for that reason, the zodiac has always been particularly studied in its effect on the earth. And now you also see why the zodiac is more important for observing the starry sky than the other stars. But from all this you will see that mere calculation, as I said to you recently, cannot actually be the whole of astronomy, but that one must go into such things as I have explained to you here.

It is indeed the case that today, when one talks about such things, one is still regarded as a fantasist, as half a fool, because people say: Well, if you want to know something about the stars, you should go to the astronomers at the observatory; they know everything! You know that there is a kind of saying: Because man is also dependent on all kinds of external influences with regard to his gouty conditions, some people say that when someone has a twinge or has gout, he should go to the observatory and have the matter regulated there. Now, people look at you as if you were half-crazy when you want to say something from the spirit about these things. But the following things happen. Based on this knowledge, which arises from spiritual science, I succeeded in saying the following in a series of lectures in Paris in 1906: If it is all true about comets, if they really exist to fulfill these tasks, then there must be a connection between carbon and nitrogen in them. - This had not been known until then. And carbon and nitrogen together make up cyanogen, prussic acid. Carbon and nitrogen should therefore, I said, also be found in comets. That was said by me in Paris in 1906. At the time, no one was required to believe it who did not recognize the importance of spiritual science. But then, a short time later, I was on a lecture tour in Sweden – and a very surprising news item appeared in all the newspapers: that cyanogen had been discovered in the comet that had appeared at the time, using the spectroscope.

You see, people are always saying: Well, the anthroposophists should, when they know something, also say something that can be confirmed afterwards. Yes, countless such things have happened! Really, in 1906 I predicted this discovery that there is cyanogen in the comet! It was actually made right afterwards. And from this you can see that the things are actually true, because you can prove the matter afterwards if you only do it right. But of course, when something like that happens again, people keep quiet and hush it up because it doesn't suit them. But it is true. So from spiritual knowledge one can say about comets, right down to their material composition, that they contain cyan, and this is then confirmed. And that is such an example.

That is why I do not shy away from saying things that seem completely foolish to people: that the comets arise here and pass away there, that is, they collect their matter here and then disappear again when they come out of the planetary system. That is what spiritual observation reveals. In time, physical observation will also confirm this. Today, it can only be said on the basis of spiritual observation.

Much of what materialistic science says today is extremely fantastic. For example, people imagine that the sun is a kind of gas ball. It is not a gas ball at all, but is actually something quite different from a gas ball. You see, gentlemen, if you have a seltzer bottle, there are little pearls inside. Now, someone might think: well, there's the seltzer water, and there are the little pearls inside – there are things floating in it. But that's not how it really is, rather, there is the seltzer water, and there is the hollow space (it is drawn). There is less in it than in the rest of the water. Now that is carbonic acid gas and there is water all around it, but the gas is just thinner than the water. In relation to the water, what is in it is a cavity, and in relation to the water, all you need is the fineness of the gas. Now the sun is also a cavity in the universe, but it is thinner than any gas; it is very thin where the sun is! Yes, even more, gentlemen: when you walk through the world, you are in space. But where the sun is, space is also hollow. What does that mean: space is hollow? What that means: Space is hollow – you can see from the following: If you pump out an air pump until it is empty of air, if you now make an opening there, this airless space immediately draws in the outer air, and with a tremendous whistle the outer air shoots in. With the sun, it is the case that what is there is a cavity of everything; not only of the air, but also of the warmth – a cavity of everything. Now this hollow space is so that it is closed off spiritually on all sides and that only through the sunspots now and then something can shoot in. The astronomers, they would be very surprised when they really could go up there with a world car or something similar or with a world ship - it could not be an airship because the air stops up there, but with a world ship of matter. The astronomers would expect: Well, when we arrive at the top, when we arrive, we come into such a gas nebula, because the sun is glowing gas. And they only expect that this glowing gas would burn them, they would rise in the fire, because they received many thousands of degrees of temperature. But they don't have the opportunity to be consumed by the fire, because the sun is also hollow in terms of warmth; there is no warmth there either! They could endure all of that. They could even endure the heat if they could get up into the sun in a huge spaceship. But there is something else that cannot be endured: the situation is similar to when the air is let in with a whistle – not let out, let in – and you would quickly be drawn into the sun and immediately you would be dust, completely scattered, because the sun is a cavity that absorbs everything; you would be completely absorbed. It would be the safest way to disappear.

So materialistic science has a completely wrong view of the sun. It is a hollow space in relation to everything else; and that makes it, of all the stars closest to us, the lightest person out there in space, the very lightest. The moon is relatively heavy because it once went out of the earth and took with it the heavy substances that the earth could not use. So that the sun and the moon are also complete opposites in this respect: the sun is the lightest body in space, the moon the most material body. It is, of course, lighter than the earth because it is much smaller, if one were to weigh it, but in relation, which is called specific weight, it is heavier. From this it follows that in relation to the sun, because it is the lightest body in space, the most spiritual being emanates. And that is why I was able to tell you in relation to what Mr. Dollinger asked about the Christ-question: that from the sun the most spiritual being emanates when we are born, because the sun is the most spiritual being; the moon is the most material being. And if the moon is the most material being, then it has an influence on the human being that goes beyond the everyday in the material. You see, all the other stars except the moon naturally have their influence. And when we digest, when we see blood circulating, the stars have an influence on all of this. They have an influence on material processes. But if you imagine eating a piece of bread, the bread is gradually transformed into blood; something is transformed into something else: a part of the human being is created, blood is created when you metabolize bread. When you salt the bread, the salt goes into the bones and is transformed. A part is always created because these matters only relate to parts of the human being. Everything on earth can only give rise to a part of the human being; so what arises must then remain in the human being. But the moon has a strong material influence; therefore it has an influence on reproduction: and not only a part, but the whole human being arises! The sun has an influence on the spiritual, the moon, because it itself is the material, has an influence on the material. So that man produces himself or produces an image of himself under the influence of the moon. That is the contrast: the effects of the sun always, so to speak, produce our thoughts, our willpower anew. The moon has the influence of producing material forces anew, of bringing forth the material man anew. And between the moon and the sun are the other stars, which partly bring about the fact that other things happen in man.

All this can be seen. But when considering the astronomical, one must always take the human into account at the same time. You see, the astronomer says: What I see with the naked eye does not impress me; I have to look through the telescope. Then I rely on the telescope; that is my instrument. - Spiritual science says: Oh, what you see with telescopes! Of course you see a lot there; we want to acknowledge that too; but the best instrument that can be used to recognize the universe is the human being himself. You can recognize everything by looking at a person. The human being himself is the best instrument because everything is revealed in the human being. What is going on up there in Leo can be seen in the blood circulation of a person. When the moon is in front of Leo, you can tell from the blood circulation in the human body. What is going on up there in Aries can be seen in the hair growth of a person. And when the moon is in front of Aries, hair grows more slowly, and so on. So you can see everywhere in a person what is going on in the universe. If, for example, a person develops jaundice, then of course one must first look at the cause in the body, but why does a person ultimately develop jaundice? Because they are particularly predisposed when the moon covers the constellation of Capricorn, to develop the forces of Capricorn from within.

And so we can see everywhere: the human being is the instrument by which everything is recognized. If, for example, the human being becomes dulled to the influence of Aquarius, when Aquarius is covered by the moon and the human being cannot develop the forces of Aquarius from within, then he gets corns. In this way, one can see everywhere in the human being, as an instrument, what is going on in the universe, if one only does it scientifically, not superstitiously. And so, in this way, it is a real science that spiritual science pursues. Of course, as many people think, it is indeterminate, so you can't see anything from what they think. The saying applies: “If the cock crows on the dung heap, the weather changes, or it stays as it is.” It is indeed the case that many people think about the world: “If the cock crows on the dung heap, the weather changes, or it stays as it is.”

But if you really get into it, then it is not so; then you recognize in man, as the most perfect instrument that you can have, more perfectly than through all others, what occurs in the universe. So it is not the case that you are merely inventing the matter, but you are studying what is going on in the human being. Of course, you first have to know how it is with the corns, how they form out of the skin and so on, that you can figure out how it works when the constellation, Aquarius, is covered. But if you study the matter in man, you can study the whole universe in man.

The next lesson is next Wednesday.

Good morning, gentlemen! Perhaps someone has also thought of something for today's hour?

Question: How are we to understand the miracles related in the Bible about Moses – the stilling of the sea?

Dr. Steiner: You see, that was based not so much on a sudden miracle as on the fact that Moses was very knowledgeable. He was not just what he is portrayed as in the Bible, but he was actually a student of the Egyptian high schools, the mysteries. And in these schools they taught not only about the spiritual world, but also about the natural world from a certain point of view. Now in the sea there is the time of the ebb and the flow, of such a rising and then again going back, and the thing was just this, that Moses knew how to organize the crossing over the Red Sea so that he went over with his people at a time when the sea had gone back and a sandbank, which had become visible as a result, that is, had been laid bare, could be used to go over. So the miracle is not that Moses dammed up the Red Sea and fought it, but that he actually knew more than the others, that he could choose the time in the right way. The others did not know that. Moses had calculated the matter so that he arrived at just the right time - he knew that it took so long, or rather that it had to go quickly so that one would not be surprised by the sea again. Of course, all of this seemed like a miracle to the others. In these things, one must always make sure that knowledge actually underlies the things, not some other things, but knowledge.

This is the case with most things reported from ancient times. The people were amazed because they did not understand the matter, did not know. But then, when you know that there were very clever people in ancient times too, then you can explain things. Otherwise, there is not much to explain about these things.

Perhaps someone has a question?

Question: Can the spiritual culture that flows from Tibet into the rest of Asia still satisfy these people, or does it fall entirely into decadence?

Dr. Steiner: Well, you see, Tibetan culture is a very old culture, and it is a culture that actually comes from the ancient Atlantic period. You just have to imagine that there was a time when most of Europe was under water, and the water only receded towards Asia. In contrast, there was land where the Atlantic Ocean is today. Where we cross over to America between Europe and America today, there was land. So that was an ancient time when the ratio of land and water was quite different from what it is today.

But now, in the time that lies five, six, seven thousand years back, the same culture was in Asia as on this Atlantic continent, which was thus in the place that is now covered by the sea between Europe and America. Over there in Asia, there was a culture in those days that has been preserved in the clefts, in the subterranean caves of Tibet. This Atlantic culture was, of course, completely submerged when the sea came between Europe and America and Europe rose up; but in Tibet, over there, it was preserved. But now this culture was actually only suitable for those ancient times, where people lived under completely different conditions than today. You just have to imagine that in those days the air was not the same as it is today, that people were not as heavy as they are today, but that people had a much lower weight, that the air was much denser. Actually, in those days the air was always interspersed with a thick fog, which made it possible to live in a completely different way.

Now, writing and reading or anything like that didn't exist back then, but people had signs. These signs were not put on paper. Paper didn't exist. But they weren't put on parchment either; they were scratched into rocks. These rocks had been hollowed out by people, and into the interior of these caves they then scratched, as it were, their secrets; so that one must actually understand the signs they made if one wants to know what these people imagined.

Now you may ask: Why did these people keep it so secret? Yes, you know, the oldest architecture was not at all about building on the outside, but rather digging into the rocks and making dwellings in the rock. So that is the oldest form of architecture. It is not surprising that the oldest form of architecture in Tibet is the same. But such a culture gradually comes to decadence and decline. And what was later created in Tibet is such that it is no longer really useful in the present day, because Tibetan culture is older than Indian culture. Indian culture only emerged after the earth had taken on the form it has today. Tibetan culture is therefore very old. And this Tibetan culture has preserved in a poor form what was previously present in a relatively good form. Thus, the principle of rule in particular has been developed in Tibet in a rather unpleasant form. In Tibet, the one who is to be the ruler actually enjoys divine worship; and this divine worship is basically already prepared. One actually chooses there, I would say, in a transcendental way. The Dalai Lama, who is thus chosen as ruler, comes about in such a way that long before, when the old Dalai Lama is still there and one realizes: Now, this old Dalai Lama may soon die -, a family is determined somewhere, and one says: The new Dalai Lama must come from this family. - That was the case in Tibet in earlier times. It was not a hereditary rule. That was not the case, but a priesthood that actually rules in reality determines a new family from which a Dalai Lama should emerge.

Now, if a child was born into this family, it was kept until the old Dalai Lama died. You can imagine that the greatest mischief was done with this. If the old Dalai Lama no longer suited someone, they simply looked for a child and said: “The soul of the old Dalai Lama must now enter this soul.” But first he had to die. The priesthood took care of that at the right time, and then, for the sake of the people's faith, the soul of the old Dalai Lama entered the child. In this way the people have driven it to the fact that actually the whole nation believed: the same soul that is in any Dalai Lama was already in the Dalai Lama many thousands of years ago. It is always the same soul, they thought. Actually, for the people it has always been the same Dalai Lama; he has only changed the outer body.

It was not like that in the old culture that was there before; but that is quite extraordinary nonsense that has arisen. However, you can see from this that it has gradually become more important for the priesthood to do things in such a way that their rule was secured.

However, this does not prevent us from discovering great scientific secrets that people in ancient times once had, despite the fact that if we manage to decipher these signs that are engraved on the rocks, but to which Europeans have only rarely had access, the priesthood has gradually come to see that it was important to conduct things in such a way as to ensure their rule.

Now it is like this: the same knowledge that was once there, that came to people as if in a dream fog, this same knowledge is to come to people again through anthroposophy. But that cannot happen in the Orient. You see, in the Orient a new knowledge, a new realization, will never come about in the same way as here in Europe, because the Oriental body is not suited to it. The experiments that have to be carried out to achieve the things I have just told you about can only be done in the West, not in the East. But the Oriental is conservative to a degree that the European can hardly imagine. He does not want anything new, and so of course what we are doing here in Europe makes no particular impression on him. If, on the other hand, you can tell him that significant wisdom comes to light from the old crypts, as these rock caves are called, and that is old, then it makes a very powerful impression on him. The Europeans also have a little of this: you only have to look at the higher degrees of the Masonic lodges when you enter them! As for Anthroposophy, well, they are a little interested in that because they are also concerned with supersensible things; but they do not go into it very deeply. If, on the other hand, you tell them: This has been found, this was an ancient Egyptian wisdom or an ancient Hebrew wisdom, they are delighted! They go into it right away, because human beings are such that what is newly found does not make a real impression on them; on the other hand, what is ancient, even if it is not understood, is what makes a very considerable impression on people. Therefore, one can assume that it is quite possible, because it is a matter of ancient wisdom that can be found in Tibet, that it can be used to achieve a certain revival. Because many things have also been lost to the Asians, because the most important Asian culture, Indian culture, was only established later. So much of what Asians do not know could be found in Tibet. Now, the people there do not really have the opportunity to spread the word properly, because the old Tibetan priesthood did nothing to spread it; they just wanted to keep the old rule for themselves. Knowledge is power when it is kept secret. And when the Europeans came to Tibet, they did not understand the things. So there is not much prospect that the real Tibetan truths can be spread; they live on in old traditions. Because the thing is still so that much has just come down to posterity, and that one can already have an idea of what is actually hidden there. But it is difficult to imagine any actual dissemination. The matter is decadent, as you say in the question; but if one goes back to what is written in the crypts, and not to what the priesthood says, then one will be able to get hold of something extraordinary. It will just be extraordinarily difficult to decipher it. Without anthroposophy it is difficult to find. Anthroposophy can decipher it, but does not need to, because it finds the thing itself.

Question: How could Europe do something to turn around such a downward trend in Asia?

Dr. Steiner: That is a very good question! You see, if Europe does not do something, then the world will have to go downhill! Because in Asia, as can be seen from the words I have just said, people hold on to the old, but do not know any progress. You can see that in China. China is at the same stage as it was thousands of years ago. The Chinese had many things thousands of years ago that were only discovered in Europe much later: paper, the art of printing, and so on, they already had there. But they do not accept progress, they keep it in the old form.

The Europeans, on the other hand, when they come to Asia, what do they do? The English brought the Chinese opium and such things in the first half of the 19th century! But the Europeans have actually done nothing right so far to spread any kind of real spiritual life in Asia. It's also difficult because people just don't accept it.

You see, that's where it's interesting: you know, there are also European missionaries; they go over there with European religion, European theology and want to spread European culture in Asia. Yes, that makes no impression on the Asians! Because then these missionaries describe a Christ Jesus to them as they imagine him. The Asian says: Yes, when I look at my Buddha, he has much more excellent qualities! - So that does not impress them at all. They would only be impressed if Jesus Christ were presented as he was here in these lectures some time ago, also in response to your questions. Then, of course, it would make an impression. But the Asian would still be conservative, reactionary, and initially mistrustful.

It is also very strange, gentlemen: You see, there are individual students of the old wisdom. These students in Asia have learned something from Tibetan scholars, sages, Tibetan initiates. The initiates themselves do not deal with the Europeans; but students have dealt with them after all. Yes, sometimes one is quite extraordinarily amazed. I have already told you many things that will have amazed you, such as the influence of the universe on man. If you really want to research that, it takes a very long time. I can truly say: Some of what I can tell you today took forty years before I could say it! Because you can't find it overnight, but you have to find it over the years. Now such things are found. For example, what I have told you about the moon, that it has a population that has to do with the population of the earth in that reproduction is regulated by it. Yes, gentlemen, you really don't find that on the paths that current science takes; nor do you find it overnight, but you do find it over the course of many years. It is so! Then you have it. Yes, but then, when you have it, suddenly a strange light dawns on you about what the students of the oriental initiates say. Before that, you don't understand it at all. People talk, let's say, of spirits of the moon and their influence on the earth. The European scholars say: That's all nonsense, what they say! But when you come to it yourself, you no longer say that it is nonsense, but you are just amazed at what these old minds knew many thousands of years ago, and what has been lost to humanity again! It is even a great impression that one can get: one researches these things oneself with tremendous effort, and then one comes to the conclusion that it has already been known before, and only in a way that is incomprehensible today, sometimes even not understood by those who say it, has come down from ancient times. So one can certainly have a certain respect, a great respect, a great esteem for what was once there.

Now, if the Europeans want to do something in Asia, it would be necessary for them to start by studying anthroposophy! Otherwise they will not be allowed to do anything there. Contemporary European science and technology do not impress the Asians, for they regard contemporary European science as childish, as something that only deals with outward appearances, and they have no need for outward European technology. They say, “Why should we slave at machines? That is inhumane!” They don't find it impressive at all, and they see it as an infringement of their rights when railways and factories are built over there; that's what the Europeans are doing. But they actually hate that over there. So you can't go about it that way either. You also have to learn something from the old days. And in the old days, people actually had a certain spirit for how to proceed.

Do you see why today's European culture should not be able to do something in Asia? After all, one person did manage to do something in Asia with Greek culture! That was in the 4th century BC, before the founding of Christianity: Alexander the Great succeeded. Alexander the Great did manage to bring much of Greek culture to Asia. That is now there inside. What Alexander brought to Asia has even come back to Europe in a roundabout way, through Spain, the Arabs and the Jews! But how did Alexander the Great manage to bring these things to Asia at all? Only by not proceeding as today's Europeans do. Europeans consider themselves the clever people, the absolutely clever people. When they go somewhere else, they say: they are all stupid; so we have to bring them our wisdom. Yes, but the others can't do anything with that. Alexander didn't do that; instead, he first entered into what the people had. He only very slowly, in a small way, let something of his flow into what the others had, appreciated and respected what the others had.

And that is the secret of all successful endeavor: to bring something to the situation. Despite all the things that can be said against the English, despite the fact that it is a sad chapter in English history, for example, that the English brought opium to China out of pure selfishness in order to make money from it, and despite all the other can be said against the English, one must still say this: not exactly in the intellectual realm, but even there – but especially in the economic realm, the English always know to respect what is customary among the peoples to whom they come. They simply know how to respect that! The Germans, for example, respect that the least. The Germans are therefore unhappy in all colonization because they do not even think about what it looks like for the people where they want to have their colonies. They are supposed to adopt what the Germans themselves have in the middle of Europe, head over heels! Of course that doesn't work. That is why it is the case that development has taken this path: England is happy to maintain its colonies, even when the colonists revolt and do all sorts of things – economically, England always retains the upper hand. So the English do understand how to respond to the nature and character of foreign peoples. The English also wage war quite differently from the way the Germans wage war, for example. How does a German imagine waging war against a people? I do not want to speak out against war, but just tell how the Germans imagine it: Well, you just have to go and defeat this nation. The English do not do that, but they watch first, rather they stir up another nation and let them smash each other, and they watch as long as it possibly can, that is, they let the people finish each other. That is how history has always been. That is precisely how this English empire was founded. The others, don't they, never really know which way the wind is blowing. The English have a certain instinct for respecting the peculiarities of foreign peoples. That is why the English have succeeded in achieving such colossal economic superiority. In England, it would certainly never have occurred to anyone to do what has now been done in Germany, namely to introduce the Rentenmark. Of course, there is now a huge shortage of money in Germany. Nobody has any money. But when the Rentenmarks were issued – the so-called stable-value money – people saw it as something terribly clever! Of course, it was the stupidest thing that could have been done. Because as long as every paper money in England is covered by gold, there is no way around it, economically, than to do the same all over the world: to have gold backing for every paper money. If you create money for which there is no gold backing, then this money must either immediately decrease in value, that is, the exchange rate must fall, or if you do it artificially, as you are doing now with the stable-value money, then the goods will become all the more expensive. Isn't that right, now you have a Rentenmark in Germany; it is always worth a Mark. Yes, but, gentlemen, you only get as much as you used to get for fifteen pfennigs, so in reality it is still not worth more than fifteen pfennigs. That it does not fall, that it has “stable value”, that is just an illusion. And so it is: one thinks in Germany, but one has no sense of observing the realities.

You see, there is a very nice anecdote about how different nations study natural history, say, for example, of a kangaroo or some other animal that is in Africa. The Englishman goes to Africa – just as Darwin, in fact, in order to come to natural science, made his trip around the world – and looks at the animal where it really lives. There he can see how it lives, what its natural conditions are. The Frenchman takes this animal from the desert to the zoological garden. He studies it in the zoological garden; he does not observe the animal in its natural environment, but in the zoological garden. But what does the German do? He doesn't care about the animal at all, what it looks like, but he sits down in his study and starts thinking. He is not interested in the thing itself - according to Kantian philosophy, as I told you the other day - but only in what is in his head. Then he thinks about something long enough. And after thinking about it long enough, he says something. But that doesn't correspond to reality.

But this is only relative with regard to the English. For the way in which people in ancient times influenced people is no longer understood in Europe today - how Alexander the Great apparently left everything as it was and only very gradually and slowly did what he had to bring from Greece to Asia. This is no longer understood in Europe. But the Europeans would have to get used to it again. Therefore, the first thing the Europeans would have to learn is not just to carry over to Asia what they already have, but above all, the Europeans should learn very carefully what the Asians know; then they would know, for example, what Tibetan wisdom is. Then they would not tell people in the old way, but in the new way, but would use what Tibetan wisdom is. And then, if they respected the culture of others, they would achieve something with it. That is what Europe must learn right now. Europe is actually a large theoretical structure. Europe theorizes, but basically has no practice. It is true! Europe also does business in a theoretical way, just by thinking things up. That works for a while. It is not always possible in the long run. But Europe is particularly unhappy in the spread of spiritual culture because it does not understand how to engage with others. Here, too, spiritual science must bring about a change of heart. But how can that be done today? You see, gentlemen, the point of anthroposophy is to act in the spirit of a true practice of life. Well, you have to start somewhere. What have I done myself, gentlemen? I once wrote about Nietzsche - and people believed that I was now a follower of Nietzsche. If I had written as people would have wanted me to after some of my views, I would have written: Nietzsche is a great fool, Nietzsche has asserted this and that folly, one must fight Nietzsche to the death, and so on. I would have written a pamphlet against Nietzsche; I could have ranted almost as much as Nietzsche himself ranted, but it would have been of no use at all! I took up Nietzsche's teaching; I presented what Nietzsche himself said and only let Anthroposophy flow into it. Today people come and say: He used to be a Nietzschean, now he is an Anthroposophist. - Precisely because I am an Anthroposophist, it has been written about Nietzsche as it has been written by me! Then I wrote about Haeckel in the same way. Of course I could have written: Haeckel is a blatant materialist who understands nothing about the spirit and so on. Yes, gentlemen, in that case nothing would have been done; but I took Haeckel as he is, and did the same with everything. I did not deny the facts, but took things as they are. And so, at least through anthroposophy, we have a beginning of what we must do if we are to carry culture over to Asia! Above all, one would have to know exactly what the ancient Brahmins claimed and what the Buddhists claim. One would then have to present Buddhism and Brahmanism to the people, but also incorporate what one considers to be correct. This is how, for example, the disciples of Buddha himself did it. Shortly before the emergence of Christianity, Buddha's disciples spread Buddhism in Babylon, over by the Euphrates and Tigris, but in the way I have just described to you, by speaking to people in such a way that they could understand something. In ancient times, it was not at all a matter of pushing through theories just for the sake of being stubborn. The Asians do not understand European obstinacy at all. It is quite the case that, for example, the relationship between the Brahmins and the Buddhists is not the same as that between Catholics and Protestants. Today, Catholics and Protestants teach their doctrines in a purely theoretical way: one believes this, the other something else. There is hardly any other difference between the Brahmins and the Buddhists than that the Brahmins do not worship the Buddha and the Buddhists do. And so they actually get along with each other in a completely different way than Protestants and Catholics get along with each other in Europe.

It is now the case that you have to have a sense of reality if you want to spread culture! I would say that you can literally sweat blood when you see how Europeans are doing business in Asia today. In the process, everything that Asia has is destroyed, and nothing comes of it. Now, of course, the real misery is that Europe itself is in misery and that it is very difficult to imagine how Europe is to get out of this misery. The great misery of this is that Europe itself is now in decline, that Europe cannot really get out of all the cultural damage it is in unless people decide to embrace a real spiritual culture. Many still do not believe this today. And so it is the case today that all the people who have come to Europe from Asia, for example, have really found: These Europeans are actually all barbarians.

You have probably also heard that all sorts of Asians, cultured Asians, clever Asians, are wandering around Europe; but they all think that the Europeans are actually barbarians. And they have this opinion because so much of the old science of the spirit, of the old knowledge of the spirit, has been preserved in Asia that what the Europeans know seems childish to them. Everything that is so admired in Europe seems terribly childish to people in Asia!

You see, the Europeans have developed in such a way that even their great technical advances are actually all terribly young. For example, it is interesting that when you go to certain museums where there are remains from ancient European times, you can sometimes be terribly amazed. You can be amazed, for example, in Etruscan museums, where the remains of what was Etruscan culture are, a culture that once existed in Europe, at how skilled people were, for example, in dental treatment. They were already treating teeth quite skilfully, inserting a kind of filling, and that was made of stone! All this was lost in Europe, and a barbarism really did occur in Europe. By the time we speak of the migration of peoples – in the 3rd to 7th centuries AD – everything in Europe had actually been barbarized. And it was only after this time that things were conquered again. Of course, today we are terribly surprised at all the things that have been achieved! But they were already there once. Where did they come from back then? Back then they more or less came over from Asia! The Asians then also lost the external technology they had. The Chinese still have some of it. But in spiritual culture itself, the Asians are in fact still ahead of the Europeans today. And if we in Europe can't find anything better than what the Asians have in spiritual culture, why then should we have missions and the like in Asia at all? That is not necessary at all!

So the spread of culture in Asia only makes sense again when Europe itself has a spiritual science. If Europe can give Asians spiritual science, then perhaps the Asians will also accept that European technology be brought to them. But now, don't they just realize that the Europeans don't know anything except this technology. And it is precisely the case among Asians that it makes a great impression on them when, for example, they come to Germany - when a real Asian, who is educated, learned, comes to Germany today; it has been seen, for example, in well-educated Chinese scholars: when they come to Germany and they are told about Goethe and Schiller - they pay attention! The scholar says, “Yes, Goethe and Schiller were not as clever, not as wise as the old Asian personalities were, but still, there was something of spirituality.” But in the 19th century, all that quickly diminished, all that quickly disappeared. And today, the Chinese scholar sees in the German, for example, a terrible barbarian. He says, “With Goethe and Schiller, German culture has perished.” The fact that the railroad was invented in the 19th century does not impress him. He is still somewhat impressed by Goethe's Faust, but he still maintains that his great Asian personalities were much wiser. This is something that the European must realize first of all. He should realize that the Asian does not care about such concepts as the European has; he does not care about them at all, but the Asian wants images, like the images in the monasteries of Tibet. The Asian wants images. These abstractions, these concepts that the European has, the Asian does not want them, they hurt his brain, he does not want them.

And a symbol like the swastika, for example, the so-called swastika – this symbol was an ancient sun symbol – it was widespread throughout Asia. The old Asians still remember that. Certain Bolshevik government officials were clever enough to use this ancient swastika as their symbol, just like the German nationalists. This makes a much greater impression on the Asians than anything that Marxism is. Marxism consists of concepts for thinking; that does not impress people. But such a sign does impress people. And if you don't understand the people, if you don't engage with them, but come to them with something that is completely alien to them, then you will achieve absolutely nothing among them.

So it is that here too it is shown that in Europe everything depends on having spiritual knowledge, a spiritual science.

Perhaps you have also heard that a large two-volume book has been published by a certain Spengler – I have heard that he even gave a lecture in Basel once – a book by Oswald Spengler: 'The Decline of the West', that is, the decline of Europe and America. The man shows how everything that is now there in so-called European culture must perish. That is obvious. He regards it as sick, it must perish. Well, gentlemen, what is there today in external culture must also perish. Something new must be built from within, from the spirit. But the external must perish. That is why the book is about the decline of the West. You can hardly say anything against the book, against what he says about the decline of the West, about what is necessarily said in terms of outward appearances. But now the Spengler comes to what he regards positively, what presents itself to him as new. And what does he show, gentlemen? What is that in Oswald Spengler? That is Prussianism! So that all of Europe must adopt Prussianism; that must be the culture of Europe's future, Spengler believes.

Well, I don't know what he said in Basel, because I can't imagine that it would have made a big impression on the Swiss if he had shown that Prussianism must come out of this downfall! But you see that a very important person, a clever person, like Spengler, can very well see: yes, what is there must perish; but the future must be one of brutal force. He says this quite openly: in the future there can only be the brutal, powerful conqueror – that is what he means.

Now, if the most widely read book is one of the most widely read books in Germany is of course one of the most widely read books in Germany, that of Oswald Spengler - and the Oriental, the Asian, compares what is in it with his own intellectual culture, and has to say to himself: That is one of the smartest people in Europe! And then he considers his own highly developed spiritual science, albeit in a fantastic, ancient way, and says: Yes, what kind of people are these, these most intelligent people in Europe? They can't bring us anything!

Well, gentlemen, I now have to go on a trip to Paris; I will let you know when we will continue this matter.

Have you found something you want to ask, gentlemen?

Question: How are the sun's rays created? Are they a substance? And how is it that they fall on the earth in an arc?

Dr. Steiner: You don't mean that the sun's rays are a reality, do you? And why you think that they fall in an arc, you can perhaps explain something else.

The questioner says that he has heard that they do not fall straight down onto the earth, but in an arc.

Dr. Steiner: The thing is this: the sun's rays, as we see them, are not actually reality; rather, when we look at the sun as such, it is not actually a physical substance, it is actually spiritual and consists of a hollow space in space.

Now, you just have to imagine what such a hollow in space means. If you have a bottle of Selters water, as I have used the comparison before, then the bottle is filled with water, and you can hardly see the water; you know that there is water in it, but you can see very clearly the bubbles that are in there. But you know that if you pour out the water, the bubbles will disappear; they are actually air. As air, they are thinner than water. You don't see something that is denser than water, but you see the thinner part of the air in it. It is the same with the sun above. Everything around the sun is actually denser than the sun, and the sun is thinner than what is around the sun; that's why you see the sun. So it is an illusion to believe that the sun is something in space, so to speak. There is actually nothing there; there is a big hole, just as there is a hole in the seltzer water wherever there is a pearl, wherever there is air.

From this you can already see: It cannot be that rays emanate from the hole. The rays arise in a completely different way. You can visualize this in the following way. Suppose you have a street lamp; there is light inside this street lamp. If you are walking on the street and looking at this lantern, and it is a fairly bright evening, you will see the lantern with a firm, beautiful shine. But consider this: if it is a foggy evening, with fog all around, it will seem as if rays are emanating from the lantern, from the light! So you see the rays inside. You just don't see the rays from the light, otherwise you would also have to see the rays on a really good evening. But they come from what is all around; and the more fog there is, the more you see the rays. That is why you do not see the sun's rays as reality, but as something where you look through a fog at something less dense, into an emptiness. Do you understand?

But now further: When one looks through a mist into the distance, then the object that one sees always appears at a different location than where it actually is. If you are standing here on earth and you look through the air at the sun, which is actually empty, then, as you look, the sun will appear to be lower than where it actually is – then it will appear to be lower in the emptiness of space. As a result, something that has no reality anyway appears as if it were bent out of shape. So it is actually only because you are looking through the fog. That is the reality in this case. One must always marvel anew that today's physicists depict things as if there were a sun and rays emanating from it, while neither the sun nor the rays have any external physical reality. And in the space that is empty, there is indeed spiritual substance. And that is what must always be taken into account. That is what I can say in relation to this question.

Perhaps someone can think of something else.

Question: Could we hear something about Freemasonry and its purpose?

Dr. Steiner: Well, you see, gentlemen, today's Freemasonry is actually, one could say, only a shadow of what it once was. I have also spoken here on various occasions about the fact that in the very early days of human development there were no schools like those of today, nor churches like those of today, nor art institutions like those of today, but all of this was one. In the ancient mysteries, as they were called, there was the school, the art institution and the religion at the same time. This only diverged later. So that it actually became so for our Central European regions, one could even say, only in the 11th, 12th century; in former times the monasteries were, I would say, a memory of the old times. But in very ancient times, school, church and art institutions were one and the same thing. It was the case, however, that in the mysteries everything that was done there was taken much more seriously than it is taken today, for example, in our schools and also in our churches.

The situation in those days was that one had to prepare for a long time before one was allowed to learn. Today, basically, whether one can learn something or not is decided by a principle that has nothing to do with learning. Isn't it true that today the only thing that really matters is whether the person in question can afford to learn or not! Of course, this is something that has nothing to do with the abilities of the person concerned. And the situation was quite different in ancient times. Among all of humanity, those who were the most capable were selected – and people had a better eye for this than they do today. Of course, the system fell into decline almost everywhere because people are selfish by nature, but originally the principle was to select those who had abilities. And only then were they entitled to learn spiritually – not simply through drilling and training and elements, as taught today, but they were able to learn spiritually.

But this spiritual learning is linked to the fact that in preparation, one learns to develop very specific abilities. You just have to bear in mind that in ordinary life, when you touch something, you actually have a rough sensation of it; and the most that people achieve today is that they can sometimes distinguish substances from one another in their sensation, that they feel things in this way and distinguish something in their sensation. But people today are actually quite rough in their perception - I mean, in their purely physical perception; they distinguish between warmth and cold. At most, people who depend on it can develop a more refined sense of perception. The blind, for example. There are blind people who learn to feel the letterforms when they run their fingers over the paper. Each letter is, after all, engraved a little into the paper. If the feeling in the fingers is developed finely, one can already feel the letters a little. These are the only people who today learn to feel and sense more subtly. As a rule, the feeling is not developed at all, but one learns an enormous amount if one develops the feeling, and especially the feeling in the fingertips and in the fingers, very finely. Today, people do not just distinguish between warmth and cold through feeling. Yes, he can, because he can read the thermometer; the subtle differences in heat and cold become visible to him. But the thermometer was only invented over time. Before that, people only had their feelings. In the Mystery preparations, feelings were particularly developed at the beginning, especially in the fingers and fingertips. And it was the case that one learned to feel in the finest way.

So who was it in the mysteries who was the first to be prepared to feel very finely? Well, the other people could not feel so finely. Now suppose there was a mystery somewhere else. People traveled a lot in ancient times; they traveled almost as much as we do, and sometimes we are amazed at how fast they traveled. They didn't have a railroad; but they traveled because they were nimble, could walk faster, got less tired, walked a little better, and so on. And now they met on the way, such people. Yes, when two such people, who could feel subtly, shook hands, they recognized each other by that, and it was said: They recognize each other by their subtler feeling. That is what is called the grip - the grip when one gripped the other in ancient times and one recognized that he had a subtler feeling.

Now, gentlemen, consider the second point: once it was recognized that someone had a fine perception, then one went further, because one learned even more. In ancient times, people did not write as much as they do today; they actually only rarely wrote down the most important things. However, there was already a kind of correspondence in ancient times; but this correspondence was also more in all sorts of signs. And so many signs came into being for all sorts of things. It was also the case that people who did not belong to the mysteries, who were not the wise men, as they were called, only traveled in a smaller area when they traveled; they did not get very far. But the scholars, the wise men, traveled a great deal. They should have known not only all languages, but also all dialects. Of course, it is difficult even for a North German to speak Swiss German. But for these people, in addition to the language they spoke, there were certain signs for all the things that interested them in the mysteries. They made signs. For example, let's say that the usual gesture that one already has in one's mind was further developed: I understand –; or: That's not what you're telling me –; or: We understand each other well. – You drew the cross inside. So that there was a fully developed sign language precisely among the ancient sages, and everything that was known was contained in such signs. So you can see: All the people who were in the high schools of the time, in the mysteries, had certain signs for everything. Let's say, for example, that they wanted to record these signs. Then they painted them on. This is how the painted signs came about.

It is interesting that there are still certain writings today that clearly show that they originated from signs. This is, for example, the old script of the Indians, the Sanskrit script. In this script, you can see everywhere that everything has emerged from the curved and the straight line. Curved lines: dissatisfaction with something, antipathy; straight lines: sympathy. Just think about it: someone knows that straight lines mean sympathy and crooked lines mean antipathy. Now I want to tell him something. I also have my sign for that. He wants to tell me something; that can go well at the beginning, but later it can go badly. You see, it's still going well; later he draws a wavy line: then it can go badly. And so they had certain signs for everything. Those who were initiated into the mysteries would use these signs to communicate with each other. So the sign was used to access the handle.

Now, something very special was seen in the words in the past. You see, when a person speaks words today, he actually has no idea what the words are. But you can still feel something that is already contained in the sounds. You will easily be able to feel when someone is in a certain situation and he starts: A - that has something to do with amazement. A - the letter A is wonder. Now take the letter R: in it lies rolling, radiance: R = radiance. A = wonder, R = rolling, radiance.

Now, however, we know what we just said about the sun's rays. But even if the sun's rays are apparent, if they are not reality, it looks as if they are flowing. Now imagine someone wants to say: There is something up there that throws something at me here on earth, which, when it appears to me in the morning, causes amazement. He expresses the amazement with A, but that it comes from above, with R; he expresses that with: RA. Yes, that is what the ancient Egyptians called the sun god: Ra! Each of these letters contains a feeling, and we have put the letters together to form words. So there was a very broad sense to it. This has long been forgotten today. You can feel something like that in different things. Take, for example, I. This is something like a quiet joy; you come to terms with what you experience and perceive: I. That is why laughter is also expressed with hihi. That is a quiet joy. So each letter has something specific in it. And there is a knowledge through which you can almost form the words if you have an understanding of the sounds that are within the words.

Now you will say one thing, gentlemen: Yes, then, if that were the case, there could actually only be one language! Originally there was also one language among humanity; when one still had a feeling for these sounds, these letters, there was only one language. The languages then became different when people dispersed. But originally people sensed this, and in the mysteries it was taught correctly how to sense sounds, letters, and how to make words out of them. Therefore there was a language of its own in the mysteries. This language, everyone spoke among themselves. They did not speak the dialects among themselves, but this language everyone understood. If one said Ra, the other knew that this is the sun. If someone says, for example, E - just feel it: I recoil from something, it doesn't suit me; E = I have a slight fear, something like dread! Now take L: that is how something disappears, how something flows, and EL, yes, that is something that flows towards you and makes you recoil, makes you afraid. Thus in Babylon El = God was called. Thus everything was designated according to this principle. Or take the Bible: when you say: O - that is a sudden amazement, a sudden amazement that you cannot overcome. With the A - there you have a feeling that you like, an amazement that you like; O - there you want to step back; H, Ch is the breath. So that one can say: O = recoiling amazement; H = breath; I = one points to it, one is pleased about it, it is quiet joy = I. And M, that is: one wants to go into it oneself. You feel when you pronounce M: M - the breath goes out, and one feels that one is literally running after the breath; M is therefore: going away. Now let's put this together: El, we have already seen that, is the spirit coming from the wind; O = that is the recoiling amazement, H = the breath; so that is already the finer spirit that works as breath; I is the quiet joy; M is the going. There you have Elohim, with which the Bible begins; there you have these sounds in it. So that one can say: What are the Elohim? – The Elohim are beings in the wind that one is somewhat afraid of, that one shies away from a little, but that through breathing bring joy to people, and in turning towards people bring joy: Elohim. And so originally one studies in the words according to the sounds, according to the letters, what the words actually mean. Today people no longer sense what it is actually like.

What is the plural of “carriage” here in Switzerland? Do we say “carriage” here too, or do we say “carriages”? (Answer: “Carriages”! This answer is wrong. The Swiss German is “Wäge”, as Dr. Steiner suspected.) - We still say “carriage”. So there it is already confused; the original would be: “the carriage”, “the carriages”! We have a wide variety of plurals, for example, der Bruder, die Brüder. But that's the same in Switzerland! You don't say “the brothers,” do you? So it's: der Bruder, die Brüder. Or we say: das Holz, die Hölzer. You don't say “the woodworkers,” do you? It's: das Holz, die Hölzer. You see, gentlemen, when the plural is formed, the umlaut is formed: ainä, uinü, oinö. Why does that happen? Yes, the umlaut expresses that the thing becomes unclear! When I see one brother, he is clearly there as a person; when I see several brothers, it becomes unclear, and I have to distinguish one from the other, and if I cannot do that, it becomes unclear. You have to look at one after the other. The lack of clarity is indicated everywhere by the umlaut. So wherever there is an umlaut in a word, something is unclear.

There is something in language by which you can actually recognize the whole person; there is the whole person. And so people also expressed how certain meanings already lay within the letters that were written down, within these signs. A was always astonishment. When the old Jew wrote down x like this, he said to himself: Who is astonished in the world? The animals are not really surprised, only man. That is why he called man in general: amazement. When he wrote down his Aleph, the x, the Hebrew A, it also meant man.

And so it was that each letter also meant a specific thing or being. All this was known to the people who were initiated into the mysteries. So if someone travelled and met another, and they had the same knowledge, they recognized each other by the word. So you can say: In the old days, it was so that people who had studied something, who knew a lot, recognized each other by touch, sign and word. Yes, but, gentlemen, there was something in it! All learning was really contained in these signs, gestures and words. Because by learning to feel, one learned to distinguish objects. By having the signs, one had an imitation of all that was a natural secret. And in the word, one came to know the inner human being. So you can say: in the grip you had perception; in the sign you had nature, and in the word you had the human being, his inner wonder or his recoil, his joy and so on. So you had nature and man and you reproduced it in signs, grips and words.

Now, in the course of human development, what emerged on the one hand was divided into the university and later into schools, and on the other hand into the church and into art. None of the three understood what was originally present; and grip, sign and word were completely lost. Only those who had then realized: Gosh, those old sages, they had a certain power because they knew that! It is a justified power that a person has when he knows something, because it benefits his fellow human beings; if no one knew how to make a locomotive, humanity would never have one! So when someone knows something, it benefits people; that is a justified power. But later on people simply appropriated the power by copying the outward signs. Just as these or those signs once meant something in the past and later on the meaning was lost, so all that has lost its meaning. And then, I might say, by imitating the old mysteries, all sorts of things were formed in which you only have the outward form. What did people do? They no longer had the subtle perception, but they agreed on a sign by which they would recognize each other. They shake hands in a certain way, by which one knows: he belongs to this association. They recognized each other by the handshake. Then they make another sign in some way. The sign and the handshake are different, depending on whether one is in the first, second or third degree. That is how people recognize each other. But it is nothing more than just a sign of recognition. And in the same way, they have certain words for each degree, which they can pronounce in certain Masonic lodges; let us say, for the first degree, for example, if you want to know: what is the word? - [the password] Jachin. We know that he learned the word Jachin in the Masonic lodge, otherwise he would not have been initiated into the first degree. It is only a password. And then he also makes the sign and so on.

Now, actually, this kind of Freemasonry has only developed when everything else from the mysteries was forgotten; and some of the old things that were no longer understood were imitated. So that what Freemasonry has adopted of the cult is mostly no longer understood by Freemasons today; they also do not understand the sign, grip and word because they do not know what it is all about. They do not know, for example, that when they speak the word of the second degree from Table 21: Boaz, that the B is as much as a house; O is, as I told you, this restrained wonder; A: that is the pleasant amazement; $ is the sign for the snake. With that you have expressed: We recognize the world as that which is a great house, built by the great architect of the world, at which one must marvel both anxiously and comfortably, and in which there is also evil, the snake. Yes, people knew about such things in ancient times; they looked at nature and saw these things, looked at people and saw these things. Today, in certain Masonic orders, those who have completed the second degree pronounce the word 'Boaz' without realizing its significance. Similarly, if in the third degree people put their fingers on the pulse, it really meant that they had recognized that the person had a fine intuitive perception. You could tell by the way the finger was placed on the pulse. Later, this became the third degree. Today, people just know when someone comes and takes their hand like that: that's a Freemason. So in these things there is actually something old, venerable, great, something in which all earlier learning lay; now this has been completely reduced to formulaic emptiness. So that today the Freemasons have such things; they also have ceremonies, a cult: that is still from the times when everything was also shown in a cult, in ceremonies, so that it was more forceful for people. The Freemasons still do that today. So that in this inward relationship the Masonic order really no longer has any significance.

But for many people, going through with such covenants when they were established was terribly boring, because it actually degenerated into a kind of gimmick. So something was needed that could be poured into Freemasonry. And that's why the Freemasons became more or less political, or again more or less spread religious enlightenment teachings. The unenlightened Roman doctrine was administered by Rome. The doctrine that opposed Rome was then spread by Freemasonry. Therefore, Rome, the Roman cult and Freemasonry are the very greatest opponents. This is no longer connected with what the cult, sign, grip and word were in the Freemasons, but that just came in between. In France, the union was not called a union, but “Orient de France”, because everything was taken from the Orient - “Grand Orient de France”, that is the great French Masonic union. The other things, the signs, the grips and the words, are only there to keep the people together, they are the means by which they recognize each other. The joint worship is where they come together under particularly solemn circumstances; just as others come together in the church, so these Freemasons come together under ceremonies that come from the ancient mysteries. That is what keeps the people together.

It was also common, especially in Italy at certain times, when political secret societies were formed, to recognize and come together through certain ceremonies, signs and grips. Political alliances and political associations have always been linked to this ancient mystery knowledge. And today, once again, it is quite remarkable: if you go to certain Polish and Austrian areas today, you will find posters; on these posters are strange signs and strange letters that then combine into words; at first you not know what the poster means at first – but such a poster, which is everywhere in Polish and Austrian areas today, is the outward sign of an alliance formed by certain nationalist sides among the youth. The same things are being done there. It is actually widespread, and people know very well that the sign also has a certain strong power. There are associations, the German-Volkish, for example, they have an old Indian sign: two snakes entwined, or also, if you will, a wheel, which then transformed into the swastika. They have it today as a badge. And you will often hear that the swastika is adopted as a sign for certain chauvinistic nationalistic circles. This is because of the tradition that the ancients expressed their rule through such signs. And so it has always been on a large scale in the Freemasons' Association. The Freemasons' Association actually exists to keep certain people together, and it does this through ceremonies, signs, grips and words. And then it pursues secret aims by keeping certain secrets among all those who are connected under these ceremonies, signs, grip and word. Of course, secret aims can only be pursued if they do not all know; and so it is with the Masonic federations that they often pursue political or cultural and similar aims.

But now you can say one more thing, gentlemen. You see, the people who are connected in Masonic associations are by no means to be challenged because of that, but sometimes they have the very best and noblest intentions; they are only of the opinion that you cannot win people over to something other than through such alliances, and therefore most Masonic associations also have the purpose of practicing charity on a large scale. That is all well and good, to practice charity and humanity. This is also something that is practiced on a large scale by these associations. Therefore, it is no wonder that the Freemason can always point out that an awful lot of extraordinary humanitarian and charitable work is founded and established precisely by the Masonic associations. You just have to say to yourself: in this day and age, all such things are actually no longer in keeping with the times. Because, right, what do we have to reject most today in such things? We have to reject isolation. This also leads to the emergence of a spiritual aristocracy, which should not exist. And the democratic principle, which must be applied more and more, is actually completely opposed to the Masonic alliance as well as to the closed priesthoods. So that one can say: It is already the case that anyone who is still able to understand today what is contained in some Masonic ceremonies for the first, second and third degrees, can recognize in what the Freemasons themselves often do not understand that they often go back to very ancient wisdom; but this is not the main significance. The great significance is that today many Masonic associations, alliances, are actually home to many political or other social charitable endeavors. But the Catholic Church and the Freemasons fight each other tooth and nail. However, this has only developed over time.

Now, of course, it is very easy to mistake such things. And it has also occurred: the Freemasons have a certain clothing for their ceremonies; for example, they have a lambskin apron. Some have said: Freemasonry is nothing more than a game with the masonry trade because the mason has a lambskin apron. But that is not true. And the apron that is there is there to show – and it has always originally been made of lambskin – that the one who is in such covenants should not be a raging fellow in terms of the passions; so the genitals are to be covered with his apron, and that is the sign of it. So it was something that expressed the human character in signs. And so it is with very many signs that also lie in clothing.

Then there are also higher degrees where a garment similar to a priest's is worn; there every single detail has a meaning. For example, I have told you that man, in addition to the physical body, also has an etheric body. And just as the priest has a white linen garment, a shirt-like robe, to express the etheric body, so too certain high degrees of the Freemasons have such a garment, and for the astral body - it is colored - there is a toga, an outer garment; all this expresses it. And the mantle, which was then associated with the helmet, expressed the power of the ego.

All these things lead back to old, very ingenious, significant customs that have lost their meaning today. If someone likes Freemasonry, they should not take what I have said as a disparaging comment. I just wanted to explain how things are. Of course, there may be an order of Freemasons that brings together exceptionally good people and so on. And in today's world, something like that can be particularly important. Really, what most people learn today when they become doctors or lawyers – yes, that does not capture their hearts. And that is why many lawyers and doctors still become Freemasons, because at least they then have the solemnity of the old ceremonies and something that no longer allows them much to think about, but which is still something: sign, grip and word, but which indicates that man does not live only in the external material.

That is what I wanted to tell you. Do you have anything else you would like to ask?

Question: In America there is something called the Ku Klux Klan. What about it? Can we hear from Dr. Steiner about what it means? You read about it all the time.

Dr. Steiner: Yes, you see, the Ku-Klux-Klan is one of the newest inventions in this area, and it is an invention that should be taken more seriously than it is usually taken. You know, gentlemen, that only a few decades ago there was actually enthusiasm for a certain cosmopolitanism. Today it is still there, of course, among the working class, among social democracy - these are an international element - but in bourgeois circles and in other circles, nationalism is getting terribly out of hand, and the mood for nationalism is certainly strong. And you will also remember that those people who stood behind Woodrow Wilson – he himself was only a kind of front man – actually counted on this nationalism, wanted to have national states everywhere, wanted to incite nationalism everywhere, and so on. Yes, one can have one's own views about that! But now there are people everywhere who are developing the tendency to take nationalism to the extreme. And it was precisely in this endeavor to take nationalism to the extreme that the Ku Klux Klan was formed in America. It now works with methods such as signs, in the sense I have described.

If you are considering such connections, then you have to know that signs also have a certain hypnotic power. You know, if you have a chicken (it is drawn), if you let the chicken poke the ground with its beak, and you draw a chalk line from there, the chicken will follow the chalk line! It is hypnotized, it follows the line! You just have to poke the beak at the beginning, then it will follow the chalk line because it is hypnotized by the line. So every sign has a meaning, not only the straight line for the chicken, a certain soporific meaning, if you look for it. And that is used by certain secret societies to choose just such signs, through which they beguile the other person, put him to sleep, so that he does not assert his own judgment. And such means are used by such secret societies in particular. In America, the Ku-Klux-Klan belongs to this group. Now the Ku Klux Klan is dangerous because such associations do not just target one nation, but they want to have the nationalist principle everywhere. No one can say: the Ku Klux Klan need only remain an American institution because it particularly wants to promote American nationalism. The Ku Klux Klan supporter does not say that; instead, he says: nationalism should be promoted in general, so in Hungary, in Germany, in France. - Very well! He is not concerned with Americanism; he is not a patriot, but he sees in this insistence of people on nationalism something which, when it then interacts with the most diverse nations, then achieves what he wants to achieve: namely, to bring people absolutely into chaos. That is what he wants: he wants to bring everything into chaos! There is pure destructive rage in it. And so the Ku Klux Klan is particularly dangerous because it can spread in all countries. And you cannot say that if it wants to spread here in Switzerland, it is an American institution, but rather it is a national Swiss institution.

And so were basically the Masonic alliances; they were international, but for the individual countries always nationalist. But they did not pay much attention to that, but they did it more to the outside world, that they joined in with what was going on in the outside world. And now one can say: But are not such people actually insane, who want to stir up something like an absolutely nationalist principle, and who want to destroy everything there? You can't really say that either. Of course, when you ask, it is said: Of course you don't do such things. But people say to themselves: It's all so corrupt today – the leaders say this to the others who follow – it's all the same to the others, so it makes no sense to cultivate the things that are there today. You first have to treat humanity like a confused mass. Then people will come to their senses again, and then they will learn something proper. People do have an idea, namely the Ku Klux Klan has an idea in this regard.

You mean: not?

The questioner: Yes! But that's strange!

Dr. Steiner: You see, many things in cultural life are strange, and we have already mentioned things that looked strange. But the strange is sometimes quite dangerous. It seems strange to you, but sometimes it is extraordinarily dangerous.

Well, gentlemen, tomorrow during the day I have to travel again – to Breslau. I will then say when we will have the next lesson.

Vielleicht fällt jemandem noch etwas anderes ein?

Frage: Könnte man etwas hören über die Freimaurerei und ihren Zweck?

Dr. Steiner: Nun, sehen Sie, meine Herren, die heutige Freimaurerei, die ist eigentlich, man könnte sagen, nur der Schatten dessen, was sie einmal war. Ich habe hier auch schon verschiedentlich davon geredet, daß es in sehr alten Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung nicht solche Schulen gab wie heute, auch nicht solche Kirchen und auch nicht solche Kunstanstalten, sondern das war alles eins. In den alten Mysterien, wie man es nannte, war zugleich die Schule, die Kunstanstalt und die Religion. Das ist erst später auseinandergegangen. So daß es eigentlich für unsere mitteleuropäischen Gegenden, man könnte sogar sagen, erst im 11., 12. Jahrhundert so geworden ist; früher waren die Klöster, ich möchte sagen, ein Andenken an die alte Zeit. Aber in ganz alten Zeiten war das so, daß Schule, Kirche und Kunstanstalten eines waren. Es war aber so, daß in den Mysterien alles das, was da getrieben wurde, viel ernster genommen worden ist als heute zum Beispiel in unseren Schulen und auch in unseren Kirchen die Sachen genommen werden.

Die Sache ist nämlich damals so gewesen, daß man lange Zeit hat vorbereitet werden müssen, bis man hat lernen dürfen. Heute entscheidet ja im Grunde genommen, ob man etwas lernen kann oder nicht, wirklich ein Prinzip, das gar nichts zu tun hat mit dem Lernen. Nicht wahr, heute entscheidet eigentlich nur das, ob für den Betreffenden, der lernen soll, das Geld aufgebracht werden kann oder nicht aufgebracht werden kann! Das ist natürlich etwas, was gar nichts zu tun hat mit den Fähigkeiten, die der Betreffende hat. Und ganz anders nun war die Sache in alten Zeiten. Da hat man unter der ganzen Menschheit diejenigen ausgesucht - man hat einen besseren Blick auch dafür gehabt als heute -, die etwa die Fähigsten waren. Natürlich ist die Sache dann fast überall, weil die Menschen schon einmal egoistisch sind, in Verfall geraten; aber das Prinzip war ursprünglich dies, daß man diejenigen aussuchte, die Fähigkeiten hatten. Und die wurden dann erst dazu berechtigt, daß sie geistig lernen konnten - nicht einfach durch Drill und durch Dressur und durch Elemente, wie heute gelehrt wird, sondern die konnten geistig lernen.

Dieses geistige Lernen, das ist nun aber damit verknüpft, daß man in der Vorbereitung lernt, ganz bestimmte Fähigkeiten auszubilden. Sie müssen nur bedenken, wenn man im gewöhnlichen Leben irgend etwas angreift, so hat man eigentlich eine grobe Empfindung davon; und das Äußerste, was heute die Menschen erreichen, ist, daß sie in der Empfindung manchmal Stoffe voneinander unterscheiden können, daß sie die Dinge so befühlen und etwas in der Empfindung unterscheiden. Aber die Menschen sind in ihrer Empfindung - ich meine, in der rein physischen Empfindung - heute eigentlich recht grob; sie unterscheiden Wärme und Kälte. Höchstens daß es die Leute, die darauf angewiesen sind, zu einer feineren Empfindung bringen. Das sind zum Beispiel die Blinden. Es gibt ja Blinde, die lernen, wenn sie das Papier überfahren, die Buchstabenformen befühlen. Jeder Buchstabe ist ja ein bißchen eingegraben ins Papier. Wenn das Gefühl in den Fingern fein ausgebildet wird, kann man schon die Buchstaben etwas befühlen. Das sind die einzigen Leute, die heute lernen, feiner etwas fühlen, feiner etwas empfinden. In der Regel wird die Empfindung gar nicht ausgebildet, aber man lernt ungeheuer viel, wenn man das Gefühl, und namentlich das Gefühl in den Fingerspitzen und in den Fingern ganz fein ausbildet. Heute unterscheidet der Mensch Wärme und Kälte nicht bloß durch das Gefühl. Ja, das kann er auch heute, deshalb, weil er das Thermometer lesen kann; da werden ihm die feinen Unterschiede in Wärme und Kälte sichtbar. Aber das Thermometer ist ja auch erst im Laufe der Zeit erfunden worden. Vorher hatten die Leute nur ihr Gefühl. Da wurden in den Mysterienvorbereitungen anfangs nämlich die Gefühle, besonders in den Fingern und Fingerspitzen, ganz besonders ausgebildet. Und es war so, daß man in feinster Weise empfinden lernte.

Wer war also eigentlich in den Mysterien derjenige, der zuerst vorbereitet worden war, ganz fein zu empfinden? Nun, die anderen Menschen konnten nicht so fein empfinden. Nehmen Sie nun an, irgendwo, an einem andern Orte, war ein Mysterium. Die Leute reisten ja viel im Altertum; sie reisten fast ebensoviel wie wir, und manchmal ist man erstaunt, wie schnell sie reisten. Sie hatten keine Eisenbahn; aber sie reisten, weil sie flinker waren, weil sie schneller gehen konnten, weniger müde wurden, auch etwas besser gingen und so weiter. Und nun trafen sie sich auf dem Wege, solche Leute. Ja, wenn sich zwei solche Leute, die fein empfinden konnten, die Hand gaben, so merkten sie das aneinander, und man sagte dann: Die erkennen sich an ihrer feineren Empfindung. Das ist dasjenige, was man den Griff nennt - den Griff, wenn man den anderen angriff in alten Zeiten und man merkte, der hat eine feinere Empfindung.

Nun weiter, meine Herren, bedenken Sie einmal das zweite: Wenn erkannt wurde, daß einer eine feine Empfindung hatte, dann ging man weiter, denn man lernte noch mehr. In alten Zeiten schrieb man ja nicht so viel wie heute; man schrieb eigentlich nur sehr selten und das Allerallerheiligste auf. Allerdings, es gibt im Altertum auch schon eine Art von Korrespondenz; aber auch diese Korrespondenz war mehr in allerlei Zeichen. Und so entstanden viele Zeichen für alles mögliche. Es war ja auch so, daß die Leute, die nicht zu den Mysterien gehörten, die also nicht die Weisen, wie man sie nannte, waren, wenn sie reisten, nur in kleinerem Umkreis reisten; die kamen nicht sehr weit. Aber die Gelehrten, die Weisen, die reisten sehr viel. Da hätten sie eigentlich nicht nur alle Sprachen, sondern alle Dialekte kennen müssen. Es ist ja natürlich schwer, schon wenn man Norddeutscher ist, den Schweizer Dialekt zu können. Nun aber gab es für diese Leute in den Mysterien außer der Sprache, die sie sprachen, für alle Dinge, die sie interessierten, gewisse Zeichen. Sie machten Zeichen. So zum Beispiel, sagen wir, es wurde die gewöhnliche Gebärde, die man schon in der Empfindung hat, weiter ausgebildet: Ich begreife -; oder: Das ist nichts, was du mir sagst -; oder: Wir verstehen uns gut miteinander. - Man zeichnete das Kreuz hinein. So daß es eine voll ausgebildete Zeichensprache gerade unter den alten Weisen gab, und man legte alles, was man wußte, in solche Zeichen hinein. So daß Sie einsehen können: Alle die Leute, die in den damaligen hohen Schulen, in den Mysterien, waren, hatten für alles gewisse Zeichen. Sagen wir zum Beispiel, sie wollten nun diese Zeichen festhalten. Dann erst malten sie sie auf. So entstanden die aufgemalten Zeichen.

Es ist schon interessant, daß es heute noch gewisse Schriften gibt, welche deutlich erkennen lassen, daß sie aus Zeichen hervorgegangen sind. Das ist zum Beispiel die alte Schrift der Inder, die Sanskritschrift. Bei ihr sieht man überall, daß alles aus der krummen und aus der geraden Linie hervorgegangen ist. Krumme Linien: Unzufriedenheit mit etwas, Antipathie; gerade Linien: Sympathie. Bedenken Sie einmal: Es weiß einer, die geraden Linien bedeuten Sympathie, die krummen Linien bedeuten Antipathie. Jetzt will ich ihm etwas mitteilen. Dafür habe ich auch mein Zeichen. Er will mir etwas sagen; das kann ja anfangs gut gehen, später aber kann die Geschichte schlecht werden. Sehen Sie, da geht es noch gut; später zeichnet er eine Schlangenlinie: da kann es schlecht gehen. Und so hatte man für alles bestimmte Zeichen. An diesen Zeichen oder mit diesen Zeichen verständigten sich diejenigen wieder, die in den Mysterien waren. So daß man zum Griff dazu hatte das Zeichen.

Nun, etwas ganz Besonderes sah man früher in den Worten. Sehen Sie, wenn heute der Mensch Worte spricht, so hat er eigentlich gar keine Ahnung mehr, was es mit den Worten ist. Aber man kann doch noch etwas empfinden, was in den Lauten schon drinnen liegt. Sie werden leicht empfinden können, wenn einer irgendwie in einer Lebenslage ist und er fängt an: A - da hat das irgend etwas mit Verwunderung zu tun. A - der Buchstabe A ist Verwunderung. Nun nehmen Sie dazu den Buchstaben R: dadrinnen liegt das Hinrollen, Strahlen: R = Ausstrahlen. A = Verwunderung, R = Rollen, Ausstrahlen.

Nun wissen wir jetzt allerdings das, was wir eben über die Sonnenstrahlen gesagt haben. Aber auch wenn die Sonnenstrahlen scheinbar sind, wenn sie keine Wirklichkeit sind: es sieht so aus, wie wenn sie hinströmen würden. Nun denken Sie sich, es will einer sagen: Da oben ist etwas, das wirft mir hier auf der Erde etwas zu, was, wenn es mir am Morgen erscheint, Verwunderung hervorruft. Die Verwunderung drückt er aus durch A, aber daß es von oben kommt, mit R; das drückt er also aus mit: RA. Ja, so haben die alten Ägypter den Sonnengott genannt: Ra! In jedem von diesen Buchstaben liegt eben ein Empfinden darinnen, und wir haben die Buchstaben zu Worten zusammengesetzt. Es war also eine ganz ausgebreitete Empfindung drinnen. Das ist heute längst vergessen. So etwas kann man an verschiedenen Dingen spüren. Nehmen Sie zum Beispiel: I. Das ist so etwas wie eine leise Freude; man findet sich ab mit dem, was man erfährt, wahrnimmt: I. Daher wird auch das Lachen ausgedrückt mit: hihi. Das ist eine leise Freude. So hat jeder Buchstabe etwas Bestimmtes in sich. Und es gibt eine Kenntnis, durch die man geradezu die Worte bilden kann, wenn man Verständnis hat für die Laute, die in den Worten drinnen sind.

Nun werden Sie eines sagen, meine Herren: Ja, dann könnte es eigentlich, wenn das so wäre, nur eine einzige Sprache geben! - Ursprünglich hat es unter der Menschheit auch eine einzige Sprache gegeben; als man noch ein Empfinden hatte für diese Laute, diese Buchstaben, hat es nur eine einzige Sprache gegeben. Die Sprachen sind dann verschieden geworden, als sich die Menschen zerstreut haben. Aber ursprünglich haben die Menschen das empfunden, und in den Mysterien wurde das richtig gelehrt, wie man Laute, Buchstaben empfindet und zu Worten macht. Daher gab es eine eigene Sprache in den Mysterien. Diese Sprache, die sprachen alle untereinander. Sie sprachen untereinander nicht die Dialekte, aber diese Sprache, die verstanden alle. Wenn einer Ra sagte, wußte der andere, daß das die Sonne ist. Wenn einer zum Beispiel sagt: E - fühlen Sie nur: Ich schrecke etwas zurück, das paßt mir nicht; E = ich habe eine leise Furcht, so etwas wie Furcht! Nun, nehmen Sie L: Das ist so, wiewenn etwas hinschwindend ist, wie wenn etwas fließt, und EL, ja, das ist etwas, das hinfließt und wodurch man zurückschreckt, wodurch man sich fürchtet. So hat in Babylon El = Gott geheißen. So wurde alles nach diesem Prinzip bezeichnet. Oder nehmen Sie die Bibel: Wenn Sie sagen: O - das ist eine Verwunderung, eine plötzliche Verwunderung, gegen die man nicht aufkommt. Beim A - da hat man eine Empfindung, welche man gern hat, eine Verwunderung, die man gern hat; O - da will man zurück weichen; H, Ch ist der Atem. So daß man sagen kann: O = zurückweichende Verwunderung; H = Atem; I = da zeigt man hin darauf, man freut sich darüber, es ist leise Freude = I. Und M, das ist: Man will selber hineingehen. Sie spüren, wenn Sie M aussprechen: M - da geht der Atem hinaus, und man fühlt, man läuft förmlich nach dem Atem; M ist also: hinweggehen. Jetzt setzen wir das zusammen: El, das haben wir schon gesehen, ist der im Winde herkommende Geist, El; O = das ist die zurückweichende Verwunderung, H = der Atem; das ist also schon der feinere Geist, der als Atem wirkt; I ist die leise Freude; M ist das Hingehen. Da haben Sie Elohim, womit die Bibel beginnt; da haben Sie diese Laute drinnen. So daß man sagen kann: Was sind die Elohim? - Die Elohim sind im Winde Wesen, vor denen man etwas Angst hat, vor denen man etwas zurückweicht, die aber durch den Atem zur Freude der Menschen, im Hingehen zu den Menschen Freude haben: Elohim. Und so ist ursprünglich in den Worten nach den Lauten, nach den Buchstaben zu studieren, was die Worte eigentlich bedeuten. Die Menschen spüren heute gar nicht mehr, wie das eigentlich ist.

Wie heißt hier in der Schweiz die Mehrzahl von Wagen? Heißt es auch hier: Wagen, oder heißt es die Wägen ? (Antwort: Die Wagen! Diese Antwort ist falsch. Es heißt im Schweizerdeutsch «Wäge», wie Dr. Steiner vermutet hat.) - Die Wagen heißt es noch. Da ist es also schon verwuschelt; das Ursprüngliche wäre: der Wagen, die Wägen! Bei der Mehrzahl haben wir das in der verschiedensten Weise; zum Beispiel haben wir: der Bruder, die Brüder. Das ist aber doch wohl auch so in der Schweiz! Sie sagen doch nicht: die Bruder? Also: der Bruder, die Brüder. Oder sagen wir: das Holz, die Hölzer. Man sagt ja wohl auch hier nicht: die Holzer. Das Holz, die Hölzer. Sie sehen, meine Herren, wenn die Mehrzahl gebildet wird, da wird der Umlaut gebildet: ainä, uinü, oinö. Warum geschieht das? Ja, der Umlaut, der drückt aus, daß die Sache undeutlich wird! Wenn ich einen Bruder sehe, dann ist er deutlich da als eine Person; wenn ich mehrere Brüder sehe, dann wird es undeutlich, da muß ich schon einen von dem andern unterscheiden, und wenn ich das nicht kann, wird es undeutlich. Man muß einen um den andern anschauen. Das Undeutlichwerden wird überall durch den Umlaut angedeutet. Wo also ein Umlaut irgendwo in einem Worte ist, da ist irgend etwas undeutlich.

In der Sprache liegt also etwas, woran man eigentlich den ganzen Menschen erkennen kann; da ist der ganze Mensch. Und so drückten die Leute auch aus, wie schon in den Buchstaben, die man aufschrieb, in diesen Zeichen gewisse Bedeutungen drinnen liegen. A war immer Verwunderung. Wenn nun der alte Jude so x aufgeschrieben hat, so sagte er sich: Wer verwundert sich in der Erdenwelt? Die Tiere verwundern sich eigentlich nicht, nur der Mensch. Daher nannte er den Menschen überhaupt: die Verwunderung. Wenn er sein Aleph aufschrieb, das x , das hebräische A, dann bedeutete das aber auch den Menschen.

Und so war es, daß jeder Buchstabe zugleich ein bestimmtes Ding oder Wesen bedeutete. Das alles kannten wiederum die Leute, die in den Mysterien waren. Wenn also einer reiste und traf einen anderen, und sie hatten die gemeinsame Kenntnis, so erkannten sie sich am Wort. So daß man sagen kann: In den alten Zeiten war es so, daß die Leute, die etwas gelernt haben, die also viel wußten, einander erkannten an Griff, Zeichen und Wort. Ja, aber, meine Herren, da war etwas darinnen! Da war wirklich zugleich die ganze Gelehrsamkeit drinnen in diesen Zeichen, Griff und Wort. Denn dadurch, daß man fühlen lernte, lernte man die Gegenstände unterscheiden. Dadurch, daß man die Zeichen hatte, hatte man ein Nachahmen alles desjenigen, was Naturgeheimnisse waren. Und im Worte lernte man den inneren Menschen kennen. So daß man also sagen kann: Im Griff hatte man die Wahrnehmung; im Zeichen hatte man die Natur, und im Wort hatte man den Menschen, seine innere Verwunderung oder sein Zurückbeben, seine Freude und so weiter. Man hatte also Natur und Mensch und hat sie wiedergegeben in Zeichen, Griff und Wort.

Nun, im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung ist dann dasjenige entstanden, was sich auf der einen Seite trennte in die Universität und später in die Schulen, und auf der anderen Seite in die Kirche und in die Kunst. Alle drei haben nicht mehr verstanden, was ursprünglich vorhanden war; und ganz verloren ging Griff, Zeichen und Wort. Nur diejenigen haben es verstanden, die dann bemerkt hatten: Donnerwetter, diese alten Weisen, die hatten ja dadurch eine gewisse Macht, daß sie das wußten! Das ist eine gerechtfertigte Macht, dieein Mensch hat, wenn er etwas weiß, denn dadurch kommt es seinen Mitmenschen zugute; wenn keiner eine Lokomotive zu machen verstünde, so würde die Menschheit eben niemals eine Lokomotive haben! Also wenn einer etwas weiß, so kommt es den Menschen zugute; das ist eine gerechtfertigte Macht. Später aber haben sich die Leute einfach die Macht angeeignet, indem sie abgeguckt haben die äußeren Zeichen. Gerade wie diese oder jene Zeichen früher einmal etwas bedeutet haben und man später die Bedeutung verloren hat, so hat alles das die Bedeutung verloren. Und es bildete sich dann, ich möchte sagen, durch Nachäffung von den alten Mysterien, allerlei aus, in dem Sie nur äußerlich die Sache haben. Was haben die Leute getan? Die hatten die feine Empfindung nicht mehr, aber sie verabredeten ein Zeichen, an dem sie sich erkennen. Sie geben sich die Hand in einer bestimmten Weise, wodurch einer weiß: der gehört zu diesem Bund. Da haben sie sich erkannt am Griff. Dann machen sie noch in irgendeiner Weise ein Zeichen. Das Zeichen und der Griff sind verschieden, je nachdem der eine im ersten oder zweiten oder dritten Grad ist. Daran erkennen sich dann die Leute. Aber es ist nicht mehr darinnen als nur ein Erkennungszeichen. Und ebenso haben sie für jeden Grad bestimmte Worte, die sie aussprechen können in gewissen freimaurerischen Bünden; sie haben, sagen wir, für den ersten Grad zum Beispiel, wenn man wissen will: Was ist das Wort? - [das Losungswort] Jachin. Man weiß, er hat das Wort Jachin in der Freimaurerloge gelernt, sonst wäre er nicht im ersten Grad drin. Das ist nur noch ein Losungswort. Und ebenso macht er dann das Zeichen und so weiter.

Nun, eigentlich hat diese Art der Freimaurerei sich erst entwickelt, als alles übrige aus den Mysterien vergessen war; und es wurden einzelne von den alten Dingen, die man nicht mehr verstand, nachgeahmt. So daß dasjenige, was die Freimaurerei an Kultus übernommen hat, meistens heute von den Freimaurern nicht mehr verstanden wird; auch Zeichen, Griff und Wort verstehen sie nicht, weil sie all das nicht wissen, um was es sich da handelt. Sie wissen zum Beispiel nicht, daß, wenn sie das Wort des zweiten Grades aus Tafel 21 sprechen: Boas, daß das B so viel ist wie ein Haus; O ist, wie ich Ihnen gesagt habe, diese zurückhaltende Verwunderung; A: das ist die angenehme Verwunderung; $ ist das Zeichen für die Schlange. Damit haben Sie ausgedrückt: Wir erkennen die Welt als dasjenige an, was ein großes Haus ist, das der große Baumeister der Welt gebaut hat, über das man sich sowohl ängstlich als auch behaglich verwundern muß und in dem es auch das Böse gibt, die Schlange. - Ja, so etwas hat man gewußt in alten Zeiten; da hat man die Natur angeschaut nach diesen Dingen, den Menschen angeschaut nach diesen Dingen. Heute sprechen ahnungslos in gewissen Freimaurerbünden diejenigen, die den zweiten Grad haben, das Wort «Boas» aus. Ebenso, nicht wahr, wenn beim dritten Grad die Leute die Finger gelegt haben auf die Pulsader, dann war das wirklich eine Erkenntnis, daß der Betreffende eine feine Empfindung hat. Das merkte man an der Art und Weise, wie der Finger lag an der Pulsader. Das ist später geworden der Griff für den dritten Grad. Die Leute wissen heute nur noch, wenn einer kommt und so die Hand nimmt: das ist ein Freimaurer. Also in diesen Dingen ist eigentlich etwas Altes, Ehrwürdiges, Großes, etwas, worin alle frühere Gelehrsamkeit gelegen ist; das ist jetzt also ganz ins Formelhafte übertragen, ins Nichtige ausgegangen. So daß heute der Freimaurerbund solche Dinge hat; er hat auch Zeremonien, einen Kultus: das ist noch aus den Zeiten, wo man alles auch in einem Kultus, in Zeremonien gezeigt hat, damit es den Leuten mehr eindringlich war. Die Freimaurer machen das auch heute noch. So daß in dieser innerlichen Beziehung wirklich der Freimaurerorden keine Bedeutung mehr hat.

Aber es ist doch so furchtbar langweilig für viele Leute gewesen, wenn solche Bündnisse eingerichtet worden sind, da die Sachen mitzumachen; denn eigentlich artete es aus in eine Art Spielerei. Es brauchte also etwas, was man wiederum hineinschüttete, hineingoß in die Freimaurerei. Und dadurch entstand das, daß dann die Freimaurer mehr oder weniger politisch wurden, oder wiederum mehr oder weniger religiöse Aufklärungslehren verbreiteten. Die unaufgeklärte römische Lehre wurde von Rom verwaltet. Diejenige Lehre, die Rom gegenüberstand, wurde dann von der Freimaurerei verbreitet. Daher sind Rom, der römische Kultus und die Freimaurerei die allergrößten Gegner. Das hängt gar nicht mehr zusammen mit dem, was nun der Kultus, Zeichen, Griff und Wort, bei den Freimaurern war, sondern das ist eben dazwischen gekommen. In Frankreich nannte man den Bund nicht Bund, sondern «Orient de France», weil alles von dem Orient genommen ist - «Grand Orient de France», das ist der große französische Freimaurerbund. Das andere, Zeichen, Griff und Wort, das ist nur noch, damit die Leute zusammenhalten, das ist das, woran sie sich erkennen. Der gemeinschaftliche Kultus ist das, wo sie zusammenkommen unter besonders feierlichen Umständen; so wie die anderen in der Kirche zusammenkommen, so kommen diese Freimaurer unter Zeremonien, die von alten Mysterien herrühren, zusammen. Das hält die Leute zusammen.

Es war ja auch besonders in Italien zu gewissen Zeiten, als politische Geheimbünde sich bildeten, Sitte, unter gewissen Zeremonien, Zeichen und Griff, sich zu erkennen und zusammenzukommen. Politische Bünde, politische Vereinigungen haben immer angeknüpft an dieses alte Mysterienwissen. Und es ist heute ja wiederum ganz merkwürdig: Wenn Sie heute zum Beispiel in gewisse polnische und österreichische Gegenden gehen, finden Sie Plakate; auf diesen Plakaten sind sonderbare Zeichen und sonderbare Buchstaben, die sich dann zu Worten verbinden; man weiß zunächst nicht, was dieses Plakat bedeutet - aber solch ein Plakat, das heute in polnischen und österreichischen Gegenden überall angeschlagen ist, das ist das äußere Zeichen für einen Bund, der von gewissen nationalistischen Seiten unter der Jugend gebildet wird. Da wird mit denselben Dingen vorgegangen. Es ist das eigentlich weit, weit verbreitet, und die Leute wissen ganz gut, daß das Zeichen auch eine gewisse starke Kraft hat. Es gibt Verbände, die Deutschvölkischen zum Beispiel, die haben ein altes indisches Zeichen: zwei ineinandergeschlungene Schlangen, oder auch, wenn Sie wollen, ein Rad, das sich dann so umgebildet hat zum Hakenkreuz. Die haben das heute als Abzeichen. Und Sie werden vielfach hören, daß das Hakenkreuz wiederum als ein Zeichen angenommen wird für gewisse chauvinistische völkische Kreise. Das ist aus dem Grunde, weil man die Überlieferung hat: durch solche Zeichen haben die Alten ihre Herrschaft ausgedrückt. Und so ist es im großen Maßstabe immer gewesen beim Freimaurerbund. Der Freimaurerbund ist eigentlich dazu da, um gewisse Leute zusammenzuhalten, und das tut er durch Zeremonien, durch Zeichen, Griff und Wort. Und dann verfolgt er geheime Ziele, indem er unter all denen, die unter diesen Zeremonien, Zeichen, Griff und Wort, verbunden sind, gewisse Geheimnisse bewahrt. Natürlich, geheime Ziele kann man nur verfolgen, wenn sie nicht alle wissen; und so ist es bei den Freimaurerbünden, daß sie vielfach politische oder kulturelle und dergleichen Ziele verfolgen.

Nun können Sie aber noch eines sagen, meine Herren. Sehen Sie, die Leute, die in Freimaurerbünden verbunden sind, sind keineswegs deshalb anzufechten, weil sie das tun, sondern manchmal haben sie die allerbesten und edelsten Absichten; sie sind nur der Ansicht: Man kann die Menschen nicht auf eine andere Weise als durch solche Bündnisse für so etwas gewinnen, und daher haben die meisten Freimaurerbünde auch wiederum den Zweck, Wohltätigkeit im großen zu üben. Das ist schön, Wohltätigkeit und Humanität zu üben. Das ist nun auch etwas, was von diesen Bünden in großem Maßstabe ausgeübt wird. Daher ist es kein Wunder, wenn der Freimaurer immer darauf hinweisen kann, daß furchtbar vieles außerordentlich Humanes und Wohltätiges gerade von den Freimaurerbünden gestiftet und begründet wird. Man muß nur eben sich sagen: In der heutigen Zeit sind eigentlich alle solche Dinge nicht mehr zeitgemäß. Denn, nicht wahr, was müssen wir denn heute an solchen Dingen hauptsächlich ablehnen? Wir müssen die Absonderung ablehnen. Es entsteht dadurch auch bald eine geistige Aristokratie, die es nicht geben soll. Und das demokratische Prinzip, das immer mehr und mehr zur Geltung kommen muß, das widerstrebt eigentlich durchaus dem Freimaurerbund ebenso wie den geschlossenen Priesterschaften. So daß man also sagen kann: Es ist schon einmal so, daß derjenige, der noch heute verstehen kann, was in manchen freimaurerischen Zeremonien für den ersten, zweiten und dritten Grad enthalten ist, in dem, was die Freimaurer selber oft nicht verstehen, erkennen kann, daß sie oftmals zurückreichen auf ganz alte Weisheit; aber dieses hat nicht die große Bedeutung. Die große Bedeutung hat dieses, daß eigentlich heute bei vielen freimaurerischen Verbänden, Bündnissen, eben viele politische oder sonstige soziale Wohltätigkeitsbestrebungen leben. Aber bis aufs Messer bekämpfen sich die katholische Kirche und die Freimaurer. Das hat sich aber auch im Laufe der Zeit erst herausgebildet.

Nun, solche Dinge kann man natürlich sehr leicht verkennen. Und es ist auch das aufgetreten: Die Freimaurer haben eine bestimmte Bekleidung bei ihren Zeremonien; sie haben zum Beispiel ein Schurzfell aus Lamm, das Lammschurzfell. Da haben manche gesagt: Die Freimaurerei ist überhaupt nichts anderes als eine Spielerei mit dem Maurerhandwerk, weil der Maurer ein Schurzfell hat. Aber das ist nicht wahr. Und das Schurzfell, das da ist, das ist durchaus dazu da - und es ist immer ursprünglich aus Lammleder gewesen -, um zu zeigen, daß derjenige, der in solchen Bündnissen ist, nicht ein wütender Kerl sein soll in bezug auf die Leidenschaften; es sollen also die Geschlechtsteile bedeckt werden mit seinem Schurz, und das ist das Zeichen dafür. Also es handelte sich da doch um etwas, was in Zeichen ausdrückte den menschlichen Charakter. Und so ist es mit sehr vielen Zeichen, die auch in der Bekleidung liegen.

Man hat dann auch höhere Grade, wo ein ganz priesterähnliches Kleid getragen wird; da bedeutet alles einzelne etwas. Zum Beispiel habe ich Ihnen gesagt, daß der Mensch ja außer dem physischen Leib noch einen Ätherleib hat. Und geradeso wie der Priester ein weißes Linnenkleid, ein hemdartiges Gewand hat, um den Ätherleib auszudrücken, so haben auch gewisse hohe Grade der Freimaurer ein solches Gewand, und für den Astralleib - er ist farbig -, da hat man eine Toga, ein Übergewand; das drückt alles das aus. Und der Mantel, der dann verbunden war mit dem Helm, der drückte aus die Macht des Ich.

Alle diese Dinge führen eben zurück auf alte, sehr sinnreiche, bedeutsame Gebräuche, die heute ihre Bedeutung verloren haben. Wenn jemand die Freimaurerei gern hat, so soll er das nicht als etwas Abschätziges behandeln, was ich gesagt habe. Ich wollte nur auseinandersetzen, wie das ist. Es kann natürlich ein Freimaurerorden bestehen, der außerordentlich gute Menschen in sich vereinigt und so weiter. Und in der heutigen Zeit kann so etwas besonders wichtig werden. Wirklich, was heute meistens der Mensch lernt, wenn er Arzt oder Jurist wird - ja, das ergreift sein Herz nicht. Und deshalb werden noch viele Juristen und Ärzte Freimaurer, weil sie dann wenigstens die Feierlichkeit der alten Zeremonien haben und etwas, wobei sie sich nicht mehr viel denken können, was aber immerhin noch etwas ist: Zeichen, Griff und Wort, was aber hinweist darauf, daß der Mensch nicht bloß im äußeren Materiellen lebt.

Das ist das, was ich Ihnen sagen wollte. Haben Sie sonst noch irgend etwas, was Sie gerne fragen wollten?

Frage: In Amerika gibt es etwas, das «Ku-Klux-Klan» genannt wird. Wie ist es damit? Können wir von Herrn Doktor etwas darüber hören, was das bedeutet? Man liest immer wieder darüber.

Dr. Steiner: Ja, sehen Sie, der Ku-Klux-Klan, der ist eine der neuesten Erfindungen auf diesem Gebiet, und zwar eine solche Erfindung, die schon wichtiger genommen werden sollte als man sie gewöhnlich nimmt. Sie wissen ja, meine Herren, daß eigentlich eine Begeisterung für einen gewissen Kosmopolitismus nur war vor einigen Jahrzehnten. Heute ist er zwar noch da, selbstverständlich, unter der Arbeiterschaft, unter dem Sozialdemokratismus - diese sind ein internationales Element -, aber in den bürgerlichen Kreisen und in anderen Kreisen, da nimmt der Nationalismus furchtbar überhand, und die Stimmung für den Nationalismus ist ja stark da. Und Sie werden sich auch erinnern, daß diejenigen Menschen, die hinter Woodrow Wilson standen - er selber war ja nur eine Art Strrohmann -, eigentlich gerechnet haben mit diesem Nationalismus, überall nationale Staaten haben wollten, überall den Nationalismus aufstacheln wollten und so weiter. Ja, darüber kann man so seine Ansichten haben! Aber nun gibt es eben Menschen, die entwickeln heute überall die Tendenz, den Nationalismus bis auf die Spitze zu treiben. Und in diesem Bestreben, den Nationalismus bis auf die Spitze zu treiben, ist eben in Amerika diese Verbindung Ku-Klux-Klan entstanden. Der arbeitet nun eben durchaus mit solchen Mitteln, wie zum Beispiel Zeichen sind, in dem Sinne, wie ich es gesagt habe.

Wenn man nun gerade wiederum solche Verbindungen ins Auge faßt, dann muß man wissen, daß Zeichen schon auch eine gewisse hypnotisierende Kraft haben. Sie wissen ja, wenn Sie ein Huhn haben (es wird gezeichnet), dieses Huhn mit dem Schnabel auf die Erde aufstoßen lassen, und Sie zeichnen von da aus einen Kreidestrich, läuft das Huhn dem Kreidestrich nach! Es ist hypnotisiert, es läuft dem Strich nach! Sie müssen nur erst den Schnabel aufstoßen auf den Anfang, dann läuft es dem Kreidestrich nach, weil es hypnotisiert ist von dem Strich. So hat jedes Zeichen - nicht nur für das Huhn die gerade Linie - eine Bedeutung, eine bestimmte einschläfernde Bedeutung, wenn man es darauf anlegt. Und das benützen nun wiederum gewisse Geheimverbindungen, um gerade solche Zeichen zu wählen, durch die sie den anderen Menschen betören, einschläfern, so daß er seine eigene Urteilskraft nicht geltend macht. Und mit solchen Mitteln arbeiten extrem namentlich solche Geheimverbindungen. Dazu gehört in Amerika wiederum der KuKlux-Klan. Nun ist der Ku-Klux-Klan aus dem Grunde gefährlich, weil solche Verbindungen nicht nur auf das eine Volk ausgehen, sondern sie wollen das nationalistische Prinzip überall haben. Es kann niemand sagen: Der Ku-Klux-Klan braucht bloß eine amerikanische Einrichtung zu bleiben, weil er den amerikanischen Nationalismus besonders befördern will. - So sagt der Anhänger des KuKlux-Klan nicht; sondern er sagt: Man soll überhaupt den Nationalismus befördern, also den in Ungarn, den in Deutschland, den in Frankreich. - Sehr schön! Nicht auf den Amerikanismus kommt es ihm an, er ist nicht ein Patriot, sondern er sieht in diesem Pochen der Menschen auf den Nationalismus etwas, was, wenn es dann zusammenwirkt bei den verschiedensten Nationen, dann bewirkt, was er erreichen will: nämlich die Menschen absolut ins Chaos hineinbringen. Das will er: Er will alles ins Chaos hineinbringen! Es ist die reine Zerstörungswut darinnen. Und so ist der Ku-Klux-Klan besonders aus dem Grund gefährlich, weil er sich in allen Ländern ausbreiten kann. Und Sie können nicht sagen, wenn er sich einmal ausbreiten will hier in der Schweiz, das sei eine amerikanische Einrichtung, sondern es ist dann eine nationale schweizerische Einrichtung.

Und so waren im Grunde auch die freimaurerischen Bündnisse; sie waren international, aber für die einzelnen Länder immer nationalistisch. Aber darauf gaben sie nicht viel, sondern sie haben es mehr der Außenwelt gegenüber getan, daß sie mitmachten, was in der Außenwelt war. Und man kann nun sagen: Aber sind denn solche Menschen nicht eigentlich wahnsinnig, die aufrütteln wollen so etwas wie ein absolut nationalistisches Prinzip, und die da alles zerstören wollen? Das kann man eigentlich auch nicht sagen. Natürlich, wenn man frägt, heißt es: Selbstverständlich macht man solche Sachen nicht mit. - Aber die Leute sagen sich: Es ist alles so verdorben heute - die Führenden sagen sich das bei den anderen, die nachlaufen -, das ist ja den anderen ganz einerlei, so daß es gar keinen Sinn hat, die Dinge zu pflegen, die heute da sind. Man muß erst die Menschheit wie eine wirre Masse behandeln. Dann werden die Menschen wieder zu sich kommen, und dann werden sie wiederum etwas Ordentliches lernen. Also eine Idee haben die Leute schon, und namentlich der Ku-Klux-Klan hat eine Idee in dieser Beziehung.

Sie meinen: nicht?

Der Fragesteller: Doch! Aber das ist komisch!

Dr. Steiner: Sehen Sie, viele Dinge sind im Kulturleben komisch, und wir haben ja auch schon Dinge erwähnt, die komisch aussahen. Aber das Komische ist manchmal recht gefährlich. Es scheint einem komisch, aber es ist manchmal außerordentlich gefährlich.

Nun, meine Herren, muß ich morgen im Laufe des Tages wiederum - nach Breslau - verreisen. Ich werde dann sagen, wann wir die nächste Stunde haben werden.

Good morning, gentlemen! Perhaps you have thought of something during the slightly longer time - a special question?

Question about the nature of the various hierarchies and their influence on humanity.

Dr. Steiner: I think this is a subject that will be somewhat difficult and incomprehensible for those gentlemen who are here for the first time today, because one should know something of what has already been presented in the lectures that have been given. But I will still address the matter and try to make it as understandable as possible.

You see, when you look at a person standing and walking on the earth, that person actually has all the kingdoms of nature within them. Man has, first of all, the animal kingdom within him; in a certain sense, he is also organized like an animal. You can see this from the fact that man has, let us say, for example, thighbones and humerus, which are also found in a similar way in higher animals; but if you can see the matter clearly, you will also find that it is related to the lower animals, or at least shaped similarly. And if you look at fish, you can see roughly what corresponds to a human bone in fish. The same thing that can be said for the bone system can also be said for the muscle system and for the internal organs. We find a stomach in humans – and in a corresponding way, we also find a stomach in animals. In short, we find what is in the animal kingdom in the human body as well.

This has led to the materialistic view that humans are nothing more than highly developed animals. But that is not the case; rather, humans develop three things that animals cannot develop from their own organism. One is that humans learn to walk upright. Just look at the animals that learn to walk more or less upright, and you will see the considerable difference between them and humans. In the case of animals that walk upright, for example the kangaroo, you will see how the front limbs, which it does not use for walking, remain atrophied. The front limbs of the kangaroo are not designed for free use. And as for the ape, we certainly cannot say that it is human-like in this respect; because when it climbs a tree, it is not walking, but climbing. It actually has four hands, not two feet and two hands. Its feet are hand-like; it climbs. So the upright walk is the first thing that distinguishes humans from animals.

The second thing that distinguishes humans from animals is the ability to speak. And the ability to speak is connected with the upright posture. Therefore you will find that where an animal has something similar to the ability to speak – the dog, which is relatively a very intelligent animal, does not have it, but the parrot, which is somewhat upright, has it – you will find that the animal is then upright. Speech is entirely connected with this upright posture.

And the third is free will, which the animal also cannot acquire, but the animal is dependent on its inner processes. These are things that make up the whole inner organization of the human being and shape it humanely.

But the human being still carries animality within him. He has this animal realm within him.

The second thing that man carries within him is the plant kingdom. What can man do because he carries the animal kingdom within him? You see, the animal feels - so does man; the plant does not feel. On the other hand, a strange science of the present day - I have mentioned this here before - has the view that a plant can also feel because there is a plant, the so-called Venus flytrap, for example: When an insect comes near, as soon as the insect has flown up, this Venus flytrap closes its leaves and devours the insect. This is a very interesting phenomenon. But if someone says: This plant, the Venus flytrap, must sense the insect, that is, perceive it when it comes near – that is just as much nonsense as if someone were to say: A little thing that I make so that it snaps shut when a mouse comes near – a mousetrap would also have a sensation that the mouse is coming in! So such scientific opinions are not very far-reaching; they are just plain nonsense. Plants do not feel. Nor do plants move freely.

So what is common to humans and animals is the sensation and movement; in this, he bears animality within him. Only when he can think rationally - which the animal cannot - is he human as a result. Furthermore, the human being bears the plant kingdom, the whole plant kingdom, within him. The plants do not move, but they grow. The plants do not feel, but they feed themselves. The human being also grows and feeds himself. The plant kingdom does this in him. Man also bears this plant power within him. He also bears it within him when he sleeps. He sheds his animality when he sleeps, because he does not feel or move unless he is a night walker, and that is based on abnormal development; then he does not completely lose his movement, then he is ill. But in a normal state, a person does not walk around in his sleep and is not aware of anything. If he is supposed to be aware, he wakes up. He cannot be aware while sleeping. During sleep, the human being also carries the plant essence within himself.

And the mineral essence, gentlemen, we also carry that within us; it is contained, for example, in our bones. They are somewhat alive, but they contain the inanimate carbonic lime. We carry the mineral kingdom within us. We even have brain sand in our brains. That is mineral. We also carry the mineral kingdom within us. So we carry the animal kingdom, we carry the plant kingdom, we carry the mineral kingdom within us.

But that is not all for the human being. If the human being were merely a mineral, plant and animal, he would be like an animal, he would walk like an animal, because the animal also carries mineral, plant and animal within itself. Of course, the human being is not only related to these three kingdoms of nature that are visible, but he is also related to other kingdoms.

Now I will sketch this out for you schematically. Imagine that this is the human being (see drawing); now he is related to the mineral kingdom, to the plant kingdom, to the animal kingdom. But he is a human being. You can say: Well, animals can be tamed. That's all right; but have you ever seen an ox being tamed by an ox? Or a horse by a horse? Animals, even if they can be tamed, thus acquiring certain abilities that can be remotely compared to human abilities, must be tamed by humans! Right, a dog school, where the dogs teach themselves and make tame dogs out of wild dogs, does not exist; humans have to intervene. And even if one thought one could admit to the materialists everything they wanted, one would just have to follow their own train of thought – one can admit everything to them, for my part one can say: man, as he is now, was originally an animal and was tamed – but the animal he originally was could not have tamed itself! That is not possible, because otherwise a dog could also tame a dog. So there must have been original beings - they may be elsewhere now - but nevertheless there must have been original beings who brought man to his present height. And these beings cannot belong to the three realms of nature. Because if you now imagine that you would ever be tamed by a giraffe, made into a human being, when you are still like a small animal in childhood, just as little as this would be possible, you could just as little be tamed by an oak tree. At most, the German-nationalists believe this, who assume that the oak, the sacred oak, has tamed people. And, you see, the minerals even less so; rock crystal is beautiful, but it certainly cannot tame people. There must have been other beings, other realms.

Now, everything in man is really called up into the higher. The animal has the possibility of having ideas, but it does not think. The ideas form in the animals. But the animal does not have this activity of thinking. Man has this activity of thinking. And so man can indeed have his blood circulation from the animal kingdom, but he cannot have his organ of thinking from the animal kingdom. So that one can say: Man thinks, feels and wills. All these things are done freely. And all this is changed by the fact that man is an upright and articulate creature.

Imagine how you would have to want differently, how all wanting would be different, if you were always crawling around on all fours like you were in your first year; after all, all human wanting would really be different. And you would not even have time to think. And just as the things we carry in our physical body connect us with the three realms of nature, so do our thinking, feeling and willing connect us with three other realms, with supersensible, invisible realms. We have to have names for everything. Just as we call the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms the kingdoms of nature, so we call the kingdoms that effect thinking, feeling and willing in the human being, so that they are free, precisely hierarchies. So here we have: natural kingdoms, through which man reaches into nature; and here we have: hierarchies. You see, just as the human being reaches into three natural kingdoms, he also reaches into three spiritual kingdoms. With his thinking, he reaches into the hierarchy - well, you see, there is no name for it yet. Because materialism takes no account of this, there is no name for it; so we have to call it by the old name: Angeloi, angels. But you are immediately branded as superstitious. Of course, we no longer have the ability to find names in language because people have lost the ability to feel with sounds; but languages could only be formed as long as people still felt something with sounds. Today everyone speaks of ball, of fall, of strength; there is an A in everything, an A in each of these words. But what is an A? An “A” is the expression of feeling! Imagine if you suddenly saw someone opening the window from the outside and looking in. You would be amazed because that is not supposed to happen; a large part of you would probably express your amazement with an “Ah!” if you were not embarrassed to do so. A is always the expression of astonishment. So with each letter there is some expression of something. And when I say “ball,” I need the A because I am amazed when I throw the ball, how it behaves strangely; or if it means a dance ball, I am also amazed at how it swirls around! It just so happened that people gradually got used to it, so that they are no longer amazed; you could also call it a bull or a bill, but certainly no longer a ball. - Let's take “fall.” When someone plops down somewhere, you can also say: Ah! - And the other thing that is significant is precisely in the F inside. “Force": when someone applies a force that pushes him; Ah: wherever astonishment occurs, the A is there.

And consider: you are of the opinion that thinking sits in your head. But if you were to suddenly realize that spiritual beings are just as much a part of your thinking as animals must be on earth for your sensing and feeling, so that you can have animality within you, then you would also be amazed, and so, if you express this amazement, you would have to have a word that contains the A. So you would be able to name these thinking beings, who were once called angels, with an A, and you would name the fact that you have the power of thought with the letter that expresses power in a certain way: L; and the power that works you might perhaps call B. The word 'alb', which has already been used for something spiritual, could just as well be used for these beings that have to do with thinking, if it were not used only for nightmare, which is pathological. So the hierarchies are realms that man reaches into, that he carries within himself, just as he carries the realms of nature within himself; and these beings, which have been called demons or angels, are the ones that have to do with thinking.

On the other hand, animal beings are involved in the feeling in man. What, animal beings? Now, you see, if you are a little attentive, if you don't go wild from the outset when it comes to the spiritual, but if you just allow yourself to be open to the fact that it can be about the spiritual, then you will come across many things – even if you cannot yet proceed with spiritual research, as is the case with anthroposophy. Just imagine that if you want to feel, you have to have a certain warmth within you! The frog feels much less vividly than man because it does not have such warm blood; you really have to have warmth within you if you feel. But the warmth that you have within you comes from the sun! And so you can say: Feeling is also connected with the sun - only spiritually. Physical warmth is connected with the physical sun, and feeling, which is connected with physical warmth, is connected with the spiritual sun. This second hierarchy, which has to do with feeling, thus dwells in the sun. Anyone who is not completely brain-dead, as so many are today - especially scientists - can come up with it: the second hierarchy is the solar beings. And because the sun reveals itself only outwardly in light and warmth (no one knows the interior of the sun, for if physicists really came up with the sun, they would be extremely astonished to find that the sun does not look at all as they usually think it does! They think to themselves, the sun is a glowing ball of gas. That is not what it is at all; it actually consists of nothing but sucking forces; it is hollow, not even empty, but sucking. We can say that outwardly it reveals itself as light, as warmth; the beings that are within were called in Greek “beings of revelation”. Where there was still some knowledge of these things – for the old instinctive science was much more intelligent than today's – these beings, which reveal themselves from the sun, were called exusiai; we can also say: sun beings. We only need to know that when we speak of feeling, we enter the realm of the sun beings. Just as when I say: Man has in himself forces of growth and nutrition, thus the plant kingdom in himself, so I must say: Man has in himself the forces of feeling, thus forces of the spiritual sun kingdom, the second hierarchy. And the third is the first hierarchy, which has to do with the human will, where man becomes most powerful, where he does not merely move, where he expresses his deeds. This is connected with those beings who are spiritually out in the whole world and who are actually the highest spiritual beings we can get to know. We call them again by Greek or Hebrew names, because we do not yet have German ones, or we do not yet have the expressions in language at all: Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim. That is the highest realm.

So there are three spiritual realms, just as there are three natural realms. Just as humans deal with the three natural realms, they also deal with the three spiritual realms.

Now you will say: Yes, but I can believe that or not, because these three realms are not visible, not perceptible. Yes, but, gentlemen, I have met people who were supposed to be made to understand that there is air! He didn't believe that there was air. When I say to him: There is a board - he believes that, because when he goes there, he bumps into the board, or when he looks with his eyes, he sees the board, but he does not bump into the air. He looks and says: There is nothing there. Nevertheless, today everyone admits the air. It is just there. And so it will also come about that people will admit the spiritual. Today people still say: Well, the spiritual is just not there – as the farmers used to say: The air is not there. – In my homeland, the farmers still said: The air is not there at all – only the bigwigs in the city say that, who want to be so clever; you can walk through it, there is nothing there to walk through! But that was a long time ago. Today, even the farmers know that there is air. Today, however, the cleverest people do not yet know that spiritual beings are everywhere! But in time they will admit this, because there are certain things they cannot explain otherwise, and these things also need to be explained.

If someone were to say today: In all that exists as nature, there is no spirit in it; for everything that science knows about nature is in it, nothing else is in nature – yes, anyone who says that says that, gentlemen, he is just as if a dead person were lying there, a corpse, and I come and say: You rotten guy, why don't you get up and go! I try to make him understand that he shouldn't be so lazy and get up. Yes, I am foolish because I believe that the living person is inside. And so it is: everything that the natural scientist can find in there, he does not find in the living, he finds in the dead. He also finds the dead everywhere outside in nature, but he does not find that which is alive. He does not find that which is spiritual in this way, but that is why it is there.

That is what I wanted to say in response to this question, which was asked in connection with the hierarchies.

Mr. Burle: In earlier lectures, Dr. Steiner spoke about the knowledge of spiritual science of ancient peoples. Today, this has been lost to humanity. Could Dr. Steiner explain to us why this has happened? Was materialism solely to blame?

Dr. Steiner: Why the old knowledge has been lost? Yes, you see, gentlemen, that is a very strange fact. Not in the way we have knowledge today, but in an artistic, poetic form, in a poetic form, the ancients, our ancestors, had great knowledge in primeval times, and this knowledge, as Mr. Burle quite rightly says, has been lost to humanity. Now we can ask ourselves how this knowledge was lost. Of course we cannot say that materialism alone is to blame for this, because if all people still had the old knowledge, materialism would not have come into being. It is precisely because the old knowledge was lost and people became spiritually crippled that they invented materialism. So materialism comes from the loss of ancient knowledge – not that one can say that the loss of ancient knowledge comes because materialism has spread. So what does the loss of ancient knowledge really come from?

Yes, gentlemen, it comes from the fact that humanity is undergoing a development. Of course, you can dissect the human being who is here now; when he dies, you can dissect him. In this way you can gain knowledge about the way in which man is put together in the present. From ancient times, the only things that are available are, well, the mummies in Egypt, which we talked about the other day; but they are embalmed through and through, so you can't really dissect them anymore. So how man looked in earlier times, especially in the time when he was built finer, of that people now can't get any scientific idea through mere external research; one must also penetrate with spiritual research. And then one comes to the conclusion that man in ancient times was not at all as he is today.

There was a time on earth when people did not have such firm bones as we have today; then people had bones like those of today's rachitic children, who have weak bones that cause bowlegs or knock-knees and are weak in general. You can see that such weak bones can exist because they are still present in cartilaginous fish today. Their bones are as soft as cartilage. Human beings once had such bones, because the human skeleton was once soft. Now you will say: But then people must all have walked around with knock-knees or bowlegs, and everything would have been crooked if the bones were soft!

Of course, that would have been the case if the air on our earth had always been the same as it is today. But it wasn't; the air was much thicker in the old days. It has become much thinner. And the air contained much more water in the old days than it does today. The air also contained much more carbon dioxide. All the air was thicker. Now you must realize that people in those days were also able to live with their soft bones; because we have our present-day bones only because the air no longer supports us. A thicker air supports people. Walking in those ancient times was much more like swimming than it is today. Today's walking is something terribly mechanical: we put one leg on - that has to stand properly like a pillar - we put the second leg on. People in prehistoric times did not walk like that, but they felt, just as one lets oneself be carried in the water, the watery air; that's where they could have their soft bones. But when the air became thinner there – and this can be known with external science, that the air became thinner there – only then did the hard bones make sense; only then did the hard bones arise. Of course, in the past the carbonic acid was outside, the air contained it; today we carry the carbonate of lime within us; that is how the bones became hard. That is how things are connected.

But when the bones become hard, the other things in the human being also become hard, so that the human being, who had softer bones, also had a significantly softer brain matter. In general, the skull, the human head, was also shaped quite differently in ancient times. You see, it was shaped more like the shape of hydrocephalic skulls today; that was beautiful back then, but is no longer beautiful today. And so, like the very small child still has in the womb, he retained his head because he had a soft brain mass, and the soft brain discharges into the front skull. Everything was softer in humans.

Now, gentlemen, if man was softer, then his mental abilities were also different. With a soft brain, one can think much more spiritually than with a hard brain. The ancients still felt this; they called a person who can only ever think the same thing and accepts little and therefore stubbornly always remains with the one idea, a mule. This feeling already implies that one can actually think better and have better ideas if one has a hard brain. Prehistoric men had such a hard brain.

But these primitive people had something else. We can really say: when a child is born, its skull with its soft brain and even the soft bones are still similar - the bones are no longer so strong, but the brain is very similar to that of primitive people. But put a small child down: it cannot move from the spot, cannot feed itself and the like, it cannot do anything! For this, higher beings had to take care of them when humans still had this soft brain. And the consequence of this was that people in those days had no freedom, had no free will. These people had great wisdom, but no free will at all. But in human evolution, free will gradually emerges. For this, the bones and the brain must harden. But with this hardening, the old knowledge takes its downfall. We would not have become free human beings if we had not become stubborn, hard-skulled, and had skulls with hard brains. But we owe our freedom to that. And so the downfall of the old knowledge comes with freedom. That's it. Is it understandable? (Answer: Yes) It comes with freedom!

But now, while humans have gained freedom on the one hand, they have lost the old knowledge and fallen prey to materialism. But materialism is not the truth. Therefore, we must come to spiritual knowledge again, even though we have a denser brain today than primitive people did. We can only do this through anthroposophical spiritual science, which comes to knowledge that is independent of the body, that is recognized by the soul alone. The ancient people had their knowledge because their brain was softer, that is, more similar to the soul; and we have our materialism because our brain has become hard and no longer absorbs the soul. Now we have to gain spiritual knowledge with the soul alone, which is not absorbed by the brain. This is what spiritual science does. One comes back to spiritual knowledge. But we are now living in the age in which humanity has bought its freedom through materialism. Therefore, one cannot say that materialism, even if it is untrue, is something bad. Materialism, if it is not exaggerated, is not bad, but through materialism, humanity has come to know a great deal that it did not know before. That is it.

Now, one question has already been asked in writing:

I read the sentence in your “Philosophy of Freedom”: “Only when we have made the content of the world our own thought content, only then do we rediscover the context from which we have detached ourselves.”

So that is what the gentleman read in the Philosophy of Freedom. He now poses the question: What belongs to this world content, since everything we see is only there to the extent that it is thought? And then he says: Kan explains that the mind is incapable of grasping that which the appearing world of causes is prior to the world of experience.

Well, you see, gentlemen, it is like this: when we are born and are still small children, we have eyes and ears, we see and hear, that is, we perceive the things that are outside of us. The chair that is standing there is not yet thought by the child, but it is perceived. It looks the same to the child as it does to an adult, only the child does not yet think the chair. Let us assume that, through some artificial means, the very young child, who has no thoughts yet, could already talk; then the child would be inclined to criticize everything, which is something we are accustomed to today, where even the thoughtless people criticize the most. I am even convinced that if very young children, who cannot yet think, could already talk a lot, they would become the strongest critics. Not true, even in ancient India, only those who were already sixty years old were allowed to criticize and judge; the others were not allowed to judge because it was said that they had no experience of the world. Well, I don't want to defend that, nor criticize it myself, but I just want to tell you that it was like that. Today, of course, anyone who has turned twenty would be laughed at if you wanted to tell him that he should wait to be judged until he was sixty! Today's young people don't do that; they don't wait at all, but as soon as they can hold a pen, they start writing for newspapers and judging everything. In this respect, we have come a long way today. But I am convinced that if very young children could speak, they would be strict critics! A two-year-old, my goodness, would criticize so many of our actions if he could be made to speak!

Kant – I mentioned him the other day – made the biggest mistake by believing that what the child does not yet perceive and what one only perceives later, namely the content of thought, is something that the human being first puts into things. So Kant actually says: When the chair is there – the chair has colors, the chair rattles. But when I say the chair is heavy, that is not a property of the chair, but I give it to it by thinking it heavy. The chair has firmness, but it does not have that in itself, I give it to it by thinking it firm. Yes, gentlemen, this is considered a great science, this Kantian doctrine, as I told you some time ago; but in reality it is a great nonsense. It is just that, due to the peculiar development of humanity, a great nonsense is regarded as a great science, as the highest philosophy, and Kant is always called the all-devourer, the all-destroyer. I have always seen in him only a destroyer; even as a very small boy I studied Kant over and over again. But otherwise I have not noticed that the one who destroys the soup plates establishes the greatest and that he is greater than the one who makes them. It always seemed to me that the one who makes them is greater! Kant always destroyed everything in reality. So these objections of Kant's should not trouble us at all. But the thing is that when we are born, we are detached from things because we have no connection with them at all. We only grow into things again by forming concepts. Therefore, the question that is asked here must be answered as follows: What belongs to the content of the world? I say in my Philosophy of Freedom: Only when we have made the content of the world our own content of thought do we rediscover the connection from which we detached ourselves as a child. As a child, we do not have the content of the world; we only have the sensual part of the content of the world. But the content of thought is really contained in the content of the world. So that as a child we only have half the content of the world, and only later, when we grow up to our thoughts, do we not only have the content of thought within us, but we know that it is within things, we also treat our thoughts in such a way that we know that they are within things, and there we restore the connection with things.

You see, it was very difficult in the 1980s, when everything had been Kantianized, when everyone spoke in such a way that Kantian philosophy was regarded as the highest and no one yet dared to say anything against it – it was very difficult when I appeared on the scene back then and declared that Kantian philosophy is actually nonsense. But I had to explain that from the very beginning. Because of course, when someone like Kant thinks that we actually have to add the content of thought to things, then he can no longer come to the simple content, then in the soul there are just thoughts about external things, and it is quite definitely materialism. Kant is largely to blame for the fact that people have not come out of materialism. Kant is to blame for a great deal in general. I told you about this at the time, when I was asked about Kant from a different angle. The others, because they could not think otherwise, made materialism. But Kant said: We cannot know anything about the spiritual world, we can only believe. - With this he actually said: We can only know something about the sensual world, because we can only drag thoughts into the sensual world.

And now people who wanted to become materialistic felt more and more justified in referring to Kant. But humanity must also get rid of this prejudice - that is, part of humanity, very few people know about Kant - they must get rid of always referring to Kant, and then referring to Kant when they want to say: you can't really know anything about the spiritual world. So: the content of the world is the content of the senses and the content of the spirit. But one only comes to the spiritual content in the course of life, when one develops thoughts. Then one re-establishes the connection between nature and spirit, whereas at the beginning, as a child, one only has nature before one, and the spirit only gradually develops out of one's own nature.

Does anyone have a very small question?

Mr. Burle asks about human hair and says: Today, so many girls have their hair cut. Can the doctor say whether this is beneficial to health? My little daughter also wanted to cut her hair, but I didn't allow it. I want to know if it would be harmful or not.

Dr. Steiner: No, the thing is this: hair growth is so little connected to the whole organism that it does not matter so much whether you let your hair grow long or cut it. The damage is not so great as to be noticeable. But there is a difference between men and women in this respect. It used to be the case for a while – but it's no longer true – that you would often see anthroposophists together, men and women: the man would not cut his hair, he would just have long curls, and the women would cut their hair short! Of course, people also said: This anthroposophy brings the world upside down; among anthroposophists, the ladies cut their hair off and the men let it grow. - Now that is no longer the case, at least not so noticeable. But one can also ask how it is with the difference between the sexes when cutting hair.

In general, however, it is the case that for men, abundant hair growth is somewhat superfluous; for women, it is somewhat necessary. The hair always contains sulfur, iron, silica and a few other substances. These substances are also needed by the organism. For example, silicic acid is very much needed by men because, by becoming male in the womb, they lose the ability to produce silicic acid themselves. Through the cut hair – whenever the hair is freshly cut, it absorbs the silicic acid that is in the air – the man absorbs silicic acid from the air. So cutting your hair is not a problem. It is only bad when they run out, because then they cannot absorb anything. Therefore, going bald early, which is somewhat connected to a person's lifestyle, is not exactly a good thing for a man.

Now, for women, cutting their hair is not entirely good, because women have the ability to produce more silicic acid in their organism, and so they should not cut their hair too short too often; because then the hair absorbs the silicic acid that the woman already has in her from the air and drives it back into the organism. The woman becomes hairy and prickly on the inside; she then gets “hair on her teeth”. This is not so noticeable; one must be a little sensitive to notice it, but it is there. The whole manner also becomes prickly, she becomes hairy and prickly inside; and cutting it off, especially if it happens in adolescence, also has an influence.

But it could also be the other way around, gentlemen. It could be that today's young people are coming into an environment – after all, children today are all different from how we were in our youth – where their inner silica is no longer enough for them, because they want to be prickly. They want to be a little prickly, scratchy. So they get the instinct to cut their hair. This then becomes fashionable: one person imitates another, and here the story is reversed, with children wanting to become prickly and getting their hair cut. If you can manage to get this fashion to be combated a little, then it can't be all that bad if you have exaggerated this fashion a little. After all, it comes down to this, doesn't it: one likes a soft one, the other a spiky one; that's where it can change a bit in the judgment of taste. But it can't have that much of an influence. Only if someone has a daughter who, precisely because of the circumstances, wants to or should choose a man who loves a spiky one, should she have her hair cut. Of course, she won't get a man who is sensitive to mildness; that might happen. - So the story reaches more into the fringes of life.