CW 113: East in the light of the west: Lecture 5: The Children of Lucifer and the Brothers of Christ (27 August 1909) by Rudolf Steiner
Aug 8, 2026 · 33 min · 10 segments
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Aug 8, 2026 · 33 min · 10 segments
In the preceding lecture it has been shown to what extent the external world is an illusion, concealing the spiritual world behind it.
The consciousness of the seer penetrating through this illusion represents one path to the spiritual world.
It has, however, also been shown that everything in the inner life of the soul, thinking, feeling, sensations, as also the more complicated phenomena of conscience and so on, form a kind of veil concealing a spiritual world.
And the consciousness of the seer penetrating these veils represents the other path into the spiritual world.
The existence of these two different paths has been known at all times to people who sought for initiation.
Hence we find that a distinction was made by ancient peoples between upper and lower gods.
In the mysteries of all epochs it was taught that at a certain stage of initiation man enters the world of the upper and of the lower gods, but a great distinction was made between them.
Man has no influence upon the way in which the outer world confronts him, in the many-colored tapestry of color impressions, warmth impressions, etc., or in the phenomena of the elements of fire, air, water, and earth.
The sun rises in the morning, it sheds its rays of light over the earth, and according to the different conditions set up, the external world of the senses appears.
When man penetrates through these outer phenomena he reaches the spiritual world.
Man is not in a position to destroy this world of the senses through his own resources, because he cannot materially affect the outer phenomena surrounding him.
The sense world is placed before him by the spiritual beings of whom it is an expression and manifestation.
Through his own power he cannot impair it.
At initiation he is able to penetrate the veil of the sense world, but he must leave it just as the spiritual beings have shaped and fashioned it.
The relation of a human being to his own inner life is different.
His perceptions, feelings, will, his thinking and the development of his conscience depend upon the extent to which he has worked upon the evolution of his soul life.
Man cannot evoke a pure or an impure red or green color from the dawn or from a plant.
But the corruption of his soul life may well give rise to grotesque feelings and bad moral judgments.
He can submit in a greater or lesser degree to the dictation of his conscience.
In his fancies he can devote himself to beauty or to ugliness, to true or to false thought images.
Through his own conduct a man modifies or changes the veil spread over the spiritual world by the inner life of the soul.
And because what we see behind the veil of our own soul life depends upon whether this veil itself is pure or corrupt, it is easy to understand that in cases where the inner life is corrupt or but slightly developed, then when the ascent into the spiritual worlds or descent to the realm of lower spiritual beings takes place, grotesque images in the form of false, nonsensical, abnormal concepts and forces may be called into being.
As a result it came about that in every age a distinction was made between the ascent to the upper gods and the descent to the lower gods.
And the descent to the lower gods was regarded as more essentially dangerous than the ascent to the upper gods.
And on this latter path, through the veils of the inner life to the spiritual worlds, very high demands were made of the pupil of the mysteries and of occult science.
In the preceding lecture it has been shown to what extent the external world is an illusion, concealing the spiritual world behind it.
The consciousness of the seer penetrating through this illusion represents one path to the spiritual world.
It has, however, also been shown that everything in the inner life of the soul, thinking, feeling, sensations, as also the more complicated phenomena of conscience and so on, form a kind of veil concealing a spiritual world.
And the consciousness of the seer penetrating these veils represents the other path into the spiritual world.
The existence of these two different paths has been known at all times to people who sought for initiation.
Hence we find that a distinction was made by ancient peoples between upper and lower gods.
In the mysteries of all epochs it was taught that at a certain stage of initiation man enters the world of the upper and of the lower gods, but a great distinction was made between them.
Man has no influence upon the way in which the outer world confronts him, in the many-colored tapestry of color impressions, warmth impressions, etc., or in the phenomena of the elements of fire, air, water, and earth.
The sun rises in the morning, it sheds its rays of light over the earth, and according to the different conditions set up, the external world of the senses appears.
When man penetrates through these outer phenomena he reaches the spiritual world.
Man is not in a position to destroy this world of the senses through his own resources, because he cannot materially affect the outer phenomena surrounding him.
The sense world is placed before him by the spiritual beings of whom it is an expression and manifestation.
Through his own power he cannot impair it.
At initiation he is able to penetrate the veil of the sense world, but he must leave it just as the spiritual beings have shaped and fashioned it.
The relation of a human being to his own inner life is different.
His perceptions, feelings, will, his thinking and the development of his conscience depend upon the extent to which he has worked upon the evolution of his soul life.
Man cannot evoke a pure or an impure red or green color from the dawn or from a plant.
But the corruption of his soul life may well give rise to grotesque feelings and bad moral judgments.
He can submit in a greater or lesser degree to the dictation of his conscience.
In his fancies he can devote himself to beauty or to ugliness, to true or to false thought images.
Through his own conduct a man modifies or changes the veil spread over the spiritual world by the inner life of the soul.
And because what we see behind the veil of our own soul life depends upon whether this veil itself is pure or corrupt, it is easy to understand that in cases where the inner life is corrupt or but slightly developed, then when the ascent into the spiritual worlds or descent to the realm of lower spiritual beings takes place, grotesque images in the form of false, nonsensical, abnormal concepts and forces may be called into being.
As a result it came about that in every age a distinction was made between the ascent to the upper gods and the descent to the lower gods.
And the descent to the lower gods was regarded as more essentially dangerous than the ascent to the upper gods.
And on this latter path, through the veils of the inner life to the spiritual worlds, very high demands were made of the pupil of the mysteries and of occult science.
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