Eugenic occultism

Eugenic occultism is the term Rudolf Steiner uses to describe the ability for spiritual birth control which will develop in the future as a result of natural evolution - i.e. without special spiritual training - above all in Eastern humanity. This will be complemented by a mechanical occultism in the West and a hygienic occultism in the European centre:

„And an ability will develop which I would like to call the eugenetic ability. And this eugenetic faculty will develop excellently among the people of the East, among the people of Russia and the Asiatic hinterland. And this too is known in those secret circles of the West, that this eugenetic occultism will not develop out of the innate dispositions of the British-speaking population, but out of the innate dispositions of the Asiatic and Russian populations in particular. These facts are known and reckoned with in the secret circles of the West. They count on them as certain impulses which must be active in the development of the future. Eugenetic ability is what I call the elevation of human reproduction out of mere arbitrariness and chance. Within the population of the East an instinctive knowledge will develop which will have knowledge of how the laws of population must run parallel with certain cosmic phenomena; how, if conception is arranged in harmony with certain stellar constellations, one thereby gives occasion to provide access to earth embodiment for well-disposed or ill-disposed souls. Only those people who form the continuation of the race, the continuation of the blood of the Asiatic population, will be able to see in detail how that which today works chaotically, arbitrarily, over the earth - conception, birth - is to be done in harmony with the great laws of the cosmos in the individual, concrete case. For there abstract laws are of no use, but what is acquired is a concrete ability which will know in the individual case: now a conception may be or now no conception may be.

This knowledge, which will be able to fetch down from heaven the impulses for the moralisation or demoralisation of the earth through the nature of man himself, this special ability is developing as a continuation of the blood ability in the races of the East, and I call what is developing there as an ability eugenetic occultism. This is the second faculty which will prevent the evolution of humanity, with regard to conception and birth, from proceeding merely at random, more or less by chance in the world. And now look at the tremendous social consequence, at the tremendous social impulse which comes in with it! These faculties are latent. It is well known in those secret circles of the British-speaking population that these faculties will develop in the population of the East. One knows that one will not have them oneself in one's dispositions imparted by birth. It is known that the earth could not reach its goal, could not pass from the earth to Jupiter, and that even relatively soon the earth would turn away from its goal if only the forces of the West were worked with. If only the mechanical occult powers of the West were worked with, then gradually a soulless population would be able to develop in the West alone, a population which would become as soulless as possible. This is known. Therefore one strives to develop within one's own circle that which one can develop through one's abilities: mechanical occultism; and one strives to dominate that population which develops eugenetic occultism. Every knowledgeable person in the circles of the West says: It is necessary that we should dominate India, for example, for the reason that only in the continuation of that which comes out of Indian bodies - when it combines with that which in the West goes in quite a different direction, in the direction of merely mechanical occultism - bodies arise in which souls can embody themselves in the future, which will carry the earth over to its future stages of development. The English-speaking occultists know that they must renounce the bodies which come out of their own folk-base, and they strive to have dominion over a population which will supply bodies by means of which the evolution of the earth can be carried out into the future.

The American occultists know that only if they cultivate of their own accord that which is developing within the Russian population in the bodies of the future through the eugenetic occult disposition, if they master this so that a social connection gradually comes about between their dying racial characteristics and the burgeoning psychic racial characteristics of European Russia, that only then can they transmit into the future what they want to transmit.“ (Lit.:GA 186, p. 72ff)

„The third is: to introduce the thoughts of man into the becoming of the human race itself in birth and generation. I have pointed out, as congresses have already been held on this subject, how one even wants to establish a materialistic development of the science of procreation and of the combination of man and woman in the future. These things all point us to the most important things that are in the process of becoming. It is still fair to say today: How is it that those who know about these things in the right sense do not apply them? In the future we shall see for ourselves what is the meaning of this application, and what hindering forces are at work at present, for example, to establish a spiritualised medicine or a spiritualised national economy on a more extensive scale. Today nothing more can be done than to talk of these things until people will have understood them sufficiently, those people who are inclined to receive them in a selfless sense. Many people today already believe that they can do this; but to be able to do so is still prevented by many factors of life which can only be overcome in the right way if first of all an ever deeper and deeper understanding takes hold, and if straightforward practical application to a greater extent is dispensed with, at least for a time.“ (Lit.:GA 178, p. 220)

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Individuelle Geistwesen und ihr Wirken in der Seele des Menschen, GA 178 (1992), ISBN 3-7274-1780-3 Template:Vorträge
• Rudolf Steiner: Die soziale Grundforderung unserer Zeit – In geänderter Zeitlage, GA 186 (1990), ISBN 3-7274-1860-5 Template:Vorträge

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.