The Destinies of Individual and of Nations:
A course of fourteen lectures given in Berlin from 1 September 1914 to 6 July 1915. In these lectures Steiner gives new perspectives to events where so many lives were lost.
He speaks of the “sacred blood of sacrifice” where “the soul would rise swiftly from the sacrifice brought in the field of war up into the realms of the spirit for the good of mankind.”
There is a need for every human being to “stand in the place where destiny puts us, full of strength and courage.” [This is hardly the position of the terrorist who thinks that government policy can be influenced by killing unsuspecting members of the public.]
The Hero’s death is the death of love.
Each day the news of the world reveals new depths of pain. Are we blazé or does the pain living in the soul of the other become pain we feel in ourselves?
Whilst pain is felt by you alone
And not by me.
Christ goes unrecognised
To do his work within the world.
For the spirit cannot grow strong
If it has power only to feel
The suffering your own body undergoes.
Rudolf Steiner 1.9.1914
We can explore thoughts about how our “I” our Real Self is pressing upon us to express itself more fully in our earthly life. While the “I” itself does not have the “inclination to hit out”, the three levels of our soul wage war against each other and against our “I”. This situation within us is played out in world conflicts. These conflicts will not subside until sufficient people express themselves through their higher self rather than their lower self.
Furthermore, our Real Self, which is eternal, transcends race, culture, class and creed and it is though our Real Self that we will cease to discriminate and rage against other cultures.