53 cosmic prehistory lecture III (theme: ahr-luc in social-culture)

Romanism and Freemasonry

The Realm of Duration and the Realm
of the Transitory:

If we bring to mind what we have gathered from our recent lectures, including
yesterday's lecture, and not from their various details but from their whole trend
and meaning, then we can say it is the following: It is demanded of the
civilisation that must replace ours towards the future in an energetic way, that it
should look deeper into true reality, that above all such high-sounding phrases, or
rather, such high-sounding theories as those of Monism, Idealism, Realism, and so
on, come to an end, and that men realise that the maya-reality, the reality of the
surrounding external phenomena, is actually a confluence of two worlds, of two
worlds, in fact, in conflict with one another. To look at reality means something
very different from merely following up theoretically all that exists in the world
of appearances around us, which is the way of modern natural science.
In order to discuss this theme practically, we will first go into a concrete
example. Who would not suppose that the materialistic concept of the world which
has spread among civilised nations since the 60's, 70's of last century, and the
materialistic mode of living which indeed results from this concept, must
necessarily have the effect of making men more materialistic? If one looks at the
world merely from appearances one naturally supposes that there arises a sort of
external manifestation of the ideas which men have had in their heads; but that is
not the case. As soon as one turns one's mind to the conditions that in reality
follow one another then that does not accord at all, it is not true that the world
is somehow or other organised according to the ideas men set in their heads. One
only understands that this cannot be the reality if one realises that the human
being is of a double nature, as we have explained, that in him the Ahrimanic and
the Luciferic forces are working through each other continually. Only because that
is so is the following concrete phenomenon possible. Let us assume that an age
would give itself up to materialistic ideas for a sufficiently long time, as our
age has done. Misled by these ideas it would also in conscious will develop a kind
of materialistic mode of life. The results will not enter the part of human nature
that is the bearer of the conscious life. To begin with, the bearer of the
conscious life has not that thoroughgoing influence on human life that a
superficial observation is inclined to attribute to it; the results enter the
unconscious. You can picture this schematically: in man's conscious head-nature
lives materialism; in his subconscious nature, which goes through a metamorphosis
after we have passed through the gate of death and live over into the next earth-
incarnation, but which we carry in us now as an incomplete formation � this, let us
say, lower nature of man is the bearer of the unconscious soul-life and in a
remarkable way this unconscious soul-life becomes under the influence of
materialism more and more spiritual. So that the actual result of materialistic
ideas and of the materialistic way of life is that the lower nature of man becomes
increasingly spiritual. You must therefore imagine the following. If you are
completely immersed in concepts of matter and energy and believe solely in these,
and order your life on the lines of �eat and drink and then the nothingness of
death� � then, carrying out all your actions on this basis, materialism really
enters your mode of living, and the lower nature gets increasingly spiritual.
The lower nature, however, which is becoming more and more spiritual, needs
something to work on it; it cannot make its necessary way through evolution alone.
Now since in the head, in man's upper nature, there are only materialistic ideas
and sympathies, this upper nature is unable to work on man's lower nature, and in
consequence of this deprivation, the lower nature is exposed to the working of the
Luciferic principle. The Luciferic principle, as I said in the last lecture, does
not manifest in sense-perceptible reality: the Luciferic beings are spiritual
beings. They enter man's lower nature when it becomes so spiritual under the
influence of materialism, and when this very materialism prevents anything from man
himself flowing into the lower nature. The paradoxical truth appears before our
soul that a materialistic age actually prepares a spiritual culture, but a
Luciferic one.
Conversely, taking the reverse case, let us suppose that an ecclesiastical truth,
not imbued with spirituality, but supported purely by tradition, takes hold of man,
or works towards taking hold of him. And related to such an ecclesiastical truth is
abstract idealism which believes only in abstract ideals, in morality and has no
knowledge of how these abstract ideals arise � however fine and beautiful they may
be, they are of no use if one has no feeling for the way in which such forces can
come about. Purely religious and purely idealistic ideas have again the consequence
that the lower nature of man becomes more material. Whereas materialistic ideas
promote spirituality in man's lower nature, purely clerical concepts built on
tradition without spiritual influence, as well as abstract idealism, promote an
increasing growth of materialism in man's lower nature. Speaking crudely, one might
say that the type of this increasing materialism of the lower nature through the
traditional abstract churchy element is the corpulent parson; he devotes himself to
traditional church conceptions and in this way fattens up his little stomach. This
is only a comparison, it is no fact and no law � I merely want to make things
clear, yet it corresponds to a fundamental reality. But now again the increasing
materialism of manes lower nature has no nourishment if the head harbours none but
traditional and abstract traditional ideas. Hence a humanity which founds such a
culture is pre-eminently exposed not to their own head-nature but to Ahrimanic
influences. And so we must say that the abstractly religious the abstractly
idealistic, promotes in fact an Ahrimanic materialism, while, conversely,
materialistic thinking promotes a Luciferic spiritualism.
All these things rest fundamentally on the fact that true reality is of a totally
different nature from external apparent reality. But it is now required of man that
he should get to know true reality according to its law and being. Social science,
the science of human community-life and man's historical life must in particular
always be permeated by a spiritual science that, as these lectures have shown, can
really build the bridge between the nature-order and the spirit-order, real
bridges, not those abstract ones built by monism. It will be necessary, however,
for certain laws which are held back from the general consciousness of mankind by
certain initiation quarters whose thinking is incorrect for the present time � for
certain laws concerning true reality to become increasingly known.

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Opposite currents, polarities, must be held in balance, That can only be done if
continually new influxes come directly from the spiritual world into what happens
on earth, that is, if new facts which concern the world are continually revealed
out of the spirit.
When once in Rome someone brought a Jesuit up to me, I had a conversation with him
about just such things, I knew that it availed nothing and was actually a labour of
love quite lost, but there were other reasons for it: there too it is necessary to
lock at the true reality and not the outer semblance, I sought to make it clear to
the Jesuit that, first, he must himself admit a revelation out of the supersensible
in the course of the Mystery of Golgotha and what is written about it through the
inspired Evangelists; that, moreover, the Catholic Church in which as a Jesuit he
would believe accepts a continued evolution of the spiritual life through its
saints. He replied, as was only to be expected: �Yes, that is all true, but that's
done with; one must not bring that about of oneself. To work oneself through to
spiritual life today is to begin to deal with the devil. One may study the Mystery
of Golgotha, study the Gospels, the life of the saints, but unless one wants to
fall a prey to demonic powers. one may not try in any way to come into direct
relation with the spiritual world.� It is obvious that that would be said from such
a quarter, and I could give you many similar examples.
There is the strongest opposition from certain quarters to the flowing in of new
and ever newer spiritual truths. The Roman Catholic Church, for instance, is even
terribly afraid of spiritism, which of course is not sympathetic to us, because
they live in the dread of something coming through a medium from the spiritual
world which the Church, living solely in its old traditions, cannot accept. And it
fears spiritism because it has materialist foundations and because � so it has
believed for decades � it can easily gain followers through the fact that one could
find something trickling in on a bypath out of the spiritual world into the world
which the Roman Catholic Church wishes to rule.
Now you know, my dear friends, in the 706s, in 1879, the possibility arose of a
powerful, deeply-penetrating flowing-in from the spiritual world. I have often
spoken of it, how a conflict that had taken place earlier in the spiritual worlds
flowed into the earthly order, in the Michael-order. Since that time special
opportunities have been given for men who so wish it to receive spiritual
knowledge. Please do not imagine that the initiates of the Roman Catholic Church
are not aware of such things! They are of course aware of them, but they construct
their protective dams. And precisely in connection with the fact that spiritual
life was particularly furthered by the spiritual worlds from the year 1879 on the
Roman Catholic Church in a far-seeing way established the Infallibility-dogma in
order through this to build a dam against any influx of any sort of new spiritual
truths. It is obvious that if people are only allowed to frame their views in
accordance with what is announced ex cathedra from Rome in the light of the dogma
of Infallibility, then a powerful dam is erected against the inflow of spiritual
truths from the spiritual world itself. That is the one thing, the Romish element,
which had its natural stipulations in earlier times and brought over from these the
rigidity in tradition, the rigidity in excluding the spiritual substance which
could flow into the human soul out of the spiritual worlds.
Another stream is to be sought in that Centre which in a high degree �
approximately at the time when Rome prepared the Infallibility-dogma � must be
assigned to the English and American, the English-speaking peoples. We have already
referred here to this occult Centre, in many connections. Just as the traditional
element and false idealism in the head brings about the Ahrimanic element in the
lower man, so, as you have seen, does materialism bring about the development of
the spiritual in the lower man. And when this is not nourished from the head by new
spiritual truths which are revealed to the world from time to time it will
naturally be seized upon by Luciferic forces, the Luciferic principle. The Centre
that has great influence on the English-American peoples (that is the best
expression) prefers to reckon with the other pole. The occult Masonry which is
anchored in that Centre and from there strongly influences the course of the outer
culture of the whole civilised world, just as much promotes materialism � realising
things of course � as Rome has promoted it through the papal Infallibility. Through
the Infallibility-dogma Rome has intended to erect a dam against the influx of
spiritual truths from the spiritual worlds; this Centre consciously promotes the
spread of materialism in the modern civilised world, the spread of materialistic
ideas in a more or less materialistic mode of life. And the strange thing is that
when the Anglo-American initiates speak about Rome as a rule what they say is
correct, and however much they inveigh against Rome they say what is right. They
too, however, know that there is a spiritual life and that a continuous influx is
possible, but they keep that secret and let it flow into civilisation only through
unknown channels. And the non-English-speaking peoples in the civilised world have
in the last decades, or last half-century, accepted en immense amount of what has
flowed in there through this Centre; For these other civilisations in their present
structure are in no way individualised, they are large:nourished by the
materialistic tendency originating in his Centre.
And again, when Rome speaks about that occult Freemasonry, the Orders, it speaks
correctly. One can therefore say that what Rome says is right, what the Freemasons
of the West say is also right. That in fact is just the difficulty; these things in
the most outstanding sense can be thrusting human nature towards the Luciferic or
the Ahrimanic, and yet in what they say they cannot possibly be seized upon because
what they say is right; when they speak of each other it is correct.
That is a factor that must be borne in mind very fundamentally in the present
cultural tendencies. People nowadays are not inclined to consider what grows out of
some affair or other, but merely look at what is expressed verbally in propaganda.
But it is not at all a matter of the sounds and words of a propaganda, it is really
a matter of making thane lower nature materialistic through materialism in the
world of ideas � it becomes, however, spiritualised. And it is supposed to be a
matter of making man more moral through an abstract idealism and discussion of
every kind of fine ideal � yet one makes him � I speak figuratively of course �
obese, materialistic in his lower nature, one makes him heavy and sleepy. And
whereas Ton the one hand a strong tendency exists to scleroticise man
Ahrimanically, which is particularly a Jesuit-tendency, there exists on the other
hand a definite tendency to place the Luciferic beings in the service of the
materialistic world-order, whereby precisely through materialism a spirituality may
arise which is however a Luciferic spirituality. It is indeed not enough merely to
look in its literal sense at what plays on the surface; one must go into the actual
reality, which as is shown precisely by our instances today � however paradoxical
they appear, often have an exactly opposite purpose to what one is led to believe
through a superficial maya-observation. Things are being done in the world today
from many different quarters on the principles of the occult Orders, though they
are kept secret. Rome works just as much in accord with occult precepts as that
other Centre does. Power lies just in the fact that men are kept in the dark and
are not told what is actually going on. Hence arise the hatred and enmity against
those who make their appearance and say what is taking place. � Naivet� moreover is
especially harmful, the sort of naivet� which men show when they persist in
believing that one attains something with these two streams if one tells them that
spiritual science can give a beautiful understanding of Christ-Jesus, or something
like that, or tells them how the deeper truths of spiritual science are to be found
in true Christianity. It is a naivet� to suppose one can win over certain circles
by showing them one has a truth which they really must recognise according to their
whole hypotheses. That simply calls out hostility. The more we show in certain
circles that we have the truth, the greater the hostility, and the more this truth
proves effective all the more intense will the enmity appear. In recent times one
has only waited to see if the moment would come when anthroposophical books would
need larger editions, when thousands and thousands would listen to anthroposophy,
in order from certain quarters not because they think anthroposophy says untruth,
but because they fear it will say the true � in order to lay hold of this
anthroposophy. That is what should be borne in mind. No naivet� should prevail
among us, but penetrating knowledge, unbiased, unprejudiced observation of what
happens.
It would please me much if you took away a feeling of this from this lecture; for
once again let it be recapitulated what I said at the beginning of today's lecture:
It is not so much a matter of the details, but of our receiving a firm impression
of what lies in the whole spirit of these lectures. And then we must make ourselves
more and more capable of taking such a place in the cultural life of today as
befits a man of the present who is thoroughly awake and not sleeping.