Europe between East and West - part 2

Arnhem, 19-11-2019, Part 2

It is always very difficult if you want to talk about this in a group of people who are not involved in anthroposophy, because before you even start you hear that people are going to say: Well, these are conspiracy theories and we don't believe in them, we think they are nonsense. I assume that in this group, where we are now, it is possible to discuss this.

For it is very clear that this development of the task of Middle Europe is being obstructed with all might and all power, and that of course we as people could very easily fall into the trap of collaborating in this opposition, without being aware of it. One has to be very well aware of what the task is, which is also related to the task Michael is setting us. But not only that, one has to know very well the counter-powers that are not only working spiritually, but of course especially through the people on earth.

Rudolf Steiner then describes two very large movements - and then you enter the realm of what is called conspiracy theory, but when you look into it you find that that is not really the right word at all. They far more are groups that want to form the world order and those groups are different in nature. There are groups of whom Rudolf Steiner says: they actually want the good, they have initiates working there, but these initiates in our time are not initiated in the way they used to be, but they have much more of an initiation tradition in which they have been initiated. So there are groups who really want the good, but they do not have the complete insight, as someone like Rudolf Steiner did. They can also be quite wrong in the goals they set for themselves. They experiment and those experiments have certain results and that can often be something completely different from what was intended beforehand. Rudolf Steiner indicates two major opposing groupings. One is the group that is primarily concerned with spreading and maintaining materialism in the world with all its might and power - and then it is not about bringing philosophical convictions, but it is about bringing realities. It is not that it is so important whether you are a materialist with your views or whether you think you live in the spirit, but it is about: what is the reality of what these groups bring about? And the reality is, among other things, that people are really tied to the matter with all their strength and power, so that when they die, they cannot make that grace-filled flight, that ascent to the spiritual worlds, so easily, but that they actually remain chained to the earth as the 'Flying Dutchman'

That is the one side, that is more the Western side.

On the Eastern side, we have more to do with groups who have a lot of worship power at their disposal and who set it up in such a way in their groups that people are taught to worship their ancestors. Rudolf Steiner says that when you do that, then in a certain way you are preparing not the soul body but the ether body to have certain activity after death when that ether body is released.

What you then feel is that you get something like what we see here, where Ahriman and Lucifer (points to a picture of the Representative of Mankind) - here Christ is standing between them and then Lucifer wants nothing else than to plunge downwards and Ahriman wants nothing else than to fix himself in his gold chains under the earth - but in that middle area, there aside, you see what they are actually striving for and that is that they seize each other and so actually the Christ force is excluded.

Those two opposing powers grab each other there and that is actually the real evil. And if you live in our time as a European, then you have the impression that this is happening over our heads to an increasing extent and that, while here in Middle Europe, and we can certainly count ourselves after the Second World War among those areas where the consciousness soul should be developed, you feel to an increasing extent how East and West are closing in on us by ignoring us, by excluding us. Of course, these are never the people, these are not the Americans and these are not the Orientals, but these are the groups that have mastered those certain arts in order to influence and shape the world order.

As a European, you feel that from all sides, efforts are being made not to give Europe that wide view and not to give it the opportunity to seek the light in the Occident, but to overshadow it and push it away, and to ensure that Europe, at the most, still trades a little, and that it no longer takes care of itself at all with its spiritual life, that its legal life is determined by all kinds of extra-European powers, and that it has to fight with its economic life, of course, against the supremacy that comes from outside, but there is still a little room for that.

That is something you experience. Of course, you also experience that from that area where Europe comes from, from the Middle East, the South, that from there flows of people come to Europe. And you cannot help but ask the question: where is the identity of Europe itself?

We have experienced - and this must have been at the beginning of this century - that our entire university system was adapted to the system as it exists in America. And the interesting thing is that when you talk to an American who has studied here, they say: Yes, the system has been copied from America, but in fact it is more 'American' here than in America. So what we have in America as university life is much more scientific and extensive, there is much more time for it. Here in Europe, one is sort of forced to complete an academic study in four years. In America, there is much more time for that. Of course, you can't just check if that's the case, but if someone who has experience with both university systems feels that way, you can at least leave that as a question mark.

To be continued

The Representative of Mankind

Europe between East and West - part 2 by Mieke Mosmuller