The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Human Being in his Macrocosmic Essence

[ 1 ] The cosmos reveals itself to man first from the side of the earth and from the side of the extraterrestrial, the starry world.

[ 2 ] Man feels a kinship with the earth and its forces. Life teaches him about this kinship with great clarity.

[ 3 ] Not so does he feel in the present age related to the stellar environment. But this only lasts as long as he is unaware of his etheric body. To grasp the etheric body in imaginations means to develop a sense of belonging to the starry world in the same way as one has through the consciousness of the physical body of the earth.

[ 4 ] The forces that place the etheric body into the world come from the circle of the world, just as those for the physical body radiate from the center of the earth.

[ 5 ] But with the etheric forces that flow into the earth from the circumference of the cosmos also come those world impulses that work in the astral body of the human being.

[ 6 ] The ether is like a sea in which the astral forces approach the earth, floating from the far reaches of the cosmos. -

[ 7 ] In the present cosmic age, however, only the mineral and plant kingdoms can enter into a direct relationship with the astral, which flows in upon the earth on the waves of the ether. Not the animal kingdom and not the human kingdom.

[ 8 ] In the animal kingdom, spiritual vision shows how in the embryonic it is not the astral that is currently flowing into the earth that lives, but that which still flowed in during the old lunar period.

[ 9 ] In the plant kingdom, one can see how the manifold wonderful forms are formed by the astral being released from the ether and working over the plant world.

[ 10 ] In the animal world, one sees how the astral, which was active in the past - during the development of the moon - has been preserved out of the spiritual and acts as such preserved things, which currently remain in the spiritual world and do not emerge into the etheric world.

[ 11 ] The effectiveness of this astral is also mediated by the lunar forces, which have also remained from the previous earth stage.

[ 12 ] The animal kingdom is thus the result of impulses which in the previous earthly stage manifested themselves externally-naturally, whereas in the present cosmic age they have withdrawn into the spirit world, which effectively flows through the earth.

[ 13 ] Now it becomes apparent to spiritual vision that within the animal kingdom only the astral forces preserved in the present earthly world from the past are significant for the interpenetration of the physical and etheric bodies with the astral body. But once the animal has its astral body, then the solar impulses effectively appear in it. The solar forces cannot give the animal anything of an astral nature; however, once this is in the animal, they must be used for growth, nourishment and so on.

[ 14 ] This is different for the human kingdom. This too initially receives its astral from the preserved lunar forces. But the solar forces contain astral impulses which remain ineffective for the animal kingdom, but which continue to work in the human astral in the same way as the lunar forces did when they first penetrated man with astrality.

[ 15 ] In the animal astral body one sees the lunar world; in the human the harmonious consonance of the solar and lunar worlds.

[ 16 ] It is based on this solar nature in the human astral body that man can absorb the spiritual emanating in the earthly world for the development of self-consciousness. The astral emanates from the circumference of the universe. It works either as that which streams in at present, or as that which has streamed in and been preserved in the past. - But everything that relates to the shaping of the ego as the carrier of self-consciousness must radiate from a star center. The astral works from the circumference, the ego-like from a center. The earth as a star impulses the human ego from its center. Every star radiates forces from its center by which the ego of any entity is formed.

[ 17 ] This is how the polarity of the center of the star and the cosmic circumference is represented.

[ 18 ] This illustration also shows how the animal kingdom still exists today as a result of earlier developmental forces of the earthly being, how it uses up the preserved astral forces, but how it must disappear when these are used up. In the human being, on the other hand, new astral forces are acquired from the solar being. These make it possible for him to carry his development into the future.

[ 19 ] As can be seen from all this, one cannot understand man in his essence if one does not become as conscious of his connection with being stars as one is of his connection with the earth.

[ 20 ] And what man receives from the earth for the unfolding of his self-consciousness also derives from the spirit-world that is effective within the earthly. - The fact that the sun gives the human being what he needs for his astral being stems from the effects that took place during the old solar time. There the earth received the ability to unfold the ego impulses of humanity. It is the spiritual from this time that the earth has preserved from the solar, but which is protected from extinction by the present solar effect.

[ 21 ] The earth itself was once the sun. Then it spiritualized itself. In the present cosmic age, the solar nature works from outside. This continually rejuvenates the ageing spiritual from the past. At the same time, this presently active solar nature protects the prehistoric from falling into the Luciferic. For that which continues to work without being absorbed into the forces of the present falls into the Luciferian.

[ 22 ] It can be said that man's sense of belonging to the extraterrestrial cosmos is so muted in this cosmic epoch that he does not notice it within his consciousness. And it is not only muted, it is drowned out by the sense of belonging to the earthly world. Because human beings must find their self-awareness in the earthly world, they grow together with it during the beginning of the age of the consciousness soul in such a way that it has a much stronger effect on them than is compatible with the proper course of their soul life. — Human beings are, in a sense, numb to the impressions of the sensory world. Within this numbness, they cannot develop free thinking that lives within themselves.

[ 23 ] The whole epoch from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards was one of anaesthesia through sensory impressions. That is the great illusion of this epoch, that in it the sensory life was taken for the right one. That sensory life which endeavored to completely extinguish life in the extraterrestrial cosmos.

[ 24 ] Into this stupor the Ahrimanic powers were able to unfold their nature. Lucifer was more rejected by the solar than Ahriman, who was able to evoke the dangerous feeling in scientific people that ideas are only applicable to sensory impressions. Thus it is precisely in these circles that anthroposophy can find little understanding. One is confronted with the results of spirit-knowledge. One tries to understand them with the ideas. But these ideas do not grasp the spiritual, because their experience is drowned out by ahrimanized sense knowledge. And so one falls into the fear of falling into a blind belief in authority if one accepts the results of the spiritually seeing.

[ 25 ] In the second half of the nineteenth century, the extraterrestrial cosmos became increasingly dark for human consciousness.

[ 26 ] When man becomes capable of experiencing the ideas within himself again, even if he does not lean on the sensory world with them, then brightness will again flow towards the view into the extraterrestrial cosmos. But that means getting to know Michael in his realm.

[ 27 ] When once the Michael festival in autumn will be true and intimate, then the leitmotif will be released in the feelings of the people celebrating the festival with innermost sincerity and live in consciousness: The soul experiences spirit-light filled with ideas, when the sensual light only echoes like memory in the human being.

[ 28 ] When man will be able to feel this, then he will be able to immerse himself properly in the sensual world again after the festive mood. And Ahriman will not be able to harm him.

Goetheanum, January 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 168 to 170
(March 8, 1925)

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Further guiding principles issued by the Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum (with reference to the preceding consideration: Man in his macrocosmic essence)

[ 29 ] 168. At the beginning of the Age of Consciousness, there was a weakening of man's feeling of togetherness with the extraterrestrial cosmos. In contrast to this, the feeling of belonging to the earthly in the experience of sensory impressions became so strong, especially among scientific people, that it represents a numbing.

[ 30 ] 169. Within this stupefaction, the ahrimanic powers are particularly dangerous because man lives in the illusion that the too strong, stupefying experience of sensory impressions is the right thing and a true progress in development.

[ 31 ] 170. Man must find the strength to illuminate his world of ideas and to experience it illuminated, even if he does not lean on the numbing world of the senses. This experience of the independent world of ideas, illuminated in its independence, will awaken the feeling of togetherness with the extraterrestrial cosmos. The basis for Michaelmas celebrations will arise from this.