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A percepção da Verdade
“A não ser que adquiramos a faculdade para perceber a
verdade neste mundo físico, nunca seremos capazes de replicá-la em relação ao
mundo espiritual. A capacidade de encontrar nossos verdadeiros direcionamentos
no mundo espiritual deve ser desenvolvida aqui no mundo físico. É para este fim
que somos colocados no mundo físico, onde nos cabe ao procurar a concordância entre ideia e a realidade
objetiva, de tal forma que isto se torna natural para nós, se torna num hábito
e numa faculdade que carregamos então conosco no mundo espiritual.”
Rudolf Steiner
'Unless we
acquire the faculty for the perception of truth in this physical world we shall
never be able to unfold it in regard to the spiritual world. The capacity to
find our true bearings in the spiritual world must be developed here in the
physical world. It is for this purpose that we are placed in the physical
world, where it behooves us to seek agreement between idea and objective
reality, in such a way that this may become natural to us, may become a habit
and a faculty which we then carry with us into the spiritual world.'
Rudolf
Steiner
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA233a/English/RSPC1935/19240422p04.html
Rudolf
Steiner. Festival of Easter. GA 233a Lecture IV 22 April 1924, Dornach
We have
seen how out of the Mysteries has grown that which has bound the consciousness
of man so closely to the universe that this bond found expression in the annual
round of festivals, and we have seen especially how the Festival of Easter has
evolved out of the principle of Initiation. From all that has been said, you
must have been struck by the great importance of the part played by the
Mysteries in the development of mankind.
Everything
spiritual that passed through the world in ancient times, by which men were
able to develop, did in fact have its rise out of the whole life and content of
the Mysteries (Mysterienwesen). Making use of a modern expression, one might
say: the Mysteries had a great deal of power in respect of the guidance of all
spiritual life.
Now
humanity was ordained from the beginning to develop freedom. That this might
develop, it was necessary that the life of the Mysteries should decline, so for
a long time men were not so closely associated with the powerful guidance
coming from the Mysteries and were left more to themselves.
It is very
certain we cannot yet say that the time has come when men have attained true
inner freedom, that they are now sufficiently ripe to pass on to the next age
following the one in which freedom has been gained. Truly we are unable to say
this. All the same, there are a sufficient number who have gone through
incarnations in which the power of the Mysteries was less apparent than
formerly; and if to-day the seed of their passage through these incarnations
has not yet germinated, still it is there—it is implanted in the souls of men.
And as an age is now approaching which will be again an age of greater
spirituality, men must begin to develop what in their present state of dullness
they have not yet developed. Without appreciation, without reverence and true
knowledge, a spiritual life is really not possible. We make a right use of
these festival seasons when we employ them to develop, and to some small extent
to implant in our souls, this feeling of appreciation and reverence for what is
spiritual that has evolved in the course of human history; when we endeavour to
learn as intimately as possible how and why external historical events point to
spiritual facts, and carry over what is spiritual from one age into another.
This is mainly possible because men come again and again into earthly existence
in recurring earthly lives, and therefore carry with them into later epochs
what they had experienced in earlier ones. Men are the most important factors
in the further development of human history. In every age they live in a
definite surrounding or atmosphere (Umgebung), and one of the most important of
these was that of the Mysteries. Thus one of the most important agents in human
progress is the power to carry over what was experienced in the Mysteries and
to live this again, whether it be in the Mysteries themselves, where it works
into humanity at large, or simply as cognition or knowledge. To-day
this must be in some form of conscious knowledge (Erkennen), for the true life
of the Mysteries (Mysterienwesen) has withdrawn more or less from the external
life of to-day and must come forth into it again.
We are here
constrained to say: It is indeed the case that if that impulse which went forth
from the Christmas session here at the GStheanum really enters into the life of
the Anthroposophical Society, this society, by pressing onwards to ever greater
depths of knowledge, can provide the foundation of a further “living content of
the Mysteries” (Mysterienwesen). This must be nurtured consciously within the
Anthroposophical Society. For this society has experienced an event that can be
utilized in evolution in the same way as a similar event was once utilized: the
burning of the temple at Ephesus. Both there and here a great wrong lies at the
root of what was done. Things present, however, different aspects on different
levels, and what at one level is a dreadful wrong, may be used in accordance
with human freedom in such a way that real human progress can be achieved
through it.
If we are
to enter into such matters with understanding we must grasp them, as I have
already said, in as intimate a way as possible. We must study the special way
in which the spiritual things of the world were cultivated in the Mysteries. I
indicated in the last lecture how out of the spiritual observation of the
constellations of the sun and moon, as practised in the Mysteries, the fixing
of the annual festival of Easter was determined; further, that the other
planets were regarded from the point of view of the moon. I said that according
to what was experienced in the observation of the other planets a man was
guided at his descent from pre-earthly to earthly existence, that his luminous
etheric body was constructed in accordance with what was then seen.
Now if
anyone desires to gain some comprehension of how through the forces of the
moon—or rather through the spiritual observations by the moon—these etheric
forces are transmitted to man, this can be done, as we have tried to do, from
observation of the cosmos itself, where it is inscribed, where it exists as
fact.
But it is
most important that the human interest, which throughout the ages has been felt
in these truths, should be permitted to influence the soul. Never did the souls
and minds of men take so much interest in the descent of the soul from
pre-earthly existence, never was so intimate an interest felt in the last stage
of this descent, in man's clothing of himself with the etheric body, as in the
Mysteries of Ephesus.
In the
Mysteries of Ephesus the whole ritual practised by the goddess of Ephesus, who
is named esoterically Artemis, was really directed towards participating in the
spiritual blending and interweaving of life in the ether of the universe—in the
cosmic ether.
We can
venture to say that, when those taking part in the Mystery of Ephesus
approached the image of the goddess, an enhancement of perception occurred
which amounted to hearing, and what was heard might be given in the words of
the goddess somewhat as follows: “I rejoice in all that is fruitful within the
wide-spreading universal ether.” This expression of inward joy on the part of
the goddess exercised a very profound influence on all growing, blossoming life
in the universal ether. And feelings inwardly connected with this springing
life breathed like a magic sigh through the spiritual atmosphere of the sacred
precincts of the temple of Ephesus.
All the
arrangements at this centre of the Mysteries were so directed as to enable
people to say: Nowhere but at Ephesus is there so close a union with the growth
of living plants, with this sprouting and springing of the being of plants from
the earth. This led to the fact that within those Mysteries especially clear
instructions were given concerning those secrets of the moon of which I spoke
in the last lecture, and which were for the special purpose of bringing an
understanding of such things to the souls of those who were adherents of the
Ephesian Mysteries.
To feel
himself as a light-form was an individual experience to each of these Ephesian
pupils and initiates, for it was a real and living fact to them that their
light-forms came to them through the moon. The instruction they received was
somewhat as follows:
Those able
to let the instructions they received in the places of consecration work on
them were entirely taken up with this self-construction out of Sunlight that
came to them, though changed, by way of the moon. They then heard as if coming
to them from the sun the tones: J O A.
They knew
that these tones, J O A, stimulated their ego and their astral body. J O
equalled the I (ego) and astral body, and they perceived the approach of the
Etheric-Light-Body in the A, forming together J O A. When these tones vibrated
within the pupil for initiation he was conscious of his ego, of his astral body
and etheric body.
Then it was
as if there rang forth from the earth (for the man was now entered into cosmic
conditions) something which enforced the J O A, making of it eh v, JehOvA.
It was the forces of the earth that revealed themselves in the eh v.
The pupil
now felt his whole human being in the JehOvA. He felt a
premonition of the physical body as it was first on earth in the consonants
which accompanied the vocalization, which in the J O A indicated the ego, the
astral body, and the etheric body. It was the experiencing of himself in the JehOvA
that enabled the pupil of the Ephesian Mysteries to experience the final steps
in his descent from the spiritual world. At the same time the consciousness of
the J O A was such that he felt himself to be in the light, that he was this
tone, J O A. He was then a Man: a resounding (Klingendes) ego, a resounding
astral body, within the luminous, shining etheric body. Man was then tone in
light. This is the cosmic man.
Thus man is
capable of accepting (aufzunehmen) that which he sees out in the cosmos, in the
same way as here on earth he accepts the things he sees with his eyes when he
looks out to his physical surroundings on the earth. The pupil of the Ephesian
Mysteries really felt when he bore the J O A within him as if transported to
the Moon-sphere. He shared in what was observed from the point of view of the
moon. At that time the human being was still a universal being (Mensch im
allgemeinen). It first became man and woman at its descent to earth. But man
then felt he was transported to the realms of pre-earthly existence, though
aware of the approach of what was earthly. This transporting of themselves into
the Moon-sphere was, to the Ephesian pupils, an act of the greatest possible
intimacy. They then bore within their hearts and within their souls all the
things they had experienced and which sounded in their ears somewhat as
follows:
Thou Being,
offspring of worlds, who in thy Light-form art strengthened by the Sun under
the Moon's control,
Thou art
endowed by Mars with his creative resonance, with Mercury's swinging movement
of thy limbs ;
Enlightened
by the rays of Jupiter's wisdom, And by the love-bearing beauty of Venus,
And
Saturn's age-old spiritual inwardness consecrates thee to life in space, to
growth in time!
Consciousness
of this filled each pupil of Ephesus. He realised that this consciousness which
pulsated through him was of the greatest consequence to his humanity.
One can
say: this was something which enabled a pupil belonging to the Ephesian
Mysteries to feel himself most truly man. To put it trivially—when these words
sounded in his ears he felt a consciousness dawn in him that connected him,
through the powers of his etheric body, with the whole planetary system:
Weltentsprossenes
Wesen, du in Lichtgestalt,
Von der Sonne erkraftet in der Mondgewalt,
Dich beschenket
des Mars erschaffendes Klingen
Und Merkurs gliedbewegendes Schwingen,
Dich erleuchtet
Jupiters erstrahlende Weisheit
Und der Venus liebetragende Schönheit,
Dass Saturns
weltenalte Geist-Innigkeit
Dich dem Raumessein und Zeitenwerden weihe!
This is
expressed most pregnantly in the following words spoken to the etheric body by
the universe:
“Weltentsprossenes
Wesen, du in Lichtgestalt, Von der Sonne erkraftet in der Mondgewalt.”
The man now
consciously felt himself within the power of the moonlight.
“Dich beschenket
des Mars erschaffendes Klingen Und Merkurs gliedbewegendes Schwingen.”
Here the
resonance, which has something creative in it, comes to him from Mars. And that
which imparts power to his limbs, that enables him to become a being of
movement, comes from Mercury:
“Und Merkurs
gliedbewegendes Schwingen.”
From Jupiter
illumination comes to him:
“Dich erleuchtet
Jupiters erstrahlende Weisheit.”
And from
Venus there comes:
“Und der Venus
liebetragende Schönheit.”
In order
that Saturn can gather together all that completes man inwardly and outwardly,
preparing him for his descent to earth, clothing him with his physical body and
enabling this physically clothed being, who bears God within him, to carry on
his life on earth:
Dass Saturns
weltenalte Geist-Innigkeit
Dich dem Raumessein und Zeitenwerden weihe!
From all I
have described you can gather that the spiritual life at Ephesus was inwardly
bright and full of colour. And this inwardly bright and colourful life
contained precisely all that is summed up in the thoughts of Easter, all that
the consciousness of man was able to grasp as his own intrinsic worth in the
whole cosmos, the whole universe.
Many of
those wanderers to whom I alluded in the last lecture, who passed from Mystery
to Mystery in order that they might gather the full sum of those influences
that came from the Mysteries—many of these wanderers have given us the
assurance: that nowhere had the Sphere-harmonies resounded so clearly, so
inwardly, as they sounded at Ephesus, because of the perception they had of
things as seen from the aspect of the moon. In no other place had the astral
light of the world appeared so luminous as when perceived in the light of the
sun flooded by the softly glimmering light of the moon—and spiritualized by
this astral light as man is ensouled by it—in no other place had they been able
to perceive this, or at least not with the same joyousness and inward artistic
acceptance.
All this
was associated with the temple which later went up in flames through criminal
or crazy folly. Initiates of these Ephesian Mysteries were incarnated, as I
informed you at the Christmas meeting, in Aristotle and Alexander the Great.
These individuals came in touch at that time with what could still be traced of
the Mysteries of Samothrace.
Now an
external, apparently chance event is sometimes of great importance in the
evolution of the world. Some considerable time ago I informed you that the time
of the burning of the temple at Ephesus coincided with the birth of Alexander
the Great. But other things also took place through this burning of the temple.
Oh, how manifold and tremendous are the things that have happened in the course
of centuries to those who belonged to this Temple! How much of spiritual light
and wisdom has passed through these Temple Halls! And all that passed within
these halls was recorded in the world-ether while the flames burst forth from
out the Temple. So that one can say: the continuous Easter festival at Ephesus,
enclosed as it was within the Temple Halls, has been inscribed ever since on
the vast dome of the universe in respect of this dome's ether-nature, though
perhaps in letters that are not perceptible to all.
And so has
it been with many things. Much of the wisdom of humanity was in ancient times
enclosed within Temple walls. It has escaped from these walls, has been
inscribed on the universal ether, and henceforth is immediately visible there
to those who have risen to real imaginative knowledge.
This
imaginative knowledge is to a certain extent the interpretation of the secrets
of the stars. What once was Temple-wisdom has been inscribed on the universal
ether, and can thence be read by those possessing Imagination.
This can be
put in a different way; yet it is the same in whatever way it is put. One can
say: I go forth into the night, and gaze on the starry heavens, allowing the
impression they make to sink into me. And if the necessary faculties have been
acquired, that which is contained in the grouping of the constellations, in the
movements of the planets, is transformed into a mighty script. And when this
cosmic script is read, something emerges from it of a similar kind to what I
described in the last lecture concerning the Secrets of the Moon. These things
can absolutely be read in the script of the firmament by those to whom the
stars are not merely objects for mathematical calculations but when they are
letters in a cosmic script. Something further might here be added for the
elucidation of this matter.
At the very
time the Mysteries of the Kabiri arose in Samothrace, and the older Mysteries
were declining, something emerged through the influence of these Kabiri
Mysteries which for Alexander and Aristotle were like a remembrance of the
earlier times they had passed through together in a certain century at Ephesus.
(Samothrace was not a Mystery-establishment of remembrance, nor was it a place
for work where development was practised; as a matter of fact the life of the
Mysteries was in general decline at the time of Alexander.) In this remembrance
they heard again the sound of the word J O A. Once more there sounded within
them:
Weltentsprossenes
Wesen, du in Lichtgestalt,
Von der Sonne
erkraftet in der Mondgewalt,
Dich beschenket
des Mars erschaffendes Klingen
Und Merkurs
gliedbewegendes Schwingen,
Dich erleuchtet
Jupiters erstrahlende Weisheit
Und der Venus
liebetragende Schönheit,
Dass Saturns
weltenalte Geist-Innigkeit
Dich dem
Raumessein und Zeitenwerden weihe.
In this
remembrance—in this historical remembrance of things long past—there lay a
certain power for the creation of something new. From that moment a power went
forth for the creation of something new—a very remarkable new thing which has
attracted very little attention from mankind. You must try to understand how
this new creation which proceeded from Alexander and Aristotle was really
brought about.
Take some
well-known poetic work, or any other work—the most beautiful you can find—take
for instance a German translation of the “Bhagavad Gita,” GSthe's “Faust,” or
the “Iphigeneia,” anything on which you set a high value, and think of its rich
and mighty content, that of GSthe's “Faust,” for example. By what means is this
rich content communicated to you, my dear friends? Let us take it that it is
communicated to you as is done in the case of the majority of men: that at some
time of your life you read GSthe's “Faust.” What came to you on this occasion
on the physical plane? What was on the paper? Nothing was on the paper but
certain combinations of a b c d e f, etc. These combinations were the only
means by which the mighty content of “Faust” was passed on to you. When you
know the Alphabet there is nothing on the printed page that is not comprised in
its 26 letters. But the rich content of the “Faust” is conjured from the paper
in a magic way by means of these letters. It is clear to the eye that the repetition
of a b c is wearisome; it is the most abstract thing imaginable. Yet this
abstract thing, rightly combined, gives you the complete “Faust”!
And now,
when that cosmic world-tone of the moon was heard again—the tone in which
Aristotle or Alexander were versed—the meaning of the fire of Ephesus became
clear, they knew how this fire had borne out into the far spaces of the
world-ether the secret of Ephesus—and there now arose in Aristotle the
inspiration to establish (zu begründen) the Cosmic-script. Only this
world-script could not be built on the foundation of a b c d e f; but just as
ordinary script was founded on letters, the world-script was founded on
thoughts. In this way letters of the world-script came into being.
When I
write down the following list, the words are just as abstract as a b c d e:
|
Being.
|
Time.
|
|
Quantity,
that is Number.
|
Place.
|
|
Quality,
Attributes.
|
To have
(or having).
|
|
Relation.
|
To do (or
doing).
|
|
Space.
|
To suffer
(or suffering).
|
You have
here a few ideas. Learn to accomplish with these ideas which were first
propounded to Alexander by Aristotle—learn to do with these ideas what you have
learnt to do with abed; you then learn how from Being, Quantity, Quality,
Relation, Space, Time, Place, Having, Doing, Suffering, to read the Cosmos.
In the age
of abstraction something extraordinary occurred in the schools of logic. Only
suppose, if in certain schools concern was not with teaching people to read,
but with compiling books in which every possible combinations of a b c d had to
be learnt—a c, a b, b e, and so on—but not so as to learn by this to make use
of the letter in a way that could bring any rich content to their souls, this
would be to do exactly the same as the world has done to the logic of
Aristotle. In his logic what were called categories were put forward; they were
learnt by heart, but people did not know how to make use of them. This is
similar to learning the a b c by heart without knowing how to use it.
Reading in
the script of the universe can be traced back to something as simple as the
learning of a b c is to the content of “Faust.”
In fact,
what has been put forward by Anthroposophy, and can continue to be put forward,
is arrived at from these ideas in the same way as the reading of “Faust” is
arrived at by means of letters. For all the secrets of the physical and the
spiritual world are contained, as a world-alphabet, within these simple
concepts.
You have to
realize that in the course of the world's development it happened, that as
opposed to the earlier direct perception of which the events at Ephesus were
still the most characteristic example, something arose which had its beginning
at the time of Alexander, and continued to evolve more especially during the
Middle Ages, something most profoundly hidden and esoteric.
Most
profoundly esoteric is the thought living in these ten simple conceptions. We
must learn really to live more and more in them; we must strive to experience
them in our souls, when these have a richly organized spirit-filled content, as
vividly as we experience the a b c.
Thus we
see, how in these ten concepts whose inner illumination and source of power has
once more to be discovered, was comprised something which like a mighty
instinctive revelation of wisdom endured through thousands of years. And it
will one day come to pass that what seems actually to have been laid within a
grave—that is, the Wisdom of the world—will once more emerge and find the Light
of the world, men will learn to read in the cosmos once more, and the
resurrection of that which has been kept in concealment during the interval of
human evolution between the two spiritual epochs, will again be experienced.
Our
purpose, my dear friends, is to reveal to mankind that which has been hidden. I
can therefore say, as on other occasions: Anthroposophy is a Christmas event,
and in all its acts it is also an Easter event, a resurrection experience that
is connected with a burial. And it is important that we should feel, especially
at this Easter Assembly, the solemn sanctity—if I may so express it—of our
Anthroposophical aspirations, in that we have some perception of being able to
go to-day to a Spiritual Being who stands near us, perhaps immediately beyond
the threshold, and to Whom we can say: Ah! at that time humanity was blessed by
a divine spiritual revelation, which shone with exceptional clarity at Ephesus,
but now all that lies buried. How can I again bring forth what thus lies
buried! Yet we can believe that what once has been can
somewhere be found again—can be found in the grave where it was hidden.
Then a
Being will answer us, as on a similar occasion this same Being answered once
before: “That which ye seek is no longer here, it is in your hearts, if only ye
will open them to receive it in the right way.”
Anthroposophy
already dwells in the hearts of men. These men have only to open their hearts
to it in the right way. Then we shall experience in full sunlight, not in the
old-time instinctive way, our return to that Wisdom which lived in, and
illumined the Mysteries.
These are
the things, my dear friends, which I desired to bring before you at this Easter
season. For to fill ourselves with that which like a sacred breath can inflame
the heart of everyone who holds to Anthroposophy, and can bear us with it into
the spiritual world, is an impulse which is closely associated with the
Christmas Impulse given at Dornach. This impulse must not remain something that
can be thought out; it cannot stop at intellectuality; it must be an impulse
coming from the heart, not dry or insipid—not sentimental, but in accordance
with its whole nature it must be a very solemn one.
In the same
way as the flames at Ephesus were used by Aristotle to fire his heart anew, and
after they had streamed up into the outer ether they had brought to him again
the secrets which he was then able to grasp in their primal significance ... as
the fire at Ephesus could be used in this way, it is laid upon us, and we shall
soon be able to carry out the demand (I say this in all humility), it is laid
upon us to use that which as the aim and purpose of Anthroposophy was carried
up into the ether along with the flames of the GStheanum for the further
carrying out of this purpose.
What is to
be the outcome of this, my dear friends? The outcome is to be that we receive a
new impulse from the GStheanum. At the annual commemoration of the sad event
which falls at Christmas time, the time in which this misfortune overtook us,
we must receive a fresh impulse from the GStheanum. And why? Because we should
feel what formerly was more or less an earthly concern, founded and constructed
as a thing of earth, has been borne up by the flames into the wide spaces of
the cosmos. Because this misfortune has come upon us we ought to be able to say
in recognizing the results of this misfortune: We now realize that we should
not have carried this out as a merely earthly concern (Erdensache) but as one
appertaining to the whole far-reaching etheric world in which the Spirit
dwells: then what happened to the GStheanum becomes something that concerns the
wide ether in which dwells the spirit-filled wisdom of the universe. It has
been carried out far into the beyond, and we must fill ourselves with the impulses
of the GStheanum that comes to us from out the cosmos.
Let us take
this as we will, let us take it as an image. But the image contains a profound
truth. And this profound truth can be expressed in simple words when we say:
The activities (Wirken) of Anthroposophy have been permeated with an esoteric
tendency since the time of the Christmas impulse, 1923. This esoteric impulse
or tendency exists, for though the earthly part through the co-operation of
physical fire streamed out into space as astral light ... this impulse works
back again into the Anthroposophical movement if only we are in a position to
receive it.
When
we are able to do this we are aware of a most important factor
in all that lives in Anthroposophy. This important factor or part (Glied) is
the Easter-feeling (Osterstimmung), that Anthroposophical feeling that can
never be persuaded that the spirit can possibly die, but that, when owing to
the world it has to die, it rises eternally anew. Anthroposophy must hold to
the spirit that from eternal foundations ever rises again.
Let us take
this to our hearts as an Easter thought, an Easter feeling. We will then take
with us from this place of meeting, when we take our way into other walks of
life, something which will give us courage and power to carry on our work.
