Esoteric Studies: Cosmic Ego and Human Ego. Cosmic Ego and Human Ego The Nature of Christ the Resurrected Lecture by Rudolf Steiner, Munich, January 9, 1912 IT is necessary that we speak somewhat further this evening concerning the nature of Christ Jesus. This necessity arises from the fact that at the present time there is much discussion of this subject, especially in Theosophical circles, and on that account the need confronts us in a very real sense to come to complete clarity upon many a point in this domain. Today we shall have to discuss an aspect of the question which to many may perhaps appear somewhat strange, but it is very important nevertheless. We shall start with the evolution of man. We know, of course, that this has progressed in such a way that the whole of humanity within our Earth evolution passes through certain cyclic epochs.
Hence, in the next, the sixth post-Atlantean epoch, we shall feel as if drawn upward to something which shines into us. On the Connection of the Living and the Dead. On the Connection of the Living and the Dead Berne, 9 November 1916 It is one of the aims of our spiritual-scientific endeavour to form concrete ideas of how we, as human beings upon earth, live with the spiritual worlds, even as we are connected through the physical body — its experiences and perceptions — with the physical world. At the present stage of our studies we may well take our start from what is already known to us — what has already come before our souls during these years.
Here, for instance, is the world of our sense-perceptions, the world to which we direct our will-impulses for which the physical body mediates — that is to say, our actions. Immediately behind it, as you know, there is the elemental world. That is the next world behind this one. From the mineral kingdom, as physical human beings, we receive few imaginations.
It is, as we might say, our soul's interest in the surrounding world which makes itself felt in this way. But we must also realize the following. Concerning Electricity. Extract from a Lecture by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, January 28, 1923 GA 220 From stenographic notes unrevised by the lecturer. The cultural ingredient that now permeates our whole external civilization began to rise to the surface at the turn of the 18th and 19th century. Think of the immense contrast between the present time and that time when a certain physicist prepared a frog's leg which accidentally came into contact with the window … the frog's leg quivered, and so he discovered electricity! How long ago was that? — Less than 150 years ago, yet electricity is now a cultural ingredient. Human thought has spun itself altogether into electricity, and this occurred not so very long ago.
If we now observe the connections that existed before the present age of electricity, we may say that they allowed the natural scientist of that time to imagine, at least abstractly, the spiritual in Nature. Things went still further. The greatest contrast to electricity is LIGHT. The Concepts of Original Sin and Grace. A course of lectures in Helsingfors was to have begun today, but as karma has brought us together here instead, it may be useful to speak of certain subjects belonging to Spiritual Science, and then perhaps some particular wish may be expressed in the form of a question arising from our study on this unexpected occasion. We will concern ourselves with certain thoughts which throw light on the subject of man's evolution in connection with the evolution of the earth, and as often before, we shall try to enlarge upon many things already known to us.
Many things connected with the religious life and men's view of the world may have prompted the question: How are these things related to the deeper conceptions of life and the world which arise from Spiritual Science? To begin with, I want to speak of two important concepts which confront the soul of modern man, even though he may believe he has long outgrown them. These two concepts are usually designated by the words ‘Sin’ and ‘Grace’. Colour. The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone. The Individuality of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis. Translated by George Adams My dear friends, It has not been possible for me to speak to you on the last two days. But today — the day when the Michael mood of dedication must pour its light into all our hearts, I did not want to let pass without speaking to you at least a few words.
That I am able to do so is due entirely to the loving and devoted care of our friend Dr. Ita Wegman. And so I hope that I will still be able to say today what I desire particularly to say to you on the occasion of this festival. In recent months we have frequently spoken, my dear friends, of the instreaming of the Michael-Power into the spiritual events of man's life on earth.
What we can do at present is to awaken, in this Michael time, the Michael mood in our souls by giving ourselves up to thoughts that will prepare the way for a future Michael Festival. When we look back into olden times, we see rise up before us within the traditions of Judaism the prophetic figure of Elijah. The Human Soul and the Universe.
THE HUMAN SOUL AND THE UNIVERSEBerlin, 20th February 1917. What we possess as the first fruit of Spiritual Science is in its most practical and noble sense able to lead us to feel that there is within the ordinary outer man an inner man, who to the ordinary idea is really a second man. In this respect all men in reality consist of two beings; one composed more of our physical body and etheric body and belonging to that which is the external world: external in the sense that this physical body and to some extent the etheric body too are forms and images — manifestations — of the divine Spiritual beings by which we are always surrounded. Our physical and etheric bodies are in their true essence — though not as we as men at first know them, — images, neither of ourselves, nor of our real being, but of the Gods whose whole life is spent in producing our physical and etheric bodies and bringing about their full development; just as we men bring about the actions and deeds we accomplish.
Human Values in Education. The Human Soul and the Animal Soul; The Human Spirit and the Animal Spirit. How Can We Gain Knowledge of the Supersensible Worlds? Lecture by Dr. Rudolf Steiner 9 March, 1913 [From stenographic notes unrevised by the lecturer.] The subject of today's lecture sets out from a question which is often asked by people who have perhaps heard superficially of spiritual science and spiritual investigation, for led by the conceptions and habits of thought ruling in the present time, they cannot think how it is possible to draw knowledge from the super-sensible worlds. We have frequently emphasized that a person standing upon the foundation of spiritual research can best of all understand the objections raised from an external standpoint.
Indeed one can say that if the conceptions advanced by a spiritual investigator were to meet the approval of wider circles, this would be far more surprising than if they were to give rise to the greatest possible opposition … for they must give rise to antagonism! But the following question can be raised: Is it nevertheless possible to attain to real self-knowledge? Why? Human Freedom and Its Connection with the Mystery of Golgotha. Lecture by Dr. Rudolf Steiner Given at Dornach, October 16, 1921 (From stenographic notes not revised by the lecturer.)
Published in the “Anthroposophic News Sheet,” Dornach, Switzerland Volume 15, No. 43/44, November 9, 1947 Our last lectures showed the fundamental difference between man's whole conception here, from birth to death, and in the spiritual world, from death to a new birth. Here on earth, between birth and death, the human being really does not have in his ordinary consciousness any conception of his own self.
When our senses are turned to the things which surround us in the world in which we live from birth to death, then the world appears to us as a semblance, as an illusion. If, however, in the present epoch we were not able to experience the world as an illusion during our existence from birth to death, if we were unable to experience this illusion, we could not be free. From birth to death, man lives in a real world unknown to him, one which cannot ever give him freedom. Goethe, Comte and Bentham.
Four Seasons and the Archangels. The Four Temperaments. Some Conditions for Understanding Supersensible Experiences. The Human Heart. Mathematics and Occultism. The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone. Errors in Spiritual Investigation. On the Dimensions of Space. On the Dimensions of Space. Dornach, 24th June, 1922. My dear Friends, The things I shall have to explain to-day may be apparently a little far removed from our more concrete studies of Anthroposophy. They are however a necessary foundation for many other perceptions which we need — a foundation on which we shall afterwards have to build in our more intimate considerations.
There is a certain inherent difficulty for our human power of knowledge and understanding when we speak of the physical bodily nature of man on the one hand, and the soul-and-spirit on the other. But the difficulties begin at once when man endeavours to relate the world of things physical and bodily with the world of soul and spirit.
Some people, who imagine they are not materialistically minded — though in reality they are all the more so — try to conceive the things of the soul and spirit in the world of space. But quite apart from all that, the fact is that man is conscious of his own soul-and-spirit. On the Nature of Butterflies. Christmas Conference: Lecture 17: The Envy of the Gods - The Envy of Human Beings. Bhagavad Gita/Paul: Lecture IV: The nature of the Bhagavad Gita and the significance of the Epistles of St. Paul. How the Christ Impulse surpasses the Krishna Impulse. Www.rsarchive.org/Translators/StebbingR/19070328p01.html. Geographic Medicine: Lecture II.
Lecture II The Mystery of the Double: Geographic Medicine St. Gallen, November 16, 1917 In yesterday's public lecture, you will have noticed that something was said that is very significant concerning how spiritual knowledge is comprehended in human life. Such an issue touches on deeply significant mysteries of human life, mysteries that for hundreds and thousands of years were carefully guarded by certain occult societies.
In earlier times, when humanity lived under different conditions, it was justifiable to hold back such mysteries within certain limits, but now this is no longer the case. In earlier times of humanity's evolution it was different. Today one must also know the other side of the coin of this Copernican world view, now that centuries have passed during which the human soul has been confronted again and again with the magnificent advance of this view. When the human being passes through the portal of death, his consciousness alters. Mission/Rosenkreutz: Lecture VII. The Mission of Gautama Buddha on Mars. Friends have expressed the wish that I should speak today on the subject of the lecture here a year ago, when it was said that the Initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz took place in very special circumstances in the thirteenth century and that since then this Individuality has worked unceasingly in the spiritual life.
Today we shall hear still more of Christian Rosenkreutz as we study the great task which devolved upon him at the dawn of the age of intellect in order that provision might be made for the future of humanity. A being like Christian Rosenkreutz, who is present in the world as a great and eminent occultist has to reckon with the conditions peculiar to his epoch. The intrinsic character of spiritual life as it is in the present age, arose for the first time when modern natural science came upon the scene with men like Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo and others. A Conference of the greatest and most advanced Individualities was called together by Christian Rosenkreutz. The Cosmic New Year. Lecture: The Origin of Evil. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL (Notes) Berlin, 22nd November, 1906. It is characteristic of the whole of modern literature that it speaks so little of evil; materialism simply does not concern itself with evil.
A materialistic explanation can apparently be found for suffering, illness and death; but not for evil. In the case of the animal one speaks of cruelty, destructiveness, but one cannot call the animal evil. There is an original human wisdom which penetrates to the actual nature of things lying behind the purely external appearance. Now how is evil connected with actual human nature? Spiritual science teaches of the existence of certain highly evolved men, the initiates, and it has been taught in the Mystery Schools of all times how man can bring himself to such a stage of evolution.
Now what is the task of the soul which is free from the body? But one must not think that there will be an exact recapitulation: the same is never repeated. And it is the same in all the kingdoms. Rudolf Steiner Archive.