Universe, Earth and Man
GA 105
11 Aug 1908, Stuttgart
Lecture VII
In the last lecture it was shown how a differentiation had arisen in evolution generally, and particularly in human evolution, because human beings, and other beings also, could not await the right point in their evolution; they therefore fell behind and became hardened to a certain degree, while others retained the necessary softness and pliability until the right moment, and were thus able to carry out the changes that were fitting. It was also shown that it was only in the middle of the Atlantean epoch that the true human form appeared. In the previous epoch, and indeed at a very early period, the external form of man was very mobile; not only could he move his limbs as at present, but through inner powers he could elongate or shorten them, etc. To the ordinary consciousness of today it seems a kind of outrage to say such things about past conditions of the earth and of man. Even here among Anthroposophists you may have observed that we endeavour to develop certain truths step by step; we give them forth gradually, in small doses—they are then more easily digested.
Let us turn our attention once more to this early development. Even the Atlantean epoch had a beginning, and it came to an end through mighty water catastrophes of a very complicated kind. The Atlantean epoch lasted for a long, a very long, time. When we go back still further we come to other catastrophes in the course of evolution, these may be called volcanic in nature, when large tracts of land lying south of Asia, east of Africa, and north of Australia were demolished. On these tracts of land humanity had dwelt, and, to borrow a term from natural science, the land was called the Lemurian continent.
At that time humanity had a body much softer and more plastic than it is now; it was a period when man could assume many shapes; if we were to describe them they would seem very grotesque to the consciousness of the present day. We arrive here at a point of time before which no kind of feeling of personality, no feeling of selfhood, had as yet come to man. As he had no consciousness of self, and as the human shape was still very mobile and unfinished, something else happened. The shape which man presented outwardly—and which changed according to his emotions, being one thing at one time and something quite different at another—was in this way a kind of betrayer of his inner being; according as his thoughts and passions were good or bad his external shape assumed a different form. It was impossible at that time to entertain an evil thought and keep it hidden, for the external bodily form immediately expressed it, therefore man appeared in all kinds of shapes.
There were at this time very few of the higher kinds of animals; the earth was peopled by the lower animals and man. And if one were companionable—and such indeed we all were fundamentally—one could find one's fellowman through the expression they gave to this or that thought, or to this or that passion. What really are all such expressions? What are the physiognomical expressions of passions and thoughts? They are the shapes of animals. When we observe the form of animals we see in the higher orders of the animal kingdom nothing but thoughts and passions of all sorts worked into a great piece of tapestry. Everything that moves within the human astral body today, and remains hidden, was such a strong force at that time that it imparted at once to the soft body (which was really only formed out of fire-mist) the shape which was the expression of that passion. A large part of our present higher animals consists of human beings who were so entangled in their passions that they became hardened in these forms and fell behind in evolution. Anyone who looks with really occult perception on his environment can express his feeling approximately as follows: In the course of becoming an ego I have passed through that which I now see in lions and snakes; I lived in all these forms, for in my inner being I experienced the qualities which are expressed in these animal shapes.
Those human beings who were capable of rising, who maintained their inner centre, found a certain balance, so that they have within them only the possibility of these passions, which are, however, of a soul nature only, and take on no external form. This is what man's higher development means. In animals we see our own past, although these have not the same form as that in which they appeared in past ages, for millions of years have passed away since then. Let us suppose that passions such as are now found in lions were made manifest at that time in man's outward form, giving him the semblance of a lion, that this form then hardened, and the genus lion originated. Since that time, however, the genus lion has also passed through further development, and because of this the present lion has no longer the same form as at that time. The present lion is the descendant of a genus that branched off from the human long ages ago. In the various animals we have, in a certain sense, to see our degenerate descendants; this should help us to look with understanding into the world around us.
We must not, however, imagine that all the animal forms we see around us, and which represent certain conditions of hardening, are the result of evil human passions. Passions were necessary; man had to experience them in order that he might absorb from them into his own nature all that was useful; so that when we look back into such periods of the earth's evolution we find in our environment animal shapes that are in a state of material self-metamorphosis.
These are the expressions of passions, and working in them we find those Spiritual beings with whom we have become acquainted in previous lectures. We have to think of the earth as being still of a soft substance, and Spiritual beings working upon this substance, and forming the various animal-like shapes.
Let us now recall how it was said that the Egyptian religion repeated the facts of the third epoch of the earth, preserving the results of it as religious knowledge. The Egyptian form of religion contained as knowledge that which had taken place at one time on earth. You will now wonder no longer that so many animal and animal-headed shapes appeared in Egyptian art. This was a spiritual repetition of what had actually existed on the earth at one time, and was more than a mere simile. In a certain sense it is literally true when we say that the souls who principally incarnated in Egyptian bodies remembered the Lemurian epoch, and that their religion was spiritually a reborn memory of it.
Thus epoch after epoch of the earth is born again within the souls of men in the various religious conceptions through which the world passes. Even at a period later than this the environment of man was absolutely different from what it is now, and, of course, the conditions of consciousness were essentially different.
We must clearly understand that from the Lemurian epoch to the middle of the Atlantean epoch the present human form was only gradually constructed. By the middle of the Atlantean epoch it had reached, in a normal way, to a certain perfection through Jehovah and the Spirits of Form; the totality of what we find in man today was first formed throughout this period, viz., from the Lemurian epoch to the Atlantean epoch. The man of Lemuria, had we been able to see him clairvoyantly, would have presented still further problems, for functions which today are separate were still united in him in a certain way. For example, when the Lemurian evolution was in its prime neither such a breathing system nor such a system of alimentation existed as we have now. Substances were quite different; respiration and nutrition were in a certain sense connected; they performed one common function which was only divided later. Man absorbed a kind of watery, milky substance, and this supplied him at the one time with that which he now acquires separately in the processes of respiration and nutrition.
Another thing was also not as yet separated. We know that in the course of the period with which we are dealing the senses first opened to the outer world. Our present senses did not perceive external objects at that time man was limited to a picture-consciousness; vivid dream pictures rose within him, but there was no external objective consciousness. On the other hand, he received, as the first heralding of outer life—the first inkling of outer sense perception—the capacity to distinguish heat and cold in his environment. This was the very first beginning of sense perception on the earth, for the man of that time still moved within the fluidic element, but he now knew whether he was approaching a warm place or a cold one. This was made possible through an organ which he possessed at that time and which has since become atrophied.
You will have heard that within the human brain there is an organ called the pineal gland; today it is atrophied, but formerly it was open outwardly; it was an organ of force, and sent forth rays. Man moved about in the watery element with a kind of lantern which developed a certain light. This lantern, when the pineal gland was developed, projected from the head, enabling man to distinguish different degrees of warmth. It was the first universal sense organ. Natural science describes it as a degenerated eye. This it never was; it was an organ of warmth, and could in fact perceive not only in its immediate environment, but also at a distance. It had also another duty.
This organ, which closed when the other senses opened, was in certain ancient periods an organ of fertilization, so that sense-perception and fertilization were associated at one time. Through this organ man absorbed into himself from his environment the forces which made him capable of bringing forth his like. At one particular period, when the sun was in a certain position and the moon still one with the earth, the atmosphere of the earth was able to furnish the substance which caused this organ to shine. There actually were periods (and certain fishes which at times develop a light remind us of them) when there was a common fertilization of the human being, who was without sex at that time, and when, because of the sun being in a particular position, he was enabled to bring forth his like. Sense-perception and fertilization, nutrition and breathing, were intimately connected in the primeval past.
The various organs were differentiated gradually, and very gradually man acquired the form he now possesses. Through this he became more and more fitted to be his own master, and to develop what we call ego-consciousness. But all through the period when he moved through the earth's atmosphere guided by his perception of warmth he was under the influence of higher beings. It was principally the forces of the sun (which had already left the earth) working upon the earth's atmosphere that stimulated the organ of self-consciousness. On the other hand, there was another organ which was specially stimulated through the moon-forces (both before and after it withdrew from the earth). This is situated in another part of the brain, and is usually called the pituitary body. Today this organ has no particular duty, formerly it regulated the lower functions, those of nutrition and respiration, which originally were one. With this pituitary body were connected all the inner forces by which man inflated himself and was enabled to assume various shapes—everything by which he could voluntarily alter his form. Those alterations which were less voluntary depended on the other organ, the pineal gland.
From this we see how man has changed, and how, through obtaining a solid, definite shape, he has separated himself from the beings working on him from outside, who had made of him an instinctive being. All this gives us a clearer idea of the processes in human evolution which led at length to that condition when, in the middle of the Atlantean epoch he was sufficiently matured for the outer world to influence him through his sense organs, and he reached a position where he could form an opinion of the outer world. Up till that time judgment had flowed into him from without. What we might call a kind of thinking flowed into him, somewhat as is the case with animals today. We have to bear in mind that humanity progressed irregularly, one portion entered into a condition of hardening earlier, another later, and we have already seen the various kinds of human forms that developed. We saw how certain human beings became stunted in their development by allowing this hardening process to take place too soon, by assuming some particular shape too soon, and how through this different races developed. Only those people, who migrated from their homes in the neighbourhood of Ireland were really mature enough to be receptive of what the earth had to offer to their outward sight; and as they traveled from the West to the East they populated the various countries they passed through in which remnants of those people were found who had gone by other paths. With these they mingled, and from this union the various civilizations originated, while from those who were most backward when migration took place has sprung the European civilizations.
In order to complete our preliminary studies we must first glance into the mighty cosmos and then at the earth itself. We have explained man's evolution in connection with the animals, and shown how he thrust them from him and left them behind at an earlier stage of evolution. There is, of course, a great difference in animals; between the higher and the lower forms there is a certain boundary in development that is of importance.
Remember that as man evolved he gradually thrust aside the animal forms, and that he had only a very fine etheric form at the time when earth and sun were still united. When these separated he thrust from him certain animal forms, and these have remained behind at the stage in evolution which corresponds to the time when the sun was still within the earth. From these entirely different forms have naturally arisen in the course of time, for we are here concerned with a very long after-development. Were we to select a characteristic form which is still to be found today, and which may in some way be compared with those which remained behind when the earth was thrust away by the sun, we must select the form of the fish. This is the form which remained over when the earth was thrown, as it were, on its own resources; it is that which still has within it the last echo of the Sun-Forces. Let us keep this moment before us. There were quite other beings which were more of a plant-like nature, but with these we shall not deal at present.
The beings who represented the first material construction of the human form at the time of the sun's departure have undergone manifold changes, but in fishes is preserved that which reminds us of our separation from the sun; reminds us that at one time we belonged to the sun.
The sun departed from the earth and began to influence it from outside, and it also influenced the earth-man; gradually alternating conditions of consciousness developed—those of waking and sleeping. Gradually the condition developed in which man was more united with his ego and also with his higher principles (his etheric and astral body), and this condition alternated with another in which the astral body withdrew from the physical body. This condition is still preserved today in the alternation between waking and sleeping. Let us for a while study this alternating condition. We all know it, for it belongs to the most elementary teaching of Anthroposophy; we know that when man is awake there is a regular connection between his physical, etheric, and astral bodies, and his ego. When he is asleep the astral body and the ego withdraw from the physical and etheric body.
In the very early epoch with which we have been dealing the ego was not yet present, and in its place part of the etheric body withdrew; this condition may be compared with that of sleep. Now we must clearly understand that when man leaves the physical and etheric body behind on the bed he really bestows on them the value of a plant. Plants have a sleep-consciousness; so has man's physical and etheric body during sleep. But at the present time during sleep the astral body and ego of the normal man have also a kind of vegetable consciousness, for he is not aware of his environment. This was different in olden times, for then when the astral body and ego withdrew the man was dimly conscious of the spiritual world which was around him.
We can now form an idea of another important fact which came to pass through the sun separating from the earth. Before this took place the whole man, as regards his physical, etheric, and astral bodies, was under the influence and the control of the material and spiritual Sun-Forces, but after it depended upon the sun's position; it depended on whether the man in regard to his physical, etheric, and astral bodies came under the sun's influence, and whether it shone on him directly or not. We may now ask: Was there not at this epoch another influence coming from the sun?
Yes; at the time when no physical eye had as yet seen the sun, when the sun did not as yet penetrate the dense atmosphere of the earth, man's etheric and astral body (when outside the physical body) received important influences from the Spiritual Forces proceeding from the sun. He was unable to perceive these influences, for he was not mature enough, but later he became able to do so through receiving a force which enabled him to see that which came to him spiritually from the sun.
What was this event which made man capable of perceiving the forces which dwelt in the sun, those very exalted forces which had to leave the earth and unite themselves with the sun? When did this perception come to him? Gradually these forces streamed into the earth, and the most important point of time, that into which the whole thing resolves itself, was when man received full power to assimilate not only the physical forces, but also the spiritual forces of the sun in full consciousness. This was the moment of Christ's coming to the earth.
One might say therefore: There was a time when man was separated physically from the sun. Among animals the fish directs our thoughts to this time, for it recalls the condition of man before he was obliged to be separated from the sun. Then came the time when the higher forces whose leader is Christ—the great Sun-Spirit—left the earth; after which man gradually matured until able to receive these higher forces in the same way he received the physical Sun-Forces from outside. Inward spiritual power had to appear on earth as a fact, just as earlier the physical sun forces had appeared.
Of what was it the duty of Initiates to remind man when Christ appeared? They had to remind him of his ancient home on the Sun, and the symbol used for this was the symbol of the fish. This is why the fish appears in the catacombs as a true symbol connected with the evolution of humanity, and the disciples of the early centuries, seeing the fish symbol everywhere, received the words of the Initiates which rang in their ears with deep emotion, for spiritually it led them to the inward holiness of the story of Palestine, and at the same time led them forth cosmically into the mighty evolutionary phases of the earth.
Such things as these were studied in the schools of the Initiates, and in outward symbols like that of the fish, which were to be found in many places, we have an expression of these mysteries, just as geologists see in the fossils of plants tokens of a primeval past. But just as the impress of a fossil points to an original reality, so the symbol of the fish is a token of that which was cultivated within the mysteries.
This symbol did not appear suddenly. Long before the coming of Christ the Prophets of the Messiah had directed their pupils to His coming, and everywhere, back to the time of the Druidic Mysteries, the fish symbol played its part.
To proceed: a time came when the moon separated from the earth; previously the earth and the moon had formed one body. Then the threefold formation—sun, moon, and earth—came into being. Mighty were the natural catastrophes which then took place; events were of a very stormy nature. The physical part of man was not then at a very high stage of development, and he left it behind him as an ossified type.
In order to understand this we must keep one thing in mind: when the sun separated from the earth, the earth went back in development, it degenerated; and only after the moon withdrew with the worst constituents did improvement again take place. There was, therefore, for some time an ascending development until the departure of the sun; then a descending one, when everything became worse, more grotesque; then, after the moon withdrew, a re-ascending development again.
From this stage of evolution we have also a form which has degenerated, and which does not by any means appear now as it did then, but it exists; it is the form which belonged to man before the moon withdrew, before he had an ego. The animal form which recalls the lowest stage of earthly devilment, the time when man plunged most deeply into passions and when his astral body was susceptible to the worst external influences, is that of the serpent, a creature in which is preserved the shameful depths of our evolution on this planet, although what we see now has degenerated still further. The symbol of the serpent is also derived from evolution; it has not been thought out, but is rooted in the depth of things.
Fish and snake symbols are derived from the mysteries of our evolution. It is quite natural for a person to experience a feeling of pleasure when he sees the glistening body of a fish in the pure, chaste watery element; it gives him a feeling of peace; just as to those of a pure disposition it gives a feeling of horror to see a creeping snake. Such feelings are by no means meaningless memories of things once passed through. Man likes to see the wonderful living sunny form of a fish in water; he recalls his former innocence when as yet he possessed no ego, but was directed by the best Spirits in evolution; and it is a fact that he remembers the most horrible period in evolution, the time when he was near to falling out of evolution, when a crawling snake approaches him.
One can now understand the unconscious experiences of the human soul which are so puzzling to us, and which appear with such vividness when man is unaffected by culture, when we realize that the feelings we thus experience are connected with cosmic facts. Through this knowledge many things are made clear. Man can certainly overcome his fear of snakes, but this is by culture; but the fundamental feeling of repulsion is in his soul, and it points us back to the ancient times of which I am speaking. They were times when man was physically at the snake stage, when those elemental Beings set to work of whom we said that they prepared man for freedom, prepared him to receive the Christ in His full meaning and grandeur.
We now ask: Who were the elemental Beings who helped man not to sink into the depths? They are those mentioned in the last lecture, those who worked on him when he had descended to the depths, and who led him again to the heights—the Luciferic beings. The Sun-Spirits did not yet work upon him, but those beings did who sacrificed themselves. They moved among the people of the earth in a very remarkable way. Outwardly they had a certain human form, for even the highest spirits have to incarnate in forms which are to be found on earth, so these Beings took upon them the external shape that was man's at that time. They said: In form we are similar to man, but our true home is not on the earth; it is upon the two intermediate planets, Venus and Mercury. The best part of their souls were on these planets, but their outward form, which in fact was a kind of illusion, was on earth.
They gave to man what he needed, namely, guidance and teaching, for the reason that their home was not on earth, which was the first planet to be formed, but upon Venus and Mercury. These beings must be described as the first teachers, the first Initiates of humanity; outwardly they resembled the human beings of that time, but inwardly they possessed lofty and important qualities enabling them to work upon humanity as a whole, and also to work on the more advanced individuals in special schools, which were the first Mystery schools. There were always some of these more advanced individuals who had their home in the stars and who, although connected with the stars, had a human shape and walked among men.
Man himself continued to progress, and now passed on into the middle of the Atlantean epoch; the present human form only began to develop during the first half of that epoch; only then did man begin to feel fully at home in it.
Now, there were some beings in those ancient times who were very low down in the scale of humanity; these became the backward races; there were others who kept themselves plastic; and, again, others who only occasionally inhabited human bodies. What I am now about to describe happened very frequently in the first part of the Atlantean epoch. Imagine a man of that time who for an Atlantean was highly evolved; through certain procedures it frequently happened that such a man was caused to separate his physical body (which was then very plastic) and his etheric and astral bodies from his more spiritual parts, which then withdrew more into the spiritual world so as later to take on another body.
It very frequently happened that, long before the physical, etheric and astral bodies were ready to die, they were willingly vacated by their soul and spirit-principles. These, when they had belonged to especially exalted individuals, were pure and good bodies. Highly spiritual beings then let themselves descend into these bodies; and so it frequently happened during the ancient Atlantean epoch that beings who were otherwise unable to incarnate on earth made use of such advanced bodies in order to descend among men. These were the beings who acted as great teachers in the Atlantean schools of initiation. They worked powerfully with the means available at that time.
When at that time man left his physical body at night he had what may be called a dim clairvoyant consciousness; during the day the outline of objects was still indistinct, and there was no such clearly defined difference between the conditions of sleeping and waking as exists today. It happened, therefore, that the ordinary man beheld such an individual as I have described in an alternating manner—by day he saw him like a man, but at night he saw him quite otherwise, in a spiritual soul-like way, though he knew it was the same being who appeared to him by day in a physical body. These were beings belonging to Venus and Mercury who interposed into human existence and were with man day and night. The remembrance of these beings remained in the souls who incarnated again and again among the peoples of Europe, and they recalled them when they uttered the names Wotan, Thor, etc.
When the inhabitants of ancient Europe spoke of the Gods they were no imaginary figures to them, but memories of forms seen in Atlantis. In the same way, when the Greeks spoke of Zeus, Apollo, and Ares these were forms they had themselves perceived during the Atlantean epoch. Whereas in the Egyptian age memories of ancient Lemuria arose, in the Grecian age memories of the earthly experiences on Atlantis rose within the souls of the people.
We must clearly understand that if everything contained in later religions was a memory of facts connected with the earth at an earlier age some very important event would have to take place when the last of these memories had appeared; this was about the time when the Greeks and Romans recalled the Atlantean epoch. This was also the time when the Christ brought an essentially new Impulse into evolution. We indicated the nature of this Impulse when we spoke about the long intermediate period of evolution in which Luciferic beings were preparing mankind, making him capable of receiving the Christ Impulse, so that the sun should not merely send down its force externally, but that inner forces should also stream into man from it. This period has not nearly come to an end; it is still in its beginning, for with the coming of Christ only the first impulse was given for the inwardly spiritual part of the sun to stream to earth in addition to the physical sunlight. Ever stronger will that light become, which as Spiritual Sunlight, or Christ-light, will irradiate mankind from within as the physical sunlight illuminates him from without.
It will come to pass in the future that man will look upon the sun, not only with his external eyes perceiving its glory, but he will also experience the spiritual side of the sun in his inner being. Only when he is in a position to do this will he fully understand what really dwelt on earth as the Being whom we call Christ Jesus. Only slowly and gradually will man come to an understanding of this; and just as truly as in pre-Christian times he had to understand the pronouncements of those spiritual beings who guided man when he contracted in his descent into the physical world, so by a truly spiritual effort he must henceforth try to understand the Spiritual Power which at one time went forth from the earth with the sun. Man must be able to receive this Power again as an inner spiritual force; he must comprehend this Christ power—this Spiritual power which imparts to him the great impulse for the future.
The object of spiritual science, and of all that can be acquired as spiritual teaching, is to enable us to comprehend this Power of Christ. One cannot say that Anthroposophy is Christianity, but one can say that what has been given to man and to the earth by the Christ Principle will be gradually made comprehensible through the instrumentality of Anthroposophy. When that mighty Impulse is understood it will pour into humanity more and more, for man has need of it in order that, after having contracted and sunk most deeply into matter, he may once more tear himself free and turn again to his spiritual home.
Siebenter Vortrag
Es ist uns gestern vors Auge getreten, wie eine Differenzierung, eine Ausbildung von Unterschieden dadurch in der Entwickelung im allgemeinen und insbesondere in der Menschheitsentwickelung eintritt, daß Menschenwesen und auch andere Wesenheiten sozusagen den rechten Zeitpunkt der Entwickelung nicht abwarten können, zurückbleiben in einer gewissen Verhärtung, und daß andere Wesen sich bis zu dem richtigen Zeitpunkt — wenn wir im groben Sinne sprechen wollen — ihre nötige Weichheit und Bildsamkeit erhalten und dadurch auch die entsprechende Umwandlung beginnen können. Wir haben auch den Zeitpunkt deutlich bezeichnet, wo die eigentliche menschliche Gestaltung eingetreten ist. Das war in der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit, und wir haben darauf hingewiesen, wie in früherer Zeit, namentlich in sehr viel früherer Zeit, das, was der äußere Mensch war, große Beweglichkeit hatte. Wir haben darauf hingewiesen, wie er seine Glieder nicht nur bewegen, sondern durch innerliche Kräfte größer machen konnte und so weiter. Nun wird es für das gewöhnliche Gegenwartsbewußtsein, wie auch schon gestern erwähnt, eine Art Greuel sein, wenn solche Dinge über die frühere Erde und Menschheit gesagt werden. Sie sehen ja auch, selbst hier im Kreise von Schülern der Geisteswissenschaft liegt den Vorträgen das Bestreben zugrunde, gewisse Wahrheiten sehr schonend, nach und nach, in kleinen Dosen zu entwickeln: sie sind dann besser zu verdauen.
Wir werden nun noch einmal zurückblicken auf diese frühere Entwickelung. Wir werden uns dabei erinnern, daß auch diejenige Zeit, die wir die atlantische nennen, einen gewissen Anfang genommen hat. Sie hat ihr Ende gefunden durch große, gewaltige Wasserkatastrophen sehr komplizierter Art; vorher hat durch lange Zeiträume hindurch — über Zahlen wird in den folgenden Stunden näheres gesagt werden können - die atlantische Entwickelung gedauert; und dann kommen wir zurück bis an den Anfang dieser Entwickelung, und wenn wir weiter zurückgehen, kommen wir zu anderen Katastrophen der Erdenentwickelung, die wir vulkanisch nennen können, wo Ländermassen zugrunde gingen, die südwärts vom heutigen Asien, ostwärts von Afrika und nordwärts von Australien lagen. Das waren Ländermassen, auf denen die Vormenschheit lebte, und die man nach einem der Naturwissenschaft entlehnten Ausdruck den lemurischen Kontinent nennt. Aber die Menschheit war damals von ganz weicher, bildsamer Körperlichkeit. Wir sind da in einer Zeit, wo der Mensch alle möglichen Verwandlungen annehmen kann. Sehr grotesk würden sich die Gestalten für ein heutiges Bewußtsein ausnehmen, wenn wir sie schildern würden. Wir sind dort hart an der Grenze, bevor überhaupt - und zwar frühreif — eine Art von Persönlichkeits-, eine Art von Ich-Gefühl in den Menschen hineinkam. Dadurch, daß das Ich-Gefühl noch nicht darinnen war, dadurch, daß die menschliche Gestalt noch so beweglich war und noch nicht ihren Abschluß gefunden hatte, war noch etwas anderes der Fall. Diese Gestalt, die der Mensch jeweils äußerlich darbot und die veränderlich war — je nach seiner inneren Verfassung einmal so und ein anderes Mal anders -, diese äußerliche Gestalt wurde dadurch zu einer Art Verräter seines Inneren; je nachdem er gute oder schlechte Leidenschaften oder Gedanken hatte, formte sich seine äußere Gestalt. Man konnte damals durchaus nicht so im Verborgenen einen bösen Gedanken hegen, denn die äußerliche körperliche Form nahm sogleich den Ausdruck dafür an, und so erschien der Mensch in allen möglichen Gestalten. Es war die Zeit, in welcher noch wenige von den höheren Tierarten auf Erden waren, die Erde war von den niedrigen Tieren und den Menschen bevölkert.
So konnte man damals, wenn man ein Genosse der Menschen war, und wir waren es Ja alle im Grunde genommen, seine Mitmenschen finden, indem sie diese oder jene Leidenschaft, diesen oder jenen Gedanken ausdrückten. Und alle diese Ausdrücke für diese oder jene Leidenschaften und Gedanken, was sind sie denn eigentlich? Welches sind die physiognomischen Ausdrücke für diese menschlichen Leidenschaften und Gedanken? Tiergestalten sind es. Wer heute unsere Tiergestalten betrachtet, der sieht in dem höheren Tierreich nichts anderes als alle möglichen Eigenschaften und Gedanken auseinandergelegt, wie in einen großen Teppich gewirkt. Alles, was heute in des Menschen Astralleib als Leidenschaft walten kann und verborgen bleibt, war damals noch eine so starke Kraft, daß sie dem weichen, eigentlich ja nur aus Feuernebel geformten Körper sogleich die Gestalt gab, die der Ausdruck dieser Leidenschaft war. Und ein großer Teil unserer heutigen höheren Tiere ist nichts anderes als solche Menschenwesenheiten, die sich so verstrickt haben in ihren Leidenschaften, daß sie sich verhärtet haben, daß sie stehengeblieben sind: dadurch sind die Tiere entstanden, daß sich die menschlichen Leidenschaften verhärtet haben, daß sie fest und starr geworden sind. Mit solchen Gefühlen ungefähr lebt derjenige Mensch, der mit wirklich okkulter Vernunft in seine Umgebung blickt. Er sagt sich: Im Laufe meiner Menschwerdung bin ich durchgegangen durch das, was mir heute entgegentritt in Löwen und Schlangen; in all diesen Formen habe ich gelebt, weil mein eigenes Inneres die Eigenschaften, die in diesen Tiergestalten ausgebildet sind, durchgemacht hat. Diejenigen Menschenwesen, die fähig geworden sind, über all das zu immer höheren Stufen emporzusteigen, die sich ihr inneres Zentrum bewahrt haben, haben einen Ausgleich gefunden, so daß in ihnen nur noch die Möglichkeiten zu diesen Leidenschaften liegen, daß diese Leidenschaften nur ein Seelenwesen sind und keine äußere Gestalt annehmen. Das bedeutet die Höherentwickelung des Menschen. In den Tieren sehen wir unsere eigene Vergangenheit — allerdings nicht in derselben Gestalt, in denen die Tiere damals waren, denn seither sind Millionen von Jahren vergangen. Nehmen wir an, Leidenschaften, die Sie heute im Löwen finden, haben sich damals in der äußeren Form dieses Menschen gezeigt, in der Löwengestalt; dann hat diese Gestalt sich verhärtet, das Löwengeschlecht ist entstanden. Aber diese Löwengeschlechter haben seither ja auch eine Entwickelung durchgemacht; deshalb ist der heutige Löwe nicht mehr in derselben Gestalt wie damals, er ist der Nachkomme eines vor langen Zeiten abgezweigten Geschlechts. In gewisser Beziehung sehen wir in den verschiedenen Tieren unsere degenerierten Nachkommen. So blicken wir mit Verständnis in die Welt, die um uns ist.
Nun dürfen wir uns aber nicht vorstellen, daß alle diese Tiergestalten, die da um uns herum sind und gewisse Verhärtungszustände darstellen, deshalb schlimme menschliche Leidenschaften waren. Es waren notwendige Leidenschaften; der Mensch mußte durch sie hindurchgehen, damit er alles, was brauchbar war, aus ihnen aufnehmen konnte in seine heutige Wesenheit. So daß, wenn wir zurückblicken in jene Zeiten der Erdentwickelung, wir in unserer Umgebung finden würden sich materiell metamorphosierende Tiergestalten. Sie sind der Ausdruck von Leidenschaften, und in sie hinein wirken jene göttlichen Wesen, die uns bekanntgeworden sind in den verflossenen Vorträgen. Wir müssen uns also vorstellen, daß die Erde noch in weicher Substanz war, und geistige Wesenheiten formen an diesen Materien, gleichsam ausgestaltend die verschiedenen Tiergestalten. Und jetzt erinnern wir uns daran, daß wir gesagt haben, die ägyptische Religion hat als Weltanschauung, als religiöses Bekenntnis die Tatsachen dieser dritten Erdepoche wiederholt. Was damals auf der Erde erlebt worden war, das hatte als Erkenntnis die ägyptische Religionsform. Und nun wundern wir uns nicht darüber, daß in den Kunstdarstellungen der Agypter so viele tier- und tierkopfähnliche Gestalten vorkommen. Das ist eine geistige Wiederholung dessen, was einstmals wirklich an der Oberfläche unserer Erde war. Wirklich, ganz so hat diese Zeit wiederholt, was sich draußen in einer bestimmten Erdepoche abgespielt hat, und es ist mehr als ein bloßer Vergleich, es ist in gewissem Sinne wörtlich gesprochen, wenn wir sagen: In den Seelen, die vorzugsweise in den Ägyptern verkörpert waren, ist aufgelebt die Erinnerung an die lemurische Zeit, und ihre Religion ist eine im Geiste wiiedergeborene Erinnerung an diese Zeit. So wird Erdepoche nach Erdepoche in der Seele wiedergeboren in den verschiedenen Weltanschauungen.
Auch später war noch die Umgebung des Menschen durchaus anders als heute; auch die Bewußtseinszustände waren natürlich wesentlich anders. Wir müssen uns vor allen Dingen darüber klar sein, daß in der eben besprochenen Zeit bis hinein in die Mitte der atlantischen Zeit die heutige Menschengestalt sich erst allmählich herausgebildet hat; wir haben ja gesehen, wie in der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit die Menschengestalt in normaler Weise einen gewissen Abschluß durch Jehova und die Geister der Form erlangt hat. Wenn wir das in vollem Ernste erfassen, werden wir begreiflich finden, daß alles, was wir heute überhaupt im Menschen finden, sich erst herausgebildet hat im Laufe dieser Epoche, von der lemurischen Zeit bis in die atlantische Zeit. Dieser lemurische Mensch, wenn Sie ihn hellseherisch erblicken könnten, würde Ihnen noch ganz andere Rätsel zu lösen geben; denn er hatte Funktionen, die heute getrennt sind, noch in einer gewissen Vereinigung. So gab es zum Beispiel in der Zeit, als die lemurische Entwickelung in ihrer Blüte war, noch nicht eine solche Atmung und auch nicht solche Ernährung, wie sie heute besteht. Die Substanzen waren ja ganz anders; Atmung und Ernährung waren in einer gewissen Beziehung etwas Zusammenhängendes, eine gemeinsame Verrichtung, die sich später erst geteilt hat. Eine Art wässerige, grob ausgedrückt, milchartige Substanz nahm der Mensch in sich auf, und das gab ihm gleichzeitig dasjenige, was er heute abgesondert in der Atmung und Ernährung hat. Und etwas anderes war auch noch nicht geschieden. Sie wissen ja, daß im Laufe derselben Zeit, die wir jetzt entwickeln, sich die Sinne erst nach außen geöffnet haben. Früher waren sie nicht geöffnet. Die Sinne, die wir heute haben, nahmen damals noch nicht äußere Dinge wahr. Der Mensch war beschränkt auf das Bilderbewußtsein; lebendige Traumbilder stiegen auf, aber es war kein äußeres Gegenstandsbewußtsein. Dagegen nahm der Mensch als erste Ankündigung des äußeren Lebens, sozusagen als erste Spur äußerer Sinnesempfindung die Fähigkeit an, warm und kalt in seiner Umgebung zu unterscheiden. Das ist überhaupt der Anfang äußerer Sinneswahrnehmung auf der Erde für den Menschen, der sich in dem damals flüssigen Elemente noch bewegte: er empfand, ob er sich einer warmen oder kalten Stelle näherte. Diese Fähigkeit wurde damals vermittelt durch ein Organ, das heute verkümmert ist. Sie werden schon gehört haben, daß sich im Inneren des menschlichen Gehirns die Zirbeldrüse befindet, heute ist sie verkümmert, früher öffnete sie sich nach außen; es war sozusagen ein Kraftorgan, das seine Strahlen nach außen sandte. Und der Mensch bewegte sich mit einer Art Laterne, die eine gewisse Leuchtkraft entwikkelte, durch das wäßrige Element. Diese Laterne, die aus dem Kopfe herausragen würde, wenn die Zirbeldrüse wieder wachsen würde, befähigte den Menschen, Wärmeunterschiede zu haben; es war sozusagen das erste allgemeine Sinnesorgan. In der Naturwissenschaft nennt man es heute ein degeneriertes Auge; ein Auge war dies nie, sondern ein Wärmeorgan, und zwar nicht nur für die Umgebung, sondern sogar auf Entfernung konnte es wahrnehmen. Aber es hatte noch eine andere Aufgabe. Dies Organ, das sich schloß, als die anderen Sinnesorgane sich zu öffnen begannen, war in gewissen alten Zeiten ein Befruchtungsorgan, so daß Sinnesempfänglichkeit und Befruchtung für eine gewisse Zeit zusammenfiel. Durch dieses Organ nahm der Mensch diejenigen Kräfte aus seiner Umgebung in sich auf, die ihn befähigten, seinesgleichen hervorzubringen. Und in einer bestimmten Zeit war es sogar so, und zwar als der Mond sich noch nicht von der Erde abgeschieden hatte, daß die Atmosphäre der Erde besonders fähig wurde, bei einer bestimmten Sonnenstellung diejenige Substanz abzugeben, welche dieses Organ zu besonderem Aufleuchten brachte. Es gab wirklich solche Zeiten — und gewisse Meertiere, die zu Zeiten eine Leuchtkraft entfalten, erinnern heute noch daran -, in denen eine allgemeine Befruchtung eintrat; Zeiten, in denen durch eine besondere Sonnenstellung der damals noch völlig ungeschlechtliche Mensch eine Befruchtung erfuhr, so daß er seinesgleichen hervorbringen konnte. Sinneswahrnehmung und Befruchtung, Ernährung und Atmung stehen in urferner Vergangenheit in innigem Zusammenhange.
Und so differenzierten sich die Organe allmählich, und nach und nach erst nahm der Mensch diejenige Gestalt an, die er heute zeigt. Dadurch aber wurde er immer mehr fähig, sein eigener Herr zu werden, das zu entwickeln, was wir in dem Ich-Bewußtsein ausgedrückt haben. In der eben geschilderten Zeit, da er, angeleitet durch seine Wärmeempfindung, sich in dieser Erdatmosphäre bewegte, waren es durchaus noch höhere Wesenheiten, die auf ihn einwirkten. Vorzugsweise waren es die Kräfte der bereits aus der Erde herausgegangenen Sonne, die so auf die Erdatmosphäre wirkten, daß dieses Organ angeregt wurde. Dagegen wurde durch die Mondkräfte - vor und nach dem Hinausgehen des Mondes — ein anderes Organ besonders angeregt; es sitzt an einer anderen Stelle des Gehirns und wird gewöhnlich die Schleimdrüse genannt. Es ist das ein Organ, dem heute keinerechte Aufgabe zukommt. Die Schleimdrüse war früher der Regulator der niederen Verrichtungen, der Ernährungs- und Atmungsvorgänge, die damals noch eines waren. Damit hing alles das zusammen, was von diesem Organ aus reguliert wurde: die inneren Kräfte des Menschen, wodurch er sich aufblasen, sich die verschiedensten Gestalten geben konnte -, alles was in seiner Gestalt in seine Willkür gegeben war, das hing zusammen mit diesem Organ, mit der Schleimdrüse; das, was weniger willkürlich war, hing von dem anderen Organ ab, von der Zirbeldrüse.
So sehen wir, wie der Mensch sich umbildet, und wie er dadurch, daß er selbst eine feste, sichere Gestalt bekommt, sich immer mehr denjenigen Wesenheiten entreißt, die von außen auf ihn wirkten und ihn zu einer instinktiven Wesenheit machten. Das alles gibt uns noch ein deutlicheres Bild von den Vorgängen der menschlichen Evolution, die endlich denjenigen Zustand in der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit herbeigeführt haben, wo der Mensch reif war, die äußere Welt durch seine Sinnesorgane auf sich wirken zu lassen, wo er in die Lage kam, über die äußere Welt zu urteilen. Früher war ihm ja das Urteil sozusagen eingeflossen. Alles, was man als eine Art Denken bezeichnen konnte, das war wie eingeflossen, etwa so wie heute bei den Tieren. Und nun haben wir zu berücksichtigen, daß der Mensch ungleichmäßig fortschritt, daß der eine früher, der andere später in diesen oder jenen Verhärtungszustand eintrat, und wir haben ja auch schon gesehen, was für menschliche Formen sich herausgebildet haben. Wir haben gesehen, wie einzelne sich zur Verkümmerung vorbereitet haben dadurch, daß sie zu früh in eine gewisse Verhärtung eingetreten sind, daß sie zu früh eine bestimmte Gestalt angenommen haben, und wie dadurch sich verschiedene Rassen ausgebildet haben. Eigentlich waren in einem solchen Reifezustand, daß sie für alles das empfänglich wurden, was die Erde ihnen in ihrem äußeren Anblick darbieten konnte, nur diejenigen Menschen, die in der gestern angedeuteten Weise von jenem Sitz in der Nähe des heutigen Irland ausgingen, und die dann auszogen von Westen nach Osten; die dann die verschiedenen Gegenden bevölkerten, in denen Reste von Völkern waren, die auf anderem Wege dorthin gekommen waren, und mit denen sie sich vermischten, so daß aus diesen Mischungen die verschiedenen Kulturen entstanden sind. Und aus denen, die in ihrer Wanderung am weitesten zurückgeblieben waren, sind die europäischen Kulturen entstanden.
Um nun alles das als Vorbedingung zu haben, was wir brauchen, müssen wir zunächst noch einmal einen Blick werfen in den großen Kosmos und dann auf unsere Erde selbst. Es ist Ihnen jetzt klar geworden, daß der Mensch sich im Zusammenhange mit den Tieren entwickelt hat, daß er sie abgestoßen hat, zurückgelassen auf einer früheren Stufe der Entwickelung. Freilich haben wir da einen großen Unterschied in bezug auf die Tiere, es gibt höhere und niedere Tierformen. Wir werden sehen, daß es zwischen den höheren und niederen Tierformen eine gewisse Entwickelungsgrenze gibt, die von Wichtigkeit ist. Wenn wir daran festhalten, daß der Mensch die Tierformen nach und nach in seiner Entwickelung abgestoßen hat, so werden wir uns sagen können: In einer sehr geistigen, fein ätherischen Art war der Mensch schon vorhanden, als Sonne und Erde noch vereinigt waren. Als Sonne und Erde sich trennten, stieß er die Tiere ab, die auf jener Entwickelungsstufe stehengeblieben waren, welche dem Stadium entspricht, da die Sonne noch in der Erde drinnen war. Aus diesen Wesen, die damals als Tierformen sich entwickelten, als die Sonnenwesen noch mit der Erde verbunden waren, sind natürlich im Laufe der Zeiten ganz andere Formen entstanden, denn da haben wir eine lange Nachentwickelung. Aber wenn wir die charakteristische Form nehmen, die wir heute noch haben, die wir etwa vergleichen können mit denen, die stehengeblieben sind beim Abstoßen der Erde von der Sonne, so müssen wir die Fischform nehmen. Es ist sozusagen dasjenige, was übrigblieb, als die Erde allein auf sich angewiesen wurde, was noch den letzten Nachklang der Sonnenkräfte in sich hatte. Halten wir diesen Moment einmal fest. Es waren ganz andere Wesenheiten, vor allen Dingen viel mehr pflanzlicher Natur, aber darauf kommt es hier nicht an. Sie haben mannigfache Schicksale durchgemacht, diese Wesen, die damals vorhanden waren, und die die erste materielle Ausgestaltung der Menschenform darstellten, als die Sonne wegging. Wir könnten sagen: In den Fischen ist uns in der äußeren Welt das erhalten, was uns an unser Hervorgehen aus der physischen Sonne erinnert, was uns daran erinnert, daß wir einst zur Sonne gehört haben. Nun ist die Sonne hinausgegangen und ist draußen außerhalb der Erde. Sie wirkte von außen, auch auf den Erdenmenschen, und es bildete sich immer mehr der Zustand heraus, der ein Wechselzustand im Bewußtsein, ein Wachen und Schlafen ist. Immer mehr bildet sich der Zustand aus, in dem der Mensch mehr verbunden ist mit seinem Ich, auch in bezug auf seine höheren Wesensglieder, auf seinen Äther- und Astralleib; und dieser Zustand wechselt ab mit jenem, wo der Astralleib sich aus seinem physischen Leib herauszieht. Es ist der Zustand, der ja noch heute in dem Wechsel zwischen Wachen und Schlafen erhalten ist.
Nun studieren wir einmal diesen Wechselzustand. Wir kennen ihn alle, denn er gehört zu den elementarsten Dingen. Wir wissen, daß der Mensch, wenn er wach ist, einen regelmäßigen Zusammenhang hat zwischen physischem, Atherleib, Astralleib und Ich; wenn er einschläft, rückt aus dem physischen und Ätherleibe heraus der Astralleib und das Ich. Damals, in alten Zeiten, war das Ich noch nicht vorhanden, dafür ging ein Teil des ÄAtherleibes mit hinaus; es ist also trotzdem dieser Zustand mit dem Schlafzustand zu vergleichen. Nun müssen wir uns klar sein darüber, daß dadurch, daß der Mensch den physischen und den Ätherleib zurückläßt im Bette, er eigentlich diesem physischen und Atherleib den Wert einer Pflanze verleiht. Die Pflanze hat ein Schlafbewußtsein, der physische und der Ätherleib des Menschen im Schlafe auch. Aber heute hat auch der Astralleib und das Ich beim normalen Menschen während des Schlafes eine Art von Pflanzenbewußtsein, denn er hat auch kein Bewußtsein von seiner Umgebung. Das war anders in den alten Zeiten; damals, wenn er herausrückte, hatte er ein dämmerhaftes Bewußtsein von dem Geistigen, was draußen vorging. Und jetzt können wir uns von einer anderen Tatsache eine Vorstellung machen, von einer wichtigen Tatsache, die daraus hervorging, daß die Erde sich von der Sonne trennte. Bevor dies geschehen war, stand der ganze Mensch hinsichtlich seines physischen, Atherleibes und Astralleibes unter dem Einfluß, unter der Herrschaft der materiellen und geistigen Sonnenkräfte. Jetzt hing es von der Sonnenstellung ab, ob der Mensch in bezug auf seinen physischen, Äther- und Astralleib unter dem Einfluß der Sonne war, die ihn direkt beschien. Wir fragen uns aber jetzt: Gibt es in dieser Zeit nicht noch einen anderen Einfluß der Sonne? - Damals, als noch kein physisches Auge die Sonne hätte sehen können, als sie noch nicht die dichte Atmosphäre durchdrang, da empfingen der Ätherleib und der Astralleib, wenn sie draußen aus dem physischen Leibe waren, wichtige Einflüsse der geistigen Kräfte, die von der Sonne ausgingen. Wahrnehmen konnte der Mensch diese Einflüsse nicht, denn er war noch nicht reif dazu. Und dann später trat diese Möglichkeit ein dadurch, daß der Mensch eine Kraft empfing, die ihn fähig machte, wahrnehmen zu können, was geistig von der Sonne ausging.
Welches war nun das Ereignis, das den Menschen fähig machte, die Kräfte wahrzunehmen, die in der Sonne wohnten, jene erhabenen Kräfte, die weggehen mußten von der Erde, die sich mit der Sonne verbunden hatten? Wann wurde ihm diese Wahrnehmung verliehen?
Allmählich strömen die Kräfte in die Erde ein. Und der wichtigste Punkt, in welchem sich sozusagen die Sache entscheidet, wo der Mensch die vollen Kräfte erhielt, nicht nur die physischen, sondern auch die geistigen Kräfte der Sonne in vollem Bewußtseinszustand in sich aufzunehmen, dieser Zeitpunkt ist die Erscheinung des Christus auf der Erde. So daß wir sagen können: Es gibt einen Moment, wo sich der Mensch physisch von der Sonne trennt. Es zeigt uns der Fisch den Gedanken: Du erinnerst mich daran, was einstmals mein Zustand war, bevor ich mich aus der Sonne herauslösen mußte. Damals aber verließen die Erde auch unmittelbar die höheren Kräfte, deren Anführer der Christus ist, der hohe Sonnengeist. Und die Menschen reiften allmählich heran, seine Kräfte ebenso zu empfangen, wie sie die physischen Kräfte der Sonne von außen empfingen. Und auf der Erde mußte als eine Tatsache die innere geistige Kraft erscheinen, wie früher die physischen Kräfte der Sonne erschienen sind. An was durften denn die Eingeweihten die Menschen erinnern beim Erscheinen des Christus? An die alte Sonnenheimat; und das Symbolum, das sie an diese alte Heimat erinnerte, war das Fischsymbolum. Der Fisch erscheint in den Katakomben deshalb als ein wahres Symbolum, das zusammenhängt mit der Menschheitsentwickelung. Und der Schüler der ersten Jahrhunderte, der das Fischsymbol überall sah, er empfand das, was ihm von den Eingeweihten an sein Ohr drang, mit Schauern der Empfindung, denn das führte spirituell ihn hinein in die Heiligkeit der palästinischen Geschichte, und zugleich führte es ihn kosmisch hinaus in die mächtigen Entwickelungsphasen unserer Erde. Solche Dinge wurden in den Einweihungsschulen gepflogen, und in solchen Symbolen wie dem Fischsymbol, das wir an den Wänden der Katakomben finden, haben wir den äußeren Ausdruck dieser Mysterien, so wie der Geologe ein Zeichen finder für etwas aus urferner Vergangenheit in einem Pflanzenabdruck. Wie aber dieser Abdruck nicht allein aus sich selbst existiert hat, so ist auch das Fischsymbolum wie ein Abdruck dessen, was in den Mysterien gepflogen worden ist. Und nicht plötzlich ist dieses Symbolum aufgetreten. Schon lange vor der Erscheinung des Christus sind die Schüler durch die Propheten des Messias hingewiesen worden, bis in die Druidenmysterien zurück, auf das Kommen des Christus, und überall spielt da schon dieses Symbol seine Rolle. So sehen wir, wie in dem Fischsymbol ein wichtiger Moment in der Erdentwickelung festgehalten ist. Gehen wir jetzt weiter!
Es gab einen Zeitpunkt, wo sich der Mond von der Erde trennte. Eine gewisse Zeit ging die Erde mit dem Monde zusammen, dann kam die dreifache Gestaltung: es entstanden Sonne, Mond und Erde. Es waren gewaltige Katastrophen, die sich da abspielten; die Geschehnisse damals waren stürmischer Art. Das, was der Mensch physisch war, stand damals noch nicht auf einer sehr hohen Stufe, und er ließ es zurück als eine verknöcherte Entwickelungsstufe. Um das zu verstehen, müssen wir vor allen Dingen eines in Betracht ziehen: Als die Sonne heraustrat, ging die Erde in ihrer Entwickelung zurück, sie wurde schlechter; erst als der Mond mit den allerschlechtesten Dingen hinausging, trat wieder eine Verbesserung ein, eine Erhebung. So daß wir eine Zeitlang eine aufsteigende Entwickelung in der Evolution haben, bis die Sonne hinausging; dann eine absteigende, wo alles schlechter wurde, grotesker; und dann, als der Mond hinausging, stieg die Entwickelung wieder. Auch von dieser Entwickelungsstufe hat sich eine Form erhalten, die degeneriert ist und gar nicht ausschaut wie damals. Aber sie ist da; es ist diejenige Form, die der Mensch gehabt hat, bevor der Mond hinausgegangen ist, ehe der Mensch noch ein Ich hatte. Diejenige tietische Wesenheit, welche den Menschen sozusagen erinnert an den tiefsten Stand der Erdentwickelung, an denjenigen Punkt, wo wir am weitesten in die Leidenschaften hineingestiegen sind, wo der Astralleib des Menschen den schlechtesten äußeren Einflüssen zugänglich war; diejenige Wesenheit, in der festgehalten ist der Tiefstand unserer Schandentwickelung auf dem Erdenplaneten, ist, was wir heute, wenn auch degeneriert, in der Schlange sehen. Und so haben wir auf der anderen Seite auch dieses Schlangensymbol aus der Entwickelung herausgeholt. Das ist nichts Ausgedachtes, sondern ein Symbolum, das im Tiefsten wurzelt: Fisch- und Schlangensymbol sind aus den Rätseln unserer Entwickelung herausgeholt. Und wie es dem natürlichen Gemüt wohl zumute ist, wenn es den leuchtenden Fischkörper sieht in dem reinen, keuschen Element, wie ihm da friedlich zumute ist, so wird es einem unverdorbenen Gemüt greulich zumute sein, wenn es die schleichende Schlange sieht. Solche Gefühle sind nicht unbegründete Erinnerungen an Tatsachen, die wir einst in der Entwickelung durchgemacht haben. So gern der Mensch die wunderbaren sonnig-lebendigen Fischgestalten im Wasser sieht und sich an seine ehemalige unschuldvolle Höhe erinnert, wo er noch kein Ich hatte, aber von den besten Geistern der Evolution dirigiert wurde, so wahr ist es, daß er sich an seine greulichste Zeit der Erdentwickelung erinnert, an die Zeit, da er nahe daran war, aus seiner Entwickelung herunterzufallen, wenn die schleichende Schlange an ihn herantritt. Das, was wir da im Gefühl erleben, hängt zusammen mit kosmischen Tatsachen, und wir begreifen jene unbewußten Erlebnisse der Menschenseele, die uns so rätselhaft erscheinen, die aber gerade dann mit solcher Vehemenz und Klarheit auftreten, wenn der Mensch noch nicht angeregt ist durch die Kultur. Das wird uns dadurch durchsichtig. Gewiß kann der Mensch über die Furcht vor der Schlange vollständig hinauskommen, aber das ist Kultur; das naive Gefühl sitzt doch im Grunde der Seele, und es führt auf solche uralte Zeiten zurück. Das aber sind zugleich die Zeiten, wo der Mensch physisch erst auf der Stufe der Schlange war; wo diejenigen Elemente anfingen einzugreifen, von denen wir gesagt haben, daß sie ihn vorbereitet haben zu seiner Freiheit, daß sie ihn vorbereitet haben, den Christus in seiner vollen Bedeutung und Größe und mit rechter Würde zu empfangen.
Wir fragen uns: Welches sind denn diese Elemente, welche dem Menschen geholfen haben, nicht herunterzusinken in die Tiefe? Das sind diejenigen Wesenheiten, welche wir schon gestern genannt haben, und die auf ihn wirkten, als er im Tiefstande angekommen war und jetzt ihn wieder in die Höhe leiteten: das sind die luziferischen Wesenheiten. Noch nicht wirkten auf ihn ein die Sonnengeister; aber diese Wesenheiten, die sich geopfert haben, sie wirkten auf ihn. In einer merkwürdigen Art sind sie unter dem, was die Erde an Menschen bevölkerte, umhergewandelt. Außerlich hatten sie gewisse menschliche Gestalt, denn auch die höchsten Geister müssen sich in denjenigen Gestalten verkörpern, die da sind auf Erden. So nahmen auch gewisse Wesenheiten äußerlich die damalige Gestalt des Menschen an. Sie wandelten so auf Erden umher, daß sie sich sagten: Wir sind in der Gestalt gleich mit den Menschen, aber unsere wahre Heimat ist nicht auf Erden, unsere Heimat ist auf den beiden Zwischenplaneten, der Venus und dem Merkur. Sie wandelten unter den Menschen, aber sie blickten hinauf und wußten sich eins mit der Venus und dem Merkur. Dort waren ihre Seelen — das beste von ihnen — und ihre äußere Gestalt war im Grunde genommen eine Art von Trugbild. Sie konnten aber auch nur dadurch den Menschen geben, was sie brauchten: Leitung und Lehre, weil sie ihre Heimat nicht auf dem irdischen Planeten hatten, der sich erst bilden sollte, sondern auf der Venus und dem Merkur. Und sie sind es, die wir als die ersten Lehrer und Eingeweihten in der Menschheit zu bezeichnen haben, äußerlich wie die damaligen Menschen, innerlich aber mit hohen bedeutungsvollen Fähigkeiten ausgestattet, so daß sie wirken konnten auf die ganze Menschheit und zum Teil auch, in besonders abgesonderten Schulen, in den ersten Mysterienschulen, auf die einzelnen vorgeschrittenen Menschen. Und immer gab es solche vorgeschrittenen Individualitäten, die ihre Heimat in den Sternen hatten und die, trotzdem sie mit den Sternen zusammenhingen, ihre Gestalt auf der Erde hatten und unter den Menschen umherwandelten. Der Mensch selbst schritt immer mehr fort und näherte sich immer mehr der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit.
Die heutige Menschengestalt begann erst in der ersten Hälfte der atlantischen Zeit sich herauszubilden; da erst fing der Mensch an, sich in sie hineinzufinden. Es gab nun solche Wesenheiten, die schon in dieser alten atlantischen Zeit auf der Stufe der Menschlichkeit tief unten standen, die dann die zurückgebliebenen Rassen wurden; ferner solche, die sich bildsam erhalten hatten, und solche, die nur ganz zeitweilig Menschenleiber bewohnten. Das, was ich jetzt erzählen will, kam in der ersten atlantischen Zeit sehr häufig vor. Denken Sie sich einen solchen alten Atlantier von einer für die Atlantier hohen Entwickelung. Ein solcher wurde häufig durch gewisse Tatsachen dazu veranlaßt, seinen physischen Leib, der ja sehr bildsam war, und seinen Ätherund Astralleib abzusondern von den geistigen Teilen, die sich dann mehr in die geistige Welt zurückzogen, um später andere Leiblichkeit anzunehmen. Das kam sehr häufig vor, daß physischer, Ätherund Astralleib, lange bevor sie reif zum Sterben waren, willkürlich verlassen wurden von ihren seelisch-geistigen Wesenheiten. Und wenn sie besonders hohen Individualitäten angehörten, so waren es reine, gute Leiber. In solche Leiber ließen sich dann hohe geistige Wesenheiten nieder, und so kam es in der alten atlantischen Zeit häufig vor, daß Wesenheiten, die sich sonst nicht auf der Erde verkörpern konnten, solche vorgeschrittene Leiblichkeiten benutzten, um herabzusteigen unter die Menschen, Solche Wesenheiten waren es, die als die großen Lehrer in den atlantischen Einweihungsschulen wirkten. Sie wirkten stark mit denjenigen Mitteln, mit denen man damals wirken konnte. Wenn der Mensch nachts sozusagen aus seinem physischen Leibe herausging, dann hatte er ein dumpfes hellseherisches Bewußtsein. Am Tage waren die äußeren Konturen noch verschwommen. Ein solch scharfer Unterschied zwischen beiden Zuständen wie heute war damals nicht vorhanden. So kam es, daß der gewöhnliche Mensch eine solche Individualität abwechselnd sah, bei Tage menschenähnlich, bei Nacht aber ganz anders in geistig-seelenhafter Weise, aber er wußte: das ist derselbe, der mir bei Tage in der physischen Leiblichkeit erscheint. Das waren diejenigen Wesenheiten, die gewissermaßen Venus- und Merkurwesen waren, die eingriffen in das Menschendasein und die Tag und Nacht bei den Menschen waren. Von diesen Wesenheiten blieb die Erinnerung in den Menschenseelen zurück, die sich immer wieder verkörperten, und solch eine Erinnerung war bei den Menschen, die Europa bevölkert hatten, vorhanden, wenn sie die Namen Wotan, Thor aussprachen. Wenn die alten Bewohner Europas von den Göttern sprachen, so waren das nicht Phantasiegebilde, sondern Erinnerungen an atlantische Gestalten. Und ebenso wenn die Griechen Zeus, Apollo, Mars aussprachen, dann waren das Gestalten, die sie selbst in der atlantischen Zeit erlebt hatten. Während in der ägyptischen Zeit die Erinnerung an die alte Lemuria auftauchte, so tauchte damals in Griechenland dasjenige auf, was in der alten Atlantis Erdenerlebnis war.
Nun müssen wir uns klar darüber sein: wenn so alles in den späteren Religionssystemen Erinnerung früherer Erdenvorgänge ist, so mußte gerade in jenem Zeitpunkt, wo die letzte der Erinnerungen auftauchen konnte, ein wichtiges Ereignis eintreten. Und das war ungefähr die Zeit, wo das griechische und das römische Volk sich an die atlantischen Zeiten erinnerten. Das war aber auch die Zeit, in der der Christus einen wesentlichen, einen neuen Einschlag in die Erdentwickelung hineingebracht hat. Was für ein Einschlag das war, haben wir ja schon heute berührt, indem wir sagten, daß nach der langen Zwischenzeit, in der die luziferischen Wesenheiten den Menschen zubereitet haben, ihn fähig gemacht haben, den ersten Impuls zu empfangen, daß da die Sonne ihn nicht nur äußerlich bestrahlte, sondern auch ihre inneren Kräfte auf den Menschen wirkten. Diese Zeit ist noch lange nicht zum Abschluß gebracht, sie ist erst in ihrem Anfange, denn erst mit der Erscheinung des Christus ist der erste Impuls gegeben, daß das, was sonst bei der Sonne physisch-leiblich herunterscheint auf die Erde, auch innerlich-geistig ausstrahlt. Und immer größer wird das Licht werden, das als Sonnenlicht, als Geisteslicht, als Christus-Licht den Menschen von innen durchstrahlen wird, so wie das äußere Sonnenlicht ihn von außen umstrahlt. Das wird des Menschen Zukunft sein, daß er die Sonne nicht nur mit äußeren Augen anschauen und ihre Herrlichkeit empfinden wird, sondern daß er in seinem Inneren auch den geistigen Sinn der Sonne wird aufleben lassen. Wenn er dazu imstande sein wird, dann wird er erst voll verstehen, was eigentlich in der Gestalt, die wir als den Christus Jesus bezeichnen, auf Erden gewandelt ist. Das wird erst langsam und allmählich von dem Menschen verstanden werden können, Und ebenso wahr, als es ist, daß er in der vorchristlichen Zeit die ankündigenden geistigen Wesen begreifen mußte, die den Menschen sozusagen entlassen haben in die physische Welt hinunter, ebenso wahr ist es, daß der Mensch nunmehr begreifen muß durch eine wirklich spirituelle Bewegung jene geistige Kraft, die damals mit der Sonne aus der Erde herausgegangen ist. Der Mensch muß sie als eine innerliche geistige Kraft wieder in Empfang nehmen können; er muß diese geistige Kraft, die ihm die großen Impulse in die Zukunft hinein gibt, er muß diese Christus-Kraft begreifen.
Und um diese Christus-Kraft zu begreifen, dazu gehört alle spirituelle Wissenschaft, dazu gehört als Geistsame alles, was aufgebracht werden kann an geistigen Lehren. Man kann nicht sagen, daß die Anthroposophie Christentum ist; sondern man muß sagen: Dasjenige, was durch das Christus-Prinzip der Erde, dem Menschen gegeben worden ist, wird durch das Instrument der Anthroposophie allmählich begriffen werden. Dadurch aber, daß es begriffen wird, wird es immer mehr der Geistsame werden, wird immer mehr jener große Impuls in die Erdentwickelung hineingegeben werden. Denn der Mensch braucht es, nachdem er am tiefsten hinabgestiegen ist in die Materie, um sich ihr wieder zu entreißen, um wieder zurückzukehren in seine geistige Heimat.
Seventh Lecture
Yesterday it dawned on us how differentiation, the development of differences, occurs in evolution in general and in human evolution in particular, because human beings and other beings, so to speak, cannot wait for the right moment of development, remain behind in a certain state of hardening, and that other beings, until the right moment—if we want to speak in a rough sense—retain their necessary softness and malleability and can thus also begin the corresponding transformation. We have also clearly indicated the point in time when the actual human form came into being. That was in the middle of the Atlantean epoch, and we have pointed out how in earlier times, especially in much earlier times, what was the outer human being had great mobility. We have pointed out how he could not only move his limbs, but also make them larger through inner forces, and so on. Now, as I mentioned yesterday, it will be a kind of horror for the ordinary consciousness of the present day to hear such things said about the early Earth and humanity. You see, even here among students of spiritual science, the lectures are based on the desire to develop certain truths very gently, little by little, in small doses: they are then easier to digest.
We will now look back once more at this earlier development. We will remember that even the period we call Atlantean had a definite beginning. It came to an end through great, violent water catastrophes of a very complicated nature; before that, the Atlantean development had lasted for long periods of time—more details about the numbers will be given in the following hours—and then we come back to the beginning of this development, and if we go further back, we come to other catastrophes in the Earth's development, which we can call volcanic, where land masses were torn apart and thrown into the sea, and then we come back to the beginning of this development, and if we go further back, we come to other catastrophes in the Earth's development, which we can call volcanic, where land masses were torn apart and thrown into the sea, and then we come back to the beginning of this development, and if we go further back, we come to other catastrophes and then we come back to the beginning of this development, and if we go further back, we come to other catastrophes in the Earth's development, which we can call volcanic, where land masses were destroyed that lay south of present-day Asia, east of Africa, and north of Australia. These were land masses on which pre-humanity lived, and which are called the Lemurian continent, a term borrowed from natural science. But humanity at that time was of a very soft, malleable physical nature. We are in a time when human beings can take on all kinds of transformations. The figures would appear very grotesque to today's consciousness if we were to describe them. We are there at the very edge, before any kind of personality, any kind of sense of self, entered into human beings, even at an early stage. Because the sense of self was not yet there, because the human form was still so malleable and had not yet reached its final stage, something else was also the case. This form, which each person presented outwardly and which was changeable — depending on their inner state, sometimes one way and sometimes another — this outward form became a kind of traitor to their inner being; depending on whether they had good or bad passions or thoughts, their outward form was shaped. At that time, it was impossible to harbor evil thoughts in secret, because the external physical form immediately took on the expression of those thoughts, and thus human beings appeared in all kinds of forms. It was a time when there were still few of the higher animal species on earth; the earth was populated by lower animals and human beings.
So at that time, if you were a companion of human beings, and we all were, basically, you could find your fellow human beings by expressing this or that passion, this or that thought. And what are all these expressions of this or that passion and thought? What are the physiognomic expressions of these human passions and thoughts? They are animal forms. Anyone who looks at our animal forms today sees nothing in the higher animal kingdom but all kinds of characteristics and thoughts laid out, as if woven into a large carpet. Everything that can act as passion in the human astral body today and remains hidden was then still such a strong force that it immediately gave the soft body, which was actually only formed from fire mist, the form that was the expression of this passion. And a large part of our present-day higher animals are nothing other than such human beings who have become so entangled in their passions that they have hardened and come to a standstill: animals came into being because human passions hardened and became fixed and rigid. The person who looks at his surroundings with truly occult reason lives with feelings like these. He says to himself: In the course of my human development, I have passed through what I now encounter in lions and snakes; I have lived in all these forms because my own inner being has undergone the qualities that are developed in these animal forms. Those human beings who have become capable of rising above all this to ever higher levels, who have preserved their inner center, have found a balance so that only the possibilities for these passions remain within them, so that these passions are only soul beings and do not take on an outer form. This is what the higher development of the human being means. In animals we see our own past — though not in the same form as the animals were then, for millions of years have passed since then. Let us assume that the passions you find in lions today manifested themselves at that time in the outer form of this human being, in the lion form; then this form hardened, and the lion species came into being. But these lion species have also undergone development since then; that is why today's lion is no longer in the same form as it was then; it is the descendant of a species that branched off long ago. In a certain sense, we see our degenerate descendants in the various animals. In this way, we look at the world around us with understanding.
Now, however, we must not imagine that all these animal forms that surround us and represent certain states of hardening were therefore evil human passions. They were necessary passions; human beings had to go through them in order to absorb everything that was useful from them into their present being. So when we look back to those times in the Earth's development, we find materially metamorphosing animal forms in our surroundings. They are the expression of passions, and the divine beings we have come to know in previous lectures are working within them. We must therefore imagine that the earth was still in a soft substance, and spiritual beings were shaping this matter, forming the various animal forms, as it were. And now we remember that we said that the Egyptian religion repeated the facts of this third epoch of the earth as its worldview, as its religious creed. What had been experienced on Earth at that time was recognized in the Egyptian form of religion. And now we are not surprised that so many animal and animal-headed figures appear in Egyptian art. This is a spiritual repetition of what once really existed on the surface of our Earth. Indeed, this period repeated exactly what had taken place outside during a certain earth epoch, and it is more than a mere comparison; it is, in a certain sense, literally true when we say that the memory of the Lemurian epoch has been revived in the souls that were predominantly embodied in the Egyptians, and that their religion is a memory of this epoch reborn in the spirit. Thus, epoch after epoch is reborn in the soul in various worldviews.
Even later, the environment of human beings was quite different from today; the states of consciousness were also, of course, significantly different. We must be clear above all that in the period just discussed, up to the middle of the Atlantean epoch, the present human form only gradually developed; we have seen how, in the middle of the Atlantean epoch, the human form attained a certain completion in the normal way through Jehovah and the spirits of form. If we take this seriously, we will understand that everything we find in human beings today only developed during this epoch, from the Lemurian period to the Atlantean period. If you could see the Lemurian human being clairvoyantly, he would present you with quite different riddles to solve, for he had functions that are separate today but were still united in a certain way. For example, at the time when Lemurian development was at its height, there was not yet such breathing or such nutrition as we have today. The substances were completely different; breathing and nutrition were, in a certain sense, connected, a joint activity that only later became divided. Human beings absorbed a kind of watery, roughly speaking, milky substance, and this gave them what they now have separately in breathing and nutrition. And something else was not yet separated either. You know that during the same period we are now developing, the senses first opened to the outside world. They were not open before. The senses we have today did not yet perceive external things at that time. Man was limited to image consciousness; living dream images arose, but there was no external object consciousness. In contrast, as the first announcement of external life, as the first trace of external sense perception, so to speak, man acquired the ability to distinguish between warm and cold in his environment. This is the very beginning of external sensory perception on Earth for humans, who at that time were still moving in the fluid elements: they felt whether they were approaching a warm or cold place. This ability was then conveyed by an organ that has now atrophied. You may have heard that the pineal gland is located inside the human brain. Today it is atrophied, but in the past it opened to the outside; it was, so to speak, an organ of power that sent its rays outwards. And humans moved through the watery element with a kind of lantern that developed a certain luminosity. This lantern, which would protrude from the head if the pineal gland were to grow again, enabled humans to perceive differences in heat; it was, so to speak, the first general sense organ. In natural science today, it is called a degenerated eye; it was never an eye, but a heat organ, and it could perceive not only the immediate surroundings, but even at a distance. But it had another function. This organ, which closed when the other sensory organs began to open, was in certain ancient times a fertilization organ, so that sensory perception and fertilization coincided for a certain period of time. Through this organ, humans absorbed from their environment those forces that enabled them to produce their own kind. And at a certain time, when the moon had not yet separated from the earth, the earth's atmosphere became particularly capable of emitting, at a certain position of the sun, the substance that caused this organ to glow. There really were such times—and certain sea creatures that occasionally display luminosity still remind us of this today—when general fertilization occurred; times when, due to a particular position of the sun, humans, who were then still completely asexual, underwent fertilization so that they could produce their own kind. Sensory perception and fertilization, nutrition and respiration are intimately connected in the distant past.
And so the organs gradually differentiated, and little by little man took on the form he has today. But this made him increasingly capable of becoming his own master, of developing what we have expressed in the consciousness of the I. In the period just described, when he moved in the Earth's atmosphere guided by his sense of warmth, it was still higher beings that influenced him. These were primarily the forces of the Sun, which had already emerged from the Earth and acted on the Earth's atmosphere in such a way as to stimulate this organ. In contrast, the forces of the moon—before and after the moon left the earth—stimulated another organ in particular; it is located in a different part of the brain and is usually called the mucous gland. It is an organ that has no real function today. The mucous gland used to be the regulator of the lower functions, the processes of nutrition and respiration, which at that time were still one. Everything that was regulated by this organ was connected with it: the inner forces of the human being, through which he could inflate himself and take on the most diverse forms — everything that was given to his will in his form was connected with this organ, with the mucous gland; that which was less arbitrary depended on the other organ, the pineal gland.
Thus we see how the human being transforms himself and how, by acquiring a firm, secure form, he increasingly breaks away from those entities that acted upon him from outside and made him an instinctive being. All this gives us an even clearer picture of the processes of human evolution that finally brought about the state in the middle of the Atlantean epoch, when human beings were ready to let the external world act upon them through their sense organs, when they became capable of judging the external world. Previously, judgment had, so to speak, flowed into them. Everything that could be described as a kind of thinking was instilled, much as it is today in animals. And now we must take into account that human beings progressed unevenly, that some entered this or that state of hardening earlier than others, and we have already seen what kinds of human forms developed. We have seen how individuals prepared themselves for atrophy by entering into a certain hardening too early, by taking on a certain form too early, and how this led to the formation of different races. Actually, only those humans were in such a state of maturity that they became receptive to everything that the earth could offer them in its outer appearance who, in the manner indicated yesterday, set out from that location near present-day Ireland and then moved from west to east; who then populated the various regions where there were remnants of peoples who had arrived there by other means, and with whom they intermingled, so that the various cultures arose from these mixtures. And from those who remained furthest behind in their migration, the European cultures arose.
In order to have all this as a prerequisite, we must first take another look at the great cosmos and then at our Earth itself. It has now become clear to you that human beings developed in connection with animals, that they rejected them and left them behind at an earlier stage of development. Of course, there is a great difference between us and animals; there are higher and lower animal forms. We will see that there is a certain developmental boundary between the higher and lower animal forms that is of importance. If we hold fast to the idea that man gradually rejected the animal forms in his development, we can say that man already existed in a very spiritual, finely ethereal form when the sun and earth were still united. When the sun and the earth separated, he cast off the animals that had remained at that stage of development corresponding to the stage when the sun was still inside the earth. From these beings, which developed as animal forms when the sun beings were still connected with the earth, completely different forms naturally arose in the course of time, for there we have a long subsequent development. But if we take the characteristic form that we still have today, which we can compare with those that remained when the Earth was cast off from the Sun, we must take the fish form. It is, so to speak, what remained when the Earth was left to its own devices, what still had the last echo of the Sun's forces within it. Let us hold on to this moment for a moment. They were completely different beings, above all much more plant-like in nature, but that is not important here. These beings, which existed at that time and represented the first material form of the human being when the sun departed, underwent manifold destinies. We could say: In Pisces, what remains in the outer world reminds us of our emergence from the physical sun, reminding us that we once belonged to the sun. Now the sun has gone out and is outside the earth. It worked from outside, also on the earth human being, and a state developed more and more which is a state of change in consciousness, a waking and sleeping. More and more, a state develops in which the human being is more connected with his ego, also in relation to his higher members, to his etheric and astral bodies; and this state alternates with that in which the astral body withdraws from the physical body. It is the state that is still preserved today in the alternation between waking and sleeping.
Let us now study this alternating state. We are all familiar with it, for it is one of the most elementary things. We know that when a person is awake, there is a regular connection between the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego; when a person falls asleep, the astral body and the ego withdraw from the physical and etheric bodies. In ancient times, the ego did not yet exist, so part of the etheric body went out with it; this state can therefore be compared to the state of sleep. Now we must be clear that by leaving the physical and etheric bodies behind in bed, human beings actually give these bodies the value of a plant. The plant has a sleeping consciousness, as do the physical and etheric bodies of the human being in sleep. But today, during sleep, the astral body and the I-consciousness of the normal human being also have a kind of plant consciousness, for they have no consciousness of their surroundings. This was different in ancient times; back then, when they left their bodies, they had a dim awareness of the spiritual world outside. And now we can form an idea from another fact, an important fact that arose from the separation of the Earth from the Sun. Before this happened, the whole human being, in terms of his physical, etheric, and astral bodies, was under the influence, under the dominion, of the material and spiritual forces of the Sun. Now it depended on the position of the Sun whether the human being was under the influence of the Sun shining directly on him in relation to his physical, etheric, and astral bodies. But now we ask ourselves: Is there not another influence of the sun at this time? Back then, when no physical eye could see the sun, when it did not yet penetrate the dense atmosphere, the etheric body and the astral body, when they were outside the physical body, received important influences from the spiritual forces emanating from the sun. Human beings could not perceive these influences because they were not yet ready to do so. Later, this ability arose when human beings received a force that enabled them to perceive what emanated spiritually from the sun.
What was the event that enabled human beings to perceive the forces dwelling in the sun, those sublime forces that had to leave the earth, which had connected themselves with the sun? When was this perception granted to them?
Gradually, the forces stream into the earth. And the most important point, where, so to speak, the matter is decided, where human beings received the full powers, not only the physical but also the spiritual powers of the sun in a state of full consciousness, this point in time is the appearance of Christ on earth. So we can say that there is a moment when humans physically separate from the sun. The fish shows us the thought: You remind me of what my state was once before I had to detach myself from the sun. At that time, however, the higher forces, led by Christ, the high spirit of the sun, also left the earth. And human beings gradually matured to receive these forces in the same way that they received the physical forces of the sun from outside. And the inner spiritual force had to appear on earth as a fact, just as the physical forces of the sun had appeared earlier. What could the initiates remind people of when Christ appeared? Of the old sun home; and the symbol that reminded them of this old home was the fish symbol. The fish therefore appears in the catacombs as a true symbol connected with the evolution of humanity. And the disciple of the first centuries, who saw the fish symbol everywhere, felt what the initiates whispered in his ear with shivers of emotion, for this led him spiritually into the sanctity of Palestinian history and at the same time led him cosmically out into the mighty phases of our Earth's development. Such things were practiced in the initiation schools, and in symbols such as the fish symbol that we find on the walls of the catacombs, we have the outward expression of these mysteries, just as the geologist finds a sign of something from the distant past in a plant imprint. But just as this imprint did not exist on its own, the fish symbol is also an imprint of what was practiced in the mysteries. And this symbol did not appear suddenly. Long before the appearance of Christ, the disciples were told by the prophets of the Messiah, going back to the Druid mysteries, about the coming of Christ, and everywhere this symbol already played its role. So we see how an important moment in the evolution of the Earth is captured in the fish symbol. Let us now go further!
There was a time when the moon separated from the earth. For a certain period, the earth and the moon were together, then the threefold formation came into being: the sun, moon, and earth. These were tremendous catastrophes that took place; the events of that time were of a stormy nature. What humans were physically at that time was not yet at a very high level, and they left it behind as an ossified stage of development. To understand this, we must first consider one thing above all else: when the sun came out, the earth regressed in its development; it became worse. Only when the moon left with all the worst things did an improvement, an uplifting, occur again. So we have a period of upward development in evolution until the sun went out; then a downward period, when everything became worse, more grotesque; and then, when the moon went out, development rose again. A form has also been preserved from this stage of development, which has degenerated and does not look at all like it did then. But it is there; it is the form that human beings had before the moon left, before human beings had an I. The animal entity that reminds human beings, so to speak, of the lowest stage of Earth's development, of the point where we descended furthest into the passions, where the astral body of the human being was accessible to the worst external influences; the entity in which the lowest point of our shameful development on the Earth planet is held fast is what we see today, albeit degenerated, in the snake. And so, on the other hand, we have also extracted this symbol of the serpent from evolution. This is not something invented, but a symbol rooted in the deepest depths: the symbols of the fish and the serpent have been extracted from the mysteries of our evolution. And just as the natural mind feels when it sees the shining body of a fish in the pure, chaste element, how peaceful it feels, so an uncorrupted mind will feel horror when it sees the creeping snake. Such feelings are not unfounded memories of facts that we once experienced in our evolution. As much as humans enjoy seeing the wonderful, sunny, lively fish shapes in the water and remember their former innocent height, when they had no ego but were directed by the best spirits of evolution, it is true that they remember their most gruesome time in the Earth's development, the time when they were close to falling out of their development when the creeping snake approached them. What we experience in our feelings is connected with cosmic facts, and we understand those unconscious experiences when we see the snake approaching us. falling out of his development when the creeping snake approaches him. What we experience in our feelings is connected with cosmic facts, and we understand those unconscious experiences of the human soul that seem so mysterious to us, but which occur with such vehemence and clarity precisely when man is not yet stimulated by culture. This becomes clear to us. Certainly, human beings can completely overcome their fear of snakes, but that is culture; the naive feeling still resides at the bottom of the soul and leads back to such ancient times. But these are also the times when man was physically only at the stage of the serpent, when those elements began to intervene which we have said prepared him for his freedom, prepared him to receive Christ in his full meaning and greatness and with the right dignity.
We ask ourselves: What are these elements that helped man not to sink into the depths? They are the beings we mentioned yesterday, who worked upon him when he had reached the lowest point and now led him upward again: they are the Luciferic beings. The sun spirits did not yet work upon him, but these beings, who sacrificed themselves, worked upon him. In a remarkable way, they wandered among the people who populated the earth. Outwardly, they had a certain human form, for even the highest spirits must incarnate themselves in the forms that exist on earth. Thus, certain beings also took on the outward form of human beings at that time. They wandered around on earth saying to themselves: We are the same as humans in form, but our true home is not on earth; our home is on the two intermediate planets, Venus and Mercury. They walked among humans, but they looked up and knew themselves to be one with Venus and Mercury. There were their souls — the best of them — and their outer form was basically a kind of illusion. But this was the only way they could give humans what they needed: guidance and teaching, because their home was not on the earthly planet, which was still in the process of forming, but on Venus and Mercury. And it is they whom we must regard as the first teachers and initiates of humanity, outwardly like the people of that time, but inwardly endowed with high and meaningful abilities, so that they could work upon the whole of humanity and, in particular, in specially separated schools, in the first mystery schools, upon individual advanced human beings. And there have always been such advanced individuals who had their home in the stars and who, despite their connection with the stars, had their form on Earth and walked among human beings. Human beings themselves progressed further and further and came closer and closer to the middle of the Atlantean epoch.
The present human form only began to develop in the first half of the Atlantean epoch; it was only then that human beings began to find their way into it. There were now beings who were already at a very low level of humanity in this ancient Atlantean period, who then became the backward races; furthermore, there were those who had remained malleable, and those who only inhabited human bodies for a short time. What I am about to tell you happened very frequently in the first Atlantean period. Imagine one of these ancient Atlanteans who was highly developed for an Atlantean. Such a person was often prompted by certain circumstances to separate his physical body, which was very malleable, and his etheric and astral bodies from the spiritual parts, which then withdrew more into the spiritual world in order to take on other physical forms later. It happened very frequently that the physical, etheric, and astral bodies were arbitrarily abandoned by their soul-spiritual beings long before they were ripe for death. And if they belonged to particularly high individualities, they were pure, good bodies. High spiritual beings then settled in such bodies, and so it often happened in ancient Atlantean times that beings who could not otherwise incarnate on Earth used such advanced bodies to descend among humans. It was such beings who worked as the great teachers in the Atlantean initiation schools. They worked powerfully with the means available at that time. When a person left their physical body at night, so to speak, they had a dull clairvoyant consciousness. During the day, the outer contours were still blurred. There was not such a sharp difference between the two states as there is today. Thus it came about that the ordinary human being saw such an individuality alternately, human-like during the day, but quite different at night in a spiritual-soul manner, yet he knew: this is the same being who appears to me during the day in physical form. These were the beings who were, in a sense, Venus and Mercury beings, who intervened in human existence and were with human beings day and night. The memory of these beings remained in the souls of human beings, who incarnated again and again, and such a memory was present in the people who had populated Europe when they pronounced the names Wotan and Thor. When the ancient inhabitants of Europe spoke of the gods, these were not figments of the imagination, but memories of Atlantean figures. And likewise, when the Greeks pronounced Zeus, Apollo, Mars, these were figures they themselves had experienced in the Atlantean era. While in the Egyptian era the memory of ancient Lemuria emerged, in Greece at that time there emerged what had been the earthly experience in ancient Atlantis.
Now we must be clear about this: if all this in the later religious systems is a memory of earlier earthly events, then an important event must have occurred at the very moment when the last of these memories could emerge. And that was approximately the time when the Greek and Roman peoples remembered the Atlantean times. But that was also the time when Christ brought a significant, new impact into the development of the Earth. We have already touched upon what kind of impact this was when we said that after the long intervening period in which the Luciferic beings prepared human beings, enabling them to receive the first impulse, the sun not only shone upon them externally, but also exerted its inner forces upon them. This period is far from over; it is only just beginning, for it was only with the appearance of Christ that the first impulse was given for that which otherwise shines down physically and corporeally from the sun onto the earth to also radiate inwardly and spiritually. And the light that will shine through human beings from within as sunlight, as spiritual light, as Christ light, will become ever greater, just as the external sunlight shines around them from without. This will be the future of human beings: that they will not only look at the sun with their external eyes and feel its glory, but that they will also bring the spiritual meaning of the sun to life within themselves. When they are able to do this, they will fully understand what actually walked on earth in the form we call Christ Jesus. This will only slowly and gradually become understandable to human beings. And just as it is true that in pre-Christian times they had to understand the spiritual beings who announced the coming of Christ and, so to speak, sent human beings down into the physical world, so it is now true that human beings must understand, through a truly spiritual movement, the spiritual power that emerged from the earth with the sun at that time. Human beings must be able to receive it again as an inner spiritual force; they must understand this spiritual force that gives them the great impulses for the future, they must understand this Christ force.
And in order to understand this Christ force, all spiritual science is needed, and everything that can be brought forth in spiritual teachings is needed as spiritual substance. One cannot say that anthroposophy is Christianity; rather, one must say that what has been given to the earth and to human beings through the Christ principle will gradually be understood through the instrument of anthroposophy. But through being understood, it will increasingly become spiritual activity, and this great impulse will increasingly be given into the development of the earth. For human beings need this, after they have descended to the lowest depths of matter, in order to tear themselves away from it again and return to their spiritual home.