Anthroposophy as a Substance of Life and Feeling
GA 140
16 February 1913, Tübingen
Translator Unknown
If we pause at times in the midst of our anthroposophical considerations and then ask ourselves: What leads us into a spiritual movement such as our anthroposophical movement? ... we may of course answer a similar question from many different stand-points. One of the standpoints (although it is not the only one, it is nevertheless the most important one) which is able more than any other to supply a satisfactory answer is the contemplation of the course of life which the human soul experiences in feelings between death and a new birth. Indeed, the events which take place during the long span of life between death and a new birth are not less important or detailed than the events which take place between birth and death; yet we are only able to single out a few of the important things which we must experience. We may say, however, that whenever and at whatever point we observe the life between death and a new birth it always convinces us that humanity must prepare itself for a time when it will know and feel something concerning the super-sensible worlds.
Let us now penetrate at once into definite and concrete facts. If a clairvoyant who is able to contemplate life between death and a new birth perceives what will be described below, this sight may indeed induce him to consider it as an urgent task to spread the knowledge of the spiritual world! Let us take the case of a man who has died. The clairvoyant seeks him, he tries to see him some time after the person in question has passed through the portal of death. In the manner in which it is possible to communicate with the dead, he may hear the following words spoken by the departed one. (This is a concrete case.) The departed one will speak to him as follows: “I have left my wife behind; I know that she is still dwelling in the physical world.” (Of course, the dead man does not express himself with physical words.) “While I was living with her in the physical world, and while I attended to my work at the office from morning to night, she has always been the sunshine of my life. Every one of her words filled me with happiness; indeed, my life was so that I could not imagine it without the sunshine shed over it by the partner of my life. I then passed through the portal of death and left her behind. Now I am longing to be back again, I feel how I miss everything and my longing soul seeks to find a path leading to the companion of my life. But I cannot find this soul, I cannot penetrate to where she is dwelling, it is just as if she were no longer there. And if at times I have an inkling of her presence and feel as if she were there, as if I were in her neighbourhood, she is dumb, so that I only compare this with the case of two people, one of whom is filled with the desire that the other one speak a few words to him, while the other silent and cannot speak. Thus the soul that has filled me with bliss for such a long time during my physical life has now grown silent”.
You see, if we investigate what may be the cause of all this we obtain the answer: there is no language in common between the departed and the living who have remained behind. Nothing fills the soul with a substance which would continue to render it perceptible. Because a language in common is lacking, two souls feel separated.
This was not always the case. If we go back further into human evolution we find that the souls possessed a certain spiritual inheritance, a spirituality rendered them perceptible to one another not only upon the physical plane, but also when one of them dwelt in the physical and the other in the spiritual world. But the old heirloom of spiritual inwardness has been used up and to-day it exists no longer, so that the distressing case may really arise that one soul who has been loved by the other as dearly as I have just described, cannot be found beyond death by the soul, because nothing of what can be perceived by the departed soul lives within the soul who has remained upon the earth. What can be perceived by the departed soul is spiritual knowledge and spiritual feelings: this is the link which connects the soul upon the earth with the spiritual world. If here upon the earth a soul who has remained behind has fostered the knowledge of spiritual world, and if thoughts connected with the spiritual world have passed through this soul, these thoughts may be perceived by the departed soul, even the old religious feelings suffice to give soul something which may be perceived by the other soul. If it were possible to trace this case still further, the seer would discover that even when both souls have passed through death the departed souls are only able to perceive one another dimly; they are quite unable to establish a reciprocal connection, or they have the greatest difficulty in doing this, because they have no language in common. Clairvoyance reveals the deeper meaning of Anthroposophy: it is the language which will gradually be spoken both by the living and by the dead, by those who dwell in the physical world and by those who live between death and a new birth. The souls who have remained behind and who have taken up within them thoughts concerning the super-sensible worlds become visible to the souls of the departed. If they have strewn out love before death, they will do this also after death. This may convince us that Anthroposophy is a language which renders perceptible to the super-sensible world what takes place in the world of physical events. Indeed, the danger threatening humanity upon the earth is that the souls will become more and more estranged from one another and will be unable to build a connecting bridge, if spiritual ideas do not enable them to find the thread which links up souls. This is the reality of Anthroposophy, for it is not a mere theory. Theoretical knowledge is the very least; what we take up within us is a real soul-elixir, real substance. This substance enables the soul who has passed through death to see the soul who has remained behind. We may say that the seer who has an insight into these things, who has once perceived a soul filled with longing to see what it has left behind upon the earth, but unable to see it because its family has not yet found Anthroposophy—the seer who has perceived how the souls suffer under similar privations, knows that he cannot do otherwise than to speak to his fellow-beings about spiritual wisdom, and to consider that the time has come when spiritual wisdom must enter the hearts of men. We may say that those whose mission is based upon the knowledge of the super-sensible worlds feel that it is an urgent necessity to speak about the super-sensible worlds, a necessity which cannot be overlooked, for this would be the greatest sin of all. Thus they feel the necessity of proclaiming anthroposophical truths, of making revelations concerning the super-sensible worlds.
What has just been said may show you the tremendous earnestness connected with the necessity of revealing spiritual truths. But there is still another aspect of the communication between the living and the dead. We have not advanced very far in this direction, but we shall gradually progress. In order to understand how the living will gradually be able to establish a kind of communication with those who have departed, we must bear in mind the following things. Very little indeed is known concerning the physical world. For how is this knowledge of the physical world acquired? By using the senses and applying thought, by feeling what comes toward us from the world outside. But this is only the very least part of what is contained in the world outside. It contains still other things. I would like you to have some idea of the fact that there are still other things in the world which are far more important than what is real in a physical sense. I do not mean the super-sensible world, but something else. Imagine, for instance, that you are accustomed to go to your office every day at 8 a.m. One day you discover that on that particular morning you are three minutes late, and you happen to cross a certain square where you would have been obliged to pass through a kind of garage with a roof supported by columns. On that particular day on which you cross the square three minutes later than usual you realise that had you been punctual—that is to say, had you not been three minutes late—you would have been killed by the collapsing roof. Try to imagine this quite vividly You may also take the case of a man who misses a train which is afterwards wrecked in a collision; he would have been killed had he left by that train! All these are things which have not taken place, and this is why people do not notice them. But if something similar faces you, so that you must hit upon it, it will undoubtedly make an impression upon you. The day's course from morning to night always contains things which have not occurred to you. These are beyond your range of sight, things which may perhaps seem “invented”, yet they belong to the most important ingredients of life. You will have an inkling of these facts if you consider, for instance, the case of certain man in Berlin who had booked a berth on the Titanic. He met an acquaintance who told him: “I wish you would not leave on the Titanic!” He actually succeeded in persuading him to postpone his departure. The Titanic was sunk, and so this man escaped death. This undoubtedly made an indelible impression upon him. This is a special case, yet similar cases continually occur unnoticed: if they are noticed, they make a deep impression upon the human soul.
Let us now observe things from another aspect: How many impressions and feelings escape our attention because we are unable to perceive the dangers from which we have been preserved!
If we could observe everything that is so closely connected with these things and that escapes notice, we would pass through the world with entirely different feelings. The seer discovers the following possibility: Let us suppose, that the above-mentioned example is true. You actually cross that square three minutes later than usual. The moment in which you cross the square is the most appropriate one in which to hear a dead person who wishes to be perceived by you, who wishes to speak within you. You may then think or feel: Whence do the feelings come which now arise within my soul? This is not necessarily restricted to these particular cases, it may occur in many ways. Men will begin to feel these things if they observe also the world of possible events, not only the world of physical happenings. Real are, for instance, a great number of herrings in the sea; but they are possible only because an infinite quantity of eggs has been laid. Thus an infinite wealth of possibilities lies concealed within the depths of life. What is real, is related to the example of the herrings in the same way as the life destroyed within the eggs. This is what makes such an infinitely significant impression upon the seer who reaches the boundary line separating the two worlds. The seer may there obtain the following impression: “How infinitely great and full of contents are, events which take place in the super-sensible world, yet only a small part of all this becomes real in our world of the senses!” If this has been experienced, also the following may be felt: “Infinite things lie concealed within the depths of life.“ This feeling will develop with the aid of anthroposophical thoughts. We shall be able to feel that every point containing something which is real in the physical meaning, conceals something within it. Behind every flower, every breath of air, little stone and crystal lie infinite possibilities. Anthroposophists will gradually develop this feeling, so that reverence and devotion for what lies concealed within things will gradually unfold. If human beings gradually develop this feeling they will discover quite independently that during moments such as those which have just been described they will enter into a relationship with those who are dead as far as earthly life is concerned. The dead will begin to speak. In the future, men will experience as something quite normal that a dead person is speaking within their soul. They will gradually learn to know the source of these communications; that is to say, they will recognise who is speaking to them. Only because to-day men pass by so carelessly before the infinite world of the dead and the infinite depth of what is possible, only because of this they do not hear what the dead wish to speak within the hearts of the living.
The twofold aspect of the things which I have just explained to you, namely, that through the living souls, through the thoughts of anthroposophists, something is formed here which can be perceived by the dead—and that the dead will be able to speak to the hearts that have found their way into anthroposophical feelings—may show you the transformation which can take place for the whole of humanity through the spreading of Anthroposophy. A bridge will be built uniting these worlds with the worlds beyond. And it is a fact that the life between death and a new birth will change. It will not merely be a theory, it will become a reality, so that communication will be established between the so-called living and the dead, who are, however, more alive than we. The souls upon the earth will then also be able to feel what can be so fruitful for the dead. For if we do not feel how beneficial it is for the dead, if we reach out to them, we cannot do this in the right way.
Let us now take an extreme case. You may experience it if you are an anthroposophist and live with someone else as brother or sister, father or mother, husband or wife. Whereas one of the two feels attracted by Anthroposophy, the other one may be filled with hatred while the former is approaching Anthroposophy! How often we come across this! It may indeed take on this form in the sphere of consciousness, but not within the soul. Something else may take place there. In the astral body there is the sub-consciousness. Whereas someone may be raging violently against Anthroposophy, his sub-consciousness may be filled with an intense desire to know something about Anthroposophy. The more someone inveighs against Anthroposophy, the more he will have in his sub-consciousness the longing and the impulse to know something about Anthroposophy. When we cross the threshold of death, things take on their true aspect and nothing can be masked. Here upon the earth we may tell lies and pretend to be different from what we really are; but after death everything becomes true and shows its real countenance. If during our life on earth we have inveighed strongly against Anthroposophy, a longing for Anthroposophy will arise after death, and we shall suffer torments because this longing cannot be satisfied. A person who is still alive could, for instance, imagine that he is sitting in front of a departed one; he should then harbour anthroposophical thoughts, for the departed soul will understand these thoughts, even if he has not been an anthroposophist during his lifetime. If the living person is an anthroposophist, the departed one will in that case be able to perceive him.
What we may call, a certain inclination toward the language spoken during life, this is a fact which should be borne in mind, because soon after death the dead person still has a certain connection with the language which he has spoken during his life. For this reason, we should clothe our thoughts in the language which the dead person was accustomed to speak; after five, six, eight years, however—in some cases even sooner—it is evident that the language of the Spirit is able to overcome the obstacles arising out of the external form of speech, and the deceased can understand anthroposophical thoughts even if he has spoken another language during his lifetime. In any case, it has proved to be something very beautiful if an anthroposophist has read to a departed friend, particularly to one who has not been an anthroposophist during his lifetime. This has proved to be an enormous benefit to the dead, one of the greatest services of love. We do not merely wish to spread Anthroposophy as a teaching—this should be done, of course, for it is necessary—but Anthroposophy should also be active within the soul in a far more unobtrusive way. Spiritual tasks, even spiritual offices, may, as it were, develop and be of great help to the souls in their development after death. And this is what we should strive after more and more: to help the souls who live between death and a new birth to overcome a great difficulty, consisting therein that the old spiritual inheritance does not exist any longer, for a time has come in which it is very difficult for the souls to find the right direction after death, in which it is almost impossible for the souls who dwell between death and a new birth to find their way about.
The seer may then discover that, between death and a new birth, there are souls who are forced to undertake certain tasks, which they do not, however, understand. This, for instance, is a fact: The seer who directs his clairvoyant gaze toward the life between death and a new birth may discern souls who are obliged to fulfil definite tasks. For a certain length of time they must be the servants of powers who are known to us as the spirits of death and illness. We must here speak of a death which does not occur as a regular phenomenon, but takes hold of men before their time, so that they die in the flower of their life. When illnesses arise, these are physical events, but they are caused by forces coming from the super-sensible worlds. The deeds of super-sensible beings lie at the foundation of illnesses which spread rapidly. It is the task of certain spirits to bring premature death. That this is nevertheless rooted in wisdom, is a fact which we cannot consider just now; but it is essential to observe that we come across souls who are under the yoke of these beings. And although the seer must have grown accustomed to a certain composure and calmness, it is nevertheless painful and distressing to watch these souls labouring under a yoke, who are obliged to bring illness and death to the human beings upon the earth. And if the seer tries to retrace the path of these souls until he comes to their preceding life upon the earth, he will discover why these souls are now condemned to be the servants of the spirits of illness and death. The cause lies in the unscrupulousness which these souls have unfolded during their physical life. To the extent in which they have been unscrupulous during their life upon the earth, they now condemn themselves to be the servants of these evil beings. Just as cause and effect are connected when two balls collide, so must unscrupulous people become the servants of these evil powers. This is a deeply moving fact! There is still another thing which the seer perceives: there are souls who are under the yoke of ahrimanic spirits; they must prepare the spiritual causes of everything which occurs here in the form of obstacles and hindrances to our actions. Ahriman also has this task. All the obstacles which arise here, are the result of influences emanating from the spiritual world. Servants of Ahriman do this. Why are these souls compelled to perform these services? Because they were addicted to a comfortable, indolent way of living during their existence between birth and death. And if you consider how many people are indolent and lazy, you will find that Ahriman may expect a very great number of recruits! It is this lazy indolence which influences human life to a great extent. Even modern political economists now take into account not only human egoism and competition, but also this inclination toward a comfortable life. Comfort has become a life-factor.
It is another matter, however, if we have these experiences so that we are able to find our way about and know why we must experience them, or whether we experience them unconsciously, without knowing why we must serve these spirits. If we know why we are under the yoke of the evil spirits who bring epidemic diseases, we also know what good qualities will be required in our next life in order to bring about a cosmic adjustment annulling the evil influences. If we cannot understand these experiences, we do indeed form the same karma, but we create something which will be adjusted only in the second incarnation, so that we retard our real progress. For this reason, it is important to learn to know these things here upon the earth, for after death we shall experience them. We must learn something about them here upon the earth. Also this shows us how urgently necessary it is to render this new knowledge accessible to men by spreading spiritual truths, because the old form of knowledge no longer exists. The question, “Why are we anthroposophists?” should be answered by the spiritual facts themselves, which appeal profoundly not only to our understanding, but also to our feelings. Thus we gradually learn to consider Anthroposophy as a universal language enabling us to break down the barrier between the worlds in which our soul alternately dwells within a physical body and outside a physical body. The dividing wall hiding the super-sensible world from our sight will fall if spiritual science really penetrates into the souls of men. We must feel this, and then we shall have a true, inward enthusiasm for Anthroposophy.
Let me speak of still another phenomenon. The seer will experience that a special moment enters the life of the souls between death and a new birth, a moment which has an enormous influence upon the seer, and also upon those who are passing through it. This moment will lie further back in the case of some souls, and in the case of others it will appear sooner. If we observe sleep with a clairvoyant eye, when the human being is outside his physical body with his astral body and his Ego and looks back upon the physical and etheric bodies, we shall generally gain the impression that the physical body appears to be slowly dying. Only during earliest childhood, until the child acquires an understanding and his memory begins, the sleep in the child's body appears as something which blossoms and flourishes; but very soon, and in a way which is clearly evident to the seer, the body begins to wither away soon after it has entered physical life; death is merely the last stage of this process of decadence. Sleep exists in order that the used-up forces may become regenerated. But this regeneration is incomplete. The unregenerated part which remains behind is always, to a small extent, a cause of death. If these unregenerated parts accumulate, so that the forces of regeneration can no longer assert themselves, the human being falls a prey to physical death. Thus, if we observe the human body, we see that death is a gradual process. We really die slowly and gradually from the moment of birth onward. This makes a very profound impression upon us when we first become aware of it.
Between death and a new birth the soul is faced by a moment in which it begins to develop forces enabling it to enter the next existence. Let me indicate an example showing you what I really mean: To-day there are already quite a number of books dealing with Goethe's character and natural dispositions. Scientists endeavour to discover the ancestors from whom Goethe may have inherited this or that capacity. The source and cause of spiritual capacities are therefore sought in the physical line of heredity. I do not wish to contest this, but if one follows the path of the soul between death and a new birth, the following fact may be discovered: Let us take Goethe's soul. Long, long before it is born, it already exercises an influence upon its' ancestors from the super-sensible worlds, and it is already connected with the ancestors through forces living within it. Its influence is even of such a kind that it brings together in an appropriate way the men and women who are able to supply, after a long time, the qualities required by the soul. This is not an easy task, for many souls are involved in it. If you bear in mind the fact that men of the 18th century descend from souls of the 16th century, and that all these souls have been working together, you will realise that such an understanding is most important. Souls who are born in the 18th or 19th century must come to an understanding with other souls already during the 16th century in order to arrange the whole net of relationships. A great deal of work must be done between death and a new birth. We do not only work in an objective way by filling up one part of our time with services rendered to the spirits of hindrance, and so forth, as explained above—but we must also develop forces which render it possible for us to reincarnate. It then appears that we must prepare our form in a primal image. This makes the very opposite impression of what the seer perceives when he looks clairvoyantly upon the sleeping physical body and the etheric body. During sleep, the physical and etheric body appear to be withering away; but what is formed there as a primal image which gradually penetrates into physical Nature gives us the impression of something which blossoms and flourishes.
An important moment, therefore, appears between death and a new birth: it lies between the recollection of the preceding life and the transition to the next existence, when the human being begins to build up his physical organism. If you imagine physical death and compare it with this moment, you will find that it is the exact opposite of physical death. Physical death is the transition from physical existence to a non-existence; the moment described above is the transition from non-existence to a growing existence. If we are able to understand this moment, we experience it in an entirely different way than if we do not understand it.
A thought such as this one, dealing with the opposite aspect of death and with what occurs between death and a new birth, should really become a feeling within the soul of an anthroposophist. It should not merely be grasped with the intellect, but should be felt and permeated with feeling. Then we shall be able to experience how much richer our life becomes if the soul takes up similar ideas. Something else will then arise: namely, that, generally speaking, the soul will gradually acquire a feeling for the many things which exist in the world. If we walk through a wood in the spring and have first meditated upon the idea which I have described above, we shall not be far—if we really notice these things—from perceiving the spirits that weave and work in between the physical things. The perception of the spiritual world would really not be so difficult if the human beings themselves would not render it so difficult. If we try to permeate our feelings with what we have taken up in our thoughts, if we try to awaken them inwardly to life, this striving will open our spiritual eyes. Things such as those which have been explained to-day are intended as a help, so that anthroposophical striving may acquire life. The description of similar things always makes us feel that it is like a stammering, because our language is adapted only for the physical world, and it requires a great effort in order to produce at least a faint idea of the reality of these things; in fact, special means of description must come to our aid. But just this way of speaking about these things may awaken within our hearts what we may designate anthroposophically as a substance of feeling.
Anthroposophy should become for us a substance of feeling and a life-substance, so that we may not look upon the acquisition of anthroposophical ideas as something insignificant, but gladly take hold of them, and attribute the chief importance not to the thoughts themselves, but to what Anthroposophy makes of us.
Anthroposophie Als Empfindungs- Und Lebensgehalt. Andacht Und Ehrfurcht Vor Dem Verborgenen
Wenn wir in unseren anthroposophischen Betrachtungen zuweilen innehalten und uns dann fragen: Was treibt uns in eine solche spirituelle Bewegung, wie es die unsrige ist, hinein? —-, dann können wir uns natürlich von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus eine Antwort auf diese Fragen geben. Einer derjenigen Gesichtspunkte, welcher am meisten unserem Gefühl, unserer Empfindung entsprechende Antwort geben kann, das ist — obwohl nicht der einzige, so doch der wichtigste Gesichtspunkt: die Betrachtung des Lebens, welches die Menschenseele verlaufen fühlt zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Die Ereignisse, die sich abspielen in der langen Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, sind wahrhaftig nicht geringer als die Ereignisse zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode; und wir können immer nur einzelne dieser wichtigen Ereignisse, die wir durchzumachen haben, herausheben. Aber man möchte sagen, wo man auch dieses Leben zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt betrachtet, überall überzeugt es uns davon, wie die Menschheit einer Zeit entgegenleben muß, in der sie etwas weiß und fühlt von den übersinnlichen Welten.
Nun wollen wir gleich sozusagen in das Bestimmte, das Konkrete hineingehen. Wenn sich dem Seher, der die Möglichkeit hat, das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt zu betrachten, folgender Anblick bietet, so kann schon dieser Anblick ihm die dringende Pflicht auferlegen, für die Erkenntnis der spirituellen Welt zu wirken. Ein Mensch ist hingestorben. Der Seher sucht ihn auf, sucht ihn zu schauen einige Zeit, nachdem der betreffende Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Auf diejenige Art, durch die man sich mit den Toten verständigt, kann man folgendes von dem Toten vernehmen - es ist nun ein ganz bestimmter Fall. Er sagt: Da habe ich zurückgelassen meine Frau, ich weiß, sie ist noch unten in der physischen Welt. — Selbstverständlich wird das nicht mit physischen Worten gesagt. — Als ich mit ihr zusammenlebte in der physischen Welt, da war sie, nachdem ich von morgens bis abends meinem Geschäfte obgelegen hatte, jederzeit mein Sonnenschein, da war jedes Wort, das sie aussprach, mir beseligend; und es war so, daß ich mir nicht denken konnte, daß ich dieses Leben überhaupt hätte leben mögen, wenn es nicht immerfort durchsonnt worden wäre von dieser meiner Lebensgefährtin. Dann ging ich durch die Pforte des Todes und ließ sie zurück; und jetzt sehne ich mich zurück, jetzt fühle ich, daß dies mir alles fehlt, ich suche mit der sehnenden Seele einen Weg zu finden zu dieser meiner Lebensgefährtin. Aber ich finde diese Seele nicht, ich kann nicht durchdringen zu ihr, es ist, wie wenn sie nicht da wäre. Und wenn ich zuweilen eine Ahnung bekomme, fühle, als ob sie da wäre, als ob ich in ihrer Nähe wäre, dann ist sie wie stumm, so daß ich es nur vergleichen kann mit dem Gegenüberstehen zweier Menschen, von denen der eine haben möchte, daß der andere zu ihm einige Worte spreche, der andere aber ist stumm und kann nichts sagen. So ist mir die Seele stumm geworden, die für mich so beseligend war lange Zeit des physischen Lebens. — Nun, sehen Sie, wenn man nachforscht, was einer solchen Tatsache zugrunde liegt, da bekommt man zur Antwort: Es gibt da eben keine gemeinsame Sprache zwischen dem Hingestorbenen und dem zurückgebliebenen Lebenden. Es gibt nichts, was die Seele mit jener Substanz durchdringen könnte, durch die sie wahrnehmbar bleibt. Weil keine gemeinsame Sprache da ist, fühlen sich diese zwei Seelen getrennt.
Es war nicht immer so. Wenn wir weiter zurückgehen in der Menschheitsentwickelung, finden wir, daß die Seelen ein gewisses geistiges Erbgut jener Spiritualität hatten, durch die sie füreinander wahrnehmbar waren, gleichgültig, ob sie hier auf dem physischen Plan sind oder ob die eine hier in der physischen, die andere in der spirituellen Welt ist. Aber jenes alte Erbstück spiritueller Innerlichkeit ist heute aufgezehrt, es ist heute nicht mehr da, und es kann wirklich der schmerzliche Fall eintreten, daß eine Seele, die von der andern so geliebt worden ist, wie eben angedeutet wurde, von der andern Seele nicht mehr gefunden wird jenseits des Todes, weil in der zurückgebliebenen Seele nichts lebt, was wahrgenommen werden kann von der hingestorbenen. Dasjenige nämlich, was wahrgenommen werden kann von der gestorbenen Seele, ist das spirituelle Wissen, Fühlen und Empfinden; das ist der Zusammenhang der Seele hier auf Erden mit der geistigen Welt. Wenn eine solche Seele zurückgelassen wird, die sich hier mit Wissen, mit Erkenntnis der spirituellen Welten befaßt, Gedanken davon durch sich ziehen läßt, dann können diese Gedanken wahrgenommen werden von der hingeschiedenen Seele. Nicht einmal die alten religiösen Empfindungen reichen aus, um der Seele etwas zu geben, was von der andern Seele wahrgenommen werden kann. — Wenn dieser Fall weiter verfolgt werden würde, würde sich für den Seher zeigen, daß auch, wenn beide Seelen dann durch den Tod gegangen sind, sich die hingestorbenen Seelen nur dunkel wahrnehmen können — aber gar nicht oder nur sehr schwierig eine gegenseitige Verständigung herbeiführen können, weil sie keine gemeinschaftliche Sprache führen können.
Als Seher kommt man darauf, was im tiefern Sinn Anthroposophie ist: sie ist die Sprache, welche allmählich sprechen werden die Lebenden und die Toten, solche, die leben in der physischen Welt, und solche, die leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Die Seelen, die zurückgeblieben sind und die in sich aufgenommen haben Vorstellungen von den übersinnlichen Welten, die können auch von solchen wahrgenommen und geschaut werden, welche hingeschieden sind. Wenn sie Liebe ausgestreut haben vor dem Tode, können sie es auch nach dem Tode tun. Das bringt uns die Überzeugung, daß Anthroposophie eine Sprache ist, welche wahrnehmbar macht, was vorgeht in der Welt des Physischen für die Welt des Übersinnlichen. Ja, das steht der Erdenmenschheit in Aussicht, daß die Seelen immer einsamer werden müssen, keine Brücke mehr zu einander schlagen können, wenn die Seelen nicht das Band werden finden können, das von Seele zu Seele gezogen werden muß durch die Aufnahme spiritueller Begriffe. Das ist die Realität der Anthroposophie, denn sie ist keine bloße Theorie. Das theoretische Wissen ist das Allerwenigste; was wir in uns aufnehmen, ist ein wirkliches Seelenelixier, eine wirkliche Substanz. Durch diese Substanz sieht die Seele, die durch den Tod gegangen ist, jene Seele, die zurückgeblieben ist. Man darf sagen: Der Seher, der dies durchschaut, der einmal eine solche Seele erkennt, die sich sehnt, wahrzunehmen das, was sie zurückgelassen hat auf der Erde, es aber nicht wahrnehmen kann, weil die betreffende Familie noch nicht in die Geisteswissenschaft hineingekommen ist, der Seher, der das geschaut hat, was die Seelen unter solchen Entbehrungen leiden können, der weiß, daß er gar nicht anders kann, als seinen Mitmenschen von der spirituellen Weisheit zu sprechen und die Zeit für gekommen zu erachten, in welcher die spirituelle Weisheit eintreten muß in die Menschenherzen. Das dürfen wir sagen, daß diejenigen, welche aus der Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welten selbst die Mission herleiten, zu sprechen über diese übersinnlichen Welten, dies als eine dringende Notwendigkeit fühlen, gegen die sie nie handeln können; das wäre die schwerste Sünde. So fühlen sie die Notwendigkeit, spirituelle Verkündigungen, Offenbarungen über die übersinnlichen Welten zu geben.
Aus dem, was eben gesagt worden ist, können Sie entnehmen, welch ungeheurer Ernst verknüpft ist mit der Notwendigkeit geistiger Verkündigungen. Es gibt aber auch eine andere Seite der Verständigung der Lebenden mit den Toten. In dieser Beziehung sind wir jedoch noch nicht weit, aber es wird kommen. Um verstehen zu können, wie nach und nach die Lebenden eine Art Verständigung werden erzielen können mit denen, die hingestorben sind, müssen wir folgende Betrachtung anstellen. Der Mensch weiß das Allerwenigste von der physischen Welt. Denn wodurch verschafft er sich sein Wissen von der physischen Welt? Dadurch, daß er seine Sinne gebraucht, seine Phantasie anwendet, daß er empfindet, was ihm in der äußeren Welt entgegentritt. Das ist aber nur der geringste Teil von dem, was die Welt enthält. Sie enthält noch etwas ganz anderes. Ich möchte, daß Sie eine Vorstellung bekommen davon, daß es etwas gibt in der Welt, was viel wichtiger ist als das sinnlich Wirkliche. Ich meine auch nicht die übersinnliche Welt, sondern etwas anderes. Denken Sie sich einmal, Sie seien gewöhnt, jeden Tag acht Uhr morgens in Ihr Geschäft zu gehen; auf einmal bemerken Sie, daß Sie heute drei Minuten später gehen, und siehe da, Sie gehen über einen bestimmten Platz, wo Sie hätten durchgehen müssen durch eine Art von Remise, auf der ein Dach ist, das auf Säulen gestützt ist, und als Sie heute diese drei Minuten später ankommen, wird es Ihnen klar, daß — wären Sie heute rechtzeitig angekommen, also nicht drei Minuten später als gewöhnlich — Sie erschlagen worden wären von dem heruntergestürzten Dach. Malen Sie sich das aus! Es kommt vor, daß ein Mensch einen Eisenbahnzug versäumt, welcher unterwegs einen Zusammenstoß erleidet. Wäre er mit diesem Zuge noch mitgekommen, so wäre er umgekommen. Das sind lauter Dinge, die nicht geschahen, deshalb beachtet sie der Mensch nicht. Wenn Sie ein solches Ereignis vor sich haben, durch das Sie gerade wie mit der Nase darauf gestoßen werden, dann macht es einen bestimmten Eindruck auf Sie. Aber von morgens bis abends können ja immer solche Dinge vorgehen, die Sie alle nicht betroffen haben im Laufe des Tages. Das ist unübersehbar. Das alles sind Dinge, die vielleicht «erspintisiert» aussehen können, sie gehören aber zu den allerwichtigsten Teilen des Lebens. Sie werden eine gewisse Empfindung haben, wenn Sie sehen, sagen wir zum Beispiel einen Menschen in Berlin, der ein Billett hatte für die Titanic; ihn trifft ein Bekannter, der sagt: Ich möchte haben, daß du nicht mit der Titanic fährst! — und er bringt ihn davon ab, mit diesem Schiff zu fahren. Die Titanic geht unter — er ist dem Tode entgangen. Dies macht einen bleibenden Eindruck auf den betreffenden Menschen! — Das ist ein besonderer Fall. Aber solche Dinge können immer wieder passieren, ohne bemerkt zu werden; wenn sie aber bemerkt werden, machen sie einen Empfindungs-, einen Gemütseindruck auf den Menschen.
Betrachten wir aber die Sache von einer andern Seite: Wieviel Gemüts-, Empfindungseindrücke entgehen uns dadurch, daß wir nicht beachten, wovor wir bewahrt werden! Wenn wir das alles beachten könnten, was nahe daran ist zu geschehen, und woran wir vorbeigehen, würden wir mit ganz anderem Gemüt durch die Welt ziehen. Nun entdeckt der Seher folgende Möglichkeit: Nehmen Sie an, die Sache ist Wirklichkeit. Sie kämen drei Minuten später als gewöhnlich über den Platz. In diesem Augenblick ist der günstigste Moment, wo ein sich vernehmbar machen wollender Toter in Ihre Seele hereinspricht. Sie können den Gedanken, die Empfindung haben: Woher kommt das, was auftaucht in meiner Seele? Das braucht nicht bloß bei einem solchen besonderen Vorgang der Fall zu sein, es kann in mannigfacher Weise geschehen. Es wird beginnen, wenn die Menschen anfangen werden, auch die Welt des Möglichen zu beachten und nicht nur die Welt des Wirklichen. Heute wird nur die Welt des Wirklichen betrachtet. Wirklich sind zum Beispiel eine große Anzahl Heringe im Meere; möglich aber sind sie nur dadurch, daß unendlich viel Keime abgelegt worden sind. So liegt auf dem Grunde des Lebens eine unendliche Fülle von Möglichkeiten.
Das ist es, was auch einen unendlich bedeutungsvollen Eindruck macht auf den Seher, wenn er an die Grenze von zwei Welten kommt. Da hat der Seher den Eindruck: Wie unendlich reich ist das, was in dieser übersinnlichen Welt geschieht, und nur ein kleiner Teil verwirklicht sich in dieser unserer Sinnenwelt! — Wenn man das fühlt, fühlt man auch: Unendliches liegt verborgen auf dem Grunde des Daseins. — Dieses Gefühl wird sich entwickeln durch anthroposophische Betrachtungen. Man wird ein Gefühl dafür erhalten, daß in jedem Punkte, wo etwas äußerlich Wirkliches ist, etwas anderes dahinter ist. Hinter jeder Blume, hinter jedem Luftzuge, hinter jedem Steinchen und Kristall liegen unendlich viele Möglichkeiten. Dieses Gefühl wird der Mensch allmählich so ausbilden, daß er die Andacht, die Ehrfurcht gegenüber dem Verborgenen immer mehr entwickeln wird. Wenn er dieses Gefühl immer mehr ausbildet, dann wird er von selber darauf kommen, daß in solchen Augenblicken, wie sie eben geschildert worden sind, diejenigen zu ihm sprechen, die für das Erdenleben tot sind. Das wird eintreten in der Zukunft, daß der Mensch ganz wie etwas Normales empfinden wird: Jetzt hat in deine Seele hereingesprochen ein Toter. — Nach und nach wird er wissen, woher diese Mitteilung kommt, das heißt, wer da hereinspricht. Nur weil die Menschen heute so achtlos vorübergehen vor der unendlichen Welt der Möglichkeiten, der unendlichen Tiefe des Möglichen, hören sie nicht, was die Toten so hereinsprechen möchten in die Herzen der Lebenden.
Aus dem Zweifachen, was ich Ihnen gesagt habe: daß durch Lebende, durch die Gedanken der Anthroposophen hier etwas erzeugt wird, was für die Toten wahrnehmbar wird — und daß die Toten werden sprechen können zu den Herzen, die sich hineingefunden haben in das spirituelle Fühlen —, aus dieser Tatsache können Sie entnehmen, welchen Umschwung die Verbreitung der Anthroposophie für die ganze Menschheit bewirken wird. Eine Brücke wird geschlagen werden zu den Welten hier und zu den Welten drüben. Und wahr ist es, daß das Leben ein anderes sein wird zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Es wird dies nicht nur eine Theorie sein, sondern ein Übergehen in Realität, so daß Verständnis sein wird zwischen den sogenannten Lebenden und den Toten, die aber viel lebendiger sind. Und dann werden auch die Seelen hier fühlen, was so fruchtbar werden kann für die Toten. Denn man kann es doch nicht im richtigen Sinne fruchtbar machen, wenn man nicht fühlt, welche Wohltat es für die Toten sein kann, wenn man ihnen vorliest. Nehmen wir einmal einen extremen Fall. Sie können es erfahren, wenn Sie mit anderen Menschen zusammenleben als Geschwister, Eltern oder Gatten, daß während der eine den Drang empfindet, zur Geisteswissenschaft zu kommen, der andere geradezu einen Haß bekommt, wenn der erstere sich ihr nähert. Wie oft kann man das erleben! So kann sich das abspielen im Bewußtsein, aber es braucht nicht in der Seele selbst so zu sein. Da kann etwas anderes stattfinden. Es gibt das Unterbewußtsein im astralischen Leib. Während jemand leidenschaftlich wütet und schimpft gegen die Geisteswissenschaft, kann es sein, daß er im Unterbewußtsein um so mehr den Drang, die Sehnsucht hat, selber etwas von der Geisteswissenschaft zu erfahren. Wenn man durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten ist, so werden die Dinge wahr; da läßt sich nichts maskieren. Hier auf der Erde kann man lügen, sich verstellen, nach dem Tode aber werden alle Dinge wahr; sie zeigen da ihr wahres Antlitz. Wenn man sich während des Lebens noch so sehr betäubt hat, indem man gegen die Geisteswissenschaft schimpft, nach dem Tode macht sich dann ein Drang darnach bemerkbar, und man leidet Schmerzen, weil der Drang nicht befriedigt werden kann. Da kann dann der Lebende sich in Gedanken den Verstorbenen gegenübersitzend vorstellen, und er kann in Gedanken spirituelle Dinge durchgehen, und der Tote versteht das; und wenn der Tote auch kein Anthroposoph gewesen ist, wenn es auch nur der Lebende ist, dann nimmt der Tote doch den Lebenden wahr.
Das, was man nennen könnte: einen gewissen Hang zur Sprache, die man im Leben gesprochen hat, das muß da berücksichtigt werden, weil in den ersten Zeiten nach dem Tode der Tote noch einen gewissen Zusammenhang mit derselben Sprache hat, wie er sie hier im Leben gehabt hat. Man tut deshalb gut, in Gedanken die Sprache anzunehmen, die der Tote gesprochen hat; aber nach fünf, sechs, acht Jahren, manchmal auch früher, stellt sich heraus, daß die Sprache des Geistes eine solche ist, daß für sie die äußere Sprache kein Hindernis ist und daß der Tote spirituelle Gedanken auch dann verstehen kann, wenn er die Sprache im Leben nicht gekannt hat. Jedenfalls hat sich das als etwas ungeheuer Schönes ergeben, wenn unsere Freunde Verstorbenen vorgelesen haben, namentlich auch solchen gegenüber, die im Leben keine Anthroposophen waren. Es hat sich dies als eine ungeheure Wohlktat, als einer der größten Liebesdienste herausgestellt. Und zu dem, was wir erreichen wollen, gehört nicht allein, daß wir die Anthroposophie äußerlich ausbreiten wollen als eine Lehre — das müssen wir tun und es ist notwendig —, aber Anthroposophie wird auch in viel stillerer Art in der Seele wirken müssen. Spirituelle Ämter sozusagen können sich da ausbilden, durch die vieles geleistet werden kann zur Fortentwickelung der Seelen nach dem Tode. Und das ist es, was wir immer mehr erreichen müssen: daß wir eine große Schwierigkeit überwinden helfen für die Seelen, die zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt stehen, und die darin liegt, daß das alte spirituelle Erbgut erschöpft ist und eine Zeit herangerückt ist, in der das Sichorientieren den Seelen nach dem Tode ungeheuer schwer fällt und in der sich auszukennen zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt den Seelen fast unmöglich ist.
Da sieht der Seher, wie die Seelen zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt zu Aufgaben gezwungen werden, die sie lösen müssen, die sie aber nicht begreifen. So ist es zum Beispiel eine Tatsache: Der Seher, der seinen Blick hinwendet auf das Leben zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt, kann Seelen entdecken, die eine bestimmte Verrichtung machen müssen: sie müssen in gewissen Zeiträumen Diener sein jener Mächte, die wir kennen als die Geister des Todes und der Krankheit. Wir sprechen da von jenem Tode, der nicht regelmäßig als eine Erscheinung des Lebens eintritt, sondern von dem Tode, der an die Menschen außer der Zeit herantritt, wenn Menschen hinsterben in der Blüte ihres Lebens. Wenn Krankheiten eintreten, sind es physische Ereignisse; sie werden aber bewirkt von Kräften, die von der übersinnlichen Welt hereinspielen. Den sich verbreitenden Krankheiten liegen zugrunde die Taten übersinnlicher Wesenheiten. Gewisse Geister haben die Aufgabe, unzeitigen Tod zu bringen. Daß das doch auch in der Weisheit begründet ist, können wir jetzt nicht berühren; aber das ist wichtig zu beachten, daß wir nun Seelen finden, die unter das Joch von solchen 'Wesenheiten gespannt sind. Und es ist für den Seher, trotzdem er sich gewöhnt haben muß an eine gewisse Gelassenheit, doch schmerzlich und erschütternd, zuzusehen, wie solche, die in das Joch gespannt sind, dienen müssen, um an die Menschen Krankheit und Tod heranzutragen. Und wenn der Seher versucht zu verfolgen solche Seelen bis zu der Zeit ihres vorhergehenden Lebens, dann findet er die Ursache, warum diese Seelen verurteilt sind, Diener zu sein der Geister der Krankheiten und des Todes: diese Ursachen liegen in der Gewissenlosigkeit, welche diese Seelen im physischen Leben entwickelt haben. In dem Maße, wie sie gewissenlos waren, in dem Maße verurteilen sie sich dazu, Diener zu sein dieser bösen Wesenheiten. So wahr, wie Ursache und Wirkung zusammenhängen bei aufeinanderstoßenden Kugeln, so wahr müssen gewissenlose Menschen Diener sein dieser bösen Wesenheiten. Das ist erschütternd! Eine andere Tatsache, die der Seher sieht: Solche Seelen sind unter das Joch ahrimanischer Geister gespannt, sie müssen bereiten die spirituellen Ursachen von all dem, was hier geschieht als Widerstand, als Hindernis unseres Tuns. Ahriman hat ja auch diese Aufgabe. All die Widerstände, die sich hier ergeben, werden aus der geistigen Welt herein dirigiert. Es sind Diener des Ahriman. Wodurch verurteilten sich solche Seelen zu diesem Dienste? Dadurch, daß sie in ihrem Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod der Bequemlichkeit gehuldigt haben. Und wenn Sie betrachten, wie die Bequemlichkeit weit verbreitet ist, so werden Sie finden, daß es unendlich viele Rekruten gibt für Ahriman. Die Bequemlichkeit ist es, die das Leben in reichstem Maße regiert. — Dazu sind auch die neueren Nationalökonomen gekommen, mit der Bequemlichkeit der Menschen zu rechnen, nicht nur mit dem Egoismus und der Konkurrenz. Die Bequemlichkeit ist ein Faktor.
Nun nimmt es sich anders aus, ob man solche Erlebnisse hat so, daß man sich in ihnen orientieren kann, daß man weiß, warum man sie erlebt, oder ob man sie ganz bewußtlos erlebt, ohne zu wissen, warum man dienen muß solchen Geistern. Wenn man weiß, warum man in das Joch der Geister gespannt ist, welche die Seuchen bringen, so weiß man auch, was man im nächsten Leben für Tugenden sich aneignen muß, damit man einen kosmischen Ausgleich schaffen kann, um aus der Welt zu schaffen, was nach dieser Richtung wirkt. Wenn man unorientiert in diesen Erlebnissen ist, schafft man zwar dasselbe Karma, aber man schafft erst wieder das, was sich zu der zweiten Inkarnation hin als Ausgleich gestalten muß, und so verzögert man den wirklichen Fortgang. Deshalb ist es wichtig, daß der Mensch hier diese Dinge lernt. Erleben wird man sie nach dem Tode; sich orientieren lernen muß man hier. Da haben wir wieder einmal eine Tatsache, die es zu einer zwingenden Notwendigkeit macht, neue Orientierung zu schaffen durch Verbreitung der spirituellen Wahrheiten, weil die alte Orientierung nicht mehr da sein kann. Wir können uns auf die Frage: Warum sind wir Anthroposophen? — aus den geistigen Tatsachen heraus eine Antwort geben, die gar sehr zu unserer Empfindung, unserem Gefühle spricht, nicht nur zu unserem Verstande. Und so sehen wir Anthroposophie immer mehr und mehr an als eine universelle Sprache, als eine Sprache, die es uns möglich machen wird, die Scheidewand hinwegzutun zwischen den verschiedenen Welten, in denen unsere Seelen leben, das eine Mal im physischen Leibe, das andere Mal außerhalb des physischen Leibes; und so wird fallen die Scheidewand gegenüber der übersinnlichen Welt, wenn die Geisteswissenschaft sich wirklich in die Seelen der Menschen einlebt. Das müssen wir fühlen, empfinden; dann haben wir den richtigen, den inneren Enthusiasmus für die Geisteswissenschaft.
Lassen Sie mich von einer weiteren Erscheinung sprechen. Für den Seher tritt ein Zeitpunkt ein, der im Leben der Seelen zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt sich offenbart und der ungeheuer bedeutsam wird für den Seher, aber auch für solche, die dieses Leben durchmachen. Der Zeitpunkt liegt bei manchen mehr zurück, bei manchen mehr vorwärts. Wenn man mit dem seherischen Blick den Schlaf verfolgt, dann, wenn der Mensch mit seinem Astralleib und Ich außerhalb des physischen Leibes ist und zurückblickt auf physischen Leib und Ätherleib, dann ist der Eindruck der, daß zumeist der physische Leib sich als langsam sterbend darstellt. Nur in den allerersten Kindheitsjahren, bis das Kind ein Verständnis bekommt, bis zu der Zeit, zu der unser Gedächtnis zurückreicht, da erscheint der Schlaf im Kindesleib als etwas, was sproßt und gedeiht; aber es fängt sehr früh an, so daß dem Seher es vor Augen tritt, daß der physische Leib nach dem Eintritt in das Leben langsam wieder abstirbt; der Tod ist nur der letzte Akt dieses Absterbens. Die Sache ist so, daß der Schlaf dazu da ist, die vetbrauchten Kräfte auszugleichen. Aber dieser Ausgleich ist nur unvollständig; dieser Rest ist immer ein kleines Stück Todesursache. Wenn so viele Reste zurückgeblieben sind, daß die Wiederherstellungskräfte nicht mehr dagegen aufkommen, dann stirbt der Mensch den physischen Tod. Man sieht also eigentlich, wenn man den Menschenleib ansieht, den Tod sich langsam vollziehen. Man stirbt wirklich von Geburt an ganz langsam. Der Eindruck ist ein recht ernster, wenn man die Sache zuerst gewahr wird.
Zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt kommt nun der Augenblick an die Seele heran, wo sie die Kräfte zu entwickeln beginnt, durch die sie in das nächste Dasein eintritt. Lassen Sie mich an einem Beispiel zeigen, was gemeint ist. Heute gibt es schon viele Bücher über Goethes Veranlagung. Es wird nachgeforscht bei den Vorfahren Goethes, woher er diese oder jene Eigenschaft geerbt habe. In der physischen Vererbungslinie werden diese Ursachen gesucht. Das soll nicht bestritten werden, daß sie da gesucht werden können; aber wer die Seele zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt verfolgen kann, findet das Folgende. Nehmen Sie die Seele Goethes. Lange, lange, ehe sie geboren wird, wirkt sie schon aus den übersinnlichen Welten heraus auf ihre Ahnen, steht schon durch ihre Kräfte mit den Ahnen in Beziehung. Sie wirkt sogar so, daß in entsprechender Weise zusammenkommen diejenigen Männer und Frauen, die nach langer Zeit die richtigen Eigenschaften geben können, die die Seele braucht. Es ist dies keine leichte Arbeit, denn es sind viele Seelen daran beteiligt. Wenn Sie sich vorstellen, daß von den Seelen des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts im achtzehnten Jahrhundert Menschen abstammen und daß alle diese schon vorher zusammenarbeiten, so müssen Sie begreifen, daß eine solche Verständigung eine wichtige Sache ist. Seelen, die im achtzehnten, neunzehnten Jahrhundert geboren werden, müssen sich schon im sechzehnten Jahrhundert verständigen, damit die ganzen Netze von Verwandtschaften hergestellt werden können. Es ist viel zu tun zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Nicht nur, daß wir zu tun haben in objektiver Beziehung, daß wir einen Teil unserer Zeit mit Dienstleistungen gegenüber den Geistern des Widerstandes zubringen, wir müssen auch arbeiten an den Kräften, die überhaupt unsere Wiederverkörperung ermöglichen. Da stellt sich die Sache so dar, daß wir uns die Form schon im Urbild herausarbeiten müssen. Dies macht einen entgegengesetzten Eindruck von dem, was der Seher schaut, wenn er auf den schlafenden physischen und Ätherleib sieht. Der physische und Ätherleib stellen sich im Schlafe als etwas Absterbendes dar; was sich aber da wie ein Urbild aufbaut und in die physische Natur hereinzieht, das bietet den Eindruck des Sprossenden, Werdenden.
So daß ein wichtiger Augenblick da ist zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt: er liegt zwischen der Erinnerung an das frühere Dasein und dem Übergang zu dem nächsten Dasein, da wo der Mensch anfängt zu arbeiten an dem Werden seiner physischen Organisation. Wenn Sie sich den physischen Tod vorstellen und im Vergleich dazu diesen Augenblick, so haben Sie in ihm das Gegenteil von dem physischen Tode. Der physische Tod ist ein Übergang von dem physischen Sein zum Nichtsein; der geschilderte Augenblick ist ein Übergang von dem Nichtsein zum Werden. Ganz anders erlebt man diesen Augenblick, wenn man ihn versteht, als wenn man ihn nicht versteht.
Solch ein Begriff wie der des Gegenteils des Todes, dessen, was eintritt zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, das sollte eigentlich in der Seele eines Anthroposophen zur Empfindung kommen. Er sollte nicht bloß verstandesgemäß begriffen, sondern durchempfunden werden; dann kann man fühlen die Bereicherung, welche unser Leben erfährt, wenn solche Begriffe von der Seele aufgenommen werden. Dann stellt sich noch etwas anderes ein: daß nämlich die Seele allmählich überhaupt ein Gefühl dafür bekommt, was es alles in der Welt gibt. Wenn man durch einen Wald geht im Frühling und man vorher meditiert hat über den Begriff, den ich eben erwähnt habe, so ist man nicht weit davon entfernt, wenn man achtgibt, zu vernehmen die Geister, die zwischen den physischen Dingen wirken und walten. Das Wahrnehmen der geistigen Welt wäre eigentlich gar nicht schwierig, wenn die Menschen sich das nicht selber schwierig machen würden. Indem sie darnach trachten, dasjenige, was in Begriffen aufgenommen wird, sich zur Empfindung zu bringen, innerlich zum Leben zu erwecken, kann dieses Streben sie zum Schauen führen. Durch solche Dinge, wie sie heute gesagt worden sind, möchte ich dazu beitragen, daß dieser Drang nach Geisteswissenschaft lebendig werde. Die Darstellung von solchen Dingen ist immer so, daß man fühlt: es ist die Schilderung wie ein Stammeln, weil unsere Sprache ja nur für die physische Welt ist — und man muß sich anstrengen, durch ganz besondere Darstellungsmittel wenigstens einen geringen Begriff von diesen Dingen hervorzubringen. Aber gerade solche Art, zu sprechen über diese Dinge, kann in unsern Herzen auslösen, was man anthroposophisch als Empfindungsgehalt bezeichnen kann.
Das sollte Geisteswissenschaft für uns werden: ein Empfindungs-, ein Lebensgehalt, so daß wir in der Aufnahme von spirituellen Begriffen nicht etwas Geringes sehen, sondern ihnen gern nachgehen, dann aber auch nicht in diesen Begriffen die Hauptsache sehen, sondern in dem, was die Anthroposophie aus uns macht.
Anthroposophy as a source of feeling and life content. Devotion and reverence for the hidden
When we pause in our anthroposophical reflections and ask ourselves: What drives us into a spiritual movement such as ours? —-, we can of course give ourselves answers to these questions from a wide variety of perspectives. One of the perspectives that can give us the answer that most corresponds to our feelings and our sense of perception is — although not the only one, yet the most important one — the consideration of the life that the human soul feels passing between death and a new birth. The events that take place in the long period between death and a new birth are truly no less significant than the events between birth and death; and we can only ever highlight individual events from among the many important events we have to go through. But one might say that wherever one looks at this life between death and a new birth, it convinces us that humanity must live toward a time when it knows and feels something of the supersensible worlds.
Now let us go straight to the specific, the concrete. When the seer who has the opportunity to observe life between death and a new birth is presented with the following sight, this sight alone can impose on him the urgent duty to work for the recognition of the spiritual world. A person has died. The seer seeks him out, seeks to see him some time after the person in question has passed through the gate of death. In the manner in which one communicates with the dead, one can hear the following from the deceased—this is now a very specific case. He says: “I have left my wife behind; I know she is still down in the physical world.” Of course, this is not said with physical words. 'When I lived with her in the physical world, after I had been busy with my business from morning till night, she was always my sunshine, every word she spoke made me happy, and I could not imagine that I would have wanted to live this life at all if it had not been constantly illuminated by my life companion. Then I passed through the gate of death and left her behind; and now I long to return, now I feel that I am missing all of this, I search with my longing soul to find a way to my life companion. But I cannot find this soul, I cannot reach her, it is as if she were not there. And when I sometimes get a premonition, feel as if she were there, as if I were near her, then she is as if mute, so that I can only compare it to two people standing opposite each other, one of whom wants the other to say a few words to him, but the other is mute and cannot say anything. So the soul that was so blissful to me for so long during my physical life has become silent. — Now, you see, when one investigates what lies behind such a fact, one gets the answer: there is simply no common language between the deceased and the living who remain behind. There is nothing that the soul can penetrate with that substance through which it remains perceptible. Because there is no common language, these two souls feel separated.
It was not always so. If we go further back in human evolution, we find that souls had a certain spiritual heritage of that spirituality through which they were perceptible to each other, regardless of whether they were here on the physical plane or whether one was here in the physical world and the other in the spiritual world. But that ancient legacy of spiritual inwardness has been exhausted today; it no longer exists, and the painful situation can indeed arise that a soul that has been so loved by another, as just indicated, is no longer found by the other soul beyond death, because nothing lives in the soul left behind that can be perceived by the soul that has passed away. For what can be perceived by the soul that has died is spiritual knowledge, feeling, and sensation; this is the connection between the soul here on earth and the spiritual world. If such a soul is left behind, a soul that is concerned here with knowledge and insight into the spiritual worlds, allowing thoughts of these to pass through it, then these thoughts can be perceived by the soul that has passed away. Not even the old religious feelings are sufficient to give the soul something that can be perceived by the other soul. If this case were pursued further, it would become clear to the seer that even if both souls have passed through death, the departed souls can only perceive each other dimly — but cannot communicate with each other at all, or only with great difficulty, because they cannot speak a common language.
As a seer, one comes to understand what anthroposophy is in a deeper sense: it is the language that will gradually be spoken by the living and the dead, those who live in the physical world and those who live between death and a new birth. The souls that have remained behind and have absorbed within themselves ideas of the supersensible worlds can also be perceived and seen by those who have passed away. If they have spread love before death, they can continue to do so after death. This brings us to the conviction that anthroposophy is a language that makes perceptible what is happening in the physical world for the supersensible world. Yes, it is the prospect for humanity on Earth that souls will become increasingly lonely, unable to build bridges to one another, if souls cannot find the bond that must be drawn from soul to soul through the absorption of spiritual concepts. This is the reality of anthroposophy, for it is not mere theory. Theoretical knowledge is the least of it; what we take in is a real elixir for the soul, a real substance. Through this substance, the soul that has passed through death sees the soul that has remained behind. One may say: the seer who sees through this, who once recognizes such a soul that longs to perceive what it has left behind on earth but cannot perceive it because the family in question has not yet entered spiritual science, the seer who has seen what souls can suffer under such deprivation knows that he cannot help but speak to his fellow human beings about spiritual wisdom and consider the time ripe for spiritual wisdom to enter the hearts of human beings. We can say that those who derive their mission from their knowledge of the supersensible worlds to speak about these supersensible worlds feel this as an urgent necessity against which they can never act; that would be the gravest sin. Thus they feel the necessity to give spiritual proclamations, revelations about the supersensible worlds.
From what has just been said, you can see what tremendous seriousness is connected with the necessity of spiritual proclamations. But there is also another side to communication between the living and the dead. We are not yet very far along in this regard, but it will come. In order to understand how the living will gradually be able to achieve a kind of communication with those who have died, we must consider the following. Human beings know very little about the physical world. For how do they acquire their knowledge of the physical world? By using their senses, by applying their imagination, by perceiving what they encounter in the external world. But that is only the smallest part of what the world contains. It contains something else entirely. I would like you to get an idea that there is something in the world that is much more important than the sensory reality. I do not mean the supernatural world, but something else. Imagine that you are accustomed to going to work every day at eight o'clock in the morning; suddenly you notice that you are leaving three minutes later today, and lo and behold, you are walking across a certain square where you would have had to pass through a kind of shed with a roof supported by pillars, and when you arrive three minutes later today, you realize that if you had arrived on time, i.e., not three minutes later than usual, you would have been killed by the roof that collapsed. Imagine that! It happens that a person misses a train that is involved in a collision. If he had been on that train, he would have been killed. These are all things that did not happen, so people do not pay attention to them. When you experience such an event, which hits you right between the eyes, it makes a certain impression on you. But from morning to night, things like this can happen all the time that do not affect you in the course of the day. That is obvious. These are all things that may seem “far-fetched,” but they are among the most important parts of life. You will have a certain feeling when you see, for example, a person in Berlin who had a ticket for the Titanic; he meets an acquaintance who says: I don't want you to go on the Titanic! — and he persuades him not to board the ship. The Titanic sinks — he has escaped death. This makes a lasting impression on the person concerned! — That is a special case. But such things can happen again and again without being noticed; but when they are noticed, they make an impression on people's feelings and minds.
But let us look at the matter from another angle: how many impressions on our minds and feelings do we miss because we do not pay attention to what we are being saved from! If we could pay attention to everything that is about to happen and that we pass by, we would go through the world with a completely different mind. Now the seer discovers the following possibility: Suppose the thing is real. You arrive at the square three minutes later than usual. At that moment, it is the most favorable moment for a dead person who wants to make himself heard to speak to your soul. You may have the thought, the feeling: Where does this come from, what is appearing in my soul? This need not be the case only in such a special circumstance; it can happen in many ways. It will begin when people start to pay attention to the world of possibilities and not just the world of reality. Today, only the world of reality is considered. For example, a large number of herrings in the sea are real; but they are only possible because an infinite number of seeds have been deposited. Thus, at the bottom of life lies an infinite abundance of possibilities.
This is what makes an infinitely meaningful impression on the seer when he comes to the boundary between two worlds. The seer has the impression: How infinitely rich is what happens in this supersensible world, and only a small part of it is realized in our sensory world! — When one feels this, one also feels that something infinite lies hidden at the foundation of existence. — This feeling will develop through anthroposophical contemplation. One will gain a sense that behind every point where something external and real exists, there is something else. Behind every flower, behind every breath of air, behind every pebble and crystal, there are infinite possibilities. Human beings will gradually develop this feeling to such an extent that they will increasingly develop reverence and awe for the hidden. As they develop this feeling more and more, they will come to realize that in moments such as those just described, those who are dead to earthly life are speaking to them. In the future, it will become quite normal for people to feel that Now a dead person has spoken to your soul. Gradually, they will know where this message comes from, that is, who is speaking. It is only because people today pass so carelessly by the infinite world of possibilities, the infinite depth of what is possible, that they do not hear what the dead want to say to the hearts of the living.
From the two things I have told you: that something is being created here through the living, through the thoughts of anthroposophists, which becomes perceptible to the dead — and that the dead will be able to speak to the hearts that have found their way into spiritual feeling — you can deduce what a transformation the spread of anthroposophy will bring about for the whole of humanity. A bridge will be built between the worlds here and the worlds beyond. And it is true that life will be different between death and a new birth. This will not only be a theory, but a transition into reality, so that there will be understanding between the so-called living and the dead, who are, however, much more alive. And then the souls here will also feel what can be so fruitful for the dead. For one cannot make it fruitful in the true sense if one does not feel what a blessing it can be for the dead when one reads to them. Let us take an extreme case. You can experience this when you live together with other people as siblings, parents, or spouses, that while one feels the urge to come to spiritual science, the other feels downright hatred when the former approaches it. How often can one experience this! This can happen in consciousness, but it does not have to be so in the soul itself. Something else can take place there. There is the subconscious in the astral body. While someone rages passionately and rails against spiritual science, it may be that in their subconscious they feel all the more the urge, the longing, to experience something of spiritual science for themselves. Once you have passed through the gate of death, things become true; nothing can be masked. Here on earth, one can lie and pretend, but after death, all things become true; they show their true face. If one has numbed oneself during life by railing against spiritual science, after death a longing for it becomes noticeable, and one suffers pain because the longing cannot be satisfied. The living person can then imagine the deceased sitting opposite them in their mind, and they can go through spiritual things in their mind, and the deceased understands this; and even if the deceased was not an anthroposophist, even if it is only the living person, the deceased still perceives the living person.
What one might call a certain inclination toward the language one spoke in life must be taken into account, because in the first period after death, the deceased still has a certain connection to the same language they had here in life. It is therefore good to adopt in your thoughts the language spoken by the deceased; but after five, six, eight years, sometimes even earlier, it becomes apparent that the language of the spirit is such that the external language is no obstacle to it and that the deceased can understand spiritual thoughts even if they did not know the language in life. In any case, this has proved to be something immensely beautiful when our friends have read aloud to the deceased, especially to those who were not anthroposophists in life. This has turned out to be an immense blessing, one of the greatest acts of love. And what we want to achieve is not only to spread anthroposophy outwardly as a teaching — we must do that, and it is necessary — but anthroposophy must also work in a much quieter way in the soul. Spiritual ministries, so to speak, can develop through which much can be accomplished for the further development of souls after death. And this is what we must achieve more and more: that we help to overcome a great difficulty for souls who stand between death and a new birth, and that difficulty lies in the fact that the old spiritual heritage is exhausted and a time has come in which it is extremely difficult for souls to orient themselves after death and in which it is almost impossible for souls to find their way between death and a new birth.
The seer sees how souls between death and rebirth are forced to perform tasks that they must solve but do not understand. For example, it is a fact that the seer who turns his gaze to the life between death and a new birth can discover souls who have to perform a certain task: they must be servants for a certain period of time to those powers we know as the spirits of death and disease. We are talking here about death that does not occur regularly as a phenomenon of life, but about death that comes to people outside of time, when people die in the prime of life. When illnesses occur, they are physical events; but they are caused by forces that come in from the supersensible world. The spread of disease is based on the actions of supernatural beings. Certain spirits have the task of bringing untimely death. We cannot now touch upon the wisdom behind this, but it is important to note that we now find souls who are under the yoke of such beings. And even though the seer must have become accustomed to a certain serenity, it is still painful and shocking to watch those who are bound by this yoke having to serve in order to bring illness and death to human beings. And when the seer tries to trace such souls back to their previous life, he finds the cause why these souls are condemned to be servants of the spirits of disease and death: these causes lie in the lack of conscience which these souls developed in their physical life. To the extent that they were unscrupulous, to that extent they condemn themselves to be servants of these evil beings. As true as cause and effect are connected in colliding balls, so true must unscrupulous people be servants of these evil beings. This is shocking! Another fact that the seer sees: such souls are harnessed under the yoke of Ahrimanic spirits; they must prepare the spiritual causes of everything that happens here as resistance, as an obstacle to our actions. Ahriman also has this task. All the resistance that arises here is directed from the spiritual world. They are servants of Ahriman. How did such souls condemn themselves to this service? By indulging in comfort in their lives between birth and death. And if you consider how widespread comfort is, you will find that there are an infinite number of recruits for Ahriman. It is comfort that governs life to the greatest extent. — The newer economists have also come to reckon with human comfort, not only with egoism and competition. Comfort is a factor.
Now it is different whether one has such experiences in such a way that one can orient oneself in them, that one knows why one is experiencing them, or whether one experiences them completely unconsciously, without knowing why one must serve such spirits. If you know why you are harnessed to the yoke of the spirits that bring epidemics, then you also know what virtues you must acquire in your next life in order to create a cosmic balance and remove from the world whatever is working in this direction. If one is disoriented in these experiences, one creates the same karma, but one only recreates what must be balanced in the second incarnation, and thus one delays real progress. That is why it is important for people to learn these things here. They will experience them after death; here they must learn to orient themselves. Here we have once again a fact that makes it absolutely necessary to create a new orientation through the dissemination of spiritual truths, because the old orientation can no longer exist. We can answer the question, “Why are we anthroposophists?” from spiritual facts in a way that speaks very much to our feelings, not just to our intellect. And so we see anthroposophy more and more as a universal language, a language that will enable us to remove the dividing wall between the different worlds in which our souls live, sometimes in the physical body, sometimes outside the physical body; and thus the dividing wall between the supersensible world will fall when spiritual science truly takes root in the souls of human beings. We must feel this, sense it; then we will have the right, inner enthusiasm for spiritual science.
Let me speak of another phenomenon. For the seer, there comes a moment in the life of souls between death and a new birth that is revealed and becomes immensely significant for the seer, but also for those who are going through this life. For some, this moment lies further back, for others further ahead. When one follows sleep with clairvoyant vision, when the human being is outside the physical body with their astral body and ego and looks back at the physical body and etheric body, the impression is that the physical body usually appears to be slowly dying. Only in the very first years of childhood, until the child gains an understanding, to the time our memory reaches back, does sleep appear in the child's body as something that sprouts and flourishes; but it begins very early, so that the seer sees that the physical body slowly dies again after entering life; death is only the last act of this dying. The fact is that sleep is there to compensate for the energy that has been used up. But this compensation is only incomplete; what remains is always a small part of the cause of death. When so much remains that the restorative forces can no longer counteract it, then the human being dies a physical death. So when you look at the human body, you can actually see death slowly taking place. One really dies very slowly from the moment of birth. The impression is quite serious when one first becomes aware of it.
Between death and a new birth, the moment comes when the soul begins to develop the forces through which it enters the next existence. Let me show you what I mean with an example. Today there are many books about Goethe's disposition. Researchers investigate Goethe's ancestors to find out where he inherited this or that characteristic. They look for these causes in the physical line of inheritance. It cannot be denied that they can be sought there, but anyone who can follow the soul between death and a new birth will find the following. Take Goethe's soul. Long, long before it is born, it already works from the supersensible worlds upon its ancestors, already stands in relationship with them through its powers. It even works in such a way that those men and women who, after a long time, can give the right qualities that the soul needs, come together in a corresponding way. This is no easy task, for many souls are involved. If you imagine that people in the eighteenth century are descended from souls in the sixteenth century, and that all of these souls are already working together beforehand, you must understand that such communication is an important thing. Souls born in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries must already communicate with each other in the sixteenth century so that the entire network of relationships can be established. There is much to do between death and a new birth. Not only do we have work to do in objective relationships, spending part of our time serving the spirits of resistance, we must also work on the forces that make our reincarnation possible in the first place. The situation is such that we must already work out our form in the archetype. This makes an opposite impression to what the seer sees when he looks at the sleeping physical and etheric bodies. In sleep, the physical and etheric bodies appear as something dying; but what builds up there like an archetype and draws into physical nature gives the impression of something sprouting, becoming.
Thus there is an important moment between death and a new birth: it lies between the memory of the former existence and the transition to the next existence, where the human being begins to work on the becoming of his physical organization. If you imagine physical death and compare it with this moment, you have the opposite of physical death. Physical death is a transition from physical being to non-being; the moment described is a transition from non-being to becoming. This moment is experienced quite differently when one understands it than when one does not understand it.
Such a concept as the opposite of death, that which occurs between death and new birth, should actually arise in the soul of an anthroposophist. It should not merely be understood intellectually, but felt deeply; then one can feel the enrichment that our life experiences when such concepts are taken up by the soul. Then something else happens: namely, the soul gradually develops a feeling for everything that exists in the world. If you walk through a forest in spring and have meditated beforehand on the concept I just mentioned, you are not far from hearing, if you pay attention, the spirits working and ruling between physical things. Perceiving the spiritual world would not actually be difficult if people did not make it difficult for themselves. By striving to bring what is taken in through concepts to sensation, to bring it to life within themselves, this striving can lead them to seeing. Through things such as those I have said today, I would like to contribute to making this urge for spiritual science come alive. The presentation of such things is always such that one feels it is like stammering, because our language is only for the physical world — and one must make an effort to bring forth at least a slight concept of these things through very special means of presentation. But it is precisely this way of speaking about these things that can awaken in our hearts what anthroposophy calls a “content of feeling.”
This is what spiritual science should become for us: a feeling, a life content, so that we do not see something insignificant in the reception of spiritual concepts, but gladly pursue them, and then do not see these concepts as the main thing, but rather what anthroposophy makes of us.