Universe, Earth and Man
GA 105
7 Aug 1908, Stuttgart
Lecture IV
In our last lecture we spoke of various Spiritual Beings who supplement the different Kingdoms of nature that surround us in the physical world. We learnt that minerals and plants have an ego as well as an astral body; and our Spiritual view was enlarged to include a plenitude of realities besides those that our physical eyes can see and that can be comprehended by means of our physical intellect. We learnt, further, that high Spiritual Beings take part in man's evolution on earth; and that as regards individual men a yet higher grade of being takes a hand in this.
Spiritual Science maintains that each separate human being is complete ruler over his inner world, the world of his deeds, and of his will, between birth and death; but we know that the essential inner being of man has passed through many incarnations, and that in his present normal development man is incapable of working beyond one incarnation. Higher powers must co-operate to give the directing force necessary which is able to work, not only between birth and death, but also beyond death, from one incarnation to another. In Christian esotericism these Spiritual Beings are called Angels, and in Anthroposophical parlance Spirits of Twilight; they may also in accordance with Rosicrucian occultism be called the Sons of Life—all these designations will become clearer to you later. We also heard how communities of men—races and peoples—are guided by an order of Spirits called Archangels, or Fire Spirits; and, lastly, how that which goes beyond the limits of a community of people—that which finds expression in the “Spirit of the Age,” or Zeitgeist—is guided by the Archai, also called Spirits of Personality or Original Forces, or, in Theosophical parlance, Asuras. Spiritual Beings are at work everywhere in the world, and we must realize that three more kingdoms have to be added to those immediately around us. We will now try to give some idea of how it is with the more external manifestations of these Beings.
When we consider the earth from the ordinary physical standpoint we see it is made up of what we call earth, water, air, and fire. These are the four primary conditions of external matter. That to which Spiritual Science gives the name of “earth” is called “solid”; everything fluid (not only water but quicksilver, for instance) is called “water”; everything in the shape of gas, “air”; everything that can be perceived as having any degree of warmth is thought of as permeated with a finer substance, this we call “substantial warmth.”
Now the Spiritual Beings of whom we have spoken live in these various material elements, as if in external bodies. To anyone able to observe the world with clairvoyant vision that which is known as the fluidic element, especially water, is not only inhabited by the Beings we know as aquatic creatures, such as fish, but, in spite of the ever-changing substance, in spite of the fact that no solid form endures in this watery element, Spiritual Beings live in it, and are actually embodied in it in continually changing forms, although it is not possible to distinguish them with external vision. In this element live the Beings whom we have described as Angels, or Spirits of Twilight. Their physical body is in a form not represented by any solid, clearly defined corporation; and when old myths and legends tell of such water-beings it is no phantasy, but is entirely in accordance with reality.
Further, in that which we know as “air,” and particularly in our air, those Beings live whom we called Archangels. It is no fairy tale when in streaming currents of air, in the rushing storm, we see the bodily manifestation of this Spiritual Kingdom. (When I said that Angelic Beings dwelt in water it is preferably that form of water which permeates the air as watery vapour—fugitive and fleeting and dispersed in separate atoms, but in which clairvoyant vision sees the embodiment of Angels.)
In that which we know as warmth we have the embodiment of Beings known as the Spirits of Personality or Archai. As man is made up of these four elements: earth, water, air, and fire, he has mingled within him not only the four elements, but also the Beings we have just named; they fill his body to a certain extent, they pass in and out of his physical body just as material substances do.
The series of Beings connected with man is not exhausted with those I have mentioned. Still higher Beings have to do with the earth, the universe, and man, Beings who are at a higher stage even than the Spirits of Personality. There are Beings, for example, who stream towards us in the light for light to us is a still finer condition than warmth. Wherever there is anything that sends forth light we recognize in this light the garment of exalted Beings, those to whom Christian esotericism gives the name of Exusiai, or Powers, or Spirits of Form. It is they who give form to everything around us. Wherever things are seen with a distinct form this is due to the activity of these Spirits.
We now see that what is active in the evolution of our earth as the “Spirits of the different Ages, or Zeitgeists,” is controlled by the Spirits of Personality. The task of the Spirits of Form is still higher. We shall best understand what this is if we reflect that from the beginning of human evolution, that is, from the time when man experienced his first incarnation, the “Zeitgeist” has continually changed, that from among the many Spirits of Personality different ones have been the directors of succeeding ages; but beyond all that is accomplished by the “Zeitgeist” something else is active which goes through the whole of' earthly humanity. Since the mission of mankind first began on earth, Spiritual Beings have taken part in work upon humanity, and it is they we have to thank for the fact that we can be active as human beings. As if from a higher kingdom, the Spirits of Form have ruled from the beginning of the earth over that which appeared as the Spirits of Personality in the Zeitgeist; as Archangels in separate communities; and as Angels in regard to individual men; they are the principal guides and directors of all these Spiritual Beings. These Spirits of Form have the task of working on the earth as a whole, theirs is a planetary activity. Therefore when we go beyond the “Zeitgeist” to the Spirit of the whole of humanity we encounter the Spirits of Form.
Now you are aware that our earth, as a planet, is under the law of re-embodiment, just as man is. Previous to its present embodiment our earth was what is called the ancient Moon. What we now regard as the mission of the earth did not then exist. The mission of the Moon was different; each planetary condition has its own mission to fulfil within the mighty whole; nothing is repeated, everything is under the law of evolution. During that incarnation of the earth which we call Ancient Moon certain Beings had a duty similar to that of the Spirits of Form on the earth, and these are called, according to Christian esotericism, Spirits of Motion, or Virtues, or Dynamis.
If we go back still further in evolution we arrive at a planetary condition of our earth which preceded that of the Ancient Moon; this is, the Ancient Sun condition, which as you are aware has nothing to do with the globe we now see in the heavens as the sun. A very exalted principle ruled upon the Ancient Sun, as the Spirits of Form rule upon the earth, and as the Spirits of Motion ruled upon the Moon, this principle is named in Christian esotericism the hierarchy of the Spirits of Wisdom, called also Kyriotes, or Dominions. These Beings were in command during the Sun condition. We now come to a still earlier planetary condition, that of ancient Saturn and the Beings who at that time superintended the guidance of the world we call the Thrones, or Spirits of Will.
Thus we pass to greater and ever greater grades of' Spiritual Beings, to Beings who are not merely directors of something that changes—like the “Zeitgeist”—but who are concerned with the mission of planetary conditions that change only from planet to planet such as the Thrones, the Spirits of Motion, and the Spirits of Form. All these Hierarchies are continually in some sort of connection with us, although not in such close, directly perceptible connection as the lower Hierarchies. We will try by an example to show how these work into our earthly evolution, but in order to do this it will be necessary first to consider the evolution of the Angels, Archangels, and Archai.
These Beings are all greater than the man of today, but in the next incarnation of the Earth, which we call the Jupiter condition, he will be as great as the Angels are now; and he will continually expand to ever greater degrees of perfection. This is also the case as regards the evolution of the other Beings; they were not always what they are now, they also have passed through lower stages of development.
Take for example the Angels. In earlier times these passed through their human stage as we are now doing on earth; this was on the Ancient Moon, and it was because of the work they carried out upon themselves at that time that they have become the higher Beings they are now. In the same way Archangels passed through their human stage on the Ancient Sun; at that time they were Beings like us; today they have advanced two stages above us. The Archai had their human stage upon Ancient Saturn. They were one stage higher than the Beings who passed through their humanity on the Sun, and about three stages higher than man is today. But those Beings whom we call the Spirits of Form, whom we look up to and reverence as very exalted Beings, passed through their human stage in a past that it is impossible for us to conceive of. When the embodiment of the earth first began, when the earth was Saturn, they had already left their human evolution behind them.
What exaltation must fill our souls when we look in thought up to these Beings! But even they are under the law of evolution, and although on Saturn they were greater than the humanity of today, they rose through ever higher and higher stages of development during the Sun and Moon periods, and on to the time of the Earth, till at last they have attained to such a degree of expansion and have so large a field of activity that they no longer have need of a planet in order, on it, to find the substances through which they can exist.
Other Beings have need of our earth in a certain way; the Angels have need of water, the Archangels of air, and the Spirits of Personality of fire; but the Spirits of Form no longer require our planetary conditions, hence it was necessary for them, when our earth began its development, to find another dwelling-place, and that was why they separated from it. It was no merely mechanical splitting asunder of matter, but heavenly bodies separated off from each other in order to provide a dwelling place for Spiritual Beings.
Spirits of Form tore from the earth its finer substances; in this way the sun originated and now sends its light down to the earth from outside. In the sunlight the spiritual nature of the Spirits of Form streams down to us, hence I said that light is the garment of these Spirits. When we see the bright light of the sun streaming down to us we see in it the garment of these Spirits who send their guiding and directing forces to the earth from the sun, thus controlling the mission of the earth.
We have to think of the Ancient Moon as a heavenly body similar to our earth, that towards the end passed through a spiritualizing process. That which had been split asunder was blended once more, and converted into an undifferentiated condition. It then passed through a kind of cosmic sleep after which there emerged from the womb of the cosmos that nebulous etheric sphere which is the re-birth of the Ancient Moon. For us this is no material mass, but within this globe dwell all those mighty Beings whom we have designated as the Spirits of Motion, of Form, etc. Only the germ of man dwelt in this globe, as yet he had no ego; but all those Spiritual Beings who already had a certain degree of development behind them were intimately connected with this nebula.
How does the materialistic hypothesis explain the rise of the solar system from out this nebulous mass? There is an experiment frequently made in schools to demonstrate the course of this development. A small quantity of oil is placed in the middle of a heavier liquid and rotated by some simple mechanical device. It can then be observed how this globule becomes oblate, how drops break from it, how these form again into globes and circle round the larger globule; by this means we see, in small, how something resembling a planetary system originates through rotation. This acts most suggestively. Why should we not imagine that the same thing took place with the world? We can see demonstrated before us how, through rotation, the planetary system originates, we have it before our eyes. Only one thing is forgotten! Sometimes it is good to forget this one thing, but not in this case; here one has forgotten oneself! In this experiment, if there is no person there to rotate the axis no planetary system can be produced. If one thought rightly and logically one would have to suppose a gigantic human being in cosmic space who set the axis in motion like a mighty spit! Now it is obvious that there is no giant in space; but something else is there, the nebula is not merely matter, it is inspired and permeated by the Beings we have already mentioned who have certain requirements and aspirations.
One kind of these Beings animated one kind of' matter, and others another, and it was these who, when a certain degree of maturity had been reached, undertook to bring about separation, so that the higher beings went forth with the sun, and those who had need of earthly materials and forces remained behind upon the earth. Within this seething primeval body all these Spiritual Beings were active and they gradually formed that which today we know as our planetary system.
There were some, for example, who had not quite attained the goal which was that of the Spirits of Form; they were backward in their development. These Beings had progressed too far to make of the earth their dwelling-place, but were not sufficiently mature to go along with the finer substances to the sun. There were two principal classes of these Beings, and we shall later become acquainted with their effect upon the earth. For in the same way that the perfected and matured Powers shone in the sunlight upon the earth as Spirits of Form, and guided it from the sun, so did these intermediate Beings also direct the earth, but from a smaller horizon as it were, which was, however, an exalted one compared with the human standpoint. It was in this way that Venus and Mercury originated between the sun and the earth; these are inhabited by beings who are at an intermediate stage. The other planets of our system have separated off in the same way through other Beings having need of them as a field of activity.
Now let us again call to mind the time (in the Earthly period) when the sun went forth with its Beings; the earth remaining behind with all its potentialities, present humanity among them, who had not then reached their present stage. There were also other Beings belonging to the animal and vegetable kingdoms that had already gone through a certain amount of development in the previous embodiments of the earth, and these now reappeared germinally.
Let us to begin with consider man alone. Previous to this, when the sun was still one with the earth, mighty forces which proceeded from exalted sun beings were united with the earth, and worked upon man from within it. At first man was just as he came from the Old Moon, he had only just evolved from the seed, as one might say, and was to begin with furnished only with a physical, etheric, and astral body. The physical body was not so dense as it is now, it was more etheric and finer, and the ego was not yet formed.
Now, through the sun shining upon the earth from outside, and the sun-beings also working on it from outside, conditions on earth became completely changed. You can think of it in this way: as long as the earth was bound up with the sun, exalted Beings (who later went forth with it) were hampered in their own development, hence also in their powers, and power to govern—by the gross forces of the earth. But now that they had become free they could continue their evolution at a quite different rate from before, when they had to carry the very heavy weight of the earth mass with them. They freed themselves from the earth as regards their own evolution, and thus gained power to work on man more strongly from outside. Evolution would have been enormously accelerated through this, and human life would have been brought to an issue with extreme rapidity, if something else had not taken place. Man was unable to proceed at this rate of development, therefore from the totality of Spirits who existed previously, one, with his hosts, separated from the rest, and remained united with the earth.
The task of this Spirit of Form was to hold back and limit that which the sun forces had accomplished with their enormous acceleration, so that these sun Spirits did not work alone. If this Spirit of Form had remained connected with the earth and continued to work there, the whole earth would have grown stiff and hard, his influence would have been too powerful; therefore he took the grossest materials and forces and led them out of the earth; that which he thus led out of the earth constitutes our present moon. So this Spirit which had undertaken the duty of retarding and holding back the too-rapid development of humanity was now united with the moon.
Evolution went on the earth-beings and the moon-beings had separated. At this time the earth-beings came principally under the influence of two forces, one proceeding from the sun, the other from the moon. If man had come merely under the influence of the sun forces he would soon have grown old, almost as soon as he was born; whereas, under the influence of the moon alone he would have stiffened, become hard, and mummified. He could only develop rightly through the sun and the moon forces being balanced; he was placed upon the earth and, in a spiritual sense, beings and forces acted on him from outside in order that he might pass through his present evolution.
We have seen how man is led from incarnation to incarnation by the Beings we call Angels; but these Angels have no independence in the vast cosmos, they have higher directors who are the dwellers on the sun. Under the sole influence of these Sun Spirits all man's development would have been compressed into one incarnation; whereas under the influence of the moon alone nothing at all would have taken place. Through the co-operation of these two sets of Beings, that which gives man form he receives from the moon forces, that which destroys form and leads the eternal part of him through his various incarnations he receives from the sun. Thus if we do but consider it all spiritually we see that everything in the world has its appointed task.
We shall now consider for a short time somewhat more concretely what took place at that time upon the earth. We know that when man came over from the ancient Moon he possessed only his physical body, etheric body, and astral body. At the time of the separation of the sun the physical body had not progressed far enough for the sense organs to be able to perceive external objects. These had existed indeed from the time of Saturn, but man could not perceive external objects by them. Upon the ancient Moon man possessed organs which evoked pictures within him. The position at that time was approximately as follows. Imagine that one human being approached another, he could not have perceived the other's external form, but a kind of dream picture would rise within him; and by the form and colour of the picture he knew that an enemy drew near, and that he must flee from him. This was picture consciousness, and had a real relationship to the soul qualities of the Beings in a man's vicinity.
Objective consciousness only came to man gradually on earth. Though the sun as heavenly body was outside the earth, man could not at first see it, he perceived it only in pictures through an inner light. It is true that he did see in a certain sense, in a spiritually psychic way, the beneficial activities sent down to him by the Spirits of the Sun—he perceived these radiating in auric pictures, but they had nothing to do with present sense perception. Thus there was a time when the sun forces sent their light to man, although he could not see the external sun.
The separation of the moon from the earth took place somewhat later, and it was only at the stage of the moon's withdrawal that man was capable of acquiring the very first rudiments of an ego-consciousness, he only then began to feel himself as a separate being; with this came also the power to perceive the first faint loom of physical objects. You can easily understand that sight is connected with ego-consciousness, for as long as one cannot perceive an outer world one is not an ego. Therefore the first flash of ego-consciousness coincided with the first opening of man's eyes to external objects. This was connected also with the going forth of the moon. Previously, when the moon was still one with the earth, it directed the forces of growth of the individual between birth and death—it does so still, but now from outside. But in order that the life of man should not be shut in between birth and death, other forces had to approach him from outside; these were the sun forces. A continual interaction between the moon forces working from within, and the sun forces working from without, was associated with earthly development.
Try to picture vividly and exactly what happened next. So long as the sun was outside, but the moon still within the earth, man perceived the beneficial effect of the sun forces in inward pictures; he sensed the virtue of the sun forces, for these were always associated with the moon forces within the earth-body, and had an effect upon man's constitution although he could not see them. Then came the time when the moon also went forth from the earth. Man's senses were opened, and because of this he lost the power to perceive the soul and spirit part of the sun forces. Imagine the moment when Spiritual perception disappeared and the first beginnings of actual sight with an outer view of the sun began, although in fact man could not yet see the sun, for the earth was covered with dense vapour. As against his former dim clairvoyant perception, man was now able—if only gradually—to see the sun externally, although it was veiled by the density of the atmosphere. The beneficent effects of the sun were now withdrawn from man because of the advance in his development.
When the ancient Egyptian priests remembered this condition they gave the name of Osiris to the forces of the sun, those pure rays which man had perceived at one time through his dim clairvoyance. He now perceived Osiris no longer, and because of the cloudy envelope surrounding the earth external perception of the sun was not yet possible; what man had previously seen was dead. “Typhon the opposer had killed Osiris,” they said, and the forces which were active between birth and death, and as moon had left the earth, now sought that ancient Osiris with longing.
Slowly and gradually the mist receded—it had endured for very, very long periods, even down to the latter part of the Atlantean epoch; men now began to see the sun, but not as previously when all mankind had a common consciousness, the rays of the sun now fell on each individual eye when men gazed on the sun: “the dismembered Osiris.”
We are here concerned with a mighty cosmic event and when we were incarnated as ancient Egyptians we recognized a repetition of this cosmic event. The wise Egyptian priests had this in mind, and they described it pictorially as follows they said, “At the time the moon and the sun went forth from the earth man remained in the middle, balanced between the solar and lunar forces.” Up to that time there had been no sexual reproduction, there was what might be called virginal reproduction. The forces which ruled our earth passed over from the sign of the Virgin, through the Balance, into the sign of the Scorpion. Therefore the priests of Egypt said: “When the sun was in the sign of the Scorpion, and the earth in the Balance, his rays acted like a sting, stinging the sense organs to activity; thus Osiris was slain.” The emergence of external objectivity is the sting of the Scorpion, and came as something new; it was in contradistinction to the old virginal reproduction.
Then began the search, the longing of humanity for its ancient power, for the vision of Osiris.
We must not look merely for astronomical facts in such a myth as the myth of Osiris, but we must see in it the result of the deep clairvoyant insight of the wise priests of ancient Egypt. They embodied in this myth what they knew concerning the evolution of earth and man.
Actual facts concerning the higher Spiritual Worlds lie at the foundation of all myths, and today we have shown how such facts form the basis of the myth of Osiris.
Vierter Vortrag
Wir haben gestern von all den verschiedenen geistigen Wesenheiten gesprochen, welche wie eine Art Ergänzung zu dem gehören, was uns in der physischen Welt umgibt. Wir haben gesehen, wie auch die Steine, die Pflanzen ihr Ich haben, ihren Astralleib, und unser geistiger Blick hat sich erweitert über eine Fülle von Realitäten außer denen, die das physische Auge sieht, und die man mit dem physischen Verstande begreifen kann. Wir haben ferner gesehen, wie höhere Wesen sozusagen tätig sind in dem, was der Mensch innerhalb unserer Erdenentwickelung vollbringt; schon in bezug auf den einzelnen Menschen sahen wir, daß eine höhere Wesensgattung einzugreifen hat. Wir betrachten im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft den einzelnen Menschen ja zunächst als vollständigen Herrn seiner inneren Welt und der Welt seiner Taten, seines Willens, zwischen seiner physischen Geburt und seinem Tode. Wir wissen aber, daß die eigentliche innere Wesenheit des Menschen viele Inkarnationen durchgemacht hat, und daß der Mensch in seiner gegenwärtigen normalen Entwickelung noch nicht fähig ist, hinauszuwirken über die eine Inkarnation, daß da vielmehr höhere Wesenheiten eingreifen müssen, um diejenigen Richtungskräfte zu geben, welche nicht nur zwischen Geburt und Tod wirken, sondern über den Tod hinaus, von Inkarnation zu Inkarnation. Wir haben gesehen, daß diese geistigen Wesenheiten in der christlichen Esoterik Engel oder Angeloi genannt werden, und daß man sie im theosophischen Sprachgebrauch auch die Geister des Zwielichts oder der Dämmerung nennt; man kann sie auch im Sinne der rosenkreuzerischen Geisteswissenschaft die Söhne des Lebens nennen, alle diese Bezeichnungen werden uns im Laufe der Zeit immer klarer werden. Dann haben wir betrachtet, wie die Menschengemeinschaften, wie die Rassen und Völker von einer Art von Geistern dirigiert werden, die wir Erzengel oder Feuergeister nennen; und endlich sahen wir, wie dasjenige, was über die engeren Volksgemeinschaften hinübergreift, was als Zeitgeist zum Ausdruck kommt, dirigiert wird von den Urkräften, die man auch Archai oder Geister der Persönlichkeit nennt oder Asuras in der theosophischen Ausdrucksweise. So wirken überall da, wo wir sind, geistige Wesenheiten in unsere Welt herein, und wir sehen die Reiche, die uns zunächst umgeben, damit um drei vermehrt. Wir wollen uns nun auch eine Vorstellung davon machen, wie es denn mit der mehr äußerlichen Manifestation dieser Wesen aussieht.
Wenn wir sie vom gewöhnlichen physisch-materiellen Standpunkt unserer Erde betrachten, dann sehen wir sie zusammengesetzt aus dem, was wir Erde, Wasser, Luft und Feuer nennen. Das sind, wie wir schon gehört haben, zunächst vier Zustände der äußeren Materie. Das, was wir gewöhnlich in der Geisteswissenschaft Erde nennen, bezeichnet man heute als Festes; alles, was fest ist, ist in der Geisteswissenschaft einfach mit dem Namen Erde belegt. Alles, was flüssig ist, nicht nur Wasser, sondern auch Quecksilber und so weiter, bezeichnen wir als Wasser; alles Gas- und Luftförmige als Luft; und alles, was von uns mit irgendeinem Grade von Wärme empfunden wird, wird so gedacht, daß es durchdrungen ist von etwas, was wir substantielle Wärme nennen, die nicht für uns eine äußere Eigenschaft ist, sondern die von den eben genannten Formzuständen eine Fortsetzung darstellt und die gleichberechtigt zu solcher Benennung ist. So haben wir das, was uns materiell umgibt, zuerst einmal vor unser Auge hingestellt.
Nun leben aber in diesen verschiedenen materiellen Elementen als in ihrer äußerlichen Leiblichkeit die verschiedenen Wesenheiten, von denen wir gesprochen haben. Für denjenigen, der mit hellseherischem Blick die Welt betrachtet, ist deshalb das, was man als flüssiges Element kennt, besonders das Wasser, nicht etwa nur von den Wesenheiten belebt und durchsetzt, die wir als Wasserwesen, Fische und so weiter kennen; sondern ein solcher weiß, daß trotz der sozusagen verfließenden Gestalt des Flüssigen, trotzdem keine feste Form in diesem wäßrigen Element festgehalten wird, daß trotzdem geistige Wesenheiten darin wohnen. Und zwar wohnen sie darin richtig verkörpert in dem wäßrigen Element, in verfließender, fortwährend sich verändernder Gestalt, die man deshalb auch mit dem äußeren Auge nicht unterscheiden kann. Da leben sie, diese Wesenheiten, die wir als Engel, als Geister des Zwielichts bezeichnet haben. Sie haben wirklich ihren physischen Leib so, daß er nicht eine festumrissene Körperlichkeit darstellt; und wenn die alten Mythen und Sagen von solchen Wasserwesen erzählen, so ist das keine Phantasie, sondern entspricht einer Tatsächlichkeit. Weiter leben in dem, was wir als das Luftelement kennen und vorzugsweise in unserer Luft diejenigen Wesenheiten, die wir die Erzengel nennen. Und es ist durchaus nicht ein Märchen oder eine bloße Sage, wenn wir in der dahinströmenden Luft, in dem dahinbrausenden Sturme die leibliche Offenbarung dieser geistigen Reiche sehen. Wenn vorhin gesagt wurde, daß die Engelwesen in dem Wasser leben, so ist es vorzugsweise jenes Wasser, das unsere Luft wie ein Wasserdampf durchdringt, das flüchtig ist, in einzelne Atome zerstiebend, in welchem der hellseherische Blick die Verleiblichung dessen wahrnimmt, was wir als die Erzengel bezeichnen. Und in dem, was man als Wärme empfindet, haben wir die Verleiblichung derjenigen Wesenheiten, die wir als die Geister der Persönlichkeit, als die Urkräfte kennen. Daher werden Sie auch verstehen, daß der Mensch zusammengefügt ist aus diesen vier Elementen: Erde, Wasser, Luft und Feuer, und zwar so, daß in dem Menschen nicht nur die vier Elemente gemischt sind, sondern durchaus untereinander gemischt diejenigen Wesenheiten, welche wir eben genannt haben; sie füllen seinen Leib gewissermaßen ebenso aus wie das Materielle, sie ziehen in den physischen Leib des Menschen ein und aus,
Nun ist aber die Reihe der Wesenheiten, die mit dem Menschen zu tun haben, damit nicht erschöpft. Wir haben noch höhere Wesenheiten, die mit Erde, Welt und Menschen zu tun haben, Wesenheiten, die auf noch höherer Stufe stehen als die Geister der Persönlichkeit, die Urbeginne. Da haben wir zum Beispiel jene Wesenheiten, die uns im Lichte entgegenstrahlen; und das Licht ist für uns wieder ein feinerer Zustand als die Wärme. Überall, wo etwas aufleuchtet, da haben wir in dem Lichte das Kleid von hohen Wesenheiten, die in der christlichen Esoterik als Gewalten, als Exusiai bezeichnet werden. Man nennt sie auch die Geister der Form, denn es sind diejenigen Wesen, welche für alles, was um uns herum ist, die Form geben. Wo immer Sie etwas in einer bestimmten, abgegrenzten Form sehen, da sind es diese Geister, welche tätig sind. Wir haben gesehen, daß dasjenige, was in unserer Erdentwickelung als die verschiedenen Zeitgeister tätig ist, von den Geistern der Persönlichkeit beherrscht wird; die Geister der Form haben nun eine noch höhere Aufgabe. Wir werden uns das am besten verständlich machen, wenn wir bedenken, daß vom Beginn der eigentlichen Menschheitsentwickelung an, das heißt seit jenem Zeitpunkt, wo der Mensch seine erste Inkarnation durchgemacht hat, der Zeitgeist sich immer verändert hat, daß aus der Schar der Geister der Persönlichkeit heraus immer andere Dirigenten gekommen sind. Aber übergreifend über alles das, was durch den Zeitgeist bewirkt wird, ist etwas, was durch die ganze Erdenmenschheit hindurchgeht. Als der Mensch auf der Erde seine menschliche Erdenmission begann, haben geistige Wesenheiten in diese Erdenmenschheit eingegriffen, und ihnen verdanken wir es, daß wir als Erdenmenschheit tätig sein können. Und was auch als Geister der Persönlichkeit im Zeitgeiste, als Erzengel in den einzelnen Gemeinschaften oder als Engel in bezug auf die einzelnen Menschen aufgetreten ist: jene Geister, die wir die Geister der Form genannt haben, dirigieren seit dem Beginn der Erdenmission gleichsam in einem höheren Reiche, und lenken und leiten im Großen alles, was diese geistigen Wesenheiten tun. Diese Gewalten, sie hatten die Aufgabe, in der Erdenmission als Ganzes zu wirken, sie hatten eine planetarische Aufgabe. Wir sehen also: wenn wir über den Zeitgeist hinausschreiten zu dem Geiste der ganzen Menschheit, dann haben wir diese Gewalten, diese Geister der Form.
Nun wissen Sie ja, daß unsere Erde als Planet ebenso wie der Mensch dem Gesetze der Wiederverkörperung untersteht. Unsere Erde war früher das, was wir den alten Mond nennen. Da war das, was wir heute die Erdenmission nennen, noch nicht in der Weise wie auf der Erde vorhanden. Der Mond hatte eine andere Mission, jeder Planetenzustand hat seine eigene Mission im Weltenzusammenhange zu leisten; nichts wiederholt sich in gleicher Weise, alles unterliegt der Evolution, der Entwickelung. Damals, während jener Verkörperung der Erde, die wir den alten Mond nennen, hatten eine ähnliche Aufgabe, wie sie hier auf der Erde die Geister der Form haben, jene Wesenheiten, die wir im Sinne der christlichen Esoterik als die Mächte, Dynameis oder auch als die Geister der Bewegung bezeichnen. Gehen wir noch weiter in der Entwickelung zurück, so kommen wir zu demjenigen planetarischen Zustande unserer Erde, der dem alten Mondzustande voranging, wir kommen dann zu dem uralten Sonnenzustand, der, wie Sie ja wissen, nichts mit dem zu tun hat, was wir heute als Sonne am Himmel sehen. Auf dieser alten Sonne herrschten, wie auf der Erde die Geister der Form, wie auf dem Monde die Geister der Bewegung, auch hohe Wesenheiten, diejenigen, welche in der christlichen Esoterik als Kyriotetes bezeichnet werden oder auch als Herrschaften, Herrlichkeiten, auch Geister der Weisheit. Das sind also diejenigen Geister, die sozusagen die Aufsicht während des Sonnenzustandes hatten. - Und nun kommen wir zu dem letzten Planetenzustand, zu dem alten Saturn. Die Wesenheiten, die hier in ähnlicher Weise die Leitung führten, nennen wir die Throne, die Geister des Willens. So sind wir zu immer höheren Stufen geistiger Wesenheiten hinaufgeschritten bis zu Wesenheiten, welche nicht bloß die Dirigenten sind von so etwas, was sich wie der Zeitgeist verändert, sondern von dem, was mit der Mission planetarischer Zustände zu tun hat, was erst von Planet zu Planet wechselt.
Die Throne, die Geister der Weisheit, die Geister der Bewegung und die Geister der Form, sie alle sind fortwährend noch in irgendeiner Verbindung mit uns, wenn auch nicht in einer so nahen, unmittelbar wahrnehmbaren Verbindung wie die anderen, niedrigeren geistigen Wesenheiten. An einem Beispiel wollen wir uns einmal klarmachen, wie solche Wesenheiten in unsere Erdentwickelung hineinwirken. Dazu ist es aber notwendig, daß wir vorher die Entwickelung derjenigen Wesen betrachten, die wir als die Engel, die Erzengel und die Geister der Persönlichkeit kennen. Diese Wesenheiten sind alle höher als der heutige Mensch. Aber unser gegenwärtiger Mensch wird auch einstmals höhere Stufen in seiner Entwickelung erreichen. Schon in der nächsten Verkörperung unserer Erde, im Jupiterzustande, wird der Mensch so hoch stehen wie heute die Engel; ein fortwährendes Aufsteigen zu immer höheren Stufen der Vollkommenheit macht der Mensch durch. Aber so war auch die Entwickelung der anderen Wesenheiten; sie waren nicht immer das, was sie jetzt sind, auch sie haben niedrigere Stufen der Entwickelung durchgemacht. Nehmen wir zum Beispiel die Engelwesenheiten. Auch sie haben in früheren Zeiten ihre Menschheitsstufe durchgemacht, wie wir es jetzt auf unserer Erde tun; das war auf dem alten Monde, und dadurch, daß sie damals an sich gearbeitet haben, wurden sie jene höheren Wesenheiten, die sie heute sind. Und ebenso haben die Erzengel oder Feuergeister ihre Menschheitsstufe auf der alten Sonne durchgemacht; damals waren sie Wesen wie wir, heute stehen sie zwei Stufen höher. Und die Geister der Persönlichkeit haben ihre Menschheitsstufe auf dem alten Saturn gehabt. Sie waren eine Stufe höher als diejenigen Wesen, die ihre Menschheit auf der alten Sonne durchmachten, und sind heute um drei Stufen höher als der Mensch auf unserer Erde.
Diejenigen Wesenheiten aber, die wir als die Geister der Form oder Gewalten bezeichnen, zu denen wir als zu hoch, hoch erhabenen Wesen aufblicken, sie haben in einer nicht zu denkenden Vergangenheit ihre Menschheitsstufe durchgemacht; und als die erste Verkörperung unserer Erde begann, als die Erde Saturn war, da hatten sie schon ihre Menschheitsentwickelung hinter sich. Daran können wir ermessen, welch hohe Gefühle in uns leben müssen, wenn wir zu diesen geistigen Wesenheiten emporschauen. Aber auch sie unterstehen dem Gesetze der Entwickelung, und wenn sie auch schon auf dem Saturn höhere Wesenheiten waren als der heutige Mensch, so haben sie doch durch die Sonne und den Mond hindurch bis in unsere Erde hinein immer höhere und höhere Stufen durchgemacht. Und so sind sie endlich zu einem Grade von Erhabenheit gelangt, daß sie ein so großes Wirkungsfeld haben können, daß sie nicht mehr einen Planeten brauchen, um darin die Substanzen zu finden, durch die sie da sein können. Denn die anderen Wesenheiten brauchen in gewisser Beziehung unsere Erde; die Engel brauchen das Wasser, die Erzengel die Luft und die Geister der Persönlichkeit das Feuer; aber die Geister der Form brauchen nicht mehr unseren planetarischen Zustand; sie hatten daher einen anderen Wohnplatz nötig, als unsere Erde ihre Entwickelung begann, und das war der Grund, warum sie sich von unserer Erde trennten.
Ich habe Ihnen gesagt, daß es einen Zeitpunkt gab, wo unsere Erde mit der Sonne einen Leib bildete. Damals waren auch noch diejenigen Wesen mit unserer Erde vereint, die wir die Geister der Form nennen. Aber ihre Entwickelung war zu weit schon vorgeschritten, sie brauchten eine feinere Substanz, als die Erde sie ihnen hätte bieten können, deshalb zogen sie die feinere Substanz und die feineren Wesenheiten heraus aus der Erde und gingen sozusagen mit der Sonne fort. Das ist der geistige Grund, weshalb Erde und Sonne sich getrennt haben. Es ist nicht bloß ein mechanisches Auseinandersplittern der Materie, sondern Weltenkörper trennen sich, um der Wohnplatz für geistige Wesenheiten zu werden. Die Geister der Form haben die feine Substanz aus der Erde herausgerissen, und der Sonnenball ist entstanden, der nun der Erde von außen her das Licht zusendet. Und in dem Sonnenlichte strömt uns die geistige Wesenheit der Gewalten zu; daher habe ich Ihnen vorhin gesagt, daß das Licht das Kleid dieser Gewalten ist. Wenn wir im Sinne der Geisteswissenschaft emporblicken zur Sonne und das helle Sonnenlicht zu uns herunterstrahlen sehen, dann wird uns dieses Licht das Kleid für die Geister, die ihre leitenden und lenkenden Kräfte herunter zur Erde senden; von der Sonne aus lenken sie die Erdenmission.
Wenn wir so verstehen lernen, daß solche kosmischen Abspaltungen ihre Ursache in den geistigen Wesenheiten haben, die mit der Materie verbunden sind, dann wird uns noch eine andere Tatsache verständlich, die sonst schwer zu erklären ist. Sie wissen, die Naturforschung weist auf einen Anfangszustand unseres Systems hin, auf eine Art von Urnebel. Zwar ist die sogenannte Kant-Laplacesche Theorie heute von gewissen Forschern wie Arrhenius etwas modifiziert worden, aber um diese Kleinigkeiten brauchen wir uns hier nicht zu kümmern. Wir nehmen einmal das an, was gewöhnlich angenommen wird: daß sich nämlich aus dem Urnebel die Sonne und die anderen Planeten, die die Sonne umkreisen, herausballten; alles, was heute dicht ist, war also einstmals in diesem Urnebel vorhanden; der ist dann in Rotation gekommen und hat dadurch unsere Sonne und die anderen Planeten abgespalten. Was nun die Geisteswissenschaft dazu zu sagen hat, widerspricht in keiner Weise dem, was hier als Hypothese gelehrt wird. Wenn sozusagen jemand einen Stuhl in den Weltenraum gestellt hätte, um durch Jahrmillionen hindurch zu verfolgen, wie sich diese Differenzierung des Urnebels zu den heutigen Planetengebilden vollzogen hätte: es würde sich wirklich nicht viel anders darstellen, als die wissenschaftliche Hypothese es darstellt. Aber wir wollen einmal sehen, wie das geistige Auge des Hellsehers diesen Urnebel anschaut.
Auch für ihn ist er ein großer, gewaltiger Ball in ganz feinem Zustande, in dem noch nicht unterschieden ist irgendeine Sonne oder Erde oder Jupiter; aber dieser Urnebel hat sich für ihn nicht, man weiß nicht woher, gebildet, sondern er hat eine Vergangenheit, und diese Vergangenheit liegt auf dem alten Monde: ihn müssen Sie als den Vorgänger unserer Erde betrachten. Diesen alten Mond müssen Sie sich ebenso wie unsere Erde als einen Weltenkörper vorstellen, und zuletzt hat er, wenn wir so sagen dürfen, einen Zustand der Vergeistigung durchgemacht. Was damals schon differenziert war, wurde sozusagen wieder durcheinandergerührt und wieder in einen undifferenzierten Zustand zurückgeführt. Dann ging das alles durch eine Art von kosmischem Schlaf hindurch, und dann tauchte auf aus dem Schoße des Kosmos jener Nebelätherball, der die Wiedergeburt des alten Mondes ist. Er ist für uns nicht bloß eine materielle Masse, sondern in diesem Balle leben alle die geistigen Wesenheiten, in ihm leben in einem besonderen Zustande jene gewaltigen Wesenheiten, die wir als die Geister der Bewegung, der Form und so weiter bezeichnet haben. Der Mensch lebte nur als Keim darin, denn er hatte auf dem Monde noch kein Ich, das erhielt er ja erst auf der Erde; aber all die geistigen Wesenheiten, die schon gewisse Entwickelungsgrade hinter sich hatten, die waren mit diesem Urnebel in inniger Verbindung.
Was tut denn die materialistische physikalische Hypothese, wenn sie erklären will, wie sich aus dieser Urnebelmasse das Sonnensystem herausgebildet hat? Erinnern Sie sich an ein Experiment, das man häufig in der Schule darstellt, um diesen Entwickelungsgang zu veranschaulichen: Man bringt eine Olkugel in einer gleich schweren Flüssigkeit mittels einer einfachen mechanischen Vorrichtung zum Rotieren. Man kann alsdann beobachten, wie sich diese Kugel abplattet, wie sich von ihr Tropfen losreißen, die sich wiederum zu Kugeln formen und die Hauptkugel umkreisen; und auf diese Weise sieht man im Kleinen eine Art Planetensystem durch das Rotieren entstehen. Das wirkt ungeheuer suggestiv. Warum sollte man sich das nicht in der Welt ebenso vorstellen? Man sieht es hier ja förmlich, wie durch die Rotation ein Planetensystem entsteht, man hat es ja vor sich! Man vergißt dabei nur eines! Manchmal ist es ja recht schön, dies eine zu vergessen, aber in diesem Falle nicht: man vergißt dabei nämlich sich selbst. Wenn man dieses Experiment macht und nicht als Mensch dabeistehen würde und die Kurbel drehen, dann würde das ganze Planetensystem nicht entstehen. Aber so ist es ja überhaupt Usus im materialistischen Denken, daß man immer nur einen Teil dessen nimmt, was man vor sich hat. Dächte man richtig und logisch, dann müßte man sich im Weltenraum einen riesigen Menschen denken, der an einer gewaltigen Kurbel die Achse in Bewegung setzte. Nun ist ein solcher Riese im Weltenraum freilich nicht vorhanden, aber etwas anderes ist da. Der Weltennebel ist ja nicht bloß Materie, er ist durchgeistigt und durchsetzt von jenen Wesenheiten, von denen wir gesprochen haben, die gewisse Bedürfnisse und Sehnsuchten haben, von denen die eine Gattung diese, die andere jene Materie belebt. Und die sind es, die nach einem gewissen Reifungszustande die Spaltung vornehmen, so daß die höheren Wesen sich mit der Sonne hinausbegeben, und dasjenige, was die Erdenstoffe und -kräfte braucht, auf der Erde zurückbleibt. In dieser brodelnden Urmasse sind alle diese geistigen Wesenheiten tätig und gliedern nach und nach heraus, was wir gegenwärtig als unser Planetensystem kennen. So zum Beispiel gab es gewisse Wesenheiten, die nicht das Ziel ganz erreicht hatten, welches die Geister der Form zu erreichen hatten, Wesenheiten, welche in der Entwickelung zurückgeblieben waren. Diese Wesenheiten waren zu weit vorgeschritten, um die Erde als ihren Schauplatz zu haben, aber nicht reif genug, um zu der feineren Substanz der Sonne zu ziehen. Vorzugsweise zwei Klassen solcher Wesenheiten gab es, und wir werden sie in ihrer Wirkung auf die Erde noch kennenlernen. Denn so wie die fertigen und gereiften Gewalten als Geister der Form im Sonnenlichte herunterscheinen auf unsere Erde und sie von der Sonne aus dirigieren, so dirigieren auch diese Zwischenwesen die Erde, aber sozusagen von einem niedrigeren Gesichtskreis aus, der freilich dem menschlichen gegenüber ein erhabener ist. Diese Wesenheiten nahmen sich Stoffe heraus, die für sie paßten, und machten sie zu Weltenkörpern zwischen Sonne und Erde; und so entstand die Venus und der Merkur zwischen Sonne und Erde, bewohnt von Wesenheiten, die auf einer Zwischenstufe stehen. Und so haben auch die anderen Planeten unseres Systems sich abgegliedert dadurch, daß andere Wesenheiten sie zu ihrem Schauplatz brauchten.
Nun lassen Sie uns noch einmal den Zeitpunkt ins Auge fassen, wo die Sonne eben mit ihren Wesenheiten hinausgeht; da bleibt die Erde zurück mit all den Keimen, die später sich auf ihr entwickelt haben, darunter die Menschen der Gegenwart, die aber damals noch nicht auf der heutigen Menschheitsstufe waren. Auch andere Wesen, aus dem Tier- und Pflanzenreiche, sind vorhanden, die schon in vorherigen Verkörperungen der Erde ihre Entwickelung gefunden haben und die nun keimhaft hervorkommen. Betrachten wir zunächst nur den Menschen!
Früher, als die Sonne noch mit der Erde vereint war, waren auch jene gewaltigen Kräfte, die von den hohen Sonnenwesen ausgingen, noch mit der Erde verbunden und wirkten auf den Menschen vom Inneren der Erde aus. Der Mensch war aber so, wie er vom Monde herübergekommen war, gleichsam aus seinem Keime aufgegangen und anfangs nur mit dem physischen, dem ätherischen und dem astralischen Leibe begabt. Der physische Leib war noch nicht so dicht wie heute, sondern ätherisch, feiner. Das Ich aber war noch nicht ausgebildet zu jener Zeit. Dadurch nun, daß die Sonne die Erde von außen her beschien und die Sonnenwesen auf die Erde hereinwirkten, veränderten sich für den Menschen die Verhältnisse auf der Erde gänzlich. Sie müssen sich das so vorstellen: Solange die Erde mit der Sonne noch verbunden war, waren jene hohen Wesenheiten, die später mit der Sonne hinausgegangen sind, in ihrer eigenen Entwickelung und daher auch in ihrer Macht und in ihrer Regierungsgewalt durch die groben Kräfte der Erde gehemmt. Jetzt waren sie frei geworden, konnten sich frei bewegen, jetzt konnten sie ein ganz anderes Tempo ihrer Entwickelung anschlagen als früher, wo sie noch das ganze schwere Gewicht der Erdenmasse mittragen mußten. Sie befreiten sich in ihrer eigenen Entwickelung um so mehr von der Erde, als sie dadurch Kräfte und Gewalten bekamen, um von außen bedeutsamer auf den Menschen zu wirken. Die Menschen, die früher unter der Gewalt der Sonnengeister standen, die noch durch das Zusammensein mit der Erde gehemmt waren in ihren Kräften, kamen nun unter die Wirkung der frei und mächtig sich entwickelnden Sonnenwesen, die von außen herein auf die Erde wirkten. Dadurch aber würde sich die Entwickelung in ungeheuerster Weise beschleunigt haben, das Menschenleben wäre in einer ungeheuer raschen Weise zum Ablauf gebracht worden, wenn nicht etwas anderes hinzugetreten wäre. Der Mensch konnte dies Tempo nicht mitmachen, und deshalb ist aus der Gesamtheit der Geister, die früher da waren, einer mit seinen Scharen ausgeschieden: er blieb mit der Erde vereint. Und dieser Geist der Form hatte die Aufgabe, dasjenige, was die Sonnenkräfte mit einer ungeheuren Beschleunigung geleistet hätten, aufzuhalten und zu hemmen, so daß also nicht diese Sonnengeister allein wirkten. Wäre aber dieser Geist mit der Erde verbunden geblieben, hätte er immer in der Erde gewirkt, dann wäre die ganze Erde in einen Erstarrungszustand gekommen, denn seine Macht, sein Einfluß wäre zu stark gewesen. Was geschah deshalb? Er nahm die gröbsten Stoffe und Kräfte und fuhr aus der Erde heraus. Das, was da herausgefahren ist, das ist der heutige Mond. So bleibt also jetzt mit dem Monde verbunden dieser Geist, der die Aufgabe übernommen hatte, die zu schnelle Entwickelung zu hemmen und zurückzuhalten. Die Entwickelung geht weiter. Die Erden- und Mondwesen spalten sich ab. Die Erdenwesen kommen nun vorzugsweise unter den Einfluß von zwei Kräften: die einen kommen von der Sonne her, die anderen vom Monde. Würde der Mensch bloß unter dem Einflusse der Sonnenkräfte stehen, so würde er schon alt sein, kaum daß er geboren wäre; unter dem alleinigen Einfluß des Mondes wäre er erstarrt, verhärtet, mumifiziert. Er kann sich nur entwickeln, indem sich Sonnen- und Mondkräfte die Waage halten. Der Mensch ist auf die Erde gestellt, und von außen wirken auf ihn im geistigen Sinne Wesenheiten und Kräfte, damit er seine gegenwärtige Evolution auf der Erde durchmachen kann. Wir haben gesehen, daß der Mensch von Inkarnation zu Inkarnation durch diejenigen Wesenheiten gelenkt wird, die wir die Engel nennen. Aber diese Engel haben im großen Kosmos keine Selbständigkeit, sie haben höhere Dirigenten, die die Bewohner der Sonne sind. Unter der Einwirkung dieser Sonnengeister allein würde sich alles zusammendrängen in eine Inkarnation; unter der Einwirkung des Mondes allein würde überhaupt nichts zustande kommen. So aber, im Zusammenwirken geht das Feste, das Formende von den Mondenkräften aus; das aber, was die Formen zerstört und das Bleibende über die Inkarnationen hinüberführt, das kommt von der Sonne her. Und so begreifen wir, daß, wenn wir es nur geistig betrachten, alles in der Welt seine Aufgabe hat.
Und nun wollen wir uns einmal das, was sich da auf der Erde abgespielt hat, ein wenig konkreter vor die Seele stellen. Wir wissen ja: Als der Mensch von dem alten Monde herüberkam, hatte er nur seinen physischen Leib, seinen Atherleib und seinen Astralleib. Der physische Leib war damals, als die Sonne sich loslöste, noch nicht so weit, daß die Sinnesorgane schon einen äußern Gegenstand hätten anschauen können. Sie waren ja seit dem Saturn vorhanden, aber äußere Gegenstände konnten sie nicht wahrnehmen. Es waren diejenigen Organe, die auf dem alten Monde von innen heraus Bilder erzeugten. Das war ungefähr so: Denken Sie sich, ein Mensch hätte sich dem anderen genähert; die äußere Form hätte der Mensch nicht wahrnehmen können. Aber es stieg dann etwas wie ein Traumbild in ihm auf; und wenn dieses Bild gewisse Formen, gewisse Färbung hatte, dann wußte er, daß es ein Feind war, und er konnte fliehen. Es war das ein Bilderbewußtsein, das zu den seelischen Eigenschaften der Umgebung in einer realen Beziehung stand. Das Gegenstandsbewußtsein trat erst nach und nach auf der Erde ein; als die Sonne schon draußen als ein Weltkörper war, konnte der Mensch sie immer noch nicht sehen, nur ein inneres Licht in seinen Bildern nahm er wahr. Er sah allerdings in einer gewissen Beziehung geistig-seelisch die wohltätige Wirkung, die ihm die Geister der Sonne herunterschickten, er spürte das sozusagen, er sah es in aurischen Bildern aufstrahlen; aber das hat mit der heutigen äußeren Anschauung gar nichts zu tun. Es gab also eine Zeit, wo die Sonnengewalten ihr Licht dem Menschen zuströmten, der Mensch aber die äußere Sonne nicht sah.
Das Herausgehen des Mondes geschah etwas später. Erst in dem Augenblicke, als der Mond von der Erde fortging, wurde der Mensch fähig, ein Ich-Bewußtsein in seiner allerersten Anlage aufzunehmen, da begann er erst, sich sozusagen als ein besonderes Wesen zu fühlen. Vorher fühlte er sich im Schoße von anderen Wesenheiten. Und nun F
erst begann für ihn die Möglichkeit, äußeres Physisches in seinen ersten Anflügen mit dem Ich-Bewußtsein wahrzunehmen. Sie können sich sehr leicht klarmachen, daß dies äußere Sehen mit dem Ich-Bewußtsein zusammenhängt; denn solange man sich nicht von dem Äußeren unterscheiden kann, so lange ist man kein Ich. Die erste Fähigkeit, das erste Aufblitzen des Ich-Bewußtseins fällt deshalb zusammen mit dem Offnen der Augen nach außen, Das ist auch mit dem Hinausgehen des Mondes verknüpft. Früher, als der Mond noch mit der Erde verbunden war, leitete er in der Erde die Wachstumskräfte des einzelnen Menschen von der Geburt an bis zum Tode, so wie er es auch jetzt noch, aber von außen her, tut. Damit aber der Mensch nicht nur zwischen Geburt und Tod eingeschlossen sei, mußten von außen her diejenigen Kräfte kommen, welche von der Sonne hereinwirkten. Fortwährend war also mit der Erdentwickelung verbunden ein Zusammenwirken der inneren Mondenkräfte und der äußeren Sonnenkräfte. Und jetzt versuchen Sie sich recht lebhaft und genau vorzustellen, was da geschah.
Solange die Sonne schon abgespalten, der Mond aber noch mit der Erde verknüpft war, sah der Mensch in innerlichen Bildern die Wirkung der Sonnenkräfte; er spürte das Wohltätige der Sonnenkräfte, denn diese verbanden sich immer mit den Mondkräften innerhalb des Erdenkörpers, und das bewirkte den Menschen in seiner Konstitution; aber sehen konnte er die Sonnenkräfte nicht. Jetzt ging auch der Mond heraus. Der Mensch erhielt seine Sinne geöffnet, dadurch verschwand für ihn die Möglichkeit, das Seelisch-Geistige der Sonnenkräfte wahrzunehmen. Denken Sie sich den Moment, wo sozusagen die geistigseelische Wahrnehmung in Bildern entschwindet und die ersten Anfänge einer äußeren Anschauung der Sonne, eines wirklichen Sehens beginnen. Aber in Wahrheit konnte der Mensch die Sonne noch nicht sehen, denn die Erde war mit dichten Dämpfen bedeckt. Gegenüber dem früheren dumpf-hellseherischen Spüren dieser Sonnenkräfte wäre er jetzt in der Lage gewesen, die Sonne, wenn auch erst allmählich, äußerlich zu sehen, wenn sie ihm nicht durch die dunstige, dichte Atmosphäre verhüllt gewesen wäre. So ist also dem Menschen durch seine Höherentwickelung die wohltuende Wirkung der Sonne entschwunden. Die alten Ägypter, indem sie sich an diesen Zustand erinnerten, nannten die Kräfte der Sonne, die reinen Strahlen, die der Mensch einst im dumpfen Hellsehen wahrnahm, Osiris. Dieses Wahrnehmen des Osiris verschwand, und durch die Wolkenhülle war auch ein äußerliches Wahrnehmen noch nicht möglich: tot war, was der Mensch früher gesehen hatte. «Der Gegner Typhon hat den Osiris getötet», und diejenigen Kräfte, die als Mond herausgegangen waren, die zwischen Geburt und Tod wirkenden Kräfte, sie suchten jetzt sehnsüchtig den alten Osiris.
Und nach und nach verzog sich der Nebel; freilich lange, lange Zeiten dauerte das, bis hinein in die spätatlantische Zeit. Und der Mensch fing an, die Sonne wiederum zu sehen, aber nicht mehr wie früher, wo er in einem gemeinsamen Bewußtsein war, sondern in jedes einzelne Auge fielen die Strahlen der Sonne, als der Mensch die Sonne nun sah: der zerstückelte Osiris.
Da haben wir einen gewaltigen kosmischen Vorgang. Und während wir verkörpert waren in der alten ägyptischen Zeit, haben wir ihn in der Wiederholung erkannt. Das war es, was die ägyptischen Priesterweisen ursprünglich im Sinne hatten, und sie kleideten es in ein Bild. Sie sagten: Damals, als der Mond und die Sonne zuerst draußen standen, da war der Mensch in der Mitte, wie im Gleichgewicht gehalten von den Sonnen- und Mondenkräften. Früher gab es noch keine geschlechtliche Fortpflanzung, es wirkte dasjenige, was man eine jungfräuliche Fortpflanzung nennt. Diejenigen Kräfte, die unsere Erde beherrschten, gingen über aus dem Zeichen der Jungfrau durch die Waage, die Gleichgewichtslage, in das Zeichen des Skorpions; daher sagte der ägyptische Priesterweise: Als die Sonne im Zeichen des Skorpions stand, als die Erde in der Waage war und die Strahlen als Stachel wirkten, indem sie die Sinnesorgane durchstachen — dieses Eintreten der äußeren Gegenständlichkeit, das ist der Skorpionstachel, der trat als etwas Neues auf gegenüber der alten jungfräulichen Fortpflanzung -, da wurde Osiris getötet. Und da tritt das Suchen, die Sehnsucht der Menschheit nach der alten Kraft, nach der Anschauung des Osiris ein.
Sie sehen, wir dürfen nicht bloß irgend etwas Astronomisches suchen in einem solchen Mythos wie die Osirissage, sondern wir müssen in ihm erblicken das Ergebnis tiefer, hellseherischer Einsicht der alten ägyptischen Priesterweisen. In einen solchen Mythos haben sie hiineinverkörpert, was sie über die Erden- und Menschenentwickelung wußten.
Allen Mythen liegen reale Tatsachen der höheren geistigen Welten zugrunde. Heute sollte Ihnen vorgeführt werden, wie dem Osirismythos eine solche Tatsache zugrunde liegt.
Fourth lecture
Yesterday we spoke about all the different spiritual beings that belong, as it were, as a supplement to what surrounds us in the physical world. We saw how even stones and plants have their own ego, their astral body, and our spiritual vision expanded to encompass a wealth of realities beyond those that the physical eye can see and the physical mind can comprehend. We have also seen how higher beings are, so to speak, active in what human beings accomplish within our earthly evolution; already in relation to the individual human being, we saw that a higher species of being has to intervene. In the sense of spiritual science, we regard the individual human being as the complete master of his inner world and the world of his deeds and his will between his physical birth and his death. But we know that the actual inner being of the human being has undergone many incarnations, and that the human being in his present normal development is not yet capable of working beyond one incarnation, but that higher beings must intervene to provide those guiding forces that work not only between birth and death, but beyond death, from incarnation to incarnation. We have seen that these spiritual beings are called angels or angeloi in Christian esotericism, and that in theosophical usage they are also called the spirits of twilight or dawn; in the sense of Rosicrucian spiritual science, they can also be called the sons of life. All these designations will become clearer to us in the course of time. Then we considered how human communities, races, and peoples are directed by a kind of spirit that we call archangels or fire spirits; and finally we saw how that which extends beyond the narrower communities, which is expressed as the spirit of the age, is directed by the primordial forces which are also called archai or spirits of personality, or asuras in theosophical terminology. Thus, wherever we are, spiritual beings are working in our world, and we see the realms that initially surround us multiplied by three. Let us now try to form an idea of what the more external manifestation of these beings looks like.
When we look at them from the ordinary physical-material standpoint of our earth, we see them composed of what we call earth, water, air, and fire. As we have already heard, these are initially four states of external matter. What we usually call earth in spiritual science is today referred to as solid; everything that is solid is simply given the name earth in spiritual science. Everything that is liquid, not only water but also mercury and so on, we call water; everything gaseous and airy we call air; and everything that we perceive with any degree of warmth is thought of as being permeated by something we call substantial warmth, which is not an external property for us, but rather a continuation of the states of form just mentioned and equally deserving of such a name. Thus, we have first of all placed before our eyes that which surrounds us materially.
Now, however, the various entities of which we have spoken live in these different material elements as in their external corporeality. For those who view the world with clairvoyant vision, what we know as liquid elements, especially water, are not merely animated and permeated by the entities we know as water beings, fish, and so on; rather, such a person knows that despite the flowing nature of liquids, no fixed form is retained in this watery element, and that spiritual beings nevertheless dwell within it. They dwell there in a truly embodied form in the watery element, in a flowing, constantly changing form that cannot be distinguished with the outer eye. There they live, these beings whom we have called angels, spirits of twilight. They really have a physical body, but it is not a solid physicality; and when the ancient myths and legends tell of such water beings, this is not fantasy, but corresponds to reality. Furthermore, in what we know as the air element, and preferably in our air, live those beings we call archangels. And it is by no means a fairy tale or mere legend when we see in the flowing air, in the rushing storm, the physical manifestation of these spiritual realms. When it was said earlier that angelic beings live in water, it is primarily the water that permeates our air like water vapor, which is fleeting, dispersing into individual atoms, in which clairvoyant vision perceives the embodiment of what we call archangels. And in what we perceive as warmth, we have the embodiment of those beings whom we know as the spirits of personality, as the primal forces. You will therefore also understand that human beings are composed of these four elements: earth, water, air, and fire, in such a way that not only are the four elements mixed together in human beings, but the entities we have just mentioned are also thoroughly mixed together; they fill the body in the same way as the material, they flow in and out of the physical body of human beings.
But the series of beings that have to do with human beings is not exhausted by this. We have even higher beings that have to do with the earth, the world, and human beings, beings that stand on an even higher level than the spirits of personality, the primordial beginnings. There, for example, we have those beings that shine toward us in the light; and light is again a more subtle state for us than warmth. Wherever something glows, we have in the light the garment of high beings, which in Christian esotericism are called powers, or exusiai. They are also called the spirits of form, for they are the beings who give form to everything around us. Wherever you see something in a definite, delimited form, it is these spirits who are at work. We have seen that what is active in our Earth's development as the various spirits of the times is governed by the spirits of personality; the spirits of form now have an even higher task. We can understand this best if we consider that from the beginning of actual human development, that is, from the moment when human beings underwent their first incarnation, the spirit of the age has always been changing, and that different leaders have always emerged from the host of personality spirits. But superimposed on everything that is brought about by the spirit of the age is something that passes through the whole of humanity on earth. When human beings began their human mission on earth, spiritual beings intervened in this human community, and it is to them that we owe the fact that we can be active as human beings on earth. And whatever has appeared as spirits of personality in the spirit of the times, as archangels in individual communities, or as angels in relation to individual human beings: those spirits, which we have called the spirits of form, have been directing everything that these spiritual beings do in a higher realm since the beginning of the earthly mission, guiding and directing everything in the great scheme of things. These powers had the task of working in the Earth mission as a whole; they had a planetary task. So we see that when we go beyond the spirit of the age to the spirit of the whole of humanity, we have these powers, these spirits of form.
Now you know that our Earth as a planet, just like human beings, is subject to the law of reincarnation. Our Earth was formerly what we call the old moon. At that time, what we now call the Earth mission did not yet exist in the same way as it does on Earth. The moon had a different mission; every planetary state has its own mission to fulfill in the context of the world; nothing repeats itself in the same way, everything is subject to evolution, to development. At that time, during the incarnation of the Earth that we call the old moon, those beings whom we refer to in Christian esotericism as the powers, dynameis, or spirits of movement had a task similar to that of the spirits of form here on Earth. If we go back even further in evolution, we come to the planetary state of our Earth that preceded the old Moon state, and then we come to the ancient Sun state, which, as you know, has nothing to do with what we see today as the Sun in the sky. On this ancient sun, as on the Earth, the spirits of form reigned, as on the moon the spirits of movement, and also high beings, those who in Christian esotericism are called Kyriotetes or also Lordships, Glories, or spirits of wisdom. These are the spirits who, so to speak, were in charge during the sun state. And now we come to the last planetary state, the old Saturn. The beings who ruled here in a similar way are called the Thrones, the spirits of will. Thus we have ascended to ever higher levels of spiritual beings, to beings who are not merely the conductors of something that changes like the spirit of the times, but of that which has to do with the mission of planetary states, which first changes from planet to planet.
The Thrones, the Spirits of Wisdom, the Spirits of Movement, and the Spirits of Form are all still in some connection with us, even if not in such a close, immediately perceptible connection as the other, lower spiritual beings. Let us take an example to clarify how such beings work into our Earth's development. To do this, however, it is necessary to first consider the development of those beings we know as angels, archangels, and spirits of personality. These beings are all higher than the human being of today. But our present human being will also one day reach higher stages in its development. Already in the next incarnation of our Earth, in the Jupiter state, human beings will be as high as the angels are today; human beings will undergo a continuous ascent to ever higher stages of perfection. But the development of the other beings was also like this; they were not always what they are now, they too went through lower stages of development. Take, for example, the angelic beings. They too went through their human stage in earlier times, as we are doing now on our Earth; that was on the old Moon, and by working on themselves at that time, they became the higher beings they are today. And likewise, the archangels or fire spirits went through their human stage on the old Sun; at that time they were beings like us, today they are two stages higher. And the spirits of personality had their human stage on the old Saturn. They were one stage higher than those beings who went through their humanity on the old Sun, and today they are three stages higher than human beings on our Earth.
But those beings whom we call the spirits of form or powers, whom we look up to as high, exalted beings, have passed through their human stage in an unimaginable past; and when the first embodiment of our Earth began, when the Earth was Saturn, they had already completed their human development. From this we can gauge what high feelings must live within us when we look up to these spiritual beings. But they too are subject to the law of development, and even though they were already higher beings than today's human beings on Saturn, they have passed through ever higher and higher stages through the Sun and the Moon and into our Earth. And so they have finally attained a degree of sublimity that they can have such a large sphere of activity that they no longer need a planet in order to find the substances through which they can exist. For the other beings need our Earth in a certain respect; the angels need water, the archangels need air, and the spirits of personality need fire; but the spirits of form no longer need our planetary state; they therefore needed another place to live when our Earth began its development, and that was the reason why they separated from our Earth.
I have told you that there was a time when our Earth formed a body with the Sun. At that time, the beings we call the spirits of form were also united with our Earth. But their development had already progressed too far; they needed a finer substance than the Earth could offer them, so they drew the finer substance and the finer beings out of the Earth and, so to speak, departed with the Sun. That is the spiritual reason why the Earth and the Sun separated. It is not merely a mechanical splitting of matter, but world bodies separate in order to become the dwelling place for spiritual beings. The spirits of form tore the fine substance out of the earth, and the sun ball came into being, which now sends light to the earth from outside. And in the sunlight, the spiritual beings of the forces flow toward us; that is why I told you earlier that light is the garment of these forces. When we look up at the sun in the sense of spiritual science and see the bright sunlight shining down upon us, then this light becomes the garment for the spirits who send their guiding and directing forces down to the earth; from the sun they direct the earth's mission.
When we learn to understand that such cosmic divisions have their cause in the spiritual beings connected with matter, then another fact becomes understandable to us which is otherwise difficult to explain. You know that natural science points to an initial state of our system, to a kind of primordial nebula. Although the so-called Kant-Laplace theory has been modified somewhat by certain researchers such as Arrhenius, we need not concern ourselves with these details here. Let us assume what is commonly assumed: namely, that the sun and the other planets orbiting the sun emerged from the primordial nebula; everything that is dense today was therefore once present in this primordial nebula, which then began to rotate and thereby split off our sun and the other planets. What spiritual science has to say about this does not in any way contradict what is taught here as a hypothesis. If, so to speak, someone had placed a chair in outer space in order to observe, over millions of years, how this differentiation of the primordial nebula into the present planetary bodies took place, it would really not appear much different from what the scientific hypothesis describes. But let us see how the spiritual eye of the clairvoyant views this primordial nebula.
For him, too, it is a large, powerful ball in a very fine state, in which no sun or earth or Jupiter can yet be distinguished; but this primordial nebula did not form for him out of nowhere; it has a past, and this past lies on the old moon: you must regard it as the predecessor of our earth. You must imagine this old moon, just like our Earth, as a world body, and finally, if we may say so, it underwent a state of spiritualization. What was already differentiated at that time was, so to speak, stirred up again and returned to an undifferentiated state. Then everything went through a kind of cosmic sleep, and then that nebula, which is the rebirth of the old moon, emerged from the womb of the cosmos. For us, it is not merely a material mass, but in this ball live all the spiritual beings, and in it live, in a special state, those powerful beings whom we have called the spirits of movement, of form, and so on. Human beings lived only as germs within it, for they did not yet have an ego on the moon; they only acquired it on Earth. But all the spiritual beings that had already undergone certain stages of development were intimately connected with this primordial nebula.
What does the materialistic physical hypothesis do when it attempts to explain how the solar system was formed from this primordial nebula? Remember an experiment that is often performed in school to illustrate this process of development: a glass ball is made to rotate in a liquid of equal weight by means of a simple mechanical device. One can then observe how this sphere flattens, how drops break away from it, which in turn form spheres and orbit the main sphere; and in this way one sees a kind of planetary system emerging on a small scale through rotation. This is incredibly suggestive. Why shouldn't one imagine the same thing happening in the world? Here you can literally see how a planetary system is created by rotation; you have it right in front of you! But you forget one thing! Sometimes it is quite nice to forget this one thing, but not in this case: you forget yourself. If you were to carry out this experiment without being there as a human being to turn the crank, the entire planetary system would not come into being. But this is common practice in materialistic thinking, that one always takes only a part of what one has before one's eyes. If one thought correctly and logically, one would have to imagine a giant human being in outer space, turning a huge crank to set the axis in motion. Now, of course, there is no such giant in outer space, but there is something else. The world nebula is not merely matter; it is imbued with spirit and permeated by those beings we have spoken of, who have certain needs and longings, some of whom animate this matter and others that matter. And it is they who, after a certain stage of maturation, carry out the division, so that the higher beings depart with the sun, and that which is needed by the earthly substances and forces remains on earth. In this seething primordial mass, all these spiritual beings are active and gradually form what we now know as our planetary system. For example, there were certain beings that had not quite reached the goal that the spirits of form had to achieve, beings that had lagged behind in their development. These beings were too advanced to have the earth as their scene of activity, but not mature enough to move on to the finer substance of the sun. There were two main classes of such beings, and we will learn more about them and their effect on the Earth later on. For just as the finished and mature forces shine down on our Earth as spirits of form in the light of the Sun and direct it from the Sun, so these intermediate beings also direct the Earth, but from a lower sphere, which is nevertheless higher than the human sphere. These beings took substances that suited them and made them into world bodies between the sun and the earth; and thus Venus and Mercury came into being between the sun and the earth, inhabited by beings who stand on an intermediate stage. And so the other planets of our system also separated themselves by means of other beings who needed them as their scene of activity.
Now let us once again consider the moment when the sun departs with its beings; the earth remains behind with all the seeds that later developed on it, including the people of the present, who at that time were not yet at the present stage of humanity. Other beings from the animal and plant kingdoms are also present, which have already found their development in previous incarnations of the Earth and are now emerging in a germ-like form. Let us first consider only human beings!
In earlier times, when the Sun was still united with the Earth, the mighty forces emanating from the high Sun beings were also connected with the Earth and worked upon human beings from within the Earth. But human beings were as they had come over from the Moon, as if they had sprung from their germ, and were initially endowed only with the physical, etheric, and astral bodies. The physical body was not yet as dense as it is today, but more ethereal, more refined. The ego, however, was not yet developed at that time. Now, because the sun shone on the earth from outside and the sun beings worked upon the earth, the conditions on earth changed completely for human beings. You must imagine it like this: As long as the Earth was still connected to the Sun, those high beings who later left with the Sun were hindered in their own development, and therefore also in their power and authority, by the coarse forces of the Earth. Now they had become free, could move freely, and could now set a completely different pace for their development than before, when they still had to carry the entire heavy weight of the Earth's mass. They freed themselves from the Earth in their own development, gaining powers and forces that enabled them to have a more significant effect on humans from outside. Humans, who had previously been under the power of the sun spirits, whose powers were still inhibited by their connection with the Earth, now came under the influence of the freely and powerfully developing sun beings, who acted on the Earth from outside. This would have accelerated development in an enormous way, and human life would have been brought to an end in a very rapid manner, if something else had not happened. Human beings could not keep up with this pace, and therefore one of the spirits that had been there earlier separated with his hosts: he remained united with the earth. And this spirit of form had the task of holding back and restraining what the solar forces would have accomplished with tremendous acceleration, so that these solar spirits would not have acted alone. But if this spirit had remained connected to the earth, it would have continued to work within the earth, and the whole earth would have come to a standstill, for its power, its influence, would have been too strong. What happened then? It took the coarsest substances and forces and left the Earth. What left the Earth is what we now call the Moon. So now this spirit, which had taken on the task of hindering and holding back too rapid development, remains connected to the Moon. Development continues. The Earth and Moon beings split off. The Earth beings now come primarily under the influence of two forces: one comes from the Sun, the other from the Moon. If human beings were under the influence of the Sun's forces alone, they would be old as soon as they were born; under the sole influence of the Moon, they would be frozen, hardened, mummified. He can only develop when the forces of the sun and moon are in balance. Man is placed on the earth, and beings and forces act upon him from outside in a spiritual sense so that he can undergo his present evolution on earth. We have seen that from incarnation to incarnation, human beings are guided by those beings we call angels. But these angels have no independence in the great cosmos; they have higher directors who are the inhabitants of the sun. Under the influence of these sun spirits alone, everything would be crowded together into one incarnation; under the influence of the moon alone, nothing at all would come into being. But in this way, in their interaction, the solid, formative forces emanate from the lunar forces; but that which destroys forms and carries over what is lasting beyond incarnations comes from the sun. And so we understand that, when we consider it purely spiritually, everything in the world has its task.
And now let us try to picture a little more concretely what has taken place on Earth. We know that when human beings came over from the old moon, they only had their physical body, their etheric body, and their astral body. When the sun detached itself, the physical body was not yet developed enough for the sense organs to be able to perceive external objects. They had existed since Saturn, but they could not perceive external objects. These were organs that produced images from within on the old moon. It was something like this: imagine that one human being approached another; the outer form would not have been perceptible to the human being. But then something like a dream image arose within him, and if this image had certain forms, certain colors, then he knew that it was an enemy, and he could flee. It was a picture consciousness that stood in a real relationship to the soul qualities of the environment. Object consciousness only gradually emerged on Earth; when the sun was already outside as a world body, human beings still could not see it, they only perceived an inner light in their pictures. He did, however, perceive in a certain spiritual-soul relationship the beneficial effect that the spirits of the sun sent down to him; he felt it, so to speak, he saw it shining in auric images; but this has nothing to do with today's external perception. There was therefore a time when the forces of the sun streamed their light to human beings, but human beings did not see the external sun.
The emergence of the moon happened a little later. Only at the moment when the moon departed from the earth did human beings become capable of taking in the very first beginnings of an ego consciousness; only then did they begin to feel themselves, so to speak, as special beings. Before that, they felt themselves in the womb of other beings. And now
did the possibility of perceiving the external physical world in its first stirrings with the consciousness of the I begin for him. You can easily understand that this external seeing is connected with the consciousness of the I; for as long as one cannot distinguish oneself from the external world, one is not an I. The first ability, the first flash of ego-consciousness, therefore coincides with the opening of the eyes to the outside world. This is also connected with the departure of the moon. In the past, when the moon was still connected with the earth, it guided the growth forces of the individual human being from birth to death, just as it still does now, but from outside. However, in order for human beings not to be confined between birth and death, forces had to come from outside, which were brought in by the sun. Thus, the development of the earth was constantly connected with the interaction of the inner forces of the moon and the outer forces of the sun. Now try to imagine very vividly and precisely what happened there.
As long as the sun had already separated but the moon was still connected to the earth, human beings saw the effects of the sun's forces in inner images; they felt the beneficial effects of the sun's forces, for these were always connected with the moon's forces within the earth's body, and this had an effect on human beings in their constitution; but they could not see the sun's forces. Now the moon also left. Human beings' senses were opened, and with that, the possibility of perceiving the soul-spiritual nature of the sun's forces disappeared. Imagine the moment when, so to speak, spiritual-soul perception in images disappears and the first beginnings of an external perception of the sun, of real seeing, begin. But in truth, human beings could not yet see the sun, for the earth was covered with dense vapors. Compared to the earlier dull clairvoyant perception of these solar forces, they would now have been able to see the sun externally, albeit only gradually, if it had not been veiled by the hazy, dense atmosphere. Thus, through their higher development, the beneficial effects of the sun disappeared for human beings. Remembering this state, the ancient Egyptians called the forces of the sun, the pure rays that humans once perceived in dim clairvoyance, Osiris. This perception of Osiris disappeared, and through the cloud cover, external perception was no longer possible: what humans had once seen was dead. “The enemy Typhon has killed Osiris,” and those forces that had emerged as the moon, the forces acting between birth and death, now sought the old Osiris with longing.
And little by little the fog cleared; of course, this took a long, long time, until the late Atlantean period. And man began to see the sun again, but not as before, when he was in a collective consciousness; now, when man saw the sun, its rays fell into each individual eye: the dismembered Osiris.
Here we have a tremendous cosmic process. And while we were embodied in ancient Egyptian times, we recognized it in its repetition. That was what the Egyptian priest-wise men originally meant, and they clothed it in an image. They said: Back then, when the moon and the sun first appeared outside, man was in the middle, as if held in balance by the forces of the sun and moon. In the past, there was no sexual reproduction; what was called virgin reproduction took place. The forces that ruled our Earth passed from the sign of Virgo through Libra, the sign of balance, into the sign of Scorpio; hence the Egyptian priestly sage said: When the sun was in the sign of Scorpio, when the earth was in Libra and the rays acted like stings, piercing the sense organs — this emergence of external objectivity, which is the sting of the scorpion, appeared as something new in contrast to the old virgin reproduction — then Osiris was killed. And then the search, the longing of humanity for the old power, for the vision of Osiris, begins.
You see, we must not merely look for something astronomical in a myth such as the Osiris myth, but we must see in it the result of the deep, clairvoyant insight of the ancient Egyptian priestly sages. They embodied in such a myth what they knew about the development of the earth and of humanity.
All myths are based on real facts of the higher spiritual worlds. Today, I would like to show you how such a fact underlies the Osiris myth.