The Destinies of Individuals and Nations E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 613

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Amid the darkness of World War I, Rudolf Steiner offered a profoundly spiritual response to the tragedy of global conflict. With compassion and clarity, each of these lectures begins with a reverent verse honouring the fallen, before unfolding a deeper perspective on the unseen forces shaping human destiny. Steiner reveals the workings of spiritual beings, karmic patterns and the guiding influence of the Christ Impulse and Michaelic Spirits – forces he saw as central to both individual lives and the destiny of nations. From the prophetic nature of dreams to the cosmic significance of our thinking, feeling and willing, these lectures illuminate how the spiritual and material realms intertwine. Steiner explores the stages of spiritual perception – imagination, inspiration and intuition – and their role in awakening human consciousness. Topics such as the rhythm of sleep and waking, the etheric body, and the clash between the cultures of materialism and spiritual insight are directly relevant to our modern condition. Far more than a historical reflection, this volume is a profound meditation on the spiritual evolution of humanity, and a timeless guide for those seeking meaning amid external upheaval. It speaks to the soul's journey through suffering, and the redemptive power of spiritual consciousness. The revised edition of these lectures features an introduction by translator Anna Meuss, extensive editorial notes and an index. Fourteen lectures, Sept. 1914–July 1915, Berlin, GA 157

Leseprobe

THE DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND NATIONS

Fourteen lectures held in Berlin from 1 September 1914 to 6 July 1915

TRANSLATED AND INTRODUCED BY ANNA R MEUSS FIL, MTG

RUDOLF STEINER

Rudolf Steiner Press

Hillside House, The Square

Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2025

Originally published in German under the title Menschenschicksale und Völkerschicksale (volume 157 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. Based on shorthand notes that were not reviewed or revised by the speaker. This authorized translation is based on the third German edition (1981) edited by Emil Leinhas and Hella Wiesberger and reviewed for the third edition by Caroline Wispler

Published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

© Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Rudolf Steiner Verlag 1981

This translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 2025

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ISBN 978 1 85584 679 1

eISBN 978 1 85584 712 5

Cover by Morgan Creative

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CONTENTS

Publisher’s Note

Introduction, by Anna Meuss

LECTURE 1

BERLIN, 1 SEPTEMBER 1914

The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations

Dornach building incomplete, outbreak of war. Belief in the victory of spiritual life. Essential to understand the world necessity of the serious events taking place (reference to Bhagavad Gita). Language of world karma coming to expression at the time only to be understood later. Strength and love can grow if members make spiritual science their own, enabling them to give the right kind of help at the right time. Mantras.

LECTURE 2

BERLIN, 31 OCTOBER 1914

Nationalities and Nationalism in the Light of Spiritual Science

Particular need of the moment to penetrate outer events with spiritual science. The eternal in man and his earthly configuration, the latter including the national aspect. Hatred among peoples, and death cancelling all that is national. The nations of Europe representing individual aspects of man’s essential nature. Hatred seen as raging against one’s higher self—which will be connected with other nationalities in the future. The particular characteristics of European nations; differences in their attitude to people belonging to other nations. Different experiences on going through the gate of death. Attitudes to warfare. Special position of Russia. Basic attitude in the East of Europe prayerful; Merezhkovsky. Occult experiences at the time when the war started. How spiritual science must prove itself in difficult times.

LECTURE 3

BERLIN, 28 NOVEMBER 1914

The Nature of European Folk Souls

Problem of seeing through life on earth—which is Maya. Sympathy and antipathy out of place when considering the characteristic nature of folk souls. How the soul relates to other folk souls during sleep. The power of spiritual truths. Involvement of folk spirits in earth evolution; the individual soul separating itself from this on death. Meaning of death in battle. Different nature of French and Russian souls because of their folk spirits. Higher spiritual entities fighting to let a spiritual stream enter into human evolution, with the aid of souls that have gone through death. Earthly alliances and battles as reversal of spiritual battle positions. Anthroposophy as a challenge from the spiritual world. Question as to responsibility for outbreak of war, and need to make efforts to perceive the karma of the folk soul. Contribution to be made to the future through spiritual renewal of intellectual life.

LECTURE 4

BERLIN, 17 JANUARY 1915

The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Spirit Serving It—I

Magnitude of the Christ Impulse far beyond our understanding so far; its living intervention in history. Struggle for Rome between Maxentius and Constantine in AD 312. Until eighth and ninth centuries many souls in Western and Southern Europe related to Christian faith only in ether body. Fifth post-Atlantean epoch with special mission for England on the one hand and Continental Europe on the other. Christ impulse intervening through Joan of Arc. Distinction between individual and national development. Generally no reincarnation into the same folk area. Exception in the case of Central Europe. Eastern Europe today: many souls who formerly bore Christianity in their ether bodies and are now developing a feeling relationship to it. Central Europe: centuries of preparation to link the Christ impulse with ego and astral body in wide-awake perceptiveness. Goethe and his Faust. Future missions of Central and Eastern Europe complementary; both would face disaster if external forces were to damage Central Europe.

LECTURE 5

BERLIN, 19 JANUARY 1915

The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Spirit Serving It—II

The crossing of major threads in history always happens under the guidance of the spiritual world. Difference between Joan of Arc’s and our own time. Present-day world of machines—with demonic, ahrimanic spirituality—has destructive effect on man. Inner revelation, spiritual impulses for Joan of Arc, a country girl. Christianization of the function performed by seers in ancient Rome. Secret of Joan’s birth; nature of her death. Joan overcoming luciferic powers of adversity. Today, divine, spiritual powers can come into the ahrimanized world through human actions. The nature of Michael; his influence extending to the physical world and the intellect. Resistance to the ahrimanic principle consists in making the powers of the wide-awake intellect spiritual. Mission of the age corresponding to that of the German folk spirit. Nature of German soul qualities: capacity for sacrifice. During Gabriel age more blood-based, during Michaelic age relating to will to understand. Ahrimanic powers rendered harmless by being seen through.

LECTURE 6

BERLIN, 26 JANUARY 1915

Spiritual Perception Essential at the Present Time

Modern scientists guided towards existence of the spiritual world; inability to draw the logical conclusion. O. Binswanger; connection between nerve process and moral and spiritual element. Essential nature of religious systems: to convey ideas that go beyond the physical world and give strength for the spiritual world. Present need to gain deeper spiritual powers. On the meaning of war. Great number of those who die young; unused potential of their ether bodies can serve the evolution of mankind if people become aware of their connection with the spiritual world. Maintaining a relationship with the dead. A certain dangerous trend towards religiosity through war. Necessity for war to be understood only in spiritual terms. Mental effort demanded by the times. Reason for laziness—hidden fear of being too wide awake to reality on earth and after death. Increase in nervous disorders (Dostoevsky versus Hamerling). The healing power of spiritual science.

LECTURE 7

BERLIN, 22 FEBRUARY 1915

Personal and Supersensible Aspects (Relating to Certain Individuals)

Three concrete experiences relating to friends who had died—experiences made in connection with their funerals. Three different ways in which necessity to gain self-knowledge after death showed itself. Dazzling superabundance of spirit after death needs to be subdued to permit conscious awareness. Help from spiritual science: not a theory, but guide to a way of grasping the spiritual world. The many unused ether bodies of young men killed in battle; their energies become part of the folk soul. Aim of those dead to unite with the spiritual powers of the living for the progress of the earth. Experience of such collaboration with someone who died young—in connection with the building at Dornach.

LECTURE 8

BERLIN, 2 MARCH 1915

Three Decisions on the Path to Imaginative Perception

Three doors when body is left behind as path to knowledge is taken. Door of Death. Thought filled with life through meditation. Overcoming of inner obstacles. Thought growing to become winged head; Ahriman’s desire to prevent this becoming visible. Need to overcome earthly things in one’s thoughts. The Door of the Elements. The will to gain mastery over thought has to be taken hold of in the ocean of living thought activity. Imagination of fearful lion; power gained by identifying with destiny will overcome lion. Danger of egoism; Lucifer wishing to conceal this. Grey magic. Door of the Sun. Encounter with dragon consisting of man’s lower organic and basest psychological or soul qualities. Distinction between ‘head’ and ‘belly’ clairvoyance. Higher powers of lower nature can be taken hold of by identifying even more profoundly with destiny. Problems at the Door of Death. Essential to recognize spirit today. Death the teacher of the soul, particularly for those killed in battle when still young.

LECTURE 9

BERLIN, 9 MARCH 1915

The Sleeping-and-Waking Rhythm in the Context of Cosmic Evolution

Process of gaining higher knowledge: growing aware of what happens during sleep. Natural evolution from Moon to earth and then Jupiter from the aspect that ‘sleep’ of particular organs is basis for coming awake in thought activity. Meditation a cosmic reality. Subtle amounts of heat and light used up, leaving a cool, shadowy impression in the cosmic ether. Every experience of egoity involuntarily leaves behind such an impression. Picking these up after death, and the way they form karma in the next earth life. Sleep and the waking state in terms of cultural evolution. Deep sleep of materialism entered into during nineteenth century (J. Mosen, W. Jordan, J. v. Auffenberg). Firm cohesion of spirit-soul and bodily-physical elements no longer loosening naturally today. Need to gain conscious awareness of spiritual world out of free will, through meditation. Spiritual insight needed to go out and meet the unused ether forces of those killed in battle.

LECTURE 10

BERLIN, 16 MARCH 1915

Problems on Spiritual Path—National Characteristics in Europe Moulded by Folk Spirits

Main problem on spiritual path: firm cohesion of soul and body. Comparing memory process with that of gaining spiritual insight. Every experience mediated by the senses leaves seal imprint in physical body; subconscious reading process by soul brings it to life again in memory process. Every meditation imprinted in cosmic ether. First things learned in supersensible sphere—realization that things experienced in the spirit belong to own higher nature. Meditation as work on this higher nature. Relationship of hierarchic entities to man, specifically of folk spirits to European peoples. Evolution of German folk spirit. Reason why German intellectual life has affinity to path of spiritual science. Events of the time confirming the truth of that spiritual link and presenting a challenge to overcome materialism.

LECTURE 11

BERLIN, 20 APRIL 1915

Etheric Man within Physical Man

What the soul experiences in relation to the earthly world on leaving the physical body—its living bond with the essential nature of the earth organism. Correspondence between waking and being asleep within 24 hours for man, and winter and summer in the earth spirit’s year. The power alive in the earth spirit since the Mystery of Golgotha. The ‘stages of life’ reached by the soul functions—memory, thinking, feeling and will activity seen in relation to the planetary stages in the evolution of the earth and the basis for the physical body arising in each. Memory. Human will and karma. Possibility of seeing through karma if the will falls silent (E. Francisci’s dream). Observing life in reality as the basis for joining forces with the spiritual world through higher knowledge. The meaning of life on earth. Events of the time as a warning.

LECTURE 12

BERLIN, 10 JUNE 1915

The Group Sculpted for the Building in Dornach

The building in Dornach—acoustics. Description of the three figures forming the group. Making the powers emanating from the central figure visible through recognition of the nature of Christ. Michelangelo’s Christ in his Last Judgement. Pendulum swings in human life between luciferic and ahrimanic tendencies. Goethe’s Faust and the dual nature of Mephistopheles. Central Europe’s independent mission between the East which is orientated towards Lucifer and the West which is orientated towards Ahriman. Need for sincerity in the face of present events.

LECTURE 6

BERLIN, 22 JUNE 1915

The Prophetic Nature of Dreams: Moon, Sun and Saturn Man

Human life between past and future forms of existence. The prophetic nature of dreams clothed in the raiment of past experience. Dreams arising from interaction between astral and ether bodies. Planetary causes of earth existence continuing their hidden existence in man. ‘Moon life’ present in man as the ‘dreamer’ (e.g. Emerson’s essays on Shakespeare and Goethe). Angeloi but also Lucifer and Ahriman influencing the ‘dreamer’ (e.g. Yushakov). ‘Saturn man’ the basis for life on earth and for ordinary science. His role in providing the basis for mineral structure on Jupiter. ‘Sun man’ influenced through spiritual science. This provides the potential for plant growth on Jupiter. Later forms of spiritual science to prepare for Jupiter’s animal world and the basis for human civilization. Nonsense of purely physical atomism. Macrocosmic significance of thought, word and moral quality of man. Lecture given to elucidate certain words spoken by Christ.

LECTURE 14

BERLIN, 6 JULY 1915

The Cosmic Significance of Our Sensory Perceptions—Our Thinking, Feeling and Will Activity

Man as part of cosmos and earth considered in relation to the small extent to which we are conscious of this. Cosmic aspect of sensory perception—‘seeing’ to make the earth luminous for other planets. Human thinking and its relation to the surging ocean of a thought world of fluid images. The even more wide-ranging cosmic significance of feeling and of will activity. Mirror-images arising in man of the qualities and actions (feeling) and of the essential nature (will activity) of inspiring, world-building hierarchies. Feeling and will activity as building stones for future worlds. Old clairvoyance lost to provide for freedom. Independent thought developing as physical body is more and more strongly taken hold of. Essential balancing function provided by spiritual science. Danger of spiritual energies, which are present even if denied, being taken hold of by Lucifer and Ahriman. Example from Italian history (Cola di Rienzi and d’Annunzio).

ORIGINAL GERMAN MANTRAS

Notes

Rudolf Steiner’s Collected Works

Significant Events in the Life of Rudolf Steiner

Index

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

FOR further study of different themes taken up in this volume: Rudolf Steiner spoke about many of them in detail, particularly also at Dornach. See the list below, though no claim is made for completeness (GA represents ‘Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe’ or Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner). The list also includes other lectures and courses given at the beginning of the war, to convey an impression of the tremendous scope of Rudolf Steiner’s work at that time.

Aus schicksaltragender Zeit, public lectures in Berlin 29.10.1914–23.4.1915 (GA 64). Not currently translated into English.

Okkultes Lesen and okkultes Hören, Dornach 3.10.1914–27.12.1914 (GA 156). Inner Reading and Inner Hearing, SteinerBooks 2008.

Der Dornacher Bau als Wahrzeichen künstlerischer Entwickelungsimpulse, Dornach 10.10.1914–25.10.1914 (GA 287). Architecture as Peacework, SteinerBooks 2016.

Der Zusammenhang des Menschen mit der elementarischen Welt, various places. 1.1.1912–4.1.1915 (GA 158). Our Connection with the Elemental World, Rudolf Steiner Press 2017.

Kunst im Lichte der Mysterienweisheit, Dornach 28.12.1914–4.1.1915. Art as Seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom, Rudolf Steiner Press 2010.

Wege der geistigen Erkenntnis und Erneuerung künstlerischer Weltanschauung, Dornach 9.1.1915–2.5.1915 (GA 161). Artistic Sensitivity as a Spiritual Approach to Knowing Life and the World, SteinerBooks 2018.

Das Geheimnis des Todes. Wesen und Bedeutung Mitteleuropas und die europäischen Volksgeister, various towns, 31.1.1915–19.6.1915 (GA 159/160). The Mystery of Death, Rudolf Steiner Press 2023.

Mittleuropa zwischen Ost und West, Munich 13.9.1914–4.5.1915 (GA I 74a). Europe Between East and West, Rudolf Steiner Press 2023; Die geistigen Hintergründe des Ersten Weltkrieges, Stuttgart 30.9.1914–26.4.1918 and 21.3.1921 (GA 174b); The Spiritual Background to the First World War, Rudolf Steiner Press 2023.

Unsere Toten. Addresses, in memoriams and verses spoken in different towns, 1906–1924 (GA 261). Our Dead, SteinerBooks 2011.

For a good account in English of the trial of Joan of Arc and a translation of her evidence see A.E. Jones: The Trial of Joan of Arc (Barry Rose Publishers Ltd. 1980). See Joan’s reply to Article 22 of the seventy charges made against her.

INTRODUCTION

THE lectures printed in this volume are those Rudolf Steiner gave to members of the Anthroposophical Society in Berlin immediately after the outbreak of the First World War. The atmosphere perceptible in these lectures was markedly influenced by the momentous events of the time. On the other hand the language is often personal and intimate, for a powerful bond existed between Rudolf Steiner and this group of people. From 1900–1902 onwards, Berlin had been the place where he developed and presented spiritual science in lectures and written works, and it was the centre of his activities in Germany. The Berlin ‘Branch’ of the Anthroposophical Society was the only one Rudolf and Marie Steiner (von Sivers) led in person until the General Anthroposophical Society was established in its new form at Dornach in Switzerland over Christmas and New Year 1923–24.

The year 1914 saw the collapse of many hopes. Austria declared war on Serbia on 28 July, and further declarations of war followed at a rapid pace. Germany declared war on Russia on 30 July and on France on 30 August. Great Britain then declared war on Germany on 4 August, Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia on 6 August, and Great Britain on Austria-Hungary on 13 August.

One year previously, in the autumn of 1913, Rudolf Steiner had laid the foundation stone for the first Goetheanum (referred to as ‘the building’ in a number of these lectures) on a hilltop in Dornach, near Basel in Switzerland. At the time when war broke out, artists and young people from many European nations had been working together for many weeks to bring Rudolf Steiner’s artistic and architectural concepts to realization on that site in Dornach. Something very real had developed among them, a true fellowship in the reality of the spirit, irrespective of nationality or creed. The outbreak of war came as a tremendous shock to them and to the millions who lived in Europe.

This is the background to the lectures Rudolf Steiner gave in Berlin during 1914 and 1915. Particularly in the first lectures one is very much aware of his heart going out to all the people caught up in the maelstrom of war, people now finding themselves on opposite sides, facing great challenges both at home and in the trenches. Today different challenges have to be faced, but the wider context and true spiritual background given by Rudolf Steiner, the great challenge to humankind from the spiritual world which he was able to show to be behind the events of the day—these are as relevant now as they were then.

Anna MeussLondon, 1986

LECTURE 1

BERLIN, 1 SEPTEMBER 1914

The Destiny of Individuals and of Nations

DEAR friends, my heart is deeply moved now that I am able to be with you for a while in these serious times and talk to you. Our first thoughts, however, shall be for our dear friends who have often been here with us and have now been called to the Front where such an intense battle is raging over the destiny of individuals and of nations. Let us stand for a moment and remember our friends loyally and in love at this hour, letting our thoughts go out to them, thoughts filled with strength, to let them gain in strength out there at the Front.

Spirits of your souls, guardian guides,

On your wings let there be borne

The prayer of love from our souls

To those whom you guard here on earth.

Thus, united with your might,

A ray of help our prayer shall be

For the souls it seeks out there in love.

Let us call out to our friends that the Christ, of whom we have spoken so often, is with them in the field, ruling over them where the destinies of individuals and of nations are now being decided and giving them strength.

*

Dear friends, you know that the original intention had been for the building that is to be a watchtower for the life of the spirit in our present age—that is how we envisaged it—to be completed by the month of August this year.1 Karma decreed otherwise and we had to accept this karma with composure. For a time we had thought that, in these days in particular, words might be spoken in this building of that certainty of victory in the spiritual life of which we have become more and more convinced, thanks to spiritual science. But the building at Dornach stands, or at the time stood, uncompleted. The encompassing structures are there. The columns that are to bear the domes representing the cosmic spheres of the spirit are in position and joined up with the symbols of the canopy of heaven. The rest of the building still has to be completed.

In July a certain stage had been reached where I was able to feel that something I had aimed for would indeed be achieved: that this building was also to demonstrate how form and design can provide for really good hearing, a truly acoustic space. Hope then arose that this would come about, for when I spoke words at certain points to check how the whole enclosing structure would treat the sounds, the result gave us hope that the aim may be achieved and that the right sounds would be heard in the right places. It is our hope that the words consecrated to our school of thought may thus resound in that space.

The first sounds heard by our friends working at Dornach were echoes of the firing that went on in the immediate vicinity. Sounds of the first acts of war, part of the momentous events that have entered into our lives. Our building looks down on the field in Upper Alsace that lies on the other side of the border. Not only were the signals to be heard of the momentous events now taking place, but from a number of points on the building it was also possible to see the flashes of cannon-fire in Upper Alsace. The events happening there first of all announced themselves as an echo in our area. Meeting to discuss things in the midst of our work, the thought lived in our hearts that out of the dire events that have come into our lives the soil may be created for peace, where blessings may arise and come to flower for the development of mankind.

An event like the one we are now experiencing, dear friends, sometimes speaks to an individual person in symbols. Some of you may already have the first volume of my book, The Riddles of Philosophy. In this the intention was to show how mankind progressed in the search for the great universal riddles, to show how thought progressed in the hearts of human beings and of nations. The second volume has not yet come out as you know. It is, however, set up in print as far as sheet 13. On the last pages printed on this sheet the philosophy of Boutroux and Bergson is discussed, and then Preuss. So the last part printed before the present events began considers Preuss, the solitary in the evolution of German philosophy and science, who, I feel, had a much more profound grasp of what Bergson was after. This thinker, Preuss, was tremendously powerful in presenting the scientific view on the life of the spirit. Sheet 13 thus brought together the thoughts that have arisen in Western Europe and those that arose in the heart of Europe. The printed material stops in mid-sentence, symbolically splitting apart, as it were, the intellectual life of peoples between whom the great struggle has now started on the physical plane, a struggle that concerns us so deeply. During the first days of August I often had to look at the blank pages of the sheet that remained unprinted, for this, too, seemed to my mind a peculiar symbol.

Dear friends, this is not a time when secondary issues in the life of man are decided. Events may have come upon us quickly, but they are profound in their effect and have arisen from a necessity no less than the one out of which the destiny of Europe evolved in the past—from the great, hard struggles that came with the Barbarian invasions. What the protagonist of spiritual science needs in these times is confidence in the victory and unconquerable nature of spiritual life and a firm faith that the spirits who are guiding world events will resolve the issues in a way truly in the interest of mankind.

Anyone needing consolation today, because people grown close in spiritual science are now under fire on opposite sides, may look for such comfort in the words that are spoken for us in the Bhagavad Gita. These refer to past times in human evolution, to the point where an originally primitive form of human life gave way to another form in which those who had earlier lived as brothers among brothers and sisters among sisters were united according to the spiritual laws familiar to us. A transition had occurred to another kind of life for mankind, a widening out of life. And within that new order people knowing themselves to be brothers were at that time, too, facing one another in battle. Yet the spirit that is always there in the evolution of mankind does find the right words to pour confidence and faith and certainty into the souls that find themselves on opposite sides.

Today we are once again living in a time where people have come together from many different parts of the world through the spiritual movement we have made our own, and because of the feelings they have experienced, because of something that deeply unites them from the very depths of soul, they have come to call one another brothers and sisters. And once again they have to stand on opposite sides. The karma of mankind demands this. But, dear friends, whatever we have taken into our hearts and into our souls of this spiritual movement of ours must have given us the certainty that the spirit moving everywhere in the evolution of mankind will strengthen us in these stormy days and fill us with confidence. This means that we may have faith in our hearts that events will take the right course within world karma—that there has to be strife, that blood and more blood has to be shed, in order to achieve what he who guides the destinies of the world wants to achieve for mankind on this earth. It will again be the blood of sacrifice, the sacred blood of sacrifice. And those we love who are going to shed this blood of sacrifice shall be powerful helpers for mankind in the realms of the spirit, for the best and most sublime of goals. For there are many ways in which the cosmic spirits speak to us human beings.

They speak to us in the way familiar to us when among ourselves, in the words taken from our spiritual studies and our understanding of the spirit. They also speak to us, however, through the grim signals and the thunder of war. Many a soul may feel instant regret that the cosmic guidance of man also needs to use this language, yet souls taken hold of by the spirit must be able to reflect that such language is necessary in the karma of the world. To understand the true meaning of this language in the individual case will be the task of later times. Then people will be able to look back and see what benefit it has brought them that their ancestors made a sacrifice of their bodies so that the transfigured soul would rise swiftly from the sacrifice brought in the field of war up into the realms of the spirit for the good of mankind. With this spark in our hearts of being deeply touched by the spirit, we can with new strength enter into all the cares, all the deep sorrows and troubles, and also into all the hopes, all the confidence, presented and revealed to our eyes by events of such great moment as we are experiencing at present.

Dear friends, on 26 July, following a lecture concerning the business of our building project, I was able to speak to our friends gathered there certain words that referred to the grave events that lay ahead.2 Among those present on 26 July were friends who are now already at the Front in the midst of those momentous events. Standing beside the building project at Dornach, a building that is to become a watchtower of the spirit, I was on that occasion able to call up in the hearts of our friends the words: May everything we have gained in our spiritual movement and through our spiritual outlook enable every single one of us, in what lies ahead, to stand in the place where destiny puts us in the world, full of strength and confidence.

There has been evidence that our spiritual movement is able to give strength, real strength, even in the times we live in now and in the solemn events that have come to us. And perhaps it is also part of the forging of such strength that those who hear the bullets whistle past out there, who have to live in the roar and thunder of war, can be aware of our thoughts being with them in steadfast love, nurturing in our hearts the thoughts that will help and strengthen them, and be aware also of the fellowship among us. What state would our movement be in if it were unable to remain strong in heart and soul at a time when such strength of heart and soul is severely tested in this world. Let us hope that the strength we ourselves have gained will at all times provide a firm bond between us and our dear friends out yonder. And let us hope that this strength will be such that it counts for something in the world of the spirit, that the spirit we sought to take into ourselves can count for something in the working of the world. Let us hope that the love we know to be part of our spiritual endeavour may prove particularly strong out there in the physical world where our friends have to make a holy sacrifice.

Dear friends, we shall see many things happen still in consequence of what is now beginning. We have on many occasions spoken of strength and composure—let us hope that these can now be achieved in our souls. We are not speaking of an easy-going composure, looking on events in an uninvolved way, but of an active composure, looking for ways and means—and in steadfastly looking for them in the spirit also finding them—to do the right thing in the right place.

Many times I had to ask myself this August if it was right to keep our friends at their building work in Dornach and whether the one or other of them should not be doing more important work elsewhere at this time. Yet it appears that it is a good thing, that it is connected with certain forces the spirit needs in these times that the building work does not stop. Work therefore continues steadfastly, even in these hard times. The building work shall actively continue in the thought that it is indeed to be a token of rightful understanding of the great deeds that are done in our day, a token of understanding that the power of the spirit also needs to be present in everything that is happening in our day. And we cherish the thought that all our friends who are continuing their allotted tasks at Dornach, because it appears to be their karma, will also be able to fill their place in everything important that arises out of the deeply stirring events in the midst of which we stand, each at his post, where his karma has placed him.

Let us try, dear friends, and do everything that may emerge out of what the day presents to our souls, what the day leads us to observe, as our duty at the present time. Let us try and do our duty in every case, a duty we have to consider as one of selfless love for humanity, the duty to be prepared for sacrifice in a time when so many sacrifices have to be asked of man. Let us take part in the rite of sacrifice for the development of man—whichever way karma appears to mete it out to us—according to our strength. Let us help wherever we are able to help. Let us look for opportunities where we may be allowed to help, and let us hold on to the conviction to which we have attained—that the help offered by human beings, service given in love, provides the spirit with an effective tool.

When our friends in Dornach also wanted to know something about giving aid in an external way, about first-aid dressings, a number of lessons were arranged within the building, in case one of us was called upon one day by his karma to make use of such knowledge.3 I also felt particularly concerned to speak to our friends the words that arise from spiritual insight, words arising in a soul as it gives loving aid, to allow practical spiritual love to pass from the hand applying the bandage, from the body of the helper—in a spiritual way—to the person who is receiving help. First of all I spoke of the healing powers present in the human organization as such, of the way the blood flowing from the wound also contains the living principle that has a healing effect on the wound. And then it was said that it is good if the heart is filled with the following words when healing is given to those in need of our aid:

Welling blood,

Work in your welling,

Restless muscle,

Stir germs of growth,

Tenderest care

From warmth of heart,

Be breath of healing.

I believe I can say that a soul filled with such intent will be able to lend healing powers to a hand reaching out to give help. And surely after all that has passed through our souls over the years we must carry the conviction that, being filled with the Christ spirit in our day, we shall be given the power to intervene in the right way wherever destiny demands, wherever destiny puts us. There will be many occasions in days to come when we shall be able to find out if we rightly have the Christ within us, the Christ who acts from our own hearts into the hearts of others, who will unite the suffering person, the person in pain, with ourselves to form a living unity. How often has it been said that as human souls advance into spiritual worlds they also grow able to join their own feelings to the pain that lives in another. And indeed, the one or the other of us will often be put in a position where the events of our time are causing pain. We shall then be able to see if we are strong enough to unite in the right kind of feeling with the pain of the other, if the pain living in the soul of the other can become pain felt in ourselves.

The potential is there for mankind to gradually reach a point where the pain living in another does not spare us, but lives on in us. It is for this purpose that the blood flowed on Golgotha. This is also why at this very time we are endeavouring to strengthen the attitude of heart and mind I have described. This may be achieved with words like the following, spoken as though entirely to oneself and as often as possible when our thoughts are full of the gravity of the present situation, and in the first place addressing the other person. The words are:

Whilst pain is felt by you alone

And not by me.

Christ goes unrecognized

To do his work within the world.

For the spirit cannot grow strong

If it has power only to feel

The suffering your own body undergoes.

My friends, these are the days when every soul that has learned to look into the spiritual world needs to send imploring thoughts to the spirits it believes to be its guardians. These spirits may be asked to show us the right way into our age. And we shall know in our hearts what is right, shall be conscious of the right power in our souls, as we turn to the spirit that is to guide us through our incarnations on earth to what will be truly right for ourselves. You may ask how we are able to know that we are addressing the right spirit. We shall be able to be aware of this if we approach this spirit in a way that is in accord with the true Christ impulse.

For the spirit that guides us towards what is right—and we can be quite certain of this, dear friends—is allied with Christ, is in dialogue with Christ. This spirit is holding such a dialogue with the Christ in the spiritual world now—so that out of the purpose for which battles are fought and blood is shed the right thing may come for the good of mankind. It is in the spirit of Christ that we turn to the spirit who we hope will protect us. Then it will be the right spirit.

The nature of a spirit is, in the language of spiritual science, referred to as the ‘age’ of this spirit. The word is used in this way in the formula you will be hearing next. The term ‘age’ is more or less synonymous with the ‘nature’ of the spirit, for we have come to distinguish spirits on the basis of their age. We speak of luciferic and ahrimanic spirits in exactly this way, knowing that they are now at an age when it is not right for them to develop something that during the right epoch would be the proper thing for the evolving world. This is why we speak of the age of a spirit when we mean its essential nature. The formula is as follows:

Spirit of my space on earth,

Reveal the light of thine age

To the Christ-endowed soul,

That striving it may find

In harmony of spheres of peace

Thee ringing with praise and power

Of mind of man all given up to Christ.

We must try and let the things that have been able to take root in our souls as we worked to attain to the spirit come to fruition, let them come to such fruition that we can hope to be able to face our trials. Let us try and affirm the belief that love is the soul of our efforts to reach the spirit, at a time when love is so much needed—Love and again Love.

That, my friends, is what I so much wanted to speak to you about tonight. May the love that we have invoked so often take firm root in us. May we find a way of keeping faith with each other in these difficult times and keeping faith with all that is sacred and good in mankind. I promise you, my friends, to keep this in my heart and again and again to unite my thoughts with yours in the times that lie ahead. May it be granted—after the symbols we have experienced and which I spoke of initially this evening, when the sounds of war echoed through our building at Dornach and the fires of war were reflected in it—may it be granted that sooner or later it will be possible to speak the Word in this building, of confidence that the spirit shall win the victory, shall be unconquered, aware that the building from its eminence will then look down on a human race that has gone through severe trials and the bitter strife of this day to win from them something that is right, that is good, and is beautiful and true within human evolution. Let us hope that the days of strife may be such that in the days of peace to come it will be possible to look back with contentment on the sacrifices these times have demanded.

It is my hope that the words I have attempted to speak to you this evening may touch your hearts with the same depth from which I believe they have arisen. I hope they will mean something to you in times when many of us have so much to bear. May they also be for you what all the hearts that are now filled with noble enthusiasm and the courage to fight, so filled with this noble enthusiasm and this courage to fight that the spirits who know what is right will look into these hearts with satisfaction. Let this be in our hearts and minds and we shall be able to do the right thing in the right place. The spiritual work we have tried to achieve for so many years now shall, and no doubt will, lend us the strength we need.

So it is goodbye, dear friends, with this in our minds and with these feelings arising in our hearts.

LECTURE 2

BERLIN, 31 OCTOBER 1914

Nationalities and Nationalism in the Light of Spiritual Science

DEAR friends, once again our thoughts must first of all be for those who are at the Front, having to meet the challenge of our time with their bodies and their whole being. Let us therefore direct our thoughts to the spirits who are protecting the people who are at the Front.

Spirits of your souls, guardian guides,

On your wings let there be borne

The prayer of love from our souls

To those whom you guard here on earth.

Thus, united with your might,

A ray of help our prayer shall be

For the souls it seeks out there in love.

And for those who have already passed through the gate of death in the course of these events, we say:

Spirits of your souls, guardian guides,

On your wings let there be borne

The prayer of love from our souls

To those whom you guard in the spheres.

Thus, united with your might,

A ray of help our prayer shall be

For the souls it seeks out there in love.

And the spirit we have sought in our endeavours for so many years, the spirit who went through the Mystery of Golgotha, the Christ spirit, the spirit of courage, the spirit of strength, the spirit of unity, the spirit of peace—may he rule over everything you are asked to do these days.

*

More than at other times the serious purpose of our spiritual efforts must live in our souls during these days, these weeks—a seriousness which enables us to be aware how everything we aim for in our spiritual movement has to do with all that is truly human. We are aiming for something that addresses itself not just to human existence as it is for the moment, an existence that will pass with the human physical body. We are speaking of laws, of forces in soul and spirit, that directly address the higher self in man, a higher self which is more than the self that may wither away with the body and its existence. We have frequently spoken of ‘Maya’ when referring to outward appearances, and it has often been stressed that outward appearances, the processes of physical life, become Maya because man does not properly penetrate them with his mind, his perceptive faculties. He therefore does not sense, does not perceive, what is really significant; the real essence of the things perceptible to the outer senses. Man uses his perceptive faculties to draw a veil, a tissue of deception, over the events of the physical world. This makes them become Maya.

There is one particular great truth that we should have in mind these days as we look for love and understanding, for a loving comprehension of what is happening all around us—an insight that, fundamentally speaking, is at the centre of everything we aim for in spiritual science. In our day this has to present itself to our souls with the full gravity and moral weight inherent in it. It is the realization—and this has by now become the simplest and most elementary fact in our spiritual life—that life on earth recurs. The fact that in the course of time our souls progress from body to body. The part of man that is eternal hastens from body to body through man’s successive incarnations on earth. On the other hand, there is the part that has to do with human existence in a physical body, the part present on the physical plane that provides the configuration, the formation, the particular stamp to human existence in an outer physical body.

One particular thing that provides the outer stamp, determining the character of a person as it were, in so far as he is living in a physical body on the physical plane, is what may collectively be referred to as nationality. This is something we should never forget, especially today. If we turn the mind’s eye to what we call man’s higher self, the concept of nationality loses significance. For when we pass through the gate of death everything encompassed by the term ‘nationality’ is among the things we cast off. And if we do in all seriousness want to be what we think people with spiritual aims should be, it is proper to remember that in passing through successive incarnations the human being belongs not to one but to a number of different nationalities. The part of him that links him to a particular nationality is among the things that are cast off, have to be cast off, the moment we pass through the gate of death.

Truths that belong to the realm of the eternal do not have to be easily understood. Indeed, they may well be truths which at times go against our feelings—truths we achieve with difficulty particularly in difficult times, and also find difficult to achieve and retain in their full strength and clarity in difficult times such as these. A true anthroposophist must do this, and it will be exactly in this way that he arrives at a real understanding of the physical world around him. The basic elements for such understanding have already been presented in our anthroposophical work. You will find that the lecture cycle on folk souls4 in a sense contains everything needed to gain insight into the way human beings, in so far as they are in the eternal realm, are connected with their nationalities. Those lectures were of course given in peacetime when souls are more ready and prepared to accept objective, unvarnished truths. Perhaps it will be difficult to take these truths as objectively today as they could be taken in those days. Yet this is the very way in which we can prepare our souls to develop the strength they need today, if even today we are able to take these truths objectively.

Let us bring before our mind’s eye the picture of a warrior going through the gate of death on the field of battle. We need to understand that this is very much a special case, to go through the gate of death like this. We need to understand that entrance is made into a world that we are seeking with every fibre of our souls in spiritual science, so that it may bring clarity even into physical life. Let us remember that death means the entrance into that spiritual world and that it is not possible to take other life impulses directly into that world, for they would bear no fruit. The only life impulses we are able to take there are those that animate the efforts of our hearts and minds and in the final instance aim to join all peoples on the earth in brotherhood. Then a simple popular saying can be seen in a new way in the light of anthroposophy. It is the proverb which says ‘Death is the grand leveller’. It makes them all equal—Frenchmen. Englishmen, Germans and Russians. That is indeed true. Considering this in relation to what is going on all around us on the physical plane today, we shall indeed become aware of the solid ground that enables us to overcome Maya in this field and look to events for their essential meaning.

Consider it in relation to the feelings of antipathy and hatred that fill the hearts of the peoples of Europe at present. Consider it in relation to all the things peoples in the different regions of European soil feel about the others, expressing it in spoken and written words. And let us also see in our mind’s eye all the antipathy coming to full fruition in our time.

How should we see these things with the eye of truth? Where in this field do we find something that will take us beyond Maya, beyond the great illusion? We do not get to know about each other on earth by an approach that considers everything that is generally human as something abstract. We get to know one another by getting in a position where we are able really to understand the peculiar qualities of the peoples who are spread out over the whole earth, to understand them in concrete terms, in what they are in particular. We do not get to know a person in this life by simply saying: He is a human being like myself and must have all the same qualities that I have. No, we have to forget about ourselves and really consider the qualities of the other person.

In the lecture cycle on the folk souls I showed how the different aspects of the soul within us—the sentient soul, the intellectual or mind soul, the spiritual soul, the ego and the spirit-self—are distributed among the nations of Europe and how every nation fundamentally represents a one-sided aspect. I also said that the different nationalities will have to work together, to become the soul of Europe as a whole, just as the different aspects of our own soul need to work together.

Looking at the Italian and the Iberian peninsulas we find that the national element comes to expression in the sentient soul. In France, it comes to expression as intellectual or mind soul. Moving on to the British Isles we see it coming to expression as spiritual soul. In Central Europe the national element comes to expression as ego. When we finally look to the East of Europe, that is the region where it fully emerges as spirit-self—though that is not quite the right way of putting it, as we shall see later. What comes to expression there is something that lies in the national character. But the eternal in man goes beyond what is national and this is what human beings are looking for when entering more deeply into the spirit. Compared to this, the national element is a mere garment, an outer envelope, and the more a person is able to gain insight into this the higher he will ascend. In so far as man lives in the physical world, he does live in the outward trappings of what is national and this gives his body its configuration and, fundamentally speaking, also provides the configuration for certain qualities, character traits.

Today we see the members of different nations facing one another in dislike, in hatred. I am not at this point speaking about what is going on in the combat situation. I am speaking of what is going on in the feelings, the passions, of human souls. Here we have a soul. It needs to prepare for its reception into a spiritual world through which it will now have to pass between death and its next birth, a world that will guide it towards an incarnation that will belong to quite a different nationality from the one it is now leaving. This is a fact which shows very clearly, in the best and most powerful way, how man resists the higher self that is within him. Consider some real ‘nationalist’ today, someone with national feelings who directs his antipathy very particularly against the members of another nation and, indeed, may be ranting and raving against this other nation in his own country. What is the meaning of such ranting and raving, of such antipathy? It signifies a premonition: my next incarnation will be into this nationality! The higher self has already at subconscious level established links with the other nationality. This higher self is resisted by that part of us which on the physical plane. This is man raging against his own higher self. Wherever the ranting and raving is worst, wherever the hatred felt against other nationalities is greatest and where the most lies are told about them, someone seeing things not as Maya but in truth can perceive the true reason, which is that a great many members of the nation that rages most, is most cruel in its attitudes and lies the most, will have to assume that other nationality at their next incarnation.

That is the full seriousness of what we teach, the moral greatness that lies behind it. There is much in man—very much, infinitely much—that wants to resist having to recognize his higher self, the part of him that is eternal. This is what makes it so tremendously difficult to speak objectively at the present time. It certainly is a strange phenomenon that before this war started infinitely appreciative comments reached us from England, appreciative of the German character, German competence and particularly the intellectual life in Germany. I attempted to give examples of this in my last public lecture.5 It is possible to give many more examples, and this shall also be done. What was going on there?

From the occult point of view, there had been an instinctive feeling that an element was being striven for in Central Europe that had to do with regaining youth—I spoke of the Faust type of soul in that last public lecture—a search for the spiritual, preparing for the spiritual, something the whole of Europe would one day turn to, truly turn to. This is something people were instinctively aware of in times gone by. The desire has been to understand what is going on in Central Europe. Yet being wholly bound up with the national element, we shall only be able to relate to this in full understanding in the life between death and rebirth. Then it will be possible to relate to this and understand, and the way will be found to the teachers of Central Europe. It is embarrassing to speak of this now for it may appear like boasting in someone who comes from Central Europe. Yet the objective truths must be told.

So there is an instinctive feeling for something that will be looked for in the life between death and rebirth: a uniting with souls that have striven for what is altogether human—with the Goethe soul, the Schiller soul, the Fichte soul. [Johann Gottlieb Fichte, 1762–1814, German idealist philosopher.] There has been some awareness of the fact that, having passed through the gate of death, we shall look above all for the Goethe soul, the Fichte soul, the Schiller soul and other souls that had their last incarnation in Central Europe. This fact had come to expression instinctively, and now once more, for the last time, infinitely passionate nationalistic feeling is rising against it. When we realize that the words so often heard now from the west and the north west are but covering up this feeling of resistance we shall have come to understand the truth, to replace Maya, misconception. We shall then understand how earth man, having eternal man within him, does not want what the eternal man within him wants; how the love he must feel in eternity is in the temporal world transformed into hatred.

We shall find that the best way of achieving love in understanding, and understanding in love, will be to get to know the characteristics of European peoples using the means spiritual science is able to provide. We are allowed to do so in so far as we are always addressing the higher self in man. And all who want to share in our way of thought or feeling will recognize this higher self and therefore be able to listen to everything that has to be said with regard to the outer garb, knowing that we are speaking of the outer garb.

In a certain sense every nation has its specific mission. In due course we shall be able to enter the building in Dornach and find that the sequence of columns, their capitals and the architraves above them, express in their forms what comes to expression in the impulses we discern in Europe. But I am not going to talk about this now for it is best to talk about it when we have the building before our eyes. That is what I did there a few days ago.6

If we consider the impression our soul may gain even without seeing the building, we note above all that the inhabitants of the southern peninsulas—Italy and Spain—are, in a way, bringing back in their modern mission the elements that in the past had appeared in the third post-Atlantean epoch, in Egypto-Chaldean civilization. As soon as we grasp this, we gain a true insight into the soul of an Italian or Spanish national. This can be traced down to specific details.

It is possible to say that we find in reality what we have previously perceived in the spirit. What were the characteristic features of Egypto-Chaldean civilization? This is something we have spoken of many times. They had a feeling for the great, cosmic astrology. Stars and constellations were not seen the way we see them today. Instead, spiritual entities were perceived and the constellations were seen as their physical exterior. The spiritual was seen in everything. If this is to be repeated as the mission of a nation in the time after the Mystery of Golgotha it has to be repeated in such a way that it now is part of the inner soul—that the great cosmic tableau seen by the Egyptians and Chaldeans now presents itself as though born anew out of the soul. This is nowhere more evident than in Dante’s Divina Comedia, a work representing the high point of culture on the Italian peninsula. [Dante Alighieri, 1265–1321.] Even in details, the elements of ancient Egypto-Chaldean culture emerge again as though born out of the soul, resurrected in the inner life.