The Crisis of Civilization
XIV. The Problem of Messianism in the World Today
The author by no means harbours in his soul the ‘most ardent wish’ that this book may be used as an argument in quarrels with the fanatical adherents of the current aberrations. On the contrary, we believe that people who have already fallen victim to the ‘black magic’ of the press should not have access to this book at all. All that the author still dares to hope for at present is that there may exist a small circle of people whose sense for truth is not extinguished, and who are willing to make every effort to ascertain what are the methods of spiritual science and the nature of its fruits of knowledge. Such people should, on a purely ideal basis, unite together in the world. They should create an oasis in which contemporary life in all its manifestations can without restriction be thought through on the basis of spiritual science, in the assurance that the brother in spirit present at one’s side is also solely guided by the search for the means that will bring healing to our life, that will free it from death-bringing prejudices and guard us from the fall into the abyss.
How
and where we can stand before the public with
our knowledge – this is a far-reaching
question requiring independent consideration,
that will only be answered if there are people
in anthroposophical circles who are not led by
superstition, who are unprejudiced and who are
not so superficial and negligent as to demand
a revision of spiritual science before they
have even mastered it. They will then be able
to take on the mighty task of developing the moral technique referred to in the Philosophy
of Freedom. In the present epoch it is necessary
to master this technique almost to perfection
if one is to speak to the world of the causes
of the madness into which it is falling. Much
precious time has already passed by unused,
and the worst thing is that the impulse of
movement within cognition, elaborated by
Rudolf Steiner, has been lost sight of. This
is the point that lies at the source of,
amongst other things, the immense difficulties
we face in making possible an unprejudiced
view of the world. But we must not relax our
efforts towards this goal, any more than we
can question the need to breathe.
We
recall how, already in the ’Seventies, the
theme of historical symptomatology was put on
the agenda for the first time in the Soviet
Union, in an anthroposophical group in Moscow.
We worked at it for more than two years. Not
only did we work on all that Rudolf Steiner
has given us on this theme, but we also
discussed all the events of importance that
took place at home and in the world at large.
We did so in the knowledge that every word we
spoke was monitored and recorded on tape by
the secret police, and although I saw that one
or another of the friends paled and fearfully
hung their head when it was said who the
‘dictators of the proletariat’ really are, who
imported the revolution etc. Not all were
mature for this work, indeed we must even
admit that no oasis of knowledge grew out of
this, that the ahrimanic spirits succeeded in
taking revenge on the few for their ‘audacity’
of cognition; but something else is important
here. Looked at externally it is nothing short
of miraculous that it was possible in the dark
’Seventies to study these profound and
far-reaching questions without being arrested.
Of course there was persecution – the present
author was regularly interrogated by the KGB.
But not a single time was he asked about the
content of our work. The leader of the
investigations knew all too well that
everything spoken about in the group was true.
But we sensed that our work was blessed by the
spiritual world, the hierarchies, who
protected and surrounded it as if by a wall of
light.
We
saw our work as a contribution to the
courageous and sacrificial battle that the
dissidents of that time were waging against
the terrible power. Every individual sought
for his own form of battle. We turned to
cognition as the force that is capable of
truly overcoming evil, and we were not
mistaken. When times changed, many dissidents
stood helpless before evil that had
changed its face but not its essential being.
They were lacking in knowledge and the power of
discrimination it can provide. But what we
sowed on fertile soil at that time is now
unfolding. And despite the hindrances
encountered, we can experience that the quest
for truth is growing, because it is the wish
of the Gods themselves.
The Ancient Hebrews and the Reflective ‘I’- Consciousness
In the
complicated
world
struggle,
taking place
on many
levels,
between the
powers of
light and
darkness the
forces of good
are by no
means always
opposed by the
forces of
evil. As a
global factor
in world
connections
there works
first and
foremost the
great
antagonism of
the luciferic
initiates of
the East and
the ahrimanic
of the West.
Within Western
civilization
there lives
the contrast
between the
Romanic and
the
Anglo-Saxon
world. This
contrast
created a
third factor –
Bolshevism. At
different
times the
various
peoples are
now an
instrument,
now a
battlefield of
the forces
mentioned.
Then the
peoples are
struck by
misfortune.
The Jewish
nation is no
exception.
Those
responsible
for the
afflictions do
everything in
their power to
remain in the
background, so
that the
peoples blame
not them, but
other peoples
for their
sufferings:
the Jews blame
the Germans,
the Germans
blame the
Jews, Germans
and Jews blame
the Russians,
the Russians
the Germans
and the Jews,
etc.
Rudolf
Steiner was
reluctant to
speak on this
subject. It is
difficult – he
admitted – to
speak about a
theme that
arouses much
passion.
Spiritual
scientific
truths leave
no room for
sympathy and
antipathy if
they are to be
taken up
properly.1
And
what is one to
say about the
present, when
a vertical
‘civil war’ of
opinions is
being waged on
this question?
Clearly we
have to strive
for peace and
many-sided
understanding
under the
principle
formulated by
Pyotr
Chaadayev: The
truth is more
precious than
our native
land.
We will
take as a
starting-point
for our
discussion of
the question
of Messianism
the article The
Founding of
the State of
Israel as a
Mirror of
Europe’s
Tragedy by A.
Reuveni,
published in
the magazine Info3
(No.
1-1992). The
article is
interesting in
that the
strong,
correct views
on the problem
we are about
to examine
combine in it
in a
particularly
expressive way
with the weak
and incorrect
views. This
becomes
especially
clear when we
compare the
article with
the book The
Riddle of the
Jewish People
by
Ludwig
Thieben, first
published in
1930, and
reprinted in a
new Edition in
1991.
Thieben’s
book – it can
be said
without
exaggeration –
was an heroic
deed. The
author was
successful in
an
extraordinarily
difficult,
even
dangerous,
undertaking.
He was able as
an
Anthroposophist
to raise
himself above
national and
racist
passions and
speak purely
out of the
spirit of
truth. How
difficult this
is, only those
will know who
have worked on
other problems
that are
equally
surrounded by
countless
ahrimanic
spirits of the
lie, of
hatred, chaos
and
destruction.
The entire
strength of
ahrimanic
spirits, their
existence
itself, is
based on human
ignorance, and
so these
spirits will
not tolerate a
consciousness
that is
audacious
enough to wish
to examine
their nature
more closely.
Whoever does
this all the
same will
experience in
his soul an
incredibly
refreshing,
liberating
effect surging
in great waves
over the world
of all that is
true. Thus,
after reading
Thieben we
were able to
experience in
our soul
something of
the mood
described in
the Acts of
the Apostles:
Then
were they all
of good
cheer... (Acts
27;36).
Let us
look first at
Reuveni’s
article. In it
he analyses
the
development of
the individual
thinking
consciousness
in the Jews of
antiquity, who
at the
beginning of
our era were
at a stage
reached by the
other
(European)
nations only
many centuries
later. Here,
however, it
must be
pointed out
for the sake
of precision
that the Greek
philosophers
had already in
the 4th and 3rd century
B.C. attained
the highest
level in the
development of
conceptual
thought, the
principal aim
of the entire
fourth
cultural
epoch.
Still
more
questionable
is Reuveni’s
assertion that
the Jews were
able
under
the guidance
of Jehovah to
bring the new
forces of the
‘I’ so far,
that an
incorporation
of the Christ
into a human
body became
possible. We
ask why the
author, when
he turns to
spiritual-scientific
analysis, does
not make the
crucial
distinction
between the
concepts of
‘incorporation’
and
‘incarnation’.
We also know
that the ‘I’
of the great
initiate
Zarathustra
was incarnated
in the body of
Jesus of
Nazareth until
the baptism in
the Jordan. It
should be
emphasized
that an ‘I’ of
this nature
could not
incarnate in
any body
imaginable.
Where the
Christ himself
is concerned,
the Nathan
soul became
his
‘godfather’
(Taufvater).
We also know
of the
participation
of the
Nirmanakaya of
the Buddha in
the process of
God becoming
man. In short,
the best that
had been
developed in
the evolution
of all of humanity
by its great
leaders –
Zarathustra,
Buddha, Moses,
Abraham –
united, so
that God was
able to live
for three
years as a
human being.
But
Christianity,
in Rudolf
Steiner’s
words, was
born into
the soul of
the Jews, into
the spirit of
the Greeks and
the body of
the Roman
Imperium (Dec.
24, 1918, GA
187). This into
the soul of
the Jews makes
it difficult
for us to
agree with
Reuveni when
he states that
the Jews were
ahead of other
nations in the
development of
thinking
consciousness.
The Greek
culture was,
after all, the
‘godfather’
(Taufvater) of
Christianity.
Not for
nothing did
Augustine call
the Greek
philosophers Christians
before
the coming of
Christ.
The
spirit of
form, Jahve,
gave the spark
of the ‘I’ to
all of
humanity. It
was this spark
that even
determined the
evolution of
the threefold
body – the
physical,
etheric and
astral – in
the epochs of
the
root-races,
the Lemurian,
Atlantean,
etc. In the
post-Atlantean
root-race the
mastery of the
individual ‘I’
took its
course through
the cultural
epochs. The
rational-soul,
developed by
the Greeks, is
basically
identical with
the ‘I’, but
only a few
individuals in
Greece,
generally the
philosophers,
had mastered
it.
The
development of
the Jews in
antiquity,
even in the
old Egyptian
epoch, is in
many respects
an exceptional
phenomenon.
The most
important
factor
distinguishing
them from all
other peoples
of that time,
was that the
spirit of form
– a being of,
not the third,
but the second hierarchy!
– assumed the
leadership of
this people.
This mighty
spirit had a
tremendously
strong
influence on
the formation
of the physical
brain of the
Jews, which
was endowed
with the
capacity for
abstract
thinking
sooner than
other peoples.
What
does this
imply? – That
all humanity
of ancient
times moved on
the path of
evolution
through the
continuous
development of
the
sentient-soul
and later the
rational-soul
to the
challenge of
the ‘I’. In
this process cultural
work played
the most
important
part. It
represented a
temporal
process
of gradual
ascent from
the
group-consciousness
to individual
consciousness.
The
structure of
the threefold
body of the
Jews was
transformed,
under the
mighty
influence from
above, so to
speak into the
vertical, with
the line of
inheritance
being woven
into it. And
in this lay
the importance
and uniqueness
of their
development. They
acquired the
body that was
able to be the
bearer of the
‘I’-consciousness,
in the line of
inheritance
and not
through
individual
development.
The latter
took place on
the level of
the sentient
soul or even
the soul-body.
This
made possible
the
incarnation of
the two
Jesus-children,
whereby in the
one, the
Solomon-child,
there dwelt
the most
advanced human
‘I’ (that of
Zarathustra),
whilst the
innocent part
of the soul of
humanity that
had remained
completely
untouched by
individual
earthly
development
was incarnated
in the other.
A
development
somewhat
similar to
that undergone
by the Jews in
ancient times
takes place in
the Middle
European
peoples within
our own
cultural
epoch. In the
recent past
the spirit of
the German
people was
Michael – an
Archangel who
stood already
on the level
of an Archai,
a time-spirit
(but not a
Spirit of
Form). Under
his influence
the Germans
received the
impulse for
the
development of
the ‘I’ – not
of the ‘I’
that is
identical with
the
rational-soul,
nor yet the
universal-human
and highest
‘I’ that was
bestowed by
the Spirit of
Form, but the
‘I’ as
the mobile
centre of
self-consciousness, that
is able to
control and
synthesize the
activity of
the threefold
soul.
This ‘I’
creates a
bridge between
the ‘I’ that
is developed
(horizontally)
in the
cultural-historical
process, and
the Christ-’I’
that descends
to us
(vertically)
from above.
Reuveni
has obviously
not made all
this clear to
a sufficient
degree, and so
he continues:
Through
the premature
development of
the ‘I’ and of
the power of
thinking, the
Jews became a
robust and
self-enclosed
people ... A
paradox arose
in history
when the Jews
had already
fallen into a
decadence of
their
one-sidedly
developed
‘I’-forces,
when the other
peoples of
Europe –
especially
Middle- and
Western Europe
– were taking
their first
steps in this
direction. This
thought is not
without
originality,
but its basic
assumption is
false.2
Before
the coming of
Christ the
Jews merely
experienced an
illumination
through the
lighting up of
the ‘I’. It
acted as a
uniting,
tribal basis
or principle,
as a
consolidating
member, right
down into the
physical body,
but did not
lead to an
individual
development of
the ‘I’. This
process is
comparable to
what the
Russians are
living through
now. The
heavens, says
Rudolf
Steiner, speak
in mysterious
runes to the
Russians
through the
mirroring on
the earth.
This causes an
instinctive
experience
of the wisdom
of the
Spirit-Self to
germinate in
their souls,
but it is in
no way the
fruit of
individual
striving.
These
inspirations
have a certain
influence on
our threefold
body, above
all the
astral, and
prepare this
for the future
cultural
epoch. With
regard to the
development of
the individual
‘I’ and the
threefold
soul, the
Russian has
the same task
as any other
European
(obviously
with certain
nuances).
Let us
recall that
the first
seeds of
sentient and
consciousness-soul
were implanted
in man at the
end of the Old
Moon aeon,
when racial
differentiation
did not yet
exist. It is
clear that
these souls –
a gift of the
Spirits of
Movement –
formed an
intermediate
link between
the
spirit-self,
which had also
been bestowed
on the Old
Moon, and the
threefold
bodily nature.
They worked
out of the
spirit on to
this threefold
nature and
were thus the
mediators
for the
creative
impulses of
the Spirits of
Movement. It
is clear that
such a soul
acted as a
demiurge,
super-personally.
All
that man makes
his own as a
personal
acquisition
has already
long before
worked into
him out of the
spirit. When
Moses received
the
Commandments
from the
Spirit of Form
itself, they
became an
integral part,
not of secular
society, but
of a system of
religious
education. Of
course this
was a special
religion – the
religion of
the approach
of the future
‘I’ that
through its
deeds can
resurrect the
dead. For this
reason
Christianity
confesses not
only to the
New, but also
to the Old
Testament.
But
just as in
modern times
by no means
every
Christian is
equal to the
lofty demands
of the New
Testament,
only few of
the Jews of
antiquity were
able to hold
the ‘I’ in
another human
being in high
regard, as it
is written in
the
Commandments
of Moses. The
tragic
destinies of
the prophets
testify to
this. At the
time of Christ
the religious
condition of
Jewish
society, and
above all its
spirituality,
was in a state
of general
decline.
Christ speaks
of this many
times. And
this was so
when the
Elohim Jahve
was still the
spirit of the
Jewish people.
The
religious
education of
the Jews
appealed to
conceptual
activity.3
In the
synagogues
they practised
the commenting
and
interpreting of the
articles of
faith, of the
laws and
traditions.
There was
nowhere else
in the ancient
world where
anything like
this went on.
It is only
today that
religious
practice of
this kind has
become a
common and
familiar
image. Truly,
the Judaism of
the Jews of
antiquity was
a religion of
the future.
But the
majority of
the Jews lived
in the
sentient soul
as it had been
developed in
the third, the
Egypto-Chaldean,
cultural
epoch. They
were educated
in the
commandments
through
religion,
through direct
influence on
the etheric
body, which
in its turn
promoted the
development of
the physical
brain as an
instrument of
abstract
thinking. Thus
the Jews found
their relation
to the
rational soul
in a very specific
way,
while the
direct
approach to
its
development in
Greece and
Rome led
through the
unfolding of
astral and
etheric body
with the help
of the
increasingly
secular
culture and
the various
forms of
societal life.
There
the ether-body
was formed
through
cultural
activity and
philosophy,
and the first
beginnings of
the book of
common law.
These
are a few
guiding
thoughts
towards an
understanding
of the mission
of the Jews.
Their
development in
ancient times
was an
exception, not
in the sense
that they had
anticipated
evolution but
in the sense
of the fulfilment
of a special
task that is
not realized
by the forces
of the
immanent
lawful
structure of
earth
evolution,
which takes
place through
a series of
metamorphoses,
each
consisting of
seven stages.
This evolution
had reached
the lowest
point of its
descent to the
earthly plane
in the fourth
cultural
epoch. And now
the
development of
the entire
aeon stood
before the
task of
gathering
forces for the
ascent. Now
transcendentally,
from above,
the immanent
lawfulness was
‘corrected’. God
Himself united
with man and
the kingdoms
of nature, and
into all he
implanted the
impulse of
ascent. This
is the
intervention
from above
that occurred
only once in
the evolution
of the world,
and which was
of decisive
significance
for the
development of
the Jews in
the
pre-Christian
era. Normally
the lawful
structure of
earthly
development
changes in
Pralaya, and
in order for
this to take
place, the
phenomenal
world has to
be
spiritualized.
Christ
brought the
great Pralaya
immediately
into
Manvantara: he
altered the
lawful
structure of
the material
world. In
correspondence
to this
mission of the
Christ the
Jewish people
was also led:
As a result of
this, not
earthly
evolution
changed, but
the
transcendental
force.
Here it
is essential
to take into
account the
following
methodological
consideration.
In every
cultural epoch
a given nation
(or several
nations) has
to fulfil the
main task of
development,
working on the
levels of
evolution,
culture and
civilization.
It fulfils
this task
through a
process of creation, for
which concrete
life-forces
are needed.
Through this
activity these
forces are
used up, and
shortly before
the fulfilment
of the task
the etheric
aura of the
nation is
exhausted. As
the seed-leaf
wilts when the
impulse of
metamorphosis
moves upwards
with the stem
of the plant,
a folk that
has fulfilled
its task falls
into
decadence,
whilst the
impulse of
cultural
creation
passes to
another folk,
or several
others. One
can see for
oneself that
this is so,
through
comparing the
culture of
Persia, Egypt
and Greece
today with
their cultures
in antiquity.
There is
nothing
belittling or
offensive in
this
observation,
or in the
circumstance
that the
life-forces of
an aging
person are in
a process of
decline. Development
follows the
path of
sacrifice, and
to this belong
birth,
flowering and
passing away.
The
Jews prepared
the body for
God and
thereby
fulfilled a
special task
of
development.
This demanded
of them an
extraordinary
expenditure of
life-forces.
At the moment
when God
finally became
man these
forces were
well-nigh
exhausted.
Because of the
great
abundance of
life-forces
required for
this task, it
is not
conceivable
that just any
Jew could have
made possible
the
incarnation of
the God. The
enhanced use
of life-forces
was necessary
because the
entire nation
was as it
were raised above
the general
human
development
where the
gradual
unfolding of
the
three-membered
soul was
taking place,
and it was
subjected to
an influence
of the higher
‘I’ such as
otherwise only
occurs in the
process of
preparation
for initiation.
Work
was done with
the Jews, in
the same
spirit as
Socrates when
he taught his
pupils, as an
esoteric
exercise, to
think in
concepts. In
those days it
was truly a
task of
initiation
pointing to
the future. In
the case of
the Jews the
development of
conceptual
thinking, as
we have
already
mentioned, was
accomplished
on the path of
religion, i.e.
by using
not astral,
but the
etheric
forces. But
from the
moment of the
exodus from
Egypt, to God
becoming man,
the whole
people was
treading the
path of
Initiation.
The Old
Testament is
not history in
the usual
sense of the
word, but the
story of a ‘path of
initiation’, of
trials of
initiation on
the path to
the mystery,
at the
mid-point of
which God
Himself
appears. With
the event of
the Mystery of
Golgatha the end
of this path
had been
reached.
In the
Chymical
Wedding of
Christian
Rosenkreutz we read
how on the
final day he
simply returns
home. And
similarly the
seventh
alchemical
seal (key)
portrays a
scene from
everyday life,
where a pupil
who has passed
through the
complicated
and movingly
instructive
path of
initiation is
shown in his
laboratory
amongst his
instruments
and books
absorbed in
his
experiments,
and as the
only reminder
of his
experiences,
sun and moon
are shining
together
through the
window. – This
is the law of
every rightful
initiation: After
its completion
the pupil
returns to the
circle of his
fellow-men and
devotes
himself to
their service.
Thus it
happened too
with the old
Israelites.
This people in
its entirety
had travelled
the path of
initiation
where
everything is
different from
the everyday
world. After
the
resurrection
of the Lord it
had the task
of returning
to the cradle
of humanity in
order to
become the
soil through
which
everything new
that had been
received
through the
greatest of
all mysteries
might be
brought to
humanity. On this
new path the
Jews had to
bridge the gap
in the
development of
the threefold
soul as it
evolves in the
cultural-historic
process, and
thus attain a
certain
perfection
through
combining that
which in the
Old Testament
pointed into
the future, to
the epoch of
the
consciousness-soul,
with the New
Testament,
with the
impulse of
Golgatha and
with all that
had been
achieved at
that time by
the
Greco-Roman
culture. In
other words:
the Jews had to
give something
to the world,
and they had
to receive
something from
the world. Therefore
they were
scattered over
the world; it
became their
task to adapt
to other
peoples, to be
assimilated
and to
dissolve in
them. The
chosenness was
ended, the
goal of
initiation
attained,
through which
they were
qualitatively
distinct from
the other
Semitic
peoples. They
had
accomplished
something that
was of service
to mankind as
a whole, and
that had to be
brought to
mankind as a
whole. It was
not
appropriate
for them to
live like the
other Semites,
as peoples of
the third
Egyptian-Chaldean
cultural epoch
– just as
little as a
person who has
gone through
an initiation
can continue
to live as
others do.
But
luciferic and
ahrimanic
spirits had
their part in
the initiation
process. Their
intention to
tempt Christ
in the
wilderness was
also directed
towards all
the Jews. What
they failed to
achieve with
Christ, was
crowned by no
mean success
in the case of
the clerics –
the Pharisees
and Sadducees.
One ought to
make some
effort to
grasp the fact
that man, when
he thinks in
concepts, does
something
God-like – he
creates out of
nothing. In
its initial
manifestations
conceptual
thinking had,
furthermore, a
substance of a
luciferic
nature. Jewish
antiquity
overcame
Lucifer
through cultic
service to
Jahve – the
countenance of
Christ. But
after Christ’s
coming
everything was
new. One had
either to
accept Christ,
or one
succumbed to
luciferic-ahrimanic
temptations
without the
support of Jahve,
who at that
time ceased to
be the spirit
of the Jewish
people.
In this
constellation
of forces is
rooted the
phenomenon of
the human
being who
wished to be
God –
Ahasuerus. It
was all the
easier for
this
phenomenon to
arise because
the ahrimanic
forces
harboured a
special
antipathy
against the
Jews since
they had
fulfilled
their mission.
When the
Mystery of
Golgatha was
accomplished
Ahriman craved
revenge. Under
his influence
there was
conserved in a
great number
of Jews an attitude
of expectation
of a Messiah
who is yet to
come, which
prevented them
from being
assimilated
and from
accepting
Christianity.
– The Mystery
continued
therefore, but
it took on a
tragic
character; it
became a
Mystery in
reverse.
If the
Jews had not
had a mission
to fulfil,
they would
have been
quite
indistinguishable
from the rest
of the
Semites. If
they had only
had to fulfil
the task of
the
Greco-Latin
culture, they
would also
have gone into
decline
together with
that culture.
If Ahriman’s
hatred alone
had prevailed,
they would
have been
completely
destroyed. But
if they had
accepted
Christianity,
they would
have dissolved
entirely in
European and
Asiatic
humanity and
the entire
history of
Christian
civilization
would in a
certain sense
have more
successful.
But, as so
often happens
in life,
something far
more
complicated
came about:
The elements
of all the
variants
mentioned here
combined in
the destiny of
the Jews.
The Man of the Old and the New Testament
Rudolf
Steiner says
that the
ancient Jewish
people was kept
in a
culturally
immature
condition
until the
coming of
Christ (but
the Buddha
could not
simultaneously
have appeared
in this
people). The
Jews were
unable to
experience the
law given to
them through
revelation, as
having arisen
in their own
soul. As a
result of this
delayed
development it
was possible
for the
mission to be
fulfilled at
the right
moment – the
fruit had
become ripe.
We can
understand the
role in
development of
the old
prophets who
introduced the
law, when we
bear in mind
that with
their
supersensible
being they
were lifted
out of their
bodily nature,
their earthly
incarnation
(cf. Sept. 20,
1909, GA 114).
Even in
Moses
intellectuality
lit up in the
form of the
old
clairvoyance,
although he
already
mastered the
new impulse
(cf. Mar. 9,
1911, GA 60),
the impulse of
the individual
‘I’-consciousness.
The
prophets had,
as the leaders
of the Jewish
people, to
preserve the
connection to
the
supersensible,
from which, as
the Egyptian
priests before
them, they
received the
knowledge that
enabled them
to guide the
people. But
the basic
tendency
implanted in
the people as
a whole to
develop
towards
intellectualism
caused the old
clairvoyant
capacities to
die out. They
were replaced
by the
thinking which
grew out of
the forces of
heredity. This
capacity
channelled all
the interests
of this people
towards the
earthly.
Rudolf Steiner
calls the
world-view of
the ancient
Jews
‘geology’. God
created for
Himself a physical
body
for the
earthly
incarnation. It was a
matter of
creating a
form in which
a spirit could
exist which
came, not from
below upwards,
i.e. out of
evolution, but
from above
downwards,
from that
realm where
something
inconceivable
to our earthly
imagination –
Pralaya –
exists. Every
consciousness
that has
become
Christian
ought to come
to terms with
this fact. Man
normally
directs his
attention from
the earthly to
the heavenly.
But only now
can he do this
out of his own
strength and
in freedom,
because once the
ascent to the
heights (to
what is above)
was
accomplished
by means of a
deepening of
the connection
with the
physical earth
(to what is
below). Such
a development
stood in stark
contrast to
all the
principles of
initiation in
ancient times.
The
Jews fulfilled
their special
task. They
kept the
principle of
heredity pure,
and created
the physical
body best
suited for the
descending
God, a body
that is
permeated
through and
through with
the ‘I’-force
of the Spirit
of Form, which
works by way
of the blood
(and thus
mainly through
the
ether-body).
Outwardly the
people, living
under the
conditions of
the
ancient-culture,
was in an
altogether
pitiable
state. At the
time it was as
though not of
this world –
deprived of
clairvoyance,
given over to
everyday life
with its
purely
materialistic
interests much
more than
others, bound
hand and feet
by blood
relationships
– unsuited for
the
development of
conceptual
thinking.
Rudolf
Steiner gives
a description
of the life of
Jesus from the
12th to the
18th year
when his soul
penetrated the
Jewish
teaching ever
more deeply,
and was less
and less able
to be
satisfied by
it. Indeed, it
increasingly
caused him
pain and
suffering (Nov.
4, 1913, GA
148). The
luciferic-ahrimanic
influence made
itself felt in
him ever more
acutely
because the
Jews were,
sooner than
all the other
peoples,
immersed in
the earthly
element to an
extreme
degree. But
they were also
the first to
sense the
impulse of
liberation
from the
earthly, the
impulse of a
future
elevation,
although the
old in its
downward
movement had
already become
very strongly
subject to the
law of
inertia. How
was this later
mirrored in
the Christian
world? The
ideas – we are
told by Rudolf
Steiner – that
were current
in the Old
Testament ...
the
ideas of Old
Testament
Judaism that
were made
worldly in
Romanism although
it stands in
contrast to
Judaism; in
the worldly
sphere it is
what Judaism
is
spiritually,
these ideas
have come into
our present
time via the
roundabout
path of
Romanism, they
steal
in like
spectres. This
Old Testament
thinking that
has not yet
been
Christianized
must be
sought, as to
its true
origin, in
human beings ...
This
thinking is
dependent on
what can be
passed down
from
generation to
generation
through the
blood ... our
thinking falls
into two
members, two
parts. One
kind of
thinking is
that which we
have through
our
development up
until birth,
which we
inherit from
our fathers or
from our
mothers (so it
is to this
day, and in it
is revealed
the activity
of the Spirit
of Form who
gave the ‘I’
to humanity).
We
are able to
think as men
thought in the
Old Testament
because we
were embryos.
This is also
the essential
feature of the
old Jewish
people, that
in the world
that is lived
through
between birth
and death it
did not want
to learn more
than what is
acquired as a
faculty
through the
fact that one
has been an
embryo until
birth. The
second, the
earthly mode
of thinking
can only be
acquired by
man as an
occultist,
when he works
through his
experience in
the spirit of
the Philosophy
of Freedom and Knowledge
of Higher
Worlds,
because the
Mystery of
Golgatha in
its unique
character can
never be
grasped with
the thinking
that one has
by virtue of
one’s
embryonic
development.
... [it] has
to be
understood not
from what is
of the moon,
but from what
is of the sun
... This is
the great
difference
between what
is
Christianized
and what is
not
Christianized
(Nov.
29, 1918, GA
186).
In this
way the
element with
which the Jews
first had
contact – the
development of
thinking – now
entered the
evolutionary
process fully
and
completely,
just as the
sentient and
rational-soul
had entered it
at an earlier
stage. But
this thinking
is not able to
lead man out
of the closed
circle of
evolution. It
is geo-centric
and
egocentric. It is
only capable
of grasping
what is given
to man from
nature. In
ancient times
it was the
primary task
of the human
being, who was
still a group
being, to
develop this
Jahve-thinking.
Already in the
distant past
Jahve for this
reason removed
from the earth
the influence
of the other
six Elohim
who, when the
sun separated
from the
earth,
remained on
the sun. Thus,
so Rudolf
Steiner tells
us, the
knowledge of
these Elohim
that had
remained on
the earth was
transposed
into the
sphere of
fantasy. With
the help of
the elemental
beings of
nature Jahve
began to
counteract the
activity of
the sun-Elohim
who, as a
consequence of
this, were
able to
express
themselves
solely through
the
Christ-impulse.
A
world-wide
historical
necessity was
active in the
work of Jahve
– the physical
body (but
not the
spirit) had to
be elevated
for the
God who was
descending
towards man.
Expressed in
modern terms,
this was a
movement
upwards on a
ladder that
led downwards
– a movement
that is unique
and
unparalleled
in its
perfection.
And it had its
karma. Already
in the middle
of the 19th century
A.D. (in the
’Forties) it
happened that
Jahve
Himself in his
influence on
human
consciousness
(not
only of the
Jews) was
gradually
overwhelmed by
the power of
the spirits he
had invoked
... So that
the earlier
quest for the
one God in
nature,
through the
influence of
the forces
working in
opposition,
went over to
mere atheistic
natural
science, into
mere atheistic
natural-scientific
thinking and,
in the
practical
field, into
mere
utilitarian
thinking ...
in the field
of social
thinking it
became Marxism
and suchlike (Ibid.).
So
strongly do
the accents
shift in the
course of
evolution.
People today
who are not
willing to
develop the
new way of
thinking want
to bring
humanity not to
individual
culture but, merely
to
folk-cultures, which
already
started to
become an
anachronism
two thousand
years ago. One
should not
believe that
only National
Socialism and
the later
Bolshevists
pursue this
goal. The call
to divide the
peoples into
separate
national
entities was
heard from
America and
resounds
deafeningly in
the Russia of
the
post-communist
epoch.
Wilson’s call,
as
characterized
by Rudolf
Steiner, is
the
ahrimanically
retarded call
for the
founding of a
culture where
all peoples
represent only
folk-cultures;
that is,
cultures of
the people of
the Old
Testament. All
the peoples
throughout the
earth want to
become similar
to the Jewish
people of the
Old Testament,
that is
Woodrow
Wilson’s call
(Dec.
7, 1918,
GA186). And
apparently
with the aim
of realizing
this, the most
nationalistic
state in the
world is set
up at the
height of
Western
democracy –
the immediate
revival of the
Old Testament
Jewish nation.
But with a way
of thinking
gained only
through
heredity, one
cannot
understand how
atavistic such
an initiative
is.
Everywhere
in the world,
towards the
end of the 20th century,
the banners of
state
self-determination,
arising from
the influence
of Jahve, are
hoisted out of
the force of
nationalism.
But this
regression to
the old
religion of
Jahve does not
bring
liberation.
Behind it is
concealed the
deep spiritual
and social
crisis of
Christian
civilization,
whose nature
Rudolf Steiner
describes as
follows: People
of the present
time have,
because they
have lost the
old
mystery-wisdom
that could
point to the
Mystery of
Golgatha, more
or less
accepted ....
the Jahve
religion under
the leadership
of the
liberal-worldly
'Chief-Rabbi
WIlson'! (July
11, 1920, GA
198).
At the
same time,
Rudolf Steiner
emphasizes, it
is important
to point out that
for the last
time mighty,
far-reaching
attempts of
the
Jahve-impulse
will take
place in what
is understood
as the international
socialism
of the
proletariat.
It is
basically the
final
death-struggle
of the
Jahve-impulse.
We stand
before the
peculiar fact
that every
nation will
become a
Jahve-nation,
and every
nation will at
the same time
claim the
right to
spread its
Jahve-cult,
its socialism
over the
entire earth (Dec.
7, 1918, GA
186). We would
observe that
it was for
this reason
that, for
example,
Russia’s
border with
Poland was no
less secured
than that with
Turkey or
China. Despite
all the
assurances of
the brotherly
unity of the
nations in the
socialistic
camp, each
nevertheless
sat in its
cubicle. And
later came the
quarrels over
the various
‘models’ of
socialism. And
if under
different
circumstances
a process of
liberation
takes place,
as propaganda
says, the end
result, as in
the Balkans,
is invariably
the same
again: peoples
are barred up
in national
cages like
individual
species of
animals.
In the
sphere of
spiritual life
– Rudolf
Steiner says
–, rabbinical
theology (not of
Judaism, of
course; the
nature of
European
science is
meant, as well
as of
theology) ...
will
always
reinterpret
through the
intellect what
is spread
throughout the
sense world as
forces of
heredity, and
for which one
should train
oneself
through
spirit-perception,
so that one
may already in
the inherited
traits
discover the
spirit in the
sense world (Oct.
6, 1918, GA
184). Here lie
the origins of
racial
theories.
Finally
it happens,
says Rudolf
Steiner in
another
lecture-cycle,
when you
go into those
societies,
into the
Masonic Odd
Fellows-Societies
for instance,
that do not
have the new
spiritual-scientific
knowledge but
their old
knowledge ...
[that you]
find above all
... the Jewish
element in
them, the
so-called
Cabbala and so
on (May 8,
1924, GA 353).
In this
way the crisis
of the entire
civilization
of today is
determined by
a universally
active
syndrome that
may be called
the
Jahve-syndrome.
But this arose
because, since
the time of
the creation
of the world
on Old Saturn,
an impulse of
movement was
given to
evolution from
above to below
– from spirit
to matter. In
the course of
this linear
or, rather,
half-circle
movement (see
figure 1)
humanity was
simultaneously
endowed with
the impulse of
the ‘I’
together with
the threefold
body. This ‘I’
was brought to
man partly
from above
through
revelation,
but primarily
through a
process of
interweaving
into the
immanent
structural law
of the
evolution of
species. The
biogenetic law
had a partial
effect also on
soul-development.
This law is a
unified chain
of
metamorphoses
moving forward
in time: life
processes –
sense
perceptions –
sensation –
sympathies and
antipathies –
judgments.
This entire path of evolution leads man to acquisition of the lower ‘I’ that can only unfold within the material world and can only work in the forces of heredity, because its genesis is rooted in the organic. With the coming of Christ, transcendental laws of development were bestowed on ‘I’-consciousness, and with it the impulse to ascent, to the spiritualization not only of civilization, but of the universe. Whatever is not willing to take up these forces will move further downwards, into the sub-material, and will fall out of the normal course of evolution. The three future aeons will have a kind of mirror-image or double in the ahrimanic-luciferic sub-natural world.
But we
cannot say
that nothing
good was done
by Jahve when
be brought the
impulse of the
‘I’ into the
forces of
heredity. In
post-Atlantean
times human
culture arose
as bridge
between blood
relationships
and the
highest
spiritual
element. This
enabled the
developing
threefold soul
to free itself
increasingly
from the
tribal. It had
then to go
through the
epoch of
materialism,
which resulted
in the final
‘completion’
of
‘I’-consciousness
within the
world of sense
experience.
But two
thousand years
earlier the
mighty force
of ascent, of
up-ward
striving, had
already
entered the
forces of
earth
development.
Thus,
we can imagine
the principle
of earthly
development as
a cross. Along
the horizontal
axis moves
what is known
as the
evolution of
species, not
in the
over-simplified
Darwinist
sense, but in
the way it is
described by
Rudolf Steiner
in Occult
Science, An
Outline. The
hierarchy of
descending and
ascending
sevenfold
metamorphoses
is active
here. Each of
its cycles has
the form of a
chalice, as
depicted in
the diagram.
On one level
of evolution
there arises
the ‘chalice’
of the seven
root-races.
The Spirits of
Form, the
Elohim, guide
each of the
seven members
of this cycle
of
metamorphosis.
Jahve who, as
an exception,
became the
leader of the
Jewish people,
caused the
mood to arise
in this people
that it was
not a nation,
but a race.
Jahve
rules in the
combined
development of
all seven
cultural
epochs that
together form
the fifth
post-Atlantean
root-race, but
as a result of
his
acceptance, as
a folk-spirit,
of the role of
an Archangel,
his negative karma formed
– Ahasuerus.
The
overcoming,
the
transformation
of Ahasuerus
frees Jahve
from karma,
which a Spirit
of Form may
not have.
But
Ahriman, the
spirit of
matter, made
Ahasuerus his
instrument,
and approaches
his
incarnation
conscious of
the cosmic
legitimacy of
his activity.
In his opinion
the coming of
Christ –
viewed
cosmically –
was an
infringement
of all laws,
and the basis
for this point
of view can be
seen to lie in
the fact that
the
hierarchies allowed
the existence
of Ahriman
only in the
horizontal
plane of world
evolution. That
is why he
acknowledges
only this
evolution, by
which he
understands
the force of
descent, the
densification
of the spirit
which, after
having passed
through a
certain
zero-point
(the point of
the material),
has to go over
into the
sub-material,
into
sub-nature. In
order to bring
about such a
transition,
Ahriman must
strive to
incarnate in
the physical
world.
Through
the deed of
Christ
becoming man,
which took
place on the
basis of the
law of
‘vertical’
evolution (the
evolution of
the free
spirit, but
not of
species), the
evolution of
species
acquires the
force of
ascent, of
spiritualization.
For Ahriman
this means
that ‘chaos’
is brought
into the
logically-constructed
chain of the
evolution of
species. To
him free-will
is an
absurdity.
Even the
angels,
Ahriman seems
to want to
say, do not
have free will
– and now it
is to be given
to man, of all
beings! Only
through the
stream of
heredity shall
man attain the
‘I’, whose
highest point
is abstract
thinking. To
Ahriman the
absolutely
free ‘I’ of
man seems
unnatural, an
affront
against all
the laws of
nature.
Ahriman
is obedient to
God the Father
because the
Father
entrusted him
with the role
of
consolidator
of matter, but
he is an
opponent of
God the Son
and is unable
to understand
that the
Father sent
the Son into
the world. Ahriman
experiences
the Christ
after the
Mystery of
Golgatha as a
kind of
‘thorn’ in the
body of the
earth, as a
being who
violates the
laws of the
existence of
matter, who
frees the
human being
from the
destiny
allotted to
him by
Ahriman, of
sinking down
into the
sub-physical,
into the
so-called
eighth sphere.
Ahriman believes that the Father entrusted the world to him and not to Christ. He errs, but he errs cosmically. In the ‘chalice’ of evolution on the level of the life-condition (the rounds, the kingdoms), the previous three, and the half of the fourth round in which the world is today, are so to speak a guarantee that he is right. They are at the same time the justification for his claim to send the remaining three and a half rounds into the anti-world and eliminate the vertical component of evolution. In the struggle for his goals of development, now immediately connected to his incarnation, he sets great store by Ahasuerus. Therefore Ahasuerus must be taken from him. The most important part to be played in the fulfilment of this task of development falls to the Jews. Thus anyone who rejects them on account of national traits drives them directly into the arms of Ahriman-Ahasuerus; Zionism does the same. Under this aspect and for this reason the question of the Jewish people has become a question for all mankind, indeed the entire world.
The
world today is
going through
a crisis
because all
old impulses
of development
are exhausted,
they have come
to an end. The
human being is
drawn out of
evolution
under their
influence, and
because the
power of
transformation
given by
Christ lives
within him at
the same time,
he experiences
an inner
conflict of
soul-forces,
as in Goethe’s
Faust:
Two
souls, alas,
reside within
my breast,
And each would
fain be parted
from the other
...
In the
course of the
last 150 to
200 years this
separation has
taken on a
deeply tragic
character that
is also made
use of by the
dark
occult-political
forces. They
promise
restoration of
the lost unity
by offering
simplified
schemes for an
understanding
of the world –
the
ideologies. They all
lead away from
evolution.
Catholicism,
National
Bolshevism,
Britannicism,
Socialism-Bolshevism,
materialism,
secret
societies –
they represent
that gigantic
association of
atavistic
forces, where
the ghosts of
the Old
Testament hold
sway. And only
in a true
affirmation of
the Christ, to
which
Anthroposophy
leads, are
contained the
new forces of
development
that are able
to overcome
the crisis.
For this
reason, all
working with
Anthroposophy
is a matter of
great
responsibility.
It may not be
‘pursued’
superficially,
according to
whim, or in a
mood of
self-complacency
or false
egotistical
positivity, at
a time when
the world is
standing at
the threshold
of most
important
decisions, on
whose outcome
the
continuation
or the
downfall of
man and earth
depends.
Expressed
in modern
language one
might
formulate it
as follows: in
a certain
sense an
earthly-cosmic
‘referendum’
is taking
place. Three
forces are
involved. One
comes from the
heights – it
is the force
of Christ. It
explains to
people how
things stand,
and leaves
them free to
decide. The
other two
forces are
opposed to a
normal
development.
They are the
forces of
Lucifer and
Ahriman. They
use lies,
intimidation
and
compulsion. A
decision must
be take by
individuals as
well as by
entire
nations. We
are here
concerned with
what the
opposing
forces do to
the nations;
and also with
the battle to
save the human
individual and
mankind as a
whole through
the
dissemination
of spiritual
knowledge. The
Jews have a
central place
in this
chapter. Their
risk is here
no less than
that of the
Anglo-Saxons,
Germans,
Russians,
Italians etc.
But in the
destiny of
each nation
there is also
something specific
and
this needs to
be understood,
because
otherwise it
is very
difficult to
understand
what is
specific in
the idea of
redemption.
Jahve,
Ahasuerus,
Christ
We have
already spoken
of the fact
that Jahve
ceased to be
the spiritual
guide of the
Jewish nation
after the
Mystery of
Golgatha. The
nation
forfeited its
higher ‘I’
and, as in the
case of an
individual
human being,
who cannot
live without
his ‘I’, it
ought to have
dissolved,
dispersed.
This was also
the
peculiarity of
the ancient
Jewish people.
Other nations,
after
fulfilling
their cultural
mission, do
not lose their
archangelic
leader; he
merely
withdraws
somewhat and
takes on
luciferic
qualities. But
the spirit of
the Jewish
people was the
Spirit of
Form. The
scale of the
activity of
such beings
has a
planetary
character.
Once, and only
as an
exception in
the role of a
folk-spirit,
the Elohim
Jahve required
a mediator who
would
moderate, so
to speak, the
immense power
of his spirit,
that was
directed to a
nation. The
Archangel Michael
became
such a
mediator
between Jahve
and the Jewish
people.
What
would have
become of the
Old Testament
Jewish people
– Rudolf
Steiner asks –
if,
instead of
approaching
Jahve through
Michael, it
had wanted to
approach Jahve
directly? It
would have
resulted in an
intolerant,
national-egoistic
people, a
people that
can only think
of itself. For
Jahve ...
[reveals
himself] in
the being of a
nation (not
the
individual-human).
Only thanks to
Michael was
the Jewish
nation prevented
from becoming
so
national-egoistic
that not even
the Christ
Jesus could
have come
forth from the
midst of this
people (Dec.
25, 1919, GA
195).
So
complicated is
the weaving of
the ‘pattern’
of evolution.
And it would
indeed be
strange to
expect it to
be otherwise,
if only we
observe the
development of
an individual
human being.
Michael was
the
‘countenance
of Jahve’.
After the
Mystery of
Golgatha he
became the
‘countenance
of the Lord’,
the
‘countenance
of Christ’.
And the
peoples who
formed no
connection to
the
development of
the new
Michaelic
thinking are a
prey to
national
egoism, from
which the Jews
of antiquity
were
protected.
Their
separation
from the other
peoples did
not take place
out of
nationalistic
feelings. It
arose from the
necessity to
maintain the
purity of the
line of
heredity, as a
body was
prepared for
the God. We
always need to
bear in mind
that this
nation was
rooted in the
earthly in a
special way.
At that time
(but not
today) the
Jews truly
constituted
another race,
even within
the Semitic
peoples. In
the period
after the
Mystery of
Golgatha the
Jews also
forfeited the
mediating help
of the
Archangel
Michael. Only
the
after-effects
of the
Jahve-impulse
remained: the
tendency to
continue
striving
towards the
earthly,
although this
striving no
longer has any
sense; on the
contrary,
actually
becomes
dangerous! But
as it
insisted, the
nation
received
leadership,
and Ahasuerus
became its
leader, a
human being
who desired to
be God.
The
appearance of
this
exceptional
phenomenon was
due to the
one-sided
working of the
law that had
fallen into
decadence. Let
us recall how
the Apostle
Paul said that
by virtue of a
law he
considered
himself a perfect
and, by
implication, a
divine (?!)
being. Thus
even the most
legitimate
impulse turns
into its
opposite when
the task of
development
requires
something new.
Paul escaped
the tragedy
because he
understood
that his
former
perfection was
as nothing
before the
countenance of
Christ, since
it had no
forces within
it that could
transform and
resurrect the
body. But
another
ancient Jewish
initiate, Ahasuerus, did
not avoid this
error.
Just
as Christian
tradition – Rudolf
Steiner tells
us – points
to Christ
Jesus, the God
who lawfully
became man,
so, in
connection
with Christ
Jesus one can
also speak of
Ahasuerus, the
man who has
unlawfully
become God,
and who has
laid aside the
mortality of
human nature (in the
astral) ...
It exists,
this
Ahasuerus-figure
... the
eternal Jew
... The human
being will
perhaps not
always
recognize him;
he may take
him for
something
else. But it
is just as
possible that
the eternal
Jew appears to
a person, as
it is possible
(in
another case)
for
the Christ to
light up for
someone when
he looks into
his own inner
being (Mar.
24, 1922, GA
211).
Ahasuerus
wanders
constantly
over the earth
in astral
form. He
appears as an
astral
spectre. This
human
being who
becomes God,
but a
truncated God
who loses the
possibility of
dying ... the
God who
remains on the
physical plane
... develops
the
characteristics
that may
really only be
developed in
the land of
dreams.
It is
something
tremendous,
something
spirit-filled
that is placed
before our
souls. That to
the God is
added the man
who has become
God ... who
within earthly
development
also receives
the principle
that the Godhead
is not to
descend to the
physical plane:
Judaism, the
Old Testament
world-conception
(in the
Christian
era).
We
encounter a
mystery here.
Whoever has
insight into
these things
knows that
Ahasuerus is a
real being ...
Ahasuerus
exists, and
Ahasuerus is
the protector
of Judaism
after the
Mystery of
Golgatha ...
Ahasuerus, who
goes through
world-development
as a being,
but as a
spirit-being,
and who
continuously
hinders man
from returning
through the
Christ – the
way that is
appropriate to
his
development –
to the
spiritual
world he left
behind when he
lost the
atavistic
clairvoyance (Mar.
21, 1922, GA
211).
In the following lecture Rudolf Steiner draws the following conclusion: Thus we have the polar opposite to Christ Jesus in Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus wanders around over the earth ... wanders from nation to nation ... sees to it for example that the Hebrew faith does not die out (Mar. 24, 1922, GA 211).
If we
look at these
things without
superficiality,
if we do not
misuse or make
a sensation
out of them
but think of
them in the
light of
spiritual
science, we
cannot take
them in
without an
inner concern.
Inevitably the
question
arises: What
are we to do
with this
knowledge?
Rudolf Steiner
gives an
answer, but
under present
conditions it
should rather
not be brought
into the
public arena.
All hell will
break loose,
we will be
accused of
every mortal
sin, because
our entirely
Jahveized
civilization
(in its
essence, not
through a
supposed
world-wide
conspiracy of
the Jews)
seeks to play
the ‘card’ of
Ahasuerus in a
very big way.
It is
particularly
regrettable
that
passionate
‘players’ of
this kind also
exist in
anthroposophical
circles.
During
a lecture
Rudolf Steiner
was asked
about the
mission of the
Jews in the
world today.
He replied
that, as soon
as one only
starts to
speak on this
theme, one is
accused of
agitation. But
if we want to
be entirely
objective, we
must say that
the Jews did
extraordinarily
much to
prepare the
ground for the
Christian
development.
For the sake
of this they
had to confess
to the one God
Jahve. The one
God could have
no image; he
could only be
grasped in the
inmost soul,
through the
understanding.
But
it is also
easy to see
that, with
this, human
egoism was
condensed to
the highest
degree; for
the human
being becomes
a stranger to
all that is
outside him if
he sees the
spiritual only
in his own
person. And
this indeed
brought forth
a certain
folk-egoism in
the Jews, it
cannot be
denied. The
Jews,
especially
those who came
from Persia to
Europe, played
a very great
part in the
development of
medicine. But
medicine
thereby became
‘monotheistic’.
We no
longer know
how a
particular
remedy works,
just as little
as it was
known in
Judaism what
the individual
nature-spirits
are like. In
this way an
abstract
spirit, an
abstract
Jehovah-service
entered
medicine, that
is actually
still in
medicine today
... abstract
Jehovah-medicine
is actually
suited to
their whole
thinking; it
is attuned to
them. Of
course all
this arouses
antipathy
towards the
Jews, as
always happens
when a person
is different
from others.
But
today,
Rudolf Steiner
continues, it is
important to
realize that
this way of
holding
culture
together and
not letting it
fall apart, as
it has been
practised for
centuries by
the Jews, will
no longer be
necessary in
the future,
but in the
future this
has to be
replaced by a
strong
spiritual
cognition ...
Then a
single people
will
not need to work
in the
unconscious. That
is why I found
it a matter
for concern
from the
beginning,
that the Jews,
when they were
quite at a
loss, founded
the Zionist
movement. To
set up a
Jewish state
means to be
reactionary in
the most
appalling way,
in the most
shameful way
to return to a
reactionary
attitude and
in so doing
one offends
against
everything
that is
necessary in
this realm
today (May 8,
1924, GA 353).
In
conversation
with a Zionist
Rudolf Steiner
asked: Are
you not again
separating out
a part from
humanity as a
whole? And in
the lecture
quoted above
he explains
further: Let
an answer be
given to the
assertion that
everything
has to
develop, not
out of the
universal-human,
but out of the
national.
It was
the wish to
separate that
led to the
world war. Thus
the greatest
tragedy of the
20th century
has arisen out
of what the
Jews also
want. We can
say: Since
everything
that the Jews
have done could
now be done in
a conscious
way by all
people,4
for
example, the
Jews could
actually do
nothing better
than to be
assimilated
with the rest
of humanity,
to mix with
the rest of
humanity, so
that Judaism
as a people
would cease to
exist. That is
what would be
the ideal. But it
is opposed on
the one hand
by the habits
of the Jews,
and on the
other hand by
the
antipathies of
others. Both
must be
overcome.
This
fate of exile
came about for
the Jews
through their
own character;
they are
resilient and
maintained
themselves in
foreign lands.
This is why it
was noticed so
strongly in
later times. The
Jews
themselves
contributed
much to the
fact that they
were seen as
different from
others. Today
these things
are not to be
viewed
nationally,
but from the
aspect of the
universal-human
(Ibid.).
Thus the
Jahve-element
is today an
integral part
of the
nationalism of
all peoples,
including
those who,
unlike the
Jews, should
not as yet be
assimilated.
European
thinking as
such has in
many respects
preserved its
Old Testament
character. The
overcoming of
all this is
furthered by
culture and by
the true
Christianizing
of life. The
folk-spirits,
the
archangels,
the spirits of
language have
a moderating
influence on
the
materialistic
and abstract
spirit of the
epoch. The
Archangel
Michael – the
countenance of
the Lord –
leads the
human beings
who can take
their
development
into their own
hands, beyond
the national,
beyond the
folk-element,
to the level
of the
universal-human.
This
level has
absolutely
nothing in
common with
Internationalism
in the
socialist
sense. But it
has become
fashionable
today – also
with many who
are active as
‘teachers’
among
anthroposophists
– to ‘preach’
this
‘homelessness’,
this
supra-national
ideal in a
purely Marxist
sense. But the
wish simply to
break with the
national on an
ideological
basis is just
as dangerous
as when
everything is
done only out
of the
national. Our
task is simply
to grow
beyond it. In
the Gospel
Christ calls Nathanael
the
‘true
Israelite’ and
it means the
level of initiation
where
the pupil
experiences
what is common
to the whole
people, as
something
deeply
personal. Only
afterwards
can the
pupil raise
himself to the
level of
identification
with the
universal-human.
On the
general
exoteric
cultural path
we can rise to
the
universal-human
only when the
consciousness-soul
is realized in
us in the
spirit of
Michael, i. e.
through the
Christianizing
of the soul,
through laying
aside our own
ego in favour
of the ‘I’ of
the Christ. The
Marxist as
well as the
new
Pan-American
Internationalism
are based on
the sentient-
and (partly)
the rational
soul
(materialism),
and obstruct
all paths to
the
consciousness-soul.
A human
being who, in
his
development,
has never seen
the finest
products of
his national
culture, who
has not
learned to
experience
deeply the
aesthetics,
poetic
fantasy, mode
of thinking
and inner
nuances of his
own culture,
which is
inspired not
only by the
nation’s
Archangel but
also by the
Spirit of the
Time, will not
learn how to
appreciate all
this in other
cultures. He
has no basis
for
comparison.
But there
exists also a
one-sided
national-egoistic
experience of
culture; this
is the other
extreme. Humanity
has not yet
grown
culturally
beyond the
stage of
national
being, but it
has outgrown
the stage of
the uniformity
springing from
blood
relationships.
One
should not
confuse these
things! Brotherhood
in spirit must
triumph over
blood
brotherhood. That is
the Michaelic
impulse. In
cultural life
human beings
have to bring
the rich
variety of
nationally-coloured
cultures into
the spiritual
possession of
all humanity.
Otherwise the
nations will
be rejected by
their leading
archangels
and, instead
of Christ,
will be
subject to the
ahrimanic
spirit of the
epoch.
Owing
to their
unique,
specific
folk-destiny
the Jews no
longer have a
leading
archangel. If
they wish to
free
themselves
from the
rulership of
Ahasuerus,
they must
realize
themselves in
the impulses
of those
national
cultures to
which their
incarnation
has led them.
Individual
personalities
like Spinoza
and Lessing
then appear;
in Russia
there were the
artist
Levitan, the
composer Anton
Rubinstein and
others. When
this does not
take place,
the working
continues of
the
abstract-universalistic
impulse that
is acquired
solely through
the forces of
heredity and
makes of the
Jews the
‘element of
decomposition’
in modern
civilization.
It is no
coincidence,
says Rudolf
Steiner, that
the
men who by
their sharp,
clear, but
altogether
materialistic
thinking had
the greatest
influence in
recent times
on the
European
masses, Marx
and Lassalle,
were Jews (GA
262, p. 62).
There
can be no
differences of
opinion in the
question of
anti-Semitism,
just as little
as in the
question of
Russophobia or
Germanophobia
etc. But the
fanatical
insistence
that
everything
said or done
by Jews is
always right,
that other
peoples are
always to
blame for
their
misfortune,
can also lead
to no good.
Such
assertions
merely carry
the illness
deeper into
civilization
and worsen the
crisis all the
more. The
people who
base their
lives on the
knowledge
given by
spiritual
science must
come to
understand
that the
striving of
the Jews to
become a
nation, or
even a race,
leads them
unavoidably to
the ruling
influence of
Ahasuerus. This is
an occult fact
that provides
the basis for
a fruitful
conversation;
from those who
accept it we
may expect
judgments that
accord with
sense-supersensible
reality. We
must
understand
that the Jews
will not be
able to escape
this danger
without the
support of
other nations.
But
compassionate
sighs with
regard to
their national
separation are
not productive
of good.
Complete
national
tolerance must
be guaranteed
for those Jews
who wish to
assimilate
with the
nations in
whose midst
they were born
and grew up,
not to mention
those who have
long acted in
this way. In
Russia, for
example,
before the
‘Agiotage’5
concerning
emigration to
Israel was set
afoot, these
were as many
as 80%, maybe
more.
This is
one side of
the problem.
The other is
the sting of
Ahasuerus
within the
Jews
themselves.
Only they can
overcome it.
Ludwig Thieben
writes: The
tragic riddle
of the Jewish
people lies in
the fact that
the glory of
the
anticipation
of
Christianity
became its
shadow. This
shadow took on
the nature of
a being, in
Ahasuerus, the
nurturer of
post-Christian
Judaism. To
transform him
from his
sombre,
stooping form
into a being
of light who
joyfully
serves the
Christ is the
mission of
present and
future
Judaism.6
Thieben,
himself a Jew
and a
European, was
conscious of
the fact that
the destiny of
Ahasuerus is a
threat to the
destiny of
European
humanity as a
whole. But on
the other hand
the
false
immortality of
these nations
... [is] the
answer of the
cosmos to the
denial of the
resurrection.7
In his
uncompromising
study Thieben
provides the
question with
a consistently
esoteric
foundation and
even rejects
the
Judaeophilia
of Count
Kalergi, which
– we would add
– had a purely
political
background.
Thieben
recognizes
very precisely
the lie of
Zionism, which
tries to work
out of the
principles of
‘blood and
soil’ and
would turn merchants
and agents,
journalists,
lawyers and
doctors ...
into farmers
again.8
Zionism
and the idea
of a mission –
Thieben
concludes – are
spiritually
irreconcilable.
The
mission of the
Jews consists
in tearing
asunder the
chains of
Ahasuerus, in
order to be
able to follow
the
universal-human
path to the
central Being
of our world, i.e.
to Christ.9
It is
by no means
only a
question of
religious
persuasion
whether or not
we should
follow the
Christ. The
question of
personal
salvation,
which came
into the world
with Christ,
is connected
with the
ordering of
our own karma,
and of another
karma that
works within
the
progressive
stream of
incarnations.
However, a
progression is
possible only
if in each new
incarnation
the individual
human spirit
is active in a
different
nation or
race. Thus a
one-sided
striving
towards a
particular
nation should
be avoided
during life on
earth. We
should develop
a concrete
interest in,
and sympathy
for, other
nations and
races, and
indeed for
mankind as a
whole, so that
Christ can
become the
‘Lord of our
karma’. For if
a human being,
as Rudolf
Steiner says,
rejects
such a leader
of mankind,
[he] will
appear again (on the
earth) in
the same form.
And if the
same way of
thinking (fixation
in the
national,
earthly,
this-worldly,
in the
‘one-only
existence’ on
earth) lives
in him again,
then he will
in the next
incarnation
again reject
the leaders of
mankind, and
he will appear
again and
again in the
same form ...
because (in
this case) he
has only been
able to create
that one form.
This, on a
deeper level,
is the idea of
Ahasuerus, who
must always
appear in the
same form
because he
rejected the
hand of the
greatest
leader, the
Christ.
Thus
the human
being has the
possibility
either to fuse
together with
the nature of
one
incarnation,
to reject the
leader of
mankind, or to
go through a
transformation
to ever higher
perfection.
Races would
not grow
decadent or
pass away if
there were not
souls that
cannot advance
further ...
But for those
who want to
remain behind,
who want to
merge with the
race, the
possibility
exists that
‘with their
own gravity’
they descend
and dissolve
in the
material
world. There
are sixteen
ways of
merging with
the race. They
are called the
‘sixteen paths
to ruin’ (May
16, 1908, GA
102).
Of the
sixteen paths
Jewish racism
is the most
dangerous. The
deep
compassion
brought to it
by the whole
of
‘progressive’
humanity which
supports
Zionism, can
evoke nothing
but shock for,
through
expressions of
sympathy, the
peoples of the
world are
digging the
grave of
cosmic death
for their
human
brothers.
Premonitions
of such
approaching
catastrophe
moved Ludwig
Thieben to
write his
book. Many
anthroposophists
have brought
him
understanding
and sympathy.
We cannot move
forward to
freedom armed
with 365
prohibitions
and 248
commandments
of Maimonides, a
reviewer
observes. But
in the
anthroposophical
press we
frequently
hear the old
song of Herzl’s
Zionism as a
reaction to
German
hyper-nationalism,
which
has by now
become a
refrain (The
words are
written by the
new Publisher
of Thieben’s
book in his
epilogue). It
would thus
appear that
Zionism arose
through the
fault of the
Germans – not
the National
Socialists,
but the entire
nation, as
Herzl started
his work
already before
the First
World War.10
Not
even the
Zionists
themselves
make such a
claim. For the
new Publisher
it is as
though
Thieben’s book
had never been
written. The
Ahasuerus
syndrome shows
itself with
such startling
clarity, when
people
continue to
deny, even
when they say
‘Yes’ to
certain
things. This
means that the
syndrome can
be eradicated
only under the
conditions of
unprejudiced
self-knowledge.
But this
problem does
not in any way
concern the
Jews who are
not affected
by such a
syndrome. This
distinction,
too, is
important.
The
self-knowledge
of the Jews is
greatly
disturbed by
the world
forces of
which we have
already
spoken. But it
would be
absurd to
speak of their
Judae-ophilia,
because these
forces do not
love any
nation. Love
is not at all
their
prerogative.
Dominant in
the
Anglo-Saxon
world, they
oppress the
English-speaking
peoples just
as in the
Latin world
they oppress
the Romanic
peoples; in
Eastern Europe
they persecute
the peoples of
Russia etc.
For these
forces it is
helpful if one
speaks in the
world of the
striving of
the Learned
Elders of Zion,
rather than of
Pan-Americanism,
for global
domination.
For others
this concept
is also a
welcome means
to gather
unconditional
supporters.
Generally
speaking, the
world-wide
official voice
of the media –
including (as
a rule) the
anthroposophical
press – which
is dedicated
to the
struggle
against
anti-Semitism,
serves only to
aggravate it. The
opposing side
openly
propagates
anti-Semitism.
The
assertion that
the Germans,
and now the
Russians too,
are to blame
is just as
absurd as its
opposite –
viz. that the
Jews are to
blame for
everything.
We
would like to
illustrate
this battle
against
anti-Semitism
by means of an
example. The
Swiss
Institute for
Eastern
Studies
published in
1963 a
brochure with
the title Anti-Semitism
in the USSR. It
reports a
conversation
with a Jewish
Moscow
student, who
is alleged to
have said: ...
the
Russian
nation, which
is chosen to
rule, and the
Jewish nation,
which is
chosen to be
hated.11 As a
citizen of the
USSR we can
say in all
conscience
that whoever
would have
declared in
the ’Sixties
or would in
Russia declare
now, that the
Russian nation
is chosen
to rule, is in
serious danger
of being
considered
insane. The
author of the
brochure also
gives
statistics
indicating
that 61% of
those
condemned to
death in 1961
for economic
crimes, in
particular for
theft in
especially
serious cases,
were Jews. The
author, when
presenting
this as proof
of
anti-Semitism
in the USSR,
was counting
on the
complete
ignorance of
the Swiss
reader. If
something like
this were
reported to
Jews in
Russia, they
would merely
tap their
finger against
their
forehead.12
This
does not mean
that
anti-Semitism
does not exist
in Russia. It
does, just as
it exists in
all other
countries of
the globe. But
we can only
overcome it if
its causes are
analyzed from all
sides.
Indeed
the most
varied kinds
of
anti-Semitism
exist. Kol
Israel (‘The
Voice of
Israel’)
broadcasts
regular
reports on,
not only
German, but
also English
and American
anti-Semitism
etc. Does this
mean that all
the nations
are bad? If we
consider
everything
that has been
discussed
here, then we
must reply in
the negative.
It is
customary in
the world to
blame entire
nations for
what only a
few have done.
That is how
the Jews are
treated as
well. So let
us take
courage and
examine this
question in
more detail.
For in
following this
path it will
be possible
for us to cut
through the
‘Gordian knot’
of racism and
chauvinism.
The
Internationalists
of Chauvinism
‘Would
it not perhaps
be a good idea
to allow an
exception for
at least one
form of
racism?’ –
someone may
ask. We will
not argue
about this,
but rather let
the facts
speak for
themselves.
They should be
able to
provide an
answer to the
question.
Salcia Landmann, the Swiss ‘internationally recognized Judaist’, as the press puts it, writes in her book The Jews as a Race: The Spanish Jews were successful in convincing the Moslems that an expedition into bountiful Andalusia was worthwhile. A large army of Arabs, Berbers and Jews went to Europe. The army defeated the West Goths, and then the Arabs and Jews settled on the Pyrenean peninsula. Soon a cultural symbiosis took place between them. The Jews did not assimilate with the local population as did their brothers in Germany, but it happened that they formed a kind of aristocratic upper class and they were fervent Zionists.13 Furthermore they were the most devoted servants of their Sultan, and the Spanish Christians were treated badly by them.14
A
recognized
Judaist writes
this, not an
anti-Semite.
And she does
so for the
simple reason
that she does
not want to
falsify the
historical
truth that is
recorded in a
multitude of
documents. But
how can we
understand the
following: The
public apology
made last year
by the Spanish
King for the
expulsion of
the Jews from
Spain five
hundred years
ago – after
the
termination of
Arab rule? Is
this not
perhaps a
demonstration
of power? A
humiliation of
the Spaniards?
In this case
it would be
the duty of
every Jew with
healthy common
sense to
protest
against the
apology, which
will sooner or
later have
unhappy
consequences.
It is
also
incomprehensible
to us why
no-one looks
to the fact
that the
‘children of
Ahasuerus’ (we
use this term,
in order not
to generalize,
and to make it
clear that
what we say is
not applicable
to all Jews)
build their
State on the
atavistic
principle of
‘blood and
soil’, which
is after all
what the
National
Socialists
attempted to
do. Why are
some allowed
to do this,
while it is
forbidden to
others in the
most
categorical
way? Why is it
not forbidden
to everyone?
Instead, one
prefers to
keep silent
and to use
various
ideological
tricks. How
much more
honest then is
Salcia
Landmann. She
writes openly
that Zionism
shares the
views of
racists of all
shades (!),
since it
proceeds from
the principle
of the
chosenness of
the Jewish
people, who
neither can
nor should be
eliminated
through
however ardent
a preparedness
to be
assimilated
into the
various
nations of the
world.15
This
clearly-formulated
opinion allows
for an equally
clear
formulation of
the
consequences
to be drawn
from it.
The
linking
together of
such factors
as chosenness
and racism,
unquestionably
presupposes
that the
chosen are set
over against
those who are
not chosen,
that equality
of the races
is denied, and
this can only
lead to racial
and national
confrontation.
Each side is
in its own way
right and
wrong at the
same time.
Each one may
proclaim its
racial
superiority;
under the
rules of the
racial game
one racist is
not better and
no worse than
the other.
What right do
we have to
condemn
National
Socialism? S.
Landmann does
not condemn it
either. She
objects only
to the wish to
solve racial
problems by
violent means.
But this wish
is simply
naïve.
It is
not racial chosenness
that helps
humanity
forward, but
the spiritual
and cultural
mission of the
peoples.
Occasionally spiritual
chosenness comes
about. One or
the other
people fulfils
a cultural
task in the
interest of
humanity as a
whole. All
must have an
interest in
the fulfilment
of such tasks.
For they find
their
realization in
the form of
the national
culture, but
in their
content they
go beyond this
and pour out
into the whole
world. Goethe
is a German
poet and
thinker. It is
hard to
imagine that
the phenomenon
Goethe could
have arisen on
English or
French soil,
but still more
improbable is
Goethe as a
purely German
phenomenon.
The
absolute
opposite to
spiritual
chosenness is
racial or
national
chosenness –
each of which
has its roots
in blood
relationships.
This basis is
atavistic
through and
through. It
corresponds to
the
half-animal
stage in the
development of
humanity.
Unavoidably
there
re-echoes in
it the sound
of the
struggle of
the species,
which in
connection
with the
intellect made
and makes this
struggle
appear in a
terrible
light.
Zionist
racism is no
exception. The
historical
occurrence in
Spain is a
logical
consequence of
the racist
attitude. In
our century
the old
‘Spanish’
experiment was
repeated in
Russia. It was
of course
conceived on a
larger scale
to begin with
(as we have
already
mentioned) but
in its
realization it
was the same.
This can
easily be
proven by
means of
documents and
eyewitness
reports. We
have already
touched on
this question,
but an
argument
backed up by
documentation
is never
superfluous.
Therefore we
present a
further
document. In
1919 a White
book was
published by
the English
government. In
a chapter
devoted to the
events in
Russia an
account is
given of a
report of
Udendeyck, the
Dutch
ambassador in
Petersburg, to
Balfour. In it
he wrote (in
1918): Bolshevism
has been
organized and
realized by
Jews who have
no
nationality,
whose only aim
is to destroy
the existing
order, to
their own
advantage. At the
end of the
1960’s the
famous Soviet
poet of
Armenian
descent,
Marietta
Shaginian,
wrote in the
newspaper Novi
Mir that
Russia must be
grateful to
the Jews for
the
realization of
the October
Revolution (at
the time it
was still
declared the
greatest boon
for humanity).
The same
article
informs the
Soviet public
for the first
time that
Lenin is of
Jewish descent
on his
mother’s side.
After
the October
Revolution of
1917 a
government was
formed in
Russia which
consisted
exclusively of
‘children of
Ahasuerus’.
Today, since
the activity
of that
government is
widely
verified and
discussed, the
bold
initiative of
Marietta
Shaginian is
judged to have
been
over-hasty. We
are now told
that the
atrocities of
the Bolshevik
terror had
their origin
in the
‘innate’
characteristics
of the Russian
people (i.e.
the question
is dealt with
in all
variations on
a racial
basis) but
that the
composition of
the government
was purely
coincidental.
But
this is not of
central
importance.
The more
crucial
question is
how that
government
acted in
Russia. It
unleashed a
terror never
before known
in the entire
history of
mankind, and
it was the
first in
history16
to set
up
concentration
camps.
Alexander
Solzhenitsyn
writes in the
GULAG
Archipelago that
the names of
the worst
criminals, of
murderers,
should be
displayed by
laying out
stones on the
slopes of the
Volga-Baltic-Canal,
which was
built by
prisoners of
Soviet
concentration
camps: Semyon
Firin, Matvei
Berman,
Naftali
Frenkel, Lazar
Kogan, Yakov
Rappoport,
Sergei Shuk,17
behind
each one of
which around
forty thousand
lives should
be inscribed.
All of
them –
‘children of
Ahasuerus’.
Already in the
first winter
100,000
prisoners died
of exhaustion
and
malnutrition
on that
building site!
Frenkel, a
millionaire
from Turkey,
developed in
the land of
the
‘victorious
proletariat’ a
special
‘theory’ of
the ‘rational’
use of
prisoners,
where he shows
that it is
most practical
to make each
one work so
that he does
not last out
more than 2-3
months.
Scarcely
anyone knows
that the first
inventor of
gas-chambers
was also an
‘Ahasuerite’,
Isai
Davidovich
Berg. In
Russia in the
’Twenties
there was no
gas. So he had
the idea of
crowding
prisoners into
a van with a
closed-off
compartment,
leading the
exhaust gases
into it and
driving around
Moscow for
several hours,
after which
the corpses
merely had to
be dumped into
a trench.
It
could be
objected that
this was a
clique of
murderers who
should not be
equated with
the Jewish
people! But we
do not equate,
we merely
offer to
examine the
facts. The
murderers who
carried out
their work in
Russia also
had
representatives
of the
intelligentsia
on their side.
The famous
Soviet poet E.
Bagritsky, now
almost a
classic, whose
poems can be
found in any
school-book,
wrote the
following
verses:
My
Jewish pride
sang ...
I would give
much,
If my
ancestors in
the long
chalat,
With the
fox-cap, under
which appear
The Pesah in
grey spirals
... and the
scales fall
down like
clouds
Would
recognize
their
descendant
Searchlight
and bayonet
fly over him
The fellow who
stands there
like a tower!
In his
poetic opus
Bagritsky
describes how
during a
razzia on a
brothel he
recognized one
of the inmates
as a girl who
before the
revolution had
been a
high-school
pupil and the
secret love of
the poet whose
affection,
however, she
did not
return. Now he
says to her:
I: –
Now what? Does
she recognize
me?
Silence.
– How much
does it cost?
Silence still.
Without
opening her
mouth she
says:
Have pity on
me; keep your
money! –
But I fling
the money at
her ...
And charge in,
without taking
off
Boots, shirt,
holster.
– I take you
because my
epoch was
hesitant,
And I was
timid,
For shame of
my poor
forefathers
...
As my revenge
on the world I
take you,
Where I could
accomplish
nothing.
Receive me
into your
empty womb,
Where not even
grass grows –
and maybe
My nightly
seed will
flourishes in
your desert.
This
‘classic’ of
Soviet poetry
advises in
another opus:
When
it is
necessary to
lie – lie!
When it is
necessary to
murder –
murder!
These
are facts of
our history,
or rather, of
our falling
out of
history, which
began on
October 1917.
It can in no
way be
justified with
an alleged
‘hyper-nationalism’
of the
Russians,
because the
first
revolution in
February had
already
granted the
Jews the same
rights as all
other citizens
of Russia.
This is why
people ever
more
frequently ask
in Russia
today: Why did
the Jews so
massively
support the
Bolshevik
revolution by
helping, for
instance, to
crush the
numerous riots
of farmers and
workers
protesting
against the
Bolshevik
terror;
actively
participate in
the forced
recruitment
for the Red
Army; and take
the place of
the eliminated
Russian
intelligentsia
in economy and
industry? The
answer is
silence. But
in questions
of this
importance
silence is
dangerous. And
once in a
while we can
also hear
people say:
The
‘Holocaust’ –
God’s
punishment of
the Jews for
the
crucifixion of
Russia. –
Without
question an
over-simplified
and therefore
false
conclusion.
Nor can the
statistical
facts alone
explain the
nature of
events in
Russia after
1917. But
instead of
investigating
these things
thoroughly,
one simply
denies them or
interprets
them in an
entirely
one-sided way.
There is
no-one who
dares to look
behind the
scenes,
because such
attempts are
closely
watched and
measures are
taken to
thwart them
before anyone
can even open
his mouth.
People prefer
not to gain
knowledge, but
rather to
accuse one
another of
chauvinism,
where the
age-old law
prevails: An
eye for an
eye, a tooth
for a tooth,
blood for
blood. And
several things
from the
present day
are added too,
for instance
the appeal:
Away with idle
intellectual
reflection!
But however
deep may be
the abyss into
which humanity
is thrown by
some of its
representatives,
there is yet
another, far
deeper abyss.
And sooner or
later we will
have to climb
out of it
again – rather
sooner than
later –, and
it is hard to
understand the
people who do
not realize
this.
The
examples given
are not the
only ones,
either in
number or in
kind. But
there are
others that
are different
in principle.
In Berlin in
1923 a
collection of
contributions
by Jews who
were not
carried away
by the dubious
success of
Bolshevism was
published
under the
title Russia
and the Jews.
The
authors wrote
that the
mass-participation
of Jews in the
Bolshevik
revolution was
an undeniable
fact, that
the Russian
person now
sees the Jew
as a judge and
hangman, but
that one
should not
think that the
honest
uncovering,
the
acknowledgement
of the facts
and the fight
against them could
harm the Jews.
... silence
cannot be
helpful to the
Jews, but
their removal
can, although
among the
Jewish
intelligentsia
a certain
over-sensitivity,
a certain
laming of the
motor-will and
conscientiously-judging
mechanisms appear
in this
question.18
These
are
tremendously
important
words. And to
this very day
they have not
lost their
actuality, nor
will they lose
it in the
future, for as
long, that is,
as people
exist who
allow
themselves to
be led by the
inspirations
of Ahasuerus.
For these do
indeed cause a
laming
of the
motor-will and
conscientious-judging
mechanisms.
The
‘children of
Ahasuerus’
hold the
Germans
responsible
for the
genocide of
the Jews. The
peoples of
Russia have no less
reason
to hold the
‘children of
Ahasuerus’
responsible
for the same
crime. But on
this path we
drive the
crisis still
further down a
blind alley.
It is vitally
necessary that
within all
races and
nations people
can be found
who are able
boldly and
without
prejudice to
lay open the
history of
modern times
with all that
works in the
background,
and to found a
counter-movement
that can lead
us out of this
blind alley.
This
can be
achieved
through
knowledge and
moral
purification –
which are
asked of the
Jews as well
as the
Russians and
Germans, for
the Russians
bear
responsibility
for the
seizure of
power by the
Bolsheviks, as
do the Germans
for that by
the National
Socialists. In
Germany the
process of
repentance
started long
ago and has
now been
inaugurated in
Russia.
Solzhenitsyn
spoke of the
need for the
Jews to
recognize
their share in
the
responsibility,
and repent
also. But
events show
that such a
step is quite
out of the
question. The
world press
tries to
persuade us
that owing to
their consistent
love of
violence,
fawning and
despotism the
Russians, and
only they, are
to blame for
not only their
own
misfortune,
but for that
of other
nations too.
In frightening
consonance
with E.
Bagritsky the
voice of D.
Markish sounds
today from
Israel:
I
speak of us,
the sons of
Sinai ...
We ate bread
from them (the
Russians) but
the price was
blood.
The account is
kept, but not
settled.
We take
revenge – with
flowers on our
heads
From their
Nordic
country.
At the
birch-coffin (of the
‘Nordic
country’) we
will
Stand guard of
honour.
So, now
we live in the
expectation
that the
account will
be settled with
us; that
flowers will
be laid on the
birch-coffin
of our
country, and
apparently on
all its
inhabitants as
well. But what
would the poet
say if the
inhabitants of
the Nordic
country were to
try not to lie
down in the
coffin? Or if
a poet from
the ‘other
side’ were to
write
something
like: ‘They
ate bread, but
the price ...
?’ Would it
not be
considered
necessary in
such a case to
take
international
measures? Or
will only the
Russians be
put into the
grave? But the
problem to be
addressed here
has yet
another side.
The wife of
the poet Osip
Mandelstam,
Nadezhda
Yakovlevna,
who has
sympathy for
the Jews who
were subjected
to reprisals
without a
court ruling,
said openly: Who
could have
guessed that,
when we
suspended the
rule of law in
the first
years after
the
revolution, we
suspended it
for ourselves
as well?
Echoing
a well-known
Russian
proverb we
could say:
What the
inspirators
behind the
scenes intend,
this is spoken
out by their
victims who,
after a
special
treatment,
have become
neurasthenics.
When we read
this poem the
question
immediately
arises,
whether the
author
possibly
mistook us for
someone else?
Or whether he
wanted to
address it to
someone else?
– But then it
becomes clear
that here no
mistakes were
made, that
here someone
is in urgent
need of a
‘Russian
anti-Semitism’
to enable him
to realize his
plans. But in
this case we
should reflect
fundamentally
on
anti-Semitism
of whatever
kind – what is
it actually?
But if
we take
everything as
it was
written, then
we must ask
the
unfortunate
poet: To whom
did you pay
the price of
blood? – To a
Solzhenitsyn,
a Shalomov,
Marchenko, a
Merab Kostava
or the
millions who,
before them
and after them
and to this
very day, have
suffered and
died for the
sole reason
that, as a
result of the
Bolshevik
Revolution of
1917, an
endless social
‘experiment’
is conducted
on us? Six
million
peasants of
the Ukraine
paid with
their lives
because they ate
no bread – they
were simply
made to
starve. What
were they
paying for?
What offence
did they
commit against
the sons
of Sinai?
Madness
shows its face
openly in the
world today.
Sooner or
later each
individual
will stand
before the
choice of
joining in,
succumbing to
madness, or
rejecting it,
whatever this
may bring. But
we can already
guess how our
prejudiced
opponent would
like to fling
at us his
angry
counter-argument:
'You
only bring
these examples
because you
are an
anti-Semite in
the first
place!’
‘Do you
think they
should be
completely
ignored?’ – I
reply. ‘
Yes, of
course!’
‘Because they
have nothing
to say?’
‘Because
anything at
all can be
proved with
examples!’
‘But
your argument
is completely
abstract’ – I
reply. ‘Can we
gain any
knowledge at
all if we
ignore
experience?
And if
statements
about this
kind of racism
have nothing
to say, then
anti-Semitic
statements
should be
ignored too.’
‘By
judging in
this way you
prove again
that you are
anti-Semitic’
– my opponent
says
reproachfully.
Unfortunately,
this is the
level on which
everything
discussed in
this chapter
is condemned
and rejected,
in reality.
But if
someone were
to advise us
to drop the
discussion,
for us to
agree to this
would mean to
leave the
structure of
knowledge we
have erected
open on one
side at least
– i.e. with no
inside wall.
Something
would arise
that is
contrary to
nature and
which would
collapse under
the slightest
pressure of
criticism,
because its
builder would
be called a
liar and
opportunist.
No, one
should not do
such a thing.
Zionism is a
quite
essential
component of
world
politics,
especially
that behind
the scenes. Of
course, it has
its special
features that
need to be
known. It is
considered
all-powerful
but is in
reality, in
the dubious,
exaggerated
politics of
the 20th century,
rather like
Mata Hari,
passed from
one to
another,
wanted by
everyone but
ruinous to
whoever had
her – and in
the end she
was the only
one to blame.
Anyone
who is carried
away by the
slogan: The
Jewish people
and Zionism
are one!19
– is
past helping.
But to all the
rest, the
reasonable
people who are
independent of
their racial
affiliation,
this is only
an expression
of
mass-psychoses
corresponding
to the Soviet
slogan: Party
and people are
one!
Despite
our harsh
enough
criticism of
Anglo-Saxon
and Latin
political
occultism, it
is unlikely
that anyone
will accuse us
of
Anglophobia,
Italophobia or
consider us an
Anti-Latinist,
or an
Anti-Anglist
etc. Yet any
critical word
addressed to
political
Zionism is
equated with
racism.
When
nationalism
grows stronger
it plays a
repulsive
psychological
trick on
people. It
whispers to
them: Take
revenge on
whoever you
wish and in
whatever way
you wish; and
don’t worry
about the
consequences,
for you there
will be none.
– And thus the
lowest and
most evil
nature gains
the upper
hand. Even a
naturally good
person who
previously was
never vengeful
will begin to
search
inwardly
(especially if
he is
encouraged
again and
again to take
revenge) and
sift through
the past in
order to find
something for
which he can
take revenge
on somebody.20
There
were numerous
examples of
this during
the Second
World War. In
the occupied
areas the
Germans
appointed as
policemen
local people
whom they did
not supervise
at all. And it
turned out at
once that a
person who had
been known
from childhood
to all the
inhabitants of
the village
and who had
been deeply
and
persistently
insulted by
many, now
began
violently to
take revenge
and to behave
worse than any
member of the
occupying
forces.
Something of
the psychology
of such
policemen can
be heard in
the poems of
Bagritsky,
Markish and
similar
‘intellectuals’.
Some
time it may be
possible for
this or that
person to hear
what is
essentially
the old
Marxist
formula in the
following
seductively
renewed form:
‘Jews
of all lands,
unite! A
non-Jew cannot
understand a
Jew. Only a
Jew can
understand a
Jew. Therefore
renounce
individual
consciousness
and unite in
the group –,
in the racial
consciousness
with those who
are close to
you in blood.
Renounce the
spiritual, the
cultural
values that
you acquired
when you lived
among other
peoples.
Despise these
values and the
cultures, and
with them the
peoples
themselves.
You are the
only sufferers
in history.
All peoples of
the earth are
guilty before
you. Seek for
self-affirmation.
Seek for
self-affirmation
at any price!
The right to
this is
granted you by
the old God
Jehovah.’
All the
elements of
this formula
are repeated
millions of
times, in
every
imaginable
manner, in the
form of the
most varied
supplements,
and seasoned
with the most
varied
‘sauces’, over
and over again
in the
mass-media of
the world. And
if there is
someone who
does not grasp
that this
formula is
worse than its
bloody
prototype – Workers
of the world,
unite! – then
we can only
gather enough
patience and
courage, and
wait until
life itself
will make it
quite obvious.
But
this formula
can also be
challenged. As
a response to
it something
different can
be heard,
something that
is in accord
with the real
life of our
times. It is
the statement
that speaks of
social and
historical
understanding
and of the
will to solve,
not to
aggravate, the
social
problems:
‘Jews of the world, isolate yourselves no longer, no longer be cocooned up in your racial unity. Through living among other peoples, through speaking their languages, assimilating with their culture, you have received the inestimable gift of the autonomous personality, to which it is given to ascend to unbounded spiritual freedom. Treasure this gift. Treasure the cultures in which you were nurtured, make your contribution to their healthy development, because their destiny is also yours. Outside these cultures you will find no happiness, no higher purpose of existence. Use the conditions of today that have never been so favourable for assimilation with the peoples in whose midst you were born and educated, and with whom in truth you already form a unity. Lend all your forces so that all peoples of the world may live in dignity. Be happy in the measure possible in the place where karma has placed you. Do not carry the arbitrary will of dark politicians into the realm where the cosmic laws of the eternal human spirit hold sway.’
Notes
1. Margarita Voloshina, The Green Snake, Stuttgart, 1968, p. 205.
2. Without an understanding of the complicated and manifold processes through which in the course of evolution man gains his individual ‘I’ – in history and culture, through the racial and national element as well as in individual spiritual work, the theme of ethnography, of occult sociology, is better left alone. It is not for nothing that we have addressed our book to thinking people with the capacity for knowledge. It is important for us to enter into a dialogue with people who have already in some way made the methodology of spiritual cognition their own, without which none of the themes discussed here can be understood. It took us many years to understand the fundamental question of the evolution of the earthly aeon – the development of I- consciousness. The results of our study are presented in the book The Triune Man of Body, Soul and Spirit in the Light of Anthroposophy. And we refer to the conclusions arrived at in that book when we speak of the special character of the incarnation of the ‘I’ in various peoples in the different cultural epochs.
4. In
the former Soviet Union there are several
dozen national groups who want to build their
own ‘Israels’. And the same problems of the
‘Palestinian’ refugees arise, of confrontation
etc..
5. A very popular expression used figuratively in Russian-speaking parts: The business of speculation – normally through exploitation of exchange-rate fluctuations – applied to social life.
6. Ludwig Thieben, The Riddle of Judaism, Basle, 1991, p. 219.
10. In No. 1-1992 of Info3 an author writes the following: Because of Hitler’s diabolical ‘Final Solution’, the ‘Solution’ of Theodor Herzl cannot be questioned. The ‘People of Humanity’ must become a ‘Nation’ again. From a purely materialistic point of view this argument sounds entirely convincing. But not so when we work with spiritual science, which provides us with knowledge of the spiritual configuration of folk communities. The ease with which some people who speak in the name of Anthroposophy treat spiritual beings is quite alarming. In the one case they state clearly that a folk-spirit, an Archangel, distances itself from its people, and in another case they impose upon the folk-spirit their earthly will, for the founding of the State of Israel was only possible with Stalin’s approval, and only after this was given did an archangel in the spiritual world support it. But such a thing could never happen, for reasons that have been discussed in this chapter.
11.
Hans J.
Pommer, Anti-Semitism
in the USSR, Berne,
1963, p. 1.
12. We will present a concrete case as an example in particular for Western readers. At a Jewish concert in the autumn of 1993, broadcast by the central TV-station in Moscow, the master of ceremonies asked the audience: Why are we (the Jews) in the minority in all countries, but the majority in all institutions? In medicine – the majority, in music – the majority?
16.
We would draw
this to the
attention
particularly
of an
anthroposophical
author, who
writes in Info3
(No.
12/1992,
p.31): When
we speak of a
‘prelude’ with
regard to
concentration
camps, the
‘main act’
most certainly
took place
under the
direction of
German
politics. Unfortunately
this fact is
‘most
uncertain’ and
before daring
to write an
article of
this kind one
should first
study the
sources.
17.
Alexander
Solzhenitsyn,
The
GULAG
Archipelago, Part
3, chapter 3.
18. This collection appeared in the magazine Volga, No. 3-6, 1992.
19.
Such a unity
is far from
being
supported by
all Jews.
Rabbi Beck for
instance, an
activist of
the ‘Naturae
Charta’
movement
writes: Zionism
is a
relatively new
movement,
founded on the
dross of
Judaism. He also
states that
the Jews swore
(and here he
refers to the
Talmud) not
to rise
against the
nations of the
world ... not
to take part
in actions
that hasten
the end of the
world ... not
to return to
the land of
Israel all at
the same time.
20.
The comedian
Gennadi
Khazanov,
already famous
during Soviet
times, was
asked in a TV
interview: Why
can’t you feel
yourself to be
a Russian now?
He answered: Because
I was once
taunted in my
childhood for
being a Jew.
–
What?! – exclaimed
the reporter – You
cannot forget
an insult from
the far-off
days of
childhood?
No! –
confirmed
the comedian – I
am quite
incapable of
forgetting and
forgiving
insults. That
is my
character.
I
find it hard
to believe – the
journalist
insisted – could
there be any
other reasons?
There
are others as
well – Khazanov
admitted. – I
had a
difficult
childhood, I
grew up
without a
father!
Thus we see how the psychological trick works, even with people who are reasonable and intelligent. What shall we say about the mob?
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