Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
15. Heavenly History - Mythological History - Earthly History. The Mystery of Golgotha
[ 1 ] In the spatial Cosmos we have the contrast of the Universal spaces and the Earthly centre. In the Universal spaces the stars, as it were, are scattered wide, while from the Earthly centre forces are streaming out in all directions into the far spread Universe.
[ 2 ] To man as he stands in the world in the present cosmic epoch, it is only as a great totality that the glory of the stars and the working of the earthly forces can represent the finished work of the Divine-Spiritual Beings with whom he in his inner being is connected.
[ 3 ] But there was once a cosmic epoch when the glory of the stars and the forces of the Earth were still a direct spiritual revelation of the Divine-Spiritual Beings. At that time, man in his dim consciousness felt the Divine-Spiritual Beings actively working in his own nature.
[ 4 ] Another epoch of time ensued. The starry heavens became severed, as a corporeal existence, from the Divine-Spiritual working. There originated what we may call the ‘World-spirit’ and the ‘World-body.’ The World-spirit is a multitude of Divine-Spiritual Beings. In the former epoch these Beings had worked from the starry places inward to the Earth. All that had shone forth from universal space, all that had radiated by way of forces from the earthly centre, was in reality Intelligence and Will of the Divine-Spiritual Beings, who were working creatively upon the Earth and Earth humanity.
[ 5 ] In the later cosmic epochs—after the Saturn and Sun evolutions—the working of the Intelligence and Will of the Divine-Spiritual Beings became more and more spiritually inward. That in which They had been actively present in the beginning became the ‘World-body’: the harmonious arrangement of stars in universal space. Looking back on these matters with a spiritual world-conception, we may express it thus: From the original spirit-body of the World-creative Beings, the World-spirit and the World-body were evolved. And in the ordering and movement of the stars, the World-body now shows what the Intelligent and Will-imbued working of the Gods once upon a time was like. For the cosmic present however, what was once the Divine Intelligence and Will living and moving freely in the stars, has become fastened in the fixed Laws of the starry universe.
[ 6 ] Today, therefore, that which shines inward from the starry worlds to man on Earth is no longer an immediate expression of Divine Will and Divine Intelligence, but it is a sign that has come to stand:—a sign of what the Divine Will and Intelligence was, once upon a time, even in the very stars. Potent as it is to call forth wonder in the human soul, we must recognise in the sublime formation of the starry heavens a revelation of the Gods which is of the past; we cannot perceive in it their present revelation.
[ 7 ] That, however, which in the shining of the stars is ‘of the past,’ is ‘present’ in the Spirit-world. And in this ‘present’ Spirit-world, man with his own true being dwells.
[ 8 ] Studying the formation of the world, we must look back to an ancient cosmic epoch when the World-spirit and the World-body still worked as an undivided unity. Then we must envisage the middle epoch, in which they unfold as a duality. And at length we must think into the future—into the third epoch when the World-spirit will once again take up the World-body into its active working.
[ 9 ] For the old epoch, it would have been impossible to ‘calculate’ the constellations and the courses of the stars; for these were then the expression of the free Intelligence and free Will of Divine-Spiritual Beings. Moreover, in the future they will once again become ‘incalculable.’
[ 10 ] ‘Calculation’ has a meaning only for the middle cosmic epoch.
[ 11 ] And this holds good, not only of the constellations and the movements of the stars, but of the working of the forces which radiate from the earthly centre to the far-spread Universe. That which works ‘out of the depths’ also becomes ‘calculable.’
[ 12 ] Everything strives from the older cosmic epoch towards the middle epoch, when the Spatial and Temporal becomes ‘calculable,’ and the Divine-Spiritual as manifestation of Intelligence and Will must be sought for ‘behind’ this ‘calculable’ world.
[ 13 ] Only in this middle epoch are the conditions given for man to progress from a dim state of consciousness to one of free and bright self-conscious being, with a free Intelligence and a free Will of his own.
[ 14 ] Thus there had to come the time when Copernicus and Kepler could ‘calculate’ the body of the world. For it was through the cosmic forces with which this moment was connected, that the self-consciousness of man had to take shape. The seed of man's self-consciousness had been laid in an older time; and now the time was come when it was far enough advanced to ‘calculate’ the far-spread Universe.
[ 15 ] On the Earth, ‘History’ takes place. What we call ‘History’ would never have come about if the far spaces of the Universe had not evolved into the ‘hard and fast’ constellations and starry courses. In ‘historic evolution’ on the Earth we have an image—albeit thoroughly transformed—of what was once upon a time ‘heavenly History.’ [ 16 ] Earlier peoples still had this ‘heavenly History’ in their consciousness, and were indeed far more aware of it than of the Earthly.
[ 17 ] In earthly History there lives the intelligence and will of men—in connection, to begin with, with the cosmic Will and Intelligence of the Gods; then, independent of them.
[ 18 ] In heavenly History, on the other hand, there lived the Intelligence and Will of the Divine-Spiritual Beings who are connected with mankind.
[ 19 ] When we look back into the spiritual life of nations, we come to an age of far-distant antiquity when there was present in man a consciousness of being and willing in communion with the Divine-Spiritual Beings—so much so that ,the History of men was heavenly History. The man of that age, when he came to speak of ‘origins,’ did not relate earthly events but cosmic. And even in relation to his own present time, that which was going on in his earthly environment seemed to him so insignificant beside the cosmic processes that he gave his attention to the latter only, not to the former.
[ 20 ] There was an epoch when humanity was conscious of beholding the history of the heavens in mighty and impressive revelations, wherein the Divine-Spiritual Beings themselves stood before the soul of man. They spoke, and man in Dream Inspiration hearkened to their speech; they revealed their forms, and in Dream-Imagination man saw them.
[ 21 ] This heavenly History, which for a long time filled the souls of men, was followed by the mythical History, generally regarded in our time as a poetic creation of the ancients. Mythical History combines heavenly events with earthly. ‘Heroes,’ for instance,—super-human beings—appear on the scene. They are beings at a higher stage in evolution than the human being. In a given epoch, for example, man had developed the members of human nature only so far as to the Sentient Soul, but the ‘Hero’ had already evolved what will one day appear in man as Spirit-Self. In the existing conditions of the Earth, the ‘Hero’ could not incarnate directly, but he could do so indirectly by diving down into the body of a human being, and thus becoming able to work as a man among men. Such beings are to be seen in the ‘Initiates’ of an earlier time.
[ 22 ] To understand the true position of the facts in this world process, we must not imagine that in the successive epochs mankind ‘conceived’ of the processes and events in just this way. But that which actually took place, as between the more spiritual, ‘incalculable’ and the corporeal, ‘calculable’ world, underwent a change. Long after the world-relationships had actually changed, human consciousness in this or that nation still held fast to a world-conception corresponding to a far earlier reality. To begin with, this was due to the fact that the consciousness of men, which does not keep pace exactly with the cosmic process, really continued to behold the old condition. Afterwards there came a time in which the vision faded, but men still held fast to the old by tradition. Thus in the Middle Ages an in-playing of the heavenly world into the earthly was still conceived out of tradition, but it was no longer seen, for the force of Imaginative picture-seeing was no longer present.
[ 23 ] In the earthly realm, the different peoples evolved in such a way as to hold fast to the content of one or other world conception for varying periods of time. Thus, world conceptions which by their nature follow one upon the other are found living side by side. Albeit, the variety of world conceptions is due not to this alone, but also to the fact that the different nations, according to their inner talents, did really see different spiritual things. Thus the Egyptians beheld the world in which beings dwell who have come to a premature standstill on the path of human evolution and have not become earthly Man. The Egyptians too saw man himself, after his earthly life, in the midst of all that he had to do with beings such as these. The Chaldaean peoples, on the other hand, saw more the way in which extra-earthly spiritual Beings, both good and evil, entered into the earthly life to work there.
[ 24 ] The ancient ‘Heavenly History’ properly speaking, which belonged to a very long epoch of time, was followed by the epoch of Mythological History, shorter, but, in comparison to the subsequent period of ‘History’ in the accepted sense, none the less very long.
[ 25 ] It is, as I explained above, only with difficulty that man in his consciousness takes leave of the old conceptions wherein the Gods and men are thought of in living interplay and co-operation. Thus the period of Earthly History in the proper sense has long been present; it has in fact been present since the unfolding of the Intellectual or Mind-soul. Nevertheless for a long time men continued to ‘think’ in the sense of what had been before. It was only when the first germs of the Spiritual Soul evolved, that they began therewith to pay attention to what is now called ‘History in the proper sense.’ And in this Human-Spiritual element, which, loosed from the Divine-Spiritual, becomes ‘History,’ the free Intelligence and the free Will can be experienced consciously by men.
[ 26 ] Thus the World-process in which man is interwoven, runs its course between the fully calculable and the working of the free Intelligence and the free Will. This World-process manifests itself in all conceivable intermediate shades of co-operation between these two.
[ 27 ] Man lives his life between birth and death in such a manner that in the ‘calculable’ the bodily foundation is created for the unfolding of his inner soul-and-spirit nature, which is free and incalculable. He goes through his life between death and new birth in the incalculable, but in such a way that the calculable there unfolds, in thought, ‘within’ his existence of soul and spirit. Out of this calculable element he thereby becomes the builder of his coming life on Earth.
[ 28 ] That which cannot be calculated is manifested forth on Earth in ‘History,’ but into it the calculable is incorporated, though only to a slight extent.
[ 29 ] The Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings oppose themselves to the order which is established between the incalculable and the calculable by the Divine-Spiritual Beings who have been united with man from the very beginning; they oppose the harmonising of the Cosmos by the Divine-Spiritual Beings through ‘measure, number and weight.’ Lucifer cannot unite anything calculable with the nature that he has given to his being. His ideal is a cosmic and unconditioned activity of Intelligence and Will.
[ 30 ] This Luciferic tendency is in keeping with the cosmic order in the realms in which there should be happenings that are free. And Lucifer is there the competent spiritual helper of the unfolding of humanity. Without his assistance freedom could not enter into the human life of spirit and soul which is built on the foundation of the calculable bodily nature. But Lucifer would like to extend this tendency to the whole Cosmos. And in this, his activity becomes a conflict against the Divine-Spiritual order to which man originally belongs.
[ 31 ] At this point Michael steps in. With his own being he stands within the incalculable; but he balances the incalculable with the calculable, which he bears within him as the cosmic Thought that he has received from his Gods.
[ 32 ] The position of the Ahrimanic Powers in the world is different. They are the exact opposite of the Divine-Spiritual Beings with whom man is originally united. At the present time these latter are purely spiritual Powers who possess absolutely free Intelligence and absolutely free Will, but in this Intelligence and Will they create the wise insight of the necessity of the calculable and the unfree—the cosmic Thought out of whose lap man is to unfold as a free being. And in the Cosmos they are united in love with all that is calculable—with the cosmic Thought. This love streams from them through the Universe.
[ 33 ] In complete contrast with this, there lives, in the greedy desire of the Ahrimanic powers, cold hatred against all that unfolds in freedom. Ahriman's efforts are directed towards making a cosmic machine out of that which he allows to stream forth from the Earth into universal space. His ideal is ‘measure, number and weight’ and nothing else than these. He was called into the Cosmos that serves the evolution of humanity, because ‘measure, number and weight,’ which is his sphere, had to be unfolded.
[ 34 ] The world is truly understood only by one who comprehends it everywhere with respect to spirit and body. This must be carried right into Nature, with respect to such Powers as the Divine-Spiritual who work in love and the Ahrimanic who work in hatred. In Nature's cosmic warmth which comes in spring and works more strongly towards summer, we must perceive the love of the Divine-Spiritual Beings working through Nature; in the icy blast of winter we must become aware of Ahriman's working.
[ 35 ] At midsummer, Lucifer's power weaves itself into the love that works in Nature:—into the warmth. At Christmas the power of the Divine-Spiritual Beings with whom man is originally united is directed against the frost-hatred of Ahriman. And towards spring the Divine Love working in Nature continually softens down the Ahriman-hatred there.
[ 36 ] The appearance of this Divine Love which comes each year is a time of remembrance, for with Christ the free element of God entered into the calculable element of Earth. Christ works in absolute freedom in the calculable element, and in this way He renders innocuous the Ahrimanic which craves for the calculable alone.
[ 37 ] The Event of Golgotha is the free cosmic deed of love within Earthly History, and it can only be grasped by the love which man develops for its comprehension.
(About Christmas, 1924)
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (in connection with the foregoing on the subject of Heavenly History, Mythological History, Earthly History, the Mystery of Golgotha)
[ 38 ] 140. The cosmic process in which the evolution of mankind is interwoven—reflected, in the consciousness of man, as ‘History’ in the widest sense—reveals the following successive epochs: a long epoch of ‘Heavenly History’; a shorter epoch of ‘Mythological History’; and the epoch, relatively very short, of ‘Earthly History.’
[ 39 ] 141. Today, this cosmic process is divided, into the working of Divine-Spiritual Beings in free Intelligence and Will which none can calculate, and the ‘calculable’ process of the World-body.
[ 40 ] 142. Against the calculable order of the World-body the Luciferian Powers stand opposed; against all that creates in free Intelligence and Will, the Ahrimanic.
[ 41 ] 143. The Event of Golgotha is a cosmic deed, and free. Springing from the Universal love, it is intelligible only by the love in Man.
Himmelsgeschichte. Mythologische Geschichte. Erdgeschichte Mysterium von Golgatha.
[ 1 ] Im räumlichen Kosmos stehen einander gegenüber: Weltenweite und Erdenzentrum. In der Weltenweite sind die Sterne gewissermaßen «ausgestreut». Vom Erdenzentrum strahlen Kräfte nach allen Richtungen der Weltenweite.
[ 2 ] So wie der Mensch in der gegenwärtigen kosmischen Epoche in der Welt darinnen steht, kann ihm das Sternenscheinen und Erdenkräftewirken nur als das Gesamtwerk der göttlich-geistigen Wesen, mit denen er in seinem Innern verbunden ist, erscheinen.
[ 3 ] Aber es gab eine kosmische Zeit-Epoche, da waren dieses Scheinen und diese Erdenkräfte noch unmittelbare geistige Offenbarung der göttlich-geistigen Wesen. Der Mensch in seinem dumpfen Bewußtsein fühlte die göttlich-geistigen Wesen wirksam in seiner Wesenheit.
[ 4 ] Dann kam eine andere Zeit-Epoche. Der Sternenhimmel löste sich als körperliches Wesen aus dem göttlich-geistigen Wirken heraus. Es entstand das, was man Weltengeist und Weltenleib nennen kann. Der Weltengeist ist eine Vielheit göttlich-geistiger Wesenheiten. Sie wirken in der älteren Epoche aus den Sternen-Orten auf die Erde herein. Was da von den Weltenweiten erglänzte, was vom Erdenzentrum als Kräfte erstrahlte, das war in Wirklichkeit Intelligenz und Wille der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, die an der Erde und ihrer Menschheit schufen.
[ 5 ] In der späteren kosmischen Epoche — nach der Saturn- und Sonnenentwickelung — wurde das Wirken von Intelligenz und Wille der göttlich-geistigen Wesen immer geistiginnerlicher. Worinnen sie ursprünglich wirksam-anwesend waren, das wurde «Weltenleib», harmonische Anordnung der Sterne im Weltenraume. Man kann, wenn man in geistgemäßer Weltanschauung auf diese Dinge zurückblickt, sagen: aus dem ursprünglichen Geist-Leib der weltschöpferischen Wesen ist Weltengeist und Weltenleib entstanden. Und der Weltenleib zeigt in Sternen-Anordnung und Sternenbewegung, wie einst das intelligente und willensgemäße Götterwirken war. Aber für die kosmische Gegenwart ist, was einst frei bewegliche Götterintelligenz und Götterwille in den Sternen war, in diesen gesetzmäßig-fest geworden.
[ 6 ] Was also heute aus den Sternenwelten zu dem Menschen auf der Erde hereinscheint, ist nicht unmittelbarer Ausdruck von Götterwillen und Götterintelligenz, sondern stehengebliebenes Zeichen für das, was diese in den Sternen einst waren. In der Bewunderung aus der Menschenseele lösenden Himmels-Stern-Gestaltung kann man daher eine vergangene, aber nicht die gegenwärtige Götteroffenbarung sehen.
[ 7 ] Aber dasjenige, was so im Sternenschein «vergangen» ist, in der Geist-Welt ist es «gegenwärtig». Und der Mensch lebt mit seinem Wesen in diesem «gegenwärtigen» Weltengeist.
[ 8 ] Man muß in der Weltgestaltung zurückblicken auf eine alte kosmische Epoche, in der Weltengeist und Weltenleib als eine Einheit wirken. Man muß die mittlere Epoche ins Auge fassen, in der sie als Zweiheit sich entfalten. Und man muß in die Zukunft, die dritte Epoche, denken, in der der Weltengeist den Weltenleib wieder in seine Wirksamkeit übernehmen wird.
[ 9 ] Für die alte Epoche wären Sternenkonstellation und Sternenlauf nicht zu «berechnen» gewesen, denn sie waren Ausdruck der freien Intelligenz und des freien Willens von göttlich-geistigen Wesen. In der Zukunft werden sie wieder nicht zu berechnen sein.
[ 10 ] «Berechnung» hat nur eine Bedeutung für die mittlere kosmische Epoche.
[ 11 ] Und wie für Sternenkonstellation und Sternenlauf, so gilt dieses auch für die Wirksamkeit der vom Erdenzentrum in die Weltenweite strahlenden Kräfte. Da wird das, was «aus der Tiefe» wirkt, «berechenbar».
[ 12 ] Aber alles strebt aus der älteren kosmischen Epoche der mittleren zu, in der das Räumliche und Zeitliche «berechenbar» wird und das Göttlich-Geistige als Intelligenz- und Willens-Offenbarung «hinter» dem «Berechenbaren» gesucht werden muß.
[ 13 ] Nur in dieser mittleren Epoche sind die Bedingungen gegeben, in denen die Menschheit von einem dumpfen Bewußtsein zu einem hellen, freien Selbstbewußtsein, zu eigener freier Intelligenz und eigenem freien Willen fortschreiten kann.
[ 14 ] Es mußte einmal die Zeit kommen, in der Kopernikus und Kepler den Weltenleib «berechneten». Denn aus den kosmischen Kräften, die mit der Herbeiführung dieses Augenblickes zusammenhängen, mußte das menschliche Selbstbewußtsein sich gestalten. In älterer Zeit wurde dieses Selbstbewußtsein veranlagt; dann kam die Zeit, wo es so weit war, die Weltenweite zu «berechnen».
[ 15 ] Auf der Erde spielt sich die «Geschichte» ab. Die wäre nie gekommen, wenn die Weltenweite nicht zu «festen» Sternkonstellationen und Sternenlaufen geworden wäre. In dem «geschichtlichen Werden» auf Erden ist ein Abbild — aber ein durchaus gewandeltes — dessen vorhanden, was einst «Himmelsgeschichte» war.
[ 16 ] Ältere Völker haben in ihrem Bewußtsein noch diese «Himmelsgeschichte», und sie blicken viel mehr auf diese als auf die «Erdengeschichte».
[ 17 ] In der «Erdengeschichte» lebt Intelligenz und Wille der Menschen, erst im Zusammenhange mit dem kosmischen Götterwillen und der Götterintelligenz, dann selbständig.
[ 18 ] In der «Himmelsgeschichte» lebten Intelligenz und Wille der mit der Menschheit zusammenhängenden göttlich-geistigen Wesen.
[ 19 ] Blickt man zurück auf das geistige Leben der Völker, so ist in urferner Vergangenheit ein Bewußtsein des Zusammenseins und Zusammenwollens mit den göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten so bei den Menschen vorhanden, daß deren Geschichte Himmelsgeschichte ist. Der Mensch erzählt, indem er über «Ursprünge» spricht, nicht irdische, sondern kosmische Vorgänge. Ja auch für seine Gegenwart erscheint ihm das, was in seiner Erden-Umgebung vorgeht, so unbedeutend gegenüber den kosmischen Vorgängen, daß er nur diese, nicht jenes beachtet.
[ 20 ] Es gab eine Epoche, in der die Menschheit das Bewußtsein hatte, die Himmelsgeschichte in mächtigen Eindrücken zu schauen, in denen die göttlich-geistigen Wesen selbst vor der Seele des Menschen standen. Sie sprachen; und der Mensch vernahm die Sprache in Traum-Inspiration; sie offenbarten ihre Gestalten; und der Mensch schaute sie in Traum-Imagination.
[ 21 ] Diese «Himmelsgeschichte», die eine lange Zeit die Menschenseelen erfüllte, wurde gefolgt von der mythischen Geschichte, die man heute vielfach für alte Dichtung hält. Sie verbindet Himmelsgeschehen mit Erdgeschehen. Es treten zum Beispiel «Heroen» auf, übermenschliche Wesen. Es sind das Wesen, die in der Entwickelung höher stehen als die Menschen. Diese haben zum Beispiel in einer gewissen Zeit die menschlichen Wesensglieder nur bis zur Empfindungsseele ausgestaltet. Der «Heros» aber hat bereits entwickelt, was im Menschen als Geistselbst einmal auftreten wird. Der «Heros» kann nicht innerhalb der Erdenverhältnisse unmittelbar sich verkörpern; aber er kann es dadurch, daß er in den Körper eines Menschen untertaucht und so sich fähig macht, als Mensch unter Menschen zu wirken. In «Eingeweihten» der älteren Zeit hat man solche Wesen zu sehen. Die Tatsachen im Weltgeschehen liegen bei alle dem so, daß nicht etwa die Menschheit sich in den aufeinanderfolgenden Epochen die Geschehnisse so «vorstellte»; sondern, was sich zwischen der mehr geistigen «unberechenbaren» und der körperlichen «berechenbaren» Welt abspielte, das wandelte sich. Nur das liegt vor, daß lange, nachdem die Weltverhältnisse sich schon gewandelt hatten, das menschliche Bewußtsein dieses oder jenes Volkes noch an einer «Weltanschauung» festhielt, die einer viel früheren Wirklichkeit entsprach. Zuerst geschah das so, daß das menschliche Bewußtsein, das nicht gleichen Schritt hält mit dem kosmischen Geschehen, das Alte wirklich noch schaute. Dann kam eine Zeit, wo das Schauen verblaßte und das Alte nur durch Tradition noch festgehalten wurde. So wird im Mittelalter traditionell ein Hereinspielen der Himmelswelt in die irdische noch vorgestellt, das nicht mehr geschaut wird, weil die Kraft des Bildschauens nicht mehr da ist.
[ 22 ] Und im Erdbereich entwickeln sich die Völker so, daß sie in verschiedener Zeitenlänge den einen oder andern Weltanschauungsinhalt festhalten, so daß nebeneinander Weltanschauungen leben, die ihrem Wesen gemäß nacheinanderliegen. — Nur rühren die verschiedenen Weltanschauungen der Völker nicht allein von dieser Tatsache her, sondern auch davon, daß nach ihren Anlagen die verschiedenen Völker verschiedenes schauten. So sahen die Ägypter die Welt, in der Wesen sind, welche auf dem Wege der Menschwerdung vorzeitig stehen geblieben und nicht Erdenmenschen geworden sind; und sie sahen den Menschen nach seinem Erdenleben in alle dem, was er mit solchen Wesen zu tun hat. Die chaldäischen Völker sahen mehr, wie außerirdische geistige Wesen — gute und böse — in das Erdenleben eintraten, um da zu wirken.
[ 23 ] Auf die alte, einer ganz langen Zeitepoche angehörige eigentliche «Himmelsgeschichte» folgt die «mythologische» Geschichte, die kürzer, aber im Verhältnis zur späteren eigentlichen «Geschichte» doch noch lange ist.
[ 24 ] Die Menschen verlassen — wie ich schon charakterisiert habe — nur schwer in ihrem Bewußtsein die alten Anschauungen, in denen Götter und Menschen zusammenwirkend vorgestellt werden. — So ist «eigentliche Erdgeschichte» längst - seit Entfaltung der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele — vorhanden. Der Mensch «denkt» noch im Sinne dessen, was gewesen ist. Erst da, wo die ersten Keime der Bewußtseinsseele sich entwickeln, beginnt man damit auf die «eigentliche Geschichte» zu blicken.
[ 25 ] Und in dem, was losgelöst vom Göttlich-Geistigen als Menschlich-Geistiges Geschichte wird, kann von den Menschen die freie Intelligenz und der freie Wille erlebt werden.
[ 26 ] So verläuft das Weltgeschehen, in das der Mensch ein-verwoben ist, zwischen dem voll Berechenbaren und dem Wirken der freien Intelligenz und des freien Willens. In allen Zwischennuancen des Zusammenwirkens von beidem offenbart sich das Weltgeschehen.
[ 27 ] Der Mensch vollbringt sein Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod so, daß ihm im Berechenbaren die leibliche Grundlage zur Entfaltung des innerlichen geistig-seelischen freien Unberechenbaren geschaffen wird. Sein Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt durchläuft er im Unberechenbaren, doch so, daß ihm da als in dem «Inneren» des geistig-seelischen Seins das Berechenbare sich gedanklich entfaltet. Er wird dadurch — aus diesem Berechenbaren heraus — der Aufbauer seines kommenden Erdenlebens.
[ 28 ] In der «Geschichte» lebt sich auf Erden das Unberechenbare aus, in das sich aber das Berechenbare, wenn auch im schwachen Maße eingliedert.
[ 29 ] Gegen die Ordnung, die durch die mit dem Menschen seit Urbeginn verbundenen göttlich-geistigen Wesen zwischen Unberechenbarem und Berechenbarem festgelegt ist — gegen deren Harmonisierung des Kosmos durch «Maß, Zahl und Gewicht» —, stellen sich die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Wesen. Luzifer kann mit der Art, die er seinem Wesen gegeben hat, nichts Berechenbares vereinigen. Sein Ideal ist kosmische unbedingte Intelligenz- und Willenswirkung.
[ 30 ] Diese luziferische Tendenz, sie ist angemessen der Weltenordnung in den Gebieten, in denen freies Geschehen herrschen soll. Und da ist Luzifer der berechtigte geistige Helfer der Menschheits-Entfaltung. Ohne seine Hilfe könnte in das Geistig-Seelische des Menschen, das sich auf der Grundlage des berechenbaren Leiblichen aufbaut, Freiheit nicht einziehen- Aber Luzifer möchte diese Tendenz auf den ganzen Kosmos ausdehnen. Und da wird seine Tätigkeit zum Kampfe gegen die göttlich-geistige Ordnung, zu der der Mensch ursprünglich gehört.
[ 31 ] Da tritt Michael ein. Er steht mit dem eigenen Wesen im Unberechenbaren; aber er bewirkt den Ausgleich zwischen dem Unberechenbaren und dem Berechenbaren, das er als Weltgedanke in sich trägt, den er von seinen Göttern empfangen hat.
[ 32 ] Anders stehen die ahrimanischen Mächte in der Welt. Sie sind der völlige Gegensatz der göttlich-geistigen Wesen, mit denen der Mensch ursprünglich verbunden ist. Diese sind gegenwärtig rein geistige Mächte, die in sich vollkommene freie Intelligenz und vollkommen freien Willen tragen, die aber in dieser Intelligenz und diesem Willen die weise Einsicht von der Notwendigkeit des Berechenbaren, Unfreien als Weltgedanken schaffen, aus dessen Schöße der Mensch als freies Wesen sich entfalten soll. Und sie sind mit allem Berechenbaren, mit dem Weltgedanken, im Kosmos in Liebe verbunden. Diese Liebe strömt von ihnen durch das Weltall.
[ 33 ] In vollem Gegensatz dazu lebt in dem gierigen Begehren der ahrimanischen Mächte der kalte Haß auf alles in Freiheit sich Entfaltende. Ahrimans Streben geht dahin, aus dem, was er von der Erde in den Weltenraum strömen läßt, eine kosmische Maschine zu machen. Sein Ideal ist «einzig und allein» «Maß, Zahl und Gewicht». Er wurde in den der Menschenentwickelung dienenden Kosmos hereingerufen, weil «Maß, Zahl und Gewicht», sein Gebiet, entfaltet werden mußte.
[ 34 ] Nur wer die Welt geistig-körperlich überall begreift, der begreift sie wirklich. Das muß bis in die Natur hinein mit Bezug auf solche Mächte wie die göttlich-geistigen in Liebe wirkenden und die in Haß wirkenden ahrimanischen beachtet werden. Man muß in der naturhaften Weltenwärme, die mit dem Frühling einsetzt und gegen den Sommer zu wirkt, die naturhafte Liebe der göttlich-geistigen Wesen wahrnehmen; man muß in dem wehenden Froste des Winters die Wirkung Ahrimans gewahr werden.
[ 35 ] Im Hochsommer webt sich Luzifers Kraft in die naturhafte Liebe, die Wärme, hinein. In der Weihnachtszeit wendet sich die Kraft der göttlich-geistigen Wesen, denen der Mensch ursprünglich verbunden ist, gegen den Frost-Haß Ahrimans. Und gegen den Frühling zu mildert fortdauernd naturhafte göttliche Liebe naturhaften Ahriman-Haß.
[ 36 ] Das Erscheinen dieser alljährlich auftretenden göttlichen Liebe ist die Zeit der Erinnerung, da das freie Gottes-Element in das berechenbare Erd-Element mit dem Christus eingetreten ist. Christus wirkt in völliger Freiheit in dem Berechenbaren; damit macht er unschädlich, was nur das Berechenbare begehrt, das Ahrimanische.
[ 37 ] Das Ereignis von Golgatha ist die freie kosmische Tat der Liebe innerhalb der Erdengeschichte; sie ist auch nur erfaßbar für die Liebe, die der Mensch zu diesem Erfassen aufbringt.
Goetheanum, um Weihnachten 1924 Leitsätze Nr. 140 bis 143
(4. Januar 1925)
(Mit Bezug auf das Vorangehende über: Himmelsgeschichte, mythologische Geschichte, Erdgeschichte, Mysterium von Golgatha)
[ 38 ] 140. Das kosmische Geschehen, in das die Menschheitsentwickelung einverwoben ist, und das sich im Menschenbewußtsein als «Geschichte» — im umfassendsten Sinne spiegelt, gliedert sich: in die langdauernde Himmelsgeschichte, die kürzere mythologische Geschichte und in die verhältnismäßig ganz kurze Erdgeschichte.
[ 39 ] 141. Dieses kosmische Geschehen zerfällt gegenwärtig in das «nicht zu berechnende» Wirken göttlich-geistiger Wesen, die in freier Intelligenz und freiem Willen schaffen, und in das «berechenbare» Geschehen des Weltenleibes.
[ 40 ] 142. Gegen das Berechenbare des Weltenleibes stellen sich die luziferischen, gegen das in freier Intelligenz und freiem Willen Schaffende die ahrimanischen Mächte.
[ 41 ] 143. Das Ereignis von Golgatha ist eine freie kosmische Tat, die der Welten-Liebe entstammt und nur durch Menschen-Liebe erfaßt werden kann.
History of the heavens. Mythological history. Earth history Mystery of Golgotha.
[ 1 ] In the spatial cosmos there are opposites: World's expanse and earth's center. The stars are to a certain extent "scattered" in the universe. Forces radiate from the center of the earth in all directions of the world's expanse.
[ 2 ] As man stands in the world in the present cosmic epoch, the starry shining and earthly forces can only appear to him as the total work of the divine-spiritual beings with whom he is connected in his inner being.
[ 3 ] But there was a cosmic time epoch when this shining and these earth forces were still the direct spiritual revelation of the divine-spiritual beings. Man in his dull consciousness felt the divine-spiritual beings effectively in his being.
[ 4 ] Then came another epoch of time. The starry sky detached itself as a physical being from the divine-spiritual work. What can be called world spirit and world body emerged. The world spirit is a multiplicity of divine-spiritual entities. In the older epoch they work into the earth from the starry places. What shone from the expanses of the worlds, what radiated from the center of the earth as forces, was in reality the intelligence and will of the divine-spiritual beings who created the earth and its humanity.
[ 5 ] In the later cosmic epoch - after the evolution of Saturn and the sun - the work of intelligence and will of the divine-spiritual beings became more and more spiritually internalized. What they were originally active and present in became the "world body", the harmonious arrangement of the stars in world space. If one looks back on these things in a spiritually appropriate world view, one can say: world spirit and world body arose from the original spirit body of the world-creating beings. And the world body shows in the arrangement and movement of the stars how once the intelligent and willful work of the gods was. But for the cosmic present, what was once free-moving divine intelligence and divine will in the stars has become lawful and fixed in them.
[ 6 ] So what shines in today from the starry worlds to man on earth is not a direct expression of the will of the gods and the intelligence of the gods, but a sign that has remained standing of what they once were in the stars. In the celestial star design that releases admiration from the human soul, one can therefore see a past, but not the present revelation of the gods.
[ 7 ] But that which is "past" in the starlight is "present" in the spirit world. And man lives with his being in this "present" world spirit.
[ 8 ] In the shaping of the world, one must look back to an old cosmic epoch in which world spirit and world body function as a unity. We must consider the middle epoch in which they unfold as a duality. And one must think into the future, the third epoch, in which the world spirit will again take over the world body into its activity.
[ 9 ] For the old epoch, the constellation and course of the stars could not have been "calculated" because they were an expression of the free intelligence and free will of divine-spiritual beings. In the future, they will again be impossible to calculate.
[ 10 ] "Calculation" only has a meaning for the middle cosmic epoch.
[ 11 ] And as for the constellation and course of the stars, this also applies to the effectiveness of the forces radiating from the center of the earth into the world. That which works "from the depths" becomes "calculable".
[ 12 ] But everything strives from the older cosmic epoch towards the middle, in which the spatial and temporal becomes "calculable" and the divine-spiritual must be sought "behind" the "calculable" as a revelation of intelligence and will.
[ 13 ] Only in this middle epoch are the conditions given in which humanity can progress from a dull consciousness to a bright, free self-consciousness, to its own free intelligence and its own free will.
[ 14 ] The time had to come when Copernicus and Kepler "calculated" the body of the world. For human self-consciousness had to be formed from the cosmic forces connected with the bringing about of this moment. In older times, this self-consciousness was predisposed; then came the time when it was ready to "calculate" the world.
[ 15 ] The "story" takes place on Earth. It would never have come about if the expanse of the world had not become "fixed" star constellations and star courses. In the "historical becoming" on earth, there is an image - but a thoroughly changed one - of what was once "celestial history".
[ 16 ] Older peoples still have this "heavenly history" in their consciousness, and they look to it much more than to "earthly history".
[ 17 ] In the "history of the earth" lives the intelligence and will of men, first in connection with the cosmic will of the gods and the intelligence of the gods, then independently.
[ 18 ] In the "history of the heavens" lived the intelligence and will of the divine-spiritual beings connected with humanity.
[ 19 ] Looking back at the spiritual life of the peoples, in the distant past there is a consciousness of being together and wanting to be together with the divine-spiritual beings in such a way that their history is the history of heaven. By talking about "origins", man does not recount earthly but cosmic processes. Indeed, even for his present, what goes on in his earthly environment seems so insignificant to him compared to the cosmic processes that he only pays attention to these, not to that.
[ 20 ] There was an epoch in which mankind had the consciousness to see the history of heaven in mighty impressions, in which the divine-spiritual beings themselves stood before the soul of man. They spoke; and man heard the speech in dream-inspiration; they revealed their forms; and man beheld them in dream-imagination.
[ 21 ] This "heavenly story", which filled the souls of men for a long time, was followed by the mythical story, which today is often thought to be ancient poetry. It combines heavenly events with earthly events. For example, "heroes" appear, superhuman beings. These are beings who are higher in development than humans. At a certain time, for example, these beings have only developed the human being limbs to the level of the sentient soul. The "Heros", however, has already developed what will one day appear in the human being as the spirit self. The "Heros" cannot embody itself directly within earthly relationships; but it can do so by immersing itself in the body of a human being and thus making itself capable of working as a human being among human beings. Such beings can be seen in the "initiates" of older times. The facts of world events in all this are such that mankind did not "imagine" events in this way in successive epochs; rather, what took place between the more spiritual "incalculable" and the physical "calculable" world changed. It is only that long after world conditions had already changed, the human consciousness of this or that people still clung to a "world view" that corresponded to a much earlier reality. At first this happened in such a way that human consciousness, which does not keep pace with cosmic events, really still saw the old. Then came a time when vision faded and the old was only held on to through tradition. Thus, in the Middle Ages, traditionally, the heavenly world is still imagined to play into the earthly world, which is no longer seen because the power of seeing is no longer there.
[ 22 ] And in the terrestrial realm the peoples develop in such a way that they hold one or the other worldview content in different lengths of time, so that next to each other worldviews live, which according to their nature lie one after the other. - But the different world-views of the peoples do not stem from this fact alone, but also from the fact that the different peoples saw different things according to their dispositions. Thus the Egyptians saw the world in which there were beings who had stopped prematurely on the way to becoming man and had not become earth-men; and they saw man after his life on earth in all that he had to do with such beings. The Chaldean peoples saw more how extraterrestrial spiritual beings - good and evil - entered earthly life in order to work there.
[ 23 ] The ancient "celestial history" proper, which belongs to a very long epoch, is followed by the "mythological" history, which is shorter, but still long in relation to the later "history" proper.
[ 24 ] As I have already characterized, it is difficult for people to abandon in their consciousness the old views in which gods and humans are presented as interacting. - Thus "actual earth history" has long been present - since the development of the intellectual or emotional soul. Man still "thinks" in terms of what has been. Only when the first germs of the consciousness soul develop does one begin to look at the "actual history".
[ 25 ] And in that which, detached from the divine-spiritual, becomes history as the human-spiritual, free intelligence and free will can be experienced by human beings.
[ 26 ] In this way, world events, in which man is interwoven, run between the fully calculable and the workings of free intelligence and free will. World events are revealed in all the nuances of the interaction between the two.
[ 27 ] Man accomplishes his life between birth and death in such a way that the bodily basis for the unfolding of the inner spiritual-soul free unpredictable is created for him in the calculable. He passes through his life between death and a new birth in the incalculable, but in such a way that the calculable unfolds mentally as in the "inner" of the spiritual-soul being. He thus becomes - out of this calculable - the builder of his coming life on earth.
[ 28 ] In "history" the incalculable lives itself out on earth, into which, however, the calculable integrates itself, albeit to a weak degree.
[ 29 ] The Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings oppose the order that has been established between the incalculable and the calculable by the divine-spiritual beings connected with man since the beginning - against their harmonization of the cosmos through "measure, number and weight". Lucifer cannot unite anything calculable with the nature he has given to his being. His ideal is cosmic unconditional intelligence and will.
[ 30 ] This Luciferian tendency is appropriate to the world order in those areas in which free events are to prevail. And there Lucifer is the legitimate spiritual helper of the unfolding of humanity. Without his help freedom could not enter into the spiritual-soul of man, which is built up on the basis of the calculable physical - but Lucifer wants to extend this tendency to the whole cosmos. And then his activity becomes a battle against the divine-spiritual order to which man originally belongs.
[ 31 ] Then Michael enters. He stands with his own being in the unpredictable; but he brings about the balance between the unpredictable and the predictable, which he carries within himself as a world-thought that he has received from his gods.
[ 32 ] The ahrimanic powers in the world are different. They are the complete opposite of the divine-spiritual beings with whom man is originally connected. These are at present purely spiritual powers, which carry within themselves completely free intelligence and completely free will, but which create in this intelligence and this will the wise insight of the necessity of the calculable, unfree as world thoughts, from whose wings man is to unfold as a free being. And they are connected in love with everything calculable, with the world-thought, in the cosmos. This love flows from them through the universe.
[ 33 ] In complete contrast to this lives in the greedy desire of the Ahrimanic powers the cold hatred of everything that unfolds in freedom. Ahriman strives to make a cosmic machine out of what he lets flow from the earth into the universe. His ideal is "only and solely" "measure, number and weight". He was called into the cosmos, which serves human development, because "measure, number and weight", his field, had to be developed.
[ 34 ] Only he who grasps the world spiritually and physically everywhere truly grasps it. This must be observed right into nature with reference to such powers as the divine-spiritual ones working in love and the ahrimanic ones working in hate. One must perceive the natural love of the divine-spiritual beings in the natural warmth of the world, which begins with spring and works towards summer; one must become aware of the effect of Ahriman in the blowing frost of winter.
[ 35 ] In midsummer, Lucifer's power weaves itself into the natural love, the warmth. At Christmas time, the power of the divine-spiritual beings, to whom man is originally connected, turns against the frost-hatred of Ahriman. And as spring approaches, natural divine love continues to soften the natural hatred of Ahriman.
[ 36 ] The appearance of this annually occurring divine love is the time of remembrance, when the free God-element has entered into the calculable earth-element with the Christ. Christ works in complete freedom in the calculable; thus he renders harmless what only the calculable desires, the ahrimanic.
[ 37 ] The event of Golgotha is the free cosmic act of love within the history of the earth; it is also only comprehensible for the love that man brings to this comprehension.
Goetheanum, around Christmas 1924 (January 4, 1925)
(With reference to the foregoing on: Celestial History, Mythological History, Earth History, Mystery of Golgotha)
[ 38 ] 140. The cosmic event, in which the development of mankind is interwoven, and which is reflected in human consciousness as "history" - in the most comprehensive sense, is divided: into the long-lasting history of heaven, the shorter mythological history and the relatively very short history of the earth.
[ 39 ] 141 This cosmic event currently breaks down into the "incalculable" work of divine-spiritual beings, who create in free intelligence and free will, and into the "calculable" event of the world body.
[ 40 ] 142 The Luciferic powers oppose the calculable of the world body, the Ahrimanic powers oppose that which creates in free intelligence and free will.
[ 41 ] 143. The event of Golgotha is a free cosmic deed that originates from world-love and can only be grasped through human-love.