The reader will find in these essays a description of a series of current political events, closely interwoven with the presentation of a number of principles of the methodology of Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual science; whereby the latter is given the clear priority. Readers in search of sensation will find this unutterably boring; a fact that will give us some satisfaction. We are addressing the reader with the ability to think, and in the cognitive process to lend wings to his consciousness-soul, which can reach through to the basis of phenomenon. This basis, however, often lies in the profoundest depths and s – as the expression goes – “out of this world”. (We would add that the content of the essays is highly compressed, and it would be appropriate not simply to read them, but to work their content through, some small degree.)

1. Historical Symptomatology

Historical Symptomatology is one of the most important branches of general Anthroposophical methodology. It asserts that all facts and events of world history are to be regraded merely as symptoms of the occurrences on the level of supersensible reality, where the real, purely spiritual subjects had their existence, and where the spiritual impulses of the outer phenomenology of history – the primary phenomena, the ur-phenomena – come into being, undergo metamorphosis and pass away.

The historian, as also the politician and sociologist, will find solid ground in his quest for knowledge, only if he reads through to insight into these ur-phenomena. Such an understanding is of special importance not only for knowledge, but also for the personal development of the human being in our fifth post-Atlantean epoch.

The soul of man is the three-membered. The Greeks of antiquity were already aware of this – Aristotle called these higher members orektikon, kinetikon and dianoetikon. In spiritual science Rudolf Steiner refers to them as Sentient-Soul, Intellectual or Mind-Soul, and Consciousness-Soul. Their development underlies the entire cultural-historical process.

The Sentient soul attains its special unfolding as the soul of aesthetics, as was manifested in cultural history with particular splendor, for example, in the Renaissance period, in Italian painting, Italian music. The Intellectual soul determines the character of the period of the French Enlightenment. Voltaire and the Encyclopedists drew their works from this source. The Consciousness-soul has not yet given rise to its own cultural epoch. It manifests on a large, world –encompassing scale in Anglo-Saxon politics, since it is inborn in the Anglo-Saxon race, or – to express it in the language of bureaucracy – it is high on the agenda of the development of an entire epoch. The Anglo-Saxons have the disposition towards the Consciousness-soul implanted in them from the cradle, and this presupposes an extension of the immediate interest of the single individuality, to embrace interests of mankind as a whole. To this extent, everything in the world is of concern to the Anglo-Saxon. But as all that is innate has an instinctual quality, British – or, now, British-American – politics is narrowly-restricted, egoistic in character. If the national egoism of the ruling circles in these countries is not in some way overcome, then it has the tendency towards unlimited expansion. Hence, the striving for world-domination.

In the Sentient sold the human being lives primarily in the world of the senses. If its development is not ennobled, a person becomes a marionette of his inclinations, passions and desires. Like waves, they wash away the arguments of reason, the power of understanding, and whether such a person appears good or bad outwardly, depends largely not on his personality but on outer circumstances – which include his spontaneous inner moods. As a role, people whose character is dominated by the sentient-

soul are today followers of a multitude of different sects; it is from their ranks that those active in politics recruit their “electorate”. They are made use of by world-politics when it comes to the inciting of mass rebellion, political protest, etc.

The thinking human being lives in the intellectual-soul – its aesthetic and ethical development – and this frees his intellect from sudden chaotic impulses. In the decisions of his spirit he allows himself to be guided by goodness in his feelings. It can be said of such a person that his reason and his heart are in agreement. But the thinking human being tends to fall a prey to dogmatism and to this extent he is an easy victim of various forms of manipulation; he becomes a blind, uncritical defender of all sorts of ideologies, world-views, political programmes etc. A person of this kind can manipulate the “electorate”, but can himself be very easily led. In the end, all leading politicians in our world belong in this category. The politicians at the beginning of the 20th century we already like this, and this explains how the mighty occult-political powers of secret societies we able to throw civilization into an appalling chaos. The Intellectual-soul also risks failing into and excessive abstractness, which dries out the senses, and in this way what emerges is a clever person but, let us say, a human being lacking in humanity.

An ulcerous growth common to all three souls is egoism, which dismembers them and brings about their downfall. This circumstance is particularly problematic, because on the other hand it is egoism that has allowed the human being to overcome group-consciousness and mould himself as a personality. In the process of unfolding of the three-membered soul, which has already extended across several millennia, as it is founded on the transformation of the three-membered corporeality – of the physical, etheric, and astral bodies – the human being has, to begin with developed his primary individualization, the lower self, which lives by virtue of individualized sense perceptions and reflections. To achieve this, he had to place himself over against the group-consciousness of his tribe, his clan, his nation and alienate himself from them. He began to set himself individual goals, pursue purely personal interests; he had to learn to stand on his own feet. Still today, those who have failed to achieve this go insearch of group-consciousness which they can join. This explains the fact, for example, that many former members of the communist party felt like a fish out of water after the party’s decline. They were completely unable to stand on their own feet, let alone develop a free personality. For this reason the Party was partially restored; and even the newer parties have received into their ranks a multitude that one may rightly call spiritual invalids. And this they remain; even if the subscribe to the so-called Western values of democracy.

Passage through the stage of individualization, bound up with an increase in egoism, is an objective necessity, however objectionable this may sometimes appear from and ethical point of view. It is simply a necessary transitional phase in the evolution of humanity. From the standpoint of the tasks of development it is preferable today to be one of the egoists rather than be subject to the group morality of some religious sect.

In the past it was highly-developed leaders, educators of humanity, who helped people through this difficult phase. Even now human beings dream that they will return some day. But it has been for a long time – since the phenomenon of the lower ‘I’ became a mass phenomenon – the task of human beings to take the direction of their life into their own hands, using the support of this lower individualization. In these circumstances the creation of appropriate social, State structures became a matter of special concern. The quest for these structures began, and in the process of this search Utopians, Marxists, even Fascists emerged.

The human being must fight hard for his individualization, as it calls forth a continuously growing resistance from those cosmic powers which oppose normal evolution. And this is happening at a time when the great leaders of mankind, both hierarchical and human, place their leadership, in view of the individualization process, in the hands of simple individual.

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