The effect of the individual on the overall world situation

Rudolf Seiner spoke of the German speaking people as having a balancing and mediating role to play in both the East and the West. What should come out of the middle of Europe is that a life purpose is given throughout the whole world.¹⁾Statements by Rudolf Steiner on the task of the Central European peoples can be found in the books: Cosmic and Human History, Volume VI, Central Europe between East and West. CW 174a and Death as a Change of Life, CW 182.

People today are longing for peace and contrary to all hoped for feelings, the warlike violent acts and human financial crises are increasing. There are deep gaps between top and bottom, poor and rich, good and evil. In many esoteric or alternative scenes there are the first beginnings and efforts of more humane approaches to thinking and an effort to tolerate without condemning. Still though the deeper spiritual basis and the capacities which authentically radiate a soul and spiritual force are missing. The authentic human being, who would be necessary to actually bring about a greater balance in the development of the world, is missing. It is not a nation that is called upon to ensure world balance but rather individual citizens, regardless of whether they are based in Europe or in another region. Real spirituality that characterises an authentic human is lacking; it appears as if it has been pushed back into the deepest, shadowy forest. The world cannot be changed on the surface through discussions, hypotheses or through holding peace events that are limited to external words.

The economic analysis and the political assessments by the well-known author Ernst Wolff are remarkably realistic and very good. They are neither esoterically eccentric, nor pessimistically blackening and polemic, but ultimately, they do not contain a productive solution to the problem. Ernst Wolff sees the digital financial complex as the principal cause, which according to him, disregards human values and risks high casualties in order to push through its agenda.²⁾Ernst Wolff uses the term “digital-financial complex” to describe the extreme concentration of power in the financial sector in the large asset management groups and the large digital companies that manage an enormous amount of data. But is the cause really the whole digitally advancing mammon? No, the digital financial complex is an expression of a lack of inner fulfilment and a lack of a true human sense of self; it is an expression of misquoted religion and for a lack of meaning-fulness in human hearts. Humans have not been able to unfold to their full potential and for this reason materialism must violently increase with the most severe centralisation strategies and lust for power. Wars in a psychological and furthermore even in a physical form are ultimately unavoidable if people do not find their life purpose and a mastery of life.

Working towards peace must begin with the right spiritual work. If, for example, the constellation, that is currently spoken of by astrologers, namely the opposition of the distant Uranus to Mars in the constellation of Scorpio, is considered to have particularly good and high frequencies and that humanity is now on the verge of a spiritual breakthrough, the real condition of humanity is overseen. The many failings, weaknesses, illnesses, psychological instabilities and lacking relationships to spiritual truths, to fellow human beings and to the world with its phenomena, do not directly allow a better “frequency out of the cosmos” to simply enter like a nice gift. With this astrological constellation destruction is imminent and unfortunately it is not possible to completely shut off our consciousness from this.

The way out of this lies in the development of the heart centre, the so called anahata-cakra, that is the reconciling, content-rich subtle energy centre of the human being. It is not an emotional potential, that resides sensitively in the heart and it is most definitely not a banal bound feeling of love, rather it is the knowledge of spiritual laws and very particularly the real feeling of lasting values, that do not only matter in the earthly world, but which continue to exist after the passing of the physical body.

This heart centre can be symbolised very well by a pair of scales. On one side is the world with certain loads, on the other side is the ideal or spiritual world. The more a person truthfully and diligently realises an idea from the spiritual reality until it can be socially integrated and is generally communicable in the world, the more the heart centre strengthens. Humans gain a treasure both within themselves, in their own centre of self as well as in heaven. Spiritual truths and are then no longer mere slogans that tersely flow out into the world through the emotional, know-it-all mouth and give an esoteric or religious touch; they are immediately meaningful stimuli and hope-giving inspirations, that, however, not only reach fellow human beings authentically but even go over into the whole balance of the world and give a subtle feeling of reconciliation. The heart is free of polarities and these forces in the sense of true, realised thoughts give empathy and tolerance on far reaching levels. They open the doors of relationships and those who are persecuted find a home more easily and the aggressors suddenly feel gentler within themselves. Poor and rich no longer exist in the heart, they are poles that mark a lack of true loving strength and wisdom.³⁾See the two articles on this topic: The Perseverance of Spiritual Alignment leads to the transformation of earthly conflict Situations and The art of free spirituality – the importance of the centre in the heart. (N.B. English translations coming soon).