Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
18. What is Revealed When One Looks Back into Former Lives Between Death and a New Birth II
[ 1 ] In a second period man passes from the realm of the Archai to that of the Archangeloi. With these, however, he is no longer united in so bodily-spiritual a way as he was with the Archai. His union with the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi is more purely spiritual. But it is still so intimate that he cannot yet be said to have been severed in this period from the Divine-Spiritual world.
The Archangeloi Hierarchy gives to man for his etheric body that which corresponds in it to the form in the physical, which he owes to the Archai. The physical body, through its form, is adapted to the Earth in such a way as to become on Earth the vehicle of self-consciousness. In like manner the etheric body is adapted to the extra-earthly cosmic forces and relationships of forces. In the physical body lives the Earth; in the etheric the world of the stars. All the inner forces which man bears within him in such a way that while he is on Earth he does at the same time, in his posture, movement and gesture, emancipate himself from the Earth, he owes to the creation of the Archangeloi in his etheric body. As the Earth forces are able to live in the physical body through its formation, so in the etheric body there live the forces which stream down on all sides from the encircling Cosmos to the Earth. The Earth-forces living in the physically visible formation of the body are those which make the form of man relatively complete, hard and fast within itself. Subject to a certain metamorphosis, the main outlines of man remain hard and fast throughout his earthly life. His faculties of movement, too, have hardened into permanent habits and the like. In the etheric body on the other hand, there is perpetual mobility, mirroring the constellations of the stars as they change during the earthly life of man. The etheric body shapes itself even in accordance with the changes in the heavens as between day and night; and it does so also with the changes that take place between the birth and death of the man concerned.
[ 2 ] This adaptation of the etheric body to the heavenly forces is not in contradiction to the gradual severance of the starry heavens from the Divine-Spiritual Powers, mentioned in earlier studies. It is true to say that in very ancient times Divine Will and Divine Intelligence were living in the stars, and that in later times the stars passed over into the “calculable”. Through what has now become their finished work, the Gods are no longer working upon man. Nevertheless, through his etheric body man gradually achieves a relationship of his own to the stars, just as he does through his physical body to earthly gravity.
[ 3 ] What man incorporates into his nature when at birth he descends from the Spirit-world on the Earth—namely the etheric body which absorbs the extra-earthly, cosmic forces—is created in this second period by the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi.
[ 4 ] One of the essential features which man receives through this Hierarchy is his membership of a group of human beings on the Earth. Humanity is differentiated over the face of the Earth. Looking back into this second period, it is not, however, the present differentiation of races and nations that we find, but a somewhat different—a more spiritual one. It is due to the fact that the starry forces strike the different places of the Earth in varying constellations. For on the Earth itself—in the distribution of land and water, in climate, vegetation and the like—the starry heavens are indeed active. Inasmuch as man must adapt himself to these conditions, which are really there as heavenly conditions on the Earth, such adaptation belongs to his etheric body; and the forming of the latter is a creative work of the choir of Archangeloi.
[ 5 ] But now it is just in this second period that the Luciferic and Ahrimanic Powers enter the life of man in a peculiar degree. Their entry is necessary, albeit to begin with it may seem to be driving man beneath the level of his true nature.
[ 6 ] If man is to develop self-consciousness in his earthly life, he must get loose from the Divine-Spiritual world from which he originally proceeded, in greater measure than that world itself can bring about. This is what takes place in the time when the Archangeloi are at work upon him. For his union with the Spirit-world is no longer as firm as it was when the Archai were at work upon him. Lucifer and Ahriman are more able to grapple with the spiritual forces proceeding from the Archangeloi, than with the stronger forces of the Archai.
[ 7 ] The Luciferic Powers permeate the etheric formation of man with a more intense inclination towards the starry world than it would have if the Divine-Spiritual Powers, originally united with man were alone at work. The Ahrimanic Powers entwine his physical formation more tightly in the realm of earthly gravity than would have been the case if they were unable to exert their influence.
[ 8 ] By this means the seed of full self-consciousness and of free will is planted into man. Much as the Ahrimanic Powers hate free will, in man—by tearing him loose from his Divine Spiritual world—they bring about the germinal beginnings of free will.
[ 9 ] To begin with, however, during the second period itself, that which the various Hierarchies from the Seraphim down to the Archangeloi have brought about in man, is impressed into his physical and etheric bodies more deeply than would have been possible without the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influence. For without this influence, the working of the Hierarchies would remain more in the astral body and the Ego.
[ 10 ] Thus it happened that the more spiritual grouping of mankind over the face of the Earth, which the Archangeloi were striving for, did not take place.
[ 11 ] Being pressed down into the physical and etheric body, the spiritual forces are transformed into their opposite. In place of something more spiritual, the differentiation of races and nations comes about.
[ 12 ] Without the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influence, human beings on Earth would see themselves differentiated by forces working downwards from the heavens. The different groups would be to one another in their life like beings who willingly with love, give to one another of the spiritual and receive in turn. In races and nations it is earthly gravity which appears through the human body; in the spiritual groupings a mirrored image of the Divine-Spiritual world would have appeared.
[ 13 ] With all this, the beginnings of what afterwards became the full self-consciousness of man had to be implanted in his evolution already at that time. And this meant that—in a mitigated form, it is true, but yet in a certain way—the primeval differentiation of humanity which existed when man passed over from the Hierarchy of the Exusiai to that of the Archai remained preserved.
[ 14 ] Man—as it were in a cosmic school—experienced this stage in his evolution, contemplating it with inner feeling. True, he did not yet develop a knowledge of the fact that this was an essential preparation for his subsequent self-consciousness. But his feeling vision of the forces of his evolution at that time was none the less important for the incorporation of self-consciousness into his astral body and his Ego.
[ 15 ] With respect to Thought, the following took place. By the Luciferic Powers man was informed with the tendency still to immerse himself in the old forms of the Spiritual, instead of adapting himself to the new. Lucifer indeed always has this striving to conserve for man the earlier forms of his life.
[ 16 ] By this means human Thinking was evolved. In the life between death and a new birth man gradually developed that faculty which in primeval times had formed the thoughts in him. It was a faculty which at that time could behold the Spiritual, though it was like what is now mere sense perception. For at that time the Physical still carried the Spiritual upon its surface. Today, however, the faculty of thought preserved from that time can only work as restricted sense-perception. Man's power to lift himself in thought to the spiritual world gradually declined. This became fully evident at length when in the age of the Spiritual Soul the spiritual world was veiled for man in complete darkness. Thus in the nineteenth century it came about that the best men of science, unable to become materialists, declared: We have no alternative but to limit our research to that world which can be investigated by measure, number and weight and by the senses. We have, however, no right to deny a spiritual world, hidden beneath this world of Nature. In such words they indicated that there might be a world full of light, unknown to man, where man can only stare into an empty darkness.
[ 17 ] And as Thought in man was misdirected by Lucifer, so was Will by Ahriman. Man's will was endowed with a tendency to a kind of freedom which he should have entered only at a later stage. This freedom is not real; it is but the illusion of freedom. Men lived in this illusion of freedom for a long time, and thereby became unable to evolve the idea of freedom in a truly spiritual way. They vacillated to and fro, between the one opinion and the other: that man is free, or that he is involved in a sphere of rigid necessity. And when with the spiritual Age of Consciousness true freedom came, they were unable to recognise it, because their powers of perception had too long become entangled in the illusion of freedom.
[ 18 ] All that had sunk into the being of man during this second stage in the evolution of his lives between death and a new birth, he carried as a cosmic memory into the third, in which he still lives today. In this third stage he is related to the Hierarchy of the Angeloi as in the second to that of the Archangeloi. Only, this relationship to the Angeloi is such that through it the full independent individuality comes into being. For the Angeloi—not the chorus this time, but one Angelos for one human being—restrict themselves to the task of bringing about the right relation of the life between death and a new birth and the life on Earth.
[ 19 ] A fact that may seem remarkable to begin with is this. For the individual human being in the second stage in the evolution of his lives between death and a new birth the whole Hierarchy of Archangeloi was working. Afterwards the guidance of nations and tribes becomes the task of this Hierarchy, and there is then one Archangelos as the Folk-Spirit for one nation. In the races the Primal Forces or Archai remain at work. Here again, for one race, one Being of the Hierarchy of the Primal Forces works as the Race-Spirit.
[ 20 ] Thus the man of present time contains, in the life between death and a new birth also, the cosmic memory of earlier stages of his life. And in the physical world too, where something of spiritual guidance appears as it does in the races and nations, this cosmic memory is most distinctly present.
(New Year, 1925)
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with respect to the foregoing study [Part two]: What is revealed when one looks back into former Lives between Death and a new Birth?)
[ 21 ] 150. In a second period of evolution of the lives between death and a new birth, man entered the domain of the Archangeloi. The seed of his later conscious Selfhood—prepared for, in the first period, in the forming of the human figure—was now implanted in the nature of his soul.
[ 22 ] 151. During this second period he was driven by Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences more deeply into the physical than would have happened without their intervention.
[ 23 ] 152. In the third period, man enters the domain of the Angeloi, who only wield their influence, however, in the astral body and the Ego. This third period is the present; but what took place in the two former ones still lives on in human evolution and explains the fact that in the nineteenth century—within the age of the Spiritual Soul—man stared into the spiritual world as into vacant darkness.
Zweiter Teil der Betrachtung: Was offenbart sich, wenn man in die vorigen Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt zurückschaut?
[ 1 ] In einer zweiten Periode gelangt der Mensch aus dem Gebiet der Archai in das der Archangeloi. Mit diesen ist er aber nicht so körperlich-geistig verbunden, wie vorher mit den Archai. Seine Verbindung mit der Archangeloi-Hierarchie ist eine mehr geistige. Aber sie ist doch so innig, daß man für diese Zeit von einem Losgelöstsein des Menschen von der göttlich-geistigen Welt noch nicht sprechen kann. Die Erzengel-Hierarchie gibt dem Menschen das für seinen Ätherleib, was in diesem entsprechend ist der Gestalt im physischen Leib, die er den Archai verdankt. Wie der physische Leib durch die Gestalt der Erde angepaßt ist, um auf dieser Träger des Selbstbewußtseins zu sein, so der Ätherleib den außerirdischen kosmischen Kräfteverhältnissen. Im physischen Leib lebt die Erde, und im Ätherleib lebt die Sternenwelt. Was der Mensch an inneren Kräften in sich trägt, um auf der Erde so zu sein, daß er sich zugleich mit Haltung, Bewegung, Gebärde der Erde entreißt, das verdankt er der Schöpfung der Erzengel in seinem Ätherleib. Wie im physischen Leib die Erdenkräfte durch die Gestaltung leben können, so leben im Ätherleib die Kräfte, die aus dem Umkreis des Kosmos von allen Seiten auf die Erde zuströmen. Es sind die in der physisch erscheinenden Gestaltung lebenden Erdkräfte solche, die die Gestalt zu einer verhältnismäßig abgeschlossen-festen machen. Die Umrisse des Menschen bleiben mit untergeordneter Metamorphose für das Erdenleben fest; die Bewegungsfähigkeiten verfestigen sich in Gewohnheiten und so weiter. -Im Ätherleib herrscht fortwährende Beweglichkeit, die ein Spiegelbild ist der sich während des menschlichen Erdenlebens ändernden Sternenkonstellationen. Schon den Veränderungen des Himmels von Tag und Nacht entsprechend, gestaltet sich der Ätherleib; aber auch den Veränderungen, die zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode des Menschen vor sich gehen.
[ 2 ] Anpassung des Ätherleibes an die Himmelskräfte widerspricht nicht der allmählichen Loslösung des Sternen-, himmels von den göttlich-geistigen Mächten, von der in ändern Betrachtungen gesprochen worden ist. Es ist richtig, in ganz alten Zeiten lebte in den Sternen Götterwille und Götterintelligenz. In den späteren Zeiten sind diese in das «Berechenbare» übergegangen. Die Götter wirken nicht mehr durch das, was ihr Werk geworden ist, auf den Menschen. Aber der Mensch gerät allmählich durch seinen Ätherleib in ein eigenes Verhältnis zu den Sternen, wie er durch seinen physischen Leib in ein solches zur Erdenschwere gelangt.
[ 3 ] Was der Mensch sich einfügt, wenn er zur Geburt auf Erden aus der Geistwelt herabsteigt, seinen Ätherleib, der in sich die außerirdischen kosmischen Kräfte aufnimmt, das wird in dieser zweiten Periode durch die Hierarchie der Archangeloi geschaffen.
[ 4 ] Ein Wesentliches, das da der Mensch durch diese Hierarchie bekommt, ist die Zugehörigkeit zu einer Gruppe von Menschen auf Erden. Die Menschen sind über die Erde hin differenziert. Man hat, indem man in diese zweite Periode zurückschaut, nicht die heutige Rassen- und Völkerdifferenzierung vor sich, sondern eine etwas andere, eine mehr geistige. Eine solche, die davon herrührt, daß auf die verschiedenen Orte der Erde die Sternenkräfte in verschiedenen Konstellationen auftreffen. Auf der Erde, in Land- und Wasserverteilung, in Klima, in Pflanzenwuchs und so weiter lebt ja der Sternenhimmel. Insoferne sich der Mensch an diese Verhältnisse, die auf der Erde als Himmelsverhältnisse sind, anpassen muß, gehört diese Anpassung in den Ätherleib, und dessen Gestaltung ist eine Schöpfung des Chores der Archangeloi.
[ 5 ] Nun aber treten gerade während dieser zweiten Periode die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Mächte in einer besonderen Art in das Menschenleben herein. Dieses Hereintreten ist notwendig, trotzdem es zunächst so erscheint, als ob es den Menschen unter seine Wesenheit herabdrücken würde.
[ 6 ] Der Mensch muß, wenn er im Erdenleben Selbstbewußtsein entwickeln soll, von der göttlich-geistigen Welt, aus der er ursprünglich hervorgegangen ist, in einem stärkeren Maße loskommen, als dies durch diese Welt selbst geschehen kann. Es geschieht in der Zeit, da die Erzengel an ihm wirken, weil da die Verbindung mit der Geistwelt nicht mehr eine so feste ist, wie sie während des Wirkens der Archai an ihm war. Den mehr geistigen Kräften, die von den Erzengeln ausgehen, sind Luzifer und Ahriman mehr gewachsen als den stärkeren der Archai.
[ 7 ] Es wird von den luziferischen Mächten die Äthergestaltung mit einer stärkeren Neigung für die Sternenwelt durchsetzt, als sie haben würde, wenn nur die ursprünglich mit dem Menschen verbundenen göttlich-geistigen Mächte wirken würden. Und es wird durch die ahrimanischen Mächte die physische Gestaltung stärker in die Erdenschwere verstrickt, als es geschehen würde, wenn diese Mächte nicht wirken könnten.
[ 8] Dadurch wird in den Menschen der Keim des vollen Selbstbewußtseins und des freien Willens gelegt. Wenn auch die ahrimanischen Mächte den freien Willen hassen: im Menschen bewirken sie, da sie ihn losreißen von seiner göttlichgeistigen Welt, die Keimanlage dieses freien Willens.
[ 9 ] Zunächst aber, in dieser zweiten Periode, wird, was die verschiedenen Hierarchien von den Seraphim bis zu den Erzengeln in dem Menschen bewirkt haben, mehr in den physischen und Ätherleib hineingedrückt, als es ohne luziferischen und ahrimanischen Einfluß geschehen könnte. Ohne diesen Einfluß bliebe die Wirkung der Hierarchien mehr im Astralleib und im Ich.
[ 10 ] Dadurch entsteht nicht jene mehr geistige, von den Erzengeln angestrebte Gruppierung der Menschheit über die Erde hin.
[ 11 ] In seinem Eingedrücktsein in den physischen und Ätherleib werden die geistigen Kräfte in ihr Gegenteil gewandelt. Es entsteht statt der mehr geistigen Differenzierung die nach Rassen und Völkern.
[ 12 ] Ohne den luziferischen und ahrimanischen Einfluß sähen sich die Menschen auf Erden vom Himmel herunter differenziert. Die Gruppen verhielten sich zueinander in ihrem Leben wie Wesen, die Geistiges willig in Liebe einander geben und voneinander nehmen. In Rassen und Völkern erscheint die Erdenschwere durch den Leib des Menschen; in der geistigen Gruppierung wäre ein Spiegelbild der göttlich-geistigen Welt erschienen.
[ 13 ] Mit alle dem mußte die spätere volle Selbstbewußtheit in der menschlichen Entwickelung schon vorher veranlagt werden. Das bedingte wieder, daß zwar gemildert, aber doch in einer gewissen Form die uralte Menschendifferenzierung erhalten blieb, die bestand, als der Mensch einst überging von der Hierarchie der Exusiai an diejenige der Archai.
[ 14 ] Der Mensch hat wie in einer kosmischen Schule dieses Entwickelungsstadium empfindend-anschauend erlebt. Er hat zwar noch nicht ein Wissen davon entwickelt, daß dies eine wesentliche Vorbereitung für seine spätere Selbstbewußtheit sei. Aber das empfindende Anschauen seiner Entwickelungskräfte damals war doch wichtig für die Eingliederung der Selbstbewußtheit in Astralleib und Ich.
[ 15 ] In bezug auf das Denken ist damals dies geschehen, daß der Mensch durch die luziferischen Mächte mit der Neigung ausgestattet wurde, sich in die alten Formen des Geistigen auch weiter zu versenken und sich den neuen Formen nicht anzupassen. Denn Luzifer hat ja stets das Bestreben, für den Menschen die früheren Formen des Lebens zu bewahren.
[ 16 ] Und dadurch bildete sich das Denken des Menschen so aus, daß er allmählich in den Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt diejenige Fähigkeit ausgestaltete, die in uralten Zeiten Gedanken in ihm bildete. Damals konnte diese Fähigkeit das Geistige schauen, trotzdem sie so war wie gegenwärtig die bloße Sinnesauffassung. Denn das Physische trug damals das Geistige an seiner Oberfläche. Jetzt aber kann die von damals bewahrte Denkfähigkeit nurmehr als Sinneswahrnehmung wirken. Allmählich nahm die Fähigkeit, denkend sich zum Geistigen zu erheben, ab. Und voll trat dies erst zutage, als im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele die geistige Welt für den Menschen in gänzliche Dunkelheit gehüllt wurde. Da kam es, daß im neunzehnten Jahrhundert die besten Naturforscher, die nicht Materialisten werden konnten, sagten: uns bleibt nichts übrig, als bloß die Welt zu erforschen, die sich nach Maß, Zahl und Gewicht und durch die Sinne erforschen läßt; aber wir haben kein Recht, eine geistige Welt zu leugnen, die sich hinter dieser sinnlichen verbirgt. Also der Hinweis darauf, daß eine dem Menschen unbekannte helle Welt sein könne, wo er nur in die Finsternis starrt.
[ 17 ] Wie durch Luzifer das Denken im Menschen verschoben wurde, so durch Ahriman der Wille. Der wurde mit einer Tendenz zu einer Art von Freiheit begabt, in die er erst später hätte eintreten sollen. Diese Freiheit ist keine wirkliche, sondern die Illusion der Freiheit. In dieser Freiheits-Illusion lebte die Menschheit lange. Das gab ihr keine Möglichkeit, geistgemäß die Idee der Freiheit zu entwickeln. Man pendelte hin und her zwischen den Meinungen, der Mensch sei frei, oder auch, er sei in eine starre Notwendigkeit eingesponnen. Und als dann mit dem heraufziehenden Bewußtseinszeitalter die wirkliche Freiheit kam, da konnte man sie nicht erkennen, weil man das Erkennen allzu lange in die Illusion der Freiheit eingesponnen hatte.
[ 18 ] Alles, was sich in diesem zweiten Stadium der Entwickelung der Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in das Wesen des Menschen eingesenkt hat, das trug er als kosmische Erinnerung in das dritte Stadium hinein, in dem er noch gegenwärtig lebt. Er steht in diesem Stadium zu der Hierarchie der Angeloi in einem ähnlichen Verhältnis, wie er während des zweiten zu derjenigen der Archangeloi gestanden hat. Nur ist das Verhältnis zu den Angeloi so, daß durch sie die volle selbständige Individualität zustande kommt. Denn die Angeloi — jetzt nicht der Chor, sondern einer für einen Menschen - beschränken sich darauf, das rechte Verhältnis der Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt und der Erdenleben zu bewirken.
[ 19 ] Eine zunächst merkwürdige Tatsache ist diese, daß für den einzelnen Menschen im zweiten Stadium seiner Entwickelung der Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt die ganze Hierarchie der Archangeloi wirkt. Später fällt dieser Hierarchie die Lenkung der Volksstämme zu. Und da ist für ein Volk ein Erzengel als Volksgeist. In den Rassen bleiben die Urkräfte tätig. Und wieder wirkt für eine Rasse ein Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Urkräfte als Rassengeist.
[ 20 ] So enthält der gegenwärtige Mensch auch in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt die kosmische Erinnerung an vorangehende Stadien dieses Erlebens. Und auch da, wo in der physischen Welt Geistgeleitetes in der Art auftritt, wie in Rassen und Völkern, ist diese kosmische Erinnerung deutlich da.
Goetheanum, Jahreswende 1925.
Leitsätze Nr. 150 bis 152
(25. Januar 1925)
(Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Betrachtung, zweiter Teil: Was offenbart sich, wenn man in die wiederholten Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt zurückschaut? )
[ 21 ] 150. In einer zweiten Periode der Entwickelung der Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt tritt der Mensch in den Bereich der Archangeloi. Während derselben wird der Keim zur späteren Selbstbewußtheit in das Seelische gelegt, nachdem er in der Formung der Menschengestalt in der ersten Periode veranlagt worden ist.
[ 22 ] 151. Der Mensch wird während dieser zweiten Periode durch die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Einflüsse tiefer in das Physische gedrängt, als es ohne diese Einflüsse geschehen würde.
[ 23 ] 152. In der dritten Periode gelangt der Mensch in den Bereich der Angeloi, die aber nur in Astralleib und Ich ihren Einfluß geltend machen. Diese Periode ist die gegenwärtige. Was in den beiden ersten Perioden geschehen ist, lebt inderMenschenentwickelung fort und erklärt die Tatsache, daß innerhalb des Zeitalters der Bewußtseinsseele (im neunzehnten Jahrhundert) der Mensch in die geistige Welt wie in eine völlige Finsternis hineinstarrt.
Second part of the contemplation: What is revealed when one looks back into the previous lives between death and new birth?
[ 1 ] In a second period, the human being passes from the realm of the Archai into that of the Archangeloi. However, he is not as physically and spiritually connected to them as he was previously to the Archai. His connection with the Archangeloi hierarchy is more spiritual. But it is so intimate that for this time one cannot yet speak of man being detached from the divine-spiritual world. The archangel hierarchy gives man that for his etheric body which corresponds to the form in the physical body, which he owes to the Archai. Just as the physical body is adapted to the form of the earth in order to be the bearer of self-consciousness on it, so the etheric body is adapted to the extraterrestrial cosmic forces. The earth lives in the physical body, and the starry world lives in the etheric body. What man carries within himself of inner forces in order to be on earth in such a way that he simultaneously snatches himself from the earth with posture, movement and gesture, he owes to the creation of the archangels in his etheric body. Just as the earthly forces can live in the physical body through its creation, so the forces that flow towards the earth from all sides from the cosmos live in the etheric body. The earth forces that live in the physically appearing form are those that make the form a relatively closed and solid one. The outlines of the human being remain fixed with subordinate metamorphosis for life on earth; the faculties of movement solidify into habits and so on. -There is constant mobility in the etheric body, which is a reflection of the changing constellations of the stars during human life on earth. The etheric body is already shaped according to the changes of day and night in the heavens, but also according to the changes that take place between the birth and death of the human being.
[ 2 ] Adaptation of the etheric body to the celestial forces does not contradict the gradual detachment of the starry heavens from the divine-spiritual powers, which has been spoken of in the change considerations. It is true that in very ancient times the will of the gods and the intelligence of the gods lived in the stars. In later times, these have passed over into the "calculable". The gods no longer have an effect on man through what has become their work. But man gradually enters into his own relationship with the stars through his etheric body, just as he enters into such a relationship with earthly gravity through his physical body.
[ 3 ] What man incorporates when he descends from the spirit world to be born on earth, his etheric body, which receives into itself the extra-terrestrial cosmic forces, is created in this second period by the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi.
[ 4 ] An essential thing that the human being receives through this hierarchy is the affiliation to a group of people on earth. People are differentiated across the earth. Looking back into this second period, we do not have before us today's differentiation of races and peoples, but a somewhat different, more spiritual one. One that stems from the fact that the star forces impinge on the various places on earth in different constellations. On the earth, in the distribution of land and water, in the climate, in plant growth and so on, the starry sky lives. In so far as man must adapt to these conditions, which are on earth as celestial conditions, this adaptation belongs to the etheric body, and its formation is a creation of the choir of the Archangeloi.
[ 5 ] But it is precisely during this second period that the Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers enter human life in a special way. This entry is necessary, even though at first it appears as if it would push man below his essence.
[ 6 ] If man is to develop self-consciousness in earthly life, he must detach himself from the divine-spiritual world from which he originally emerged to a greater extent than this can happen through this world itself. It happens at the time when the archangels work on him, because the connection with the spiritual world is no longer as strong as it was during the work of the Archai on him. Lucifer and Ahriman are more equal to the more spiritual forces emanating from the archangels than the stronger ones of the archai.
[ 7 ] It is through the Luciferic powers that the etheric design is imbued with a stronger inclination for the starry world than it would have if only the divine-spiritual powers originally connected with man were at work. And it is through the ahrimanic powers that the physical design becomes more entangled in the earthly gravity than would happen if these powers could not work.
[ 8] Through this the seed of full self-consciousness and free will is laid in man. Even if the ahrimanic powers hate free will: in man they cause the germination of this free will by tearing him away from his divine-spiritual world.
[ 9 ] First, however, in this second period, what the various hierarchies from the seraphim to the archangels have brought about in man is more pressed into the physical and etheric body than could happen without Luciferic and Ahrimanic influence. Without this influence, the effect of the hierarchies would remain more in the astral body and in the ego.
[ 10 ] This does not result in the more spiritual grouping of humanity across the earth that the archangels are striving for.
[ 11 ] In its being pressed into the physical and etheric body, the spiritual forces are transformed into their opposite. Instead of the more spiritual differentiation, that of races and peoples emerges.
[ 12 ] Without the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influence, people on earth would see themselves differentiated from heaven. The groups would behave towards each other in their lives like beings who willingly give and take spiritual things from each other in love. In races and peoples, the gravity of the earth would appear through the human body; in the spiritual grouping, a mirror image of the divine-spiritual world would appear.
[ 13 ] With all this, the later full self-consciousness in human development had to be predisposed beforehand. This again meant that the ancient human differentiation, which existed when man once passed from the hierarchy of the Exusiai to that of the Archai, was preserved in a certain form, albeit in a milder form.
[ 14 ] Man has experienced this stage of development as if in a cosmic school of feeling and perception. He has not yet developed the knowledge that this is an essential preparation for his later self-consciousness. But the sentient observation of his developmental powers at that time was nevertheless important for the integration of self-consciousness into the astral body and ego.
[ 15 ] With regard to thinking, this happened at that time, that man was endowed by the Luciferic powers with the tendency to sink further into the old forms of the spiritual and not to adapt to the new forms. For Lucifer always endeavors to preserve the former forms of life for man.
[ 16 ] And thus man's thinking developed in such a way that in the lives between death and new birth he gradually developed the ability that formed thoughts in him in ancient times. At that time this faculty could see the spiritual, even though it was like the mere sense perception at present. For the physical then carried the spiritual on its surface. Now, however, the ability to think that was preserved at that time can only function as sensory perception. Gradually the ability to rise to the spiritual through thinking diminished. And this only became fully apparent when, in the age of the consciousness soul, the spiritual world was shrouded in complete darkness for man. Then it happened that in the nineteenth century the best naturalists, who could not become materialists, said: nothing remains for us but to investigate only the world which can be investigated by measure, number and weight and through the senses; but we have no right to deny a spiritual world which is hidden behind this sensuous one. Hence the hint that there could be a bright world unknown to man where he only stares into the darkness.
[ 17 ] As Lucifer shifted the thinking in man, so Ahriman shifted the will. It was endowed with a tendency towards a kind of freedom that it should only have entered later. This freedom is not real but the illusion of freedom. Mankind lived in this illusion of freedom for a long time. This gave it no opportunity to develop the idea of freedom in a spiritual way. People oscillated back and forth between the opinions that man was free or that he was spun into a rigid necessity. And when real freedom came with the dawning age of consciousness, it could not be recognized because for too long, cognition had been spun into the illusion of freedom.
[ 18 ] Everything that sank into the being of man in this second stage of the development of life between death and a new birth, he carried as a cosmic memory into the third stage, in which he still lives at present. In this stage he stands in a similar relationship to the Hierarchy of the Angeloi as he stood to that of the Archangeloi during the second. Only the relationship to the Angeloi is such that full independent individuality comes about through them. For the Angeloi - now not the choir, but one for one human being - confine themselves to bringing about the right relationship of life between death and new birth and earthly life.
[ 19 ] An initially curious fact is that for the individual human being in the second stage of his development of the lives between death and new birth the whole hierarchy of the Archangeloi is at work. Later this hierarchy is responsible for the guidance of the tribes. And there is an archangel for a people as the spirit of the people. The elemental forces remain active in the races. And again, for a race, a being from the hierarchy of the elemental forces acts as a racial spirit.
[ 20 ] So the present human being also contains the cosmic memory of previous stages of this experience in the life between death and new birth. And this cosmic memory is also clearly present wherever spirit-led phenomena occur in the physical world, such as in races and peoples.
Goetheanum, turn of the year 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 150 to 152
(January 25, 1925)
(With reference to the previous reflection, second part: What is revealed when one looks back into the repeated lives between death and new birth? )
[ 21 ] 150. In a second period of the development of the lives between death and new birth, man enters the realm of the Archangeloi. During this period the germ of later self-consciousness is laid in the soul, after it has been predisposed in the formation of the human form in the first period.
[ 22 ] 151 During this second period, man is pushed deeper into the physical by the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences than would happen without these influences.
[ 23 ] 152 In the third period the human being enters the realm of the Angeloi, who, however, only exert their influence in the astral body and the ego. This period is the present one. What happened in the first two periods lives on in the development of man and explains the fact that within the age of the consciousness soul (in the nineteenth century) man stares into the spiritual world as into a complete darkness.