Human and Cosmic Thought. Lecture 4 of 4.
Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, January 23, 1914:
Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, January 23, 1914:
We have been
concerned with the possible varieties of world-outlooks, of world-outlook-moods
and so on, which can find place in the human soul, and, since I can take only
single points of view from this wide field, I should like to illustrate one of
these points of view by means of a special example.
Let us suppose that a person so lives in the world that among his
natural predispositions we find the special forces through which he is
influenced by the world-outlook of Idealism. We will say that he makes this
world-outlook into a dominating factor in his inner life, so that the soul-mood
which I designated yesterday as Mysticism, and called the Venus mood, flows
towards Idealism and is nourished by its powers. Hence, if one speaks in the
symbols of astrology, one would say that the spiritual constellation of such a
man, according to his natural predispositions, is that Venus stands in
Aries.
I remark expressly, so that no misunderstanding may arise, that
these constellations are of much greater importance in the life of the person
than the constellations of the external horoscope, and do not necessarily
coincide with the “nativity” — the external horoscope. For the enhanced
influence which is exerted on the soul by this standing of Mysticism in the sign
of Idealism waits for the propitious moment when it can lay hold of the soul
most fruitfully. Such influences need not assert themselves just at the time of
birth; they can do so before birth, or after it. In short, they await the point
of time when these predispositions can best be built into the human organism,
according to its inner configuration.
Hence the ordinary astrological “nativity” does not come into
account here. But one can say: A certain soul is by nature such that,
spiritually speaking, Venus stands in Aries — Mysticism in the sign of Idealism.
Now the forces which arise in this way do not remain constant throughout life.
They change — that is, the person comes under other influences, under other
spiritual signs and also under other moods of soul. Let us suppose that a man so
changes that in the course of his life he comes into the soul-mood of
Empiricism; that Mysticism has moved on, as it were, into Empiricism, and
Empiricism stands in the sign of Rationalism. You see, as I drew it in the
preceding lecture, going from inwards outwards in the symbolic picture, that
Empiricism stands in relation to Mysticism as does the Sun to Venus. With regard
to its mood the soul has progressed to Empiricism and has at the same time
placed itself in the sign of Rationalism. The result is that such a soul changes
its world-picture. What the soul formerly produced, perhaps as a specially
strong personality in the time when in its case Mysticism stood in the sign of
Idealism, this will pass over into another nuance of world-outlook. What the
soul asserts and says will be different when in this way its world-outlook-mood
has passed over from Mysticism to Empiricism, and the latter has placed itself
in the sign of Rationalism. However, from what I have now explained, you can
gather that human souls can have an inclination to change the sign and mood of
their world-outlook. (See Diagram 11.) For these souls the tendency to change is already
given. Let us suppose that such a soul wants to carry this tendency further in
life. It wants to swing forward from Empiricism to the next soul-mood, i.e. to
Voluntarism; and if it wants to swing forward also in the zodiacal signs, then
it will come into Mathematism. It would then pass over to a world-outlook which
in this symbolical picture leads away at an angle of 60 degrees from the first
line, where Mysticism stood in the sign of Idealism; and such a soul, in the
course of the same incarnation, would bring to expression a mathematical
world-structure permeated by and based upon the will.
And now I ask you to notice how I work out this matter. It will be
seen that two such constellations as are here present in the soul disturb each
other in the course of time; they influence each other unfavorably when they
are at an angle of 60 degrees with regard to each other. In physical astrology
this a favorable constellation; in spiritual astrology this so-called sextile
aspect is unfavorable. We can see this because this last position — Voluntarism
in Mathematism — comes up against a severe hindrance in the soul. The soul is
not able to develop, because it cannot find anything to lay hold of, since the
person in question has no natural gift for Mathematism.
This is how the unfavorable character of the sextile aspect
expresses itself. Hence this configuration, Voluntarism in the sign of
Mathematism, cannot establish itself. The consequence is that the soul does not
try to move forward in this way. But because it cannot take the path to
Voluntarism in Mathematism, it turns away from the configuration it now has —
Empiricism in Rationalism — and seeks an outlet by placing itself in opposition
to the direction it cannot take. Such a soul, accordingly, would not swing
forward to Voluntarism in the direction of Mathematism, but would place itself
with Voluntarism in opposition to its Empiricism. The result is that Voluntarism
would stand in opposition to Rationalism in the sign of Dynamism. And in the
course of its life, such a soul would have as its possible configuration one in
which it would defend a world-outlook based on a special pressing in of forces,
of Dynamism permeated by will — a will that wants to effect its purpose by
force. In spiritual astrology things are again different from what they are in
physical astrology; in physical astrology “opposition” has a quite different
significance. Here, “opposition” is brought about by the soul being unable to
proceed further along an unfavorable path; it veers round into the opposing
configuration.
I have shown you here what the soul of Nietzsche went through in
the course of his life. If you try to understand the course he takes in his
early works, you will find that the placing of Mysticism makes it
comprehensible. From this period we have “The Birth of Tragedy”; “David Strauss,
the Confessor and the Writer”; “The Use and Abuse of History”; “Schopenhauer as
Educator”; “Richard Wagner in Bayreuth”. Then the soul of Nietzsche moves on; a
second epoch begins. Here we find “Human, all too Human”; “The Dawn of Day”;
“The Joyful Wisdom” — all proceeding from the oppositional configuration. These
are writings based on the will to power, on the will saturated with force, with
power.
Thus you see how an inner conformity to law exists between the
spiritual cosmos and the way in which man stands within it. If we employ the
symbols of astrology, but taking them to express something different, we can
say: In the case of Nietzsche, up to a certain time in his life Venus stood in
Aries, but when for his soul this configuration passed over into “Sun in the
sign of Taurus”, he could get no further. He could not go with Mars into the
sign of Gemini, but went in the oppositional position; thus he went with Mars
into the sign of Scorpio. His last phase was characterized by his standing with
Mars in Scorpio. But one can sustain this configuration only if one penetrates
into the lower position (below the line Idealism — Realism in Diagram 11) where one plunges into a spiritual world-outlook,
Occultism or something similar; otherwise these configurations must work back
unfavorably upon the person himself. Hence the tragic fate of Nietzsche. One
can go through with the upper configurations if one is able, owing to external
circumstances, to place oneself in the world in a corresponding way. The
configurations below the line from Idealism to Realism can be sustained only if
one dives down into the spiritual world — a thing that Nietzsche could not do.
By “placing oneself externally in the world” I mean placing by means of
education, by means of external conditions; they come into account for all that
lies above the line running from Idealism to Realism. Meditative life, a life
devoted to the study and understanding of spiritual science, comes into account
for all that lies below the line.
In order to grasp the importance of what has been sketched out in
these lectures, we must know the following things. We must make it clear to
ourselves what thinking really is; how it enters into human experience.
The uncompromising materialist of our day finds it suits his
purpose to say that the brain forms the thought — more exactly, that the central
nervous system forms the thought. For anyone who sees through things, this is
about as true as to say when one looks into a mirror that the mirror has “made”
the face. In fact, the face is outside the mirror; the mirror only reflects the
face, throws it back. The experience a man has of his thoughts is quite similar.
(We will leave aside for the moment other aspects of the soul.) The experience
of real, active thinking no more arises from the brain than the image of a face
is created by the mirror. The brain, in fact, works only as a reflecting
apparatus, whereby it throws back the soul-activity and this becomes visible to
itself. The brain has as little to do with what a man perceives as thoughts as a
mirror has to do with your face when you see it in a glass. But there is
something more than that. When someone thinks, he really perceives only the last
phases of his thinking-activity, of his thinking experience. And now, in order
to make this clear, I want to take up once more the comparison with the
mirror.
Imagine that you are standing there and want to see your face in a
mirror. If you have no mirror, then you cannot see your face. You may look as
long as you like, but you will not see your face. If you want to see it, you
must work up some material so that is reflects your face. That is, you must
first prepare the material so that it can produce the reflection. Then, when you
gaze at the surface, you see your face. The soul has to do the same with the
brain. The actual perceiving of a thought is preceded by a thinking activity
that works upon the brain. For example, if you want to perceive the thought
“lion”, your thinking activity first sets in motion certain parts of the brain,
deep within it, so that they become the “mirror” for the perception of the
thought “lion”. And the agent who thus makes the brain into a mirror is you
yourself. What you finally perceive as thoughts are the reflections, the
mirror-pictures; what you first have to prepare so that the right reflection may
appear is some part or other of the brain. You, with your soul-activity, are the
very thing that gives the brain the form and capacity for reflecting your
thinking as thoughts. If you want to go back to the activity on which the
thought is based, then it is the activity which, from out of the soul, takes
hold of the brain and gets to work there. And when from out of your soul you set
up a certain activity in your brain, this brings about a reflection such that
you perceive the thought “lion”. You see, a soul-spiritual element has to be
there first. Then, through its activity, the brain is made into a mirror-like
apparatus for reflecting the thought. That is the real process, but such a
muddled idea of it prevails that many people nowadays cannot grasp it at
all.
A person who makes a little progress in occult perception can
separate the two phases of his soul-activity. He can trace how it is that when
he wants to think something or other, he has first not simply to grasp the
thought, but to prepare his brain for it. If he has prepared it so that it
reflects, then he has the thought. When one wants to investigate occultly, so
that one can picture things, one always has, first, the task of carrying through
the activity which prepares the picturing. It is this that is so important for
us to notice. For it is only when we keep these things well in mind that we have
before us the real activity of human thinking. Now for the first time we know
how human thinking-activity is carried out. First, this activity lays hold of
the brain, in connection somewhere with the central nervous system. It sets in
motion — let us say if we wish — the atomistic portions in some way, brings them
into some sort of movement; by this means they become a mirror-apparatus; the
thought is reflected, and the soul becomes conscious of the
thought. Thus we have to distinguish two phases: first the work on the
brain from out of the psychic-spiritual in preparation for the external physical
experience; then the perception takes place, after the work on the brain has
prepared the ground for this act of perceiving by the soul. In the ordinary way
this preparatory work on the brain remains entirely unconscious. But an occult
researcher must start by actually experiencing it. He has to go through the
experience of how the soul-activity is poured in, and the brain made ready to
reflect the thought as an image.
What I have now explained happens continually to a person between
waking up and going to sleep. The thinking activity is always working on the
brain, and so, throughout the waking state, it makes the brain into a
mirror-apparatus for the thoughts. But it is not sufficient that the only
thinking-activity worked up in us should be that worked up by ourselves. For one
might say it is a narrowly limited activity that is here worked up in this way
by means of the psychic-spiritual. When we wake up in the morning and are awake
through the day, and in the evening fall asleep again, then the
psychic-spiritual activity which belongs to the thinking is working all day long
upon the brain, and thereby the brain becomes a reflecting-apparatus. But the
brain must first be there; then, the soul-spiritual activity can make little
furrows in the brain, or, one might say, its memoranda and engravings. The main
substance and form of the brain must first be there. But that is not enough for
our human life.
Our brain could not be worked upon by our daily life if our whole
organism were not so prepared that it provides a basis for this daily work. And
this work of preparation comes from the cosmos. Thus as we work daily at the
“engraving” of the brain, which makes it into a mirror-apparatus for our daily
thought, so, in so far as we cannot ourselves do this engraving, this giving
form, form has to be given to us from the cosmos. As our little thoughts work
and make their little engravings, so must our whole organism be built up from
out of the cosmos, according to the same pattern of thought-activity. For
example, that which appears to us finally in the sign of Idealism is present in
the spiritual cosmos as the activity producing Idealism, and it can so work upon
a man that it prepares his whole organism so that he inclines to Idealism. In
like manner are the other varieties of moods and signs worked in upon men from
out of the spiritual cosmos.
Man is built up according to the thoughts of the cosmos. The
cosmos is the “great thinker” which down to our last fingernail engraves our
form in us, just as our little thought-work makes its little imprints on our
brain every day. As our brain — I am referring only to the small portions where
imprints can be made — stands under the influence of the work of thinking, so
does the whole man stand under the influence of cosmic thinking.
Take the example I gave you, the example of Nietzsche — what does
it mean? It means that through an earlier incarnation Nietzsche was so prepared
in his karma that at a certain point of time, by virtue of his earlier
incarnation, the forces of Idealism and of Mysticism (working together because
Mysticism stood in the sign of Idealism) so worked upon his whole bodily
constitution that he was in the first place capable of becoming a mystical
Idealist. Then his constellation altered in the way indicated.
We are thought out from the cosmos — the cosmos thinks us. And
just as we, in our little daily thought-work, make little engravings in our
brain, and then the ideas “lion”, “dog”, “table”, “rose”, “book”, “on”, “right”,
“left”, come into our consciousness as reflections of that which we have
prepared in our brain — i.e. just as we, through the working-up of the brain,
finally perceive lion, dog, table, rose, book, on, off, right, write, read —
the beings of the cosmic hierarchies work in such a way that they carry out the
great thought-activity which engraves upon the world things far more significant
than our daily thought-activity can accomplish. So it comes to pass that not
only the tiny little markings arise and are then reflected singly as our
thoughts, but that we ourselves, in our whole being, appear again to the beings
of the higher hierarchies as their thoughts. As our little brain-processes
mirror our little thoughts, so do we mirror the thoughts of the cosmos which are
engraved upon the world. When the hierarchies of the cosmos “think”, they
“think”, for example, men. As our little thoughts emerge from our little
brain-processes, so do the thoughts of the hierarchies arise from their work, to
which we ourselves belong. As parts of our brain are for us the
reflecting-apparatus which we first work up for our thoughts, so are we, we
little beings, the substance which the hierarchies of the cosmos prepare for
their thoughts. Thus we might say, in a certain sense, that we can feel
ourselves with regard to the cosmos as a little portion of our brain might feel
with regard to ourselves. But as little as we, in our soul-spiritual nature, are
our brains, so little are the beings of the hierarchies “we”. Hence we have an
independent status in relation to the beings of the higher hierarchies. And we
can say that while in a certain manner we serve them so that they may be able to
think through us, yet at the same time we are independent beings with identities
of our own, as indeed, in a certain way, the particles of our brain have their
own life.
Thus we find the connection between human and cosmic thoughts.
Human thought is the regent of the brain; cosmic thought is such a regent that
we belong with our whole being to that which it has to accomplish. Only, because
in consequence of our karma it cannot direct its thoughts on to us all equally,
we have to be constituted in accordance with its logic. Thus we men have a logic
according to which we think, and so have the spiritual hierarchies of the cosmos
their logic. And their logic was indicated in the diagram I drew for you [see above]. As when we think, for example, “The lion is a
mammal” we bring two concepts together to make a statement, so the spiritual
hierarchies of the cosmos think two things together, Mysticism and Idealism, and
we then say: “Mysticism appears in Idealism.” Imagine this first as the
preparatory activity of the cosmos. Then resounds the Creative Fiat, the
Creative Word. For the beings of the spiritual hierarchies the preparatory act
consists in the choice of a human being whose karma is such that he can develop
a natural bent for becoming a mystical Idealist. Into the Hierarchies of the
cosmos there is rayed back something that we should call a “thought”, whereas
for them it is the expression of a man who is a mystical Idealist. He is their
“thought”, after they have prepared for themselves the cosmic decision — “Let
Mysticism appear in Idealism.”
We have now, in a certain sense, depicted the inner aspect of the
Cosmic Word, of Cosmic Thought. What we drew in a diagram as “cosmic logic”
represents how the spiritual hierarchies of the cosmos think — for example: “Let
Empiricism appear in the sign of Rationalism!” and so on. Let us try to realize
what can be thought in the cosmos in this way. It can be thought: “Let Mysticism
appear in the sign of Idealism! Let it change! Let it become Empiricism in the
sign of Rationalism!” Opposition! The next move on would represent a false
cosmic decision. After verification, the thought is changed round. The third
standpoint must appear: “Voluntarism in the sign of Dynamism.” These three
decisions, through being spoken over a period in the cosmic worlds, give the
“man Nietzsche”. And he rays back as the thought of the cosmos.
Thus does the collectivity of the hierarchies speak in the cosmos!
And our human thinking-activity is a copy, a tiny copy, of it.
Worlds are related to the Spirit — or to the Spirits — of the cosmos
as our brain is to our soul. Thus we may have a glimpse into something which we
ought certainly to look upon only with a certain reverence, with a holy awe. For
in contemplating it we stand before the mysteries of human individuality. We
learn to understand — if I may express myself figuratively — that the eyes of
the beings of the higher hierarchies roam over the single individualities among
men, and that individuals are to them what the individual letters of a book are
to us when we are reading. This we may look upon only with holy awe: we are
overhearing the thought-activity of the cosmos.
In our day the veil over such a mystery as this must be lifted to
a certain degree; for the laws which have here been shown as the laws of the
thinking of the cosmos are active in man. And the knowledge of them can help us
to understand life, and then to understand ourselves; so that even when, for one
reason or another, we have to be placed one-sidedly in life, we know that we
belong to a great whole, for we are links in the thought-logic of the cosmos.
And in learning to grasp these relations, spiritual science acts as our guide.
It teaches us to understand our one-sided predispositions as much as it enlarges
our all-round knowledge. Thus we can find the frame of mind which is necessary
precisely in our time. For today, when in many leading minds there is no trace
of insight into the relationships we have touched on here, we experience the
effects of these relations or connections but do not know how to live under
them. And thus they create conditions which call for adjustment.
Let us take the example of Wundt, whom I mentioned yesterday. His
one-sidedness is brought about through a quite definite constellation. Let us
suppose that he could ever struggle on to an understanding of spiritual science:
then he would look upon his one-sidedness in such a way that he would say to
himself: “Now because I stand here with my Empiricism, etc., I am in a position
to do good work in certain fields. I will remain in these, and will make up for
it in other ways through spiritual science.” To such a decision as this he would
come. But he refuses to know anything about spiritual science. What does he do
in consequence? Whereas he could carry out something good and productive in the
constellation which is his, he turns what lies within his range into a complete
philosophy. Otherwise he could probably do something greater, much greater;
indeed he would be most useful if he would leave philosophizing alone and go in
for experimental psychology — a thing he understands — and if he would inquire
into the nature of mathematical conclusions — which he also understands —
instead of making a concoction of all kinds of philosophy; for then he would be
on the right lines.
But this must be said of many. Therefore spiritual science, while
it must evoke the feeling by which we recognize how there should be peace
between world-outlooks, must also point sharply to cases where persons go beyond
the necessary limits set for them by their constellations. These persons do
great harm by hypnotizing the world with opinions that get by without any
attention being paid to the constellation behind them. All forms of
one-sidedness that try to claim universal validity must be strongly repulsed.
The world does not admit of being explained by a person who has special
predilections for this or that. And when he wants to explain it on his own, and
so to found a philosophy, then this philosophy works harmfully, and spiritual
science has the task of rejecting the arrogance of this pretentious claim to
universality. In our time, the less feeling there is for spiritual science the
more strongly will this one-sidedness appear. Hence we see that knowledge of the
nature of human and cosmic thought can lead us to understand rightly the
significance and the task of spiritual science, and to see how it can bring into
a right relationship other so-called spiritual streams, especially philosophic
currents, in our time. It must be wished that knowledge of the kind that we have
tried to bring together for ourselves in these four lectures should inscribe
itself deeply into the hearts and souls of our friends, so that the course of
the anthroposophical spiritual stream through the world would take a quite
definite and right direction. It would thereby be recognized more and more how a
man is formed through that which lives in him as cosmic thought.
With the aid of such an explanation as this we see more depth than
we could otherwise do in a thought of Fichte's, where he says: “What kind of a
philosophy a man has depends on the kind of man he is.” Yes, indeed, the kind of
philosophy a man has does verily depend on the kind of man he is! The fact that
Fichte (in the first period of the incarnation he was then living through as
Fichte) could say, as the basic nerve of his philosophy of life: “Our world is
the sensualized material of our duty” [see footnote 2] shows even as does the previously quoted
saying (which he gave out later) how his soul changed its constellation in the
spiritual cosmos. That is, it shows how richly this soul was endowed, so that
the spiritual hierarchies could remold it so that through it they could think
various things for themselves. Something similar could be said of Nietzsche, for
example.
Many different ways of viewing the world emerge if one keeps
before one's soul such things as have been described in these four lectures. The
best we can gain from these descriptions is that with their aid we should come
to look ever more and more deeply, with perceptive feeling, into the spiritual
features of the world.
If only one thing were to be achieved by means of such a
lecture-course as this, it would be that as many as possible of you should say
to yourselves: “Yes, if anyone wants to enter into the spiritual world — i.e.
into the world of truth, and not into the world of error — he must really set
out upon the path! For much, much must be taken into consideration along this
path in order to come to the sources of truth. And if at the beginning it might
seem to me as if a contradiction appears here or there, if in one place or
another I could not understand something, I will still say to myself that the
world is not there in order to be grasped by every condition of human
understanding, and that I would rather be a seeker than a man whose sole
attitude toward the world is such that he only inquires ‘What can I
understand?’ ‘What can I not understand?’”
If one becomes a seeker, if one earnestly sets to work along the
path of the seeker, then one learns to know that one must bring together
impulses from the most varied sides in order to gain an understanding of the
world. And then one unlearns every kind of attitude toward the world that asks
“Do I understand that?” “Do I not understand that?”, and instead one seeks and
seeks and goes on seeking. The worst enemies of truth are cosmic conceptions
that are exclusive and strive after finality; the conceptions of those who want
to frame a couple of thoughts and suppose that with them they can dare to build
up a world-edifice.
The world is boundless, both qualitatively and quantitatively. And
it will be a blessing when there are individual souls who wish for clear vision
with regard to that which is appearing in our day with such terrible overweening
narrow-mindedness, and wants to be “universal”. I might say: “With bleeding
heart I declare that the greatest hindrance to knowledge of how a preparatory
work of thought-activity is carried out in the brain, how the brain is thereby
made into a mirror and the life of the soul reflected from it — a fact which
could throw endless light on much other physiological knowledge — the greatest
hindrance to the knowledge of this fact is the crazy modern physiology which
speaks of two kinds of nerves, the ‘motor’ and the ‘sensory’ nerves.” (I have
touched on this in many lectures already.) In order to produce this theory,
which crops up everywhere in physiology, it is a fact that physiology had first
to lose all understanding. Hence it is a theory now recognized all over the
Earth, and it acts as a hindrance to all true knowledge of the nature of thought
and the nature of the soul. Never will it be possible to understand human
thought if physiology sets up such an obstacle to true knowledge. But things
have gone so far that an indefensible physiology forms the introduction to every
textbook of psychology and teaching about the mind, and makes it dependent on
this falsity. Therewith the door is bolted also against knowledge of cosmic
thought.
One first learns to recognize what thought is in the cosmos when
one comes to feel what human thinking is: that in its true nature it has nothing
to do with the brain except that it is the master of the brain. But when one has
thus recognized thought in its essence, when one has come to know oneself in
thinking, then one feels oneself inwardly within the cosmic, and our knowledge
of the true nature of cosmic thought. When we learn to know rightly what our
thinking is, then we learn also to know how we are “thought” by the powers of
the cosmos. Indeed we may gain a glimpse into the logic of the hierarchies. The
single components of the decisions of the hierarchies, the concepts of the
hierarchies, I have written down for you. In the twelve spiritual signs of the
Zodiac, the seven world-outlook-moods, and so on, lie the concepts of the
hierarchies; and human beings are constituted in accordance with the verdicts of
the cosmos which result from these concepts. Thus we feel ourselves within the
logic of the cosmos — that is (if we really grasp it), within the logic of the
hierarchies of the cosmos. We feel ourselves as souls embedded in cosmic
thought, just as we feel our thoughts, the little thoughts we think, embedded in
our soul-life.
Meditate sometimes on the idea “I think my thoughts” and “I am a
thought which is thought by the hierarchies of the cosmos.” My eternal part
consists in this: that the thought of the hierarchies is eternal. And when I
have once been thought out by one category of the hierarchies, then I am passed
on — as a human thought is passed on from teacher to pupil — from one category
to another, so that this in turn may think me in my true, eternal nature. Thus I
feel myself within the thought-world of the cosmos.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment