Translation:
D. S. Osmond
THE
THEME OF THE lecture today is of a profoundly occult character,
the title — strange as it may seem to begin with —
being: “Mephistopheles and Earthquakes”. We shall see
that not only does the problem of the figure of Mephistopheles
lead us into a deep realm of occultism but that the same applies
to the problem of earthquakes if explained from the spiritual
point of view. I have already spoken here and in several other
places about the interior of the earth and have also referred to
the question of earthquakes. We shall now approach the subject of
these most tragic happenings on the earth's surface, from yet
another side.
The figure of Mephistopheles
which will be our starting-point today, is familiar to you all
from Goethe's Faust.
You know that Mephistopheles is a Being — we shall not
enter today into the question of how far the poetic presentation
tallies with the occult facts — a figure who appears in the
drama as the seducer and tempter of Faust who, in a certain
respect, may be thought of as the representative of man aspiring
to reach the heights of existence. In lectures on Goethe
I have also indicated what spiritual vistas are revealed in the
scene of the “Passage to the Mothers”, where
Mephistopheles holds in his hand the key giving access to the
dark, nether region where the Mothers dwell. Mephistopheles
himself may not enter this region. He merely indicates that in
this mysterious realm there is no difference between “below”
and “above”:
“Sink then! I
might as well say, Mount!
'Tis quite the same.”
We know too that in
characterizing this region, Mephistopheles uses the word
“Naught”, “Nothingness”. In a certain
sense, therefore, he represents the spirit who in this “Naught”
would be seeking something that is valueless to him. Faust
answers as any true seeker today might answer a materialistic
thinker: “In thy Naught I hope to find the All”.
Goethean research has made many
attempts to find the clue to the figure of Mephistopheles. In
other lectures I have said that the explanation of the name
Mephistopheles is to be found in the Hebrew language, where
“Mephiz” is the word used for one who obstructs, who
corrupts, and “topel” for one who lies. We have
therefore to think of this name as belonging to a being who
brings corruption and hindrances to man and is a spirit of
untruth, deception and illusion.
It may occur to those who read
the introduction to Faust, the Prologue in Heaven,
thoughtfully, that it contains words which resound as it were
across thousands of years. Goethe has let words spoken between
the Lord and Job in the Book of Job re-echo at the beginning of
Faust. In the Book of Job we read that Job is a good,
upright and pious man and of how the sons of the Lord of Light
present themselves before Him. Among them is a certain enemy of
the Light. In a conversation between the enemy of the Light and
the supreme Lord, this enemy of the Light says that he has “gone
to and fro in the earth”, seeking and trying out many
things. The Lord asks: “Knowest thou my servant Job?”
and the enemy of the Light — for so we will call him —
answers the Lord that Job is known to him and that he would
assuredly be able to divert him from the Good and bring him to
perdition. This spirit has to make two attempts to approach Job
and he then lays hold of him through injuring his physical body.
He indicates this expressly when he says to the Lord: “Seize
his possessions and he will not fall; but touch his bone and his
flesh and he will fall!” Who can fail to hear an echo of
this in Faust when the Lord calls to Mephistopheles in the
“Prologue in Heaven”: “Knowest thou Faust, my
servant!” And then, in similar terms, we hear the retort of
the spirit who in the Book of Job comes before the Lord, when
Mephistopheles asserts that he can lead Faust gently on the way,
that he can win him from the paths which lead to the Good. Here,
then, we are listening to sounds striking together in unison
across the ages.
When you are thinking about the
figure of Mephistopheles, you may often have asked yourselves:
Who is Mephistopheles, in reality? Grave mistakes are made here,
mistakes which admittedly can be corrected only by deeper, occult
insight. The name itself suggests that Mephistopheles is
associated with the devil, or the idea of the devil, for the word
“topel” is the same as “Teufel” —
devil. But the other question — and here we come into a
realm of serious fallacies which frequently occur in explanations
of the figure of Mephistopheles — the other question is:
Whether Mephistopheles can be identified with the spirit we know
as Lucifer, who during and after the Lemurian epoch approached
humanity together with his hosts and entrenched himself as it were
in the evolutionary process? The prevailing tendency in Europe is
to identify the figure of Mephistopheles as he appears in
Goethe's Faust but also in earlier folk-literature (Folk
Plays, Puppet Plays and so forth), with Lucifer. Mephistopheles
is a familiar character everywhere, and the question is: Are he
and his hosts identical with Lucifer and his hosts? In other
words: Are the effects of the Mephistophelean influence upon man
the same as those of Lucifer? — That is the question before
us today.
We know when Lucifer approached
man. We have studied the course of human evolution on earth
through the epoch when the sun with its beings, and subsequently
the moon, separated from the earth together with the forces that
would have made further development for man impossible. And we
have learned that at a time when man was still not ready for his
astral body to become independent, Lucifer and his hosts
approached him. The effect upon man was twofold. It was towards
the end of the Lemurian epoch when, in his astral body, man was
actually exposed to the influences issuing from Lucifer. If
Lucifer had not approached, man would, it is true, have been
protected from certain evils but he would not have attained what
must be accounted one of his greatest blessings.
The significance of Lucifer's
influence becomes evident when we ask ourselves what would have
transpired if since the Lemurian epoch there had been no
Luciferic influence, if Lucifer and his hosts had remained
separate and apart from man's evolution! Until the middle of the
Atlantean epoch man would have evolved as a being who in every
impulse of his astral body would have obeyed the influences of
certain spiritual Beings of a higher rank than himself; these
Beings would have retained their sway over him until the middle
of the Atlantean epoch. If that had happened, man's faculties of
perception and cognition would not have been directed to the
material world until a much later period. During the Lemurian and
early Atlantean epochs, no passions, no desires would have arisen
from his sense-perceptions; he would have confronted the world of
sense as it were in a state of innocence, obedient in his every
action to the impulses instilled into him by higher spiritual
Beings. The instincts prompting him to action would not have been
of exactly the same nature as those of the higher animals today,
but more spiritual. His every deed on earth would have been
prompted, not by mere impulses, but by a kind of spiritual
instinct. As things were, under the influence of Lucifer man came
earlier to the stage where he said: This delights and attracts
me, that is repellent to me! He reached the stage of following
his own impulses earlier than would otherwise have been the case;
he became an independent being, with a measure of inner freedom.
The consequence was that he was detached in a certain way from
the spiritual world. To put it concisely, one might say: Without
this influence of Lucifer, man would have remained a
spiritualized animal — an animal who would gradually have
developed a form nobler and more beautiful than could have been
developed by man under the influence of Lucifer. Man would have
remained far more of an angelic being if Lucifer's influence had
not taken effect in the Lemurian epoch; but on the other hand,
the higher Beings would have guided him as it were on
leading-strings. In the middle of the Atlantean epoch something
would have befallen him suddenly: his eyes would have been fully
opened, the tapestry of the whole material world of sense would
have lain around him — but gazing upon it he would
simultaneously have perceived the Divine-Spiritual, a
Divine-Spiritual world behind every physical object. If,
therefore, in his former state of dependence man had looked back
into the bosom of the Divine whence he had proceeded, beholding
the Gods of Light sending their radiance into his soul, guiding
and leading him, something would have come about for him —
this is not a mere picture but corresponds in a high degree with
the reality — namely, that the world of sense in its
entirety would have been outspread in transparency before him,
revealing behind it those other Divine-Spiritual Beings who had
taken the place of what had now been lost. One spiritual world
would have closed behind him and a new spiritual world opened
before him. Man would have remained a child in the hands of
higher, Divine-Spiritual Beings; independence would not have been
established in the human soul.
It did not happen so, because
Lucifer had approached man and made part of the underlying
spiritual world invisible to him. The personal instincts,
passions and desires which arose in the human astral body spread
a cloud of darkness over the spiritual Beings of the world out of
which man is born and who would otherwise have remained
perpetually visible to him.
Hence in those great centers of
the Oracles in ancient Atlantis the Initiates had expressly
trained themselves to behold that part of the spiritual world
which had been concealed as the result of Lucifer's influence.
The aim of all the preparation undergone by the guardians and
pupils of the ancient Oracles in the Atlantean Mysteries was to
enable them to perceive that part of the spiritual world of light
which in consequence of Lucifer's influence upon the astral body
of man had withdrawn from his field of vision. And visible too,
were those figures seen by man in the various conditions of soul
running parallel with initiation, figures which from a world of
Light penetrate into our world decked in the raiment provided by
the astral world. In the ancient Oracle centers the Atlantean
Initiate beheld in the spirit those figures who were in truth
spiritual Beings of a higher rank than he — Beings who had
not descended into the physical world and who had therefore
remained invisible to ordinary sight when man's eyes were opened
prematurely. But since Lucifer himself was an opponent of these
worlds of Light, it was inevitable that he too should be visible
to the initiates; and the hosts of Lucifer were visible to
the Atlanteans who in their shadowy, clairvoyant consciousness,
in the sleeping state and in conditions midway between sleeping
and waking, could be transported into the spiritual world. When
part of the world of Light was accessible to these Atlantean people,
part of the world opposing the world of Light was also visible;
the Luciferic hosts were visible — not Lucifer himself.
These noble figures belonging to the world of light were as
fascinating and splendid in their astral raiment as those of the
opposing world of deception were fearsome and terrible.
Thus it was the influence of
Lucifer in the evolution of humanity that made it possible for
man to fall into error and evil but also to attain freedom. Had
there been no Luciferic influence, the conditions I have been
describing to you would have come about in the middle of the
Atlantean epoch: the tapestry of the sense-world would have been
outspread before man; the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms
would have been materially visible to him; also the phenomena of
nature and of the heavens, thunder, lightning, clouds, air —
all would have been visible to external sight. But behind it all
would have been the unmistakable presence of Divine-Spiritual
Beings. Because Lucifer's influence had already taken effect in
man's astral body, his physical body — at that time still
transmutable — had been so prepared ever since the Lemurian
epoch and on into the Atlantean, that it could not become the
direct instrument for the physical world of sense with the
spiritual world visibly behind it. And so man could not
immediately behold the physical sense-world in the form in which
it would simultaneously have revealed itself to him as a
spiritual world. The three lower kingdoms of nature lay around
him; the physical world became a veil over the spiritual world.
Man could not, nor can he to this day, see directly into the
spiritual world.
But because man had passed
through this evolution, a different influence was able to assert
itself in the middle of the Atlantean epoch — an influence
from quite another side and not to be confused with that of
Lucifer and his hosts. Although it was Lucifer who first made it
possible for man to come under the sway of this other influence,
although it was Lucifer who caused the human physical body to
become denser than it would otherwise have become, nevertheless
it was necessary for yet another influence to approach man in
order to bring him completely into the material world of sense,
in order to shut him off entirely from the spiritual world so
that he was led to the illusion: There is no other world than the
world of material existence outspread before me!
From the middle of the Atlantean
epoch an opponent quite different in character from Lucifer
approached man, namely the Being who casts such mist and darkness
around his faculties of perception that he makes no effort nor
unfolds any urge to fathom the secrets of the world of sense. If
you picture to yourselves that under Lucifer's influence the
sense-world became like a veil, through the influence of this
second Being the physical world in its totality became like a
dense rind, closing off the spiritual world. It was only the
Atlantean Initiates who were able, through the preparation they
had undergone, to pierce this dense covering of the material,
physical world.
The Powers who approached man in
order to obscure his vision of the other side of divine existence
are brought to our notice for the first time in the teachings
given to his followers and pupils by Zarathustra, the great
leader of the ancient Persians. The mission of Zarathustra was to
instill culture into a people who, unlike the ancient Indians,
did not by nature yearn perpetually for the spiritual world.
Zarathustra's mission was to impart to his people a culture
directed to the world of sense, aiming at mastery of the material
world through means dependent upon the efforts and labors of
physical man. In the civilization of ancient Persia, therefore,
man was less subject to the influence of Lucifer than to the
influence of that Being who since the middle of the Atlantean
epoch had approached humanity, with the result that many of the
Initiates at that time had lapsed into the practice of a form of
black magic; having been led astray by this tempter, they misused
for the purposes of the physical-material world what was
accessible to them from the spiritual world. The mighty influence
of the forces of black magic which finally led to the destruction
of Atlantis had its origin in the temptations of that Being whom
Zarathustra taught his people to know as Ahriman (“Angra
Mainyu”), the Being who opposed the God of Light proclaimed
by Zarathustra as “Ahura Mazdao”, the “Great
Aura”.
These two figures —
Lucifer and Ahriman — must be clearly distinguished from
each other. For Lucifer is a Being who detached himself from the
spiritual hosts of heaven after the separation of the sun,
whereas Ahriman had already broken away before the
separation of the sun and is an embodiment of quite different
powers. The result of Lucifer's influence in the Lemurian epoch
was merely the corruption of the faculty, still possessed by man
in the Atlantean epoch, to manipulate the forces of air and
water. In the book entitled From the Akasha Chronicle you
will have read that in Atlantean times the seminal forces in
plant and animal were still at man's command and could be drawn
forth just as the forces used in the form of steam for propelling
machines can be extracted from mineral coal today. I have told
you that when these forces are drawn forth they are connected in
a mysterious way with the nature-forces in wind, weather and the
like; and if applied by man for purposes running counter to the
divine purposes, these nature-forces are called into action
against him.
Here lies the cause of the
Atlantean flood and of the devastation wrought by the powers of
nature which led to the disappearance of the whole continent of
Atlantis. But even before that time, man had lost command over
the forces of fire and the power to ally them with certain
mysterious forces of the earth. Power over the forces of fire and
earth in a certain combination had already been withdrawn from
man. But now — through the influence of Ahriman and his
accomplices — he again acquired a certain mastery over the
forces of fire and earth, with dire consequences. And much that
is to be heard about the use of fire in ancient Persia is
connected with what I am now telling you. Many forces that are
applied in black magic and are connected with it, lead to the
result that man lays hold of forces of an entirely different
nature and thus gains an influence over fire and earth, with
terrible and devastating results. The practice of black magic by
the descendants of the Atlanteans in ancient Persia would still
have been effective had not the teachings of Zarathustra revealed
how Ahriman, as an opposing power, ensnares man and clouds his
vision of the spiritual reality behind the world of sense. Thus
through Zarathustra and his followers, influence was brought to
bear upon a large part of Post-Atlantean civilization; on the one
hand people were taught of the workings of the sublime God of Light
to whom they may turn, and, on the other, of the malefic power of
Ahriman and his hosts.
Ahriman works upon man in
countless, infinitely diverse ways. — I have told you that
the Event of the Mystery of Golgotha was a moment of supreme
importance for the evolution of the world. The Christ appeared in
the realm into which man enters after death, where Ahriman's
influence was even mightier than in the world around man here on
earth between birth and death. In the realm of existence between
death and rebirth, Ahriman's influences worked upon man with
terrible, overwhelming power. And if nothing else had taken
place, utter darkness would gradually have closed in upon man in
the ‘realm of Shades’ — as it was correctly
designated by the ancient Greeks. A condition of complete
isolation, leading to the intensification of egoism would have
set in between death and rebirth; man would have been born into
his new life as a gross and overweening egotist. Hence it is more
than a figure of speech to say that after the Event of Golgotha,
at the moment when the Blood flowed from the wounds, the Christ
appeared in yonder world, in the realm of the Shades, and cast
Ahriman into fetters. Although Ahriman's influence remained and
is really the origin of all materialistic thinking on the part of
man, although this influence can be paralyzed only if people receive
into themselves the power emanating from the Mystery of Golgotha,
nevertheless they can draw from that Event a power which enables
them to find their way once again into the Divine-Spiritual
world.
Thus it was to Ahriman that the
faculty of human cognition was primarily directed. Ahriman was a
Being whose existence was divined by men, a Being of whom they
had some knowledge through the culture inaugurated by
Zarathustra; and from there the knowledge of Ahriman spread among
the other peoples and into their world of ideas. Ahriman with his
hosts appears as a figure with the most diverse names among the
civilized peoples. And owing to the peculiar conditions obtaining
in the souls of the European peoples who had remained farthest in
the rear of the migrations from West to East, who had been less
affected than the others by what had transpired in the ancient
Indian, ancient Persian, Egyptian and even in the Greco-Latin
civilizations — owing to these circumstances there
prevailed among the European peoples from whom the Fifth Epoch of
culture was to be born, an attitude of soul which regarded
Ahriman alone as a figure of dread. And while many different
names were adopted — as for example, “Mephistopheles”
among the Hebrew people — in Europe the figure of Ahriman
became the “Devil” in his various forms.
Obviously, therefore, we are
gazing here into a concatenation of happenings in the spiritual
worlds and many a man who claims to be above medieval
superstitions will do well to remember the words in Faust:
“The little
folk ne'er scent the Devil
E'en though he have them by the
collar”.
It is precisely because man
closes his spiritual eyes to this influence that he succumbs to
it so completely. Goethe's “Mephistopheles” is none
other than the figure of Ahriman and must not be confused with
Lucifer. All the errors cropping up here and there in
commentaries on Faust originate from this confusion —
although it was indeed Lucifer who first paved the way for
Ahriman's influence. In studying Ahriman one is therefore led
back to an original influence of Lucifer, the nature of which can
only become clear after long preparatory efforts have been made
to understand this intimate connection.
The subtle difference between
the two Beings must not be overlooked. The essential point is
that, fundamentally speaking, Lucifer had brought man under the
influence of the powers connected with air and water only;
whereas it was Ahriman-Mephistopheles who has subjected him to
the influence of far more deadly powers and the civilizations
immediately to come will see the appearance of many things
connected with Ahriman's influence. Through this influence the
seeker for the spirit who does not stand upon firm and sure
foundations can readily fall prey to the most terrible illusion
and deception. For Ahriman is a spirit who sets out to spread
deception as to the true nature of the sense-world, especially as
an expression of the spiritual world. When a man has a tendency
to abnormal, somnambulistic states or through certain wrongful
training awakens occult forces whereby egoism is intensified,
then Ahriman or Mephistopheles has a ready influence precisely
upon these occult forces, an influence that can soon become
overwhelmingly powerful. Whereas Lucifer's influence can only
bring it about that what confronts a man from the spiritual world
(and this applies also to one who is receiving wrongful training)
appears to him as an astral form visible to the astral
body, the manifestations due to the influence of Ahriman are
brought to light in that the evil influences on the physical body
press through into the etheric body and then become visible as
phantoms.
In the influences of Ahriman,
therefore, we have to do with powers of a much lower nature than
the influences of Lucifer. Lucifer's influences can never become
as evil as the influences of Ahriman and of those Beings who are
connected with the powers of fire. The influence of Ahriman or
Mephistopheles can bring it about that in order to attain occult
knowledge a man is induced, for example, to undertake certain
measures with his physical body. The method that consists in the
use and misuse of the physical body is the most evil that can
possibly be applied for the purpose of acquiring occult powers.
It is a fact that in certain school of black magic such practices
are taught in abundance. One of the most terrible perversions to
which man may be subject occurs when the forces of the physical
body are taken as the starting-point for occult training.
It is not possible here to enter
into closer detail than the indication that all machinations
consisting in any way of a misuse of the forces of the physical
body emanate from the influences of Ahriman; and because the
effect of this penetrates into man's etheric body, it works as a
world of phantoms that is nothing else than the garment of powers
which drag man down to a level below that of true manhood. Nearly
every ancient civilization — the Indian, the Persian, the
Egyptian, the Greco-Latin — had its period of decadence; so
too the Mysteries, when the Mystery-traditions were no longer
preserved in their purity. During these periods many of those who
were either pupils of the Initiates but unable to remain at their
level or people to whom the secrets of the Mysteries had been
unlawfully betrayed, had fallen into perverse and evil paths.
Centers of black magic and its forces originated from these
influences and have persisted to this day.
Ahriman is a spirit of lies, a
spirit who conjures illusions before people, working together with
his confederates in a spiritual world. Ahriman himself is no
mirage — far from it! But what is conjured before people's
eyes of spirit under his influence — that is mirage,
illusion. When a man's desires and passions flow along evil paths
and at the same time he lends himself in any way to occult
practices, then the occult forces which are awakened penetrate
into the etheric body and the most evil powers of corruption
appear among the illusory images which may themselves often be
majestic, awe-inspiring. Such is the terrible influence of
Ahriman upon man.
From what has been said you can
gather that through Christ's Coming, Ahriman has been cast into
fetters — if this expression may be used — but only,
of course, for those who endeavor unceasingly to fathom the
Christ-Mystery. And outside the forces streaming from the
Christ-Mystery, protection in the world against the influence of
Ahriman will steadily diminish. In a certain sense — and
many signs proclaim it — our epoch courts these influences
of Ahriman. In certain occult teachings the hosts of Ahriman are
also called the Asuras. These are of course, the evil
Asuras who at a certain time fell away from the evolutionary path
of the Asuras who endowed man with personality. It has already
been indicated that these are spiritual Beings who detached
themselves from the evolution of the earth before the
separation of the sun.
Up to now we have been
describing merely the terrible influence that Ahriman can
exercise upon a certain abnormal process of development, one that
proceeds along occult paths. But in a certain respect the whole
of humanity came under the influence of Ahriman during the second
half of the Atlantean epoch. The whole Post-Atlantean epoch has
within it, in a certain sense, the aftermath of Ahriman's
influence — in one region of the earth more, in another
less. But Ahriman's influence has asserted itself everywhere and
all the teachings given to the peoples by the ancient Initiates
concerning the Spirits of Light who are the opponents of Ahriman
were given primarily in order to draw these peoples away from
Ahriman's influence. It was a good, wisely led education of
humanity.
But let us not forget that since
that time the destiny of Ahriman has been interwoven in a certain
sense with the destiny of humanity, and manifold happenings, of
which the uninitiated can know nothing, keep the whole karma of
humanity in perpetual connection with the karma of Ahriman. To
understand what will now be said, we must realize that over and
above the karma which belongs to every individual human being,
there is at every stage of existence a universal karmic law. All
the categories of beings have their karma — the karma of
the one differing from that of the other. But karma operates
through every realm of existence and there are things in the
karma of humanity, in the karma of a people, of a community or
other group of human beings, which must be regarded as collective
karma, so that in certain circumstances the individual can be
drawn into the sway of the collective karma. It will not always
be easy for one who cannot penetrate to the root of the matter to
discern exactly where the influences of the powers concerned lie
in the case of human beings overtaken by such a destiny. An
individual within some community may well be entirely guiltless
as far as his own karma is concerned; but because he stands
within a field of collective karma, calamity may befall him. If,
however, he is entirely guiltless, compensation will be made in
later incarnations.
In the wider connection we must
look not only at the karma of the past but also think of the
karma of the future. A terrible fate may befall a whole group of
human beings; the reason why just this group should suffer such a
destiny is not to be discovered. Someone who might be capable of
investigating the karma of an individual will in certain
circumstances be unable to find anything at all that could have
led to this tragic fate, for the threads of karma are extremely
complicated. The cause of such karmic happenings may lie far, far
away — but it is connected with these people nevertheless.
And it may be that the whole group, while guiltless, has been
overtaken by some collective karma which could not overtake those
immediately guilty, because circumstances did not make this
possible. In such cases the only thing that can be said is this:
In the total karma of an individual, everything is ultimately
balanced out, including what befalls him without guilt on his
part; it is all inscribed in his karma and compensation in the
fullest sense will be made in future time. — Therefore in
considering the law of karma we must also take into account the
karma of the future. Nor must it be forgotten that man is not an
isolated being but that every individual has to share jointly in
the collective karma of humanity. We must remember, too, that
man, together with humanity, is connected with those hierarchies
of Beings who have not entered into the physical world and that
he is also drawn into the karma of the hierarchies. In the
destinies of humanity in the spiritual world a great deal appears
the connections of which are not to be sought in the immediate
circumstances, but the karmic consequences come to pass
inevitably. Since the second half of the Atlantean epoch,
Ahriman's karma has been linked with the karma of humanity. Where,
then, are the deeds of Ahriman, over and above what is wrought by
him in the bodies of people in order to spread phantoms and illusion
over the world of sense? Where are these other deeds?
Everything in the world has, as
it were, two sides, one pertaining more to man as a spiritual
being, the other to what has developed as the kingdoms of nature
around him. The earth is the arena of man's existence. To the eye
of spirit this earth is revealed as a combination of different
layers or strata. The outermost stratum is called the “Mineral
Earth” or “Mineral Stratum” because it contains
only such substances as are to be found in the ground under our
feet. This is the shallowest stratum, relatively speaking. Then
begins the “Fluidic Earth”, the material constitution
of which is entirely different from that of the “mineral”
stratum above it. This second stratum is, as it were, endowed
with inner life; and only because the solid, mineral stratum is
spread over it are the inner forces of this second stratum held
together. If they were released they would instantaneously
disperse into cosmic space. This stratum, therefore, lies under
tremendous pressure. A third stratum is the “Vapor Earth”.
It is not a material vapor such as arises on the earth's surface
but in this third stratum the substance itself is imbued with
inner forces, comparable only with the passions, the inner urges
and impulses of man. Whereas on the earth it is only beings like
animals and humans who can unfold passions, this third stratum —
just as the substances of the earth are permeated by forces of
magnetism and warmth — is permeated in a material sense
with forces similar to those we know as human and animal passions
and impulses. The fourth or “Form Stratum” is so
designated because it contains the material and the forces of
what are encountered in the mineral part of the earth as entities
cast into form. And the characteristic of the fifth stratum, or
“Fertility Earth” is that even as material it teems
with infinite fertility. If you were to get hold of part of this
stratum it would perpetually be sending forth new impulses, new
sproutings; rampant fertility is the intrinsic quality of this
stratum. Then we come to the sixth stratum, the “Fire
Earth”, containing as “substances” within it,
forces that can bring about terrible havoc and destruction. It is
actually into these forces that the primordial Fire has been
banished.
In and from this stratum the
realm of Ahriman operates — in a material sense. What
manifests in the phenomena of outer nature, in air and water, in
cloud formations, in lightning and thunder — all this is,
so to speak, a last vestige on the earth's surface, of forces
that were already connected with ancient Saturn and separated
from the earth together with the sun. By what is working in these
forces, the inner fire-forces of the earth are placed in the
service of Ahriman. There he has the center of his activity; and
whereas his spiritual influences make their way to the souls of
people and lead them to error, we see how Ahriman — in a
certain respect shackled — has certain foci for his
activity in the interior of the earth. Were we to understand the
mysterious connections of what has come to pass on the earth
under Ahriman's influence and what Ahriman's own karma has become
in consequence of this, we should recognize in the quakes and
tremors of the earth the connection between such grievous, tragic
happenings in nature and the power that holds sway on the earth.
These manifestations are something that has remained since
ancient times as a reaction on the earth against the good Beings
of Light.
Thus forces allied with the
Beings who were thrust away from their connection with the earth
at the time when the good Beings of light established the
beneficent phenomena around the earth-globe, are active, and in a
certain sense we can recognize the echoings of these fire-forces
which in earlier times were withdrawn from man's control, in what
is wrought by fire in such terrible manifestations of nature.
Although the karma of Ahriman has been linked with that of
humanity since the time of Atlantis, the suggestion should not
arise that any guilt is to be attributed to those who are victims
of what Ahriman's karma has evoked. Such happenings are connected
with the collective karma of humanity in which the individual has
also to share. The causes which produce their effects in
particular localities as the workings of Ahriman's karma often
lie somewhere else entirely. It is however these particular
places which afford the necessary opportunity.
There we see a connection which
seems to be like a relic of catastrophes undergone by humanity in
the far distant past. The power to work upon fire which man had
formerly possessed, was withdrawn from him. Hence ancient Lemuria
was brought to its destruction by the fire of the passions of
men. The same fire that is now below was then above; it receded
from the earth's surface and the same fire that issued as a kind
of extract from the primordial fire is the inorganic, mineral
fire of today. So too it was with the forces working through air
and water which, again by way of the passions of people, led to the
Atlantean catastrophes. These catastrophes were evoked by the
collective karma of humanity but a relic has remained and this
relic awakens the echoes of those earlier catastrophes. Our
volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are nothing else than the
echoes of these catastrophes. But it should never so much as
occur to anyone to attach an iota of guilt to the victim of such
a calamity or to withhold compassion in the fullest measure. It
must be absolutely clear to an anthroposophist that the karma of
these individuals has nothing to do with the guilt to which the
catastrophes are due and it should never occur to him to withhold
help from anyone because — to put it trivially — he
believes in karma and therefore assumes that this destiny was
brought on by the man himself. Karma demands of us that we help
human beings because we may be sure that our help means something
that is written in their karma and will turn that karma in a more
favorable direction. Understanding that is based upon the
recognition of karma must necessarily lead to compassion; our
compassion for the victims of such catastrophes will be all the
greater, for our knowledge tells us that there is a collective
karma of humanity from which the individual members have to
suffer, that just as such happenings are brought about by
humanity as one whole, so too must humanity be answerable for
them; we must regard such a destiny as our own and help not only
out of a spontaneous impulse but because we know that we are
involved in the karma of humanity and share the guilt incurred!
A question was handed to me this
morning about earthquake catastrophes. The question runs as
follows: “What is the occult explanation of earthquakes?
Can they be foreseen? If particular catastrophes can be foreseen,
why should it not be possible to give some warning beforehand?
Such a warning might possibly be ineffective the first time but
certainly not on another occasion.”
You may remember something of
what was said at the end of the lecture on the interior of the
earth about the possibility of earthquakes. We will not consider
that now but enter directly into this question. In reality it has
two sides. The one is: Whether from the occult connections which
can be discerned, earthquakes can be foreseen? The answer to this
is that the knowledge of such matters belongs to the deepest
realm of occult science. In respect of a particular event on the
earth, an event with roots as deeply laid as those described
today, and connected with causes extending widely over the earth
— in respect of such an event it is absolutely correct to
say that even in a particular case an indication of time can be
given. It would certainly be possible for the occultist to give
such an indication. But the other side of the question is:
whether it is permissible for such indications to be
given? — For one who confronts the occult secrets from
outside it will seem almost a matter of course that the answer
will be “Yes!” And yet the truth is that in regard to
such events it is actually only twice or three times in any one
century — at the very most, twice or three times —
that any prediction can be announced from the centers of
Initiation. For you must remember that these things are connected
with the karma of humanity as a whole and if, for example, they
were avoided in one instance they would inevitably occur in some
other place and in a different form. The prediction itself would
alter nothing. And just think what a terrible encroachment it
would be into the karma of the earth as a whole if human measures
were adopted to prevent such happenings. The reaction would be so
fearful, so violent, that only in very rare and exceptional cases
would a high Initiate, foreseeing an earthquake, be able to make
use of his knowledge to help himself or those near him. With
full knowledge he would have to face his end, as a matter of
course! For these things that have been implicit in the karma of
humanity for thousands and millions of years cannot be paralyzed
by measures adopted during one brief period of evolution. —
But there is still more to add.
It has been said already that
this very subject is one of the most difficult of all in occult
investigation. It is far easier to know something about the
astral world, the devachanic world, even about the farthest
planets, than about the interior of the earth. Most things one
hears are the purest trash, because, as I say, it is one of the
most difficult subjects in occultism. The same is true of matters
that are connected with these elemental catastrophes. And above
all you must realize that clairvoyance is not a matter of just
sitting down, inducing a particular condition, and then being
able to say what is going on in the whole universe, up to the
highest spheres. It is by no means so. To believe any such thing
would be as “clever” as to say: “You have the
faculty of perception in the physical world; but why was it that
when 12 o'clock came and you were sitting in your room, you were
neither astonished by nor did you see what happened outside by
the River Spree at that hour?” There are hindrances to
seership. If the seer in question had gone for a walk at 12
o'clock he would probably have seen what happened. It is not
the case that all worlds are immediately disclosed through the
mere resolve to induce in oneself the requisite condition. The
seer has to find his way to the events and investigate them, and
these investigations are of the most difficult kind because the
hindrances are greatest. — And perhaps at this point
something may be said about these hindrances.
If a man is able to walk about
on his two legs, you can deprive him of this faculty not only by
amputating his legs but also by shutting him up in a cell; then
he can no longer walk about. In the same way there are hindrances
to occult investigation and in the domain of which we are
speaking they are immensely powerful. I will tell you one of the
main hindrances and in doing so introduce you to a mysterious
relationship. The greatest hindrance to occult investigation in
this domain is constituted by the methods and trend of modern
materialistic science. The countless illusions and fallacies
accumulating in materialistic science today, all the research
that is not only futile but is prompted by the vanities of people —
these are things which in their effects in the higher worlds make
investigation into these manifestations and free vision in the
higher world impossible or to say the least, extremely difficult.
Free vision is clouded as a result of the materialistic research
pursued here on earth. It is by no means easy to get to the root
of these things. But only wait for the time when spiritual
science has become more widespread and when through its influence
the materialistic superstitions prevailing in our world will be
swept away! Once the nonsensical analogies and hypotheses leading
to all kinds of conjectures about the interior of the earth are
cast aside, you will see that when spiritual science has itself
been integrated into the karma of humanity, when it finds the way
to people's souls and is able from there to overcome the opposing
powers and materialistic superstitions, when further research can
be made into all that is connected with the bitterest foe of
humanity, that Being who fetters man's vision within the world of
sense — you will see that it will then be possible, even
externally, to influence the karma of humanity in the sense that
the dire results of such happenings may be alleviated. The reason
why the Initiates must be silent about happenings connected with
the great karma of humanity is to be found in the materialistic
superstitions of people. Many scientific pursuits are in no way
imbued with the Faustian striving for truth but prompted entirely
by vanity and ambition. How much scientific research is promoted
in the world simply because an individual is seeking for
something that will be to his personal advantage! If you sum up
all these things you will realize the strength of the force that
obstructs vision into the world behind the external phenomena of
the material world. Not until this fog has been cleared away will
the time come when, in respect of certain mysterious
manifestations of nature emanating from the foes of humanity and
trespassing deeply into human life, it will be possible for help
— and then in no small measure — to be given to
humanity. Until that time comes there is no such possibility.
I am well aware that these
questions have been given a turn not always in the mind of the
one who asks them. But it is often the fate of occult science to
be obliged to formulate the questions in the right way before
they can be correctly answered. Again do not take this to mean
that the mysterious connection between earthquakes and the karma
of humanity is a secret that cannot be investigated. It can
be investigated but there are reasons why only the most
commonplace aspects of such questions can be presented to the
world today. Let the knowledge reach humanity through spiritual
science that there is a connection between the deeds of people and
happenings in nature and then the time will come when these
things can be answered in the way the question demands. Spiritual
science may pass through many destinies; its influence may even
be crippled, remaining within narrow and restricted circles.
Nevertheless it will make its way through humanity, will be
integrated into the karma of humanity, and then the possibility
will be created for individuals themselves to have an effect upon
the karma of humanity as a whole.
Thanks to: The Rudolf Steiner
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