Aspects of Human Evolution

8 lectures, Berlin, May 29-July 24, 1917 (CW 176)

In this lecture cycle, Rudolf Steiner explains that the natural development of the soul stops at around the age of twenty-seven. After that, nothing happens for our inner being unless we learn to make it happen. Part of the tragic nature of our time is that more and more people allow their soul life to die at twenty-seven, so that the remainder of their life becomes a kind of mummification. By exerting our thinking and feeling, we can keep our soul alive and growing. This is ultimately the only way we can make this incarnation a satisfactory one. Through such effort, we can continue to develop inwardly until a very advanced age―each year, becoming richer and more interesting than the one before.