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The East in the Light of the West
GA 113

30 Aug 1909, Munich

8. The Nature of the Luciferic Influence in History

Up to the present we have given special attention to the way in which the soul of man in the course of evolution approaches and experiences those beings which are either to be taken as belonging to the Kingdom of Christ or to the Kingdom of Lucifer. We pointed out, for instance, that the way to those cosmic beings which in pre-Christian times had the Christ as their central figure, led outwards; but that the way into the Kingdom of Lucifer penetrated within the soul, breaking through the veils of the soul itself. And we pointed out how through the appearance of Christ on the earth, this has altered in such a way that there has been a transposition of these realms, and that mankind has advanced to an age wherein Christ must be sought within and Lucifer without. In order to establish harmony between various statements already familiar to many readers in regard to the Luciferic beings we must again say a few words about the nature of the Lucifer.

Everything in this world is complicated and may be looked at from many different points of view. It will, therefore, sometimes appear as if statements are not always in accord; light must be thrown upon a certain fact sometimes from one side and sometimes from another. Just as it is correct to describe a leaf first from the upper side and then from the lower, while it is one and the same leaf, in the same way do we describe the Luciferic principle correctly when as in previous chapters we speak of it by pursuing the path which the soul has to take to encounter this Luciferic principle. But naturally one may also consider the evolution of our earth and of the world in general more from a super-terrestrial standpoint, and characterise the position of Luciferic beings in the progress of the world from another point of view. We will devote a few words to this subject.

We know that our earth, sun and moon were once one being; that the sun separated itself from the earth in order to be a dwelling place for beings of a higher evolutionary stage, who could then work in upon our earth from outside; that after the withdrawal of the sun from the earth, beings of a still higher order remained united with the earth in order to bring about the separation of the moon; and if we think of the fact that the beings who separated the moon from the earth were those who stimulated a new inner life in man, arousing in him a soul-life and thus preserving him from mummification we shall soon be able to establish harmony between things already familiar to us and things we have been considering in the preceding chapters. We shall realise that as far as those beings which left the earth with the sun are concerned, it is natural that man in his further evolution should find them in the first place by turning his gaze to where they went with the sun. Therefore man had to seek for the realm and activity of the sun-beings with all their sub-beings, along the path leading outward into the world behind the tapestry of sense phenomena. Those beings, however, which to a certain extent were still greater benefactors of mankind and who through the withdrawal of the moon stimulated man's inner soul-life, had to be sought by descending into man's inner life, into a sub-earthly soul region, in order to find what was hidden from the external sight, and are the sub-terrestrial gods. These are they who separated the moon from the earth and aroused the soul-life of man. Within the life of the soul was sought the way leading to those gods who were associated with the beneficent event of the withdrawal of the moon. If at first we look only at these two kingdoms, of the Sun-gods and of the Moon-gods, we may define the beings as gods to be found outside in the heavens and gods to be found within the soul; and we may designate the way leading outwards as the Sun-path, and the way leading inwards into the soul, as the Luciferic path. The beings of Lucifer are those who did not participate in the withdrawal of the sun from the earth. And certain other beings, who are the highest benefactors of mankind, but who at first had to remain hidden, and who did not accompany the sun in its withdrawal, belonged, strictly speaking, to neither of those kingdoms. Those were the beings who remained behind during the old moon evolution, who did not attain to that grade which as spiritual beings, standing at that time much higher than men on the moon, they might have reached. Thus it was impossible for them to participate in the withdrawal of the sun, during the earth-evolution which followed. In a certain sense their destiny was to go out, as did the Sun-spirits and to work down upon the earth from the sun; but that it was not possible for them to do. It therefore came to pass that these beings, in a certain way, made an endeavour to separate themselves from the earth with the sun, but that they could not keep pace with the conditions of evolution of the sun, and fell back again upon the earth.

These beings, then, did not from the beginning remain behind with the earth, when the sun separated from it; they could not exist in the sun-evolution and fell back again to be reunited with the earth evolution. Now what did these beings do in the course of the earth evolution? They tried with the help of human evolution upon the earth to continue their own quite individual evolutionary course. They could not approach the human Ego; and those beings who had brought about the separation of the moon could approach the human Ego from within. The beings who had fallen back from the sun approached the human soul when it was not yet ripe to receive the revelation to the higher benefactors who had brought about the separation of the moon. They approached the human soul too soon. If man had fully awaited the beneficial influence of those spiritual beings who worked from the moon, that is to say, from the inner part of his being, then that which actually came to pass at an earlier epoch would have come to pass later. These Moon-gods would have slowly ripened the souls of men until a corresponding evolution of the Ego had become possible. But these other beings approached man and poured their influence, not into the Ego, but into the human astral body from within, just as the Moon-gods do; these beings sought the same way, through the inner being of the soul, upon which later the real Moon-gods worked; that is to say, these beings settled down in the kingdom of Lucifer. These are the beings which are symbolised in the old biblical writings by the serpent. They are the beings which approached the human astral body too soon and worked in the same manner as all other beings which work from within. And since we designate beings whose influence is from within, as Luciferic, we include also those beings which remained behind. They came to man when he was still unripe for such an influence they are on the one hand his seducers, but they also create freedom for him, create the possibility of his astral body becoming independent of those divine beings which would otherwise have taken his Ego under their protection and would have poured into it all that can be poured into the essence of the Ego from divine spheres. Thus these Luciferic beings came to the astral body of man, and filled it with all that can give him enthusiasm for the sublime, the spiritual; they worked upon his soul, and, although they were beings of a higher spiritual order than men, they were in a certain sense his seducers. That which in the course of the evolution of the earth came to man, and which on the one hand brought him freedom and on the other the possibility of evil, came from within, from Lucifer's kingdom. For these beings could not manifest themselves from without, they had to insert themselves into the inner part of the soul; for that which approaches man's Ego can come from without, but nothing external in this sense can come to his astral body only. In the great kingdom of the Light-bearer, of the beings of Lucifer, there are sub-species of which we can well understand that they might become the seducers of man. And we can also well understand that just on account of these beings strenuous discipline was practiced when it was a question of leading man into those realms which lie on the other side of the veil of the soul-world; for if he was led along the inner path of the soul he met there not only the good Luciferic beings who had given him inner light, but also and first, those Luciferic beings who were his seducers and who spurred him on by imparting pride, ambition and vanity to his soul.

It is very important to realise that we should never try to encompass the worlds behind the sense world and behind the soul-world with the intellectual concepts of modern culture.

If we speak of the Luciferic beings, we must become acquainted with the whole range of their kingdom, with all their species, categories and variations. We should then see that when at times mention is made of the danger of a certain species of Luciferic being the speaker is not always aware of the whole extent of the kingdom in question. It may be right to speak of certain species of Luciferic beings in the sense of some ancient script, but we must at the same time take into consideration the fact that the reality is infinitely deeper than men can generally realise. At a time when both outward turning and inward turning contemplation were, in people of a certain period of culture, still very keen, man perceived that the outward path led to the realisation of ‘That thou art’ and that the inner path led to the realisation of ‘I am the All,’ that the outer and the inner path both led to the Ego as an unity. In that first post-Atlantean epoch of civilisation man was able to think and feel quite differently about what underlay the spiritual realms than was possible at a later time. It is on that account extraordinarily difficult for ordinary consciousness to transport itself into that wonderful post-Atlantean culture and to identify itself with a soul living at that time.

We have seen how completely different man's feeling life was at that early time; how he felt the soul of the light stream in from all sides through his skin, as it were; and how through this he was able to collect out of the surrounding world experiences which are hidden from him today. But something else was connected with all this.

Those familiar with my ‘Outline of Occult Science,’ will know that human evolution in the post-Atlantean era is divided into the Old Indian, the Old Persian, the Chaldean-Egyptian, the Graeco-Latin, and the present cultural epochs; in the Graeco-Latin period came the Christ Event. Our culture epoch will be followed by another and this in its turn by the last, after which the earth will again undergo a change somewhat as it did at the time of the Atlantean catastrophe. We have therefore seven epochs of civilisation. In these seven we have a central one standing alone, the Graeco-Latin epoch of civilisation with the Christ Event. The other epochs of civilisation bear a certain relationship to one another. The Chaldean-Egyptian civilisation repeats itself in certain phenomena of the fifth, i.e. of our own epoch. Certain phenomena, facts and conceptions apparent in the Chaldean-Egyptian epoch reappear, but wearing of course a somewhat different form, because they are permeated by the intervening Christ impulse. This is not a simple repetition of the Chaldean-Egyptian civilisation, but a repetition wherein everything is steeped in what the Christ brought to the earth. It is in one sense a repetition and yet in another it is not. Men who have had a deeper understanding for the course of human evolution, and who have taken part in it with their souls have always felt something of the kind. Many such persons even if they have not advanced to occult knowledge, are pervaded by something like a recollection of old Egyptian experiences. The wonderful knowledge of the stars in their courses which the wise men of Egypt brought through into their Hermetic science has revived in our fifth epoch of civilisation in another and more material form. And those who participated in the revival felt this with special emphasis. Let me give one example only.

When that individuality who once in the mystery places of Egypt raised the eyes of his soul up to the stars, and sought to unravel their secrets in celestial space after the manner of those clays, under the guidance of the Egyptian sages, lived again in our own epoch as Kepler, that which had existed in another form in his Egyptian soul, appeared in a newer guise as the great laws of Kepler which today are such an integral part of Astro-physics. It came to pass also that within the soul of this man there arose something which forced these words to be uttered—words which may be read in the writings of Kepler—‘Out of the holy places of Egypt I have brought the sacred vessel; I have transported it to the present time, so that men may understand something in these days of those influences which are able to affect even the most distant future.’ We might give hundreds of such examples to show how that which existed in the Chaldean-Egyptian epoch of civilisation lives over again in a new form.

We are now in the fifth epoch of civilisation of the post-Atlantean era. This will be followed by the sixth, which will be very important. It will be a repetition of and at the same time an advance upon the old Persian civilisation of Zarathustra. Zarathustra looked up to the sun and saw behind the physical sunlight the Christ spirit whom he called Ahura Mazdao, and drew men's attention to Him. This Christ Being has now descended to earth; Christ must penetrate so deeply into the innermost part of those souls who in the course of the sixth period of civilisation have made themselves sufficiently ripe, that numbers of men on looking into the innermost part of their souls will be able to feel that powerful emotion arise within them which Zarathustra formerly was able to arouse when he pointed to Ahura Mazdao. For in the sixth epoch there will come about in a great number of men through contemplation of their own inner being, through a new recognition of the Sun Being who was revealed in ancient Persia, something like a recapitulation but of an infinitely more sublime, more spiritual and more intimate character. I have already said that when the Greeks, in their way and after their own fashion spoke of Ahura Mazdao, they called him Apollo. In their Mysteries they allowed men to become acquainted with the deeper essence of this Apollo. Above all they saw in Apollo the spirit who not only directed the physical sun forces, but who also guided and directed the spiritual sun-forces to the earth. And when the teachers in these Apollonian Mysteries desired to speak to their pupils of the spiritual and moral influences of Apollo, they said that Apollo filled the entire earth with the holy music of the spheres, that is to say, he sent down rays from the spiritual world. And they saw in Apollo a being accompanied by the Muses, his assistants. A wonderful and deep wisdom is wrapped up in Apollo and his nine-Muses. Man's being consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body, sentient soul, intellectual soul, consciousness soul and so on; man is an ego-centre, having seven or nine members around it, all of which are parts of its being. Let us ascend from a human being to a divine being, and think of the Ego as this divine being, and of the members as his helpers, each helper being a single individuality. Even as in man the different members, physical body, etheric body, astral body and so on are gathered together and grouped around his Ego, so were the Muses grouped around Apollo. What was said in connection with this subject to those about to be initiated into the Apollonian mysteries is of a deep significance. A secret was confided to them, and the secret was this: that the god who in the second epoch had spoken such wonderful words to Zarathustra, would speak to men in the sixth epoch in a very special way This was the intention and meaning of the saying that in the sixth period the Song of Apollo upon earth would attain its goal. In this saying which was frequently quoted by the pupils of the Apollonian mystery-schools was expressed the fact that during the sixth epoch the second period of the earth-evolution would be recapitulated on a higher stage. The first epoch will reappear in a higher form during the seventh period.

It is the highest possible ideal for present day man to attain to the knowledge of the first post Atlantean epoch as permeated by the Christ to regain a way of feeling, of looking at things, which characterised the first post-Atlantean epoch though at a lower stage. Once again at the conclusion of our post-Atlantean period shall the man who takes the path out into the external sense-world and who wrestles with what is revealed in his own soul-world, recognise that both these paths lead him to an unity. It is therefore good to transpose ourselves to some extent into that which for us today—for we are in the intermediate epoch—is the somewhat alien feeling and thinking of ancient Indian times. Even if we only find a few traces we nevertheless perceive something of the quite different character of feeling and thinking, of the quite different attitude to wisdom and life existing at that time, when the Ego-consciousness did not exist in human feeling in such an awakened form. What was written clown in the Vedas was the teaching of the great teachers of ancient India, the holy Rishis, and when we state that the holy Rishis were inspired by the high individuality who guided the peoples of old Atlantis through the Europe of today over into Asia, we are only recording a fact. In a certain way the holy Rishis were the pupils of this high individuality, of Manu. And what did Manu communicate to them? Manu communicated to them the way in which they had at that time attained to the first post-Atlantean wisdom, knowledge and cognition. For our modern methods of acquiring knowledge, whether by observing external nature or by descending into the inner life of the soul in the way that it has become today, would have had no meaning at that time.

During the first period of civilisation of the post Atlantean time among the old Indian people, the etheric body was to a far greater extent outside the physical body than is the case today. The old Indian could make use of this etheric body and of its organs if he gave himself up to it, if he did not go out into the external life of the physical body, and as it were forgot that he was in a physical body. When he did this he felt as if he were being lifted out of himself, like a sword out of a scabbard. In this experience he became aware of something which may be described as follows: ‘I do not see with eyes or hear with ears, or think with the physical organ of understanding; I make use of the organ of the etheric body.’ And this he did. Then, however, living wisdom rose before him; not thoughts which men may think or have thought, but thoughts according to which the gods without had fashioned the world. Deeply immersed in spiritual life, the Indian knew nothing about what we today call thought, fabricated as it is by the instrument of the brain. He never thought things out intellectually, or reasoned about them; he rose out of his physical body into his etheric body, and from there he looked all around him at the cosmic totality of the thought of the gods, whence the world sprang forth. He saw in a flash the gift proceeding from the divine world. With his etheric organs he saw the thoughts of the gods depicted in the design of all things. He had no need of logical thinking. Why must we think logically? For the reason that we must find truth through logical thinking, because we might otherwise make mistakes in linking up chains of thought. If we were so organised that right thoughts coalesced of themselves, we should not require logic. The old Indian did not require logic for he looked at the thoughts of the gods, which were right of themselves. He wove around himself an etheric, cosmic net, wove it out of the thoughts of the gods. He looked into this web of thought, which appeared to him like a soul-light pervading the world, and in it saw the primordial, eternal wisdom. This highest stage of perfection, which I have just described to you, was of course only possible for the holy Rishis, and with this vision they could proclaim great world realities. What kind of feeling did their visions arouse? They felt that into this world-web of wisdom, in which everything was written in living prototype, which was entirely woven of and irradiated by the soul of the light, truth and knowledge poured. Just as man of a later time feels something stream into him when he draws a breath, so the old Indian felt that the gods sent out wisdom to him and that he drew it in, even as the air is sent out to us in the breath that we draw in. Soul-light, and moreover soul-light pervaded by spiritual wisdom, it was that the ancient holy Rishis drew in, and this they were able to teach to their disciples. They were justified in saying that everything which they proclaimed was breathed out by Brahman himself. That is the meaning of the deep expression, an expression which is verbally correct: ‘It is breathed out by Brahman and breathed in by men.’ That was the position of the holy Rishis as regards the wisdom of the world, as regards the things which they made known. These were then written down in the different portions of the Vedas, in pictorial form, if the expression may be permitted; yet these forms were but feeble reproductions of the original visions. We must always bear that truth in mind when reading the Vedas today, and not imagine that we are contemplating in its fullness the original sacred wisdom beheld by the ancient Rishis. We must understand that the Vedas are of a different character to other writings. Many documents of many kinds are to be found in the world. Speaking from our particular standpoint, for instance, we may say: ‘We find an inward soul-life pervaded and filled with the Christ in the Gospel of St. John.’ But if we consider the manner in which that Gospel is expressed, if we regard its exterior form, we find it less closely expressive of its contents, than the medium used to embody the wisdom of the Vedas. There is a close connection between the outward expression and the inner content of the Vedas, because that which was breathed in was expressed in the Vedic words simultaneously, as it were; whereas the writer of St. John's Gospel had its deep wisdom imparted to him at one time and wrote it down later; consequently the vision and the expression are further separated than in the Vedas.

We must understand these things clearly if we really wish to comprehend the evolution of the world. We must value the Gospel of St. John more highly than anything else but it is also natural that a Christian should not be satisfied with the mere letter, but should penetrate through, as spiritual science does, into the spiritual content of the Gospel according to St. John. It is natural that he should say: ‘It only becomes what it ought to be to me when I pierce through into that of which it is the outer expression.’ But anyone who wishes to adopt the right attitude towards the Vedas must feel as did the man of ancient India that what was to be found in the Vedas was not written down later by any man as the expression of divine wisdom. Therefore the Vedas, especially the Rig Veda, are not only records of something holy, but are themselves sacred to those who perceive what they are. And hence arose the infinite veneration for the Vedas themselves in olden times, a reverence such as is offered to a divine being. That is the fact we must understand. And we must gain this understanding by contemplating the souls of the old Indian people. There are many things to be learned because we are advancing towards an ideal; the ideal of the first period of civilisation at a higher stage, and of its reestablishment. We must learn to understand, for instance, what is said of Bharavadscha, that he studied the Vedas for three hundred years. A man of the present day would think he possessed mighty knowledge if he had studied the Vedas for three hundred years; he would think he knew a good deal even if he had studied them for a much shorter time. Yet it is related that one day the God Indra came to Bharavadscha and said to him: ‘Thou hast now studied the Vedas for three hundred years; see, there are three very high mountains yonder. The first one represents the first part of the Vedas, the Rig-Veda; the second one represents the second part of the Vedas, the Sama-Veda; and the third one represents the third part of the Vedas, the Jagur-Yeda. Thou hast studied these three parts of the Vedas for three hundred years.’ Then Indra took three small lumps of earth out of these mounts, Just so much as could be held in the hand, and said: ‘Look at these lumps of earth; thy knowledge of the Vedas is as these lumps in proportion to yonder towering mountains.’ If what is here said be transposed into a feeling, it is this: that if, in approaching the highest wisdom (whether it be in this or any other form, even in the form in which we find it today when we are called by the Rosicrucian method to seek for it not in books but by observation of what is to be found in the world) we can apply this story, we are taking the right attitude. Hardly anyone can say that he has heard as much about spiritual knowledge as had Bharavadscha about the Vedas; but everyone can make this comparison between himself and Bharavadscha, and he will then have put himself in the right relationship as far as his feelings are concerned, with the all-embracing wisdom of the world. And he will be aware of something infinite of which we can only possess a small fraction. In this way, too, we get the right kind of yearning to go forward and to have patience until another little fraction of wisdom is added. Much may be learned from the ancient wisdom of the East; but among the most valuable things which can be learnt from the Light of the East are those which are connected with our feelings and our perceptions, and something of this can be learned in what the God Indra gave to Bharavadscha by way of instruction as to the right attitude to assume towards the Vedas. Feelings of holy awe and reverence such as were felt in those ancient days must again be acquired by us, if we would advance to an epoch wherein we may once more, through the disclosures made in the newer mysteries, penetrate into that veil of wisdom which is woven of divine and not of human thoughts. These feelings are the very highest we can acquire. But we must not think that we already possess them, we must clearly realise that knowledge alone leads up to these highest feelings. And if we avoid thinking, if we take life too easily and decline to seek the feelings that are to be found on the ethereal heights of thought, we shall experience only ordinary trivial feelings and mistake them for what is obtained by the soul when it steeps itself in contemplation of divinity. Feelings such as were to be found among the old Indians were the essential means of approach to all the wisdom of the first post-Atlantean epoch, and to the ability to assume a right attitude towards the world in that age as well as to perceive that unity which is to be found in the spiritual worlds, whether upon the outward or the inward path. But in each successive civilisation something new must come to light.

Whereas the old Indians realised that both paths led to the same goal, the old Persian, the Chaldaic-Egyptian and the Graeco-Latin epochs came to regard the two revelations from within and without as being in different directions. On the one hand we have the revelation coming from outside, and on the other the manifestation from within. This is already observable during the second epoch of the post-Atlantean civilisations. There we have on the one side not only the path of the people, but also the path of the mysteries, leading externally as well as inwardly to the realm of Ahura Mazdao, That which was still a living reality in old Indian thought, the one-ness which was to be found in both the spiritual worlds, had already disappeared from the eyes of the second post-Atlantean civilisation. That unity which had already withdrawn into impenetrable depths of existence could still be dimly sensed, but it could no longer live in the soul. The old Indian felt: ‘Whether on the one side I go outwards or on the other side I go within, I come to the unity.’ The Persian, in so far as he followed the teachings of Zarathustra, in following the outward path said: ‘I come to Ormuzd’; or if he took the inward path, ‘I come to the being of Mithras.’ But in his consciousness these two paths were no longer united. At most he dimly sensed that they must be united somewhere. Therefore he spoke of that being who could then be sensed but dimly, as the Unknown in Darkness, the unknown primeval God. This God then, was a primeval spiritual being whose existence was not doubted, but whom men could no longer find. Zaruana Akarana was the name of this god existing in the darkness. That which could be attained to lay behind the tapestry of the external sense-world and Zarathustra's teaching laid special emphasis upon this phase. It was therefore something deriving from Zaruana Akarana, it was the God Ahura Mazdao, the Lord in the realm of the Sun-spirits, in the realm whence the beneficent influences came down, which in contradistinction to the physical may be designated as the spiritual sun-influences. From this same spirit also did the old Persian civilisation derive its moral precepts and laws, which the initiate—for it was he who by means of initiation raised himself to a knowledge of these precepts and laws—brought through as codes of morality, and as laws for human conduct, for human functions, etc. That was one path, and men who followed it, saw in the very highest region, the spirit of the sun and his rule; they saw the servants of the sun spirit, the Amshaspands, arrayed as it were, around his throne, and who are his messengers. The sun-spirit was lord over the whole realm; the Amshaspands directed the various activities. Beings of a lower order, subordinate in their turn to the Amshaspands, are generally called Izets or Izarads and finally beings of whom it may be said that they correspond in the spiritual world to the thoughts in the soul of man. Thoughts in the human soul are only the shadow-reflections of realities; outside in the spiritual world they are spiritual beings. According to the old Persian conception these beings, called Fravashi (Feruers), were immediately above man. Thus during the old Persian evolution it was conceived that behind the covering of the sense-world there were successive stages of spiritual beings rising higher and higher up to Ormuzd.

Now the whole nature of old Persian humanity was different from that of the old Indian. The characteristic of an etheric body which was still to a great extent outside the physical body no longer obtained in the humanity of old Persia; the etheric body had by that time slipped very much further into the physical body. Therefore men of the old Persian civilisation could no longer use the instruments of the etheric body in such a way as did the old Indians. The instruments used by the old Persians were the organs which originally formed part of what today we call the sentient, or astral body.

The nine constituent parts of man, as we know, are as follows:

Spirit Man, Intellectual Soul, Life Spirit, Sentient Soul, Spirit Self, Astral Body, Consciousness Soul, Etheric Body, and Physical Body.

As we have seen, the old Indian made use of his etheric body when he wished to raise himself up to realms of the highest knowledge. The Persian was no longer able to do this; but he could make use of his astral body, and this he did. Because he could no longer perceive through the etheric body the highest unity was hidden from him, but by means of the astral body he had still to a certain extent astral vision. This was the case with many members of the old, Persian people; astrally they saw Ahura Mazdao and his servants because they were still able to make use of the astral body. Now you know from the description in my book ‘Theosophy’ that the astral body is bound up with the sentient soul. When, therefore, a member of the old Persian nation made use of his astral body, his sentient soul also was present; but he could not make use of it because it was still undeveloped. He made use of his astral body in which the sentient soul was always a factor, but he had to take that soul just as it then was. Therefore he felt that when the astral body, developed as it then was, raised itself up to Ahura Mazdao, the sentient soul was there also. The latter, however, was felt to be in some danger, that it would, when revealing its perceptions, send them straight down into the astral body. The old Persian said to himself: ‘The sentient soul will not externalise that which it encounters in the way of old Luciferic temptations, but it will send their influences into the astral body.’ He realised that influences from the sentient soul were working in upon the astral body, presenting, as it were, a reflection from the outer world, of what had been at work in the sentient soul from ancient times. This is called the influence of Ahriman, of Mephistopheles. And so man felt himself to be confronted by two powers. If he looked up to that which could be attained by directing his gaze outwards, he saw the mystery of Ahura Mazdao; if he looked inwards he found himself by the help of the astral body, but through the influence of Lucifer working in it, face to face with Ahriman, the opponent of Ahura Mazdao. There was only one thing which could be any protection to him from the temptations of the Ahrimanic beings, and that was to press onward to initiation and the development of the sentient soul. By developing and purifying it and thus striding in advance of humanity, he took the path leading inwards, that did not lead to Ahura Mazdao, but to Lucifer's realms of light. And that which permeated the human soul upon the inward path was in later times called the God Mithras. Hence the Persian Mysteries which cultivated the inner life were the mysteries of Mithras. On the one side therefore we have the god Mithras whom a man met when he took the inward path and on the other the realms of Ahura Mazdao, which he found on the outward path.

Now we will pass on to the next post-Atlantean civilisation, to the Chaldaic-Egyptian period. There is good reason for giving it a double name. For on the one side we have throughout this epoch of civilisation, over in Asia, people belonging to the northern stream of peoples who form the Chaldaic element; on the other side we have the Egyptian element, representing the stream of people who went more to the south. This is an epoch wherein two streams of nations encountered one another. And if we remember that the northern stream developed more particularly external vision, pursuing the reality of beings to be found behind the sense-world, and that the Egyptian peoples sought for the spiritual beings to be found upon the inward path, we shall realise that two streams co-existed during this third epoch. The outward path taken by the Chaldeans and the inward path taken by the Egyptians came in contact. The Greeks were right when they compared the Chaldaic gods with their own Apollonian realms; they sought in their own way in their Apollonian mysteries for that which came to them from the Chaldeans. But when they spoke of Osiris and of that which was connected with him they sought for illumination through the mysteries of Dionysos. At that time people still had a consciousness of spiritual relationships. Now mankind in the course of its evolution develops new members in the constitution of man. In the old Indian period the etheric body and its organs were developed; in the old Persian period men developed and used the astral body, and in the Chaldaic-Egyptian period the sentient-soul, that is to say, an inner member. Whereas the astral body is still directed outward, the sentient soul is directed inward. Hence man drew further away from the divine-spiritual worlds than was formerly the case. He lived an inner life in the soul, and as regards that which is not within him, life was limited to what the senses perceived. On the one side the world of sense grew more and more dominant, and on the other, the soul life established its independence. The development of the sentient-soul belonged to the third epoch. But what the sentient-soul developed during the Chaldaic-Egyptian period was no longer wisdom which could be seen and read as it were from the external environment. It was a process resembling man's present thinking today, but it was much more alive, for the reason that man of today has already attained to the consciousness-soul. Thoughts were then much richer, more full of life than is the case today. Man in these days does not experience his thoughts with the same intensity with which he becomes aware of a taste or a scent. During the Egyptian epoch, while the sentient soul was being intensively developed, thoughts were as vivid in the soul as is today the perception of colour, or scent, or taste. Today they have grown fainter and more abstract. In the Egyptian epoch they were concrete. They were more life visible thoughts; although not thoughts which could be said to take objective shape in the physical world they were nevertheless thoughts carrying with them a conviction that they had not been puzzled out, but rose in the soul like inspirations, surging in suddenly and presenting themselves in a flash. These people did not say that they breathed wisdom in, but that they were permeated by living thoughts, which sprang up out of the soul, which were impelled from the spiritual world into our own. Thus does everything change in the course of time. And so a man belonging to the Chaldaic-Egyptian epoch no longer was conscious of the wisdom of the world spread out as a tapestry of light around him, to be breathed in. He was conscious of possessing thoughts which rose within him as inspirations. And the content of the science thus rising in man's being is Chaldaic astro-theology and Egyptian Hermetic wisdom. That which lives in the stars and moves them in their courses, that which pulsates in all things, could no longer be, as it were, read by man, but it revealed itself to his innermost being in the form of the ancient wisdom of the Chaldaic-Egyptian, period. Moreover old Chaldean men had the following feeling:

‘That which I know is not only my inmost being; it is a reflection of what is taking place externally.’ The old Egyptian felt what thus arises to be a reflection of the hidden gods whom men do not meet between birth and death, but between death and a new birth. Thus did the Egyptians and Chaldeans differ from each other, in that the latter realised through their wisdom what lies behind the world in which we live between birth and death, and the former, the Egyptians, realised through their inspired wisdom the living beings whom man encounters between death and a new birth. Necessarily, however, as may be seen from the whole purpose of this evolution, these inspirations from within, these massed thoughts arising as inspirations, were far removed from the conception of a primordial being in its unity. Men could no longer penetrate as far as during the old Persian period when it was possible still to make use of the astral body. Impressions had all grown fainter; they were not so external, for the outer world had already withdrawn itself considerably. Accordingly man experienced wisdom of the external world within themselves, and no longer experienced the wisdom in the external world itself. Nevertheless those who had learned to appreciate the wisdom of the old Persian epoch in the right manner entertained for it feelings of high respect and deep gratitude. And if we need a short definition of the paradoxical wisdom with which the Chaldeans expressed that which they saw in the spiritual foundations underlying the physical world, we must call these utterances ‘Chaldean Proverbs’; and the collection of Chaldean Proverbs was a very highly valued treasure of wisdom in the old times. World secrets of infinite importance are to be found therein. They were valued as highly as the revelations experienced between death and a new birth; and these were treasured as the source of Egyptian wisdom.

But that reality of which during the ancient Indian epoch there had been direct cognition, became shadowy and dim; its deeper essence came to be entirely hidden from the eyes of man. This highest reality was still more shadowy to Chaldaic-Egyptian wisdom than Zaruana Akarana had been to the vision of old Persian seers. The Chaldeans called it Anu; Anu does in a sense express the unity of both worlds, but an unity far above man's knowledge; they did not venture to penetrate even into those regions into which the humanity of the time of Zarathustra looked up, but they turned their visions to spheres which were very near to human thought. Everything, they said, was to be found there, for the highest is to be found even in the lowest; but they also found something there expressive of the reality of a being, a shadowy reflection of the highest. This they named Apason. Apason seemed to them to be as a shadowy reflection of what we today conceive of as substance below Spirit man, substance, as it were, formed out of Life Spirit. To this they gave a name whose nearest equivalent in English sound would be something like Tau-te. There was also a reality to which they gave the name of Moymis. Moymis was approximately that which spiritual science would describe as a world-spirit, a being whose lowest principle is the Spirit Self. Thus the old Chaldeans contemplated a trinity above them, but they were conscious of the fact that this trinity only manifested its real nature so far as its lower members were concerned, and that its higher members were only shadowy reflections of the highest, which had entirely withdrawn from them. And Bel, the god who as creator of the universe was also the national god must be thought of as a descendant of this Moymis who had entered the region of Ego-hood or of Fire Essence.

Thus we see how the essential nature of an entire people expressed itself even in the naming of the gods. When a person belonging to the old Chaldaic epoch took the path to his inner being, he spoke of having passed through the veil of soul-life into a world of sub-human or subterranean gods. Adonis is a later name for the beings found by taking the inward path. This path was accessible to initiates only, for it was beset with great dangers for a non-initiate. And when an initiate trod this path, attaining on the one side to the world beyond the senses, and on the other to the world that underlies the veil of the soul world, he experienced something comparable to the experiences encountered in initiation at the present day. Anyone initiated in ancient Chaldea went through two separate experiences, and care was taken to have them take place as nearly as possible at the same time. One experience was that of entering the spiritual world from the outer world, the other was being admitted into it from the inner world; and these two had to coincide as far as possible in order that the candidate might learn to feel that the same spiritual forces were expressing themselves through spiritual life and interaction both without and within. On the inward way he met the spiritual being called Ishtar, who was known to be a beneficent moon divinity, and who stood on the threshold that hides from man the spiritual element standing behind his soul life. On the other side, where the door opening through the outer sense world into, the world of spirit is situated, stood the Guardian Merodach or Mardach, and he stood there with Ishtar. Merodach (whom we may compare with the Guardian of the Threshold, with Michael) and Ishtar were the pair who imparted clairvoyance to the soul and led men by both paths into the spiritual world. That experience is still expressed symbolically today by the saying that ‘The shining cup is given to man to drink from.’ That is, as if by a draught he learns to experience the very first activities of his lotus flowers.1See “Knowledge of Higher Worlds, and its Attainment,” by Dr. Steiner. Revised edition translated and published 1922–23. There after he made further progress. What we must bear in mind is that it was necessary to step across a certain threshold even at that time.

In Egypt the procedure was not identical though similar. Then came the epoch which was to prepare for the descent of the cosmic sun god upon the earth. The spirit who previously had been external now had to enter into the human soul, had to be found within it, even as formerly the Luciferic divinities and Osiris were to be found there. The two paths clearly shown in the contrasts between the Chaldeans and the Egyptians had to make one another fruitful. Such an event was essential. How could it take place? It could only occur after a ‘connecting link’ had been created. This proceeded from Ur of Chaldea, as the Bible truly states. It takes up the revelation coming from without then it passes on into Egypt, absorbs that which comes from within and unites the two, so that for the first time in Jahve we have a being heralding the Christ who unites the two paths. Jahve or Jehovah is a divinity to be found on the inward path, but Jahve is not visible in himself. He only becomes visible when illuminated from without. Jehovah reflects the light of Christ. Here we can clearly see the two paths we have been studying so intensely, running side by side and each fructifying the other. And when this begins, quite a new process becomes apparent in human evolution. The outward an the inward fructify each other; the inward becomes the external and that which formerly lived only inwardly and within time now spreads out into space, so that the two paths continue side by side. Consider your own soul life! It does not spread out in ‘space,’ it runs its course in ‘time.’ Thoughts and feelings follow one another (in ‘time’). That which is outside is spread out in space, in simultaneous co-existence. Accordingly an event had to happen which may be called the outflow into space and co-existence of something which till then had only lived in time. And that event duly took place; something which had hitherto lived only in time became from that epoch onward a co-existing life in space. In this manner occurred a change of profound importance and one to which expression was given in an equally profound manner.

All previous human spiritual evolution in leading out beyond the external world of space led also into external time. Now everything that comes under the laws of time is regulated by the measure and the nature of the number seven. We learn to understand the evolution of the world by basing it upon the number seven and counting, for example, the seven stages of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth (or Mars-Mercury), Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. In everything which has to do with time we proceed aright by making use of the number seven. In ‘time’ we are everywhere led to the number seven. All the schools and lodges whose teachings lead out of space into time have seven as a fundamental number when they lead to the super-sensible. This number seven is associated with the holy Rishis, and with the holy teachers of other nations down to the seven wise men of Greece. But the fundamental number of space is twelve, and in flowing into space, time is revealed according to the number twelve. At the point where time flows out into space the number twelve dominates. We have twelve tribes in Israel, also twelve apostles at the moment when Christ, Who had previously revealed Himself in time, poured out into space. What is within time occurs in succession. Hence that which leads out of space into time, to gods of the Luciferic realms, leads into the number seven. If we would characterise anything in this realm according to its essence, we find the being by going back to the ancestry. In order to perceive that which develops itself in time we pass from the later back to the earlier, as from child to father. On going into the world of time, in which the number seven obtains, we speak of children and of their origin, of the children of spiritual beings, of the children of Lucifer; when we lead time out into space we speak of beings existing simultaneously, in whose nature, co-existence and also the flowing of souls, the impulses from one to another in space demand our consideration.

Where the number seven, through the fact that time pours out into space, changes into twelve, the connotation of ‘children’ ceases to have the same super-sensible meaning and the connotation of ‘brotherhood’ enters, for beings who live side by side are brothers. The concept of sons of gods is changed in the course of evolution into the concept of brothers living side by side.

Brothers and sisters live side by side. Beings who descend from one another live after one another. Here we see the transition, at a significant epoch, from the sons or children of Lucifer's kingdom and of his being to the brothers of Christ, a transition of which we shall speak further.

Achter Vortrag

Wir haben bisher bei der Besprechung derjenigen Wesenheiten, die wir zu dem Reich des Christus oder zu dem Reich des Luzifer zählen, vorzugsweise Rücksicht darauf genommen, wie der Mensch im Verlauf seiner Entwickelung durch seine eigene Seele an diese Wesenheiten herandringt, wie er sie erlebt. Wir haben also zum Beispiel hervorgehoben, wie der Weg des Menschen zu jenen kosmischen Wesenheiten, in deren Mitte der Christus in der vorchristlichen Zeit war, von dem Menschen aus erkennend nach außen ging, wie aber der Weg in Luzifers Reich nach der anderen Seite in die Seele hineinging, um den Schleier, der die eigene Seele verhüllt, selbst zu durchdringen. Und wir haben hervorgehoben, wie sich das durch die Erscheinung des Christus auf der Erde so geändert hat, daß die beiden Reiche übereinander getreten sind und die Menschheit einer Zeit zueilt, in der der Christus im Innern, Luzifer außen zu suchen sein wird. Wir müssen heute, um mit mancherlei von demjenigen, was ja die meisten von Ihnen schon gehört haben über die luziferischen Wesenheiten, einen Einklang zu schaffen, noch einmal mit ein paar Worten auf das Wesen des luziferischen Prinzips zurückkommen. Die Dinge der Welt sind ja kompliziert, und man kann alles von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus betrachten. Dadurch wird es manchmal scheinen, weil man eine Sache einmal von der einen, das andere Mal von der anderen Seite beleuchten muß, daß die Dinge nicht ganz im Einklang stehen. Sie stehen aber doch miteinander im Einklang. Wie derjenige ein Blatt richtig beschreibt, der es einmal von der vorderen und einmal von der hinteren Seite beschreibt, und es ist doch ganz dasselbe Blatt, so beschreibt derjenige das luziferische Prinzip richtig, der, wie wir es in den verflossenen Stunden getan haben, es beschreibt, indem er die Wege verfolgt, welche die Seele einzuschlagen hat zu diesem luziferischen Prinzip. Aber man kann natürlich.auch sozusagen mehr von einem außerirdischen Standpunkt aus die Entwickelung unserer Erde und der Welt überhaupt betrachten und dann die Stellung der luziferischen Wesenheiten im Weltfortgang von einem anderen Gesichtspunkt aus charakterisieren. Das wollen wir mit ein paar Worten tun.

Wenn Sie sich noch einmal erinnern, daß unsere Erde mit Sonne und Mond einstmals eine Wesenheit war, daß die Sonne sich aus der Erde herausgetrennt hat, um eine Wohnstätte zu sein für höher entwickelte Wesenheiten, die dann von außen auf unsere Erde hereinwirken sollten, und daß noch höhere Wesenheiten nach der Sonnentrennung mit der Erde vereinigt geblieben sind, um den Mond herauszuführen, und wenn Sie daran denken, daß diese Wesenheiten, die den Mond herausgetrennt haben, dieselben waren, welche von innen heraus ein neues Leben, ein seelisches Leben in dem Menschen nun angeregt und ihn bewahrt haben vor der Mumifizierung, dann werden Sie bald einen Einklang finden können zwischen dem, was Sie da und dort in den Vorträgen und dem, was Sie in den verflossenen Stunden gehört haben. Sie werden sich dann sagen: Von denjenigen Wesenheiten, welche sich mit der Sonne von der Erde getrennt haben, ist es natürlich, daß der Mensch sie auch bei seiner weiteren Entwickelung zunächst finden mußte, indem er den Blick dahin richtete, wo diese Wesenheiten mit der Sonne hingegangen sind. Die Sonnenwesen in ihrer Tätigkeit und in ihrem Reich mit all ihren Unterwesenheiten wird also der Mensch zu suchen gehabt haben auf dem Wege von sich aus hinaus in die Welt hinter dem Teppich der Sinnenwelt. Diejenigen Wesenheiten aber, welche in einer gewissen Beziehung höhere Wohltäter der Menschheit noch waren, die durch die Mondentrennung sein inneres Seelenleben angeregt haben, die wird er zu suchen gehabt haben, indem er zunächst in sein eigenes Inneres hineinstieg, indem er sich vertiefte in eine unterirdische Seelenregion, um dasjenige zu finden, was sich vor dem äußeren Blick verborgen hat, die unterirdischen Götter, die diejenigen sind, welche den Mond von der Erde getrennt und das Seelenleben angeregt haben. Innerhalb des Seelenlebens waren die Wege zu suchen zu denjenigen Göttern, die mit diesem wohltätigen Vorgang der Mondentrennung verknüpft waren. Wenn wir zunächst bloß auf diese zwei Reiche sehen, sozusagen auf die Reiche der Sonnengötter und Mondengötter, so haben wir einen Unterschied, den wir bezeichnen können als: draußen in den Himmeln befindliche Götter und unterhalb der Seele befindliche Götter; und wir bezeichnen den Weg hinaus als den Sonnenweg und den Weg hinein in die Seele — zunächst um einen Namen zu haben - als den luziferischen Weg. Und Luzifers Wesenheiten sind uns dann diejenigen, welche nicht mitgemacht haben die Sonnentrennung von der Erde dazumal, als die Sonne sich von der Erde trennte. Und gewisse andere Wesenheiten, die höchste Wohltäter der Menschheit sind, aber zunächst verborgen bleiben mußten und diese Sonnentrennung nicht mitgemacht haben, gehörten zu keinem dieser Reiche so recht hinzu. Das waren jene Wesenheiten, welche während der alten Mondenentwickelung zurückgeblieben waren und nicht diejenige Stufe erreicht hatten, die sie als geistige Wesenheiten, die damals viel höher standen als die Menschen auf dem Monde, hätten erreichen können. Was haben diese Wesenheiten damals versäumt? Sie haben die Möglichkeit versäumt, während der folgenden Erdenentwickelung die Sonnentrennung mitzumachen. Sie wären in gewisser Weise berufen gewesen, wie die Sonnengeister von der Erde hinauszugehen und von der Sonne herunterzuwirken. Das haben sie versäumt. Das kam für diese Wesenheiten so, daß sie wohl in einer gewissen Weise den Versuch machten, mit der Sonne sich zu trennen von der Erde, aber dann die Entwickelungsbedingungen der Sonne nicht aushalten konnten und auf die Erde wieder zurückfielen. Diese Wesenheiten waren also solche, welche nicht. von Anfang an zurückgeblieben waren mit der Erde zusammen, als die Sonne sich getrennt hat, welche dann aber nicht mitkommen konnten mit der Sonnenentwickelung und zurückgefallen waren; sie waren nun mit der Erdenentwickelung weiterhin verbunden. Was taten nun diese Wesenheiten weiter im Laufe der Erdenentwickelung? Sie, die also in einer ganz besonderen Lage waren, versuchten nun, mit Hilfe der Menschheitsentwickelung auf der Erde ihre eigene Entwickelung fortzusetzen. Sie konnten an das menschliche Ich nicht heran; dazu hatten sie sich nicht aufgeschwungen während der alten Mondenentwickelung. An das menschliche Ich konnten diejenigen Wesenheiten heran, die aus der Erde herausgezogen waren mit der Sonne. Und es konnten auch diejenigen Wesenheiten heran, welche den Mond abgetrennt hatten, von innen her. Die Wesenheiten, die von der Sonne zurückgefallen waren, die waren es, welche an die menschliche Seele herantraten, als diese noch nicht reif war, die Offenbarung jener höheren Wohltäter zu empfangen, welche den Mond herausgetrennt hatten. Zu früh traten diese Wesenheiten an die menschliche Seele heran. Hätte sozusagen der Mensch völlig abgewartet die wohltätige Wirkung derjenigen geistigen Wesenheiten, die vom Monde, das heißt in das Innere seiner Seele hereinwirkten, so würde später eingetreten sein, was so früher eingetreten ist. Diese Mondengötter hätten die Seele des Menschen langsam herangereift, bis eine entsprechende Ich-Entwickelung möglich geworden wäre. So aber traten die anderen Wesenheiten an den Menschen heran und ergossen ihre Wirkungen, statt in das Ich, in den menschlichen Astralleib, von innen hinein, gerade so wie es die Mondengötter machen, so daß diese Wesenheiten denselben Weg suchten durch das Innere der Seele, auf dem die eigentlichen Mondengötter später auch wirkten; das heißt, diese Wesenheiten gesellten sich hinein in das luziferische Reich. Und sie sind es, die in der biblischen Urkunde durch die Schlange symbolisiert werden. Es sind diejenigen Wesen, welche an den menschlichen Astralleib zu früh herangetreten sind, und die ganz so wirkten wie alle anderen Wesenheiten, die von innen wirken. Und wenn wir die von innen wirkenden Wesenheiten als luziferische Wesenheiten bezeichnen, müssen wir auch diese so zurückgebliebenen Wesenheiten so bezeichnen. Sie sind aber diejenigen, die an den Menschen herangetreten sind, als er noch unreif für solche Einflüsse war, diejenigen, die seine Verführer wurden auf der einen Seite, allerdings ihm aber auch die Freiheit verschafften, die Möglichkeit, im astralischen Leibe unabhängig zu werden von jenen göttlichen Wesenheiten, die seine Ichheit in ihren Schutz genommen hätten, die von vornherein in ihn hineingegossen hätten, was von göttlichen Sphären in die Ichheit hineingegossen werden kann. So aber machten sich diese luziferischen Wesenheiten heran an den astralischen Leib des Menschen, durchsetzten diesen mit alledem, was ihn für alles Höhere, Spirituelle enthusiasmieren kann, wirkten also auf seine Seele und wurden als höherstehende Wesenheiten in gewisser Weise des Menschen Verführer. Und wir müssen diese Art der luziferischen Wesenheiten als des Menschen Verführer ansprechen, müssen also sagen: Dasjenige, was im Laufe der Erdenentwickelung an den Menschen herangetreten ist und ihm auf der einen Seite die Freiheit gebracht hat, auf der anderen Seite die Möglichkeit des Bösen, das kam von innen heraus, das kam aus Luzifers Reich. Denn diese Wesenheiten konnten sich nicht von außen ankündigen, sie mußten sich ins Innere der Seele hereinschleichen; von außen kann an den Menschen herankommen, was an sein Ich herankommt, nicht bloß an seinen astralischen Leib. So sehen Sie, daß es im weiten Reiche der Lichtträger, der luziferischen Wesenheiten, Untergattungen gibt, von denen wir sehr wohl verstehen können, daß sie die Verführer des Menschen werden konnten. Wir können aber auch sehr wohl verstehen, daß gerade wegen dieser Wesenheiten strenge Maßregeln ergriffen wurden da, wo die Menschen eingeführt werden konnten in die Reiche jenseits des Schleiers der Seelenwelt; denn diejenigen Menschen, die diesen Weg geführt wurden in das Innere der Seele, trafen dort nicht nur die guten luziferischen Wesenheiten, die von innen heraus den Menschen erleuchtet haben, sondern sie trafen zunächst diese luziferischen Wesenheiten, die dann al; seine Verführer wirkten, die namentlich den Hochmut, den Ehrgeiz, die Eitelkeit in der Seele aufstachelten.

Ja, wir müssen uns durchaus bekannt machen damit, daß wir niemals versuchen sollen, die Welten, die hinter der sinnlichen Welt und hinter der Seelenwelt liegen, umspannen zu können mit den durch unsere heutige Kultur zubereiteten Verstandesbegriffen.

Wenn wir von luziferischen Wesenheiten sprechen, so müßten wir den ganzen Umfang des Reiches dieser Wesenheiten kennenlernen, alle ihre Gattungen, Sorten und Arten. Dann würden wir sehen, daß nicht überall da, wo von der Gefährlichkeit einer gewissen Art von luziferischen Wesenheiten gesprochen wird, ein Bewußtsein vorhanden ist von dem ganzen Umfang des entsprechenden Reiches; daß man recht haben kann, wenn man von gewissen Gattungen des luziferischen Reiches so spricht, wie diese oder jene Urkunde spricht; daß man aber zugleich in Betracht ziehen muß, daß die Realität weiter ist, unendlich viel weiter, als die Menschen gewöhnlich wissen können. In einer Zeit, in welcher der Blick nach außen und der Blick nach innen für die Angehörigen einer gewissen Kulturepoche noch sehr scharf war, empfand der Mensch dann, wenn er den Weg nach außen ging zu dem: Das bist du, und nach innen zu dem: Ich bin das All, daß der Weg nach außen und der Weg nach innen zu demselben, zu dem einheitlichen Ich führten. In dieser ersten Kulturepoche der nachatlantischen Zeit hat man allerdings über dasjenige vielfach anders denken, anders fühlen können, was den geistigen Reichen zugrunde lag, als später. Daher ist es ungeheuer schwierig für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein, in jene wunderbare erste nachatlantische Kulturepoche sich hineinzuversetzen und sich zu identifizieren mit einer Seele, die dazumal lebte.

Wir haben gestern gesehen, wie das Gefühl dazumal ganz anders geartet war, wie die Menschen die Seele des Lichtes wie durch ihre Haut von allen Seiten einströmen gefühlt haben, und damit haben Erfahrung sammeln können aus der Umgebung, die heute dem Menschen verschlossen ist. Aber mit alledem ist noch etwas anderes verknüpft gewesen.

Es ist aus meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» bekannt, daß in dem Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung in der nachatlantischen Zeit die folgenden Epochen unterschieden werden können: die altindische Kultur, die urpersische Kultur, die chaldäisch-ägyptische Kultur, die griechischlateinische Kultur, in welche das Christus-Ereignis hineinfiel; dann unsere Kultur. Auf sie wird eine weitere und auf diese wird dann die letzte folgen, und dann wird die Erde wiederum von einer solchen Umwandlung getroffen werden, wie sie getroffen wurde zur Zeit der atlantischen Katastrophe. So haben wir also sieben Kulturepochen. In diesen sieben Kulturepochen haben wir eine mittlere Kulturepoche, die steht für sich, die griechisch-lateinische mit dem Christus-Ereignis. Die anderen Kulturepochen stehen aber in einem gewissen Verhältnisse zueinander. Die chaldäisch-ägyptische Kulturepoche wiederholt sich in gewissen Erscheinungen der fünften Epoche, das heißt in unserer eigenen, so daß in unserer Zeit gewisse Erscheinungen, gewisse Tatsachen, gewisse Anschauungen wiederum aufleben müssen, die in der alten chaldäisch-ägyptischen Kultur gelebt haben. Nur leben sie auf in einer anderen Form, nämlich so, daß sie durchtränkt sind von demjenigen, was geschehen ist durch den Christus-Impuls. Nicht etwa eine einfache Wiederholung der chaldäisch-ägyptischen Kultur haben wir, sondern wir haben in unserer Zeit eine solche Wiederholung dieser Kulturepoche, daß alles getaucht ist in das, was der Christus auf die Erde gebracht hat. Das ist eine Wiederholung und doch wieder nicht eine solche. Diejenigen Menschen, welche sich tiefer eingefühlt haben in den Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung und teilgenommen haben an diesem mit ihrer Seele, die haben immer so etwas gefühlt. Bei solchen Menschen ist, wenn sie auch noch nicht zu einem okkulten Wissen vorgerückt waren, doch etwas aufgetaucht wie eine Erinnerung an alte ägyptische Erlebnisse. Dasjenige, was die ägyptischen Weisen in ihrer wunderbaren Erkenntnis der Himmelsvorgänge auf ihre Art in ihrer Hermes-Wissenschaft durchdrungen haben, das lebt in unserer fünften Kulturepoche, in unserer eigenen Zeit in einer materialistischeren Form wieder auf. So gefühlt haben das Aufleben dieser Erscheinungen besonders diejenigen, die an ihm beteiligt waren. Nur ein Beispiel sei angeführt.

Als diejenige Individualität im fünften Zeitraum wieder erschien, die einstmals in den Geheimstätten Ägyptens den Seelenblick hinaufgerichtet hatte zu den Sternen und ihre Geheimnisse im Weltenraume in der damaligen Art zu ergründen suchte unter der Herrschaft der ägyptischen Weisen, und dann Kepler wurde, da trat dasjenige, was in der ägyptischen Seele in anderer Form da war, wiederum in einer neuen, in den großen Keplerschen Gesetzen auf, die heute ein so wichtiger Bestandteil unserer Astrophysik sind. So kam es auch, daß in der Seele dieser Individualität auftauchte etwas, was aus ihr dann herauspreßte die Worte — Sie können sie in den Keplerschen Schriften lesen -: Ich bin hingegangen und habe die heiligen Gefäße aus den heiligen Stätten Ägyptens geholt und sie hereingestellt in die Gegenwart, damit die Leute jetzt etwas verstehen können, was noch in ferne Zukünfte hinein wirken kann. — Das ist ein Beispiel; wir könnten viele von solchen Beispielen anführen, an denen es Ihnen klar werden könnte, wie in einer neuen Form wieder auflebt, was da war in der chaldäischägyptischen Kulturepoche.

Wir sind in der fünften Kulturperiode der nachatlantischen Zeit. Sie wird abgelöst werden von der sechsten, die eine wichtige sein wird. Diese sechste Kulturperiode wird eine Wiederholung sein und zu gleicher Zeit eine Erhöhung der urpersischen Zarathustrakultur. Zarathustra hat hinaufgeschaut zur Sonne, um hinter dem physischen Sonnenlichte den Christus-Geist, den er Ahura Mazdao genannt hat, zu sehen und die Menschen aufmerksam zu machen auf ihn. Dieser Christus ist mittlerweile auf die Erde niedergestiegen; dieser Christus muß in denjenigen Seelen, die sich dafür reif machen im Laufe der sechsten Kuiturepoche, so weit in das Innere eindringen, daß dann durch den Blick in das eigene Innere der Seele einer Anzahl von Menschen jene gewaltigen Empfindungen entstehen können, dieZarathustra erregen konnte, als er auf den Ahura Mazdao hinwies. Denn in der sechsten Periode soll bei einer großen Anzahl von Menschen durch den Blick in das eigene Innere, durch die Wiedererkennung der Sonnenweisheit, dessen, was im Urpersischen sich offenbarte, etwas wie eine Wiederholung auf viel höherer, verinnerlichter, vergeistigter Stufe entstehen. Ich habe Ihnen schon erwähnt, daß die Griechen, wenn sie in ihrer Art und in ihrem Sinne von dem Ahura Mazdao gesprochen haben, ihn Apollo genannt haben. In ihren Mysterien haben sie den Menschen erkennen lassen die tiefere Wesenheit dieses Apollo. Vor allen Dingen haben sie in Apollo denjenigen Geist gesehen, welcher nicht nur die physischen Sonnenkräfte dirigierte, sondern auch die geistigen Sonnenkräfte lenkte und sie auf die Erde leitete, Und wenn die Lehrer in den apollinischen Mysterien ihren Schülern haben reden wollen von den geistig-moralischen Einflüssen Apollons, dann haben sie davon gesprochen, daß Apollon die ganze Erde durchklingt mit der heiligen Sphärenmusik, das heißt aus der geistigen Welt herunter die Strahlen schickt. Und eine Wesenheit haben sie in Apollon gesehen, die begleitet ist von den Musen, von seinen Helferinnen. Eine wunderbar tiefe Weisheit liegt in diesem Apollon, der begleitet ist von den neun Musen. Wenn Sie sich daran erinnern, daß der Mensch aus verschiedenen Gliedern seiner Wesenheit besteht, aus physischem Leib, Atherleib, Empfindungsleib, Empfindungsseele, Verstandesseele, Bewußtseinsseele und so weiter, so können Sie sagen: Der Mensch ist ein IchMittelpunkt und dieser vereinigt um sich sieben oder neun Glieder, die seine Wesensteile sind. Steigen wir von der menschlichen Wesenheit zu einer göttlichen Wesenheit hinauf, dann müssen wir uns dasjenige, was das Ich ist, als diese geistige Wesenheit denken, und was die Glieder sind, ist für die göttliche Wesenheit das, was ihre Helfer sind: einzelne Individualitäten. Wie den Menschen seine einzelnen Glieder, der physische Leib, der Atherleib, der astralische Leib und so weiter zusammensetzen, sich um sein Ich gruppieren, so gruppierten die Musen sich um Apollo. Und auch dasjenige, was im Zusammenhange mit einer solchen Sache den Einzuweihenden des apollinischen Mysterienkreises gesagt wurde, das ist von einer tiefen Bedeutung. Ihnen wurde ein Geheimnis anvertraut, wie man sagt, daß der Gott wiederum auf eine besondere Weise im sechsten Zeitraume zu den Menschen sprechen soll, der im zweiten Zeitraume zu Zarathustra in so besonderer Weise gesprochen hat. Das suchte man zum Verständnis zu bringen, indem man sagte: Im sechsten Zeitraume wird ApollosLied auf der Erde an seinem Ziele angekommen sein. — In diesem Satze, der gang und gäbe war bei den apollinischen Mysterienschülern, daß im sechsten Zeitraume Apollons Lied an seinem Ziele angekommen sein werde, war ausgedrückt die Wiederholung des zweiten Zeitraumes der Erdenentwickelung im sechsten auf einer höheren Stufe.

Der erste Zeitraum wird auf einer höheren Stufe wiedererscheinen im siebenten.

Das durchchristete Erkennen des ersten nachatlantischen Zeitraumes, das steht den gegenwärtigen Menschen als ein hohes Ideal vor; zu einer solchen Empfindungsweise, zu einer solchen Anschauungsweise wieder zu kommen, wie sie vorhanden war auf einer niedrigeren Stufe in der ersten nachatlantischen Zeit. Wiederum soll am Schlusse unserer nachatlantischen Zeit in einer gewissen Weise der Mensch, wenn er den Weg hinausgeht in die äußere Sinnenwelt und das Geoffenbarte hineinarbeitet in die eigene Seelenwelt, erkennen, daß ihn diese beiden Wege zu einer Einheit führen. Deshalb ist es gut, wenn man sich ein wenig hineinversetzt in dieses für heutige — wir stehen ja in der Zwischenepoche — Gefühle ziemlich fernliegende altindische Fühlen und Denken. Selbst wenn man nur einige Züge herausgreift, so merkt man etwas von dem ganz anders gearteten Fühlen und Denken, von der ganz andersartigen Stellung zur Weisheit und zum Leben, die dazumal bei einem nicht so zum Ich-Bewußtsein geweckten Menschenwesen vorhanden waren. Dasjenige, was dann in den Veden niedergeschrieben worden ist, das ist die Lehre der ersten großen Lehrer des alten Indien, der heiligen Rishis. Es muß hier auf die Tatsache hingewiesen werden, daß die heiligen Rishis ihre Anregung empfingen von jener hohen Individualität, welche die Völker der alten Atlantis hinübergeführt hat durch das heutige Europa nach Asien hinein. In gewisser Beziehung waren die heiligen Rishis die Schüler dieser hohen Individualität, des Manu. Und was hat ihnen der Manu vermittelt? Vermittelt hat er ihnen die Art und Weise, wie sie dazumal zu der ersten nachatlantischen Weisheit und Erkenntnis gekommen sind. Zur Erkenntnis kommen, wie das heute der Fall ist, dadurch, daß man die äußere Natur beobachtet, daß man sich in das Innere seiner Seele versenkt, wie sie heute erst möglich geworden ist, das alles hätte dazumal keinen Sinn gehabt.

In der ersten Kulturepoche der nachatlantischen Zeit, im altindischen Volk, war der Ätherleib noch weit mehr außerhalb des physischen Leibes als heute. Der alte Inder konnte sich dieses Atherleibes und der damaligen Organe dieses Ätherleibes noch bedienen, wenn er nicht aufging im Leben des physischen Leibes, sondern sich hingab dem Ätherleib, wenn er sozusagen vergaß, daß er im physischen Leibe steckte. Wenn er dies tat, dann spürte er, wie wenn er herausgehoben wäre aus sich selbst; wie wenn er sozusagen wie das Schwert aus der Scheide herausgehoben wäre. Indem er das verspürte, empfand er auch etwas von dem, was man so schildern kann: man sieht nicht durch Augen, man hört nicht durch Ohren, man denkt nicht durch den physischen Verstandesapparat, man bedient sich der Organe des Ätherleibes. Das tat er. Dann aber trat vor ihm die lebendige Weisheit auf; nicht Gedanken, die Menschen denken können oder gedacht haben, sondern die Gedanken, nach denen die Götter draußen die Welt geformt haben. Dasjenige, was wir heute Gedanken nennen, was wir fabrizieren mit dem Instrument des Gehirns als Gedanken, das kannte überhaupt der wirklich im geistigen Leben stehende Inder nicht. Spintisiert, ausgedacht, verstandesmäßig überlegt hat der eben gar nicht, sondern bei ihm war es so,daß er herausstieg aus dem physischen Leib und in dem Ätherleib schaute. Um ihn herum war, wie eine momentane Gabe der göttlichen Welt, die ganze kosmische Summe der Gottesgedanken, aus denen hervorgesprossen ist die Welt. Wie die Götter gedacht haben in den Musterbildern für alle Dinge, das stand vor seinem Äthersinnesorgan, das schaute er. Er brauchte nicht logisch zu denken. Warum müssen wir logisch denken? Wir müssen das aus dem Grunde, weil wir durch das logische Denken die Wahrheit erst finden sollen, weil wir uns irren können, wenn wir unsere Gedanken in Verbindung bringen. Wären wir so organisiert, daß sich der richtigeGedanke an den richtigen Gedanken im unmittelbaren Erfühlen reihte, dann brauchten wir keine Logik. Der alte Inder brauchte keine Logik, er schaute die Gedanken der Götter, und die waren schon von selbst richtig. So hatte er um sich gewoben ein ätherisch-kosmisches Netz, gewoben aus den Gedanken der Götter. Er schaute zu gleicher Zeit in diesem Gedankengewebe, das ihm wie ein die Welt durchwebendes Seelenlicht schien, die urewige Weisheit. So, in dieser höchsten Vollendung, wie ich es Ihnen eben geschildert habe, konnten es allerdings nur die heiligen Rishis, und sie konnten aus diesem Schauen heraus verkünden die großen Weltenwesenheiten. Was hatten sie dann also für eine Empfindung? Sie hatten die Empfindung, daß mit diesem Weltengewebe von Weisheit, in dem alles eingeschrieben war in lebendigen Vorbildern, das Ganze durchwoben und durchströmt von der Seele des Lichtes, in sie einströmte die Wahrheit, die Erkenntnis. So wie der spätere Mensch das Gefühl hat, daß etwas in ihn einströmt, wenn er die Atemluft einsaugt, so hatte der alte Inder das Gefühl, daß ihm die Götter entgegenschickten die Weisheit, und er sie einsaugt, so wie uns die Atemluft entgegengeschickt wird, die wir dann einsaugen. Seelenlicht, und dieses Seelenlicht durchgeistigt von Weisheit, sogen die alten heiligen Rishis ein, und sie konnten das, was sie so einsogen, lehren denjenigen, die ihre Bekenner wurden. Dafür konnten sie aber auch sagen: alles dasjenige, was sie verkünden, ist ausgehaucht von Brahman selber. Das ist sogar der tiefe, wörtlich richtige Ausdruck: «Ausgehaucht ist es von Brahman und eingeatmet von den Menschen.» Dies war die Stellung der heiligen Rishis zu der Weisheit der Welt, zu dem, was sie verkündeten, was dann in den verschiedenen Partien der Veden, man könnte sagen, nur in schwachen Bildern niedergeschrieben ist. Denn dasjenige, was die heiligen Rishis lehrten, ist eben nur in schwachen Nachbildern in den Veden niedergeschrieben. Und wenn die Veden heute gelesen werden, so sollten sich die Menschen bewußt sein, daß das schwache Nachbilder sind der ursprünglichen heiligen Weisheit der Rishis. Dennoch aber müssen wir in den Veden etwas anderes sehen, als was wir sonst in Schriftwerken finden. Wir können in der Welt die mannigfaltigsten Schriftwerke finden, wir können auf diesem oder jenem Standpunkte stehen, wir können sagen: Ein inneres, seelisches, durchchristetes Leben tritt uns zum Beispiel im Johannes-Evangelium entgegen; wenn wir aber den Ausdruck nehmen, der uns darinnen gegeben ist, den äußeren Ausdruck des Johannes-Evangeliums, so steht er seinem Inhalte ferner als das, was in den Veden steht, zu seinem Inhalte. Es ist ein innigerer Zusammenhang zwischen dem Ausdrucke und dem Inhalte der Veden, weil unmittelbar sozusagen eingeflossen und wiedergegeben worden ist im Vedenworte das, was eingeatmet worden ist; während der Schreiber des Johannes-Evangeliums die tiefen Weistümer so geschrieben hat, daß er sie empfangen und sie hinterher niedergeschrieben hat, und der Ausdruck weiter absteht von dem, was der Inhalt ist.

Diese Dinge müssen uns klar sein, wenn wir die Weltenentwickelung wirklich verstehen wollen. Daher müssen wir empfinden, daß es ein natürliches Gefühl ist, wenn der Christ sagt: «Ich schätze das JohannesEvangelium über alles», wenn der Christ aber auch das Bedürfnis hat, nicht bei dem Worte dieses Evangeliums stehenzubleiben, sondern durchzudringen, wie es die Geist-Erkenntnis tut, zu dem spirituellen Gehalt dieses Johannes-Evangeliums, wenn er sagt: «Mir wird es erst dadurch, was es sein soll, daß ich durchdringe zu demjenigen, was da im äußeren Ausdrucke gegeben ist.» Derjenige aber, der sich in der richtigen Weise zu den Veden stellen will, der muß sich wie der alte Inder dazu stellen, das heißt er muß sagen: «Dasjenige, was in den Veden selbst steht, hat kein Mensch hinterher bloß nachgeschrieben als Ausdruck der göttlichen Weisheit, sondern das ist unmittelbar eine Nachbildung dessen, was eingeatmete Weisheit ist.» Daher ist das Vedawort, daher sind die Teile der Veden, namentlich der Rig-Veda, nicht nur Urkunden über Heiliges, sondern selbst ein Heiliges für diejenigen, die empfanden, wie der Zusammenhang ist. Und dadurch die unendliche Verehrung des Veda selber wie eines göttlichen Wesens in alten Zeiten. Das müssen wir nur verstehen. Und wir müssen es verstehen aus der Seele des alten Inders heraus. Und wir müssen mancherlei lernen, weil wir ja einem Ideale entgegengehen, dem Ideale, die erste Kulturepoche in Erhöhung wiederzufinden, das heißt wieder zu begründen. Wir müssen etwas von dem lernen, was zum Beispiel gesagt wird in bezug auf das Vedawort, daß Baravadscha durch drei Jahrhunderte hindurch den Veda studiert hat. Der heutige Mensch wird glauben, wenn er drei Jahrhunderte den Veda studierte, daß er ungeheuer vieles wüßte; er wird verhältnismäßig schon, wenn er viel kürzere Zeit ihn studiert hat, glauben, daß er vieles weiß. Da kam, so wird uns erzählt, eines Tages zu Baravadscha der Gott Indra und sagte zu ihm: «Du hast jetzt durch drei Jahrhunderte den Veda studiert; siehe einmal, drei hohe Berge sind da, mächtig hohe Berge! Der eine bedeutet den ersten Teil des Veda, den Rig-Veda, der zweite Berg bedeutet den zweiten Teil des Veda, den Sama-Veda, und der dritte Berg bedeutet den dritten Teil des Veda, den Yagur-Veda. Du hast sie studiert, diese drei Vedenteile, durch drei Jahrhunderte.» Dann nahm der Indra drei kleine Klumpen von Erde, gerade so viel als man in einer Hand halten kann, aus diesen Bergen heraus und sagte: «Sieh dir diese Klumpen an! Soviel weißt du jetzt von den Veden, wie sich diese Klumpen verhalten zu den großen, mächtigen Bergen.» Verwandeln Sie einmal dies, was da ausgesprochen wurde, in ein Gefühl, dann heißt es: treten Sie an die höchste Weisheit heran, sei es in dieser oder jener Form, auch in der Form, wie sie uns heute entgegentritt, wo wir berufen sind, nicht aus Büchern, sondern aus dem, was in der Welt steht, durch die Botschaft des Rosenkreuzes wiederum die Weisheit zu suchen, und wenden Sie das an auf dasjenige, was uns als Geistes-Erkenntnis gegeben wird, und fühlen Sie so und stellen Sie sich in der richtigen Weise dazu, so werden Sie kaum sagen können von sich, daß Sie soviel von GeistErkenntnis gehört haben wie Baravadscha damals von den Veden; aber es sollte sich dieses Gleichnis von Baravadscha ein jeder gesagt sein lassen, dann wird er gefühlsmäßig in das richtige Verhältnis sich setzen zur umfassenden Weisheit der Welt. Und von solcher Art wird dieses Gefühl sein, daß ein Unendliches empfunden wird, von dem wir immer nur einen kleinen Klumpen haben können. Dadurch bekommen wir auch die richtige Sehnsucht, in der richtigen Weise vorzuschreiten und Geduld zu haben, bis sich wieder ein kleines Klümpchen anserzt. Die Ahnung gehört zu den allerwohltätigsten Gefühlen der Menschenseele. Vieles kann gelernt werden aus der uralten Weisheit des Orients; zu dem Wertvollsten, was gelernt werden kann aus diesem Lichte, gehören solche Dinge, die sich auf unser Gefühl und unsere Empfindung beziehen; und das ist etwas von demjenigen, was der Gott Indra dem Baravadscha als eine Art von Anleitung gab, sich in der richtigen Weise zu den Veden zu stellen. Solche Gefühle von heiliger Scheu, von Ehrfurcht müssen wir uns wieder erringen, wenn wir entgegengehen wollen einem Zeitraume, wo wir hineinschauen dürfen in das, was die Verkündigung der neueren Mysterien ist, wo wir wiederum hineinschauen in jenen Weisheitsteppich, der aus den göttlichen Gedanken gewoben ist und nicht aus den Menschengedanken. Das ist auch das allerbeste, was wir an Gefühlen lernen. Aber wir wollen nicht glauben, . daß wir diese Gefühle im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein schon haben, sondern wir müssen uns klar sein, daß zu den höchsten Gefühlen der Weg eben durch das Wissen geht. Und wenn man den Gedanken umgehen will, wenn man zu bequem ist, so durch die Atherhöhe der Gedanken die Gefühle zu suchen, so wird man bei den gewöhnlichen trivialen Gefühlen bleiben und sie nur verwechseln mit dem, was innere Versenkung der Seele in die Göttlichkeit ist. Solche Gefühle, wie sie im alten Indien zu finden waren, gehörten als ein Grundzug der ganzen Weisheit im ersten nachatlantischen Zeitraume dazu, um in der richtigen Weise sich damals zur Welt zu stellen und eine Einheit zu empfinden in den geistigen Welten, die man findet, wenn man den Weg nach auswärts oder einwärts sucht. Bei allen folgenden Kulturen muß sich ein anderes zeigen.

Während in dem alten Indien eine Vereinigung ist der beiden Wege, gehen die folgenden Zeiträume, der urpersische Zeitraum, der chaldäisch-ägyptische Zeitraum, der griechisch-lateinische Zeitraum in bezug auf die beiden Offenbarungen von innen und außen die Wege, die wir als eine Gabelung bezeichnen können. Auf der einen Seite haben wir die Offenbarung von außen, auf der anderen Seite die Offenbarung von innen. So ist es schon in dem zweiten Zeitraum der nachatlantischen Kulturen. Da haben wir auf der einen Seite nicht nur den Weg des Volkes, sondern auch den Weg der Mysterien, sowohl nach außen in das Reich des Ahura Mazdao, als nach innen, Was man innerhalb der altindischen Denkweise noch lebendig erschaut hat, das einheitlich hinter den beiden Geisteswelten Dahinterstehende, das war für den zweiten nachatlantischen Zeitraum etwas, was gleichsam schon dem Blicke entschwunden war, was schon in einem undurchdringlichen Untergrunde des Daseins war, wovon man noch eine Ahnung hatte, was aber nicht mehr in der Seele leben konnte. Der alte Inder fühlte: «Da gehe ich hinaus, auf der anderen Seite gehe ich hinein und komme zur Einheit.» Der Perser ging den Weg nach außen und sagte, wenn er sich an die Lehre des Zarathustra hielt: «Ich komme zu Ormuzd!» und wenn er den Weg nach innen ging: «Ich komme zu der Wesenheit des Mithras!» Aber es schlossen sich ihm diese zwei Wege nicht mehr zusammen. Er ahnte nur noch, daß sie sich zusammenfinden müssen irgendwo. Daher sprach er von dem Wesen als dem Unbekannten im Dunkel, das man nur ahnen kann, dem unbekannten Urgotte, Das war nur noch ein urgeistiges Wesen, von dem man wußte, daß es dasein muß, das man aber nicht mehr finden konnte. Zaruana akarana, das war der Name für diesen im Dunkel wesenden, aber nicht mehr auf den beiden Wegen erreichbaren persischen Gott. Was man erreichen konnte, war das, was hinter dem Teppich der äußeren Sinneswelt lag. Da war zunächst dasjenige, auf was Zarathustra hinwies. Also etwas, was schon ein Abkömmling war des Zaruana akarana. Es war der Gott Ahura Mazdao, der Herrscher im Reiche der Sonnengeister, in dem Reiche, aus dem die wohltätigen Wirkungen herunterkamen, die im Gegensatz zu den physischen Sonnenwirkungen als die geistigen zu bezeichnen sind, der Geist, von dem zum Beispiel der alte Perser das ableitete, was an Sittenregeln und an Gesetzen vorhanden war, was der Eingeweihte — der war es, der sich durch die Einweihung zu den Sittenregeln und Gesetzen hinaufschwang - herunterholte als Sittengesetze, als Gesetze des menschlichen Handelns, der menschlichen Verrichtungen und so weiter. Das also war der eine Weg; und man sah sozusagen in höchster Region diesen Geist, der der Geist der Sonne ist, walten; da sah man seine Diener, die Amshaspands, diejenigen, die sich gleichsam um seinen Thron herumstellten, die seine Boten waren. Während er das gesamte Reich regierte, lenkten diese die einzelnen Teile. Untergeordnetere Wesenheiten, welche wiederum unter den Amshaspands stehen, sind diejenigen, die man gewöhnlich dieIzets oder Izarats nennt. So daß der alte Perser hinausblickte in das Reich hinter den Teppich der Sinnenwelt, und eine höchste geistige Wesenheit sah: Ahura Mazdao und unter ihm ein Korps von Amshaspands; dann wiederum untergeordnetere Wesenheiten, die Izets oder Izarats; und es gab noch Wesenheiten, von denen wir sagen können, daß sie dasjenige sind in der geistigen Welt, was die Gedanken der Menschen in der Seele sind. Diese Gedanken in der menschlichen Seele sind ja nur Schattenbilder ihrer Wirklichkeiten; draußen in der spirituellen Welt entsprechen unseren Gedanken gewisse geistige Wesenheiten. Für die altpersische Auffassung waren diese Wesenheiten, die man Fravashis nannte, diejenigen, die sozusagen unmittelbar über dem Menschen standen. So also dachte man sich innerhalb der persischen Entwickelung das Reich hinter dem Teppich der Sinnenwelt mit einer Stufenfolge von geistigen Wesenheiten bis hinauf zu Ormuzd. In dem Augenblick aber, wo man nicht den völligen Einklang sieht zwischen dem geistigen Reiche, das man findet auf dem Wege nach außen, und dem geistigen Reiche, das man findet auf dem Wege nach innen, da hängt es schon im hohen Grade von dem Menschen ab, wie er namentlich das Reich im Innern sieht. Nun war aber auch die ganze Natur den persischen Menschen eine andere geworden, als es die Natur den altindischen war. Diese Eigentümlichkeit, den Atherleib noch so weit draußen zu haben, die hatte der Angehörige der altpersischen Menschheit nicht mehr; da war schon der Atherleib viel weiter in den physischen Leib hineingeschlüpft. Daher konnten sich die Angehörigen des altpersischen Volkes nicht mehr der Organe des Ätherleibes bedienen, wie die Angehörigen des altindischen Volkes das konnten. Die Organe, deren sich die Angehörigen des altpersischen Volkes bedienten, waren diejenigen Organe, die ursprünglich dem Menschen eingegliedert waren in dasjenige, was wir heute den Empfindungsleib nennen. Sie wissen ja, daß wir am vollständigen Menschen zu unterscheiden haben den physischen Leib, den Ätherleib, den Empfindungsleib, die Empfindungsseele, die Verstandesseele, die Bewußtseinsseele, dann dasjenige, was man Geistselbst nennt, dann den Lebensgeist, und schließlich den eigentlichen Geistmenschen.

Geistmensch

Lebensgeist

Geistselbst

Bewußtseinsseele

Verstandesseele

Empfindungsseele

Empfindungsleib

Ätherleib

Physischer Leib

Der altindische Mensch bediente sich also sozusagen in der Weise, wie sie charakterisiert worden ist, seines Ätherleibes, wenn er sich zu den höchsten Erkenntnissen emporschwingen wollte. Der Perser konnte das nicht mehr; er konnte sich aber des Empfindungsleibes bedienen. Er also erhob sich zu seinen höchsten Erkenntnissen durch den Empfindungsleib. Weil er nicht mehr mit dem Atherleib schauen konnte, so verhüllte sich die höchste Einheit vor ihm. Mit dem Empfindungsleib konnte er noch hinausblicken und in gewisser Weise astralisch sehen. Das war bei vielen Mitgliedern des persischen Volkes noch der Fall: astralisch zu sehen den Ahura Mazdao und seine Diener, weil man sich des Empfindungsleibes noch bedienen konnte. Nun wissen Sie aus der Darstellung in meiner «Theosophie», daß der Empfindungsleib gebunden ist an die Empfindungsseele. In dem Augenblick, wo also der Angehörige des altpersischen Volkes sich des Empfindungsleibes bediente, war sozusagen die Empfindungsseele dabei; aber er war noch nicht dahin gelangt, sich dieser zu bedienen, denn sie war noch nicht ausgebildet, sie mußte erst ausgebildet werden. Daher war der Angehörige des altpersischen Volkes in einer ganz besonderen Lage. Er bediente sich seines Empfindungsleibes. Da spielt immer die Empfindungsseele hinein. Die mußte er aber erst hinnehmen so, wie sie damals war. Daher mußte er empfinden: Wenn der Empfindungsleib, der jetzt schon ausgebildet ist, sich erhebt zu Ahura Mazdao, dann ist die Empfindungsseele dabei. Die ist aber in einer gewissen Gefahr, und sie wird, wenn sie ihre Empfindungen offenbart, sie geradeso in den Empfindungsleib hineinschicken; sie wird dasjenige, was von alten luziferischen Verführungen da ist, zwar nicht als solche äußern, denn dazu hat sie noch keine Fähigkeiten, aber sie wird ihre Wirkungen in den Empfindungsleib hineinschicken. — So nahm man im alten Persien Hereinwirkungen der Empfindungsseele auf den Empfindungsleib wahr, die gleichsam ein von der Außenwelt hereinleuchtendes Spiegelbild dessen darstellten, was in der Empfindungsseele von alten Zeiten her wirkte. Das ist, von innen gesehen dasjenige, was man die Wirkungen Ahrimans, die Wirkungen des Mephistopheles nennt. Daher fühlte man, man steht zwei Mächten gegenüber. Blickt man auf dasjenige, was der Mensch erlangen kann, wenn er den Blick nach außen richtet, so schaut man zu den Mysterien des Ahura Mazdao, läßt man den Blick in das Innere fallen, dann steht man mit Hilfe des Empfindungsleibes durch dasjenige, was Luzifer bewirkt hatte, vor dem Gegner des Ahura Mazdao, vor Ahriman. Es gab nur eines, welches schützte vor den Anfechtungen der Ahrimangestalt, und das trat zu Tage: wenn man durch die Einweihung der Menschheit voraneilte, wenn man die Empfindungsseele ausbildete. Wenn man diese ausbildete und reinigte, und so der Menschheit vorausschritt, dann ging man den Weg nach innen, einen Weg, der zu etwas anderem führte als zu Ahura Mazdao; dann ging man den Weg zu den lichtvollen Luziferreichen. Und dasjenige, was da die Menschenseele durchdrang auf dem Wege nach innen, das nannte man später den Gott Mithras. Daher sind die persischen Mysterien, die das Innenleben pflegten, die Mithrasmysterien. So haben wir auf der einen Seite den Gott Mithras, wenn der Mensch den Weg nach innen ging; und dasjenige, was er auf dem Wege nach außen traf, waren die Reiche des Ahura Mazdao.

Und jetzt schreiten wir heraus in die nächste nachatlantische Kulturepoche, in die chaldäisch-ägyptische Zeit. Da haben wir eine merkwürdige Erscheinung in dieser chaldäisch-ägyptischen Zeit. Nicht umsonst benennen wir sie mit zwei Namen. Wir haben nämlich auf der einen Seite während dieser Kulturepoche drüben in Asien Angehörige der nördlichen Völkerströmung, das ist das chaldäische Element; und _ der anderen Strömung gehört das ägyptische Element an, der Völkerströmung, die auf dem südlichen Wege gezogen ist. Da haben wir eine Epoche, wo zwei Völkerströmungen zusammenstoßen. Und wenn Sie sich erinnern, daß die nördliche Strömung vorzugsweise den Blick nach außen entwickelte, das Suchen nach jenen Wesenheiten, die hinter dem Teppich der Sinnenwelt standen, und daß das ägyptische Volk diejenigen Geister suchte, die man auf dem Weg nach innen findet, so werden Sie begreifen, wie hier zwei Strömungen zusammenwirkten. Also da stoßen der Weg nach außen bei den Chaldäern und der Weg nach innen bei den Ägyptern zusammen. Das empfanden die Griechen auch in einer ganz richtigen Weise, wenn sie die chaldäischen Götter verglichen mit ihrem apollinischen Reiche. Sie suchten dasjenige, was ihnen von den Chaldäern’zukam, in ihren apollinischen Mysterien auf ihre Art. Wenn sie aber von Osiris sprachen und von demjenigen, was dazu gehörte, dann suchten sie das in entsprechender Weise bei sich in ihren dionysischen Mysterien. Man hatte dazumal ein ahnendes Bewußtsein davon, wie die geistigen Zusammenhänge wirklich sind.

Nun schreitet die Menschheit aber vor in der Zeit; sie kommt immer weiter, bildet neue Glieder aus. In der altindischen Periode hat man den Ätherleib und seine Organe ausgebildet; in der urpersischen Periode bediente man sich des Empfindungsleibes und bildete diesen aus, und in der chaldäisch-ägyptischen Periode bildete man nun die Empfindungsseele, das heißt ein vorzugsweise inneres Glied aus, Während der Empfindungsleib noch nach außen gerichtet ist, ist die Empfindungsseele schon nach innen gerichtet. Man entfernt sich also von demjenigen noch mehr als früher, was göttlich-geistige Welten sind. Man lebt ein inneres Leben in der Seele und muß dies Leben gegenüber dem, was nicht im Menschen ist, beschränken auf das, was dieSinne wahrnehmen. So ist auf der einen Seite immer mehr und mehr das Reich der Sinnenwelt dagewesen, und auf der anderen Seite hat sich das Seelenleben immer mehr und mehr verselbständigt. Die Kultur der Empfindungsseele ist die Kultur des dritten Zeitraums. Dasjenige aber, was die Empfindungsseele ausbildet, das sind jetzt nicht mehr geschaute Weisheiten, die wie aus einem Teppich der Umwelt abgelesen werden. Das ähnelt schon dem, was der heutige Mensch ausdenkt, obwohl es, weil der heutige Mensch schon bis zur Bewußtseinsseele vorgedrungen ist, damals noch viel lebendiger ist. Es sind sozusagen die Gedanken noch vollsaftiger; sie sind lebendigere Gedanken als heute, Gedanken, die so lebendig sind, wie heute für uns die Empfindung «rot» ist. Der Mensch empfindet heute seine Gedanken nicht mehr mit derselben Intensität, wie er einen Geschmack oder Geruch empfindet. Damals, als in der ägyptischen Zeit die Empfindungsseele vorzugsweise ausgebildet wurde, waren die Gedanken so, daß sie so lebendig in der Seele lebten wie heute die Empfindung der roten Farbe, eines Geruchs oder eines Geschmacks. Heute sind die Gedanken abgeblaßt, abstrakt geworden. Konkret waren sie damals. Sie waren noch mehr geschaute Gedanken, wenn auch nicht solche Gedanken, die man draußen ausgespannt erblickte in der physischen Welt, so doch Gedanken, von denen man fühlte: man hat sie nicht ausgeklügelt, sondern es sind Gedanken, die aufsteigen in der Seele wie Eingebungen, die auffluteten und da waren. Man sagte nicht mehr: man atmet die Weisheit ein — aber man ist von den Gedanken lebendig durchdrungen, sie sprießen herauf in der Seele, sie sind von der spirituellen Welt in unsere Seele heraufgetrieben.

So ändert sich im Laufe der Zeit alles. Daher hatte der Angehörige der chaldäisch-ägyptischen Epoche nicht mehr das Bewußtsein von der Weisheit der Welt als wie einer ausgebreiteten Lichtwelt, die er einatmet, sondern er hatte das Bewußtsein, daß er Gedanken hatte, allerdings solche Gedanken, die als Inspiration aufstiegen. Und der Inhalt einer solchen in ihm aufsteigenden Wissenschaft, das ist die chaldäische Astrotheologie und das ist die ägyptische hermetische Weisheit. Auf diesem Wege sind sie zustandegekommen. Dasjenige, was in den Sternen lebte und sie bewegte, was in den Dingen pulste, das konnte der Mensch nicht mehr ablesen, aber es kündigte sich in seinem Innern als die alte Weisheit der chaldäisch-ägyptischen Periode an. Dabei ist es bei den Chaldäern so, daß die Menschen das Bewußtsein hatten: Dasjenige, was wir da wissen, ist nicht bloß unser Inneres; das ist ein Spiegelbild dessen, was draußen vorgeht. Bei den Ägyptern war es so, daß sie das Bewußtsein hatten: Was da aufsteigt, ist ein Spiegelbild der verborgenen Götter, die der Mensch trifft nicht zwischen Geburt und Tod, sondern zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. — So waren die Ägypter und Chaldäer voneinander unterschieden, daß in ihrer Weisheit die einen wahrnehmen dasjenige, was hinter der Welt ist, in der wir leben zwischen Geburt und Tod, und die anderen, die Ägypter, in ihrer inspirierten Weisheit dasjenige, was lebt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Notwendigerweise waren aber, wie Sie aus dem ganzen Sinne dieser Entwickelung sehen können, diese Eingebungen des Innern, diese aufsteigenden inspirierten Gedankenmassen fern dem eigentlichen Urwesen in seiner Einheit. Man drang sozusagen nicht mehr so weit, als man noch im Empfindungsleib hat dringen können in der urpersischen Zeit. Es war schon alles mehr abgeblaßt, es war nicht mehr so viel von der Außenwelt darinnen; die hatte sich schon mehr zurückgezogen. Man hatte also eine Weisheit der Außenwelt in sich erlebt, nicht mehr die Weisheit in der Außenwelt selber. Dennoch hatten diejenigen, die sie kennenlernten mit den rechten Gefühlen, vor den Weisheiten der urpersischen Periode den denkbar größten Respekt. Wenn man in einem Wort die paradigmatischen Weisheiten ausdrücken will, welche die Chaldäer geschaut haben über die der physischen Welt zugrunde liegende geistige Welt, so kann man sagen: das sind die chaldäischen Wahrsprüche; und die Sammlung der chaldäischen Wahrsprüche, sie hat einen hochgeachteten Weisheitsschatz gebildet in den alten Zeiten. Unendlich Wichtiges von den Geheimnissen der Welt steckt in diesen Wahrsprüchen. Man schätzte sie ebenso, wie man die Offenbarungen, die man erlebte zwischen dem 'Tode und einer neuen Geburt schätzte; als ägyptische Weisheitsquellen schätzte man diese.

Aber noch dunkler und schattenhafter war dasjenige Wesen geworden, das noch in voller Gegenwart des Erkennens in der altindischen Kulturepoche war und sich nun seiner tieferen Wesenheit nach zurückgezogen hatte vor dem Blicke. Noch schattenhafter als Zaruana akarana ist dieses höchste einheitliche Wesen der chaldäisch-ägyptischen Weisheit. Die Chaldäer nennen es Anu, und es bezeichnet etwas, was die Einheit ist der beiden Welten, was aber weit,weit über demjenigen, was man erkennen kann, erhaben liegt. Und auch in diejenigen Regionen, in die noch der Zarathustramensch hinaufgeschaut hat, wagen die Chaldäer nicht mehr hinaufzuschauen, sondern sie schauen hinauf in diejenigen Regionen, die schon sehr nahe stehen dem menschlichen Gedanken. Da, sagen sie, findet sich zwar alles, denn das Höchste findet sich im Niedrigsten auch, aber da finden sie etwas, was sie als ein Wesen bezeichnen, das eine Abschattierung ist von dem Höchsten. Sie nannten das Apason. Dann sahen sie etwas, was ihnen erschien wie eine Abschattung dessen, was wir etwa heute substantiell unter dem Geistesmenschen stehend denken würden, was wir aus dem Lebensgeist geformt denken würden. Das nannten sie etwa so, daß wir ihr Wort nachbilden können, wenn wir sprechen Tauthe. Dann hatten sie ein Wesen, das nannten sie Moymis. Moymis war ungefähr dasjenige, was die Geist-Erkenntnis heute gewohnt ist einen Weltgeist zu nennen, was ein Wesen ist, bei dem das unterste Glied das Geistselbst ist. So erblickten sie eine Dreiheit, die über ihnen stand. Sie waren sich aber bewußt, daß diese Dreiheit nur in bezug auf ihre untersten Glieder ihnen ihre wahre Gestalt zeigte, daß die höheren Glieder Abschattungen des Höheren sind, das sich zurückgezogen hatte vor ihnen. Und wie ein Abkömmling dieser Wesenheit, die etwa Moymis zu nennen ist, in der Region der Ichheit oder des Feuerwesens, muß dann Bel, derjenige Gott, der als der Weltenbildner auch der Volksgott war, angesehen werden.

So sehen wir, wie auch in der Benennung der Götter sich ausdrückt das, was sich herangebildet hat im ganzen Volkswesen. Wenn der Angehörige dieser chaldäischen Welt dann den Weg nach innen antrat, so sagte er, er komme durch den Schleier des Seelenlebens in eine Welt untermenschlicher oder unterirdischer Götter. Adonis ist etwa ein späterer Name für diejenigen Wesenheiten, die sie gefunden haben auf dem Wege nach innen. Nur für die Eingeweihten war dieser Weg der gangbare, denn mit großen Gefahren war er verbunden für die Uneingeweihten. Aber der Eingeweihte erlebte dafür auch, wenn er diesen Weg ging, wenn er sich so entwickelte, daß er hinausgelangte in die Welt, die unter dem Schleier des Seelenlebens liegt — er erkannte etwas, was sich vergleichen läßt mit Erlebnissen der Einweihung von heute. Denn wir nähern uns schon den Eigentümlichkeiten, die immer mehr und mehr zu den Eigentümlichkeiten unserer Zeit sich herausbilden. Derjenige, der im alten Chaldäertume eingeweiht wurde, der machte zwei Erlebnisse durch, und man sorgte dafür, daß er diese zwei Erlebnisse möglichst so machte, daß sie zusammenfielen, daß er also den Weg betrat nach außen in die geistige Welt hinein und nach innen in die geistige Welt hinein, so daß er wenigstens ein Gefühl erhielt von einem gemeinschaftlichen Weben und Leben des Geistigen draußen und drinnen. Und dann erlebte er auf dem Wege nach innen die Begegnung mit jenem geistigen Wesen, das man innerhalb des Chaldäertums Istar nannte und von dem man wußte, daß es zu den wohltätigen Mondgottheiten gehörte. Istar stand da an der Schwelle, die sonst den Menschen verschließt, was hinter dem Seelenleben an Geistigkeit steht. Und auf der anderen Seite, wo man das Tor findet in die geistige Welt durch den Teppich der äußeren Sinneswelt, da stand der andere Hüter: Merodach oder Marduk. Merodach, er stand mit Istar da. Merodach, den wir mit dem Hüter der Schwelle, mit dem Michael vergleichen können, Merodach und Istar waren es, welche das Innere der Seele hellsehend machten und den Menschen nach den beiden Seiten hin in die geistige Welt einführten. Daher erlebte der Mensch durch diese Begegnung das, was man symbolisch auch heute noch so empfindet: Es wird dem Menschen der leuchtende Kelch gereicht, das heißt der Mensch lernt den allerersten Gebrauch seiner Lotusblumen noch tastend kennen. — Dann schreitet er allmählich weiter. So sehen Sie, wie schon _ das Überschreiten einer gewissen Schwelle in dieser Epoche notwendig ist. In Ägypten ist es etwas anders, aber doch ähnlich.

So schritt die Menschheit weiter auf ihrem Wege zur Entwickelung in unsere Zeit hinein. Dann aber rückte der Zeitpunkt heran, der vorbereiten sollte das Herabkommen des kosmischen Sonnengeistes auf die Erde. Der Geist, der vorher äußerlich war, sollte nun hineintreten in die menschliche Seele, daß er im Innern zu finden ist; wie früher die luziferischen Gottheiten zu finden waren, wie Osiris im Innern zu finden war. Die beiden Wege, die sich deutlich im Gegensatze bei den Chaldäern und Ägyptern zeigten, sollten sich gegenseitig befruchten. Das mußte geschehen. Wie konnte das geschehen? Es konnte dadurch geschehen, daß ein Bindeglied geschaffen wurde. Dieses Bindeglied geht aus von Ur in Chaldäa, wie richtig die Bibel vom hebräischen Volk erzählt. Da nimmt es jene Offenbarungen mit, die von außen kommen. Dann geht es nach Ägypten, nimmt auf, was von innen kommt, und vereinigt beides, so daß zum erstenmal in Jahve eine Wesenheit voranleuchtend auftritt für Christus, welche die beiden Wege vereinigt. Was frühere Götter waren, das wird jetzt von zwei Seiten her dem Menschen kund. Wie später der Christus innerlich beleuchtet wird, so wird wenigstens von außen beleuchtet dasjenige, was früher als gewisse Götter in der Dunkelheit erscheint. So sehen wir, daß in Jahve oder Jehova eine Gottheit auftritt, die auf dem Wege nach innen gefunden wird, aber noch nicht durch sich selbst sichtbar wird, die nur sichtbar wird, wenn sie von außen beleuchtet wird. Das zurückgeworfene Christus-Licht ist bei Jehova. Da sehen wir deutlich nebeneinandertreten und sich gegenseitig befruchten diese beiden Richtungen, die uns jetzt so viel beschäftigt haben. Damit aber beginnt überhaupt etwas ganz besonders Neues im Entwickelungsgange der Menschheit. Jetzt beginnt, daß sich Äußeres und Inneres befruchten; jetzt beginnt das, wo das Innere zum Äußeren wird, wo in den Raum hinausdringt, um nebeneinander zu sein, dasjenige, was früher nur innerlich in der Zeit gelebt hat. Durchsuchen Sie Ihr Seelenleben einmal. Dieses ist nicht im Raume ausgebreitet, das verläuft in der Zeit. Die einzelnen Gedanken und Empfindungen sind hintereinander. Was draußen ist, das ist im Raume ausgebreitet, das ist nebeneinander. Daher muß jetzt das eintreten, was man nennt: das Hinausfließen von etwas, was bisher nur in der Zeit gelebt hat, in den Raum zum Nebeneinander. Das geschieht auch, daß etwas, was nur in der Zeit gelebt hat, im Raume nunmehr nebeneinanderlebt. Damit geschieht ein Wichtiges, und dieses drückt sich in ganz besonders tiefer Weise aus.

Alles dasjenige, was früher menschliche Geistesentwickelung war, was hinausführte über die äußere Raumeswelt, führte auch äußerlich in die Zeit hinein. Nun - alles, was zeitlich angeordnet ist, das ist nach dem Maße und nach der Natur der Siebenzahl angeordnet. Wir beherrschen den Weltenwerdegang, wenn wir die Zahl Sieben zugrunde legen, indem wir sagen: Saturn, Sonne, Mond, Erde- Mars, Merkur — Jupiter, Venus und Vulkan, indem wir zum Beispiel hier sieben Zeiträume haben. In allem, was der Zeit unterliegt, finden wir uns zurecht, wenn wir die Zahl Sieben anwenden. Daher werden wir überall da, wo wir in die Zeit hineingeführt werden, zur Siebenzahl geführt werden. Alle die Kollegien und Logen, welche aus dem Raume hinaus in das Zeitliche hineinführen, wenn sie zum Überweltlichen führen, unterliegen eben der Siebenzahl. Der Siebenzahl unterliegen die heiligen Rishis, der Siebenzahl unterliegen die anderen heiligen Lehrer der Völker bis herein zu den sieben Weisen Griechenlands. Die Grundzahl des Raumes ist die Zwölf. Und indem die Zeit herausfließt in den Raum, wird sie zur Offenbarung durch Zwölf. Daher herrscht die Zwölf da, wo die Zeit ausfließt in den Raum. Zwölf Stämme haben wir in Israel, zwölf Apostel in dem Augenblick, wo der Christus, der sich vorher in der Zeit geoffenbart hatte, herausfließt in den Raum. Was in der Zeit ist, ist hintereinander. Was daher von dem Raume in die Zeit hinführt zu den Göttern des luziferischen Reiches, führt in die Siebenzahl hinein. Wollen wir etwas charakterisieren seiner Wesenheit nach in diesem Reiche, so finden wir diese Wesenheit, wenn wir das zu Erforschende auf seine Vaterschaft zurückführen. Wir erkennen dasjenige, was in der Zeit sich entwickelt, wenn wir von dem Späteren zu dem Früheren wie vom Kind zum Vater aufsteigen. Indem wir in die Zeitenwelt, die von der Siebenzahl beherrscht ist, hineingehen, sprechen wir von den Kindern und ihrem Ursprunge, von den Kindern der geistigen Wesenheiten, von den Kindern des Luzifer. Wenn wir die Zeit herausführen in den Raum, sprechen wir von denjenigen Wesenheiten, die nebeneinanderstehen, bei denen das Stehen nebeneinander und damit auch das Fließen der Seelenimpulse von dem einen zum anderen im Raume in Betracht kommt. Wo die Siebenzahl sich dadurch, daß die Zeit in den Raum herausfließt, in die Zwölf verwandelt, hört auf der Begriff des Kindes denselben übersinnlichen Sinn zu haben; da tritt der Begriff der Bruderschaft auf; die nebeneinander leben, das sind Brüder. So steigen wir auf in der Menschheitsentwickelung, indem wir den wichtigen Begriff der Göttersöhne verwandeln in den Begriff der Brüder, die nebeneinander leben. Brüder, Geschwister leben nebeneinander. Was voneinander abstammt, lebt nacheinander. Wir sehen hier in einem wichtigen Zeitpunkt den Übergang von den Söhnen oder Kindern des luziferischen Reiches und seiner Wesenheit zu den Brüdern Christi, einen Übergang, von dem wir morgen noch weiter sprechen werden.

Eighth Lecture

In our discussion of the beings we count to the realm of Christ or to the realm of Lucifer, we have so far given preference to how human beings, in the course of their development, approach these beings through their own souls, how they experience them. We have emphasized, for example, how the path of human beings to those cosmic beings, in whose midst Christ was in pre-Christian times, went outward from human beings in a cognitive manner, but how the path to Lucifer's realm went inward into the soul in order to penetrate the veil that shrouds the soul itself. And we have emphasized how this changed through the appearance of Christ on earth, so that the two realms have come to overlap and humanity is rushing toward a time when Christ will be to be sought within and Lucifer without. In order to harmonize some of what most of you have already heard about the Luciferic beings, we must now return briefly to the nature of the Luciferic principle. The things of the world are complicated, and everything can be viewed from many different perspectives. Because we have to look at things from one angle one time and from another angle another time, it sometimes seems that things are not entirely consistent. But they are consistent with each other. Just as someone who describes a leaf correctly by describing it once from the front and once from the back, and it is still the same leaf, so too does someone describe the Luciferic principle correctly who, as we have done in the past few hours, describes it by tracing the paths that the soul must take to this Luciferic principle. But one can, of course, also view the development of our Earth and of the world in general from a more extraterrestrial point of view, so to speak, and then characterize the position of the Luciferic beings in the progress of the world from a different point of view. Let us do this in a few words.

If you remember that our Earth, together with the Sun and Moon, was once a single being, that the Sun separated itself from the Earth in order to become a dwelling place for higher beings who were then to work upon our Earth from outside, and that even higher beings remained united with the Earth after the separation of the Sun in order to bring forth the Moon, and if you remember that these beings who separated the moon were the same ones who, from within, now stimulated a new life, a soul life in human beings, and preserved them from mummification, then you will soon be able to find harmony between what you have heard here and there in the lectures and what you have heard in the past few hours. You will then say to yourselves: It is natural that human beings, in their further development, should first encounter those beings that separated themselves from the Earth with the Sun, by directing their gaze to where these beings went with the Sun. Human beings will therefore have had to seek the sun beings in their activity and in their realm with all their sub-beings on their way out into the world behind the carpet of the sensory world. But those beings who, in a certain sense, were still higher benefactors of humanity, who stimulated their inner soul life through the separation of the moon, they will have had to seek by first entering into his own inner being, by deepening himself into an underground region of the soul in order to find that which is hidden from the outer gaze, the underground gods, who are those who separated the moon from the earth and stimulated the soul life. Within the soul life, the paths had to be sought to those gods who were connected with this beneficial process of the separation of the moon. If we initially look only at these two realms, so to speak, the realms of the sun gods and moon gods, we have a difference that we can describe as: gods located outside in the heavens and gods located below the soul; and we describe the path out as the sun path and the path into the soul — initially just to have a name — as the Luciferic path. And Lucifer's beings are then those who did not participate in the separation of the sun from the earth at that time when the sun separated from the earth. And certain other beings, who are the highest benefactors of humanity but had to remain hidden at first and did not participate in this separation of the sun, did not really belong to either of these realms. These were the beings who had remained behind during the ancient lunar evolution and had not reached the stage they could have reached as spiritual beings, who at that time were much higher than the people on the moon. What did these beings fail to do at that time? They missed the opportunity to participate in the separation of the sun during the subsequent evolution of the earth. They would have been called upon, in a certain sense, to leave the Earth like the sun spirits and work down from the Sun. They missed this opportunity. What happened to these beings was that they made an attempt, in a certain sense, to separate themselves from the Earth with the Sun, but then they could not endure the conditions of the Sun's development and fell back to the Earth. These beings were therefore those who had not remained with the Earth from the beginning when the Sun separated, but who were then unable to keep up with the Sun's development and fell back; they remained connected to the Earth's development. What did these beings do next in the course of Earth's development? They, who were in a very special situation, now tried to continue their own development with the help of human development on Earth. They could not reach the human ego; they had not raised themselves to that level during the old Moon development. Those beings that had been drawn out of the earth with the sun could approach the human ego. And those beings that had separated the moon could also approach it from within. The beings that had fallen back from the sun were those who approached the human soul when it was not yet ripe to receive the revelation of those higher benefactors who had separated the moon. These beings approached the human soul too early. If, so to speak, human beings had waited completely for the beneficial effect of those spiritual beings that were working from the moon, that is, into the inner soul, then what happened earlier would have happened later. These moon gods would have slowly matured the human soul until a corresponding development of the I had become possible. But instead, the other beings approached humans and poured their effects into the human astral body from within, just as the moon gods do, so that these beings sought the same path through the inner soul on which the actual moon gods later also worked; that is, these beings joined the Luciferic realm. And it is they who are symbolized in the biblical record by the serpent. They are the beings who approached the human astral body too early and acted just like all other beings that work from within. And if we call the beings working from within Luciferic beings, we must also call these backward beings Luciferic beings. But they are the ones who approached human beings when they were still immature for such influences, those who became their seducers on the one hand, but who also gave them freedom, the opportunity to become independent in the astral body from those divine beings who would have taken their ego into their protection, which would have poured into him from the outset what can be poured into the ego from the divine spheres. But instead, these Luciferic beings approached the astral body of man, filled it with everything that can enthuse him for everything higher and more spiritual, thus influencing his soul and becoming, in a certain sense, the seducers of man as higher beings. And we must address this type of Luciferic entity as the seducer of man, and therefore say: That which approached man in the course of Earth's development and brought him, on the one hand, freedom and, on the other hand, the possibility of evil, came from within, came from Lucifer's realm. For these beings could not announce themselves from outside; they had to sneak into the inner soul; what can approach human beings from outside is what approaches their ego, not merely their astral body. So you see that in the vast realm of the light-bearers, the Luciferic beings, there are sub-species of which we can well understand that they could become the seducers of human beings. But we can also understand very well that it was precisely because of these beings that strict measures were taken where people could be introduced into the realms beyond the veil of the soul world; for those people who were led along this path into the inner soul encountered not only the good Luciferic beings who enlightened them from within, but they first encountered these Luciferic beings, who then acted as his seducers, inciting pride, ambition, and vanity in the soul.

Yes, we must make ourselves thoroughly aware that we should never attempt to encompass the worlds that lie beyond the sensory world and beyond the soul world with the concepts of the intellect prepared by our present-day culture.

When we speak of Luciferic beings, we would have to know the entire scope of the realm of these beings, all their genera, species, and varieties. Then we would see that not everywhere where people speak of the danger of a certain kind of Luciferic being is there an awareness of the entire scope of the corresponding realm; that one can be right in speaking of certain kinds of the Luciferic realm in the way this or that document speaks; but that one must at the same time take into consideration that reality is wider, infinitely wider than human beings can ordinarily know. At a time when the outward and inward gaze were still very sharp for the members of a certain cultural epoch, human beings felt, when they turned outward, “That is you,” and when they turned inward, “I am the universe,” that the outward path and the inward path led to the same thing, to the unified I. In this first cultural epoch of the post-Atlantean period, however, people were able to think and feel very differently about what lay at the basis of the spiritual riches than they did later. It is therefore extremely difficult for the ordinary consciousness to put itself into that wonderful first post-Atlantean cultural epoch and identify with a soul that lived at that time.

Yesterday we saw how feelings were of a completely different nature at that time, how people felt the soul of light streaming in from all sides as if through their skin, and how they were thus able to gather experience from their surroundings that is closed to people today. But there was something else connected with all this.

It is known from my “Secret Science” that in the course of human development in the post-Atlantean period, the following epochs can be distinguished: the ancient Indian culture, the ancient Persian culture, the Chaldean-Egyptian culture, the Greek-Latin culture, into which the Christ event fell; then our culture. This will be followed by another, and then the last, and then the earth will again be struck by a transformation such as it was struck by at the time of the Atlantean catastrophe. So we have seven cultural epochs. Within these seven cultural epochs, we have a middle cultural epoch that stands on its own, the Greek-Latin epoch with the Christ event. The other cultural epochs, however, stand in a certain relationship to one another. The Chaldean-Egyptian cultural epoch repeats itself in certain manifestations of the fifth epoch, that is, in our own, so that in our time certain manifestations, certain facts, certain views must revive that were lived in the ancient Chaldean-Egyptian culture. Only they live again in a different form, namely in such a way that they are imbued with what has happened through the Christ impulse. We do not have a simple repetition of the Chaldean-Egyptian culture, but rather we have in our time a repetition of this cultural epoch in such a way that everything is immersed in what Christ brought to earth. This is a repetition, and yet it is not. Those people who have empathized more deeply with the course of human evolution and participated in it with their souls have always felt something like this. Even if they had not yet advanced to occult knowledge, something emerged in such people like a memory of ancient Egyptian experiences. What the Egyptian sages, in their wonderful knowledge of the workings of the heavens, penetrated in their own way in their Hermetic science, is living again in our fifth cultural epoch, in our own time, in a more material form. Those who were involved in it felt the revival of these phenomena particularly strongly. Let me give just one example.

When the individuality that had once looked up to the stars in the secret places of Egypt and sought to fathom their secrets in the universe in the manner of that time under the rule of the Egyptian sages reappeared in the fifth period and became Kepler, what had been present in the Egyptian soul in another form reappeared in a new form in the great laws of Kepler, which today are such an important part of our astrophysics. So it came to pass that something arose in the soul of this individuality, which then pressed forth from it the words — you can read them in Kepler's writings: “I have gone and brought the sacred vessels from the holy places of Egypt and placed them here in the present, so that people may now understand something that can still have an effect in the distant future.” That is one example; we could cite many such examples that would make it clear to you how what was present in the Chaldean-Egyptian cultural epoch is reviving in a new form.

We are in the fifth cultural period of the post-Atlantean era. It will be replaced by the sixth, which will be an important one. This sixth cultural period will be a repetition and at the same time an elevation of the original Persian Zarathustra culture. Zarathustra looked up at the sun in order to see behind the physical sunlight the Christ spirit, whom he called Ahura Mazdao, and to make people aware of him. This Christ has now descended to earth; this Christ must penetrate so deeply into the souls of those who are ready for him during the sixth cultural epoch that, through looking into their own souls, a number of people will be able to experience the powerful feelings that Zarathustra was able to arouse when he pointed to Ahura Mazdao. For in the sixth period, through looking into their own inner lives, through recognizing the wisdom of the sun, that which was revealed in the ancient Persian religion, something like a repetition will arise in a much higher, more internalized, more spiritualized form in a large number of people. I have already mentioned to you that when the Greeks spoke of Ahura Mazdao in their own way and in their own sense, they called him Apollo. In their mysteries, they revealed to people the deeper essence of this Apollo. Above all, they saw in Apollo the spirit that not only directed the physical forces of the sun, but also guided the spiritual forces of the sun and directed them to the earth. And when the teachers in the Apollonian mysteries wanted to tell their pupils about the spiritual and moral influences of Apollo, they spoke of Apollo filling the whole earth with sacred spherical music, that is, sending rays down from the spiritual world. And they saw in Apollo a being accompanied by the Muses, his helpers. There is a wonderfully profound wisdom in this Apollo, who is accompanied by the nine Muses. If you remember that human beings consist of different members of their being, of a physical body, an etheric body, a sentient body, a sentient soul, a mind soul, a consciousness soul, and so on, then you can say: Human beings are centered in the I, and around this center are united seven or nine members, which are the parts of their being. If we ascend from the human being to a divine being, then we must think of the I as this spiritual being, and what the members are for the divine being are what its helpers are: individual individualities. Just as the individual members of the human being, the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and so on, are grouped around his ego, so the Muses were grouped around Apollo. And what was said to the initiates of the Apollonian mystery circle in connection with such a thing is also of profound significance. They were entrusted with a secret, as it were, that the god who had spoken to Zarathustra in such a special way in the second epoch would speak to human beings again in a special way in the sixth epoch. This was explained by saying that in the sixth epoch Apollo's song would have reached its goal on earth. — In this sentence, which was common among the Apollonian mystery students, that in the sixth age Apollo's song would have reached its goal, the repetition of the second age of Earth's development in the sixth age on a higher level was expressed.

The first age will reappear on a higher level in the seventh.

The Christian understanding of the first post-Atlantean epoch stands before present-day human beings as a high ideal; to return to such a way of feeling, to such a way of looking at things as existed at a lower stage in the first post-Atlantean epoch. Again, at the end of our post-Atlantean era, when human beings go out into the outer sensory world and work what they have learned into their own soul life, they will recognize in a certain way that these two paths lead them to unity. That is why it is good to put ourselves a little into this ancient Indian way of feeling and thinking, which is quite foreign to our feelings today, since we are in the interim epoch. Even if one picks out only a few features, one notices something of the completely different way of feeling and thinking, of the completely different attitude toward wisdom and life that existed at that time in human beings who were not so awakened to ego-consciousness. What was then written down in the Vedas is the teaching of the first great teachers of ancient India, the holy Rishis. It must be pointed out here that the holy rishis received their inspiration from that high individuality which led the peoples of ancient Atlantis across what is now Europe into Asia. In a certain sense, the holy rishis were the disciples of this high individuality, the Manu. And what did the Manu impart to them? He taught them the way in which they had attained the first post-Atlantean wisdom and knowledge. To attain knowledge, as is the case today, by observing the outer nature, by sinking into the inner soul, as has only become possible today, would have made no sense at that time.

In the first cultural epoch of the post-Atlantean period, among the ancient Indian people, the etheric body was still much further outside the physical body than it is today. The ancient Indian could still make use of this etheric body and the organs of this etheric body at that time when he did not become absorbed in the life of the physical body, but devoted himself to the etheric body, when he forgot, so to speak, that he was in the physical body. When they did this, they felt as if they had been lifted out of themselves, as if they had been lifted out of their sheaths, like a sword. As he felt this, he also experienced something that can be described as follows: one does not see through the eyes, one does not hear through the ears, one does not think through the physical apparatus of the intellect, one makes use of the organs of the etheric body. That is what he did. But then living wisdom appeared before him; not thoughts that human beings can think or have thought, but the thoughts according to which the gods outside have formed the world. What we today call thoughts, what we fabricate with the instrument of the brain as thoughts, was completely unknown to the Indian who truly lived in the spiritual life. He did not speculate, invent, or think things through intellectually, but rather stepped out of his physical body and looked into his etheric body. Surrounding him, like a momentary gift from the divine world, was the entire cosmic sum of God's thoughts, from which the world had sprung forth. How the gods had thought in the archetypes for all things stood before his etheric sense organ, and he saw it. He did not need to think logically. Why do we have to think logically? We have to do so because we must first find the truth through logical thinking, because we can err when we connect our thoughts. If we were organized in such a way that the right thought followed the right thought in immediate perception, then we would not need logic. The ancient Indian did not need logic; he saw the thoughts of the gods, and they were already correct in themselves. Thus he had woven around himself an etheric-cosmic web, woven from the thoughts of the gods. At the same time, they saw in this web of thoughts, which seemed to them like a soul light weaving through the world, the eternal wisdom. Thus, in this highest perfection, as I have just described to you, only the holy rishis were able to do this, and from this vision they were able to proclaim the great world beings. What sensation did they have then? They had the sensation that with this world-web of wisdom, in which everything was inscribed in living models, the whole was interwoven and permeated by the soul of light, the truth, the knowledge, flowed into them. Just as later humans have the feeling that something flows into them when they breathe in, so the ancient Indians had the feeling that the gods sent wisdom to them, and they breathed it in, just as the air we breathe is sent to us and we breathe it in. The ancient holy rishis absorbed this soul light, which was imbued with wisdom, and they were able to teach what they had absorbed to those who became their followers. In return, they could also say that everything they proclaimed was breathed out by Brahman himself. This is even the profound, literally correct expression: “It is breathed out by Brahman and inhaled by human beings.” This was the position of the holy Rishis toward the wisdom of the world, toward what they proclaimed, which was then written down in the various parts of the Vedas, one might say, only in weak images. For what the holy Rishis taught is written down in the Vedas only in weak images. And when the Vedas are read today, people should be aware that these are faint images of the original sacred wisdom of the rishis. Nevertheless, we must see something else in the Vedas than what we usually find in written works. We can find the most diverse written works in the world, we can stand on this or that point of view, we can say: An inner, spiritual, Christ-filled life confronts us, for example, in the Gospel of John; but if we take the expression given to us there, the outer expression of the Gospel of John, it is further removed from its content than what is written in the Vedas is from its content. There is a more intimate connection between the expression and the content of the Vedas, because what has been breathed in has been directly infused into the words of the Vedas and reproduced there, whereas the writer of the Gospel of John wrote down the profound truths in such a way that he received them and then wrote them down, and the expression is further removed from what the content is.

These things must be clear to us if we really want to understand the development of the worlds. Therefore, we must feel that it is a natural feeling when a Christian says, “I value the Gospel of John above all else,” but when the Christian also feels the need not to stop at the words of this Gospel, but to penetrate, as spiritual knowledge does, to the spiritual content of the Gospel of John, when he says “It only becomes what it is supposed to be for me when I penetrate to what is given in the outer expression.” But anyone who wants to approach the Vedas in the right way must do so as the ancient Indians did, that is, they must say: “What is written in the Vedas themselves was not merely copied down by someone later as an expression of divine wisdom, but is directly a reproduction of what is inhaled wisdom.” That is why the words of the Vedas, why the parts of the Vedas, especially the Rig Veda, are not merely documents about sacred things, but are themselves sacred to those who understood the connection. And that is why the Vedas themselves were worshipped as divine beings in ancient times. We just have to understand that. And we have to understand it from the soul of the ancient Indian. And we have to learn many things, because we are moving toward an ideal, the ideal of rediscovering the first cultural epoch in an elevated form, that is, of reestablishing it. We must learn something from what is said, for example, in relation to the Vedic word that Baravadja studied the Veda for three centuries. Today's human being will believe that if he studied the Veda for three centuries, he would know an enormous amount; he will believe that he knows a great deal even if he has studied it for a much shorter time. Then, we are told, one day the god Indra came to Baravadscha and said to him: “You have now studied the Vedas for three centuries; look, there are three high mountains, mighty high mountains! One represents the first part of the Vedas, the Rig Veda, the second mountain represents the second part of the Vedas, the Sama Veda, and the third mountain represents the third part of the Vedas, the Yagur Veda. You have studied these three parts of the Vedas for three centuries.” Then Indra took three small lumps of earth, just as much as one can hold in one hand, from these mountains and said: “Look at these lumps! You now know as much about the Vedas as these lumps are to the great, mighty mountains.” Transform what has been said into a feeling, and then it means: approach the highest wisdom, be it in this or that form, even in the form in which it confronts us today, where we are called upon not to seek wisdom from books, but from what is in the world, through the message of the Rosicrucians, and apply this to what is given to us as spiritual knowledge, and feel this way and take the right attitude toward it, then you will hardly be able to say of yourselves that you have heard as much about spiritual knowledge as Baravadscha heard about the Vedas at that time; but everyone should take this parable of Baravadscha to heart, then they will intuitively put themselves in the right relationship to the comprehensive wisdom of the world. And this feeling will be such that we will sense an infinity of which we can only ever have a small lump. This will also give us the right longing to proceed in the right way and to be patient until another small lump accumulates. This inkling is one of the most beneficial feelings of the human soul. Much can be learned from the ancient wisdom of the East; among the most valuable things that can be learned from this light are those things that relate to our feelings and our perceptions; and this is something of what the god Indra gave to Baravadscha as a kind of instruction on how to relate to the Vedas in the right way. We must regain such feelings of holy awe and reverence if we want to move toward a time when we will be allowed to look into what is the proclamation of the newer mysteries, when we will once again look into that tapestry of wisdom woven from divine thoughts and not from human thoughts. That is also the very best thing we can learn in terms of feelings. But we must not believe that we already have these feelings in our ordinary consciousness; we must be clear that the path to the highest feelings leads through knowledge. And if one wants to avoid thinking, if one is too comfortable to seek feelings through the etheric heights of thought, then one will remain with ordinary, trivial feelings and confuse them with what is actually the soul's inner immersion in the divine. Such feelings, as they were found in ancient India, belonged as a fundamental feature of all wisdom in the first post-Atlantean epoch, in order to relate to the world in the right way at that time and to feel a unity in the spiritual worlds that one finds when seeking the path outward or inward. In all subsequent cultures, something different must emerge.

While in ancient India there is a union of the two paths, the subsequent periods, the ancient Persian period, the Chaldean-Egyptian period, and the Greek-Latin period, follow paths that we can describe as a fork in the road with regard to the two revelations from within and without. On the one hand, we have the revelation from without, and on the other, the revelation from within. This is already the case in the second period of post-Atlantean cultures. Here we have not only the path of the people, but also the path of the mysteries, both outward into the realm of Ahura Mazdao and inward. What was still vividly visible in the ancient Indian way of thinking, the unified reality behind the two spiritual worlds, was something for the second post-Atlantean period which had already disappeared from view, so to speak, which was already in an impenetrable underground of existence, of which one still had an inkling, but which could no longer live in the soul. The ancient Indian felt: “I go out there, on the other side I go in and come to unity.” The Persian went the way outward and said, when he followed the teachings of Zarathustra: “I am coming to Ormuzd!” and when he went the way inward: “I am coming to the essence of Mithras!” But these two paths no longer converged. He only sensed that they must come together somewhere. Therefore, he spoke of the being as the unknown in the darkness, which one can only sense, the unknown primordial god. This was only a primordial spirit being, which one knew must exist, but which one could no longer find. Zaruana akarana was the name given to this Persian god who existed in darkness but could no longer be reached by either path. What could be reached was what lay behind the veil of the outer sensory world. There was first of all that which Zarathustra pointed to. That is, something that was already a descendant of Zaruana akarana. It was the god Ahura Mazdao, the ruler of the realm of the sun spirits, the realm from which the beneficial effects descended, which, in contrast to the physical effects of the sun, can be described as spiritual, the spirit from which, for example, the ancient Persians derived what existed in terms of moral rules and laws, which the initiate — who was the one who, through initiation, elevated himself to the moral rules and laws — brought down as moral laws, as laws of human action, of human activities, and so on. That, then, was one way; and one saw, as it were, this spirit, which is the spirit of the sun, reigning in the highest region; there one saw his servants, the Amshaspands, those who stood around his throne, as it were, who were his messengers. While he ruled the entire empire, they governed the individual parts. Lower beings, who in turn are subordinate to the Amshaspands, are those commonly called the Izets or Izarats. So that the ancient Persians looked out into the empire beyond the carpet of the sensory world and saw a supreme spiritual being: Ahura Mazdao and beneath him a corps of Amshaspands; then again subordinate beings, the Izets or Izarats; and there were still other beings whom we can say are in the spiritual world what the thoughts of human beings are in the soul. These thoughts in the human soul are only shadow images of their realities; out there in the spiritual world, certain spiritual beings correspond to our thoughts. In the ancient Persian view, these beings, called Fravashis, were those who stood, so to speak, directly above human beings. Thus, within the Persian development, the realm behind the veil of the sensory world was conceived as a series of stages of spiritual beings up to Ormuzd. But at the moment when one does not see complete harmony between the spiritual realm that one finds on the path outward and the spiritual realm that one finds on the path inward, it depends to a high degree on the individual how he sees the inner realm. Now, however, the whole of nature had become different for the Persian people than it had been for the ancient Indians. The ancient Persians no longer had this peculiarity of having the etheric body so far outside themselves; the etheric body had already slipped much further into the physical body. Therefore, the members of the ancient Persian people could no longer use the organs of the etheric body as the members of the ancient Indian people could. The organs used by the members of the ancient Persian people were those organs that were originally incorporated into what we now call the sentient body. You know that in the complete human being we have to distinguish between the physical body, the etheric body, the sentient body, the sentient soul, the intellectual soul, the consciousness soul, then what is called the spirit self, then the life spirit, and finally the actual spirit human being.

Spiritual human being

Life spirit

Spirit self

Conscious soul

Intellectual soul

Sentimental soul

Sentimental body

Etheric body

Physical body

The ancient Indian human being used his etheric body in the manner described above when he wanted to rise to the highest levels of knowledge. The Persians could no longer do this, but they could make use of the sentient body. They therefore rose to their highest knowledge through the sentient body. Because they could no longer see with the etheric body, the highest unity was veiled from them. With the sentient body, they could still look out and see in a certain astral way. This was still the case with many members of the Persian people: they could see Ahura Mazdao and his servants astral because they could still use their sentient body. Now you know from the description in my “Theosophy” that the sentient body is bound to the sentient soul. So at the moment when a member of the ancient Persian people made use of the sentient body, the sentient soul was, so to speak, present; but he had not yet reached the point of being able to make use of it, for it was not yet developed; it first had to be developed. Therefore, the member of the ancient Persian people was in a very special situation. He made use of his sentient body. The sentient soul always plays a role here. But he had to accept it as it was at that time. Therefore, he had to feel that when the sentient body, which is now already developed, rises up to Ahura Mazdao, the sentient soul is present. But it is in a certain danger, and when it reveals its feelings, it will send them straight into the sentient body; it will not express what is there from old Luciferic temptations as such, for it does not yet have the ability to do so, but it will send its effects into the sentient body. — Thus, in ancient Persia, the effects of the sentient soul on the sentient body were perceived as a kind of mirror image shining in from the outside world, reflecting what had been working in the sentient soul since ancient times. Seen from within, this is what we call the effects of Ahriman, the effects of Mephistopheles. That is why people felt they were facing two powers. If we look at what human beings can attain when they turn their gaze outward, we see the mysteries of Ahura Mazdao; if we turn our gaze inward, then with the help of the sentient body, through what Lucifer had wrought, we stand before the adversary of Ahura Mazdao, before Ahriman. There was only one thing that protected against the attacks of the Ahrimanic figure, and that became apparent: if one advanced through the initiation of humanity, if one developed the sentient soul. If one developed and purified this and thus advanced ahead of humanity, then one walked the path inward, a path that led to something other than Ahura Mazda; then one walked the path to the light-filled realms of Lucifer. And that which permeated the human soul on the path inward was later called the god Mithras. Hence, the Persian mysteries, which cultivated the inner life, are the mysteries of Mithras. So, on the one hand, we have the god Mithras when man went the path inward; and what he encountered on the path outward were the realms of Ahura Mazda.

And now we step into the next post-Atlantean cultural epoch, the Chaldean-Egyptian period. There we encounter a remarkable phenomenon in this Chaldean-Egyptian period. It is not without reason that we give it two names. For on the one hand, during this cultural epoch, we have members of the northern stream of peoples in Asia, which is the Chaldean element; and on the other hand, we have the Egyptian element, which belongs to the stream of peoples that traveled along the southern path. So we have an epoch in which two streams of peoples collide. And if you remember that the northern stream developed a tendency to look outward, to search for those beings that stood behind the curtain of the sensory world, and that the Egyptian people sought those spirits that are found on the path inward, you will understand how two streams interacted here. So the outward path of the Chaldeans and the inward path of the Egyptians collided. The Greeks also perceived this in a very correct way when they compared the Chaldean gods with their Apollonian realm. They sought what belonged to them from the Chaldeans in their Apollonian mysteries in their own way. But when they spoke of Osiris and what belonged to him, they sought it in a corresponding way in their Dionysian mysteries. At that time, people had a vague awareness of how spiritual connections really are.

Now, however, humanity is advancing in time; it is progressing further and further, forming new members. In the ancient Indian period, the etheric body and its organs were formed; in the ancient Persian period, the sentient body was used and formed, and in the Chaldean-Egyptian period, the sentient soul was formed, that is, a primarily inner member. While the sentient body is still directed outward, the sentient soul is already directed inward. Thus, we move even further away from what divine-spiritual worlds are than before. We live an inner life in the soul and must limit this life, in relation to what is not in the human being, to what the senses perceive. Thus, on the one hand, the realm of the sensory world has become more and more present, and on the other hand, the soul life has become more and more independent. The culture of the sentient soul is the culture of the third period. But what the sentient soul develops is no longer wisdom that is seen, that is read as if from a carpet of the environment. This is similar to what modern humans conceive, although because modern humans have already advanced to the level of the consciousness soul, it was much more vivid back then. The thoughts are, so to speak, more succulent; they are more vivid than today, thoughts that are as vivid as the sensation of “red” is for us today. Today, people no longer perceive their thoughts with the same intensity as they perceive a taste or a smell. Back then, when the sentient soul was primarily developed in Egyptian times, thoughts were so alive in the soul as the perception of the color red, a smell, or a taste is today. Today, thoughts have faded and become abstract. Back then, they were concrete. They were even more like thoughts that were seen, even if they were not thoughts that one saw stretched out in the physical world, but rather thoughts that one felt: they were not something that had been thought out, but rather thoughts that rose up in the soul like inspirations that flooded in and were there. People no longer said: one breathes in wisdom — but one is alive with thoughts, they sprout up in the soul, they are driven up into our soul from the spiritual world.

Thus, everything changes over time. Therefore, the people of the Chaldean-Egyptian era no longer had the consciousness of the wisdom of the world as a spread-out world of light that they breathed in, but they had the consciousness that they had thoughts, but thoughts that arose as inspiration. And the content of such a science rising up within them is Chaldean astrotheology and Egyptian Hermetic wisdom. This is how they came into being. What lived in the stars and moved them, what pulsed in things, could no longer be read by man, but it announced itself within him as the ancient wisdom of the Chaldean-Egyptian period. With the Chaldeans, it was so that people were conscious of the following: What we know is not merely our inner being; it is a reflection of what is happening outside. The Egyptians were aware that what rises up is a reflection of the hidden gods, whom man encounters not between birth and death, but between death and a new birth. Thus the Egyptians and Chaldeans differed from each other in that in their wisdom, the former perceived what lies behind the world in which we live between birth and death, and the latter, the Egyptians, in their inspired wisdom, perceived what lives between death and a new birth. But necessarily, as you can see from the whole meaning of this development, these inner inspirations, these ascending masses of inspired thoughts, were far removed from the actual original being in its unity. One did not penetrate as far, so to speak, as one could still penetrate in the original Persian time while still in the sentient body. Everything had already faded away, there was no longer so much of the outer world within; it had already withdrawn more. So people had experienced a wisdom of the outer world within themselves, no longer the wisdom in the outer world itself. Nevertheless, those who came to know it with the right feelings had the greatest possible respect for the wisdom of the ancient Persian period. If one wants to express in a word the paradigmatic wisdom that the Chaldeans saw about the spiritual world underlying the physical world, one can say: these are the Chaldean proverbs; and the collection of Chaldean proverbs formed a highly esteemed treasure of wisdom in ancient times. These sayings contain infinitely important secrets of the world. They were valued as highly as the revelations experienced between death and rebirth; they were regarded as sources of Egyptian wisdom.

But even darker and more shadowy had become that being which was still fully present in the ancient Indian cultural epoch and had now withdrawn from view in its deeper essence. Even more shadowy than Zaruana akarana is this highest unified being of Chaldean-Egyptian wisdom. The Chaldeans call it Anu, and it denotes something that is the unity of the two worlds, but which lies far, far above what can be recognized. And even in those regions where the Zarathustra man still looked up, the Chaldeans no longer dare to look up, but look up into those regions that are already very close to human thought. There, they say, everything can be found, for the highest is also found in the lowest, but there they find something which they describe as a being that is a shadow of the highest. They called this Apason. Then they saw something that appeared to them like a shadow of what we today would think of as standing substantially beneath the spiritual human being, what we would think of as formed from the life spirit. They called it something like that, so that we can reproduce their word when we speak Tauthe. Then they had a being whom they called Moymis. Moymis was approximately what spiritual knowledge today is accustomed to calling a world spirit, which is a being whose lowest member is the spirit itself. Thus they saw a trinity standing above them. But they were aware that this trinity only showed its true form to them in relation to their lowest members, that the higher members were shadows of the higher, which had withdrawn from them. And as a descendant of this being, which might be called Moymis, in the region of the I-ness or the fire being, Bel must then be regarded as the god who, as the creator of the world, was also the god of the people.

Thus we see how what has developed in the whole national character is expressed in the names of the gods. When the members of this Chaldean world then set out on the path inward, they said that they were passing through the veil of soul life into a world of subhuman or subterranean gods. Adonis is a later name for those beings whom they found on the path inward. Only the initiated could follow this path, for it was fraught with great dangers for the uninitiated. But the initiate also experienced, when he followed this path, when he developed in such a way that he reached the world that lies beneath the veil of soul life, something that can be compared to the experiences of initiation today. For we are already approaching the peculiarities that are increasingly becoming the peculiarities of our time. Those who were initiated in ancient Chaldeanism underwent two experiences, and care was taken to ensure that these two experiences coincided as far as possible, so that they entered the path outward into the spiritual world and inward into the spiritual world, so that they at least gained a feeling of a communal weaving and life of the spiritual outside and inside. And then, on his way inward, he encountered that spiritual being whom the Chaldeans called Ishtar and whom they knew to belong to the benevolent moon deities. Ishtar stood there at the threshold that otherwise closes off to human beings what lies behind the soul life in the spiritual realm. And on the other side, where one finds the gate to the spiritual world through the carpet of the outer sense world, stood the other guardian: Merodach or Marduk. Merodach stood there with Ishtar. Merodach, whom we can compare to the guardian of the threshold, to Michael, Merodach and Ishtar were the ones who made the inner soul clairvoyant and led humans into the spiritual world on both sides. Through this encounter, humans experienced what we still symbolically feel today: The shining chalice is handed to man, that is, man learns the very first use of his lotus flowers, still groping. — Then he gradually moves on. So you see how necessary it is to cross a certain threshold in this epoch. In Egypt it is somewhat different, but similar.

Thus humanity continued on its path of development into our time. But then the time approached that was to prepare for the descent of the cosmic Sun Spirit onto the Earth. The Spirit, which had previously been external, was now to enter into the human soul so that it could be found within, just as the Luciferic deities had previously been found, just as Osiris was to be found within. The two paths, which were clearly opposed in the Chaldeans and Egyptians, were to fertilize each other. This had to happen. How could this happen? It could happen by creating a connecting link. This connecting link originates in Ur in Chaldea, as the Bible correctly tells us about the Hebrew people. There it takes up those revelations that come from outside. Then it goes to Egypt, takes up what comes from within, and unites the two, so that for the first time in Yahweh a being appears, shining ahead of Christ, who unites the two paths. What former gods were is now revealed to human beings from two sides. Just as Christ is later illuminated from within, so at least from without is illuminated that which formerly appeared in darkness as certain gods. Thus we see that in Yahweh or Jehovah a deity appears which is found on the path inward, but which does not yet become visible through itself, which only becomes visible when illuminated from without. The rejected light of Christ is with Jehovah. Here we see clearly how these two directions, which have occupied us so much, stand side by side and fertilize each other. But with this something completely new begins in the course of human development. Now the outer and the inner begin to enrich each other; now begins that in which the inner becomes the outer, in which that which previously lived only inwardly in time pushes out into space in order to exist side by side. Search your soul life once. It is not spread out in space; it runs in time. The individual thoughts and feelings follow one another. What is outside is spread out in space, it is side by side. Therefore, what must now occur is what is called the flowing out into space, into side-by-side existence, of something that has hitherto lived only in time. What also happens is that something that has lived only in time now lives side by side in space. This brings about something important, and it expresses itself in a particularly profound way.

Everything that used to be human spiritual development, which led out beyond the outer world of space, also led outward into time. Now, everything that is arranged in time is arranged according to the measure and nature of the number seven. We master the evolution of the worlds when we take the number seven as our basis, saying: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan, for example, in which we have seven periods of time. In everything that is subject to time, we find our bearings when we apply the number seven. Therefore, wherever we are led into time, we are led to the number seven. All the colleges and lodges that lead out of space into time, when they lead to the supermundane, are subject to the number seven. The sacred Rishis are subject to the number seven, and the other sacred teachers of the peoples, right down to the seven sages of Greece, are subject to the number seven. The basic number of space is twelve. And as time flows out into space, it becomes revelation through twelve. Therefore, twelve reigns where time flows out into space. We have twelve tribes in Israel, twelve apostles at the moment when Christ, who had previously revealed himself in time, flows out into space. What is in time is one after the other. Therefore, whatever leads from space into time toward the gods of the Luciferic realm leads into the number seven. If we want to characterize something in this realm according to its essence, we find this essence when we trace what we are investigating back to its fatherhood. We recognize what develops in time when we ascend from the later to the earlier, as from the child to the father. As we enter the world of time, which is ruled by the number seven, we speak of children and their origin, of the children of spiritual beings, of the children of Lucifer. When we lead time out into space, we speak of those beings that stand side by side, where standing side by side and thus also the flow of soul impulses from one to the other in space comes into consideration. Where the number seven is transformed into twelve as time flows out into space, the concept of the child ceases to have the same supersensible meaning; the concept of brotherhood arises; those who live side by side are brothers. Thus we ascend in human evolution by transforming the important concept of the sons of God into the concept of brothers who live side by side. Brothers and sisters live side by side. What descends from one another lives one after the other. Here we see, at an important moment, the transition from the sons or children of the Luciferic kingdom and its essence to the brothers of Christ, a transition we will discuss further tomorrow.