Transforming The Soul: Volume 2

By Rudolf Steiner

Those who observe human nature with regard to the smallest things will find that everyday experiences can also lead to an understanding of the greatest actualities...' In a refreshingly practical series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks about the nature of the human soul and how it can be metamorphosed and raised to a higher consciousness. He studies the spiritual significance of various expressions of human nature, including laughing and weeping, sickness and health, error and mental disorder, positivity and negativity, and conscience. Steiner also discusses the nature of prayer, mysticism, the mission of art, and the significance of language. Throughout the talks he refers to many key historical figures, including Zarathustra, Socrates, Plato, Homer, Wagner, Goethe, Hegel and Angelus Silesius. These inspiring lectures form the conclusion to Transforming the Soul, Volume 1, but can also be read independently.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Release date: Nov 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781855844315

Rudolf Steiner

Nineteenth and early twentieth century philosopher.

Book preview

TRANSFORMING

THE SOUL

VOLUME 2

Nine lectures given in Berlin, Germany,

between 20 January and 12 May 1910

RUDOLF STEINER

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

Translated by Charles Davy and Christian von Arnim, and revised for this edition by Pauline Wehrle

Rudolf Steiner Press

Hillside House, The Square

Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2013

Previously published in English as Metamorphosis of the Soul, Paths of Experience, Volume 2 by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1983

Originally published in German under the title Metamorphosen des Seelenlebens, Pfade der Seelenerlebnisse 2 (volume 59 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. This authorized translation is published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

Translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 2006

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 431 5

Cover by Andrew Morgan Design

Typeset by DP Photosetting, Aylesbury, Bucks.

Contents

Summary of Contents

LECTURE 1

Spiritual Science and Language

20 January 1910

LECTURE 2

Laughing and Weeping

3 February 1910

LECTURE 3

What is Mysticism?

10 February 1910

LECTURE 4

The Nature of Prayer

17 February 1910

LECTURE 5

Sickness and Healing

3 March 1910

LECTURE 6

A Positive and Negative Frame of Mind

10 March 1910

LECTURE 7

Error and Mental Disorder

28 April 1910

LECTURE 8

Conscience

5 May 1910

LECTURE 9

The Mission of Art

12 May 1910

Notes

Notes regarding Rudolf Steiner's Lectures

Summary of Contents

Lecture 1

Language touches on the very essence of man, uniting us with our fellows, yet it can also tyrannize us. Influence on character, temperament and national character. Development of language: ‘bow-wow’ theory and ‘bim-bum’ theory. Aspects of man as a seven-membered being. Higher spiritual activities working on us before the advent of the ego gave us our power of speech as the final gift of their forming us through the medium of air. Our speech organs determine our humanity. Prior to the advent of the ego, the inner and outer aspects of forces affecting speech were: on the astral level, gratification and desire; on the etheric level, imagery, symbolism and outer stimulus; and on the physical level, imitation and outer happenings. The advent of the ego brought inner experience to language. Speech can be compared to artistic creation. Characteristic qualities of the Chinese, Hebrew and Indo-Germanic languages. An artistic sense is needed both for understanding and for the proper use of language. A creative feeling for language is necessary for communicating spiritual thoughts.

Persons referred to: Max Mueller, Fritz Mauthner. Quote from Friedrich von Schiller.

Lecture 2

Importance of finding the spirit in commonplace matters. It is healthy to proceed from what is familiar to what is less familiar. The ‘Zarathustra smile’ and Faust's tears that accompany his return to the world. Laughing and weeping as expressions of our inner spiritual life. As the ego strives to bond with its environment effects work right down into physical body. Fear makes us pale and shame makes us blush. When raising ourselves above something our astral body expands and goes slack, and we laugh or smile. Grief contracts both astral and physical body, and we produce tears to compensate. Babies cannot laugh or weep in the first 36-40 days of their lives. Animals cannot laugh or weep, only grin or howl. When we weep, in-breathing is shorter and out-breathing longer; when laughing, the opposite occurs. We received our selfhood when Jehovah breathed into us the living breath. Laughter when being tickled. Certain speakers’ calculated use of provoking the liberation of laughter or the comfort of tears. Educational effect of laughter and tears through artistic presentations in the form of comedy or tragedy. Our ego needs to move in a pendulum and find a balance between extremes. Laughing and weeping are two opposite poles through which world secrets are made manifest.

Persons referred to: Zarathustra, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Lecture 3

Mysticism was known of in earliest times, but is not understandable to our present-day mentality until the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. From Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler and Suso through to Angelus Silesius mystics sought to penetrate inwards beyond sense impressions and soul experience to the divine ground of the world and the experience of the Christ's life, death and resurrection. Due to the unifying effect of the ego, piercing though the veils to the inner world leads to spiritual monism. Piercing through the veil of the outer world leads to monadology, to plurality. Yet concepts of unity and plurality cannot fathom the divine foundation of the world. Because of the individual nature of mysticism the interest for us lies in what has to be overcome. Investigating the outer world, which is common to all, is not spoilt by the shortcomings of investigators. In comparison to these ways, on the spiritual-scientific path we do not use only forces we already have but develop slumbering ones, and find other paths which unite both outer and inner ones. The awakening faculties lead to knowledge by way of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition. The mystical experience of the rose cross arises through an inner devotion to both what is outside and what is within us, leading to a new force in us, one that shows us that what is outside and what is inside is the same. Putting the picture aside, we arrive at the inspirational stage by concentrating on the inner activity which creates the pictures, thereby finding an inner strength which unites us with the outer world. In intuitive knowledge we go out of ourselves again, yet arrive at something closely akin to our inner being. Mysticism, if pursued too early, leads to subjective immersion in one's own self. The path through Imagination prepares us to become one with the outer world. A symbol can lead to a truth which removes egotism.

Persons referred to: Meister Eckhart, Angelus Silesius, Johannes Tauler, Suso, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz, Johann Friedrich Herbart.

Lecture 4

Medieval mysticism is a first step to real spiritual research and the true form of prayer is a preparatory step to mystical devotion. Egoism causes prayer to be misunderstood. Prayer helps us discover the inner spark and gives us an inkling of the infinite expanses of the soul. A stream from the past and a stream from the future meet in the soul in the present. Our ability to judge our past, even be ashamed of it, leads to the first awakening of God within us, of a divine ego. May this live in the present! Fear and anxiety towards the future, if overcome, brings humble submission for whatever will come, bringing new strengths. In prayer we rise from the immediate present, from the temporal to the eternal. Prayer is a lighting up in us of the force that seeks to transcend what our ego is at present. Prayer directed to the past engenders warmth; prayer directed to the future engenders light. The outer world is connected with our future. Jacob's fight with his angel. The desire to find God entirely in ourselves and to become perfect is egoistic. Overcoming our intellect leads to finding the wonders of nature outside and new forces within. Prayers such as the Lord's Prayer. Prayer is the instrument for finding God everywhere outside. Prayer works with the spiritual forces in the world. In art we find it in odes, hymns, particular paintings, cathedrals. Mood of eternity in prayer.

Persons referred to: Angelus Silesius, Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Valentin Weigel, Jacob Boehme, Heraclitus, Goethe, Miguel de Molinos.

Lecture 5

We view our physical body externally and our astral body inwardly. Etheric body and ego are not outwardly perceptible, but they mediate between inside and outside. In sleep, physical and etheric on the one hand and ego and astral on the other separate, and these two pairs can be called the ‘outer man’ and the ‘inner man’. Soul experiences are seated in the inner man, but we need the outer man in order to be conscious of them. In sleep our learning experiences are taken up with us and become our abilities and wisdom. Homer's dramatic picture of Penelope and her suitors. There is a limit to our ability to change outer man. Need for harmony between outer and inner man. Amount of change possible in outer man connected with the law of soul and spirit arising from soul and spirit, which leads to the principle of repeated earth lives. A new incarnation provides the possibility of incorporating into outer man our previously acquired abilities. Harmony between the two streams of the inner and the outer man is achieved only when disharmony has been worked through. Difference between inner and outer point of view; these have to work together to reach truth. For development to occur, the limits applying to outer man have to be crossed. The breaching of these limits is what causes illness. Eruption of Mount Pelée an example of lack of harmony between outer and inner man. Cut finger a simple example of sickness as a disharmony between inner and outer man. Healing compares with waking from sleep, helping inner man to progress. Death brings benefits for life between death and a new birth and our next life on earth. So healing is a good thing and so is death! Healing contributes to raising inner man to a higher level, and death does the same for the outer man. Real health is acquired by working our way through mistakes and illness. Erring leads to renewed striving, and illness points beyond itself to our individually won health.

Persons referred to: Homer, Francesco Redi, Giordano Bruno.

Lecture 6

Genuine study of the human psyche defines positive as standing firmly by one's acquired convictions, and negative as being easily swayed by new impressions; yet positivity can make a person rigid and negativity can lead to wholesome change, whilst going to extremes achieves nothing. If we include the concept of ‘evolution’ it extends our picture. Our development through sentient soul, rational soul to consciousness soul can proceed further to becoming more truly human, acquiring moral ideals and ideas from the spiritual world and applying them in action and knowledge. In our evolution positivity and negativity work in each individual at different stages. Positivity has to be overcome on one level so that a stage of negativity can lead to positivity on a higher level. Negativity can be dangerous but is essential for our progress. Mention of vegetarianism. To counteract bad effects of negativity the acquiring of new soul qualities should be accompanied by study of spiritual-scientific material. Making a judgement is positive, the inability to judge is negative. Hence frequent predilection for an irrational rather than rational approach to spiritual matters. Healthy positivity in actively acquired ideas. Theorizing about nature cultivates a negative attitude, participating in nature cultivates a positive one. Watching slides is passive and negative. Anthroposophy cannot be demonstrated but has to be acquired actively and positively. Example of the art of tragedy. Art in all its forms leads us to a higher level.

Persons referred to: Meister Eckhart, Peter Rosegger, Plato, Heraclitus.

Lecture 7

Spiritual science in harmony with the results produced by genuine science but not with its interpretation of them. Any truth we discover is true only with respect to certain particulars, and if extended further can become a dogma. Not to be able to interpret an observation correctly is pathological. A German philosopher's two stories; in the first his mind wanders, and in the second full consciousness is in control. We distinguish an inner and an outer man. There is a reciprocal relationship between outer and inner man: sentient soul interrelated with sentient body; rational or perceptive soul with etheric body; and consciousness soul with physical body. Normal life is disturbed if these links do not function properly. When the philosopher's mind wandered it caused a split between the sentient soul and sentient body. When there is a split between the rational soul and etheric body, thoughts are not brought to completion. A grotesque example of the ego, and the true symbol of the snake biting its own tail. Contrast of a modern philosopher's reference to ‘infinite darkness of evolution’ and the spiritual-scientific conclusion that soul and spirit can originate only from soul and spirit. Error in the etheric body can therefore be sought in the rational soul and corrected. Illness occurs when the error is incorporated into the etheric body. Faults pass down from inner to outer man from one life to the next. But heredity is also at work. Splits between the consciousness soul and physical body are seen in worst aspects of bodily organs; symptoms are megalomania and persecution mania. Importance of our making the inner man as strong as possible. Impetus for physical education should also come from the soul. Spiritual activity that gets its impulse from within is not tiring. Significance of stages of imitation, authority, etc. occurring at the right time; failing to follow these leads to such things as schizophrenia and senile dementia. Developing our spiritual nature helps to counter the supremacy of the outer man. Hegel, another seeker of the spirit, using the word reason for all the forces of the soul, said: ‘Reason is the rose on today's cross!’

Persons referred to: Wilhelm Wundt, Francesco Redi, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Lecture 8

History of human attitude to conscience. In Lessing's time they felt conscience to be an essential factor of our true humanity. Commonly felt to be the voice of God, it is felt by everyone to be holy. In medieval times Meister Eckhart connected it to the mystic spark. In modern times some philosophers said it was merely an acquired experience, while Fichte said it was the greatest experience of our higher ego. Effect of materialism on thinking seen in Bartholemew Carnieri's ‘outer influence’ and Paul Rée's ‘voice of vengeance’. Yet conscience is not eternal, but arose in time. Socrates still held that virtue could be taught. In earlier times, before the advent of the ego, a higher ego worked on our bodily sheaths. While human consciousness was outside in the spiritual environment human beings saw the result of their deeds as ghostlike visions shown them by the Furies, the Erinyes. When the ego entered, outer experiences became inner ones and people saw the beneficial effect of correcting the harm they had done to the cosmic order. Examples in Aeschylus. The understanding of the Christ impulse is aided by both East and West, by the East with its understanding of Christ's spiritual nature and by the West with its conscious experience of the inner divinity of conscience. The Incarnation gave human beings the chance to grasp God in their inner being.

Persons referred to: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Meister Eckhart, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Bartholemew Carnieri, Paul Rée, Socrates, Plato, Aeschylus, Euripides.

Lecture 9

Finding the same deep foundation to both knowledge and art, truth and beauty. History of the artistic impulse linked to our changing consciousness. The reality in myths and fairy tales and in Homer's muse. Poetic imagination a substitute for clairvoyance. Development of an ego-feeling came sooner in the West than in the East. While pictorial vision still flourished in the East the West developed the hymn. In Greece both influences meet. Advance from Homer's epics figuring the gods to Aeschylus’ dramas figuring active human characters. Dante's inspiration comes no longer from without but from within. In his Divine Comedy he shows us pictures of soul forces that have to be overcome to reach spiritual heights. Klopstock's modern version of the ‘muse’. Shakespeare comes forth from his own personality into the everyday world and describes many personalities each with their own centre. Goethe, in his Faust, objectifies his own nature so that Faust is everyman. In Goethe, art reaches again into the spiritual world. Past and future connection with spirituality linked by artistic imagination. Artists can give us evidence of the spiritual world. Its mission is to fructify the ‘parable of transience’ with the message of eternity.

Persons referred to: Goethe, Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza, Johann Heinrich Merck, Richard Wagner, Homer, Aeschylus, Dante Alighieri, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, William Shakespeare.

Lecture 1

Spiritual Science and Language

20 January 1910

It is fascinating to look at the various expressions of man's being from the point of view of the kind of spiritual science we represent here.¹ For as we so to speak work our way around human life, as we have done in these lectures, and look at it from its different sides, we can get an impression of human life as a whole. Today we shall speak about that universal expression of the human spirit which is manifest in language, and next time our title will be ‘Laughing and Weeping’, when we shall look at a kind of related means of expression which, although it is connected with language, is entirely different.

Whenever we discuss language we never fail to feel that the whole subject of language touches on the essence of man's being, his very dignity and significance. The innermost part of our being, all our thoughts, feelings and impulses of will find their way to our fellow human beings and unite us with them by means of language. It is language that gives us the feeling of being able to extend our being infinitely, of having the ability to ray out into the environment. Yet on the other hand anyone who can enter into the inner life of a significant personality will be able to feel how language can also become a tyrant, a force that can exert power over our inner life. We ourselves can notice, if we care to, how inadequately and weakly we are able to express our own understanding of the special and tender feelings and thoughts we cherish within our souls. And we feel, too, how even the language we have grown up with forces us into specific modes of thought. Everyone must be aware how dependent we are on language where our thinking is concerned. Our concepts frequently cling to words, and when not yet fully mature a person will easily confuse a word, or what the word has instilled into him, with the concept. Hence the inability of some people to construct for themselves a conceptual framework that reaches beyond what is contained in the words commonly used in their environment. And we know, too, that the character of a whole people who speak a common language is in a certain way dependent on this language. At least, the person who observes national character and the character of languages in their context, must realize that the way in which individuals are able to express through sounds what is in their souls works back in its turn on the strength and weakness of their character, on the way their temperament expresses itself, even on their whole attitude to life. The configuration of a language can tell quite a lot about the character of a people. And since a people share a common language, the individual is dependent on a common element, an average quantity as it were, of which is prevalent among the people, he is thus subject to a certain tyranny, the rule of communality. If you get the feeling, however, that our individual spiritual life on the one hand and the spiritual life of the communalities on the other is laid down so to speak in the language, then what one could call the mystery of language could seem to have a special significance. Something could certainly be learnt about human soul life if one were to observe how this expresses itself in the particular vehicle of language.

The mystery of a language, its origin and its development through the various ages, has always been a puzzling question for certain special branches of science. But it cannot be said that these disciplines have been particularly successful in our age in uncovering the secret of language. This is why we shall be having a little look today, in outline—aphoristically so to speak—at language, its development and its connection with the human being from a spiritual-scientific point of view, in the way we have been doing with regard to human beings and their evolution.

What seems so mysterious to start with is that we make use of a word to describe an object, an idea or a procedure. In what way is that particular combination of sounds which form a word or sentence connected with that which comes from us and signifies the object? External science has tried to put together all kinds of experiences with a great number of combinations. But this method has proved unsatisfactory. The question, which is so simple and yet so difficult to answer, is this: On encountering some object or activity in the outer world, what made human beings produce one particular sound from out of themselves as an echo to it?

From a certain point of view the matter was thought to be quite simple. They imagined, for example, that speech would have been formed by imitating, with an ability in our speech organs, sounds heard outside such as the sounds made by animals, or something knocking against something else, rather like when children hear a dog barking and making the sounds ‘bow-wow’, and they imitate it and call the dog a ‘bow-wow’. This kind of word formation could be called onomatopoeic, an imitation of the sound. This was held by certain directions of thought to be the original foundation of sound and word formation. Of course the question of how human beings came to name creatures which did not emit a sound remains unanswered. The great linguistic researcher Max Mueller,² realizing the unsatisfactory nature of such a theory, ridiculed it by calling it the ‘bow-wow’ theory. He set up another theory in its place, which his opponents in turn called ‘mystical’ (giving the word a sense in which it should