The Crisis of Civilization
XVI. The Spiritual Configuration of Europe
The
National as a Factor of Development
The time has now come for us to shed light on the purely esoteric background that permits us to speak of a spiritual mission of Middle Europe. But as this concerns the archetypal, ‘Ur’-phenomenological foundation of the cultural- historical process, the many-faceted social-political phenomenology of life today will receive, for the purposes of its comprehension, a certain methodological form (Gestalt), which will take the place of an ideological, speculative, subjective and consequently false approach.
A materialistically-minded politologist will undoubtedly pay no attention whatsoever to what is presented here, or will dismiss it as a form of occult-political error. But it has already been sufficiently demonstrated here that a politologist of that kind is not taken seriously by any of the deeply occult, mutually-opposing powers. The most patent confirmation of this fact is the making public of their own occult, even deeply occult, positions by the Soviet ‘Eurasians’ – those who yesterday were, without exception, Marxists, atheists and materialists. Thus it is left to the reader to decide whether he chooses to remain on the level of superficial political gossip, or to penetrate the esoteric depths of life. It must be borne in mind that even in the latter case we will encounter a broad palette of ideological doctrines – of the ‘occult kingdom’, the occult Eurasian-Atlantic conflict, etc. – whose most important ideological credo is based on the principle of ‘he heard a ringing but does not know where the bells hang’, because, as a rule, it is the work of Philistines.
Owing to the all-encompassing character of anthroposophically-oriented spiritual science, which has proved beyond question to be the universal methodology of knowledge – of the senses as well as of the supersensible – and thanks to the fact that Anthroposophy in the truest sense of the word is a doctrine of the nature of knowing (Wissenschaftslehre) – ignorance of this fact is not sufficient reason for its denial – we have the possibility of penetrating to the archetypal phenomenological depths of the social-political sphere, thereby avoiding occult indoctrination, which in its essence is more dangerous than any superficial political gossip.
A
single, short chapter does not
of course allow us to present
all the spiritual-scientific
foundations that provide the
basis for the forming of
political judgments. But no
science can expect to
demonstrate its entire content
at every point. When working
on new problems it refers back
to what already exists as
content. We will proceed in
the same way, in the hope that
the interested reader will
call to mind again what has
been said in this book, and
will himself turn at least to
such fundamental works by
Rudolf Steiner as – Occult
Science, Goethe’s World-View,
or some of the
lecture-cycles on the social
question.
Rudolf Steiner bequeathed to us a great deal of material to enable us to understand the course of the spiritual development of humanity. The most important factor in this development is the destruction of the forms of consciousness pertaining to the group, and the emergence of the self-cognizing autonomous personality. The evolution of earth and man passes through a number of different stages, which are under the influence of a variety of spiritual cosmic forces. These spiritual forces are the Divine Beings, the Hierarchies, who bring about a periodical densification of spiritual substances down to the state of matter, followed by its spiritualization. Life thereby continuously renews its forms, so as to become in the course of evolution an ever more suitable vessel, or bearer, of the individual spirit, i.e. thinking, object-consciousness. As the life-conditions change, so also do the form-conditions of being change on the path of metamorphosis. Within the framework of the spatio-temporal evolutionary cycle closest to us, spiritual-scientific teaching speaks of a sevenfold chain of metamorphoses whose elements are called ‘Root Races’. The word ‘race’ appears here in its older, original meaning, rather than that which it is given today. The concept of ‘root-race’ (which has long been used in occultism) indicates a certain stage in the development of earth and man, where, together with the spiritual, an essential part of the biological evolution of man takes place. The root-race also represents one of the forms of differentiation of the universal human group-consciousness.
According to the world-embracing plan of Divine creation the human being was, we might say, conceived as a unified form that was to extend over the entire earth. A hierarchy of spiritual beings of immense power – the spirits of movement (Dynamis) – who did not wish to be involved in the temporal development of the world (and thus remained in a certain sense faithful to eternity; but it is not possible to go into this in more detail here) – held aloof from this development and assumed a Luciferic character. They spurned a creation of man that presupposed his descent into matter. But since these spirits acted from various planets of the solar system, the unitary human form became differentiated, with the result that the various races spoken of by modern science formed out of the unified humanity (cf. May 13, 1912, GA 136).
Thus we must seek the primary cause for the division of humanity into races not only in the processes of earthly development, but also in the cosmic forces. The Luciferized Spirits of movement worked upon the ether-bodies of human beings, and as there are seven kinds of ether-forces seven races developed also (cf. Jan. 9, 1916, GA 165). They emerged in the course of an evolution which encompassed a time-span of four root-races. In this time the universal nebula differentiated out into a variety of planetary forces and planets, heavenly bodies, while man passed through a series of conditions of materialization – from the condition of warmth down to the mineral –, which is described in the Bible as the expulsion from Paradise.1
A particularly intensive formation of races took place in the period of the Lemurian and Atlantean root-race. At that time the Malayan race formed through the working of the backward Spirits of movement living on Venus; the Indian (red) race arose in America, where the working of the spirits of Saturn was dominant; the forces of Mercury brought into being the black race in Africa etc.
Following the retarded Spirits of Movement, the retarded Spirits of Form also became active in the creation of races. They influenced the human physical bodies. Those among them who live on Mercury had a special influence on the glandular system, resulting in the formation of the black race. In the Mongolian race the Spirits of Form of Mars worked in a specific manner upon the blood. The spirits of Jupiter influenced the nervous system of the European and Arian peoples by way of the impressions of sense and feeling (cf. June 12, 1910, GA 121).
In the hierarchy of the spiritual beings through whom the divine creation is realized, on the levels below the Spirits of Form there stand the Spirits of Personality (Archai) and then – the Archangels (Archangeloi). Retarded, Luciferized beings exist among them also. Through their working the differentiation of races into individual nations came about. The individual human being experiences the influence of these supersensible leaders of nations by way of the blood – blood-relationships and heredity. This is why the pathos, the passion, the emotion with which the human being feels his belonging to a nationality will appear with a certain elementary force. A man will not try to apply logical reasons or judgments, when it comes to establishing or experiencing his belonging to his nationality. The blood, and the heart, which is under the influence of the blood, unites man with his nationality (in the Mongolian race the working on the blood takes place in a different way, in the direction of his physical nature), brings him to live within his nationality. The impulses we are concerned with here are subconscious ... (Jan. 7, 1917, GA 174).
Until a certain stage, or a certain moment, the working of the spiritual beings mentioned above was, despite their Luciferic character, lawful and necessary. On the path of evolution to individual ‘I’-consciousness, the passage through the levels of the universal human, the racial, the national, the transition from the group-consciousness of the race to the group-consciousness of the tribe, the folk and the nation was a mighty advance for humanity. But from the moment that man learned to master ‘I’-consciousness the previous conditions change fundamentally. The connection to the Folk-spirit through the blood now gives way, as mentioned above, to a connection founded on personal karma. Nationality becomes a part of the personal karma of the human being. Thus a man now inwardly experiences two streams: the one bears him from incarnation to incarnation, so that he is here concerned with his destiny and his individual task of development; the second stream determines his obligations toward the nation in which he incarnates. Of these he learns by way of his individual spirit-guide – the Guardian Angel – from the Soul or Spirit of the Nation (cf. June 9, 1910, GA 121).
Thus a human being who has acquired mastery of individual consciousness enters into a purely spiritual relationship with the spirit-guide of his nation (and also with another hierarchic being – the Genius of language). He understands that he is rooted in this nation only through one incarnation, but he bears in his own individual being something quite different, he bears infinitely more and also infinitely less than what is in the folk-soul. To identify with the folk-soul has no meaning whatever where reality is concerned, if it goes beyond what is contained in the words: love for the Fatherland, love for one’s homeland, patriotism etc. (Dec. 17, 1916, GA 173). Within the context of this legitimate experience of his national connections he devotes himself to cultural, spiritual activity in order to serve man on his path towards ‘I’-consciousness.
From a certain point onwards the nations are led by the Archangels of rightful development, whilst the Luciferic Archangels or even the retarded spirits of personality appear in the role of their shadow-like doubles (there exist also ahrimanic doubles of the rightful spirit-guides of nations). So long as a man remains true to the rightful Archangel, the spirit-leader of the nation, he will not conflict with other nations but will strive to serve the interests of the whole world. Thus Rudolf Steiner told the Russian anthroposophists that you have this task, to show yourselves worthy with regard to the Russian Folk-soul ... You should come to know the yearning of the Russian Folk-soul for impersonal Anthroposophy ... Do not ... hesitate ... to seek the way ... to your own Folk-soul. Regarding the sense of responsibility towards mankind, he said: The Folk-soul has already taken on this responsibility towards mankind on your behalf. You only need to find it, this Folk-soul. You need merely let it speak through your thoughts, feelings and impulses of will, and if you feel the responsibility towards your Folk-soul, you will at the same time fulfill your obligation towards humanity (Apr. 11, 1912, GA 158).
It
should not be
difficult to
imagine how
fateful and
irreparable a
mistake a
Russian makes,
who abstractly
declares
himself to be
an
Internationalist.
We live in the
epoch of the
consciousness-soul.
Next to the
descending
movement
toward the
individual,
objectively
thinking
spirit, an
ever stronger
upward
movement is
taking place.
Whoever is
unable to
distinguish
between them
will not be
able to tell
the difference
between a
justified
feeling of
nationality,
and
nationalism or
even racism.
Only spiritual
science can
give us the
help we need.
The doctrine
elaborated
within it
concerning the
races and
nations
promotes the
understanding
of a
development
that frees the
human being
from the
tribal
principle
arising from
blood
relationships,
and has
nothing to do
with
incitement to
nationalism,
as the authors
of the Flensburger
Hefte, who
call
themselves
Anthroposophists,
wish to
believe. It is
the task of
the friends of
Anthroposophy
to foster an understanding
of the
world and man
as a creation
of the Divine,
which has
arisen from
the good and
is led towards
the good, up
to the moment
when he
becomes
himself an
autonomous
source of good
and no longer
needs any kind
of leadership
from the
outside.
The Individual as a Factor of Development
Within the sevenfold chain of metamorphoses – which has been described from many aspects in other works of the present author – the entire earth was, during the first two Root Races (called in Occultism the ‘Polarian’ and ‘Hyperborean’), in a half-spiritual condition. Substance first densified to the state of warmth, then to that of air. Then man remained in a stage between animal and actual human being. It would be absurd to speak of the existence of any occult centers of earthly human development during this time.
Earthly substance condensed in the third, Lemurian epoch to the watery state. The earth was covered with a world ocean that was the home to human beings who bore no trace of an individual consciousness or of individual purpose. This whole development was guided from the outside by the Divine Hierarchies and their helpers – the elemental spirits of nature, as well as humanoid beings who were so far ahead of general development that Divine leaders could incorporate (but not incarnate) in them. The entire spiritual aura of the earth had at that time an unusually strong influence on all life-forms. The physical forces leading to mineralization of substance worked predominantly from North to South. For this reason the continents lie mainly on the Northern hemisphere. The etheric or life-forces worked predominantly from the South. The astral aura of the earth worked most strongly from East to West and West to East; the cosmos of astral forces worked into the earthly aura, accelerated the individualization of the human monads and led to the development of an individual consciousness.
The Lemurian root-race concentrated where today we find the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean. There were no continents, but the state of the surface of the watery sphere was not homogeneous. The human being had a cartilaginous spine and did not yet master the upright posture.
The next, the Atlantean, root-race developed where we find the Atlantic Ocean today. Continents began to rise out of the ocean for the first time. Man emerged from the watery element and settled on the land. In the process, and this is of particular importance, his spine assumed a vertical posture relative to the earth’s surface, man became an upright being. Man’s uprightness, according to Rudolf Steiner, is due to the migration from East to West, from the realm of the Indian Ocean to the region of the Atlantic Ocean. He had to move counter to the astral forces of the earth, so that their effect could multiply and could alter the as yet plastic, easily moulded reciprocal interaction of the sheaths of man, his physical, etheric and astral bodies.
But man owes not only his uprightness to the migration from East to West. In the process of settling the Atlantean continent (which took place over a sufficiently long time), the speech-organs of man developed – the larynx –, and in the course of the seven Atlantean sub-races (cultural epochs) he acquired the gift of speech, of language.
The Atlantean Root-race was followed by our own, the post-Atlantean (fifth) Root-race, which has no particular name. The Atlantean continent was destroyed by natural catastrophes, and most of its population migrated to the East. The new migration was not only unavoidable, but also necessary. For the astral aura of the earth could thereby work on the human astral body, so that the sense of thinking, the sense of mental picturing could develop (cf. Oct. 27, 1909, GA 115).
In the course of the post-Atlantean Root-race development turned westwards again and extended itself over the entire gigantic Eurasian continent as well as the North of Africa. The movement of the cultural epochs from East to West brought about a refined soul-spiritual working of the earthly aura on the human being. His bodily nature was already not very receptive to this kind of influence of the earth-aura, but meanwhile the cultural work within civilization had been added to the refined working of the cosmic forces.2 As a result man developed the threefold soul – the Sentient, Rational and Consciousness-soul. Humanity, says Rudolf Steiner, was not only to come to mental picturing, but also to concepts ... Humanity ... takes the direction eastwards in order to acquire pictorial thinking, while pure concepts could only be won by means of a movement back to the West (Ibid.).
A brief summary may be permitted. In Ancient Lemuria the development of humanity passed through seven sub-races; followed by the migration of the most advanced part of humanity to the West, whereupon man acquired uprightness and the ability to speak. The development of humanity also passed through seven sub-races or cultural epochs on Old Atlantis, after which a further migration occurred – eastwards. It took place in three streams – across North Africa, and through Southern and Middle Europe. The separation of the streams was due to differences in the occult-religious education that the groups of human beings had received on Atlantis through the various oracles oriented to the different planetary spirit-leaders – the spirits of Jupiter, Mars etc. The great Initiates received from the corresponding Atlantean oracles the impulses of leadership, which the Gods were at that time gradually beginning to place in the hands of human beings.
The stream of migrants who took the path through Europe and into the South of Russia were the Aryans. They spread as far East as Lake Baikal. Their vanguard reached India. In the region of today’s Gobi Desert the great Initiate Manu, the leader of this entire stream of Aryan migrants, founded a new Mystery centre from which further Initiates arose, who became the founders and leaders of the post-Atlantean cultural epochs.
At the time of Old Atlantis the Aryan race was characterized by the fact that it lost its declining clairvoyant abilities more rapidly than the representatives of the other races. We must note that supersensible faculties constituted the main characteristic of the aristocratic elite on Atlantis. This is why the Aryans as a race were generally despised in times long past. The faculties germinating in them, all that we master as logic and conceptual thinking today, were not appreciated at that time, and so the Aryans were counted among the lower castes. After the migration some of them settled in the Southern area of the vast Siberian region, between the Urals and Lake Baikal (cf. Chapter VI, p. 89). Others continued their migration further to the South. It would appear to be a result of this movement – against the stream of etheric forces of the earth – that the first post-Atlantean, Old Indian culture was passive and lived in a half dreamlike state. But in the course of this epoch man developed the individual ether-body and this meant the final overcoming of the animal-stage of human development. Seven Holy Rishis were sent from the Mystery center of Manu to the Indian peninsula, in order to lead this culture.
The Old Indian cultural epoch lasted 2160 years (the time taken by the earth to move through a sign of the zodiac, as a center of mighty forces that work down into earthly development). From there the cultural impulse went over to Persia-Iran (the earth moved from the sign of Cancer to that of the Twins). The great Initiate Zarathustra was sent from the initiation center of Manu to the people living there. He taught them how to work metals and use the soil for farming, and sense-perceptions received a strong developmental impulse. The bonds of the astral body began to loosen and the human being acquired an individual astral body – the bearer of the individualized sense and feeling perceptions and of desires and passions.
In order to lead the third, Old Egyptian cultural epoch, a next great Initiate was sent – Hermes Trismegistos. Human beings now began to develop the individual sentient soul, and, bound up with this, individualized feeling and experience, and individualized tendencies and drives.
At the beginning of the fourth, Greco-Latin, cultural epoch the Mystery centre in the region of today’s Gobi Desert had already lost its earlier importance (but the memory lived on in the tradition of Shambala). The cultural development, and that of history which had now begun, now had a momentum of their own. The Greeks partly took over the spiritual impulses from Egypt, but also developed them in part out of their own strength.
With the advent of the fifth, European, cultural epoch (in 1413 AD) cultural-historic development underwent a peculiar transformation. In contrast to the earlier cultural epochs, when the great Initiates came to those special regions that since the Atlantean migration were settled by people, now the population itself came to Europe and displaced its original inhabitants – the Celts, a deeply spiritual people which was, however, not suited to fulfill the tasks of the European culture. In the 2nd-1st century B.C. the descendants of the people who had once migrated with Manu to the Siberian region – the Germanic and subsequently the Slavic tribes – returned to Europe. For millennia they had remained as it were in a culturally static condition, untouched by the development undergone by other peoples through the course of three-and-a-half cultural epochs. At the same time the leadership of these tribes was so constituted, during the epoch of Old Atlantis, that out of the cosmos impulses streamed down to them, which prepared the coming of the Christ – the God of the human ‘I’ – to the earth. These peoples retain the forces with which they have been endowed, until the moment when the general cultural development of humanity, whose central motif is the elaboration of the threefold soul, is ready to carry its elements to a unity by way of individual ‘I’-consciousness.
We have to point out again that the development of the cultures is in a certain way comparable to the spiritual development of the individual human being. In order to create new and independent cultural phenomena a people has to set to work the ether-forces given to it specifically, which, as we have described, are used up in the course of cultural activity, so that with its completion we have on the one hand a mature culture, on the other, a people or group of peoples who created the culture, but who are now weakened as to their life-content, and as though ‘burnt out’. They offer themselves up as a sacrifice, as it were, on the altar of the spiritual development of mankind, and other peoples must take their place, men of a different constitution of spirit and soul, who are able to carry further the cultural impulse which, with the exhaustion of the final developmental stage, undergoes a profound metamorphosis.
Here lies the origin of the concept of senile, ageing and young nations. The Persians, Egyptians, Jews, Greeks of today are senile peoples. Their blossoming or, let us say, ‘national youth’ lies far in the past. The young nations link on to this past through the exercise of ‘spiritual economy’, so that they do not have to begin all over again. But it is they who will themselves create the new in the spiritual development of humanity and who will have to expend their life-forces, whereby in time they too will grow old.
In this way the senile nations serve the new culture solely with the spiritual values they have created. Any claim for spiritual leadership on their part, or the wish to create something fundamentally new, is the death of culture. Of necessity these nations must learn to follow others, for those who create the new culture have been prepared for this task through millennia by the higher spiritual leadership, and have an entirely different soul-spiritual constitution. An analysis of culture provides ample evidence for this fact, so long as it is not falsified by political and nationalistic doctrines.
For those peoples who are approaching the challenge of new spiritual tasks the Divine Hierarchies create a special etheric-astral aura which corresponds to the entire physical-spiritual constitution of those who will be subject to their influence. This again is similar to the situation of an individual human being incarnating on earth. It is entirely justifiable to speak of the incarnation of a people into culture.
It is the special purpose of the development of the European cultural epoch to provide the human being with the possibility of unfolding the last and highest member of the soul – the consciousness-soul. But simultaneously with the development of all three soul-elements the divine world places the spiritual leadership of humanity’s earthly evolution into the hands of man, who stands before the task of developing an individual ‘I’ that can be the center of an autonomous, universal self-regulation, self-determination of the personality, which requires him to master pure thinking. In other words, the possibility is opened up for the first time in evolution, for the attainment of freedom by the individual spirit. And the third task of the European culture is that man, after development of the threefold soul has been accomplished, can begin to work individually on the threefold spirit, consisting of Spirit Self, Life Spirit and Spirit Man or, to use the concepts of Old Indian esotericism, Manas, Buddhi and Atma. The Germanic and Slavic tribes that came to Europe were prepared for the fulfillment of these three tasks.
None of
the previous
epochs had
such a wealth
of tasks to
fulfill, and
none was at
the same time
so full of
changes. For
the
qualitative
change of the
course of
evolution
stands in
relation to
the quantity
of tasks. Up
to the 16th century
A.D. man was
only
approaching
the
development of
individual
‘I’-consciousness.
In our modern
cultural epoch
he learns to
master it, not
as an
initiate, but
as a simple
participant in
the cultural
process.
The Primary Law of the Development of Civilization
The mastery of ‘I’-consciousness is not only of cultural-historical, but also of evolutionary significance. This capacity belongs in a series of developmental stages, such as the learning of the upright gait, speech, and thinking. Consequently in the fifth cultural epoch changes are beginning to occur, that may be compared to those which accompany a change of root-races: The cultural process comes into close relation to a re-orientation of the working of planetary forces, of the forces of the entire earthly aura, in their influence upon human development. This is the reason why, already during Old Atlantis, the Aryan peoples were exposed to a special instreaming of the Christ-impulse, which came down from the cosmos at that time. They developed the inclination to make earthly experience their own, to think it through, and on this basis to develop a thinking consciousness, the autonomous ‘I’. It should be noted that the Aryan race surrounds itself with the entire Indo-European family of languages, with its manifold variation with respect to geography, history, and religion and many other factors. It therefore makes little sense to give special emphasis to the racial origin of the folk-groups that migrated to Europe at the beginning of our era. Membership of the Aryan race is of significance only with regard to the starting-point, the initial predispositions with which it was endowed by the Divine leaders of humanity. One of these predispositions – the most important for our time – is that the Old Germanic and the Slavic peoples carry within them the seeds for the overcoming of every racial principle.
After
their
migration to
Europe, the
Germanic and
Slavic tribes
were separated
in accordance
with the three
tasks
mentioned
above. They
‘were
separated’
(passive,
Trans.), for
at that time
they had
neither an
individual nor
a national
self-consciousness
of any kind.
From the
spiritual
leadership,
those who
remained in
Central Europe
received the
task of
developing the
autonomous
‘I’; or
rather: Middle
European
cultural
development
had this
character.
That part of
the Germanic
tribes which
went to the
North-west –
the
Anglo-Saxons –
was given the
task of
developing the
consciousness-soul.
The task of
bringing about
the transition
from the
development of
the threefold
soul to the
development of
the threefold
spirit and
thus, in the
first place,
the Spirit
Self, is
accomplished
by the joint
working of
Middle
European and
Russian
culture. All
the other
peoples of
Europe have to
fulfill
secondary
tasks relative
to the three
principal ones
mentioned
above.
Development is carried forward not only by mutual assistance but also by contradictions. Thus, what once arose from Central Europe created in time an opposition to it. In the course of history the group-egoism of the mercantile (Anglo-Saxon), the ecclesiastical (Latin) and the warlike (Gallic) principle grew. But these contradictions need not become irreconcilable. More important is what makes Europe into a unified, complex organism, not a ‘Pan-Europe’. This organism cannot be understood if the racial and national differences are over-emphasized or denied. Either case leads to an absurdity comparable to the intention of a physiologist to examine a human organism while ignoring the difference between heart and lung etc. on the grounds that it is all made of cells; or alternatively, to examine single organs without studying their relation to the others.
The spiritual and the national configuration of Europe can only be understood when the great laws of world development are known. Closest to us appear the laws that govern the development leading from one root-race and one cultural epoch to the next. They can even be discerned on the basis of what has been presented in an extremely condensed form.3 If we take a geographical map and mark the course of evolution within the last root-races we find a very interesting pattern which is repeated on different levels. The movement of the root-races and cultures on the earth’s surface follows the form of simple or meandering spirals. This is not surprising, as the spiral has been known since primeval times as the symbol of development, and symbols are derived from supersensible observation.
Seven sub-races combined to form the Old Lemurian root-race. Then, as we have already mentioned, development made a leap. It moved to the region of Atlantis, but in such a way that the movement of the human monads from East to West itself led the human being to the upright posture; he developed the speech organs and learned to master the word.
Seven cultures form the developmental ‘spiral’ on Old Atlantis, and man was thus prepared for a new metamorphosis or, in the language of biology, a mutation. The population of Atlantis moved eastwards and, under the influence of the spiritual forces of the earth and the spiritual forces of the cosmos transmitted by way of the earth and the entire planetary system, man acquired mental pictures, the perceptions given in thought-images. And now, proceeding from the Mystery center of Manu, the spiral of post-Atlantean cultures arises. The first four cultures move from East to West: the direction through which man had previously become an upright and speaking being. This time he does not ‘raise himself’ in a physical sense, but in his soul – he develops the threefold soul as his very own possession (formerly he had experienced its inspirative influence from the cosmos), and the present brain-structure which allows us to think in concepts.
Beginning with the European cultural epoch the impulse of spiritual development again moves from West to East. This is of fundamental significance for all earthly relationships. This shift means that the astral aura of the earth is itself involved in man’s learning to master the individual Spirit Self, in his transition from pure to imaginative thinking. Formerly the Spirit Self worked out of higher worlds, because in the old cultures man did not experience himself fully as an individual. He knew: Ex oriente lux (The light comes from the East). This is why in occultism one speaks of man faring to the eternal East when he dies. The Messiah, the Divine Logos, came from the East. As post-Atlantean humanity, migrating eastwards, moved in the direction of His approaching impulse, it acquired, in a special way that was in keeping with the epoch of the complete individualization of man, the ability to gather earthly experience and think it through. And then, beginning with the Old Indian culture, humanity moved in the same direction as the Christ in His descent to earth. They met in the fourth, Greco-Latin, culture and man confronted the task formulated by the Apostle Paul: learn to sacrifice the lower ‘I’ and experience the Not I, but Christ in me.
The
European
cultural epoch
is dedicated
to the
fulfillment of
this task. The
human being
must learn to
identify in
his lower ‘I’
with the
cosmic ‘I’ of
the Christ. It
therefore
became
necessary to
turn the
movement of
the cultural
impulse to the
East again,
but from now
on in a
different
sense: Ex
occidente lux
(The light
comes from the
West). Mastery
of the
individual
Spirit Self in
the sixth,
Slavic-Germanic
cultural epoch
will be
entirely the
task of single
individuals
who will to
take their
development
actively into
their own
hands, who go
the path of
self-knowledge
and
self-education
under the
motto: The
Kingdom of
heaven must be
taken by storm. What
has been
presented so
far can be
clarified by
means of the
following
drawing (Fig.
2).
We have now found the fundamental law of world evolution within the context of the seven root-races, similar to the bio-genetic fundamental law in biology.
We have thereby also built a foundation for an understanding of the spiritual task of Europe, Middle Europe having doubtlessly the most important role to play in its realization. There one is working not only on the development of the individual ‘I’, i.e. on the all-embracing synthesis of cultural-historical development hitherto, but the strength must also be found to lead this development towards the East, in a qualitative sense, in that cultural creativity formerly inspired from higher spheres has to become a thoroughly individual process, arising as the fruit of the realization of the lower ‘I’ in the highest ‘I’. Classical German philosophy and Goetheanism are in part a transitional phase, but are also partially a product of creativity in this sense. Otherwise the entire remaining cultural heritage of Europe has, despite its grandeur, arisen out of the impulses of the Greco-Latin culture, and is at best a re-working of the old heritage by the young genius of Europe. Goetheanism and Anthroposophy alone are new creations that have arisen wholly out of the forces of the fifth cultural epoch. Only in these has it begun to fulfill its own tasks; all else, with few exceptions, must be regarded as a preparation.
The
situation of
Middle Europe,
particularly
that of
Germany,
reminds one of
the ‘ship’s
wheel’ on the
‘sailing
vessel’ of
European
civilization.
All that once
radiated from
the center of
Europe in all
directions
(the Germanic
tribes), has
in essence
maintained its
connection to
the spiritual
task of the
center; it
became
something
equivalent to
the ‘spokes’
of the
‘wheel’,
providing all
the other
peoples of
Europe with an
orientation in
their task of
turning the
‘wheel’ of
history and
culture. This
too shall be
clarified by
means of a
diagram (Fig.
3).
This is the general principle of the reciprocal interaction of the European national cultures. Only a person of ill-will could see in it a disparagement of any nation. The laws of development also presuppose the coming into being of morality and freedom, but do not determine them. Each national culture has to fulfill its specific task within that of humanity as a whole, and thus Europe represents a special spiritual-organic, anthropomorphic entity. In it the Italians develop the sentient soul as it ought to be in the fifth cultural epoch, the Spanish and French the rational soul, the Anglo-Saxons the consciousness-soul.4 The North Germanic, Scandinavian nations work on the task of bringing complex nuances to the phenomenon of the ‘I’. The mission of the Finno-Ugric peoples is quite remarkable. As part of the Mongolian race they moved along the Southern route (via North Africa) from Atlantis to the East, then some went to the North and reached Europe again along the shore of the Arctic Sea. Thus, like the Aryans, they have not taken part in the development of the previous cultural epochs. They had a cultural epoch of their own on Atlantis and reached Europe by their own route, where they formed a small enclave in the North-east. It is the task of Russia to take on the cultural impulse of Middle Europe and then carry it further. It will fulfill its own original spiritual tasks in the sixth cultural epoch and lives therefore in the anticipation of its coming. The West Slavs are the vanguard of this culture. Hungary too was not by chance a part of the great Middle European Reich, at one period. The Turkish peoples wish also to join in fulfilling the European cultural mission. This is why they settled in the Balkans. It is a cruel folly that the Western European and American camp is inspiring wars there.
When we
speak of the
unification of
Europe in the
spirit of
Kalergi or of
Pan-Americanism
it is as if we
wanted to
inflict a
deathblow on
the whole of
civilization.
Europe
will be
unified only
through the
spiritual and
cultural
tasks, which
presuppose the
greatest
possible
variety and
uniqueness of
the individual
national
cultures. The
reciprocal
interplay, the
mutual
enrichment of
the cultures
of the
individual
European
peoples will
be fostered
for quite a
long time yet
by the
inspirations
of the
Archangels –
the spirit
leaders of the
nations.
However, these
will no longer
come through
the blood but
on the path of
individual
spiritual
efforts. There
is in Europe
already a conscious
interaction
(this does not
necessarily
have to be a
supersensible
experience) of
culture-creating
individuals
with the
Archangel.
Anthroposophy
makes it
possible for
us to add
supersensible
experience to
this. But
since
everything now
takes place on
an individual
basis, the
preconditions
arise of
themselves,
for man’s
ascent from a
national being
to the
universal-human
– for his
ascent, not
for some kind
of wild,
arbitrary
leaps, which
are in reality
regressions to
the group
consciousness,
the
ideological,
the
mediumistic.
The Aura of the Russian People
In our time it is extremely dangerous to ignore the fact that the culture of humanity is in the stage of transition from group to individual consciousness. Nothing here should be under or overestimated. We should be guided in our judgments by a sober realism which is founded on knowledge of the truth.
The
modern human
being, if he
wishes to
participate in
cultural
evolution,
takes on an
entirely
individual
task. But to
begin with
this bears the
seal and the
specific
quality of the
national
culture and,
correspondingly
also (by way
of karma) of
the entire
soul-spiritual
constellation
of the
individuality.
Therefore with
this as our
starting-point,
we can only
raise
ourselves to
creativity in
the
universal-human
sense inasmuch
as
‘I’-consciousness
is developed.
But since man
is still weak
and this very
seldom
happens, the
spiritual
leadership –
the Spirit of
Age, the
hierarchical
being who
guides the
development of
the entire
epoch –
realizes the
task of
humanity
nationally
through the
Archangel. For this
purpose entire
peoples are
woven into a
national aura
of a given
configuration. Here
it is
especially
important for
us to consider
and compare
the auras of
the Russian
and the German
peoples.
Of great significance for an understanding of the character of the aura of the Russian people is a lecture by Rudolf Steiner from April 9, 1914 where he speaks of the coming into being of the Kiev Rus and of the Finnish epic. It contains a drawing that, without a doubt, represents the supersensible form into which the Slavs were woven in their migration from the region of the Balkans and Carpathians to the North-east, and which then became their national aura. The form appears as two interlocking ovals, the lower of which was formed through the working of the great initiate Skythianos who, in order to fulfill this mission, incarnated close to the Caspian Sea. To the deeply occult deeds of Skythianos there was added somewhat later the Byzantine cultural-religious influence, which came to Russia with the conversion to Christianity. Thus arose the aura of the Kiev Rus. (The interested reader is again referred to the communications of Rudolf Steiner in GA 158 [Kalevala] and to the book by the present author The Awaiting Culture). The substance of the aura was predominantly etheric. Further northwards the working of its etheric forces becomes weaker and more refined. In the upper oval the astral forces predominate, while their effect weakens toward the South in the region of the lower oval (though naturally it does not cease altogether). In the area where the ovals overlap, where eventually the city of Moscow appeared, the aura took on a complex character and formed something in the nature of what the individual human being possesses as soul-body, the sheath in which consciousness first arises. The Southern oval calls forth in the human being the mood of the unified soul, and finds its reflection in the character of the Southern Russians, in the culture of the Ukraine. The northern oval furthers the development of the threefold soul. The so-called ‘stem of the soul’ passes through the entire aura. It arose on the path followed by the Varagans through Russia to Byzantium. They brought to Russia the principle of statehood, and the ‘ferment’ for the development of ‘I’-consciousness. The ‘stem of the soul’ is a kind of axis of national self-consciousness for the peoples who settled in Russia.
At present the aura of the Russian people, as Rudolf Steiner described it, corresponds only to the European part of Russia. But even in that great aura which encompasses the gigantic Siberian continent and the Asiatic border-region of Russia, it is of decisive importance, for it determines everything that promotes Russian self-consciousness by way of culture and spiritual creativity.5 The remaining part of Russia, larger than its European part, is absorbed in a mood of anticipation of the future Slavic-Germanic culture. Even a climatically gigantic region of the earth (the North, Siberia) has so far been preserved from mass-settlement and resultant ecological destruction. But this is not an idle waiting. As Rudolf Steiner says, even the Asiatic border regions of Russia are involved in preparing the future culture of the Spirit Self. But here something else should be accentuated, namely that the original aura of Russia has the same configuration as the aura of a single human being – it is anthropomorphic. It stretches like a giant Anthropos from the Black Sea to the Barents Sea.
In one
of his
lectures
Rudolf Steiner
called the
Russians the
‘Christ-people’.
But Christ is
the God of the
human ‘I’. All
of His
activity for
the sake of
man has an
individualizing
character. It
is a grave
error to want
to experience
him as a
national God
or a king. The
anthropomorphic
aura of the
Russian people
(or, more
precisely, the
aura of the
population of
Russia) would
have us seek
longingly for
the image of
the ideal,
perfect man,
of man as he
will be when
he masters the
Spirit Self.
Only through
such human
beings will
Christianity
move from the
stage of preparation
to the
stage of realization. It
will be
possible on a
large scale in
the sixth
cultural
epoch, but for
single
individuals
the way is
already open.
Germany in the European Community of Peoples
If the future cultural epoch is to follow the right path of development, the entire course of cultural-historic development must be altered qualitatively. Above all, Middle Europe has to provide the seed of the fifth cultural epoch – Goetheanism and Anthroposophy – with enough strength to grow; so much strength, that from it an essentially different culture can arise than the one that is nourished with the ‘juices’ of antiquity and Hellenism (where it is not even doing this, everything is sinking into barbarism). Middle Europe also faces the task of turning the movement of culture eastwards again, and gradually passing on the spiritual impulses for its future metamorphosis (today already this must be done actively). Without the help of all the European peoples, these tasks cannot be fulfilled by Germany, or even by all the German-speaking peoples; though Germany is prepared for the task to a special degree through the configuration of its aura. In order to understand it we have to turn to a whole series of statements by Rudolf Steiner. As a characterization of Middle Europe he said that we find there what is always becoming and never is, that the ‘I’ seeks through mutual relationships to connect with the cultures of the neighboring peoples and realizes an all-encompassing exchange of forces with the Sentient, Rational and Consciousness-soul (cf. Oct. 31, 1914, GA 157). Thus he remarks, for instance, that Shakespeare is understood better in Germany than in England. Rudolf Steiner says further, that the German nation works everywhere as a ferment, because it is peculiar to the ‘I’ to swing in different directions. Other nations say resentfully of the Middle European that he is here (on earth) only to plough the soil and search in the clouds ... This is why he tries in a certain sense already in his striving during earthly life to discard what has to be discarded when one goes through the portal of death into the spiritual world (Ibid.). In a certain sense only those have accomplished the task of the Germans, who have taken their self-education into their hands. The mere instinct-people ... remain behind in a certain sense (Dec. 8, 1918, GA 186). Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, who meet with such hostility today, created a thinking that is admittedly not yet spiritualism, is not spiritual science, but which is the seed of spiritual science, which, so to speak, if it is meditated through, truly leads to spiritual science. But for this reason the German national character has to remain fluid, it has to allow us to say: One is an Italian! One is a Frenchman! One is an Englishman! But one is always becoming a German! (Mar. 14, 1915, GA 159). The cultural historian of the future will certainly ascribe the same importance to the German spirit for the cultural education (Bildung) of modern times as one does today with the Greeks for that of antiquity (GA 30, p. 244). If the Norman-Germanic element had purely been active for itself, then today it would be easier to emphasize the justified monotheism that does not accept the abstract One God, but accepts the sequence of hierarchies, Angeloi, Archangeloi etc. (Nov. 23, 1918, GA 185a).
We may think that the nature of the German folk spirit is such that it continuously takes the path down to the nation and up again into the higher world ... that thereby especially within this folk-being the forces are to be called forth that in the most palpable sense lead to spiritual science. When the folk-spirit descends it brings about a strict folk-character in the physical world. When the folk-spirit ascends again and leaves the national character in a fluctuating state, then ... [the nation] learns to recognize that all being dissolves between the sensible and the supersensible world. The time of Fichte’s activity was the time when the folk-spirit descended most strongly to earth. Only then was a creativity possible in such concepts and ideas as were revealed in the ‘I’-nature of Fichte (Mar. 16, 1915, GA 157). By contrast, Jakob Boehme, although he is called the ‘Teutonic philosopher’, is a man independent in time of what his folk spirit is (May 9, 1915, GA 159).
It is
not possible
here to
mention
everything
said by Rudolf
Steiner about
Middle Europe,
and so a small
selection of
quotations
should suffice
to indicate
the problem
area; a study
of which is to
be validated
by an analysis
of the entire
phenomenology
of the German
spirit –
history,
culture and
language. Then
– and the
author is
quite sure of
this, because
he has already
partially
examined it –
what to a
certain degree
can only be
stated
hypothetically
will become
still more
apparent.
A thoughtful study of the statements of Rudolf Steiner concerning Middle Europe, the overview (Anschauen – in the sense of Goethean method) of its history and culture, allows the aura of the German people to appear in a form that – in contrast to the aura of the Russian people – is oriented from the earth to the heavens (Fig. 4). That which forms the ‘stem of the soul’ in the Russian aura – the axis of the coming into being of ‘I’-consciousness through the development of the soul-element that is connected to the earth and even to its configuration – is, in the German aura, directed from below to above, from the earth to the heavens. Along the axis of the ‘I’ a gigantic whirling and pulsating ‘storm’ rises up from the earth. This is how the etheric forces of the German people are oriented, and this endows the German ‘I’ with a mighty impulse of spiritual uprightness. Counter to the movement of the etheric forces, there descends earthwards from the heights a ‘storm’ of the astral aura, in which the inspirations of the folk spirit are revealed.6 If one tries to represent the configuration of the aura as a form, then a geometrical figure, or rather a symbol, an image appears – the hexagram. In the fifth cultural epoch this truly inexhaustible esoteric symbol belongs to Central Europe. In contrast to the third, Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian cultural epoch, a seventh element is now added, which expresses the mystery of the growing individual ‘I’. Occult symbols have been at all times an expression of purely spiritual, not national or political, constellations of development. They should not be equated with badges or military distinctions that are awarded for warlike deeds of heroism. Still less can they serve as symbols of nationalism.