The Foundations of Esotericism
GA 93a
29 September 1905, Berlin
Lecture IV
We have spoken about the consciousness of the different kingdoms of nature. Man's organs have an organ-consciousness; this consciousness develops an abnormal condition in idiots. It is the consciousness possessed by nocturnal insects, ants, spiders and so on. We find a totally different consciousness in the case of bees. We will use the example of bees in order to show how one arrives at such truths and then can make use of them to find one's bearings in the world.
An occult schooling is something completely different from our usual schooling. It does not start by cramming into the pupils a great deal of educational matter. In a strict occult schooling the pupil receives no educational matter whatever, but is given a pregnant sentence filled with inner power. So it was also in earlier times. The pupil had to meditate on the sentence in a state of complete inner calm, through which eventually he became inwardly suffused with light, completely illuminated. When a person has advanced to the stage of seeing into his inner self, he can sink his consciousness into other beings. For this he must have gained control of the point midway between the eyes and from there direct his consciousness downward into the heart. Then he can transfer his consciousness into other things; for example, he can then investigate what lives in an ant heap. Then he can also perceive the life in a beehive. Here however a phenomenon presents itself which is otherwise not to be experienced on earth. In the way a beehive functions one experiences something which is outside our earthly existence, something which is not found anywhere else on earth. What takes place on the other planets cannot be discovered merely by thinking. One cannot for example experience what is taking place on the Sun or Venus if one is unable to transfer one's consciousness into the life and functioning of a colony of bees. The bee has not gone through the whole course of evolution as we have. From the outset it has not been connected with the same evolutionary sequence as the other animals and man. The consciousness of the beehive, not of the single bee, is immensely lofty. The wisdom of this consciousness will only be attained by man in the Venus existence. Then he will have the consciousness which is necessary in order to build with a substance which he creates out of his own being. The ants build the ant heap out of all sorts of things, but as yet build no cells. The building of cells is on higher planes something absolutely different. Through transferring one's consciousness into the beehive, through taking on the Venus consciousness, one learns something entirely different from anything else on earth, the complete recession of the element of sex. With the bees what is sexual is vested only in the one queen. The kama-sexuality is almost entirely eliminated; the drones are killed. Here we have the prototype of something which will actually be accomplished in a future humanity, when work is the highest principle. It is only through the impulse of the spirit that one gains the faculty of transferring oneself into the community of the bees.
In order to progress further, let us now come to a true concept of alchemy. As late as the 18th century one could read in the German paper ‘Reichsanzeiger’ articles on alchemy. Kortum, the poet who wrote ‘Jobsiade’19A comic epic poem by Karl Arnold Kortum, published in 1754. was one of the most significant alchemists of the 18th century. At that time a number of articles dealt with the so-called ‘Urmaterie’ (primal matter), bringing this into connection with the Philosopher's stone. Kortum, who was deeply immersed in these things, said at that time: To search for the Philosopher's stone is very difficult, but it is everywhere, you meet it every day, are well acquainted with it, you make use of it constantly, but do not know that it is the Philosopher's Stone. This is an apt description.
In Nature everything is ordered with infinite wisdom, with an infinitely wise economy. All living beings possessing Kama (astrality)—animals and men, and all etheric living beings—plants—are inter-related. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbonic acid. The animals do this also. Now if this were simply to continue, the air would soon be quite full of carbonic acid. But the plants assimilate carbonic acid and breathe out oxygen. Animals and men cannot live without plants. Now carbonic acid consists of carbon and oxygen. The plants retain the carbon and breathe out the oxygen. Man on the other hand takes in the oxygen and through his life processes transforms it into carbonic acid by uniting it with carbon. The plants build up their bodily form out of the carbon which they have retained.
In earlier times the appearance of the Earth was quite different from what it is now. Then, even in our districts there grew forests of gigantic ferns and horsetails, (equisetums). These disappeared. At first the Earth became covered with a layer of peat, the remains of the dead plants; then the former forests of fern and equisetums were transformed into the immense coal fields of the Earth. The rock formations developed gradually, either from the plant kingdom or the animal kingdom. When one looks at a lump of coal one can say to oneself: This was once plant. If one were to go still further back one would also be able to find the plants out of which rock-crystals, malachite and so on developed. The central zone of the Alps arose out of the primeval plants before coal. A diamond is exactly the same as a piece of coal. Nature has created the diamond from a coal still older than that which we have today. This rock crystal also has arisen out of plants.
Limestone is derived from animals. The Juras, for example, consist of such an accumulation of calcium. They were previously covered by the sea and are formed from the cast-off shells of sea-creatures. Thus the younger limestone mountains have arisen out of animals and the primeval rocks out of plants. The plant kingdom gradually passes over into the mineral kingdom. Everything solid on the earth has arisen out of a “plant-earth”. This mineralising process can be studied through the development of coal out of plants.
The mineral kingdom in its present state of separation only came into existence during the Fourth Round. After this, the entire mineral kingdom will be spiritualised by man. He transforms it with the ‘plough of his spirit’. Everything that man does today, the entire world of industry, is the transformation of the mineral kingdom. When someone quarries a rock in order to use the stones for the building of a house, when he builds a cathedral, all this changes the nature of the mineral kingdom by artificial means. In the Fourth Round man can work upon the mineral kingdom in this way. With the plant, on the contrary, he can as yet do nothing of this kind. The whole mineral kingdom will be transformed by man. To a great extent this will be brought about by oscillating electricity no longer requiring wires. Here man will be working right into the molecules and atoms. At the end of the Fourth Round he will have transformed the entire mineral kingdom.
From the Fifth Round onwards man will do the same with the plant kingdom. He will be able consciously to carry out the process which is now carried out by the plant. As the plant takes in carbonic acid and builds up its body from the carbon, so the human being of the Fifth Round will himself create his body out of the materials of his environment. Sex will cease to exist. Man will then himself have to work on his body, will have to produce it for himself. The same process of transforming carbon, which the plant now carries out unconsciously, will then be carried out consciously by man.20See more details in The Study of Man, lecture 12 He will then transform matter just as today the plant transforms the air into carbon. That is the true alchemy. Carbon is the Philosopher's Stone. The man of the 18th century who pointed this out was indicating the transformation which is now carried out by the plants and which later will be carried out by man.
When from the higher planes one studies consciousness as it functions in the beehive, one learns how later on man will produce matter out of himself. In the future the human body will also be built up out of carbon; it will then be like a soft diamond. Then one will no longer inhabit the body from within, but will have it before one as an external body. Today the planets are built up in this way by the planetary spirits. From a being requiring a body produced by others, man will transform himself into a being who manifests himself through emanation. At that time he will consist of three members: ‘Man in the evening who goes on three’, as the Sphinx says. The original four organs have undergone metamorphosis. At first the hands were also organs of movement. Then they became organs for the spiritual. In the future only three organs will remain; the heart as Buddhi-organ, the two-petalled lotus-flower between the eyes, and the left hand as the organ of movement. This future state is also related to Blavatsky's indication (of a second spinal column). The pineal gland and the pituitary gland organise a second spinal column which later unites itself with the first. The second spinal column will descend in front from the head.
To arrive at such guiding threads as these, one must bring one's consciousness into a state of being which is at a higher level than we normally have at the present stage of earthly evolution.
All this was taught in the Mystery Schools and in a certain way, put to practical use. One must accustom oneself to developing one's way of thinking, and then one will develop in oneself a feeling that nothing is valueless, but that everything has its own inherent value. There is nothing in all Nature that we can obliterate through thinking without thereby disturbing Nature as a whole.
The ant heap also has a much higher consciousness than present-day man. The consciousness of the ant heap is to be found in the higher regions of the Mental Plane. On the other hand the consciousness of the bees is to be found in the higher regions of the Buddhi plane. How then did the ant-consciousness enter into our Earth? This took place through beings who stand higher than we do who had already gone through the process of creating their body for themselves. Males, females and workers, the three members of the ant heap, comprise the body of a higher spiritual being. The human spirit also comes gradually to the point of dividing itself into three parts. Willing, feeling and thinking become separated in the case of the esoteric pupil. The molecules of the brain divide into three groups. The esoteric pupil must then out of himself connect a definite feeling with a mental picture. When he sees suffering, in order to experience pity, he must consciously add this feeling to it. To the front of the head lies the thinking part, above, the part of feeling, to the back of the head that of willing. The esoteric pupil learns to bring these consciously into connection with one another. Later these three parts become completely separated.21See: Knowledge of the Higher Worlds He must then control the three parts in the same way as an ant heap controls the males, females and workers.
Now we can ask why higher beings manifest themselves in an ant heap. But if formic acid had not been introduced, the whole earth would have been different. The foreseeing wisdom of Higher Intelligences was aware of the moment when formic acid had to be brought into the earth.
Thus we can gain a comprehensive understanding of the whole earth, so that we know and recognise what lives and has its being within it. This was the case with Paracelsus, who built up his concepts in such a way that he perceived how things could be used as remedies because he knew in what relationship they stood to man and his organs. For instance, Digitalis purpurea (foxglove) is connected with the heart and can therefore still be rightly used as a heart remedy. Nowadays new remedies are sought by means of experiment, in which one tests their effects on a number of people. In those days remedies were sought through intuition, because their inner connections were observed. Remedies discovered in this way always retain their effect, whereas with the others, in the course of time after-effects usually show themselves, which eluded observation when the experiments were first carried out.
IV
Wir haben von dem Bewußtsein der verschiedenen Naturreiche gesprochen. Die Organe des Menschen haben ein Organbewußtsein; abnorm findet sich dieses Bewußtsein bei den Idioten. Es ist das astrale Bewußtsein, welches auch nächtliche Insekten, Ameisen, Spinnen und so weiter, besitzen. Ein ganz andersgeartetes Bewußtsein treffen wir bei den Bienen an. Wir wollen das Beispiel der Bienen benutzen, um zu zeigen, wie man zu solchen Wahrheiten kommt und sie dann zur Orientierung in der Welt benutzt.
Eine okkulte Schulung ist etwas ganz anderes als unsere gewöhnliche Schulung; sie geht nicht wie diese darauf aus, viel Lehrstoff in den Schüler hineinzupfropfen. In einer strengen okkulten Schulung bekommt der Schüler gar keinen Lehrstoff, sondern einen markigen Satz mit innerer Kraft. So war es auch in früheren Zeiten. Den Satz mußte der Schüler meditieren bei vollständiger innerer Windstille. Das hatte die Wirkung, daß er zuletzt innerlich ganz licht, ganz durchleuchtet wurde. Wenn nun der Mensch dazu gelangt ist, sich selbst zu durchschauen, kann er sein Bewußtsein in andere Wesen hineinversenken. Dazu muß man genau den Punkt hinter der Augenmitte erfaßt haben, dann von dort das Bewußtsein hinunterführen bis ins Herz. Dann kann man sein Bewußtsein in andere Dinge versetzen, zum Beispiel kann man dann ergründen, was in einem ‚Ameisenhaufen lebt.
Dann kann man auch das Leben in einem Bienenstock wahrnehmen. Dabei stellt sich aber eine Erscheinung ein, die man sonst nicht auf der Erde erlebt. Im Treiben des Bienenstockes erlebt man etwas, was über unser irdisches Dasein hinausgeht, was sonst auf der Erde nicht wieder existiert. Was auf den anderen Planeten vorgeht, kann nicht ausgedacht werden. Man kann zum Beispiel nicht erfahren, was auf der Sonne oder auf der Venus vorgeht, wenn man nicht die Prozedur vornehmen kann, sich in das Leben und Treiben einer Bienengenossenschaft hineinzuversetzen. Die Biene hat nicht den ganzen Evolutionsweg durchgemacht wie wir. Sie ist in ihren Anfängen nicht mit derselben Evolutionskette verknüpft wie die anderen Tiere und die Menschen. Das Bewußtsein des Bienenstockes, nicht der einzelnen Bienen, ist ein ungeheuer hohes. Die Weisheit dieses Bewußtseins wird der Mensch erst im Venusdasein erreichen. Dann wird er das Bewußtsein haben, welches notwendig ist, um aus sich heraus zu bauen mit einem Stoff, den er aus sich heraus erzeugt. Die Ameisen bauen den Ameisenhaufen aus allem möglichen zusammen, aber bauen noch keine Zellen. Das Zellenbauen ist auf den höheren Planen etwas ganz anderes. Man lernt durch das Versetzen des Bewußtseins in den Bienenstock hinein, durch Annahme des Venusbewußtseins, etwas ganz anderes als sonst auf der Erde ist, man lernt etwas vorausnehmen von dem, was bei unserem Venusdasein eintreten wird, das absolute Zurücktreten des Sexuellen. Bei den Bienen ist das Sexuelle nur der einen Königin zuerteilt. Das Kamisch-Sexuelle ist fast vollständig ausgeschaltet; die Drohnen werden getötet. Was sich tatsächlich vollzieht in der späteren Menschheit, haben wir hier vorgebildet, und die Arbeit ist das höchste Prinzip. Man kann nur durch den Impuls des Geistes befähigt werden, sich in den Bienenstaat hineinzuversetzen.
Wir wollen nun, um weiterzukommen, den wahren Begriff der Alchimie entwickeln. Noch im 18. Jahrhundert konnte man im deutschen «Reichsanzeiger» Artikel über Alchimie lesen. Kortum, der Dichter der «Jobsiade», war einer der bedeutendsten Alchimisten des 18. Jahrhunderts. In einigen Artikeln ist damals die Rede von der sogenannten Urmaterie, die mit dem Stein der Weisen zusammengebracht wird. Kortum, der in der Sache tief darinnen stand, sagte damals: Den Stein der Weisen suchen, ist sehr schwer, aber er ist überall, denn ihr begegnet ihm jeden Tag, kennt ihn sehr gut, habt ihn jeden Tag in der Hand, wißt aber nicht, daß dies der Stein der Weisen ist. - Dies ist eine treffende Beschreibung.
In der Natur ist alles unendlich weise eingerichtet, mit einer unendlich weisen Ökonomie. Alle kamisch lebenden Wesen - Tiere und Menschen - und alle pranisch lebenden Wesen - Pflanzen - stehen in einer Wechselbeziehung. Wir atmen Sauerstoff ein und Kohlensäure aus. Das tun die Tiere auch. Würde das nun einfach fortdauern, so würde die Luft bald ganz voller Kohlensäure sein. Aber die Pflanzen assimilieren Kohlensäure und atmen Sauerstoff aus. Tiere und Menschen können nicht ohne Pflanzen leben. Nun besteht Kohlensäure aus Kohlenstoff und Sauerstoff. Den Kohlenstoff behalten die Pflanzen in sich und den Sauerstoff atmen sie aus. Der Mensch dagegen nimmt den Sauerstoff auf und verwandelt ihn durch seinen Lebensprozeß, indem er ihn mit dem Kohlenstoff verbindet, zur Kohlensäure. Die Pflanzen bauen aus dem zurückbehaltenen Kohlenstoff ihren Körper auf.
In früheren Zeiten sah die Erde anders aus als jetzt. Da wuchsen auch in den hiesigen Gegenden Wälder von riesigen Farnkräutern und Schachtelhalmen. Diese sind untergegangen. Zunächst überzog sich dann die Erde mit einer Torfschicht, die von den Pflanzenleichnamen übrigblieb; dann verwandelten sich die früheren Wälder aus Farnkräutern und Schachtelhalmen in die riesigen Kohlenlager der Erde. Das Gestein der Erde ist so nach und nach aus dem Pflanzenreich oder aus dem Tierreich entstanden. Wenn man eine Steinkohle anschaut, kann man sich sagen, diese war einstmals Pflanze. Wenn man weiter zurückginge, könnte man auch die Pflanzen finden, aus denen Bergkristalle, Malachit und so weiter entstanden sind. Der mittlere Gürtel der Alpen ist vor der Steinkohle aus den uralten Pflanzen entstanden. Ein Diamant ist genau dasselbe wie eine Steinkohle. Die Natur hat aus einer noch älteren Kohle als die jetzige den Diamant geschaffen. So ist auch der Bergkristall aus Pflanzen entstanden.
Das Kalkgestein ist aus Tieren abgesondert. Der Jura ist zum Beispiel eine solche Kalkansammlung. Er war früher von Meer bedeckt und ist von Meertieren, von ihren abgesonderten Schalen und Gehäusen gebildet worden. So ist also das jüngere Kalkgebirge aus Tieren, das Urgestein aus Pflanzen entstanden. Das Pflanzenreich geht allmählich ins Gesteinreich über. Alles Feste auf der Erde ist aus einer Pflanzenerde geworden. Diesen Mineralisierungsprozeß kann man studieren bei der Entstehung der Kohle durch die Pflanzen.
Das Mineralreich, wie es jetzt abgesondert wird, ist nur während der vierten Runde vorhanden. Nach derselben wird das ganze Mineralreich vom Menschen durchgeistigt sein. Er ackert es mit seinem Geiste um. Alles was der Mensch heute tut, die ganze Industrie, ist Umarbeitung des Mineralreiches. Wenn einer einen Felsen abträgt, um die Steine bei einem Hausbau zu verwenden, wenn er einen Dom baut, alles ist Artifizierung des Mineralreiches. In der vierten Runde kann der Mensch das Mineralreich künstlich verarbeiten. Mit der Pflanze dagegen kann der Mensch jetzt nichts anfangen. Das ganze Mineralreich wird der Mensch durcharbeiten. Im großen Maße geschieht das durch die schwingende Elektrizität, die keinen Draht mehr braucht. Da arbeitet man bis in die Moleküle und Atome hinein. Am Ende der vierten Runde wird der Mensch das ganze Mineralreich durchgearbeitet haben.
Von der fünften Runde an wird der Mensch dasselbe tun mit dem Pflanzenreich. Er wird bewußt den Prozeß durchmachen können, den die Pflanze jetzt durchmacht. Wie die Pflanze Kohlensäure aufnimmt und aus dem Kohlenstoff den Körper aufbaut, wird der Mensch der fünften Runde auch aus den Stoffen seiner Umgebung sich seinen Körper selbst schaffen. In der fünften Runde wird die Geschlechtlichkeit aufgehört haben. Der Mensch muß dann selbst an seinem Körper arbeiten, ihn selbst herstellen. Denselben Prozeß, den Kohlenstoff zu verarbeiten, den die Pflanze jetzt unbewußt durchmacht, wird der Mensch dann bewußt machen. Er wird den Stoff verwandeln, wie heute die Pflanze die Luft in Kohlenstoff verwandelt. Das ist die wahre Alchimie. Kohle ist der Stein der Weisen. Der Mann, der im 18. Jahrhundert darauf hindeutete, wies hin auf den Prozeß der Umwandlung, den die Pflanzen jetzt vollziehen und der vom Menschen später vollzogen wird.
Wenn man auf den höheren Planen das Bewußtsein studiert, wie es im Bienenstock arbeitet, so lernt man, wie der Mensch später selbst Materie hervorbringen wird. Der Körper des Menschen wird in Zukunft auch aus Kohlenstoff aufgebaut sein; er wird dann sein wie ein weicher Diamant. Man wird dann den Körper nicht von innen bewohnen, sondern ihn vor sich haben als äußeren Körper. So sind heute die Planeten von den Planetengeistern aufgebaut. Von einem Wesen, das einen Körper braucht, der von anderen hergestellt wird, schafft man sich um zu einem emanierenden, offenbarenden Wesen. Der Mensch wird dann ein Wesen mit drei Gliedmaßen sein: der Mensch am Abend, der auf dreien geht, wie die Sphinx sagt. Die ursprünglichen vier Organe haben sich differenziert. Zuerst waren die Hände auch Bewegungsorgane. Dann wurden sie Organe für das Geistige. Später werden nur noch drei Organe da sein: Das Herz als Buddhiorgan, die zweiblättrige Lotusblume in der Augenmitte und die linke Hand als Bewegungsorgan. Auf diese Zukunft bezieht sich auch die Angabe Blavatskys [von einer zweiten Wirbelsäule]. Die Zirbeldrüse und die Schleimdrüse organisieren eine zweite Wirbelsäule, die sich später mit der anderen vereinigt. Die zweite Wirbelsäule wird vom Kopf vorn heruntergehen.
Um solche Leitfäden zu erhalten, muß man das Bewußtsein hineinbringen in eine Wesenheit, die höher steht als wir jetzt in unserem gewöhnlichen irdischen Entwickelungsverlauf stehen.
Dies alles wurde in den Geheimschulen gelehrt und in einem gewissen Sinne praktisch geübt. Man muß sich daran gewöhnen, die Denkweise in diese Richtung zu bringen. Dann wird man eine Empfindung in sich entwickeln, nichts wertlos zu finden, sondern bei jedem Ding den Wert herauszuerkennen. Es gibt nichts in der ganzen Natur, was wir wegdenken könnten, ohne daß die ganze Natur dadurch zerstört würde.
Auch der Ameisenhaufen hat ein viel höheres Bewußtsein als der gegenwärtige Mensch. Das Bewußtsein des Ameisenhaufens befindet sich auf den oberen Partien des Mentalplanes. Das Bienenbewußtsein befindet sich dagegen auf den oberen Partien des Buddhiplanes. Wodurch ist nun das Ameisenbewußtsein hineingekommen in unsere Erde? Das geschah durch Wesen, die höher stehen als wir, die den Prozeß schon durchgemacht hatten, sich selbst ihren Körper zu schaffen. Männchen, Weibchen und Arbeiter, die drei Glieder des Ameisenhaufens sind der Körper eines höheren geistigen Wesens. Der Menschengeist kommt allmählich auch dahin, sich in drei Teile zu spalten. Wille, Gefühl und Denken werden beim Geheimschüler getrennt. Die Gehirnmoleküle gehen in drei Gruppen auseinander. Der Geheimschüler muß dann von sich aus ein bestimmtes Gefühl mit einer Vorstellung verbinden. Wenn er Elend sieht, muß er, um Mitleid zu empfinden, dieses Gefühl bewußt hinzufügen. Vorne am Kopfe liegt die Denkpartie, oben die Partie des Fühlens, am Hinterkopf die des Wollens. Der Geheimschüler lernt diese bewußt in Verbindung zu setzen. Später gehen diese drei Teile ganz auseinander. Er muß die drei Partien dann so dirigieren, wie ein Ameisenhaufen die Männchen, Weibchen und Arbeiter.
Nun kann man fragen, warum höhere Wesen sich manifestieren in einem Ameisenhaufen. Aber wenn die Ameisensäure nicht erzeugt würde, so würde die ganze Erde anders sein. Die vorausschauende Weisheit höherer Intelligenzen gehörte dazu, den Moment vorauszusehen, wann die Ameisensäure in die Erde hineinkommen mußte.
So kann man die ganze Erde umfassen mit dem Bewußtsein, so daß man weiß und erkennt, was da drinnen lebt und ist. So war es bei Paracelsus, der sich darnach seine Vorstellungen bildete, wie die Dinge als Heilmittel verwendet werden können, weil er wußte, in welchen Beziehungen sie zum Menschen und seinen Organen standen. So hängt tatsächlich Digitalis purpurea mit dem Herzen zusammen und kann daher immer noch mit Recht dafür verwendet werden. Jetzt sucht man nach neuen Heilmitteln durch Experimentieren, indem man ihre Wirkung an einer Anzahl Menschen ausprobiert. Damals suchte man Heilmittel durch Intuition, weil man die inneren Zusammenhänge beobachtete. Die so gefundenen Heilmittel behalten immer ihre Wirkung, während sich bei den anderen gewöhnlich im Laufe der Zeit Nachteile zeigen, die bei der ersten Beobachtung dem Experimentierenden entgangen sind.
IV
We have spoken of the consciousness of the various kingdoms of nature. The organs of the human being have an organ consciousness; this consciousness is found in an abnormal form in idiots. It is the astral consciousness, which is also possessed by nocturnal insects, ants, spiders, and so on. We encounter a completely different kind of consciousness in bees. Let us use the example of bees to show how one arrives at such truths and then uses them for orientation in the world.
Occult training is something quite different from our ordinary schooling; it does not aim, like the latter, to cram a lot of subject matter into the student. In strict occult training, the student is not given any teaching material at all, but rather a pithy sentence with inner power. This was also the case in earlier times. The student had to meditate on the sentence in complete inner stillness. This had the effect of ultimately filling him with light, completely illuminating him from within. Once a person has reached the point of seeing through themselves, they can immerse their consciousness in other beings. To do this, one must grasp the exact point behind the center of the eyes, then lead the consciousness down from there to the heart. Then one can transfer one's consciousness to other things; for example, one can then fathom what lives in an anthill.
Then one can also perceive life in a beehive. However, this gives rise to a phenomenon that is not otherwise experienced on Earth. In the hustle and bustle of the beehive, one experiences something that transcends our earthly existence, something that does not otherwise exist on Earth. What happens on other planets cannot be imagined. For example, you cannot experience what happens on the sun or on Venus unless you can put yourself in the life and bustle of a bee colony. Bees have not gone through the entire evolutionary process as we have. In their beginnings, they are not linked to the same evolutionary chain as other animals and humans. The consciousness of the beehive, not of the individual bees, is tremendously high. Humans will only attain the wisdom of this consciousness in their Venusian existence. Then they will have the consciousness necessary to build from within themselves with a substance they produce from within themselves. Ants build their anthills from all kinds of materials, but they do not yet build cells. Cell building is something completely different on the higher planes. By transferring consciousness into the beehive, by accepting Venus consciousness, one learns something completely different from what is usual on Earth; one learns something in advance of what will happen in our Venus existence, the absolute retreat of sexuality. Among bees, sexuality is assigned only to the queen. The Kamisch-sexual is almost completely eliminated; the drones are killed. What will actually take place in later humanity has been prefigured here, and work is the highest principle. Only through the impulse of the spirit can one be enabled to put oneself in the place of the bee colony.
In order to proceed, we now want to develop the true concept of alchemy. Even in the 18th century, articles on alchemy could be read in the German “Reichsanzeiger.” Kortum, the poet of the “Jobsiade,” was one of the most important alchemists of the 18th century. Some articles at that time refer to the so-called primordial matter, which is associated with the philosopher's stone. Kortum, who was deeply involved in the subject, said at the time: “Searching for the philosopher's stone is very difficult, but it is everywhere, because you encounter it every day, know it very well, hold it in your hands every day, but do not know that it is the philosopher's stone.” This is an apt description.
In nature, everything is arranged with infinite wisdom and infinite economy. All kamic beings—animals and humans—and all pranic beings—plants—are interrelated. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Animals do the same. If this were to continue, the air would soon be completely filled with carbon dioxide. But plants assimilate carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Animals and humans cannot live without plants. Carbon dioxide consists of carbon and oxygen. Plants retain the carbon and exhale the oxygen. Humans, on the other hand, absorb the oxygen and transform it into carbon dioxide through their life processes by combining it with carbon. Plants build their bodies from the retained carbon.
In earlier times, the earth looked different than it does now. Forests of giant ferns and horsetails also grew in this area. These have disappeared. First, the earth was covered with a layer of peat left over from the plant remains; then the former forests of ferns and horsetails were transformed into the earth's huge coal deposits. The earth's rock was thus gradually formed from the plant and animal kingdoms. When you look at a piece of coal, you can say to yourself that it was once a plant. If you went further back, you could also find the plants from which rock crystals, malachite, and so on were formed. The middle belt of the Alps was formed from ancient plants before coal. A diamond is exactly the same as coal. Nature created diamonds from coal that is even older than the coal we have today. Rock crystals were also formed from plants.
Limestone is secreted from animals. The Jura, for example, is such a limestone accumulation. It was formerly covered by the sea and was formed by sea animals, from their secreted shells and casings. Thus, the younger limestone mountains were formed from animals, and the primordial rock from plants. The plant kingdom gradually transitions into the rock kingdom. Everything solid on earth has come from plant soil. This mineralization process can be studied in the formation of coal from plants.
The mineral kingdom, as it is now separated, only exists during the fourth round. After that, the entire mineral kingdom will be spiritualized by humans. They will cultivate it with their spirit. Everything that humans do today, the entire industry, is a reworking of the mineral kingdom. When someone removes a rock to use the stones in building a house, when they build a cathedral, everything is an artificialization of the mineral kingdom. In the fourth round, humans can artificially process the mineral kingdom. With plants, on the other hand, humans cannot do anything at present. Humans will work through the entire mineral kingdom. To a large extent, this is done by means of oscillating electricity, which no longer needs wires. Here, work is carried out down to the level of molecules and atoms. By the end of the fourth round, human beings will have worked through the entire mineral kingdom.
From the fifth round onwards, humans will do the same with the plant kingdom. They will be able to consciously go through the process that plants are now going through. Just as plants absorb carbon dioxide and build their bodies from carbon, humans in the fifth round will also create their own bodies from the substances in their environment. In the fifth round, sexuality will have ceased. Humans will then have to work on their own bodies, creating them themselves. Humans will then consciously carry out the same process of processing carbon that plants now undergo unconsciously. They will transform matter in the same way that plants today transform air into carbon. This is true alchemy. Coal is the philosopher's stone. The man who pointed this out in the 18th century was referring to the process of transformation that plants now carry out and that will later be carried out by humans.
If one studies consciousness on the higher planes, as it works in the beehive, one learns how humans themselves will later produce matter. In the future, the human body will also be made of carbon; it will then be like a soft diamond. One will then not inhabit the body from within, but will have it before oneself as an outer body. This is how the planets are built today by the planetary spirits. From a being that needs a body made by others, one transforms oneself into an emanating, revealing being. Man will then be a being with three limbs: the man of the evening, who walks on three, as the sphinx says. The original four organs have differentiated. At first, the hands were also organs of movement. Then they became organs for the spiritual. Later, there will only be three organs: the heart as the Buddha organ, the two-petaled lotus flower in the center of the eye, and the left hand as the organ of movement. Blavatsky's statement [about a second spine] also refers to this future. The pineal gland and the mucous gland organize a second spine, which later unites with the other. The second spine will descend from the front of the head.
In order to receive such guidance, one must bring consciousness into a being that is higher than we are now in our ordinary earthly course of development.
All this was taught in the secret schools and, in a certain sense, practiced. One must accustom oneself to thinking in this direction. Then one will develop a feeling within oneself of finding nothing worthless, but rather recognizing the value in everything. There is nothing in all of nature that we could think away without destroying the whole of nature.
Even the anthill has a much higher consciousness than the present human being. The consciousness of the anthill is located in the upper parts of the mental plane. The consciousness of the bee, on the other hand, is located in the upper parts of the buddhi plane. How did the ant consciousness come into our earth? This happened through beings who are higher than us, who had already gone through the process of creating their own bodies. Males, females, and workers, the three members of the anthill, are the body of a higher spiritual being. The human spirit also gradually comes to divide itself into three parts. Will, feeling, and thinking are separated in the secret student. The brain molecules separate into three groups. The secret student must then consciously connect a certain feeling with an idea. When he sees misery, he must consciously add this feeling in order to feel compassion. At the front of the head is the thinking part, at the top is the feeling part, and at the back of the head is the willing part. The secret student learns to consciously connect these. Later, these three parts separate completely. He must then direct the three parts as an anthill directs the males, females, and workers.
Now one may ask why higher beings manifest themselves in an anthill. But if formic acid were not produced, the whole earth would be different. The foresight of higher intelligences included anticipating the moment when formic acid had to enter the earth.
In this way, one can embrace the whole earth with consciousness, so that one knows and recognizes what lives and is there. This was the case with Paracelsus, who then formed his ideas about how things could be used as remedies because he knew how they related to humans and their organs. Digitalis purpurea is indeed related to the heart and can therefore still be used for this purpose with good reason. Nowadays, new remedies are sought through experimentation, by testing their effects on a number of people. In the past, remedies were sought through intuition, because the inner connections were observed. The remedies found in this way always retain their effectiveness, while the others usually reveal disadvantages over time that were overlooked by the experimenter during the initial observation.