Occult Science - An Outline
GA 13
VI. Present and Future Evolution of the World and of Mankind
[ 1 ] In spiritual science, it is impossible to know the future evolution of the world and man without first coming to an understanding of the past. For when the scientist of the spirit observes the hidden facts of the past, what he perceives also contains, latent within it, all that is knowable to him of the present and the future. We have described Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth evolutions. To understand the Earth itself in the light of spiritual science, we had to study the preceding stages. What man encounters in this Earth-world here and now may indeed be said to contain within it the facts of Moon, Sun, and Saturn evolutions. To understand the Earth itself in the light of spiritual science, we had to study the preceding stages. What man encounters in this Earth-world here and now may indeed be said to contain within it the facts of Moon, Sun, and Saturn evolution. The Beings and entities that partook in Moon evolution underwent further development, and from them all that constitutes our present Earth came into being. Physical consciousness cannot however fully perceive all that evolved from Moon to Earth. Part of it remains invisible to the outer senses; it is seen only at a certain stage of supersensible awareness. When this stage has been reached, our earthly world is seen to be united with a world supersensible, containing within it the portion of Old Moon-existence which has not condensed to physical perceptibility. It contains it however as it is at present, not as it was during Old Moon evolution. Yet in the course of supersensible research a picture of that earlier condition can be reached. For upon further contemplation the perception of the present state gradually divides of its own accord into two distinct pictures. The one picture manifests the form the Earth was actually in during Old Moon evolution, while in the other we soon recognize that it contains a form still in its germinal beginnings—one which will only in the cosmic future become real in the way the Earth is real today. And as we persevere in spiritual observation, we see that something is perpetually streaming into this future form, wherein we recognize the outcome of what is happening on Earth. We are therefore beholding what our Earth is destined to become. The effects of Earth-existence will unite with what is taking place in the supersensible world to which we here refer, and from their union there will arise the new cosmic entity into which Earth will be metamorphosed, even as Old Moon was metamorphosed into Earth.
This future evolutionary form may be named the “Jupiter” condition. One who is able supersensibly to observe it will see quite clearly that in the cosmic future certain things are bound to happen. For in the supersensible part of the Earth-world deriving from Old Moon, beings and entities are present which will assume certain predestined forms when the appropriate events have taken place upon the physical, sense-perceptible Earth. Jupiter therefore will contain what is already predetermined by Old Moon evolution, and in addition something new, making its entry into the evolutionary process only in consequence of what has meanwhile been enacted upon Earth. Supersensible consciousness can thus attain some knowledge of the events and processes of Jupiter evolution. Yet the beings and events seen in this field are not of a kind to be perceived by outer senses; they cannot even be described as thin and unsubstantial forms of air, such as might still give rise to anything like sense-perceptible effects. All we receive from them are the impressions of purely spiritual sound, spiritual light and spiritual warmth. They do not find expression in material embodiment. Only the supersensible consciousness can apprehend them. And yet these beings can be said to have a kind of body. Within their soul-nature—the soul which manifests their present being—they bear a store of concentrated memories. This is their “body.” For we are able to distinguish in these things what they are undergoing in the present and what they lived through in the cosmic past and can remember. This cosmic memory they bear within them as a kind of body. They experience it in the same way as man on Earth his body.
To a stage of seership higher than is needed for gaining knowledge of Old Moon and of the future Jupiter, beings and entities become perceptible which are the further-developed forms of what was present during Old Sun evolution. They are now at such a lofty level of existence as to elude a power of perception whose range is limited to the Old Moon and to the forms deriving from it. Also the spiritual picture of this higher world divides on further contemplation into two. The one part leads to a knowledge of the past Sun evolution; the other manifests a future cosmic form of the Earth, namely the form into which it will have changed when the results of all that has taken place on Earth and on Jupiter have flowed into the forms of yonder world—the forms deriving from the past Sun-condition. In the language of spiritual science, the future universe a higher stage is consciousness is thus enabled to perceive may be designated as the Venus state. Lastly a supersensible consciousness even more highly developed perceives an evolutionary state of the more distant future to which the name of Vulcan may be given. Vulcan is in like relation to Saturn evolution as Venus to Sun and Jupiter to Moon. Thus in considering the past, the present and the future of Earth evolution we have to name its successive stages: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan.
Now even as these vast evolutionary stages of the Earth become accessible to spiritual consciousness, so do the facts of a less distant future. But at this point we have to utter an essential warning—one which cannot be over-emphasized. To grain true knowledge of these things, one must completely rid oneself of the idea that ordinary philosophical reflection, trained as it is to begin with in contemplation of sense-perceptible realities, can be of any help at all. These things cannot be—n or are they meant to be—discovered by dint of reasoning and reflection. If anyone imagines that having learned from spiritual science of Old Moon, he can by dint of thought—setting to work, let us say, to combine the known facts of the present Earth with those of the Old Moon—make out for himself what Jupiter will look like, he will soon become involved in illusion. These things are only meant to be discovered by the developed consciousness reaching up to their direct perception. Only when thus discovered and properly communicated, then alone—and then indeed—can they be understood even without supersensible consciousness of one's own.
[ 2 ] The scientist of the spirit is however in a different situation when communicating future things than when telling of the past. For to begin with it is impossible for man to contemplate future events with the same candor and detachment as those that have already taken place. What is about to happen in the future cannot but stir up his feeling and his will; the past is bearable in quite another way. Everyone who has observed the life of man will know how true this is even in day-to-day existence. But to have any notion of the immensely heightened degree to which it applies when dealing with occult facts, or of the many subtle ways in which it shows itself, one needs to have some knowledge of supersensible worlds and of their latent difficulties. The branch of spiritual science is hence confined within determined limits, which have to be respected.
[ 3 ] Even as we can trace the great sequences of cosmic evolution from Saturn to Vulcan, so too we can the shorter periods—the periods, for example, of Earth evolution proper. Since the tremendous upheaval that brought the life of old Atlantis to an end, there have been the successive stages in man's development described in this book as the ancient Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egypto-Chaldean and the Graeco-Latin epochs. The fifth is the present—the epoch man is going through today. In preparation ever since the fourth or fifth century A.D., it began gradually about the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, to emerge fully in the fifteenth. The preceding epoch—the Graeco-Latin—began about the eighth century B.C., the Christ-Event taking place when the first third of it was over. With the transition from the Egypto-Chaldean into the Graeco-Latin epoch, the whole mode and disposition of man's soul and all his faculties had undergone an essential change. The kind of logical thinking and intellectual comprehension of the world with which we are now familiar did not exist in Egypto-Chaldean times. Knowledge, which man today acquired by the deliberate exercise of his intelligence, he then received directly; it was given to him as an intuitive and inner—in some respects, supersensible—knowledge. Such was the form of cognition proper to that age. Man saw the objects around him, and in the very act of looking at them, the concept—the picture of them his soul needed—arose of its own accord within him. Now when cognition is of this nature, pictures not only of the sense-perceptible world make their appearance in man's soul, but from the depths of the inner life there dawns a knowledge, howsoever limited, of facts and beings imperceptible to the outer senses. This was a remnant of the dim and pristine supersensible awareness, once the common property of all mankind.
In the Graeco-Latin epoch an ever growing number of people were born in whom such faculties were lacking. Men now began to think about things with purely intellectual reflection. They drifted farther and farther away form the direct though dreamlike perception of the world of soul and spirit. Instead, they had to form an intellectual picture of it for themselves—intellectual, though aided by the life of feeling. Broadly speaking, man may be said to have been in this condition throughout the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. Those alone, who—as an heirloom from the past—retained the earlier faculties of soul, were able still to receive the spiritual world into their consciousness directly. But they were the belated remnants of a bygone age; their manner of cognition was no longer suited to the time. For by the very laws of evolution, an older faculty of soul loses its full significance when new faculties develop. The life of man becomes adapted to the new and has no further use for the old. There were however individuals who began to supplement the newly acquired faculties of intellect and feeling with the fully conscious development of higher powers of cognition, whereby they could penetrate once more into the world of soul and spirit. They had to set about it in a different way from the disciples of the old Initiates, who had not yet had to reckon with the new faculties of mind and soul due to the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. Thus the fourth epoch witnessed the first beginnings of the modern form of spiritual training, described in the present work. But this was in its infancy; it could only come to full development in the fifth epoch (from the twelfth and thirteenth and more especially the fifteenth century onward.) Those who contrived to reach up into the supersensible worlds in this new way were able by their own Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition to gain knowledge of the higher regions of existence. Those on the other hand who did not get beyond the recently developed powers of intelligence and feeling, could only learn of what the old clairvoyance had still known from the traditions which were handed down through the generations, whether by word of mouth or in writing.
[ 4 ] This was also true of the Christ-Event. If they themselves could not reach up into the supersensible worlds, men who were born after its time could only learn of the real essence and mystery of this Event from tradition. It should be added however that there were some Initiates of another kind—Initiates who still retained natural faculties of supersensible perception, by the development of which they could ascend into higher worlds, even while disregarding the new powers of intellect and feeling. They helped in the transition from the old way of Initiation to the new. Also throughout the later centuries individuals of this kind were still living. Yet the distinguishing mark of the fourth epoch was the shutting-off of the human soul from direct intercourse with worlds of soul and spirit, for by this very fact the human faculties of understanding and good feeling became deepened and enhanced. Souls who in their incarnations in the fourth epoch evolved these faculties to a high degree would bring the fruits of this development into their incarnations in the fifth. Shut out though they were in those days and left to their own resources, to compensate for this there were the sublime traditions of the ancient wisdom and above all of the Christ-Event, which by the very power of their content gave them the confident assurance of a higher world.
Yet all the time, as we said before, there were also those who in addition to the faculties of intellect and feeling developed higher powers of cognition. It fell to them to experience the facts of the higher worlds and more especially the mystery of the Christ-Event by direct supersensible cognition. From them there always flowed into the souls of other men as much as they could understand and beneficially receive.
The spread of Christianity began therefore at the very time when faculties of supersensible cognition were undeveloped in a large proportion of mankind. This was intended. It was in harmony with the whole trend of mankind's evolution upon Earth, and it accounts for the overwhelming influence of tradition at that time. The strongest influence was needed to give men faith and trust in the supersensible world when they themselves had not the faculty of spiritual sight. With the exception of a brief interval in the thirteenth century, there were however
Nearly always present upon Earth some individuals, able to lift themselves into the higher worlds by Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition. These were the true successors in the Christian era of the Initiates who in pre-Christian times had guided and partaken in the old Mystery-wisdom. It was their task to regain by their own human faculties the knowledge reached and entertained in bygone ages by the methods of the ancient Mysteries. To this they had to add the knowledge of the Christ-Event and of its deeper meaning.
[ 5 ] Thus there arose among the new Initiates a power of cognition which could reach out to all that had been the theme and content of the old Initiation, while in the focus of it radiated the higher knowledge of the Mysteries of the Christ Event. Only to a very small extent could this Initiate-knowledge find its way into the wider life of mankind during the fourth epoch, the task of which was still to strengthen and make firm in human souls the faculties of reasoned thought and feeling. Throughout this epoch it was accordingly a very “hidden knowledge.” Then came the dawning of the present epoch, known as the fifth, the character of which may be described as follows. In the first place the powers of man's intellect go on developing and will continue doing so to an unprecedented extent both now and in the future. After the gradual preparation for this, beginning slowly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D., from the sixteenth century onward the pace has been and still is rapidly accelerating. Thus the fifth epoch has become a period of human evolution ever more given up to the cultivation of intellectual powers, while the traditional knowledge from the past—the knowledge entertained in simple trust and faith—loses its hold upon the human soul. But there has also been a steadily increasing inflow of the higher knowledge, arrived at by the modern forms of supersensible consciousness and cognition. Imperceptibly at first, the “hidden knowledge” has been seeping into men's thought and ways of thought. That intellect as such should hitherto have tended and still be tending to reject this knowledge, is natural enough and was to be expected. But though it be rejected for a time, what is predestined will be fulfilled.
The hidden knowledge which is gradually taking hold of mankind, and will increasingly be doing so, may in the language of a well-known symbol be called the Knowledge of the Grail. We read of the Holy Grail in old-time narratives and legends, and as we learn to understand its deeper meaning we discover that it most significantly pictures the heart and essence of the new Initiation-knowledge, centering in the Mystery of Christ. The Initiates of the new age may therefore be described as the “Initiates of the Grail.” The pathway into spiritual worlds, the first stages of which were set forth in the preceding chapter, culminates in the “Science of the Grail.” It is a characteristic of this new Initiation-knowledge that while its facts can only be investigated with higher faculties of cognition (the methods of attaining which have been described,) once investigated and discovered they are well able to be comprehended precisely by the faculties of mind and soul which the fifth epoch has developed. These faculties will more and more find satisfaction and fulfillment in the higher knowledge. It will be evident increasingly as time goes on. We are now living at a time when the higher knowledge needs to be far more widely received into the general consciousness of mankind than hitherto; it is with this in view that the present work has been written. And as the cultural evolution of mankind absorbs the knowledge of the Grail, in the same measure will the spiritual impulse of the Christ-Event become effective; its true significance will be revealed and it will grow from strength to strength. The more external development of Christianity as hitherto will increasingly be supplemented by the inner, esoteric aspect. What man can come to know by dint of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition of the higher worlds in unison with the Mystery of Christ, will permeate men's thinking, their feeling and their willing—ever increasingly as time goes on. The “hidden knowledge of the Grail” will become manifest and grow to be a power in man's life, entering ever more fully into all the ways and walks of man.
[ 6 ] Throughout the fifth epoch the knowledge of supersensible worlds will thus continue to flow into the consciousness of men, and by the time the sixth begins it will be possible for mankind to have regained on a higher level the knowledge they possessed in pristine ages by virtue of the dim and dreamlike supersensible vision of those ancient days. But the renewed possession will be of quite another form than the old. What the soul knew of higher worlds in olden time was not yet permeated with her own human powers of intelligence and feeling. It came of its own accord—was “given” as a kind of spiritual inspiration. In future, man will not only be receiving “inspirations” of this kind, but will understand them through and through, feeling them as his very own, the true expression of his inmost being. When spiritual knowledge comes to him concerning beings or events, his own intelligence will find it true and sound and thus confirm the knowledge. Or if in spiritual knowledge some moral precept or principle of human conduct dawns upon him, he will say to himself: My feeling about it is only vindicated if I put into practice the implications of this knowledge. By the sixth epoch this mood and disposition of the soul should be achieved in a sufficiently large number of human beings.
The fifth epoch brings a kind of repetition of what the third—the Egypto-Chaldean—contributed to mankind's evolution. In the third epoch the human soul was still able to perceive some at least of the realities of supersensible worlds, though the perception was dwindling. The intellectual faculties which were to shut man off from higher worlds for a time, although not yet developed, were impending. In the fifth epoch the supersensible facts, seen in the third in a dim state of consciousness, will become manifest once more, but taken hold of now by man's own intelligence, realized with individual feeling, and permeated too with what the soul has gained by knowledge of the Mystery of Christ. Hence in the fifth epoch they take on an altogether different form. When man received impressions from supersensible worlds in olden time, they felt like forces influencing and impelling him from an external spiritual world—a world in which he himself was not. Evolution, leading on into the new era, will have wrought a change. Man will now feel these impressions as emanating from a world into which he himself is growing—a world in which he too will have his place, ever more as time goes on. We have not to picture the repetition as though the human soul were simply to re-absorb what lived in the Egyptian and Chaldean culture and has been handed down traditionally. The Christ Impulse, truly understood and received into the soul of man, enables him to feel himself a member of a spiritual world, outside of which he was till now. Not only does he feel it thus; he knows it in full consciousness and bears himself accordingly.
Even as the third epoch comes to life again in the fifth, permeated in the souls of men with the new gifts and values acquired in the fourth, so will the sixth epoch be related to the second, and the seventh to the first—the ancient Indian. Thus in the seventh epoch the possibility will be given for all the marvelous wisdom proclaimed by the great Teachers of ancient India to be living once again in human souls. And it will now be their very own—the truth they live by.
[ 7 ] The things and creatures of the Earth apart from man are also undergoing change—changes related to the evolution of mankind. When the seventh epoch has run its course, another great convulsion will overwhelm the Earth, comparable to the catastrophe between the end of Atlantean and the beginning of post-Atlantean time. Under the altered conditions following upon this event the life of man will once again evolve through a succession of seven epochs. The souls who will then be incarnated will experience in an enhanced degree the community with spiritual worlds enjoyed by the Atlanteans on a lower level. But among human beings not everyone will without more ado prove equal to the new conditions then prevailing. It will only be those in whom souls are incarnated who have duly benefited by the influences of the Graeco-Latin and the succeeding fifth, sixth and seventh post-Atlantean epochs. Their inner lie will be in harmony with what the Earth will have become. They others will perforce remain behind, while formerly they had been free to choose whether they were making themselves fit to go forward with the world's progressive evolution or were neglecting to do so. For the conditions that will prevail after the coming cataclysm, those above all will be well fitted who, in their incarnations between the fifth post-Atlantean epoch and the sixth, succeed in integrating the supersensible wisdom and their own human powers of intelligence and feeling. The fifth and sixth are the decisive epochs. In the seventh, the souls who have reached the evolutionary goal of the sixth will go on evolving. For those who have not, even the surrounding worlds will be too greatly altered; they will find little opportunity to recover their lost ground, and must await a more distant future when the conditions will again be favorable.
Thus evolution moves on from epoch to epoch. The future changes recognized by supersensible cognition involve however not the Earth alone, but the surrounding heavenly bodies in their relation to the Earth. Thus there will come a time when the Beings and forces who during old Lemuria were obliged to leave the Earth will be able to be reunited with her. In the Lemurian epoch they had to be detached to enable the inhabitants of Earth to go on evolving. Now the progressive evolution of the Earth and of mankind will have made it possible for them to join again. The Moon will reunite with the earth, for by that time a sufficient number of human souls will have strength enough to make a fruitful use of the reintegrated Lunar forces for their further evolution. Yet that will also be a cosmic time when, side by side with human souls who have attained this high level of development, others will be living who have turned into a path leading towards evil. These backward souls will have burdened their Karma with so much of error, ugliness and ill-doing as to constitute a special group on their own, subject to aberration and evil and bitterly opposed to the progressive community among mankind.
[ 8 ] By virtue of their spiritual development the good humanity will then be able to make use of the Moon forces and with their help transmute the bad, enabling them too to partake in the further evolution of the Earth, albeit as a distinct kingdom. An through this labor of the good humanity, the Earth—united now with the Moon—will in due evolutionary time also become able to reunite with the Sun, and with the other planets.
After a cosmic interval—a sojourn in a higher world—the Earth will then be transmuted into the Jupiter condition. In Jupiter what we now call the mineral kingdom will exist no longer; the forces of this kingdom will have been changed into plant-like forces. Thus upon Jupiter the vegetable kingdom, though in a very different form, will be the lowest. Above it will be the animal kingdom, likewise considerably altered, and then a human kingdom, recognizable as the spiritual descendants of the bad humanity originating upon Earth. Lastly, the descendants of the good humanity will constitute a human kingdom on a higher level. This is the human kingdom proper, and a great part of its work will be to influence and ennoble the souls who have fallen into the other group, so that they may yet gain entrance to it.
[ 9 ] In the Venus stage of evolution the plant kingdom too will have disappeared. The lowest will then be the animal kingdom, metamorphosed a second time. Above it will be three human kingdoms, differing in degrees of perfection. During the Venus stage the Earth will remain united with the Sun. In Jupiter evolution, on the other hand, there will come a time when the Sun will separate again and Jupiter will be receiving the Solar influences from without. Then, after Sun and Jupiter have again become united, the transition to the Venus state will gradually be accomplished. From Venus, at a certain stage, a separate celestial body becomes detached. This—as it were, an “irreclaimable Moon”—includes all the beings who have persisted in withstanding the true course of evolution. It enters now upon a line of development such as no words can portray, so utterly unlike is it to anything within the range of man's experience on Earth. The evolved humanity on the other hand, in a form of existence utterly spiritualized, goes forward into Vulcan evolution, any description of which would be beyond the compass of this book.
[ 10 ] We see then that the “Knowledge of the Grail” culminates in the highest imaginable ideal of human evolution—the ideal of spiritualization, brought about by man's own efforts. This is the ultimate outcome of the harmony achieved in the fifth and sixth epochs of the present age—the harmony between the powers of intelligence and feeling man has by now acquired, and the true knowledge of the spiritual worlds. What man is thus achieving in his own inner life is destined ultimately to become an outer world. Great and sublime are the impressions he receives from his surrounding world, and in the aspiration of his mind and spirit, as he goes out to meet them, he at first divines and at last clearly recognizes spiritual Beings of whom these impressions are the outer garment. His heart responds to the infinite majesty and sublimity of it all. Moreover he beings to know that the experiences and achievements of his own inner life—in intellect, in feeling, in character, and strength of purpose—are seeds of a future spiritual world, a world in process of becoming.
[ 11 ] It may be asked if human freedom is not incompatible with all this foreknowledge, this predetermination of the cosmic future. But a man's freedom of action in the Earth's future will not depend on the predestined cosmic plan any more than will his freedom in a year's time be impaired by his present resolve that he will then be moving into the house, the plan of which he is now deciding. Living incidentally in the house he has had built, he will be as free as his character allows. So too on Jupiter and Venus—once more, within the conditions there prevailing—man will be free according to the scope and measure of his own inner being. Freedom will depend, not on what is pre-determined by the cosmic past, but on what the soul has become by her own efforts.
[ 12 ] Earth evolution bears within it the outcome of Saturn, Sun and Moon evolutions. In all the processes of Nature going on around him, man upon Earth finds Wisdom. Wisdom is in them as the fruit of what was done in the preceding epochs. Earth is the cosmic descendant of Old Moon, which—as related in a former chapter—evolved with all its creatures into a “Cosmos of Wisdom.” With Earth herself an evolution is beginning whereby a new virtue, a new force, is being added to—instilled into—this Wisdom. As a result of Earthly evolution man comes to feel himself an independent member of a spiritual world. He owes it to the fact that upon Earth the I or Ego is engendered in him by the Spirits of Form, even as was his physical body by the Spirits of Will on Saturn, his life-body by the Spirits of Wisdom on the Sun, his astral body by the Spirits of Movement on Old Moon. All that now manifests as Wisdom has come into being by the working-together of the Spirits of Will, Wisdom and Movement. That the beings and processes of Earth can harmonize in Wisdom with the other beings of their surrounding world, is due to the work of these three Hierarchies of Spirits. Now, from the Spirits of Form, man receives his independent I, his Ego. And in the future the I of man will harmonize with the beings of Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan by virtue of the new force which Earthly evolution is implanting in the pristine Wisdom. It is the power of Love. In man on Earth it has to have its beginning.
The Cosmos of Wisdom is thus evolving into a Cosmos of Love. All the I of man brings to development within him will grow into Love. It is the sublime Sun Being, of whom we had to tell when describing the evolution of the Christ-Event, who at His revelation stands forth as the all-embracing prototype of Love. Into the innermost depth of man's being the seed of Love is thereby planted. Thence it shall grow and spread until it fills the whole of cosmic evolution. Even as the pristine Wisdom now reveals its presence in all the forces of Nature, in all the sense-perceptible outer world upon Earth, so in the future will Love be revealed—Love as a new force of Nature, living in all the phenomena which man will have around him. This is the secret of all future evolution. The knowledge man acquires, and also every deed man does with true understanding, is like the sowing of the seed that will eventually ripen into Love. Only inasmuch as Love arises in mankind, is true creative work being done for the cosmic future. For it is Love itself which will grow into the potent forces leading mankind on towards the final goal—the goal of spiritualization.
To the extent that spiritual knowledge flows into the evolution of mankind and of the Earth, there will be viable and fertile seeds for the cosmic future. For it is of the very nature of true spiritual knowledge to be transmuted into Love. The whole course of history we have been tracing from the Graeco-Latin through the present time and on into the future, shows how this transmutation is to come about and reveals the future evolutionary trend of which this is the beginning.
The Wisdom that was prepared all through the Saturn, Sun and Moon evolutions lives in the physical etheric, and astral bodies of man. It manifests as Wisdom of the World. Then, in the I of man, it is turned inward. From Earth evolution onward, the Wisdom of the outer world becomes inner Wisdom—Wisdom in man himself. And when thus resurrected in the inner life, in the I of man, it grows into the seed of Love. Wisdom is the premises, the forerunner of Love; Love is the outcome of Wisdom re-born in the I of man.
[ 13 ] Should anyone be prone to think that this account of cosmic evolution implied a fatalistic picture, he will have misunderstood it. To think that by this evolution a fated number of human beings will be condemned to belong to the “bad humanity” argues a mistaken notion of how the two realms—the external and sense-perceptible, and that of soul and spirit—are related. They represent, within certain limits, two distinct evolutionary streams. It is from forces inherent in the former stream—in the external, material and sense-perceptible—that the forms of the “bad humanity” arise. A human soul—a human individual—will only be under necessity of incarnating in such a form if he himself has given rise to the conditions for it. When the time comes it might even happen that among human souls who have been through the earlier evolutionary times there were none left to ensoul these forms. They might, without exception, be too good for the bodies of that kind. In that event, the forms would have to be ensouled out of the Universe in some other way than by human souls who had lived through the preceding epochs. They will only be ensouled by human souls if the latter have themselves incurred this kind of incarnation. Supersensible cognition can only tell what it sees. It sees that in the cosmic future there will be two human kingdoms—“good” and “bad.” It has not to start reasoning and to conclude, from the condition of human souls today, what their condition will have to be in the cosmic future, as though by some necessity or law of Nature. The evolution of human forms and the evolution of the destinies of human souls have to be looked for along two distinct paths of spiritual research. A tendency to confuse the two would be an unavowed survival of materialism, impairing the clear outlook of supersensible science.
Gegenwart und Zukunft der Weltund MenschheitsEntwicklung
[ 1 ] Im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft von Gegenwart und Zukunft der Menschenund Weltentwicklung etwas zu erkennen, ist nicht möglich, ohne die Vergangenheit dieser Entwicklung zu verstehen. Denn, was sich der Wahrnehmung des Geistesforschers darbietet, wenn er die verborgenen Tatsachen der Vergangenheit beobachtet, das enthält zugleich alles dasjenige, was er von Gegenwart und Zukunft wissen kann. Es ist in diesem Buche von Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenund Erdenentwicklung gesprochen worden. Man kann im geisteswissenschaftlichen Sinne die Erdenentwicklung nicht verstehen, wenn man nicht die Tatsachen der vorhergehenden Entwicklungszeiten beobachtet. Denn, was dem Menschen gegenwärtig innerhalb der Erdenwelt entgegentritt, darin stecken in gewisser Beziehung die Tatsachen der Monden-, Sonnenund Saturnentwicklung. Die Wesen und Dinge, welche an der Mondenentwicklung beteiligt waren, haben sich weiter fortgebildet. Aus ihnen ist alles dasjenige geworden, was gegenwärtig zur Erde gehört. Aber es ist für das physisch-sinnliche Bewusstsein nicht alles wahrnehmbar, was sich vom Monde herüber zur Erde entwickelt hat. Ein Teil dessen, was sich von diesem Monde herüber entwickelt hat, wird erst auf einer gewissen Stufe des übersinnlichen Bewusstseins offenbar. Wenn diese Erkenntnis erlangt ist, dann ist für dieselbe unsere Erdenwelt verbunden mit einer übersinnlichen Welt. Diese enthält den Teil des Mondendaseins, welcher sich nicht bis zur physisch-sinnlichen Wahrnehmung verdichtet hat. Sie enthält ihn zunächst so, wie er gegenwärtig ist, nicht wie er zur Zeit der uralten Mondenentwicklung war. Das übersinnliche Bewusstsein kann aber ein Bild von dem damaligen Zustande erhalten. Wenn nämlich dieses übersinnliche Bewusstsein sich in die Wahrnehmung vertieft, welche es gegenwärtig haben kann, so zeigt sich, dass diese durch sich selbst sich in zwei Bilder allmählich zerlegt. Das eine Bild stellt sich dar als diejenige Gestalt, welche die Erde gehabt hat während ihrer Mondenentwicklung. Das andere Bild aber zeigt sich so, dass man daran erkennt: dieses enthält eine Gestalt, welche noch im Keimzustande ist und welche erst in der Zukunft in dem Sinne wirklich werden wird, wie die Erde jetzt wirklich ist. Bei weiterer Beobachtung zeigt sich, dass in diese Zukunftsform fortwährend dasjenige einströmt, was sich in einem gewissen Sinne als Wirkung dessen ergibt, was auf der Erde geschieht. In dieser Zukunftsform hat man deshalb dasjenige vor sich, was aus unserer Erde werden soll. Die Wirkungen des Erdendaseins werden sich mit dem, was in der charakterisierten Welt geschieht, vereinigen, und daraus wird das neue Weltenwesen entstehen, in welches sich die Erde so verwandeln wird, wie sich der Mond in die Erde verwandelt hat. Man kann diese Zukunftsgestalt den Jupiterzustand nennen. Wer diesen Jupiterzustand in übersinnlicher Anschauung beobachtet, für den zeigt sich, dass in der Zukunft gewisse Vorgänge stattfinden müssen, weil in dem übersinnlichen Teil der Erdenwelt, welcher vom Monde herrührt, Wesen und Dinge vorhanden sind, welche bestimmte Formen annehmen werden, wenn sich innerhalb der physisch-sinnlichen Erde dieses oder jenes ereignet haben wird. In dem Jupiterzustand wird deshalb etwas sein, was durch die Mondenentwicklung schon vorbestimmt ist; und es wird in ihm Neues sein, was erst durch die Erdenvorgänge in die ganze Entwicklung hineinkommt. Deswegen kann das übersinnliche Bewusstsein etwas erfahren darüber, was während des Jupiterzustandes geschehen wird. Den Wesenheiten und Tatsachen, welche in diesem Bewusstseinsfelde beobachtet werden, ist der Charakter des Sinnlich-Bildhaften nicht eigen; selbst als feine, luftige Gebilde, von denen Wirkungen ausgehen könnten, die an Eindrücke der Sinne erinnern, treten sie nicht auf. Man hat von ihnen reine geistige Toneindrücke, Lichteindrücke, Wärmeeindrücke. Diese drucken sich nicht durch irgendwelche materielle Verkörperungen aus. Sie können nur durch das übersinnliche Bewusstsein erfasst werden. Man kann aber doch sagen, dass diese Wesenheiten einen «Leib» haben. Doch zeigt sich dieser innerhalb ihres Seelischen, das sich als ihr gegenwärtiges Wesen offenbart, wie eine Summe verdichteter Erinnerungen, die sie innerhalb ihres seelischen Wesens in sich tragen. Man kann unterscheiden in ihrem Wesen zwischen dem, was sie jetzt erleben, und dem, was sie erlebt haben, und woran sie sich erinnern. Dies letztere ist in ihnen wie ein Leibliches enthalten. Sie erleben es, wie der Erdenmensch seinen Leib erlebt. Für eine Stufe der übersinnlichen Schauung, welche höher ist als die soeben für die Mondund Jupitererkenntnis als notwendig bezeichnete, werden übersinnliche Wesen und Dinge wahrnehmbar, welche weiter entwickelte Gestalten dessen sind, was schon während des Sonnenzustandes vorhanden war, aber gegenwärtig so hohe Daseinsstufen hat, dass diese für ein Bewusstsein gar nicht vorhanden sind, welches es nur bis zum Wahrnehmen der Mondenformen gebracht hat. Auch das Bild dieser Welt spaltet sich bei innerer Versenkung wieder in zwei. Das eine führt zur Erkenntnis des Sonnenzustandes der Vergangenheit; das andere stellt eine Zukunftsform der Erde dar, nämlich diejenige, in welche sich die Erde verwandelt haben wird, wenn in die Gestalten jener Welt die Wirkungen der Erdenund Jupitervorgänge eingeflossen sein werden. Was man auf diese Art von dieser Zukunftswelt beobachtet, kann im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft als Venuszustand bezeichnet werden. Auf ähnliche Weise ergibt sich für ein noch weiter entwickeltes übersinnliches Bewusstsein ein künftiger Zustand der Entwicklung, welcher als Vulkanzustand bezeichnet werden kann und der mit dem Saturnzustand in einem gleichen Verhältnisse steht, wie der Venuszustand mit dem Sonnen-, und der Jupiterzustand mit der Mondenentwicklung. Man kann deshalb, wenn man Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft der Erdenentwicklung in Betracht zieht, von Saturn-, Sonnen-, Monden-, Erden-, Jupiter-, Venusund Vulkanentwicklung sprechen. Wie diese umfassenden Verhältnisse der Erdenentwicklung, so ergeben sich für das Bewusstsein auch Beobachtungen über eine nähere Zukunft. Es entspricht jedem Bilde der Vergangenheit auch ein solches der Zukunft. Doch muss, wenn von solchen Dingen gesprochen wird, etwas betont werden, dessen Berücksichtigung so notwendig wie nur irgend möglich angesehen werden muss. Man muss sich, wenn man dergleichen erkennen will, vollkommen der Meinung entschlagen, dass das bloße an der sinnenfälligen Wirklichkeit herangezogene philosophische Nachdenken darüber irgend etwas ergründen kann. Erforscht können und sollen diese Dinge niemals durch solches Nachdenken werden. Wer etwa glauben würde, wenn er durch die Geisteswissenschaft Mitteilung darüber erhalten hat, wie der Mondenzustand war: er könne nun durch solches Nachdenken herausbringen, wie es auf dem Jupiter aussehen werde, wenn er die Erdenverhältnisse und die Mondenverhältnisse zusammenhält, der wird sich gewaltigen Täuschungen hingeben. Erforscht sollen diese Verhältnisse nur werden, indem sich das übersinnliche Bewusstsein zur Beobachtung erhebt. Erst wenn das Erforschte mitgeteilt wird, kann es auch ohne übersinnliches Bewusstsein verstanden werden.
[ 2 ] Gegenüber den Mitteilungen über die Zukunft ist der Geistesforscher nun in einer anderen Lage als gegenüber denen, welche die Vergangenheit betreffen. Der Mensch kann zunächst gar nicht den zukünftigen Ereignissen so unbefangen gegenüberstehen, wie ihm dies bezüglich der Vergangenheit möglich ist. Was in der Zukunft geschieht, erregt das menschliche Fühlen und Wollen; die Vergangenheit wird in ganz anderer Art ertragen. Wer das Leben beobachtet, weiß, wie dies schon für das gewöhnliche Dasein gilt. In welch ungeheurem Grade es sich aber steigert, welche Formen es annimmt gegenüber den verborgenen Tatsachen des Lebens, davon kann nur derjenige Kenntnis haben, welcher gewisse Dinge der übersinnlichen Welten kennt. Und damit ist der Grund angegeben, warum die Erkenntnisse über diese Dinge an ganz bestimmte Grenzen gebunden sind.
[ 3 ] So wie die große Weltentwicklung in der Folge ihrer Zustände von der Saturnbis zur Vulkanzeit dargestellt werden kann, so ist dies auch möglich für kleinere Zeitabschnitte, zum Beispiel solche der Erdenentwicklung. Seit jener gewaltigen Umwälzung, welche dem alten atlantischen Leben das Ende gebracht hat, sind sich innerhalb der Menschheitsentwicklung Zustände gefolgt, welche in diesem Buche als die Zeiten der alten indischen, der urpersischen, der ägyptisch-chaldäischen, der griechisch-lateinischen gekennzeichnet worden sind. Der fünfte Zeitabschnitt ist derjenige, in dem jetzt die Menschheit steht, ist die Gegenwart. Dieser Zeitabschnitt hat um das zwölfte, dreizehnte und vierzehnte Jahrhundert nach Christus allmählich begonnen, nachdem er sich vom vierten, fünften Jahrhundert an vorbereitet hatte. Ganz deutlich ist er vom fünfzehnten Jahrhundert an aufgetreten. Der vorhergehende griechischlateinische hat ungefähr im achten vorchristlichen Jahrhundert seinen Anfang genommen. Am Ende seines ersten Drittels fand das Christus-Ereignis statt. Die menschliche Seelenverfassung, alle menschlichen Fähigkeiten haben sich beim Übergang vom ägyptisch-chaldäischen zum griechisch-lateinischen Zeitraum geändert. In dem ersteren war das noch nicht vorhanden, was man jetzt als logisches Nachdenken, als verstandesmäßige Auffassung der Welt kennt. Was der Mensch sich jetzt durch seinen Verstand als Erkenntnis zu eigen macht, das bekam er in jener Form, in welcher es für die damalige Zeit geeignet war: unmittelbar durch ein inneres, in einer gewissen Beziehung übersinnliches Wissen. Man nahm die Dinge wahr; und indem man sie wahrnahm, tauchte in der Seele der Begriff, das Bild auf, welche die Seele von ihnen brauchte. Wenn die Erkenntniskraft so ist, so tauchen aber nicht nur Bilder der sinnlich-physischen Welt auf, sondern aus den Tiefen der Seele kommt auch eine gewisse Erkenntnis nichtsinnlicher Tatsachen und Wesenheiten herauf. Es war dies der Rest des alten, dämmerhaften übersinnlichen Bewusstseins, das einst Gemeinbesitz der ganzen Menschheit war. In der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit erstanden immer mehr Menschen, welchen solche Fähigkeiten mangelten. An ihre Stelle trat das verstandesmäßige Nachdenken über die Dinge. Die Menschen wurden immer mehr entfernt von einer unmittelbaren träumerischen Wahrnehmung der geistig-seelischen Welt und immer mehr darauf angewiesen, durch ihren Verstand und ihr Gefühl sich ein Bild von derselben zu formen. Dieser Zustand dauerte durch den ganzen vierten Zeitabschnitt der nachatlantischen Zeit in einer gewissen Beziehung fort. Nur solche Menschen, welche sich wie ein Erbgut die alte Seelenverfassung bewahrt hatten, konnten die geistige Welt noch unmittelbar ins Bewusstsein aufnehmen. Diese Menschen sind aber Nachzügler aus einer älteren Zeit. Die Art, wie ihre Erkenntnis war, eignete sich nicht mehr für die neue Zeit. Denn die Entwicklungsgesetze haben zur Folge, dass eine alte Seelenfähigkeit ihre volle Bedeutung verliert, wenn neue Fähigkeiten auftreten. Das Menschenleben passt sich dann diesen neuen Fähigkeiten an. Und es kann mit den alten nichts mehr anfangen. Es gab aber auch solche Menschen, welche in ganz bewusster Art anfingen, zu den erlangten Verstandesund Gefühlskräften andere höhere hinzuzuentwickeln, welche es ihnen wieder möglich machten, in die geistig-seelische Welt einzudringen. Sie mussten damit beginnen, dies auf andere Art zu tun, als es bei den Schülern der alten Eingeweihten geschah. Diese hatten die erst im vierten Zeitraum entwickelten Seelenfähigkeiten noch nicht zu berücksichtigen. Es begann im vierten Zeitraume in den ersten Anfängen diejenige Art der Geistesschulung, welche in diesem Buche als die gegenwärtige beschrieben worden ist. Aber sie war damals eben erst in den Anfängen; ihre eigentliche Ausbildung konnte sie erst im fünften Zeitabschnitte (seit dem zwölften, dreizehnten, namentlich fünfzehnten Jahrhundert) erfahren. Menschen, welche in dieser Weise den Aufstieg in die übersinnlichen Wesen suchten, konnten durch eigene Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition etwas von höheren Gebieten des Daseins erfahren. Jene Menschen, welche bei den entwickelten Verstandesund Gefühlsfähigkeiten verblieben, konnten von dem, was das ältere Hellsehen wusste, nur durch Überlieferung erfahren, die sich von Geschlecht zu Geschlecht mündlich oder schriftlich fortpflanzte.
[ 4 ] Auch von dem, was eigentlich das Wesen des ChristusEreignisses ist, konnten die Nachgeborenen, wenn sie sich nicht in die übersinnlichen Welten erhoben, nur durch solche Überlieferung etwas wissen. Allerdings waren auch solche Eingeweihte vorhanden, welche die natürlichen Wahrnehmungsfähigkeiten für die übersinnliche Welt noch hatten und sich durch ihre Entwicklung doch in eine höhere Welt erhoben, trotzdem sie die neuen Verstandesund Gemütskräfte unberücksichtigt ließen. Durch sie wurde ein Übergang geschaffen von der alten Einweihungsart zu der neuen. Solche Persönlichkeiten gab es auch für die folgenden Zeiträume noch. Das ist gerade das Wesentliche des vierten Zeitraumes, dass durch das Abgeschlossensein der Seele von einem unmittelbaren Verkehr mit der seelisch-geistigen Welt der Mensch gestärkt und gekräftigt wurde in den Verstandesund Gefühlskräften. Die Seelen, welche sich damals so verkörperten, dass sie Verstandesund Gefühlskräfte in hohem Maße entwickelt hatten, brachten dann das Ergebnis dieser Entwicklung in ihre Verkörperungen im fünften Zeitraum hinüber. Als Ersatz für diese Abgeschlossenheit waren dann die gewaltigen Überlieferungen vorhanden von den uralten Weistümern, namentlich aber von dem ChristusEreignis, welche durch die Kraft ihres Inhaltes den Seelen ein vertrauendes Wissen gaben von den höheren Welten. Nun waren aber immer auch Menschen vorhanden, welche die höheren Erkenntniskräfte zu den Verstandesund Gefühlsfähigkeiten hinzuentwickelten. Ihnen oblag es, die Tatsachen der höheren Welt und namentlich das Geheimnis des ChristusEreignisses durch ein unmittelbares übersinnliches Wissen zu erfahren. Von ihnen aus floss in die Seelen der anderen Menschen immer so viel hinüber, als diesen Seelen begreiflich und gut war. Die erste Ausbreitung des Christentums sollte dem Sinne der Erdenentwicklung gemäß gerade in eine Zeit fallen, in welcher die übersinnlichen Erkenntniskräfte bei einem großen Teile der Menschheit nicht entwickelt waren. Deshalb war die Kraft der Überlieferung damals eine so gewaltige. Es brauchte die stärkste Kraft, um Menschen zum Vertrauen in die übersinnliche Welt zu führen, welche nicht selbst in diese Welt hineinschauen konnten. Es gab fast immer (wenn man von einer kurzen Ausnahmezeit im dreizehnten Jahrhundert absieht) auch solche Menschen, welche durch Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition sich zu den höheren Welten erheben konnten. Diese Menschen sind die nachchristlichen Nachfolger der alten Eingeweihten, der Leiter und Mitglieder des Mysterienwissens. Sie hatten die Aufgabe, durch ihre eigenen Fähigkeiten dasjenige wiederzuerkennen, was man durch das alte MysterienErkennen hatte ergreifen können; und zu diesem hatten sie noch hinzuzufügen die Erkenntnis von dem Wesen des Christus-Ereignisses.
[ 5 ] So entstand bei diesen neuen Eingeweihten eine Erkenntnis, welche alles dasjenige umfasste, was Gegenstand der alten Einweihung war; aber im Mittelpunkte dieser Erkenntnis strahlte das höhere Wissen von den Geheimnissen des ChristusEreignisses. Solche Erkenntnis konnte nur in einem geringen Maße einfließen in das allgemeine Leben, während die Menschenseelen im vierten Zeitraum die Verstandesund Gefühlsfähigkeiten festigen sollten. Es war daher in diesem Zeitraum ein gar sehr «verborgenes Wissen». Dann brach der neue Zeitraum an, der als der fünfte zu bezeichnen ist. Seine Wesenheit besteht darin, dass die Entwicklung der Verstandesfähigkeiten fortschritt und zu gewaltiger Blüte sich entfaltete und über die Gegenwart in die Zukunft hinein sich entfalten wird. Langsam bereitete sich das vor von dem zwölften, dreizehnten Jahrhundert an, um immer schneller und schneller in dem Fortgange zu werden vom sechzehnten Jahrhundert an bis in die gegenwärtige Zeit. Unter diesen Einflüssen wurde die Entwicklungszeit des fünften Zeitraumes eine solche, welche die Pflege der Verstandeskräfte immer mehr sich angelegen sein ließ, wogegen das vertrauende Wissen von ehemals, die überlieferte Erkenntnis, immer mehr an Kraft über die Menschenseele verlor. Aber es entwickelte sich dafür auch in dieser Zeit dasjenige, was ein immer stärkeres Einfließen der Erkenntnisse neuzeitlichen übersinnlichen Bewusstseins in die Menschenseelen genannt werden kann. Das «verborgene Wissen» fließt, wenn auch anfangs recht unmerklich, in die Vorstellungsweisen der Menschen dieses Zeitraumes ein. Es ist nur selbstverständlich, dass sich, bis in die Gegenwart herein, die Verstandeskräfte ablehnend verhalten gegen diese Erkenntnisse. Allein, was geschehen soll, wird geschehen, trotz aller zeitweiligen Ablehnung. Man kann das «verborgene Wissen», welches von dieser Seite die Menschheit ergreift und immer mehr ergreifen wird, nach einem Symbol die Erkenntnis vom «Gral» nennen. Wer dieses Symbol, wie es in Erzählung und Sage gegeben ist, seiner tieferen Bedeutung nach verstehen lernt, wird nämlich finden, dass es bedeutungsvoll das Wesen dessen versinnlicht, was oben die Erkenntnis der neuen Einweihung, mit dem ChristusGeheimnis in der Mitte, genannt worden ist. Die neuzeitlichen Eingeweihten können deshalb auch die «Eingeweihten des Grales» genannt werden. Zu der «Wissenschaft vom Gral» führt der Weg in die übersinnlichen Welten, welcher in diesem Buche in seinen ersten Stufen beschrieben worden ist. Diese Erkenntnis hat die Eigentümlichkeit, dass man ihre Tatsachen nur erforschen kann, wenn man sich die Mittel dazu erwirbt, wie sie in diesem Buche gekennzeichnet worden sind. Sind sie aber erforscht, dann können sie gerade durch die im fünften Zeitraume zur Entwicklung gekommenen Seelenkräfte verstanden werden. Ja, es wird sich immer mehr herausstellen, dass diese Kräfte in einem immer höheren Grade durch diese Erkenntnisse sich befriedigt finden werden. Wir leben in der Gegenwart in einer Zeit, in welcher diese Erkenntnisse reichlicher in das allgemeine Bewusstsein aufgenommen werden sollen, als dies vorher der Fall war. Und dieses Buch möchte seine Mitteilungen von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus geben. In dem Maße, als die Entwicklung der Menschheit die Erkenntnisse des Grales aufsaugen wird, kann der Impuls, welcher durch das Christus-Ereignis gegeben ist, immer bedeutsamer werden. An die äußere Seite der christlichen Entwicklung wird sich immer mehr die innere anschließen. Was durch Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition über die höheren Welten in Verbindung mit dem ChristusGeheimnis erkannt werden kann, wird das Vorstellungs-, Gefühlsund Willensleben der Menschen immer mehr durchdringen. Das «verborgene Wissen vom Gral» wird offenbar werden; es wird als eine innere Kraft die Lebensäußerungen der Menschen immer mehr durchdringen.
[ 6 ] Durch den fünften Zeitraum hindurch werden die Erkenntnisse der übersinnlichen Welten in das menschliche Bewusstsein einfließen; und wenn der sechste beginnen wird, kann die Menschheit auf einer höheren Stufe das wieder erlangt haben, was sie in einer noch dämmerhaften Art von nicht sinnlichem Schauen in einem früheren Zeitabschnitte besessen hat. Doch wird der neue Besitz eine ganz andere Form haben als der alte. Was die Seele in alten Zeiten von höheren Welten wusste, war in ihr nicht durchdrungen von ihrer eigenen Verstandesund Gefühlskraft. Sie wusste es als Eingebung. In der Zukunft wird sie nicht bloß Eingebungen haben, sondern diese begreifen und als dasjenige empfinden, was Wesen von ihrem eigenen Wesen ist. Wenn eine Erkenntnis ihr wird über dieses oder jenes Wesen oder Ding, so wird der Verstand diese Erkenntnis auch durch seine eigene Wesenheit gerechtfertigt finden; wenn eine andere Erkenntnis über ein sittliches Gebot, über ein menschliches Verhalten sich geltend machen wird, so wird die Seele sich sagen: Mein Gefühl ist nur dann vor sich selber gerechtfertigt, wenn ich das auch ausführe, was im Sinne dieser Erkenntnis liegt. Eine solche Seelenverfassung soll bei einer genügend großen Anzahl von Menschen des sechsten Zeitraumes ausgebildet werden. Es wiederholt sich in einer gewissen Art in dem fünften Zeitraum dasjenige, was der dritte, der ägyptischchaldäische, der Menschheitsentwicklung gebracht hat. Damals nahm die Seele gewisse Tatsachen der übersinnlichen Welt noch wahr. Die Wahrnehmung derselben war eben damals im Hinschwinden. Denn es bereiteten sich die Verstandeskräfte für ihre Entwicklung vor; und diese sollten den Menschen von der höheren Welt zunächst ausschließen. Im fünften Zeitraum werden die übersinnlichen Tatsachen, welche in dem dritten in dämmerhaftem Bewusstsein geschaut wurden, wieder offenbar, doch nunmehr durchdrungen mit den Verstandesund persönlichen Gefühlskräften der Menschen. Sie werden durchdrungen mit dem auch, was durch die Erkenntnis des Christus-Geheimnisses der Seele zuteil werden kann. Daher nehmen sie eine ganz andere Form an, als sie ehemals hatten. Während die Eindrücke aus den übersinnlichen Welten in alten Zeiten als Kräfte empfunden wurden, welche den Menschen aus einer geistigen Außenwelt her trieben, in welcher er nicht darinnen war, werden durch die Entwicklung der neueren Zeit diese Eindrücke als die einer Welt empfunden werden, in welche der Mensch hineinwächst, in welcher er immer mehr und mehr darinnen steht. Niemand soll glauben, dass die Wiederholung der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Kultur so erfolgen kann, dass etwa einfach das von der Seele aufgenommen würde, was damals vorhanden war und aus jener Zeit überliefert ist. Der recht verstandene Christus-Impuls wirkt dahin, dass die Menschenseele, welche ihn aufgenommen hat, sich als Glied einer geistigen Welt fühlt und als solches erkennt und verhält, außerhalb welcher sie vorher gestanden hat. Während in solcher Art im fünften Zeitraum der dritte wieder auflebt, um sich mit dem in den Menschenseelen zu durchdringen, was der vierte als ein ganz Neues gebracht hat, wird ein Ähnliches beim sechsten in bezug auf den zweiten und beim siebenten in bezug auf den ersten, den altindischen, der Fall sein. All die wundervolle Weisheit des alten Indiertums, welche die damaligen großen Lehrer verkündigen konnten, wird als Lebenswahrheit der Menschenseelen im siebenten Zeitraum wieder da sein können.
[ 7 ] Nun gehen die Veränderungen in den Dingen der Erde, welche außerhalb des Menschen liegen, in einer Weise vor sich, welche zu der eigenen Entwicklung der Menschheit in einem gewissen Verhältnisse steht. Nach dem Ablauf des siebenten Zeitraumes wird die Erde von einer Umwälzung heimgesucht werden, welche mit jener sich vergleichen lässt, welche zwischen der atlantischen und der nachatlantischen Zeit geschah. Und die nachher verwandelten Erdenzustände werden wieder in sieben Zeitabschnitten sich weiter entwickeln. Auf einer höheren Stufe werden die Menschenseelen, welche sich dann verkörpern werden, diejenige Gemeinschaft mit einer höheren Welt erleben, welche die Atlantier auf einer niedrigeren erlebt haben. Es werden sich aber nur jene Menschen den neugestalteten Verhältnissen der Erde gewachsen zeigen, welche in sich solche Seelen verkörpert haben, wie sie werden können durch die Einflüsse des griechisch-lateinischen, des darauffolgenden fünften, sechsten und siebenten Zeitraumes der nachatlantischen Entwicklung. Das Innere solcher Seelen wird dem entsprechen, was aus der Erde bis dahin geworden ist. Die andern Seelen werden dann zurückbleiben müssen, während es vorher in ihrer Wahl gestanden hätte, sich die Bedingungen zum Mitkommen zu schaffen. Reif für die entsprechenden Verhältnisse nach der nächsten großen Umwälzung werden diejenigen Seelen sein, welche sich gerade beim Hinüberleben vom fünften in den sechsten nachatlantischen Zeitraum die Möglichkeit geschaffen haben werden, die übersinnlichen Erkenntnisse mit den Verstandesund Gefühlskräften zu durchdringen. Der fünfte und der sechste Zeitraum sind gewissermaßen die entscheidenden. In dem siebenten werden die Seelen, welche das Ziel des sechsten erreicht haben, sich zwar entsprechend weiter entwickeln; die anderen werden aber unter den veränderten Verhältnissen der Umgebung nur mehr wenig Gelegenheit finden, das Versäumte nachzuholen. Erst in einer späteren Zukunft werden wieder Bedingungen eintreten, welche dies gestatten. So schreitet die Entwicklung von Zeitraum zu Zeitraum fort. Die übersinnliche Erkenntnis beobachtet nicht nur solche Veränderungen in der Zukunft, woran die Erde allein beteiligt ist, sondern auch solche, welche sich im Zusammenwirken mit den Himmelskörpern ihrer Umgebung abspielen. Es kommt eine Zeit, in welcher die Erdenund Menschheitsentwicklung so weit fortgeschritten sein wird, dass die Kräfte und Wesenheiten, welche sich während der lemurischen Zeit von der Erde loslösen mussten, um den weiteren Fortgang der Erdenwesen möglich zu machen, sich wieder mit der Erde vereinigen können. Der Mond wird sich dann wieder mit der Erde verbinden. Es wird dies geschehen, weil dann eine genügend große Anzahl von Menschenseelen so viel innere Kraft haben wird, dass sie diese Mondenkräfte zur weiteren Entwicklung fruchtbar machen wird. Das wird in einer Zeit sein, in welcher neben der hohen Entwicklung, die eine entsprechende Anzahl von Menschenseelen erreicht haben wird, eine andere einhergehen wird, welche die Richtung nach dem Bösen genommen hat. Die zurückgebliebenen Seelen werden in ihrem Karma so viel Irrtum, Hässlichkeit und Böses angehäuft haben, dass sie zunächst eine besondere, der guten Gemeinschaft der Menschen scharf entgegenstrebende Vereinigung der Bösen und Verirrten bilden werden.
[ 8 ] Die gute Menschheit wird durch ihre Entwicklung den Gebrauch der Mondenkräfte sich erwerben und dadurch auch den bösen Teil so umgestalten, dass er als ein besonderes Erdenreich mit der weiteren Entwicklung mitgehen kann. Durch diese Arbeit der guten Menschheit wird die dann mit dem Monde vereinigte Erde fähig, nach einer gewissen Entwicklungszeit auch wieder mit der Sonne (auch mit den anderen Planeten) vereinigt zu werden. Und nach einem Zwischenzustande, der wie ein Aufenthalt in einer höheren Welt sich darstellt, wird sich die Erde in den Jupiterzustand verwandeln. Innerhalb dieses Zustandes wird es das nicht geben, was jetzt Mineralreich genannt wird; die Kräfte dieses Mineralreiches werden in pflanzliche umgewandelt sein. Das Pflanzenreich, welches aber gegenüber dem gegenwärtigen eine ganz neue Form haben wird, erscheint während des Jupiterzustandes als das niederste der Reiche. Höher hinauf gliedert sich das ebenfalls verwandelte Tierreich an; dann kommt ein Menschenreich, welches als Nachkommenschaft der auf der Erde entstandenen bösen Gemeinschaft sich erweist. Und dann die Nachkommen der guten ErdenMenschengemeinschaft, als ein Menschenreich auf einer höheren Stufe. Ein großer Teil der Arbeit dieses letzteren Menschenreiches besteht darin, die in die böse Gemeinschaft gefallenen Seelen so zu veredeln, dass sie den Zugang in das eigentliche Menschenreich noch finden können. Der Venuszustand wird ein solcher sein, dass auch das Pflanzenreich verschwunden sein wird; das niederste Reich wird das abermals verwandelte Tierreich sein; daran werden sich nach oben gehend drei Menschenreiche von verschiedenen Vollkommenheitsgraden finden.
[ 9 ] Während dieses Venuszustandes bleibt die Erde mit der Sonne verbunden; die Entwicklung während der Jupiterzeit geht dagegen so vor sich, dass in einem gewissen Augenblick sich die Sonne noch einmal loslöst von dem Jupiter und dieser die Einwirkung derselben von außen her empfängt. Dann findet wieder eine Verbindung von Sonne und Jupiter statt, und die Verwandlung geht allmählich in den Venuszustand hinüber. Während desselben spaltet sich aus der Venus ein besonderer Weltenkörper heraus, der alles an Wesen enthält, was der Entwicklung widerstrebt hat, gleichsam ein «unverbesserlicher Mond», der nun einer Entwicklung entgegengeht mit einem Charakter, wofür ein Ausdruck nicht möglich ist, weil er zu unähnlich ist allem, was der Mensch auf Erden erleben kann. Die entwickelte Menschheit aber schreitet in einem völlig vergeistigten Dasein zur Vulkanentwicklung weiter, deren Schilderung außerhalb des Rahmens dieses Buches liegt.
[ 10 ] Man sieht, dass sich aus der «Erkenntnis des Grales» das höchste Ideal menschlicher Entwicklung ergibt, welches für den Menschen denkbar ist die Vergeistigung welche der Mensch durch seine eigene Arbeit erlangt Denn diese Vergeistigung erscheint zuletzt als ein Ergebnis der Harmonie, welche er im fünften und sechsten Zeitraum der gegenwärtigen Entwicklung zwischen den erlangten Verstandes und Gefühlskräften und den Erkenntnissen der übersinnlichen Welten herstellt. Was er da im Innern seiner Seele erarbeitet, soll zuletzt selbst Außenwelt werden. Des Menschen Geist erhebt sich zu den gewaltigen Eindrücken seiner Außenwelt und ahnt zuerst, erkennt nachher geistige Wesenheiten hinter diesen Eindrücken; des Menschen Herz empfindet die unendliche Erhabenheit dieses Geistigen. Der Mensch kann aber auch erkennen, dass die intellektuellen, gefühlsmäßigen und charaktermäßigen Erlebnisse seines Innern die Keime werdender Geisteswelt sind.
[ 11 ] Wer da meint, dass die menschliche Freiheit mit dem Vorauswissen und Vorausbestimmtsein der zukünftigen Gestaltung der Dinge nicht vereinbar sei, der sollte bedenken, dass des Menschen freies Handeln in der Zukunft ebensowenig davon abhängt, wie die vorausbestimmten Dinge sein werden, wie diese Freiheit davon abhängt, dass er sich vornimmt, nach einem Jahr in einem Hause zu wohnen, dessen Plan er gegenwärtig feststellt. Er wird in dem Grade frei sein, als er es nach seiner inneren Wesenheit sein kann, eben in dem Hause, das er sich gebaut hat; und er wird auf dem Jupiter und der Venus so frei sein, wie es seinem Innern entspricht, eben innerhalb der Verhältnisse, die dort entstehen werden. Freiheit wird nicht abhängen von dem, was durch die vorhergehenden Verhältnisse vorausbestimmt ist, sondern von dem, was die Seele aus sich gemacht hat.
[ 12 ] In dem Erdenzustand ist dasjenige enthalten, was sich innerhalb der vorangehenden Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenzustände entwickelt hat. Der Erdenmensch findet «Weisheit» in den Vorgängen, welche sich um ihn herum abspielen. Diese Weisheit ist darinnen als das Ergebnis dessen, was vorher geschehen war. Die Erde ist der Nachkomme des «alten Mondes». Und dieser bildete sich mit dem, was zu ihm gehörte, zum «Kosmos der Weisheit» aus. Die Erde ist nun der Beginn einer Entwicklung, durch welche eine neue Kraft in diese Weisheit eingefügt wird. Sie bringt den Menschen dahin, sich als ein selbständiges Glied einer geistigen Welt zu fühlen. Es rührt dies davon her, dass sein «Ich» in ihm von den «Geistern der Form» innerhalb der Erdenzeit so gebildet wird, wie auf dem Saturn von den «Geistern des Willens» sein physischer Leib, auf der Sonne von den «Geistern der Weisheit» sein Lebensleib, auf dem Monde von den «Geistern der Bewegung» sein Astralleib gebildet worden ist. Durch das Zusammenwirken der «Geister des Willens, der Weisheit und der Bewegung» entsteht, was sich als Weisheit offenbart. In Weisheit zusammenstimmen mit den andern Wesen ihrer Welt können die Erdenwesen und Erdenvorgänge durch die Arbeit dieser drei Klassen von Geistern. Durch die «Geister der Form» erhält der Mensch sein selbständiges «Ich». Dieses wird nun in der Zukunft zusammenstimmen mit den Wesen der Erde, des Jupiter, der Venus, des Vulkan durch die Kraft, welche sich durch den Erdenzustand der Weisheit einfügt. Es ist dies die Kraft der Liebe. Im Menschen der Erde muss diese Kraft der Liebe ihren Anfang nehmen. Und der «Kosmos der Weisheit» entwickelt sich in einen «Kosmos der Liebe» hinein. Aus alledem, was das «Ich» in sich entfalten kann, soll Liebe werden. Als das umfassende «Vorbild der Liebe» stellt sich bei seiner Offenbarung das hohe Sonnenwesen dar, welches bei Schilderung der Christus-Entwicklung gekennzeichnet werden konnte. In das Innerste des menschlichen Wesenskernes ist damit der Keim der Liebe gesenkt. Und von da aus soll er in die ganze Entwicklung einströmen. Wie sich die vorher gebildete Weisheit in den Kräften der sinnlichen Außenwelt der Erde, in den gegenwärtigen «Naturkräften» offenbart, so wird sich in Zukunft die Liebe selbst in allen Erscheinungen als neue Naturkraft offenbaren. Das ist das Geheimnis aller Entwicklung in die Zukunft hinein: dass die Erkenntnis, dass auch alles, was der Mensch vollbringt aus dem wahren Verständnis der Entwicklung heraus, eine Aussaat ist, die als Liebe reifen muss. Und so viel als Kraft der Liebe entsteht, so viel Schöpferisches wird für die Zukunft geleistet. In dem, was aus der Liebe geworden sein wird, werden die starken Kräfte liegen, welche zu dem oben geschilderten Endergebnis der Vergeistigung führen. Und so viel geistige Erkenntnis in die Menschheitsund Erdenentwicklung einfließt, so viele lebensfähige Keime für die Zukunft werden vorhanden sein. Geistige Erkenntnis wandelt sich durch das, was sie ist, in Liebe um. Der ganze Vorgang, welcher geschildert worden ist, von der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit durch den gegenwärtigen Zeitraum hindurch, zeigt, wie diese Verwandlung vor sich gehen soll und wozu der Anfang der Entwicklung in die Zukunft hinein gemacht ist. Was sich durch Saturn, Sonne und Mond als Weisheit vorbereitet hat, wirkt im physischen, ätherischen, astralischen Leib des Menschen; und es stellt sich dar als «Weisheit der Welt»; im «Ich» aber verinnerlicht es sich. Die «Weisheit der Außenwelt» wird, von dem Erdenzustande an, innere Weisheit im Menschen. Und wenn sie da verinnerlicht ist, wird sie Keim der Liebe. Weisheit ist die Vorbedingung der Liebe; Liebe ist das Ergebnis der im «Ich» wiedergeborenen Weisheit.
[ 13 ] Wer durch die vorangehenden Ausführungen zu der Meinung verführt werden könnte, die geschilderte Entwicklung trage ein fatalistisches Gepräge, der hatte sie missverstanden. Wer etwa glaubte, bei einer solchen Entwicklung sei eine bestimmte Anzahl von Menschen dazu verurteilt, dem Reiche der «bösen Menschheit» anzugehören, der sieht nicht, wie sich das gegenseitige Verhältnis des Sinnenfälligen zu dem Seelisch-Geistigen bei dieser Entwicklung gestaltet. Beides, Sinnenfälliges und Seelisch-Geistiges, bilden innerhalb gewisser Grenzen getrennte Entwicklungsströmungen. Durch die der sinnenfälligen Strömung eigenen Kräfte entstehen die Formen des «bösen Menschentums». Eine Notwendigkeit für eine Menschenseele, sich in einer solchen Form zu verkörpern, wird nur bestehen, wenn diese Menschenseele selbst die Bedingungen dazu geschaffen hat. Es könnte auch der Fall eintreten, dass die aus den Kräften des Sinnenfälligen heraus entstandenen Formen keine aus der früheren Zeit stammenden Menschenseelen fänden, weil diese zu gut für derartige Körper wären. Dann müssten diese Formen anders als durch frühere Menschenseelen aus dem Weltall heraus beseelt werden. Von Menschenseelen werden die charakterisierten Formen nur dann beseelt sein, wenn diese sich zu solcher Verkörperung bereit gemacht haben. Die übersinnliche Erkenntnis hat auf diesem Gebiete eben zu sagen, was sie schaut. Das ist, dass in der angedeuteten Zukunft zwei Menschenreiche, ein gutes und ein böses, vorhanden sein werden; nicht aber hat sie etwa verstandesmäßig aus dem Zustand der gegenwärtigen Menschenseelen auf einen wie mit naturgemäßer Notwendigkeit eintretenden künftigen zu schließen. Entwicklung der Menschenformen und Entwicklung der Seelenschicksale muss übersinnliche Erkenntnis auf zwei ganz getrennten Wegen suchen; und ein Durcheinanderwerfen der beiden in der Weltanschauung wäre ein Rest materialistischer Gesinnung, der, wenn er vorhanden, in bedenklicher Art in die Wissenschaft des Übersinnlichen hineinragen würde.
The Present and Future of World and Human Development
[ 1 ] It is not possible to recognize something of the present and future of human and world development in the sense of spiritual science without understanding the past of this development. For that which presents itself to the perception of the spiritual researcher when he observes the hidden facts of the past contains at the same time all that he can know of the present and the future. In this book we have spoken of the development of Saturn, the sun, the moon and the earth. One cannot understand the development of the earth in the spiritual scientific sense if one does not observe the facts of the preceding times of development. For the facts of lunar, solar and Saturnian development are to a certain extent contained in what man currently encounters within the earth world. The beings and things that were involved in the development of the moon have continued to develop. From them has emerged everything that currently belongs to the earth. But not everything that has developed from the moon to the earth is perceptible to the physical-sensory consciousness. Part of what has developed from this moon only becomes apparent at a certain level of supersensible consciousness. When this realization is attained, then our earth world is connected with a supersensible world. This contains that part of the moon's existence which has not condensed into physical-sensory perception. It initially contains it as it is at present, not as it was at the time of the moon's ancient development. The supersensible consciousness can, however, obtain an image of the state it was in at that time. For when this supersensible consciousness delves into the perception which it can have at present, it becomes apparent that this perception gradually splits itself into two images. The one image presents itself as the form that the earth had during its lunar development. The other picture, however, shows itself in such a way that one recognizes that it contains a form which is still in a germinal state and which will only become real in the future in the sense that the earth really is now. Further observation shows that into this future form there continually flows that which in a certain sense results as an effect of what is happening on earth. In this future form we therefore have before us that which is to become of our earth. The effects of earthly existence will unite with what happens in the characterized world, and from this the new world being will arise, into which the earth will transform itself in the same way as the moon has transformed itself into the earth. This future form can be called the Jupiter state. Whoever observes this Jupiter state in supersensible contemplation will see that certain processes must take place in the future, because in the supersensible part of the earth world, which originates from the moon, beings and things are present which will take on certain forms when this or that will have happened within the physical-sensible earth. There will therefore be something in the Jupiter state that is already predetermined by the moon's development; and there will be something new in it that only comes into the whole development through the earth processes. That is why the super-sensible consciousness can experience something about what will happen during the Jupiter state. The entities and facts that are observed in this field of consciousness do not have the character of the sensory-pictorial; they do not even appear as fine, airy formations from which effects reminiscent of impressions of the senses could emanate. They produce pure spiritual impressions of sound, light and warmth. These do not express themselves through any material embodiments. They can only be perceived by the supersensible consciousness. However, it can be said that these beings have a "body". However, this shows itself within their soul, which reveals itself as their present being, like a sum of condensed memories that they carry within their soul essence. A distinction can be made in their being between what they are experiencing now and what they have experienced and what they remember. The latter is contained within them like a physical being. They experience it as an earthling experiences his body. For a stage of supersensible vision which is higher than that just described as necessary for the knowledge of the moon and Jupiter, supersensible beings and things become perceptible which are further developed forms of that which was already present during the state of the sun, but which at present has such high stages of existence that they are not at all present for a consciousness which has only reached the perception of the lunar forms. The image of this world also splits into two again during inner contemplation. The one leads to the realization of the solar state of the past; the other represents a future form of the earth, namely that into which the earth will have transformed itself when the effects of the earth and Jupiter processes will have flowed into the forms of that world. What is observed of this future world in this way can be described as the Venusian state in the sense of spiritual science. In a similar way a future state of development arises for an even more developed supersensible consciousness, which can be described as the volcanic state and which stands in the same relationship to the Saturnian state as the Venusian state to the solar and the Jupiterian state to the lunar development. Therefore, if we consider the past, present and future of Earth's evolution, we can speak of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan evolution. Like these comprehensive relationships of the earth's development, observations of a nearer future also arise for consciousness. Every picture of the past also corresponds to a picture of the future. However, when speaking of such things, something must be emphasized that must be considered as necessary as possible. If one wants to recognize such things, one must completely renounce the opinion that mere philosophical reflection based on sensory reality can fathom anything about them. These things can and should never be investigated through such reflection. Anyone who believes, for example, that if he has received information through spiritual science about the state of the moon, he can now find out through such reflection what it will look like on Jupiter if he holds the earth conditions and the moon conditions together, will indulge in enormous deceptions. These relationships should only be investigated by raising the supersensible consciousness to observation. Only when what has been researched is communicated can it be understood without supersensible consciousness.
[ 2 ] The spiritual researcher is now in a different position with regard to information about the future than with regard to information about the past. At first, man cannot face future events as impartially as he can with regard to the past. What happens in the future excites human feeling and will; the past is endured in a completely different way. Anyone who observes life knows how this already applies to ordinary existence. But only those who know certain things of the supersensible worlds can know to what a tremendous degree it increases, what forms it assumes in relation to the hidden facts of life. And this is the reason why knowledge of these things is bound to very specific limits.
[ 3 ] Just as the great world development can be depicted in the sequence of its states from Saturn to the volcanic age, this is also possible for smaller periods of time, for example those of the earth's development. Since that tremendous upheaval which brought the old Atlantean life to an end, states have followed each other within the development of mankind which have been characterized in this book as the times of the old Indian, the Urperian, the Egyptian-Chaldean, the Greek-Latin. The fifth period is the one in which humanity now stands, the present. This period gradually began around the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries after Christ, after it had prepared itself from the fourth and fifth centuries. It emerged quite clearly from the fifteenth century onwards. The previous Greek-Latin one began around the eighth century BC. The Christ event took place at the end of its first third. The human state of mind, all human abilities changed during the transition from the Egyptian-Chaldean to the Greco-Latin period. In the former, that which is now known as logical thinking, as an intellectual understanding of the world, was not yet present. What man now appropriates as knowledge through his intellect, he received in the form in which it was suitable for that time: directly through an inner, in a certain sense supersensible knowledge. One perceived things; and by perceiving them, the concept, the image, which the soul needed of them, emerged in the soul. If the power of cognition is such, then not only images of the sensory-physical world emerge, but also a certain knowledge of non-sensory facts and entities comes up from the depths of the soul. This was the remnant of the old, dim supersensible consciousness that was once the common property of all mankind. In the Greco-Latin period more and more people arose who lacked such faculties. They were replaced by intellectual thinking about things. People became more and more distanced from an immediate dreamy perception of the spiritual world and more and more dependent on forming an image of it through their intellect and feelings. This condition continued in a certain respect throughout the entire fourth period of the post-Atlantean era. Only those people who had preserved the old constitution of the soul like hereditary material were still able to absorb the spiritual world directly into their consciousness. But these people are latecomers from an older time. The way they perceived things was no longer suitable for the new age. This is because the laws of development mean that an old soul ability loses its full significance when new abilities appear. Human life then adapts to these new abilities. And it can no longer do anything with the old ones. However, there were also people who, in a very conscious way, began to develop other higher powers of understanding and feeling in addition to the ones they had acquired, which made it possible for them to penetrate the spiritual world again. They had to begin to do this in a different way than the disciples of the old initiates. They did not yet have to take into account the soul abilities that had only developed in the fourth period. In the fourth period the first beginnings of the kind of spiritual training described in this book as the present one began. But at that time it was only in its infancy; it could only experience its actual development in the fifth period (since the twelfth, thirteenth, and especially the fifteenth century). People who sought to ascend to the supersensible beings in this way were able to experience something of the higher realms of existence through their own imagination, inspiration and intuition. Those people who remained with the developed faculties of understanding and feeling could only learn of what the older clairvoyance knew through tradition, which was passed on from generation to generation orally or in writing.
[ 4 ] Even those who were born later, if they did not rise into the supernatural worlds, could only know something of the essence of the Christ event through such tradition. However, there were also those initiates who still had the natural perceptive faculties for the supersensible world and yet, through their development, rose to a higher world, even though they did not take into account the new powers of intellect and mind. Through them a transition was made from the old mode of initiation to the new. Such personalities continued to exist in the following periods. This is precisely the essence of the fourth period, that through the seclusion of the soul from direct contact with the soul-spiritual world, man was strengthened and invigorated in the powers of understanding and feeling. The souls who embodied themselves at that time in such a way that they had developed intellectual and emotional powers to a high degree, then brought the result of this development over into their embodiments in the fifth period. As a substitute for this seclusion there were then the mighty traditions of the ancient wisdoms, but especially of the Christ event, which through the power of their content gave the souls a trusting knowledge of the higher worlds. But there were always people who developed the higher powers of knowledge in addition to the faculties of understanding and feeling. It was up to them to experience the facts of the higher world and in particular the mystery of the Christ event through direct supersensible knowledge. From them, as much flowed into the souls of other people as was comprehensible and good for these souls. The first spread of Christianity was to take place at a time when the supersensible powers of knowledge were not developed in a large part of humanity. That is why the power of tradition was so powerful at that time. It took the strongest power to lead people to trust in the supersensible world who could not see into this world themselves. There were almost always (apart from a brief exceptional period in the thirteenth century) people who were able to rise to the higher worlds through imagination, inspiration and intuition. These people are the post-Christian successors of the ancient initiates, the leaders and members of the Mystery Knowledge. They had the task of recognizing through their own abilities that which they had been able to grasp through the old mystery knowledge; and to this they had to add the knowledge of the nature of the Christ event.
[ 5 ] So there arose in these new initiates a knowledge which embraced all that was the object of the old initiation; but at the center of this knowledge shone the higher knowledge of the mysteries of the Christ-event. Such knowledge could only flow into the general life to a small extent, while the human souls were to consolidate their intellectual and emotional faculties in the fourth period. It was therefore a very "hidden knowledge" in this period. Then came the new period, which can be described as the fifth. Its essence lies in the fact that the development of the intellectual faculties progressed and unfolded to a tremendous degree and will unfold into the future via the present. Slowly it prepared itself from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries onwards, to become faster and faster in its progress from the sixteenth century up to the present time. Under these influences, the period of development of the fifth period became one in which the cultivation of the intellectual powers became more and more important, whereas the trusting knowledge of former times, the traditional knowledge, lost more and more of its power over the human soul. However, what can be called an ever-increasing flow of the insights of modern supersensible consciousness into human souls also developed during this time. The "hidden knowledge" flowed, albeit quite imperceptibly at first, into the perceptions of the people of this period. It is only natural that, right up to the present day, the powers of the intellect are opposed to this knowledge. However, what is to happen will happen, despite all temporary rejection. One can call the "hidden knowledge", which seizes and will increasingly seize humanity from this side, the knowledge of the "Grail" according to a symbol. Whoever learns to understand the deeper meaning of this symbol, as it is given in stories and legends, will find that it meaningfully illustrates the essence of what has been called above the knowledge of the new initiation, with the mystery of Christ at its center. The modern initiates can therefore also be called the "initiates of the Grail". The path into the supersensible worlds, which has been described in the first stages of this book, leads to the "Science of the Grail". This knowledge has the peculiarity that one can only investigate its facts if one acquires the means to do so, as they have been characterized in this book. Once they have been researched, however, they can be understood precisely through the soul forces that have developed in the fifth period. Indeed, it will become increasingly apparent that these forces will be satisfied to an ever greater degree by these insights. We are now living in a time in which these realizations are to be absorbed more abundantly into the general consciousness than was previously the case. And this book wishes to give its messages from this point of view. To the extent that the development of humanity absorbs the knowledge of the Grail, the impulse given by the Christ-event can become more and more significant. The outer side of Christian development will be followed more and more by the inner side. What can be recognized through imagination, inspiration and intuition about the higher worlds in connection with the mystery of Christ will increasingly permeate people's imaginative, emotional and volitional life. The "hidden knowledge of the Grail" will be revealed; as an inner force, it will increasingly permeate people's expressions of life.
[ 6 ] Throughout the fifth period the knowledge of the supersensible worlds will flow into human consciousness; and when the sixth will begin, mankind may have regained on a higher level that which it possessed in a still dim kind of non-sensuous vision in an earlier period. But the new possession will have a completely different form than the old one. What the soul knew of higher worlds in ancient times was not imbued in it by its own power of understanding and feeling. It knew it as an intuition. In the future it will not merely have intuitions, but will comprehend them and feel them as that which is the essence of its own being. When a realization comes to it about this or that being or thing, the intellect will also find this realization justified by its own being; when another realization about a moral commandment, about human conduct, will assert itself, the soul will say to itself: My feeling is only justified before itself if I also carry out what lies in the sense of this realization. Such a constitution of the soul should be developed in a sufficiently large number of people in the sixth period. In a certain way, the fifth period repeats what the third, the Egyptian-Chaldean, brought to the development of mankind. At that time the soul still perceived certain facts of the supersensible world. The perception of these was just then on the wane. For the powers of the intellect were preparing themselves for their development; and these were at first to exclude man from the higher world. In the fifth period the supersensible facts, which were seen in dim consciousness in the third, become apparent again, but now permeated with man's powers of intellect and personal feeling. They are also imbued with that which can come to the soul through the knowledge of the mystery of Christ. They therefore take on a completely different form than they once had. Whereas in ancient times the impressions from the supersensible worlds were felt as forces which drove man from a spiritual outer world in which he was not present, through the development of more recent times these impressions will be felt as those of a world into which man grows, in which he is more and more present. No one should believe that the repetition of the Egyptian-Chaldean culture can take place in such a way that the soul simply absorbs what was then present and has been handed down from that time. The correctly understood Christ impulse has the effect that the human soul which has absorbed it feels itself to be a member of a spiritual world and recognizes and behaves as such, outside of which it previously stood. While in such a way in the fifth period the third revives again in order to permeate itself with that in the human souls which the fourth has brought as a completely new thing, a similar thing will be the case with the sixth in relation to the second and with the seventh in relation to the first, the old Indian. All the wonderful wisdom of ancient Indianism, which the great teachers of that time were able to proclaim, will be able to be there again in the seventh period as the truth of life of the human souls.
[ 7 ] Now the changes in the things of the earth, which lie outside man, take place in a way that is in a certain relationship to mankind's own development. After the end of the seventh period, the earth will be afflicted by an upheaval which can be compared to that which happened between the Atlantean and the post-Atlantean period. And the subsequently transformed states of the earth will again develop further in seven periods of time. At a higher level, the human souls who will then incarnate will experience the communion with a higher world that the Atlanteans experienced at a lower level. However, only those human beings who have embodied such souls in themselves, as they can become through the influences of the Greco-Latin, the subsequent fifth, sixth and seventh periods of post-Atlantean development, will show themselves to be equal to the newly formed conditions of the earth. The interior of such souls will correspond to what the earth has become by then. The other souls will then have to stay behind, whereas before it would have been their choice to create the conditions to come along. Those souls will be ready for the corresponding conditions after the next great upheaval who will have created for themselves the possibility of penetrating the supersensible knowledge with the powers of understanding and feeling during the transition from the fifth to the sixth post-Atlantean period. The fifth and sixth periods are to a certain extent the decisive ones. In the seventh, the souls who have reached the goal of the sixth will develop accordingly, but the others will find little opportunity to make up for what they have missed under the changed conditions of their environment. Only in a later future will conditions arise again that allow this. This is how development progresses from period to period. Supersensible knowledge not only observes those changes in the future in which the earth alone is involved, but also those which take place in interaction with the celestial bodies in its surroundings. There will come a time when the development of the earth and humanity will have progressed so far that the forces and beings which had to detach themselves from the earth during the Lemurian period in order to make the further progress of the earth beings possible will be able to unite with the earth again. The moon will then reconnect with the earth. This will happen because a sufficiently large number of human souls will then have so much inner strength that they will make these lunar forces fruitful for further development. This will be at a time when, in addition to the high development that a corresponding number of human souls will have achieved, there will be another that has taken the direction of evil. The souls left behind will have accumulated so much error, ugliness and evil in their karma that they will initially form a special union of the wicked and the erring, which will strive sharply against the good community of people.
[ 8 ] Through its development, good humanity will acquire the use of the lunar forces and thereby also transform the evil part in such a way that it can go along with the further development as a special earth realm. Through this work of good humanity, the earth, then united with the moon, will be able to be reunited with the sun (also with the other planets) after a certain period of development. And after an intermediate state, which is like a stay in a higher world, the earth will transform itself into the Jupiter state. Within this state there will not be what is now called the mineral kingdom; the forces of this mineral kingdom will have been transformed into vegetable ones. The plant kingdom, however, which will have a completely new form compared to the present one, will appear as the lowest of the kingdoms during the Jupiter state. Higher up is the animal kingdom, which has also been transformed; then comes a human kingdom, which proves to be the offspring of the evil community that arose on earth. And then the descendants of the good earth-human community, as a human kingdom on a higher level. A large part of the work of this latter human kingdom consists of refining the souls that have fallen into the evil community so that they can still find access to the actual human kingdom. The state of Venus will be such that the plant kingdom will also have disappeared; the lowest kingdom will be the animal kingdom, transformed once again; three human kingdoms of different degrees of perfection will be found, going upwards.
[ 9 ] During this Venusian state the earth remains connected with the sun; the development during the Jupiter period, however, proceeds in such a way that at a certain moment the sun once again detaches itself from Jupiter and the latter receives its influence from outside. Then the Sun and Jupiter join again, and the transformation gradually passes over into the Venusian state. During this a special world body splits out of Venus, which contains all the beings that have resisted development, as it were an "incorrigible moon", which now approaches a development with a character for which an expression is not possible, because it is too dissimilar to anything that man can experience on earth. Developed humanity, however, is progressing in a completely spiritualized existence towards volcanic development, the description of which lies outside the scope of this book.
[ 10 ] You see that from the "knowledge of the Grail" arises the highest ideal of human development, which is conceivable for man the spiritualization which man attains through his own work For this spiritualization ultimately appears as a result of the harmony which he establishes in the fifth and sixth period of the present development between the acquired powers of understanding and feeling and the knowledge of the supersensible worlds. What he works out within his soul is ultimately to become the outer world itself. Man's spirit rises to the powerful impressions of his outer world and first senses, then recognizes spiritual entities behind these impressions; man's heart feels the infinite sublimity of this spiritual. But man can also recognize that the intellectual, emotional and character experiences of his inner being are the germs of the spiritual world to come.
[ 11 ] Those who think that human freedom is incompatible with the foreknowledge and predetermination of the future organization of things should consider that man's free action in the future depends just as little on how the predetermined things will be as this freedom depends on the fact that he intends to live after a year in a house whose plan he is currently determining. He will be free to the extent that he can be free according to his inner being, precisely in the house he has built for himself; and he will be as free on Jupiter and Venus as corresponds to his inner being, precisely within the conditions that will arise there. Freedom will not depend on what is predetermined by the preceding conditions, but on what the soul has made of itself.
[ 12 ] The earthly state contains that which has developed within the preceding states of Saturn, Sun and Moon. The earth person finds "wisdom" in the processes that take place around him. This wisdom is within as the result of what had happened before. The earth is the descendant of the 'old moon'. And this formed itself into the 'cosmos of wisdom' with what belonged to it. The earth is now the beginning of a development through which a new force is inserted into this wisdom. It makes the human being feel like an independent member of a spiritual world. This stems from the fact that his "I" is formed in him by the "spirits of form" within earth time in the same way as his physical body was formed on Saturn by the "spirits of will", his life body was formed on the sun by the "spirits of wisdom", and his astral body was formed on the moon by the "spirits of movement". Through the interaction of the "spirits of will, wisdom and movement", what is revealed as wisdom comes into being. Through the work of these three classes of spirits, earth beings and earth processes can harmonize in wisdom with the other beings of their world. Through the "spirits of form" man receives his independent "I". This will now in the future harmonize with the beings of the earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan through the power that is inserted through the earth state of wisdom. This is the power of love. This power of love must begin in the human being of the earth. And the "cosmos of wisdom" develops into a "cosmos of love". Love is to emerge from everything that the "I" can develop within itself. In his revelation, the high solar being, which could be characterized in the description of the development of Christ, presents itself as the comprehensive "model of love". The seed of love is thus sunk into the innermost core of the human being. And from there it is to flow into the entire development. Just as the previously formed wisdom reveals itself in the forces of the sensual outer world of the earth, in the present "forces of nature", so in the future love itself will reveal itself in all phenomena as a new force of nature. This is the secret of all development into the future: that the realization that everything man accomplishes out of the true understanding of development is a seed that must ripen as love. And as much is created as the power of love, so much creative work is done for the future. In what will have become of love will lie the strong forces that lead to the final result of spiritualization described above. And as much spiritual knowledge flows into the development of humanity and the earth, so many viable seeds for the future will be present. Spiritual knowledge transforms itself into love through what it is. The whole process which has been described, from the Greco-Latin period through the present time, shows how this transformation is to take place and what the beginning of the development into the future is made for. What has prepared itself as wisdom through Saturn, Sun and Moon works in the physical, etheric, astral body of man; and it presents itself as the "wisdom of the world"; but in the "I" it internalizes itself. The "wisdom of the outer world" becomes, from the earthly state onwards, inner wisdom in the human being. And when it is internalized there, it becomes the seed of love. Wisdom is the precondition of love; love is the result of wisdom reborn in the "I".
[ 13 ] Anyone who might be misled by the preceding remarks into thinking that the development described has a fatalistic character has misunderstood it. Anyone who believed that in such a development a certain number of people were condemned to belong to the realm of "evil humanity" did not see how the mutual relationship between the sensual and the spiritual is shaped in this development. Both, the sensual and the spiritual, form separate currents of development within certain limits. The forces inherent in the sensual current give rise to the forms of "evil humanity". There will only be a necessity for a human soul to embody itself in such a form if this human soul itself has created the conditions for this. It could also be the case that the forms created out of the forces of the sensible would not find any human souls from the earlier time because these would be too good for such bodies. Then these forms would have to be animated from the universe other than by earlier human souls. The characterized forms will only be animated by human souls if they have prepared themselves for such an embodiment. In this field, supersensible knowledge has to say what it sees. This is that in the future indicated there will be two human kingdoms, one good and one evil; but it does not have to infer intellectually from the state of the present human souls to a future one that will occur as if by natural necessity. The development of human forms and the development of soul destinies must seek supersensible knowledge on two quite separate paths; and to confuse the two in the world view would be a remnant of materialistic sentiment which, if it existed, would project into the science of the supersensible in an alarming way.