The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Lemurian Race

[ 1 ] Here is a piece from the Akashic Chronicle that refers to a very distant primeval time in the development of mankind. This time precedes that which has been described in the previous accounts. It concerns the third human root race, which is said in theosophical books to have inhabited the Lemurian continent. This continent was - in the sense of these books - in the south of Asia, but extended roughly from Ceylon to Madagascar. Today's southern Asia and parts of Africa also belonged to it. - Even if all possible care has been taken in deciphering the "Akashic Chronicle", it must be emphasized that nowhere should any dogmatic character be claimed for these messages. If the reading of things and events which are so remote from the present age is not easy, the translation of what is seen and deciphered into the present language presents almost insurmountable obstacles. - Time references will be made later. They will be better understood when the whole Lemurian period and also that of our (fifth) root race up to the present will have been gone through. - The things that are communicated here are surprising even to the occultist who reads them for the first time - although the word is not entirely accurate. Therefore, he may communicate them only after the most careful examination.

[ 2 ] The fourth (Atlantean) root race was preceded by the so-called lemurian. Within their development facts of the greatest significance took place with earth and man. But here we shall first say something about the character of this root race after these facts and only then deal with the latter. On the whole, memory was not yet developed in this race. Humans were able to form images of things and events, but these ideas did not remain in their memories. That is why they did not yet have a language in the true sense of the word. What they could produce in this respect were more natural sounds that expressed their feelings, pleasure, joy, pain and so on, but which did not describe external things. - But their ideas had a completely different power to those of later humans. They influenced their surroundings through this power. Other people, animals, plants and even inanimate objects could feel this effect and be influenced by mere imagination. The Lemurian was thus able to communicate with others without the need for language. This communication consisted of a kind of "mind reading". The Lemurian drew the power of his imagination directly from the things that surrounded him. It flowed to him from the growth power of plants, from the life force of animals. Thus he understood plants and animals in their inner weaving and life. Indeed, he also understood the physical and chemical forces of inanimate things. When he built something, he did not first need to calculate the load-bearing capacity of a log, the weight of a building block, he looked at the log to see how much it could carry, at the building block to see where its weight was appropriate and where it was not. In this way, the Lemurian built without the art of engineering, using his imagination with the certainty of a kind of instinct. And he had a great deal of control over his body. He could steel his arm when necessary by sheer effort of will. He could lift immense loads, for example, simply by developing his will. If the Atlantean was later served by the mastery of the life force, the Lemurian was served by the mastery of the will. He was - the expression should not be misunderstood - a born magician in all areas of lower human activities.

[ 3 ] The Lemurians were concerned with training the will, the imaginative power. The upbringing of children was entirely geared towards this. The boys were hardened in the strongest possible way. They had to learn to endure dangers, overcome pain and perform bold deeds. Those who could not endure hardships and overcome dangers were not considered useful members of humanity. They were left to perish under the hardships. What the Akashic Chronicle shows with regard to this cultivation of children is beyond the wildest imagination of contemporary man. The endurance of heat to the point of searing embers, the piercing of the body with sharp objects were quite ordinary procedures. - The breeding of girls was different. Although the female child was also hardened, everything else was designed to develop a powerful imagination. For example, she was exposed to the storm in order to calmly experience its terrible beauty; she had to watch the battles of the men, fearless, imbued only with the feeling for the strength and power she saw before her. The girl's tendency to dream, to fantasize, developed as a result; but these were particularly highly valued. And since there was no memory, these tendencies could not degenerate. The dreams or fantasies in question only lasted as long as the corresponding external cause was present. They therefore had their good reason in external things. They did not lose themselves in a bottomless pit. It was, so to speak, the fantasy and reverie of nature itself that sank into the female mind.

[ 4 ] The Lemurians did not have dwellings in our sense, except in their last period. They lived where nature itself gave them the opportunity. The burrows they used, for example, were only modified and equipped with the ingredients they needed. Later they also built such caves from the earth, and then they developed great skill in such constructions. But one must not imagine that they did not also build artificial structures. But these did not serve as dwellings. In the early days they arose from the need to give natural things a man-made form. Hills were reshaped in such a way that man took pleasure and pleasure in the form. Stones were joined together for the same reason, or to serve certain purposes. The places where children were hardened were surrounded by walls of this kind. - Towards the end of this age, however, the buildings that served the cultivation of "divine wisdom and divine art" became ever more massive and elaborate. These institutions were different in every way from the temples of later mankind, for they were both educational institutions and places of science. Those who were found suitable were allowed to be initiated into the science of the laws of the world and the handling of these laws. If the Lemurian was a born magician, this talent for art and insight was trained here. Only those who had acquired the ability to overcome to the highest degree through all kinds of hardening could be admitted. For everyone else, what went on in these institutions was the deepest secret. Here one learned to know and master the forces of nature in direct observation. But the learning was such that the forces of nature were transformed in man into forces of will. He was thus able to accomplish himself what nature accomplishes. What later mankind accomplished by reasoning, by combination, had at that time the character of an instinctive activity. However, the word "instinct" should not be used here in the same sense as we are used to applying it to the animal world. For the activities of Lemurian mankind were towering above everything that the animal world is capable of producing through instinct. They were even far above the arts and sciences that mankind has since acquired through memory, intellect and imagination. If one wanted to use an expression for these institutions that facilitates understanding, one could call them "colleges of the powers of will and clairvoyant imagination". - From them emerged the people who became rulers of others in every respect. It is difficult to give a correct idea of all these relationships in words today. For everything on earth has changed since then. Nature itself and all human life were different; therefore, human work and the relationship of man to man were quite different from what is usual today.

[ 5 ] The air was much denser than later in Atlantean times, the water much thinner. And what forms our solid earth crust today was not yet as hardened as it was later. The plant and animal world had only progressed as far as amphibians, birds and lower mammals, as well as plants that resemble our palms and similar trees. But all forms were different from today. What now occurs only in small forms was then hugely developed. Our small ferns were then trees and formed mighty forests. The higher mammals of today did not exist. On the other hand, a large part of mankind was at such a low stage of development that it must be described as animalistic. In fact, only a small part of mankind can be described as such. The other part lived a life of animalism. Indeed, these animal people were quite different from that small part in their external structure and way of life. They were not particularly different from the lower mammals, who were also similar to them in shape in certain respects.

[ 6 ] A few words must be said about the significance of the temple sites mentioned. It was not actually religion that was practiced there. It was "divine wisdom and art". Man immediately perceived what was given to him there as a gift from the spiritual forces of the world. And when he received this gift, he saw himself as a "servant" of these world forces. He felt "sanctified" before everything unspiritual. If one wants to speak of religion at this stage of human development, one could call it "religion of the will". The religious mood and consecration lay in the fact that man guarded the powers bestowed upon him as a strict, divine "secret", that he led a life through which he sanctified his power. The awe and reverence with which others treated people who had such powers was great. And they were not somehow brought about by laws or the like, but by the direct power they exercised. Those who were uninitiated were quite naturally under the magical influence of the initiates. And it was also a matter of course that they regarded themselves as sacred persons. After all, in their temples they were fully aware of the forces of nature at work. They looked into the creative workshop of nature. What they experienced was an intercourse with the entities that build the world itself. This contact can be called contact with the gods. And what later developed as "initiation", as "mystery", emerged from this original form of human contact with the gods. In subsequent times, this communication had to take a different form because the human imagination, the human spirit, took on other forms.

[ 7 ] Of particular importance is something that happened with the progress of Lemurian development in that women lived in the manner described. They thus developed special human powers. Their imagination, which was in union with nature, became the basis for a higher development of the imaginative life. They sensibly absorbed the forces of nature and allowed them to have an effect on the soul. Thus the germs of memory were formed. And with memory also entered the world the ability to form the first very simple moral concepts. - The development of the will of the male element did not know such things at first. Man instinctively followed either the impulses of nature or the influences emanating from the initiates. - The first ideas of "good and evil" emerged from the female species. People began to love the one thing that made a particular impression on their imaginations and to detest the other. While the dominion exercised by the masculine element was directed more towards the external effect of the forces of will, towards the manipulation of the forces of nature, the feminine element also had an effect through the mind, through the inner, personal powers of man. Only those can correctly understand the development of mankind who take into account that the first advances in the life of imagination were made by women. The development of habits connected with the sensible life of imagination, with the formation of memory, which formed the germs of a legal life, of a kind of custom, came from this side. Once man had seen and exercised the forces of nature, woman became the first interpreter of them. It was a special new way of living through reflection that arose here. This way had something much more personal than that of men. Now one must imagine that this way of women was also a kind of clairvoyance, even if it differed from the will magic of men. The woman was accessible in her soul to a different kind of spiritual powers. These spoke more to the emotional element of the soul and less to the spiritual element to which the man was subject. Thus, men had an effect that was more natural and divine, while women had an effect that was more spiritual and divine.

[ 8 ] The development that woman had undergone during the Lemurian period meant that she played an important role in the appearance of the next - the Atlantean - root race on earth. This emergence took place under the influence of highly developed beings who were familiar with the laws of race formation and who were able to direct the existing forces of human nature in such a way that a new race could come into being. These beings will be discussed in more detail. For the time being it may suffice to say that they possessed superhuman wisdom and power. They now separated a small group from Lemurian mankind and designated them as the progenitors of the coming Atlantean race. The place where they did this was in the hot zone. Under their guidance, the men of this cluster had trained themselves in the control of the forces of nature. They were powerful and knew how to extract the most diverse treasures from the earth. They were able to cultivate the land and make its fruits useful to their lives. They had become strong-willed natures through the training they had received. Their souls and minds were developed to a lesser extent. Instead, these had developed in the women. Memory and imagination and everything associated with them were found in them.

[ 9 ] The above-mentioned leaders had the effect of organizing the little group into small groups. And they entrusted the order and organization of these groups to the women. Through her memory, the woman had acquired the ability to make the experiences and adventures that had once been made useful for the future. What proved useful yesterday, she utilized today and was aware that it would also be useful tomorrow. The institutions for living together thus emanated from her. The concepts of "good and evil" were formed under her influence. Through her sensual life she had acquired an understanding of nature. From her observation of nature grew the ideas according to which she guided people's actions. The leaders had arranged it so that through the soul of the woman the will nature, the strength of the men was refined and purified. Of course, one must think of all this in childish beginnings. The words of our language all too easily evoke ideas taken from the life of the present.

[ 10 ] On the detour through the awakened soul life of the women, the leaders first developed that of the men. In the marked colony, the influence of women was therefore very great. One had to seek advice from them if one wanted to interpret the signs of nature. But the whole nature of their soul life was still one that was dominated by the "secret" soul forces of man. One does not quite hit the nail on the head, but approximately, when one speaks of a somnambulistic view of these women. In a certain higher dreaming, the secrets of nature were revealed to them and the impulses for their actions flowed forth. Everything was animated for them and showed itself to them in spiritual powers and phenomena. They surrendered to the mysterious weaving of their spiritual powers. What drove them to their actions were "inner voices" or what plants, animals, stones, wind and clouds, the whispering of trees and so on told them.

[ 11 ] This state of mind gave rise to what we can call human religion. The soulfulness in nature and in human life was gradually revered and worshipped. Individual women achieved particular supremacy because they knew how to interpret what was contained in the world from special mysterious depths.

[ 12 ] So it could happen that with such women, what lived within them was transformed into a kind of natural language. For the beginning of language lies in something that is similar to song. The power of thought was transformed into the audible power of sound. The inner rhythm of nature sounded from the lips of "wise" women. People gathered around such women and perceived the expressions of higher powers in their chant-like sentences. Human worship began with such things. - There can be no question of "meaning" in the spoken word at that time. Sound, tone and rhythm were perceived. Nothing else was imagined, but the power of what was heard was absorbed into the soul. The whole process was under the direction of the higher leaders. They had instilled sounds and rhythms into the "wise" priestesses in a way that cannot be discussed further now. In this way they were able to have an ennobling effect on the souls of the people. It can be said that it was in this way that the real life of the soul first awoke.

[ 13 ] The Akashic Chronicle shows beautiful scenes in this area. One such scene will be described. We are in a forest, by a mighty tree. The sun has just risen in the east. The palm-like tree, around which the other trees have been removed, casts mighty shadows. Turning her face to the east, enraptured, the priestess sits on a seat made from rare natural objects and plants. Slowly, in rhythmic succession, a few wondrous sounds flow from her lips, always repeating themselves. A number of men and women sit in circles, their faces lost in dreams, sucking inner life from what they hear. - Other scenes can also be seen. In a similarly arranged place, a priestess "sings" in a similar way, but her tones have something more powerful, more forceful. And the people around her move in rhythmic dances. For this was the other way in which "soul" came into humanity. The mysterious rhythms that had been eavesdropped on from nature were imitated in the movements of one's own limbs. This made people feel at one with nature and the forces at work within it.

[ 14 ] The place on earth where this tribe of a coming human race was formed was particularly suitable for this. It was a place where the earth, which was still stormy at the time, had come to a certain degree of calm. For Lemuria was turbulent. The earth did not yet have its later density. Everywhere the thin soil was undermined by volcanic forces that erupted in smaller or larger streams. Mighty volcanoes were present almost everywhere and were constantly developing destructive activity. People were used to reckoning with this fire activity in all their activities. They also used this fire in their work and facilities. In many cases, these activities were based on the fire of nature in the same way that artificial fire is used in human work today.

[ 15 ] The destruction of the Lemurian land was also brought about by the activity of this volcanic fire. The part of Lemuria from which the Atlantean tribal race was to develop had a hot climate, but it was by and large exempt from volcanic activity. - Human nature was able to develop more quietly and peacefully here than in the other regions of the earth. The more roving life of earlier times was abandoned and permanent settlements became more numerous.

[ 16 ] It must be imagined that the human body at this time still had something very figurative and supple about it. It was still constantly changing when the inner life changed. Not long before, people were still quite different in terms of their external structure. The external influence of the region and the climate were still decisive for the structure. It was only in the designated colony that man's body became more and more an expression of his inner spiritual life. This colony had at the same time an advanced, outwardly more nobly formed human species. It must be said that through what the leaders had done, they had actually first created what the true human form is. This happened very slowly and gradually. But it happened in such a way that first the soul life unfolded in the human being, and the still soft and pliant body adapted to it. It is a law in the development of mankind that man has less and less transforming influence on his physical body as he progresses. This physical human body actually only acquired a fairly solid form with the development of intellectual power and the associated solidification of the earth's rock, mineral and metal formations. For in the Lemurian and even in the Atlantean times, stones and metals were much softer than later. - (This is not contradicted by the fact that there are still descendants of the last Lemurians and Atlanteans, who today have just as solid forms as the later formed human races. These remnants had to adapt to the changed environmental conditions on earth and thus also became more rigid. This is precisely the reason why they are in decline. They did not transform themselves from within, but their less developed inner being was forced into rigidity from outside and thus forced to stand still. And this stagnation really is a decline, because the inner life has also degenerated because it was unable to live out its life in the solidified outer physicality)

[ 17 ] Animal life was subject to an even greater capacity for transformation. The animal species existing at the time of man's emergence and their origins, as well as the emergence of new animal forms after man had already arrived, will be discussed later. It should only be said here that the existing animal species were constantly transforming and new ones were emerging. This transformation was, of course, gradual. The reasons for the transformation lay partly in the change of habitat and way of life. The animals had an extraordinarily rapid ability to adapt to new conditions. The malleable body changed its organs relatively quickly, so that after a more or less short time the descendants of a certain animal species looked little like their ancestors. The same, indeed to an even greater extent, was the case for plants. Man himself had the greatest influence on the transformation of humans and animals. Be it that he instinctively brought living beings into such an environment that they took on certain forms, be it that he brought about this through breeding experiments. The transforming influence of man on nature was, compared to today's conditions, immeasurably great at that time. This was particularly the case in the colony described. For there the leaders directed this transformation in a manner unconscious to man. This was the case to such an extent that when the people set out to establish the various Atlantean races, they were able to take with them highly developed knowledge about the breeding of animals and plants. The cultural work in Atlantis was then essentially a consequence of this knowledge. However, it must also be emphasized here that this knowledge had an instinctive character. And so it essentially remained with the first Atlantean races.

[ 18 ] The marked predominance of the female soul is particularly strong in the last Lemurian period and lasts until the Atlantean times, in which the fourth sub-race prepared itself. But one must not imagine that this was the case with the whole of humanity. It is true, however, of that part of the earth's population from which the actual advanced races later emerged. And this influence was strongest on everything in man that was "unconscious" in and about him. The formation of certain constant gestures, the subtleties of sensual perception, the sensations of beauty, a good part of the sensory and emotional life common to mankind in general, originally emanated from the spiritual influence of woman. It is not saying too much to interpret the reports of the Akashic Chronicle in such a way that one claims: "The cultural nations have a bodily formation and a bodily expression, as well as certain foundations of bodily-spiritual life, which have been imprinted on them by the woman."

[ 19 ] Further on, we will return to earlier times of human formation, when the earth's population was still unisexual. The emergence of the dual sex will then be presented.