23. Morality
It is as though a dark storm cloud were resting over humanity. The atmosphere is sultry. Under this dull, heavy pressure the intuitive faculty of humans labours sluggishly. Only the nerves influencing the emotional and instinctual life of the body are highly strung and artificially stimulated through errors in wrong upbringing, attitude and self‑deception. In this respect, modern humans are no longer normal; they carry within themselves a morbid sexual urge, increased tenfold, to which they seek to build altars of worship in a hundred forms and kinds – something that must lead to the ruin of the whole of humanity.
Contagious and spreading like a plague, all this over time also affects those who still struggle desperately to cling to an ideal that lurks in the hidden recesses of their half‑consciousness. They stretch out their arms longingly for it, but sigh and lower them again and again hopelessly, frantically, whenever they look at their surroundings. With dull despair they watch in horror as the clear view of morality and immorality quickly becomes clouded, how the ability to judge is lost, and the capacity to comprehend changes to such an extent that much that would have recently aroused disgust and contempt are very quickly accepted as entirely natural and do not even cause surprise. But the cup is soon filled to the brim. A terrible awakening must come!
Even now, at times, a sudden, timid flinch passes over these sensually whipped masses, thoughtlessly and unconsciously. For a moment uncertainty seizes many hearts, yet this does not lead to an awakening, no clear intuition of their unworthy behaviour. Instead, redoubled zeal sets in to shake off such “weakness” or the “last remnants” of outdated attitudes, or even to drown them out completely. Progress at all costs is the aim. But progress can go in two directions: upward or downward. As one chooses. And as things now stand, it is heading downward with uncanny speed. The impact must shatter those who are hurtling downwards when the hour strikes in which they encounter a strong resistance.
In this sultry environment, the storm cloud gathers ever more densely and ominously. At any moment, the first ray of lightning can be expected to cut through the darkness and illuminate it, flaming forth to expose what was hidden with unrelenting sharpness, bringing deliverance for those who strive for light and clarity, but destruction to those who have no longing for the Light. The longer this cloud is allowed to condense its darkness and weight, the more blinding and terrifying also will be the bolt of lightning it produces will be. The soft, enervating air that brings creeping lust in the folds of its indolence will pass away; for, as a matter of course, a fresh, brisk current of air will inevitably follow the first flash of lightning and bring new life.
In the cold clarity of the Light, all the figments of the dark imagination will suddenly stand stripped of their glaring untruths before the gaze of horrified humanity. Like the shock of a mighty thunder clap, this awakening will reverberate in the souls, allowing the living spring water of undimmed Truth to pour forth over the loosened ground with a roar. The Day of Liberation is dawning. Liberation from the spell of an immorality that has existed for millennia and is now unfolding into its highest bloom.
Look around you! Look at the reading material, the dances, the clothing! The present time is striving more than ever before to systemically cloud the purity of intuition by tearing down all barriers between the two sexes, distorting it in this cloudiness and putting misleading masks on them in order to stifle them completely, if at all possible. Lofty speeches, which, when closely examined, prove to arise only from the inwardly quivering sex drive, stupefy men with rising misgivings, feeding the desires ever new nourishment in countless ways, skilfully and unskilfully, concealed and unconcealed.
They speak of a prelude to free, independent humanity, of a development of inner stability, of physical culture; of the beauty of nudity; of ennobled sport; of education that brings to life the saying: “To the pure all things are pure!” In short: the elevation of the human race through the discarding of all “prudery” (sham modesty), in order to create the noble free humans who are to carry the future! Woe betide anyone who dares to speak out against this! Such a daring individual is immediately stoned with howls of accusation, similar to the assertion that only those impure thoughts can be incited to consider “finding something there”!
It is a mad whirlpool of putrid water from which a stupefying, poisonous vapour spreads and triggers mind-boggling delusions akin to a morphine rush, into which thousands upon thousands continually let themselves drown it, becoming limp. The brother seeks to enlighten the sister, the children their parents. Like a tidal wave, it sweeps over all of humanity and wild surf appears where a few level-headed individuals, seized with disgust, still stand alone like rocks in the sea. Many whose own strength threatens to fail in the roar, cling to them. It is a joy to see these small groups that stand like oases in the desert. They are just as refreshing and inviting to rest and recovery for the wanderer who has struggled with difficulty through the life-threatening sandstorm.
What is preached today under all the beautiful guise of progress is nothing but a veiled promotion of great shamelessness, poisoning every higher human intuition. It is the greatest plague that has ever afflicted mankind. And strangely enough, it is as if though many had only been waiting for a plausible pretext to degrade themselves to the level of animals, which countless people welcome!
However, those who know the spiritual laws that operate in the Universe will turn away in disgust from the current endeavours. Let us take just one of the most “harmless” pleasures: “family-friendly baths”. “To the pure all is pure!” This sounds so beautiful that one might allow oneself many things under the protection of this pleasant-sounding phrase.
But let us examine the simplest ethereal processes involved in such a bath. Let us assume that there are thirty people of different sexes, twenty-nine of whom are really pure in every respect. An assumption that is completely out of the question from the outset, as the reverse would be more accurate and, even then, would still be rare. Yet let us assume it. The one, the thirtieth person, stimulated by sight, has impure thoughts, although he may behave perfectly irreproachably outwardly. These thoughts immediately take on an ethereal form and move towards the object of his gaze and cling to it.
This is defilement, whether or not it leads to any expression or physical assault! The person thus targeted will carry around this filth, which is capable of attracting similar wandering thought-forms. Consequently, the it becomes denser and denser around the person, and can finally have a confusing effect on them and contaminate them, just as a parasitic creeper often causes the healthiest tree to die.
Such are the ethereal happenings of so-called “harmless” family baths, social games, dances, and the like.
It must be borne in mind, however, that these baths and entertainments are in any case attended by precisely people who are deliberately seeking something to stimulate their thoughts and feelings through such viewing! It is not difficult to imagine, therefore, what filth is thereby bred without anything being outwardly noticeable in the physical sense.
Equally, it is self-evident that this continually increasing and condensing cloud of sensual thought-forms must gradually affect countless people who do not seek such things of their own accord. Similar thoughts arise in them, first faintly, then more strongly and more vividly, as they are constantly nourished by the present-day kind of ‘progress’ present in their surroundings. And so, one after another they glide along into the thick dark stream in which the concepts of true purity and morality become increasingly obscured, finally dragging everything into the depths of utter darkness.
These opportunities and stimuli for such rampant excrescences must first and foremost be eliminated! They are nothing but breeding grounds into which the polluted vermin of immoral people can cast their pestilent thoughts, which then sprout up wildly and pour their devastatingly over the whole all of humanity, creating ever more breeding grounds until finally only an enormous field of disgusting growths remains from which a poisonous breath emanates and suffocates even the good.
Pull yourselves out of this delirium, which, like a narcotic, only feigns invigoration, but actually has a slackening and corrupting effect. It is natural, although saddening, that precisely the female sex that once again goes beyond all limits and, in its clothing, has unscrupulously sunk down to the level of harlotry in its clothing.
Yet this only proves the correctness of the explanation about the ethereal processes. It is the woman in particular, with her naturally stronger intuitive faculties, who first and most deeply absorbs this poison from the polluted ethereal world of thought-forms, quite unconsciously. She is more exposed to these dangers, and for this reason is also the first to be carried away, crossing incomprehensibly quickly and strikingly beyond every boundary.
It is not for nothing that it is said: “When a woman goes bad, she is worse than a man!” This applies in all areas, whether in cruelty, in hatred, or in love! A woman’s action will always be a result of the ethereal world surrounding her! Of course, there are exceptions. She is not exempt from responsibility, as she is able to observe the impressions that assail her and to direct her own volition and actions on her own accord, if – if she so wills! That this unfortunately does not happen with the majority is a fault of the female sex, solely attributable to complete ignorance in these matters.
For the present time, however, it is terrible that, in reality, woman also has the future of nations in her hands. She bears it because the state of her soul has a more decisive effect on her descendants than that of the man. What a decline the future must therefore bring! Inevitable! It cannot be stopped by weapons, money, or discoveries. Nor can it be halted by kindness or skilled politics. Here, far more radical measures must come.
Yet this enormous guilt does not fall on woman alone. She will always be nothing more than the faithful mirror-image of that world of thought-forms that hangs over her people. This must not be forgotten. Respect and honour woman as such, and she will mould herself accordingly, will become what you see in her, and thereby raise up your entire people! But, before that, a great process of transformation must take place among women. As they are now, a cure can only be achieved through intervention, with a violent, relentless cut that removes every growth with sharp knives and throws it into the fire! Otherwise, it would still destroy all the healthy parts.
The present time is rushing inexorably towards this necessary intervention in the whole of humanity, bringing it about itself faster and faster! It will be painful and terrible, but recovery will follow. Only then will it be time to speak of morality. Today, it would fall hollow like words spoken in a storm. But when the hour has passed in which the iniquities of Babylon must perish because it rotted and collapsed within itself, then pay attention to the female gender! Their actions and omissions will always show you how you are, for in their finer intuitiveness they live what the thought-forms want.
This circumstance also gives us the certainty that, with pure intuition and thought, womanhood will be the first to rise to that ideal we regard as the noble human being. Then morality will have entered in all the splendour of its purity!
