20160216-LoCS Unger

THE LANGUAGE OF
THE CONSCIOUSNESS SOUL

CARL UNGER
THE LANGUAGE OF
As A Basis For The Study Of
Rudolf Steiner’s “Leading Thoughts”
CARL UNGER
Translated by
Effie Grace Wilson
ST. GEORGE PUBLICATIONS

Spring Valley, New York
This book was originally published in German under
the title Aus der Sprache der Bewusstseinsseele: Unter
Zugrundelegung der “Leitsaetze” Rudolf Steiners in 1930
by the Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am
Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland. And English-language
edition was published in 1958 by New Knowledge Books,
East Grinstead, Sussex, England. This present edition is
newly edited by Alan and Mary Howard, in collaboration
with St. George Publications.
Copyright © 1983 by Alan Howard
All rights in this book are reserved. No part of this

publication may be reproduced in any form, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic-mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior written permission of the
publishers, except for brief quotations embodied in critical
articles for reviews. For information, address St. George
Publications, Spring Valley, NY 10977, U.S.A.
ISBN 0-916786-56-0
Second Edition
Manufactured in the United States of America

DEDICATION
TO THE TRANSLATOR
to whom I express my warmest thanks

for her devoted work on this book.
Auguste Unger
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of Dr. Georg Unger in
providing us with the original photograph of his father, Carl Unger, for use
as the frontispiece illustration of this book.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABOUT CARL UNGER xiii

TRANSLATOR’S FORWORD xvii
FOREWORD: In Remembrance and Gratitude xix
I. INTRODUCTION. 1
II. THE CONSCIOUSNESS SOUL. 3
III. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES. 6
(Leading Thoughts 1, 2, 3)
IV. THE PATH TO THE BOUNDARIES OF KNOWLEDGE. 10
(Leading Thoughts 4, 5)
V. COSMIC VIEWS. 14
VI. THE CROSSING OF THE THRESHOLD. 19
(Leading Thoughts 8, 9, 10
VII. THE IMAGE AND REALITY OF THE “EGO”. 23
VIII. THE “EGO” AND MEDITATION. 28
(Leading Thoughts 13, 14, 15, 16)
IX. THE “EGO” “NOTHINGNESS” AND “LIGHT”. 33
X. BODY, SOUL AND SPIRIT. 37
XI. THE SPIRIT’S CALL TO AWAKE. 41
XII. CONCERNING FREEDOM. 46
XIII. FREEDOM AND DEATH. 50
XIV. DEATH, MORALITY AND TIME. 55
XV. EXERCISE IN THOUGHT. 59
XVI. THREEFOLD ORGANIZATION AND MORALITY. 63
XVII. TRANSFORMATIONS. 67
XVIII. THE ART OF THINKING. 71
XIX. SPIRITUAL-SCIENTIFIC COPERNICANISM. 75
XX. INTO THE INNER BEING OF NATURE! 79
XXI. CONCERNING MORALITY. 84
XXII. CONCERNING THE WILL. 89
XXIII. PRELIMINARY KARMA EXERCISES. 93
XXIV. MAN AND DESTINY. 97
XXV. KARMA EXERCISES. 102
XXVI. KARMA AND HISTORY. 107
(Leading Thoughts)
XXVII. HISTORY, MORALITY AND PRECOGNITION. 112
(Leading Thoughts)
XXVIII. A NEW SERVICE OF SACRIFICE. 117
(Leading Thoughts)
XXIX. TOWARD THE ANALYSIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 122
(Leading Thoughts)
XXX. SOUNDS AND THE WORD. 127
XXXI. A NEW BEGINNING. 132
XXXII. “EPISTEMOLOGIES” OF THE HIGHER HIERARCHIES. 136
XXXIII. COSMIC REALMS OF THE HIERARCHIES. 141
XXXIV. THINKING, MEDITATING, SEEING. 146
(Leading Thoughts 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)
XXXV. UNDER MICHAEL’S BANNER. 151
XXXVI. WHAT IS CONCEALED AND REVEALED IN WAKING, 156
DREAMING AND SLEEPING?
(Leading Thoughts 85, 86, 87, 8, 89, 90)
XXXVII. WHAT DOES THE WILL CONCEAL AND REVEAL? 161
XXXVIII. CONCERNING MORAL FANTASY. 166
XXXIX. RELIGION, ART AND SCIENCE. 171
XL. THE CRISIS OF THE PRESENT-DAY SOUL 176

AND HOW IT MAY BE HEALED.
XLI. THE SIN AGAINST THE SPIRIT. 181
XLII. SPIRITUAL HISTORY. 186
XLIII. THE FREE AND THE FETTERED THOUGHT, 191
NOT ONLY AN INTERLUDE.
XLIV. A NEW FORM OF MYTH. 197
XLV. THE RIDDLE OF HUMAN INDIVIDUALITY. 202
XLVI THE VICTORY OVER AVERROES IN OUR TIME. 207
XLVII. WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL. 211

XLVIII. MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM. 216
XLIX. HOW IS THINKING MADE CHRISTIAN? 220
L. CONCERNING MIRACLE. 225

(Leading Thoughts115, 116, 117)
LI. CONCERNING GRACE. 229
LII. THE MICHAEL CHARACTER OF 233
THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY.
LIII. HOW CAN LIFE BE CHRIST-FILLED? 237
LIV. THE PROBLEM OF WORLD AND MAN. 240
LV. THE OTHER SIDE OF HUMAN FREEDOM: PART I. 243
LVI. THE OTHER SIDE OF HUMAN FREEDOM: PART II. 246
LVII. THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS: 249
PART I.
LVIII. THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS: 253
PART II.
LIX. CONCERNING THE LAW OF HISTORY. 256
LX. CONCERNING THE LAW OF REPETITION. 259
LXI. HISTORY AND INITIATION. 263
LXII. HISTORICAL DECISIONS. 266
LXIII. PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. 269
LXIV. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS SOUL. 273
LXV. THE MISSION OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS SOUL. 277
LXVI. SURVEY: PART I. 281
LXVII. SURVEY: PART II. 285
LXVIII. THE LIGHT OF THE SPIRIT-SELF. 288
LXIX. COSMIC INDIVIDUATION. 291
LXX. THE TURNING POINT OF THE UNIVERSE. 295
LXXI. CIVILIZATIONS AS POLARIC OPPOSITES. 299
LXXII. CONCERNING THE NATURE OF REMEMBERING: 302
PART I.
LXXIII. CONCERNING THE NATURE OF REMEMBERING: 305
PART II.
LXXIV. THE THREEFOLD EARTH. 308
LXXV. CONCERNING THE NATURE OF THE ASTRAL. 311
LXXVI. WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS. 315
LXXVII. CROSS AND GRAVE. 318
LXXVIII. CONCLUSION OR NEW BEGINNING? 321
REFERENCE NOTES. 327

PUBLISHER’S BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE. 337
RUDOLF STEINER’S LECTURE CYCLES. 338
LIST OF LECTURE CYCLES. 339
TABLE OF “LEADING THOUGHTS”. 346
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 351
RELEVANT LITERATURE. 353
ABOUT CARL UNGER
The following biographical sketch is based on a paper written by Carl

Unger for Frau Marie Steiner, about 1925-1926, in which, when describing the
course of Anthroposophical work in Stuttgart, he made some autobiographical
statements for her to use as she wished. The material within quotation marks
is all taken from these notes. The necessary additions are concerned principally
with the last years of his life.
Georg Unger
Carl Unger was born on March 28th, 1878, in Cannstatt near Stuttgart and
belonged to the family of a merchant with a scientific tradition. His grandfather,
E.S. Unger, was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Erfurt and the
founder of the first German Secondary School (Realschule). His father, J. Unger,
was known as a collector of Art. As a child, Carl Unger was distinguished for
his musical ability and above all for his early philosophical interest, along with
his scientific-technical talent. At home, he received a non-religious education.
From the age of 14 onwards, he often visited the home of Adolf Arenson
and the impressions he received there were of great importance for his life.
Although there was a difference of 23 years between his age and that of Adolf
Arenson, a deep friendship united them. As a 15-year-old, Carl Unger was much
impressed, on reading Kerner’s Seeress of Prevorst, by the objectivity of the
book with regard to experiences in the supersensible world through his “childish
materialism faded away.” When he was 17 years old, he asked Adolf Arenson
about his world-conception. The question came almost unexpectedly. His friend
put before him the doctrine of reincarnation, “which, when extricating himself
from spiritualistic experiences, he had discovered for himself and found it
confirmed by Lessing.” From that time on, this view was also that of Carl Unger.
xiii
He attended the “Humanistic Gymnasium” which includes Latin and Greek
and later the Technical Colleges in Stuttgart and Berlin — Charlottenburg and
“took the usual examinations.” (He had studied the structure of machines, and
had attained his diploma in engineering and also his Doctor’s degree. Dr. Ing.)
At the age of 20, Unger’s destiny brought him a strange interruption. During
the time of his military service, through an unfortunate joke, he was shot by a
comrade with a pistol which was thought to be unloaded. The bullet went into
the pericardium (the tissue surrounding the heart) and it was never possible to
remove it. For a long time, he hovered between life and death. This experience
made him conscious that his life had been given to him afresh by the spiritual
world and that it should be dedicated to the service of the world (compare also
the example given by Unger himself in Study XXIV, Man and Destiny).
Shortly before the turn of the century on the occasion of a conversation
about reincarnation with a friend, an artist, the attention of Unger and Arenson
was drawn to the Theosophical Society, to which he introduced them. In the
year 1902, when Rudolf Steiner was General Secretary of the German section
of this Society, they became members of it.
Arenson was the first to become acquainted with Rudolf Steiner in the
autumn of 1903, and he returned deeply impressed by what he had heard in
Berlin. His impressions, however, were received skeptically in Stuttgart.
In February 1904, Unger sought an interview with Steiner, the General
Secretary, in Berlin in order, among other things, to express the wish that more
might be known of the section. He describes this meeting, “At that time, I had
still not read one line by Dr. Steiner. On the occasion of this first conversation,
he was very silent, but he took me to Fraulein von Sivers who, in his presence,
pointed to the necessity of beginning the lecture journey, which had long been
intended, especially now that Dr. Steiner’s book (Theosophy) was at the point
of being published. The lecture dealt with the passage ’Suffered under Pontius
Pilate’ from the Creed. This lecture convinced me at once that here was a man
to whose work I had to dedicate my life. The strongest impression consisted
in this: Here stands one who sees and knows. On my return to Stuttgart, my
enthusiasm was received skeptically as Herr Arenson’s already had been. Some
months later, Dr. Steiner began his lecture journeys. At the same time, his book
Theosophy was published and I threw myself into it with the greatest enthusiasm
xiv
and wrestled with it for months, with every page, with every sentence, with many
a word. Then I had the basis for a judgment which I had somewhat thoughtlessly
expressed after my visit to Berlin, I would follow this man blindfolded. For now
I had learned to follow with open eyes.”
By then, the time had come to focus the activity of the Stuttgart Group on
work indicated by Rudolf Steiner. A proposal made by Unger was not carried,
so he, Arenson and some friends resigned from this Group and founded a new
one on September 23, 1905. The goal of this work was to be “through the
experience to enter deeply into the being of man and of the world, in order
thereby to meet the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner with suitable activity.”
From 1905 on, Unger was a personal pupil of Rudolf Steiner.
In the year 1907, at the instigation of Rudolf Steiner, Unger gave a lecture
at the Congress of the European sections of the Theosophical Society in Munich
on the work which had been accomplished by the Stuttgart Group. Invitations
from many Groups came as one of the results of this lecture so that, during
the years 1907 to 1913, he gave hundreds of lectures to the many Groups in
Germany and Switzerland.
This was made possible as follows: in the autumn of 1906, with the help
of his father, he had founded a small machine factory with the quite definite
intention of becoming completely independent. “This brought in its train
many business difficulties but also offered me the opportunity of an outer and
especially an inner freedom. Some experience of life was indeed also a result of
this.”
The year brought him, immediately after his marriage to a daughter of
Arenson, a further important conversation with Rudolf Steiner, who advised
him to work in the sphere of epistemology. This led to some writings which
have appeared in part as books and articles. From this time onward, Unger
continued to work along these lines.
The Anthroposophical Society, which had been founded in 1912, required
an administrative body from 1913 onward. At that time, Unger was 35. He had
belonged to its Council from the beginning. In 1914, a further task was added
when Rudolf Steiner, regretfully as he said, was obliged to accept Unger’s offer
to undertake the overseeing of the work of building the Goetheanum although
xv
it was “to be anticipated that this would mean a loss to the work in the Society.”
It was only possible to carry on this work until September 1915. After that, war
conditions prevented journeying into Switzerland.
During the time of after World War I, Unger, together with others, devoted his
strength to the many tasks which devolved upon the Anthroposophical Society,
of which many became less conscious. This was due to the necessity arising out
of Anthroposophy for working in the outer world (education, medicine, etc.).
His special work during the last years of his life consisted in his writings in
connection with the study of the Leading Thoughts.
However, Unger was not only active as a lecturer and independent worker
in the Anthroposophical Society. On the founding of DER KOMMENDER
TAG, an attempt was made, after World War I to apply the ideas contained in
The Threefold Commonwealth. Unger made his factory part of this enterprise.
When, however, the enterprise failed, he was once more obliged to take on the
independent ownership of his factory. This meant accepting the burden that is
involved in an effort which has proved to be a failure.
In the last years of his life, Unger had undertaken public lectur tours in
addition to his work in the Society. It was on such a lecture tour that the bullet
— this time fatal, for which one who was irresponsible was the tool — over
took him in Nuremberg on January 4, 1929 immediately before the beginning
of the lecture he intended to give, bearing the title “What is Anthroposophy?”
xvi
TRANSLATOR’S FOREWORD
This translation is from the new German edition, published in 1954. The
much debated word “Vorstellung” has been rendered in Carl Unger’s text and
in the Leading Thoughts as “representation” in keeping with Dr. Hermann
Poppelbaum’s translation of The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity.* For
the Leading Thoughts, we have used the version Anthroposophical Leading
Thoughts, translated by George Adams and published by the Anthroposophical
Publishing Co., London, 1927. Certain small adaptations, including the above-
mentioned rendering of “Vorstellung,” have been made with his permission.
“Consciousness Soul” in the text is rendered “Spiritual Soul” in the Leading
Thoughts, this being the translation of “Bewusstseinsseele” recommended by
Rudolf Steiner.
*also translated under the title Philosophy of Freedom by Michael Wilson.
xvii
FOREWORD
In Remembrance and Gratitude
The impulse, and to a large extent all the work involved, in translating this
book of Carl Unger’s, belongs to Effie Grace Wilson, a teacher and co-founder
with Edith Lewis of the Michael House Waldorf School, Ilkeston, England. It
was made in the years following the second World War, when she was living
with Auguste Unger, Carl Unger’s widow, who had been exiled from Hitler’s
Germany shortly before that War began.
Morning after morning, for months on end, these two women worked at it
with love and devotion. Whenever my wife or I dropped in, we always found
them hard at it, and they would invariably ask our opinion on whether a certain
German word had this or that shade of meaning in English. ‘Effie Grace’, as she
liked to be called, was the one who had both languages at her command, and
she was a stickler for le mot juste. Auguste Unger was invaluable in recalling
just how her husband would have used a certain word or phrase. Together they
formed a perfect team.
Although my wife and I have been through this book many times in German
and in English, there is very little we have felt obliged to alter in editing it —
even then we have only done so with the tacit agreement, as it were, of ‘Effie
Grace’, who died not long after completing it.
When the translation was finished — written in pencil in a series of
exercise books, and on both sides of the paper without margins — the problem
of publishing arose. Ordinary commercial publishing was impossible; it was
far too expensive. So when we found someone who would reproduce it in
typescript for 300 Pounds, the two women with the help of a friend, Mary
Unwin, each put up 100 Pounds, and they let it appear in that form, so eager
were they for it to be available.
xix
It was a great sorrow to both women that such a book, by such an
outstanding member of the Society, could not appear in a better format. When
they entrusted the copyright of their translation to me, they did so, hoping that
‘one day’ that might happen.
That ‘one day’ having at last arrived with the help of the St. George Book
Service, its appearance is a matter of great satisfaction to me personally and will
also be, I am sure, to those who have long wanted to have a copy of their own.
It has not been done without the help of several friends who have contributed
generously to the costs involved, and to whom all who value this book will owe
a debt of gratitude.
Alan Howard
xx
I. INTRODUCTION
Under the heading Language of the Consciousness Soul we shall, from now
on, find contributions in this periodical1 dealing with anthroposophical activities
as they are being practiced in groups of the Anthroposophical Society in order to
make the wealth of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual investigations ever more accessible
to the experience of the individual. Rudolf Steiner’s work is before the public;
transcripts of his lectures to the members of the Anthroposophical Society are
gradually being published; the time has now come when it seems appropriate
to seek a wider circle for a more individual exposition of this immense and
far-reaching spiritual treasure. This exposition is not of a specially explanatory
or apologetic intent, but it is to tell of impressions which can be gained by
thinking, meditating and seeing.
In the last year of his earthly life, Rudolf Steiner gave the whole of
Anthroposophy in a new language; it resounds in the lectures given to members
of the Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum in Dornach. Even through
all the foregoing period of his activity, the restriction of his audience to members
of the Society was only a provisional one, and it seems obvious that, if he had
had more time, and if his earthly life had not come to a premature conclusion,
he would have given to the general public in an appropriate form the contents
of these lectures as books, articles and essays — as he did to a limited extent —
because there is nothing fundamentally secret in his investigations.
The sum total of anthroposophy is certainly also contained in the
manuscripts of the lecture cycles of earlier years; they are the imperishable gift
of living spirit. In The Story of My Life, we read in chapter XXXV: “Together
with this purpose of building up anthroposophy and thereby serving only that
which results when one has information from the world of spirit to give to
the modern world of culture, there now appear the other demand — to face
fully whatever was manifested in the membership as the need of their souls for
their longing for the spirit.“ And further: “All the public writings are the result
of what struggled and labored within me; in the privately printed matter, the
society itself shares in this struggle and labor. I listen to strivings in the soul
1
ANTHROPOSOPHIE. The weekly German-language publication for Anthroposophy. Years 9 to 11 (1927
to 1929).
2
life of the members, and through my vital living within what I thus hear, the
character of the lectures is determined.” These earlier lecture cycles were given
from time to time at a definite place, at a definite date, to a definite audience;
they stand as it were at the different regions of the soul within the spiritual life
of our time. Anyone who studies the cycles will search for these regions of the
soul and unite himself with the ‘soul needs’, with the ‘longing for the spirit’
which ‘struggles’ and ‘labors’ therein, and a knowledge of these regions of the
soul opens up before us.
Now, however, we find an epoch-making difference in the lectures given at
the Goetheanum by Rudolf Steiner in the last year of his life on earth, after he
had directly united the Anthroposophical Society with the spiritual movement
inaugurated by him. There he no longer spoke in the same sense out of the soul
needs of his hearers, his words rang out as from all soul regions simultaneously
to all mankind. New spirit realities stood vividly before us at the threshold, and,
if this is rightly understood, Rudolf Steiner’s words lay an obligation on all who
are able to awaken; for no one could be present who had not previously been
led in freedom by his spiritual longing to the place where he could now listen
to this new language.
This deep obligation, to be carried out in inner freedom, which bears
witness to the spiritual task of the modern man, was emphasized by Rudolf
Steiner in the Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts, which he issued from the
Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society from February 17, 1924 to the
last day of his earthly life (March 30, 1925). I am indebted to Frau Marie
Steiner for permission to use the Leading Thoughts for these publications. The
Leading Thoughts are words of a new spirit language. If they resound in human
souls, the sounds of the Language of the Consciousness Soul take shape in inner
experience. The Leading Thoughts can open up worlds; the experience of the
sounds signifies the inner re-creation of the spiritual facts of these worlds. For
this purpose, work on the consciousness soul is required. These sounds are then
meditations of the consciousness soul.
II. THE CONSCIOUSNESS SOUL
In the whole of Anthroposophy, we learn to know the consciousness soul

from three important relationships; in his book Theosophy, Rudolf Steiner has
presented its nature in detail. Applying natural scientific methods, he at first
describes the physical body of man through which he is connected with the en-
tire mineral kingdom; then we are given a description of the etheric and astral
bodies and their connection with the plant and animal kingdoms. The etheric
and astral bodies can be understood as supersensible organizations of force by
a process of comparison in accordance with natural scientific methods. These
are natural relationships of man to the world; but this method of observation
can be reversed in the transition from animal to man for the supersensible force
organization which distinguishes man from animal is the spectator himself in
an ego-like experience; he can re-experience inwardly what has previously been
observed in the outer world, the other side of which is revealed to spiritual sight
by means of supersensible investigation. Anyone who practices this experience,
which can be compared with an awakening, gains an ego-like connection of his
own astral body, etheric body and physical body to the world around him.
The ego experiences of the astral body in their totality form the sentient
soul. It comprises the experience of the outer world in perception, sensing and
observation, but also the reaction to it through immediate impulse, reflex move-
ments, etc. The ego experiences of the etheric body form the intellectual soul;
this shapes and preserves the otherwise transitory, more chaotic experiences of
the outer world through memories, representations, thoughts, and these have
their counterpart in the habits, passions and temperaments. The most wide-
awake ego experience is brought about in connection with the physical body as
consciousness soul. Here the essential nature of being can be experienced, the
substantially spiritual can be grasped as well as the impulse toward morality
and free will.
In this way, the consciousness of the man of today comes about and this
leads to the second of the important relationships through which in the whole
of Anthroposophy we become acquainted with the consciousness soul. From
the 15th century onward, mankind has been in the Age of the Consciousness
Soul; this was preceded by the Age of the Intellectual Soul that reaches back
4
into the eighth century B.C.; which again was preceded by the Age of the Sen-
tient Soul. In those times, extending to the third millennium B.C., that which is
today the consciousness soul was still hovering two stages above the ordinary
consciousness. One who was able to experience this raised himself two stages
into the spiritual world and was a great initiate and leader. In the old Oriental
Mysteries, that which today is accessible to general consciousness was culti-
vated with appropriate modifications. The power of human leadership that was
still linked with divine worlds has now passed through two stages of evolution
and reached individual man. That means that today the individual can learn to
guide himself, that is, work on the consciousness soul in the light of freedom.
Hence, in our time the necessity has arisen for Anthroposophy to make the se-
crets of the ancient mysteries accessible to all. In the same degree as this evolu-
tion advances, men are emancipated from the direct guidance of the spiritual
world; such leadership will now only work through the full self-consciousness
of man. Therein lies the responsibility and obligation of the new language.
From the 15th century to the present time, the consciousness soul has only
developed on the side of nature. Consciousness reached down into the mineral
kingdom, hence the abstract knowledge of our day and the technical activity in
the lifeless realm. What reverberates there are not sounds of the language but
clamor: it rattles and clashes, gurgles and rumbles, whistles and hisses, etc. This
soulless world begins to master man himself. The soul is in danger of losing
itself if it does not try to save itself on the other side of nature. Yet something
of immense importance has been attained by this descent; man has achieved
selflessness of observation and thinking. This must now be preserved also in the
experiences of the soul and spirit and then we begin to hear the sounds of the
language of the consciousness soul.
The third of the important relationships from which we learn to know the
consciousness soul through the whole of Anthroposophy relates to the evolu-
tion of the individual in successive epochs of life. These are shortened recapitu-
lations of the cultural epochs of human history. In connection with education,
Rudolf Steiner has again and again described how the etheric body becomes
free in approximately the seventh year, the astral body in about the fourteenth
year. These epochs continue although they are no longer so apparent in the
physical body. Thus in about the 21st year, the sentient soul, in about the 28th
year, the intellectual soul and in about the 35th year, the consciousness soul
5
become free, that is to say, the bearers of consciousness. This might lead to the
erroneous interpretation that only after reaching the 35th year can the tasks of
the age of the consciousness soul be undertaken. Rather, one can observe that a
younger man also acts, feels and wills as a complete human being, but the prin-
ciples of his being are not yet wholly pressed down into the physical body. This
only takes place in the 35th year and leads to a hardening of the soul element,
unless Anthroposophy has been at work, helping to loosen and release.
By the addition of each new principle, all the others are changed; for in-
stance, the plant has a physical body, as has also the mineral, but the etheric
body is added to the plant. This brings about a change also in the physical body
of the plant. In the same way, the addition of the astral body changes the etheric
and physical body of the animal. Conditions become considerably more com-
plicated in the case of man. Thus it is with successive civilizations and stages
of life. Therefore, although the intellectual soul is the vehicle of consciousness
from the 28th to the 35th year, it is something different from what it was at
the time of the intellectual civilization, the so-called Greco-Latin period. It is
changed by the force of the consciousness soul that is active in the impulses of
our time; it is irradiated by the consciousness soul which, so to speak, still hov-
ers a little above the ordinary consciousness and reaches into the next higher
world and is actually enclosed by it. This is the elemental world supersensibly
investigated by Rudolf Steiner. In a corresponding way, at earlier stages of life,
the consciousness soul extends into still higher worlds. The consciousness soul
lives in the impulse for knowledge and the urge to action, but, in the case of
younger persons, it is still influenced by the corresponding higher worlds, and
its activities, that is, Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition, are unconsciously
colored by the nature of these worlds. Through work on the consciousness soul,
Anthroposophy opens the way to these higher forms of knowledge and thereby
to the experience of the higher worlds.
III. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
The impulses of the consciousness soul work toward isolation and separation
if they are not put into practice in an anthroposophical way. This can be looked
upon as a tragedy for humanity. Yet it is this very inner solitude of the man of
today that awakens the great longing for community. Anthroposophy needs to
be experienced in the stillness of the soul but it brings about community in a
most significant way if, by the cooperation of many in united work, something
higher can take shape. The Leading Thoughts given to the members of the
Anthroposophical Society by Rudolf Steiner from the Goetheanum in the last
year of his life on earth are to serve this purpose. That they were intended
for groups working together is evident from the advice which he himself gave
concerning their use: “Those who apply themselves week by week to these
Leading Thoughts will find that these give an indication as to how to penetrate
more deeply into the material to be found in the cycles, and to bring it before
the group meetings in a certain order.”… “The important thing, after all, is not
that the anthroposophical content should be simply heard or read externally
but that it should be taken up into the whole life of the soul. In continuing to
think and feel what the mind has once grasped, therein lies an essential. And
this is what the Leading Thoughts more particularly are meant to encourage
in respect to the material already given in the printed cycles.”… “To carry on
the anthroposophical content, in this continued thinking and feeling, is also an
exercise for the training of the soul. We find our way seeingly into the spiritual
world when we treat the substance of this content in the way described.”2
The Leading Thoughts appeared weekly in the Nachrichten3 mostly in groups
of three or four. This arrangement in groups is also retained in the published
work. The first group of Leading Thoughts reads as follows (in order to refer to
them more conveniently, all the Leading Thoughts are numbered consecutively):
1. Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in
the human being to the spiritual in the universe. It arises in man as a need
2
TO THE MEMBERS. Vol. I, August 10, 1924, Letter 31 published in ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING
THOUGHTS.
3
NACHRICHTEN (for Members only). Supplement to the German-Language weekly DAS GOETHEANUM,
published in Switzerland by the Anthroposophical Society.
7
of the heart, of the life of feeling; and it can only be justified inasmuch as
it can satisfy this inner need. He alone can acknowledge Anthroposophy
who finds in it what he himself in his own inner life feels impelled to seek.
Hence only they can be anthroposophists who feel certain questions on
the nature of man and the universe as an elemental need of life, just as
one feels hunger and thirst.
2. Anthroposophy communicates knowledge that is gained in a
spiritual way. Yet it only does so because everyday life, and the science
founded on sense perception and intellectual activity, lead to a barrier
along life’s way — a limit where the life of the soul in man would die
if it could go no farther. Everyday life and science do not lead to this
limit in such a way as to compel man to stop short at it. For at the
very frontier where the knowledge derived from sense perception ceases,
there is opened through the human soul itself the further outlook into the
spiritual world.
3. There are those who believe that with the limits of knowledge
derived from sense perception the limits of all insight are given. Yet if they
would carefully observe how they become conscious of these limits, they
would find in the very consciousness of the limits the faculties to transcend
them. The fish swims up to the limits of the water; it must return because
it lacks the physical organs to live outside this element. Man reaches the
limits of knowledge attainable by sense perception; but he can recognise
that on the way to this point powers of soul have arisen in him — powers
whereby the soul can live in an element that goes beyond the horizon of
the senses.
Fundamental truths on a large scale concerning the whole of Anthroposophy
are expressed here. Anyone who, up to now, has regarded Anthroposophy as a
system or the basic content of a sect, or even as a dogma of some faith or only as
a world conception in the ordinary sense, will do well to revise his judgment. In
the preface to his book, Theosophy, Rudolf Steiner writes, “In certain respects,
every page, even many a sentence will have to be worked out by the reader. This
has been aimed at intentionally.” With these Leading Thoughts one can feel that
it would be well to continue this working out into the very word itself. The
object of this book is merely to supply suggestions as to how this may be done
in the work of a group.
8
“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge.” This can be a key utterance

which has been put as a preface to the Leading Thoughts and serves to the very
end. If this word resounds throughout this work, something has already taken
place which possesses the ability to decide; for path of knowledge signifies
inner transformation. All knowledge transforms the knower. In truth, this is
so even with every perception, experience and observation, for they become a
part of our being; it is enriched by them. But all knowledge signifies a conscious
enrichment. Whenever the content of our minds at any moment may be, we
are able to ask questions which are in conformity with that inner content. All
knowledge changes this content and then new questions can arise because we
have changed. The man of today, from his ordinary habit of viewing things,
has no wish whatsoever for this change; he is afraid of it. Rudolf Steiner has
often spoken of this fear;4 it is the fear “of coming into actual touch with the
supersensible worlds”; “it disguises itself as a special kind of sense for truth, as
a materialistic sense for truth.”5 This fear leads to passivity in thinking. “It is
noticeable that, when people speak of the spirit today, they defend themselves.
What then lives in their consciousness does not signify much, but what lives
in the subconscious, in the unconscious, is of great importance, that is an
unconscious bad conscience, it is fear which keeps people today from rising
from merely reflective to creative thinking.”6 A knower such as this would like
to understand the world, but to remain as he is, namely an onlooker. “It has
become more and more the custom to disregard entirely the activity of thinking,
the necessity of being inwardly present, inwardly active in thinking, and only
to give oneself up to successive events and then simply to allow thinking to run
on, not to be active in thinking.”7 Through this passivity, however, that which
is to be cognized is paralyzed, it is limited, killed, tabulated and labeled. This
leads to corpses of knowledge and thoughts, which quite concretely form the
4
23/7 [INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT, August 31, 1912]; 28/9 [THE OCCULT
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA, June 5, 1913]; 40/5 [THE FORMING OF DESTINY
AND LIFE AFTER DEATH, “Concerning the Subconscious Soul Impulses,” December 14, 1915]; 46/2
[ASPECTS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION, “Human Development, the Necessity for New, Living Ideas, Spirit
in Nature and in the Universe,” June 5, 1917]; 47/1 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “Forgotten
Aspects of Cultural Life,” July 31, 1917].
5
23/7 [INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT, August 31, 1912].
6
47/1 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “Forgotten Aspects of Cultural Life,” July 31, 1917].
7
A MODERN ART OF EDUCATION, Chapter I, “Science, Art, Religion, Morality,” p.8-9 (pdf).
9
boundaries of knowledge for a knower such as this.8

The question becomes quite different when the person striving for
knowledge transforms himself in the act of knowing. When man experiences
knowledge in the course of his own development, then with each acquisition
of knowledge, his boundary is extended. The corresponding chapter in Rudolf
Steiner’s Philosophy of Spiritual Activity deals with the overcoming of the
limits of knowledge. But, even in quite simple occurrences, experiences of a
decisive nature can be gained. In what direction can these limits be extended?
This cannot lie in anything concerned with the world, but only in man himself.
We ourselves ask the questions, we ourselves draw the limits of knowledge
by our own being. The very fact of striving for knowledge is proof that we
cannot remain as we are. If we were one with the world, there would be no
desire of the heart and feelings for knowledge. We feel ourselves cast out of this
world. That which man has in common with the world and which unites him
with it can only be his own developing spiritual heart. Thus from the words,
“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge” there arises the continuation in our
experience, “which can lead the spiritual in man to the spiritual in the universe.”
What is thus expressed in the first Leading Thought can from its very first word
become an actual fact of our own inner experience.
8
40/6 [THE FORMING OF DESTINY AND LIFE AFTER DEATH, “Lecture on the Poem of Olaf Åsteson:
The Darkness of the Present-Day Spiritual Life and the Lack of Truth in our Thinking,” December 21,
1915].
IV.
THE PATH TO THE
BOUNDARIES OF KNOWLEDGE
No one can attain to experience of reality who has not consciously

approached the boundaries of the knowledge of present-day consciousness. In
this consciousness, we feel ourselves torn away from the world. All the striving
after knowledge is proof that we have not attained to full reality, hence, the
urge to reach the true reality from which we have been torn. The boundary of
our knowledge is thus at the same time the threshold of true reality and that
can only be the threshold of the spiritual world. In this sense it is expressed in
the third Leading Thought, “If these (people) would carefully observe how they
become conscious of these limits, they would find in the very consciousness of
the limits the faculties to transcend them.”
We will make the attempt to approach this boundary step-by-step. This
can be done by withdrawing step-by-step from our ordinary consciousness. In
some form or other, this is fundamentally the case in all knowledge, but, for the
most part, it is wholly unconscious; it is the way of abstraction, but here it is of
importance to take this path not theoretically but practically. The widest range
in our consciousness out of which the material for ordinary science comes to
us is the world of sense perception. When we withdraw from it, that is when
we close the senses to perception, this world is not thereby obliterated from
our consciousness, for inner impressions remain, pictures, memories; in short,
the representations of the sense world. The next step consists in withdrawing
also from the world of representation by closing our consciousness to the entry
of these pictures. This is already more difficult. But even when this is attained,
the outer world is not completely extinguished, for there still remain relations
between the representations. These relations can be described as concepts; they
also form an interrelated world. When we relinquish these concepts, there still
remain relations of concepts which now contain nothing more of the outer
world. That is the pure thinking of which Rudolf Steiner speaks in his Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity. Finally, even pure thinking withdraws to a point where
only the possibility or faculty of thinking remains. There remains a point, like
11
a nothingness: that, however, is the so-called absolute I of the classical idealist

view of the world. It is not difficult to realize that all our ordinary knowledge
arises from this boundary of consciousness.
When we really carry out this pursuit to the boundary of our ordinary
consciousness, which appears here only theoretically as an abstraction, we
generally fall asleep;9 therefore, we do not even experience the boundary
correctly. Now, however, it follows that, in his nightly falling asleep, man
actually crosses the boundary of knowledge but loses consciousness. A science
such as that viewed in the second and third Leading Thoughts, a science which
is only concerned with percept, representation and concept stands sleeping
at the boundary of knowledge. The other side, however, is that if perhaps we
wished to sink ourselves into the I (ego) in order to escape “external” science,
we should find ourselves in nothingness.
We can see that something quite different must take place, and if the first
Leading Thoughts are inwardly, actively experienced in the sense of the opening
words, the content of Leading Thought 3 is confirmed; if we observe how we
become aware of these boundaries, we also discover in this consciousness the
ability to cross the boundaries. We can undertake the described path to the
boundaries of knowledge as a soul exercise in accordance with Rudolf Steiner’s
counsel, as he made known in numerous passages,10 as, for instance, in his book
How To Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. This, however, is not a matter
of grasping it once, but of patient repetition.11 Standing at the boundary of
knowledge and consciousness is nothing else than the condition of meditation,
the creation of inner stillness, but without falling asleep: the threshold of the
spiritual world.
The boundaries of the individual human being are reached and crossed not
only in the act of knowledge, but also, as we have seen, by the nightly falling
asleep. There, man leaves behind in the outer world which he has stripped off,
9
39/8 [DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF NATIONS, “Three Decisions on the Path to Imaginative
Perception,” March 2, 1915].
10
1/12 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “Occult Development,” September 2, 1906]; 39/9
[DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF NATIONS, “The Sleeping-and-Waking Rhythm in the Context
of Cosmic Evolution,” March 9, 1915].
11
39/6 [DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF NATIONS, “Spiritual Perception Essential at the Present
Time,” January 26, 1915].
12
everything belonging to his being and even the point, the spark is extinguished:
It is not due to us that we awake from sleep. An attitude to the world such
as is expressed in this sentence has arisen during the evolution of humanity.
While waking and sleeping have emerged from a consciousness totally different
from our present one and more interwoven with the spirit, unconsciousness has
spread over the experience of the threshold. In a significant passage,12 Rudolf
Steiner describes an ancient consciousness as follows, “We know that, in ancient
times, man was endowed with direct (but not ego-conscious! — the Author)
clairvoyance and beheld through his perceptual powers not merely the world
of the senses, but also the whole spiritual background of physical existence.
This was possible because, for man of those times, there was an intermediate
condition between our present-day waking consciousness and our sleeping
consciousness.” The whole evolution of man from that time until now is like a
path toward death and we can realize that, according to Leading Thought 2,
“the life of the soul in man would die if it were unable to cross this boundary.”
If evolution, which has brought about present-day consciousness, were to
continue ever more in the same direction, it would ultimately happen that, to
the extent that man separates himself from the world, he would no longer be
able to awake from sleep.
Thus we can experience inwardly that man cannot derive his being from
the surrounding nature but that he has brought it with him out of the spiritual
world from a far off past. This fact lends its coloring to all human striving
for knowledge; man seeks for “certainty of feeling,” “a strong unfolding of his
will.” On looking back from the boundary of all knowledge to nature which, as
it were, we have left, it can be seen clearly that the natural world can give man
no answer to the question concerning his own being. Nature can only destroy
the human body, but the inner experiences in thought, feeling and will show
themselves dependent upon it in many ways. The following Leading Thoughts
will deal with this subject:
4. For certainty of feeling and for a strong unfolding of his will, man
needs a knowledge of the spiritual world. However widely he may feel
the greatness, beauty and wisdom of the natural world, this world gives
him no answer to the question of his own being. His own being holds
together the materials and forces of the natural world in the living and
12
15/3 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW, September 3, 1910].
13
sensitive form of man until the moment when he passes through the gate
of death. Then nature receives this human form, and nature cannot hold
it together; she can but dissolve and disperse it. Great, beautiful, wisdom-
filled nature does indeed answer the question, “How is the human
form dissolved and destroyed?” But not the other question: “How is it
maintained and held together?” No theoretical objection can dispel this
question from the feeling soul of man, unless indeed he prefers to lull
himself to sleep. The presence of this question must incessantly maintain
alive, in every human soul that is really awake, the longing for spiritual
paths of world-knowledge.
5. For peace in his inner life, man needs self-knowledge in the
spirit. He finds himself in his thinking, feeling and willing. He sees
how thinking, feeling and willing are dependent on the natural man.
In all their developments, they must follow the health and sickness, the
strengthening and weakening of the body. Every sleep blots them out.
Thus the experience of everyday life shows the spiritual consciousness of
man in the greatest imaginable dependence on his bodily existence. Man
suddenly becomes aware that, in this realm of ordinary experience, self-
knowledge may be utterly lost — the search for it a vain quest. Then first
the anxious question arises, “Can there be a self-knowledge transcending
the ordinary experiences of life?”… “Can we have any certainty at all as
to a true self of man?” Anthroposophy wants to answer this question on
a firm basis of spiritual experience. In so doing, it takes its stand, not on
any opinion or belief, but on a conscious experience in the spirit — an
experience in its own nature no less certain than the conscious experience
in the body.
V. COSMIC VIEW
The fact that sleep extinguishes the inner as well as the outer conscious
experience must show us that, in the inner experience of ordinary waking
consciousness and also of thinking, we cannot discern a guarantee for the
permanence and reality of our soul-spirit being. All philosophy which seeks
reality in the inner experience of ordinary consciousness goes astray. Rudolf
Steiner once spoke at length on that subject: “People disposed to philosophy were
recently of the opinion that they had found a sure path, which they expressed
as follows, ‘What we call our individual ego remains throughout our whole life
from birth to death one and the same being. I have always been the same as far
as my memory takes me.’ I have already frequently mentioned that, for every
ordinary person, this is contradicted every day; for he cannot know at all what
befalls this I, this ego-representation between falling asleep and awakening.
Really, he can only speak of this ego as it is experienced during the periods of
his waking consciousness and must always imagine that the chain is broken.”13
The certainty of which Leading Thought 4 speaks is to be sought on
another path of self-knowledge, that of Anthroposophy. We can look at Leading
Thoughts 4 and 5 precisely in the sense of self-knowledge and, like a secret
hidden in the words, we can experience in Leading Thought 4 the whole human
being as a question to which Leading Thought 5 shows the answer. It is a
question of overcoming the death tendency of sleep by the continuous shaping
of the soul. That is the way of meditation. Not as though the rightful claim
which sleep has on man should be removed, but meditation which, according to
Rudolf Steiner’s advice, should only be practiced for a comparatively short time,
although with the greatest possible regularity, is itself a condition which shows
the outward characteristics of sleep, but maintains full inner wakefulness while
the consciousness rests on the object of meditation. The result of such exercises
will overcome the hindrance to the spiritual life indicated in Leading Thought 5,
in that thinking, feeling and willing are released from their bondage to the body.
The path to the boundaries of knowledge is itself a steady release from
ordinary consciousness and its physical bondage. In the retrospective view seen
13
46/6 [ASPECTS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION, July 10, 1917.]
15
from the boundary, we experience a certain survey of the physical world; it is

like a cosmic view that opens before us. This is what Goethe demanded of the
genuine scientists: “They ought, as dispassionate and divine beings, so to speak,
to seek and examine what is, and not what gratifies.” We can again refer to
the discovery of pure thinking in Rudolf Steiner’s philosophical works. They
are excellent books of exercises for present-day consciousness; they lead to
the threshold of the spiritual world and provide the equipment for crossing it.
Without pure thinking, not even the most minute law of nature can be expressed,
it is indeed the basis of every science; but it is also necessary to acquire the
capacity to breathe in pure thinking as such. In pure mathematics, this is, of
course, uncontested. Rudolf Steiner has repeatedly characterized breathing in
pure thinking as the first, albeit a shadowy clairvoyance.14 It is the clairvoyance
to which everyone can attain out of ordinary consciousness. Let us now look
at the following passage, “Man first really perceives truth when he succeeds in
so forming judgments that he frees them from the physical body, so that the
etheric body is freed from the physical body. Now remember the standpoint
which I have always taken and which every spiritual scientist must take: the
first clairvoyance is indeed really pure thinking. He who grasps a pure thought
is already clairvoyant, for the pure thought can only be grasped in the etheric
body.”
This clairvoyance provides true concepts and ideas such as live in the
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. For the understanding of Anthroposophy, it is
absolutely necessary to be fully at home in this region of the boundary between
the physical and spiritual worlds. Rudolf Steiner often indicated that the task
of Anthroposophy is to spiritualize intellectuality. This is achieved in the region
of this boundary. In order to be accessible to present-day consciousness, all
knowledge, physical as well as spiritual, must be imprinted in the substance
of this domain, the true concepts and ideas. This explains Rudolf Steiner’s
numerous remarks on the fact that, for the investigation of the spiritual worlds,
the investigator certainly needs the fully developed faculty of spiritual perception,
but that the results brought down as knowledge (that is, in concepts and ideas)
can be understood by everyone who has good will and is free from prejudice.
Indeed, he sometimes added that, for the comprehension of the spiritual worlds,
14
28/2 [THE OCCULT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA, May 29, 1913]; 46/6 [ASPECTS OF
HUMAN EVOLUTION, “Human Development, the Difficulty of Self-Knowledge,” July 10, 1917]; 47/9
[THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “Spiritual Science and Insight,” September 25, 1917].
16
the spiritual investigator finds himself in exactly the same position as the one to
whom he relates his investigations.15
Thus, in the above-mentioned boundary region, in the etheric world, a
remarkable meeting takes place between the physical and the spiritual world.
For us, it is of the greatest importance to rise into this world by pure thinking.
To enter it rightly, an attitude of selflessness in seeking knowledge, the most
beautiful fruit of the evolution of consciousness in our time, is required. In this
world, ideas and sight are of equal value. Hence, for the world of the etheric,
the conceptual presentation suffices in order to remain in reality. The distinction
between concept and reality plays an important part in the following Leading
Thoughts; it will become all the more clear if we take our starting point from
the realm common to both.
6. When we gaze on lifeless nature, we find a world full of inner
relationships of law and order. We seek for these relationships and find
in them the content of the laws of nature. We find, moreover, that, by
virtue of these laws, lifeless nature forms a connected whole with the
entire earth. We may now pass from this earthly connection which rules
in all lifeless things to contemplate the living world of plants. We see how
the universe beyond the earth sends in from distances of space the forces
which draw the living forth out of the womb of the lifeless. In all living
things, we are made aware of an element of being which, freeing itself
from the mere earthly connection, makes manifest the forces that work
down on to the earth from the realms of cosmic space. As in the eye we
become aware of the luminous object which confronts it, so in the tiniest
plant we are made aware of the nature of the light from beyond the earth.
Through this ascent in contemplation, we can perceive the difference of
the earthly and physical which holds sway in the lifeless world, from the
extra-earthly and etheric which abounds in all living things.
7. We find man with his transcendent being of soul and spirit placed
into this world of the earthly and the extra-earthly. Inasmuch as he is
placed into the earthly connection which contains all lifeless things,
he bears within him his physical body. Inasmuch as he unfolds within
him the forces which the living world draws into this earthly sphere
15
23/7 [INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT, August 31, 1912]; 49/9
[ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LIFE GIFTS, “The Relativity of Knowledge, and Spiritual Cosmology,” April 1,
1918].
17
from cosmic space, he has an etheric or life body. The trend of science
in modern times has taken no account of this essential contrast of the
earthly and the etheric. For this very reason, science has given birth to
the most impossible conceptions of the ether. For fear of losing their way
in fanciful and nebulous ideas, scientists have refrained from dwelling on
the real contrast. But, unless we do so, we can attain no true insight into
the universe and man.
Goethe’s archetypal plant is an etheric-living being and, at the same time,
the Idea of the plant. Rudolf Steiner has again and again reminded us of the
conversation between Goethe and Schiller which led to their friendship, and he
has given a detailed description of it in chapter one, “Goethe and Schiller,” of
his book Goethe’s World View (Chapter I). Schiller called the archetypal plant
sketched by Goethe an Idea. After a moment of surprise, Goethe was ultimately
pleased, for he believed that he could now understand in his concrete-visual
manner what he could not grasp when put forward abstractly by Kantians as an
idea. The relation between thinking and seeing as given here can be supplemented
by the way in which Rudolf Steiner characterizes thinking as applied in the
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity and Truth and Knowledge. “These books are
not written in such a way that one thought can be taken and put into another
place; rather they are written in the way in which an organism arises: one
thought grows out of another.”16
Thus we approach the above-mentioned intermediate kingdom from
which man can cast a cosmic glance over the physical world. This is the gaze
which is turned to lifeless nature (Leading Thought 6). The relationships of
law and order, the content of the laws of nature which reveal themselves, can
be cosmically understood from the archetypal Ideas of the boundary region.
Materialism has no desire to admit this, but then it denies the very ground
on which it stands. “We may now pass on to contemplate the living world of
plants,” and if we apply a cosmic glance, the following part of this Leading
Thought becomes a living reality, both as an experience and as a thought. We
can quite consciously strive for a different standpoint from that of ordinary
scientific observation. Then we can see and think at the same time “how the
universe beyond the Earth sends in from distances of space the forces which
draw the living out of the womb of the lifeless” (Leading Thought 6). Light
16
2/14 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “The Nature of Initiation,” June 6, 1907].
18
is significantly presented as a cosmic spiritual power. Goethe had recognized

it out of present-day consciousness and followed its sensible-moral effect into
the depths of the human being. How closely allied light and thinking are is
apparent from our languages which, quite correctly, in a cosmic sense, speak of
something becoming clear to us (einleucten). Language still belongs to a large
extent to the etheric boundary region.
In Leading Thought 7, man’s physical and etheric bodies are described from
the viewpoint of perceptive thinking, of Goethe’s perceptive power of judgment.
It is of fundamental importance that it is possible and right to comprehend by
pure thinking the etheric body as Rudolf Steiner has developed it in his book
Theosophy. This makes Anthroposophy accessible to present-day consciousness
as a science. The scientific comprehension of the etheric body is the only point
in the whole of Anthroposophy where an element of metaphysics is in its right
place. Metaphysics is the addition in thinking of something supersensible to
the facts apparent to the senses. In ordinary scientific theories and hypotheses,
unauthorized metaphysical constructions are almost always involved; for instance,
atoms, which are used for explaining physical phenomena, are metaphysical
specters. The etheric body alone may be understood as a metaphysical being
because pure thinking itself is an inner grasping of the etheric body.
VI.
THE CROSSING OF THE THRESHOLD
Anyone who is well acquainted with the boundary region, the etheric realm
of thought, experiences directly that our cosmic gaze, in the sense of these
Studies, can survey the realms of mineral and plant, of physical and etheric
life, but fails at the transition to the animal kingdom. We can see clearly why
this is so. Goethe’s etheric eye could perceive the archetypal plant and open the
realm of the organic, the living, to scientific investigation. Therefore, Rudolf
Steiner called Goethe the Copernicus and Kepler of the organic world.17 But
Goethe wanted to go further and investigate the animal kingdom in his studies
on morphology; but this he did not achieve. The archetypal animal could not
be perceived by his etheric eye.18 The reason is that man cannot as knower
forthwith confront the animal world with the same cosmic objectivity which
the forces of the boundary region enable him to attain in the case of the plants;
he sees that he himself is drawn into the stream of observation. Goethe said
that nature is “in wealth of creation so great as to make a single unity of the
multiplicity of a thousand plants, one in which all the others are contained, and
out of the multiplicity of a thousand animals one being which contains them all,
namely man.” Here the different method of observation is seen very distinctly,
especially how man, in the observation of the animal, appears not only as knower
but also, at the same time, as the goal of knowledge. The animal is distinguished
from the plant by its astral body and it is significant how differently Rudolf
Steiner in his book Theosophy deals with and explains the astral body and
the etheric body: the etheric body from without inward, the astral body from
within outward. Thus one might say that the knowledge of the etheric body
belongs more to natural science and that of the astral body more to psychology.
The same distinction is evident also in the Leading Thoughts.
8. We may consider the nature of man insofar as it results from his
physical and etheric body. We shall find that all the phenomena of man’s
17
GOETHE THE SCIENTIST, Chapter IV: The Nature and Significance of Goethe’s Writings on Organic
Development).
18
GOETHE’S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD, Goethe’s Views on the Nature and Development of Living
Beings: Metamorphosis (Archetype of Animal Nature).
20
life which proceed from this side of his nature remains in the unconscious,
nor do they ever lead to consciousness. Consciousness is not illuminated
but darkened when the activity of the physical and the etheric body is
enhanced. Conditions of faintness and the like can be recognized as the
result of such enhancement. Following up on this line of thought, we
recognize that something is at work in man — and in the animal — which
is not of the same nature as the physical and etheric. It takes effect, not
when the forces of the physical and the etheric are active in their own
way, but when they cease to be thus active. In this way, we arrive at the
concept of the astral body.
9. The reality of this astral body is discovered when we rise in
meditation from the thinking that is stimulated by the outer senses
to an inner act of vision. To this end, the thinking that is stimulated
from without must be taken hold of inwardly, and experienced as such,
intensely in the soul, apart from its relation to the outer world. Through
the strength of soul which is thus engendered, we become aware that
there are inner organs of perception, which see a spiritual reality working
in the animal and man at the very point where the physical and etheric
body are held in check in order that consciousness may arise.
10. Consciousness, therefore, does not arise by a further enhancement
of activities which proceed from the physical and etheric bodies. On the
contrary, these two bodies, with their activities, must be reduced to zero
— even below zero — to make room for the working of consciousness.
They do not generate consciousness; they only furnish the ground on
which the spirit must stand in order to bring forth consciousness within
earthly life. As man on Earth needs the ground on which to stand, so
does the spiritual, within the earthly realm, need a material foundation
on which it may unfold itself. And as a planet in the cosmic spaces does
not require any ground beneath it in order to assert its place, so too, the
spirit, when it looks not through the senses into material, but through its
own power into spiritual things, needs no material foundation to call its
conscious activity to life.
In the observation of all processes of consciousness, the observer sees
himself included; he does not stand outside these processes or confront them
as he does natural processes. Therefore, the observation of such processes of
consciousness that are linked to the corporeality have only a conditional value;
21
the corresponding facts must come to hand from the other side, from spiritual
investigation. Thus it is justified to say that the conceptual definition of the
astral body in Leading Thought 8 which is derived physiologically from the
corporeal, natural side of man should show itself as a negative one. Certainly,
we can bring the phenomena of consciousness into connection with the nerves,
but we arrive at wrong judgments if we take our start from the nerves. We need
only recall the metaphysical construction of the so-called motor nerves, which
Rudolf Steiner has so often shown to be a fundamental error of physiology.19
We read in the sixth lecture of the Excursus on the Gospel of St. Mark (March
7, 1911), “There are no motor nerves. There are only sensory nerves. The motor
nerves are also sensory nerves; only their purpose is to bring the corresponding
movement of the muscles to our perception. It will not be so very long before
people realize that movement of the muscles is not brought about by means of
the nerves, but by the astral body.”
It is a question of the supersensible forces which are indeed represented by
the nerves; these are the forces of an intimate inner nature, with the consideration
of which man feels himself inwardly bound up. The physiological considerations
are extremely significant, for the supersensible facts can be wholly confirmed by
them. There are physiological investigations into the life-functions of the nerves
which show that nerves have less recuperative capacity the higher the forms of
consciousness they represent. This want of recuperative power points clearly in
the direction of what is said in Leading Thought 8 that the physical and etheric
must cease to be active in their own way if what the consciousness determines
is to be active. From such connections, a negative definition of the concept of
the astral body results. But, from this negative definition, this concept turns
toward the positive; it strives, as it were, when one grasps it inwardly, toward
its realization. This is proved in man as he grows up; his bodily form comes to a
point of completion, growth ceases, the activity of the etheric body withdraws,
later the activity of the physical body begins to diminish; but consciousness
evolves in proportion to loss of strength in the forces of growth.20
The development of consciousness does not necessarily come to an end there;
19
33/4 [HUMAN AND COSMIC THOUGHT, “Man’s Place in the Spiritual Cosmos, Astrology, Man as a
Thought of the Hierarchies,” January 23, 1914].
20
25/5 [THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE EPISTLES OF PAUL, “The Spiritual Nature of Maya. Krishna–
the Light-Halo of Christ. The Risen One,” January 1, 1913]; 37/7 [BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH,
January 14, 1913].
22
it can continue along the paths of meditative life21 and therein the concept of the
astral body strives toward reality. This is shown in Leading Thought 9 wherein
an important transition is accomplished. Thinking, which otherwise is aroused
by the senses, is given as a content at the boundary of knowledge, in meditative
stillness, the experience of itself apart from its relation to the outer world.
In this, the crossing of the boundary is accomplished in which the actuality
of the astral body attains to consciousness; there then arise “inner organs of
perception which see a spiritual reality.” Looking back over our considerations
of the etheric body, we can say of it that concept and reality are still one for
ordinary consciousness; the reality of the etheric body still lies on this side of the
threshold of the spiritual world. In the case of the astral body, the threshold lies
between concept and reality. They can be united in cognition when the reality
which can be supersensibly explored is carried over by the spiritual investigator
into the world of pure thought. Thereby two points in Leading Thought 10,
which are described entirely from the viewpoint of spiritual investigation, can
be made comprehensible. In one instance, the new organs of perception are
directed to the earthly scene of action and can observe that the physical and
etheric bodies “do not generate consciousness,” but that “they only furnish the
ground on which the spirit must stand, in order to bring forth consciousness
within the earthly life.” In the second instance, the new organs of perception can
be directed to their own world and for this “the spirit when it looks, not through
the senses into material, but through its own power, into spiritual things, needs
no material foundation to call its conscious activity to life.”22
This is a description which is realized in crossing the threshold of the spiritual
world; since it is impressed into the world of pure thought, the knowledge
of these facts can, as it were, peep over the threshold. Thus man gradually
becomes conscious of a world which he otherwise only enters in sleep. Sleep
really consists of the fact that a separation takes place between the etheric and
astral bodies. This separation is described in these Leading Thoughts as concept
and reality for the conscious crossing of the threshold. The philosophical forms
of this description allow us to re-create this process of modern mystery life by
means of knowledge.
21
6/12 [THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN, “The First and Second Deaths. The New Heaven and the New
Earth. The Origin of the Apocalypse,” June 30, 1908].
22
9/2 [THE EAST IN THE LIGHT OF THE WEST, “Comparison of the Wisdom of East and West,” August
24, 1909]; 23/4 [INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT, August 28, 1912]; 23/7
[INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT, August 31, 1912].
VII.
THE IMAGE AND
REALITY OF THE “EGO”
The last Studies showed that, in the case of the etheric body, concept and
reality coincide, whereas in the case of the astral body, concept and reality are
separated by the threshold of the spiritual world. Now how does it stand with
regard to the I, the fourth principle of man’s being? In Rudolf Steiner’s Leading
Thoughts, the sharp distinction is only made in the case of the astral body where
he speaks expressly of concept of the astral body and reality of the astral body.
In the case of the etheric body, this is not necessary; there, the two unite, even
on this side of the threshold of the spiritual world. If we turn to the I, we shall
find that concept and reality also coincide in a certain sense, but on the other
side of the threshold of the spiritual world. This side and the other side are, of
course only intended in a limited way; it is, as it were, a matter of a narrow strip
which yet can be surveyed and experienced by thinking. The descriptions given
by the spiritual investigator of experiences on the other side of the threshold are
so radically different from our ordinary experiences that, if these are expressed
words of our earth language, it is a matter of a reflection, an image in the etheric
world. This is the source of great difficulties, especially for all philosophy, and
endless misunderstandings arise from it.
Undoubtedly, all real existence of the ordinary waking consciousness is
experienced as I; we are also accustomed to express it in that way. We do not
say, “My body has bumped up against the table,” but “I have bumped myself.”
In the same way, we say, “I am hungry,” and not “My life-processes require
nourishment.” So too, through all our experiences, we say, “I look into the
world,”… “I remember,”… “I think, feel, will,”… “I enjoy myself,”… “I suffer.”
The most extreme in this direction is, “I shall sleep,”… “I have slept,” but what
is in between is withdrawn from consciousness and, with it, also the whole
world of experiences mentioned in which the outer world is active and not the I.
The contemplation of a center is rather an inference from an outer world, which
is experienced, to something hidden. But, just as it is incorrect to build up the
reality of an ‘ego’-philosophy out of the ‘ego’-representations engendered by
24
the outer world (see our Study V), so it is equally incorrect to draw conclusions
about a hidden thing-in-itself. That would be a metaphysical construction23
which Rudolf Steiner has finally cleared away in his Truth and Knowledge and
The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. Rather it is correct that, in these processes,
the outer world is experienced through the subjective organism and that, with
a certain right, one can look for a transcendental I myself that lies outside
ordinary consciousness.
In the first of the eight meditations in A Road to Self-Knowledge (“In
Which the Attempt is Made to Obtain a True Idea of the Physical Body”),
Rudolf Steiner points in an especially penetrating way to the fact that the ego-
like experiences of a mentally pictured outer world do not belong to man’s real
being. “When the soul is plunged into the phenomena of the outer world by
means of physical perception, it cannot be said — after true self-analysis — that
the soul perceives these phenomena or that it actually experiences the things of
the outer world. For, during the time of surrender, in its devotion to the outer
world, the soul knows in truth nothing of itself. The fact is rather that the
sunlight itself, radiating from objects through space in various colors, lives or
experiences itself within the soul. When the soul enjoys any event, at the moment
of enjoyment, it actually is joy insofar as it is conscious of being anything. Joy
experiences itself in the soul. The soul is one with its experience of the world.”
On the other hand, the experience of one’s own being must be sought as a path
of knowledge. This can lead us to the understanding of Leading Thought 11,
which is to follow in the first place apart from its group.
11. The self-consciousness which is summed up in the I or ego emerges
out of the sea of consciousness. Consciousness arises when the forces of
the physical and etheric bodies disintegrate these bodies, and thus make
way for the spiritual to enter into man. In the disintegration of these
bodies, the ground is prepared upon which consciousness unfolds its
life. If, however, the organism is not to be destroyed, the disintegration
must be followed by a reconstruction. Thus, when, for an experience in
consciousness, a process of disintegration has taken place, that which
has been demolished will be built up again exactly. The experience of
23
40/6 [THE FORMING OF DESTINY AND LIFE AFTER DEATH, “Lecture on the Poem of Olaf Åsteson:
The Darkness of the Present-Day Spiritual Life and the Lack of Truth in our Thinking,” December 21,
1915]; 50/5 [A SOUND OUTLOOK FOR TODAY AND A GENUINE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE, “The
Being and Evolution of Man,” July 23, 1918].
25
self-consciousness lies in the perception of this upbuilding process. The

same process can be observed with inner vision. We then feel how the
conscious is led over into the self-conscious by man’s creating out of
himself an after-image of the merely conscious. The latter has its image
in the emptiness produced within the organism by the disintegration. It
has passed into self-consciousness when the emptiness has been filled up
again from within. The Being, capable of this fulfillment, is experienced
as I.
Mere consciousness signifies for man his being given up to the world. That is
one side of primitive soul life. “The soul is one with its experience of the world.”
That, however, signifies at the same time a penetration of the outer world into
the corporeality. This is thereby, as it were, injured, disintegrated. Thus the eye
has arisen from injuries, ulcers, generated by the light. In resisting the outer
world, the soul creates organs through pain. The body would be altogether
destroyed if it were subject only to the law of the outer world; this, indeed,
happens after death. From disintegration arises consciousness. But healing
comes from deeper forces which physically are represented by the blood. These
are the ego forces that remain hidden behind the fact of the surrender of the
primitive soul life. Rudolf Steiner has given detailed descriptions of this from his
spiritual investigations. They form a wonderful starting point for physiological
studies of these processes. “Eons of years ago, there were two places on our
head particularly sensitive to the sun’s rays. Man still could not see at that time
but, whenever the sun rose, its rays must have caused pain at these two spots.
The tissues would be destroyed and pain was bound to arise. Through long
ages, this had to go on and the healing consisted in the formation of eyes at
these two points. Just as it is true that our eyes visualize the beauty of the world
of color, so is it true that they have only arisen on the basis of the injury caused
by the heat of the sun to places especially sensitive to light. Nothing which
gives happiness, pleasure or bliss has arisen on anything but the foundation of
pain.”24 Or, the following passage: “When we stand before a colored object,
this certainly affects us. But what plays its part between the colored object
and the human organism is a process of destruction in the human organism. It
is, as it were, death in miniature, and the nervous system is the organ for the
continual process of destruction. These processes which continually take place
in our organism through the influences of the outer world are counterbalanced
24
47/3 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “Rhythm in Breathing in Cognition,” August 14, 1917].
26
by the influence of the blood.”25

The disintegration of the physical and etheric bodies is experienced as
consciousness, while in the perception of the building up we experience self-
consciousness. In it the resistance to surrender is revealed; the substance of
this resistance receives, as it were, the imprint of the damaging outer world.
These are the after-images of the merely conscious. In this way, the image or
representation of the I is formed; in order to attain to the reality of the I, a
continuation of the way of meditation is necessary; man must “create an after-
image of the merely conscious out of himself.”
12. The reality of the I is found when the inner vision whereby the
astral body is known and taken hold of is carried a stage further. The
thinking which has become alive in meditation must now be permeated by
the will. To begin with, we simply gave ourselves up to this new thinking
without active will. We thereby enabled spiritual realities to enter into
this thinking life, even as in outer sense perception color enters the eye or
sound the ear. What we have thus called to life in our consciousness by
a more passive devotion must now be reproduced by ourselves by an act
of will. When we do so, there enters into this act of will the perception of
our own I or ego.
It is perhaps just as well to make the process clear to ourselves whereby
the inner activity, which at first is unconscious, leads, through the practice of
meditation, to the formation of the organs of supersensible perception. Goethe
compares the soul of man to water; that is true mystery language. Just as water
takes on any form which a vessel offers it, so the soul is stamped with the form
of every impression. Therefore, no soul perception arises in this way. Even in the
world of the senses, perception only arises because the body offers resistance to
the outer impressions. The body opposes its own life form to the impressions.
Therefore, when a perception is to arise between soul and soul world, the
soul must be able to oppose its own inwardly consolidated form to the soul
effects of the soul world. This inner firmness of soul is developed from personal
experiences won by meditation.
We can now carry the parallel between the soul and water still further;
25
49/10 [ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LIFE GIFTS, “Thoughts About Life Between Death and Rebirth,” April
2, 1918].
27
water may take on the form of any vessel, yet precisely by virtue of its mobility,
it still has a particular tendency. At its boundary it forms against the air a level
surface, parallel to the surface of the earth and at right angles to the zenith of
the heavens. Then it forms a mirror into which the heavenly phenomena look
down: sun, moon, stars and clouds. Then the wind (the soul’s destiny) may
ruffle the mirror of the lake, but it again becomes the true mirror and portrays
the heavens. Thus the spiritual heaven reflects its image in the soul: that is the
ego-consciousness.
Soul of Man, Destiny of Man,

How like to the water! How like to the wind!
VIII. THE “EGO” AND MEDITATION
Ego experiences have a meditative character and, inversely, the activity

of meditation can be practiced out of ego experience. The coincidence of
the concept and reality of the ego in the spirit world is to be understood in
precisely this sense. All experiences of reality have an ego character because the
standard for reality can only be won from the ego. Natural science also applies
this standard; the natural scientist himself cannot call anything more real than
himself. Knowledge of nature does not thereby become subjective, neither is it
objective, but beyond both; man calls what he seeks the absolute, but what he
really means is spiritual reality. Thus in all knowledge there is mobility at the
threshold of the spiritual world; in this mobility, the apparent contradictions
are solved in various ways, for, if they are adhered to without mobility, they will
be felt as contradictions.
In Rudolf Steiner’s little book Philosophy and Anthroposophy,26 we find the
following passage: “The I lives within itself in that it produces its own concept
and lives there again as a reality.”… “The following fundamental axiom may,
therefore, be formulated in the sense of the theory of knowledge, ‘that also in
pure thinking a particular point is attainable wherein the complete convergence
of the real and the subjective is achieved and man experiences reality.’” It is
important that we are, to begin with, only concerned with a point. We found
this point on the way to the boundary of knowledge. In our fourth Study, it
was said, “even pure thinking ultimately withdraws to a point where only the
possibility or faculty of thinking exists. There remains one point, as a zero
point; that, however, is the so-called absolute I of the classical idealist view of
life. It is not difficult to realize that, from this boundary of consciousness, all
ordinary knowledge takes its origin.” Here we have to do with the reality of the
ego but only at one point, at the threshold of the spiritual world. Turning back
from there to ordinary consciousness, it all becomes picture, after-image as it is
called in Leading Thought 11, but we take with us the imprint of the experience
of reality and from it we gain a standard for knowledge.
The approach to the boundaries of knowledge is not something happening
26
[PHILOSOPHY AND ANTHROPOSOPHY].
29
once and for all, something that one comes to know once and then knows or has
for all time; it can only reveal its secrets in patient rhythmical repetitions. In the
first of the eight meditations in A Road to Self-Knowledge by Rudolf Steiner, we
read, “This withdrawal is no simple process which takes place once. It is rather
the beginning of a pilgrimage into worlds previously unknown.” This thinking,
which has been experienced and in further practice permeated with will, takes
shape in meditative stillness at the boundary of consciousness. Leading Thought
12 describes this process as a being-given-up to thinking without any will: a
spiritual element enters into the thinking, just as color enters the eye.
Rudolf Steiner describes the same process again and again, for instance,
in his book How To Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds. It is a matter of
setting a definite chosen representation in the most living way into the empty,
stilled consciousness without falling asleep. Then thinking can be transformed
into the faculty of Imagination.27 This takes place in the opposite way to the
ordinary process of knowledge as we have experienced it on the path to the
boundaries of knowledge. There perception was followed by representation
(the image) and concept and then by the first ego experience. Now, however,
we proceed from the ego; the ego itself places a freely chosen image in the
center of consciousness, an image which is not taken from the sense world, but
has conceptual character. Then other free images unite with it. These are single
Imaginations. They are like a reversal of representations, a wakeful dreaming.
The intervention of the will is distinctly seen in this process. Becoming
independent, the will activity is directed toward itself. What is said in Leading
Thought 12 now becomes clear. In the act of the will, the percept of the ego
itself arises. In later Leading Thoughts, this perceiving of living being is called
Inspiration. It is a spiritual counterpart to the sense perception of a single
object; it stands in the same relation as does Imagination to representation.
We see from this that the entrance to spiritual experience does not lead outside
the world.28 We come back to the world which we had apparently left on the
path to the threshold; but the other, the spiritual side of the same world, now
becomes visible. The spiritual world is around us, in us, penetrating everything.
The complete coalescence of the ego with the living beings in the spiritual
world is called Intuition. Through it, the beginning and end of this way insert
27
2/14 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “The Nature of Initiation,” June 6, 1907].
28
1/1 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “The Being of Man,” August 22, 1906].
30
themselves spiral-wise, one above the other.

Ego
Pure Thinking
Ego Axis
Meditation... ...Concept
Imagination... ...Representation
Inspiration... ...Perception
Intuition
World
Thus in many changing forms the ego goes through the whole process as a
picture. Leading Thought 13 describes the process from this aspect of spiritual
investigation.
13. On the path of meditation, we discover, beside the form in which
the I occurs in ordinary consciousness, three further forms: (1) In the
consciousness which takes hold of the etheric body, the I appears in
picture form, yet, the picture is, at the same time, active Being, and as such
gives man form and figure, growth and the plastic forces that create his
body. (2) In the consciousness which takes hold of the astral body, the I is
manifested as a member of a spiritual world whence it receives its forces.
(3) In the consciousness just indicated, as the last to be achieved, the I
reveals itself as a self-contained spiritual Being — relatively independent
of the surrounding spiritual world.
The ego appears in four conditions which can be described briefly as follows:
ego in the physical body, ordinary consciousness; ego in the etheric body,
imaginative consciousness; ego in the astral body, inspirational consciousness;
ego in the ego, intuitive consciousness. From primeval times, however, the ego
forces have been unconsciously bound up with the development of the human
sheaths. In his Occult Science: An Outline, Rudolf Steiner describes the great
epochs of the world’s evolution to which the principles of man testify. We must
refer to these descriptions if we wish to understand Leading Thought 13. It can
be seen from them how the ego being of man, still without consciousness of self,
31
was bound up with the creative beings of the Hierarchies (who will be spoken
of in later Leading Thoughts) when man’s physical body was created on ancient
Saturn, his etheric body on ancient Sun and his astral body on ancient Moon.
On Earth this cosmic process was recapitulated, but in such a way that all the
principles of man became transformed by the addition of the ego. Thus the
ego permeates all other principles. Through the transformation of the physical,
etheric and astral bodies brought about by the ego on earth, cosmic impulses are
transmuted into earthly human ones. In this way, the present-day soul principles
of man were fashioned and the ground prepared for the ego on which it can
stand spiritually. These impulses so far have come to human consciousness in
a very small degree; in Leading Thoughts 14 to 16, they will be substantiated
from the standpoint of spiritual knowledge.
14. The second form of the I or ego — first of the three further forms
that were indicated in the last section — appears as a picture of the I.
When we become aware of this picture character, a light is also thrown
on the quality of thought in which the I appears before the ordinary
consciousness. With all manner of reflections men have sought within
this consciousness for the true I. Yet an earnest insight into the experience
of the ordinary consciousness will suffice to show that the true I cannot
be found therein. Only a shadow-in-thought is able to appear there —
the shadowy reflection, even less than a picture. The truth of this seizes
us all the more when we progress to the I as a picture which lives in the
etheric body. Only now are we rightly kindled to search for the I, for the
true being of man.
15. Insight into the form in which the I lives in the astral body leads to
a right feeling of the relation of man to the spiritual world. For ordinary
consciousness, this form of the I is buried in the dark depths of the
unconscious, where man enters into connection with the spiritual being
of the universe through Inspiration. Ordinary consciousness experiences
only a faint echo-in-feeling of this Inspiration from the wide expanse of
the spiritual world which holds sway in depths of the soul.
16. It is the third form of the I which gives us insight into the
independent Being of man within a spiritual world. It makes us feel how,
with his earthly-sensible nature, man stands before himself as a mere
manifestation of what he really is. Here lies the starting point of true
self-knowledge. For the self which fashions man in his true nature is only
32
revealed to him in knowledge when he progresses from the thought of the

I to its picture, from the picture to the creative forces of the picture, and
from the creative forces to the spiritual beings who sustain them.
With a little attention, we shall find in Leading Thought 14 the origin of
thinking, in Leading Thought 15 that of feeling and, in Leading Thought 16
that of willing. Thus we also have the ego in thinking, feeling and willing as the
forerunner of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition.
IX.
THE “EGO”, “NOTHINGNESS”
AND “LIGHT”
It is always impressive to place before the soul the fact that all knowledge
comes from threshold experience. Our ordinary knowledge comes about because
the ego unconsciously approaches the threshold and turns back again. In
spiritual knowledge, the ego consciously crosses the threshold and in returning
changes spiritual experience into the forms of ordinary consciousness. But the
way across the threshold leads through experiences which, from the oldest
Mystery times, were always brought into direct connection with the experience
of death.29 Secret societies that trace back their cults to the old Mysteries have
traditionally preserved something of them. However, they possess only the outer
symbolism: Death’s Head and Coffin, Burial and Resurrection. Rudolf Steiner
has spoken of this several times.30 But we must recognize with deep reverence
that the conscious crossing of the threshold in initiation is today likewise a
passing through death. “One can, so to speak, enter the spiritual world through
three gateways. The first we may call the gate of death. It has been spoken of
since primeval times whenever Mystery truths have been earnestly discussed.
This gate of death cannot be reached unless we try to reach it by what is
sufficiently known under the name of meditation.”… “This entrance into the
spiritual world has been called the gate of death because it really is a deeper
death than physical death. In physical death men are convinced that they lay
aside the physical body; however, on entering the spiritual world, we must
actually determine to lay aside our concepts, representations and ideas and
allow our being to be newly built.”31 These are processes of soul experience.
The nightly falling asleep is only an unconscious image of this death.
In the approach to the boundaries of knowledge, we found a narrow portal
29
23/4 [INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT, August 28, 1912].
30
42/6 [THINGS IN PAST AND PRESENT IN THE SPIRIT OF MAN, “Death and Resurrection,” April 18,
1916]; 43/3 [COSMIC BEING AND EGOHOOD, “Man’s Twelve Senses,” June 20, 1916].
31
39/8 [DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF NATIONS, “Three Decisions on the Path to Imaginative
Perception,” March 2, 1915].
34
in the experience of the ego as a point. But compared with the actual experience
at the threshold, this is an abstract mode of expression. For instance, in his
book, How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, Rudolf Steiner describes
the experience of the Guardian of the Threshold as a tremendous act of most
formidable self-knowledge. Man himself must wrestle through this otherwise
hidden being of evil in his own self. Fear in the presence of this real experience
causes ordinary striving for knowledge to turn back at the threshold. Ordinary
knowledge, however, is also connected to some extent with the tradition of
knowledge of olden times32 and what is called unprejudiced science all too
often proves to be an illusion. It can be observed that this tradition only exists
because initiates of all times, in the past, have entered upon this path of death.
Thus we can say: All knowledge is wrested from death. The experience of death
appears more and more strongly in the course of these Leading Thoughts. What
was experienced in the old Mysteries became a historical event in the cosmic
Mystery of Golgotha. Through this event the spiritual death of mankind, which
the old Mystery wisdom saw approaching, was overcome and the tasks of the
old Mysteries entered into the souls of all men.33 Already in the year 1902,
in his book, Christianity as Mystical Fact, Rudolf Steiner had outlined the
historical facts in a magnificent way, thereby creating a starting point for all his
later investigations into the Mystery of Golgotha.
Our studies on the ego may, at first sight, appear abstract but they have
behind them the feeling content of this mighty cosmic event. Genuine abstraction
is a training in order to approach true reality; it frees man from his ordinary
consciousness, as can be understood from the meaning of the word. Thus it
followed in our seventh Study that the concept and reality of the ego coincide
on the other side of the threshold. Hence, when approaching the boundary, we
leave behind the world of individual concepts, and only the possibility, the faculty
of thinking, remains. Here is the threshold. In truth, one can no longer speak of
one concept, but only of the infinite totality of all possibilities of thinking. This,
however, is experienced as a point; it is the outlet for all conceptual possibilities
from out of the spiritual world. In it stands the reality of the ego as a last (or
first) representative of all that can be grasped in concepts, the source of all our
32
49/3 [ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LIFE GIFTS, “Thoughts About Life Between Death and Rebirth,” April
2, 1918]; 50/20 [A SOUND OUTLOOK FOR TODAY AND A GENUINE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE,
“Problems of the Time (I),” July 30, 1918].
33 47/5 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “Christ and the Present,” August 28, 1917].
35
consciousness. In this way, the union of the concept and the reality of the ego in
the spiritual world is to be understood.
The path of training leads very near nothingness. This is the nothingness
of Mephistopheles to which Faust courageously replies, “In thy Nothingness
I hope to find the ALL!” In the fifth lecture in The Gospel of St. John in its
Relation to the Other Gospels (“Human Development During the Incarnations
of the Earth,” June 28, 1909), Rudolf Steiner says, “This scene which Goethe
depicts so marvelously in his Faust is continually being enacted in humanity as
a whole. There, on the one hand, we see Faust seeking the way to the spiritual
world and, on the other hand, Mephistopheles, who describes that world as
a nothingness because it is in his interest to represent the world of sense as
everything. Faust retorts in words that every spiritual investigator would have
used in a similar situation, “In thy Nothingness I hope to find the ALL!” Not
until we recognize that in the smallest particle of matter there is spirit, and that
the representation of matter is a lie — not until we know that Mephistopheles is
the spirit who corrupts our representations of the world — can that outer world
present itself to us in its true aspect and help mankind forward in its evolution.”
Rudolf Steiner, however, has also shown34 how the ICH (I) is connected,
even in the placing of the letters, with the central mystery of humanity and
how in a true imagery the stern way of knowledge is filled with life. We may,
therefore, conclude this Study with the following picture:
At the boundary of existence, the cross of the I-CH (I) appears erected
and on either side the malefactors: the N as an Ahrimanic denial, TS (Tao with
serpent) as a Luciferic seduction.
N I-CH TS (Nothingness)
Then, however, in working in the right way toward the true reality of the
cosmic I-CH, this picture is changed and, beyond the threshold, appears the
spiritual world, appears what man seeks on the paths of death:
L I-CH T (Light)
Anyone who knows the language of eurythmy feels the widespread surging
34
41/5 [NECESSITY AND FREE WILL, “The ‘I’ Found on the Physical Plane in Acts of Will,” February 8,
1916].
36
of the world in the L and the force in the T, which encloses us from above as
human personality. Light is to be man’s when the bandage falls from his eyes.
This can occur in every item of knowledge, even in the most modest sense.
These are the true letters of the language of the consciousness soul, which in the
transformation of images, create reality.
With Leading Thoughts 17 to 19, a new tone begins in the sequence of
the Leading Thoughts. It is a new beginning concerning man as body, soul and
spirit.
17. Man is a being who unfolds his life in the midst, between two
regions of the world. With his bodily development he is a member of a
lower world; with his soul-nature, he himself constitutes a middle world,
and with his faculties of spirit he is ever striving towards an upper world.
He owes his bodily development to all that nature has given him; he bears
the being of his soul within and as his own portion; and he discovers
in himself the forces of the spirit, as the gifts that lead him out beyond
himself to participate in a divine world.
18. The spirit is creative in these three regions of the world. Nature is
not void of spirit. We lose even nature from our knowledge if we do not
become aware of the spirit within her. Nevertheless, in nature’s existence
we find the spirit, as it were, asleep. Yet, just as sleep has its task in human
life — as the I or ego must be asleep at one time in order to be more
awake at another — so must the world–spirit be asleep where nature is in
order to be more awake elsewhere.
19. In relation to the world, the soul of man is like a dreamer if he
does not pay heed to the spirit at work within him. The spirit awakens
the dreams of the soul from their ceaseless weaving in the inner life to
active participation in the world where man’s true being has its origin.
As the dreamer shuts itself off from the surrounding physical world and
entwines himself into himself, so would the soul of man lose connection
with the spirit of the world in whom he has his source if he turned a deaf
ear to the awakening calls of the spirit within him.
X. BODY, SOUL AND SPIRIT
In accordance with modern methods of science and education, man takes

his starting point for cosmological study from the phenomena of the natural
mineral world. But if we could think of a fully developed man arising out of
nothing, he would certainly not begin with the mineral world, but with himself,
finding himself as an enclosed unity; the many diversities of the world and his
own being would then reveal themselves to him. In Rudolf Steiner’s works, we
find many presentations of the being of man and, according to the standpoint
from which we review the relationships, the most varied analyses result. All
divisions and analyses have in some way a methodical foundation. Nothing is
more foolish than the perpetual harping of opponents of the seven-fold being
of man. One of the essentials of Rudolf Steiner’s presentations is that he never
allowed his investigations to run to rigid forms, but frees them again and again
to the living form. There are, in his works, descriptions of the being of man as a
unity, as a duality; there are triads in every possible direction. Man also appears
with four, five, seven, nine and twelve principles; even a presentation based on
the number fifteen can also be justified.35
If a man tries to understand himself as a unity, he at once becomes aware
that he can only do so in opposition to everything else. When he assumes his own
existence, he also assumes the world. Thus there is no unity but in opposition to
something else. The more sharply man wishes to maintain himself as a unity, the
more his own being vanishes into the other, into the world, until only a point is
left him like a nought. This is the tragedy of the ego. The attempt to balance it
with the world leads to dualism of every kind; the basic type is the dualism of
the inner world and the outer world. Now, we can undertake either to grasp the
outer world free from the inner world, or the inner world from the outer world.
In both cases the object under consideration is withdrawn. If we start from
the soul and seek a connection with the outer world, we come to a boundary,
for every such connection is interrupted by sleep. The more intensely we direct
our attention to the outer world, the more tired we become and, in sleep, the
object is withdrawn. But if we seek to understand man from the outer world, we
find that all the forces of the surrounding world, if they become active in man,
35
Carl Unger: “Mathematik als echte Symbolismus” in DIE DREI, Stuttgart, September 1927, vol. VII No. 6.
38
destroy his body as the bearer of the inner world. This is shown in the corpse.
Death is the other boundary where the object is withdrawn. These are only two
hints that can be employed in manifold ways.
The essential, the central thing, lies neither in the immediate inner world nor
in the outer world but in a third that is active in both instances and permeates
them as a common factor. It is thinking that unites the opposites. The polarity
of the two opposites generates the third element. For instance, we have here
the basic phenomenon from which Hegel started. An assumed unity thereby
already has its opposite as a second element and the two generate a third
which unites them; Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis. Hegel formulates this as a
last abstraction: being (Thesis), nothingness (Antithesis), becoming (Synthesis),
instead of placing it where it appears at first: ego (Thesis), non-ego (Antithesis),
knowledge (Synthesis). In the sense of our considerations, we can develop it as
follows: inner world and outer world are united by a third, a higher principle,
by thinking that appears inwardly; there it is given in the first place. But only
the form in which it appears belongs to the inner world, is subjective. Its being,
its content does not belong to the inner world, it detaches itself from the mode
of presentation; it is absolute. My inner world, my own efforts are necessary
in order that the Pythagorean theorem becomes apparent in me. This theorem,
however, does not belong to me; it is the same whether it manifests in me or in
another; it is not dependent on the mode of coming to manifestation. Something
that is an absolute experience in my inner world can be applied to the outer
world. Not as though the Pythagorean theorem would now belong to the outer
world, for it can be perceived nowhere, but it can be applied to the outer world.
As regards the outer world it is also absolute.
When we grasp how something thus inwardly experienced fits the outer
world, we experience a spiritual fact. Notable men, at the beginning of the age
of the consciousness soul, experienced this as a mighty revelation. Kepler, the
great astronomer, had this experience and describes it in his works.36 If we
observe man from the outer world, we have to do with the bodily entity. The
inner world is experienced as a soul entity. The observer in both cases is the
spirit. This spirit embraces outer world and inner world equally. Thus, when
36
12/1 [THE MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, “The Nature and Significance of Karma in the Personal
and Individual; and in Humanity, the Earth and the Universe,” May 16, 1910]; 9/8 [THE EAST IN THE
LIGHT OF THE WEST, “The Nature of Luciferic Influence in History,” August 30, 1909].
39
speaking of the spirit of man, one must always bear in mind that it is not a
matter of a closed-up spiritual entity but that the spiritual becomes manifest in
the human soul as an absolute entity.
This is set forth distinctly in the book Theosophy when Rudolf Steiner
speaks of body, soul and spirit, “By body here is meant that through which the
things in man’s environment reveal themselves. By the word soul is intended
that through which he links the things to his own being. By spirit is man that
which becomes manifest in him.” We can well observe that, in the case of body
and soul, it says “that through which,” but, in the case of the spirit, it says “that
which”. When reading Rudolf Steiner’s books, it is indeed necessary to pay
attention to every single word; that is something very different from swearing
by it. Understood in this way, the change from “through which” to “which”
expresses that man has a definite body, also a definite soul, but that only so
much of spirit is in him as is manifest in him. This holds good for our age where
the spirit of man is still weak and shows little definite form. Man is open to the
spiritual world, just as is nature.
Here we have a direct link with Leading Thought 17 and can convince
ourselves that we rightly attend to the word of the master when we strive
to realize that inwardly. In Leading Thought 17, it is said, “With his bodily
evolution, he (man) is incorporated as a member of a lower world; with his
soul, he forms of being of the middle world and he strives with his spiritual
forces toward an upper world.” There is the same distinction as above! Thus
we read that man unfolds his life between two world spheres. Again, something
of significance is to be found in the words themselves. The words are formed
out of world spheres themselves, “Bodily-evolution, soul-being, spirit-forces.”
Only as a soul is man a being. Through his bodily evolution nature is astir,
through the spiritual forces a higher world works into man. We are faced with
the mighty cosmic polarity of macrocosm and microcosm. In Leading Thought
18, the spirit is described as sleeping in nature; but man, precisely in the union
of the soul with the body through which nature is stirred in him, is awake. The
spirit which works into man from the upper world is awake in its own sphere,
but man, as regards the spirit, is asleep and indeed precisely during the condition
of his bodily waking life. The aspects that now open up will be reviewed in the
course of the Leading Thoughts.
The soul dream in Leading Thought 19 is a mixture of waking and sleeping.
40
Moreover, the dreaming state of the soul is not confined to the boundaries of
waking and sleeping but pervades the whole waking condition of man. The
problem of the conditions of consciousness of waking, dreaming and sleeping
covers a wide realm of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual investigations. He could
never describe his epoch-making discoveries in these domains in their entire
relationship simply because time did not permit it. They were purely introductory
communications that he gave to the public, the tremendous significance of which
could not be grasped by the world in this form. An infinite amount still remains
to be done; for truly they are not just lightly thrown off flashes of thought as the
superficial reader of our time might be inclined to think because of their almost
aphoristic form. Only when, after years of careful testing with all the equipment
of modern science, he was absolutely certain of his investigations, did Rudolf
Steiner give them to the public. In his book Von Seelenraetseln37 (translated in
its entirety in Riddles of the Soul; as excerpts in The Case for Anthroposophy)
such discoveries are spoken of directly and plainly but they were simply ignored
by the public in the chaos of the World War (1914-18). We shall have to refer
to this again in our Studies.
Only one comprehensive passage shall be quoted for our present purpose:38
“Thus we see that, in the truest sense of the word, we are really awake only as
regards our perception in the world of sense and in our life of representations;
even in the waking condition, as regards the life of feeling, we are actually
asleep, we really dream; and as regards the life of will, we are always fast asleep.
Thus, the sleeping condition extends into that of waking. Let us picture how
we pass through the world: what we experience with our waking consciousness
is but the perception of the sense world and our world of representations; and,
embedded in this experience, is a world in which our feelings and will impulses
float, a world which surrounds us like the air, but does not enter the ordinary
consciousness at all. Anyone who thus approaches the matter will, indeed, not
be very far from recognizing a so-called supersensible world around him.”
37
Extracts from VON SEELENRAETSELN selected, translated, arranged and with an Introduction by Owen
Barfield, published as THE CASE FOR ANTHROPOSOPHY. More recently (1996), it has been translated
and published in its entirety as RIDDLES OF THE SOUL.
38
48/3 [EARTHLY DEATH AND COSMIC LIFE, “The Living and the Dead,” February 5, 1918].
XI.
THE SPIRIT’S CALL TO AWAKE
The call of the spirit which resounds through the world can only dissolve
the soul dream of man through his impartial self-observation. Therefore, it is
important to trace how, from night consciousness, the state of dreaming reaches
into day consciousness. When we awake in the morning, we emerge from a picture
world, into which the sense perceptions of the outer world penetrate. The picture
world of true dreams is represented in symbols of which Rudolf Steiner has often
spoken.39 This transition, however, seldom comes about through a jolt; usually
it is gradual and, with some practice, it can be extended in consciousness and,
for this, the time needed only amounts to seconds. We can observe this passing
over when, for instance, the symbolic pictures cover the objects of the sense
world while the soul still remains linked with the laws of the picture world. The
dreaming consciousness in early morning and the slow decrease of the curve
of fatigue are well-known facts; less known is the ready faculty of association
of representations before midday. Thus it can be observed easily why memory
works better in the morning. Thus it can be observed easily that the waking life
runs its course by no means uninterruptedly by being continually given up to
the outer world, but rather that a different world continually shines into our
waking life, the world or representations and recollections, a real picture world
with its own laws. The laws which govern the association of representations are
a wide filed of investigation; but every may already have observed how some
representation follow us and cannot be dispersed and others, for which we
seek strenuously by concentrating, maliciously hide themselves and will not let
themselves be found. Often enough, they come up inopportunely and may lead
to unpleasant situations.
Or another experience may easily come about. A person goes into the
forest just for pleasure, enjoying all the beauty. Then, gradually, he falls into
dreaming and forgets himself. Suddenly, there is a shot! The shock wakes him
39
1/12 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “Occult Development,” September 2, 1906]; 2/8 [THE
THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “Human Consciousness in the Seven Planetary Conditions,”
June 1, 1907]; 22/7 [MAN IN THE LIGHT OF OCCULTISM, THEOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHY, June
9, 1912].
42
and, if he is observant at such a moment, he can well understand from where

he is called back, perhaps from the banks of the Brahmaputra. He can then
trace back how he has wandered in his mental pictures into far distances. The
awakening during the apparent-waking condition is a significant experience
for, in reality, it is the spirit that awakens him. The awakening call of the spirit
always resounds in the dreaming soul (Leading Thought 19). In order actually
to hear it, it is necessary to overcome dreaming while waking; this comes to
pass by constant exercise in order to bring to silence at certain times the laws of
the dreaming picture world. However, as soon as man starts to struggle against
them, these mental pictures are strengthened. Then he may immediately evoke
the witches’ revel around him and the representations take on an impish or
even a demoniacal character; they are really like mischievous beings who have
slipped out of the elemental world through the portal of ordinary waking into
the day consciousness. Certainly our memory is connected with such beings but,
in order to be of value to man, they must be morally controlled. Even in this
there are important experiences. If I wish to overcome some passion, I must not
fight it, otherwise I strengthen its temptation, but I must turn my consciousness
away from it. I must consciously forget it and bring other representations into
the field of consciousness. This is also the way for a right meditation. There
we must ward off intruding representations, practice conscious forgetting and
bring an entirely willed representation into our consciousness.
Such soul exercises sharpen the inner ear for the wakening call of the spirit;
they also lead to the Leading Thoughts now following:
20. For a right development of the life of the human soul, it is essential
for man to become fully conscious of working actively from out of
spiritual sources in his being. Many adherents of the modern scientific
world-conception are victims of a strong prejudice in this respect. They
say that a universal causality is dominant in all phenomena of the world;
and that, if man believes that he himself, out of his own resources, can
be the cause of anything, it is a mere illusion on his part. Modern natural
science wishes to follow observation and experience faithfully in all things,
but in its prejudice about the hidden causality of man’s inner sources of
action, it sins against its own principle. For the free and active working,
straight from inner resources of the human being, is a perfectly elementary
experience of self-observation. It cannot be argued away; rather must we
harmonize with it with our insight into the universal causation of things
43
within the order of nature.

21. Non-recognition of the impulse out of the spirit, working in the
inner life of man, is the greatest hindrance to the attainment of an insight
into the spiritual world. For, to consider our own being as a mere part of
the order of nature is, in reality, to divert the soul’s attention form our
own being. Nor can we penetrate into the spiritual world unless we first
take hold of the spirit where it is immediately given to us, namely, in clear
and open-minded self-observation.
22. Self-observation is the first beginning in the observation of the
spirit. It can indeed be the right beginning, for, if it is true, man cannot
possibly stop short at it, but is bound to progress to the further spiritual
content of the world. As the human body pines away when bereft of
physical nourishment, so will the man who rightly observes himself feel
that his self is becoming stunted if he does not see working into it the
forces from a creative spiritual world outside him.
Rudolf Steiner makes the wakening call of the spirit ring out clearly in the
soul world of present-day man. It is very appropriate to substantiate how, since
the turn of the century, he makes this wakening call resound: he describes man
as body, soul and spirit. It is indeed in the words and spirit that the significance
lies. Let us briefly recapitulate what he himself has so often presented. In ancient
cultures, the trichotomy of body, soul and spirit was a natural experience. At the
Eighth General Council in Constantinople in 869 A.D., spirit was eliminated.
Henceforth, it might only be taught that man consists of body and soul and
that the soul merely possesses some spiritual qualities. Under the conditions
prevailing at that time, it was obvious that this dogma was generally accepted.
This teaching was then upheld without more ado in western science, so that
even modern psychology can find nothing more than body and soul.40 Certainly,
science believes itself to be unprejudiced, but it is actually based on the tradition
of the Catholic Church that established her power by this very decision of the
Council. From that time on, anyone who attributed spirit to man was regarded
as a heretic. Rudolf Steiner has spoken of this occurrence in its context in the
lecture cycle, Building Stones For An Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha.
In the very last lectures he gave, he spoke incisively of the significance of this
40
48/3 [EARTHLY DEATH AND COSMIC LIFE, “The Living and the Dead,” February 5, 1918]; 45/2
[BUILDING STONES FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA, April 3,
1917].
44
time around 869 A.D. for the earthy and spiritual worlds.41 We find the results
of this in later Leading Thoughts. Here we need only approach it from one
particular aspect.
The time drew near when man gradually was to become a free being. Shortly
before the closing of the door, the Catholic Church established the dogma by
which the spirit was eliminated. Man’s striving was thereby directed to the
physical body and this was given over to free science. On the other hand, the
Catholic Church claimed with great success the souls of men as her exclusive
domain. Since then, the spirit of man has been asleep. Nevertheless, it is at work.
Science, relegated to the body, inevitably became materialism. In materialism,
the spirit works as self-negation.42 But there it becomes a new world power
and, in the present time, there is a danger of a repetition of the whole process
in relation to the soul. In a not too distant future, we can picture a general
council of scientists and doctors in which it will be resolved that, henceforth,
man should only be considered as body, which body would only possess some
soul qualities: this would be a dogma eliminating the soul. Anyone who would
teach differently would be looked upon as a heretic; he will not be burned at the
stake but rather imprisoned in a mental institution.43
Thus the loss of soul is threatened and the content of Leading Thoughts
19 and 21 must be taken with extreme seriousness: “…the soul would lose
connection with the spirit of the world from which it came, if it refused to hear
the awakening call of the spirit within it.” And further: “To consider our own
being as a mere part of the order of nature is, in reality, to divert the soul’s
attention from our own being.” But the soul rises up with its own inherent
forces against this threatening fate. “The free and active working, straight from
the inner resources of the human being, is a perfectly elementary result of self-
observation.” (Leading Thought 20) Rudolf Steiner’s awakening call sounds
forth to souls who feel something of this threatening fate in their dreams. This
wakening call has indeed nothing of moral preaching, nor even of the gestures
of sectarian prophets, but it simply lets the true name of man ring forth! When
41
50/20 [A SOUND OUTLOOK FOR TODAY AND A GENUINE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE, “Problems
of the Time (I),” July 30, 1918].
42
47/6 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “Reflections on the Times,” September 4, 1917].
43
45/1 [BUILDING STONES FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA, March
27, 1917]; 46/1 [ASPECTS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION, May 29, 1917].
45
a man lies before me sleeping and I wish to awaken him, I call him by his
name. So Rudolf Steiner calls man by his right name and that is expressed in
the knowledge of body, soul and spirit. All the significance lies precisely in
the words and spirit. It is not only a matter of a teaching which certainly is
supported by every means of knowledge that man’s being has three sides: body,
soul and spirit; it is an act of knowledge which bears fruit in the earthly and
spiritual worlds. For this reason, the primal experience of body, soul and spirit
is of such cosmic importance.
XII. CONCERNING FREEDOM
The primal experience of body, soul and spirit forms the starting point
of an introduction to the nature of man such as Rudolf Steiner has given, for
instance, in his book, Theosophy. The question can arise as to why another
method has been chosen in the Leading Thoughts whereby the primal triad
of body, soul and spirit, from which all other triads in Rudolf Steiner’s works
can be derived, does not appear until Leading Thought 17. There are intimate
differences of which we can become aware and everything depends on how
the description is given. The awakening call of the spirit, which rings forth in
Rudolf Steiner’s Theosophy, sounds powerfully in the ordinary consciousness
of modern man as his true name (see Study XI). One of the most important
facts in this book is the way in which this sense for freedom belonging to the
ordinary consciousness is preserved from beginning to end, so that the really
decisive first steps can come from man’s very own being. Precisely in the feeling
for truth to which alone appeal was made, the sense of freedom finds its proper
scope; to this feeling is joined an unprejudiced thinking and good will. When
the will becomes active in knowledge, the feeling for truth leads thinking to
further questions; only when knowledge of one’s own being leads to the path
of knowledge can that deep inward pledging of ourselves in freedom result,
of which we spoke in our first Study (Introduction). This is dominant in the
language of the Leading Thoughts. The being of freedom is not passed over in
any way thereby but raised to a higher stage. The first approach to spiritual
science is an act of freedom from out of ordinary consciousness. In the progress
of the work, it is essential that the being of freedom should become active on the
way to spiritual knowledge. Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge (Leading
Thought 1). The ordinary sense of freedom seeks an understanding with itself;
the being of freedom on the higher stage seeks an understanding with the beings
of the spiritual worlds. As the Leading Thoughts proceed, we find clear proof of
this: the very beginning of the Leading Thoughts leads immediately into cosmic
spiritual spheres and thereby the presentation of body, soul and spirit as given
in Leading Thoughts 20 to 22 acquires cosmic significance.
The expression understanding with itself arises from books written by
Rudolf Steiner before his works on spiritual science proper. His inaugural
47
dissertation for attaining his Ph.D. with the title The Fundamental Question of
the Theory of Knowledge with Special Reference to Fichte’s Scientific Teachings
(1891), which was published a year later under the title Truth and Knowledge,
bore the subtitle, Prolegomena to the Understanding of the Philosophizing
Consciousness with Itself. Truth and Knowledge bears the subtitle Prelude to a
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. Then came The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
in 1894. It bears the subtitle Fundamentals of a Modern World Conception:
Some results of the soul observation in conformity with the methods of natural
science. An understanding of consciousness with itself and the establishment of
freedom as a result of human self-observation (Leading Thought 20) were the
starting points for Rudolf Steiner’s awakening call of the spirit. This impulse
pervades all his works, for freedom is not a matter of one single pronouncement
upon whether man is free or not, but a process of freeing the human spirit. The
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity begins by showing that the question of human
freedom is always incorrectly stated. It can only be grasped by going ever more
deeply into one’s own being and there it shows itself bound up with the question
of the nature of thinking. This, however, immediately points beyond itself and
brings man into an evolution by which he releases himself from bondage to
the body. He frees himself from his original connection with nature and its
necessity. Investigation into freedom is a conquest of freedom. Man is thereby
placed before the spiritual world as he formally stood before nature.
Throughout his later years, Rudolf Steiner referred again and again to The
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity and in The Course of My Life,44 it is shown with
all clarity how this book stands on the same spiritual foundations as everything
that appeared later. We read in the lecture cycle, Necessity and Freedom: “In
The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, it is clearly explained how man becomes
free by achieving that which makes it possible for him to draw impulses from
the spiritual world.” In one passage, it is clearly stated, “The free impulses
emanate from the spiritual world.”45 The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity is
a book of initiation. On its path, the understanding of the consciousness with
itself is transmuted to an understanding of the consciousness with the new
world to which it leads. Rudolf Steiner has given this new understanding from
the other side as spiritual science. The great problem before us leads us again
44
RUDOLF STEINER: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
45
41/4 [NECESSITY AND FREEDOM, February 1, 1916,].
48
to Leading Thoughts 20 to 22; they show the vastness of the task that Rudolf
Steiner undertook, namely, to arouse men of the present day to the fact of the
path of knowledge so that they can proceed on it in ever-increasing freedom. We
will outline this problem more closely; it is one of the most difficult because, to
ordinary consciousness, it is insoluble.
Ordinary consciousness finds the necessity of nature, its unbroken causality.
Human self-observation shows free activity out of the inner being of man. The
two experiences have to be brought into harmony (Leading Thought 20); they
contradict one another entirely. The strong feeling of this contradiction drives
ordinary consciousness to the transformation of the path of knowledge. The
contradictions of life will be solved only in inner development. Rudolf Steiner
has, apart from other references, devoted an entire lecture cycle to this problem.
We find there, “What we regard as necessity is the past within us. We must
have passed through something and what we have passed through must have
stored up something within our souls. It remains in our soul and works on
there as a necessity.” … “Every person bears his past within him, therefore, he
bears a necessity within him. What belongs to the present time does not work
as necessity, otherwise, there would be no free act in the immediate present. But
the past works into the present and is linked with freedom. Because the past
continues to work, necessity and freedom are closely knit together in one and the
same act.” This view is then applied to nature, not however, as an analogy nor in
any the radical sense whatsoever, but as an exact spiritual investigation. “This
is something which affords the spiritual scientist an important point of view.
He learns to know the connection between the past and necessity. And he now
begins to investigate nature and finds necessity in nature; while investigating
natural phenomena, he recognizes that everything that the natural scientist finds
in nature as necessity also comes from the past.” ... “The whole of nature today
that we survey in its necessity at one time existed in a state of freedom; it was
a free act of the gods.” ... “Only because it is past does it appear to us as a
necessity.” ... “If we were to see what is now taking place in nature, it would
never occur to us to find a necessity there — we only see of nature of what is left
behind. What is now taking place as nature is spiritual; that we do not see.”46
One can only speak in this way out of an understanding of the spiritual
world. It is an inner way of development that frees the inner being from the
46
41/2 [NECESSITY AND FREEDOM, January 27, 1916].
49
necessity of nature; it already leads in your thinking to an independent spiritual

experience. From such a standpoint, nature, which has been left behind, can be
grasped by a new natural science that conceives nature as spirit. In his works
on natural science,47 Rudolf Steiner has dealt with this problem as a theory of
knowledge and he has dealt with it in every detail from the point of view of
spiritual science. Spiritual knowledge stands at the other side of nature. The
spiritual investigator encounters spiritual beings and he knows himself to be of
their kind.48 To the degree to which he develops and maintains his free being,
he penetrates to ever higher hierarchies. How does he now look at nature with
its necessity? As the place where the spirit sleeps (Leading Thought 18). Nature
is the other side of spirit.
Such statements point to a complete change of outlook; it also explains for
ordinary consciousness why the other side of spirit appears to men as necessity
because, in relation to nature, man is awake. Through this change of outlook,
something like an exchange between willing and thinking takes place. We can
grasp the laws of nature as willing that stands so high that it forgoes all arbitrary
action. The ordinary consciousness of man has within it only an ideal of the
will of spiritual beings behind nature who appear as sleeping, through their
very renunciation of arbitrary action. But this is man’s thinking. It must forgo
arbitrariness if it wishes to understand the laws of nature. But, in the ascent
to the spiritual world, thinking is permeated by will (Leading Thought 12). In
man’s pure willing (higher freedom!) spirit beings reveal themselves to him;
in the review of nature seen from the spirit, it appears as the thinking of these
spirit beings. That is creative thinking. Thus it can be said in modification of a
sentence of ancient occult science, “Human consciousness thinks the things as
they are; the things are as the spiritual beings think them.”
47
THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE IMPLICIT IN GOETHE’S WORLD CONCEPTION: The Science of
Goethe According to the Method of Schiller (Fundamental Outlines with Special Reference to Schiller).
48
9/5 [THE EAST IN THE LIGHT OF THE WEST, “The Children of Lucifer and the Brothers of Christ,”
August 27, 1909]; 21/2 [THE SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN THE HEAVENLY BODIES AND IN THE
KINGDOMS OF NATURE, April 4, 1912].
XIII. FREEDOM AND DEATH
We gain a significant insight into the new aspect that Rudolf Steiner has given
in the Leading Thoughts if we try to understand how the method of presentation
differs in the Leading Thoughts from that in earlier works. In particular, if we
bear in mind the sequence of his fundamental books, we can observe the turn
which he desired to give to the whole anthroposophical movement, and then
again it will be alarming to realize what infinite loss was caused by the fact that
he had so short a time at his disposal for the working out of this new impulse.
When Rudolf Steiner first sounded the awakening call of the spirit, he
appealed from the starting point of natural scientific methods to the impulse of
freedom in every man. This was done in his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity in
the sense already considered (CONCERNING FREEDOM, Study XII). From
that, we can turn to the book, Theosophy, which begins with the presentation of
men as body, soul and spirit, whereby the impulse of freedom works as a factor
of knowledge and leads over to supersensible investigation. In Occult Science:
An Outline, the presentation is extended from the being of man to that of the
cosmos. This sequence corresponds didactically to the soul attitude of present–
day men at the time when materialism began to go beyond itself and to destroy
its own foundation.
If we compare it with the sequence of the Leading Thoughts up to this
stage, we see that it is the methodically arranged inversely. The beginning leads
immediately to cosmic points of view and what is said of the physical, etheric
and astral bodies is spoken of from out of the cosmic spiritual sphere. The
presentation then passes from the cosmic human dual being of the ego to the
differentiation of body, soul and spirit; only then follow the aspects of human
freedom. This mode of presentation appeals to a more advanced consciousness
that can indeed be grasped directly by spiritual impulses. Men will find in true
self-consideration that he cannot remain only at self-observation but that he
must go further in search of a spiritual world content. (Leading Thought 22)
Following the presentation of the nature of freedom in the group of Leading
Thoughts 20 to 22 is the description of the after-death conditions in Thoughts
23 to 25. This is of importance: for the strongest argument against freedom is
51
death: it is the bitter necessity of earthly life. In Leading Thought 20, it is said,
“Many adherents of the modern scientific world-conception are victims of a
strong prejudice in this respect. They say that a universal causality is dominant
in all phenomena of the world.” Anyone who regards death from only this
point of view “is incapable of looking into anything but empty nothingness
beyond death in regard to all matters of the soul.”49 But he who (according to
Leading Thought 20) wishes “to bring a free action from the inner resources
of the human being”… “must harmonize it with our insight into the universal
causation of things within the order of nature,” must take pains to become
acquainted with the nature of death from the spiritual side. The path of
knowledge of Anthroposophy leads to an understanding in the experience of
earthly consciousness of what occurs after death to everything relating to the
soul. A German mystic, Angelus Silesius, said, “He who does not die before he
dies, perishes when he does die.”
23. Passing through the gate of death, man goes out into the spiritual
world, in that he feels falling away from him all the impressions and
contents of soul that he received during earthly life through the bodily
senses and the brain. His consciousness then has before it, in an all-
embracing picture tableau, the whole content of life which, during his
earthly wanderings, entered as pictureless thoughts into his memory,
or which, remaining unnoticed by earthly consciousness, nevertheless,
made a subconscious impression on the soul. After a very few days, these
pictures grow faint and fade away. When they have vanished altogether,
he knows that he has laid aside his etheric body, too, for, in the etheric
body, he can recognize the bearer of these pictures.
Under the heading, COSMIC VIEW (Study V), considerations arose which
led us to the boundary region of ordinary consciousness. “In this world ideas
and seeing are of equal value. Therefore, for the etheric sphere, conceptual
presentation suffices in order to have a footing in reality.” The cosmic view that
reveals to us the etheric body as a cosmic picture, is fashioned when, through
practice, an emancipation from the ordinary consciousness and its bondage to
the physical takes place. To this is added what we have found in our Study
IX in connection with experiences at the threshold: “All knowledge is wrested
from death.” These are the elements needed in order to understand the events
49
A ROAD TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE, Second Meditation: In which the Attempt is made to form a True
Conception of the Elemental or Etheric Body.
52
connected with the etheric body after death. All knowledge and especially the
ascent to supersensible knowledge is an anticipation of the experiences which
will be brought about after death by spiritual laws.
As far as the etheric body is concerned, it can be said that already in pure
knowledge, a certain freeing of the etheric body from its bondage to the physical
takes place; at the moment of death, the etheric body frees itself entirely from
the physical body and follows its cosmic tendencies, returning whence it arose.
Therefore, the experiences between birth and death in which the etheric body
has taken part are widened to the cosmos. What, during life, was an inner world
becomes outer world, an environment of memories. Through the experience
of death, man is turned inside out. Rudolf Steiner has often spoken of this
process, for example, in The Forming of Destiny and Life After Death (Lecture
IV, December 7, 1915), or in Things in Present and Past in the Spirit in Man
(“Deeper Secrets of Man’s Soul-Spiritual Nature,” Lecture II, March 7, 1916);
also compare the third chapter in Occult Science: An Outline: “Sleep and
Death”. In all descriptions of this process, it can be seen that, even during life,
the etheric body does not deny its cosmic origins and reveals it after death.
With regard to the duration of the life tableau which, in Leading Thought
23, is given as a few days, Rudolf Steiner says, “We can maintain it for as long
as we have the power under normal conditions to keep awake in the physical
body. It does not depend upon how long we once remained awake in life under
abnormal conditions; it depends upon the power we have within us to keep
ourselves awake.”50 This is understandable when we remember that, normally,
falling asleep is accomplished by freeing the astral body and ego from the
physical and etheric bodies; a separation of the etheric and astral bodies takes
place. After death, this process is affected in a more radical way; it can be
compared to following asleep. During life, falling asleep takes place in such a
way that the astral body is first freed from the physical body but is still united
with the etheric body; that is the ordinary condition of dreaming. After the
complete inversion by death, the cosmic super-dream of the life tableau arises in
its stead. After the laying aside of the etheric body after death, a corresponding
cosmic super-sleep arises which, however, signifies a higher state of waking. The
comparison with ordinary falling asleep holds good because the astral body
50
32/5 [THE INNER NATURE OF MAN AND THE LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH, “Between
Death and the ‘Cosmic Midnight Hour,’ April 13, 1914].
53
after death, after its separation from the etheric body, recapitulates the sleep
contents of the past earth life, just as the etheric body recapitulated the dream
experiences in the life tableau, insofar as they represented the day experiences.
24. Having laid aside the etheric body, man has the astral body and
the ego as the members of his being still remaining to him. The astral
body, as long as it is with him, brings to his consciousness all that during
earthly life was the unconscious content of the soul when at rest in sleep.
This content includes the judgments instilled into the astral body by spirit
beings of the higher world during the periods of sleep — judgments that
remained concealed from earthly consciousness. Man now lives through
his earthly life the second time, yet so that the content of his soul is now
the judgment of his thought and action from the standpoint of the spirit
world. He lives it through in backwards order: first, the last night, then,
the next to last one, and so on.
25. This judgment of his life, which man experiences in the astral body
after passing through the gate of death, lasts as long as the sum total of
the times he spent during his earthly life in sleep.
The living backward of the sleep experiences after death leads our
understanding back to what was brought out in our fifth Study. Let us recapitulate
briefly: between concept and reality of the astral body lies the threshold of the
spiritual world; therefore, its concept has something of a negative quantity. The
concept of the astral body strives toward its reality, unconsciously in sleep,
consciously on entering supersensible knowledge. As long as the astral body is
bound up with the physical and etheric bodies, it finds itself at the opposite pole
to its reality, to the spiritual world to which it substantially belongs. We can also
call it the moral world, a world of spiritual beings. Thus, true knowledge of the
astral body is an inner, moral process. This is contradicted by the astral body
in its ordinary functions in the physical world. The turning inside out through
death works as a reversal of all relationships. In the case of the etheric body,
we found concept and reality on this side of the threshold; the result is that,
whatever is accomplished in it before and after death, is to be understood in
the same sense. In the case of the astral body, everything is reversed, because its
reality lies on the other side of the threshold.
The astral body is that which in us passes judgments. These judgments
express themselves in ordinary consciousness as sensation, feeling, impulse,
54
or passion. Every such process is like an injury to the spiritual world that is
experienced in the astral body when, in sleep, it returns to its own world, the
spiritual world. This is what can be called being judged in the spiritual world.
The sum total of these processes is experienced after death in reverse sequence.
The laws of the etheric and astral bodies will have to engage our attention in
later studies.
XIV. DEATH, MORALITY AND TIME
In Leading Thought 24, spiritual beings of a higher world are expressly

named for the first time as bearers of the judgment of man’s soul experiences
during the night; the judgment comes to consciousness unhindered after death.
This deals with a mighty cosmic moral process in relation to which it is advisable
to approach the problem of freedom in a new way. In passing over from the
experience of freedom in ordinary consciousness to a higher experience of
freedom, the understanding with oneself changes to the understanding with
beings of the spiritual world (Study XII). Thus the investigation into after-death
conditions is a spiritual conversation, a true Inspiration. What for the spiritual
investigator is an acquisition for the being of freedom, is law for the ordinary
man. In ancient occult tradition, the experience of the astral body after death
is described as the appearing of Moses showing the dead man the record of his
sins and, at the same time, pointing to the stern law or holding before him the
Tables of the Law.51 In the glass window of the old Goetheanum which was
destroyed, where the living backward after death is presented, these gigantic
Tables of the Law stand above at the starting point. In other world conceptions,
too, similar descriptions are preserved, for instance, in the case of the Egyptians,
the meeting with the Judges of the dead. Thus there is another necessity besides
that of nature, namely, its other side which is morality, that is, the picture of the
true man as seen by spiritual beings.52
Every night man stands before the law of this vision. One can trace the
effects of this even in waking life. In this direction, we can supplement some
earlier psychological observations (Study X). The dreamy mood after waking
up is like a reflection of the night experiences; its effect goes on. We do not like
to be talked to immediately upon awakening; it is like being slightly out of tune
and if we are observant and practice paying attention to the impressions of the
spiritual world, we notice very distinctly the mood of a bad conscience. It can
spread far over the experiences of the day. It is the voice of our own true being
which, during the night, has stood before the vision of its home. What thus is
51
19/3 [FROM JESUS TO CHRIST, “Sources of Knowledge of Christ, Lord of Karma,” October 7, 1911].
52
ANTHROPOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION, “Dreams, Imaginative Cognition, and the Building of
Destiny,” February 9, 1924; “Phases of Memory and the Real Self,” February 10, 1924.
56
law for ordinary consciousness, necessity of the moral world, is achieved in

freedom on the path of initiation. Therefore, it is said that one has to take three
steps in morality before taking on in supersensible knowledge.
Leading Thought 24 touches on another problem that belongs to the
most difficult of all; it is the problem of time. In the experiences after death
in the soul world, time runs its course backward in contradistinction to the
time between birth and death. It cannot be of much importance to us how
philosophy and science struggle unsuccessfully with the problem of time. Even
the distinction between objective and subjective time can only interest us insofar
as we have here a shining example of how the illusion of the so-called objective
can be overcome by the transmutation of the subjective to the spiritual. It is
especially characteristic of the path of spiritual knowledge that the distinction
between subjective and objective will be overcome by something higher, by the
transmutation of the subjective.
The science of ordinary consciousness knows only one direction of time
and it is one of the essential differences between it and space that the direction
is not reversible. But this is judged from the viewpoint of objective time in a
wholly one-sided way. Even the inner experience of time belonging to ordinary
consciousness shows a different course according to whether it is tedious or
amusing; sometimes time creeps, sometimes it races. But ordinary consciousness
also shows indication of a time running in the opposite direction. An incorrigible
thinker — and that, indeed, is the scientist of today — knows only time which
runs its course from the past into the present, for thinking is directed to the past.
Willing, however, is directed to the future; it belongs to the opposite stream
that flows from the future into the present. The present is not time; it is space
outwardly and feeling inwardly. We can grasp space as fallen out of time wherein
the present attains duration. This points to an equilibrium or mutual damning
of the two streams of time. Language knows something about this fact that the
present is spatial, “In the presence of the Minister of State, the exhibition was
opened.”
At the same time, it is only indicated here that time also can be grasped as a
falling-out of a causality beyond space and time. The method of natural science
makes precisely this use of it by classifying phenomena from the viewpoint of
cause and effect. It can be noticed that concrete investigation runs contrary to
57
the objective course of time, moving from the present phenomenon — which
is understood as an effect — to the cause which is sought earlier; this again is
taken as an effect of a cause lying still farther back in time, and so on. This is
the method of investigation. If its results are presented as a system, one goes
from some starting point forward in time and the explanations are given in the
direction from causes to effects. This really follows the direction of the will.
These relationships will have to claim our attention in later Studies.
In accordance with spiritual science, it can be said that time runs its course
in cycles which only show one side to ordinary consciousness. Rudolf Steiner
points to the other side. From birth to death, we travel in one direction; after
death, in the soul world, in the other direction; we return to our birth out of the
spiritual world. The return to the spiritual world is the meaning of the becoming
as little children according to Rudolf Steiner’s interpretations.53 There we
enter once again the timeless, the spiritual, out of which we came to birth. Seen
from the spiritual, we dive down into time and back again out of time. In such
overcoming of the concept of time also lies the knowledge of repeated earth
lives. Now the objection could be raised that the objective time from one earth
life to the next runs on, just as it runs on in sleep, when we reach the timeless
and return. But against this, we can grasp the thought that the cosmic rhythms
and cycles belong to a consciousness greater than our day, greater than our
earth life, greater than the whole sequence of earth lives. These cycles have their
other side also where they rise again out of time. Rudolf Steiner, in his book
Occult Science: An Outline, and in other places as well, speaks of cosmic days
and cosmic nights, even of cosmic years. For this also, we have found an image
in miniature: Nature, which shows us objective time is to be found where the
spirit sleeps (see Leading Thought 18).
26. Only when the astral body has been laid aside — when the conscious
judgment of his life is over — man enters the spiritual world. There he
stands in like relation to beings of purely spiritual character as he did
on earth to the beings and processes of the nature-kingdom. In spiritual
experience, everything that was his outer world on Earth now becomes
his inner world. He no longer merely perceives it, but experiences it in
its spiritual being which was hidden from him on earth, as his own inner
53
1/3 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “Life of the Soul in Kamaloka,” August 24, 1906]; 30/6
[EXCURSUS ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK, March 7, 1911]; 30/4 [EXCURSUS ON THE GOSPEL
OF ST. MARK, January 16, 1911].
58
world.
27. In the spirit-realm, man as he is on earth becomes an outer world.
We gaze upon him, even as on earth we gaze upon the stars and clouds, the
mountains and rivers. Nor is this “outer world” any less rich in content
than the glory of the cosmos as it appears to us in earthly life.
28. The forces begotten by the human spirit in the spirit-realm work
on in the fashioning of earthly man, even as the deeds we accomplish in
the physical work on as a content of the soul in the life after death.
XV. EXERCISE IN THOUGHT
The path of knowledge of Anthroposophy leads out of the illusion of the

one-sidedness of time. According to the results of our earlier Studies, we can
describe it by saying that the past being of thinking is changed into the future
being of willing. We must seek the spirit along the paths of the future; in olden
times, the spirit was sought along the paths of the past. If we consider such
changing of places as that of thinking and willing (see Study XIII), we can
realize now how, by passing over into the spiritual world, the relationships
grasped by ordinary consciousness are entirely reversed. The descriptions of the
entry into the spiritland after death given in Leading Thoughts 26 to 28 will
then become comprehensible. A much more radical interchange of functions
certainly takes place there, so that the term turning inside out gains ever more
justification. For the dead themselves, there exist transitions that make this way
of living possible. Rudolf Steiner has described these transitions in his book
Theosophy. It will be found that this is concerned with exercises in thought by
which the inverted laws can be grasped. It is simply a matter of forming correct
concepts of spiritland.
Concepts are the conscious participation of the spiritland in ordinary
consciousness; but they arise in relation to a sense-perceptible environment,
and it is well to practice grasping the relation between the concepts and the
corresponding percepts. In Rudolf Steiner’s works, this is mentioned again and
again, for instance, in his book The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. An exercise
of this kind is presented here in the book Theosophy. Besides this, suitable
exercises can be found in Rudolf Steiner’s book How to Attain Knowledge
of the Higher Worlds. Thought exercises in an earnest, spiritual sense (not
thought-pastimes!) are not appreciated today, particularly in those circles that
seek a mystic way of approach to higher worlds; but they are indispensable for
a comprehension of the way of knowledge indicated in the Leading Thoughts.
If a person embarks on them with an earnest fashioning of life in view, they will
afford him great joy and genuine inner warmth.
In the chapter, “The Constitution of the Human Being” (The Essential Being
of Man), in the book Theosophy, Rudolf Steiner characterizes man as a citizen of
three worlds insofar as he is body, soul and spirit. He speaks of three worlds in
regard to the three fundamentally different principles in man. In the subdivision
60
“The Spiritual Being of Man” (The Spiritual Nature of Man), thinking is given
as a standard for the spiritual. In the later chapter, “The Spiritland,” it is said
that the world is woven out of the substance of which human thought consists.
Thus, when in this connection, the archetypes, the primal forces of spiritland
are mentioned, we have the opportunity to ask how their shadow pictures
live in human thoughts. In that passage in Theosophy where the first region
of spiritland, the continental region is described, the comparison employed is
that of spatial cavities which can be imagined by thinking away the substances
of things in physical space. In the intervening spaces the mobile activity of
the archetypes plays out its course. In other connections, Rudolf Steiner once
said, “If we look at the spiritual part of things, their qualities appear in their
surroundings. If we observe in which way thoughts are connected with things,
if we penetrate from their appearance to their real being, we find that this
description proves absolutely correct; the qualities appear in the surroundings.”
An example will help to make this clear. Let us take a crystal of common
salt, a cube; it is transparent, sharp to the taste, fairly soft, sticky to the touch,
etc. These are qualities of the senses even though they can be more precisely
observed and specified by instruments. That, however, is not the essential part
towards which thinking is directed, for, in this way only, something wrought,
something complete can be observed as a phenomenon; the crystal, in fact, has
been deserted by its essential entity. How different it is if we consider its coming
into being! Out of a saturated solution, out of the liquid, it receives its form
from six directed forces of cosmic space. There it is, pushed out of the mother-
liquor. If we wish to find the essential forces, we have them in this solution, that
is, in their true environment. In this way, thoughts can begin to work, even if
they are only shadows of spiritual realities.
Thus we can practice the complete inversion of the method of observation in
ordinary consciousness. We can also extend this to other things and, in this way,
attain to actual exercises of spiritual sight. We, for instance, can try to feel our
way into the plastic negative of a man. By so doing, something of the spiritual
part of him enters the field of vision, for instance, how strongly an important
person stands in space or how a nose sticks out into the air. We shall observe that
it behooves us to seek the spiritual in the environment. But it is then a matter
of applying these exercises of the negative picture to the moral element and
the question of destiny. In the highest sense, the old Goetheanum, which was
61
burned down, was soul-shaping. Its plastic forms, originating from the spirit of
true beauty, became continual spirit meditations. We could also become aware
of this spiritual influence and how, as in a spiritual breathing, the forms of the
capitals, bases and especially of the architraves, rose and sank, formed arches
and protruding forms in one place with the receding forms in another. One form
became the spirit reality of another. Rudolf Steiner occasionally spoke of such
correspondences in his plastic art in the old Goetheanum.
In such ways, we can approach what stands in Leading Thoughts 26 to 28
and, thereby, still another thing can become clear to us, something which applies
just to thinking when it wishes not only to comprehend the spiritual in itself
(thinking) but in the spiritland. How thinking transforms itself into willing was
learned from previous Studies. With this, something else takes place, of which
we must think in continuation of what was said with regard to the reversing of
time. In the physical realm, space is determinative and the soul element projects
into it as time and the spiritual as causality.
Causality as a factor of law has a definite course, as has time in the physical
realm. In spiritland, this course is exactly reversed so that, in its higher regions,
we have to reckon with causality set in the opposite direction, in which the
effect precedes the cause, if such a process is considered in the light of time
or if a spiritual element of this region is revealed in the physical. Therefore, in
Theosophy, the upper region of the spiritland is called the Region of Purposes.
Purpose is the conceptual term for the fact that effects are to be thought of prior
to causes.
By such exercises, we can familiarize ourselves with the way in which, in the
after-death experience of spiritland, outer world becomes inner world (Leading
Thought 26); for, what was outer world approaches the realm of purposes out
of which it had flowed before birth. In the same way, inner world becomes outer
world, for man expands to the cosmos (Leading Thought 27). The content of
Leading Thought 28 shows the tremendous consequences of what outer and
inner destiny signify. The last great reversal which takes place for the essential
being of the ego in the whole after-death experience of spiritland, the mighty
turning-point transcending causality, is the midnight hour of existence. Rudolf
Steiner only spoke of the mysteries of this central point in the sequence of
experiences between death and rebirth, after he had awakened a deep feeling for
this mystery through the scenes of his Mystery Plays in those who took part in
62
the performances at Munich (The Soul’s Awakening, the Fourth Mystery Play).
From his lectures in The Secrets of the Threshold (lecture 1, August 24, 1913),
and in The Inner Nature of Man and the Life Between Death and Rebirth (“The
Vision of the Ideal Human Being,” Lecture II, April 10, 1914), it is evident how, in
these mysteries after death, man gradually withdraws from his last incarnations
and a new perspective opens out to him. He thereby acquires a review of earlier
earth lives and an outlook into future ones and into their karmic relationship.
This takes place according to the ruling of the hierarchies of spiritual beings. In
our work on the Leading Thoughts, we approach the description of destiny and
the relations of man to the hierarchies; but, for this purpose, a few preliminary
conditions must be fulfilled and a series of the following Leading Thoughts will
serve this purpose.
29. In the evolved imaginative knowledge there works what lives as
soul and spirit in the inner life of man, fashioning the physical body
in its life, and unfolding man’s existence in the physical world on this
bodily foundation. Over against the physical body, whose substances are
renewed again and again in the process of metabolism, we here come
to the inner nature of man, unfolding itself continuously from birth (or
conception) until death. Over against the physical space-body, we come
to a time-body.
30. In the inspired knowledge there lives, in picture-forms, what man
experiences in a spiritual environment in the time between death and
a new birth. What man is in his own being and in relation to cosmic
worlds — without the physical and etheric bodies by means of which he
undergoes his earthly life — is here made visible.
31. In the intuitive knowledge there comes to consciousness the
working-over of former earthly lives into the present. In further course
of evolution these former lives have been divested of their erstwhile
connections with the physical world. They have become the purely
spiritual kernel of man’s being and, as such, are working in his present life.
In this way, they, too, are an object of knowledge — of that knowledge
which results with the further unfolding of the Imaginative and Inspired.
In the German periodical Anthroposophie (VIII #4), a series of articles
appeared by the author of this book entitled A Debt of Honor to Rudolf Steiner.
XVI.
THREEFOLD ORGANIZATION
AND MORALITY
These were articles on the threefold organization of the human being54 which
is one of Rudolf Steiner’s epoch-making discoveries and one of the greatest
spiritual deeds of all time. It supplies the indispensable bond of union between
natural and spiritual science. In his book, Rudolf Steiner: An Autobiography, he
tells in the most modest way of this discovery which is decisive for wide domains
of spiritual life. On the facts of this discovery, he base the new foundation of
the Anthroposophical Society at Christmas 1923, after the attempts to build on
it a new order of social conditions had not succeeded (the idea of the threefold
commonwealth).
The discovery of the threefold organization of the human being can be
summed up as follows in accordance with chapter IV of Rudolf Steiner’s book,
Von Seelenraetseln (Riddles of the Soul): “The physical counterparts to the soul
element of representation are to be seen in the processes of the nervous system
with their radiation into the sense organs on the one hand and, on the other, into
the inner organization of the body.” Feeling must be brought into relation “with
that life rhythm which has its center in the action of breathing and is connected
with it: and which indeed “must be followed into the outermost peripheral
parts of the organism.”… “Regarding the will, we find that this rests in a similar
way on metabolic processes. Again everything must be taken into account
which plays its part in the branching out and ramification of the processes of
metabolism in the whole organization.” Regarding the consciousness of these
soul processes and their bodily foundation, Rudolf Steiner shows that “a fully
conscious waking experience exists only for the act of representing conveyed
by the nervous system”; for everything of the nature of feeling there is only
the strength of consciousness “which is characteristic of dream pictures,” and
for the will there is only the quite dull degree of consciousness “which exists in
sleep.”
54
Carl Unger: THE NECESSITY OF AN ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT AND THE WORK OF
RUDOLF STEINER.
64
In addition to this there are the relations “which the soul element of ordinary
consciousness bears to the spiritual life.” The “spiritual reality that is the basis
for the representation of ordinary consciousness” can “only be experienced
by the knowledge arising from sight”; it reveals itself in Imaginations.
Feeling flows from the spiritual side “out of a spiritual essence which is found
in anthroposophical research by methods which I have characterized in my
writings as those of Inspiration.”… “Willing streams from the spirit for the
seeing consciousness through that which in my writings I call true Intuitions.”
In chapter IV of his book, Von Seelenraetseln (Riddles of the Soul), the
paths of physiological research and their hindrances are specified. A modern
science presents an excellent basis for the fact that representations require the
nervous system for a foundation. In order to arrive at the insight that feeling
has the rhythm of breathing as its foundation, the experiences of physiological
research must be followed up in a direction that, to a large extent, is unusual
today. Even there, prejudices exist because people allow the soul only qualities
standing in relation to nerve processes. Hence, feeling is treated as a mere
characteristic of representation. Willing falls out entirely; it is not even a
characteristic of representation. In order to arrive at clear concepts in this
domain the physiological and psychological investigations must be directed to
the interplay of nerve activity, breathing rhythm and metabolic activity.
The discovery of the threefold working as of the human being is, as a free
deed, created out of the spirit and inserted into the world of sense observation;
thereby, it is given over to the developing freedom of man; they can do with it
what they will. The Age of the Consciousness Soul is truly here; the determining
factor for centuries emanates from the ordinary consciousness of individual
men. “From man, from the individual, must arise what is necessary for the
future. We are not to wait for a universal message which mankind would have
to follow. There will be no such message. But the possibility will be given for
that which can come from the spiritual worlds to shine forth in each individual
soul.”55 What has happened since the 15th century was but the prelude. First
came the great discoveries in the mineral realms, in physics and chemistry.
They did not remain in the realm of science but were carried into life by the
consciousness soul; the technical knowledge of today arose. Natural science
and technical knowledge as they have arisen in our time bear with them no
55
49/7 [ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LIFE GIFTS, “Whitsuntide Lecture,” May 21, 1918].
65
moral obligation; they are immoral; they can be used as a blessing or as a

curse. It is the same activity of consciousness that can construct a bridge or a
murderous weapon. Traditional morality, which hitherto has restrained souls
to some extent, is rapidly disappearing. “Natural science strives to eliminate
morality altogether from its consideration, and morality begins to come to
terms with the fact that no physically supporting forces dwell within it. The
dogmatism of certain religious beliefs seeks to form representations that are a
sort of compromise with natural science, inasmuch as the scientist points out
that a sharp line should be drawn between what is moral and what is physical,
chemical, geological, etc.”56 There, decisions are ripening of the kind that can
only be turned to good by souls spiritually conscious and herein lies one of the
most important tasks of Anthroposophy.
The discoveries of modern times are those of the ordinary consciousness; the
questions of morality become infinitely more important in view of the discovery
of the threefold organization of man. In regard to Rudolf Steiner’s presentation
in his book, Von Seelenraetseln (Riddles of the Soul), it must indeed be noticed
that the section in question bears the title, “How the Human Being Depends on
the Physical and Spiritual” (“Principles of Psychosomatic Physiology”). Thus, it
concerns a duality because the soul’s experience is between bodily and spiritual
facts and therein lies its path to freedom. Let us suppose that this discovery
of Rudolf Steiner’s were snatched away, that the moral foundation that lies in
the dual working of the soul were lost or destroyed! Combined with that the
fact that the tendency exists not only to abolish the spirit but that the soul is
regarded as only characteristic of the body! Let us observe how Theodor Ziehan,
in his Physiological Psychology quoted by Rudolf Steiner, finds no reason for
the assumption of a special faculty of will; he speaks only of tones of feeling
as qualities or characteristics of sensation and representations! Then we can be
clear that Rudolf Steiner’s discovery brings a stupendous danger before us. It
consists, speaking briefly, in the fact that only one side, the dependence of the
soul on the three bodily organizations, is physiologically and psychologically
investigated and the other, the spiritual side, has no attention paid to it. In
that case, an unheard-of misuse of the discovery will take place. Man will even
discover a definite means to subjugate representations by working on the nervous
system, to subjugate human feelings by working on the rhythmic system, and
56
45/4 [BUILDING STONES FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA, April
12, 1917].
66
to subjugate the human will by working on the metabolic system. That would
then be the third act of the threatening tragedy of humanity mentioned in our
Study XI: the abolition of the spirit and the abolition of the soul. Mankind will
then come under the domination of materialistic Doctors of Medicine. There is
already a novel of the future that describes the domination by the Doctors as
a complete enslavement in all domains; the intoxication of the physicians with
power is described in harrowing terms.
Against this colossal danger that arises because Rudolf Steiner’s work
has been given over to the freedom of man, there is only one protection: that
the other side of the discovery, the spiritual side, should be fostered by the
Anthroposophical Movement. It consists in the fact that, through the way of
knowledge shown by Rudolf Steiner, thinking, feeling and willing may be freed
from subjection to the bodily system, and then the means indicated for the
enslavement of the soul cannot work. Through the evolution of modern times,
thinking has already reached a high degree of selflessness. If the step to pure
thinking, as pointed out in The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, can be taken,
thinking frees itself from the subjection to the body, from the nervous system.
From this grows the force of Imagination.
The next step is much more difficult: to make feeling equally selfless in
order to transmute it to Inspiration. Selfless feeling is love; it already shows the
characteristics of Inspiration in ordinary consciousness: it leads to understanding
with other beings. Love as an inspirational force of knowledge frees the feeling
from subjection to the body, from the rhythmic system. The third step leads to
selfless willing in order to transmute it to Intuition. Selfless willing is devotion,
sacrifice. That leads to entering into the being of another and shows even in
ordinary consciousness, where it is possible, the characteristics of Intuition.
Devotion as an intuitional force of knowledge frees the will from subjection to
the body, from the metabolic system.
Pure thinking, love and devotion are man’s path to freedom.
XVII. TRANSFORMATION
In Leading Thoughts 29 to 31, the relationship of the higher stages of

knowledge to the principles of man’s being and to the experience of passing
from one earth-life to another is presented. If we do not shun the difficulties
of following this relationship in detail, important anthroposophical knowledge
can develop. It is immediately apparent that Imaginative knowledge has to
do with the etheric body, Inspirational knowledge with the astral body and
Intuitive knowledge with the ego. Moreover, if we take a step back, knowledge
in the ordinary consciousness must correspondingly have the physical body as
its foundation. This must not be confused with materialist ideas with regard to
the functions of the brain. Rudolf Steiner devoted a great deal of attention to this
problem. The following passages are taken from the seventh lecture of Wonders
of the World, Ordeals of the Soul, Revelations of the Spirit: “The brain is a part
of the physical body and everything which belongs to the content of our life of
representation, everything that is brought about by the knowledge-producing
working of our soul does not reach as far as the physical body, but takes place
in the three higher principles of the human entity, from the ego through the
astral body down to the etheric body.” “There is, of course, the superficial fact
to which philosophers and psychologists of today appeal, that certain processes
take place in the brain during the act of cognition.” “The activity of the brain
as regards what actually happens in the soul when we represent and think, has
precisely the same significance as a mirror in which a man sees himself. What
appears through the working of the brain is an inner supersensible activity of
the three higher principles of the human organization. In order that this may be
perceived by the person himself, the mirror of the brain is necessary so that, by
means of the mirror, we perceive what we are supersensibly.” “If, as an earthly
being of today, man did not have this reflecting bodily organism, especially the
brain, he would indeed think his thoughts but he would know nothing about
them.”
Without the higher principles, there could be no human consciousness,
no knowledge at all; the experience of the higher principles in the physical
body brings about ordinary consciousness. We can also say: an unconscious
imaginative, inspirational and intuitive knowledge lies at the basis of our
68
ordinary knowledge that is only colored by the physical body. In our first Study,
attention has already been drawn to the way in which these appear in the
different periods of a growing human being. We also find a link with former
Studies in another respect. The physical body itself appears as the “boundary of
knowledge” of which Rudolf Steiner speaks in Leading Thought 2; and when,
according to Leading Thought 3, we become conscious again and again of how
we stand at this boundary, we can also understand from our last Study what it
means to free oneself from bondage to the physical body. Step-by-step thinking,
feeling and willing are thereby transformed into Imagination, Inspiration and
Intuition and, at the same time, we become conscious by means of the etheric
body, the astral body and, finally, the ego. In this way, the soul, which hitherto
depended on the bodily organism, acquires spiritual support as Rudolf Steiner
has pointed out in his book, Von Seelenraetseln (Riddles of the Soul), mentioned
in our last Study.
There is still another transformation of which Rudolf Steiner often spoke.
The three lower principles of man, the physical body, etheric body and astral
body are taken hold of by the ego and thereby made into a seven-fold being as
it transforms them into spirit-self, life-spirit and spirit-man. The whole process
can be presented as shown in the following, but this should not be regarded as
an abstract diagram, for it concerns man himself; the surrounding lines may be
taken as the sheath of the ego:
Ordinary Consciousness
Body Physical Body Etheric Body Astral Body
Soul Willing Feeling Thinking
Spirit Spirit-Man Life-Spirit Spirit-Self
Imaginative Consciousness
Soul Willing Feeling Imagination
Inspirational Consciousness
69
Soul Willing Inspiration Imagination

Intuitive Consciousness
Soul Intuition Inspiration Imagination
In Leading Thought 29, some functions are mentioned which characterize

the life of the essential being of Imagination with regard to the physical body.
These functions come to expression in the growth of the physical body and then
this essential being arises inwardly in the unfolding of consciousness.57 Thus
Imaginative knowledge is the working of the ego that becomes conscious in the
etheric body. In ordinary consciousness, the essential being of the higher kinds
of knowledge comes up against the physical body; in the same way, Inspirational
knowledge is the working of the ego which becomes conscious in the astral
body and Intuitional knowledge signifies the ego’s becoming conscious of its
own being. This becoming conscious at the various stages signifies, at the same
time, the experience of the world on an ever-higher level or the entrance into
higher worlds with their beings. From this, it becomes clear that it is the essential
being of this higher knowledge that has shaped man on the physical plane. For
this reason, man, too, cannot understand his own being from the facts of the
physical world; he is not of this world.
It is further shown in Leading Thought 29, how, between birth and death,
that which is constant in the human being confronts the physical body that is
ever again being renewed by the metabolic processes. This points to the nature
of the etheric body. The physical body as such has no reality, only its form in a
certain sense. We find descriptions of the highest importance about the human
form in the fifth lecture of Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and
Philosophy (June 7, 1912), and about the illusory character of the physical
body in the third lecture of Excursus on the Gospel of St. Mark (December
57
28/7 [THE OCCULT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA, June 3, 1913]; A/8 [THE BEING OF
MAN AND HIS FUTURE EVOLUTION, “The Manifestation of the Ego in the Different Races of Men,”
May 3, 1909].
70
19, 1910). The physical in man belongs to the outer physical world which, in
accordance with its laws, can only destroy the physical body. Only that which
possesses permanence between birth and death is the reality of man. The etheric
body is here called a time-body in contradistinction to the space-body. The
etheric body, as shown in Study XIII, gathers the experiences of the waking
consciousness and holds them together. The etheric body provides duration in
the midst of change; it gives form to the physical body and memory to man’s
inner being. As far as memory extends, man has an inner form.
We experience the events of waking life between birth and death as a passing
of time; the etheric body holds them together in permanence. This is a kind of
synchronization. The experience of the passing of time does not come from the
etheric body; we shall presently see from where it does come. This realization
of permanence which is characteristic of the etheric body is always there —
Imagination knows it — and after death, it arises as a life tableau; but it already
existed before death and contains all the experience of waking life simultaneously
right back to birth, only it could not be perceived by ordinary consciousness.
Imagination sees it as a whole before death; ordinary consciousness sees only a
wavering shadow of it as memory. The physical body is designated as a space-
body; it falls away at death. Then the etheric body becomes space. What, before
death, was experienced as time, appears after death as space in the life-tableau
surrounding man: Imagination transforms time into space.58
58
48/3 [EARTHLY DEATH AND COSMIC LIFE, “The Living and the Dead,” February 5, 1918].
XVIII. THE ART OF THINKING
Rudolf Steiner has often spoken of the lack of a true art of thinking in
our age. He pointed to Scholasticism in which the instrument of thought was
most subtly ground for the chiseling of such fine concepts as could grasp the
spiritual and penetrate to the boundary on the other side of which stood the
revelations of Christian tradition. “In the age of the Scholastics, in the time of
Thomism, etc., a philosopher who expressed his concepts in a fine conceptual
art, was in contact with the spiritual world.” “… men will only be able to
appreciate Scholasticism when, from studying it again, they come to learn
how a finer, more highly organized way of thinking can be developed than is
practiced today.”59 In lectures that Rudolf Steiner gave in the Goetheanum in
January 1924, he referred to Aristotle, the inaugurator of Western thinking and
of the investigation of nature. Before his time, thinking was still in the nature of
cosmic perception which was substantially part of the etheric world (sublunary
sphere). The transition to the Middle Ages consisted in the fact that thinking was
considered as being a product of the inner man. This Rudolf Steiner has shown
in the relevant chapter in his book, The Riddles of Philosophy. In modern times,
thinking threatens to disappear in subjectivity. Therefore, it is now necessary
to imbue thinking with willing so that it can be formed into Imagination as an
active organ of knowledge for the etheric world. Then it can become an authentic
human factor of cosmic processes in the future. This will be considered in later
Leading Thoughts in connection with the mission of Michael.
The logic of Aristotle was a training ground for independent thinking,
which was created for it. He gave the substance for training in thinking in
his Categories that molded the primeval wisdom of the Mysteries into Ideas.
In our times, these Categories have degenerated into lifeless ideas; they are
the greatest abstractions imaginable. In the lectures mentioned above, Rudolf
Steiner warned us that we should resuscitate these lifeless ideas in man. This is
done through the work on the consciousness soul; there, step-by-step the road
by which thinking can again become living so that, finally, it can follow his
spiritual investigations in recreating them. He has, however, thus left us with the
task of securing his investigations through eternal thoughts. He himself has laid
59
47/7 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “Luther,” September 11, 1917].
72
the foundations everywhere by shaping entirely new concepts. We are called

upon to weave them into a new art of thought as Scholasticism has done for the
work of Aristotle. In many passages of the Leading Thoughts, we can point to
this task and find the path that leads to it.
Such new concepts underlie, for instance, the words etheric body, astral
body, etc., by which Rudolf Steiner makes the corresponding supersensible facts
accessible to thinking. If we succeed in transforming the rigid Categories into
living thoughts and make them once more so flexible, so mobile, within us that
such concepts as Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition result, we shall have
taken a step forward in carrying on Rudolf Steiner’s work in this direction.
Stimulation of the kind can arise from Leading Thoughts 29 to 31; thus, at the
end of our previous Study, we arrived at the sentence: Imagination transforms
time into space. This is an attempt to make the Categories mobile by showing
how one fundamental condition of thinking can be led over to another when we
rescue it from rigidity and lead it over to becoming. The phrase itself may sound
familiar (Wagner’s Parsifal), but it is not the symbolic nor indeed the abstract
content that matters, for, what has to be expressed, depends upon the way in
which exercises are carried out. In one connection, when he deals with the
first experiences after death, Rudolf Steiner refers to this sentence, “It is just as
Wagner expressed it out of a deep intuition ‘Time becomes Space’. That which
is past, is indeed not past for spiritual experience, but it stands there just as, for
physical man, the objects stand in space.”60
It is characteristic of the short-sighted way of thinking of our time that we
do not think to the end. Such a sentence is certainly there, but it is necessary to
follow it up further; this is indicated in Leading Thoughts 30-31. Inspirational
knowledge gives insight into the experience of the astral body before and after
death. In the foregoing Study, the question arose: Whence came the realization
of the course of time? According to our Studies XIII and XIV, it can be clear to
us that it comes from the astral body. However, we must definitely distinguish
between being and experience. Man’s experience is always bound up with his
ego but, according to the entity in which it takes place, something different
becomes manifest. If this is expressed through thinking, the corresponding
concepts arise. In Leading Thought 29, the etheric body is described as a time-
body; its essence is substantially time. This, its essence, however is not realized
60
47/7 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “Luther,” September 11, 1917].
73
in ordinary consciousness but, as we have seen, it gives the experience of space.

We must make the same distinction with regard to the astral body; it gives the
experience of time, flowing forward between birth and death and backward
after death. What is its essence, its substance? There is an expression that can
be added as a third factor, an extension of the space and time: causality, the
concept of one because of another, just as time is a concept of one after another
and space the concept of one beside another.
The relation of cause and effect expresses only inadequately and one-sidedly
what is here called causality. What is meant here is a living element, something
which is linked up with motives and impulses, something active. In our Studies
XIII and XIV, we tried to show how judgment can be ascribed to the astral body
and it is being judged in sleep (Leading Thought 24). This does not contradict
the fact that the essential nature of the astral body is here called causality. Living
judgment unites motives. In logic, there is a saying that, for every judgment, there
must be a sufficient cause. In picturing cause and effect, we direct our gaze in a
one-sided way to the phenomena that in inner experience we call the reason and
the consequence. The essential nature that is at work here is what is meant by
the word causality. In the time between death and rebirth, man finds himself in
a world the substance of which forms his astral body.61 The repetition of being
judged during the night in this condition is one side of this experience; but there
is another side, which is not completed by the retrospect of our past earthly
life, with the fact of being judged. The other side of experiencing our astral
body between death and new birth can again be compared with a judgment
that, however, does not work like the judgment between birth and death, which
mainly refers to something finished, but through this judgment, the future earth
life is being shaped. If we speak of destiny, we approach in a concrete way that
living essence which abstractly shows itself as causality. Thus we can say: the
experience which the astral body communicates is time, forward between birth
and death, backward after death, after the laying aside of the etheric body. The
living essence of the astral body is causality. Inspiration is the astral body’s
way of knowledge leading from experience to being: Inspiration transforms
causality into time.
Now we have to concern ourselves with a third step. Leading Thought
61
36/7 [EARTHLY AND COSMIC MAN, “The Signature of Human Evolution. The Advancing Individuality.
The Dawn of the New Power of the Spirit-Self in Man,” May 20, 1920].
74
31 points to the kernel of man’s being, the ego. Again we can ask: Who gives
the experience of causality? It is the ego, the bearer of destiny from one earth
life to another; but the being of the ego belongs to a sphere for which a still
higher conceptual form must be sought in the series of space, time, causality.
This fourth form appears in no table of the Categories and yet it alone brings
this series to a close, beyond which it cannot be continued. The concepts of
one beside another, one after another and one because of another can only be
followed by the living concept of through itself; it may be called permanence of
being. Spinoza was conscious of it when he speaks of cause of itself that is, of a
being existing in itself. It constitutes in man his pure spiritual kernel (Leading
Thought 31). Intuition is the ego’s way of knowledge, the ego who passes from
one life to another. In accordance with the foregoing, we can add: Intuition
transforms the permanence of being into causality.
XIX.
SPIRITUAL-SCIENTIFIC
COPERNICANISM
We are accustomed to observing the path of man through the world from
the standpoint of earthly life; in the first place that is also the given. However, it
is in the nature of the work on the consciousness soul to transfer the standpoint
to the spiritual world gradually, that is, to an experience in which man takes
part in the life between death and rebirth. If, in Copernicus, there was something
great and daring in that he transferred his mathematical standpoint from the
earth to the sun, even against the experience of the senses. This was a deed of
thought, and act of an independent form of thinking from out of his inner being.
Human thinking thus became free from earthly and traditional bondage. This
was at the beginning of the age of the consciousness soul. Thinking rose above
the earth, became even selfless — but only in order to learn to master the earth
in the age that followed, in order to enable it to serve the lowest needs of man.
The spirit-soul life of ancient times consisted in the fact that the beings that
guided humanity led man to earth; in future, man must again direct his view to
the cosmos;62 that is the task of Anthroposophy working on the consciousness
soul.
When, through ordinary consciousness, we understand how man goes forth
every night into the cosmos as astral body and ego and how, after death, he
returns to his primeval home, we learn to overcome the gravity of the earth
that was necessary for man to enable him to gain independence and freedom. In
grasping the meaning of higher states of knowledge — Imagination, Inspiration
and Intuition — we gain the capacity of grasping the meaning of earthly
life from out of cosmic impulses sub specie aeternitatis (as part of eternity).
Anthroposophy as spiritual science teaches us to understand man’s cosmic
being from out of our earthly consciousness; Anthroposophy as evolution of
the soul leads us to shape earthly lives from out of the cosmos.
62
3/6 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, “The ‘I AM’,” May 25, 1908]; 8/2 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN
ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER GOSPELS, “The Living Spiritual History. The Leaders of Humanity.
The Creative Word,” June 25, 1909].
76
What we have considered in our last Studies as the transformation or

interpreting of the Categories was connected with man’s growing out into the
cosmos63 with his return to his primeval spiritual home. But the return journey
is equally important, from out of the cosmos into a new earth life. This follows
the same direction as the acts of creation in the past, by which earth and man
were fashioned. This is the way by which, through transformation of a similar
nature, the Categories arose as will be seen from later Leading Thoughts; this
is repeated by man with every new incarnation and, in the future, he will ever
more find it his task to continue the work of creation in conjunction with the
hierarchies, the creative spiritual beings. This shows how the standpoint can be
changed through the work on the consciousness soul.
The experience of the human soul as thinking, feeling and willing, as it is
based on the threefold organism of man and sustained in a threefold manner
from out of the spirit (Study XVI) is man’s heritage from out of the divine
creative work. It is the talent entrusted to him of which he should make good
use; it is the light not to be hidden under a bushel. The presentation in the
following Leading Thoughts of the head, of the limb-metabolic system and of
the rhythmic organization show the result of creation as the soul of man enters
it as his field of activity. The following Leading Thoughts may be looked upon
in the light of this changed standpoint:
32. In the head of man, the physical organization is a copy, an impress
of the spiritual individuality. The physical and the etheric part of the head
stand out as complete and self-contained pictures of the spiritual; beside
them, in independent soul-spiritual existence, there stand the astral and
the ego-part. Thus in the head of man we have to do with a development,
side by side, of the physical and etheric, relatively independent on the one
hand, and of the astral and ego-organization on the other.
33. In the limbs and metabolic part of man the four members of
the human being are intimately bound up with one another. The ego-
organization and astral body are not there beside the physical and etheric
part. They are within them, vitalizing them, working in their growth,
their faculty of movement and so forth. Through this very fact, the limbs
and metabolic part of man is like a germinating seed, striving for ever to
63
37/2, 37/5 & 37/10 [BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH, November 20, 1912; December 22, 1912;
April 1, 1913].
77
unfold; striving continually to become a head, and — during the earthly

life of man — no less continually prevented.
34. The rhythmic organization stands in the midst. Here the ego-
organization and astral body alternately unite with the physical and etheric
part, and loose themselves again. The breathing and the circulation of the
blood are the physical impress of this alternate union and loosening. The
inbreathing process portrays the union; the outbreathing the loosening.
The processes in the arterial blood represent the union; those in the
venous blood the loosening.
When we look at these Leading Thoughts in the light of the changed
standpoint, we can have a living feeling that man, in his descent into incarnation,
has taken part in the forming of his threefold organization. It is certainly the
task of physiologists to investigate these facts scientifically, but this investigation
should be carried out in every detail from an anthroposophical point of view
in such a way that it is like a continuation of prenatal impulses; this becomes
truly divine work on the temple of humanity. For this, Rudolf Steiner’s courses
on natural science give a wonderful example.
For general anthroposophical work with certain philosophical tendency,
as we to develop it in our Studies, the point is to create forms of thought and
feeling which offer methodical help to the souls of those engaged in scientific
investigations, and they can then bring their results into general anthroposophical
life.
Important knowledge can be gained by simply comparing the three Leading
Thoughts 32, 33 and 34 with each other. It transpires that the head of man is a
finished creation; the rhythmic system is half-finished, and the metabolic-limb
system is in embryo. This shows that the entire physical organization is scarcely
more than half-finished and consequently, it follows conclusively that the other
half of this creation devolves upon man himself who, indeed, gives shape to
his soul being independently. This brings us to one of the greatest revelations
given by Rudolf Steiner. He has, in various connections, expressed the meaning
of human evolution thusly: Man is destined to rise from a created being to a
creator.64
64
7/9 [THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES AND THEIR REFLECTION IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD, April
18, 1909].
78
We can find new aspects that shed fresh light on our previous Studies when
we observe these three Leading Thoughts consecutively. The polarity between
the head and the metabolic-limb system is thus clearly shown. Therein lies, at
the same time, the contrast between the within and the side-by-side, between
spirit and nature. In the within as expressed in Leading Thought 33, can be very
clearly felt what was called the essential nature of causality in our previous
Study. The side-by-side in Leading Thought 32 reveals the essential nature of
space. The rhythmic element in Leading Thought 34 shows how the essential
nature of time reveals the appearance and again the disappearance of the eternal.
In our Study X, we saw that the waking life is not simply something defined
but is continually interwoven by dreaming and sleeping. It can be seen that the
union of the astral body and ego-organization with the physical and etheric
bodies is of different degrees, which points to the important fact that exactly
where the astral body and ego-organization are active entirely within the physical
and etheric bodies (namely in the metabolic-limb system) consciousness is
asleep. Conversely, consciousness is awake in the head where the two groups are
present side-by-side. And just as dreaming is a mixture of waking and sleeping,
so the rhythmic organization alternately show the side-by-side and the within.
XX.
INTO THE INNER BEING OF NATURE!
Since the earliest publication of his far-reaching discovery regarding the three
principles of the human organism in his book Von Seelenraetseln (Riddles of
the Soul), Rudolf Steiner has continually given further details and, in particular,
also with regard to their relationships with one another from incarnation to
incarnation. The head forms the conclusion of evolution, it is the result of the
prenatal work of the ego, which had experienced the cosmos, a copy of which it
bring to expression in the head;65 hence, the head’s spherical form.66 The sense
organs are concentrated in the head; through them, the cosmos sees physically/
etherically into man during his life. But again every single sense organ is, in all
its details, a copy of the whole man. Rudolf Steiner showed in one lecture how,
for instance, the different parts of the ear represent an entire man in miniature.
In the head, the etheric body corresponds almost entirely with the physical body.
The complete entry of the etheric body resulted during the course of human
evolution in the possibility of self-consciousness.67 Since the evolution of the
past is portrayed in the head, and since the ego has imprinted its being in it, the
head internally can be a physical-etheric mirror for the ego between birth and
death,68 as it is for the cosmos externally. Self-consciousness arises through the
reflection of consciousness, and also of the other principles, in the head.
The following Leading Thoughts contain profound words for the
understanding of the physical from out of the spiritual:
35. We understand the physical nature of man only if we regard it as
a picture of the soul and spirit. Taken by itself the physical corporality of
man is unintelligible. But it is a picture of the soul and spirit in different
65
[THE SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE OF MAN, June 8, 1911].
66
48/2 [EARTHLY DEATH AND COSMIC LIFE, “A Contribution to Our Knowledge of the Human Being,”
January 29, 1918].
67
2/12 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “Evolution of Mankind on Earth. I,” June 4, 1907].
68
27/2 [THE EFFECTS OF OCCULT DEVELOPMENT, “The Inner Force of Foodstuffs,” March 21, 1913];
33/4 [HUMAN AND COSMIC THOUGHT, “Man’s Place in the Spiritual Cosmos, Astrology, Man as a
Thought of the Hierarchies,” January 23, 1914].
80
ways in its several members. The head is the most perfect and complete
symbolic picture of the soul and spirit. All that pertains to the system of
the metabolism and the limbs is like a picture that has not yet assumed its
finished forms, but is still being worked upon. Lastly, in all that belongs
to the rhythmic organization of man, the relation of the soul and spirit to
the body is intermediate between these opposites.
36. If we contemplate the human head from this spiritual point of view,
we shall find in it a help to the understanding of spiritual Imaginations.
For in the forms of the head, Imaginative forms are as it were coagulated
to the point of physical density.
37. Similarly, if we contemplate the rhythmic part of man’s organization
it will help us to understand Inspirations. The physical appearance of the
rhythms of life bears even in the sense-perceptible picture the character
of Inspiration. Lastly, in the system of the metabolism and the limbs —
if we observe it in full action, in the exercise of its necessary or possible
functions — we have a picture, supersensible yet sensible, of pure
supersensible Intuitions.
The physical world is always surface for us. In vain do we try to penetrate
physically into the inner being of an object. If we break it apart, we have only
made new surfaces that again obstruct the entrances to it. The inner being is
always spiritual. Emerging from sleep into physical consciousness, we often
notice how dreams, as free-floating pictures, especially colors, spread over the
objects of the physical world and form their surface;69 in the same way, we
can experience how, on falling asleep, the surface of the physical world frees
itself from the objects. Wherever there is surface, the inner corresponds with
the outer. Surface constitutes a boundary. This is easy to follow in mathematics.
Let us think of a mathematical sphere; its surface is the boundary between the
inner and outer. Before the boundary of the sphere was set, inner and outer
formed a whole; therefore, according to the law of the sphere itself, every point,
every form of what is within, must have a corresponding counterpart without.
Synthetic geometry treats of this.
With regard to the earth, however, Rudolf Steiner has investigated spiritually
in every detail and shown how the inner part of the earth becomes ever more
spiritual the nearer we approach the center and how this corresponds exactly
69
1/2 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “The Three Worlds,” August 23, 1906].
81
to what takes place when we go out from the surface of the earth into the
cosmos.70 Now there is a sphere that enables us to realize this immediately. It
is the head! We must not, however, cut it open to see what is in it, for we would
still only find surface. The brain, if we take it out, is actually in its essential
features characterized as surface. We must rather experience our own head in a
living way; then we shall find that outside are the sense perceptions and within
are the thoughts and the two can correspond with one another in the most
minute way. If we transform our thinking in the way mentioned in Study XVI,
then instead of the sense world, we have the imaginative world around us. The
head forms a boundary shaped by thoughts within and by sense perceptions
without. The boundary is common to both; this is Imagination in this sense of
Leading Thought 36.
It is different with the metabolic-limb system. Certainly we can also open
it up and see what is within but this process reveals even more surface that
in the case of the head. Naturally nothing in the least detrimental to anatomy
or surgery is implied in these remarks; it should only be made clear that such
manipulations have to do with the outer and do not penetrate into the inner
being of nature. In the head, formative forces have come to an end, they are at
rest; as it is the imprint of the ego forces, the ego can acquire self-consciousness
in this being side-by-side; the head can be used by the ego as an instrument. The
metabolic-limb system is not a completed whole, it is not at rest like the head;
on the contrary, its very nature is movement. It continually strives to become
head and during man’s earth life is constantly prevented from doing so (Leading
Thought 33). After death, however, it pursues this effort unhindered and, under
the influence of the cosmos, it truly becomes head in the next incarnation,
naturally as far as the connection of forces is concerned, while the physical
part is newly added. With regard to this connection between earth lives, Rudolf
Steiner gave concrete details of his investigations in his lectures. To become
head means to be released from formative forces. When the ego is active in the
head, the latter remains at rest. If the ego or, indeed, the astral body is active
in the metabolic-limb system, the latter is carried along with it and comes into
movement itself; therefore, the ego cannot become self-conscious in this region.
The ego thinks in the head and wills in the limbs. This willing is a truly
70
1/14 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “Notes from Answers to Questions,” September 4,
1906].
82
magical act; in the movement of the limbs, there is magic; in the metabolic
processes, there is alchemy. The spirit works directly upon the physical. The
metabolic-limb system is surface only for the ordinary waking consciousness;
the magic of the will works within and, for this reason, is unconscious. The
inner region is always spiritual; here, we are spiritually active in matter, but
we do not know how. Intuition is a spiritual being within, spirit in spirit; in the
metabolic-limb system, we have a sensible/supersensible picture of the purely
supersensible Intuitions (Leading Thought 37). But it is expressly said, “… If
we observe it in full action, in the development of its necessary or possible
functions…” This is really a mobile concept; the sum total of all possible actions
is in this picture of the intuitive. Eurythmy forms in their totality fulfill these
possibilities.
In Leading Thought 37, the rhythmic portion of the human organism is
spoken of in relation to Inspiration. It derives its name from breathing. Leading
Thought 34 shows how breathing and the blood represent an alternating union
and separation between ego-organizations and astral body on the one hand,
and physical and etheric on the other. This is a wide field for physiological
research. In inner experience, it is like a continual setting of boundaries and
withdrawing them again, a continual awakening and falling asleep (dreaming),
a to-and-fro, and up-and-down between head and limbs, like a conversation
between the inner and outer being of the spiritual, as recitation is to eurythmy.
True Inspiration is a spiritual conversation; the rhythmic system is its image.
With regards to the descriptions of the rhythmic system in Leading
Thoughts 29 to 34, attention may be drawn briefly to some facts which have
so far obviously been unnoticed by physiologists in spite of the fact that they
are easily observable. This will be a help for the understanding of the rhythmic
systems. Between two senses that are active in breathing, namely smell and
taste, the following relationship exists: when we breathe in, we can smell; this
is known to everyone. But with in-breathing, the sense of taste, as far as it
relates to aroma, is extinguished. Conversely, when we breathe out, we can taste
and, thereby, the sense of smell is interrupted. Therefore, if we wish to smell
something, we must breathe in; if we wish to taste, we must breathe out. Each
sense cancels out the other. If we hold our breath, neither breathing in or out,
we can neither smell nor taste.
The functions of both senses lie in their relationship to the sense-nerve
83
system and to the metabolic system. By breathing in, the ego and astral body
unite with the physical and etheric body (Leading Thought 34); the rhythmic
system approaches the metabolic system and thereby withdraws from the
sense-nerve system. But it leaves behind a watchman for the latter: the sense
of smell. It takes care that the sense-nerve system comes to no harm as long
as the rhythmic functions are turned to the metabolic system, for there are
smells which are harmful to the sense-nerve system, such as those which lead to
fainting, narcolepsy, dimming of consciousness. Conversely, the rhythmic system
turns to the sense-nerve system in the process of breathing out and leaves the
sense of taste behind as a watchman for the metabolic system so as to protect it
against poisoning.
The whole subject is worthy of profound scientific study.
XXI. CONCERNING MORALITY
The Leading Thoughts we have considered until now culminated in working

out the higher forms of knowledge, Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition, in
connection with the being of man. When we reached a certain understanding of
these stages of evolution, a new connection with the world has been established.
We can learn to grasp the spirit even by means of our ordinary consciousness.
The attitude to life that arises from this can rightly be called a moral one. Thus
a new foundation for morality can be created, for the old supports for a moral
conduct of life have crumbled away and broken asunder. No morality can be
founded on the facts of the sense world alone; therefore, natural science, which
does not wish to enter the sphere of the supersensible, maintains a consciously
amoral attitude. Let us quote what Rudolf Steiner said in this connection:
“Natural science strives to set morality entirely aside from its investigations,
and morality begins to give in to the fact that no physically supporting forces
are inherent in it. Even the dogmatism of certain religious confessions seeks
to cultivate such representations as form a sort of compromise with natural
science, in that the scientist calls attention to the fact that anything pertaining to
the moral element must be clearly kept apart from all that happens physically,
chemically, geologically, etc.” “Whilst natural science excludes morality entirely
from its ideology, morality is resigned to the fact that it is without effective life,
that it has no place in the physical world. Indeed certain religious confessions
seek to accentuate this cleavage between the physical and the moral, which
permits them to reach a kind of compromise with natural science in that the
scientist emphasizes that a clear line of demarcation must be drawn between
the sphere of morality and what belongs to the sphere of chemistry, physics and
geology, etc.”71 (Compare Study XVI)
When, however, we dive down beneath the surface of nature in the sense of
our previous Study, we come into worlds the facts of which must be estimated
quite differently from physical facts. In the physical world measure, number and
weight have a specific value in outer existence. In the higher worlds, measuring,
weighing and counting have inner value; they are moral standards. Through his
71
12, 1917].
85
inner life, man takes part in the spiritual worlds, but he must become inwardly
active to bring this participation to consciousness gradually. Knowledge of the
spiritual world gives us a moral attitude and this alone opens up the possibility
of entering the spiritual world legitimately. Rudolf Steiner himself has expressed
the fact that a basis of morality for our time, which has passes through an
amoral natural science, can only be found through forces pertaining to prenatal
life in the spiritual world. Traditional morality, which frequently appears as
complacent satisfaction, was, in connection with the ecclesiastical impulses,
founded on life after death; hence, it could never be free from egoism. Fear
of damnation and anxiety about the continuance of personal existence were
the driving forces. Only a spiritual science that is free from egoism can make
investigations into prenatal life. Anything pertaining to the life after death must
have been overcome by the spiritual investigator during his earth life, before
he can penetrate into prenatal life. The danger of egoism only threatens again,
and indeed with enhanced peril, when behind the prenatal life, still earlier
incarnations rise up. Therefore, Rudolf Steiner raised his investigations of this
sphere to such an outstandingly moral height. He raised the individual karma
into the sphere of a soul exercise. Only he who can observe his own destiny
with the same calmness as an observation into the realm of natural science can
attempt to look upon previous Earth lives without danger.
It belongs to the greatest and most difficult problems to obtain adequate
representations about the working of the spiritual in the physical in spite
of the laws of nature. But these representations must be correct if we are to
understand destiny and freedom. Present-day scientific knowledge of the physical
world knows only continuous (mineral) causality. In order to overcome this
representation, it was pointed out that we should study the difficult problem of
the introduction of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition in the transformation
of the Categories. (Study XVIII) A letter which Rudolf Steiner added to Leading
Thoughts 35 to 37 contains exercises which enable us to incorporate into our
experience that truly moral attitude of these higher forms of knowledge with
regard to the being of man; the following Studies are based on these exercises.
The basis of our modern way of thinking is an offense against the being
of man; we shall deal with this further in later Studies but we already have an
indication of it in Leading Thought 7. It is well to bear in mind that, in keeping
with the character of the approaching consciousness soul since the 15th century,
86
natural science could well have included the whole sphere of the etheric. If this
had taken place, history, particularly with regard to the social aspect, would
have taken an entirely different course. Goethe and the Goetheanists were on
the way to procuring the right value for a spiritual conception of nature;72 but,
once more, the powers of materialism gained the upper hand. Rudolf Steiner
had to appear in order to give human civilization the possibility of righting this
wrong. “Natural Science of today is merely an episode. In spite of all its merits,
all its great achievements — it is an episode. It will be superseded by another,
which alone will again realize that there is a higher way of viewing the world,
in which nature and morality are two sides of one and the same being.”73
When the sphere of the etheric and the ether body of man are made
accessible to the investigations of natural science,74 the great world polarity75
between the earthly and the spiritual realms becomes apparent. In man, this
polarity expresses itself in the fact that we often have to place the physical and
etheric bodies on the one side and the astral body and ego-organization on the
other. This is where waking and sleeping separate, where the experiences after
death turned from the earthly to the cosmic, where thinking and willing, past
and future separate and unite. This also points to the difference between natural
laws and moral laws76 as seen in our present Studies. Only when we make clear
distinctions can we grasp the union of polar forces.
The contemplation of a picture that is worked out in Leading Thoughts
35 to 37 can be taken quite literally. For, thereby, we are stimulated to notice
the different attitudes of soul when considering a finished picture or the artist
at work or, again, the artist when he still carries the future picture in his soul.
When we are absorbed in a finished picture, we experience a past working of
the spiritual that has found expression in the physical. For this we do not need
72
14, 1917].
73
12, 1917].
74
Dr. Guenther Wachsmuth; THE ETHERIC FORMATIVE FORCES. The Etheric World. Dr. Hermann
Poppelbaum: THE FORMATIVE-FORCES BODY OF LIVING BEINGS.
75
37/7 [BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH, January 14, 1913].
76
44/4 [COSMIC AND HUMAN METAMORPHOSIS, “Morality as a Germinating Force,” February 27,
1917]; 45/3 [BUILDING STONES FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA,
April 10, 1917].
87
to know the artist; we can forget him or he may be long dead. The artistically-
active attitude of the soul corresponds to that of Imagination. The word itself
points to imago = picture. While an artist is at work, I can exchange views with
him at the moment; his picture is in the process of becoming; but I myself must
be an artist and understand something of painting if I am to give him advice; he
can also impart his intentions to me. To take an intelligent part in the creative
work of another means that I am able to put myself in his place. That is the
attitude of soul that corresponds to that of Inspiration: harmony in breathing,
harmony in the heart. But, if the artist has not even begun his picture, then I can
only grasp the future picture if I become wholly one with his soul. I must, in
my very being, be the artist who bears the picture in his will. This is pure spirit
experience. This attitude of soul corresponds to that of Intuition. But, if I am
only concerned with the material the painter uses, I am merely considering the
mineral part, regardless of whether the picture is finished or whether only the
materials for it exist. Then there would be no need for a painter at all.
By transferring these considerations into the realm of man, we become
aware of how natural science has sinned; for, without the original — although
unconscious — cooperation of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition, we could
not arrive at any natural science at all; but in reality this has denied the higher
(moral) soul attitude.
38. We have shown how man is to be regarded in his picture-nature
and in the spirituality that thereby reveals itself. Once this perception is
attained, then, in the spiritual world where we see man living and moving
as a spirit-being, we are also on the point of seeing the reality of the moral
laws of the soul. For the moral world-order is then revealed as the earthly
image of an order belonging to the spiritual world. The physical world-
order and the moral are welded together now, in undivided unity.
39. From out of man, there works the human will. This will confronts
the laws of nature which we derive from the external world, as something
altogether foreign to their essence. The nature of the sense-organs can
still be scientifically understood by virtue of their likeness to the objects
of external nature. In the activity of these organs, the will, however, is
not yet able to unfold itself. The nature that manifests itself in the human
rhythmic system is already far less like any external thing. Into this system
the will can already work to some extent. But the rhythmic system is in
88
constant process of coming-into-being and passing-away, and in these

processes the will is not yet free.
40. In the system of metabolism and the limbs we have a nature which
manifests itself in material substances and in the processes they undergo;
yet are the substances and processes in reality no nearer to this nature than
are the artist and his materials to the finished picture. Here, therefore, the
will is able to enter in and work directly. Behind the human organization
living in natural laws, we must grasp that inner human nature which lives
and moves and has its being in the spiritual. Here is the realm in which
we can become aware of the real working of the will. For the realm of
sense, the human will remains a mere word, empty of all content, and
the scientist or thinker who claims to take hold of it within this realm,
leaves the real nature of the will behind him and replaces it in theory by
something else.
XXII. CONCERNING THE WILL
In Leading Thoughts 38 to 40 and those which follow, man’s spiritual

essence is grasped as will. The great transition which has been described as
threshold experience in previous Studies is thus accomplished in a new way. The
difficulties in grasping the Leading Thoughts remind us of those experienced in
connection with the presentation of the ego-organization in Leading Thoughts
11 to 16. It is well to take up these Leading Thoughts on the ego once more
in this new context. They deal with a presentation of the human being which
starts from facts; spiritual matters of fact are added to the physical, and their
reflection in the physical is shown. The connection between these two spheres is
achieved by pointing out how the spiritual facts can be found. We have treated
this polarity of concept and reality and have endeavored to obtain some insight
as to how, at the decisive transition (between etheric and astral bodies), the
threshold of the spiritual world can be found in man. In Leading Thoughts 11
to 16, the evolutionary path of consciousness from physical to spiritual facts is
shown; for instance, in meditation, we permeate what we experience in thinking
with the will. The will appears as a factor of meditative practice. It is left to each
individual how far he himself advances on the path of meditation; however, it is
not decisive for an understanding of supersensible facts. These facts themselves
show man is a physical and spiritual being in his true nature. But to understand
these facts necessitates having an understanding of the path on which they can
be found. Without a certain understanding of the path, we cannot rightly tread
it.
When we now find the will again, we have already learned about man’s
passing through the gate of death, his laying aside of the earthly body, the
further life of his spiritual part and have thus gained an understanding for the
purely spiritual in man. Then came the Studies about the revelations of the
spiritual in the physical. Thus, we have again arrived at the facts with regard to
the human being in earth life, but the way of putting the questions has changed;
they are now directed to the origin of the spiritual/physical relationship in man.
The comparison with a picture (see Study XXI) leads us to this new way of
putting questions. We can also describe the differences as follows: previously
we had to proceed from the physical in order to find the spiritual, now we
90
proceed from the spiritual in order to find the physical; previously, we asked:
How do we cross the threshold to the spiritual? Now the question is: How have
we crossed the threshold into the physical world? This inverted way of putting
the questions has been dealt with more according to the theory of knowledge in
Studies V and VI (“Cosmic View” and “The Crossing of the Threshold”). Now
a change of standpoint arises out of practical knowledge (“Spiritual-Scientific
Copernicanism”, Study XIX). This signifies, at the same time, the world-historic
change in the moral basis, from the post-mortem to the prenatal (Study XXI). It
is now a matter of grasping the ruling of the will within the physical sphere, the
law of which is morality, and its realization on earth, destiny.
41. In the third of the last Leading Thoughts, we pointed to the
nature of the human will. Only when this is realized do we enter with
understanding into a sphere of the world where destiny or karma works.
So long as we perceive only that system of law which holds sway in the
relations of the things and facts of nature, our understanding is entirely
remote from the laws that work in destiny.
42. When the law in destiny is thus perceived, it is revealed at the same
time that destiny cannot come into existence in the course of a single
physical life on earth. So long as he inhabits the same physical body,
man can realize only the moral content of his will in the way that this
particular physical body, within the physical world, allows. Only when
he has passed through the gate of death into the sphere of the spirit, can
the spirit-nature of the will come to full effect. Then will the good and
the evil be severally realized — a spiritual realization to begin with — in
their corresponding outcome.
43. In this spiritual realization, man fashions and forms himself between
death and a new birth. He becomes in being an image of what he did
during his earthly life; and out of this, his being, on his subsequent return
to earth, he forms his physical life. The spiritual that works and weaves
in destiny can only find realization in the physical if its corresponding
cause withdrew, before this realization, into the spiritual realm. For all
that emerges in our life by way of destiny proceeds out of the spiritual;
nor does it ever take shape within the sequence of physical phenomena.
The activity of the sense organs still belongs entirely to nature (Leading
Thought 39). It shapes the sense organs and looks into them as into a mirror.
91
Man’s being, which is placed behind the sense organs, is a spectator of this
process of nature between the sense organs and the effects on them from without
(eye and light!).77 But in this process, nature draws to herself the human spirit
who had separated himself from the spirit of nature; she lures him to herself
along the paths of sense perception. Sense knowledge is achieved by means
of the object; the being of man experiences itself as given up to the object.
Man’s knowledge of nature is nature’s self-knowledge. This is, at the same
time, an appeal to the human spirit, for the selflessness of the sense organs is
the precondition of the self-knowledge of nature. True knowledge of nature is a
school for selflessness. To interfere through sympathy and antipathy or through
the will with perception, with the working of the sense organs, means to destroy
them. “If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out!”
In the cognitive nature of man, the spirit is absorbed. Selflessness expresses
the moral side of cognition. In the will, the spirit is active. If we wish to
characterize the activity of the spirit morally, similarly to the way in which we
characterize the absorption through selflessness, we may perhaps coin the word
spirit-selfhood. (Geistselbstigkeit) The will directly engages the metabolic-limb
system (Leading Thought 40), but its true being remains hidden; it weaves as the
expression of independent spirit being from out of the spiritual world. There
the will unfolds the tendency to act in the same way as nature: just as natural
science can be the self-knowledge of nature, so spiritual science can be the self-
knowledge of man; the preceding thought needs only to be followed to its end.
The vehicle for this self-knowledge is the spirit-self.78 This designation for the
higher self of man was first given by Rudolf Steiner in his book Theosophy. The
spirit-self creates for itself an organ of spiritual perception through its work on
the metabolic-limb system; the object of this perception is destiny.
Thus the will looks down from the spiritual into earthly life between birth
and death. This does not rise to consciousness, but the actions in earthly life are
the expression of the tendency of the will to create a head out of the limb system
(Study XX). From this, it is clear that the bearer of consciousness is not created
by the will, but has its origin in the life before birth. There is a way, however,
77
8/10 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER GOSPELS, “What Occurred
at the Baptism by John?” July 3, 1909]; 14/8 [GENESIS; THE SECRETS OF THE BIBLE STORY OF
CREATION, “Stages of Human Development Up To the Sixth Day, August 24, 1910].
78
3/7 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, “The Mystery of Golgotha,” May 26, 1908]; 44/3 [COSMIC AND
HUMAN METAMORPHOSIS, “The Human Soul and the Universe,” February 20,1917].
92
of shaping genuine revelation for the being of the will. That is art; it reveals
supersensible self-knowledge. This finds its clearest expression in Eurythmy. If
we could see the movements and forms from the spiritual plane, they would
have to reveal themselves as self-knowledge of man: nature reversed.
With Leading Thoughts 41 to 43, we begin exercises which lead to the
understanding of destiny (karma). Much of what was new, which Rudolf Steiner
has given since Christmas 1923, was described by him as Karma Exercises. With
these words, he wished, at the same time, to point to a high moral standard
from which alone karma can be spoken of concretely. For all concepts which
can be applied to destiny belong to a sphere to which ordinary consciousness as
such has no access; these concepts are will, transformed into knowing, or will
permeated by wisdom: morality. If Rudolf Steiner’s teachings about destiny are
to become exercises, they have to be preceded by preliminary exercises in the
moral sphere.
XXIII. PRELIMINARY KARMA EXERCISES
Rudolf Steiner has already shown in his philosophical writings that a world-
conception must proceed from the being of man. Not a hypothetical beginning
(primeval mist and the like), not an abstract principle, but the very last thing that
came into being, gives the right starting point for a knowledge of the universe. In
The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity there is a passage (Chapter 3) where Rudolf
Steiner points out that to start at the beginning is a matter for the world-Creator,
but that the seeker of knowledge must start at that which was created last, that
is to say, here and now. Science, in fact, has to go in the opposite direction to
time, that is, backward. The beginning of knowledge consists of the being of
man. Man must grasp his own being from within himself. This takes place in
contrast to the nature surrounding him. Present-day consciousness rests on the
fact that man with his own being stands over against nature. This is the strength
of the natural science of today, but also its amoral character. Objective natural
investigation tacitly assumes the reality of the investigator. But it commits a
crude error in trying to explain the being of man from out of nature, while the
process taking place unconsciously is, that only by taking one’s own human
being for granted can knowledge of nature arise. Rudolf Steiner has worked out
this relationship with great exactitude. If one remains over against nature, the
comprehension of destiny is but an empty illusion.
In Study II, we distinguished between the nature relationship to the world
and the ego relationship; the former is experienced in the over against, the latter
inwardly. In every introduction to Anthroposophy, this over against can be
only be preliminary, only a first step. Then a mighty decision in considering the
world must follow; for the ego experience of nature does not come about in
accordance with natural laws, but according to moral laws. In summing up, we
find: Man experiences his being over against nature, and the being element of
nature within himself. That is the polarity between world-knowledge and self-
knowledge. Rudolf Steiner once wrote, and he expressed the same thing in the
seventh lecture of Cycle 46 lecture 7, “I have often, on one occasion or another,
given the following words to friends who have asked me for a motto:
If thou wouldst know thine own being,
Look around in the world.
94
Wouldst thou truly penetrate the world,

Look into the depths of thine own soul.”79
If this is taken as an attitude of life, it means a preliminary karmic exercise
for it embraces nature and morality in one. If a man can objectively gain the
impression that all around in the world he meets traces of his own being and
that he carries within the depths of his soul the spiritual foundations of the
world’s evolution, he approaches an understanding of destiny.
The path of thinking leads at first to sharp distinctions and divisions; the great
world polarities reveal themselves as, for instance, in our Study X. If, however,
the results of clear and truthful thinking are taken up into the whole human
being, into feeling and willing, then the great polarities will be surmountable.
If we look out into our surroundings, into the kingdoms of nature, we must
take into account the great distinctions and sharp divisions; there, man raises
himself above the other kingdoms of nature. If he examines his relationship
to the world through feeling, the mood can arise which Rudolf Steiner has
wonderfully impressive way as a deep mystery.80 Christian Morgenstern, in his
poem, has devoted the whole wealth of his art to this mystery. Man is indebted
to nature from primeval times through the sacrifice on which he founded his
own being. Therefore, he remains ever bound to her. It is really only one part
of his being that he bears within himself, the other part is nature herself. If
this feeling is taken up into willing, it becomes an impulse for the future. From
actions of the past, which become man’s feeling in the present, grows the impulse
for future world development. From the transmutation of the will, Christ’s act
of redemption becomes reality for man.81
Man is heir to a great cosmic past but he also has a great legacy to administer
for the future. In following the path of anthroposophical knowledge, there is
79
[THE LIFE, NATURE, AND CULTIVATION OF ANTHROPOSOPHY: TO THE MEMBERS, “On the
Teaching of Anthroposophy,” March 30, 1924].
80
1/13 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “Oriental and Christian Training,” September 3, 1906];
2/14 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “The Nature of Initiation,” June 6, 1907]; 8/11
[THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER GOSPELS, “The Establishment of
Harmony in the Inner Forces of Man through the Christ-Impulse,” July 4, 1909]; 19/10 [FROM JESUS TO
CHRIST, “The Esoteric Path to Christ,” October 14, 1917]; 42/7 [THINGS IN PAST AND PRESENT IN
THE SPIRIT OF MAN, “Man’s Four Members,” April 25, 1916].
81
19/9 [FROM JESUS TO CHRIST, “The Exoteric Path to Christ,” October 13, 1911]; 19/10 [FROM JESUS
TO CHRIST, “The Esoteric Path to Christ,” October 14, 1911].
95
not only a living in the cosmos after death, as was shown in connection with
Leading Thoughts 23 to 28, but also during life. There are mighty rhythms in
the cosmos. The sharp distinctions between the kingdoms of nature point to
the great world epochs. According to Rudolf Steiner’s cosmology, the kingdoms
surrounding man as mineral, plant and animal, are beings from Saturn, Sun
and Moon,82 the cosmic planetary predecessors of the Earth. The great cosmic
past surrounds man spatially but, in inner cooperation through his sentient,
intellectual consciousness soul, he has simultaneously, that is, in a spiritual
experience, brought these world epochs together. When an experience of the
soul passes from the sentient soul through the intellectual to the consciousness
soul, man, though only conscious in a dreamlike way, is actually following in
experience the course through Moon, Sun and Saturn. Human freedom is shaped
in this inner partaking of the experience of the cosmos from space into time,
into causality (compare Study XVIII). As in previous Studies, the resuscitation
of the Categories also can be experienced here: cosmic rule, which in space
compels, as natural law, becomes man’s own life, the field of activity during his
earth life. Thus, through exercises, man can enter the realm in which the rule of
destiny is to be found.
Man begins a new journey through life when he shapes the basic teachings
of Anthroposophy into preliminary karma exercises. It is the same nature, the
kingdoms of which he investigates as scientist, to which he gives shape as artist,
which he enjoys as a happy human being. But now, in the midst of life, in his
research, creation, enjoyment, he con continually meet himself. This can be built
up into a special exercise. We can cultivate the feeling that, with every step, a
man goes to meet himself, especially also in his intercourse with other men. It
is certainly not the little self whom he goes to meet with expectation, but the
cosmic man. We thus shall learn to behave differently when, out of the same
surroundings, our destiny comes to meet us; it is a part of our own being. Only
out of such preliminary exercises can the question arise: How has that which
meets us a destiny entered our surroundings? It definitely is not contained in
the saws of nature for, in the processes of consciousness which develop into the
forms of the laws of nature, there comes about, as we have seen (Study XXII),
82
1/10 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “Progress of Mankind Up To Atlantean Times,” August
31, 1906]; 2/10 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “Planetary Evolution II,” June 3, 1907];
8/3 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER GOSPELS, “The Metamorphosis
of the Earth,” June 26, 1909]; 8/4 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER
GOSPELS, “The Hierarchies of Our Solar System and the Kingdoms of the Earth,” June 27, 1909].
96
the self-knowledge of nature. Man presents to nature her own being. But how
does nature, in the form of destiny, present to man what is still lacking in his
being? It does not originate from the laws of nature, nor from the deeds of his
present life, for if, for instance, a man travels from Europe to America for the
first time and there meets with a stroke of destiny, he certainly has not in this
life evoked the causes for this in America, and even from Europe he has only
brought with him this disposition to this destiny.
Only that can become destiny which previously has been carried through
the spiritual world.83 Proof of this can be found everywhere in the works of
Rudolf Steiner but also in the foregoing study of the great cosmic rhythms:
the kingdoms of nature differ from one another through the fact that, in the
course of world evolution, a new supersensible principle is added from time
to time. This is a new growth from out of the spiritual world. But, whenever a
new principle is added, all that has existed until then will, at the same time, be
changed.84 We experience within ourselves the stage of this evolution which, at
the moment, comes last. The kingdoms of nature surround us, we even belong
to them in our natural being, but, at the same time, we carry them in soul form
within us and permeate them with our ego-being. Man could not rise above the
kingdoms of nature if he did not permeate them in soul form. Therefore, man’s
evolution on Earth, must have been preceded by a spiritual state which has
wrought this soul form out of all that had evolved on Saturn, Sun and Moon.
What Rudolf Steiner describes in his book Occult Science: An Outline and in
many cycles as cosmic human evolution is, indeed, present in our own soul. The
great world rhythms are repeated by man in his small rhythms of repeated earth
lives and these again in the still smaller rhythms of waking and sleeping and
even, finally, in each breath and heart-beat.
Our ordinary soul capacities are a repetition of previous stages of world
development, Saturn, Sun and Moon.85 That which pulses as destiny through
Earth-lives is seed for future cosmic development; a new principle which Rudolf
Steiner calls spirit-self will accrue to the being of man. It will be the bearer of
the future world of Jupiter.
83
12/2 [THE MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, “Karma and the Animal Kingdom,” May 17, 1910]; 12/8
[THE MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, “Karma of the Higher Beings,” May 25, 1910].
84
See “Mathematik als echte Symbolismus” (Mathematics as Genuine Symbolism) DIE DREI, Stuttgart, VII
Jahrgang, Heft 6, September 1927.
85
13/5 [THE MISSION OF FOLK SOULS, June 11, 1910].
XXIV. MAN AND DESTINY
Destiny is more than what man perceives as fortune or misfortune; it is

his participation in the evolution of the world; it is the cosmic judgment of
man’s deeds. Our knowledge is as the letters, from which words are built by
our actions, and destiny passes judgment. The Logos is the Being86 who brings
about harmony between humanity and the evolution of the world through the
ruling of destiny. The great world polarities are, at the same time, polarities of
destiny; of two polar opposites, each is the destiny of the other. Where world
polarities are repeated in man, there are the places where destiny can become
active: waking and sleeping, birth and death, body and spirit, man and woman,
youth and age,87 good and evil, past and future, head and limbs, joy and sorrow,
health and illness, etc.
In Manifestations of Karma,88 Rudolf Steiner brings a wealth of detail
from his spiritual research; he calls this sphere an almost unlimited one. The
following sentence points to important differentiations: “The significant action
of karma in the world can best be studied by considering where karma still
works, so to speak, without any coloring of morality, where it works in the great
world itself, without having anything to do with what man develops out of his
own soul in the way of moral impulses, which can lead to moral or immoral
activities.” And now he shows how, in consecutive earth lives, male and female
incarnations are connected. He points to the fact “that a woman must, through
the very fact that she is a woman, have quite different experiences from those
of a man. Hence, we may say that a woman is led to perform certain actions
which are closely connected with her life as a woman.” But something else must
be considered: “That which is more intensely psychic, more intensely emotional
86
In the 2nd Edition of THE LANGUAGE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS SOUL, footnote [86] has been
omitted. In the Notes at the back of the book, the footnote references for [86] are 3/2 [THE GOSPEL OF
ST. JOHN, “Esoteric Christianity,” May 19, 1908]; 3/7 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, “The Mystery of
Golgotha,” May 26, 1908].
87
12/1 [MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, “The Nature and Significance of Karma in the Personal and
Individual; and in Humanity, the Earth and the Universe,” May 16, 1910; 17/2 [THE CHRIST IMPULSE
AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EGO-CONSCIOUSNESS, “The Law of Karma with Respect to the
Details of Life,” December 22, 1909]
88
12/9 [MANIFESTATION OF KARMA, “Karmic Effects Of Our Experiences As Men and Women. Death
and Birth In Relationship to Karma,” May 26, 1910].
98
and, which during the life between birth and death, goes more toward the inner
part of the soul, that also has a greater tendency to work more deeply into the
organization. In woman, the whole world of experience imprints itself deeply
in the soul; whereby the experiences have a stronger tendency to work into the
organization…and thus to mold that organism itself in the next incarnation.” “A
deeper working into and through an organism signifies, however, the production
of a male organism.” It thus follows “that the effect of woman’s experiences
in one incarnation results in a male organism in the next incarnation.” This
is a connection “which lies outside the bounds of morality.” “For this reason,
occultism states: Man is woman’s karma.”
The same also can be applied in the opposite case: “The nature of a man is
more condensed, more concentrated; it has become more compressed and more
rigid through what the inner man is; it has been made more material. Now a
rigid brain is, above all, an instrument for the intellect and less for the soul. For
the intellect can be much more connected with the physical plane.” “One will
not be very willing to believe that intellectualism is really very superficial; it
grasps but little of the inner life of man. And least of all does the materialistic
train of thought grasp the soul life. But the consequence of this is that, from
an incarnation in which a man has worked but little upon his soul, he takes
with him the tendency to penetrate less deeply into the organization of his next
incarnation.” “From this, however, there now arises the tendency to build up a
female body in the next incarnation. Hence it is said in occultism: Woman is the
karma of man.”
The karmic polarities of health and illness form a transition from the more
cosmic to the more moral, and these polarities are expressed most clearly in
good and evil. In the same measure as the moral aspect contained in karma is
practiced, so can the domain of true freedom be entered.
It is important to bring the whole of these considerations to bear upon that
part of our work in which the Leading Thoughts most particularly point to our
own activity. This is, indeed, the case in Leading Thoughts 41 to 43. Leading
Thought 41 points out how man, in contrast to his way of considering nature,
must rise into an entirely different sphere, which demands the practice of a
special method of consideration; it is a matter of looking at man’s life from a
cosmic aspect. Leading Thought 42 shows that this sphere is the same as that
into which man enters after death. But, in order to understand the ruling of
99
destiny, a man must regard after-death and pre-birth as belonging to the same
sphere and he must focus his soul directly on the pre-natal realm (Study XXI).
This is contained in Leading Thought 43. Here again, we have a change in the
standpoint which is undoubtedly connected with the earlier passages, in which
we were able to show the necessity for a change of standpoint (Studies XII and
XIX). There are, to begin with, three points of view which justify such a change,
three dimensions standing at right angles to one another. In all three cases, it is a
matter of exchanging polar opposites. In the first direction, inner and outer are
changed around, in the second past and future, in the third . The understanding
of such opposite dimensions is a process of spiritual development; this can only
be intimated here.
In the Leading Thoughts which now follow, Rudolf Steiner points more
expressly to our own activity in this work. It should not be overlooked that
the Leading Thoughts, when they were first published, were given to groups
of people who were actually working on them. It is important that groups are
addressed directly when questions of destiny are being dealt with, because
karma points very strongly to human communities.
44. We should pass on to a spiritual-scientific treatment of the question
of destiny by taking examples from the life and experience of individual
men and women, showing how the forces of destiny work themselves
out, and the significance they have for the whole course of human life.
We may show, for instance, how an experience which a man undergoes in
his youth, which he can certainly not have brought upon himself entirely
of his own free will, may none the less to a large extent give shape to the
whole of his later life.
45. We should describe the significance of the fact that in the physical
course of life between birth and death the good may become unhappy
in their outer life, and the wicked at any rate apparently happy. In
expounding these things, pictures of individual cases carry more weight
than theoretical explanations; they are a far better preparation for the
spiritual-scientific treatment of the subject.
46. Events of destiny which come into the life of man in such a way
that their determining conditions cannot possibly be found in his present
life, should be cited. Faced with such happenings, a purely reasonable
view of life already points in the direction of former lives on earth. It
100
must of course be made clear by the very way in which these things are
described that no dogmatic or binding statement is implied. The purpose
of such examples is simply to direct one’s thoughts towards a spiritual-
scientific treatment of the question of destiny.
Such descriptions of individual destinies are to be found in Rudolf Steiner’s
Cycles to illustrate the general laws89 which always signified the passage of
man’s experience through the spiritual worlds. The karma exercises proper were
given by Rudolf Steiner from the Goetheanum during the latter part of his life.
They consist of descriptions of consecutive Earth lives of important persons and
great leaders of mankind. It is possible to speak in a general way of the extent to
which such descriptions of specific earth lives can become exercises and this will
be done in our next Study. But such considerations as are called for in Leading
Thoughts 44 to 46 are part of the preliminary exercises on karma.
Such examples can be found everywhere, in the history, in poetry, in daily
life; but, only in modern times, have such destinies taken on a completely
enigmatical coloring. A whole epoch of writers shows how deep are the
problems belonging to the true being of man. Let us look at dramatists such as
Hebbel, Ibsen, Strindberg, to say nothing of epic poets, who placed before us
the insoluble problems for our time. The point is that they are insoluble from
the facts accessible to ordinary consciousness. Thus three forms are brought
forward in Leading Thoughts 44 to 46; first, an experience in youth shapes
the whole of later life to a large extent; second, there is the greatest possible
discord between the moral standard of a person and the outer circumstances of
his life; third, there are cases of destiny for which the causes cannot be found in
the present earth life. Three examples will now be given, taken from life, which
approximately correspond to these three forms:
1. A young man is mortally injured by accident by a friend; his life
seems to him to have come to an end; he realizes the meaning of this short
life through having come to look upon repeated earth lives as a solution to a
serious life problems. Then, however, he sees himself called back to life. This is
overwhelmingly oppressive, but gradually it becomes clear to him that his life
has been forfeited. Now it is given to him anew in order that it may be dedicated
to the service of a new way of thinking with regard to the continuation of life
89
39/7 [THOUGHTS FOR THE TIMES, “Personal and Supersensible Truths,” February 22, 1915].
101
after death. This revelation leads him straight to Anthroposophy.

2. A man grows up as a child of rich parents; in consequence of unjust
treatment, he develops a tremendous urge for justice, so strong that this feeling
later becomes like a faculty of foreseeing trouble. His idealistic outlook always
leads him to deeds, the violent consequences of which have an evil effect. The
more he wants to turn to truly good impulses, the more undeserved hardship
comes to him. This leads to a break with his family, to disinheritance. On his
coming into contact with the Anthroposophical Movement, a change occurs in
the circumstances of his life. His idealistic demands become still stronger but,
without obvious reason, he loses his position and he feels that all of his motives
are misinterpreted. Everywhere he has to experience it especially intensely how
men, without a true sense of justice, without idealism, without impulses toward
good, lead comfortable lives. Knowing of the workings of karma, he is able to
carry on his difficult battle courageously.
3. A young man feels the irresistible desire to bring his life to an end; he
proves to himself with the greatest ingenuity that this is absolutely justifiable,
although no one else can understand it. An outer reason in this life is certainly
not to be found; he is well acquainted with Anthroposophy and takes his proofs
from it. At last, it becomes possible to persuade him to abstain from committing
suicide through the indication that it is clear to one with a true knowledge of
Anthroposophy that, if it were his destiny to pass out of life as a young man, his
subconscious, super-intelligent self would very well find the means to let him die
through some accident. His later life became very difficult but until this day did
not lead to the accident which he expected.
XXV. KARMA EXERCISES
Already in Leading Thoughts 43 and again in 46, Rudolf Steiner pointed to

the connection of destiny with repeated earth lives. This theme is also continued
in the following Leading Thoughts:
47. Of all that is latent in the forming of man’s destiny, only the very
smallest part enters the everyday consciousness. Yet the unveiling of our
destiny teaches us most of all, how the unconscious can indeed be brought
to consciousness. They in effect, are wrong, who speak of what is, for the
time being, the unconscious, as though it must remain absolutely in the
realm of the unknown, thus constituting a barrier of knowledge. With
every fragment of his destiny that is unveiled to him, man lifts into the
realm of consciousness something that was hitherto unconscious.
48. In so doing man becomes aware that the things of destiny are
not woven within the life between birth and death. Thus the question of
destiny impels him most of all to the contemplation of the life between
death and a new birth.
49. Conscious human experience is thus impelled by the question
of destiny to look beyond itself. Moreover, as we dwell upon this fact,
we shall develop a true feeling for the relation of the natural and the
spiritual. He who beholds the living sway of destiny in the human being,
stands already in the midst of spiritual things. For the inner connections
of destiny have nothing of the character of outer nature.
Considerations of the working of destiny, if practiced in the right way,
provide the confirmation of repeated earth lives. As regards this practice in
general, we can refer to the central chapter of Rudolf Steiner’s book Theosophy.
The following thoughts are intended as a help in finding the inner construction
of this chapter: The soul is a two-fold being between body and spirit; its
activity is accomplished by a process of receiving and giving out, according
to the direction of the soul experience. The direction body, soul, spirit signifies
receiving; the direction spirit, soul, body signifies giving out. These passive and
active trends of the soul, receiving and giving out, cross one another; they form
the living cross of the soul in man. Rudolf Steiner has erected this cross in the
central chapter of his book Theosophy; it shows how body, soul and spirit are
103
linked together; the world is related to man in knowledge and deed.

When the body turns its sense organs toward the outer world, sensations,
perceptions, impressions arise. They are taken up by the soul and preserved as
re-presentations in the memory. The spirit takes from it what is of eternal value
and incorporates it into its being as capacities. In the opposite direction, it is the
spirit of man with its disposition from which spring the impulses of will which
influence the soul. It forms the deeds which pass over by means of the body
into the outer world and transform it. Thus, the soul sacrifices itself continually
during earth life on both sides: one part of its being flows into the outer world
and its human-social relationships, the other into the spirit and to the beings
of the spiritual world. This comes to expression after death. The spirit of man
which carries the fruits of earth life through eternity, preserves the connection
with the earth, in which the other part of his own being remains. Earth and the
spirit of man are of one nature, for they bear the imprint of the same soul being.
In conformity with this connection, the spirit of man returns to the earth and
the forces underlying this relationship form the new soul for a new earth life.
Again, during earthly life impressions come to the soul from the world of
the senses. But the human soul which learns to see through such connections
perceives these impressions as the bearer of destiny which has been preserved
in the earth as the result of deeds of the previous earth life. And the soul of
man which learns to know its spiritual relationship with the outer world again
receives will impulses of a spiritual disposition which can become the bearer of
spiritual forces received by the soul as moral intuitions. What comes to man as
a task in this way is the work of the consciousness soul. It takes shape in the
exercises arising out of the Leading Thoughts. The following illustration may
be helpful in carrying out these exercises:
104
BODY SOUL SPIRIT

Sense World Disposition
Imp ulses
ressi
ons i l l Imp
W
Soul First Earth Life

Mem
ds
Dee orie
s
Environment Capacities
Dest al ity
iny Mor
Soul Second Earth Life

etc.
It is the task of the consciousness soul to meet the individual destiny, which
comes to man from the outer world, with the same selflessness as he has hitherto
only learned to meet the impressions from the outer world, and to perform
deeds in the world which are sustained by morality.
What Rudolf Steiner has said in his book Theosophy about repeated earth
lives and destiny is a basis for Karma Exercises, for it gives a firm ground to
a way of thinking which unites cosmic breadth with the exactness of natural
science. Then, we have the answer to the question put in our Study XXIII, of
how destiny comes into the environment of man. A firm support is necessary
in spheres in which thinking threatens to fly away; for, if the unconscious is
awakened, according to Leading Thought 47, powerful forces are invoked.
Consideration of destiny touches on spheres where microcosmic resembles
macrocosmic remembering. Memories and representations can only be brought
into the spiritual being of man when they are mastered morally; that means they
105
must have been thoroughly immersed in the spiritual world. Only such feelings,
sensations and aspirations as have received the baptism of the spiritual world
through the perception of repeated earth lives may be taken into consideration
with regard to macrocosmic memories of destiny.
In order to find the transition from preliminary karma exercises to
karma exercises proper, we can turn to such human connections as the
Anthroposophical Society can offer; for, in it, real, spiritually-founded human
connections are possible. Seen from the realm of the spirit, they are reality, but,
in our consciousness, they must be acquired in spite of considerable obstacles.
Anthroposophy individualizes man, that must be so. The danger, however, lies
in the fact that they can place the individual above the spiritual. The questions
of destiny must, however, being lifted out of the individual into the social realm.
It is, of course, also obvious that an individual cannot have a destiny for himself
alone. The connection of members brings it about that certain karmic relationships
are to be found among them, for each one invokes his destiny through being
occupied with Anthroposophy; it is indeed in this that the possibility of the
inner progress consists. Anthroposophy leads to future possibilities becoming
present, to the awakening of the unconscious; that draws destiny out of the
especially human environment into the central point of experience. Thus, one
individual becomes the bearer of the destiny of another. This may break out as a
conflict in earthly concerns (it need not!); but it is then like a dream of the actual
fact and there is an adjustment in the spiritual sphere, a spirit conversation.90 It
would be a true karma exercise if such spirit conversations could take place in
conscious experience; this would be inspiration in which the one would awaken
by means of the other.
One can strive towards such goals and therein lies that great significance
of the Anthroposophical Society. Human relationships can assuredly bring in
about that the destinies of other men may be revealed. This certainly will not
happen through sensational questioning, that would be vivisection of the soul
or psychoanalysis; but, on the contrary, the point is to practice listening with
love and patience, for, thereby, a man attains to the moral height of a judgment
which can bring help. Then, when the being of another person has revealed itself,
it is possible to place his image before the soul’s eye and ponder on it, seeing
how it is surrounded by its destiny, enveloped in a spiritual being, that begins
90
[Rudolf Steiner, FOUR MYSTERY DRAMAS.]
106
to reveal itself, and how the breath of life penetrates into the very gestures. “He
who beholds the living sway of destiny in the human being already stands in the
midst of the spiritual.” (Leading Thought 49)
It was into such a human moral atmosphere that Rudolf Steiner wished
to place the karma lectures at the end of his life. They are like an inspiration
breathed over the Anthroposophical Society. The facts of repeated earth lives
of great souls should be kept at spiritual moral heights; they are a continually
active source of inspiration. There are the great historical epochs which appeal
to our cosmic memory; there is the oft-repeated question, “What has happened
to the great initiates of olden times? What has become of their attainments
in our age forsaken by the Gods?” Many have lived in our time and were
unable to manifest their true being, confronted by the immense hindrances of
civilization, education and physical constitution. This evokes our innermost
participation in the human tragedy. The powerful impulse of such pictures of
humanity, whose glowing colors appear on the golden background of Rudolf
Steiner’s descriptions, is expressed in the words, “Change your outlook, change
the whole form of present life so that the great souls can return and reveal
their true being, that they may be truly recognized and received, otherwise the
inspirations of humanity will die! It must be possible to find them again when
the great decisions of our time will be made!”
XXVI. KARMA AND HISTORY
Through earnest work on practicing the karma exercises, we attain to

selflessness with regard to our personal destiny. This will only be of value for
the progress of spiritual evolution insofar as it unfolds a part of the force of
redemption for the karma of humanity. By acquiring an inner understanding
for the karmic connection of the whole evolution of mankind, we rid ourselves
of all claims which can arise as temptations from the knowledge of repeated
earth lives an of the ruling of destiny. Thereby, we prepare the way for the
knowledge of the new revelation of the Christ, who will then be recognized as
the Lord of Karma because He has taken upon Himself the destiny of the whole
of humanity. This is a real transition which takes place in our time and replaces
the old picture of Moses pointing the dead to the stern law as is shown in our
Study XIV.91 This leads us to one of the most important chapters: Karma and
History.
50. It is most important to point out, how the study of the historic
life of mankind is called to life when we show that it is the souls of men
themselves, passing from epoch to epoch in their repeated lives on earth,
who carry over the results of one historic age into another.
51. It may easily be objected that such a line of thought robs history of
its naive and elemental force. But this objection is untrue. On the contrary,
our vision of historic life is deepened when we can trace it thus into man’s
inmost being. History becomes more real and more abundant, not poorer
and more abstract. In describing these things we must, however, unfold
true sympathy and insight into the living soul of man, for we gaze deep
into the soul along these lines of thought.
52. The epochs in the life between death and a new birth should be
treated in relation to the forming of Karma. Further Leading Thoughts
will indicate the way in which this can be done.
The consideration of history from the point of view of repeated earth lives
is a task given to the Western people in sharp contrast to every spiritual effort
belonging to the East. The conceptions of the Orient always contain the doctrine
91
108
of repeated birth lives, but without historical progress; rather, all happenings
were seen in recurring cycles. Since the writings of the Old Testament, the West
has tried to grasp historical events with definite goals. “Progress enters as an
outstanding element into the stories of the Old Testament. The Old Testament
is the first great example of a historical method of observation! The historical
method of observation was given as a legacy to the West.”92 But, until now, the
facts of repeated earth lives have not been included in this legacy. What Rudolf
Steiner has given here is a new interpretation of history as well as the knowledge of
reincarnation and karma. The distinguishing feature is the Mystery of Golgotha
as a historical event, as the center and turning point of earthly evolution and,
at the same time, as a mystical fact by means of which the individual human
being who passes through earthly lives becomes the spiritually conscious bearer
of cosmic impulses.
In Leading Thoughts 50 to 52, the importance of history is brought home
to us in a twofold way. Leading Thought 50 speaks of vivifying the study of the
historical life of humanity; Leading Thought 51 points to the tracing of history
right into the living human soul. Thus, we must understand how history arises
out of the development of man, and then the influence of history on the human
being of today. We, therefore, have to start from the being of man himself in
accordance with the previous Leading Thoughts.
From the standpoint of the uninterrupted causality of nature there is no
history; to understand the essence of history one requires the flexible Categories
and their interplay as has been previously pointed out (Study XVIII). There are
already signs of this in the natural sciences, although disregarded or unconscious.
We must only distinguish between descriptive and explanatory sciences. The
difference lies in the idea of evolution, so little understood today. The idea of
evolution would never have arisen in modern natural science if man’s powers
of cognition were not capable of real development. Thus, in our Study III, we
have already formulated the sentence: “All knowledge transforms the knower.”
Let us take mineralogy as a descriptive science, then geology follows as
explanatory. If, in continuation, the latter can regard time as a real factor, history
of the earth in accordance with the etheric formative forces can result. Botany,
as a descriptive science, has as its counterpart in physiology as explanatory, in
92
24/6 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK, September 20, 1912].
109
which the etheric formative forces appear in the service of a higher principle
which we have previously called (categorical) causality. In a similar manner,
biology is added to the zoology and the former must grasp the animal-forming
types out of the higher category of individualization; this results in the biogenetic
principle. And so we needed of principle for man (the creative principle) which
surpasses the single individual being, just as the group-soul surpasses the single
animal. There, we find the true evolutionary factor of a genuine biography as
Rudolf Steiner describes it in his book Theosophy. Biographies stretch beyond
the single incarnations; their higher creative principle working from out of
the spiritual world is karma. Biographies form the higher explanatory science
in contrast to anthropology. This is history. Thus we can understand history
historically, from the fact that biographies arise.93
Rudolf Steiner calls ordinary history a fable convenue94 first, because the
really decisive earthly facts are not handed down at all, or in such a way that
the present-day historian cannot make use of them; secondly, because there is
no reality in the method by which the traditional facts are linked together by
present-day consciousness. True history consists in this: that occurrences which,
in earlier times, were wholly spiritual become human/earthly. Humanity of olden
times had no history. For this reason, the ancient Orient, which always looked
back longingly to primeval spiritual conditions of humanity, is without history.95
A man, indeed, perceived himself to be entangled in the wheel of reincarnations,
but he sought to free himself from it personally. Individual experience was looked
upon as sin by oriental consciousness. In contradistinction to earthly maya, the
true happenings proceeded from spiritual beings who stood as inspirational
forces behind the human leaders.96 These, the old initiates, who found their way
back into the spiritual world, saw themselves, as time went on, confronted with
the fact that the return of the single individual to the primeval conditions of man
by raising himself into the spiritual, took place more and more at the expense
of all other men. That is the fearful tragedy of the old initiates. Therefore, the
93
16/1 [OCCULT HISTORY, December 27, 1910]; 16/2 [OCCULT HISTORY, December 28, 1910].
94
8/2 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER GOSPELS, “The Living Spiritual
History. The Leaders of Humanity. The Creative Word,” June 25, 1909]; 48/7 [EARTHLY DEATH AND
COSMIC LIFE, “Confidence in Life and Rejuvenation of the Soul: A Bridge to the Soul,” March 26, 1918].
95
9/4 [THE EAST IN THE LIGHT OF THE WEST, “Evolutionary Stages: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth,” August
26, 1909]; 24/6 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK, September 20, 1912].
96
16/1 [OCCULT HISTORY, December 27, 1910].
110
activity of the old forces of consciousness had to be replaced by something else.

True history is that of human consciousness; in it, is expressed that
individualization of man. The point is that, in accordance with the fact of repeated
earth lives, we are able to understand from the growth of human consciousness
that the cyclical epochs of history are progressive. Oswald Spengler senses
something true in his strange concept of historic simultaneousness. He notices
that the different cultural periods show an ascent and a descent; this is their
inner time and he calls the phases of the different cultures, which correspond to
one another, simultaneous. He finds conformity to law, out of which he makes
his magnificent attempt to predict history. But he knows nothing of the carrying
of historic impulses through the spiritual world, whereby the historical epochs
alone come into existence; from his standpoint, he can know nothing of concrete
biographies. These also only develop gradually; at first, there are spiritual beings
who themselves work among men;97 then there are human leaders who are
inspired by spiritual beings98 and, lastly, the human leaders are left alone and
must act on their own responsibility. This brings with it a real tragedy for the
leading personalities whose biographies, as they develop, shape history.
Of all these aspects, which have only been hinted at now, we find full
descriptions in Rudolf Steiner’s work which cannot be quoted here in detail; we
can refer especially to the following two lecture cycles: Occult History and The
Gospel of St. Mark.
In this course of history, everything that happens gradually leads toward a
central point. In deeply concealed Mystery Centers, the old initiates experienced
the tragedy which was linked with the passing away of the old spiritual bond
but, at the same time, they found solace in looking toward the cosmic mystery
of the Sun Spirit who was to descend to the earth. This was a goal placed before
the initiates by superhuman beings and, from this, there evolved the first truly
historical document, the Old Testament which, as Rudolf Steiner shows, is not
only a descriptive historical work but a work which points to a future goal. Just
as the descriptive must be supplemented by the explanatory sciences, so over
97
5/10 [EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “Old Myths as Pictures of Cosmic Facts. Darkening of
Man’s Spiritual Consciousness. The Initiation Principle of the Mysteries,” September 12, 1908]; 7/7 [THE
SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES, April 16, 1909]; 7/9 [THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES, April 18, 1909];
98
[See THE GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD, Scene I: Speech of Hilary True-to-God].
111
and above descriptive history, we must understand the goal of history. In this
way, we can grasp the immense significance of the Mystery of Golgotha in which
the goal of the old Mysteries became an historical fact. What we describe as the
history of the old world must be understood in its relationship to this unique
event, which alone gives history its rightful setting. But, indeed, the authoritative
historians of recent times with their methods cannot regard this occurrence as
an historical event! Since the Mystery of Golgotha, the nature of history must
become apocalyptic. The Apocalypse sets the new goal, the reappearance of
Christ.
XXVII.
HISTORY, MORALITY AND PREVISION
The man of today obtains an understanding for karma from individual

experience. Historical standards are gained by means of this understanding.
Historical standards are gained by means of this understanding. But only
selflessness with regard to our own destiny can lead to the investigation of
real history. The apart from all documents, Rudolf Steiner has investigated,
throughout vast regions the facts of real history, the earthly copy of spiritual
happenings, and has thrown light on our traditions. He sees how these are
connected in accordance with the principle at work in them; and that is karma.
The spiritual investigation of history again shows the moral altitudes in Rudolf
Steiner’s method of investigating and, therefore, is karma exercises, which place
genuine biographies before us, must be kept at the moral height to which he has
raised them.
Now there is the other side of the double task which arose in connection
with Leading Thoughts 50 to 52 (Study XXVI). If we follow the historical
element right into the living human soul, we find, at the same time, the path on
which we can attain to the investigations of history. Rudolf Steiner has often
pointed out that the facts of the past can be discovered by the reading of the
so-called Akashic Record which preserves the traces of all that, at any time, has
been brought about by conscious beings. From what we have gathered from
the Leading Thoughts, we can form a picture of the way in which the Akashic
Record comes into being. We need only to remind ourselves of how the etheric
body, also as bearer of the unconscious memory pictures reveals itself after
death in the objective life tableau and then expands into the cosmos. (Study
XIII)
Again and again, we must look at the method by means of which Rudolf
Steiner introduces spiritual science to present-day humanity: at first, he appeals
to the ordinary consciousness and educates it so that it may be able to understand
the truth; then, out of the feeling for truth, he develops an understanding for
supersensible facts and, after that, he can describe the supersensible facts
themselves. Finally, he shows how knowledge of this spiritual world is attained,
113
and the best exercises for this path of knowledge spring from the understanding
of the spiritual facts and of the path to them. For the investigation of history,
genuine Intuition is needed, becoming one with spiritual beings, in true
biographies. The Akashic Record is at the boundary of the spiritual and the
super-spiritual worlds99 in the sphere in which (to express it in this style used in
our studies of the Categories) the creative element passes over into the causal.
The investigations of Rudolf Steiner himself can then become understandable to
the ordinary consciousness; but, in order to transform them into exercises, it is,
of course, necessary to take as our starting point the fact that the supersensible
worlds enter into our ordinary consciousness.
Man is heir to an immense past (see Study XXIII). This heritage comes
from a two-fold line of evolution, of successive generations and successive
incarnations. In this series of generations, everything is contained which comes
to a man from outside; that is, what he is according to birth, family, nation,
education, environment, etc., his whole composition. In this way, he takes his
place in the continuous course of history. Added to this, there is also what he
brings with them from the other series, that of incarnations, his disposition and
capacities. The great conflicts in the life of the individual arise from the meeting
of these two; the experiences of life are formed by their balancing. It is part of
our work on the consciousness soul to call up into consciousness the traces of
these two lines of evolution which are to be found together in present-day earth
life. In this way, history can become real in human consciousness since, through
his sentient soul, man is, for example, connected with the Egypto-Chaldean
civilization for, as definitely expressed by Rudolf Steiner, the sentient soul of
humanity was developed in that epoch; it was the same with the intellectual soul
or mind-soul during the Greco-Latin civilization. But, if now, with our present
soul experience, we transfer ourselves into the age of the intellectual soul, we
must not work our way back through effacing the consciousness soul which
has only arisen in our time, for, by this means, we should find nothing but the
decadent remains of the old experience. Certainly, the old Roman, for example,
is somewhere within us, but in a rudimentary form. The old Roman brought
99
1/2 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “The Three Worlds,” August 23, 1906]; 2/4 [THE
THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “The Descent to New Birth,” May 28, 1907]; 10/1 [THE
GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, “Initiates and Clairvoyants. The various Aspects of Initiation. The Four Gospels
considered in the light of spiritual-scientific Investigation,” September 15, 1909].
114
the consciousness of justice into the world;100 the only relic of him in ourselves
is what we can perhaps call a dogmatist. But he is our inner enemy. Thus, we
must overcome the old forms within ourselves; Rudolf Steiner once spoke of a
hidden Pharisee within us, and also of a Sadducee and an Essene; Besides these,
there are still other enemies, of Atlantean and Lemurian extraction and, only
when they are vanquished, do they reveal to our consciousness soul their forces
still effective for the future, until they lead us to the experience of the Christ-
Impulse. Only then do we gain the selflessness with regard to our destiny, which
can make us into true shapers of the history of the future.
53. The unfolding of man’s life between death and a new birth takes
place in successive stages. For a few days after passing through the gate
of Death the whole of the past earthly life is seen in living pictures. This
experience reveals at the same time the gradual severance of the vehicle
of the past life from the human soul-and-spirit.
54. In a time that comprises about a third of the past earthly life, the
soul discovers in spiritual experiences the effect which this life must have
in accordance with an ethically just World-order. During this experience
the purpose is begotten in the soul to shape the next earthly life in a
corresponding way, and thus to compensate for the past.
55. There follows a purely spiritual epoch of existence. During this
epoch, which is of long duration, the soul of man — along with other
human souls karmically connected with him, and with the Beings of the
Hierarchies above — fashions the next life on Earth in the sense of Karma.
In Leading Thoughts 53 to 55, it appears as though what was given earlier
(Leading Thoughts 23 to 28) is repeated. But, in reality, in these new Leading
Thoughts, we have to realize the following: facts, which were given earlier as
such and with a view toward the cosmos, are now brought to bear on the
investigation of karma and history. A careful comparison of these two accounts
can reveal much to us. The life tableau is described in Leading Thought 23 as
the first entrance into the spiritual world after death. It is the repetition of the
day experiences of the past earth life, from which man is gradually freed by
death. In Leading Thought 53, we can recognize from the whole context that,
100
3/8 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, “Human Evolution in its Relation to the Christ Principle,” May 27,
1908]; 5/9 [EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “The Influence of the Sun and Moon Spirits, of the
Isis and Osiris Forces. The Change in Consciousness. The Conquest of the Physical Plane.” September 11,
1908].
115
with the survey of the life-tableau and of the “gradual severance of the bearer
of the past life” (of the etheric body), a prospect of the development of history
opens out; for the pictures vanishing into the distance insert themselves into
the Akashic Record. Immediately after his entrance into the spiritual world, the
dead man, looking back, experiences the transformation of the human etheric
into the cosmic Akashic substance. But he knows that he will find the vanishing
pictures again.101
Here we have an objective memory which is experienced selflessly.102 The
exercising of selfless memory, of looking back over the day and over life,
belongs to the exercises practiced during earth life. Only when our memories
have become selfless can they be controlled morally. In looking at the etheric
body, which fall away from the human being (Leading Thought 53), we can say:
Thus history grows.
In the same way, Leading Thought 24 can be compared with Leading
Thought 54. In experiencing the astral body after death, the night experiences
of the past life are repeated in connection with the judgment of life. But the
effect in contrast to the experience of the etheric body is entirely different. The
effects on the etheric body of objective remembering flow into the spheres, from
which man receives the effects of the series of generations. That is the historical
continuity which awakens the apparently uninterrupted causality of historical
events. The experiences of the judgment of life, which are connected with the
astral body, are carried further by the soul and will reappear, as the result of this
series of incarnations, in the disposition and capacities of future earth lives. To
the description in Leading Thought 54, we can add: Thus morality enters into
history.
Leading Thought 55 is related to Leading Thought 26. In the experience of
a “purely spiritual epoch of existence, which is of long duration,” the results of
the repetition of the past day and night experiences, that is, the activities of the
etheric and astral bodies, unite into one spiritual whole. That takes place in the
101
Death and the ‘Cosmic Midnight Hour’,” April 13, 1914]; 32/6 [THE INNER NATURE OF MAN AND
THE LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH, “Pleasures and Sufferings in the Life Beyond,” April 14,
1914]; A/4 [THE BEING OF MAN AND HIS FUTURE EVOLUTION, “Rhythms in the Bodies of Man,”
December 21, 1908].
102
2/3 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “The Elemental World and the Heaven World. Waking
Life, Sleep and Death,” May 26, 1907].
116
world of purposes, as the higher spiritual world is called by Rudolf Steiner in his
book Theosophy. That which in later earth lives reaches a man from two sides,
from the series of generations and incarnations, here has its common source, as
in the past earth life it proceeded from a unity. There, in this higher region of
the spiritual world, the true being of man in union the beings of the Hierarchies
is entirely one with his karma. There, man has drawn his karma, like a breath,
completely into himself, and he breathes it out again in his descent to his next
earth life. We can add to this Leading Thought 55: Thus prevision rules in
history.
If, in this way, we follow history into “man’s inmost being” (Leading Thought
51), we arrive at a strong conviction that it “is the souls of men themselves, who
carry over the results of one historic age into another.” (Leading Thought 50)
XXVIII.
A NEW SERVICE OF SACRIFICE
56. The epoch of existence between death and a new birth, when
the Karma of man is fashioned, can be described only by the results
of spiritual research. But it must always be borne in mind that such
description appeals to our intelligence. We need only consider with open
mind the realities of the world of the senses, and we become aware that
it points to a spiritual reality — as the form of a corpse points to the life
that in-dwelt it.
57. The results of Spiritual Science show that between death and birth
man belongs to Spirit-kingdoms, even as he belongs between birth and
death to the three kingdoms of Nature: the mineral, the plant and the
animal.
58. The mineral kingdom is recognizable in the form of the human
being at any given moment; the plant kingdom, as the etheric body, is the
basis of his growth, his becoming; the animal kingdom, as the astral body,
is the impulse for his unfolding of sensation and volition. The crowning of
the conscious life of sensation and volition in the self-conscious spiritual
life makes the connection of man with the spiritual world straightway
apparent.
Leading Thoughts 56 to 58 are really a repetition of what has been given
earlier (Leading Thoughts 27 and 28). But we can now develop it further
inasmuch as, since considering these Leading Thoughts 27 and 28 with the
help of Rudolf Steiner’s descriptions, we have gone through a cycle from one
incarnation to the next. In Rudolf Steiner’s lectures, clear indications are to be
found that such a preview of the following incarnation actually comes before
a soul on descending out of the spiritual worlds. It follows, therefore, that
the union of the descending human spirit with the astral and etheric bodies
is accompanied by experiences which place before us the counterpart of the
experiences which come after death as the spirit departs from the earth life.
If we look from this earth life to the next, it must appear to us to be permeated
by the spirit through and through, for everything which will then exist will first
118
have been carried through the spiritual world. While a man, after death, meets
all the beings who help him in shaping his karma, on his descent, he meets
the spirit beings who represent the egohood of the kingdoms of nature in the
corresponding spiritual worlds; it is by their means that, when man again sets
foot on earth, the kingdoms of nature are spirit-filled, interwoven by the deeds
of man. Thus, looking toward a future incarnation, we also look at ourselves so
that, thereby, “man’s connection with the spiritual world becomes immediately
apparent.” (Leading Thought 58) We can also say, “Owing to the fact that, in
this earth life, the spirit in nature and in ourselves becomes perceptible, we have
in us impulses which work toward the future.”
In attempting such a preview, we can also gain a conception of what
Rudolf Steiner has said in the central chapter of his book Theosophy about a
counterpart to the capacity of memory where the deeds of a man are concerned.
“Could not that which has retained the ego-character in the external world
also wait, so as to approach the human soul from without, just as memory,
in response to a given inducement, approaches it from within?” The subject
in question is a memory of deeds which works objectively. In karma exercises
connected with history, a man can succeed in taking part in this memory of
deeds. Karma exercises should not only work for the understanding of the past
but also toward the shaping of the future.
We previously saw (Study XXI) that the expectation of a continuance of life
after death, as it is taught in traditional religious confessions, is always connected
with egoism and that it is better to consider the life before birth. When we look
at repeated earth lives, self-love is linked more with what we should like to
have been in earlier incarnations (however little it corresponds with the facts!)
and selflessness is acquired more easily by looking toward the deeds of future
earth-lives. In the present earth-life, the important thing is always to act out of
knowledge.
*
We proceed now to statements in the Leading Thoughts such as those which
give the impression that our anthroposophical work should be raised into the
realm of the Hierarchies of spiritual beings. This signifies, at the same time,
an indication with regard to working out what Rudolf Steiner inaugurated in
the last year of his life, by placing the Anthroposophical Society on completely
119
new foundations and undertaking the presidency himself. This happened at

Christmas 1923. The old Anthroposophical Society of 1913 was one founded
by men; its purpose was to form a framework within which it would be possible
to receive the fruits of Rudolf Steiner’s investigations concerning the spiritual
world. The new foundation in 1923 was one willed by the spiritual world, a
call to me who had already received gifts of infinite value to perform deeds for
the spiritual world out of their hearts’ depths. It is now like a new covenant in
contrast to an old one.
If anthroposophical work is now to be lifted into the realms of the
Hierarchies of spiritual beings, this can be looked upon as a service of sacrifice.
That is connected in the most earnest way with karma exercises which are
able to form a basis for new communities among men. But, indeed, from the
very beginning, we can show in Rudolf Steiner’s work, how he unites men with
spiritual worlds on the paths of knowledge. It was in 1926 that a new edition
of Rudolf Steiner’s introductions to Goethe’s scientific writings was published
by the Philosophical Anthroposophical Publishing Co. at the Goetheanum,
Dornach, under the title Goethe the Scientist. On page 95 (Chapter VI, “The
Nature of Goethe’s Knowledge”), we read the wonderful saying, “The becoming
aware of the Idea in reality is the true communion of man.” It is not our special
task here to work this sentence out philosophically; many of its elements are
already contained in the course of these Studies. However, we can see here that
these words express the raising of a service of sacrifice into purely spiritual
spheres. If we further pursue the impulse originally given by them, we can attain
to a new understanding of the whole work of Rudolf Steiner.
Until now, we have considered his spiritual science, especially its thought
garment, as a language in which it is possible to speak to men about the spiritual
world. We have taken pains to understand its sounds. But it also has another
side. We can come by degrees to the point of learning to express the sounds
of this language. Then this language of the consciousness soul should serve to
enable men to speak of man to the beings of the spiritual Hierarchies.
The religions of the great civilizations contain memories of the ancient
Divine Being, of the Golden Age: the Gods created the world and man. Man
was once placed in the world of God; with feelings of gratitude, he sacrificed the
fruits of the earth, symbols of his own material existence, which revealed to him
the creative work of God. That is a picture of the cult of the past. What will be
120
the cult of the future? The aim of the Leading Thoughts from this point onward
is to give an answer to this question.
If we look back to the preliminary karma exercises (Study XXIII(, we have
before us the picture of the Washing of the Feet which, in that connection,
arises in accordance with the natural scientific method. This is reverence for
that which is beneath us. In Goethe’s description of the Pedagogical Province
in Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and Wanderings, he speaks of it as the
highest religious impulse. Reverence for that which is above us, he calls Ethical
Religion, the religion of peoples; reverence for that which is on an equality with
us, gives the foundation for the second, the Philosophical Religion; reverence
for that which is beneath us Goethe calls the Christian Religion. Rudolf Steiner
brings this religious element before us as knowledge, and the path of knowledge,
as reverence for that which is in us. In How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher
Worlds and in other places, devotional exercises are given; Rudolf Steiner’s
whole work is a witness to the fact that these in no way interfere with human
freedom, but rather enhance it.
Now, however, exercises of this kind also lead to quite definite insights which
can be reproduced in simple words. The being of the plant, which raises itself
above the mineral, forms its body out of it and inhabits the mineral kingdom.
Thus the plant (according to the exercises given by Rudolf Steiner) should bow
in reverence to the mineral for the plant owes its existence to it. But, in the same
way, the animal inhabits the plant kingdom and man the animal kingdom and
therewith naturally the other kingdoms of nature also. But who inhabits man?
There is a passage103 in which Rudolf Steiner extends the mood expressed in the
Washing of the Feet beyond man to the Hierarchies of the spiritual beings. The
beings of the third Hierarchy are those who inhabit man: they look upon man as
the kingdom which gives them the foundations of their spiritual existence. The
thoughts of man are, in the first instance, their dwelling place. Not, however,
the ordinary thoughts but, insofar as the I (ego) of man has turned its astral
body toward the eternal: pure thoughts are the sacrificial gift of man to the
beings of the third Hierarchy.104 In such connections, Rudolf Steiner spoke of
103
42/7 [THINGS IN PAST AND PRESENT IN THE SPIRIT OF MAN, “Man’s Four Members,” April 25,
1916].
104
37/1 [BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH, November 20, 1912].
121
how the man of today allows these beings to suffer want, to hunger,105 he has
allowed his sacrificial bread to be spoiled. The thoughts belonging to ordinary
consciousness are corpses; in the life before birth they were living; there the
spiritual beings had laid them in man as a seed. In the ancient civilizations,
that which corresponds to our present-day thoughts still ripened as the harvest
for the beings of the third Hierarchy in the spiritual world; it has now fallen
to beings who have remained behind, who inhabit man today in an unlawful
way, taking possession of him. It belongs to the essence of Anthroposophy to
reconsecrate the sacrificial centers of man’s inner being.
105
4/9 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The progress of man. His conquest of the physical plane in the
post-Atlantean civilizations. The beginning and up-building of the “I am.” The chosen people.” August 13,
1908].
XXIX. ANALYSIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The picture of the desecrated temple of man’s inner being, with which the
last Study closed, is inscribed in the history of the consciousness of humanity.
There, we still find the three altars which play a role in occult traditions and,
today, for the most part are only connected with abstract ideals: wisdom, beauty,
strength. The fourth point of the compass in a symbolic Temple of this kind is
like a door with two pillars through which men and spirit beings pass in and
out. Today too, a battle is still waged round these sacrificial centers. This is
presented in wonderful scenes in Rudolf Steiner’s Four Mystery Dramas. We
see there how the striving for knowledge, found in human destinies, is brought
before us as the work of cosmic beings. Four Temple scenes are described as
well as the retrospect into the Egyptian place of initiation. They show how
the rulership of spirit beings is superseded by decisions taken by human souls.
Powers hostile to man try to capture the Temple centers by creating confusion
in the souls of men. In the 13th Scene of the play The Soul’s Probation, Lucifer
takes possession of the important position in the North of the Temple after
Johannes Thomasius, in Scene 12, has handed himself over to his leadership.
But Ahriman, the other cosmic energy, must withdraw from the Sun Temple
after Maria, through her soul strength, has parried his attempted deception
in the 11th Scene of this play. We can ask the question: What position would
Ahriman have gained in the Temple if Maria had succumbed to him? That is
the question which enters deeply into all that occurs in the inner temple of each
human being. Had Ahriman gained the victory, Benedictus, the leader of man
and of spiritual events, would have been obliged to vacate his position in the
East, the region of wisdom.
The cosmic battle of the present time is being waged around human wisdom.
Therefore, in the path of knowledge implicit in Rudolf Steiner’s Leading
Thoughts, all the spirit power of the higher worlds must be brought to the temple
center of present-day consciousness in order that decisions may be reached.
Scenes such as these can touch on a mystery intimated in the Leading Thoughts
through the fact that, at the important juncture reached in our Studies, the
scenes chosen now present the processes in man’s inner being, now the way in
which the higher Hierarchies are active. It is like the course of the drama which
123
begins with the exposition and, in the figure and activity of Michael, shows
the denouement in the consciousness of modern man, that is, how the radical
change in his experience governed by destiny is brought about. In the following
Leading Thoughts, the exposition begins with an examination of the self:
59. Open-minded contemplation of thinking shows that the thoughts
of the ordinary consciousness have no existence of their own, but arise
only as the reflected images of something. Man, however, feels himself
to be alive in his thoughts. The thoughts are not alive, but he himself
is living in them. This life has its source in spirit-beings, whom we may
describe (in the sense of my book, Occult Science: An Outline) as the
beings of the third hierarchy — a kingdom of the spirit.
60. Extended to the life of feeling, the same open-minded contemplation
shows that the feelings, though they arise out of the body, cannot have
been created by it. For their life bears in it a character independent of the
bodily organism. With his bodily nature man can feel himself to be within
the world of nature. Yet just in realizing this with true self-understanding,
he will feel that with his world of feeling he is in a spiritual kingdom. This
is the kingdom of the second hierarchy.
61. As a being of will, man’s attention is directed not to his own bodily
nature, but to the outer world. When he desires to walk he does not ask,
‘What do I feel in my feet?’ but ‘What is the goal out there, which I desire
to reach?’ In willing, man forgets his body. In his will he belongs, not to
his own nature, but to the spirit-kingdom of the first hierarchy.
Our last Study bore the title “A New Service of Sacrifice.” That note sounds
again here but it must not be taken lightly. In many spiritual connections,
much is said of sacrifice. But the fact is often overlooked that, only he who
has something to offer is able to sacrifice; this he must have acquired himself,
otherwise he has nothing to offer. He who would sacrifice himself must first have
achieved something. If man only gives back to the Gods what he has received
from them, it is just as though he comes to the sacrifice with empty hands. The
true path of devotion, as Rudolf Steiner has shown in his book How to Attain
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, will be followed when man first becomes
clear as to what he has acquired in his own being which can be sacrificed. That
means the self-examination which begins in Leading Thoughts 59 to 61. They
deal with thinking, feeling and willing. Many of our previous Studies entered
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into the subject of the shaping of these soul forces, especially thinking, which
must give the form to all our considerations. We have seen also how man, in his
self-examination, is placed before nothingness (Study IX), how his own being
can disappear from him. That brings the fear of death before his soul and this
fear can be overcome only through the exercise of standing before the abyss of
existence in meditation for, from the other side, spiritual science brings a new
content to the desolate soul and the courage to strive. But this question becomes
completely new when we consider the genuine sacrifice when there is something
to offer.
Now with regard to thinking in the light of self-examination, Leading
Thought 59 says, “The thoughts of the ordinary consciousness have no
existence of their own.” “But man feels himself to be alive in his thoughts.
This difference between ordinary thoughts which “arise as the reflected images
of something,” and the feeling of one’s self in thoughts must be introduced into
logic in order that the latter may escape from abstraction. There, the thought
contents are of an illustrative nature and chiefly taken from memory. The most
important fact now is that the judgments and even the conclusions of logic are
really not thought, but felt. For example, we form the following conclusion
which is to be found in every schoolbook of logic: All foxes have four legs,
Herod was a fox, therefore, he had four legs. There, we immediately experience
through our feeling that this is false, even if we know no law of logic. The laws of
logic are rather thought formulae coming after spontaneous experience through
feeling. With this feeling, we live in thinking and, in contradistinction to this
process, thoughts are dead images of something belonging to the outer world. It
is further said that this life has its source in spirit beings of the third Hierarchy.
However, it is given back into their sphere after death. That happens in the life
tableau when it leaves man. If, in such an act of experience, we free ourselves
from ordinary thoughts, then it is an exercise like an anticipation of an even
of this kind after death. But, if the life of thinking is thus to be associated with
the beings of the third Hierarchy, the question arises: What then is man’s own
being? And of what consequence is it to the spiritual world?
It lies in the nature of the subject that a man must experience his whole
unworthiness in connection with the raising of his anthroposophical work into
the realms of the Hierarchies. If we analyze the being of man, it is seen to be
created entirely through the activity of the Hierarchies. That is connected with
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analysis as such; there you have “the parts in his hands” (Faust). Here an old
problem lies before us: What is a whole over and above the significance of
its parts? We find this problem equally in the Greek thinkers and in Buddha’s
sermons; also in another, a completely abstract form in modern mathematics.
Analyzing is not a creative act, and the constructive capacities of synthesis in the
matter of human knowledge are insignificant in the extreme. The solution of such
problems is only possible in the spiritual world. Through analyzing, a whole is
drawn out of its own sphere into the one below. For this reason, psychoanalysis
brings the animal element into evidence and, for this reason, our modern science
pushes everything of a living nature down into the mineral world. But, in order
to work synthetically, we have to climb one stage higher. As long as we remain
satisfied with differentiating between thinking, feeling and willing, the complete
soul will ever and again be dissolved into its interdependent, separate functions,
and this leads back to their origin. If this takes place in ordinary consciousness,
it means schizophrenia. Then thinking has the value of the mineral; feeling that
of the plant; willing that of the animal. Nothing remains of man.
Now, however, let us consider the other, the spiritual side of this process
insofar as it relates to thinking. In the fifth lecture of The Inner Nature of Man
and the Life Between Death and Rebirth, Rudolf Steiner says, in describing after-
death conditions, “It becomes evident that, behind the thoughts, which were
only shadow pictures while we were on the physical plane, there is something
living, that there is a living and weaving in the world of thoughts. We become
aware that what we have as our thought picture in the physical body is only a
shadow picture, that, in truth, there lives and expands a vast host of elemental
beings.” Of these, it is then said that man himself has created them; but later they
withdraw from man. In another connection,106 Rudolf Steiner has described the
elemental beings as the offspring of the beings of the third Hierarchy. Although
we ourselves appear to be the creators of elemental beings, in reality it is the
creative activity of the beings of the third Hierarchy.
Starting from this point of view, we can go back to the facts of earthly
consciousness and draw our conclusions. If our thoughts are to result in
something of value for the spiritual world after our death, then even during
earthly life, we must not live only in the thoughts of ordinary consciousness
106
21/3 [THE SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN THE HEAVENLY BODIES AND IN THE KINGDOMS OF NATURE,
April 5, 1912].
126
but must practice other, higher, pure thoughts. We can ask ourselves whether
the thoughts in these Studies are themselves of a higher order. Yes, if they are
permeated by willing (Leading Thought 12). In this way, after the analysis, we
gain the synthesis. The best analyst is death. Only from realms on the other side
of death, do we gain really constructive forces. In these Studies, we already draw
conclusions which will only partially appear later in the Leading Thoughts: then
we shall return to the subject.
XXX. SOUNDS AND THE WORD
The analysis of human consciousness which, according to Leading Thought

59, began with self-examination with regard to thinking, is extended to feeling
in Leading Thought 60. However, certain difficulties arise with regard to the
foregoing Study for we must be conscious that, when we consider feeling, it is in
reality the application of the thinking to feeling. In the first place, the possibility
of self observation can only apply to thinking. Rudolf Steiner pointed to this in
a unique way; he founded his philosophy upon it and, by this means, molded
the self-conscious path into the spiritual world. We can think about thinking
but, in the ordinary consciousness, we cannot feel feeling, but can only think
about feeling. The outcome of our last Study comes to our aid; namely, that
feeling is also the bringer of life for thinking. Thus, in The Leading Thought
60, the feeling of thinking changes into feeling itself. In this way, there really
arises something like a feeling of feeling. That, however, leads man away from
his ordinary consciousness and he can only strive for this in deep meditation.
Thus, we can understand how the all-important element here belongs to the
spiritual kingdom of the beings of the second Hierarchy, just as we can describe
thinking of thinking as the substance of the beings of the third Hierarchy. For
the spiritual world, this appears in the conditions after death in the following
way: the beings of this third Hierarchy lead us to those of the second Hierarchy;
we can even come to see that the beings of the third Hierarchy perceive those of
the second Hierarchy in a way similar to that in which we perceive the beings
of the third Hierarchy. (Study XXXVIII)
Thus, in conclusion, we can transfer our attention to willing, as is done
in Leading Thoughts 61. But, for this, still deeper meditation is necessary
because, for the ordinary consciousness, willing itself remains hidden and
only the manifestations of willing come to the surface. Of course, it will be
comprehensible that, just as behind thinking, feeling emerges; behind both,
willing must be active, as it is in general behind the whole soul life. It true
willing, hidden from ordinary consciousness, now belongs to the beings of the
first Hierarchy. The participation of man in this Hierarchy would have to be
expressed by the formula corresponding to the earlier ones: willing of willing. It
will be perceived that, through this whole treatment of the soul forces, we have
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a new introduction into the nature of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition.

Thus we find how the soul-nature of man is related to the Hierarchies of
higher beings in thinking, feeling and willing. They have created these forces in
man so that the question naturally arises as to what belongs to man himself.
The new condition which should come to pass through man lies in this: that
the three principles of his being, mutually interpenetrating, become one in man.
In Rudolf Steiner’s investigations, we can find such facts as the following: that
beings out of their won forces have endowed other beings, for example, man, in
order to experience something new themselves by this means. Thus, in the ninth
lecture of Universe, Earth and Man, there is written, “It is entirely possible that
one being may impart a gift to another and only come to know his gift through
the other. Picture to yourselves an exceedingly rich person who has never know
anything but riches, nor ever experienced the deep satisfaction of soul which
results from doing good. Picture this person now as doing something good; he
gives to the poor. The gift calls forth great thankfulness in the soul of the needy
individual; this feeling of gratitude is, at the same time, a gift; it would never
have existed if the rich person had not first given. He is the originator of the
feeling of gratitude, although he himself does not feel it and is only acquainted
with it through its reflection which streams back to him from the person in
whom he kindled it. It is approximately thus with the gift of love.”
For the further work on the Leading Thoughts of Rudolf Steiner, it will be
good to hold a kind of review of the path over which we have already travelled.
This should be in short aphoristic sentences, embracing whole series of thoughts
and perceptions. In the Introduction to these Studies, we found the following
sentence: “The Leading Thoughts are words of a new spirit language. If they
resound in human souls, the sounds of the language of the consciousness soul
take shape in inner experience.”
1. All knowledge transforms the one who knows. (Study III)

2. It is not due to us that we awake from sleep. (Study IV)
3. Breathing in pure thinking is the first clairvoyance. (Study V)
4. In the etheric world, concept and seeing are of equal value. (Study V)
5. The differentiating of the animal from man is a moral process.
(Study VI)
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6. The reality of the I (ego) is the source of all knowledge. (Study VIII)
7. All knowledge is wrested from death. (Study IX)
8. The soul dream of day-consciousness is an intermingling of sleeping
and waking. (Study X)
9. Conscious forgetting leads to meditation. (Study XI)
10. Conscious remembering leads to Imagination. (Study XI)
11. If memories are to be of value, they must be morally controlled.
(Study XI)
12. The investigating of freedom is an obtaining of freedom. (Study XII)
13. Nature is the other side of spirit. (Study XII)
14. On the path of knowledge thinking and willing cross one another.
(Study XII)
15. The strongest argument against freedom is death. (Study XIII)
16. The strongest argument against the necessity of nature is knowledge.
(Study XIII)
17. The life tableau after death is a cosmic dream. (Study XIII)
18. Morality is the necessity of the night retrospect. (Study XIV)
19. The initiate carries freedom into the moral world. (Study XIV)
20. Concepts are the conscious participation of spirit-land in ordinary
consciousness. (Study XV)
21. The great turning point for causality is the midnight hour of existence.
(Study XV)
22. Knowledge, love and sacrifice are man’s path to freedom. (Study XVI)
23. Imagination transforms time into space. (Study XVII)
24. Inspiration transforms causality into time. (Study XVIII)
25. Intuition transforms permanence of being into causality. (Study XVIII)
26. Work on the consciousness soul signifies redeeming the Idea from
earthly death to cosmic life. (Study XVIII)
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27. The I (ego) experiences causality, its essence is permanence of being.

(Study XVIII)
28. The astral body experiences space, its essence is time. (Study XVIII)
29. The etheric body experiences space, its essence is time. (Study XVIII)
30. The physical body suffers death, its essence is space. (Study XVIII)
31. Anthroposophy as spiritual science teaches us to understand cosmic
beings from out of our ordinary consciousness. (Study XIX)
32. Anthroposophy as a path of knowledge leads us to shape earthly lives
from out of the cosmos. (Study XIX)
33. The physical organization of man as creation is half-finished, the other
half devolves upon man himself. (Study XIX)
34. The law of the will is morality, its realization on earth, destiny.
(Study XXII)
35. Man’s knowledge of nature is nature’s self-knowledge. (Study XXII)
36. Spiritual science is man’s self-knowledge. (Study XXII)
37. The spirit-self sees destiny through the organ of man’s metabolic-limb
system. (Study XXII)
38. Art reveals supersensible self-knowledge. (Study XXII)
39. Every true introduction to Anthroposophy is a preliminary karma
exercise. (Study XXII)
40. Man experiences his being over against nature, and the being of nature
within himself. (Study XXIII)
41. Man bears within himself only one part of his being; the other is
nature; he is indebted to her from primeval times. (Study XXIII)
42. Only that can become destiny which has previously been carried
through the spiritual world. (Study XXIII)
43. That which pulses through earth life as destiny is seed for future cosmic
development. (Study XXIII)
44. Destiny is the cosmic judgment of man’s deeds. (Study XXIV)
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45. The individual can have no destiny to himself; destiny is the strongest
social force. (Study XXV)
46. Questions of destiny must be lifted out of the individual into the social
realm. (Study XXV)
47. Historical standards are gained by means of an understanding of
karma. (Study XXVII)
48. During the present earth life the important thing is to act out of
knowledge. (Study XXVIII)
49. The language of the consciousness soul does not only speak to man of
the spiritual world, but it should also speak to the spiritual world of
man. (Study XXVIII)
50. The cosmic battle of the present time is being waged around human
wisdom. (Study XXIX)
51. He who would offer sacrifice may not come with empty hands. (Study
XXIX)
52. He who would offer himself must first be of value. (Study XXIX)
53. Through analyzing, a whole is drawn out of its own sphere into the
next one below. (Study XXIX)
54. In order to work synthetically, we have to climb one stage higher.
(Study XXIX)
55. The best analyst is death; only from the realms on the other side of
death do we gain really constructive forces. (Study XXIX)
56. Thinking of thinking yields Imagination; feeling of feeling, Inspiration;
willing of willing, Intuition. (Study XXX)
The letters from the language of the consciousness soul can be experienced
as fruits of meditation. May these sounds be encompassed by the Word!107
107
omitted. In the Notes at the back of the book, the footnote reference for [107] is 31/6 [CHRIST AND THE
SPIRITUAL WORLD: THE SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL, “The permeation of spiritual revelations
by the Christ Impulse. Reading the stellar script with the powers of the innocent human soul. The concord
between human history and the stellar script. The heavenly aspect and the human aspect of the Holy
Grail,” January 2, 1914.]
XXXI. A NEW BEGINNING
If anthroposophical work is to be raised into the realm of the Hierarchies of

higher beings, certain preliminary exercises are necessary. Through a conclusion
reached by means of an analogy, we came to the view in Study XXVIII that the
beings of the third Hierarchy inhabit man, as man inhabits the animal kingdom,
animals the plant kingdom, plants the mineral kingdom. This conclusion
naturally signifies more than a logical process. Furthermore, it could not even
come into existence as a conclusion, if deep realities were not at work. And the
same must hold true for this last sentence also. Rudolf Steiner once said to the
author many years ago “thought correctly thought is valid.” But it is essential that
we should also convince ourselves that there is a difference between accepting
a thought correctly thought as valid, that, universal, and taking the trouble
to seek the cosmic realm in which it really is valid. To this end, thinking must
become selfless, and not consist of its semblance, but return into its spiritual
reality which, although unconsciously rules in feeling and willing (see Studies
XXIX and XXX.)
The above-mentioned analogical conclusion appeared in a context belonging
to the scientific method; it can work like an act of deliverance which independent
thinking accomplishes over against the compulsions of the kingdoms of nature.
In this way, a barrier is broken; but now the question is bound to follow: How
do the beings of the Hierarchies inhabit man and the universe? To the question
How? thinking alone can never give an answer if it is not directly concerned
with the consideration of its own thinking, but the answer can only arise
through facts. With regard to the question before us, however, these can only be
spiritual facts, and they must be established by spiritual observation. In this way,
a path is indicated, by means of which it is possible to reach Anthroposophy;
for Anthroposophy consists in this very asking of man and the answering of
the spiritual world; only man must always be learning to ask questions and to
understand answers.
Thus, we can understand why Rudolf Steiner again and again begins afresh,
again and again enters into elementary questions which can be put by the
ordinary consciousness of modern man. These many new beginnings cover all
that has been directly given for present-day consciousness, so that each man of
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today can come into Anthroposophy from whatever position he holds in life.
But, for those who have already found Anthroposophy, the many-sided new
beginnings are exercises which are effective owing to their very repetition, owing
to the rhythmic element. Thus, there is really no difference between beginners
and advanced students with regard to the subject, to the what but again only
with regard to the how.
Every fresh beginning of this questioning is of a nature which, for the
last 150 years, has been called epistemological. The word, of course, sounds
fearfully abstract, but the process itself is repeated again and again, for every
ascent into spiritual heights begins at the level of ordinary consciousness. The
more we learn to permeate this ordinary consciousness with spirit, the clearer
can be the path to the spiritual. In the next Leading Thoughts, 62 to 65, a new
beginning of this kind is undertaken. Rudolf Steiner has added to these Leading
Thoughts a Letter (July 13, 1924)108 in which fundamental questions of human
experience are discussed. Such letters to the members of the Anthroposophical
Society accompany a large number of the later Leading Thoughts and offer most
significant explanations. These Letters will appear in print.109 For the purposes
of these Studies, it will suffice to refer to them aphoristically.
Rudolf Steiner points to two fundamental experiences in a new way which
man can discover when he reflects. If a man has thoughts about the outer world,
he can become aware of the fact that he finds himself in his thoughts; he loses the
world from his consciousness and his I (ego) enters into it. If, on the other hand,
his attention is directed to his inner being, his own existence will present itself
as the result of the experiences of destiny upon which the world has encroached.
In this way, a man loses himself from his consciousness and the world enters
into it. In perceiving these two experiences, man is faced with the problem
concerning the world and man, and the answers of Anthroposophy can affect
his soul deeply. Anthroposophy points to a deepened thinking, a meditating,
which does not allow the sense-world to be lost but reveals the spirit-world.
It further points to an experiencing of destiny which does not allow the self to
be lost but leaves it the active experience of working in the outer world. The
Leading Thoughts referring to this subject now follow:
108
See Table of the Leading Thoughts and the Letters Accompanying Them at the end of this book.
109
The publications which appeared later are to be found in the list of books at the end of this book.
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62. In our sense-perceptions, the world of the senses bears on to the

surface only a portion of the being that lies concealed in the depths of
its waves beneath. Penetrative spiritual observation reveals within these
depths the after-effects of what was done by souls of men in ages long
gone by.
63. To ordinary self-observation the inner world of man reveals only a
portion of that, in the midst of which it stands. Intensified experience in
consciousness shows it to be contained within a living spiritual Reality.
64. The destiny of man reveals the workings, not only of an external
world, but of the man’s own Self.
65. The experiences of the human soul reveal not only a Self but a world
of the Spirit, which the Self can know by deeper spiritual knowledge as a
world united with its own being.
The fundamental questions in these Leading Thoughts are not foreign to
our Studies. In Study X, we find the following: “The more keenly man wishes
to maintain himself as a unity, the more of his own being vanishes into the
other, into the world. We can attempt to grasp the outer world from the inner
world, or the inner world from the outer world. In both cases, the object under
consideration is withdrawn.” Also, in connection with preliminary karma
exercises (Study XXIII) we met the problem of the polarity of I (ego) and world.
And with regard to the experience of destiny, we found the sentence in Study
XXV: “The world is related to man in knowledge and deed. The point is to
make an exercise of the problem of experiencing the I (ego) in the world, again
and again, of feeling the world in the I (ego).” When, however, we consider here
this double problem with regard to a new beginning, we find that it is the basis
of the needs of the soul of today, just as it runs through the whole of philosophy
when it is formulated scientifically. But neither the immediate experience of
life nor philosophy has found an answer to it. Rudolf Steiner, from the very
beginning, through working out the clear definition of the fact epistemologically,
scientifically, philosophically and ethically, gave an answer to these questions in
all these spheres; he also added them as fundamental questions of human soul
life in a particular sense in the preface to the 1918 edition of his Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity.
The answers given here by Anthroposophy signify the entrance of new
worlds in contrast to all other scientific formulae. But that must be the basic
135
experience of each one who is impelled today by the needs of his soul to come
to Anthropsophy. That can happen in the greatest variety of ways and, for this
reason, there must be, as already indicated a number of different introductions
to Anthroposophy. There may be external catastrophes, conditions which tear a
man away from his former connections, away from his family, nation, country,
from his vocation and social relationships; it is a sudden change belonging to
the experience of destiny. Thus, the older people today who found themselves
in the Anthropsophical Society are drawn from all quarters of the globe by
the working of destiny, which can be traced even in details. The more time
advances, the more we can recognize that a powerful inner experience of destiny
enters, which, to young people unless they are actually Waldorf School pupils,
seems like a collapse of their previous picture of the world, like standing before
nothingness. It is like an experience of death, connected with inner destiny
which wills to transform itself into forces of knowledge. That is the experience
belonging to youth which calls young people to take part in Anthroposophy.
In the fifth lecture of The Gospel of St. John in Relation to the Other
Three Gospels, Rudolf Steiner describes a basic experience of this kind, which
involves, at the same time an encounter with the spirit of this world: “The
Mephistophelian spirits cast a veil over the spiritual foundation of the world
and mocked man with a world that is an illusion. Mephistopheles infused into
man the belief that the world is merely a material existence and that there is
nothing spiritual in and behind all matter. The scene which Goethe depicts so
wonderfully in his Faust is continually being enacted in humanity as a whole. On
the one hand, we see Faust seeking the way to the spiritual world; on the other
hand Mephistopheles, who describes the spiritual world as ‘nothing’ because it
is in his interest to represent the world of sense as everything. Faust retorts in
words which every spiritual investigator would have used in a similar case; “In
thy Nothing I hope to find my All!”
The experience of the nothing comes to many today spontaneously.
Anthroposophy makes it possible for the right answer to be given. This, however,
should not be done only once but the experience should take the form of an
exercise, as a preliminary exercise for the raising of the work into the kingdom
of the Hierarchies of higher beings.
XXXII. “EPISTEMOLOGIES”
OF THE HIGHER HIERARCHIES
As we think over the sense world, it disappears and, if thinking is

strengthened until it becomes meditation, the spiritual world takes its place
through the experience of self. On the other hand, if the I (ego) considers itself
in its destiny, it finds that it is bound up with the events of the world so that
the self appears from out of the surrounding world (Study XXXI). Thus an
interchange between the sense world and the spiritual world comes about. How
far is this a preliminary exercise for the raising of anthroposophical work into
the realms of the higher Hierarchies? In different words, Rudolf Steiner has
given a though in the form of a verse which emphasizes the polarity of the
knowledge of the self and of the world. In our Study XXIII, one rendering is
given; here is a second:110
Seek in thine own being:
And thou findest the World;
Seek in the realms of the World:
And thou findest thyself;
Mark the swing of the pendulum
‘Twixt self and World;
And to thee is revealed:
Man-World-Being;
World-Man-Being.
What concerns us is the swing of the pendulum. Two books by Rudolf
Steiner on meditation which are far too little known, A Way of Self-Knowledge
and The Threshold of the Spiritual World have this as their starting point. Even
the words “swing of the pendulum” come in the first chapter of the last-named
book and a reference to the rhythms of waking and sleeping, of life and death.
These polarities bind man to the cosmos and its beings and tear him away
again into his earthly loneliness. When a man consciously raises himself into the
sphere of cosmic beings, he realizes, as spiritual experience, the epistemologies
of those belonging to the higher Hierarchies, a term once used by Rudolf Steiner.
110
WAHRSPRUCHWORTE.
137
He has described the forms of consciousness pertaining to the Hierarchies as

rhythms and has shown how a man must practice connecting these with his
own element of consciousness, in order that he can rise into their realms. There,
it is possible to grasp how the being of man has arisen from the activity of
the Hierarchies and how they extend their rule into man. That is presented
most comprehensively in the following Leading Thoughts, 66 to 68, namely, the
activity of the higher Hierarchies on the stage of the human soul.
66. The Beings of the Third Hierarchy reveal themselves in the life
which is unfolded as a spiritual background in human Thinking. In the
human activity of thought this life is concealed. If it worked on in its
own essence in human thought, man could not attain to Freedom. Where
cosmic Thought activity ceases, human Thought-activity begins.
67. The Beings of the Second Hierarchy manifest themselves in a
world-of-soul beyond humanity — a world of cosmic soul-activities,
hidden from human Feeling. This cosmic world-of-soul is ever creative in
the background of human Feeling. Out of the being of man it first creates
the organism of Feeling; only then can it bring Feeling itself to life therein.
68. The Beings of the First Hierarchy manifest themselves in spiritual
creation beyond humanity — a cosmic world of spiritual Being which
indwells the human Willing. This world of cosmic Spirit experiences itself
in creative action when man wills. It first creates the connection of man’s
being with the Universe beyond humanity; only then does man himself
become, through his organism of Will, a freely willing being.
In the third and fourth lectures of The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly
Bodies and in the Kingdoms of Nature, Rudolf Steiner describes the forms of
consciousness belonging to the beings of the higher Hierarchies as compared
with the alteration of the human consciousness between outer life (perception)
and inner life. There we find that the beings of the third Hierarchy are of such a
nature that they “perceive whenever they reveal themselves; when they express
what they themselves; and they really perceive their own being only as long as
they wish to reveal it, as long as they express it outwardly in any way.” This
form of consciousness is called Revelation of Being by Rudolf Steiner. This
revelation of their own being corresponds to human perception. In the beings of
the third Hierarchy, another form of consciousness corresponds to human inner
life: “When they enter their inner being, they do not enter an inner independent
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life as does man, but a life in common with other worlds. Instead of an inner life,
they have the experience of higher spiritual worlds.” This consciousness Rudolf
Steiner calls Spirit-enfilling, the being filled by beings of higher Hierarchies.
In ordinary consciousness, man turns in perception to the kingdoms of nature
which are below him; in his inner life, he turns to the spiritual and can attain
to the kingdoms which are above him. Thus, the Spirit-enfilling of the beings of
the third Hierarchy is a turning toward higher beings and, correspondingly, we
can grasp the revelation of being as a turning toward man who is below them.
That is contained in Leading Thought 66. The revelation of being of the third
Hierarchy is the spiritual background of the human activity of thinking. The
substance of this revelation is the essential nature of truth. Those who belong
to the third Hierarchy can only live in the purest verity and truth. We find the
following on this subject in the passage quoted above: “Suppose the beings were
to lie, that is, had something in their inner being which, in their revelations, they
would so transform that it would not coincide with the revelations, they would
then not be able to perceive it, for they can only perceive their inner nature;
under the impression of a lie they would be immediately stupefied.”
Thus the foundation of man’s thinking is laid on truth but he bases his own
life on the fact that he has torn himself away from the revelation of being of the
third Hierarchy. Therewith, we come up against the deeply moving knowledge:
the essence of human individual existence is based on a spiritual lie; for now
there really are such beings of the third Hierarchy, who do not reveal their
being, but wish to retain it for themselves: because of this, they have fallen out
of the community of the normal beings of their Hierarchy, they are the beings
who have remained behind, who are thereby forced into the sphere of human
evolution. They are the leaders or misleaders of man into individual existence.
Rudolf Steiner calls them Luciferic beings. But we must conceive of these
Luciferic beings from another point of view, namely, that they have sacrificed
themselves in order to make freedom possible in the world, and man should
work out this freedom (compare the impressive sentences in the fifth lecture of
The Gospel of St. John in its Relation to the Other Gospels and the eleventh
lecture of The Manifestations of Karma). But, if man accepts this sacrifice in the
right way, the human activity of thinking ceases (Leading Thought 66), will, in
the future, reveal man’s own being to the earth and to the cosmos.
In a similar way, we are told in Leading Thought 67 how, in the essential
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background of human feeling, the cosmic soul element of the beings of the
second Hierarchy is at work. It is considerably more difficult, it is true, to
grasp from the nature of their consciousness, this participation of the second
Hierarchy in human feeling. Again it is a matter of their outer consciousness, by
means of which they turn toward beings who are below them. In continuation
of the previous passage, Rudolf Steiner calls this Self-creating. We will not now
consider the connection between the outer consciousness of these beings and
the Spirit-enfilling, the inner consciousness of the beings of the third Hierarchy;
but when we see Rudolf Steiner’s descriptions of the nature of the consciousness
Self-creating, we find that it deals with the molding of forms as images of
themselves. These forms remain permanently connected with the life of these
beings. In the soul experience of man, we can sense that this cosmic-soul element
in feeling betokens susceptibility to art. From the connection of these beings
with their self-creating, it is possible to awaken the perception that, through the
domination of the beings of the second Hierarchy, human feeling is founded on
love, as thinking is on truth through the beings of the third Hierarchy.
Finally, we can extend this method still further to Leading Thought 68 in
which it is shown how the cosmic-spirit element of the beings of the first Hierarchy
experiences itself as self-creating, when man wills. Certainly, this activity is still
much further from us than the relationships previously considered. But we
can ask ourselves again on what is the human will founded. When we further
follow the way in which Rudolf Steiner describes the outer consciousness of the
beings of the first Hierarchy, we find that the self-objectification of these beings
remains in existence as cosmic activity even when the creating beings separate
themselves from the object of their creation. Rudolf Steiner calls this form of
consciousness Cosmic-creating, and, if we follow his detailed descriptions, we
can perceive that the ruling of the beings of the first Hierarchy founds human
will on morality.
According to the three Leading Thoughts 66 to 68, it is clearly to be seen
that human freedom takes its start from thinking, as Rudolf Steiner has already
shown in his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. In this connection, where we
study the human soul element from the perspective of the higher Hierarchies, the
fact that man receives the impulse to freedom in his thinking from the Luciferic
beings must become comprehensible to us. Owing to the work of the higher
Hierarchies, man, through his thinking, gains the power to take Lucifer’s gift
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from him, thereby making good the spiritual lie. But, in attaining to freedom in
his thinking, he meets with the danger that this gift may become the booty of
Ahriman. This will be dealt with subsequently in the Leading Thought.
What later becomes the soul element of man is first carried in the
consciousness of the beings of the Hierarchies. This process belongs to the outer
consciousness of the hierarchical beings and corresponds to the perceiving of
man. Such epistemologies are a creative act. Thus, the self-knowledge of man
is lifted into the realm of the highest Hierarchies. We attain to that which is to
be found in Benedictus’ book of life in Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Play The Soul’s
Probation.
“The plan divine then shalt thou recognize
When thou hast realized thyself in thee.”
XXXIII.
COSMIC REALMS
OF THE HIERARCHIES
The revelations of the higher Hierarchies in the soul region of man points to
one swing of the pendulum in the consciousness of these Hierarchies, namely, to
that side which Rudolf Steiner has compared with perception, the outer being
of man. Our last Study following the Leading Thoughts 66 to 68 entered into
this point because it concerns man. Now we must add the other swing of the
pendulum in the consciousness of the higher Hierarchies which can be compared
with the inner being of man. The following diagram, which should serve merely
as a summary, is added to a similar one, given by Rudolf Steiner in the fourth
and fifth lectures of The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the
Kingdoms of Nature.
Hierarchies Third Second First

Revelation of
Outer Being Self-Creating World-Creating
Being
Stimulation of Creating of
Inner Being Spirit-enfilling
Life Being
Human Soul Thinking Feeling Willing
The other side of the consciousness of the higher Hierarchies, their inner
being is described in the following Leading Thoughts 69 to 71 as spiritual
cosmic realms.
69. The Third Hierarchy reveals itself as pure soul and spirit. It lives and
moves in all that man experiences in the soul, in his inner life. Neither in
the etheric nor in the physical could any processes arise if this Hierarchy
alone were active. Soul-life alone could exist.
70. The Second Hierarchy reveals itself as soul and spirit that works in
the etheric. All that is etheric is a manifestation of the Second Hierarchy.
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This Hierarchy, however, does not reveal itself directly in the physical; its
power extends only to etheric processes. Only etheric and soul-life could
exist if the Third and the Second Hierarchy alone were active.
71. The First and strongest Hierarchy reveals itself as the spiritually
active principle within the physical. It makes the physical world into a
Cosmos. The Third and the Second Hierarchy are the Beings who minister
to it in this activity.
In connection with these Leading Thoughts, Rudolf Steiner wrote a Letter
about spiritual cosmic realms and human self-knowledge wherein a path is
shown which, through the practice of self-knowledge, leads to the cosmic realms
of the higher Hierarchies. It also belongs to such self-knowledge that we do not
shun the effort involved in dealing with the difficulty of the representation,
that the inner being of those belonging to the higher Hierarchies is described
as their cosmic realms. Naturally, cosmic realm has nothing to do with any
spatial representation, it is rather in the nature of a cosmic quality. Perhaps the
difficulty will be lessened if we first investigate man’s cosmic realm. In keeping
with this view, we see that the subject of our consideration lies concealed in a
man’s inner being, not in his ordinary consciousness, but in the other swing of
the pendulum which is given him in sleep. Only when a man embarks upon the
path into the spiritual world can he find his cosmic realm as he approaches the
forms of consciousness belonging to the beings of the third Hierarchy.
In accordance with our earlier Studies, the result of this is pure thinking,
that is to say, a form of thinking that is not dependent on any sense perception
but which thinks about thinking. Thus it is characteristic that even the simple
descriptions of the thought processes express its laws, its being. Thinking, in
considering itself has, as percept, only that which reveals itself out of its being.
Here, we clearly recognize the approach to the outer being of those belonging to
the third Hierarchy. If, however, it withdraws its being from this self-revelation,
it finds itself at the boundary of consciousness as the sum of all the possibility of
thinking (Study IV), as pure I (ego), that is, Spirit-enfilling by means of which
man draws near also in his inner being to the form of consciousness belonging
to the beings of the third Hierarchy. Then, the following words become inner
experience (they were written on a pillar by Rudolf Steiner in the year 1907 as
a Rosicrucian saying): “In pure thought thou findest the self which can sustain
itself.” If this experience is introduced into ordinary consciousness, man fills it
143
with the substance of freedom as his cosmic realm. Freedom is the cosmic realm
of man.
In Leading Thought 69, the cosmic realm of the third Hierarchy is stated
to be one of a purely spirit-soul nature; that corresponds to the spirit-enfilling
of its inner being. For the beings of the second Hierarchy, Leading Thought 70
specifies a form of spirit-soul nature that works in the etheric; this points to the
consciousness form of the Stimulation of Life according to the previous diagram.
The cosmic realm of the first Hierarchy is, according to Leading Thought 71,
spiritually active in the physical; the corresponding form of consciousness is
that of the Creating of Being. Now, just as in Leading Thoughts 66 to 68, it was
put before us that the outer being of the higher Hierarchies is related to man’s
soul life in thinking, feeling and willing, so, in the above-mentioned Letter, the
subject is continued by showing how the other side of the consciousness of the
higher Hierarchies, their inner being, is related to the higher principles of man,
to his etheric body, astral body and I (ego). All these relationships are extremely
complicated and are only to be grasped when the striving for knowledge is
permeated with cosmic impulses.
The path specified in the Letter just mentioned again makes use of a swing
of the pendulum in human self-knowledge. To begin with, the phenomenon
of remembrance is indicated; that has a shadow-like character in contrast to
the living element of the soul, wherein remembrance has had its home: “Dead
shadows have their being in remembrance; living reality has its being in the soul
where remembrance is at work.” Out of imaginative knowledge, Anthroposophy
points from the shadow being to the shining being; from the physical body to
the etheric. The spiritual environment of the etheric body is the realm of the
third Hierarchy. In the same way, a shadow being can be seen in speech, in
contrast to which the astral body is the shining element; Inspiration reveals the
spiritual environment of the astral body as the realm of the second Hierarchy.
And, finally, movement, I (ego) and Intuition belong to the spiritual cosmic realm
of the beings of the first Hierarchy. Out of memory, speech and movement, there
comes about, through Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition, the meeting with
the etheric body, the astral body and the I (ego).
From this, the following arises: the I (ego) kindles itself by contacting its
environment, the cosmic realm of the first Hierarchy, Creating of Being, the
spiritually-active element in the physical. The astral body kindles itself by
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contacting the cosmic realm of the second Hierarchy, the Stimulator of Life
which is active in the etheric as a spirit-soul element. The etheric body kindles
itself by contacting the cosmic realm of the third Hierarchy, Spirit-enfilling, a
pure spirit-soul realm. Perhaps it will be less difficult to grasp this if we investigate
a counterpart which is to be found in the early development of the little child.
The forming of the little child is accomplished out of the spiritual world by its
spirit-soul nature which works from outside and only gradually enters into the
organization itself. This latter actually belongs to the realm of education. But
previously, by means of spiritual activity, it effects three tremendous achievements
which Rudolf Steiner in the first chapter of his wonderful book The Spiritual
Guidance of Man and Mankind, presents in the following way: “The first is the
orientation of his own body in space. This touches upon one of the most essential
differences between man and animal. More accurate observation will show that
it is the peculiarity of the animal’s organization that causes its position in space.
In man it is the soul which brings itself into relation with space and controls
the organization.” ... “The second thing which man teaches himself and that, by
means of the entity which proceeds from one incarnation to another as the same
being, is speech. The germ for the development of the larynx must be formed
during the period at which man has not yet acquired his ego-consciousness.”
... “And then there is the third thing: it is not so well-known that man learns
this from himself through that part of his inner being which he carries on from
one incarnation to another. It is the life within the world of thought itself. The
brain immediately after birth is, as it was bound to be, in accordance with the
forces inherited from parents, ancestors, etc. But the individual has to express
in his thinking what he is as an individual being, in accordance with his former
earthly life. Therefore, he must remodel the inherited peculiarities of his brain
after birth, when he has become physically independent of his parents and other
ancestors.”
This can now be connected with the ruling of the Hierarchies. With effort,
the child discovers how to move, acquires speech and learns to think. In attaining
the power of movement, the ego masters the physical body and the physical
world wherein the beings of the first Hierarchy are the leaders and guides. The
acquisition of speech can be grasped by the fact that the astral body masters the
life functions: to that end, the beings of the second Hierarchy come to the aid
of the little one. When a child learns to think, a pure spirit-soul element takes
possession of its etheric body; this is possible through the cooperation of the
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beings of the third Hierarchy.

The striving for genuine self-knowledge, which we studied earlier in
connection with the Letter, takes the reverse direction, backward to childhood
and yet forward into the spiritual cosmic realms of the higher Hierarchies.
Therewith, we are confronted by a saying of Christ, the explanation of which
is one of the most impressive given by Rudolf Steiner out of his spiritual
investigation in order to show how the words of the Gospel can again be taken
literally, if only we can arrive at their real meaning. The description of what
happens to a child in the first three years of his earthly life closes thus (The
Spiritual Guidance of Man and Mankind, Chapter 1): “From this, there follows
a thought which has great significance if it is rightly understood. In the New
Testament, it is expressed in the words: ‘Except ye become as little children ye
cannot enter the Kingdom of heaven.’ For what appears as the highest ideal
to man when the foregoing has been accepted as true? Certainly this: to draw
ever nearer and nearer to that which we can call a conscious relationship to
the forces which work unconsciously on the child during the first years of this
childhood.” The saying has manifold meanings, says Rudolf Steiner in another
place,111 where he speaks of becoming as little children and he has given an
explanation of it, but always pointing to the impulses which lead man into the
spiritual world.
111
1/3 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “Life of the Soul in Kamaloka,” August 24, 1906]; 30/6
[EXCURSUS ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK, March 7, 1911].
XXXIV.
THINKING, MEDITATING, SEEING
It will have become clear from the previous Studies that, if we wish to consider
it from a human point of view, the activity of the Hierarchies is extraordinarily
complicated. The following Leading Thoughts show still further the fact that
the activities of the Hierarchies are interpenetrating. Indeed, the highest beings
work down through all the other kingdoms as far as to the lowest kingdoms
of nature. For instance, Rudolf Steiner says in the seventh lecture of Genesis:
The Secrets of the Bible Story of Creation, “It is necessary to become familiar
with such thoughts as the following; that it can happen that very exalted and
sublime beings approach us in our immediate surroundings, though these are
often regarded by us as very lowly.” From out of nature, the power of such
beings enters man and his principles with which he participates in the life of
nature.
There now follow three groups of Leading Thoughts which belong together,
72 to 75, 76 to 78, 79 to 81; we can, in a certain sense, combine their contents.
The outer expression of the group 72 to 75 is formed in a way that has the effect
of disclosing, by means of thinking, the activity of the higher Hierarchies. Here,
we can look back to the beginning of our Study XXXI where the significance
of such a conclusion was evident; we then come to the point at which man tries
to raise himself above the merely given; this is a first step toward overcoming
the illusions of everyday consciousness. The next step, however, must be the
forming of true representations of the spiritual reality to which man wishes to
raise himself. With regard to the higher Hierarchies, this second step is intimated
in the group of Leading Thoughts 76 to 78. The third step is then a spiritual
approach as we are told in the group of Leading Thoughts 79 to 81. These three
steps can be expressed in accordance with words emphasized by Rudolf Steiner
for his book Von Menschenraetsel,112 “Thinking, Meditating and Seeing.”
72. As soon as we approach the higher members of man’s being — the
etheric, the astral body and the Ego-organization — we are obliged to
seek for man’s relation to the beings of the spiritual kingdoms. It is only
112
Extracts published as THE CASE FOR ANTHROPOSOPHY.
147
the physical body’s organization which we can illumine by reference to

the three physical kingdoms of Nature.
73. In the etheric body the Intelligence of the Cosmos becomes
embodied in the human being. That this can happen, requires the activity
of cosmic Beings, who, in their combined working, shape the etheric body
of man, even as the physical forces shape the physical.
74. In the astral body the spiritual world implants the moral impulses
into the human being. That these can show forth their life in man’s
Organization, depends on the activity of Beings who are able not only to
think the Spiritual, but to shape it in its reality.
75. In the Ego-organization man experiences himself, even in the
physical body, as a Spirit. That this can happen, requires the activity of
Beings who themselves, as spiritual Beings, live in the physical world.
Thinking, as it is presented in these Leading Thoughts, could be taken as still
another new beginning. The three physical kingdoms of nature can throw light
on the physical bodily organization. This is a starting point of science. By its very
methods, it contains intelligence within itself. In considering man scientifically,
if we direct our attention to the intelligence, we turn with our thinking to the
etheric body. This line of thought arose in a similar way in our first Studies.
Now, with regard to the ruling of the intelligence, it presupposes the activity of
cosmic beings in a purely spiritual world, whom we had come to know as those
of the third Hierarchy (Leading Thought 73). The nature of intelligence is still
only an abstraction to man. Moral impulses, mentioned in Leading Thought
74, are nearer to his own being, although much harder to see through than the
impulses of intelligence. The astral body is that principle of the human being in
which these impulses dwell (Study XIII); they point to foundations which were
wrought by beings of the second Hierarchy in the etheric world. His own being,
as spirit, stands nearest to the thinking man; it is he himself, and, nevertheless,
is the most closely veiled of all. Its foundations in the physical world have been
wrought by the beings of the first Hierarchy (Leading Thought 75).
If we pass from thinking to meditating, we find in Leading Thoughts 76 to
78 how we can make mental pictures of the higher Hierarchies:
76. To call forth an idea of the First Hierarchy (Seraphim, Cherubim
and Thrones) we must try to create pictures in which the Spiritual — i.e.
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that which can be beheld only in the Supersensible — reveals its working,
in forms that come to manifestation in the world of sense. Spiritual being,
portrayed in sense-perceptible imagery: such must be the content of our
thoughts about the First Hierarchy.
77. To call forth an idea of the Second Hierarchy (Kyriotetes, Dynamis,
Exusiai) we must try to create pictures in which the Spiritual reveals
itself — not in sense-perceptible forms — but in a purely spiritual way.
Spiritual being, portrayed not in sense-perceptible but in purely spiritual
imagery: such must be the content of our thoughts about the Second
Hierarchy.
78. To call forth an idea of the Third Hierarchy (Archai, Archangeloi,
Angeloi) we must try to create pictures in which the Spiritual reveals itself
not in sense-perceptible forms, nor yet in a purely spiritual way, but in
the way in which Thinking, Feeling and Willing come to expression in
the human soul. Spiritual being, portrayed in the imagery of a life of soul:
such must be the content of our thoughts about the Third Hierarchy.
Representations, thoughts on which we can reflect are different from all that
we have previously learned to know as the remnants of sense perceptions. Here,
moreover, we are concerned with the way in which it is possible to approach the
beings of the higher Hierarchies through meditation. In Leading Thoughts 76
to 78, Rudolf Steiner shows what kinds of meditation can lead to this goal. In
Leading Thought 76, we proceed from the highest beings, from those of the first
Hierarchy, while previously and also later the path leads from below upward.
The way to meditate upon the highest beings is to picture a spiritual reality in
sensible imagery. If we seek for imagery of this kind, the human countenance can
rise before us with a sublime, cosmic expression raised to the highest divinity.
Such imagery can awaken the sensation that we are rising to the creative primal
cause, in the image of which man is created.
Leading Thought 77 points to the path of meditation leading to the beings
of the second Hierarchy; a spiritual reality not in sensible but in purely spiritual
imagery. Here we can feel ourselves impelled to dwell reflectively on the great
ideals of humanity as the stream of life which flows through the world, in
truth, love, goodness. The fundamental mood is indicated by means of the
word. According to Leading Thought 78, we are led to the beings of the third
Hierarchy by paths of meditation, in which the soul reflects in an imagery which
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manifests in the same manner as thinking, feeling and willing in the human
soul. Meditation here becomes a transformation of these soul activities: the
overcoming of egoism in thinking, feeling and willing leads to a spiritual reality
in soul imagery, to a spiritual reverence which lays hold of the soul.
There are now added in the following Leading Thoughts 79 to 81, the
results of seeing the spiritual approach to the Hierarchies.
79. Spiritually, we can approach the Third Hierarchy (Archai,
Archangeloi, Angeloi) by learning to know Thinking, Feeling and Willing,
so as to perceive in them the Spiritual that works in the soul. Thinking,
to begin with, places not an effective reality, but only pictures into the
world. Feeling lives and moves in this realm of pictures; bears witness to
the presence of a reality in man, but cannot live it or express it outwardly.
Willing unfolds a reality which presupposes the existence of the body
but does not consciously assist in its formation. The spiritual reality that
lives in our Thinking, to make the body the foundation of this Thinking;
the spiritual reality that lives in our Feeling, to make the body share in
the experience of a reality; the spiritual reality that lives in our Willing,
consciously to assist in fashioning the body — all this is alive in the Third
Hierarchy.
80. Spiritually, we can approach the Second Hierarchy (Exusiai,
Dynamis, Kyriotetes) by awakening to see the facts of Nature as the
manifestations of spiritual being that indwells them. The Second Hierarchy
then has Nature for its dwelling-place, there to work upon the souls.
81. Spiritually, we can approach the First Hierarchy (Seraphim,
Cherubim, Thrones) by awakening to see the facts that confront us in
the kingdom of Nature and of Man as the deeds (creations) of spiritual
being that is working in them. The First Hierarchy then has the kingdom
of Nature and of Man as the outcome of its work, wherein it unfolds its
Being.
Here man sees the beings of the higher Hierarchies at their work. Living
spirit works at the thinking, feeling and willing of man, giving these soul
activities a basis even in the body. Rudolf Steiner’s investigations, which he had
communicated in several lecture Cycles,113 are in accordance with this. The work
113
4/3 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The Kingdoms of Nature. Group-egos. The Centre of Man. The
Kingdoms of Higher Spiritual Beings,” August 6, 1908], 7/6 [THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES AND
150
of the Angels is on the individual man; they accompany him through his repeated
earth lives, rule in a particular way in his thinking and help him transform his
astral body. The Archangels rule in nations and races,114 they largely determine
the feeling which men have in common, while they give a higher tone to the
thinking of the individual man (this must be distinguished from the fact that
feeling owes its origin to the creation of the second Hierarchy); they help man in
the transformation of his etheric body. The Spirits of Personality rule as spirits
of the age in whole epochs;115 they determine in a particular way the will which
men have in common, while they impress the higher will impulses of the epoch
on the thinking of the individual man; they help him in all that raises him even
in his physical body above nation and race.
The beings of the second Hierarchy penetrate still more deeply; we see in
Leading Thought 80 how they give shape to the facts of nature in order to
influence souls through nature. In this connection, we can think of a way in
which the soul of man is implanted in the threefold organism, according to
Study XVI. The soul supports itself in a threefold way on the body (head-,
rhythmic-, metabolic-system) and is supported in a threefold way by the spirit.
When, however, in accordance with Leading Thoughts 81, we see the creations
of spirit in the realms of nature and of man, we can realize how nature and man
are related to each other in their destiny. That is the work of the beings of the
first Hierarchy; they are the Lords of Karma.
THEIR REFLECTION IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD, April 15, 1909], 30/6 [EXCURSUS ON THE
GOSPEL OF ST. MARK, March 7, 1911].
114
April 5, 1912].
115
5/2 [EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “The Reflection of Cosmic Events in the Religious Views of
Men,” September 3, 1908].
XXXV. UNDER MICHAEL’S BANNER
The Leading Thoughts which now follow bring our Studies of the higher
Hierarchies to a conclusion that is of deep significance. The starry world and the
earth reveal the deeds of spiritual beings to sense perception. The contemplative
man himself stands on the earth in the midst of the three kingdoms of nature.
But in order to be able to understand the forces which play into him and the
kingdoms of nature from the spiritual beings, he needs a spiritually-oriented
knowledge of the starry worlds. Thus, these beings of the higher Hierarchies
likewise conceal themselves behind their deeds.
82. Man looks upward to the worlds of stars; what is there presented
to his senses is but the outer manifestation of those Spirit-beings — and
their deeds — of whom we have spoken as the Beings of the spiritual
kingdoms or Hierarchies.
83. The Earth is the scene of action of the three Nature kingdoms and
of the human kingdom, inasmuch as these make manifest the outward
and sensible glory of the activity of spiritual Beings.
84. The forces, working from spiritual Beings into the earthly kingdoms
of Nature and into the kingdom of Man, are revealed to the human Spirit
in the true — that is, the spiritual — knowledge of the starry worlds.
We can go a step further. The whole earth, with its creations, including
man, was formed out of the cosmos, but one part of the creative principle was
born in man; thus, not only the natural connection between earth and cosmos,
perceptible to the senses appears as given, but the spiritual association between
earth and cosmos in the activity of the spiritual beings also makes itself felt
on the stage of the inner being of man. Here, a new light falls on one of our
previous Studies. In Study XXII, we find: “The activity of the sense organs still
belongs entirely to nature. It shapes the sense organs and looks into them as
into a mirror. Man’s being, which stands behind the sense organs, is a spectator
of this process of nature between the sense organs and the effects on them from
without (eye and light!). But, in this process, nature draws to herself the human
spirit which has separated itself from the spirit of nature; this she lures to herself
along the paths of sense perception. Sense knowledge is achieved by means of
152
the object; the being of man experiences itself as given up to the object: Man’s
knowledge of nature is the self-knowledge of nature.” Now, since the power of
the Hierarchies has been shown to us in the work of nature, we can, with some
degree of audacity, call the cooperation of these beings in the domain of the
inner being of man a part of the self-knowledge of the Hierarchies.
Thus, the beings of the Hierarchies dwell in man. The answer to the
question in Study XXXI of how the beings of the Hierarchies inhabit man
and the world will assume an ever more intimate form. In proportion to man’s
approach to true self-knowledge, he will be released from the creative activity
of the higher Hierarchies and begin to build a new Hierarchy. Before true self-
knowledge appears in man, the activity of the higher Hierarchies is concealed
behind his own being, and also in his inner self. Accordingly, it is shown, in the
following groups of Leading Thoughts, how the beings of the third Hierarchy
are concealed behind the waking-day consciousness, the beings of the second
Hierarchy behind the dream consciousness and the beings of the first Hierarchy
behind the dreamless sleep-consciousness of man. The same thing is apparent
in further groups of Leading Thoughts for the other relationships of the human
soul: thinking, feeling, willing; also, for the relationships of life between birth
and death, between death and new birth and for the carrying over of earlier
lives into later ones. In short, the whole of man’s being which, in our previous
Studies of the Leading Thoughts, we have learned to know in its various forms
as phenomena of inner experience and actions, shows itself here to be veils of
the Hierarchies.
Expressed in this way, however, this only holds true until the coming of
the new age. There then appears the mission of Michael in the relationship
of man to the beings of the Hierarchies and, if we carefully consider Rudolf
Steiner’s investigations with regard to this, we can immediately discover that
all our previous knowledge is connected with Michael’s work. This is the right
approach to Michael: to tread the path of knowledge courageously and then, at
decisive moments, to become aware of his cooperation. That can be experienced
as an assent of Michael. In order to gain certain conviction with regard to this,
it will be good to consider the whole series of Letters which Rudolf Steiner has
dedicated to Michael’s mission. In this way, the following groups of Leading
Thoughts also obtain their own special interpretation.
Rudolf Steiner only began in his last years to disclose more clearly the
153
activity of Michael and we may recognize this as a sign of the fact that his work
had taken root in the hearts of men to such an extent that it could resound as
though they themselves had given expression to it in freedom. In this age, that
can only lead to a true service of Michael if we follow Rudolf Steiner as he
guides the consciousness of today toward the independent experience of the
spiritual. Indeed, when looking back, we notice much that he indicated in a
more general way with regard to Michael, and we can see clearly today how
he has brought on the path to Michael all that he has himself first gained in
freedom. For example, take the following which is summarized from the fifth
lecture of Thoughts For the Times: When the Maid of Orleans (1429-1430)
rescued the mission of the West, it was Michael who, as the messenger of Christ,
had brought about this impulse through the gentlest, most subtle forces of the
human soul, apart from an understanding of the learned. That was before he
had again taken over the leadership of the Age (since November 1879). In earlier
times, impulses were given through dreams in which the leading spiritual beings
concealed themselves (compare the fifth lecture of Christ and the Spiritual
World: The Search For the Holy Grail). But the great change consisted in this:
that, henceforth, the guiding spirit influences the waking consciousness. Thus,
Michael works not only spiritually but also on the physical understanding, on
physical reason; because of this, Rudolf Steiner, in the passage cited, compares
Michael with gold which, alone of all the metals, has a medicinal effect like the
sun, not only on the etheric but on the physical body as well.
In this connection, Rudolf Steiner speaks of the spiritualizing of the human
conceptual faculty and of the power of representation; therefore, he points again
and again to the possibility of really grasping in its entirety with understanding,
with reason, all that spiritual science brings. This understanding, this reason,
have been imparted to humanity since the 16th Century. This is the task, the
duty, of our age for it is the way by which these powers of understanding and
grasping change into a higher faculty of knowledge. Michael also lays hold of
the will where it is least inclined really to unfold its forces, that is, in the earthly
forces of representation. Hence, the passage in one of the Letters: “Today,
the important point is to raise, through training, everything of the nature of
understanding and reason into clairvoyance.”
Under Michael’s banner, we are concerned with striving to explain thinking.
To this end, Rudolf Steiner has provided all the conditions and necessary
154
equipment. But the point is not only to know these explanations but to really
practice them and carry them out. For this reason, the necessity for exercising
thought is maintained with regard to all that Rudolf Steiner tells us, even when
he leads us up into the highest realms of existence. This is the purpose of our
work. Thus, in his Letters, he now connects the thought problems with Michael
in a way that enables us to gain the strongest impulses for the history of
humanity and the individual human being, the actuality of which comes before
us daily and hourly. The following proposes to summarize in brief outline some
thoughts from the first two Letters about Michael, supplemented by much that
Rudolf Steiner puts before us in detail in lectures which he gave at the same time
at the Goetheanum.
The thoughts to be experienced as cosmic spiritual power were originally
with the Gods; they thought them into man. Michael was the regent of the cosmic
intelligence. “From the 9th Century onward, men ceased to have a sense that
their thoughts were inspired by Michael. Thoughts had fallen from Michael’s
dominion, and sunk from the spiritual world into the individual souls.” In his
Riddles of Philosophy, Rudolf Steiner has described this fact by the experience
of thought itself. If we can actually experience this description of the history
of human consciousness, in an inner repetition of this course of evolution, we
shall be able, on the paths of thought, to make our souls receptive, so that they
may grasp, out of present-day forces, the spiritually vital aspect of this historical
process. Thereby, the man of today becomes a co-worker in the affairs of the
higher Hierarchies. In keeping with this, Rudolf Steiner, in his Dornach lectures,
has revealed how, at the time of the Council of Constantinople (869 A.D.), the
desertion of the companions and servants of Michael took place in the spiritual
world. The passing over of the intelligence from Michael to individual men is
the desertion of the angelic beings who, as guides of individual men, turned
from Michael, the ruler of the sun, to the earth.
In the earthly history of the spirit, we then have the battle of the Nominalists
and Realists: “The Realists wanted to remain loyal to Michael; even though
thoughts had fallen from his domain into that of men, they still wanted, as
thinkers, to continue in the service of Michael, as the prince of the intelligence
of the cosmos.” Thus, Michael himself preserved loyalty to the sun from which
his companions among the archangelic beings had turned away. Although the
sun as cosmic being was blemished by sun spots, he undertook to kindle an
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inner sun in the hearts of men. Here, the significance of Leading Thoughts 82 to
84 becomes intelligible, that is, that a spiritual knowledge of the starry worlds
reveals earthly events. In contrast to this, thinking with the head developed
from Nominalism in the course of the centuries. Only Rudolf Steiner’s victory
over materialism by means of thought enables the human soul to force its way
through to a new realism of spiritual experience.
XXXVI.
WHAT IS CONCEALED AND REVEALED
IN WAKING, DREAMING AND SLEEPING
In the Letters to which reference was made in the previous Study, we may be
particularly struck by the way in which Michael frees thoughts from the realm
of the head and prepares their path to the heart. This path is found when the
thoughts glow with enthusiasm. In his books, and by word of mouth, Rudolf
Steiner has often pointed to the inner warmth that accompanies the experience
of thoughts and yet again and again, we meet with views which throw thoughts
of the heart and of the head into one vessel. Expressed historically, that is
nothing else but confounding Nominalism with Realism. But we must be deeply
conscious that the passage through Nominalism, the fall into materialism
nevertheless signifies progress. While the view of this age was thus limited to
the external physical world, there arose within the soul as experience, a purified
self-sustaining spirituality of man.” ... “Thought construction lost itself for
a while in the material of the cosmos; it must find itself again in the cosmic
spirit.” That is Michael himself; but, in order that, through him, this tremendous
advance of free thought life may be accomplished, the cooperation of man is
needed. “That man’s Ideas should not remain thinking only, but in thinking
become seeing is a fact on which immeasurably much depends.”
From the foregoing considerations, it follows that of all the beings of the
higher Hierarchies who conceal themselves behind the human soul life, Michael
is the first who reveals himself; for the path by which he is to be reached is found
by training our thinking. He rules, as Rudolf Steiner has often said, in a sphere
which is only separated by a thin wall from the consciousness of man. The door
to him must be burst open by thinking; then the other doors of the human soul
open as though by themselves, when the work begun in thinking is continued
in accordance with its own force. In the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, we
find in Chapter 8: “If we turn toward the essential nature of thinking, we find
in it both feeling and will and both of these in the depth of their reality. If
we turn away from thinking toward mere feeling and willing, they lose for us
their genuine reality.” How these paths relating to the higher Hierarchies can be
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trodden as a soul exercise is shown in the following group of Leading Thoughts.

We found in the previous Study that the whole of man appears as a veil of
spiritual beings; but, through the fact that man permeates himself with Michael’s
impulses, he can reach his cosmic goals. If ne neglects this opportunity, the
beings of the higher Hierarchies strive to reach their cosmic goals in the realm
of the human soul life, and all that is unfit for this purpose falls to Lucifer
and Ahriman. We can also point to kindred passages in which Rudolf Steiner
speaks of the fact that man, in attaining his cosmic goals, performs, at the same
time, a deed for the redemption of Lucifer. This is expressed in very pregnant
words in the tenth lecture of The Spiritual Hierarchies and Their Reflection in
the Physical World: “Man will redeem Lucifer if he receives the Christ force in
the right way.”116 But Michael is the messenger of Christ.117 He appeals to the
forces of man’s consciousness which are fully awake. This Michael Age guides
the drama of the evolution of humanity in one way or another to its turning
point (compare Study XXIX). Here we are reminded of the drawing suited to
our time which Rudolf Steiner made years ago:118
descent
re-ascent
of man
turning-point
our age
overthrow into
the abyss
116
See also 12/11 [THE MANIFESTATION OF KARMA, May 28, 1910].
117
39/5 [THOUGHTS FOR THE TIMES, “The Nature of the Christ Impulse and Michael Serving It-2,”
January 19, 1915].
118
6/7 [THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN, June 24, 1908].
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Our age is that of being awake. That is the starting point of the next groups
of Leading Thoughts, 85 to 87 and 88 to 90, which are closely connected, as are
also those that follow:
85. It is in the waking day-consciousness that man experiences himself
to begin with, during the present cosmic age. This experience conceals
from him the fact that in this waking state the Third Hierarchy is present
in his experience.
86. In the dream-consciousness man experiences, in a chaotic way, his
own being unharmoniously united with the Spirit-being of the world.
When the Imaginative Consciousness is realized as the other pole of the
dream-consciousness, man becomes aware that the Second Hierarchy is
present in his experience.
87. In dreamless sleep-consciousness man experiences, all unconsciously,
his own being united with the Spirit-being of the World. When the Inspired
Consciousness is realized as the other pole of the sleep-consciousness,
man becomes aware that the First Hierarchy is present in his experience.
The following Leading Thoughts belong to these:
88. In the waking day-consciousness man experiences himself, during
the present cosmic age, standing in the midst of the physical world. This
experience conceals from him the presence, within his being, of the effects
of a life between death and birth.
89. In dream-consciousness man experiences, in a chaotic way, his
own being unharmoniously united with the spiritual being of the world.
The waking consciousness cannot seize the real content of the dream-
consciousness. To the Imaginative and Inspired Consciousness it is
revealed how the Spirit-world through which man lives between death
and birth is helping to build up his inner being.
90. In dreamless sleep-consciousness man experiences, all unconsciously,
his own being permeated with the results of past earthly lives. The Inspired
and Intuitive Consciousness penetrates to a clear vision of these results,
and sees the working of former earthly lives in the destined course — the
Karma — of the present.
In these two groups of Leading Thoughts (85 to 87 and 88 to 90), the
fact that they belong together is especially striking, for the individual sentences
159
begin with the same wording. We shall best grasp the meaning of this important
change if we concentrate upon the difference in the Leading Thoughts which
otherwise correspond. Leading Thoughts 85 and 88 deal with the waking-
day consciousness. This takes its course in sense perception and in thinking, a
polarity to which Rudolf Steiner points again and again, and which we have
often brought into our Studies; to the ordinary consciousness, this signifies the
contrast between inner and outer being. Therein lies and the difference between
the two groups of Leading Thoughts. Thinking itself draws the line.
In Leading Thought 85, we find, “In the waking day-consciousness, man
experiences himself to begin with, during the present cosmic age.” If we emphasize
the word himself slightly, we have, by this means, the inner experience which,
in thinking, is turned toward itself. Thus, in his experience, it is really thinking
which, in truth, veils the third Hierarchy from man. If we pass on to Leading
Thought 88, we have the same wording at first but then we have the continuation
“standing in the midst of the physical world.” That is the other side of the
polarity of the waking-day consciousness, the world of sense perceptions, the
experiencing of which conceals from man “the presence within his own being
of the effects of a life between death and birth.”
The corresponding Leading Thoughts 86 and 89 are concerned with dream-
consciousness. The wording again is the same in both for the first part; in the
following passage, they differ to begin with, inasmuch as, in Leading Thought
86, Imagination and, in 89, Imagination and Inspiration are added. Imagination
is called the other pole of dream consciousness; imagery is common to both. But,
in addition, it is said, in Leading Thought 86, that Imaginative consciousness can
take its place in contrast to dream-consciousness. Therewith, there is established
for the dream, a relationship similar to that pertaining to the waking of ordinary
consciousness. That then signifies being awake in contrast to dreaming, and this
is the consciousness of the second Hierarchy. Exactly the same thing can be said
with regard to Leading Thought 87. There, Inspired consciousness appears in
contrast to sleep consciousness as its other pole. Here, we see waking in contrast
to sleep-consciousness, and this is the consciousness of the first Hierarchy.
In Leading Thought 89, it is said that the waking consciousness (namely,
the usual!) cannot grasp the content of this dream consciousness. As we saw,
Imagination brings about waking in contrast to dreaming. According to Leading
Thought 86, this new waking bears no content as yet; this is only disclosed
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when Inspiration is added; and, indeed, this content or the object is something
which, to the ordinary consciousness, is inner life; life between death and birth
is concerned with the molding of this inner life and also with that of the outer
life, as was shown in Leading Thought 88.
The same line of thought holds for Leading Thought 90, according to
Leading Thought 87, waking in contrast to dreamless sleep is supplemented
by Intuition, which affords the sight of the effects of earlier earthly lives on
the present life in the course of destiny. In the words sight and effect, there is
again found a corresponding polarity as counterpart to the ordinary waking-
consciousness.
It is not easy to follow such complicated connections with our thinking; we
will try to summarize them in a diagram for which, naturally, the same holds
true as for all previous diagrammatic illustrations, namely, that they signify
nothing as such, but are only meant to be exercises.
Inner-being Outer-being
Waking Leading Thought 85 Leading Thought 88
Dreaming Leading Thought 86 Leading Thought 89
Sleeping Leading Thought 87 Leading Thought 90
If thus in the inner experience of thinking, new springs well up, then the
Michael-impulse is on the path of supersensible knowledge.
XXXVII.
WHAT DOES THE WILL
CONCEAL AND REVEAL?
The two groups of leading thoughts, 85 to 87 and 88 to 90, clearly originate

from waking day-consciousness. If we notice the emphasis laid on these words,
two questions can emerge: is there also a sleeping day-consciousness? and: is
there a waking night-consciousness? We can know that there are such. The
waking night-consciousness can be recognized as the higher stages of knowledge:
Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition. The sleeping day-consciousness is the will.
The two following groups of Leading Thoughts, like the preceding ones, are
closely connected; they deal with the will, what it conceals and what it can
reveal:
91. The Will enters the ordinary consciousness, in the present cosmic
age, only through Thought. Now in this consciousness we always have
to take our start from something sense-perceptible. Thus, even of our
own Will, we apprehend only what passes from it into the world of sense
perceptions. In the ordinary consciousness it is only by observation of
himself in thought that man is aware of his Will-impulses, just as it is only
by observation that he is aware of the outer world.
92. The Karma that works in the Will is a property belonging to it
from former lives on Earth. This constituent of the Will cannot therefore
be apprehended with the ideas of our ordinary sense-existence, which are
directed only to the present earthly life.
93. Because they are unable to take hold of Karma, these ideas refer
what is unintelligible to them in man’s impulses of Will to the mystic
darkness of the bodily constitution, whereas in reality it is the working of
past earthly lives.
94. With the ordinary life in ideas transmitted through the senses, man
is in the physical world. For this world to enter his consciousness, Karma
must be silent in his thinking life. In his life of ideation, man as it were
forgets his Karma.
95. In the manifestations of the Will, Karma works itself out. But its
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working remains in the unconscious. By lifting to conscious Imagination

what works unconsciously in the Will, Karma is apprehended. Man feels
his destiny within him.
96. When Inspiration and Intuition enter the Imagination, then, beside
the impulses of the present, the outcome of former earthly lives becomes
perceptible in the working of the Will. The past life is revealed, working
itself out in the present.
In the previous Study, the expression outer being was used and, by that
was meant our presence in the physical world; this will now be considered in
relation to its bearer. It is the will which upholds us in the physical world; but,
to our ordinary consciousness, our will only makes its appearance by means
of representation (Leading Thought 91). In the fifteenth lecture of The Gospel
of St. Matthew, Rudolf Steiner has put this immensely important knowledge
before us as follows, “I have often called your attention to the fact that with
regard to our limb-man we sleep, while with regard to our head we wake.
And our will really works as though it were asleep. We have only the picture
or representation of all that our will carries out. No one, when he carries into
effect the representation, I move my hand, is conscious of how this is connected
with all his organism. This is as subconscious as the processes of sleep.” The
perception of such a movement belongs to the sense world, to the outer being
of man, and is represented with the help of the physical body; the movement
can only be proved by means of our ability to represent when the act of will
which has induced the movement already belongs to the past. This past has
permanence in the will; it is capability, a quality which can never be grasped in
representations of the ordinary consciousness (Leading Thought 93). And that
is still not all, but the ordinary life of representation has to remain silent with
regard to this. “In this life of representation, man as it were forgets his karma.”
(Leading Thought 94). All that is attached to the will from the past is karma for
the present earth life.
That the word forget occurs here, and is printed in bold italics in Leading
Thought 94, must be an important reminder for us. Rudolf Steiner once gave
a whole lecture on the subject of forgetting (The Being of Man and His Future
Evolution, lecture 4). Through forgetting, all that belongs to the past becomes
capability. To forget means to carry through the spiritual world. We forget the
separate experiences by means of which we learn to write in our childhood,
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but we can write.119 So that what was before this earth life must be forgotten
in order that the capabilities then arising, of a purely spiritual nature, can have
their effect on waking life. That happens on a large scale during the life after
death until that turning point which Rudolf Steiner has so powerfully described
as the midnight hour of existence, especially in his Mystery Play The Soul’s
Awakening. There, forgetting is a cosmic exercise belonging to the transition
from experiencing to creating,120 and a second act of forgetting takes place
before birth into a new earth life.
Through imagination, the forgotten awakes to new consciousness. Rudolf
Steiner repeatedly compares the path of meditation, which leads to Imagination,
with remembering.121 Thus, in the summary contained in Study XXX, we find
the two sentences, “Conscious forgetting leads to meditation” and “Conscious
remembering leads to Imagination.” Meditation imitates the passage through the
spiritual world after death; Imagination corresponds to the awakening in a new
world. Rudolf Steiner once described this somewhat as follows: Imagination
arises like a memory, but while the memory brings before the consciousness
something that was once a direct experience, Imagination is such that no
previous experience corresponds to the emerging picture. Here, we must clearly
differentiate between Leading Thoughts 95 and 96. Imagination lifts into our
present experience what really belongs to the past, not, however, to the past of
this earth life, for then it would be memory but to earlier earth lives. Moreover,
in addition to this it must be said that memory also is not simply a looking
back at something which has passed, as it appears to be; it is a present act of
perception, a new experience, that perceives the changes which, through past
experience, have taken place in the human organism, especially in the etheric
body.
The Imagination of that which works unconsciously in the will gives us the
pictures of the karma which is at work. “Man feels his destiny with him” (Leading
Thought 95). In order to experience in our karma the results of previous earth
lives as such, Inspiration and Intuition must enter into the Imagination (Leading
Thought 96), exactly as we saw previously in Leading Thoughts 89 and 90. This
119
See, for example, Rudolf Steiner’s THEOSOPHY Chapter 2.
120
29/8 [THE SECRETS OF THE THRESHOLD, August 31, 1913].
121
32/2 [THE INNER NATURE OF MAN AND THE LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH, “The
Vision of the Ideal Human Being,” April 10, 1914].
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process remains hidden from the consciousness which can only make mental
pictures, and it is concerned with the sleeping day-consciousness about which we
inquired earlier. For this reason, it is also entirely misinterpreted by the ordinary
consciousness and the science of today. Leading Thought 93 also speaks of this.
The faculty of representing can only grasp the sense-perceptible effects of the
will; those are the movements of the physical body. Schopenhauer, not without
justification, but in a one-sided way, has linked these two together and therewith
framed his title The World as Will and Representation. Since present-day science
cannot look back beyond this earth life into pre-earthly life and earlier earth
lives, it also seeks for the causal element of the will in the present life of the
body. It is to psychoanalysis that Rudolf Steiner points in Leading Thought 93.
This speaks, for instance, of suppressed representations which have a disturbing
effect in the subconscious region of the bodily constitution and act like will.
Rudolf Steiner has often pointed to this in his lectures.
The way in which Rudolf Steiner, in these last groups of Leading Thoughts,
points to the Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition can throw special light on
the relationship of these higher kinds of knowledge to each other and to the
knowledge of ordinary consciousness. In the first place, we will express this
only in an aphoristic way:
Inspiration is related to Imagination as Imagination is to ordinary
consciousness.
Intuition is related to Inspiration as Inspiration is to Imagination.
The difference between these thoughts and those given previously about
thinking, feeling and willing lies in the fact that they are connected with the
working of the higher Hierarchies and with Michael’s mission, which will be
defined ever more and more clearly. It is indeed the power of the beings of the
higher Hierarchies which is concealed behind these soul activities. But Michael
is the first who is ready to reveal himself. Thus, when we see all this as a whole,
we shall be able to understand that it is the beings of the higher Hierarchies who
lead man from one earth life into another, who transform the deeds of his earlier
earth lives on earth into karma, his experiences into capabilities and who, in a
new earth life, lead him to his karma. That is all effected in a man’s life whether
he himself knows anything of it or not. But the day has dawned in which man
should know something of these things. Anthroposophy is this knowledge. The
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forces, which carry waking into the night-consciousness as well, are developed
from the waking day-consciousness and, therefore, it is within these activities of
the higher Hierarchies that man begins to become free.
Herein lies the responsibility of anthroposophical teaching. The further back
we go in the history of human consciousness, the more decidedly was humanity
guided through influence on unconscious forces. In proportion to the knowledge
which is obtained concerning the guidance of man and humanity by those who
are being guided, that same kind of guidance can no longer be continued. In
olden times, this knowledge was kept strictly secret. Now the time has come
when men, through this knowledge, withdraw themselves from higher guidance.
Knowing brings freedom and imposes responsibility. In this freedom, Michael is
the leader but he does not lead according to the old methods through working
on the unconscious, but through knowledge coming from consciousness. That
is the growing freedom of man.
XXXVIII.
CONCERNING MORAL FANTASY
The distinction between thinking, feeling and willing has already thrown
light on many particulars. In philosophy this distinction is not yet old. In his
Riddles of Philosophy, Rudolf Steiner ascribes it to Nicolaus Tetens, who first
touched upon it in the psychological sense about the turn of the 18th and 19th
centuries. That thinking has to permeate itself with willing in order that it can
come to life again, we have seen in various connections since Study XVIII; this
claim already appears in Leading Thought 12. Further, we found that, in the
ascent into higher worlds, thinking is completely changed into willing and vice
versa. Some details about this are to be found in our Study XII. In another
connection in Study XXIX, we found occasion to speak of feeling, insofar as it
clarifies the logical distinctions in thinking. We also have an intimation that we
should aim at restoring life to concepts which have become rigid by once more
interrelating what has hitherto been separated (Study XVIII).
But something else takes place in the following groups of Leading Thoughts.
There, man is once more fundamentally integrated out of all the differentiations
previously considered, that is to say, he is restored to a unity, before the great
cosmic-historic connections are carried further.
97. For a cruder description it is permissible to say: Thinking, Feeling
and Willing live in the soul of man. For greater refinement we must add:
Thinking always contains a substratum of Feeling and Willing; Feeling a
substratum of Thinking and Willing; Willing a substratum of Thinking
and Feeling. In the life of thought, however, Thinking predominates; in
the life of feeling, Feeling predominates; and in the life of will, Willing
predominates over the other contents of the soul.
98. The Feeling and Willing of the life of Thought contain the karmic
outcome of past lives on Earth. The Thinking and Willing of the life
of Feeling karmically determine the man’s character. The Thinking and
Feeling of the life of Will tear the present earthly life away from Karmic
connections.
99. In the Feeling and Willing of Thinking man lives out his Karma of
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the past; in the Thinking and Feeling of Willing he prepares his Karma of
the future.
Looked at thus, we see how all the activities of the human being, of nature
and of the Hierarchies mutually interpenetrate and, with regard to cosmic
events, man himself is placed in the center. The significance of this process will
be revealed more clearly as we go further. In the first place, we must see how the
intimate interpenetration of thinking, feeling and willing must bring about nine
different combinations which are contained in the working of karma.
By denoting thinking, feeling and willing as a, b and c we can present the
nine combinations as follows:
Thinking Feeling Willing

Thinking a in a b in a c in a
Feeling a in b b in b c in b
Willing a in c b in c c in c
a in a signifies thinking in thinking; that is, according to Study XXX, the
substance of the third Hierarchy and of Imagination. Similarly, according to the
same passage, b in b is feeling in feeling, the substance of the second Hierarchy
and of Inspiration; c in c is willing in willing, the substance of the first Hierarchy
and of Intuition. That is represented diagonally in our diagram. Thus, do the
Hierarchies penetrate man, passing through his soul. The other combinations
also signify the harmony of the work of the Hierarchies in the human soul
although, here, too, we must seek forms which are apparently abstract and
categorical; the same holds true for them for the special task put before us in
Study XVIII; this task was bequeathed to us by Rudolf Steiner, viz. the freeing
of the ideas.
Feeling in thinking, b in a, is the substance of logic, the inner connection of
concepts and ideas, a sphere in which nothing can remain permanently isolated.
With the help of this substance, of a kind of elective affinity, it is possible to
arrive at any concept from an other; it is like the lifeblood of thinking; we can
also say the inspiration of thinking. Willing in thinking, c in a, is the substance
of conformity to law. The active element here, we called the idea of causality
or, we can now say, the intuition of thinking. Feeling and willing in thinking
are thus easily comprehensible as the experience and working of karma but as
168
it were in retrospect, because they reveal themselves in thinking. Thinking is

always directed toward the past. This is expressed in Leading Thoughts 98 and
99.
We can continue in the same way and define thinking in the feeling life, a
in b. Ideas which live in the feeling, we call the ideals of the heart. Through the
heart ideas become ideals. In his book How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher
World, Rudolf Steiner speaks of this and shows how awakening it is for the
soul to transform ideas into ideals. Willing in the feeling life, c in b, presents
itself to us as the substance of the heart’s morality. This activity of the good
heart and idealism, according to Leading Thought 98, determine the character
karmically, but also in a negative way if they are lacking. Finally, in dealing with
thinking and feeling in willing, a in c and b in c, we can seek for something
corresponding to the foregoing. Let us think of the goals and purposes of action
as Rudolf Steiner presents them in his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. Here,
we have to do with a kind of reversed causality in which the representation
of the effect and the power of determining it, precede in time the cause to be
settled by the will (see Study XIV). Thus, in accordance with the Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity, we can call thinking in willing a in c the substance of moral
fantasy and feeling in willing b in c the substance of love for the action. Willing
is always directed toward the future, as is thinking toward the past, feeling
toward the present. In moral fantasy, man’s freedom (spiritual activity) begins
to realize itself; man tears himself out of his karmic connection and determines
his karma of the future (Leading Thoughts 98 and 99). The regular working
of the law of karma will no more be broken thereby than the activities of the
Hierarchies in human karma will cease. It is indeed only through this activity
that the freedom of man can attain to reality.
Now it will not be difficult to apply the following Leading Thoughts to the
foregoing:
100. The thoughts of man have their true seat in the etheric body. There,
however, they are forces of real life and being. They imprint themselves
upon the physical body, and as such ‘imprinted thoughts’ they have the
shadowy character in which the everyday consciousness knows them.
101. The Feeling that lives in the Thoughts comes from the astral body,
and the Willing from the Ego. In sleep the human etheric body is certainly
irradiated with the world of his Thoughts, but man himself does not
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partake in it. For he has withdrawn, with the astral body the Feeling of
the Thoughts, and with the Ego their Willing, out of the etheric and the
physical.
102. The moment the astral body and Ego loose their connection during
sleep with the Thoughts of the etheric body, they enter into connection
with ‘Karma’ — with the beholding of the events through repeated lives
on Earth. To the everyday consciousness this vision is denied, but a
supersensible consciousness can enter into it.
We have here a significant, comprehensive view of the human being and,
henceforth, the diagram given above can certainly not be regarded as a mere
abstraction. The activity of thinking, feeling and willing, including the forces of
the Hierarchies concealed therein, is connected with the four principles of man,
in which the Hierarchies are also active in a special way. The connection of the
four principles, physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego during waking
life and their separation in sleep is made especially clear by the light thrown
upon it here. We already found how the threshold of the spiritual world passes
through man (for example, Studies VI and XXI); thus, the higher principles,
astral body and ego are messengers between the spiritual and the physical
worlds, but also between that which is carried over to us through karma and
earlier earth lives and the soul being of this earth life, owing to the fact that will
and feeling penetrate thinking. This, too, is expressed in ordinary consciousness,
and intimations of it are indeed to be found also in the Philosophy of Spiritual
Activity. The following illustration may be of interest to those who know this
work, a work of vital importance for the present epoch:
experience
and deeds { physical body
etheric body ⇑
spring of action
motive } moral
fantasy
earlier earth
lives
karma
{ astral body
ego
⇓
It would demand a deeper search into the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity

170
to work this out in greater detail. But it shows without doubt how the path
of knowledge belonging to Anthroposophy leads man out of the shadowy
quality of the thoughts of ordinary consciousness into the illumination of night-
consciousness, that we may arrive at the comprehension of karma and at the
sight of the events belonging to repeated earth lives. In treading this path of
knowledge, after all the shades of difference pointed out in previous Studies, we
can feel ourselves led once more to the unity of our being and to new tasks, to
which we are introduced in the following groups of Leading Thoughts.
XXXIX.
RELIGION, ART AND SCIENCE
The great successes of science are due to the fact that man has learned to
differentiate, to analyze the phenomena of the world ever more meticulously. In
continuation of our Study XXIX, we can repeat here the statements made there
in the form of sounds from the language of the consciousness soul (see Study
XXX): “Through analyzing, a whole is drawn out of its own sphere into the
one next below.” ... “In order to work synthetically, we have to climb one stage
higher.” ... “Death is the best analyst of man.” ... “From the realms on the other
side of death man can attain to his unity.”
If now differentiating and analyzing according to the scientific method are
applied to man from outside, then the only result is that the object of such
treatment is forced down. Man is thereby degraded to the level of the animal
and it is not to be wondered at that his natural feeling resists with might
and main, especially when the means used are apparently of a soul nature;
psychoanalysis122 is like a vivisection of the soul. In contrast to this, the spiritual-
scientific analysis of man is always to be understood in the following way: that
the individual himself can perform this work and continue it in his own inner
being. No kind of degradation of the soul life can enter by these means but, on
the contrary, the practice of spiritual freedom can only be attempted in this way.
That man has this power in his inner being can also be maintained when we
consider the evolution of human consciousness historically (Study XXXV). In
the course of the evolution of humanity through Saturn, Sun, Moon down to the
Earth, we must certainly become familiarized with the fact that the kingdoms of
nature have been separated out of an originally human whole. That is a cosmic
analysis of man. Step-by-step, man has thereby thrust parts of his being down
into lower spheres (cf. Rudolf Steiner’s Occult Science: An Outline). He bears
within himself the results of these events: sin, error, death. On account of this,
spiritual science leads on the other hand into the kingdom of the Hierarchies,
who are above man, and have step-by-step separated him out of themselves
(Study XXXII).
122
43/5 [COSMIC BEING AND EGOHOOD, “The Balance of Life,” July 4, 1916].
172
Thus man in his soul stands between the kingdoms of nature and the
kingdoms of the Hierarchies; by striving, he should there attain to the unity of his
being in the midst of the multiplicity of facts of the various spheres conditioning
him. To this end, he must exercise his soul capacities in experiencing history. In
keeping with the purpose of a lofty cult, this exercise is typified in the Christmas
Foundation Meditation of 1923 by Rudolf Steiner. The Leading Thoughts are
a concrete transcript of it; for this reason, it was placed at the beginning of the
edition of the Leading Thoughts published in book form. The results of work
on the Leading Thoughts can again and again lead to the practice of using
these Christmas verses in meditation, so that all spiritual-scientific knowledge
thus gained may lead to the strengthening of the soul, for it is out of this that
spiritual sight grows. The unalterable goal of the impulses from which the
Leading Thoughts have sprung, is the preparation of the path to living spiritual
activity. The diagrams given in the previous Study can also serve as subjects
for meditation, although the soul has to overcome a certain dislike for what is
apparently diagrammatic, for this kind of illustration is only to put before us
the inner harmony of the subject. Psychological considerations always contain
something which is fundamentally difficult, even painful, to the soul hence, in
inner experience, they must take the form of exercises.
The following reflections, the purpose of which are to show another aspect
of the same facts can, as they are developed, lead the aforesaid psychological
point of view over into the realm of history. In religion, art and science, the
human soul seeks its unity out of the one-sidedness of the many kinds of possible
activity. We are inclined to associate science with thinking, art with feeling and
religion with willing in accordance with the old ideals of the soul: truth, beauty
and goodness.123 And yet, the man of today will actually perceive the necessity
of allowing each of these activities to include the work of the others. This may
be clearly seen in the following way:
In religion, man seeks standards for his willing and acting; but, in doing
this, there lives in his consciousness something of a deeply feeling nature. The
religious approach is a real soul process, which comes about when feeling is
active in willing.
Art is the revelation of feeling; but, in a similar way, there is behind the sum
123
46/6 [ASPECTS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION, July 10, 1917].
173
of all experiences, memories, representations. As soul activity, this is connected

with thinking. To begin with, this may sound heretical to many. The artistic
approach is a real soul process, which comes about when thinking is active in
feeling.
Science is the realm of thinking but, again, it is not a question of the
absoluteness of the one-sided soul activity of thinking. But, behind the scientific
impulse, there stands a meaning, a striving, a purpose, although this too is
not readily admitted by abstract scientists; that which thus stands behind the
scientific impulse is of the nature of will. The scientific approach is a real soul
process, which comes about when willing is active in thinking.
Herewith we have the possibility of presenting the unity of the soul in
religion, art and science in an inner activity, at least as it is to be found in the
longing of the present-day soul.
thinking
â
e
art
enc
sci
soul
â
willing â feeling
religion
In pondering this circular process, we shall indeed grasp something of the

soul’s longing; yet, if we look at what the longing of the soul meets with in
present-day life, the crisis in the spiritual life of our time is revealed. It can
truly be said that this crisis owes its origin to criticism and, indeed, not only
to the effects of Kant’s criticism, but to the criticism which comes from the
174
heart, from the soul itself, which cannot maintain itself as a being in the midst
of modern forms of life, but feels itself annihilated. In the one-sided course of
the development of science in the external, material, technical forms of life,
infinitely much soul substance has been poured forth which now turns back
as though demoniacally on man himself and threatens the continuance of his
spirit-soul. Let us look at the soul’s three spheres of activity: religion, art and
science; how they stand in our time and how each of these spheres finds itself in
its particular crisis. That will lead us back into the spiritual historical conditions
out of which the soul’s present destiny has arisen. It will also help us to enter
into the next group of Leading Thoughts.
In the most ancient Mysteries, religion, art and science were a unity.124
That was at a time in which men, with their more dreamy consciousness, still
participated in the divine spiritual world and were under the guidance of higher
beings. The impulse to action was the first to be released from this unity. As
compensation, these souls were given the possibility of resuming their link with
the spiritual world and its beings. This reunion is religion. This led to the cultural
conditions of Asia Minor and North Africa which Rudolf Steiner was in the
habit of describing as Egypto-Chaldean. These were of an essentially religious
character. The forms of the Egypto-Chaldean cult have been transmitted through
tradition until today. The expression for this is found in the old “thou shalt” but,
for the men of that time, this still accorded with the innermost impulses of the
soul itself. Today, it has been reduced to the abstract categorical imperative125
which indeed only approaches the soul from outside. The same thing is true
with regard to the traditional religious demands. When, today, the soul seeks to
unite itself with the traditional forms of religion, it has remained, with this part
of its being, two stages behind the progressive evolution of humanity.
The second impulse to be released from the Mysteries was that of feeling.
That led to the cultural conditions of Greece which were artistic through and
through. Certainly, there was a national religion but it was represented in the
beautiful forms of all the arts, especially of sculpture and drama. Those who, at
that time, wished to turn to the primeval religious approach, went to the Mystery
124
4/11 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The reversing of Egyptian remembrance into material forms
by way of Arabism. The harmonizing of Egyptian remembrance. The Christian impulse of power in
Rosicrucianism,” August 16. 1908].
125
46/6 [ASPECTS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION, July 10, 1917.].
175
centers, in which union with the ancient divine consciousness was sought. The
artistic impulse has been handed down by tradition until today. The soul crisis
in our time in this direction is that the practice of art has remained one stage
behind the progressive evolution of humanity and it cannot find expression for
the longing of the present-day soul.
We are completely in the present with regard to the third impulse which
left the ancient Mysteries. Afterward, the impulse of thinking, science, was also
released, the Mysteries, as institutions, were obliged to disappear and withdraw
into such concealment that they could no longer be found on the physical
plane. This impulse of science has now led to the present conditions, to the
one-sidedness of science, coupled with the fact that all soul reality is in danger
of dying. But, since this is the impulse of the present time, it was necessary that
science should be Rudolf Steiner’s starting point, when he undertook to revivify
the unity of the human soul.126
126
omitted. In the Notes at the back of the book, the footnote reference for [126] is as follows: Carl Unger,
SCHRIFTEN, Band I, p. 15.
XL.
THE CRISIS OF THE
PRESENT-DAY SOUL
AND HOW IT MAY BE HEALED
In continuation of our last Study, it will be good to look back once more
at the primeval unity of the human soul life. In Wonders of the World, Ordeals
of the Soul, Revelations of the Spirit, Rudolf Steiner speaks, in the first lecture,
of the times in which “the different currents of human spiritual aspirations
represented today by science, religion and art were not as yet separate but, on
the contrary, were closely united.” ... “Religion was not something to which
man turned as to a special branch of culture. Even when he spoke of those
elements of spiritual life which entered immediately into the practical matters
of everyday existence, he spoke of religion.” ... “But this religion was inwardly
powerful...and so mighty that it inspired the different forces of human spiritual
life so that they assumed forms which were directly those of art.” ... “But this
primal religion with its daughter, art, was, at the same time, so purified...that,
as a result of their influence on the human soul, there issued from that soul that
of which we have a faint, abstract reflection in science and knowledge. When
intense feelings were inspired by the force that streamed as religion into artistic
forms, knowledge of the Gods and of divine things, knowledge of the spiritual
realms was kindled in the soul.”
Of all this, longing alone has remained to the man of today. If now, the
particulars given in the previous Study are brought to bear upon the forms
of religion, art and science which exist today, it will be clear how, through a
strange dislocation, such a constellation arose that, in the course of evolution
especially in the 19th century, all three soul impulses were inevitably paralyzed.
We found: “The religious approach is a real soul process which comes about
when feeling is active in willing.” That is, to a certain extent, the concept of the
religious approach. But now, after the separation from the original whole had
been accomplished, present-day consciousness finds, in the religious forms of
worship coming indeed from the third post-Atlantean civilization, an experience
177
in which feeling has gained the upper hand. We will disregard the degeneration
of the feeling element into sentimental extravagance, and look at the experience,
which can indeed manifest itself today as aesthetic. The most wonderful works
of art in all spheres have arisen out of the religious tradition.
We further found: “The artistic approach is a real soul process, which takes
place when thinking is active in feeling.” What has become of art today? In this
sphere, we find, as the remnants of the Greek civilization, only a science as, for
example, it is practiced in Art Academies. It is this very 19th century which
has treated aesthetics as science. Finally, also with regard to science, which
completely belongs to the present, we can examine its current form in contrast
to its concept: “The scientific approach is a real soul process, which takes place
where willing is active in thinking.” Likewise, science is no longer the pure
revelation of its impulses but has become dogma and works with authority; it is
overpowered by an element which was originally religious, as is art by science,
religion by art.
Thus we see that the soul activities paralyze one another. In contrast to
this paralysis, Rudolf Steiner places the transformation of thinking, feeling and
willing into Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition. By this means, religion,
art and science will be redeemed for the future. Abstract science, which has
hardened into dogma, can admit an artistic element through Imagination. That
is also the way to acquire knowledge in the sense of Rudolf Steiner’s education.
His scientific courses of lectures, which he held before experts, show how this
can come about without the slightest injury being done to the exactitude to
which science is entitled. Rudolf Steiner makes art into a language of spiritual
experience, that is, the Inspirational element as a religious force which redeems
art. He has confirmed this in all spheres of art; we can refer particularly to
the architecture, plastic work, painting and windows of the Goetheanum; his
poetic works, the greatest of which are the four Mystery Plays, bear eloquent
witness to this; the introduction of speech formation, including dramatic art,
also belongs here; and, in addition, he has created a new art of visible speech,
visible song: Eurythmy. Religion is saved from paralysis through the fact that
Intuition, taking the place of original faith, creates a really new spiritual content,
the mediator of which is a knowledge of the spirit, spiritual science. Rudolf
Steiner gave this content as the authentic cult of the Christian Community. He
also added to the religion lessons of the Waldorf schools a form of worship
178
which can be communicated through knowledge.

These deeds of redemption on behalf of religion, art and science can be
presented as a single whole in a triangular form. The paralysis and the redemption
of the three soul activities can be written one above the other:
Religion
(Knowing)
Intuition
Art Science
(Science) (Religion)
Feeling Thinking
I
Ego
Science Art
(Art) (Religion)
Imagination Inspiration
Religion
(Art)
Willing
This drawing can probably speak for itself. The triangle pointing downward
presents the paralysis of the soul spheres of religion, art and science; the one
pointing upward, their redemption through Anthroposophy. Expressed in words,
the drawing signifies: Religion, which should operate in willing, is paralyzed by
art and, through Intuition, finds its redemption in knowing. Art, which should
operate in feeling, is paralyzed by science and, through Inspiration, finds its
179
redemption in a religious element. Science, which should operate in thinking,

is paralyzed by religion and, through Imagination, finds its redemption in an
artistic element. If the paradox in these sentences is disturbing, the thing to do
is to penetrate them with a living cultural sense.
We shall be able to see that we have here six combinations, each comprising
two soul spheres. In accordance with the example in Study XXXVIII, we can
present this in the following way:
Religion Art Science
Religion A. in R. S. in R.
Art R. in A. S. in A.
Science R. in S. A. in S. S. in S.
In contrast to the diagram presented in Study XXXVIII, it will be noticed

that, in the first place, the diagonal is missing. Yet it is possible to insert S. in S.
as a seventh combination, which is indicated by the I (ego) placed in the center
of the previous drawing: science in science or science of science. This alone in
the sphere of soul activities can be directed toward itself. There is no art of art
and no religion of religion. It was precisely this seventh possibility which Rudolf
Steiner seized upon in the ‘80s of the previous century, in order to undertake,
from this starting point, his great work for the redemption of the soul activities.
That was accomplished in his works on the theory of knowledge, to which we
are led again and again. This deed was one of freedom at its greatest height,
the basing of thinking on itself and, thereby, creating a fulcrum. That was at a
moment of the utmost importance in spiritual history, if we read, in the book
Rudolf Steiner left to us, Rudolf Steiner: An Autobiography, we can discover
that the decisive step in this matter was taken in the year 1879, that is to say,
at the moment when Michael again undertook the spiritual leadership of the
times. In the third chapter of this book, we read: “My strivings after concepts
in science had finally brought me to see in the activity of the human I (ego),
the sole starting point for true knowledge. When the ego is active and itself
perceives this activity, man has something spiritual immediately present in his
consciousness” ‘so I said to myself.’”
180
Immediate comprehension of the essentials in these spiritual historical facts

at such a crucial moment is of the utmost importance, for the continuation of
the Leading Thoughts is based on them.
103. In the evolution of mankind consciousness descends on the ladder
of unfolding Thought. There was an earliest stage in consciousness when
man experienced the Thoughts in the ego, experienced them as real Beings,
imbued with Spirit, soul and life. At a second stage he experienced the
Thoughts in the astral body; henceforth they appeared only as the images
of Spirit-beings — images, however, still imbued with soul and life. At a
third stage he experienced the Thoughts in the etheric body; here they
manifest only an inner stirring, like an echo of the quality of soul. At the
fourth, which is the present stage, man experiences the Thoughts in the
physical body, where they appear as the dead shadows of the Spiritual.
104. In like measure as the quality of Spirit, soul and life in human
Thought recedes, man’s own Will comes to life. True freedom becomes
possible.
105. It is the task of Michael to lead man back again, on paths of Will,
whence he came down when with his earthly consciousness he descended
on the paths of Thought from the living experience of the Supersensible
to the experience of the world of sense.
XLI.
THE SIN AGAINST THE SPIRIT
In connection with Leading Thoughts 103 to 105, Rudolf Steiner continues

his Letter on the mission of Michael, reference to which was made in Study
XXXV. The events which have engaged our attention since Study XXXV,
leading to the mighty cosmic developments which now follow, are expressed
in the following words of the Letter, “We shall fail to perceive in the right light
how the new Michael-impulse, now makes its way into human evolution, if
we form that representation of the relationship between the modern world of
Ideas and nature, which is common at the present day.” We repeatedly found
indications of this kind which, in contrast to our present scientific attitude,
demand a moral element. In Leading Thought 7, Rudolf Steiner already points
to the one-sidedness of the scientific way of thinking; in Leading Thought 20, we
read that modern science sins; in a Letter which belongs to Leading Thoughts 35
to 37, it is said, “Much depends upon people learning through Anthroposophy
to recognize that those mental pictures (representations), acquired by gazing at
external nature, must come to a halt when we contemplate the human being.
This necessary recognition is belied by the whole form of thought which has
taken possession of peoples’ minds through the spiritual evolution of the last few
centuries.” We see that something of a moral nature must be placed in opposition
to this sinning, before it is possible to enter upon such spheres as, in our earlier
Studies, that of karma now, that of the rulership of Michael. This is also true
for the Study now before us in Leading Thoughts 103 to 105 concerning the
descent of human consciousness on the ladder of the development of thoughts.
The purpose of Rudolf Steiner’s Letter about these Leading Thoughts is to give a
definite answer to the question: What does man experience in modern scientific
ideas? If we wish to enter deeply enough into this whole subject, we must first
ask the preliminary question: Why is the attitude of modern science a sin?
Through “the form of thought which has taken possession of peoples’ minds
through the spiritual evolution of the last few centuries,” the foregoing passage
(Letter referring to Leading Thoughts 35 to 37) continues, “men have grown
accustomed to think on the lines of nature’s laws; and in these laws of nature,
they find explanations for the phenomena of nature which they perceive with
182
their senses.” This clearly points to the fact that man himself as the creator of his
thoughts, thinks independently according to the laws which he brings forward
as the standard for the knowledge of the phenomena of nature. Of course, “the
primary concern of thinkers in the matter is to show how to construct the ideas
which bear the requisite relationship to the things of nature, or from which the
true laws of nature may be deduced.” (Letter referring to Leading Thoughts
103 to 105). To say this once again: There is in man a spiritual part that rules
independently, from which one who knows the science of the present day begins
his work. “Man’s feeling today is that ideas are evolved within him by the special
activity of his soul. He has the feeling that he is the evolver of his ideas, whereas
his perceptions intrude upon him from without.” (the same Letter)
If this premise is granted, and endless examples can be cited (for example,
with regard to mechanics, pages 40 and 41 of my book Die Autonomie des
philosophischen Bewusstseins), most significant indeed are the consequences
revealed the moment those who provided with the results of the application of
ideas to the phenomena of nature, return to the consideration of man himself as a
phenomenon of nature. There, for instance, it is apparent that the thinking used
by the more modern consciousness can only produce ideas capable of dealing
with the laws inherent in mineral phenomena. But now, if these laws are taken
as fundamental to the study of man, this is not only a logical impossibility, but
a real denial of the true laws underlying science, namely, of the ideas produced
by independent thinking; it is a denial of the spiritual which is truly at work in
man. For this reason, a consideration of this kind must come to a halt before
man and, for this mode of study, the side of man’s being presented to the senses
as a phenomenon of nature must appear as image (also see Leading Thought
16).
It would be good to examine, again and again, these conclusions which
Rudolf Steiner has presented in his epistemological works, in his Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity and repeatedly in many other places. For it is out of this
that the real task of present-day consciousness arises. The scientific habits of
thinking are much too short-sighted. The path leading to the application of
these ideas to man is much too short. When the scientific way of thinking is truly
developed, as Rudolf Steiner worked it out, first in connection with Goethe’s
theory of metamorphosis, and then in all its details in courses, cycles and books,
the result for the scientific investigator himself will be the true spiritual faculty
183
of grasping pictures. Indeed, he could come to such a knowledge of himself in

his investigations that he would find himself on the path to the sight of spiritual
reality, to Imagination. Neglect of this is the sin against the spirit at work in the
man of the present day.
The transition from the epistemological to the moral aspect, which indeed
is accomplished in the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, has also occupied us
before (see Leading Thought 12). In Leading Thoughts 103 to 105, it is again
put before us as the transition from thinking into willing, but now from the
viewpoint of the spiritual history of human consciousness. In connection with
our studies of religion, art and science, we can find our way into the essentially
spiritual aspect of this evolution, when we go back to the origin of the sin
against the spirit characteristic of our modern consciousness; this can be traced
to the earlier stages of civilization which were of quite a different nature.
Men very easily deceive themselves with regard to the position of present-
day thinking, feeling and willing as soul activities between the physical world
and that of the spirit. For example today men seek to be free in willing and to
be bound by conformity to law in thinking. With regard to the way in which
people inquire about freedom today, Rudolf Steiner has expressly stated, and
has shown in his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity that, in dealing with this
question, we must begin with thinking. Our previous Studies clearly show
that freedom begins in thinking (behind which, of course, willing is active)
because man can be awake in his thinking; the willing of man is asleep and is,
therefore, bound by the spirit (compare Study X). In the sense of our letters (of
the alphabet) contained in the language of the consciousness soul, we can find
a comprehensive axiom: in the will, the spiritual compulsion of karma prevails;
in thinking, lie the seeds of future destiny.
The objection will perhaps be raised that, in earlier Studies, it was said that
thinking is directed to the past, willing to the future. But we must distinguish
between the two aspects; previously the object of thinking and willing was
meant, now the soul activities of thinking and willing are meant. In addition
to this, we can remember that, in the course of evolution, thinking and willing
exchange places (Study XII).
Let us begin again with the fact that thinking of the laws of nature is an
independent act of man and that, on the other hand, we find in Leading Thought
184
95, that karma is at work in the manifestations of the will! The spiritual
compulsion in willing points us back into the third post-Atlantean civilization,
during which all that had been prepared in the great ages of the past and of
planetary evolution was recapitulated for our whole post-Atlantean epoch. Then
as we saw (Study XXXIX), human willing was released from the Mysteries and
entered into religious forms of culture.127 Then men began to become individual
in accordance with the physical plane. But, although the divine could no longer
work directly in a man, he knew himself as the child of the Father through his
religious experience. The child of God is the pure content of all the old forms of
religion, which are also still effective today. At that time, there arose the solemn
pictures of the separation of man from the Father God. Those are the pictures
of the Fall. But that was a fall into the knowledge of good and evil.128 The will
element, the moral aspect of this event, is not to be laid to man’s account, but to
the temptation of spiritual beings. Child of God is the religious attitude which
prevails in man’s willing. The sin against the Father proceeds from Lucifer129
and from thence affects humanity as a whole.
The next step is that the feeling of man is released from the spiritual realm.
There arose, it is true, the culture of art, but also that of the human, no longer of
the divine law. The self-consciousness of man began here and his sense of being
isolated from God. Men could no longer maintain the attitude of child of God;
they became the children of Lucifer, as Rudolf Steiner has so strikingly described
this in The East in the Light of the West, especially in the eighth lecture. Then
Christ, as the Son of God, came with the fullness of this divine relationship
into a single human body. Thereby, He became a great Brother of mankind,
inasmuch as He revealed the complete divinity in one single human body. This
revelation as historical event must be decided by human feeling. The decision
falls on the individual man as Yes and No, and the effect may be felt during
many earth lives. Christ’s deed of love leaves the individual free, but the sin of
the individual affects the whole of humanity. The soul seeks the Brotherhood of
Christ in the feeling life; it is the religious attitude that prevails in man’s feeling.
127
22/1 [MAN IN THE LIGHT OF OCCULTISM, THEOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHY, June 2, 1912].
128
20/1 [THE WORLD OF THE SENSES AND THE WORLD OF THE SPIRIT, “The conflict between the
materialistic and the spiritual tendencies in thought and feeling. The God-willed and the God-estranged
human being. The training of thinking to Wonder, Veneration and Harmony with the Universe,” December
27, 1911].
129
185
The third step is that the thinking of man also is released from the spirit’s
guidance. This is especially effective in our epoch. Now a divine principle wills
to become active in each man. Therefore, we can describe the paths of thinking
during the time since the Mystery of Golgotha as a seeking for the Holy Spirit.
But these paths are those of the individual to the spirit who wills to redeem man’s
thinking, and man’s action in the matter is his own individual responsibility.
The decision is made in Ahriman’s kingdom; there the man can only keep to
the results of an absolutely clear judgment. The denial of spirit in the individual
man, the sin of the modern scientific method and habit of thinking, materialism
not only as world-conception, but as soul attitude, is the sin against the Holy
Ghost. It is unforgivable because each man commits it against himself; but it
works back, destructively, on the spiritual world and its beings.
Rudolf Steiner shows the path of true self-knowledge as a means of
counteracting the sin against the Spirit. He leads man to the ruling spirit of our
time by means of a thinking which grasps and understands itself. That is Michael
Fellowship and is the religious attitude which prevails in man’s thinking.
XLII. SPIRITUAL HISTORY
Spiritual history is brought about by the rulership of spiritual beings

in successive epochs and human history and the evolutionary facts of the
human being are only its outer manifestation. History, as we see it, like the
sense perception of the human being, can also become a picture for us. We
looked upon our last Study as a preparatory exercise to the spiritual-historical
investigations of Rudolf Steiner, which are presented with ever-growing force; if
we generate in ourselves true reverence in the presence of these revelations, this
may lead us to feel ourselves drawn into the realm of this spiritual-historical
process. From this, there arises the duty of following the call of the spiritual
world to participate in this spiritual-historical process by giving a form to these
investigations in our own inner being.
Thinking, feeling and willing have been released step-by-step from spiritual
guidance for activity in the earthly world. In the post-Atlantean time, the
consciousness of man was connected with thinking, which separated itself
from bondage to the spirit, this separation was the last and most radical. In
the same way that, in connection with Leading Thoughts 103 to 105, we dealt
with the descent of consciousness ‘on the ladder of unfolding thought,” we must
go back to the successive civilizations and picture to ourselves how we must
seek thinking in ever higher worlds, the further back we go. If we apply the
descriptions of the higher worlds impressed upon us by Rudolf Steiner, we can
say that, in the ancient Persian civilization, thinking reaches up into the super-
spiritual world, in the Egypto-Chaldean civilization into the spiritual world.
In the Graeco-Latin time, it was revealed in the elemental world and, in our
time, it has reached the physical world. But that was, at the same time, the
pathway and destiny of spiritual beings. This is difficult for contemporary man
to grasp, because he is at the end of this evolution and lives in shadow-like
thoughts which he feels he produces himself. In this realm of shadows, man is
excluded from the community of spiritual beings, because only the human ego
can experience itself in a physical body.
If we listen to the reports from ancient times, we can learn many things,
but we must take them seriously and not always suppose that reporters of old
would have made up stories as do those of today. Out of primeval times, the
187
longing for the super-spiritual world and for the being Sophia130 still reaches us.
Out of such lofty regions, this being was revealed until the times of the ancient
Gnostics as the source of the light of all wisdom. That can give us a certain
picture of how thought was still in the super-spiritual world. If we pass on to a
later time, we find, for example, the work The Consolations of Philosophy by
Boethius, a noble man, who was unjustly thrown into prison by Theodoric the
Great (Dietrich of Bern). There, the prisoner describes how Philosophia came
to him as a being, in order to comfort him in his need. This conversation is a
real spirit conversation, a true Inspiration. Thus, we are referred to the spiritual
world, to which this being Philosophia belonged. The phenomenon of the being
Natura with her companions, the seven liberal arts, points more to the elemental
world. It is in this revelation that the picture world, the imaginations of a Dante
have their origin. Of this, Rudolf Steiner, during the last year of his life, gave
wonderful descriptions which contain a wealth of revelation. Thus, we come to
see the descent of thought more clearly as a real occurrence, especially when we
remember that man’s thinking has its origin in the beings of the third Hierarchy
(Leading Thought 66). In The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in
the Kingdoms of Nature, Rudolf Steiner spoke fully of the connections between
spiritual beings, so that it is possible to talk unhesitatingly of the relationship
of their descendants. Thus, there are, for example, the offspring of the beings of
the third Hierarchy; those are the elemental beings, as they still visited earnest
alchemists. What a living, realistic attitude men of olden times had toward
thought! Now, in lecture 5 of The Inner Nature of Man and the Life Between
Death and Rebirth, Rudolf Steiner also speaks of elemental beings which
proceed from man. It would not be very difficult to sense the reality of this in
relation to the life of thought; thus, in Study XI, we have really spoken of such
beings which become more and more demoniacal in the course of associating
representations.
Man bears within himself the rudimentary remains of this quite real process
and, with these, we can consciously connect ourselves if we wish to take a share
in spiritual history. Here, we can proceed from Study XVIII, in which we were
shown the necessity and possibility of resuscitating the Categories of Aristotle
by means of Anthroposophy. We saw from Rudolf Steiner’s investigations that
Aristotle lived during a highly significant turning point in the history of human
130
31/1 [CHRIST AND THE SPIRITUAL WORLD: THE SEARCH FOR THE HOLY GRAIL, “Difficulties of
understanding the Christ-Jesus-Being. The thoughts of the Gnostics,” December 28, 1913].
188
consciousness. He discerned the threshold over which man, with his thought
life, was passing out of the old state of being bound by the spirit into that of
being forsaken by the Gods, which belongs to the present day; in his logic, he
created the forms by means of which the essentials of disappearing thinking
can be mirrored after the manner of a cosmic memory; he sealed up the old
experience of spiritual thoughts in his forms of logic and now the time has come
for the seals to be broken. We will try to recognize the stages of the descent of
thought in the individual forms of Aristotelian logic, in order thereby to be able
to maintain our connection with our own rudimentary residue of the ancient
spiritual events.
In the Letter belonging to Leading Thoughts 103 to 105, Rudolf Steiner
describes the descent of thought in greater detail; man “felt the content of
his ideas not as something manufactured by himself, but received by way of
suggestion from the supersensible world.”... “It is a feeling which has passed
through different stages; the stages depend upon the particular part of his being
with which man experienced what today he calls his ideas.” ...”One may go back
into times when thoughts were experienced directly in the I (ego); then, however,
they were not shadowy as they are now; they were not merely living; they were
endowed with soul and permeated with spirit. Which means that man did not
think thoughts but he experienced the percept of concrete spiritual beings.”...”A
change comes with the second stage of consciousness. The concrete spirit beings
conceal themselves. Their reflected glory becomes apparent as ensouled life.”
It is the stage at which “Thought is no longer experienced by the I (ego) but
by the astral body.”...”A third epoch in the evolution of consciousness brings
thoughts to consciousness in the etheric body, but as living thoughts.”...”The
Greek, when thinking, did not form a thought with which he viewed the world
as through a construction of his own; but he felt aroused within himself the stir
of that same life which, outside too, pulsed through the things and processes
around him.”...”When the thoughts took hold of the physical body, they lost
from their immediate contents spirit, soul and life and the abstract shadow, that
haunts the physical body, alone remained.”
Aristotelian logic which, still almost unaltered holds true even today,
distinguishes the doctrine of concepts, the doctrine of judgments, and the
doctrine of conclusions. To these are further added some principles or maxims
like those of identity, of contradiction, etc. The elements of logical thinking are
189
the concepts. Several concepts are combined into judgments, in which case, the
uniting element again consists of quite definite concepts which are also described
as Categories. Again, conclusions are compounded of judgments and the way
in which these are united, also forming quite different concepts, determine the
different forms of conclusion. Conformity to law, which is put before us in
logic, is nothing else than a description of the processes carried out in thinking,
which are to be found as facts of consciousness. Such evidence points to the
processes in the evolution of human consciousness.
Let us first consider the concepts. They have definite forms which the
present-day logician, and the scientist in particular, wishes to define as precisely
as possible; he seeks to draw a clear line between the single concepts. Whereas the
Ideas of Plato still show a hovering, mobile character, in the concepts of Aristotle,
we have thought-forms. The separation of such forms from one another gives
an ego-character to the concepts although, in a way, that is quite abstract, but
clearly recognizable; there, we have something frozen into an abstract form, of
which we can imagine that it was still experienced as a living reality in ancient
epochs of consciousness. The first stage of consciousness when thought was still
in the I (ego) was thus represented by that which in logic is called concept. The
concept today still has the ego-character. That is also proved when we enter
into the being of the concept in meditation. We can seek for a last, highest, most
comprehensive concept beyond all series and classes of concepts; then we find,
in the sum total of all conceptual possibilities, in the concept of the concept, a
being, namely, the absolute or pure ego, as has been shown repeatedly in other
connections (see my book: Die Autonomie des philosophischen Bewusstseins
and Studies VII and IX).
If we turn to the judgments, we have in them, in an abstract form, that which
constitutes the soul element. We react in a naive way to the attractions of the
world through sensation, feeling, impulse, passion. That is the astral body’s field
of activity. The way in which the consciousness of the astral body is connected
with judgments has already been shown to us in Studies XIII and XIV, especially
with regard to the conditions after death. We saw how the consciousness of the
astral body runs its course in judging and how, after death, it learns what it is to
be judged. Thus, in the activity of judging, the second stage of the evolution of
consciousness is represented when a man experiences his thoughts in the astral
body. Naturally, these things can only be indicated here but we shall perhaps
190
nevertheless come to perceive that it is possible through Anthroposophy to have

logic in conformity with the spirit.
“At the third stage, man experiences his thoughts in the etheric body.” It
is not difficult now to grasp that the logical conclusion is the thought form
which represents this stage in Aristotle’s logic. It brings before us the pictures
of progressive thinking; that is like a living process even though, in an abstract
semblance, as when out of two judgments, a third emerges. We can summarize
this in still another way. In the conclusion, there appears the shadow of an
imaginative process (etheric body), in the judgment the shadow of an inspirational
process (astral body), in the concept the shadow of an intuitive process (I, ego).
There still remains, for the fourth stage only, the so-called principles of
logic, and especially the principle of identity, which is spatial (see the above-
mentioned book). Through this, thinking is fettered to the physical body.
Considerations of this nature may be of value in bringing before us the
mission of Michael.
XLIII.
THE FREE AND THE FETTERED THOUGHT,
NOT ONLY AN INTERLUDE
Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge which leads from the fettered to

the free thought. In the first place, the thought at work in man is absolutely
fettered and, indeed, physiologically, to the brain.131 But even slight observation
can show that the thought is not produced by the brain but is reflected in it.132
We have only to learn to distinguish between the content of the thought and the
way in which it makes its appearance. This is subjective in a dual sense, that is,
once with regard to man’s organization and then with regard to the activity of
his soul: the effort I must make in order to grasp a thought is mine, the content,
however, is spiritual, beyond both subject and object (Study X). Now, however,
the contents of thoughts are also fettered, they are fettered to the history of the
descent of thought and, in accordance with the spiritual beings whose deeds
are concealed behind the forms of the concept, judgment and conclusion (Study
XLII).
The question now arises repeatedly as to whether a man is right in
considering that he fashions his own thoughts, or whether that is only an
illusion. This question is of great cognitive value which, indeed, to one who is
striving anthroposophically, is of the utmost significance for upon it depends
whether there is free thought and therewith freedom in general. In reference
to this question, Rudolf Steiner wrote his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. In
the first part of it, he treats the thought more as a phenomenon but then, in the
second part, he shows the way to reach the creative activity of thinking; this
is a moral activity. A path of this nature constitutes a testing of the soul. That
Rudolf Steiner shows in his autobiography, which we can consider from this
particular aspect, that is how he implants the free thought in humanity and,
131
4/11 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The reversing of Egyptian remembrance into material forms by
way of Arabism. The harmonizing of Egyptian remembrance. The Christian impulse of power in Rosicru-
cianism,” August 16, 1908].
132
18/7 [WONDERS OF THE WORLD, ORDEALS OF THE SOUL, REVELATIONS OF THE SPIRIT,
August 24, 1911]; 23/7 [INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT, August 31, 1912].
192
indeed, in every sphere of thought activity. His reward is the deepest loneliness.
Such loneliness appears as a testing of the soul on the path of knowledge133
and is the true witness to the fact that man fashions his own thoughts. Let us
consider for once how the thought according to its content is bound to the
period of evolution, to the nation, the language, the tradition, to associations
(habits of thinking), yes, to the personal memories of the individual. Our life is
essentially dependent on such ties, especially where social matters are concerned
and anyone, who really seeks the free thought, liberates himself step-by-step
from this dependence; yes, the tragedy of the separation of humanity from the
divine repeats itself in the individual man. It is not by chance that the path of
initiation is symbolically connected with what we have called spiritual history.
If we wish, by means of exercises, to approach the free thought, we must
remove little by little from our consciousness the fetters which bind thoughts.
That leads to the condition of meditation (Study IV). However, that is, at the
same time, the point at which thinking comes to a standstill. It is easier to
think than to cease to think. The thought becomes free when thinking stands
still. It can indeed be taken with unqualified seriousness that our power of
understanding comes to a halt. At this point, thinking is changed into willing
and the thought, which is becoming free, reveals itself as morality.
But when a man frees the thought from bondage, the supports he has had
hitherto fail to act, especially those of the moral life, which rest upon tradition,
education, etc.134 to which also belongs the ordinary experience of truth. At
this threshold of life, many a one turns back to the fettered thought, even if he
is acquainted with Anthroposophy. Present-day humanity is riddled with fear
before the free thought. Man is afraid not only of seeing his own old supports
giving way, but also if he sees the free thought in another man. Rudolf Steiner
has often spoken of materialism as a phenomenon of fear.135 From this period of
133
23/4 [INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT, August 28, 1912]; 27/8 [THE EFFECT
OF OCCULT DEVELOPMENT UPON THE SELF AND THE SHEATHS OF MAN, “The Paradise
Imagination. The Guardian of the Threshold. Cain and Abel,” March 27, 1913]; 28/2 [THE OCCULT
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA, May 29, 1913]; 45/8 [BUILDING STONES FOR AN
UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA, April 24, 1917].
134
27/7 [THE EFFECT OF OCCULT DEVELOPMENT UPON THE SELF AND THE SHEATHS OF MAN,
“The Struggle of Astrality with Egoism. Amfortas and Parzifal,” March 26, 1913]; 30/1 [EXCURSUS ON
THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK, November 7, 1910].
135
23/7 [INITIATION, ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT, August 31, 1912]; 28/9 [THE OCCULT
193
evolution, modern science has, in fact, grasped something of the free thought; it
can be a great school of free thought and, for this reason, Rudolf Steiner stresses
the value of its methods. In keeping with its nature, it removed the traditions of
an older spiritual life. Certainly its freedom, its absence of all presuppositions, is
often only an illusion. Rudolf Steiner frequently pointed to the bondage of the
scientist, for example, the Council of Constantinople (Study XI). It is just where
the scientist is a materialist that he shows fear before the free thought prevailing
in the scientific method. The traditional consciousness of God dwindles away;
in its place, he sets a fetish, an idol; those are the atoms, electrons or the thing-
in-itself, matter, energy, etc., the creations of abstract thought.136 137
The approach to the free thought is fraught with dangers. Rudolf Steiner
always points this out when he speaks of the path of knowledge. Fear in face
of these dangers, which often prevails quite unconsciously, leads many earnest
anthroposophists either to make compromises with the bondage of thought,
belonging to olden times, or even to misconstrue Anthroposophy itself, as a
means of binding one’s thought and that of others. The unjustifiable demand
for authority arises in the realm of Anthroposophy, and Rudolf Steiner always
warned against this with the utmost insistence. How clearly he often expressed
this: “You ought not to believe my words, but think them; that is to say, make
them the object of your thinking!”
In his work The Riddles of Philosophy, Rudolf Steiner shows the path from
the fettered to the free thought as the path of evolution for humanity. But this
cannot be gathered from the thought-contents of the history of philosophy; for,
with regard to the contents by far the greater part of the philosophical problems
and the possibilities of solving them, already appeared in ancient Greece.
Nevertheless, the thought at the time must be described as fettered, for it was
seen. The thought thus fell into the sphere of percepts. Percepts or observations
are transferable and it is justifiable to accept the authority of one who has seen
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA, June 5, 1913]; 47/1 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM,
“Forgotten Aspects of Cultural Life,” July 31, 1917].
136
“The two poles of all soul-ordeals. The macrocosmic Christ Impulse in the meaning of St. Paul,” August
27, 1911]; 18/11 [WONDERS OF THE WORLD, ORDEALS OF THE SOUL, REVELATIONS OF THE
SPIRIT, “On the Occasion of Goethe’s Birthday,” August 28, 1911].
137
omitted. In the Notes at the back of the book, the footnote reference for [137] is as follows: 30/9 [EX-
CURSUS ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK, January 16, 1911].
194
them himself. When man lost sight of what had been seen in ancient times,
it was appropriated by tradition and handed over to faith. The contents of
faith were originally visions, and that does not only refer to Greek thought,
but much more still to the contents of religion belonging to still more ancient
times. Each genuine revelation is communicated so that the one who received
it begins with the formula, “That I have seen,” even if he expresses it in other
words. The problem faith and knowledge is reduced thereby to the contrast
between observation and thinking in the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity.
For present-day consciousness, faith, and therewith authority, exists rightly in
the sphere of observation and, indeed, in the field of sensible as well as the
supersensible investigation; but for the sphere of thinking, of the interpretation
and explanation of observed facts, the particular work of the individual, his
own inner activity is the decisive factor.138
Rudolf Steiner brought Anthroposophy into the world because it was
needed for the progress of humanity; it works among men as an impulse arising
out of the free thought, even though this impulse can only be received to a
limited extent. For man, this is an experience of destiny, especially among the
young, in whose case, the traditional view of the universe breaks down, and
they are often overtaken by a tragic sense of loneliness. That leads to the urge
to seek a new community for the quest of knowledge, as Rudolf Steiner showed
in lectures given in the year 1923. In striving for knowledge in the company of
others, not only the fear of loneliness, but also the danger of a compromise with
the fettered thought, can be overcome.
To such a community, Rudolf Steiner spoke of what he had given as a
result of his supersensible investigation about the spiritual side of the cosmic
event. Lucifer had the cosmic mission of bringing freedom to man.139 That is his
lawful work; but he brought this impulse to man too early140 by promising him
138
For further details, see reference note 126.
139
18, 1909]; 8/14 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER GOSPELS, “The
Earth as the body of Christ and as a new light center,” July 7, 1909]; 10/3 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE,
“The Influx of Buddhistic Conceptions into the Gospel of St. Luke. The Teaching of Buddha. The Eightfold
Path,” September 17, 1909].
140
4/6 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The Spirits of Form as regents of earthly existence. Participation
of the, Luciferic beings. The formation of race,” August 10, 1908]; 8/5 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN
IN ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER GOSPELS, “Human development during the incarnations of our
Earth,” June 28, 1909].
195
knowledge of good and evil. Now it is also man’s task to demand this knowledge.
This takes place in the transformation of the free thought into morality. Man
ought not to flee before Lucifer but he should withstand him. The means to
this end given by Rudolf Steiner is strong and free moral conduct,141 otherwise,
there only remains the wreck of the morality given by the Gods. But, if the free
thought is only received instinctively, as in modern science, the fruit of it falls
to Ahriman.
Again, Rudolf Steiner also gives us the means by which we can hold our
own against Ahriman; that is sharp, clear, pure thinking,142 for example, if men
think the scientific thoughts through to the end and do not fall prey to the sin
against the spirit (Study XLI). It is a universal battle which is waged around the
free and the fettered thought; the battle is waged around the human soul and
hides behind every possible situation, where it is often not easily recognized.
Therefore, it is of the greatest value to be aware of this battle not only where the
doings of men among themselves come into play, but where spiritual concerns
are equally manifest.
Rudolf Steiner has expressed this in a telling way in his Mystery Plays. Here,
we can only find room for some indications. At a decisive moment, Johannes
Thomasius follows the leadership of Lucifer. By this means, he is enabled to
write a scientific work, but he is obliged to recognize that its fruits would, of
necessity, fall to Ahriman. Johannes is not able to produce out of himself the
moral force to tear himself away from the seduction of Lucifer. Maria, however,
did not succumb to Ahriman who, with truly devilish intellectuality, wishes
to attribute the experience of former earth lives to the trickery of Benedictus.
Maria, through the strength of her thought is able to beat off Ahriman’s assault
with his own weapons. Then, however, she changes the free thought thus gained
into a valiant deed of sacrifice, into a moral force which enables her to vanquish
Lucifer on behalf of Johannes.
Anthroposophy is in the world and it is active among men. Whether this
activity is for good or for evil depends on men themselves. Once before, we
had to point to the fact that Rudolf Steiner’s work can also be turned to evil if
men are not watchful (Study XVI). If Anthroposophy itself is misused for the
141
12/7 [THE MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, “Forces of Nature, Volcanic Eruptions, Earthquakes and
Epidemics in Relation to Karma,” May 22, 1910].
142
12/7 [ibid].
196
fettering of thought, Michael’s mission will fail. The tenor of the expression in
Leading Thought 105 points to the path by which the moral approach arises
out of the free thought. If Michael’s mission with regard to the free thought
is accepted, “then souls and spirits belonging to the supersensible worlds will
incline to these vitalized thoughts.”
XLIV. A NEW FORM OF MYTH
If, fully awake, we enter again and again into Rudolf Steiner’s intimate
modes of expression, like those of the Leading Thoughts, we are aware of ever-
growing wonder. Often, our thoughts cling to a word or to the turn of a phrase
and an endless series of pictures from anthroposophical wisdom can grow out
of it. These may be revealed in a different way to each individual and, therefore,
in these discussions only single instances can be chosen out of the inexhaustible
store as stimulation and example.
Perhaps it will be good to say something about the Letters accompanying
the Leading Thoughts which Rudolf Steiner himself constructed in a way
that would bring before us the contents of the Leading Thoughts in greater
and greater detail. The wording of these Letters has not appeared publicly in
print yet143 and, therefore, it cannot be assumed in these Studies. The giving
of particular explanations of the Letters also could scarcely be considered,
insofar as they could not be related to the Leading Thoughts themselves. It
is indeed preferable to allow the wording when accessible to speak for itself.
Nevertheless, it seemed necessary and also justifiable to quote some sentences,
as has been done already, and to interpret their content in abridged form. In
the first place, some characteristic features of the Letters on Michael’s mission
will be stressed here, and these can also be found later in the various groups of
Leading Thoughts.
“When man looks back over his own evolution and reviews in spirit
the unique character which his spiritual life has assumed during the last five
centuries, he cannot but recognize, in his ordinary consciousness, even though
dimly, that during these last five centuries, he has come to a critical turning point
in the whole earthly evolution of mankind.” (Letter accompanying Leading
Thoughts 106 to 108). “The progress of mankind may be traced from the stage
of consciousness where man feels himself part of a divine spiritual order down
to the present one, where he learns to feel himself as an individuality, detached
from divine, spiritual being, and able to make his own use of thoughts. One
143
Since the original publication of THE LANGUAGE OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS SOUL in German in 1930,
the Letters to the Members have been published in English in THE LIFE, NATURE AND CULTIVATION
OF ANTHROPOSOPHY and in ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING THOUGHTS.
198
may trace this from the point of view of mankind. ... One may also, however,
through supersensible vision, sketch a picture of the experiences of Michael and
his hosts during the same course of evolution --- describe, that is, the same series
of facts from the point of view of Michael.” (Letter accompanying Leading
Thoughts 109 to 111).
If we grasp the significance of these things, the fact appears afresh that man
is drawn into spiritual history, as was previously described (Study XLII). But
this implies participation in what is a myth in a truly new sense --- and interplay
between the affairs of Gods and men. But we have to do with something
fundamentally different from the ancient myths. The difference lies in the crisis
of our time, and it is from this that it must be wrested; for the new myth is called
into being by the free thought. Not only will pictures of old visions be repeated
and perhaps interpreted (against which, naturally, there is nothing to be said),
but Rudolf Steiner, who creates this myth, is himself a seer and an investigator
into the affairs of Gods and men, present and future. His work is not that
of ancient times when, in place of the deeds of the Gods on the earth, the
outpouring of the divine wisdom approached men as revelation, but out of his
loneliness, he works his way up from the earth into the realms of the Hierarchies
by way of unfettered thought. To this belongs that initiation for which, in our
present epoch, we should strive; this striving must be out of earthly forces in
direct continuation of scientific methods. Today, we call this methodical process
human intellectuality; the Leading Thoughts which now follow deal with this:
106. Michael goes upward again along the paths by which mankind
descended, stage by stage in the evolution of the Spirit, down to the
exercise of the Intelligence. Michael, however, will lead the Will upward,
retracing the paths by which the Wisdom descended to the final stage of
Intelligence.
107. From this moment onward in world-evolution, Michael merely
shows his way, so that man may follow it in perfect freedom. This
distinguishes the present guidance by Michael from all preceding guidance
of the Archangels, including even those of Michael himself. For the former
guidance did not only reveal their working. They worked themselves out
in man. Hence in the working of his own life man could not be free.
108. To see and understand that this is so: this is the present task of
man. For then he will find, with all the forces of his soul, his spiritual path
199
within the Age of Michael.

Intelligence is the last stage of wisdom on its downward path. If it wins
through to spiritual reality, it treads the path of willing. That is the Michael myth.
In order that man “with his whole soul may be able to find is own spiritual path
during the age of Michael,” he must have insight. Insight is demanded and that,
indeed, into the significance of the turning point of time; for true insight allows
the will to shoot up into the intelligence of the individual man. Blind will and
abstract intelligence are the contrasting elements of our time; they appear to the
clear-sighted spiritual gaze as beings; Rudolf Steiner describes them as Lucifer
and Ahriman. Insight provides the balance in the working of the two forces and,
out of them, produces a new element, which can engage the whole man. That
is again the free thought. Rudolf Steiner appeals again and again to insight of
this nature. We can compare, for example, the following passage from the Letter
accompanying Leading Thoughts 109 to 111.
“Those people, who look into the supersensible world which lies next to
the physical one, see Michael there ... and perceive what he and his hosts are
trying to do for men. Such people see how, in freedom, man should be guided
by the image of Michael in Ahriman’s sphere, away from Ahriman to Christ. If,
through their own seeing, these people can succeed in opening the hearts and
minds of other men as well so that there may be a group of people who know
(underlining mine, C.U.) of Michael, and how he now dwells amongst men, then
mankind will make a beginning toward celebrating the Feast of Michael with
its true content ...” Here also it is insight which opens the heart and stimulates
meditation (Study XXXIV); for this meditation can lead to free participation in
the great new myth.
Let us consider what is implied when Rudolf Steiner entitles a Letter:
“Michael’s Experiences in the Fulfillment of his Cosmic Mission.” In such
communications, it is possible to ponder over Rudolf Steiner’s path into the
Michael sphere, and to picture to ourselves in a new way what it signifies in the
sense of ancient myth, when a man is received into the Council of the Gods.
That, indeed, is not only seeing the affairs of the Gods, but taking part in them.
We are reminded here of a pregnant saying from Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery Plays.
In the wonderful myth in which Benedictus discloses her own being to Maria,
he begins (The Portal of Initiation, Scene 3) with the words:
200
“When in life’s pilgrimage I had attained

That rank which granted me the dignity
To serve with counsel in the spirit-sphere...”
He goes on to express, not old vision, but active cooperation at a turning
point of time; he points to “links in chains, forged by the hand of destiny, whereby
the deeds of Gods unite with human lives.” Here, on reflection, we recognize
two points of view. When we look at the figure of Maria, we are shown by an
example that affects us deeply, how in the true myth, the being of man takes part
in spiritual history through the real union of a spiritual being with the destiny
of a human being. Further, everything depends upon the fact that Johannes
Thomasius, who was present during this scene, grasped all that happened with
a deeper experience of wisdom than that of his ordinary consciousness, and
his manner of receiving it gradually developed true insight. The word insight
must be taken here much more literally than is customary in the ordinary use
of language.
If, however, in this passage, we look more at Benedictus, we have before
us the working of an initiate raised far above the human sphere in which he
appears to the ordinary consciousness. From this also insight can develop that,
for example, research in the higher spiritual spheres, in the realms of the beings
of the higher Hierarchies, does not signify a passive acceptance of matters of
fact, but active cooperation in spiritual affairs.
Through reflecting on the work of such an initiate, new insight into the
mission of Michael may perhaps be granted us. If we may experience how,
through eons of activity, he has accompanied and protected the growth of man
up to the all-important development of freedom, we are then able to grasp
the thought that there are initiates among spiritual beings also, that is to say,
beings who have not only the ranks of their Hierarchies, but rise through all
the Hierarchies to take their part as administrators of definite missions, as
councillors. In the ninth lecture of Universe, Earth and Man, Rudolf Steiner
says that we will “remind ourselves that at that time (the Atlantean) man had
a conviction, based on direct experience, that above the human kingdom, to
which he himself belonged, there were other kingdoms --- that of the Angels and
the Archangels.” ... “We must conceive of everything in the universe as graded;
that, just as there are all possible grades of beings in the animal and human
kingdoms, there are also many different grades among the beings above man.
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Some beings in the kingdom of the Angels are very close to man and others are
at a higher, a more exalted stage.”
Something further can still be added. In the seventh lecture of The Mission
of the Individual Folk Souls, we find, “Since the Atlantean catastrophe we live
... in an age during which certain archangels ... rise into the Hierarchy of the
Archai, or Spirits of Time.” Also in other connections144 we hear that beings
belonging to definite Hierarchies rise to higher grades. Moreover, epochs of
human events are connected with this fact.
The great question now arises as to how the single individual man of today
is situated in view of the fact that he knows of these occurrences. Over and
above the heart’s participation in all that is described here by Rudolf Steiner,
there opens up to the individual path of knowledge leading to a man’s very own
insight into the spiritual worlds and what takes place there. But before each
step on this path towers the tremendous problem of the human individuality,
demanding a solution.
144
36/8 [EARTHLY AND COSMIC MAN, “Consciousness, Memory, Karma. Thought Forms,” June 18,
1912].
XLV.
THE RIDDLE OF HUMAN INDIVIDUALITY
The last stage of wisdom on the downward path is human intellectuality.

This sentence, corresponding to Leading Thought 106, reminds us of the
greatest human riddles. It might be tempting to proceed at first scholastically
with regard to such difficult concepts as those Rudolf Steiner constantly uses in
connection with the Leading Thoughts and Letters: wisdom, knowing, insight,
free thought, order of ideas, intelligence, intellect, intellectuality, and so forth.
But these are forms of understanding used for most important events, for direct
human experience is summoned to make vital decisions in all our considerations
concerning Michael and his mission. For the question relating to the significance
of the human individuality, with which the last Study closed, is as urgent as the
most solemn experience of destiny. So the attempt may be made to keep the
above concepts suspended axiomatically in order to attain to a wider outlook
with regard to these fundamental riddles.
As an introduction into this whole province, Rudolf Steiner speaks quite
generally of ideas when he refers to the points of view held in these times of
change. Here the word ideas is used particularly with a view to the aims of
science. With reference to more ancient times, the words content of ideas are
used as a transitional term; this content is later called thought but, again, as it
is applied to the present time. With regard to earlier times, it is otherwise called
the thought-like element, only from the Greek time onward is it again called
thought. By thought, something of the nature of content is always meant. Thus,
in Leading Thought 103 to 105, thought is used throughout in order to indicate
its contents at the different stages.
At a later stage, the soul force is indicated which, at present, is active as
the force of intelligence. By this, something of the nature of being is meant.
Intelligences are beings. This being element is in man himself today. But what
was created in man by intelligences of a higher rank in earlier epochs thereby
succumbs to death. “But this means that man is at the same time brought into
the sphere of the Ahrimanic spirit.” Here the divine spirituality dies away, as far
as it itself is concerned, in the abstract intelligence-being of man (and if he makes
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the wrong use of it, that is intellectualism!). Intelligence being of man, that is the
expression used by Rudolf Steiner in connection with Leading Thoughts 106
to 108; its representative in the spheres in which divine spirituality has died is
Ahriman. In these spheres, man belongs to his hosts; that becomes quite clear in
the Letter which accompanies these Leading Thoughts. Thus, we have already
drawn nearer to the question of the significance of human individuality; for the
dying out of the divine being in man is its foreordained condition, as is also that
of freedom; as long as divine being works in man, he is no individuality, and
freedom is not. Here, the following Leading Thoughts are added:
109. To become truly conscious of the working of Michael in the spiritual
order of the World, is to solve the riddle of human freedom in relation to
the Cosmos, in so far as the solution is necessary for man on Earth.
110. For ‘Freedom’ as a fact is directly given to every human being who
understands himself in the present period of mankind’s evolution. No one
can say, ‘Freedom is not,’ unless he wishes to deny a patent fact. But we
can find a certain contradiction between this fact of our experience and
the processes of the Cosmos. In contemplating the mission of Michael
within the Cosmos this contradiction is dissolved.
111. In my Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, the ‘Freedom’ of the human
being in the present world-epoch is proved as an essential element of
consciousness. In the descriptions here given of the Mission of Michael,
the cosmic foundations of the ‘coming-into-being’ of this Freedom are
disclosed.
In the Ahriman-sphere, man finds the Christ. Michael shows the possibility
of the choice between Christ and Ahriman, by his example, not through
compulsion. This choice can only arise through insight, in that Michael offers
the free thought to man; it is the first free decision of man, in face of cosmic
activity. The herald of this insight is Anthroposophy.
In the Letter belonging to the above Leading Thoughts 109 to 111, the
human individuality is characterized by the words: his own use of thoughts
(Study XLIV). The expression order of ideas then appears strikingly often in this
Letter. Michael works in the force which originally flows through the cosmos as
an ordering stream of ideas. This force is then called cosmic intellectuality. The
real human intellectuality now arises through the concentration in man of the
intelligence working through the cosmos. A universal becomes individual but
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that takes place in contradiction to its original nature. There, Ahrimanic beings
exert their power; they want to have no individual, but only their own universal
intelligence. Michael battles with Ahriman on man’s account.
When we now take into consideration the appearance of the Christ in a
single human body, we find this passage in the following Letter: “Christ came
into the world with an intellectuality which is in every way the same as it was
when once it lived in the divine-spiritual, for this in its being was still forming the
cosmos.” Here we have something expressed which is of immense importance;
in this context, we will only look at it in relation to the problem of human
individuality. This has arisen out of a death process of the divine-spiritual and,
owing to this, man was forced to become a prey to Ahriman. Now, however,
human individuality is confirmed through Christ and life is brought once again
into the sphere of death; a new aspect of the conquest of death. This becomes
more and more a fact of each man’s consciousness and leads to the possibility
of grasping the Mystery of Golgotha with the free thought. This is the process
through which the human individual can feel himself justified before the divine.
That is the path of knowledge of Anthroposophy; it leads to justification by
way of knowing, no longer only by way of believing. The great work of winning
through to the free thought is not only of significance to the individual but it
is, at the same time, decisive for humanity; yes, beyond that, it works into the
spheres of spiritual life itself, for man is sent forth in order to acquire new
territory for life in the kingdoms of death; that is the significance of human
individuality.
The question concerning human individuality is as old as the first dawning
of the individual element in man. The answer can only grow on the basis of
the individual himself, and not on that of another, for this is the very meaning
of an individual, that a man stands on his own feet. Anyone who seeks outside
himself for the answer to the question concerning human individuality by so
doing undertakes to deny the essential existence of an individual, in spite of
the fact that this is really quite impossible, for an actual denial would be, at the
same time, the annihilation of the individual.
In the history of human consciousness, the conflict is around the question
of the continuation of individual life after death. This battle concerning human
individuality is carried out in three stages and its leaders are Aristotle, Thomas
Aquinas and Rudolf Steiner. Aristotle terminates the clairvoyant retrospect into
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primeval times with its longing to conceal the individual in the bosom of the
divine and, with great force, points the growing individuality of man to the earth
and nature. Thomas Aquinas leads the battle against Averroes, who teaches the
dissolution of the individuality after death, and with a truly intelligent belief
in human individuality to Christ and His appearance in an individual human
body. Rudolf Steiner grasps this question out of the forces of our time, refers it
to the being of man himself as he is, and shows the way to the answer for each
individual by means of the free thought.
The basic question in this matter can appear in the most varied forms:
Rudolf Steiner asks it again and again in new ways. In the following setting,
this question is, of necessity, closely connected with our Studies. Is man right
in feeling himself to be the fashioner of this thoughts, or is he subject to an
illusion (see Study XLIII)? In the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, the question
is worded: “Is man, as voluntary agent, entitled to attribute freedom to himself?”
The answer to this depends upon the answer to the other question: “Is there a
view concerning man’s being which can support the rest of knowledge?” In
the introductions to Goethe’s Scientific Writings, this question has a still more
general trend: “What is knowing?” Here the emphasis is laid on what in contrast
to Kant’s way of asking: “How is knowledge possible?” Or we can ask about
the “Meaning of Life,” the “Destination of Man.” The point of these questions
is always of how much value they are in our experience. They are questions
which arise out of the loneliness of man, questions filled with the strongest,
most concentrated activity. This, therefore, is not a case of subtle reasoning
about any abstract answer. No philosophy alienated from the world, spun out
of questions of this kind, can satisfy the consciousness of today, but only the
real spiritual process which springs out of the deepest stress of the individual,
even out of loneliness itself.
This is the decisive experience which in our age alone can give rise to spirit-
birth. How this has gradually come about since the time of the Scholastics we
can also know, for example, from Rudolf Steiner’s statements in his books
Christianity as Mystical Fact or Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age
where we are shown how present-day scientific methods are in the line of this
evolution. Without this decisive experience, Averroes would still be right today!
Yes, present-day man still must consciously through Averroes’ basic phenomenon
in some form before he can attain to the new spirit-birth of the free thought:
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the famous historical battle between Thomas Aquinas and Averroes is repeated
today in the soul of every individual. We must pass on to the question: “What
is the basic phenomenon of Averroes?”
XLVI.
THE VICTORY
OVER AVERROES IN OUR TIME
We have spoken of the basic phenomenon of Averroes. In order to truly

estimate its enormous significance for the philosophical battles of the Middle
Ages, which were conducted with the utmost vigor, we must take into account
that, in those times, the great distinction was observed between the actual facts of
human consciousness and the consciousness of them. Such distinctions entered
deeply into the life of the soul and were decisive in life’s greatest questions, for
example, survival after death, but also with regard to a man’s approach to the
Mystery of Golgotha. Even today, it can still be of importance to discuss such
questions for, out of these conflicts, our present-day consciousness has evolved
so that they still continue in the depths of our souls (Study XLV). Certainly,
these battles have assumed other forms, so that their origin can no longer be
recognized at first sight.
A philosophical problem which has become popular runs: If I were a king
and did not know it, of what use would it be to me? This question can be
interpreted in various ways: If I am immortal, and know nothing of it, what
does it avail me? What does it signify to me if past lives lie behind me and I do
not remember them? It is clear that a man’s attention can indeed be drawn to
facts of human consciousness but, in order to verify such facts inwardly, the
individual consciousness must itself be active. Now, however, the facts of logic
are among the most significant in conscious experience. They demand absolute
truth, and it is in this implicitness or absoluteness that the basic phenomenon of
Averroes lies. It consists in the fact that thinking has universal character so that
the truth of its contents is independent of the way in which they are revealed in
the field of consciousness.
Here, we have to do with the first spiritual experience of ordinary
consciousness which, in the midst of the subjective life of the soul, is clearly
emphasized as lying beyond both subjective and objective (as absolute). We
have often met with this form of the basic phenomenon of Averroes in our
208
work, for example, in Study X; the beginning of Study XLIII also deals with
it. We find this phenomenon pointed out again and again in a most impressive
way in Rudolf Steiner’s work, especially in his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
(Chapter 5): “Our thinking is not individual like our sensing and feeling. It is
universal. There is only one concept of a triangle. It is quite immaterial for the
content of this concept whether it is grasped by A’s consciousness or B’s.” There
are many such passages. But the point is what conclusions are deduced from it;
if they are only the conclusions of thinking, then their content is again universal,
that is, independent of the “consciousness of A or B.” And if now, from this
phenomenon alone, we come to a conclusion with regard to the continuance of
life after death, nothing else can transpire than that which Averroes concluded
from Aristotle, namely, a doctrine of universal, and not of individual, survival.
Thus, he regarded the human spiritual being as a drop of the universal spiritual
ocean which is united at birth with the earthly body and, after death, becomes
once more one with the spiritual ocean.
If we now wish to understand the conflict concerning Averroes, we must not
forget that, also in keeping with the frame of mind of that time, the point was not
to refute the original phenomenon of Averroes, for that would be impossible, but
to realize that this phenomenon as such is not the only one to be authoritative.
The view of Averroes still rests completely on the ancient thought process. This,
as Rudolf Steiner has shown in his Riddles of Philosophy and elsewhere, was a
process of perception in which the soul’s own activity had no special share. At
that time, it was certainly simply a matter of showing the thought phenomenon
as such. The transition to the Middle Ages came about because the soul’s own
activity came more and more into the foreground, so that thoughts could no
longer be perceived, but appeared to be produced by the effort of the soul;
that is to say, there had to be soul efforts before cosmic thoughts were yielded
to man. Here, we have placed before us one of the great discoveries which
Rudolf Steiner recorded in his Riddles of Philosophy. Although in recent times,
more interest has awakened in the Middle Ages, which were so thoroughly
calumniated, it will not be possible really to understand that period unless we
take this discovery seriously in its far-reaching significance.
The transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages is historically significant
for the whole world, since the Mystery of Golgotha lies between the two ways
of approaching thinking, that of Antiquity and that of the Middle Ages. This
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unique historical event, in which the highest Divine Being appeared in an

individual human body, sets before us the task of realizing a spiritual experience
inspired by soul warmth. This goes beyond the Averroes phenomenon, for it
strives after something which cannot be given by way of a percept, namely, the
after-experience of the Mystery of Golgotha in the individual human soul. The
historical event itself could be grasped as a percept and handed down by means
of tradition. It was, in this sense, that the Roman Church was formed and it
made use of the ancient way of grasping thoughts, when making the Mystery
of Golgotha known, while Thomas Aquinas appealed for the utmost striving
as in ancient times, to acquire knowledge, in order to provide a basis for this
new experience. To this end, he was obliged to purify the deepest feeling and
power of perception, that man might attain to the experience of the universality
of thinking, in order thereby to justify human individuality. What Thomas
Aquinas thus found in spiritual striving at its highest was continued in German
Mysticism in warmth of heart and mind.
In our time, there is again a significant turning-point. The old conflict adopts
new forms. In the realm of world conceptions, there is a new spirituality arising
in opposition to materialism. This latter is a continuation of Averroes’ outlook;
in the new spiritual striving, genuine Thomism must expand afresh, now no
longer only in feeling, but also in willing. Just as the phenomenon of Averroes
must be recognized if we wish to understand Thomism, so is it our concern
to recognize the basic methods of science without succumbing to materialism.
Then, we realize that it is indeed German Mysticism that the basis is given
which leads to a method of contemplating nature, which finds its fulfillment
in spiritual science. To show this was indeed Rudolf Steiner’s goal in his book
Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age. Again and again, he reaffirms that
the will must enter into thinking if spiritual science is to come into being.
If we look at the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity from this viewpoint,
we can realize clearly that it is not merely concerned with thinking, and thus
distinguished from every other philosophy, from every other system; it is
definitely no system. Systemic philosophy is only a prelude to it. Certainly, the
first part which may be called epistemological starts from thinking, not with the
thought, the concept, the idea; for, by this means, it reaches its origin on the path
of thinking. The following passage, for example, (Chapter 1, last paragraph) is
characteristic, “It becomes more and more clear that the question of the nature
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of human action presupposes that of the origin of thinking.” Only when we

advance to the origin of thinking does willing also become accessible to us in
our studies. In an addition to Chapter 3, we find, “Let it be granted that the
nature of thinking necessarily implies it is being willed: the point which matters
is that nothing is willed which, in being carried out, fails to appear to the ego as
an activity completely its own and under its own supervision. Indeed, we must
say thinking appears to the observer as willed, through and through precisely
because of its nature as above defined.” Here, thinking is conscious of its origin
and, from thenceforth, ordinary consciousness, which can fall headlong into
materialism at any moment, is raised above itself. That is the beginning of the
path which is followed in the second part of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity.
This path leads to new forms of human consciousness, which are not present
simply as phenomena, but must be created out of the inmost being of man.
The sphere of willing belongs absolutely to the individual. Through the
purification of willing, individuality is raised so that, without losing itself as
such, it gains the value of universal thinking. Thereby, the ideal element in our
activity attains to something of a truly spiritual occurrence. That is indeed
described as the task of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity in the Preface to the
Revised Edition (1918): “To show that open-minded consideration simply of
the two problems which I have indicated and which are fundamental for every
kind of knowledge, leads to the view that man lives in the midst of a genuine
spiritual world.”
We wee that it is not a question of confuting Averroes, but of overcoming
him. That is the meaning of the familiar representations in the Middle Ages in
the form of pictures which made man conscious of a victory. In our time, this
takes place in a different way, but the problem has lost nothing of its significance.
Today, by fighting against Averroes, we must achieve a transfiguration of the
individual arising out of the universality of thinking. The individual himself
should be raised to spiritual existence so that he may be received as a spirit
being among spirit beings.
XLVII.
WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL
One who, in accordance with the previous Study, strives against the Averroes
temptation, in order to attain to a transfiguration of the individual out of the
universality of thinking, draws near to the true being of love.145 Love can only
spring out of the transfiguration of the individual, so that man may bring it to the
spiritual world as a conquest won by life from the world of death. Today, facing
the universality of thinking, stands spiritual science, the spirit deed of Rudolf
Steiner. The figure of light connected with spirit-filled thinking is Michael; the
figure of love among men and spirits is Christ. The Leading Thoughts direct our
striving to lofty goals, but, again and again, we must turn our attention to the
way in which Rudolf Steiner had to fight for his spiritual science against the
strongest opposition. That can become clear to us from his way of conquering
Averroes in modern times.
The beginning of the titanic struggle made by the man of today to place
himself as a free being in opposition to the whole world, and challenge it to
fight for knowledge, appears to those who are guided by fettered thoughts as
arrogance, as presumption; yet it is in truth a wrestling with the Angel: “I will
not let thee go except thou bless me.” One who wrestles thus shuns no wounds
from which the blood of the old spiritual bondage must flow. How Goethe
preserved the expression piety as a deep longing of the human soul, and still he
became the founder of a new science resting on purely human experience, and
he met with the blessing of a new piety: “Whoe’er aspires unweariedly...” but he
still had to clothe it in imagery of old spirituality. Rudolf Steiner has repeatedly
called attention to this. And now let us look at his book Rudolf Steiner: An
Autobiography which appeared as a legacy. We have already been obliged on
various occasions (for example, Study XLIII) to think of the loneliness in which
he was placed owing to the impossibility of finding understanding in others for
his spiritual sight. At the close of the chapters in which he expresses this most
forcibly, Rudolf Steiner speaks of the change in his soul which confronted him
145
4/8 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “Man’s connection with the various planetary bodies. The earth’s
mission,” August 12, 1908].
212
from his 35th year onward.

In Chapter 22 of Rudolf Steiner: An Autobiography, we find: “The
realization of that which can be experienced in the spiritual world had always
been to me something self-evident; to grasp the sense world in full awareness
had always caused me the greatest difficulty...This changed entirely from the
beginning of my 36th year.” He had, as it were, to fight against his own spiritual
vision, in order to attain to what otherwise comes much earlier to men of our
time, namely this transition from “the soul’s weaving in the spiritual world to an
experience of the physical.” Perhaps it is not too much to say that this was the
fruit of his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, that he was able to fight his way to
the earth, to exact sense perception. In this battle, he gained his spiritual science,
that is to say, from his experience of the spiritual world, it was possible to attain
to an exact investigation of it. Chapter 22 of Rudolf Steiner: An Autobiography
can be of vital importance for the reader who really enters into it, “So I said also
to myself: The whole world except man is a riddle, the real world riddle; and
man himself is its solution.” The wrestling at the end of the ‘90s of the previous
century faced the soul of Rudolf Steiner when he composed Leading Thoughts
109 to 111 and the Letter accompanying them and, at the same time, he came
to a description of that period of his life in the periodical Das Goetheanum.146
Thus, this may be to us the clearest reminder that these very Leading
Thoughts, 109 to 111, deal with the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. The Letter
accompanying them bears the title Michael’s Experiences during the Fulfillment
of his Cosmic Mission, and we have learned to know parts of it through Study
XLV. There, in connection with human freedom, our gaze is raised to events in
the spiritual world; at the same time, we must perceive it as a warning against
losing the earthly world for, on the contrary, out of this very experience of
freedom in the physical world, we should acquire an understanding for the
development of freedom in the spiritual world. Only on paths such as these,
and the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity also points to them, do we draw near
to Michael, no longer through the mood of earlier piety. The new piety which
grows out of the free thought is most certainly no less inward. Rudolf Steiner
himself has anticipated arguments which could be made on this matter, against
the outlook of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, for example, in the following
146
International Weekly German-language News Sheet of the General Anthroposophical Society, Dornach,
October, 1924.
213
passage which is given as an Addition to the Revised Edition (1918), Chapter

8: “It is owing precisely to this wealth, to this inward abundance of experience
(in thinking), that the counter-image of thinking which presents itself to our
ordinary attitude of soul, should appear lifeless and abstract. No other activity
of the human mind is so easily misapprehended as thinking. Will and feeling
still fill the soul with warmth even when we live through them again in memory.
Thinking all to readily leaves us cold in recollection; it is as if the life of the
soul had dried out. But this is really nothing but the strongly marked shadow
thrown by its luminous, warm reality penetrating deeply into the phenomena
of the world.” If we wish to describe the difference clearly between the old and
new piety, we can say that, in place of not-being-allowed-to-know, there comes
the reverence of conscious participation. Thus, it is clear that we must not take
the Leading Thoughts as devotional books and, in the same vein, Rudolf Steiner
has protested that we should not listen to his lectures as to a Sunday afternoon
sermon.
In the same Chapter 22 of his Autobiography, we find the statement that, to
stand with one’s soul wholly within this opposition between the spiritual world
and the sense world, is equivalent to “having an understanding for life.” “Where
the opposites are felt to have been reduced to harmony, there the lifeless, the
dead holds sway.” Opposition, contradiction, conflict rouses and also creates
life. Let us consider such a rousing contradiction in Leading Thought 110.
There, it is said that freedom as a fact of direct experience is given to every
man who understands himself in the present period of human evolution. In the
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, it is said in Leading Thought 111, “the freedom
of the human being in the present world-epoch is proved as an essential element
of consciousness.” Now what does it mean: freedom is given, or freedom is a
mater of fact? If it is given, is it then still freedom? When, elsewhere, it is stated
of something that it is given, is a fact, we think of it in connection with law,
with necessity. Here, therefore, there must be a different kind of gift in question.
Now the stage on which the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity is played is the
human individuality. The experience of freedom indicated in the Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity is something toward which the ordinary consciousness, with
its various gifts must, or rather can, work its way. But then a new question can
arise: Whence, from what source is the freedom of man given or granted? This
question can only operate between being and being.
214
Certainly, we can say of an earthly event that one man gives to another, for
example, to a slave, his freedom, but, in this way, we by no means experience
the fact of the freedom of the human being; this can, therefore, only take place
in the spiritual world and not until a man, as an individual, is admitted to the
spiritual world, can he experience the other side of his freedom. Thus, there is
a problem of freedom which can be solved from the background of its cosmic
context (Leading Thought 109). But in order “to awake to a true consciousness
of the Michael influence in the spiritual relationship of the world,” a victory
must be won in wrestling with the Angel.
The blessing of wrestling with the Angel is the new name by which the man
is addressed from out of the spiritual world. This expresses the fact that the
man with his individuality is allowed to enter the spiritual world. One who,
as an individual, experiences this on his path of initiation becomes his nation,
as it is expressed in the language of the Old Testament, from which the image
of wrestling with the Angel originates. To become a nation means being freed
from the blood relationships of the earth and received into the realm of the folk-
spirits. One who reaches this stage has, as an individual, the value of a whole
nation.
When, in this way, we meet a solution of the problem of human individuality
in the spiritual world, we can also better understand the empirical individuality
of the ordinary consciousness. If we look at the central chapter of Rudolf
Steiner’s book Theosophy, we find a kind of preliminary step to this rise of the
individuality. There, our attention is drawn to the biography of the individual,
in order to be able to follow the being of man on the other side of birth and
death; and the result for the genuinely scientific view is that the individual man
cannot be compared with one single animal, but with a whole animal species,
that one single man possesses the value of a whole animal species: “Anyone
who reflects on the nature of biography becomes aware that in respect of the
spiritual each man is a species by himself.”
An intermediate stage is formed by the revelations concerning the mission
of Michael. They apply to all men who which to acquire an understanding for
them. He who can “awake to a true consciousness of the working of Michael in
the spiritual order of the world” (Leading Thought 109) is thereby received into
a community, which is raised above all earthly communities, such as nation,
language, etc. This community is recognized in the spiritual world nearest to
215
earthly consciousness. That is the Michael fellowship to which Anthroposophy

calls a man, toward which the individual can work out of the forces of ordinary
consciousness. Michael, by virtue of his office of Time Spirit, overcomes all
varieties of human associations, and forms in the spiritual world a people, not
rooted in blood ties, but a community of our own time, a people of a new
fellowship.
XLVIII.
MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM
In the Letter which Rudolf Steiner added to Leading Thoughts 109 to 111,
much is contained, in addition to what is given in Study XLV, concerning the
deeds of the Gods, which led to the origin of man. There, it is pointed out that
in the very earliest ages in only one corner of the field of the Gods’ activity was
there anything resembling mankind perceptible to spiritual investigation. All
that was said in the last Study, which could imply suspicion of self-conceit, loses
any meaning in view of such spiritual facts; for human existence is shown to
be only a modest part of cosmic events. Modern views very willingly give up
modesty concerning the cosmos, but in such Studies as we have here, there is
absolutely no need for it to be lacking. Thus, at that time, man had arisen as
something of secondary importance. In that corner Michael cared for humanity.
Our modern knowledge sees man at the starting point of all that has taken
place; this is due to the cosmic limitation of our sight; from the cosmic point of
view, this is willed by the Gods. The Gods certainly look upon man, but perhaps
in the same way that men look at an ant heap in which they are interested on
account of the social arrangements. Ants and bees also have apparently solved
a problem which man is not yet able to settle; besides, for man it is naturally a
completely different problem. Thus men are engaged in solving the question of
freedom, and the Gods watch these human undertakings although, for them,
freedom means something different.
Now the presentation of the course of cosmic events is such that we can
sense, through the fulfillment of the mission of Michael, that the events which
were, in the first place, purely cosmic find their counterpart in the evolution
of humanity; this is again reflected in the individual human life; finally, it is
repeated in the everyday course of a man’s life through waking and sleeping.
Hence, man as microcosm bears the whole of past cosmic events with him.
Thus, Rudolf Steiner has gone through these parallels in detail, for example, in
the second lecture of Cosmic and Human Metamorphosis, where he deals with
the rhythms of numbers; he closes these descriptions of number and measure
with the words, “It is a great and wonderful thing, and its significance must
cut deeply into our very hearts: that number and measure regulate the great
217
cosmos, the macrocosm, exactly as they regulate us, the microcosm. This is
not merely a figure of speech, it is not merely mystically felt; but the wisdom-
filled contemplation of the world teaches us that we, as microcosms, stand
within the macrocosm.”147 The whole is effective in the small, humble part. This
principle of repetition in circles or spirals growing ever smaller, as it is presented
in detail in Rudolf Steiner’s Occult Science: An Outline, also finally leads to
individualization of man. For a man as one who knows, this cosmic happening,
when it is described as in the Letter accompanying Leading Thoughts 109 to
111 from the point of view of Michael, becomes comprehensible through the
term sequence of ideas which is here especially emphasized; for thereby the line
which leads to man is indicated.
That man should pay attention to the sequence of ideas is for him inseparably
connected with the nature of his knowledge. Sequence of ideas is the categorical
relationship which man seeks in contrast to the chaos of the immediately given.
We have already considered this in itself, but also with regard to the stages of
higher knowledge (Studies XVII and XVIII). Now this categorical relationship
has also developed; the various supersensible spheres or worlds are characterized
by the stages of its development. There only remains for us the principle of the
sequence of ideas in the present-day consciousness forsaken by the Gods, unless
the power of freeing this sequence proceeds from the individual activity of the
consciousness itself (Study XVIII). Here it will be of value to refer to our brief
remarks about Thomas Aquinas. These lectures have an enormous significance,
not only historically, but indeed for the development of consciousness in our
day. Toward the close of the second lecture, we find the passage: “How is
thinking made Christian? At the moment of Thomas Aquinas’ death in 1274,
this question, historically speaking, confronted the world.”
For us, this most significant question must be linked with the other which
remained in abeyance since Study XLI: Is man really the producer of his thoughts
or is this an illusion? From the viewpoint of ordinary consciousness, man must
recognize that they are produced by him but, in accordance with a deeper
knowledge, this is an illusion. And yet, through this illusion, man experiences
his ego as a spiritual being. A real process underlies the thought experience
of man, only not exactly the one that it appears to be. The sequence of ideas
comes to man as reality and dies away in him. It can, however, rise again if
147
See also 47/2 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “False Analogies,” August 7, 1917].
218
man’s thinking can be made Christian. Let us try to give an account of how the
question, tragic and absorbing in the year of Thomas Aquinas’ death received
an answer through Rudolf Steiner.
The sequence of ideas which has been so strongly emphasized, now appears
in a new form in the following Leading Thoughts:
112. The Divine-Spiritual comes to expression in the Cosmos in different
ways, in succeeding stages: (1) through its own and inmost Being; (2)
through the Manifestation of this Being; (3) through the active Working,
when the Being withdraws from the Manifestation; (4) through the
accomplished Work, when in the outwardly apparent Universe no longer
the Divine itself, but only the forms of the Divine are there.
113. In the modern conception of Nature man has no relation to the
Divine, but only to the accomplished Work. With all that is imparted to
the human soul by this science of Nature, man can unite himself either
with the powers of Christ or with the dominions of Ahriman.
114. Michael is filled with the striving — working through his example
in perfect freedom — to embody in human cosmic evolution the relation
to the Cosmos which is still preserved in man himself from the ages when
the Divine Being and the Divine Manifestation held sway. In this way, all
that is said by the modern view of Nature — relating as it does purely to
the image, purely to the form of the Divine — will merge into a higher,
spiritual view of Nature. The latter will indeed exist in man; but it will
be an echo in human experience of the Divine relation to the Cosmos
which prevailed in the first two stages of cosmic evolution. This is how
Anthroposophy confirms the view of Nature which the age of the Spiritual
Soul has evolved, while supplementing it with that which is revealed to
spiritual seership.
Rudolf Steiner’s descriptions of the evolution of the world through the cosmic
stages of Saturn, Sun, Moon, down to the Earth form the cosmic background
for his most significant investigations. The earth itself as the fourth stage of
evolution bears within it and all its phenomena in ever smaller circles or spirals,
the effect of these three preceding stages.148 This we saw above and also in more
than one earlier context (Study XIV). Everything that has taken place, which is
148
9/4 [THE EAST IN THE LIGHT OF THE WEST, “Evolutionary Stages: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth,” August
26, 1909].
219
connected with it, has in some way an influence reaching as far as our everyday
human consciousness. Out of this relationship, these events can also be grasped
by man. With his knowledge, man can proceed from concepts and ideas as
principles of arrangement, bound up with his own being; he considers them to
be the expression of his being or as created by himself. Certain philosophies
consider them as given a priori, but a deeper knowledge can penetrate into
them and then they show that they originated from spiritual-cosmic evolution.
Now we find a series of concepts specified in Leading Thoughts 112 to
114 and, in the accompanying Letter, which in their sequence represent for
human consciousness, the ancient stages of evolution: “Being, Manifestation,
active Working, wrought Work. The sequence of this order of ideas is that of
the cosmic order, as it were, of chronology; the sequence of ideas according to
human knowledge takes the reverse direction. In effect, man’s thinking and his
search for knowledge run their course backwards, for example, in the opposite
direction to the course of time known to our ordinary consciousness. Man
considers the objects of the sense world; they appear side by side, in space. If he
seeks for the connection between the phenomena, he considers their workings
in time. That is the second step; the third occurs inasmuch as he can grasp a
process as an effect and for this he seeks the cause. This must lie further back in
time than the effect, and the cause when found can be grasped as the effect of a
cause still more remote in time, and so on.
Through this way of seeking knowledge, which is methodically employed
in modern science, we may also, however, stumble on complexities in which the
relation between cause and effect reveals something in the nature of a being and
we shall then feel the need to find the beings themselves, out of whose will the
revelations have flowed. Of course, for our ordinary consciousness, these can
only be human beings. But, since man as one who knows, is himself a being,
his striving for knowledge in the highest sense will only be fully satisfied if he
reaches beings in the phenomena of the world of nature and not only in human
affairs. Thus in the course of knowledge we find the opposite direction in the
sequence of ideas to that of cosmic chronological events.
XLIX.
HOW IS THINKING MADE CHRISTIAN?
We saw at the close of the previous Study, that the search for knowledge
undertaken by men of today is accomplished in stages, which can be expressed
in the sequence of ideas: wrought Work, active Working, Revelation, Being.
This sequence of ideas shows the opposite direction to the order in which the
Divine-Spiritual in the cosmos expresses itself, namely in the stages which are
given in Leading Thought 112: Being, Revelation, active Working, wrought
Work. Today, in philosophical circles, such a sequence of ideas is only allowed
on account of its systematic value, from the viewpoint of classification. They
are, it is true, also grouped in tables of categories and the like, but today nothing
more is felt of their cosmic-spiritual significance where philosophy is concerned.
This was not always the case, but, on the contrary, at the time of early
Scholasticism, and even earlier, there was a living sense that such sequences
of ideas were reflections of cosmic-spiritual facts. This is also expressed in the
naming of the spiritual Hierarchies of beings as early as the time of Dionysius the
Areopagite. In this particular, he is connected with the older oriental Mysteries,
and mainly this older terminology rests wholly on spiritual reality. In the same
way, Rudolf Steiner gives the names of the successive Hierarchies, which can
be mirrored in human consciousness as sequences of ideas; he speaks of the
Spirits of Will, of Wisdom, of Movement, of Form, only to mention those in
whose names clearly sound the cosmic sequence of ideas in Leading Thought
112. Here, it need only be added that, according to Rudolf Steiner’s Occult
Science: An Outline, these very beings, during the cosmic evolution in Saturn,
Sun, Moon, Earth, were creatively active in building up the human being and
his four principles: physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego.
It is clear, however, from Rudolf Steiner’s whole work that sequences of ideas
such as those in Leading Thought 112 only gain their significance for human
consciousness when taken as subjects for meditation. In the short statement at
the close of our last Study concerning the sequence of ideas in the present-day
search for knowledge, we had, in effect, the attitude of natural science in mind.
“Anthroposophy confirms the view of nature which the age of the spiritual-soul
221
has evolved (Leading Thought 114) ...” This view, however, is such that in one-
sidedness at any moment, it can deviate into the Ahrimanic sphere (Leading
Thought 113), if it is not supplemented by another “which is the result of
observation with the spiritual eye.” This supplement is only brought about for
ordinary consciousness, when the cosmic spiritual facts are taken into the life of
meditation. That, however, signifies that, through exercises, man begins to raise
himself out of his ordinary consciousness.
It is easy to see that the sequence of ideas from wrought Work to Being
corresponds approximately to the Categories which, in Study XVIII, are
connected with the steps to the higher kinds of knowledge:
Wrought Work corresponds to space.
Active Working corresponds to time.
Revelation corresponds to causality.
Being corresponds to permanence of being.
If the search for knowledge is applied to such an inner development of the
Categories, then the other sequence of ideas, as it “results from observation
with the spiritual eye”: Being, Revelation, active Working, wrought Work also
begins to become effective as a key to knowledge, that, by its means, we may
grasp spiritual facts, with which we have already dealt from other points of
view.
Let us now consider the experience on the other side of death from this
present viewpoint; this previously occupied us in Studies XIII and XIV. The true
path of knowledge is an anticipation of after-death experiences. In Study IX, we
were already able to say: “All knowledge is wrested from death.” And in Study
XIII, there followed the statement: “The path of knowledge of Anthroposophy
leads, even in the experience of earthly consciousness, to an understanding of
what occurs after death to everything relating to the soul.” Thus, we can say
that experiences on the other side of death proceed in the same direction as the
path of knowledge in our consciousness on this side between birth and death.
This moves, as we saw above, in the opposite direction to the chronological
course of events, out of space backwards in time, in reversed causality, and thus
after-death experiences are a living backwards.
There are investigations by Rudolf Steiner which show that the dead, in the
222
first place, pass into the cosmos.149 In the very last year of his life, Rudolf Steiner
described this passage in great detail, especially into the so-called planetary
spheres. These are the spheres of evolution by which a man finds his way into
the spheres of the spiritual worlds. Since this path is, at the same time, like a
return to man’s original divine forces, we can understand that here, too, the
direction is opposite to the chronological course of the spiritual creation of man;
thus, actually, in the same direction as that taken only by human knowledge
between birth and death. Rudolf Steiner has portrayed this living backwards
to the midnight hour of existence in wonderful scenes in his Mystery Drama
The Soul’s Awakening. This midnight hour existence is the soul’s turning point.
How far into the cosmos this turning point reaches150 depends upon a man’s
own spiritual forces, which he has been able to acquire during his earth life.
Then, however, the will for a new earth life awakens. In his subsequent journey
to a new earth life, the direction is again reversed and follows that of cosmic
events. In experiencing this course, man repeats in a shortened form the cosmic
course from Being to wrought Work.
The descent of man from the cosmos to new earth life occupied us in other
connections in Studies XVII and XVIII. Now, however, over and above what we
have considered before, there follow mighty impulses for these very stages in
the rhythm of successive earth lives. We must picture to ourselves that, before
man sets foot on earth in order to unite himself with a physical body, he can
still establish connections with the Divine-spiritual which, for his actual earth
life, will only be recognizable as wrought Work. Concerning this, the Letter
accompanying Leading Thoughts 112 to 114 contains exceptionally important
knowledge: “When man has accomplished his life between death and new birth,
and is on his way down to take up a new existence upon earth, he himself seeks,
as he comes down toward this new existence, to establish a harmony between
the course of the stars and his own earth life. This harmony was a matter of
course in ancient times, since divine spirit was at work within the stars, and
man’s life had its source in them. Today, when the stars merely continue in their
courses to carry on the divine spirit’s active Working, this harmony would not
149
Death and the ‘Cosmic Midnight Hour,’ April 13, 1914]; A/4 [THE BEING OF MAN AND HIS FUTURE
EVOLUTION, “Rhythms in the Bodies of Man,” December 21, 1908].
150
32/6 [THE INNER NATURE OF MAN AND THE LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH, “Pleasures
and Sufferings in the Life Beyond,” April 14, 1914].
223
exist, unless man sought for it. Man brings his own Divine-spiritual element,
that has been conserved in him from earlier times, into relation with the stars,
in which the Divine-spiritual element only now exists as after-effect of an earlier
time. Thus a divine element is introduced into man’s relation with the world,
which corresponds to earlier times, and yet appears in later ones. That this is so,
is the act of Michael.”
Michael does not work directly into the “world of wrought Work” to which
man belongs during his incarnation, but he stands at the threshold of birth
and, from him, man can receive that which can enlighten him again during
his earthly life; his search for knowledge gropes its way back to these prenatal
experiences. But this sphere in the spiritual world, through which man passes
shortly before his incarnation, is also the realm in which Ahriman lies in wait
for the descending human souls, in order then to enroll them for his cosmic
goals during their earth lives, to which he has access. Concerning this, too, we
find clear indications in the Letter accompanying Leading Thoughts 112 to 114.
Michael’s conflict with the dragon follows man as a picture into his earth life. All
these proceedings have their heavenly prototype in the starry worlds themselves.
The sphere of the comets is, according to Rudolf Steiner, that of Ahriman, and
when we see meteors151 due to cometary action, it is the sword of Michael that
shields man prior to birth from a too-powerful Ahrimanic influence. Here, a
picture from old folklore may occur to us, that the souls of children coming to
birth are announced by shooting stars.
In earthly life, man belongs to the world of wrought Work from which the
divine spirit has completely withdrawn. There, the consciousness soul fashions
itself by acquiring knowledge of the laws of nature (wrought Work). Of the prenatal
experiences, the sequence of ideas alone remains to man. When Michael’s mission
shines through this, the language of the consciousness soul is changed into the
language of Christ. “For Christ came into the world with an intellectuality which
is in every way the same as it was, when once it lived in the divine spirit.”...”Today,
if we speak in such a manner that our thoughts can also be the Christ’s, then we
set something against the Ahrimanic powers, which will save us from falling into
their snare.” This is contained in the Letter accompanying Leading Thoughts
112 to 114; the next sentence runs: “To understand the meaning of the mission
151
21/10 [THE SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN THE HEAVENLY BODIES AND THE KINGDOMS OF NATURE,
April 14, 1912].
224
of Michael in the cosmos means the ability to speak like this.” That everything
depends upon such understanding is shown by the further profound sentence:
“For to understand Michael means, today, to find the way to the Logos, as it is
lived by Christ amongst men on earth.” Thus, on the paths of Anthroposophy,
thinking is made Christian.
L. CONCERNING MIRACLE
The immensity, the incomprehensibility of the Mystery of Golgotha was at

all times perceived as a miracle. What is a miracle? That which at a given time
cannot be understood with the customary means of knowledge.152 However,
since man’s capacity for knowledge has changed radically in the course of time,
there has been again and again a change in what men regard as a miracle; yes,
even where similar events are concerned, there are different points of view from
which miracles are interpreted. From historical times, since man’s consciousness
began to be severed from the Divine-spiritual world, a miracle has always been
understood as a proof of the direct intervention of the divine. If now the miracle
is bound up with faith, we can no more agree with it, confronted as we are by
our present-day consciousness of knowledge, which can no longer believe as
in olden times; for this consciousness strives after miracle through knowing. It
is just to those who have knowledge that many things appear to be miracles,
which to the naive consciousness are natural or comprehensible without further
consideration.
The greatest miracle of all time is human freedom; on this account it is
so hotly contested. As long as our natural science only admits uninterrupted
causality, it must deny the miracle of human freedom, as of every encroachment
of a spiritual element into physical events. If, however, the feeling of freedom
is a direct experience in human consciousness (Leading Thoughts 20 and 110),
the living spiritual foundation for ordinary physical events would also have
to be sought. Human freedom, however, is not simply a demonstrable fact,
but it is continuously active, taking place ever anew in the individual man. It
does not occur in the empirical man, who could be an object of knowledge like
any other, but in the active man. Thus, indeed, the simplest movement really
contains a miracle, namely, a spiritual element acting upon physical matters;
but the part played by the will in a process of this kind will not be noticed as
we saw earlier, for example, in Study XXII. If consciousness is gained in the
activity of the will, the miracle of freedom can directly manifest its convincing
power. One who by great effort succeeds in participating consciously in this
152
August 20, 1911].
226
miracle, also begins to apprehend the miracle which is taking place in humanity
as a whole. Here, we are concerned with decisive events which raise man above
ordinary consciousness into spiritual worlds. Again and again, we can prove
that already in his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, Rudolf Steiner gave all the
elements needed for such an evolution of consciousness. One of the important
considerations with regard to human freedom is expressed in the question of
how the freedom of the single individual is compatible with that of all the others.
We find the following passage on this subject in the Philosophy of Spiritual
Activity, Chapter 9: “I differ from my neighbor, not at all because we are living
in two entirely different spiritual worlds, but because from our common world
of Ideas, we receive different intuitions. He desires to live out his intuitions, I
mine. If we both really draw our intuitions from the world of Ideas, we cannot
help but meet one another in striving for the same aims, in having the same
intentions. A moral misunderstanding, a clash is impossible between men who
are morally free.” And further on, we find: “The free man lives out his life
in full confidence that all other free men belong to one spiritual world with
himself, and that their intentions will harmonize with his. The free man does
not demand accord from his fellow-man, but he expects it nonetheless, because
it is inherent in human nature.”
In expressions of this kind in the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, we find
the higher stage of a spiritual world to which the consciousness of the free man
is raised. Now, in the continuation of the Leading Thoughts and of the Letters,
Rudolf Steiner again and again brings the mission of Michael into connection
with the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. But, still, in the invaluable contents
of the Letters, to which we were able to refer in our last Studies, new miracles
were shown which are connected with the path of humanity to freedom. In
continuation of what has been brought to our notice about Michael’s work
on man before birth, there then follows in relation to the life of man between
birth and death: “In this sun-like divine, but not livingly divine world, lies the
life of man. But, owing to Michael’s work upon him, he has conserved as man
his connection with the essential being of Divine Spirit. He lives as a God-
pervaded being in a non-God-pervaded world.”...”Into this world, void of God,
man will introduce what is in himself, --- what his being has come to be in this
age.”...”Mankind will take its place in a world-evolution, and develop its own
form there. The Divine Spirit=Being, from which man first sprang, spread abroad
as human being throughout all the worlds, will then have power to fill with
227
light that cosmos, which now exists only in the likeness of Divine Spirit.”...”No
longer will the same Being, which once was Cosmos shine forth in light through
man. Divine Spirit, in its passage through mankind, will experience a being,
which it had not brought to manifestation before.”
Here, the individual stages of the sequence of ideas from Leading Thought
112 again sound forth. But now, for the future, all that is found in this sequence
is no longer to be merely a factor of knowledge, but something active proceeding
from man. The path of human freedom indeed lies in this, that ideas or intuitions
are drawn from the spiritual world, in order, at the same time, to become motives
and impulses to action; this is expressed in the second part of the Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity. Into the world of wrought Work, the world now void of
God, man will carry from his own Being all that through the active Workings of
Michael has been preserved in him as Revelation of God. When Being streams
from man into the dead wrought Work, miracles will take place through man.
This process, which is to unfold more and more in the future, corresponds fully
to every possible definition of that which can be called miracle.
Insight into this nature of miracle-working can open our eyes to the miracle
of the Mystery of Golgotha, to facts which can only now, in our present age of
consciousness, be taken into human thinking, so that it may become Christian.
The miracles of Christ’s life are not so much the signs which he wrought, but
the facts of this life itself; they consist in the appearance of a primordial Divine
Being in a human body at a time when the stage was beginning, in which only
wrought Work was still in the world, not longer active Working, Revelation
and Being. “The light shone into the darkness.” Rudolf Steiner has dedicated
the most important of his spiritual investigations to this end, that man may
take part consciously in this miracle, now after the age of darkness has run its
course, in which the souls of man could only approach this miracle through
faith. This is not the place to enter into these researches in detail, but rather to
refer to his books and lecture cycles. In a special sense, the cycle on the Gospel
of St. Luke153 comes into consideration here; in it, is shown how even the body
of Christ was a miracle, for it was formed from a primeval human element,
which had not participated in the Fall. Through the medium of this body, Christ
as Man, though with a primordial Divine intellectuality that is as Logos, could
153
10/4 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, “Sanctuaries of Leadership in ancient Atlantis. The Nirmanakaya of
Buddha and the Nathan Jesus-child. The Adam-soul before the Fall. The Reincarnation of Zarathustra in
the Solomon Jesus-child,” September 18, 1909].
228
restore to sick humanity, the forces which had been originally implanted. This
is Christ the Healer.
In order that the Christ miracle may reach the individual man, he must
learn to understand the mission of Michael. Understanding and speaking
belong together. The understanding of Michael leads to the language of the
consciousness soul, which flows out of the impulses of the knowledge of nature.
“One must be able in these days to speak about the world of nature in the
manner demanded by the present stage of the consciousness soul’s development.
One must be able to make one’s mind familiar with the purely scientific mode
of thought. But one should also learn to speak about the world of nature that
is, the sense world, in a manner befitting the Christ. We must learn the Christian
language not only about redemption from nature, not only about the soul
and things divine, but about the cosmos.” This, however, is a process which
takes place in inner development and is not only a question of knowledge. The
miracles of the future take place in a sphere to which man will only pave the
way in freedom.
Michael-Christ, that is the impulse pursued in such Leading Thoughts that
follow:
115. Man goes on his way through the Cosmos in such manner that his
looking back into past ages can be falsified by the impulses of Lucifer,
and his thinking into the future deceived by the allurements of Ahriman.
116. To the falsifying influences of Lucifer he finds the right relation
when he imbues his attitude to life and knowledge with the Being and the
Mission of Michael.
117. Moreover, in so doing he provides against the allurements of
Ahriman. For the path of the Spirit into external Nature, which Michael
inspires, leads to a right relation to the domain of Ahriman, inasmuch as
a true and living experience with Christ is also found thereby.
After the necessity for the question, “How is thinking made Christian?”
(see Studies XLVIII and XLIX), had arisen out of man’s past and cosmic origin,
the other question comes to us more out of the future of humanity and of its
future cosmic workings, “How can life be Christ-filled?” But, first of all, we
shall have to enter still more deeply into the connection between the Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity and all that is called by Rudolf Steiner in the continuation
of his Leading Thoughts and Letters “the Michael-Christ experience in man.”
LI. CONCERNING GRACE
In the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, there is a wonderful exercise

connected with the possibilities of development in the human individuality. It is
perhaps important to point to this exercise in connection with our last Studies,
for they should enable us to enter more deeply into those spiritual facts, the
spiritual guidance of world events, which is bound up with the present and
future of humanity. Certainly, places can easily be found in the Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity, especially in the additions to the new edition (1918) tow
which the later results of Rudolf Steiner’s investigations can be added without
alteration. But, in practicing the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, it is most
important to refrain from curiosity completely with regard to the facts given by
spiritual science.
In many passages of his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, especially in
Chapter 12 “Moral Imagination (Darwinism and Morality)” Rudolf Steiner
speaks of the idea of evolution. It will not be possible to succeed with this idea,
especially if an analogy in the moral sphere is sought, without absolute clarity
in accordance with the theory of knowledge about the relationship of the earlier
to the later in an evolutionary sequence. In contrast to the usual thoroughly
misleading representations about this subject, Rudolf Steiner makes the following
statements: “By evolution, we mean that the later (more perfect) forms are the
real descendants of the earlier (imperfect) forms, and have developed from them
in accordance with natural laws. According to this view, the upholders of the
theory of organic evolution really ought to believe that there was once a time
on our earth, when a being could have observed with his own eyes the gradual
evolution of reptiles out of the proto-amniotes, supposing that he could have
been present as an observer, and had been endowed with a sufficiently long life
span.” ...”That on this supposition, the nature of the proto-amniotes ... would
have to be thought of in a way other than that of the materialistic thinker will
not be considered here. No evolutionist would ever dream of maintaining that
he could, from his concept of the proto-amniote, deduce that of the reptile with
all its qualities, if he had never seen a reptile.” Rudolf Steiner introduces this
passage in order to show that the idea of evolution, when rightly understood,
does not contradict the fact that the individual as a moral being produces his
230
own content.
The underlying principle here of the theory of knowledge acquires a
significance for our inner exercises if it is applied to future stages of the evolution
of human consciousness. There lies the turning point from created (and dying)
nature to creating man, the miracle of growing freedom. Here, indeed, it is
good to grasp that man bears within him the impulse to evolve, and his life is
actively concerned with the growth of this impulse, but what will evolve can
only be known when he has actually reached the particular stages of higher
development. We cannot, as an analogy to the above example, deduce from the
concept of a man with an ordinary consciousness, that of a man with a higher
consciousness. But, after such a development has been concretely accomplished
in a man, it is possible subsequently to understand this transition from the
lower to the higher stage. Thus, we must hold fast to the fact that everything
we can know of a man developing to higher stages and of his experiences in the
higher worlds proceeds first to an overwhelmingly large extent, from the actual
evolution of which Rudolf Steiner’s life itself bears witness.
Epistemological remarks of this kind are perhaps difficult to follow, and
they appear to contradict many things that are to be found throughout Rudolf
Steiner’s work and much that has been said in the foregoing Studies; yet, if
we go over such thoughts in our minds, the contradiction will be solved as
they develop. A Sharp distinction must be made between the knowledge which
can be gained of the actual evolution of which Rudolf Steiner speaks, and the
results in valuable experience of a man’s active work on his own evolution.
The knowledge derived from Rudolf Steiner’s descriptions will then provide the
greatest help.
Many people of the present time are conscious of the call of the spiritual
world to the attainment of knowledge of the higher worlds; these people form
the Anthroposophical Movement and turn to the spiritual fount which flows
from Rudolf Steiner’s investigations. These investigations themselves are rich
material for exercises which, in the soul, bring about an ascent into spiritual
worlds. Certain goals for human individual evolution result from Rudolf
Steiner’s actual investigations, goals in conformity with knowledge, for example,
the intuitions of moral imagination in the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. But
the real exercising, meditating, must completely refrain from prying into any
such goal, insofar as this is not the result of active experience in meditation.
231
There lies the truly moral element, wherein Rudolf Steiner demands three steps
before one step can be taken in higher knowledge. Whether something is effected
in inner development, what it is and when it can appear, must be awaited in
serenity and patience. That is what comes to pass in the practice of evolution in
contradistinction to the above-mentioned theory of evolution.
The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity is a schooling in knowledge; this has
a powerful effect on the selflessness of the disposition and it offers absolute
protection from all dreamy or mystic confusion. Impatience in attaining a goal
through our inner work leads to seizing the sensational, to superstition with
regard to miracle which then, indeed, amid grievous soul emotions, must prove
to be an illusion. Genuine, selfless, inner serenity, true inner patience leads
us to a new understanding of grace, as in our last Study, we acquired a new
attitude to miracle. A counterpart to the miracle experienced through knowing
is the grace attained by being active. The concept of grace, which is specifically
Christian, has come a long way since the time of the early Christian fathers. The
most violent spiritual battles were connected with this concept, the most violent
soul struggles sought its truth. In his cycle on the Gospel of St. John,154 Rudolf
Steiner shows the point from which the Christian concept of grace arose: “for
of His Fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.” On this sentence of the
Gospel, he says: “There are many men who call themselves Christians, who
pass over the word, Fullness, thinking that nothing very special is meant by it.
Pleroma in Greek means Fullness. What then is Pleroma, Fullness? He alone
can understand it who knows that, in the ancient Mysteries, Pleroma or fullness
was referred to as something very definite.” They distinguished between “Jahve,
the one God ... and the Fullness of the Godhead, Pleroma, consisting of the
six Elohim. Since the full consciousness of the Sun Logos meant to them the
Christ, they call Him the fullness of the Gods.” In the cosmic-earthly event of
the descent of the Christ into a human body, grace came as visible cosmic being.
Although the faculty for such sight was still weak at that time, John the Baptist,
from whom this testimony came, possessed it. With regard to the next sentence
in the Gospel: “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth
came through Christ,” Rudolf Steiner continues, “Thus Christ is the bringer
of the impulse of freedom from the law that good may be done, not because
of the compulsion of any law, but as an in-dwelling impulse of love within the
154
3/4 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, “The Raising of Lazarus,” May 22, 1908].
232
soul. This impulse will still need the whole remainder of the earth period for its
development.”...”The soul’s capacity for doing right out of the inner self was
called grace in the Christian sense. Grace and an inner recognition of truth came
into being through Christ.”
Redemption from the law through grace is the beginning of freedom. Then,
in the time that followed, the relation of grace to human freedom was one of the
most important questions whereby, indeed, the concept of grace was withdrawn
more and more from its original meaning. Especially since the concept of grace
was connected by Augustine with those of original sin and predestination,
every possible dogma combining these concepts has arisen. Thomas Aquinas
alone rose above this conflict because he proposed to rescue the impulse of
freedom. A common characteristic runs through all these struggles, namely, that
an organized Church cannot tolerate redemption from the law, which includes
freedom. Therefore, the concept of grace had to be combined in some way with
the Father-principle and, on that account, a most valuable portion of the Christ-
impulse would necessarily be lost.
For one who strives spiritually in our time, Rudolf Steiner has said in
the fourth lecture of From Jesus to Christ that the concept of grace should
be cultivated in practice, “because we wish to come gradually to a deeper
characterization of Christianity, we must give prominence ... to man’s own
bearing in his innermost soul toward the spiritual world.”...”Even if we do not
speak much about the concept of grace, we must make great use of it in practice.
Every occultist today clearly understands that this concept of grace must belong
to his inner practice of life in a quite special degree.”...”... everything, however,
which is connected with a certain lust for knowledge...” will “lead, if not into
complete error, quite certainly to a distortion of the truth.”...”For there is a
golden saying especially for the occult investigator: Have patience and wait,
not until the truths are grasped by us, but until they come to us.” The activity
of striving for knowledge serves to form higher organs of perception but, then,
the point is to have patience that the grace of truth may be imparted. That is the
grace attained by being active.
LII.
THE MICHAEL CHARACTER OF
THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY
The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity accompanies us still further through

the Leading Thoughts and especially through the Letters. It is not by chance
that the connection of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity and its method with
the mission of Michael has already been apparent, for we can remember (Study
XLVII) that, when Rudolf Steiner announced these great facts with regard to
Michael’s mission, he published, at the same time, most important chapters
of his autobiography in the weekly magazine Das Goetheanum and, indeed,
the very chapters in which most is said about the origin of the Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity. In thus looking back upon the course of his own life,
he showed us the direction we should take for our development but, fro the
point of view which follows from everything he gave humanity after writing
the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. Thus, in the sense of a new myth (Study
XLIV), his autobiography can with good reason appear to us as symbolic.
We may now ask ourselves what it was that Rudolf Steiner, through his
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, wished to incorporate in everything he gave
later as concrete spiritual investigations and as paths of higher knowledge. It
was quite clearly not for the sake of solving definite philosophical problems as
such, but for the sake of a soul attitude, which strengthens consciousness so that
it cannot wander from the paths of truth, for the temptation to do this is quite
especially strong in our time. In Rudolf Steiner’s Letter entitled “The Michael-
Christ-Experience in Man,” there is a direct indication of the contents of his
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity which he always wished to connect with his
whole work as an integral part, without which a firm support is lacking for all
spiritual scientific striving.
It is, above all, the deep earnestness and precision of the attitude of
consciousness which speaks to us in the Letter on the Michael-Christ-Experience
in man. Michael’s mission in the foregoing Leading Thoughts and Letters was
traced from cosmic realms and the primeval past to our stage of the world of
234
wrought Work. Now we are shown “the right understanding of how man must
treat a world, which is neither one of divine Being, nor Revelation, nor active
Workings, but is the wrought Work of the Gods. To look into this world with
knowledge, means to have before one forms, shapes, which everywhere tell with
a plain voice of the Divine, but in which the Divine Being, in its own self-existence,
is not to be found, if one be led away by no illusions.” Therewith, he describes
the situation into which, in due course, the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity,
as a new beginning, had to be brought. This book of education and initiation
reckons throughout with a world stripped of the divine. For all else, moreover,
that Rudolf Steiner gave later in spiritual revelations, the starting point always
had to be in the world of wrought Work. However much knowledge we may
have received from spiritual investigation, we must return to the starting point
again and again and, from there, renouncing any imaginary participation in
the spiritual world, seek the steps of inner development; otherwise, the dangers
threaten which are vividly described in this Letter as Luciferic and Ahrimanic.
Rudolf Steiner bore with him, at the time of the origin of the Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity, the real experience of the spiritual world, in contrast to which
the world of wrought Work is an illusion. Yet, to push our whole evolutionary
epoch of wrought Work one step further, he was obliged to sacrifice himself to
the extent of immersing himself completely in this world, stripped of the divine.
We may, indeed, be deeply moved when we reflect on the parallel which exists
between those passages in his autobiography which refer to the origin of the
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity and those Letters which appeared at the same
time. From this, too, we can understand what was felt by many who approached
the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity from conventional circles, whether with
astonishment or irritation, namely, the abruptness with which everything of a
traditionally religious nature, even though Christian, all metaphysical or dualistic
matters are dismissed in this book; in the new edition (1918), this abruptness is
not in any way softened with regard to the matter, but only slightly in some of
the expressions used. In this connection, it is well to call to mind such passages
as the following from the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, for they come like a
strong wind which blows away what is outlived. (Chapter 5)
“Neither a humanly personal God, nor force, nor matter, nor the will bereft
of ideas (Schopenhauer), can be accepted by us as the universal unity in the
world. These principles all belong only to a limited sphere of our observation.
235
Humanly limited personality, we perceive only in ourselves.” (Chapter 5) “A

God inferred by abstract reasoning is nothing but a human being transferred
into the Beyond...” (The Consequences of Monism) “Just as Monism has no
use for supernatural creative thoughts in explaining living organisms, so is it
equally impossible for it to derive the moral world-order from causes which
do not lie with the world of our experience. It cannot admit that the nature
of moral will is exhausted by being traced back to a continuous supernatural
influence upon moral life (divine government of the world from the outside),
or a particular act of revelation at a particular moment in history (giving of the
Ten Commandments), or through God’s appearance on the earth (as Christ).
All that happens in this way to and in man becomes a moral element only when
it enters into human experience and becomes an individual’s own.” (Chapter
12) It is, of course, incredibly foolish to wish to conclude from such passages,
which were expressed in the still more abrupt form in the first edition that, at
that time, Rudolf Steiner was still a materialist or something similar. It is rather
a question of realizing that all this, which was discarded, is of a spiritual nature
not in keeping with the age, which in olden times, belonged to the sphere of
experience and which, in the evolution of the future, as Rudolf Steiner predicts,
will belong to the realm of conscious spirit vision. In between, however, lies
the time of the world of wrought Work during which man must come to an
understanding of himself.
Now, an anachronistic spiritual truth which is carried over unchanged from
the past into the present “is to be understood in the purely technical sense of a
concept as Luciferic.”155 In the Letter before us (about Leading Thoughts 115
to 117), this is made quite clear from the example of Michael and, from it,
we can find the cosmic foundation of the abruptness shown in the Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity. “...through the impressions made on men by Michael’s
actual being,”...”no possibility can ever occur that “they lead the conception
of nature into a fantastic region, or tempt men to build up a practical moral
life in a God-wrought, but not God-actuated world, in such a form, as though
impulses could be at work there, except those of which man himself must be the
ethical and spiritual agent.”...”If it were otherwise---if Michael were to work
in such a manner that he carried his deeds into the world which, at the present
time, man must know and experience as the physical---man would now learn of
155
42/12 [THINGS IN PRESENT AND PAST IN THE SPIRIT OF MAN, “Luciferic Dangers from the East,”
May 30, 1916].
236
the world, not that which in reality is in it but that which was in it. This illusory
conception of the world, when it takes place, leads the human soul away from
the reality that is suited to it and into another---into a Luciferic one.”
Michael works differently; it is true that he brings a divine element of life out
of the past to man, yet “he remains with all his activity in a supersensible region,
but one which is just on the borders of the physical world in the evolutionary
phase of the world.” Before birth (or conception), before the entrance into the
world of wrought Work, man could experience his activity. Between birth and
death, he carries it hidden in the depths of his own being. It will awakened in
the right way on these same paths of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, and
the soul attitude depicted there must be sought again and again. The impulse
of this work, which, as disposition, can also have an influence in soul exercises,
such as are not expressly connected with its contents, leads in inner activity to
an “entrance into the spiritual worlds.” There, Michael works as illuminator
of the thoughts which are experienced in warmth of heart. In connection
with the experience of a truly spiritual, of an eternal reality in contrast to the
transitory, Rudolf Steiner speaks in the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity and in
his autobiography with respect to the purposes of this book. In the experience
of the eternal in thinking and willing a continuance is proved of a “past state
of the world” which can be found, not in the world of wrought Work, but in
one immediately bordering upon it. This experience of the past which works as
eternal reality in man is, for this very reason, not connected with Lucifer, but
with Michael.
In his Autobiography, Rudolf Steiner summarizes what he has said about
his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity as follows (Chapter 17): “In pointing out
that the sense world is, in reality, a world of spiritual being and that man, as
a soul being, by means of true knowledge of the sense world is weaving and
living in a world of spirit --- herein lies the first objective of my Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity. In characterizing the moral world as one whose being shines
into the world of spirit experienced by the soul and thereby enables man to
arrive at this moral world freely---herein lies the second objective. The moral
being of man is thus sought in its completely individual unity with the ethical
impulses of the spiritual world.” In such, and similar, statements, the Michael
character of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity is to be found.
LIII.
HOW CAN LIFE BE CHRIST-FILLED?
The dualistic world conception belonging to our time is a document of

fear in face of the world of wrought Work forsaken by the Gods; it is a mental
reservation, a restriction of thought, when confronted by the inevitability of
the facts and, therefore, fundamentally dishonest. A Christianity too, which
wishes to preserve a separate sphere for itself side by side or above the realm
of the scientific consciousness of today, must be rejected by the soul attitude
of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity; that would be an attempt to hold fast
to an ancient anachronistic consciousness and there, on this account, “to be
understood in the purely technical sense of the concept, as Luciferic.” (Study
LII); life cannot be Christ-filled by way of dualism.
The question of how life can be Christ-filled is called forth by the other
question: How thinking is made Christian? This latter question was bequeathed
to us by the departing Middle Ages, and it is truly answered by Rudolf Steiner’s
method of guiding our thoughts (see Study XLIX). The first question, however,
turns from the present to the future and can only be answered by deeds, the
impulse to which Rudolf Steiner has so liberally scattered as seed into the
earthly realm of present-day consciousness, furrowed as it has been with a sharp
thought-plow. This is the question in the second part of the Letter bearing the
title “Michael-Christ-Experience in Man,” the very wording of which has an
influence. “The whole of life will thereby receive its Christ-ening, when in the
Christ is recognized He, Who gives to the human soul the understanding vision
of its own supersensible being.”
We will, in the first place, continue that parallel brought forward in our
last Study. In the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, Rudolf Steiner rejects the
dualistic world-conception with vehemence, in whatever form it may appear,
be it in the phantom of the thing-in-itself or in acquiescence to the boundaries
of knowledge. While, later, there were circles wishing to work dogmatically a
world-conception for a predominantly materialistic pseudo-monism, the fact,
however, must be firmly grasped that previously there was no success in finding
238
an understanding in those same circles for a monism which created a spiritual

experience out of the world of the given.
In continuance of the monism of his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, Rudolf
Steiner founded the spiritual science in which the spiritual realm is entered as
a consequence of the soul attitude of this philosophy. In the second part of the
above-mentioned Letter, the phenomenon of the dualistic world-conception of
our time is regarded from the summit of spiritual-scientific knowledge. The
starting point, as given in the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, is here shown
from the spiritual history of evolution of the world as the final point reached
by man, the world of wrought Work. “It is necessary that the world of nature
should be so learned and so experienced, that everything is emptied of its gods.
And hence, in the form he has thus given to this relations to the world, man
fails to find himself any longer. That attitude of his self toward nature, which is
the fitting one for the age, gives man, inasmuch as he is a supersensible being,
nothing whatever as to his own nature and being. Nor does this attitude, if it is
all that he looks to , enable him to live ethically, in a way befitting his manhood.”
As a result of this “against the field of the cognizable, another, extra-scientific,
or super-scientific, field is marked off for the revelation of faith.”
In this way is shown the position of the dualism customary today.
[The presentations beginning here follow the original wording not revised
by Carl Unger.]
These two poles, world and man, as we have discussed them, result in the
matter-of-fact consequence that man himself stands in the midst of the wrought
Work stripped of the divine; he certainly belongs to it himself; is he himself also
only wrought Work? The experience of initiation shown in the Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity is indeed founded on the categorical affirmative answer to
this question; in Letter 44,156 this is called the Michael-experience. There is “the
right orientation, when it is a question of the world, which lies all about man
and calls on him to know and act in it.” However, in proportion to the way in
which man’s surroundings are spiritually sustained by the spirit light of Michael
“the inner world of the soul, in its life of feeling realization, will be experienced
156
[See ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING THOUGHTS (ALT), “The Michael-Christ-Experience of
Man,” November 19, 1924, Letter 44.]
239
as one illumined by the light of spirit.” And that is the Christ-experience of

Letter 44 to which is “ascribed the gracious inflow of spirit into the soul of
man.” The word grace, in this sentence, can be understood in quite the same
sense as that given to it in our Study LI.
The world of wrought Work is adapted to the man of today; that is pointed
out in four different places in Letter 44, it makes human freedom possible. It is
a necessary part of a right training that man should come to an understanding
of himself in the world of wrought Work; there is no longer divinity in it, and
it only preserves the divine forms (Letter 43).157 If man seeks an active spiritual
element in this world today, it can only be of a Luciferic nature. Everything that
has this tendency falsifies man’s backward gaze into the bygone world (Leading
Thought 115). Michael bears the divine past into the present, but in a way that
allows man freedom to conduct his mission within himself. The result of this
is the Christ-ening of thinking. However, in order that life may be Christ-ened,
feeling and will must be added. Because in man’s relationship to the world,
the Michael-experience is permeated with feeling and will, the human soul
can receive the sight of its own supersensible nature from the other side, from
within. That is the Christ-experience which leads man into the future.
Thus, there are two powerful soul exercises to enable man to find his way
rightly into the world of wrought Work: renunciation of all atavistic clinging to
past spiritual experience and the ability to wait for the revelations of the future.
Then, in the place of the dualistic world-conception, there will follow the unity
of the Michael-Christ-experience.
157
[ALT, “The Activity of Michael and the Future of Mankind”, October 24, 1924, Letter 43.]
LIV.
THE PROBLEM OF WORLD AND MAN
We shall only come to an understanding of the cosmic foundation of

human freedom, which is given in Letter 45158 if we ponder ever more deeply
over the recurrence of the problems of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity in
the Letters and Leading Thoughts. It is the soul attitude of the Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity which gives an invincible assurance when confronted by all
the enticements and seductions of the path of knowledge; it is important to fight
for this soul attitude when faced by the world of wrought Work. This is the goal
of the mighty cosmic-spiritual evolution of the earth and of humanity, but the
starting point for man’s present-day consciousness. This is connected with living
through the problems of world and man with the utmost intensity, problems we
saw in connection with Letter 27.159 It is in these two problems that we can most
clearly recognize the parallel already presented. In Letter 27, this problem of
world and man is shown to be a soul exercise, inasmuch as it presents itself ever
afresh to man, demanding a solution and can lead to a certain understanding of
Anthropsophy.
Summarized briefly, it is stated thus: in pondering over the world, man
loses the world out of his consciousness, and the ego enters; in experiencing
his own self, man loses the self out of his consciousness, and the world enters.
In connection with the Leading Thoughts, this problem is left to meditative
experience, but in the spiritual life of our time, not only in battles in the sphere
of philosophy, it presents a sharp philosophical contrast. In the Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity, outstandingly important discussions are devoted to this
problem. Perhaps it will not be noticed, if nothing more is said, that the same
views are dealt with here as those treated in the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
as transcendental realism.160 We will not enter here into the contrasting views of
our present-day spiritual life by means of a philosophical discussion, but we will
prove to ourselves in quite simple terms that the spiritual experience of today
158
{ALT, “Michael’s Mission in the Cosmic Age of Human Freedom,” November 9, 1924, Letter 45.]
159
[ALT, “Understanding of the Spirit; Conscious Experience of Destiny,” July 13, 1924, Letter 27.]
160
It is to be supposed that Critical Idealism is meant here (Editor).
241
has faded away owing to these problems; they are the same problems which,
experienced in meditation, can rekindle the new anthroposophical spiritual life.
One of these problems has gained widespread significance in Schopenhauer’s
well-known formula: “The world is my representation.”161 It is in his Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity that Rudolf Steiner has shown what endless ingenuity has
been applied in order to support this statement, which makes all knowledge
subjective. Certainly, he has proved that all the arguments brought together in
its favor collapse one by one. However, this statement has had an absolutely
devastating effect on all modern research in the field of knowledge; the
ignoramus, ignorabimus (I do not know, I shall not know) rests on the assertion
that it is impossible to approach reality by way of knowing, because, according
to this view, man’s own representations would always stand in the way. Thus,
in pondering over the world, man loses sight of the world, and his own human
being spreads over all phenomena. The result was an insuperable mistrust of
all knowing, especially of thinking, and resignation with regard to man’s soul
needs. Owing to this, the spiritual force of thinking died away.
The second of these two problems has particularly laid hold of natural
scientific matters. We can formulate it briefly as universal, uninterrupted,
mechanical causality. If the first problem annihilates knowledge of the world and
affirms universal subjectivity, this second problem annihilates the significance of
man and subjects him to the world with its conformity to law. Human freedom
is then only an illusion. Man is nothing, the laws of nature are everything. The
result was an appalling paralysis of all that belongs to man’s will, to his moral
experience. Because of this, the spiritual force of willing died away.
It is clear that the two statements contradict one another most radically; in
the true cultural life, they are an antimony operating in the Kantian sense162 and
this has been most destructive because it is a real contradiction. Now these two
points of view are constantly intermingle; the one is used in order to support
the other. In the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, both are finally overcome,
not, however, by abstract proofs, but by actual experience in the life of the soul.
From here, too, we can understand in a new way the significance of and mutual
161
14, 1917].
162
Antinomies are statements that contradict one another although both can be proved with equally good
reasons.
242
relationship between the two parts of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity.

The first part solves the problem with regard to human knowledge, the second
part, the problem with regard to human freedom. This is possible owing to the
fact that Rudolf Steiner follows both problems to their common origin, where
man and world are truly one in pure thinking. Let us now compare the lack of
justification for each of these problems when they are presented as abstract,
one-sided theorems, with the justification for solving them both in meditative
experience, as in Letter 27. For the continuance of our Studies, we can now be
clear about two facts: Human freedom is not only significant for man, but also
for the world. And further: the foundations of human freedom are laid not only
in man, but also in the world.
LV.
THE OTHER SIDE OF HUMAN FREEDOM
PART I
Letter 45 and Leading Thoughts 118 to 120 expressly go beyond the

province of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. In what sense this must take
place can be recognized by us from the polarity between man and world, of
which we must never lose sight if we are not to sink into one-sidedness. Man is
wrought Work in the world of wrought Work and spirit among spirits; but he
must also show himself as spirit being in the world of wrought Work, otherwise
he becomes more and more wrought Work, even among the spirits. Everything
that takes place in man has its other side in the world. Now human freedom is
not simply an established fact created by the Gods in somewhat the same way
as the world of wrought Work, but a process arising out of man, which even
stands in a certain opposition to the divine creation of the world of wrought
Work. What position do the creative beings themselves adopt with regard to
human freedom? That is the question which leads us beyond the Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity.
If we look back at our earlier Studies, we can remind ourselves that the
threshold of the spiritual world passes through man and, indeed, lies where
the etheric body and the astral body unite and separate from one another. This
is indeed expressed in waking and sleeping. Seen cosmically, the physical and
etheric bodies are in the world of wrought Work, the physical body completely,
the etheric body, as formative forces body, so that it represents in addition
something of the world of active Working. The astral body and the ego belong
to the spiritual world; they represent in addition something of the world of
Revelation and of Being. We can perhaps characterize the whole man by
saying that the etheric body is the active Working on the wrought Work of
the physical body, the astral body the Revelation of the Being of the ego. With
his consciousness, man stands completely in the world of wrought Work; but
cosmically, from the standpoint of the different Hierarchies, special aspects
must arise.
244
Let us remember that, according to Leading Thoughts 69 to 71, the realm

of the influence of the first Hierarchy reaches to the physical body, that of the
second Hierarchy to the etheric body and that of the third Hierarchy to the
astral body of man. Thus, it follows that the physical body is the world of
wrought Work for the beings of the third and second Hierarchies, the etheric
body for the beings of the third Hierarchy; for man himself, physical, etheric
and astral bodies belong to the world of wrought Work. But, from the ego itself,
new being can be poured by man into his various principles when, in the future,
he will have created for himself his astral body as Revelation (Spritit-self), his
etheric body as active Working (Life-spirit), and his physical body as wrought
Work (Spirit-man). The following sentence in Letter 45 points to this: “The free
can proceed from the ego alone, and the astral body must also be able to vibrate
with the free action of the ego, thereby to transmit it to the physical and etheric
bodies.”
The sentences following this passage in Letter 45 and in the next paragraph
are worded in a quite exceptionally difficult way; we can say with Capesius, “A
hundred times at least have I perused the words which follow.” In the difficulty
of wording of these sentences, there is expressed the fact that they do not proceed
from “the purely human powers of cognition” as in the Philosophy of Spiritual
Activity (see the beginning of Letter 45) but man is regarded from cosmic
points of view. In the construction of the sentences, indeed, there appears to be
a contradiction, but this is solved when the fact is considered that the relative
sentences have not a humanly-subjective, but a spiritually-objective content.
Then they can be grasped as clearly expressed thoughts concerning Michael’s
mission, as it has been presented with regard to the attitude of the spiritual
worlds toward human freedom.
In Leading Thought 118, the condition for a free action is expressed the
simplest terms, namely, that no process of nature participates either in or outside
man. The one side of this is clear; an action, if it is to be free, must not be
dependent on the physical and etheric bodies through which man takes a share
in the external events of nature, for thereby, external nature would influence
the action. The other side is much more difficult, namely, that the physical and
etheric bodies can also be influenced by the spirit without human freedom.
The spirit no longer works from outer nature as such, for this is still only the
world of wrought Work; but it works from the inner being of man, from the
245
unconscious, subconscious, in continuation of what had its first beginnings in

divine Being and Revelation. Neither must an action be dependent on this spirit
(nature working from within) if it is to be free. If this spiritual element were
always to continue its work, then the unconscious, the subconscious, would
become “ever more deeply wedded to the world of matter.” Thus man would
indeed preserve “his cosmically predestined character” (Leading Thought 119)
but, as Rudolf Steiner has stated in other connections, he would lead something
like and an automatic existence.
This side cannot be grasped from the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity; it is
only discernible when the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity has had its effect. It
gives such exercises that the powers of cognition “can enter upon the field of the
spirit”; then, however, “the need for intercourse with beings of other worlds”
will be the result of this same path. Letter 45 as it proceeds, gives wonderful
statements on this subject, as a reward, as it were, for the immense difficulties
of the first part.
118. That action alone can be free in which no process of Nature, either
within man or without him, plays an active part.
119. But there is also the other pole, the opposite aspect of this truth.
Whenever the individuality of man works freely, a Nature-process is
suppressed in him. In an unfree action this process of Nature would
indeed be present, giving to the human being his cosmically predestined
character.
120. To the man who with his own life and being really partakes in
the present and future stages of World-evolution, this character is not
vouchsafed by way of Nature. But it comes to him by way of the Spirit
when he unites himself with Michael, whereby he also finds the way to
Christ.
LVI.
THE OTHER SIDE OF FREEDOM
PART II
The line of thought followed in the first part of Letter 45 is an example

of the way in which the most important events of the spiritual world can be
expressed in thoughts. It is clear that “intercourse with beings of other worlds”
cannot be disclosed by way of thoughts, logically; nevertheless, such spiritual
investigations as are revealed to us here make it necessary for them to be expressed
in thoughts arising out of the present-day condition of human consciousness,
which is characterized in the following passage from Letter 45: “Man will find
his relationship to world-being growing ever more incomprehensible as time
goes on, unless he will consent to recognize his relationship, not merely to the
beings and processes of nature, but also to those of another kind, such as those
of the Michael mission.” The emphasis in this sentence is on the word recognize,
for only insight by way of thoughts leads to the inner soul attitude that really
recognizes with reverence.
Here, we are now concerned with a problem with which all philosophical
thought has not yet been able to come to an understanding, because the solution
cannot flow out of thought life alone. It is still possible to a certain extent
to review the question concerning human freedom in face of influences from
outside, while the inner compulsion of the will has remained an insuperable
problem until the appearance of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity which
has revealed a path of knowledge, by means of which the solution becomes
accessible to man’s experience. Schiller felt this side of the problem of freedom
particularly strongly and he freed himself from it by his artistic soul attitude;
the longing for deliverance through art in the difficult questions of inner (moral)
freedom is a significant phenomenon of our age. But, in the most recent times,
art itself is in need of deliverance and this can only come to it from the same
spiritual sources as those which enable man to have “intercourse with beings of
other worlds.”
In earlier connections, we came to a point of view which may be expressed
247
in the sentence: “The other side of nature is the moral world.” Here we stand
before a kind of inversion inasmuch as that which is known philosophically as
categorical imperative, as inner moral necessity, is presented here as a higher,
cosmic activity of nature. Man must stand aloof from this, in order to be able
to make the impulse of freedom known, and that is expressed “for inward
perception” as “the consciousness of creative freedom” (Letter 45 and Leading
Thought 119). In answer to this process in man, that is, the repelling of cosmic
forces, the cosmos and its beings behave, as it were, in a similar way. Since man
frees himself from these impulses of the spirit beings, they, in their turn, are able
to apply freedom in their own way with regard to man, and this cosmic freedom
is expressed in the encroachment of Lucifer and Ahriman.
Now a true cosmic counterpart to the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
can rise before us, for this is a world epoch only for men, but also for the
Gods. Their common ground appears as an “inner conversation with a form of
being” (genuine Inspiration). The sentences and exercises of the Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity are the human questions to the spiritual world; the mission
of Michael gives the answers. We have already seen, in the first part of the
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, the connection between this and the Michael-
experience;is it not now as though Michael had sought the human experience
ever since the remote past? And has not the Christ sought and overcome the
complete human experience, human death? The second part of the Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity corresponds for us to the Christ-experience. As the first
part provides knowledge, so the second part demands deed. Thus, Michael’s
human experience is the right guide to the deed of the Christ (Leading Thought).
Feeling and will lead the thinking of the first part of the Philosophy of Spiritual
Activity to the life of the second part. That signifies something completely new,
after all the old life of feeling and will, which rests upon tradition, had been set
aside, rejected in the first part. There must be compensation for the obsolete,
anachronistic relic of the past in the spiritual path of the Philosophy of Spiritual
Activity. Seen from the spiritual world, this is the effect of the appearance of
Michael on behalf of the natural workings of the cosmos repelled by man. “He
devotes himself to the task of conveying to man from the spiritual part of the
cosmos, in the manner described, those forces which can replace the suppressed
forces of his natural existence.” Thus man acquires a higher, spiritual nature
which, in Letter 45 is presented to us most impressively in pictures of light and
248
warmth. It would be presumptuous to add anything of an explanatory nature

to these pictures, for they are truly capable of inspiring a new art; experience
alone is of value here. However, wonderful flashes of thought break through
from these living pictures, which, kindling light and warmth, can fill us with
enthusiasm.
Here again, follow references to Lucifer and Ahriman. The soul attitude
of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity gives us assurance in our ordinary
consciousness when faced by these cosmic powers and thus Letter 45, in its last
paragraph closes with the reference to “assurance of soul and spirit” which, for
the other side of human freedom, flows from the Michael-Christ-expereience of
another, a cosmic Philosophy of Spiritual Activity.
LVII.
THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF
SPIRITUAL BEINGS
PART I
The life of thought is the most social element that unites men. Through this
element, Rudolf Steiner places himself on the same footing with all men, high as
he is raised above humanity, when he can speak about men as they are viewed
by the Hierarchies. When, however, he speaks to men about the beings of the
spiritual world, he appeals to an element that unites men and Gods, connected
from the beginning with the thought-life, but, at the same time, cosmically visible.
That is shown in Letter 45 in the picture of light and warmth. Light and warmth
are mighty forces, for they are the primeval forces in the evolution of the world
ever since Old Saturn and Old Sun;163 they are revelations of spiritual beings,164
who today are only perceived by man from outside as cosmic activity in nature,
because the cosmic beings have withdrawn behind them. On the paths of the
thought-life which brings about intercourse among men, light and warmth can
again be heralds of primordial being, messengers of Michael and Christ.
In various Letters165 (Nos. 40; 42 to 46), Rudolf Steiner has spoken to
the effect that when man entered the world of wrought Work, Michael kept
something of primordial being with man; namely, the light and warmth of
thinking. We must repeat here what was already said in Study XXXV, beginning
with the words: “Under Michael’s banner, we are concerned with striving to
163
7/3 [THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES AND THEIR REFLECTION IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD,
April 13, 1909]; 14/5 [GENESIS: THE SECRETS OF THE BIBLE STORY OF CREATION, “Light and
Darkness. Yom and Lay’lah,” August 21, 1910]; 35/3 [THE INNER REALITIES OF EVOLUTION, “The
Inner Aspect of the Moon-Embodiment of the Earth - Part I,” November 14, 1911].
164
4/4 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The Outer Manifestations of Spiritual Beings in the Elements.
Their connection with Man. Cosmic partitions. The Myth of Osiris,“ August 7, 1908].
165
[ALT, “The Way of Michael, and What Preceded It,” October 12, 1924, Letter 40; “The Experiences of
Michael in the Course of His Cosmic Mission,” October 26, 1924, Letter 42; “The Activity of Michael
and the Future of Mankind,” November 2, 1924, Letter 43; “Michael’s Mission in the Cosmic Age of Hu-
man Freedom,” November 16, 1924, Letter 45; “The World-Thoughts in the Working of Michael and in
the Working of Ahriman,” November 23, 1924, Letter 46.]
250
understand thinking.” The purpose of this was to enter into Letter 32,166 which
shows how Michael releases the thoughts from the region of the head, and
opens a free way for them to the heart. That is the precondition for the fact
that, now, in the further development of Letters 32 and 34,167 the direct spiritual
counterpart can be given to that which in earlier times was the object of man’s
striving.
Again, and again, we may indeed be filled with reverence for the way in
which it is possible to speak to present-day consciousness about the beings
of the spiritual world, as is done in the Letters and Leading Thoughts about
Michael’s mission. Rudolf Steiner can speak thus, for he has done infinitely
much for human thought-life; it is our task, however, to learn to listen better
and better to this same language of the thought-life, and not to be afraid of
making the necessary efforts and doing exercises in order to understand it. Since
present-day man perceives thought-life to be his, he separates himself from the
cosmic thought reality and we experience directly one side of this separation;
while we experience our reality from the one side, we must as readily grasp it
spiritually from the other side, but, again, it is not a case of a logical revelation.
There is something else lying at the root of this separation.
In the previous Study, we spoke with a certain audacity of Michael’s human
experience, but there are still other beings of the spiritual world who have
sought the human experience. Earlier in our Studies, were reminded, by the
investigations of Rudolf Steiner, that Angel-beings have sought an ever closer
union with earth men by way of the intellect. These beings have remained with
men; they are the messengers (Angels) who inform Michael about human affairs
(Letter 45); for Michael seeks the human experience with regard to the whole of
humanity. Ahriman, too, however, in a similar comprehensive sense, has sought
the human experience not, like Michael, in light and warmth, but on the paths
of the darkness and coldness of thought-life, and now must aim at looking
out beyond the thought-life to the great Imaginations which Rudolf Steiner
shows us in Letter 46.168 That is like a cosmic meditation, which gives man the
166
[ALT, “At the Dawn of the Michael Age,“ August 17, 1924, Letter 32.]
167
[ALT, “The Condition of the Human Soul Before the Dawn of the Michael Age,“ August 31, 1924, Letter
34.]
168
[ALT, “The World-Thoughts in the Working of Michael and in the Working of Ahriman,“ November 23,
1924, Letter 46.]
251
possibility of distinguishing between light and darkness, warmth and cold, that
he may know good and evil.
Out of feeling and will, in contrast to thinking, man must develop this
question into the capacity to distinguish, with which Letter 46 begins: “What
position do these two spiritual powers (Michael and Ahriman) occupy toward
one another in the whole cosmic interrelation, inasmuch as both of them are
engaged in the evolution of the intellectual forces?”...”One must distinguish
the beings from whom the action of the force proceeds.” (Leading Thought
121) Rudolf Steiner has indeed brought distinctions of this kind to our notice
in human social life. He insisted incessantly on the ability to distinguish and
sharply criticized its lack in the picture of Baron Distinguishing-Ability (Freiherr
von Unterscheidungsvermoegen). He referred, for example, to judgments
pronounced by Hermann Grimm and Woodrow Wilson, which were alike
almost word for word, in order to show that we cannot depend on the abstract
thought content only, but on the whole attitude toward life, efforts of will and
general disposition of the personalities in question. Rudolf Steiner put another
example before us many years ago in a most impressive way.169 “We must be
clear that things which can be compressed into a few words ... may signify very
much --- they may also say nothing at all.” The same is true with regard to
the indication that, at the end of his life, when he had reached a great age, the
Evangelist St. John expressed the whole essence of Christianity in the words of
truth: “Children, love one another!” And how great is the difference when these
same words are used by a mediocre human being. How much is there still to be
done among us before such ability to distinguish really becomes a social factor.
121. We have not fully understood the significance or the Universe of
something that is working there — for instance, of the Cosmic Thoughts —
so long as we stop short at the thing itself. We must also look to recognize
the Beings from whom it proceeds. Thus for the Cosmic Thoughts we
must see whether it is Michael or Ahriman who bears them out into the
world and through the world.
122. Proceeding from the one Being — by virtue of his relation to the
world — the same thing will work creatively and wholesomely; proceeding
from another, it will prove fatal and destructive. The Cosmic Thoughts
169
19/6 [FROM JESUS TO CHRIST, “St. John and St. Paul, First Adam and Second Adam,” October 10,
1911].
252
carry man into the future when he receives them from Michael; they lead
him away from the future of his salvation when Ahriman has power to
give them to him.
123. Such reflections lead us ever more to overcome the idea of an
undefined Spirituality, pantheistically conceived as holding sway at the
root of all things. We are led to a conception that is definite and real,
capable of clear ideas about the spiritual Beings of the Hierarchies. For
the reality is everywhere a reality of Being. Whatsoever in it is not Being,
is the activity that proceeds in the relation of one Being to another. This
too can only be understood if we can turn our gaze to the active Beings.
LVIII.
THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF
SPIRITUAL BEINGS
PART II
Rudolf Steiner, on many occasions, has expressed the fact that, through
definite events and in definite periods of evolution, humanity has been raised
half a stage. We may inquire about the significance of this expression half a
stage. The whole stages are to be found where one great epoch passes over to
another, transitions which are provided for in the plan of the evolution of the
world; the half stages point to a work of other than the normal spiritual beings.
Now, with regard to our immediate future, we find at the close of Letter 46, a
hint which can show us what is meant by half a stage. Present-day man can,
indeed, only with difficulty, find a position in the world befitting him, a fact we
saw referred to in four different places in Letter 44. It is like an unstable balance
and man must gain a hold on the world standing next above him, if he is not
to run the risk of sinking down into the world which is next below him. This
holding on to the next higher world can enable us to understand what half a
stage means.
The unstable element of our age is intellectuality itself, because it is placed on
the summit of the ego. Thus it vacillates between striving after the superhuman
(metaphysical) and the sub-human (materialistic) and can only maintain itself in
the really human element if it is permeated by the ego with morality. Michael’s
earnestness, which is put before us so strikingly in Letter 46, points to this moral
element. He summons man to become aware of the confidence which can be
given him by the selflessness of thinking and the love of action. The Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity also gives the right soul attitude for this; it leaves man free
to follow the call, the purpose of which is to raise his actual humanity half a
stage. In this direction, man’s outlook is free, as he views what Rudolf Steiner
shows us as the Michael-experience.
In the other direction, however, man, out of the unstable balance of his ego-
being in our modern cultural phase, has sunk down half a stage into the domain
254
of Ahriman. That is the illusion of the personal possession of intellectuality,

while, in reality man lapses into automatism which, as a spiritual element, is
ruled by Ahriman. For this, too, Letter 46 gives the corresponding Imagination.
The opposition between Michael and Ahriman consists in this: that “Ahriman
acquired possession of the intellectual force,” while Michael “has never
appropriated the power of intellect to himself” but administers it. The words in
these accounts in Letter 46 are, as always to be taken quite literally.
We may notice that, twice in this Letter 46, automatism is spoken of in
connection with the link between human thinking and Ahriman. This refers to
something different from the automatism described in Study LV. Rudolf Steiner
once expressed himself on this subject, when he dealt with the relationship
between intellect and morality.170 Here, again, as in our Study LV, we can grasp
the polarity between the physical and the etheric bodies on the one hand, and
the ego and astral body on the other. Physical body and etheric body, the two
oldest principles of man, which originated in Saturn and Sun, today form the
instruments of intellectual development; they possess a degree of perfection
which comes to expression in intellectual capacity. Man would become a
thinking machine if the astral body and ego were not included. These two, as
younger principles, which originated in the Moon and in the Earth, are bearers
of the moral impulses. Now, without the evolution of freedom, the moral
element, which still works as a germ in the infant ego would lead to a kind of
automatism on the part of the normal creative spirits. This was what was meant
in Study LV. Man, however, sinks to the automatism of the physical and the
etheric bodies, if astral body and ego bring no moral impulses to bear, for then
Ahriman enters these organs of intellectuality. That then leads to the “world,
which man paints to himself as a picture of the natural world,” which lies half
a stage below the world befitting man himself.
There, we look into the depths of a cosmic battle, which takes place on
the stage of human consciousness, and it is man’s task to become conscious
of this battle, for, otherwise, no decision can be reached. The Imaginations
about Michael and Ahriman, which are given in Letter 46, are the means used
to kindle this consciousness. We saw earlier that powerful thinking will ward
off Ahriman, but this thinking must be fully conscious. This awareness is not
present if a “logic” in “merciless and heartless fashion seems to speak for itself-
170
47/9 [THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM, “Spiritual Science and Insight,” September 25, 1917].
255
--in reality it is Ahriman who is speaking through it.”

Thought exercises on which man’s own thinking depends, are contained
in such words and in many others in this Letter 46. But the Imaginations also
provide infallible gauges by which we can test the origin of the thinking of a man
whom we meet. Compare, for once, the cold smartness which only overwhelms
the other, which really needs a certain darkness in order to allow its own light
to shine, with the pure wisdom, which produces light and warmth in the other.
The problem of the world and man is thus solved in a living form, that
problem by which man is confronted in the world of wrought Work. In Study
LIV, we found this in a philosophical scientific way, now we learn to look at
beings, out of whose realm this problem comes to man: man “in seeking himself,
loses himself,” he “finds himself, not be seeking himself, but by uniting himself
to the world with will in Love.”
LIX.
CONCERNING THE NATURE OF HISTORY
Time and space belong to the most difficult problems, especially if we do not
wish to understand them abstractly, but in their real being. An understanding
of the kind already to be found as the basis of the Introduction to Goethe’s
Theory of Color by Rudolf Steiner. This was included in the book Goethe the
Scientist. There, we find on page 219,171 “Here we see that time first appears
where the essential being of a thing enters the phenomenal world.” This passage
is far too seldom noticed. The being has nothing to do with time, it can only be
understood by ordinary consciousness from its inner conditions which we have
previously called causality. When this inner being reveals itself, time appears.
There is also a passage in which Rudolf Steiner explains space and time in
a remarkable way with reference to good and evil.172 In accordance with this,
we have to picture to ourselves a living duration, a kind of primeval space,
represented by the zodiacal circle which endured all through Saturn, Sun and
Moon, the ancient evolutionary stages of the Earth. This, in its essential being,
is raised above time and space and above good and evil. As soon as this, which
has permanence, which has nothing to do with time, enters into time, “it divides
into good and evil.” In this connection, there appeared the relationship of seven
to five in the place of the number twelve. The matter is thus “that space, when
it forsakes its sphere of eternity and takes into itself created things which run
their course in time, divides into good and evil.” Seven is then the good number
for all that is concerned with time.
We can now place the foregoing side by side with what is shown to us
in Letter 46, in the two Imaginations of Michael and Ahriman in relation to
time and space. Seven of the twelve beings of duration, who comprise primeval
space, belong to a light world, five belong to a dark world. Thus Michael rules
in the light world through the course of time, maintaining the union with the
primeval divine being. On the other hand, it is said of Ahriman that he “in his
171
Chapter 16, Goethe as Thinker and Research Scientist, Part 2, “The Primal Phenomenon” (Urphaenomen)
172
9/9 [THE EAST IN THE LIGHT OF THE WEST, “The Bodhisattvas and the Christ,” August 31, 1909].
257
course would wring space from time.” In this case, primeval space is not meant
but, as we read in the foregoing passage, the creations which primeval space
takes into itself and which run their course in time. Thus, these Imaginations
are in accord with the revelations contained in this passage in the Cycle. At
the close of this last passage, we find: “Do not say at this moment that this is
difficult to understand; rather say to yourself: The world is very profound and
there must also be things the meaning of which is very hard to fathom. We have
a whole eternity before us in order that we may understand everything there is
to be understood in the world.”
Thus, we shall be able to find the transition to the great historical statements
beginning in Letter 47,173 in which we see Michael traveling through the course
of time. Perhaps, out of all we have considered about the mission of Michael, we
shall be able to take with us a total impression in one comprehensive sentence:
Michael is not only the protector of men, but also the protector of the rulership
of the creative primeval beings.
*
We have considered history from various points of view; this was the case,
for example, in Leading Thoughts 50 to 52. We have now reached the point at
which, in the Letters and Leading Thoughts, history is treated with regard to the
epoch of the consciousness-soul: “Before the Door of the Consciousness-Soul”
is the title of Letter 47. Here we remind ourselves how we have designated
short aphoristic sentences as letters of the alphabet from the language of the
consciousness soul (see those in Study XXX); we can add to them sentences of
a like kind, related to history.
57. We must understand the arising of history out of the development of

man, and then the influence of history on the human being of today.
(Study XXVI)
58. From the standpoint of the uninterrupted causality of nature there is
no history. (Study XXVI)
59. Biographies from the highest explanatory science in contrast to the
descriptive science of anthropology; that is history. (Study XXVI)
173
[ALT, “First Study: At the Gates of the Spiritual Soul (Consciousness-Soul). How Michael in the Spiritual
World is Preparing for His Earth-Mission through the Conquest of Lucifer,” November 30, 1924, Letter
47.]
258
60. Humanity of olden times had no history; the essential happenings lay
in the spiritual world. (Study XXVI)
61. The Old Testament is not only a descriptive historical work, but it
points to a future goal; in the Mystery of Golgotha this goal became
reality, historical fact. (Study XXVI)
62. The Apocalypse sets the new goal, the reappearance of Christ. (Study
XXVI)
63. True history consists in the fact that occurrences which, in earlier times
were wholly spiritual, become humanly earthly; true history is that
of human consciousness. (Study XXVI)
64. Only selflessness with regard to our own destiny can lead to the
investigation of real history. (Study XXVII)
65. The substance of history grows out of the etheric body, which vanishes
into the Akashic Record after death. (Study XXVII)
66. Morality in history grows out of the astral body’s experiences after
death with regard to the judgment of life. (Study XXVII)
67. In the world of purpose, the I (ego), after death, takes part in the
foresight working in history. (Study XXVII)
68. By actually experiencing this history of human consciousness in an
inner repetition, the man of today becomes a co-worker in the affairs
of the higher Hierarchies. (Study XXXV)
69. Rudolf Steiner’s victory by means of thoughts over the materialistic
Nominalism of science enabled the human soul to force its way
through to the new Realism of spiritual experience. (Study XXXV)
70. To throw into one vessel the warmth of the thoughts of the heart and
the chill of the thoughts of the head is, expressed historically, to
confound Nominalism with Realism. (Study XXXVI)
71. Spiritual history is brought about by the rulership of spiritual beings
in successive epochs, and human history and the evolutionary facts
of the human being are its outer manifestation. (Study XLII)
LX.
CONCERNING THE LAW OF REPETITION
There are now four Letters 47 to 50174 and the Leading Thoughts
accompanying them, in which Rudolf Steiner furnishes vivid historical pictures
of the transition to modern times. These pictures are given in connection with
spiritual history, with the rulership of the beings in the spiritual world. They will
never cease to stimulate historical research in the sense of the words in Letter 47:
“What spiritual observation can discover is in every way confirmed by external
testimony.” It is a matter of historical events over which lies a mysterious veil.
Our concern is to raise this veil and that can only be achieved when we bring
into our present consciousness the history of human consciousness through
repeating it inwardly. The historical investigator will also have to do this, when
he examines external testimony.
We are quite familiar with the shortened repetitions, which consist, briefly,
in the following: in each new period of evolution all those that have gone before
are briefly recapitulated. Thus, Old Saturn is recapitulated at the beginning of the
Old Sun evolution, then both are repeated in the first part of the Old Moon, and
the same is the case in the evolution of the Earth.175 The single smaller periods
again represent the repetition of earlier conditions, until the new epoch in each
case can appear. Thus, the single post-Atlantean civilizations are also shortened
repetitions of the ancient epochs176 and they are finally repeated in the course
174
[ALT, “First Study: At the Gates of the Spiritual Soul (Consciousness-Soul). How Michael in the Spiritual
World is Preparing for His Earth-Mission through the Conquest of Lucifer,” November 30, 1924, Letter
47; “Second Study: How the Michael Forces Work in the Earliest Unfolding of the Spiritual Soul,” Decem
ber 7, 1924, Letter 48; “Second Study (Continued). Hindrances and Helps to the Michael Forces in the
Dawn of the Age of the Spiritual Soul,” December 14, 1924, Letter 49; “Third Study: Michael is Suffering
Over Human Evolution Before the Time of His Earthly Activity,” December 21, 1924.]
175
2/11 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “Evolution of Mankind on the Earth. Part I,” June
4, 1907]; 8/3 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER GOSPELS, “The
Metamorphoses of the Earth,” June 26, 1909]; 8/4 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO
THE OTHER GOSPELS, “The Hierarchies of Our Solar Systems and the Kingdoms of Earth,” June 27,
1909].
176
4/2 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “Ancient Wisdom and the New Apocalyptic Wisdom. Temple Sleep.
Isis and the Madonna. Past Stages of Evolution. The Bestowing of the Ego. Future Powers,” August 5,
1908]; 5/2 [EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “The Reflection of Cosmic Events in the Religious
Views of Men,” September 3, 1908].
260
of the evolution of the more modern peoples. This principle, however, does
not hold only for the formative forces of consciousness. Thus, in the Riddles
of Philosophy, we find it stated by Rudolf Steiner that, in particular, the whole
development of human thinking from antiquity to modern times is repeated in
the 19th century.
Thus, we may well reflect upon this principle, also in the historical transition
to the age of the consciousness soul. Here it must show itself in the whole
attitude of the soul as it faces the world. If we dwell upon the historical pictures
in Letters 47 to 50 with this in mind, then, in the rise of the new evolutionary
stream of the consciousness soul, we can experience the reverberation of the
soul attitude belonging to the ancient civilizations. We must, however, notice
that these repetitions do not simply follow one another in time, but they also
interpenetrate, although it is quite possible to compare characteristic features of
the centuries immediately preceding the rise of the consciousness soul, with the
character of the various post-Atlantean civilizations. Italian art in particular is
traditionally connected with different centuries, and these is much to be gained
by comparing, for example, the 14th century, and its aloofness from the world,
with the ancient Indian civilization, while, passing on to the 16th century, we
find a correspondence with the features of Greece and Rome.
Rudolf Steiner has often described to us the soul mood of the ancient Indian
civilization.177 At that time, there was a looking back toward the old spirituality
of Atlantis; consciousness was of a dreamy clairvoyant nature, no physical
world as yet lay sharply and clearly before the senses; it was despised as illusion.
There was a deep longing to bring the old Atlantean consciousness to life again,
and Yoga was the path. When, however, Rudolf Steiner described old Atlantis,
he always pointed to the dense masses of fog, out of which the water had not
yet separated. He made wonderful references to the rainbow, which could only
arise when the fog had condensed and caused the great flood.178 At the Easter
Conference of 1927, Albert Steffen chose the first rainbow as the starting point
177
2/12 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “Evolution of Mankind on Earth. Part I,” June 4,
1907]; 3/8 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, “Human Evolution in its Relation to the Christ Principle,” May
27, 1908]; 4/9 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The Progress of Man. His Conquest of the Physical
Plane in the post-Atlantean Civilizations. The Beginning and Up-Building of the I am. The Chosen People.”
August 13, 1908]; 6/3 [THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN, June 20, 1908]; 8/6 [].
178
3/8 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, “Human Evolution in its Relation to the Christ Principle,” May 27,
1908]; 6/6 [THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN, June 23, 1908].
261
of his lecture, and he showed how its different colors illuminated the following
civilizations.
It has already often been shown in our Studies of the Letters and Leading
Thoughts, that words repeated many times become guides to our understanding.
Thus it is certainly not for nothing, that in Letter 47, in the description of the
mood expressed in the tales, sagas and poems, the word fog is used three times.
That gives us the clue to the first post-Atlantean civilization. Stepping out of a
fog, which is naturally not meant physically here, is repeated in a belated way.
Beautiful as are the pictures in the tale of Good Gerhard, the saga of Duke Ernest,
of Roland, of the world of the Nibelungs, they testify to the longing for an old
type of consciousness, for Nifelheim. This longing points to Luciferic activity. In
this Letter 47, Rudolf Steiner particularly reminds us that, in these tales, it is not
simply a matter of making use of subjects from the Orient, but of phenomena of
consciousness, of longings, which are connected with the Crusades. But perhaps
it is also important to notice that the Crusades themselves followed the same
direction as the old migrations of the peoples, which started from Atlantis, and
that they inaugurated a repetition of the old post-Atlantean civilizations before
the coming of the consciousness soul; conversely, the migrations of the peoples
which began in the fourth century, followed the direction from East to West,
thus taking the same course as that presented by the successive post-Atlantean
civilizations themselves.
When we consider the brief repetition of the post-Atlantean civilizations
before the age of the consciousness soul, we shall understand the activity of
Michael from the spiritual world before he entered upon his office as leader
in the year 1879. When we take to heart the descriptions in Letter 47, those
bearing upon the old Indian civilization, which later reappeared in soul moods,
the activity of Michael may also well be apparent from this point of view.
It is as though he himself repeated his work of former times before actually
entering upon his mission in our time as leader of the new epoch, that of the
consciousness soul.
124. The dawn of the age of Consciousness (the age of the Spiritual
Soul) in the fifteenth century was preceded, in the twilight of the age of
the Intellectual or Mind-Soul, by a heightened Luciferic activity, which
continued for a certain time even into the new epoch.
125. This Luciferic influence tried to preserve ancient forms of pictorial
262
conception of the world in a wrong way. Thus it tried to prevent man

from understanding with Intellectuality and entering with fullness of life
into the physical existence of the World.
126. Michael unites his being with the activity of mankind so that the
independent Intellectuality may remain — not in a Luciferic, but in a
righteous way — with the Divine and Spiritual from which it is inherited.
LXI. HISTORY AND INITIATION
We have already studied the tragedy of the old initiates from other points
of view. The reason for this was that old principles of initiation neither could
nor should be effective any longer. We can approach this tragedy from another
aspect; the old principles of initiation were, indeed, deeply connected with the
principle of repetition and, that, in its turn, with what issued from the places
of initiation for the future evolution of humanity. The initiates of old Atlantis,
for example, brought about in themselves and in their pupils a higher form of
human being, reaching right into the physical corporeality which, at that time,
was still malleable.179 This happened because of the fact that the oldest spiritual
stages of the earth’s evolution served as the content of their meditation, if the
upward striving of that time can be so named for the sake of comparison. As a
kind of repetition of their work on the earth in those most ancient times, they
thereby maintained their union with the creative beings of the spiritual world,
who could now continue their creative activity on man.
An ancient cosmic evolutionary process is thus meditation for a later epoch.
This again, in its turn, was repeated.180 The events of the first so-called root race,
the Polarian epoch, became the principle of initiation in the ancient Indian time.
The same is true subsequently, so that the events of the Hyperborean epoch,
became the principle of initiation for the ancient Persians; and the events of
the Lemurian time, the departure of the moon from the earth, the principle of
initiation for Egypt; and then the Atlantean world reappeared in the Mysteries of
ancient Greece. After that, this sequence, of necessity, was exhausted since there
was nothing more of a like nature to be repeated. In its stead, it was necessary
that the events now following should in themselves become the principle of
initiation. That was the effect of the Mystery of Golgotha with which a new
creation began and the earth received her goal for the future through the
appearance among men of the leading Spirit of the whole of evolution. From
that time on, the progressive activities, the principles of initiation, are no longer
179
5/3 [EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “The Old Initiation Centers. The Human Form as the
Subject of Meditation,” September 4, 1908].
180
5/5 [EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “The Genesis of the Trinity of Sun, Moon, and Earth. Osiris
and Typhon,” September 7, 1908].
264
a repetition of the past, but an anticipation of the future. Yet, this working
toward the future is to be understood as the polar opposite of the past, so
that the Christ-impulse, as the impetus of initiation, everywhere proposes to
penetrate and transform old conditions and legacies. Naturally, in this way,
a kind of repetition of old processes again appears, but it is fundamentally
distinguished from the pre-Christian repetitions. The old impulses, dependent
on repetition, are still effective because spiritual beings, who have remained
behind, intervene and continue their previously legitimate activity at a later
time. These, as we know, are the Luciferic Beings. Thus there arises a battle
between old and new activities.
Man, as we saw earlier, is heir to an enormous past. He bears within him
the old forms of humanity, the old Atlantean or Indian or Roman. These forms
in us are today a hindrance, are in opposition to the acceptance of the Christ
in our hearts; they are enemies within us, and the historical confusion is an
expression of battles of this kind. By learning to see how these things bear upon
historical events, they serve to train the consciousness soul. It is in this that the
new principle of initiation is expressed, that the Mystery secrets of olden times
and their human guidance are entrusted to the individual man. By these means,
the ancient forms, otherwise only a disturbing element in the subconsciousness,
are raised to consciousness and, thereby, released. Thus, through the advent
of the consciousness soul, the historical consciousness of humanity frees itself
from the old forms.
The individual activities of the several historical personalities experiencing
incarnation have to find their way into the historical life of modern times at
the dawn of the evolution of the consciousness soul. For these personalities,
the approaching age is distinguished by the fact that intellectuality appears as
the personal activity of man’s own inner life (see, for example, Letter 42);181
man begins to feel himself to be the creator of his thoughts. Michael will work
inspiringly into his thought force when his time has come. Before that, however,
the Ahrimanic temptation enters into this individual activity, so that mighty
historical conflicts arise: the individual tragedy of historical personalities. The
coming of the Christ-impulse through Michael takes place in a way that cannot
be understood by the consciousness of those historical epochs; it is all pure
miracle. Our present-day understanding, arising from the consciousness soul,
181
[ALT, “The Experiences of Michael in the Course of His Cosmic Mission,” October 26, 1924, Letter 42.]
265
is directed both to the course of historical events and to the work of historical
personalities. This is exemplified for us in Leading Thoughts 124 to 130, and it
is clearly to be sensed from them that the Luciferic dangers of the past are more
connected with the experience of the nations, the general consciousness, the
Ahrimanic dangers of the future; more with individual personalities, with the
intellectualistic consciousness.
Since Rudolf Steiner reveals the secrets of these historical processes to our
modern consciousness, the mission of Michael can be accepted in our time by
individual men and thereby the path of Christ’s work for all men can be shown.
The principles of initiation for the present are thus shaped as the historical
impulse of the future.
127. At the beginning of the Age of Consciousness, man evolved the
intellectual forces of his soul only to a small extent as yet. Hence there
arose a gap between what the soul of man in unconscious depths was
longing for, and what the forces from the region of Michael’s abode could
give him.
128. Owing to this gap, there was a greater possibility for the Luciferic
powers to hold man back in the forces of cosmic childhood, thus bringing
about his further evolution, not on the paths of the Divine-Spiritual
Powers with whom he was united from the beginning, but on the paths
of Lucifer.
129. Moreover there was a greater possibility for the powers of Ahriman
to wrest man away from the forces of his cosmic childhood, thus dragging
him down, for his further evolution, into their own domain.
130. Neither of these dangers was realized, for the forces of Michael
were after all at work. But the spiritual evolution of mankind had to take
place under the resulting hindrances, and it was thus that it became what
it has, in fact, hitherto become.
LXII. HISTORICAL DECISIONS
The first paragraph of Letter 48182 gives the mood of transition, the expression
of which was the purpose of our last Study. The historical events, described in
this Letter, are governed by a completely different mood from that of the more
dreamy impulses put forward in Letter 47. In these Letters (47 to 50) which
are related, we are now concerned with events of history and experiences of
consciousness, which took place from about the 13th to the 16th century. In
Letter 48 we read of the most significant facts: the war, lasting more than 100
years, between France and England and the intervention of the Maid of Orleans;
furthermore, in connection with the processes of consciousness, we read of the
philosopher Descartes, who is compared with Augustine. Also important is the
reference to the Crusades, which brought the impulses of old world-conceptions
from the East into the West, like an incentive for the repetition of the old
civilizations before the dawn of the time of the consciousness soul.
In accordance with the way of grasping the situation, the mood of this
Letter is comparable to that of the ancient Persian civilization, as far as we
are able to know it, but, by this time, we have to do with a distorted image,
the ancient impulses appear as hindrances. A hindrance of this kind is the war
between France and England. The beginning of the work of the consciousness
soul was given as a counter-balance to the dreamy mood of the fog. But, instead
of working culturally, as was indicated in the case of Chaucer, there came the
war of conquest. The consciousness soul led men to seize the physical plane, to
a conquest through work, a repetition of what had taken place, in a spiritual
sense, in the ancient Persian time.
In that age (5000 years before the Trojan War) the impulse to conquer the
physical world led to the great War, which lasted many centuries between Iran
and Turan.183 At that time, the advanced Iranians were opposed to the backward
Turanians who had remained at the stage of the Atlantean consciousness,
representing a decadent counterpart to the still older Indian civilization.
182
[ALT, “Second Study: How the Michael Forces Work in the Earliest Unfolding of the Spiritual Soul,”
December 7, 1924, Letter 48.]
183
15/1 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW, “The post-Atlantean Migrations. The Iranians and Turanians.
Zarathustra,” September 1, 1910].
267
In this War, the fight of the Iranians for the physical plane was against the
representatives of the Ahrimanic powers. In the conquest of the physical plane
through the consciousness soul in modern times, Ahriman threatens to tear man
away from the physical plane. In opposition to this possibility, which could
hinder or destroy the evolution of the consciousness soul, Michael intervened
through the Maid of Orleans. In her own being, the power of Christ was obliged
to overcome and transform the Luciferic forces;184 her historical work, however,
was to repulse the overwhelming power of Ahriman. Luciferic forces also led
to her death, but her activity in opposition to Ahriman continued after death.
Here we have to do with an anticipation of activities, which really only become
possible from our time onward. This anticipation of future events is the impulse
to initiation experienced by the Maid of Orleans.
In Letter 48, Rudolf Steiner asks the question, “What would have happened,
if there had been no Maid of Orleans?” He has indeed repeatedly answered this
question himself.185 The physical efforts of the British nation should have been
directed towards conquests in the West. Had a separation of the British from
the French not taken place through the intervention of the Maid of Orleans, the
deepening of the cultural life of Europe, which arose a little later through the
French people, would not have taken place. “For, at that time, everything that
went on in the will impulses, in the brains of physical heads had the tendency,
so to speak, to cover Europe throughout with a view of a State which would
flatten out and reduce to nothing all the individualities of the peoples...”186 The
reference to political thinking in the Letter 48 also points to this in the passage
in which the year 1215 is mentioned. In that year, King John of England signed
the Magna Charta, which guaranteed the freedom of the personality, but also
inaugurated government by Parliament.
It is perhaps possible to look upon the later appearance of Descartes
(and Spinoza) from the viewpoint of the deeds of the Maid of Orleans, and
they would then appear in the realm of spiritual life as the counterpart to the
historical events. Neither detailed philosophical discourses nor, on the other
184
39/5 [DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF NATIONS, “The Nature of the Christ Impulse and Mi-
chael Serving It-2,” January 19, 1915].
185
39/4 [DESTINIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF NATIONS, “The Nature of the Christ Impulse and
Michael Serving It-1,” January 17, 1915]; 42/3 [THINGS IN PAST AND PRESENT IN THE SPIRIT OF
MAN, “A Fragment from the Jewish Hagada. Blavatsky,” March 28, 1916].
186
268
hand, detailed historical investigations are attempted here, but an insight into
the mood caused by the approach of the consciousness soul. Rudolf Steiner,
in his Riddles of Philosophy, described the opposition between Descartes and
Bacon of Verulan, with special reference to the way in which the ego battles
against doubt. In Letter 48 the connection with Augustine is put before us and,
in line with this, even through the fact of continuity, direct reference is made to
the old Persia, which had to be overcome. For Augustine could only accomplish
his task by overcoming traditional (not occult) Manicheism, which originated
in Persia.
Scotus Erigena established a connection between the time of Augustine and
that of Descartes; Rudolf Steiner said of him that the same inspiring being stood
behind him and the Maid of Orleans.187 He also belongs to those through whom
Michael prepared his later mission from the spiritual world.
187
LXIII.
PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
The mood into which letter 49188 leads us will be grasped as we look at
the repetition of the Egypto-Chaldean civilization before the entrance of the
consciousness soul upon its task in modern times. It may be pointed out once
more that these repetitions do not adhere to a simple succession in time, but
rather that they interpenetrate and occupy the whole of the 13th to the 16th
century. Taking the facts in their entirety, the single Studies only lay stress on the
general mood of the transition according to the various outlooks of the earlier
civilizations.
All that has come to us through tradition, from religion, forms of worship
and of world conception, originated in the civilizations of Asia Minor. But, for
the very reason that it is tradition, it stands in opposition to the impulses of
the consciousness soul. The old Egyptian and Chaldean within us are also our
opponents. Particularly in Egypt, the soul was chained to the physical world,189
into which, however, divine intelligence was also brought from cosmic spheres.
In the transition to the consciousness soul, man is threatened by this bondage
to materialism, not only as congestion, but as reality.
Letter 49 treats of “Hindrances and Helps to the Michael Forces.” The
hindrances arise through the bondage that exists between world conceptions
and the physical, the helps from the overcoming of this bondage. Let us begin
by considering the first. Here, we need to look at the following as a whole; the
appearance of the Proofs of the Existence of God, the denial of the traditional
religious representations, the proceedings at the Councils of Constance and
Basel, the soul condition of Nicholas of Cusa. The common source of all these
events is to be found in the spiritual world; the Michael-forces are connected
with the intellectuality streaming down to man, but Michael himself remains
in the spiritual world. The men, whose intellectual soul forces were no longer
in accordance with the times, perceived that the active downward stream of
188
[ALT, “Second Study (Continued). Hindrances and Helps to the Michael Forces in the Dawn of the Age
of the Spiritual Soul,” December 14, 1924, Letter 49.]
189
4/1 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The Egyptian Period and the Present Time,” August 4, 1908].
270
intellectuality, which had been going on for centuries, belonged to their most
difficult problems. These center around the question with regard to the Holy
Spirit, and this question may arise for earthly consciousness as a result of looking
at the aforementioned facts as a whole.
In contrast to earlier views, the Proofs of the Existence of God offered by
Anselm of Canterbury was supported by human thinking in its own nature. It
is the so-called ontological proof of God; it really signifies the search for the
divine in a man’s own human thinking, inasmuch as he undertakes to prove the
divine by means of his concept. Such divinity, Nicholas of Cusa, as a mystic, did
not see in knowing, but in the ignorance, which, of course, had to be learned,
that is, lying beyond the common knowing. In this search for the divine in
thinking, in the freeing of the Aristotelian, scholastic concepts, it is possible to
recognize a search for the Holy Spirit. Questions arose about the identity of
being and thinking. The old concept of being can be none other than that of the
Father-principle. Thus, the problem of the identity of being and thinking is the
same as the question, whether or not the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father
and is equal with him.
The oldest Proofs of the Existence of God, which were really no proofs,
began with the Father; they belong to the attainments of the ancient civilizations
of Asia Minor. Kant’s refutation of the ontological proof of God, and the moral
principle (categorical imperative!) he introduced in its stead, is a retrogression
into Old Testament times, a resignation with regard to knowledge in favor of
mere faith in the Father. The Proof of the Existence of God through the Son
lies in the Divinity of Christ in a human body; this was given for the genuine
witnesses of the Mystery of Golgotha. Thus, it is possible to point out successive
ways of apprehending the relationship of man to the divine as Proofs of the
Existence of God through the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Now the Christian Catholic Church disagreed over the question of the Holy
Spirit (Filioque Controversy) and the organization of the Councils of Constance
and Basel ought to have helped toward the reunion of the Churches in the East
and West. The action of Nicholas of Cusa at the Council of Basel consisted in
this: that, in the conflicts with the Popes, which played an important role at both
Councils, he stood for the conviction that, if the Councils were composed of the
best representatives of the Church and with right purpose assemble in solemn
session, the Holy Spirit would be able to speak through their resolutions. The
271
depth of this reasoning of Nicholas of Cusa could not be maintained, although

both these Councils placed themselves above the Popes; instead, the whole
problem sank into fearful decadence. By degrees, the dogma was carried into
effect by Rome, that the Holy Spirit speaks through the assembled College of
Cardinals, especially in the choice of the Pope and, finally, in our time (1870),
came the dogma of the infallibility of the Pope in matters of faith, according to
which the Holy Spirit was to speak through him as an individual. In this way,
the whole problem has become the greatest hindrance, a counterpart to the
third post-Atlantean civilization, the Pope in the place of the Father.
Only the genuine Michael Fellowship allows the Holy Spirit to be active in
human communities in our time.
Now there is still something more to be said about the furtherance of the
Michael forces, which is shown to us in Letter 49, that is, the activity of the
genuine Rosicrucians. The following passage190 shows us that this activity also
is deeply connected with the third post-Atlantean civilization: “This wondrous
harmony between the Egyptian remembrance in wisdom and the Christian
impulse of power is found in Rosicrucian spiritual teaching. So the ancient seed
laid down in the Egyptian period reappears, not merely as a repetition, but
differentiated and upon a higher level.” Genuine Rosicrucians are promoters of
the Michael forces, also with regard to the impulses which are permitted to pass
over into modern times from the second post-Atlantean civilization. Thus, it is
they who transmit genuine Manicheism for the future.191
Letter 49 describes the way in which the genuine Rosicrucians furthered the
Michael forces by means of a remarkable dualism between external life on earth
and the inner life of the soul. In the complete separation of the two lay the path
which enabled them to repeat the genuine impulses of the ancient civilizations
before the rulership of Michael, so that they should not become a hindrance
but a help and, in particular, not fall into materialism. Today, the Rosicrucian
impulses are united with the Michael stream in Anthroposophy.
131. In the beginning of the Age of the Spiritual Soul, the Intellectuality
190
4/11 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The Reversing of Egyptian Remembrance into Material Forms
by Way of Arabism. The Harmonizing of Egyptian Remembrance. The Christian Impulse of Power in
Rosicrucianism.,” August 16, 1908].
191
9/9 [THE EAST IN THE LIGHT OF THE WEST, “The Bodhisattvas and the Christ,” August 31, 1909].
272
now emancipated in man wanted to occupy itself with the truths of

religious faith and ritual. The life of the human soul was thereby brought
into uncertainty and doubt. Men tried to prove by logic spiritual realities
that were formerly a direct experience within the soul. They tried to
understand, nay even to determine by logical deduction, the contents of
sacred ritual which can only be taken hold of in spiritual Imaginations.
132. All this is connected with the fact that while Michael is determined
to avoid any kind of contact with the present earthly world, which man
must enter; yet at the same time it is still his task to guide in man the
cosmic Intellectuality which he administered in ages past. Thus there
arises through the Michael-forces a disturbance in the cosmic balance
albeit, a disturbance necessary for the further progress of world-evolution.
133. Michael’s mission was made easier for him by certain personalities
— the genuine Rosicrucians — who arranged their outward life on Earth
so that it in no way interfered with their inner life of soul. They could thus
develop forces within them, whereby they worked together in spiritual
realms with Michael, without the danger of entangling him in present
earthly happenings, which would have been impossible for him.
LXIV.
THE OTHER SIDE OF
The beginning of Letter 50192 deals with the transition to the repetition of
the fourth post-Atlantean civilization before the entrance of the consciousness
soul upon its present task. The ideas of Copernicus, Galileo and especially those
of Kepler still belong to the time of the dawn of Egyptian wisdom. Similarly, in
a greater rhythm, our whole modern period, the fifth post-Atlantean civilization
is a renewal of the third.193 But we see in its effects that the great explorers
express the impulses of the repetition of the fourth post-Atlantean civilization
as was shown in our last Studies. However, that is, indeed, the final possibility of
a repetition of this kind, for everything has by then come to an end, so to speak.
It is illuminating, that this last repetition, that of the Graeco-Latin civilization
in modern times, has shown the most telling after-effects for it is, at the same
time, the real transition from the fourth to the fifth post-Atlantean civilization.
In the meeting between old decadent remains emerging from the past and the
real transition, there arises a genuine tragedy, which consists in this: that it is
not perceived so very much by men, as was the case in ancient Greece, but in the
spiritual world, and it was experienced most strongly of all by Michael. That is
“Michael’s sorrow over the evolution of mankind before the time of his earthly
activity.”
We will again trace briefly how the description in Letter 50 points to the
character of the repetition of the fourth post-Atlantean civilization up to our
time.
192
[ALT, “Third Study: Michael is Suffering Over Human Evolution Before the Time of His Earthly Activ-
ity,” December 21, 1924, Letter 50.]
193
4/11 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The Reversing of Egyptian Remembrance into Material Forms
by Way of Arabism. The Harmonizing of Egyptian Remembrance. The Christian Impulse of Power in
Rosicrucianism.,” August 16, 1908]; 5/12 [EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “The Christ Impulse
as Conqueror of Matter,” September 14, 1908]; 12/1 [THE MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, “The
Nature and Significance of Karma in the Personal and Individual; and in Humanity, the Earth and the
Universe,” May 16, 1910]; 12/8 [THE MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, “Karma of Higher Beings,” May
25, 1910]; 13/1 [THE MISSION OF FOLK SOULS, June 7, 1910]
274
In many places, Rudolf Steiner describes the Graeco-Latin civilization in

the wonderfully beautiful expression of the marriage between the spiritual and
the physical.194 In it, there combined as a polarity, forces which originate from
earlier civilizations195 but also from the oldest stream of evolution. In Letter 50,
the time when the consciousness soul began is described as a polarity of this
kind. While, in the fourth civilization, the harmony of spiritual and physical,
cosmic and earthly was clearly to be seen, we now have to do with the fact
that something of a two-fold nature has arisen in keeping with the overlapping
indicated above. The spirit-soul element, active on Saturn and Sun, appears as
physical-etheric and, in addition, the later physical and etheric appear, originating
from the Moon and Earth. Moreover, there is the spirit-soul element, which has
been transformed through the evolution of the Moon and Earth (Letter 50).
Owing to this, there are in man only wrought Work and active Working, and no
more the divine-spiritual itself. That is now no longer a harmonious marriage,
but complete bondage to the physical-etheric, “in order to bring forth the
consciousness soul.” (Hence, the newly-born consciousness soul even behaves
at first more like a changeling than a real child). At the time of the true marriage
in the Graeco-Latin age, the Mystery of Golgotha took place. In order that this
may find its way into human consciousness in our time, Michael first had to
enter upon his rulership.
In keeping with this, there is in Letter 50 a wonderful remark, which can
easily be overlooked, that Michael “preserved for man man’s divine image.” We
can find a parallel to this by adding that the divine images in ancient Greece were
memories of the old Atlantean world of the Gods, with which the humanity of
that time was closely connected.196 In contrast to this human divine image, there
beings during the repetition in modern times a “search for the knowledge of the
human being.” That is Humanism and it is expressed in the figure of Faust. The
194
4/9 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The progress of man. His conquest of the physical plane in the
post-Atlantean civilizations. The beginning and up-building of the “I am.” The chosen people.” August 13,
1908].
195
10/8 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, “The Evolution of Consciousness in Humanity during the post-
Atlantean Epoch. The Mission of Spiritual Science: Mastery of the Physical by the Spiritual. Illness and
Healing. The Influences proceeding from the Christ-Ego,” September 24, 1909].
196
4/2 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “Ancient Wisdom and the new Apocalyptic Wisdom. Temple sleep.
Isis and the Madonna. Past stages of Evolution. The bestowing of the Ego. Future Powers,” August 5,
1908]; 5/2 [EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “The Reflection of Cosmic Events in the Religious
Views of Men,” September 3, 1908].
275
descriptions in Letter 50 show how ancient Greece, when it is repeated, can also
become an opponent within us.
The ancient Greek found himself in the physical world and loved it, but a
fog of fear with regard to life after death was widespread.197 A counterpart to
this begins when Humanism makes its appearance: man loses his own being
and, in its place, the experience of death obtrudes with overwhelming force,
and that in the form of natural science which becomes ever more and more
interested in the lifeless. There, the hidden Greek is active in the consciousness
of today, “impotence, illusion, stupefaction in the direction where it (spiritual
rebirth) must be sought.” Only in the art of the Renaissance (the word indeed
points to the return of Antiquity) is there still to be found an element that
furthers the Michael forces.
Thus, everything accumulates until the transition in our time. It is as though
the highest tension must be reached before the consciousness soul can break
through. Thus, now at the close of this whole evolution (Letters 47 to 50) we
are led to the other side of the consciousness soul. Its first deeds on this, the
customary side, are to provide a picture of nature, out of which the image
of man should be formed. But, in Michael’s sight, this is a nothing. A soul
nothingness of this kind, however, is the place through which the Ahrimanic
forces can pierce. They pierce through the human consciousness soul from the
physical into the spiritual world, and there they cooperate with Luciferic beings,
who are already on the other side. There, Michael, full of concern, has to battle
with the dragon. The anxiety of Michael and his tragic position are the other
side of the consciousness soul. Michael is alone in this battle for he is obliged
to hold himself aloof from the physical world of men. He himself may not,
through the consciousness soul of men, break through from the other side to
this, but the Luciferic beings do it all the more and, therefore, they can also
cooperate with the Ahrimanic forces on this side. Thus, gradually, the human
soul itself becomes the battleground, though man in his state of satisfaction
knows nothing about the solid ground. The solid ground is Ahrimanic: “The
solid earth do I make hard and fast,” says Ahriman in the Mystery Play, The
197
5/10 [EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “Old Myths as Pictures of Cosmic Facts. Darkening of
Man’s Spiritual Consciousness. The Initiation Principle of the Mysteries,” September 12, 1908]; 8/6 [THE
GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO THE OTHER GOSPELS, “The Atlantean oracles,“ June
29, 1909]; 19/6 [FROM JESUS TO CHRIST, “St. John and St. Paul, First Adam and Second Adam,”
October 10, 1911].
276
Portal of Initiation; the satisfaction is Luciferic.

Thus, the deed of Rudolf Steiner can also be estimated: how, from this side
of the consciousness soul, he came to the help of Michael in his battle with the
dragon. He showed the way by which the consciousness soul in itself, through
its own nothingness can break through into the spiritual world. Therefore, this
process may be compared with a turning inside out. Thus, he enlists auxiliary
fighters among us for Michael’s battle with the dragon.
134. In the very earliest time of the evolution of the Spiritual Soul, man
began to feel that he had lost the picture of Humanity — the picture of
his own Being — which had formerly been given to him in Imagination.
Powerless as yet to find it in the Spiritual Soul, he sought for it by way of
Natural Science or of History. He wanted the ancient picture of Humanity
to arise in him again.
135. Man reaches no fulfillment in this way. Far from becoming filled
with the true being of Humanity, he is only led into illusions. But he
is unaware that they are so; he thinks they have real power to sustain
Humanity.
136. Thus, in the time that went before his working upon Earth, Michael
had to witness with anxiety and suffering the evolution of mankind. For
in this time men eschewed any real contemplation of the Spirit, and thus
they severed all the links that connected them with Michael.
LXV.
THE MISSION OF
The culminating point of the historical considerations in Letters 47 to 50

is The Mystery of the Logos in Letter 51. With it, the first year of the Leading
Thoughts closes (December 28, 1924); it encompasses all that has preceded it.
When we include in his spiritual science all that Rudolf Steiner has said about
the Mystery of Golgotha in its infinite greatness, this Mystery always appears as
the highest consummation and not as a self-evident point of departure. We can
ask ourselves why it is that, generally speaking, the Mystery of Golgotha is not
looked upon as an obvious truth by those who are searching for a modern world
conception. Rudolf Steiner has often pointed to the fact that, in accordance
with the scientifically historical views of today, the life of Christ Jesus cannot
be considered as a historical event. The efforts of the Christian, especially of the
Protestant, Churches to preserve the Gospels as historical documents has led to
the opposite result and, indeed, it belongs to materialistically historical honesty
to deny the historical character of the life of Jesus.
When in the first place, Rudolf Steiner wanted to expound Christianity
in accordance with the consciousness of today, he interpreted it as mystical
fact. In his book bearing this title, he plainly showed that the Gospels were
not meant to provide any historical biography. As mystical fact, Christianity,
in its actual nature, is presented as an experience of the consciousness, that
is to say, that a certain process in man’s consciousness guarantees the reality
of the Mystery of Golgotha. Modern man must learn to work toward such a
process in consciousness, therefore, today the Mystery of Golgotha stands not
at the beginning of this knowledge, but at the end; but scientific experiences, as
they can be gained in genuine natural science, prepare the way. Thus, there are
transformations of consciousness, which are put before us in Letter 51198 and,
indeed, with an eye to the consciousness soul of contemporary man.
That does not alter the fact that it is of immense importance that we
198
[ALT, “A Christmas Study: The Mystery of the Logos,” December 28, 1924, Letter 51.]
278
should also be able to grasp the Mystery of Golgotha as a historical event.

Nevertheless, this conception cannot be gained from external documents, but
from a continuation of the mystical path to spiritual-scientific investigation
which, through the development of consciousness, can enter into the real
historical events (Akashic Record). In this way, we come to sense how history is
the development of the consciousness of humanity.
Let us look back to the historical events at the time of the dawn of the
consciousness soul, how in their mood they appear to us as a kind of final
repetition of the ancient civilizations. Thus, in the change of consciousness
belonging to modern times, the preparation for the Mystery of the Logos can be
repeated, the way in which the historical facts of the past were brought together
in order that the life of Christ Jesus as history should be rendered possible. In
diverse ways, the whole outer and inner history of pre-Christian antiquity can
be grasped as a plan with a view to the unique central event. We saw how the
older, still more cosmic stages of the earth’s evolution become the principles
of initiation in later civilizations. Then, however, what had been experienced
by the neophytes of the older civilizations199 became a historical event in the
Mystery of Golgotha.200 Thus, Christianity can also appear as a convergence of
the various world-conceptions.201 However, Rudolf Steiner has given a detailed
description of the way in which the history of the childhood of Jesus was a
wonderful repetition of the paths actually taken by the older civilizations and
not only one that was typical of a pre-Christian initiate in a general sense.
Why has all this been completely removed from the ordinary consciousness of
contemporary man? Why is it not possible to know it directly from historical
documents, that is, without the investigations of spiritual science? That points
to a mystery which is all-important in the history of humanity.
199
10/10 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, “Christianity and the Teaching of Reincarnation and Karma. Jonah
and Solomon: Examples of two modes of Initiation in olden Times. The Christ Principle and the new mode
of Initiation. The Event of Golgotha: Initiation presented on the outer Plane of World-History,” September
26, 1909]; 19/4 [FROM JESUS TO CHRIST, “St. John and St. Paul, First Adam and Second Adam,”
October 10,1911]; 30/8 [EXCURSUS ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK, “The Path of Theosophy from
Former Ages until Now,” June 10, 1911].
200
10/2 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, “The Gospel of St. Luke: an Expression of the Principle of Love and
Compassion. The Missions of the Bodhisattvas and of the Buddha,” September 16, 1909].
201
10/5 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, “The great Streams inspired by Buddha and by Zarathustra converge
in Jesus of Nazareth. The Nathan Jesus and the Solomon Jesus,” September 19, 1909].
279
The Mystery of Golgotha was the freest of all the deeds of the Christ,202
therefore, the Christ can only be found through a free deed; this deed is enacted
in the consciousness soul. Primeval being sank down into the earth and became
nature; human spirituality succumbed to death and became power of knowing
nature. Thereby, man can kindle the freedom of the consciousness soul and,
from this, he can learn letters. If this is done with courage even unto death, the
letters themselves form the Word, the Logos.
In this way, the consciousness soul attains to its historical mission of opening
the way once more into the spiritual world. This mission takes its course in
the inner soul sphere when history becomes mystical. Thus, in considering the
historical processes at the time of the appearance of the consciousness soul,
it concerns us to bring about a convergence of repeated ancient civilizations
in the consciousness of the individual, so that, finally, the effect of the past
evolution of human consciousness is really repeated in the individual man. Thus
the consciousness soul is prepared to approach the Christ-event in our time, the
significant event of future history. This mystical event becomes historical because,
as a result of the series of generations and also of the series of incarnations, the
individual man is heir to the past. The man of the present day who alone can
rightly enter into this heritage is he who overcomes within himself the inner
hindrances created in him by the past and transmutes the ancient forms of
humanity in himself into the image of God. Those are the paths of knowledge
in Anthroposophy.
137. The activity in the evolution of the World and Mankind which
comes about through the forces of Michael, repeats itself rhythmically,
though in ever-changing and progressing forms, before the Mystery of
Golgotha and after.
138. The Mystery of Golgotha is the greatest event, occurring once and
for all in the evolution of mankind. Here there can be no question of a
rhythmic repetition. For while the evolution of mankind also stands within
a mighty cosmic rhythm, still it is one — one vast member in a cosmic
rhythm. Before it became this One, mankind was something altogether
different from mankind; afterwards it will again be altogether different.
Thus there are many Michael events in the evolution of mankind, but
202
19/10 [FROM JESUS TO CHRIST, “The Esoteric Path to Christ,” October 11, 1914]; A/8 [THE BEING
OF MAN AND HIS FUTURE EVOLUTION, “The Manifestation of the Ego in the Different Races of
Men,” May 3, 1909].
280
there is only one event of Golgotha.

139. In the quick rhythmic repetition of the seasons of the year, the
Divine-Spiritual Being which descended into the depths of Earth to
permeate Nature’s process with the Spirit, accomplishes this process. It is
the ensouling of Nature with the Forces of the Beginning and of Eternity
which must remain at work; even as Christ’s descent is the ensouling of
Mankind with the Logos of the Beginning and of Eternity, whose working
for the salvation of mankind shall never cease.
LXVI. SURVEY : PART I
Without doubt, it is evident that the Leading Thoughts are given in rhythmic
sequences, and here, too, as in all spiritual matters, they create their form out
of the spirit that is in them; they grow organically. There is a wonderful artistic
charm in trying to enter into such forms. Deep secrets are touched upon, which
lie between the lines, concealed even in the words. Once, many years ago,
Rudolf Steiner bore this out by what he said to me about forms of this kind in
the book Theosophy, that these are really present, not, of course, introduced in
an abstract way but arising as though of themselves out of the spiritual realm
when the thoughts are true. Once who has artistic, creative ability will perceive
the same in other spheres. In Rudolf Steiner’s descriptions, the Logos wisdom is
revealed through human consciousness, for thought substance is adapted to free
formation by the spirit. This is only said as an indication.
It is obvious that the Leading Thoughts may be arranged in various ways
and, in the foregoing Studies, we have tried again and again to notice when
changes occur, especially in the mood, the soul attitude to be introduced; for,
when considering the meditative character of the Leading Thoughts, it is the
subtle shades of meaning which are of importance. But, over and above this,
there is also an arrangement according to facts, concerned in the first place with
the thought content, as it were, the matter to be taught. Not until these essential
facts have been accepted by the inner being of man, can their meditative element
be revealed afresh. In the beginning of the last Study, the statement was made
that all that had gone before appears in a comprehensive way in Letter 51
and the Leading Thoughts that accompany it. We shall see how the Leading
Thoughts, belonging to the first year, lead to this conclusion.
The Leading Thoughts run in groups of two to four. Further, in regular
sequence, we find six or seven of these groups which, together, deal with one
definite subject. Let us try to characterize these collections of groups in short
sentences. There are seven groups of Leading Thoughts to Letters 6 to 12203
203
[THE LIFE, NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF ANTHROPOSOPHY, “Anthroposophical Leading
Thoughts,” February 17, 1924 Letter 6; “The Quest for Knowledge and the Will for Self-Discipline,”
February 24, 1924, Letter 7; “The Work in the Society,” March 2, 1924, Letter 8; “The Work in the
Society,” March 9, 1924, Letter 9; “Individual Formulation of Anthroposophical Truths,” March 16, 1924,
Letter 10; “On how to present Anthroposophical Truths,” March 23, 1924, Letter 11; “On the Teaching of
282
(Leading Thoughts 1 to 19) treating of spirit knowledge and the being of man.
Out of the relationships between these two, knowledge of after-death and pre-
birth experiences takes shape; this comes to expression in the three kinds of
supersensible investigation and is imprinted in the threefold nature of man. That
is again the content of seven groups in Letters 13 to 19204 (Leading Thoughts
20 to 40).
There now follow six groups in Letters 20 to 25205 (Leading Thoughts 41 to
58) which can be denoted by the one word destiny. At the same time, however,
it is evident how the influences at work on the human being on the other side of
birth and death are expressed in destiny. These influences are under the guidance
of the beings of the three Hierarchies, to whom Leading Thoughts 59 to 81 in
seven groups in Letters 26 to 32206 are devoted. The beings of the Hierarchies
are now also active in ordinary human experience which, for this very reason, is
revealed in its spiritual background. This is shown in the seven groups in Letters
33 to 39207 (Leading Thoughts 82 to 102) in waking, dreaming, sleeping; in
thinking, feeling, willing. In their spiritual background, the activity of Michael
appears and our line of thought advances in the seven groups of Letters 40 to
46208 (Leading Thoughts 103 to 123) into cosmic-spiritual development and
events; the mission of Michael dominates these groups. Its activity is reflected as
the history of humanity at the dawn of the age of the consciousness soul. That
Anthroposophy,” March 30, 1924, Letter 12.]

204
[MONTHLY NEWS SHEET (MNS), “Concerning Group Meetings,” April 6, 1924, Letter 13; April13,
1924, Letter 14; April 20, 1924, Letter 15; April 27, 1924, Letter 16; May 4, 1924, Letter 17; May 11,
1924, Letter 18; “The pictorial Nature of Man,” May 18, 1924, Letter 19.]
205
[MNS, “What is the Tone which should prevail in the Group Meetings?” May 25, 1924, Letter 20;
“Something more about the Tone which is necessary in the Group Meetings,” June 1, 1924, “Letter 21;
June 8, 1924, Letter 22; June 15, 1924, Letter 23; June 22, 1924, Letter 24; June 29, 1924, Letter 25.]
206
[MNS, “Something more about the Results of the Christmas Meeting,” July 6, 1924, Letter 26; “Under-
standing of the Spirit and Conscious Experience of Destiny,” July 13, 1924, Letter 27; July 20, 1924,
Letter 28; “Spiritual Kingdoms and Human Self-Knowledge,” July 27, 1924, Letter 29; August 3, 1924,
Letter 30; “How the Leading Thoughts are to be Used,” August 10, 1924, Letter 31; “At the Dawn of the
Michael Age,” August 17, 1924, Letter 32.]
207
[ALT, “The Condition of the Human Soul Before the Dawn of the Michael Age,” August 31, 1924, Let-
ter 34; “Aphorisms from a Lecture to Members Given in London on August 24th, 1924,” September 7,
1924, Letter 35; September 14, 1924, Letter 36; September 21, 1924, Letter 37; September 28, 1924,
Letter 38; October 5, 1924, Letter 39.]
208
[ALT, October 12, 1924, Letter 40; October 19, 1924, Letter 41; October 26, 1924, Letter 42; November
2, 1924, Letter 43; November 9, 1924, Letter 44; November 16, 1924, Letter 45; November 23, 1924,
Letter 46.]
283
is described in the groups of Letters 47 to 51209 (Leading Thoughts 124 to 139),

and Leading Thoughts 140 to 143 also belong to the same subject, making it six
groups in all. There now follow twice seven groups of Leading Thoughts, which
we shall provisionally denote by the words macrocosm - microcosm.
We now have to seek the transition from Letter 51 of the first year and
its Leading Thoughts to the second year (1925), and the result of this may be
that the survey of the facts presented in the earlier Leading Thoughts leads us
to the practice of meditation. To begin with, an objection may be raised here.
The Letter and Leading Thoughts, which are in question, were given by Rudolf
Steiner at Christmas 1924, a year after the laying of the Foundation Stone, to
give a festival mood for the sake of those who, at that time, had taken part in
the work on the Leading Thoughts. Scruples might be felt over the arranging
of such a discussion as ours quite apart from the time of year and the Festival,
lest this run counter to the purposes of the Leading Thoughts and their author.
There, however, spiritual laws are at work: during meditation, a content that
has spiritual effects cannot, at the same time, be elaborated upon by means of
thinking. While it is best to meditate in connection with a definite rhythm, it is
precisely on that account valuable to ponder over the content of the meditation
at another time. Thus, in the year’s rhythm, Christmas is the right time for
meditating upon the Mystery of the Logos, and, apart from this time, everything
can be acquired which will give the right mood of consecration to the Christmas
meditation.
This is what is meant by the passage in Letter 51 about the World-Christmas
“which every year is celebrated in remembrance.”...”When love such as this
dwells in human hearts, it fires with its warmth the cold light element of the
consciousness soul.” To this end, it is necessary that, in the course of nature’s year,
the rhythmic revelation of Nature210 shall be seen in a new way in the element
of light. Thus, it is necessary to grasp everything in Letter 51 in a double sense,
for not until all the past has been laid upon the consciousness soul, will it be
able to turn toward the future through meditating in freedom on the Mystery of
the Logos. This letter speaks of a past in which nature and history are revealed
209
[ALT, November 30, 1924, Letter 47; December 7, 1924, Letter 48; December 14, 1924, Letter 49; De-
cember 21, 1924, Letter 50; December 28, 1924, Letter 51.]
210
The Persephone Myth
284
as a unity. This will lead us over into Letter II, No.1211 and its accompanying
Leading Thoughts.
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.’
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.
142. Against the calculable order of the World-body the Luciferic
Powers stand opposed; against all that creates in free Intelligence and
Will, the Ahrimanic.
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.
211
[ALT, “Heavenly History - Mythological History - Earthly History. The Mystery of Golgotha,” January 4,
1925, Letter II/1.]
LXVII. SURVEY : PART II
The survey, especially in connection with our last Studies, showed us that all
the past must be transferred to the consciousness soul. We found ancient spirit
forms of the past, images from ancient history, from which the man of today
must be delivered; otherwise, they are a disturbing element in him and act as
his enemies. Man is really heir to an immense past, both in regard to nature
and the spirit, but in that the past is dammed up in the consciousness soul, man
in the end becomes his own enemy: that is the final effect of the repetitions
which engaged our attention with regard to the dawn of the consciousness soul.
Here lies the greatest danger for contemporary man, for he then finds only
Lucifer and Ahriman as the spiritual element in his consciousness soul. That is
the egoism and abstract nature of our civilization, and that can lead to nothing
else but the war of all against all!212
But is there not the law that all that disappears into the center reappears in
the circumference? The statements made by the newer, synthetic geometry can
become genuine symbolism (see note 84). If opposition to oneself is transformed
by meditative experience, does that not signify the germ of a new human being?
There, the purpose of the Logos Mystery can be achieved. In Letter 51, we are
shown how the spirit of nature comes to the earth and, in the development of
man, disappears as it were in the center of the earth. Then the Logos penetrates
to the earth from the circumference of the cosmos and, correspondingly, the
spirit of nature rises to the earth’s surface, thus presenting the balance of the
polarity between earth’s center and cosmos, as is done by the line of the circle
in the polarity between inner and outer in the well-known figure of synthetic
geometry. On the surface of the earth, the Logos meets with the spirit of nature,
becomes flesh and thus Christ walked on the earth as man. The heart of modern
man can unite with the mystery of His death and resurrection and, thereby, man
is released by the Christ from opposition to himself, and the ancient spirit forms
inherited by humanity obtain their redemption. And now Michael’s gesture
points man to the vast nature of the circumference, to the cosmos; there the
212
6/8 [THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN, June 25, 1908]; 27/8 [THE EFFECTS OF OCCULT
DEVELOPMENT, “The Paradise Imagination. The Guardian of the Threshold. Cain and Abel,” March 27,
1913].
286
resurrection of man should be achieved. In this way, we are led to the content
of Letter II, No.1.
“In the spatial cosmos, there stand in contrast to one another: World-
expanse and Earth-center.” That is the first sentence of this Letter; it appeals
to the heart’s understanding for all that has been said in the earlier Letters and
Leading Thoughts. If this were not forthcoming, much that is in this Letter would
only seem like a further development of earlier statements. The unity of heavenly
and earthly history, of the spirit of nature and man can only be experienced in
the living present-day soul in a way corresponding to the spiritual purposes of
this Letter; for, each experience, each phrase, in it is arranged so that the great
cosmic panorama on the horizon of the consciousness soul can be surveyed as
one whole. That is supported by a new power of proving, which is completely
different from all that is today called evidence in an intellectual sense. We can
call this new ability the faculty of surveying. This is a present experience of that
which for ordinary consciousness is divided into past and future.
The key to Letter II, No.1 the actual wording of which must certainly be
left unchanged, is given in the following sentence: “But what is thus past in
the shining of the stars is present in the spirit world. And man lives with his
being in this present world-spirit.” From another aspect, the word calculable
is especially illuminating. It expresses man’s understanding for the work of the
Gods in the past and, indeed, by means of the spirit’s power, through which man
takes a share with the creative beings. The fact that world phenomena can be
calculated is on of the proofs against the freedom of man. Thus, here, too, we
meet with this central problem of freedom which never really leaves us in the
anthroposophical realm.
Letter II, No.1 is concerned with three mighty cosmic epochs, and they also
play an important part in the next Letters and Leading Thoughts. These three
mighty epochs, in spite of their vast extent are not the same as the one that is
described in Leading Thought 138 as a mighty cosmic rhythm, during which
the whole of evolution of humanity takes place. But, this cosmic progress of the
whole evolution of humanity, in which the Mystery of Golgotha is “the unique
greatest event” reaches from ancient Saturn to Vulcan; while the three epochs
now under consideration take their course in the center of these planetary
evolutions. What is meant is the development of the earth out of the cosmos
287
(manvantara)213 and its return to the next intermediate condition (pralaya) and,
within this again the central part, which begins with the Polarian epoch. Thus,
since humanity is completely different before and after the passage through the
epochs from Saturn to Vulcan (Leading Thought 138), the possibility of being
calculated only holds for the central epochs of earth’s evolution, that is, of those
which come into consideration here; accordingly, it is not to be applied as a
proof against human freedom, for it is not absolute, but has arisen and will pass
away again. The power of proving, with which we should unite here, does not
by any means rest on the absoluteness of intellectual thinking. Rudolf Steiner
once pointed to the fact that modern science recognizes that the intensity of
light and of gravity decreases in proportion to the square of the distance and
from this the conclusion is drawn that this scientific thinking also decreases in
proportion to the square of the distance from the place in which it was valid,
that is, from the earth’s surface.
213
1/10 [AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE, “Progress of Mankind Up To Atlantean Times,” August
31, 1906].
LXVIII.
THE LIGHT OF THE SPIRIT-SELF
The fact that the cosmos is calculable is connected in a special way with
the freedom of man and not with his lack of freedom. In the calculations, or
at least in the soul attitude from which they are computed, the man of today
experiences the creative thoughts of primeval times; he repeats in his thoughts
the creation as planned by the creating beings. Thus, to him the past creation
of the universe becomes present. That does not only refer to the expanses of the
universe, but also to nature which enters man from below. Nature and history
are polaric opposites; they only become one when seen cosmically. If now, in the
study of what is calculable in nature and cosmos, man schools his inner being
to participation in the divinity of the past, the meaning of what is incalculable
in the history of the earth and heaven may become clear to him. It is only by
consciously taking part in the development of the history of humanity that
freedom becomes real. And, conversely, every really free deed forms a part of
truly spiritual history. From this, there rises once again the proof for the most
free deed between Saturn and Vulcan, for the deed of the Christ.
Nature and history stand in contrast to one another and the same contrast is
found in the polarity of the life between birth and death and that between death
and a new birth. The calculable element leads man to birth, the incalculable
back into the spiritual world again. Everything that has already been said about
this rhythm of birth and death gains a new meaning here through becoming
a subject for meditation. In Letter II, No.1, Lucifer and Ahriman are also
presented in accordance with the same polarity between the calculable and the
incalculable. It will now be good, after such discussions as those in the last
Studies, to immerse ourselves once more in the exact wording of this Letter,
for our Studies are useless if they do not lead us back in ever fresh ways to the
actual words of Rudolf Steiner.
In Letter II, No. 2214 and the Leading Thoughts that accompany it, and in
those that immediately follow, the light of the new power of proving contained
214
[ALT, “What is Revealed When One Looks Back into Repeated Lives on Earth,” January 11, 1925, Letter
II/2.]
289
in the faculty of surveying falls on more and more spheres in which microcosm
and macrocosm take shape; by degrees, it falls on all the subjects which have
been previously treated in the Letters and Leading Thoughts. In Study LXVII,
the new power of proving contained in the faculty of surveying was shown to
us; it has arisen through the transference to the consciousness soul of the ability
to understand nature and history. Then it can bring to light the knowledge
of the future made possible to humanity through the redeeming power of the
Mystery of Golgotha, and under the guidance of Michael. This knowledge of
the future is that of the spirit-self, and thus it is the light of the spirit-self which,
like a searchlight, illuminates the various spheres. Rudolf Steiner once said in
a most important passage:215 “In developing his sentient soul, intellectual soul and
consciousness soul, man develops something that corresponds to the flower of his
being, and lifts this up to receive the inpouring of the divine spirit from above, so that
by receiving the spirit-self, he may rise to ever further heights of human evolution.”
For the disciples of the Christ, who stood around Him, this meant that, in association
with Him, they had this new power of proving contained in the faculty of surveying at
a time before there was as yet a consciousness soul for the average man.
In Letter II, No. 2, the light of the spirit-self again falls on a threefold epoch, which
lies within the last named (reaching from the Polarian time to the end of this period),
and indeed, in the middle of it, possible somewhat earlier. The middle period of this
epoch is described with its boundaries so that the one lies in the latest Lemurian, the
other in the Atlantean time. We have to bring before our minds that the first period
reaches far into the past, and the third far beyond our time out into the future. It is
important to be as clear as possible about the epochs mentioned in the Letters and
Leading Thoughts in order that we may find our way through more exact study with
the aid of Rudolf Steiner’s Occult Science: An Outline.
In the descriptions such as are given in these Letters, we may now, as it were,
accompany Rudolf Steiner on his path when investigating past earthly lives, even
as far back as to those remote times when man’s life on earth (between birth
and death) and his life in the cosmos (between death and a new birth) were not
yet separated. Here, it will be good to verify the survey which arises out of the
fact that a cosmic memory of that distant past has remained in modern man.216
With regard to the paths taken in research of this kind we can imagine that,
215
216
27/4 [THE EFFECTS OF OCCULT DEVELOPMENT, March 23, 1913].
290
through the practice of entering into ancient cosmic memories in our soul life as
it is today, a view of the past lies open before us; and, conversely, the reviewing
of those cosmic creative processes, after Rudolf Steiner has investigated them,
is the best schooling for the soul toward inner development. We are shown here
how cosmic memories are expressed in the three stages of evolution in thinking,
feeling and willing, and have their foundation, created in primeval times, in the
threefold system of the human being; thus it is nothing of an abstract nature
that is meant here, but the living soul experience of the student himself. Then, in
Letter II, No. 2, we are further told how, in the time between death and a new
birth, as it runs its course for contemporary man, these cosmic memories return
to their source.
The will represents that part of this cosmic evolution which still persists
today, so that, in the will, the study of cosmic creation is carried into the
immediate present, that is, right into our own experience. Thus, the whole study
leads to the actuality of the consciousness of today. Letter II, No. 2 closes by
again pointing to the Christmas Mystery, the truth of which is expressed in the
saying: Unto you is born this day a Saviour. This day, not only about 2,000
years ago! Thus, finally, the awakening of the spirit-self depends upon the will.
Beginning with the will, the transforming power of Anthroposophy will lay
hold of the whole man; it demands men who are of good will.
144. Looking back into a human being’s repeated lives on Earth, we find
three distinct stages. In a remote past, man did not exist with individuality
of being, but as a germ in the Divine and Spiritual. As we look back into
this stage we find not yet a human being but Divine-Spiritual Beings: the
Primal Forces, Principalities or Archai.
145. This was followed by an intermediate stage. Man existed already
with individuality of being, but he was not yet detached from the Thinking
and Willing and Being of the Divine-Spiritual World. At this stage he had
not yet his present personality, with which he appears on Earth as a being
completely self-possessed, detached from the Divine Spiritual World.
146. The present condition is the third and latest. Here man experiences
himself in human form and figure, detached from the Divine-Spiritual
World; and he experiences the world as an environment with which
he stands face to face, individually and personally. This stage began in
Atlantean time.
LXIX. COSMIC INDIVIDUATION
292
In Letter II, 3217 “previous lives between death and new birth” are used as
the bearers of retrospective knowledge of the cosmos. The same epochs are
dealt with here as in Letter II, No. 2 for, as far as time is concerned, it is the
same whether the retrospect is of the life between birth and death or of the
life between death and rebirth, provided it reaches the point where they are
no longer distinguishable. Albeit there is an essential difference, for, in occult
investigation, the question, when meditating, is from what starting point the
spiritual gaze is directed toward the past. Different spheres are affected by the
light of the spirit-self according to what serves as the bearer of the investigation.
Naturally, that does not imply the subjectivity of spiritual investigation, but
rather the path of spiritual evolution leads beyond subjectivity and objectivity,
that is, dependence on subject or object.
The retrospect into repeated earth lives reveals more of that which frees
man, and with him the earth, from fellowship with the beings of the Hierarchies;
the retrospect into previous lives between death and a new birth reveals more
of what concerns these spiritual beings themselves. This second point of view
proves to be the more important; an illustration of this is given to modern man
by the fact that earth lives are short in comparison with lives between death
and new birth. The significant feature in Letters II, 3 and 4218 is that they show
us how the cooperation of the Hierarchies is introduced. There, too, becoming
and changing are to be found. Let us try once more to grasp the new teaching
which Rudolf Steiner has given here as compared with his descriptions in Occult
Science: An Outline and in his lecture cycles. At that important point of time,
when earth life and life between birth and rebirth become distinguishable, it
is the activity of the Archai which quite particularly comes to the fore. “And,
indeed, we meet, if we trace back the life of one man, not with one divine spirit-
being, but with all belonging to that Hierarchy.”
The totality of the Archai works together in order to fashion the figure of man
out of all that has been brought about by the totality of the higher Hierarchies
in the cosmos from primeval times; this figure is conceived as spiritual being,
which is the goal of the Gods: man. That is the other new element brought
217
[ALT, “What is Revealed When One Looks Back into Former Lives Between Death and a New Birth - I,”
January 18, 1925, Letter II/3.]
218
]ALT, “What is Revealed When One Looks Back into Former Lives Between Death and a New Birth - II,”
January 25, 1925, Letter II/4.]
293
before us, the cosmic figure, a macrocosmic form, which is not the physical
body, nor the etheric body of man; but the later physical body was stamped
into the multiplicity of matter in accordance with this divine image as the earth
became physical. “The divine spirit beings hold the balance, one with another,
in the cosmos. The visible expression of this mutual balance is the form of
the starry heavens. What they are there, all together, they willed to create as a
single unity.” Here again is a pointer! The old problem of individuation, which
has already occupied us, appears in a macrocosmic form. As the unity of the
foundation of the world was differentiated into the multiplicity of stars, so the
figure of macrocosmic man, of Adam Kadmon,219 changed into a multitude and
became the phantom220 fashioning the human bodies when the grain of sand,
earth, separated its material part from the cosmos. In Letter II, 5221 also deals
with this subject. In answer to the stirring question as to how many individual
men there are on the earth, is it now perhaps too bold to say: the same number
as there are stars?
The creation of man’s form is the one side of the individuation, the nature of
which is sharply delineated in Leading Thought 148. It is intimated in Leading
Thought 149 that the other side is the path of humanity; this is put before
us in the following Letter II, 4. Through the power of the Archangels on the
etheric body of the evolving human being during the second epoch of former
lives between death and new birth, the element of movement belonging to the
heavens comes into the form of man which is turned toward the earth. This is
connected with the individuation which works toward the inner being of man.
That comes to expression when, in the third epoch, the activity of the Angels on
the astral body develops the individual element so far that the human ego can
gradually awaken to consciousness. At the time of this transition to the epoch to
which we still belong today, cosmic memory becomes active. We have to picture
to ourselves that outer and inner individuation go hand in hand.
The influence of Lucifer and Ahriman is now at work, and we can recognize
in it an essential factor of the individuation of man. Finally, there is divine
219
18, 1909].
220
19/6 [FROM JESUS TO CHRIST, “St. John and St. Paul, First Adam and Second Adam,“ October 10,
1911].
221
[ALT, “What is the Earth in Reality within the Macrocosm?” February 1, 1924, Letter II/5.]
294
tragedy at the foundation of man’s development toward individuality. Here, we

have an echo of ancient sagas: “When primeval man became too haughty, the
Gods were obliged to divide him into separate beings.” Thus, in the mystery of
the strife in heaven, the division of single, individual heavenly bodies into the
multitude of planetoids222 is the effect of the agency of those beings who have
fallen behind. The individuation of man can be conceived of as a means whereby
the creative Gods can master the opposing forces. In this connection, we find
the brief statement in Letter II, 4 that the Archai who originally united to create
the human form, appeared later individually as the Spirits of Time223 and races
(this is only valid for later times. In the Atlantean time when the concept of race
had its particular significance, the Spirits of Form were the leaders of the races)
that the Archangels, who in that second epoch still united to work on the etheric
body, appeared later individually as leaders of nations and, finally, that the
Angels in their epoch, the third, bring the sacrifice of working as individuals on
individual men. The single, individual man, however, when he learns to know his
nature from the remote past, can turn again in freedom to the Primeval Powers
through the strength of his thoughts: when he unites himself with the mission
of Michael and receives redemption from the evil of individuation through the
Christ, he fulfills the purpose of cosmic individuation. This, too, is indicated in
Letter II, 4 in the passage describing the descent of thinking to sense perception,
and the corruption of the primeval spiritual of man into the illusion of freedom.
147. Man’s lives between death and a new birth also show three distinct
periods. In the first of these, he lived entirely within the Hierarchy of the
Archai, who prepared, for the physical world, the human form and figure
which he was afterwards to bear.
148. Thus the Archai prepared the human being subsequently to unfold
the free Self-consciousness. For this Self-consciousness can only evolve
in beings who can show it forth, in the form and figure which was here
created, out of an inner impulse of the soul.
149. In this we see how qualities and powers of Mankind, becoming
222
14, 1909].
223
4/3 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The Kingdoms of Nature. Group-egos. The Centre of Man. The
Kingdoms of Higher Spiritual Beings,” August 6, 1908]; 7/6 [THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES AND
THEIR REFLECTION IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD, April 15, 1909]; 21/3 [THE SPIRITUAL BEINGS
IN THE HEAVENLY BODIES AND IN THE KINGDOMS OF NATURE, April 5, 1912].
LXX.
THE TURNING POINT OF THE UNIVERSE
manifest in the present cosmic age, were laid down in germ in ages long
gone by. We see how the Microcosm grows out of the Macrocosm.
150. In a second period of evolution of the lives between death and a
new birth, man entered the domain of the Archangeloi. The seed of his
later conscious Selfhood — prepared for, in the first period, in the forming
of the human figure — was now implanted in the nature of his soul.
151. During this second period he was driven by Luciferic and Ahrimanic
influences more deeply into the physical than would have happened
without their intervention.
152. In the third period, man enters the domain of the Angeloi, who only
wield their influence, however, in the astral body and the Ego. This third
period is the present; but what took place in the two former ones still
lives on in human evolution and explains the fact that in the nineteenth
century — within the age of the Spiritual Soul — man stared into the
spiritual world as into vacant darkness.
296
Out of all that has been gathered from the work of Rudolf Steiner, on of
the greatest gains to be found in his Anthroposophy is the knowledge that it is
impossible to consider the earth apart from man. Thus also what we are told
about the earth in Letter II, 5 must, in keeping with all our Studies, lay hold of
our manhood with cosmic strength. The microcosm is not the little everyday
man with his needs, but the turning point of the universe. Our consciousness
experienced as a point is a nothingness in comparison with the cosmos; it is the
opening through which the cosmos itself passes in the backward swing of its
gigantic rhythm from Saturn to Vulcan. Nevertheless, man could never learn the
powerful language of the cosmos with its overwhelming super-objectivity, were
he not to experience himself as a point.
The picture of the earth as a grain of dust arose in the first place from the
consciousness soul’s experience of itself as a point. An infinite feeling of loneliness,
homelessness, is due to the fact that, as the Hierarchies worked together, the
forces of the cosmos were engraved upon man. That was the cosmos becoming
man. Through this, the earth arose at the same time, and not only the earth, but
also mineral, plant and animal. Man has indeed placed the kingdoms of nature
outside himself; in them, there is concealed and spiritually active what he did not
need in becoming a point himself. As beings of nature, they are turned toward
the earth and serve man; as beings of spirit, they are turned toward the cosmos
and serve the revelation of the spirit in the future. The decision lies with man;
he has the task of freeing these beings from their bondage to nature, of carrying
further the Christ’s work of redemption. That is the germinating force of the
human ego experience, out of loneliness producing love, the counterpart of the
love-filled cooperation of the Hierarchies. Loneliness is the medium between
love and freedom. That is man becoming the cosmos.
In order to attain to this love, man should tread the path which permeates
the thinking, connected with the dead past, with the will, the germ cell of the
future; this is the path of inner transformation. The old cosmos dies and the
new one germinates through the fact that it passes through man. In the form
of a mighty meditation, this is presented in the rhythm of the life of man from
birth to death, from death to a new birth; and it is from looking back at these
facts and surveying them, that Rudolf Steiner derives this line of thought in
Letter II, 5. Death is only the transition by means of which the purpose of life is
accomplished: man becoming the cosmos. The great turning point is, however,
297
the Cosmic Midnight; there the cosmos begins to become man. The cosmic day
which spans one earth life and the time between two earth lives can only be
seen as a whole at the midnight hour of existence. Thus man can endeavor “to
make the thought of these facts alive within himself, and he will feel what such a
thought has power to work in the human mind.” The purpose of individuation
is accomplished in the germinating spirit-self.
The significance of such considerations is still further strengthened when they
are applied in Letter II, 6224 to waking and sleeping. Here we have an illustration
of how, in spiritual science, one thought is always supported by another. This
can be demonstrated by comparing what Rudolf Steiner said at various times
in various places. In this way, the strongest testimony to the survey is offered;
for truth itself reigns therein. Rudolf Steiner has already proved, through his
investigation, that which can with conviction afterward be grasped as truth
by the ordinary consciousness. The coherence of his investigations does not
depend upon a remembrance of facts, but there is a living principle of spiritual
knowledge at work; every new addition to knowledge throws a new light on all
that is already known. (cf. Study II)
The rhythm of waking and sleeping repeats the cosmic rhythms. The
connection with the foregoing Studies is clearly to be seen. On falling asleep,
man dives down into the primeval past, he passes through the dream world,
the stage of animal consciousness, unites himself with the spirit of the plants in
his sleep and even contacts the spiritual sphere of the minerals at the turning
point of the rhythm, in the experience of midnight, from which the Cosmic
Midnight of the greater rhythm of earth life to earth life derives its name. There
is a reference to this at the close of Letter II, 6. Now it concerns us once more to
make full use of our human experience, in order to thoroughly understand what
the cosmos has formed in man through waking and sleeping. If this alone were
at work, the dying cosmos could not rise to new life, for the work of the cosmos
was directed toward man, as its goal. That is contained in the following sentence
in Letter II, 6: “Such at the present cosmic time is the rhythm of man’s life on
earth outside the inner being of the World with realization of his own being;
and life in the inner being of the World, with extinction of the consciousness of
his own being.”
224
[ALT, “Sleeping and Waking in the Light of Recent Studies,” February 8, 1925, Letter II/6.]
298
The same is true with the greater rhythm of repeated earth lives. According to
Oriental teaching, they would roll on cosmically in constant repetition, without
the advent of anything new, unless man, through his earth lives, grasped his
cosmic impulse. This new element can only be effective in repeated earth lives
if the dead point in the rhythm of sleeping and waking is overcome. We have
already asked, “Can freedom be given?” Here we see how the cosmos waits
for man to make use of the freedom given to him for, to the cosmos, man is
the end. The path is that of the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity and, in its
continuation, that of the practice of meditation. Thereby, the ordinary waking
consciousness will be permeated by that which man experiences of the cosmos
only in sleep and, conversely, the higher awakening will be introduced into the
sphere of sleeping. This Letter closes in a deeply tragic mood: “What in dreams
is but a sun-abandoned glimmer, lives in the spirit-world, transfused with spirit-
sunlight, waiting until the beings of the higher Hierarchies, or man, shall call it
forth in creative work to the molding of new life-forms.” If man fails and the
Hierarchies must exert their power without him, then the cosmic hour is missed.
153. In the beginning of the age of the Spiritual Soul, it became the
custom to turn attention to the physically spatial greatness of the Universe.
Impressed above all by this immensity of physical appearance, men speak
of the Earth as a mere speck of dust within the Universe.
154. To the consciousness of the seer this ‘speck of dust,’ the Earth, is
revealed as the germ and beginning of a new-rising Macrocosm, while
the old Macrocosm appears as a thing whose life has died away. For the
old Macrocosm had to die, that man might sever himself from it with full
Self-consciousness.
155. In the cosmic present, man partakes with the Thought forces that
make him free, in the dead Macrocosm; and with the Will-forces, whose
essence is concealed from him, in the germinating of this Earth-existence
— the Macrocosm newly springing into life.
156. In Waking life, to experience himself in full and free Self-
consciousness, man must forego the conscious experience of Reality in its
true form, both in his existence and in that of Nature. Out of the ocean
of Reality he lifts himself, that in his shadowed Thoughts he may make
his own ‘ I ’ his very own in consciousness.
157. In Sleep, man lives with the life of his environment of Earth, but
LXXI.
CIVILIZATIONS AS POLARIC OPPOSITES
this very life extinguishes his consciousness of Self.

158. In Dreaming, there flickers up into half-consciousness the potent
World-existence out of which the being of man is woven and from which,
in his descent from Spirit-world, he builds his body. In earthly life this
World-existence with its potent forces is put to death in man; it dies into
the shadows of his Thought. For only so can it become the basis of self-
conscious Manhood.
300
In Letter II, 4 there is an important remark about thinking during the

second of the two epochs discussed, namely, that, in this epoch (the Atlantean
time) thinking and perception, which had formed a unity, now began to divide.
This was significant for the individuation of man. The single spiritual life of
former times became the infinitely differentiated, separated sense perceptions, in
contrast to which thinking presented the unity of a dead image. In Letter II, 6 we
find: “Man’s thinking lies in the same forces as those which enable him to grow
and live; only, for man to become a thinker, these forces must die.” The reunion
of sense perception and thinking is the original impulse of the Philosophy of
Spiritual Activity and it is spoken of in the same Letter as “a bridge leading
from the depths of the thinking ego to the depths of nature’s reality.”
We must now consider the following contents of Letter II, 7225: the third post-
Atlantean civilization, the Egypto-Chaldean, is a repetition of the old Lemurian
time;226 and ours, the fifth post-Atlantean civilization, is a kind of reflection of
the third.227 This momentous impulse is given us in the polarity between Gnosis
and Anthroposophy; this is put before us in Letter II, 7. At first, we find how the
ancient epochs are repeated in the transition from the second to the third and
fourth post-Atlantean civilizations, only all that was previously macrocosmic
has become microcosmic. This time of the unfolding of the sentient soul “is
the age of the actual origin and life of Gnosis.” The Gnosis known to history
was still in existence during the fourth post-Atlantean civilization and was
destroyed. The accounts given, especially of the transition to this period, throw
a new light on what Rudolf Steiner has said in other books and cycles about this
Egypto-Chaldean civilization. In our Studies, we found these civilizations as the
creators of cults which are still with us today. The wording of these descriptions
in Letter II, 7 should not be altered; but the contrast to the historical revelations,
given with regard to the rise of the consciousness soul in Letters 47 to 50 can, as
a meditative mood, offer us further help.
225
[ALT, “Gnosis and Anthroposophy,” February 15, 1925, Letter II/7.]
226
17, 1909].
227
4/1 [UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN, “The Egyptian Period and the Present Time,” August 4, 1908]; 5/1
[EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES, “Spiritual Connections between the Culture-streams of Ancient
and Modern Times,” September 2, 1908]; 12/8 [THE MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA, “Karma of the
Higher Beings,” May 25, 1910].
301
In the book Theosophy and in other places in Rudolf Steiner’s writings,228 we

find that sentient soul and sentient body belong together, as do also consciousness
soul and spirit-self. The actual central point of the soul being of man is the
intellectual- or mind-soul. The sentient soul is fashioned out of the sentient
body, and the consciousness soul receives the growing spirit-self. That must be
followed by a corresponding polarity in the post-Atlantean civilizations, which
are characterized historically through the development of the soul principles.
Actual history goes back just far enough to include the development of these
soul principles; what went before and what will come after is of a different
nature, belonging to spiritual occurrences. Now, in the historical studies of
the time when the consciousness soul was dawning, we saw how the whole of
the past had to be transferred to the consciousness soul, in order to allow the
spirit-self to germinate therein. That, then, is the transition of our time, during
which Anthroposophy could arise. The opposite took place during the third
post-Atlantean civilization. Then the sentient soul was released from the sheath
of the soul-body, and that was the time in which Gnosis could arise.
We now learn to know this might spiritual stream from its esoteric side:
a chapter in supersensible cosmic history. We can gain a strong impression,
which may affect us deeply, that all spiritual life belonging to ancient times then
had to be dammed back toward the spiritual world. Angel beings again had
to undertake what previously had been given to men. This is expressed in the
cult of that time; in it, the feeling content of ancient spirituality was bestowed
upon man in his loneliness, while the Content of the image of the universe,
the primeval thought, was preserved in the spiritual world. In the transition
to our time, in the fourth post-Atlantean civilization, the Mystery of Golgotha
occurred. If esoteric Gnosis “could bring a reasoning and not merely a feeling
comprehension to the greatest impulse in man’s earthly evolution,” this would
be seen as a process in the spiritual world, from where this Mystery was beheld.
In our day, the dam should be broken down as it were; the store of spiritual
treasure may and must flow over the consciousness soul in order to permeate it
with the spirit-self
Angels preserved the precious store of spiritual knowledge; in the cult, the
spirit beings distributed the feeling-content; and now, after Rudolf Steiner, as
man, out of the forces of loneliness, has broken through the dam by his work
228
2/2 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “The Ninefold Constitution of Man,” May 25, 1907].
LXXII. CONCERNING THE NATURE
OF REMEMBERING: PART I
from below, Michael, the greatest of the Archangels steps forth and gives an
impulse to the will-content of the Mystery of Golgotha.
159. The Gnosis in its proper form evolved in the age of the Sentient Soul
(from the fourth to the first millennium before the Mystery of Golgotha).
It was an age when the Divine was made manifest to man as a spiritual
content in his inner being; whereas in the preceding age (the age of the
Sentient Body) it had revealed itself directly in his sense-impressions of
the outer world.
160. In the age of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul, man could only
experience in paler cast the spiritual content of the Divine. The Gnosis
was strictly guarded in hidden Mysteries. And when human beings could
no longer preserve it, because they could no longer kindle the Sentient
Soul to life, spiritual Beings carried over — not indeed the Knowledge-
content — but the Feeling-content of the Gnosis into the Middle Ages.
(The Legend of the Holy Grail contains an indication of this fact.)
Meanwhile the exoteric Gnosis, which penetrated into the Intellectual or
Mind-Soul, was ruthlessly exterminated.
161. Anthroposophy cannot be a revival of the Gnosis. For the latter
depended on the development of the Sentient Soul; while Anthroposophy
must evolve out of the Spiritual Soul, in the light of Michael’s activity,
a new understanding of Christ and of the World. Gnosis was the way
of Knowledge preserved from ancient time — which, at the time when
the Mystery of Golgotha took place, was best able to bring home this
Mystery to human understanding.
303
Unprejudiced consideration would be obliged to find the strongest proof

of the spirituality of the universe in man’s power of remembering; all the
phenomena of remembering present such great difficulties to the intelligence
of modern consciousness, because modern science will not decide to give
ear to these witnesses to the spirit. We find many details about memory
and remembering in the work of Rudolf Steiner, arising out of his spiritual
investigation, explaining it spiritually to the ordinary consciousness. In his book
Theosophy the nature of remembering is represented as connected with the life
of the soul: The soul “mediates between the present and eternity. It preserves the
present for memory. It thereby rescues the present from the impermanence, and
takes it up into the eternity of the spiritual world.” In the same place, it is also
shown how the bodily organization would allow all impressions to sink back
again into nothingness. In other passages, in the lecture cycles, Rudolf Steiner
speaks of the ego-consciousness as closely knit with the continuous threads of
remembering.229 In another context, he shows how the ego is connected with
the forces of the etheric body; through this, memory arises. When this first
happened, the colossal memory of the Atlantean men arose230 (that is the central
epoch of those treated in last Letters!). That is repeated during the time of the
development of the intellectual soul, which can be precisely characterized by
saying that the ego has its life in the forces of the etheric body.231 Rudolf Steiner
also speaks in various places of the cultivation transformation of the memory
into the ability to see the Akashic Record, in that the faculty of remembering
increases until it reaches into pre-birth experience.232 A counterpart of this is
that, after death, memory becomes the cosmic sight of thoughts.233
229
40/1 [THE FORMING OF DESTINY AND LIFE AFTER DEATH, “Spiritual Life in the Physical World
and Life Between Death and Rebirth,” November 16, 1915]; 40/5 [THE FORMING OF DESTINY AND
LIFE AFTER DEATH, “Concerning the Subconscious Soul Impulses,” December 14, 1915].
230
6/1 [THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN, “General character of the spirit of the Apocalypse. What takes
place in Initiation and how is Initiation related to the nature of the Apocalypse?,” June 18, 1908].
231
13/3 [THE MISSION OF FOLK SOULS, June 9, 1910].
232
27/3 [THE EFFECTS OF OCCULT DEVELOPMENT, “Evolution of Man’s Senses: Effects of Esoteric
Development on the Temperaments,” March 22, 1913].
233
Death and the ‘Cosmic Midnight Hour,’ April 13, 1914].
304
In Letters II, 8,234 9235 and 12,236 Rudolf Steiner speaks at length about
remembering and memory, and this especially valuable in clarifying much that
arises out of our earlier Studies. The first sentence of Letter II, 8, expressly
reminds us of the connection with the previous Letters. There we can realize
the vital importance of what we met with in the last Letters with regard to
cosmic memory (Study LXVIII). Already in Letter II, 1, our attention is called
to the way in which, in a cosmic sense, the past becomes present. That is also
the meaning of the principle of repetition, which has come before us again
and again. Thus, it is comprehensible that cosmic memory as a principle of
knowledge is directed toward its own nature. That is to say, that the principle
of investigation contained in the last Letters, becomes itself the object of this
same investigation. That is the case in Letter II, 8 and, therewith, something
new is really given side by side with the above-mentioned statements of Rudolf
Steiner about remembering and memory, although this principle was certainly
at work in the background. Thus the cosmic origin of remembering and memory
is shown to us, and there it is clearly revealed that this takes place in forms
which can be called epistemological. Therewith, we can acquire a new meaning
for the nature of epistemology in general. It is possible for one who wishes
to be mindful of this to know the great value Rudolf Steiner always placed
on epistemological permeation of all processes of knowledge, also including
supersensible knowledge. For the transition from the ancient to the new cosmos
is expressed in the apparently abstract form of statements, such as he himself
has so often made; statements founded on the theory of knowledge, or rather
the science of knowledge. Letter II, 8, is an example of this; it is a prototype
which can enrich anthroposophical work far into the future.
Letter II, 8 closes by pointing to “the abyss of nothingness”...”over which
man leaps.” Every grain of knowledge in ordinary consciousness is a leap of
this kind over the abyss of nothingness. In thinking, this can be experienced.
There is now an argument which should be considered against the thinking
about thinking in the Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. It states that we can never
grasp our present thinking, but we can only make our past thought, which is
remembered into an object of fresh thinking, which, again, we cannot grasp as
234
[ALT, “The Freedom of Man and the Age of Michael,” February 22, 1925, Letter II/8.]
235
[ALT, “Where is Man as a Being Who Thinks and Remembers?,” March 1, 1925, Letter II/9.]
236
[ALT, “Memory and Conscience,” March 22, 1925, Letter II/12.]
LXXIII. CONCERNING THE NATURE
OF REMEMBERING: PART II
such. According to this, the whole of man’s work on thinking about thinking is
set aside, because it would, of necessity repeatedly lead to endless retrogression,
inasmuch as present thinking would escape and fall prey to the past. As long as
man theorizes in this way, he does not attain to what is meant in the Philosophy
of Spiritual Activity, but only when he embarks upon it practically. Then it is
apparent that, upon entering into the condition of meditation, present thinking,
in coming to a standstill, grasps itself. At this point, the will enters and changes
thinking into Imagination; and, indeed, it is the memory which is laid hold of
by this transformation.
Now, in Letter II, 8, we can pursue this line of thought, and see that there
is a corresponding process for observation, the polar opposite of thinking.
The act of perceiving also cannot really be grasped at the moment, for a
mere staring does not mean comprehending, but the perceiving escapes from
the consciousness in its essential nature. Memory alone gives duration to the
percept; a spiritual process raises into the present what would otherwise fall
prey to the past. That, here, we have to do with a spiritual process is due to the
fact that there is no fundamental difference between the aspect of remembering
and that of perceiving, only in place of an external process, there appears one
from a past event, which has been at work in the “remoter parts of the soul’s
life.” The really spiritual process is, however, the same as in the case of thinking
about thinking: observing also or perceiving can only be grasped in its essence
when it enters into the condition of meditation.
162. In ideation man lives not in Being, but in Picture-being — in a realm
of Non-being-with his conscious Spiritual Soul. Thus is he freed from
living and experiencing with the Cosmos. Pictures do not compel; Being
alone has power to compel. And if man does direct himself according to
the pictures, his doing so is independent of them, that is to say in freedom
from the Universe.
163. In the moment of such ideation man is joined to the Being of
the Universe by that alone which he has become through his own past:
306
through his former lives on Earth, and lives between death and new birth.
164. Only through Michael’s activity and the Christ Impulse, can man
achieve this leap across the gulf of Non-being in relation to the Cosmos.
Letter II, 8 is of infinite significance and, insofar as we have considered it in
our last Study, a purely epistemological examination might indeed suffice. The
Letter, however, contains still more, above all the epistemologically important
distinction between picture and being. In the treatment of the ego, we found
its picture character in Leading Thoughts 11 to 13 and 14 to 16, then again in
35 to 37 and in Letter 19237 and its accompanying Leading Thoughts. Already
in that context, in contrast to the pictorial nature of ordinary consciousness,
there was an indication of the reality introduced by repeated earth lives
through karma. But, while these considerations were concerned with an inner
experience of a picture, the external sense-existence is now also brought before
us to illuminate the pictures in our consciousness. The act of remembering is
also not attached to this picture existence, but to another process which is at
work in the unconscious. This is accomplished where the etheric body of man
is active and through the ruling of spiritual beings is called up to soul existence.
The anticipation of such facts made it possible for the thought, “The World is
my Representation,” to arise. That is, however, a Luciferic temptation, which is
opposed by Michael. The consequences of this statement lead to the denial of
human freedom while, on the contrary, it is just through the non-being of the
pictures that man can be himself. “Pictures do not compel. Being alone has the
power to compel.” This is the monumental expression in Leading Thought 162.
The past holds man in being, the present in nothingness.
As in all the Letters, so also in II, 8 everything depends upon the actual
wording; we must go through it sentence by sentence. Then it becomes clear
to the soul, and this is of the utmost significance, that the past cosmos with its
spiritual activity withdraws all true being from the consciousness of man and
leaves him to himself in the realm of pictures. This, the new contribution to an
understanding of the cosmic foundation of freedom, is an addition to Leading
Thought 111. From the pictures of the world, man learns to grasp his own
being. This continually arises out of the epistemological statements: that is the
meaning of pure thinking, to strive again and again toward the being of the ego
237
[ALT, “On the Picture-Nature of Man: Supplementary to the last set of Leading Thoughts,” May 18,
1924, Letter 19.]
307
from the picture experience of the world. In 1907, Rudolf Steiner imprinted
this in his mantric sentence: “In pure thought thou findest the self which can
maintain itself.”
Now, however, a new cosmos and the spiritual beings of the world await
what a man will begin with his own being. Lucifer wishes to bind him to the
inner pictures, Ahriman to the outer. Between the two, Michael holds the door
open, which gives free access to the deed of Christ. The path of Imagination
is once more described afresh in Letter II, 8: the cosmos is ready to receive
man’s Imaginations. Here we are now concerned with taking the same path
epistemologically which we recognized in the last Study, when it became apparent
that the cognitive principle of supersensible investigation, cosmic remembering,
leads to the application of this principle to itself. This we can repeat side by side
with the knowledge that the picture being of the world makes it possible for
man’s own being to have its origin in freedom; and this leads beyond merely
theoretical knowledge. We can ask ourselves, “If pictures do not compel and
being alone compels, is it not possible that man’s own being, which he acquires
in the presence of the pictures of the World, can itself become compulsion?
Therefore, is it not the first act of true freedom, if the ego now makes itself into a
picture as a last free continuation of the activity of the ancient cosmos?” If man
makes his own being into a picture, there arises the cosmic being of the future,
“it lies in him to become a World being once more, after having as earth being
become himself.” In 1907, Rudolf Steiner gave further a mantric expression for
this in continuation of the one above: “If you transform thought into a picture,
you experience creative wisdom.”
When man changes his own being into a picture, he dares to take the leap over
the abyss of nothingness. In this mystery-experience, the moment is indicated,
which Rudolf Steiner also describes in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, where
the pupil is left entirely to himself and feels himself forsaken even by his guide.
But destiny, which leads man out of the past into the present, places him thus
before the abyss of nothingness, that he may come to the point of daring to take
the leap, unconcerned about the consequences; that is genuine freedom. In the
historical development of our time, this decision has emerged as the karma of
materialism, an ordeal every modern man must in some way experience. In A
Road to Self-Knowledge (first meditation), Rudolf Steiner points to this ordeal
in a context in which he is speaking about the question of continued existence
LXXIV. THE THREEFOLD EARTH
independently of the dissolution of the body, “For it is impossible to obtain true

knowledge of anything in the spiritual realms without being able with complete
unconcern to accept a No quite as willingly as a Yes.” And so, in Rudolf Steiner’s
Mystery Drama, The Soul’s Probation, Capesius, who experiences particularly
strongly this mystery of our present time, says:
“And were all wisdom to unite in this,
And were I powerless to reject the claim
That human destiny demands of man
That he shall lose his individual self
And sink into the gulf of nothingness,
Yet would I make the venture unafraid.”
Then, however, he continues:
“Such thoughts would be a sacrilege today,
Since I have learned I cannot win repose
Until the spirit treasure in my soul
Hath been unveiled to the light of day.”
That is the ordeal before which everyone is placed who has come into
contact with Anthroposophy.
309
During the last month of his life, Rudolf Steiner clothed imaginative
knowledge in the forms of epistemology, which are continued until Letter II,
13.238 It is indeed remarkable to see the way in which he allows all the subjects
previously discussed in the Leading Thoughts and Letters to pass once more
before us. This was already indicated in Study LXVIII. We are inclined to ask
whether something like a farewell to earth life is expressed in leaving the physical
plane. Now that we are nearing the end of this work on the Leading Thoughts,
it can be said after scrupulous examination: No, that is absolutely not the case!
These communications in Letters and Leading Thoughts have not come to a
close; no, we can definitely sense that, in these last Letters, Rudolf Steiner’s
spiritual strength was concentrating especially in order to give a new, yet higher
level to these revelations; perhaps the direction planned for their continuation
will yet be shown to us.
In earlier Studies (Letter 44), we learned that, bordering on the physical
world, there is a realm in which Michael rules. He remains in this realm and
does not work directly into the physical world; that is his strength in opposition
to Lucifer and Ahriman, and it is, at the same time, a test for man. In Letter II,
12, this world will now be shown to us in the light of imaginative knowledge.
The physical and spiritual earth are opposite poles, but between the two is the
mediation of the rhythmic earth, and that is the sphere with which Michael
has united himself without contacting the physical earth. It is by the light from
these higher spheres that the imaginative knowledge of the earth and of man is
characterized, although use is made of epistemological forms, because human
language no longer serves for direct imaginations. In the first place, the human
ego is discussed, and in order to come to an understanding of what is said, it is
necessary to work through very complicated interpretations; for even the way
of thinking pertaining to ordinary consciousness is cast off when considering
these difficult statements.
It is to this ordinary consciousness that the ego appears in representations
(thinking) within the physical world. What is the physical world in the sense
of this Letter? There again, we must listen very closely. A distinction is made
between in and with a certain realm. Let us take in in a more spatial sense,
with in a more causal sense, and then it will follow that where in and with are
used, man to begin with has no self-consciousness, but only where in is really
238
[ALT, “The Apparent Extinction of Spirit-Knowledge in Modern Times,” March 29, 1925, Letter II/13.]
310
meant, but not with; for self-consciousness arises through the fact that man
frees himself from causality. Rudolf Steiner once defined239 the physical body
as “that of which it can be said, that when in one place, no other body can
occupy the same place at the same time.” In the same connection, he speaks of
the physical world as being that in which the human ego can maintain itself
consciously. The first definition holds in the sense of the modern view of nature,
the second statement is given out of spiritual science. That is in and not with
the physical earth. It is different in the case of the spiritual earth. There the ego
is in and with, in, for it is I, and with, for it is essentially connected with this
realm, but not self-consciously. We can now try to sum up the facts presented
in Letter II, 9.
Self-consciousness for the ego grows out of communion with the spiritual
earth, but it is experienced in the physical earth. Thinking is carried out in the
physical world; the power to think comes from the spiritual earth. The ego
brings the results of former earth lives into the spiritual earth; there it lives as a
being of will in the sense of destiny; but destiny is experienced in the physical
world and is carried over into the next earth life as conscious activity. Now
these facts would be in sharp contrast to one another: I and not-I, if they were
not mediated by memory. Thus memory, certainly in a changed form, is seen to
be the true bearer of imaginative knowledge. The experience of memories also
takes place for man within the physical world, but while thinking strikes against
the physical body (conscious of space), remembering is attached to the etheric
body (conscious of time); as regards causality “the forces of the spirit world,
which man experiences between death and new birth, stream” into the astral
body. Thus, remembering is active in the astral body, but conscious in the etheric
body and is of service to the self-consciousness of the ego. The participation (the
with) into which man, as a being gifted with memory, enters, is rhythmic, an
oscillation in time between the physical and the spiritual.
It could be said that the above is only a repetition of what Rudolf Steiner
himself wrote in Letter II, 9. However, on attempting to return once again to the
wording of this Letter, it will be found that there are still sufficient difficulties
remaining. Work on these can result in finding the path into the spiritual world,
pointed out by Rudolf Steiner as the right path for modern humanity in contrast
to that of Indian Yoga. It is the Michael path, and the standpoint chosen for the
239
LXXV.
CONCERNING THE NATURE
OF THE ASTRAL
discussions in Letter II, 9 is that from which Michael exercises his activity.
165. Man as a thinking being, though he lives in the realm of the physical
Earth, does not enter into communion with it. He lives, a spiritual being,
in such a way as to perceive the physical; but the forces for his Thinking,
he receives from the ‘spiritual Earth,’ in the same way in which he receives
his Destiny — the outcome of his former lives on Earth.
166. What he experiences in Memory is already within that world where
in rhythm the physical becomes half spiritual, and where such Spirit-
processes take place as are being brought about in the present cosmic
moment by Michael.
167. He who learns to know Thinking and Memory in their true nature,
will also begin to understand how man as an earthly being, though he
lives within the earthly realm, does not become submerged in it with
his full being. For as a being from beyond the Earth, he is seeking by
communion with the spiritual Earth for his Self-consciousness — for the
fulfillment of his Ego.
312
The region, out of which Michael works for humanity, belongs to the realm
which, in keeping with our earlier Studies, we can call the threshold of the
spiritual world. Imaginative knowledge considers man and the universe from
the point of view of this realm of the threshold. Here, too, in this present
context, we find a fact which followed from our earlier Studies, namely, that the
threshold of the spiritual world passes right through the man of today, so that
the physical and etheric bodies have their being on this side, and the astral body
and the ego on the other side of this threshold. In Letter II, 9 the imaginative
gaze is directed from the realm of the threshold to the ego and the astral body;
in Letter II, 10240 more light is thrown on the conditions of the physical and
etheric bodies. The finer details must, however, be carefully observed. Letter
II, 9 shows how Imagination throws light on ego and astral body with the
help of phenomena in the realm of consciousness experienced in the physical
world: representations and memories. Now, in Letter II, 10 the conditions of the
physical and particularly of the etheric body are characterized with the help of
what streams in from the cosmos and the spiritual world.
As there is a polarity for the ego and the astral body between earth lives and
the lives between death and new birth, so for the physical and etheric bodies,
there is a polarity between the center of the earth and the starry periphery and,
indeed, in both cases, it is a question of the forces at work. On the other hand, the
center of the earth is related by the physical body to the ego-consciousness, and
the astral and the etheric are brought to the earth from the starry periphery. It is
from this that Letter II, 10 receives its own particular character, for imaginative
sight, which begins when man becomes conscious of the etheric body, reveals that
there must be a further differentiation: mineral and plant in contrast to animal
and man, and this with regard to the instreaming astral. Thus, these conditions
are extraordinarily complicated and the amazingly colorful description given in
these Letters reminds us of the eternally changing picture world of imaginative
knowledge.241
Man in the physical world is surrounded by witnesses of his own past,
namely, mineral, plant and animal; if then, the light of Imagination shines
240
[ALT, “Man in His Macrocosmic Nature,” March 8, 1925, Letter II/10.]
241
2/2 [THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN, “The Ninefold Constitution of Man,” May 25, 1907];
10/1 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE, “Initiates and Clairvoyants. The Various Aspects of Initiation. The
Four Gospels Considered in the Light of Spiritual-Scientific Investigation,” September 15, 1909].
313
upon these kingdoms, there is again a special kind of remembrance at work.

Imagination conjures up the past as present into knowledge, out of time, it
creates a realm of knowledge. Therein, real activity of the past is then revealed
in the present. Thereby, we come upon a secret of the astral sphere which is
disclosed in Letter II, 10.
In earlier Studies, the astral was the representative of a substantially causal
element, plainly effective in itself. As such, it is to be thought of as independent
of space and time. Activity in time has its origin in the union of the astral
and physical. As a purely active force, it is very possible to picture the astral
independently of space. The enigmatic actions at a distance which cause such
difficulties in physics are only to be understood by overcoming the pictures man
makes about space through thought. The cosmic forces are the astral forces;
that they are actions of the stars is clear from their name. According to a lecture
given by Rudolf Steiner in Dornach, we have the sense-perceptible manifestation
of the astral element of the cosmos in the light of the stars; in the same way, this
manifestation is present in the light of sun and moon.
In Letter II, 10, we become further acquainted with that astral activity which
is independent of time. Thus, as there is the direct cosmic light of heavenly bodies
shining spontaneously, radiating from the sun and fixed stars, and reflected
cosmic light from the moon and planets, so is there astral activity which works
directly in the present and that which is reflected through time, which appears
to be thrown out of the past into the present. This can also be expressed by
saying that, for example, the old Moon is by no means past with regard to time,
but is present there, where it works.
Thus we are able to follow what is brought before us in Letter II, 10.
Mineral and plant are reached by the astral power streaming in at the present
time from the starry worlds, because they themselves have nothing of the past
astral in them, that is, because they only possess a cosmic astral body, but no
earthly one.242 The animal is reached by the astral power of the old Moon, for it
is connected with this old Moon through the past of its own astral body. That
is Jehovah’s realm243 to which man also still belongs with his astral body, as far
242
April 11, 1912].
243
3/3 [THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, “The Mission of the Earth,” May 20, 1908]; 13/6 [THE MISSION
OF FOLK SOULS, June 12, 1910].
314
as this is not transformed by the addition of the ego. For this part of the human
astral body, however, there is added the present astral sun activity through the
mediation of the spiritual earth. That is the realm of the other Elohim, connected
with the ego from the past, and it is the kingdom of the Christ, insofar as it is
connected with the spiritual earth.
This Study may be regarded as an attempt to show that “man again grows
able to realize the life of Ideas within him, even when not supporting himself and
them upon the world of sense.” “This, however, means: to make acquaintance
with Michael in his kingdom.”
168. In the beginning of the age of the Spiritual Soul, man’s sense of
community with the Cosmos beyond the Earth grew dim. On the other
hand — and this was so especially in men of science — his sense of
belonging to the earthly realm grew so intense in the experience of sense-
impressions, as to amount to a stupefaction.
169. While he is thus stupefied, the Ahrimanic powers work upon
man most dangerously. For he lives in the illusion that the over-intense,
stupefying experience of sense-impressions is the right thing and represents
the true progress in evolution.
170. Man must find the strength to fill his world of Ideas with light
and to experience it so, even when unsupported by the stupefying world
of sense. In this experience of the world of Ideas — independent and
in their independence filled with light — his sense of community with
the Cosmos beyond the Earth will re-awaken. Hence will arise the true
foundation for festivals of Michael.
171. The Organization of the human senses belongs not to man’s own
nature, but is built into it by the outer world during his earthly life.
Spatially though it is in man, in its real essence the perceiving eye is in
the World. Man with his soul and spirit reaches out into that which the
World is experiencing in him through his senses. He does not receive the
physical environment into himself during his life on Earth, but grows out
into it with his own soul and spirit.
172. Likewise his thinking Organization: through this he grows out
into the existence of the stars. He knows himself as a world of stars; he
lives and moves in the Cosmic Thoughts, when in the living experience of
Knowledge he has put away the Organization of the senses.
LXXVI. WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
173. When both are put away-the earthly world and the world of the
stars as well-man stands before himself as a Being of soul, and spirit.
Here at length he is no longer of the World; here he is truly man. To
become aware of what he experiences here, is Self-knowledge; even as it
is World-knowledge to become aware in the Organization of the senses
and of thought.
316
Only when, on the paths of inner development, man frees himself from
the sense organization, will he see through the false view of the physical world
and his own share in it, which, through the stupefaction of our time, changes
the truth into its opposite. With regard to this, in the whole sum and substance
of his last Letters and reflections, Rudolf Steiner gives the mantric-meditative
thought: “In the fullness of ideas the soul experiences spirit-light, when what
appears to the senses reverberates but as remembrance in the mind of man.” All
that has come before us in the last few Studies as epistemological form, with
a content that strives upward beyond this form, is comprised in this sentence
pointing to habitual work on the development of the soul. Such a thought may
become ours at the end of prolonged consideration; for the active soul, it is the
starting-point of real inner growth. Once more, in this solemn close of Letter II,
10, the word as well as the nature of memory is characteristic of the transition
from the usual to higher consciousness.
After death, a man looks back at his experience during the earthly life
which has run its course; in stripping off his connection with the sense life,
he changes these memories into the essence of spiritual existence and, without
losing them, brings them, in his spirit being, to his next earth life. Thus, in
rising to imaginative knowledge, man learns to look back on the sense world
without losing sight of its essential nature. Rudolf Steiner shows this in detail in
Letter II, 11,244 and, therewith, the true relationship of man to the sense world
is revealed. Memory of sense existence, however, is then filled with reality and
is no longer the shadowy picture existence of our ordinary memory: “What
man has acquired through the earthly element, still remains his, even though,
after acquiring it in the knowledge of living experience, he strips off his earthly
wrapping.” The description given in Letter II, 11, by means of imaginative
vision with regard to the relationship of man to his sense organization and the
outer world, is such that it can throw direct light on the epistemological aspect.
The polarities revealed here, for instance, are wonderful, bringing, as a result
of supersensible knowledge, the same facts that Rudolf Steiner has frequently
discussed epistemologically, especially in his Philosophy of Spiritual Activity.
This contains a clear proof that pure thinking and Imagination are closely
related. For us to develop this in detail would be to go beyond the scope of our
considerations.
244
[ALT, “The Sense- and Thought-Systems of Man in Relation to the World,” March 15, 1924, Letter
II/11.]
317
Now, however, the next step is significant, the stripping off, not only of
the sense organization (physical body), but also of the thinking organization
(etheric body), which leads to experience in the astral body. There, we enter
upon a way of observing which must be described as moral; this, too, is in
keeping with our earlier Studies. That is developed in Letter II, 12. In this Letter,
and in the preceding one, an immense amount is concentrated which was dealt
with in earlier Letters and Leading Thoughts. References to earlier Letters,
Leading Thoughts and Studies could be added to almost every sentence; the
wording given here by Rudolf Steiner is supported by the extreme clarity and
the overwhelming power of the Survey (see Studies LXVI and LXVII).
The difference in this new line of approach consists in the fact that,
beyond imaginative sight, inspired knowledge begins to become effective. The
voice of conscience is an inspirational experience. Conscience is shown as the
polar opposite of memory but, at the same time, as being itself a new form of
remembering, namely an after-effect of divine-spiritual nature. If we picture to
ourselves that this echo from experience of sleep is transformed into a herald
of future awakening, then we have before us the essence of genuine inspired
knowledge.
Now, this is where, because death tore the physical instrument away from
him, we may suffer deeply from the impression that Rudolf Steiner’s Letters and
Leading Thoughts break off. In the same way in which we have been introduced
into imaginative knowledge, we might perhaps also expect a corresponding
introduction into inspirational and, if possible, into intuitive knowledge; we can
realize that had this been put before us, it would, of necessity, have been of the
greatest moral value. The three Letters and groups of Leading Thoughts which
are still to follow were perhaps the prelude to a continuation of this kind; for,
through them, we are clearly brought into the present, and indeed its phenomena
appear as the moral concern of modern man. Remembering plays a tragic part in
this present time. In connection with the “dawn of the age of the consciousness
soul,” the historical description in Letter II, 13 speaks of the “necessity, that the
spiritual life of man should be linked, not with the knowing of the present age,
but with the knowledge of a past age, — with traditions.” The tragic element
of the remembering at work here becomes guilt, if the consciousness soul does
not turn to the spirit-self, to the power of knowledge which lives in the present
and bears the future within it. This, however, is Anthroposophy as the “path
LXXVII.
CROSS AND GRAVE
of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the
universe.”
174. Man is organized in spirit and in body from two different sides.
First, from the physical-etheric Cosmos. Whatever radiates from the
Divine-Spiritual Being into this organization in man’s nature, lives in it
as the force of sense-perception, of the faculty of memory and of the play
of fancy.
175. Secondly, man is organized out of his own past lives on Earth. This
Organization is purely of the soul and spirit, and lives in him through the
astral body and the Ego. Whatever enters of the life of Divine-Spiritual
Beings into this human nature-its influence lights up in a man as the voice
of conscience and all that is akin to this.
176. In his rhythmic Organization man has the constant union of the
Divine-Spiritual impulses from the two sides. In life and experience of
rhythm the force of memory is carried into the Willing life, and the might
of conscience into the life in Ideas.
177. Looking with the eye of the soul upon the evolution of mankind in
the Age of Science, a sorrowful perspective opens up before us to begin
with. Splendid grew the knowledge of mankind with respect to all that
constitutes the outer world. On the other hand there arose a feeling as
though a knowledge of the spiritual world were no longer possible at all.
178. It seems as though such knowledge had only been possessed by men
of ancient times, and man must now rest content — in all that concerns
the spiritual world — simply to receive the old traditions, making these
an object of Faith.
179. From the resulting uncertainty, arising in the Middle Ages as to
man’s relation to the spiritual world, Nominalism and Realism proceeded.
Nominalism is unbelief in the real Spirit-content of man’s Ideas; we have
its continuation in the modern scientific view of Nature. Realism is well
aware of the reality of the Ideas, yet it can only find its fulfilment in
319
Anthroposophy.
If Anthroposophy as a path of knowledge overcomes the limits to knowledge,
it is extremely important to know how these limits have arisen. Through the last
Letters written by Rudolf Steiner to the members, we are, in a way, placed once
again at the beginning of our work on the Leading Thoughts, and it can even be
discerned as a bequest of Rudolf Steiner that, not only in this place, in the first
paragraph of both Letters II, 13 and 14, but again and again throughout his
work, he goes back to new beginnings. The recognition that the genuine path
of knowledge runs its course in spirals will certainly produce in everyone, when
he has reached the end brought about by Rudolf Steiner’s death, the need to go
back to the beginning of the Leading Thoughts and Letters. Then everything
which the individual has learned and become through the work, will contribute
to this fresh beginning, so that he who is transformed by knowledge will advance
to further knowledge and further development. By such further living work of
this kind on the Leading Thoughts and Letters, Rudolf Steiner’s word will re-
echo, not only from the printed text, but also from the hearts of the workers,
and the inspirational path, which he could no longer develop in this form, can
be realized in the harmonious striving for knowledge.
The return to the question of the limits of knowledge is permeated in Letters
II, 13 and 14245 with deep tragedy. We may well compare this description of the
dawn of the age of consciousness with the corresponding descriptions in Letters
32, 34 and then again in Letters 40 to 50.246 In these, we became acquainted
with the origin of a history of humanity with its recapitulations until the present
time and that directly from the point of view of Michael and his mission. Now,
we learn in particular to recognize how the power of Lucifer and Ahriman has
penetrated into the soul life of modern man, although the names of these beings
are never mentioned in Letters II, 13 and 14. The dualism, which even today
is still prevalent, and had its forerunner in the spiritual battle of the Middle
Ages concerning Realism and Nominalism, is the dispute between progressive
245
[ALT, “Historic Cataclysms at the Dawn of the Spiritual Soul,” April 5, 1925, Letter II/14.]
246
[ALT, “The Way of Michael, and What Preceded It,” October 12, 1924, Letter 40; “Michaels Task in the
Sphere of Ahriman,” October 19, 1924, Letter 41; “The Experiences of Michael in the Course of His
Cosmic Mission,” October 26, 1924, Letter 42; “The Activity of Michael and the Future of Mankind,”
November 2, 1924, Letter 43; “The Michael-Christ-Experience of Man,” November 9, 1924, Letter 44;
“Michael’s Mission in the Cosmic Age of Human Freedom,” November 16, 1924, Letter 45; “The World-
Thoughts in the Working of Michael and in the Working of Ahriman,” November 23, 1924, Letter 46.]
320
knowledge of the natural world and retarded spiritual traditions: “A split came
into man’s soul life.”
The course indicated here shows this split first in outer, then in inner, battles
of whole groups of men; today, the battle takes place in every human soul. Let
us call the split that between intellect and mind, then we can well perceive that
it has arisen through the impact of the consciousness soul upon the originally
combined operation of the “intellectual or mind soul!” The work was still
combined, when the intellectual or mind soul was obliged to be active in its own
civilization, in the pre-Roman period of the fourth post-Atlantean civilization.
The men of that time first sought to fight their way through to themselves in
opposition to the after-effect of the third post-Atlantean civilization That was
represented by the Trojan War. Then, however, the split in this civilization itself
arose from the ruins of the third civilization, carried over from the East to the
West (Aeneas). Later, the East again encroaches by way of Arabism, and to a
great extent destroys the work of the fourth civilization by the untimely birth of
the fifth. That gives in bold outline the disruption during this important time of
transition in the East-West direction, and it continues in a most marked degree
until the coming of the future sixth post-Atlantean civilization.
In Letter II, 14 another stream is added, appearing more as the North-South
direction. The new impulse of the consciousness soul comes in contact with this
split pertaining to the migration of the peoples which, thereby, at the same time,
becomes the dispute between inner and outer experience. Yet again a stream
appears, worthy of notice, carrying the impulse of Christianity by mysterious
paths from South to North. The overlapping of these streams is thoroughly
characteristic. In the endless battles between them, the new spiritual impulse,
which had come from the Mystery of Golgotha to the consciousness soul of
man, has been crucified in humanity. And today, our modern achievements have
grown to such an extent that this impulse is in danger of being crucified in every
single human soul. Here tragedy is transformed into guilt.
The split between the outer and inner is historically evident in the battles
between the Roman Church and Mysticism and later in the struggles of the
Reformation. Will the Anthroposophical Movement be able to settle the disputes
of humanity? Will it transform the split into a higher unity or fall back into the
battle between intellect and mind? That calls for a vital decision. The last Letter,
LXXVIII.
CONCLUSION OR NEW BEGINNING?
II, 15247 directs our attention to this. The picture of today as it is presented there
is a continuation of the crucifixion of the spiritual impulse. The demonic world
of technology, the world of sub-nature, threatens to devour it. The grave follows
the crucifixion. May the Resurrection follow the grave!
180. The Greeks and Romans were the peoples predestined by their very
nature for the unfolding of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul. They developed
this stage of the soul to perfection. But they did not bear within them the
seeds of a direct, unbroken progress to the Spiritual Soul. Their soul-life
went under in the Intellectual or Mind-Soul.
181. In the time from the origin of Christianity until the age of the
unfolding of the Spiritual Soul, a world of the Spirit was holding sway
which did not unite with the forces of the human soul. The latter contrived
to ‘explain’ the world of the Spirit, but they could not experience it in
living consciousness.
182. The peoples advancing from the North-East in the great migrations,
encroaching on the Roman Empire, took hold of the Intellectual or
Mind-Soul more in the inner life of feeling. Meanwhile, imbedded in this
element of feeling, the Spiritual Soul was evolving within their souls. The
inner life of these peoples was waiting for the present time, when the re-
union of the soul with the world of the Spirit is fully possible once more.
183. In the age of Natural Science, since about the middle of the
nineteenth century, the civilized activities of mankind are gradually sliding
downward, not only into the lowest regions of Nature, but even beneath
Nature. Technical Science and Industry become Sub-Nature.
184. This makes it urgent for man to find in conscious experience a
knowledge of the Spirit, wherein he will rise as high above Nature as
in his sub-natural technical activities he sinks beneath her. He will thus
create within him the inner strength not to go under.
247
ALT, “From Nature to Sub-Nature,” April 12, 1925, Letter II/15.]
322
185. A past conception of Nature still bore within it the Spirit with which
the source of all human evolution is connected. By degrees, this Spirit
vanished altogether from man’s theory of Nature. The purely Ahrimanic
spirit has entered in its place, and passed from theory of Nature into the
technical civilization of mankind.
We have come to the close of these Studies on the Leading Thoughts and
Letters which Rudolf Steiner addressed to the members of the Anthroposophical
Society. “Friend, it is indeed enough.”248 We have wrung from the consciousness
soul the sounds which are now able to serve the Word in selflessness; this Word
will awaken in the spirit-self. The following sentences form a further supplement
to those given in Studies XXX and LIX:
72. Anthroposophy consists in the asking of man and the answering of the
spiritual world; only man must always be learning to ask questions
and to understand answers. (Study XXXI)
73. Every ascent into spiritual heights begins at the level of ordinary
consciousness. (Study XXXI)
74. The experience belonging to youth, which calls the young to take part
in Anthroposophy, is an experience of death connected with inner
destiny, which will transform itself into the forces of knowledge.
(Study XXXI)
75. The foundation of man’s thinking is laid on truth; human individual
existence is based on a spiritual lie. (Study XXXII)
76. Before true self-knowledge appears in man, the activity of the higher
Hierarchies is concealed behind his own being. (Study XXXV)
77. This is the right approach to Michael: courageously to tread the path
of knowledge and, at decisive moments, to become aware of his
cooperation. (Study XXXV)
78. Under Michael’s banner, we are concerned with striving to understand
thinking. (Study XXXV)
79. Thinking in thinking is the substance of the third Hierarchy and of
Imagination. (Study XXXVIII)
248
Angelus Silesius.
323
80. Feeling in feeling is the substance of the second Hierarchy and of

Inspiration. (Study XXXVIII)
81. Willing in willing is the substance of the first Hierarchy and of Intuition.
(Study XXXVIII)
82. Feeling in thinking is the substance of logic: Inspiration of thinking.
(Study XXXVIII)
83. Willing in thinking is the substance of conformity to law: Intuition of
thinking. (Study XXXVIII)
84. Thinking in feeling is the substance of ideals: Imagination of feeling.
(Study XXXVIII)
85. Willing in feeling is the substance of morality: Intuition of feeling.
(Study XXXVIII)
86. Thinking in willing is the substance of moral fantasy: Imagination of
willing. (Study XXXVIII)
87. Feeling in willing is the substance of love for the action: Inspiration of
willing. (Study XXXVIII)
88. The Kingdoms of nature have arisen out of a cosmic analysis of man.
(Study XXXIX)
89. Psychological considerations always contain something painful, hence
in inner experience they must take the form of exercises. (Study
XXXIX)
90. The religious approach is a real soul process which comes about when
feeling is active in willing. (Study XXXIX)
91. The artistic approach is a real soul process which comes about when
thinking is active in feeling. (Study XXXIX)
92. The scientific approach is a real soul process which comes about when
willing is active in thinking. (Study XXXIX)
93. In the course of history, the religious element was overpowered by the
artistic, the artistic by the scientific, the scientific by the religious.
(Study XL)
94. According to Anthroposophy, science is redeemed by art (Imagination),
art by religion (Inspiration), religion by knowing (Intuition). (Study
XL)
324
95. There is no art of art and no religion of religion, but there is a science
of science. (Study XL)
96. In the will, the spiritual compulsion of destiny prevails; in thinking, lie
the seeds of future destiny. (Study XLI)
97. The religious attitude prevailing in man’s willing brings about the
Fatherhood of God, in his feeling the Brotherhood of Christ, in his
thinking the Fellowship of Michael. (Study XLI)
98. In the concept, there appears the shadow of an intuitive process,
experienced in the ego; in the judgment, the shadow of an inspirational
process, experienced in the astral body; in the conclusion, the shadow
of an imaginative process, experienced in the etheric body. (Study
XLII)
99. Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge leading from the fettered to
the free thought. (Study XLIII)
100. The thought becomes free when thinking stands still. (Study XLIII)
101. The path of knowledge of Anthroposophy leads to justification through
knowing, no longer only through believing. (Study XLV)
102. Love is a transfiguration of the individuality out of the universality of
thinking. (Study XLVII)
103. The greatest miracle of all time is human freedom. (Study L)
104. A counterpart to miracle experienced through knowing is the grace
attained by being active. (Study LI)
105. Human freedom is significant not only for man, but also for the world.
(Study LIV)
106. Since man frees himself from the impulses of the spirit beings, they in
their turn acquire freedom with regard to man; this cosmic freedom
is expressed in the encroachment of Lucifer and Ahriman. (Study
LVI)
107. Michael is not only the protector of the freedom of man, but also
the protector of the rulership of the creative primeval beings. (Study
LIX)
325
108. The man of the present day who alone can rightly enter into the
heritage of the historical past, is he who overcomes within himself
the inner hindrances created in him by the past, and transmutes the
ancient forms of humanity in himself into the divine image of man.
(Study LXV)
109. Survey as a power of knowledge is a present experience of that which,
for ordinary consciousness, is divided into past and future. (Study
LXVII)
110. Nature and history are polaric opposites; they only become one when
seen cosmically. (Study LXVIII)
111. Divine tragedy lies at the foundation of the individuation of man; it
can be conceived of as a means by which the Gods can master the
opposing forces. (Study LXIX)
112. The purpose of human individuation is accomplished in the germinating
spirit-self. (Study LXX)
113. Unprejudiced consideration would be obliged to find the strongest
proof of the spirituality of the world in man’s power of remembering.
(Study LXXII)
114. The voice of conscience is an inspirational experience. (Study LXXVI)
115. All knowledge transforms what is already known. (Study LXX)
326
327
328
NOTES
In the Reference Notes, the number on the left-hand side of the slash refers
to the Cycle number, and the number on the right-hand side of the slash refers
to the lecture in that particular Lecture Cycle. (For example, Reference Note 16.
2/14 refers to Cycle 2, Lecture 14 (The Theosophy of the Rosicrucians, Lecture
14, ‘The Nature of Initiation’)
REFERENCE NOTES (In lieu of Footnotes)
1. ANTHROPOSOPHIE. The weekly German-language publication for

Anthroposophy. Years 9 to 11 (1927 to 1929).
2. TO THE MEMBERS. Vol. I, Aug. 10, 1924. Letter 31 published in
ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING THOUGHTS.
3. NACHRICHTEN (for Members only). Supplement to the German-language
weekly DAS GOETHEANUM, published in Switzerland by the
Anthroposophical Society.
4. 23/7; 28/9; 40/5; 46/2; 47/1.
5. 23/7.
6. 47/1.
7. A MODERN ART OF EDUCATION.
8. 40/6.
9. 39/8
10. 1/12; 39/9.
11. 39/6.
12. 15/3
13. 46/7
14. 28/2; 46/6; 47/9.
15. 23/7; 49/9.
16. 2/14.
17. GOETHE THE SCIENTIST, Chapter IV.
18. GOETHE’S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD
(Archetype of Animal Nature).
19. 33/4
329
20. 28/5; 37/7.

21. 6/12.
22. 9/12; 23/4; 23/7.
23. 40/6; 50/9.
24. 47/3.
25. 49/10.
26. PHILOSOPHIE UND ANTHROPOSPHIE, page 51.
27. 2/14.
28. 1/1.
29. 23/4.
30. 42/6; 43/3.
31. 39/8.
32. 49/10; 50/20.
33. 47/5.
34. 41/5.
35. Carl Unger: “Mathematik als echte Symbolismus” in DIE DREI,
Stuttgart, Sept. 1927, vol. VII No. 6.
36. 12/1; 9/8.
37. Extracts from VON SEELENRAETSELN selected, translated, arranged and
with an Introduction by Owen Barfield, published as THE CASE FOR
ANTHROPOSOPHY: in entirety in RIDDLES OF THE SOUL.
38. 48/3.
39. 1/12; 2/8; 22/7.
40. 48/3; 45/2.
41. 50/20.
42. 47/6.
43. 45/1; 46/1.
44. RUDOLF STEINER: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
45. 41/4.
46. 41/2.
47. THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE IMPLICIT IN GOETHE’S WORLD
CONCEPTION: Fundamental Outlines with Special Reference to
Schiller.
48. 9/5; 21/2.
330
49. A ROAD TO SELF-KNOWLEDGE (Second Meditation).

50. 32/5.
51. 19/3.
52. ANTHROPOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION, Lectures 8 and 9.
53. 1/3; 30/6.
54. Carl Unger: THE NECESSITY OF AN ANTHROPOSOPHICAL
MOVEMENT AND THE WORK OF RUDOLF STEINER.
55. 49/4.
56. 45/4.
57. 28/7; A/8.
58. 48/3.
59. 47/7.
60. 39/7.
61. 36/7.
62. 3/6; 8/2.
63. 37/2; 37/5; 37/10.
64. 7/9.
65. SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE OF MAN AND OF MANKIND, Lecture 3.
66. 48/2.
67. 2/12.
68. 27/2; 33/4.
69. 1/2.
70. 1/addition to Lecture 14.
71. 45/4.
72. 45/5.
73. 45/4.
74. Dr. Guenther Wachsmuth: THE ETHERIC FORMATIVE FORCES. The
Etheric World. Dr. Hermann Poppelbaum: THE FORMATIVE-FORCES
BODY OF LIVING BEINGS.
75. 37/7.
76. 44/4; 45/3.
77. 8/10; 14/8.
78. 3/7; 44/3.
331
79. TO THE MEMBERS, vol. I (On Anthroposophical Teaching, Mar. 30,

1924)
80. 1/13 (The Christian Training); 2/14; 8/11; 19/10; 42/7.
81. 19/9; 19/10.
82. 1/10; 2/10; 8/3; 8/4.
83. 12/2; 12/8.
84. See “Mathematik als echte Symbolismus” (Mathematics as Genuine
Symbolism) DIE DREI, Stuttgart, VII Jahrgang, Heft 6, Sept. 1927.
85. 13/15.
86. 3/2; 3/7.
87. 12/1; 17/2.
88. 12/9.
89. 39/7.
90. Rudolf Steiner: FOUR MYSTERY DRAMAS.
91. 19/3.
92. 24/6.
93. 16/1; 16/2.
94. 8/2; 48/7.
95. 9/4; 24/6.
96. 16/1.
97. 5/10; 7/7; 7/9; 15/12.
98. See THE GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD.
Scene I, Speech of Hilary True-to-God.
99. 1/2; 2/4; 10/1.
100. 3/8; 5/9.
101. 32/5; 32/6; A/4.
102. 2/3.
103. 42/7.
104. 37/1.
105. 4/9.
106. 21/3.
107. 31/6.
108. See Table of the Leading Thoughts and the Letters Accompanying Them
at the end of this book.
332
109. The publications which appeared later are to be found in the list of books
at the end of this book.
110. WAHRSPRUCHWORTE.
111. 1/3; 30/6.
112. Extracts published in THE CASE FOR ANTHROPOSOPHY.
113. 4/3; 7/6; 30/6.
114. 21/3.
115. 5/2.
116. See also 12/11.
117. 39/5.
118. 6/7.
119. See, for example, Rudolf Steiner’s THEOSOPHY Chapter 2.
120. 29/8.
121. 32/2.
122. 43/5.
123. 46/6.
124. 4/11.
125. 46/6.
126. Carl Unger SCHRIFTEN, Band I, p. 15.
127. 22/1.
128. 20/1.
129. 19/3.
130. 31/1.
131. 4/11.
132. 18/17; 23/7.
133. 23/4; 27/8; 28/2; 45/8.
134. 27/7; 30/1.
135. 23/7; 28/9; 47/1.
136. 18/10; 18/11.
137. 30/9.
138. For further details, see reference note 126.
139. 7/10; 8/14; 10/3.
140. 4/6; 8/5.
141. 12/7.
333
142. 12/7.
143. Since the original publication of THE LANGUAGE OF THE
CONSCIOUSNESS SOUL in German in 1930, the Letters to the Members
have been published in English in THE LIFE, NATURE AND
CULTIVATION OF ANTHROPOSOPHY and in
ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING THOUGHTS.
144. 36/8.
145. 4/8.
146. International Weekly German-language News Sheet of the General
Anthroposophical Society, Dornach, October, 1924
147. See also 47/2.
148. 9/4.
149. 32/5; A/4.
150. 32/6.
151. 21/10.
152. 18/3.
153. 10/4.
154. 3/4.
155. 42/15.
156. See ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING THOUGHTS (ALT), page 86ff.
157. ALT pp. 81ff.
158. ALT pp. 91ff.
159. ALT pp. 37ff.
160. It is supposed that Critical Idealism is meant here (Editor).
161. 45/5.
162. Antinomies are statements that contradict one another although both can
be proved with equally good reasons.
163. 7/3; 14/5; 35/3.
164. 4/4.
165. ALT pp. 66ff.; 76ff.; 81ff.; 91ff.; 97ff.
166. ALT pp. 51ff.
167. ALT pp. 56ff.
168. ALT pp. 97ff.
169. 19/6.
334
170. 47/9.
171. Chapter 16, Goethe As Thinker and Research Scientist, Part 2
“The Primal Phenomenon” (Urphaenomen).
172. 9/9.
173. ALT pp. 103ff.
174. ALT pp. 103ff.; 112ff.; 118ff.; 125ff.
175. 2/11; 8/3; 8/4.
176. 4/2; 5/2.
177. 2/12; 3/8; 4/9; 6/3; 8/6.
178. 3/8; 6/6.
179. 5/3.
180. 5/5.
181. ALT pp. 76ff.
182. ALT pp. 112ff.
183. 15/1.
184. 39/5.
185. 39/4; 42/3.
186. 16/2.
187. 16/2.
188. ALT pp. 118ff.
189. 4/1.
190. 4/11.
191. 9/9.
192. ALT pp. 125ff.
193. 4/11; 5/12; 12/1; 12/8; 13/1.
194. 4/9.
195. 10/8.
196. 4/2; 5/2.
197. 5/10; 8/6; 19/6.
198. ALT pp. 132ff.
199. 10/10; 19/4; 30/8.
200. 10/2.
201. 10/5.
202. 19/10; A/8.
335
203. THE LIFE, NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF ANTHROPOSOPHY

pp. 24ff.; 26ff.; 29ff.; 32ff.; 34ff.; 37ff.; 39ff.
204. MONTHLY NEWS SHEET (MNS) of the Anthroposophical Society of
Great Britain pp. 38; 39ff.; 49; 50ff.; 52ff.; 54ff.; 56ff.
205. MNS pp. 61ff.; 64ff. ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT:
Weekly News for English-Speaking members of the Anthroposophical
Society pp. 1ff.; 10ff.; 17ff.
206. AM pp. 25ff.; 33ff.; 34ff.; 41ff.; 49ff.; 57ff.; 65ff.; 73ff.
207. AM pp. 81ff.; 89ff.; 97ff.; 105ff.; 113ff.; 121ff.; 129ff.
208. ALT pp. 66ff.; 71ff.; 76ff.; 81ff.; 86ff.; 91ff.; 97ff.
209. ALT pp. 103ff.; 112ff.; 118ff.; 125ff.; 132ff.
210. The Persephone Myth.
211. ALT pp. 141ff.
212. 6/8; 27/8.
213. 1/10.
214. ALT pp. 150ff.
215. 15/11.
216. 27/4
217. ALT pp. 155ff.
218. ALT pp. 160ff.
219. 7/9.
220. 19/6.
221. ALT pp. 167ff.
222. 7/5.
223. 4/3; 7/6; 21/3.
224. ALT pp. 171ff.
225. ALT pp. 175ff.
226. 7/8.
227. 4/1; 5/1; 12/8.
228. 2/2.
229. 40/1; 40/5.
230. 6/1.
231. 13/3.
232. 27/3.
336
337
233. 32/5.
234. ALT pp. 181ff.
235. ALT pp. 186ff.
236. ALT pp. 201ff.
237. MONTHLY NEWS SHEET of the Anthroposophical Society of
Great Britain pp. 56ff.
238. ALT pp. 206ff.
239. 15/8.
240. ALT pp. 190ff.
241. 2/2; 10/1.
242. 21/8.
243. 3/3; 13/6.
244. ALT pp. 196ff.
245. ALT pp. 211ff.
246. ALT pp. 66ff.; 71ff.; 76ff.; 81ff.; 86ff.; 91ff.; 97ff.
247. ALT pp. 216ff.
248. Angelus Silesius
338
PUBLISHER’S BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The literary heritage of Rudolf Steiner’s work is of such rich variety and
complexity, given in the form of Articles, Addresses, Lectures and Books, and the
way in which Carl Unger used it all, is such that ordinary forms of bibliographic
style are inadequate for recording the references contained in this book.
Therefore, the references are recorded as follows on the following pages:
1. Complete Listing of the Lecture Cycles.
2. Bibliography.
3. Relevant Literature
339
RUDOLF STEINER’S LECTURE CYCLES
In 1930, Adolf Arenson published his monumental three-volume

concordance entitled Ein Fuehrer durch die Vortragszyklen Rudolf Steiners (1-
50) (not translated).
This three-volume set was out-of-print for a number of years and was
first republished in German in 1960 with a new title Leitfaden durch 50
Vortragszyklen Rudolf Steiners. Since then, it has undergone seven printings
and is currently out-of-print. It remains, however, an invaluable aid to the study
of Rudolf Steiner’s works in German.
On the following pages, we have listed the Lecture Cycles together with the
cities in which they were given and the dates when they were given. In those
cases where the Cycle has been published in English translation, the title, place
and date of latest publication is listed directly below the German.
340
LIST OF LECTURE CYCLES
1. Vor dem Tore der Theosophie. Stuttgart, 1906. (Aug. 22 - Sept. 4, 1906)
[GA 95] AT THE GATES OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE. London 1976.
2. Die Theosophie des Rosenbreuzers. Munich, 1907. (May 22 - June 6, 1907)
[GA 99] THE THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIANS. London, 1981.
3. Das Johannes-Evangelium. Hamburg, 1908. (May 18-31 1908)
[GA 103] THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. Spring Valley, NY, 1977.
4. Welt, Erde und Mensch. Stuttgart, 1908. (Aug. 4-16, 1908)
[GA 105] UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN. London, 1955.
5. Aegyptishche Mythen und Mysterien. Leipzig, 1908. (Sept. 2-14, 1908)
[GA 106] EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MYSTERIES. Spring Valley, NY, 1971.
6. Apokalypse des Johannes. Nurenberg, 1908. (June 18-30, 1908)
[GA 104] THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN. London, 1977.
7. Geistige Hierarchien und ihre Wiederspiegelung in der physischen Welt.
Dusseldorf, 1909. (Apr. 12-18, 1909) [GA 110]
THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES AND THEIR REFLECTION IN THE
PHYSICAL WORLD. New York, 1970.
8. Das Johannes-Evangelium im Verhaeltnis zu dem drei anderen Evangelium–
besonders zu dem Lukas-Evangelium. Kassel, 1909. (June 24 - July 7,
1909) [GA 112] THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN IN ITS RELATION TO
THE OTHER THREE GOSPELS, ESPECIALLY TO THE GOSPEL OF
ST. LUKE. New York, 1982.
9. Der Orient im Lichte des Okident. Muich, 1909. (Aug. 23-31, 1909)
[GA 113] THE EAST IN THE LIGHT OF THE WEST. London, 1940.
10. Das Lukas-Evangelium. Basel, 1909. (Sept. 15-26, 1909)
[GA 114] THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE. London, 1975.
11. (nicht erscheinen)
(not published in German or English)[
12. Die Offenbarungen des Karma. Hamburg, 1910. (May 16-28, 1910)
[GA 120] THE MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA. London, 1976.
341
13. Die Mission einzelner Volksseelen. Christiania, 1910. (June 7-17, 1910)
[GA 121] THE MISSION OF THE INDIVIDUAL FOLK SOULS. London,
1970.
14. Die Geheimnisse der biblischen Schoepfungsgeschichte. Munich, 1910.
(Aug. 16-26, 1910) [GA 122] GENESIS: THE SECRETS OF THE BIBLE
STORY OF CREATION. London, 1959.
15. Das Matthaeus-Evangelium. Bern, 1910. (Sept. 1-12, 1910) [GA 123]
THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW. London, 1965.
16. Okkulte Geschichte, Persoenlichkeiten und Ereignisse der Weltgeschichte
im Lichte der Geisteswissenschaft. Stuttgart, 1910-1911. (Dec. 27, 1910 -
Jan. 1, 1911) [GA 126]
OCCULT HISTORY, HISTORICAL PERSONALITIES AND EVENTS IN
THE LIGHT OF SPIRITUAL SCIENCE. London, 1957.
17. Der Christus-Impuls und die Entwicklung des Ich-Bewusstseins. Berlin,
1909-1910. (Oct. 25, 1909 - May 8, 1910) [GA 116]
THE CHRIST-IMPULSE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF
EGO-CONSCIOUSNESS. Spring Valley, NY 1976.
18. Weltenwunder, Seelenpruefungen und Geistesoffenbarungen. Munich, 1911.
(Aug. 18-27, 1911) [GA 129] WONDERS OF THE WORLD, ORDEALS
OF THE SOUL, REVELATIONS OF THE SPIRIT. London, 1963.
19. Von Jesus zu Christus. Karlsruhe, 1912. (Oct. 5-14, 1911)
[GA 131] FROM JESUS TO CHRIST. London, 1973.
20. Die Welt der Sinne und die Welt des Geistes. Hannover, 1911-1912.
(Dec. 27 1911 - Jan. 1, 1912) [GA 134]
THE WORLD OF THE SENSES AND THE WORLD OF THE SPIRIT.
Vancouver, Canada 1980
21. Die geistigen Wesenheiten in den Himmelskoerpern und Naturreichen.
Helsingfors, 1912. (Apr. 3-14, 1912) [GA 136]
THE SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN THE HEAVENLY BODIES AND IN THE
KINGDOMS OF NATURE. Vancouver, Canada, 1981.
22. Der mensch im Lichte von Okkultismus, Theosophie und Philosophie.
Christiania, 1912. (June 2-12, 1912) [GA 137] MAN IN THE LIGHT OF
OCCULTISM, THEOSOPHY AND PHILOSOPHY. London, 1964.
342
23. Von der Initiation. Von Ewigkeit und Augenblick. Von Geisteslicht und
Lebensdunkel. Munich, 1912. (Aug. 25-31, 1912) [GA 138] INITIATION,
ETERNITY AND THE PASSING MOMENT. Spring Valley, NY, 1980.
24. Das Markus-Evangelium. Basel, 1912. (Sept. 15-24, 1912) [GA 139]
THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. London, 1977.
25. Die Bhagavad Gita und die Paulusbriefe. Cologne, 1912-1913.
(Dec. 28, 1912 - Jan. 1, 1913) [GA 142]
THE BHAGAVAD GITA AND THE EPISTLES OF PAUL. New York, 1971.
26. Die Mysterien des Morgenlandes und des Christentums. Berlin, 1913.
(Feb. 3-7, 1913) [GA 144] THE MYSTERIES OF THE EAST AND OF
CHRISTIANITY. London, 1972.
27. Welche Bedeutung hat die okkulte Entwicklung des Menschen fuer seine
Huellen und sein Selbst? The Hague, 1913. (March 20-29, 1913) [GA 145]
THE EFFECTS OF OCCULT DEVELOPMENT. London, 1978.
28. Die okkulte Grundlagen der Bhagavad Gita. Helsingfors, 1913.
(May 28 - June 5, 1913) [GA 146] THE OCCULT SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
BHAGAVAD GITA. New York, 1968.
29. Die Geheimnisse der Schwelle. Munich, 1913. (Aug. 24-31, 1913)
[GA 147] THE SECRETS OF THE THRESHOLD. London, 1928.
30. Exkurse in das Gebiet des Markus-Evangelium. Berlin, 1910-11.
(Oct. 17, 1910 - June 10, 1911) [GA 124]
BACKGROUND TO THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK. London, 1968.
31. Christus und die geistige Welt. Von der Suche nach dem heiligen Gral.
Leipzig, 1913-14. (Dec. 28, 1913 - Jan. 2, 1914) [GA 149]
CHRIST AND THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. THE SEARCH FOR THE HOLY
GRAIL. London, 1963.
32. Inneres Wesen des Menschen und Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt.
Vienna, 1914. (Apr. 9-14, 1914) [GA 153] THE INNER NATURE OF MAN
AND THE LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH. London, 1959.
33. Der menschliche und der kosmische Gedanke. Berlin, 1914.
(Jan. 20-23, 1914) [GA 151]
HUMAN AND COSMIC THOUGHT. London, 1967.
34. Christus und die menschliche Seele. Norrkoeping, 1914. (July 12-16, 1914)
[GA 155] CHRIST AND THE HUMAN SOUL. London, 1972.
343
35. Die Evolution vom Gesichtspunkte des Wahrhaftigen. Berlin, 1911.

(Oct. 23 - Dec. 5, 1911) [GA 132]
THE INNER REALITIES OF EVOLUTION. London, 1953
36. Der irdische und der kosmische Mensch. Berlin, 1912.
(May 19 - June 20, 1912) [GA 133]
EARTHLY AND COSMIC MAN. London, 1948.
37. Das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt im Verhaeltnis zu den kosmischen
Tatsachen. Berlin, 1912-13. (Nov. 5, 1912 - Apr. 1, 1913) [GA 141]
BETWEEN DEATH AND REBIRTH. London, 1975.
38. (nicht erscheinen)
(not published in German or English)
39. Menschenschicksale und Volkerschicksale. Berlin, 1914-1915.
(Sept. 1, 1914 - July 6, 1915) [GA 157]
THOUGHTS FOR THE TIMES. (not published in English).
40. Schicksalsbildung und Leben nach dem Tode. Berlin, 1915.
(Nov. 16 - Dec. 21, 1915) [GA 157]
FORMING OF DESTINY AND LIFE AFTER DEATH. London, 1927.
41. Notwendigkeit und Freiheit im Weltengeschehen und im menschlichen
Handeln. Berlin, 1916. (Jan. 25 - Feb. 8, 1916) [GA 166]
NECESSITY AND FREE WILL. (not published in English)
42. Gegenwaertiges und Vergangenes im Menschengeiste. Berlin, 1916.
(Feb. 13 - May 30, 1916) [GA 167]
PRESENT AND PAST IN THE SPIRIT OF MAN. (not published in English)
43. Weltwesen und Ichheit. Berlin, 1916. (June 6 - July 18, 1916) [GA 169]
COSMIC BEING AND EGOHOOD. (not published in English)
44. Kosmiche und menschliche Metamorphose. Berlin, 1917.
(Feb. 6 - Mar. 20, 1917) [GA 175]
COSMIC AND HUMAN METAMORPHOSES. London, 1926.
45. Bausteine zu einer Erkenntnis des Mysterium von Golgotha. Berlin, 1917.
(Mar. 27 - Apr. 24, 1917) [GA 175] BUILDING STONES FOR AN
UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYSTERY OF GOLGOTHA. London, 1972.
46. Menschliche und menschheitliche Entwicklungswahrheiten. Berlin, 1917.
(May 8 - July 24, 1917) [GA 176] EVOLUTIONARY TRUTHS
CONCERNING MAN AND HUMANITY. (not published in English)
346
47. Das Karma des Materialismus. Berlin, 1917. (July 31 - Sept. 25, 1917)
[GA 176] THE KARMA OF MATERIALISM.
48. Erdensterben und Weltenleben. Berlin, 1918. (Jan. 22 - Mar. 26, 1918)
[GA 181] EARTHLY DEATH AND COSMIC LIFE. London, 1964.
49. Anthroposophische Lebensgaben. Berlin, 1918. (Mar. 30 - May 21, 1918)
[GA 181] ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LIFE GIFTS. (not published in English)
50. Gesunder Blick fuer heute und wackere Hoffnung fuer morgen. Berlin, 1918.
(June 25 - Aug. 6, 1918) [GA 181] A SOUND OUTLOOK FOR TODAY
AND A GENUINE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE. (not published in English)
51. In geaenderter Zeitlage. Dornach, 1918. (Nov. 29 - Dec. 8, 1918)
[GA 186] THE CHALLENGE OF THE TIMES. Spring Valley, NY 1980.
52. Die soziale Grundforderungen unserer Zeit. Dornach, 1918.
(Nov. 29 - Dec. 8, 1918) [GA 186] THE FUNDAMENTAL SOCIAL
DEMAND OF OUR TIMES (not published in English)
53. 53. - 57. (nicht erscheinen)
(not published in German or English)
58A. Geisteswissenschaftliche Behandlung Soziales und paedagogische Fragen.
Stuttgart, 1919. (Apr. 21 - June 22, 1919) [GA 192]
SPIRITUAL SCIENTIFIC TREATMENT OF SOCIAL AND
EDUCATIONAL QUESTIONS. (not published in English)
58B. (same) Stuttgart, 1919. (June 29 - Aug. 3, 1919) [GA 192]
A. Geisteswissenschaftliche Menschenkunde. Berlin, 1908-09.
(Oct. 23, 1908 - June 17, 1909) [GA 107]
THE BEING OF MAN AND HIS FUTURE EVOLUTION. London, 1981.
D. Entwicklungsgeschichtliche Unterlagen zur Bildung eines sozialen Urteils.
Dornach, 1918. (Nov. 9-24, 1918) [GA 185a]
A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE FORMATION OF A SOUND
JUDGMENT ON THE SOCIAL QUESTION. (not published in English)
O.P. Eine okkulte Physiologie. Prague, 1911. (Mar. 20-28, 1911)
[GA 128] AN OCCULT PHYSIOLOGY. London, 1951.
347
TABLE OF THE “LEADING THOUGHTS’ AND

THE LETTERS ACCOMPANYING THEM
The most comprehensive source for the “Leading Thoughts” and the Letters
accompanying them in English translation are the periodical publications of the
Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain.
Letters 1-22 were published in the Anthroposophical Society in Great
Britain: Monthly News Sheet for Members in the issues from January to June
1924. With a second issue in the month of June 1924, dated June 15, 1924, the
above ASGB Monthly News Sheet became the Anthroposophical Movement:
Weekly News Sheet for English-Speaking Members of the Anthroposophical
Society and all the Letters from 23 onward were published in that periodical.
For alternate translations of the “Leading Thoughts” and most of the Letters
to the Members, the following books may be consulted:
1. Life, Nature and Cultivation of Anthroposophy
2. Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts: Anthroposophy as a Path of
Knowledge: The Michael Mystery
3. To the Members. Volume I, Dornach, 1931.
4. Letters to Members. January 20 to August 10, 1924.
348
“Leading Thoughts”
TABLE OF LEADING THOUGHTS
This tabular list of “Leading Thoughts” and the Letters accompanying them,
is arranged in the following manner: the first column on the left is the date of
issue of the English-language Anthroposophical Journal in which the “Leading
Thoughts” and Letters appeared. The second column supplies the Numbers of
the “Leading Thoughts”. The third column is the date of issue of the German-
language Member’s News Sheet, Was in der Anthroposophische Gesellschaft
vorgeht, in which the “Leading Thoughts” were published for the first time. The
fourth column is the title of the Letter. The fifth column is the number of the
Letter.
Leading No.
Date of Date of
Thought Title of Letter to the Members of
Issue Letter
Number Ltr.
Anthroposophical Society of Great Britain Monthly News Sheet

Jan. ‘24 1/13/24 Foundation of the Anthroposophical Society at the 1
Christmas Gathering, 1923.
1/20/24 To The Members! 2
1/27/24 The True Relation of the Society to Anthroposophy. 3
Feb. ‘24 2/3/24 Anthroposophical Members’ Meetings. 4
2/10/24 The Relationship of the Members to the Society. 5
1,2,3 2/17/24 Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts. 6
4,5 2/24/24 The Pursuit of Knowledge and the Will to Self- 7
Discipline.
Mar. ‘24 6,7 3/2/24 The Work in the Society. 8
8,9,10 3/9/24 The Work in the Society. 9
11,12,13 3/16/24 The Individual Form of Anthroposophical Truths. 10
14,15,16 3/23/24 The Presentation of Anthroposophical Truths. 11
17,18,19 3/30/24 On the Teaching of Anthroposophy. 12
349
Apr. ‘24 20,21,22 4/6/24 Concerning Group Meetings. 13

23,24,25 4/13/24 A Series of Anthroposophical Gathering in Prague. 14
26,27,28 4/20/24 Educational Gathering at the Waldorf School, 15
Stuttgart.
29,30,31 4/27/24 An Educational Conference in Berne. 16
May ‘24 32,33,34 5/4/24 The Easter Gathering at the Goetheanum. 17
35,36,37 5/11/24 In Memoriam. 18
38,39,40 5/18/24 Supplementary to the “Leading Thoughts” of the 19
previous number on the Picture-nature of Man.
41,42,43 5/25/24 What is the Tone which should prevail in the Group 20
meetings?
June ‘24 44,45,46 6/1/24 Something more about the Tone necessary in Group 21
meetings.
47,48,49 6/8/24 The Place of Eurythmy in the Anthroposophical 22
Society.
Anthroposophical Movement Weekly News

June 15, 50,51,52 6/15/24 The Visit to the Anthroposophical Society in France. 23
1924
June 22, 53,54,55 6/22/24 The Meetings at Koberwitz and Breslau. 24
1924
June 29, 56,57,58 6/29/24 The Meetings at Breslau-Koberwitz; the Waldorf 25
1924 School.
July 6, 59,60,61 7/6/24 Something more about the Results of the Christmas 26
1924 Meeting.
July 13, 62,63 7/13/24 Understanding of the Spirit. Conscious Experience of 27
1924 64,65 Destiny.
July 20, 66,67,68 7/20/24 A Course of Lectures on Speech Eurythmy. 28
1924
July 27, 69,70,71 7/27/24 Spiritual Kingdoms and Human Self-Knowledge. 29
1924
Aug. 3, 72,73 8/3/24 The Anthroposophical Educational Gathering in 30
1924 74,75 Holland.
Aug. 10, 76,77,78 8/10/24 How the Leading Thoughts are to be used. 31
1924
Aug. 17, 79,80,81 8/17/24 At the Dawn of the Michael Age. 32
1924
350
Aug. 24, 82,83,84 8/24/24 Our Summer Courses at Torquay. 33

1924
Aug. 31, 85,86,87 8/31/24 The Condition of the Human Soul before the Dawn 34
1924 of the Michael Age.
Sept. 7, 88,89,90 9/7/24 Aphorisms from a Lecture held in London on August 35
1924 24.
Sept. 14, 91,92,93 9/14/24 From the Course at the Goetheanum on 36
1924 “Construction of Language and Dramatic Art.”
Sept. 21, 94,95,96 9/21/42 More about the Course at the Goetheanum on 37
Sept. 28, 97,98,99 9/28/24 More about the Course at the Goetheanum on 38
Stage Management and Scenic Effect.
Oct. 5, 100,101 10/5/24 Some Words which I wish to say in connection 39
1924 102 with the Course on the Apocalypse held at the
Goetheanum in September.
Oct. 12, 103,104 10/12/24 The Way of Michael and what preceded it. 40
1924 105
Oct. 19, 106,107 10/19/24 Michael’s Task in the Sphere of Ahriman. 41
1924 108
Oct. 26, 109,110 10/26/24 The Experience of Michael in the Course of his 42
1924 111 Cosmic Mission.
Nov. 2, 112,113 11/2/24 The Activity of Michael and the Future of Michael. 43
1924 114
Nov. 9, 115,116 11/9/24 The Michael-Christ Experience. 44
1924 117
Nov. 16, 118,119 11/16/24 Michael’s Mission in the Cosmic Age of Human 45
1924 120 Freedom.
Nov. 23, 121,122 11/23/24 The World-Thoughts in the working of Michael and 46
1924 123 in the working of Ahriman.
Nov. 30, 124,125 11/30/24 First Study: At the Gates of the Consciousness Soul. 47
1924 126 How Michael in the Spiritual World is preparing for
his Earth-mission through the Conquest of Lucifer.
Dec. 7, 127,128 12/7/24 Second Study: How the Michael Forces work in the 48
1924 129,130 earliest unfolding of the Consciousness Soul.
Dec. 14, 131,132 12/14/24 Second Study (continued): Hindrances and Helps to 49
1924 133 the Michael Forces in the Dawn of the Age of the
Consciousness Soul.
351
Dec. 21, 134,135 12/21/24 Third Study: Michael’s Suffering over Human 50
1924 136 Evolution before the Time of his Earthly Activity.
Dec. 28, 137,138 12/28/24 A Christmas Study: The Mystery of the Logos. 51
1924 139
Letters to the Members, Series II

Jan. 4, 140,141 1/4/25 Heavenly History, Mythological History, Earthly II/
1925 142,143 History, The Mystery of Golgotha. 1
Jan. 11, 144,145 1/11/25 What is revealed when one looks back into repeated II/
1925 146 Lives on Earth. 2
Jan. 18, 147,148 1/18/25 What is revealed when one looks back into former II/
1925 149 Lives between Death and a new Birth. Part I. 3
Jan. 25, 150,151 1/25/25 What is revealed when one looks back into former II/
1925 152 Lives between Death and a new Birth. Part II. 4
Feb. 1, 153,154 2/1/25 What is the Earth in reality within the Macrocosm? II/
1925 155 5
Feb. 8, 156,157 2/8/25 Sleeping and waking in the Light of recent Studies. II/
1925 158 6
Feb. 15, 159,160 2/15/25 Gnosis and Anthroposophy. II/
1925 161 7
Feb. 22, 162,163 2/22/25 The Freedom of Man and the Age of Michael. II/
1925 164 8
Mar. 1, 165,166 3/1/25 Where is Man as a being who thinks and II/
1925 167 remembers? 9
Mar. 8, 168,169 3/8/25 Man in his macrocosmic Nature. II/
1925 170 10
Mar. 15, 171,172 3/15/25 The Sense and Thought Systems of Man in relation II/
1925 173 to the World. 11
Mar. 22, 174,175 3/22/25 Memory and Conscience. II/
1925 176 12
Mar. 29, 177,178 3/29/25 The apparent Extinction of Spirit-Knowledge in II/
1925 179 modern time. 13
Apr. 5, 180,181 4/5/25 Historic Cataclysms at the Dawn of the II/
1925 182 Consciousness Soul. 14
Apr. 12, 183,184 4/12/25 II/
From Nature to Sub-Nature.
1925 185 15
352
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(with reference to the works of Rudolf Steiner)
A MODERN ART OF EDUCATION. London, England, 1981.

AN OUTLINE OF OCCULT SCIENCE. Spring Valley, NY, 1979.
ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING THOUGHTS. London, 1973.
ANTHROPOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION. London, 1961.
(CHRISTIANITY AS MYSTICAL FACT) CHRISTIANITY AND THE
OCCULT MYSTERIES OF ANTIQUITY. Blauvelt, NY, 1977.
FOUR MYSTERY DRAMAS. N. Vancouver, Canada, 1978.
THE PORTAL OF INITIATION.
THE SOUL’S PROBATION.
THE GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD.
THE SOULS’ AWAKENING.
GOETHE THE SCIENTIST. New York, NY, 1950.
GOETHE’S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. London and New York, 1928.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT.
Spring Valley, NY, 1983.
LIFE, NATURE AND CULTIVATION OF ANTHROPOSOPHY.
London, 1963
MANIFESTATION OF KARMA. London, 1976.
MYSTICISM AT THE DAWN OF THE MODERN AGE. Blauvelt, 1980.
OCCULT SCIENCE: AN OUTLINE. London, 1969.
PHILOSOPHY AND ANTHROPOSOPHY. London and New York, 1929.
353
THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL ACTIVITY. Blauvelt, 1980.

THE PORTAL OF INITIATION. Blauvelt, 1981.
THE RIDDLES OF PHILOSOPHY. Spring Valley, 1973.
RUDOLF STEINER: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. New York, 1980.
THE SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE OF MAN. Spring Valley, 1976.
THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE IMPLICIT IN GOETHE’S WORLD
CONCEPTION. Spring Valley, 1978.
THEOSOPHY. New York, 1971.
(THOMAS AQUINAS) REDEMPTION OF THINKING: A Study in the
Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. London, 1956.
TO THE MEMBERS. Vol. I. Dornach, Switzerland, 1931.
(VON SEELENRAETSELN) Extracts published as THE CASE FOR
ANTHROPOSOPHY. London, 1970; in its entirety as
RIDDLES OF THE SOUL, Spring Valley, 1996.
(WAHRSPRUCHWORTE) Extracts published as TRUTH-WROUGHT-
WORDS. Spring Valley, 1979.
RELEVANT LITERATURE
Alan Howard: Thinking About Thinking, Spring Valley, 1980.

Alan Howard: Thinking About Knowing, Spring Valley, 1983.
Otto Palmer: Rudolf Steiner on his Book The Philosophy of Freedom,
Spring Valley, 1975.
Hermann Poppelbaum: The Etheric Body in Idea and Action, London, 1955.
Hermann Poppelbaum: Der Bildekraefteleib der Lebewesen als Gegenstand
wissenschaftlicher Erfahrung, Stuttgart, Germany, 1924.
Rita Stebbing: Philosophy of Spiritual Activity As A Path of Self-Knowledge,
Spring Valley, 1981
Carl Unger: Cosmic Understanding, Spring Valley, 1981.
Carl Unger: Esotericism, London, 1930.
Carl Unger: Life Forces from Anthroposophy, Spring Valley, 1981.
Carl Unger: Principles of Spiritual Science, Spring Valley, 1974.
Carl Unger: Steiner’s Theosophy: Notes on Rudolf Steiner’s book Theosophy,
Spring Valley, 1981.
Carl Unger: Trials of Thinking, Feeling, Willing, Spring Valley, 1980.
Carl Unger: What is Anthroposophy?, Spring Valley, 1980.
Guenther Wachsmuth: Etheric Formative Forces in Cosmos, Earth and Man,
London and New York, 1932.

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THE LANGUAGE OF

THE CONSCIOUSNESS SOUL

ST. GEORGE PUBLICATIONS

Copyright © 1983 by Alan Howard

All rights in this book are reserved. No part of this

Manufactured in the United States of America

to whom I express my warmest thanks

ABOUT CARL UNGER xiii

XL. THE CRISIS OF THE PRESENT-DAY SOUL 176

XLVII. WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL. 211

L. CONCERNING MIRACLE. 225

REFERENCE NOTES. 327

The following biographical sketch is based on a paper written by Carl

In the whole of Anthroposophy, we learn to know the consciousness soul

“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge.” This can be a key utterance

boundaries of knowledge for a knower such as this.8

No one can attain to experience of reality who has not consciously

a nothingness: that, however, is the so-called absolute I of the classical idealist

from the boundary, we experience a certain survey of the physical world; it is

is significantly presented as a cosmic spiritual power. Goethe had recognized

self-consciousness lies in the perception of this upbuilding process. The

by the influence of the blood.”25

Soul of Man, Destiny of Man,

Ego experiences have a meditative character and, inversely, the activity

themselves spiral-wise, one above the other.

revealed to him in knowledge when he progresses from the thought of the

In accordance with modern methods of science and education, man takes

and, if he is observant at such a moment, he can well understand from where

within the order of nature.

necessity of nature; it already leads in your thinking to an independent spiritual

In Leading Thought 24, spiritual beings of a higher world are expressly

law for ordinary consciousness, necessity of the moral world, is achieved in

The path of knowledge of Anthroposophy leads out of the illusion of the

moral obligation; they are immoral; they can be used as a blessing or as a

In Leading Thoughts 29 to 31, the relationship of the higher stages of

Soul Willing Inspiration Imagination

In Leading Thought 29, some functions are mentioned which characterize

the foundations everywhere by shaping entirely new concepts. We are called

in ordinary consciousness but, as we have seen, it gives the experience of space.

What we have considered in our last Studies as the transformation or

unfold; striving continually to become a head, and — during the earthly

The Leading Thoughts we have considered until now culminated in working

constant process of coming-into-being and passing-away, and in these

In Leading Thoughts 38 to 40 and those which follow, man’s spiritual

Wouldst thou truly penetrate the world,

Destiny is more than what man perceives as fortune or misfortune; it is

after death. This revelation leads him straight to Anthroposophy.

Already in Leading Thoughts 43 and again in 46, Rudolf Steiner pointed to

linked together; the world is related to man in knowledge and deed.

BODY SOUL SPIRIT

Soul First Earth Life

Soul Second Earth Life

Through earnest work on practicing the karma exercises, we attain to

activity of the old forces of consciousness had to be replaced by something else.

The man of today obtains an understanding for karma from individual

new foundations and undertaking the presidency himself. This happened at

The analysis of human consciousness which, according to Leading Thought

a new introduction into the nature of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition.

1. All knowledge transforms the one who knows. (Study III)

27. The I (ego) experiences causality, its essence is permanence of being.

If anthroposophical work is to be raised into the realm of the Hierarchies of

62. In our sense-perceptions, the world of the senses bears on to the

As we think over the sense world, it disappears and, if thinking is