The Riddle of Humanity (CW 170)

Fifteen lectures July–September 1916, Dornach (CW 170)

In these foundational lectures, Rudolf Steiner presents a bold and spiritually alive understanding of human evolution and our deep connection to the cosmos. Far more than a philosophical inquiry, this work is a challenge to the assumptions of materialism and an appeal to reawaken to our spiritual tasks.

Speaking to members of the Anthroposophical Society, Steiner explores the dual nature of the human being – cosmic and earthly – and the subtle interplay between past incarnations and the transformation of the body. He offers profound insights into the evolution of the senses, the creative power of aesthetics, and how human life is interwoven with cosmic forces.

Through vivid metaphysical descriptions and rigorous esoteric thought, Steiner outlines how the soul evolves across lifetimes, shaped not only by earthly experiences but by celestial rhythms and spiritual laws. He emphasizes the vital role of inner development – meditation, moral striving and self-knowledge – as the pathway to freedom and true understanding.

These lectures lay a groundwork for Steiner’s spiritual science, offering a clear alternative to the mechanistic worldview, and inviting readers to rediscover the riches of human life through spiritual awareness. The new edition of these lectures features an introduction by Margaret Jonas, editorial notes and an index.

C O N T E N T S

Publisher’s Note

Introduction, by Margaret Jonas

Lecture 1 

Dornach, 29 July 1916 

Greetings to the builders working on the Goetheanum. Otto Weininger, a decadent genius. Distorted pictures of imaginative knowledge.

Lecture 2

Dornach, 30 July 1916 

Two spheres of existence in nature and in man the realm of regularity and the realm of irregularity. The ancient Hebrews’ awareness of time. Their Jubilee Year as the expression of formative powers of the soul.

Lecture 3 

Dornach, 31 July 1916

The duality of human nature—the heavenly and the earthly aspects of man. Uranus and Gaia. Influences of one incarnation on the next. Metamorphoses of the body.

Lecture 4

Dornach, 5 August 1916 

The human organism, results of prenatal formative powers. The dual nature of man. The powers behind the existence of the body as expressed pictorially by the body and as expressed in a draughtsman-like fashion by the head. The relationship between the threefoldness of human nature and knowledge, aesthetics and morality.

Lecture 5 

Dornach, 6 August 1916

How a person grows into the three spiritual realms of wisdom, beauty and goodness. How these shine down into the spiritual part of man. Physiology of the imaginative psyche. Man in the spheres of morality, aesthetic impulse and impulse towards truth.

Lecture 6

Dornach, 7 August 1916

The transformation of the physical body into the head of the next incarnation. The cosmic significance of human knowledge.

Lecture 7

Dornach, 12 August 1916

The connection between the human being and the cosmos. The twelve regions of the senses and the seven life processes.

Lecture 8 

Dornach, 13 August 1916 

How twelvefoldness, sevenfoldness, fourfoldness and threefoldness are mirrored. Pathological experiences of the soul (Carl Ludwig Schleich). Thinking backwards as a preparation for spiritual experience (Christian von Ehrenfels).

Lecture 9 

Dornach, 15 August 1916

Enlivening the sense processes and ensouling the life processes. Aesthetic enjoyment and aesthetic creativity. Logic and the sense for reality.

Lecture 10

Dornach, 21 August 1916 

Loss of the ability to orient oneself in reality and the helplessness of modern- scientific criteria.

Lecture 11 

Dornach, 26 August 1916

Memory and habit as metamorphoses of former spiritual experiences that were subject to luciferic and ahrimanic influences.

Lecture 12

Dornach, 27 August 1916

How thoughts are engraved into the substance of the cosmos and the consequences following from this.

Lecture 13

Dornach, 28 August 1916

The allocation of the whole human form to the cosmos. Technical discoveries and the human physical organization. Collisions between thinking that accords with reality and thinking that is in opposition to reality. How occultism wanders into false paths.

Lecture 14

Dornach, 2 September 1916 

Metamorphoses of the twelve sense-zones through luciferic and ahrimanic influences.

Lecture 15

Dornach, 3 September 1916

The reorganization of the seven life processes by luciferic and ahrimanic powers. Francis Bacon inaugurates materialism and the science of idols.

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861–1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.