s [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Western culture of the luciferic remnants and in part we must elevate them in such a way
that the Christ impulse can enter.
Moving from Asia to the East of Europe, we notice how Russian orthodox Christianity
has remained stationary at an earlier stage of Christian development, refusing to advance
and thereby keeping something of the luciferic element. In short, we can detect a luciferic
remnant in the East, which, I would say, a wise guiding force left behind for the evolution
of mankind in general.
Looking to the West and especially to American culture, a different characteristic quality
stands out. The characteristic feature of American culture is to explain everything from
external appearance. This kind of perception can certainly lead to great and significant
achievements, but still, externals are usually expected to provide answers to all questions.
Suppose we in Europe, and especially in Central Europe, notice a person who earlier in
his life did not yet have an opportunity to dedicate himself to Christ and to the spiritual
cosmic forces. If some event in this person's life brought about his conversion, we want
to know what had gone on in his soul. We are not interested in learning that there was a
leap forward in his development because such a phenomenon could certainly be found
everywhere. The most incorrect pronouncement made by the empirical sciences is that
nature does not make any leaps (see Note 3). Yet there is a tremendous leap from a green
plant leaf to the red petal of a flower, and there is another significant leap from petal to
the calyx. This pronouncement is therefore patently false; the truth of all development
rests precisely on the fact that leaps occur everywhere. Hence, when a person who for
some time was leading an external existence is suddenly induced by something to turn to
spiritual things, we are not interested in the fact that it happened. What does interest us is
the inner force and power that can bring about such a conversion. We will want to look
into the soul of such a person and ascertain what has caused such a reversal. The inner
workings of the soul will interest us.
How would the American proceed? He would do something quite peculiar. In America,
conversions of this sort have been observed frequently. Well, the American would ask the
people who have experienced conversions to write letters. He would then gather all these
letters into a bundle and say, "I have received these letters from some two hundred
people. Fourteen percent of all these souls experienced a conversion out of sudden fear of
death or hell: five percent claimed altruistic motives; seventeen percent because they
aspired to ethical ideals; fifteen percent had experienced pangs of conscience; ten percent
acted in obedience to what they were taught; thirteen percent because they saw that others
were converted and imitated them; nineteen percent because they were forced by a good
whipping at the appropriate age, and so on." In this fashion the most extreme souls are
isolated, sorted and tallied and the result is claimed to be founded on "scientific data."
The findings are then compiled in books that are sent out and billed as "soul science." For
these people all other evidence is unsound, or as they claim, rests on subjective notions.
There you have an example of the externalization of the innermost phenomena, and so it
goes with many, many things in America. At a time that cries out for special spiritual
deepening, the mat external brand of spiritism is rampant in America! Everything there
has to be tangible.
That is a materialistic interpretation of spiritual life. We could mention many other
instances from which it would be possible to see how the culture of the West is seized by
the ahrimanic principle, and what principle causes the pendulum to swing to the other
side. In the East we are confronted by the luciferic and in the West by the ahrimanic
principle. In Central Europe we have been assigned the immensely important task of
finding the equilibrium between East and West. Therefore, the plastic group in our
building in Dornach must represent what we consider the most significant spiritual task [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]