11. Experience of the World's Past

The Evolution of Consciousness
GA 227

29 August 1923, Penmaenmawr

If we look back on the descriptions given yesterday, we shall be aware that man, living through successive times after death—and we have to use the word “time” in relation to physical conditions—comes first of all to the realm of the Moon Beings, and then passes on to that of the Sun Beings. The Moon Beings still belong to earthly-existence in a certain sense and the experiences a man goes through under their influence in the soul-world are indeed cosmic memories of earthly existence. He has experiences also of his own earthly life, though now in a backwards direction, and these are united with the judgments of the Cosmos, as I called them yesterday. These cosmic judgments are made known to men after death through the Moon Beings. We then come under the influence of these Beings, and it is they who cause the judgments to flow into us, in the same way as those that flow into us, here on Earth, from minerals, plants and animals. So we can say: On entering spiritual-cosmic existence after death, a man gains his first glimpse into such cosmic perceptions as still proceed from Beings once connected with the Earth. We have already had occasion to speak of how these Beings, before taking up their abode in the cosmic stronghold of the Moon, were Teachers of human beings in the ancient Mysteries. Hence, what a man once experienced on Earth, in primeval times, he now experiences when journeying through the soul-world, under the influence of those Beings who have been raised—we might perhaps say—to become inhabitants of the Moon. We can truly speak of them in this way if sufficient consideration is given to what was said in my last lecture. These inhabitants of the Moon, under the leadership of the one-time Teachers of mankind, judge quite differently from the way things are judged by people on Earth. For people on Earth, in their life between birth and death, are now approaching a stage completed by the Moon-dwellers in long past ages.

Reckoning by earthly years, we must say that the inhabitants of the Moon, when on Earth, accomplished quite 15,000 years ago what human beings still have to do. More than 15,000 years have passed since these Moon inhabitants acquired the power of making judgments which bring together the naturalistic and the moral.

We on Earth keep our naturalistic judgments separate, and when giving an opinion about a stone or an animal we leave morality aside. We say: “Nature follows only an amoral necessity.” But this is not true of the world as a whole. Even though we may consider that moral judgments are not applicable to individual animals, or to plants, or to minerals above all, in their separate forms of existence, yet the very fact of their creation, of their being in the world at all, is entirely the result of cosmic moral judgment.

Now these Moon-dwellers already judge in terms of cosmic morality. Therefore, when we have passed through the gate of death and are together with them, we must listen to all the Cosmos has to say about what we have thought, wished, felt, willed and done on Earth. Our entire earthly life is exposed to the light of cosmic judgment, and we learn the value our deeds have for the whole great universe.

From these lessons we develop the impulse to complete, to correct, or in some way to set right, during our next life on Earth, whatever we have done either to help or to hinder the evolution of the world. And so, while thus under the influence of the Moon Beings, we take up the impulses for our future destiny—for our karma, as oriental wisdom has always called it. These impulses are thus absorbed while the human being is still under the influence of dwellers in the Moon, who are able to tell him how much his earthly deeds and thoughts are worth for the Cosmos.

The spiritual Beings of the higher world, in whose neighbourhood a man lives while under the influence of the Moon-dwellers, are those grouped together in my Occult Science as the Hierarchy of Angels, Archangels, Archai. Of the ranks of Beings whose realm a man enters after death, they are the first who do not have to live through a phase of earthly embodiment. On their side, they stand in close connection with the Beings of the still higher Hierarchies. But it is with this Hierarchy of Angels, Archangels and Archai that a man is essentially concerned during his Moon existence after death, while the higher Hierarchies are still beyond his ken.

The judgments of the Angels are especially important for the deeds of individual men, and it is thus from the Angels that a man learns the value his deeds have in the Cosmos as a whole. From the Archangels he learns more about the value of what he has done in connection with the language he speaks, with the people to whom he belongs, and from this source also come impulses which work into his further destiny, his karma. From the Archai he learns what value his actions during a given period on Earth will have for the time when he has to descend once more from spiritual heights into earthly existence.

By means of all that a man can achieve in this way if—and I beg you to bear the following in mind—he has rightly prepared himself for life after death through the impulses he is able to receive on Earth, and particularly (as we shall see later) through his attitude towards the great leaders of mankind, he can then find the way over from the sphere of the Moon-dwellers to the sphere of the Sun-dwellers.

The inhabitants of the Moon we already know as those Beings who once dwelt on Earth and were in close connection with it. In a very, very much earlier age this was true also of the inhabitants of the Sun; they, too, participated in earthly affairs.

On coming to the realm of the Moon-dwellers it is quite clear to a man that he is meeting Beings who once dwelt with him on Earth. And when he enters the realm of the Sun Beings, something like a powerful cosmic memory of a primeval age comes over him—an age which in Occult Science you will find described from another point of view. He is taken possession of by something like a memory of an infinitely ancient time, when the Sun, with its inhabitants, was still one with the Earth. After death, therefore, we make our way through the spiritual Cosmos by growing into, as it were, two spiritual cosmic regions where we meet those Beings with whom, at one time, when we lived on Earth as quite different beings, we were closely associated.

So it is that by going through these experiences between death and a new birth we look back in grand, mighty memories on the evolution of the Earth in the Cosmos. Whereas a man, while here on Earth, goes through only part of human evolution, between death and rebirth he goes through part of cosmic evolution, part of the evolution of the universe. Those Beings who inhabit the Sun are such that in far distant times they had already risen above the experiences possible for earthly beings, and above those possible for the Beings of the Moon.

On reaching the realm of the Sun Beings, a man enters a sphere of the highest wisdom, where he can live only if on Earth he has prepared himself sufficiently for it.

Now I said yesterday that on passing from the soul-world into the land of spirit, or, as we must express it to-day, from the sphere of the Moon-dwellers to that of the Sun-dwellers, a man proceeds more slowly in his journeyings through the Cosmos. Whereas the circling of the Moon takes about a third of his earthly lifetime, the next rounds, the circling of Mars, of Jupiter, and of Saturn—I mentioned yesterday how these rounds are not completed—takes a more leisurely course, twelve times slower than the circling of the Moon.

If now we reckon up the actual time, we arrive at the following result. We must start from the original plan decreed for human beings by the Cosmos. Then we find that a man goes through the Moon period in a third of the time he has spent on Earth. If we allow for the fact that at the beginning of life more time is spent in sleep, and add on the time given to sleep in later life, we find that a man needs approximately thirty years to accomplish the first cycle, that of the Moon. Each of the following cycles takes twelve times as long, or 36o years for each cycle. If we follow a man in his further journeying through the worlds, we find him going through three cycles. He does not reach Saturn, but has to go through the cycles in the way originally decided. He then has to go backwards through the three again. Thus he completes three cycles in an outward direction and, on returning towards his next earthly life, another three backwards, making six in all. We then have the time originally intended for man. I shall still have to speak of how things are different for human beings to-day; but according to the original cosmic decrees, the time was 2,160 years.

What do these 2,160 years signify? You have only to recall that the position of the Sun at the vernal equinox moves forward year by year. In recent centuries it has advanced from the Ram to the Fishes, and approximately in 25,920 years—or close on 26,000 years—the Sun travels round the whole zodiacal circle, and the twelfth part of this is 2,160 years. In 2,160 years the Sun progresses from one sign of the Zodiac to the next. It was originally decreed that a man should return to Earth when the Sun had thus moved on.

When we consider the inner reasons for this number, and compare it with what from I said from another point of view in Occult Science, those who have read the book will remember that the time taken by the Sun to pass from one sign of the Zodiac to the next was given there as the original length of the interval between a man's incarnations. If we look at this from two sides—more outwardly, from the cosmic aspect, as in Occult Science, and then from the side of man's inner life that we are dealing with to-day—the two numbers are identical. Such things should be noticed; and it will be found that whenever in Spiritual Science a correct judgment is made from one point of view, and then another correct judgment from a quite different point of view, the two judgments are inwardly in agreement.

Anyone judging Spiritual Science from the ordinary standpoint of to-day will quite possibly ask: “What is there to support this Spiritual Science of yours? Our natural science rests upon observation, experiment; that is the firm ground from which we start.” But one might just as well say: “As earthly man I stand on firm ground, and a rock, too, has solid ground beneath it—like everything else on Earth. As for you astronomers—it is really fantastic for you to tell us that the Earth is floating freely in celestial space. If you want to be reasonable, you must say that the Earth, like any great mass of rock, is somewhere resting on firm ground.” That is virtually the same as accusing Anthroposophy of having no firm ground to stand on. Naturally, people would appear foolish, even to themselves, were they to say that the Earth has something to rest on, but they do not see how foolish it is not to realise that Spiritual Science, which is carried by its own inner resources, just as the heavenly bodies move by their own impulses, cannot rest on the ground of experiment and explanation. Were they only to be consistent in their judgments, they would see how, in the Spiritual Science intended here, every step is made with the utmost exactitude, and full accountability is taken for every statement concerning the world and the beings of the world.

Thus, after death, a man enters a world which he at first experiences in common with souls who, like himself, have entered the spiritual worlds through the gate of death after an earthly life. A man thus grows familiar with the sphere of disembodied human beings and continues with them the earthly relations experienced spiritually at night.

But we have also seen how a man finds himself in the company of other spiritual Beings, the inhabitants of the Moon who were once dwelling with him on the Earth, and how, afterwards, he ascends to the community on the Sun. These Sun-dwellers also were once inhabitants of the Earth together with human beings, though in times far more remote. Here a man's first meeting is with the Beings who constitute the second Hierarchy, described in my Occult Science as Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. These are the Beings with whom he has to work in order that he may be able to manifest in his next earthly life the cosmically elaborated karma derived from his earlier lives on Earth.

Having passed through the realm of the Moon-dwellers, a man knows—not with earthly thoughts but with cosmic ones—what in a cosmic sense he has done wrong; he realises the worth for cosmic evolution as a whole of all he has done, thought and felt. But he cannot prepare his new earthly life with cosmic thoughts alone. Therefore in the Moon-sphere he comes to know what he is destined to be in his next earthly existence, though the actual preparations for it cannot be made at that stage. For this, he has to rise to the sphere of the Sun, where live the Beings who, no longer having to concern themselves with earthly existence, are occupied with the affairs of our whole planetary system.

So a man's experience of the Cosmos embraces two spiritual regions, together with the spiritual Beings dwelling in them. It embraces the soul-world of the Moon-dwellers, and the more extensive population of the spirit region. Whereas the Moon-dwellers, because they were closely connected with the Earth in comparatively recent times, have united their interests with the peoples of the Earth, and while the Moon is in a sense only a cosmic colony, occupied with and orientated towards earthly affairs, the Sun-sphere, whose dwellers live under the leadership of the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, is a cosmic whole, concerned with the affairs of the entire planetary system—Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and so on, including the Earth and the Moon.

On coming into this vast sphere of the Sun, where our interests are substantially widened, we are able to work with the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes on preparing the spirit-germ of a physical body which can then be born for us from human parents. No parents could ever produce a suitable physical body were it not prepared during long periods through work carried out in co-operation with the highest, most sublime spiritual Beings in the spiritual Cosmos. Our essential work there—a work far greater and more comprehensive than anything achieved during our little life on Earth—is to concern ourselves, together with Beings of a higher degree, with all that takes place among these Beings as spiritual events, just as here there are natural events; with all that takes place in them as art of the spirit, just as here we have the art of nature. All this finally enables us to bring together what has thus been worked upon into a great, spiritual, archetypal picture which is the spirit-germ—as it were the fore-shadowing—of what will later be born on Earth as our physical body.

When a man, having completed the three circles, starts on the return journey, his interest in earthly affairs revives. Then—still many years before birth—he looks down on the successive generations in earthly evolution, at the end of which will stand his father and his mother. As soon as he makes this complete change of direction in the Cosmos, he begins to focus his attention upon the Earth. He watches many preceding generations of his ancestry, one after another, until, centuries later, his parents are born. To them he can send down the potent, far-reaching spirit-germ, diminished in size, of his future physical body, so that this spirit-germ can be united with the physical embryo in the body of the mother.

The spirit-germ is at first majestic and great, like the Cosmos itself. While a man is making his return journey to the physical world, and watching the generations through which his parents descend, and while from the spiritual world he is actively concerned with this sequence of generations, the germ becomes smaller and smaller—until at last it arrives back in the Mars-sphere, the actual sphere of the Sun, and then, passing quickly through the Moon-sphere, it descends to its next life on Earth.

Some time before the man himself descends as a being of soul, he sends down in advance this spirit-germ, so that what he has prepared for his physical body enters the physical world before him. On completing his work for the new earthly life, he is able to enter into a different relation with the cosmos—a relation indeed to the whole cosmic ether. And, as the final act in his descent, he draws from spiritual worlds, out of the whole world-ether, the forces to form his etheric body.

When a man has already sent down the spirit-germ for his physical body—that is, when the spirit-germ has at last descended to the parents at the end of its long journey down from the spiritual world—the man himself, still in the spiritual world, gathers ether around him there, and for a short time becomes a being of Ego, astral body and ether, the ether having been drawn together from the world-ether. It is not until after conception, during the third or fourth week of the embryonic period, that the human being unites himself with the organism that has been formed by combining the spirit-germ with the physical germ, and bestows upon it the etheric body drawn from the world-ether. Man then becomes a being composed of physical body, an etheric body drawn together in the last moments of his cosmic existence, and the astral body and Ego which have gone through the life between death and rebirth.

Thus, after experiencing the purely spiritual, a man descends to yet another existence in the physical world.

From what has been said you will have gathered that while passing through life in the world between death and a new birth, we experience in memory past ages of the Earth's evolution—the evolution of worlds, one might call it. The world-memories thus lived through become a man's deeds, for he does something with these memories, in cooperation with the higher Beings of whom I have already spoken and will speak further. What he carries out, while active in memory and remembering in activity, gives a significant perspective into the past of the Earth and of the world.

The experiences he goes through while in connection with the inhabitants of the Moon conjures up in his soul a time during which he passed through earlier lives on Earth in a similar relation to them as now. He surveys a series of earthly lives resembling those of the present. He then looks further back to a time when, even while on Earth, he was more closely connected with the present dwellers on the Moon; to a time from which he is separated by what geologists call the Ice Age. He looks back to a phase in earthly evolution you will find described in my books as the Atlantean age. But he penetrates still further back to what is called the age of Lemuria, when man is still to be found on Earth, though under quite different conditions. He was not yet so closely bound to the Earth that he trod it with his feet; he lived more as an etheric being in the environment of the Earth, in its atmosphere. This he could do because at that time the atmosphere consisted mainly of a watery solution that has now been distributed between seas and continents, together with solutions of other substances that have since become the solid earth of to-day. Hence he lived more in the Earth's circumference during the age—here again names are unimportant—called the Lemurian, which corresponds to what natural scientists call, with some justification, the oldest period of the Earth.

We then look back to an age when man was still associated with the Sun Beings, with the inhabitants of the Sun, before in the course of cosmic evolution the Sun separated from the Earth. This does not mean looking back to an age when, as described in Occult Science, the Earth itself went through its Sun period—the second age in the evolution of the Earth—but to the recapitulation in earthly existence of that cosmic age. But this recapitulation does come into view. And so a man's knowledge, when supplemented by what he is able to experience between death and a new birth, becomes cosmological knowledge. Earth-evolution advances through repeated stages, in conjunction with the results of human deeds carried out together with higher Beings. The Earth's past, in its connection with the whole planetary system—Sun, Moon, and all the planets dependent on them—becomes apparent in the deeds of men. Out of it a man shapes the part of the future for which he is responsible—his next earthly life. At the same time, however, he is involved in the preparation of future worlds, the Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan existences, for into each of these in turn the Earth existence will eventually be transformed.

If we look deeply into such matters, we can understand how ancient cosmic times were part of the world-evolution of the Earth. We look back indeed into an age when the Moon-dwellers of to-day provided the instructors of mankind. Then, together with the latest great instructors, they withdrew into the cosmic stronghold of the Moon.

Over and over again on Earth, however, men were born with the capacity to remain throughout their karmic life in close connection with the experiences of those who now dwell on the Moon. Born again and again in the course of world-evolution, they were like ambassadors of the great community within the Moon. They appeared among the people of the Earth during the first, second and third postAtlantean culture-epochs and in the East they developed a lofty civilisation. These ambassadors of the Moon were called Bodhisattvas. They dwelt on Earth as men, but in them lived on the spiritual teaching that had been given directly by the great Moon teachers on Earth.

Now there are often times in the universe when the inhabitants of the Moon, because they are more nearly connected with the inhabitants of the Sun than with those of the Earth, develop a particularly intimate relation with these Sun-dwellers, so that, indirectly, through the Moon ambassadors—called in the East the Bodhisattvas—the wisdom of the Sun was able to reach men on Earth in the older oriental civilisations. Because of the progress made in the evolution of the Earth, it then became necessary that earthly civilisation should no longer be nourished, as it were, by the Moon Beings only. The whole evolution of the Earth would have had to take a course different from the one prescribed by cosmic wisdom, if only the Moon ambassadors had figured in it. For this reason there came about the great, momentous event we call the Mystery of Golgotha.

Whereas in more ancient times it was the Moon ambassadors who, to a certain extent, brought the Sun wisdom to Earth, it was the Leader of the Sun Beings Himself, foremost in the ranks of Sun Spirits, who, through the Mystery of Golgotha, came down to Earth into the body of the man Jesus. Through this, quite different conditions arose for the evolution of the Earth. The wisdom of the Sun-dwellers was brought into it as impulse by Christ Jesus; and under this impulse the further course of Earth-evolution must therefore proceed.

At the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, so much Moon wisdom was still spread over the whole Earth that as Gnosis, as Pistis Sophia—which was old Moon wisdom—it was able to understand the nature of the Christ. Gnosis was essentially an endeavour to grasp His whole spiritual significance. But Gnosis has been entirely rooted out. In the phase of evolution which led to a temporary lack of understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, the first act was the rooting out of the Gnosis—down, almost, to the very writings of its opponents.

Imagine that nothing were left of our present Anthroposophy except what its opponents have written about it, and this will give you some idea of what people know of Gnosis from external sources. Their knowledge is limited to the opinions of its opponents, perhaps to some acquaintance with the Pistis Sophia and so on, which they don't understand. That is all they know of the Gnosis, which is indeed a gift of the Moon, out of the past, to the first centuries of Christianity—particularly the first four centuries, for after that it was no longer understood. It was what could be said out of the old Moon wisdom, out of the Moon Logos, to the Sun Logos who had come to Earth—said, that is, to the Christ. Anyone aware of this can really understand the Gnosis, which has been greatly misjudged, and of which such strange things are said to-day.

It is not possible, however, for matters to remain thus, for the evolution of the Earth must continue. We have to progress from the old wisdom of the Moon to a new Sun wisdom, for which we must learn to have an immediate understanding. To-morrow I shall have to describe how it was essentially the old Moon wisdom—after it had come virtually to an end—which still spoke to human beings through a form of Yoga breathing, through a changed breathing process. It was a striving after the old wisdom of the Moon.

This Yoga cult is no longer suitable for Western people; they must attain to Imagination. For civilisation in general, that is the necessary next step—the endeavour to come to Imagination. But there are all sorts of obstacles, and this means that the evolution of human civilisation can advance only if a new impulse from the spirit is accepted. This depends on intimate human destinies. When Bodhisattvas appeared, they never found people generally hostile. Those ancient times may often appear to us outwardly as gruesome and terrible, but it was always possible to meet with good will when bringing impulses from the spiritual worlds. Hence the Bodhisattvas found men ready to receive the old Moon Logos—the reflection, that is, of the Sun Logos. But it will never again be possible to speak to mankind in that old way.

The old Moon wisdom, the old Moon Logos, however, cannot cease—like everything else, it has to progress. But it will have to be understood through the Sun Word, which, having lost its last legacy in the Gnosis, must be re-discovered. It will be impossible to speak to people in the true language of the Sun until they bring good will to meet it. Until they do so, they will wait in vain for the coming of a successor to the Bodhisattvas of old, for that depends upon whether human beings welcome him with understanding.

To-day there is a deep rift between the humanity of the East and the humanity of the West. And those who do not go deeply enough into these matters cannot see how East and West are divided, and how the East is waiting for the new Bodhisattva to bring them in his own way something of which the West has only the vaguest idea. The nationalistic struggles of to-day have not yet been sufficiently overcome throughout the Earth by the universal consciousness which must flow essentially from the Christ impulse. Men will never discover how to rise to this common humanity, this genuine Christ impulse, and will never be able to understand what a potential Bodhisattva would have to say, until they have developed enough spiritual longing in them to create a bridge for a world-wide understanding between East and West.

I am touching here on a theme we must go further into tomorrow—a theme that will show how different the present time is from the days when man waited expectantly for the coming of a Bodhisattva. Now, before the Bodhisattva can speak to men, he has himself to wait until they are ready to understand the words he will use, for men have now entered the epoch of freedom.

This entry into the epoch of freedom, in relation to our present theme, will be a subject for tomorrow. But all that mankind has to go through, in order to find the innermost impulse in the spiritual world above, is connected with many apparently insignificant cultural systems and symptoms of our civilisation.

Forgive me for intermingling the great with the trivial, but trivial symptoms can sometimes throw light on the great. A few days ago I said that in this region, where Imaginations take so firm a hold on the spirit, we get the disturbance of motor-cars. I added that I was not saying anything against motor-cars, for in Anthroposophy we cannot express reactionary views, and when necessary I am obviously very fond of travelling by car myself. One must take the world as it is. But anything one-sided must always be balanced by its opposite. Thus there is no harm in motoring—provided we take it, and everything of that kind, with a heart attuned to the spiritual world. Then, if other things besides cars come to disturb us, we shall be able to press on by dint of our own strength and freedom, for freedom had to come, and it must lead us back to the Bodhisattva.

Human beings will be able to help themselves, where things are concerned that do us good service mechanically. It can truly be said that men will be able to help themselves in face of what comes upon them in the way of cars, typewriters, and so on.

With gramophones, however, it is different—forgive me for concluding on such an apparently trivial note. With gramophones, art is being thrust down into a machine. When people develop a passion for such a thing—which is really a mechanising of what comes down to us as a shadow of the spiritual—when they show enthusiasm for the kind of thing represented by gramophones, then in this connection they no longer have the power to help themselves. At this point the Gods have to help.

Now the Gods are merciful, and to-day our hope for the future progress of human civilisation must be that the Gods in their mercy will themselves come to the rescue where—as in the case of the gramophone—men's taste has gone astray.

Das Erleben der Weltvergangenheit

Wenn wir zurückblicken auf das gestern Geschilderte, so kann uns bewußt werden, wie der Mensch, indem er aufeinanderfolgend die Zeiten durchlebt — des Ausdruckes «Zeit» muß man sich dabei bedienen im Anklange an die physischen Verhältnisse -, wenn er die Zeiten durchlebt, die auf den irdischen Tod folgen, zunächst in den Bereich der Mondenwesenheiten kommt, und dann überzutreten hat aus dem Bereich der Mondenwesenheiten in den Bereich der Sonnenwesenheiten. Die Mondenwesenheiten gehören in einer gewissen Beziehung durchaus noch zu dem irdischen Dasein. Und die Erlebnisse, die der Mensch durchmacht unter dem Einflusse der Mondenwesenheiten in der Seelenwelt, sind ja auch kosmische Erinnerungen an das Erdendasein. Man erlebt zurücklaufend das Erdendasein in wirklichen Erlebnissen, aber verbunden mit dem, was ich gestern charakterisiert habe als das Eindringen von kosmischen Urteilen. Diese kosmischen Urteile, die kommen dem Menschen nach dem Tode durch die geschilderten Mondwesenheiten zu. Eigentlich sind es diese Mondwesenheiten, unter deren Einfluß der Mensch kommt, und die gewissermaßen in sein Wesen hereinströmen lassen diese Urteile, so wie Mineralien, Pflanzen und Tiere die Urteile in unser Wesen hereinströmen lassen, die wir hier auf der Erde haben. Wir können daher sagen: Indem der Mensch das geistig-kosmische Dasein nach seinem Tode betritt, gelangt er zuerst in solche kosmische Wahrnehmungen hinein, die noch ausgehen von Wesenheiten, welche mit der Erde Zusammenhänge einmal gehabt haben. Denn wir mußten ja erwähnen, wie jene Wesenheiten, die nachher wie in einer kosmischen Festung im Monde ihren Aufenthalt genommen haben, einmal selber in urältesten Erdenmysterien die Lehrer der Menschen waren, sich nachher nur nach dieser Mondenwohnung — wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf — zurückgezogen haben; so daß der Mensch das, was er einmal unmittelbar auf der Erde erlebt hat in uralten Zeiten, heute erlebt bei seiner Durchwanderung der Seelenwelt unter dem Einflusse der — wenn wir so sagen dürfen - zum Monde erhobenen Mondenbevölkerung. Diesen Ausdruck kann man im ganz eigentlichen Sinne gebrauchen, wenn man jene Voraussetzungen ordentlich berücksichtigt, die ich in dem letzten Vortrage hier charakterisiert habe. Diese Mondenbevölkerung unter jenen Führern, die einstmals Menschheitsführer waren, hat ein ganz anderes Urteil, als die Erdenbevölkerung hat. Die Erdenbevölkerung macht eigentlich heute erst dasjenige im irdischen Dasein zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode durch, was diese Mondenbevölkerung in längst vergangenen Zeiten durchgemacht hat.

Wenn wir irdische Jahreszahlen brauchen, so müssen wir sagen, daß diese Mondenbevölkerung im Erdendasein vor reichlich mehr als 15 000 Jahren dasjenige durchgemacht hat, was die Menschheit noch durchzumachen hat. Und vor reichlich mehr als 15 000 Jahren ist diese Mondenbevölkerung dazu gekommen, ein solches Urteil zu haben, daß in diesem Urteile Naturalistisches und Moralisches zusammenfließt.

Wir auf der Erde trennen heute noch die naturalistischen Urteile, die wir fällen über die Steine, über die Tiere [vom Moralischen]. Wenn wir über sie urteilen, so enthalten wir uns eines moralischen Urteiles. Wir sagen: die Natur geht nur nach einer amoralischen Notwendigkeit. Aber die ganze Welt geht nicht nach einer amoralischen Notwendigkeit. Wenn auch die einzelnen Tiere, die einzelnen Pflanzen, die einzelnen Mineralien, namentlich wenn sie betrachtet werden in ihrem abgesonderten Dasein, nicht so betrachtet werden dürfen, daß man auf sie moralische Urteile anwendet, ihre Schöpfung, die Tatsache, daß sie in der Welt da sind, ging durchaus aus kosmisch-moralischen Urteilen hervor.

Jene Mondenbevölkerung hat nun schon diese kosmisch-moralischen Urteile. Daher müssen wir, wenn wir durch die Todespforte gegangen sind, im Zusammenhange mit dieser Mondenbevölkerung hören, was der Kosmos zu dem sagt, was wir hier auf der Erde gedacht, gewünscht, empfunden, gewollt, getan haben. Unser ganzes irdisches Leben wird gewissermaßen in das Licht des kosmischen Urteiles gestellt. Und wir erfahren, wieviel das, was wir hier auf der Erde getan haben, wert ist für das ganze Weltenall.

Aus diesen Erfahrungen heraus entwickeln wir in uns dann die Impulse, das, was wir in solcher Weise entweder im Sinne der Weltenentwickelung oder entgegen der Weltenentwickelung getan haben, im nächsten Erdenleben zu ergänzen, zu korrigieren, in dieser oder jener Weise richtigzustellen. Und wir nehmen auf, während wir also unter dem Einflusse der Mondenbevölkerung sind, die Impulse für unser Schicksal in den aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben, für das, was man in der orientalischen Weisheit immer das Karma genannt hat.

Die Impulse für das Karma also, sie werden aufgenommen während der Zeit, da der Mensch unter dem Einflusse der Mondenbevölkerung steht, die ihm sagen kann, wieviel seine Erdentaten, seine Erdengedanken wert sind für den ganzen Kosmos.

Diejenigen geistigen Wesenheiten der höheren Welt nun, welche in der Umgebung des Menschen leben, während er unter dem Einflusse der Mondenbevölkerung ist, das sind die Wesenheiten, die ich in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» zusammengefaßt habe als die Wesen der Hierarchie der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. Das ist die erste Reihe der Wesenheiten, in deren Bereich der Mensch kommt, die nicht in einer irdischen Verkörperung eine Lebensphase durchzumachen haben. Diese Wesenheiten stehen ihrerseits in einer innigen Verbindung mit den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien. Aber während seines Mondendaseins nach dem Tode kommt der Mensch im wesentlichen zu dieser Hierarchie der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai in Beziehung, und er merkt gewissermaßen noch nichts von den höheren Hierarchien.

Insbesondere sind es die Urteile der Angeloi, welche für den Wert der Taten des einzelnen Menschen wichtig sind, so daß der Mensch nach dem Tode von den Angeloi erfährt, was seine eigenen individuellen Taten im ganzen Kosmos für einen Wert haben. Von den Archangeloi erfährt er mehr, was seine Taten für einen Wert haben, insofern er diese oder jene Sprache spricht, diesem oder jenem Volke angehört. Das sind auch Dinge, die sich dann in die Impulse für das weitere Schicksal, für das weitere Karma hineinmischen. Und von den Archai erfährt der Mensch das, was seine Taten, die er ja in einem bestimmten Zeitalter vollbracht hat, wert sind für dasjenige Zeitalter, zu dem er wiederum heruntersteigen muß aus geistigen Höhen in das irdische Dasein.

Durch alles das, womit sich der Mensch da durchdringen kann, wenn er sich - und ich bitte, diesen Nebensatz sehr scharf ins Auge zu fassen -, wenn er sich in der richtigen Weise vorbereitet hat für das außerirdische Dasein, durch alles das, was er da an Impulsen aufnehmen kann, namentlich, wie wir dann später sehen werden, durch die Art, wie er sich zu den großen geistigen Führern der Menschheit gestellt hat, kann dann der Mensch den Übergang finden aus der Sphäre der Mondenbevölkerung in die. Sphäre der Sonnenbevölkerung. So daß wir sprechen müssen, wenn wir von den Welten sprechen, in die der Mensch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt eintritt, von einer Mondenbevölkerung, von einer Sonnenbevölkerung.

Die Mondenbevölkerung ist diejenige, die wir nun schon kennengelernt haben als eine solche, die einmal ihren Wohnsitz auf Erden gehabt hat, mit der Erde verbunden war. Aber in einer viel, viel früheren Zeit war auch die Sonnenbevölkerung noch mit der Erde verbunden, lebte die Angelegenheiten der Erde mit.

Wenn der Mensch in den Bereich der Mondenbevölkerung kommt, so ist es ihm ganz klar, daß er da eben in eine Bevölkerung eingetreten ist, die einmal mit ihm die Erde bewohnt hart. Tritt er dann in den Bereich der Sonnenbevölkerung ein, so ist das wie das Überkommen einer mächtigen kosmischen Erinnerung an eine uralte Zeit. Ich habe sie in dem Buche «Die Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» von einem anderen Gesichtspunkte aus beschrieben. Es überkommt ihn etwas wie eine Erinnerung an eine uralte Zeit, in der auch die Sonne noch mit der Erde, die Sonnenbevölkerung noch mit der Erde verbunden war. So daß wir hineinwachsen in den geistigen Kosmos nach dem Tode so, daß wir gewissermaßen in zwei geistige, kosmische Länder hineinwachsen, wo wir auf Bevölkerungen auftreffen, mit denen wir einmal, als wir noch ganz andere Wesen auf Erden waren, auf Erden verbunden waren.

Man sieht also, indem man die Erlebnisse durchmacht, die zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt verfließen, in der gegenwärtigen Menschheitsepoche in großen, gewaltigen Erinnerungen zurück auf die Erdenentwickelung im Weltenall. Und während der Mensch hier im wesentlichen auf Erden nur einen Teil der Menschheitsentwickelung durchmacht während seines Erdendaseins, macht er zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt einen Teil der gesamten kosmischen, der gesamten Weltentwickelung durch. Es ist also im wesentlichen die Sonnenbevölkerung eine solche, die in viel älterer Zeit schon hinaufgestiegen ist über die Erfahrungen, die man als Erdenwesen machen kann, und die auch schon hinaufgestiegen ist über dasjenige an Erfahrungen, was man als Mondenwesenheit machen kann.

Indem der Mensch eintritt in den Bereich der Sonnenbevölkerung, tritt er in eine Sphäre höchster Weisheit ein, in eine Sphäre, in der er nur leben kann, wenn er sich auf Erden in einer genügenden Weise dazu vorbereitet hat.

Nun, ich habe gestern gesagt, daß der Mensch, indem er übertritt aus der Seelenwelt in das Geisterland, wie wir heute sagen müssen, aus der Sphäre der Mondenbevölkerung in die Sphäre der Sonnenbevölkerung, daß der Mensch da im wesentlichen das Tempo seines Wandels im Kosmos verlangsamt.

Während also der Umkreis um den Mond in einer Zeit verläuft von ungefähr einem Drittel der irdischen Lebenszeit, werden die nächsten Kreise, Marskreis, Jupiterkreis, Saturnkreis - daß sie nicht vollständig durchwandert werden, habe ich gestern erwähnt - langsamer durchlaufen, und zwar werden sie zwölfmal langsamer durchlaufen als der Mondenkreis.

Wenn wir uns nun ausrechnen, was herauskommt an Zeit, so gewinnen wir folgendes. Wir müssen eigentlich ausgehen von dem, was ursprünglich dem Menschen vorgesetzt war, wozu er ursprünglich durch die Ratschlüsse des Kosmos bestimmt war. Und da können wir annehmen, daß der Mensch die Mondenzeit in einem Drittel der Erdenzeit durchläuft. Nehmen wir die längeren Schlafzeiten der ersten Kindheit und die späteren Schlafzeiten des Menschen während der Erdenzeit zusammen, so bekommen wir ungefähr dreißig Jahre - approximativ als Mittel -, die der Mensch braucht, um den ersten Zyklus, den Mondenzyklus, zu durchlaufen. Jeder der folgenden Zyklen wird so durchlaufen, daß die Zeit eine zwölfmal längere wird, und wir bekommen 360 Jahre für jeden Zyklus. Wir bekommen dann, wenn wir den Menschen weiter auf seiner Weltenwanderung verfolgen, drei Zyklen, die er durchgemacht hat. Er kommt nicht bis zum Saturn, aber die Zyklen sollte er durchmachen nach seiner ursprünglichen Bestimmung. So daß wir sagen können: Der Mensch durchläuft den ersten Zyklus, zweiten Zyklus, dritten Zyklus, muß dann wiederum zurückgehen durch die drei Zyklen, so daß er also dreimal den Umkreis hin, und bei seiner Rückwärtswanderung zum nächsten Erdendasein dreimal den Umkreis zurück durchmacht. Das gibt sechs Zyklen. Und wir bekommen dann als - diejenige Zeit, die dem Menschen eigentlich vorgesetzt war - ich werde noch zu erwähnen haben, daß er sie nicht immer so absolviert, daß die Dinge für den heutigen Menschen noch ganz anders liegen -, als dasjenige, was dem Menschen durch den ursprünglichen Ratschluß des Kosmos vorgesetzt war, 2160 Jahre.

2160 Jahre, was bedeutet das? Sie brauchen sich nur daran zu erinnern, daß jedes Jahr der Frühlingspunkt der Sonne an einem anderen Ort eines Tierkreiszeichens liegt. Der Frühlingspunkt der Sonne rückt vor. Er rückte vor in den letzten Jahrhunderten in der Richtung so, daß er ursprünglich im Widder stand, dann etwas weiterrückte im Widder, dann in die Fische gekommen ist, und in 25920 Jahren ungefähr, also in einer Zeit, die gegen die 26000 Jahre geht, vollendet die Sonne den ganzen Umkreis um den Tierkreis. Davon sind 2160 Jahre ein Zwölftel. Während 2160 Jahren rückt die Sonne von einem Tierkreiszeichen zum anderen vor. Es war also dem Menschen ursprünglich vorgesetzt, daß er wieder zurückkomme auf die Erde, wenn die Sonne von einem Tierkreiszeichen in das andere vorgerückt ist.

Sehen Sie, wenn man aus den inneren Gründen diese Zahl 2160 berechnet und sie vergleicht mit dem, was ich von einem ganz anderen Gesichtspunkte angegeben habe in dem Buche «Geheimwissenschaft» — diejenigen, die das gelesen haben, werden sich erinnern, ich habe die Zeit des Vorrückens der Sonne von einem Tierkreiszeichen zum anderen angegeben als die Zeit, die als die Zwischenzeit dem Menschen zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt ursprünglich vorgesetzt war - in der «Geheimwissenschaft» habe ich es mehr vom Kosmos, von außen herein, heute haben wir es mehr vom inneren Menschenleben aus gemacht - wenn man von diesen zwei Seiten her die Zahl der Jahre angibt, so bekommt man genau dieselbe Zahl. Das sind eben diejenigen Dinge, die die Menschheit bemerken sollte: daß, wenn man irgendwo in der Geisteswissenschaft beginnt, richtige Urteile zu fällen von einem Gesichtspunkte aus, und dann: von einem ganz anderen Gesichtspunkte aus wiederum richtige Urteile fällt, diese Urteile innerlich zusammenstimmen.

Derjenige, der nach den heutigen Urteilen die Geisteswissenschaft beurteilt, hat sehr leicht, zu sagen: Worauf stützt sich denn deine Geisteswissenschaft? Unsere Wissenschaft stützt sich auf die Beobachtung, die Experimente; davon gehen wir aus, das ist fester Grund!

Sehen Sie, einer, der so spricht, nimmt sich gegenüber den Tatsachen, die wir angeführt haben, so aus wie einer, der sagt: Wenn ich als Mensch auf der Erde stehe, so stehe ich auf einem festen Boden. Wenn ein Felsklotz draußen liegt, liegt er auf festem Boden. Alles auf Erden liegt auf einem festen Boden. Ihr Astronomen seid eigentlich Phantasten, denn ihr erzählt uns, daß die Erde frei im Himmelsraum schwebe. Ihr müßtet uns davon erzählen, daß sie auch irgendwo wie ein Felsklotz auf einem festen Boden ruht, wenn ihr vernünftig sprechen sollt. -— So ungefähr ist auch die Meinung derer, die von der Anthroposophie sprechen [und sagen], daß sie auf keinem festen Boden ruhe. Sie würden sich natürlich lächerlich vorkommen, wenn sie sagen würden, daß die Erde wie ein Felsklotz auf einem festen Boden aufruhen sollte; aber sie kommen sich gar nicht lächerlich vor, wenn sie nicht wissen, daß das, was innerlich sich tragen muß, wie sich die Himmelskörper selber innerlich tragen, nicht auf einem Boden des Experimentes oder der Erklärung aufsitzen kann. Würden die Menschen nur ihre Urteile wirklich konsequent ausbilden, sie würden schon sehen, wie gerade die hier gemeinte Geisteswissenschaft jeden Schritt in der allerexaktesten Weise macht und sich bei jedem Schritt volle Rechenschaft gibt über dasjenige, was sie eigentlich als Urteil über die Welt und die Weltenwesen aufstellen will.

So tritt der Mensch also nach dem Tode in eine Welt ein, in der er zunächst erlebt die Gemeinschaft derjenigen Seelen, die ebenso wie er selbst ein Erdendasein durchgemacht haben und dann durch die Entkörperung beim Durchgehen durch die Pforte des Todes in jene geistigen Welten versetzt sind, die eben geschildert wurden. Der Mensch lebt sich also ein in die Sphäre der entkörperten Menschen, setzt dort diejenigen Verhältnisse fort, die er mit ihnen zusammen auf der Erde durchlebt hat, in den geistigen Nacherlebnissen.

Aber wir haben auch gesehen, wie der Mensch in die Gemeinschaft anderer Geistwesen kommt, in die Gemeinschaft der Mondenbevölkerung, die einmal mit ihm Erdenbevölkerung war, und dann auch aufsteigt in die Gemeinschaft der Sonnenbevölkerung, die ebenfalls, nur in viel älteren Zeiten, mit ihm zusammen Erdenbevölkerung war. Da kommt er in die Gemeinschaft zunächst derjenigen Wesenheiten, die die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie ausmachen. Ich habe sie in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» beschrieben als Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. Es sind diejenigen Wesenheiten, mit denen der Mensch zusammen arbeiten muß, damit er in die Lage kommt, in einem nächsten Erdenleben dasjenige gewissermaßen kosmisch ausgearbeitet wiederum darzustellen, wiederum zu offenbaren, was er in früheren Erdenleben als sein Schicksal, als sein Karma zubereitet hat.

Wenn man durchgegangen ist durch den Bereich der Mondenbevölkerung, weiß man, allerdings nicht mit irdischen Gedanken, sondern mit kosmischen Gedanken, was man gewissermaßen nicht richtig gemacht hat im kosmischen Sinne, man weiß den Wert desjenigen, was man getan und gedacht und gefühlt hat, für die ganze kosmische Evolution. Man kann aber nicht ein neues Erdendasein vorbereiten, wenn man das nur mit kosmischen Gedanken weiß. Innerhalb der Mondensphäre also kommt man zu einem Wissen, was man werden soll im nächsten Erdendasein. Aber man kann dieses nächste Erdendasein noch nicht zubereiten. Da muß man aufrücken in die Sonnensphäre, wo die Wesenheiten leben, die es nun gar nicht mehr mit dem Erdendasein zu tun haben, sondern welche die Angelegenheiten unseres ganzen Planetensystems besorgen.

So birgt also der Kosmos im Bereich dessen, was der Mensch in diesem Kosmos zu durchleben hat, ich möchte sagen, zwei geistige Länder mit ihren geistigen Bevölkerungen. Er birgt die Seelenwelt der Mondenbevölkerung, und die umfassendere Bevölkerung des Geisterlandes, des Sonnenlandes. Während die Mondenbevölkerung noch dadurch, daß sie vor verhältnismäßig —- kosmisch aufgefaßt — nicht zu langer Zeit mit der Erde verbunden war, die Interessen mit der Erdenbevölkerung vereinigt hat, während der Mond gewissermaßen nur eine kosmische Kolonie ist, um mit die Erdenangelegenheiten zu bewirken, zu orientieren, zu tun, ist das Sonnenall, wo die Sonnenbevölkerung lebt unter der Führung der Exusiai, Dynamis und Kyriotetes, ein All im Kosmos, das die Angelegenheiten des ganzen Planetensystems, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus und so weiter mit der Erde und dem Monde mit zu besorgen hat.

Mit dem Eintritt also in das Sonnenall treten wir in eine Sphäre, wo unsere Interessen wesentlich erweitert werden, wo wir aber im Zusammenarbeiten mit Exusiai, Dynamis und Kyriotetes in der Lage sind, so vorzuarbeiten, daß der Geistkeim eines physischen Leibes entstehen kann, den dann für uns ein Elternpaar gebären kann. Niemals würde einen für uns geeigneten physischen Leib ein Elternpaar gebären können als physischen Leib, wenn dieser physische Leib nicht vorbereitet wäre durch lange Zeiten, durch eine Arbeit mit höchsten, erhabenen geistigen Wesenheiten im Geistkosmos. Und unsere Arbeit im Geistkosmos besteht im wesentlichen darinnen — und sie ist wahrlich größer, umfangreicher als dasjenige, was wir im kleinen Erdendasein tun -, all das zu besorgen mit den Wesen höheren Grades zusammen, was in diesen Wesenheiten als Geist-Ereignisse sich abspielt wie hier die Naturereignisse, als Geistkunst sich abspielt wie hier die Naturkunst, und was uns zuletzt in’den Stand bringt, all dasjenige, was da gearbeitet ist, zusammenzuschließen in einem mächtigen geistigen Urbilde, das aber der Geistkeim, gewissermaßen der vorhergeworfene Schatten ist desjenigen, was dann als unser physischer Leib auf Erden geboren wird.

Wenn der Mensch die drei Zyklen durchgemacht hat und den Rückgang beginnt, so beginnt wiederum sein Interesse an den Erdenangelegenheiten; und dann schaut er hinunter, viele Jahre, bevor er geboren wird, auf die Generationen, die in der Erdenentwickelung sich ergeben, und an deren Ende sein Vater, seine Mutter stehen. Schon in dem Momente, wo der Mensch diese große Umkehrung im Kosmos macht, beginnt er seine Aufmerksamkeit auf die Erde herunter zu richten. Da schaut er die fern zurückliegende Ahnenschaft, von der dann abstammen Söhne, Töchter, von denen wieder Söhne, Töchter, wieder Söhne, Töchter abstammen und so weiter, bis nach Jahrhunderten das Elternpaar geboren wird, zu dem er heruntersenden kann dasjenige, verkleinert, was als mächtiger, umfassender Geistkeim für den physischen Leib geformt worden ist in der geistigen Welt, damit dieser Geistkeim sich dann mit dem physischen Keim im Mutterleibe verbinden kann.

Dieser Geistkeim ist zuerst majestätisch und groß wie das Weltenall selber. Während der Mensch den Rückzug antritt in die physische Welt und die Generationen, von denen dann seine Eltern stammen werden, überschaut, von der geistigen Welt aus mittätig ist an dieser Generationenfolge, während dieser Zeit wird der Keim immer kleiner und kleiner, bis er wiederum zurückkommt in die Mars-, die eigentliche Sonnensphäre, und dann schnell durch die Mondensphäre wiederum zur Erde zum nächsten Leben heruntersteigt.

Schon einige Zeit, bevor der Mensch als Seelenwesen selber heruntersteigt, schickt er diesen Geistkeim voraus. So daß der Mensch dasjenige, was er vorbereitet hat für seinen physischen Leib, eine Zeitlang, bevor er selber heruntersteigt in die physische Welt, voraussendet. Indem er gewissermaßen seine Arbeit für das nächste Erdenleben abgelegt hat, kommt er in die Lage, ein anderes Verhältnis zum Kosmos einzugehen, als das vorher war; dadurch kommt er in die Lage, sich in ein Verhältnis zum ganzen kosmischen Äther zu bringen. Und er zieht als den letzten Akt dieses Herabsteigens aus den geistigen Welten die Kräfte aus dem gesamten Weltenäther heraus, aus denen er seinen Ätherleib formt.

Wenn der Mensch schon den Geistkeim für seinen physischen Leib heruntergeschickt hat, wenn also der Geistkeim schon zum Elternpaar nach einer langjährigen Strömung aus den geistigen Welten für das Physische des Leibes heruntergeschickt worden ist, so weilt der Mensch selber noch in der geistigen Welt, sammelt in der geistigen Welt den Äther um sich, so daß er für eine kurze Zeit ein Wesen wird aus Ich, astralischem Leib und Äther; der Äther ist zusammengezogen aus dem gesamten Weltenäther. Und erst während der Embryonalzeit, in der dritten, vierten Woche nach der Empfängnis, vereinigt der Mensch dasjenige, was sich in den ersten drei bis vier Wochen aus der Vereinigung von Geistkeim und physischem Keim gebildet hat. Was also schon früher als er auf der Erde angekommen ist, das vereinigt er mit seiner Wesenheit und begabt es mit demjenigen, was er an Ätherleib gewonnen hat durch Anziehung aus dem Weltenäther. Und so wird der Mensch ein Wesen aus dem, was schon früher entstanden und heruntergeschickt ist, aus dem [Geistkeim des] physischen Leib[es], aus dem Ätherleib, den er gewissermaßen im letzten Augenblick seines kosmischen Daseins um sich angesammelt hat, aus dem astralischen Leib und dem Ich, die durchgegangen sind durch das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt.

So steigt der Mensch hinunter, nachdem er die rein geistigen Erlebnisse gehabt hat, zu einem neuen Dasein in der physischen Welt.

Aus dem Gesagten wird Ihnen hervorgehen, daß der Mensch, indem er die Welt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchlebt, sie erlebt in Erinnerung an die Vorzeit der Erdenentwikkelung, ja an die Vorzeit desjenigen, was wir Weltenentwickelung nennen können. Das, was der Mensch da durchlebt als Welterinnerungen, die aber seine Taten werden - denn er «tut» etwas mit diesen Erinnerungen im Verein mit jenen höheren Wesenheiten, von denen ich gesprochen habe und von denen noch weiter gesprochen werden muß -, was er da, im Erinnern tätig seiend, und im Tätigsein sich erinnernd, ausführt, das ist eine bedeutsame Perspektive in die Erden- und Weltvergangenheit.

Das, was der Mensch während seiner Beziehungen zur Mondenbevölkerung durchmacht, das bringt wieder herauf in der Menschenseele eine Zeit, die der Mensch durchgemacht hat in früheren Erdenleben so, daß er in diesen früheren Erdenleben schon in einem solchen Verhältnisse zu ihnen gestanden hat wie jetzt. Der Mensch schaut über eine Reihe von Erdenleben, die ähnlich sind dem gegenwärtigen. Dann aber blickt der Mensch weiter zurück auf eine Erdenzeit, in der er auf Erden selbst der heutigen Mondenbevölkerung noch nähergestanden hat. Er blickt zurück in eine Zeit, von der ihn im äußeren physischen Dasein trennt das, was die Geologen die Eiszeit nennen. Er blickt zurück auf eine Form der Erdenentwickelung, die Sie in meiner Literatur als die atlantische Zeit beschrieben finden. Aber er blickt auch weiter zurück auf das, was Sie als lemurische Zeit beschrieben finden. Da war er zur Erde noch in einem ganz anderen Verhältnisse. Da lebte der Mensch noch nicht in der Weise erdgebunden, daß er mit seinen Füßen auf der Erde herumging. Da lebte er noch mehr in dem Umkreis der Erde, in der Atmosphäre der Erde selber als ein ätherisches Wesen. Er konnte das, weil die Atmosphäre noch in sich aufgelöst enthielt vor allen Dingen alles Wasser, das sich heute in den Meeren und Kontinenten abgesetzt hat; aber auch andere Stoffe, die heute feste Erde geworden sind, waren dazumal in der Atmosphäre aufgelöst. Der Mensch lebte mehr in dem Umkreis während einer Zeit wiederum kommt es nicht auf die Terminologie an -, die man die lemurische Zeit im Anklang an das, was die Naturforscher als die älteste Erdenzeit benennen, eben auch nennen kann.

Dann aber blickt man zurück in eine Zeit, wo der Mensch noch mit den Sonnenwesen selber vereint war, mit der Sonnenbevölkerung, bevor sich die Sonne in der kosmischen Entwickelung von der Erde getrennt hat. Man blickt nicht zurück in diejenige Zeit, die ich in dem Buche «Geheimwissenschaft» beschrieben habe als die Sonnenzeit der Erde selber, als die zweite der Erdenentwickelungszeiten; aber man blickt zunächst zurück auf die Wiederholung dieser kosmischen Entwickelung nur im Erdendasein. Aber auf diese Wiederholung blickt man eben zurück. Und es wird gewissermaßen, wenn sich die Menschenerkenntnis durch das, was der Mensch erleben kann zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, ergänzt, die Menschheitserkenntnis zur kosmologischen Erkenntnis. Dasjenige, was Erdenentwickelung war, steigt, verbunden mit den Ergebnissen der wiederholten Erdendaseinsstufen in den menschlichen Taten, die er mit höheren Wesen zusammen vollbringt, auf. Die Vergangenheit der Erde in ihrem Zusammenhange mit dem ganzen Planetensystem, Sonne, Mond und den von ihnen abhängigen Planeten, tritt in den Taten der Menschen wiederum auf. Und aus dem, was da auftritt, formt sich der Mensch dann das Stück Zukunft, das er zunächst zu formen hat, sein nächstes Erdendasein. Aber er ist zu gleicher Zeit verwoben in das Vorbereiten all derjenigen Zukunft, die für die Welt vorbereitet wird: Jupiterdasein, Venusdasein, Vulkandasein, in die das Erdendasein übergehen wird.

Wenn wir in diese Dinge hineinschauen, so kann es uns begreiflich werden, wie ein Stück der Weltentwickelung der Erde gewissermaßen in den alten kosmischen Zeiten war. Wir blicken da eben zurück in eine Zeit, in der die heutige Mondenbevölkerung den Erdenmenschen ihre Lehrer gab. Dann hat sich diese Mondenbevölkerung mit diesen spätesten großen Lehrern der Menschheit zurückgezogen in die Mondenfestung des Kosmos.

Aber es wurden immer wieder und wiederum auf der Erde Menschen geboren, welche in ihrem ganzen karmischen Leben die Möglichkeit hatten, mit den Erlebnissen der Mondbevölkerung in einem innigen Zusammenhange zu bleiben. So daß diese Wesen, die im Laufe der Erdenentwickelung immer wieder und wiederum geboren wurden, wie Abgesandte der großen Versammlung innerhalb der Mondbevölkerung denjenigen erschienen, die in der ersten, zweiten, dritten nachatlantischen Kulturepoche die Erde bevölkert haben und im Oriente eine höhere Zivilisation entwickelt haben. Bodhisattvas wurden diese gewissermaßen Abgesandten des Mondes genannt. Es waren Menschen auf der Erde, aber in ihnen lebte dasjenige nach, was Geistiges unmittelbar durch die großen Mondenlehrer auf der Erde gegenwärtig war.

Es geschieht nun immer wieder und wiederum, daß im Weltenall Zeiten eintreten, wo die Mondenbevölkerung, da sie näher der Sonnenbevölkerung steht als der Erdenbevölkerung, ganz besonders innige Beziehungen zur Sonnenbevölkerung knüpft, so daß auf diesem Umwege durch die Mondenabgesandten, die im Oriente Bodhisattvas genannt worden sind, eben die Sonnenweisheit auch zu den Menschen der Erde in den älteren orientalischen Zivilisationen hat kommen können. Dann war es aber durch den Fortschritt, den die Erdenentwickelung nahm, notwendig, daß nicht mehr bloß von den Wesen des Mondes die Erdenzivilisation gewissermaßen gespeist wurde. Die ganze Erdenentwickelung hätte einen ganz anderen Gang nehmen müssen, der ihr nicht vorgezeichnet war in der kosmischen Weisheit, wenn es nur immer so fortgegangen wäre, daß diese Mondenabgesandten in der Erdenentwickelung aufgetreten waren. Daher ist das große, das bedeutsame Ereignis eingetreten, das wir als das Mysterium von Golgatha bezeichnen.

Während es Mondenabgesandte in einer gewissen Weise waren, die die Sonnenweisheit auf die Erde gebracht haben in älteren Zeiten, so ist das führende Sonnenwesen selber, dasjenige Wesen also, das führend ist in der Reihe der Sonnengeister, durch das Mysterium von Golgatha heruntergestiegen auf die Erde, hat sich in dem Menschen Jesus verkörpert. Dadurch sind für die Erdenentwickelung ganz andere Verhältnisse eingetreten. Das, was Weisheit der Sonnenbevölkerung geworden ist, das ist durch den Christus Jesus als Impuls in die Erdenentwickelung selber hineingetragen worden. Daher muß die weitere Erdenentwickelung unter dem Impulse des Christus Jesus verlaufen.

Als das Mysterium von Golgatha da war, war auf der Erde verbreitet noch so viele Mondenweisheit, daß die alte Mondenweisheit als Gnosis, als Pistis Sophia - es ist ja alte Mondenweisheit - verstehen konnte, was der Christus bedeutet. Die alte Mondenweisheit war noch da, trat als Gnosis auf. Und die Gnosis war ja wesentlich ein Bestreben, den Christus in seiner ganzen Geistigkeit zu begreifen. Nun, die Gnosis ist ausgerottet worden. Der erste Akt zu jener Evolution, die hinging auf das temporäre Nichtverstehen des Mysteriums von Golgatha, ist die Ausrottung der Gnosis, fast — bis auf die [Darstellungen in den] Schriften der Gegner.

Nun stellen Sie sich vor, wenn von der heutigen Anthroposophie nur dasjenige bleiben würde, was die Gegner darüber geschrieben haben, dann werden Sie eine Vorstellung davon bekommen, was die Menschen durch äußere Erkenntnisse von der Gnosis eigentlich wissen. Sie wissen ja nichts als dasjenige, was die Gegner gesagt haben, und noch einiges in der Pistis Sophia-Schrift und so weiter, was sie nicht verstehen. Das wissen die Menschen über die Gnosis. Die Gnosis war eben noch, man möchte sagen, aus der alten Zeit eine Mondengabe an die ersten Jahrhunderte, vor allen Dingen an die vier ersten Jahrhunderte der christlichen Entwickelung; denn vom vierten Jahrhunderte ab wurde die Gnosis schon gar nicht mehr verstanden. Es war also dasjenige, was, wie man sagen könnte, aus der alten Mondenweisheit, aus dem Mondenlogos zu dem Sonnenlogos, der auf Erden angekommen war, zu dem Christus gesagt werden konnte. Wer diesen Zusammenhang kennt, kann eigentlich die Gnosis, die so viel verkannt wird, über die so sonderbare Dinge eigentlich gesagt werden in der Gegenwart, wirklich verstehen.

Aber dabei kann es nicht bleiben, denn die Erdenentwickelung muß weitergehen. Wir müssen wirklich vorrücken von der alten Mondenweisheit in eine neue Sonnenweisheit. Wir müssen die Sonnenweisheit unmittelbar verstehen lernen. Ich werde Ihnen morgen zu schildern haben, wie die alte Mondenweisheit — nachdem sie im wesentlichen zu einem gewissen Abschluß gekommen war — noch zum Menschen sprach durch eine Art Yoga-Atmen, durch eine Umwandlung des Atmungsprozesses. Durch diese Umwandlung rang man sich durch zu der alten Mondenweisheit.

Der abendländischen Bevölkerung ist diese Yoga-Art nicht mehr angemessen. Sie muß unmittelbar zur Imagination kommen. Das ist auch die nächste Stufe, die für die allgemeine Zivilisation angestrebt werden muß: zur Imagination zu kommen. Aber es sind mancherlei Hindernisse. Und deshalb kann die Entwickelung in einer aufsteigenden Weise für die Menschheitszivilisation nur weitergehen, wenn die Menschheit wiederum einen geistigen, einen spirituellen Impuls aufnimmt.

Das hängt zusammen mit ihren intimsten Schicksalen. In all den Zeiten, in denen die Bodhisattvas erschienen sind, haben sie im ganzen und großen keine widerwillige Menschheit gefunden. Wenn auch die alten Zeiten uns im Äußeren oftmals grausam, furchtbar, schrecklich erscheinen, es hat immer die Möglichkeit gegeben, guten Willen den Impulsen aus der spirituellen Welt entgegenzubringen. So sind die Bodhisattvas aufgetroffen auf eine Menschheit, bei der sie immerhin Aufnahme gefunden haben für dasjenige, was alter Mondenlogos, der Abglanz des Sonnenlogos, war. Aber in dieser alten Weise wird niemals wiederum zur Menschheit gesprochen werden können.

Dasjenige, was einmal war, geht aber weiter, so daß nicht etwa die alte Mondenwetsheit, der alte Mondenlogos aufhören kann, sondern daß er fortgehen muß; nur wird er erfaßt werden müssen von dem Sonnenwort, das nun auch, nach Verlust der letzten Erbschaft in der Gnosis, wieder gefunden werden muß. Aber nicht vorher kann in der eigentlichen Sonnensprache zu der Menschheit gesprochen werden, bevor die Menschheit guten Willen dem Sonnenworte entgegenbringt. Daher wird die Menschheit auch vergeblich warten auf die Ankunft eines der Nachfolger der alten Bodhisattvas. Denn ob ein Bodhisattva da ist oder nicht für die Menschheit, hängt ja davon ab, ob die Menschheit ihm Verständnis entgegenbringt oder nicht.

Heute ist die Menschheit tief gespalten in eine östliche und in eine westliche Menschheit. Und derjenige, der nicht in diese Verhältnisse tief genug hineinsieht, der beurteilt eben nicht in richtiger Weise, wie die Menschheit in Osten und Westen gespalten ist, wie in einer ganz anderen Weise der Osten etwas erwartet von einem neuen Bodhisattva in seiner Art, als der Westen auch nur ahnen kann. Es ist noch nicht genügend über das heutige nationalistische Streben jenes allgemeine Menschheitsbewußtsein gekommen über die ganze Erde hin, das im wesentlichen gerade ein Ergebnis des Christus-Impulses sein muß. Aber die Menschheit wird auch nicht den Aufstieg finden zu diesem allgemein menschlichen, zu diesem wahrhaft christlichen Impuls, daher auch nicht früher verstehen können, was ein etwaiger Bodhisattva zu ihr zu sagen hätte, bis sie in sich selber wiederum spirituelle Sehnsucht in genügendem Maße entwickelt hat, bis sie gerade durch diese spirituelle Sehnsucht die Brücke haben wird über die ganze Erde hin zum Verständnisse zwischen dem Osten und dem Westen.

Ich schlage damit jenes Thema an, das morgen weiter ausgeführt werden muß und das umschreiben wird im wesentlichen, wie es heute nicht so ist, daß etwa die Menschen auf den Bodhisattva zu warten hätten, sondern daß der Bodhisattva warten muß auf das Verständnis, das ihm die Menschheit entgegenbringt, bevor er zu ihr in seiner Sprache sprechen kann; denn die Menschheit ist in die Epoche der Freiheit eingezogen.

Gerade über dieses Einziehen in die Epoche der Freiheit im Zusammenhang mit dem eben angeschlagenen Thema werden wir dann morgen die Betrachtungen fortsetzen. Aber all das, was die Menschheit wird durchmachen müssen, um wirklich hinaufzufinden den innersten Impuls in die geistige Welt, das hängt zusammen mit mancherlei scheinbar unbedeutenden Kulturzivilisationssystemen und -symptomen.

Verzeihen Sie, daß ich Großes, das ich eben ausgesprochen habe, mit Kleinem zusammenbringe, aber man sieht an den kleinen Symptomen das Große. Ich habe vor einigen Tagen gesagt: Gerade hier, wo sich die Imaginationen wie fest hinstellen schon im Geiste, bekomme man die Autos störend hinein. Ich spreche nicht gegen die Autos, das habe ich schon erwähnt; Anthroposophie kann nichts Reaktionäres aussprechen. Ich fahre selbstverständlich leidenschaftlich gern im Auto, wenn es notwendig ist, denn man darf nicht die Welt zurückschrauben wollen, sondern man muß demjenigen, was auf der einen Seite auftritt, eben das andere entgegensetzen können, so daß das Im-Auto-Fahren ganz richtig ist. Aber neben dem Autofahren mit allem, was damit zusammenhängt, muß auftreten ein Herz, das hinneigt zur spirituellen Welt. Und dann wird sich die Menschheit, auch wenn noch andere Sachen kommen werden als das Autofahren, gerade durch ihre eigene Kraft und Freiheit, die entstehen mußte, die aber auch wiederum zum Bodhisattva führen muß, weiter durchringen können.

Den Dingen gegenüber, die für die mechanische Verrichtung der Menschendienste in die Welt eintreten, wird sich die Menschheit selber helfen können. Und so kann man schon sagen: gegen all das, was von Auto, Schreibmaschine und so weiter auftritt, wird sich die Menschheit selber helfen können.

Anders liegt die Sache — verzeihen Sie, daß ich mit diesem scheinbar Trivialen abschließe — beim Grammophon. Beim Grammophon ist es so, daß die Menschheit in das Mechanische die Kunst hereinzwingen will. Wenn die Menschheit also eine leidenschaftliche Vorliebe für solche Dinge bekäme, wo das, was als Schatten des Spirituellen in die Welt herunterkommt, mechanisiert würde, wenn die Menschheit also Enthusiasmus für so etwas, wofür das Grammophon ein Ausdruck ist, zeigen würde, dann könnte sie sich davor nicht selber helfen. Da müßten ihr die Götter helfen.

Nun, die Götter sind gnädig, und heute liegt die Hoffnung ja auch vor, daß in bezug auf das Vorrücken der Menschheitszivilisation die gnädigen Götter selbst über solche Geschmacksverirrungen, wie sie beim Grammophon zum Ausdrucke kommen, weiter hinweghelfen.

The experience of the world's past

When we look back at what was described yesterday, we can become aware of how man, by living through the times in succession - the expression “time” must be used here in reference to the physical conditions - when he lives through the times that follow earthly death, first comes into the realm of the moon beings and then has to pass over from the realm of the moon beings into the realm of the sun beings. In a certain respect, the lunar beings still belong to the earthly existence. And the experiences that the human being undergoes under the influence of the lunar beings in the soul world are also cosmic memories of earthly existence. One experiences the earthly existence in real experiences, but connected with what I characterized yesterday as the penetration of cosmic judgments. These cosmic judgments come to the human being after death through the described lunar beings. It is actually these lunar beings under whose influence the human being comes, and who, as it were, allow these judgments to flow into his being, just as minerals, plants and animals allow the judgments we have here on earth to flow into our being. We can therefore say: When man enters the spiritual-cosmic existence after his death, he first enters into such cosmic perceptions that still emanate from beings that once had connections with the earth. For we had to mention how those beings, who later took up residence in the moon as in a cosmic fortress, were once themselves the teachers of men in the most ancient earth mysteries, later withdrew only to this moon dwelling - if I may so express myself - so that man experiences what he once experienced directly on earth in ancient times, today in his wandering through the soul world under the influence of the moon population - if we may so say - raised to the moon. This expression can be used in the very proper sense of the word if one takes proper account of the conditions which I characterized here in the last lecture. This moon population under those leaders who were once leaders of humanity has a completely different judgment than the earth population has. The earthly population is actually only going through today in its earthly existence between birth and death what this lunar population went through in times long past.

If we need earthly year figures then we have to say that this moon population went through that in earth existence well over 15 000 years ago what mankind still has to go through. And well over 15,000 years ago, this lunar population came to have such a judgment that the naturalistic and the moral flow together in this judgment.

We on earth today still separate the naturalistic judgments that we make about the stones, about the animals [from the moral]. When we judge them, we refrain from making a moral judgment. We say that nature proceeds only according to an amoral necessity. But the whole world does not proceed according to an amoral necessity. Even if the individual animals, the individual plants, the individual minerals, especially when they are considered in their separate existence, must not be considered in such a way that moral judgments are applied to them, their creation, the fact that they exist in the world, certainly arose from cosmic moral judgments.

This lunar population already has these cosmic moral judgments. Therefore, when we have passed through the gate of death, we must listen to what the cosmos has to say about what we have thought, wished, felt, wanted and done here on earth in connection with this lunar population. Our whole earthly life is, so to speak, placed in the light of the cosmic judgment. And we experience how much what we have done here on earth is worth to the whole universe.

From these experiences we then develop the impulses within us to supplement, to correct, to put right in this or that way in the next life on earth what we have done in such a way either in the sense of world development or contrary to world development. And we absorb, while we are under the influence of the lunar population, the impulses for our destiny in successive earth lives, for what in oriental wisdom has always been called karma.

The impulses for karma, therefore, are received during the time when man is under the influence of the lunar population, which can tell him how much his earthly deeds, his earthly thoughts are worth to the whole cosmos.

Now those spiritual beings of the higher world, which live in the environment of man, while he is under the influence of the moon population, these are the beings, which I have summarized in my “Secret Science” as the beings of the hierarchy of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. This is the first series of beings into whose realm the human being comes, who do not have to go through a phase of life in an earthly embodiment. These beings, for their part, are intimately connected with the beings of the higher hierarchies. But during his lunar existence after death, man essentially comes into relationship with this hierarchy of Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, and he does not yet notice anything of the higher hierarchies, so to speak.

In particular, it is the judgments of the Angeloi which are important for the value of the deeds of the individual human being, so that after death the human being learns from the Angeloi what value his own individual deeds have in the whole cosmos. From the Archangeloi he learns more about the value of his deeds insofar as he speaks this or that language, belongs to this or that people. These are also things that are then mixed into the impulses for further destiny, for further karma. And man learns from the Archai what his deeds, which he has accomplished in a certain age, are worth for the age to which he must again descend from spiritual heights into earthly existence.

Through all that with which man can penetrate himself, when he - and I ask you to consider this subordinate clause very sharply - when he has prepared himself in the right way for the extraterrestrial existence, through all that he can absorb there in impulses, namely, as we will then see later, through the way he has placed himself with the great spiritual leaders of mankind, man can then find the transition from the sphere of the moon population into the sphere of the sun population. Sphere of the solar population. So that when we speak of the worlds into which man enters between death and a new birth, we must speak of a lunar population, of a solar population.

The lunar population is the one we have already come to know as one that once had its residence on earth and was connected with the earth. But in a much, much earlier time, the solar population was also still connected with the earth, lived along with the affairs of the earth.

When man enters the area of the moon population, it is quite clear to him that he has just entered a population that once inhabited the earth hard with him. If he then enters the realm of the solar population, it is like the arrival of a powerful cosmic memory of an ancient time. I have described it from another point of view in the book “The Secret Science in Outline”. Something like a memory of an ancient time comes over him, in which the sun was still connected with the earth, the sun's population still connected with the earth. So that we grow into the spiritual cosmos after death in such a way that we grow, so to speak, into two spiritual, cosmic lands where we meet populations with which we were once connected on earth when we were still quite different beings on earth.

So, by going through the experiences that pass between death and a new birth, one looks back in the present epoch of humanity in great, powerful memories to the development on earth in the universe. And while the human being here on earth essentially only undergoes a part of the development of humanity during his earthly existence, between death and a new birth he undergoes a part of the entire cosmic, the entire world development. Thus the solar population is essentially one that has already ascended in much older times beyond the experiences that can be had as an earth being, and which has also already ascended beyond the experiences that can be had as a lunar being.

When man enters the realm of the solar population, he enters a sphere of highest wisdom, a sphere in which he can only live if he has prepared himself for it on earth in a sufficient way.

Now, I said yesterday that man, by passing from the soul world into the spirit world, as we must say today, from the sphere of the moon population into the sphere of the sun population, that man there essentially slows down the pace of his change in the cosmos.

So while the orbit around the moon passes in a time of about one third of the earthly lifetime, the next circles, Mars' circle, Jupiter's circle, Saturn's circle - that they are not completely traversed, I mentioned yesterday - are traversed more slowly, in fact they are traversed twelve times slower than the lunar circle.

If we now calculate how much time is involved, we gain the following. We must actually start from what was originally intended for man, what he was originally destined to do by the decrees of the cosmos. And here we can assume that man passes through the lunar period in a third of the time on earth. If we take the longer sleeping times of the first childhood and the later sleeping times of the human being during the earth time together, we get about thirty years - approximately as an average - which the human being needs to pass through the first cycle, the lunar cycle. Each of the following cycles is run through in such a way that the time becomes twelve times longer, and we get 360 years for each cycle. If we continue to follow the human being on his journey through the world, we get three cycles that he has gone through. He does not get as far as Saturn, but he should go through the cycles according to his original destiny. So that we can say: Man goes through the first cycle, the second cycle, the third cycle, and then has to go back through the three cycles again, so that he goes through the circumcircle three times, and on his return journey to the next earthly existence he goes back through the circumcircle three times. That makes six cycles. And we then get as - the time that was actually set for man - I will still have to mention that he does not always complete it in such a way that things are still quite different for man today - as that which was set for man by the original decree of the cosmos, 2160 years.

>What does that mean?

2160 years, what does that mean? You need only remember that every year the vernal equinox of the sun lies at a different place in a sign of the zodiac. The vernal equinox of the sun moves forward. In the last few centuries it has moved forward in such a way that it originally stood in Aries, then moved a little further in Aries, then came into Pisces, and in 25,920 years approximately, i.e. in a time that goes towards 26,000 years, the sun completes the whole circumference of the zodiac. Of this, 2160 years is one twelfth. During 2160 years the sun advances from one sign of the zodiac to another. It was therefore originally intended that man would return to earth when the sun had advanced from one sign of the zodiac to another.

You see, if you calculate this number 2160 from the inner reasons and compare it with what I have given from a quite different point of view in the book “Secret Science” - those who have read it will remember that I have given the time of the sun's advance from one sign of the zodiac to the other as the time, which was originally set before man as the intermediate time between death and new birth - in “Secret Science” I did it more from the cosmos, from the outside, today we have done it more from the inner human life - if you give the number of years from these two sides, you get exactly the same number. These are precisely the things that mankind should notice: that if one begins somewhere in spiritual science to make correct judgments from one point of view, and then: from a completely different point of view, again makes correct judgments, these judgments inwardly coincide.

It is very easy for someone who judges spiritual science according to today's judgments to say: What is your spiritual science based on? Our science is based on observation, on experiments; that is our starting point, that is solid ground!

You see, someone who speaks in this way is like someone who says in relation to the facts we have cited: When I stand on the earth as a human being, I am standing on solid ground. When a boulder lies outside, it lies on solid ground. Everything on earth is on solid ground. You astronomers are actually fantasists, because you tell us that the earth floats freely in celestial space. You would have to tell us that it also rests somewhere like a rock on solid ground if you were to speak sensibly. -- This is roughly the opinion of those who speak of anthroposophy [and say] that it rests on no solid ground. They would, of course, appear ridiculous if they said that the earth should rest like a rock on solid ground; but they do not appear ridiculous at all if they do not know that what must inwardly support itself, as the heavenly bodies themselves inwardly support themselves, cannot rest on a ground of experiment or explanation. If only people would really form their judgments consistently, they would already see how the spiritual science meant here takes every step in the most exact way and at every step gives a full account of what it actually wants to establish as a judgment about the world and the world beings.

So after death man enters a world in which he first experiences the community of those souls who have gone through an earth existence just like himself and then are transferred through the disembodiment when passing through the gate of death into those spiritual worlds which have just been described. The human being therefore settles into the sphere of the disembodied human beings, continues there those relationships which he has lived through together with them on earth, in the spiritual after-experiences.

But we have also seen how man comes into the community of other spirit beings, into the community of the moon population, which once was earth population with him, and then also ascends into the community of the sun population, which also, only in much older times, was earth population together with him. There he comes into the community first of all of those beings who make up the beings of the second Hierarchy. I have described them in my “Secret Science” as Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. They are those Beings with whom man must work together so that in a next life on earth he will be able to present again in a certain cosmic form, to reveal again that which he has prepared in earlier lives on earth as his destiny, as his karma.

When one has passed through the realm of the lunar population, one knows, not with earthly thoughts but with cosmic thoughts, what one has not done right in the cosmic sense, one knows the value of what one has done and thought and felt for the whole cosmic evolution. But you cannot prepare a new earthly existence if you only know this with cosmic thoughts. So within the sphere of the moon one comes to a knowledge of what one should become in the next earthly existence. But one cannot yet prepare this next earthly existence. There one must move up into the solar sphere, where the beings live, who now no longer have to do with the earth existence at all, but who take care of the affairs of our whole planetary system.

So the cosmos holds in the area of what man has to live through in this cosmos, I would like to say, two spiritual countries with their spiritual populations. It contains the soul world of the moon population, and the more comprehensive population of the spirit land, the sun land. While the lunar population, by virtue of the fact that it was relatively - cosmically speaking - not too long ago connected with the earth, has united its interests with the earth population, while the moon is, so to speak, only a cosmic colony in order to bring about earthly affairs, the solar universe, where the solar population lives under the guidance of the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes, is a universe in the cosmos which has to take care of the affairs of the whole planetary system, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and so on, together with the Earth and the Moon.

With our entry into the solar universe we enter a sphere where our interests are considerably extended, but where, in cooperation with Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes, we are able to prepare in such a way that the spirit-germ of a physical body can arise, which a pair of parents can then give birth to for us. A pair of parents would never be able to give birth to a physical body suitable for us as a physical body if this physical body had not been prepared through long periods of work with the highest, sublime spiritual beings in the spirit cosmos. And our work in the spirit cosmos consists essentially - and it is truly greater, more extensive than that which we do in our small earthly existence - of taking care of all that together with the beings of higher degree, which takes place in these beings as spirit events, just as the natural events take place here, as spiritual art, as here the art of nature, and what finally brings us into the position to unite all that which is worked there in a mighty spiritual archetype, but which is the spirit-germ, so to speak the pre-cast shadow of that which is then born on earth as our physical body.

When the human being has gone through the three cycles and begins the decline, his interest in earthly matters begins again; and then he looks down, many years before he is born, to the generations that arise in the earthly development, at the end of which stand his father, his mother. Already at the moment when man makes this great reversal in the cosmos, he begins to turn his attention down to the earth. There he looks at the distant ancestry, from which then descend sons, daughters, from whom again sons, daughters, again sons, daughters and so on, until after centuries the parents are born, to whom he can send down that, reduced, which has been formed as a powerful, comprehensive spirit-germ for the physical body in the spiritual world, so that this spirit-germ can then unite with the physical germ in the mother's womb.

This spirit germ is at first majestic and as large as the universe itself. While the human being begins the retreat into the physical world and looks over the generations from which his parents will then come, is involved in this succession of generations from the spiritual world, during this time the germ becomes smaller and smaller until it returns again to the sphere of Mars, the actual sphere of the sun, and then quickly descends again through the sphere of the moon to the earth for the next life.

Some time before man himself descends as a soul being, he sends this spirit germ ahead. So that the human being sends that which he has prepared for his physical body some time before he himself descends into the physical world. By having, so to speak, laid down his work for the next life on earth, he comes into a position to enter into a different relationship with the cosmos than he had before; thereby he comes into a position to bring himself into a relationship with the whole cosmic ether. And as the final act of this descent from the spiritual worlds, he draws the forces from the entire world ether from which he forms his etheric body.

When man has already sent down the spirit-germ for his physical body, when therefore the spirit-germ has already been sent down to the parent pair after a long lasting flow from the spiritual worlds for the physical of the body, then man himself still dwells in the spiritual world, gathers the ether around him in the spiritual world, so that he becomes for a short time a being out of I, astral body and ether; the ether is drawn together out of the whole world ether. And it is only during the embryonic period, in the third or fourth week after conception, that the human being unites that which was formed in the first three to four weeks from the union of the spirit-germ and the physical germ. So what has already arrived on earth earlier than he did, he unites with his being and endows it with that which he has gained in the etheric body through attraction from the world ether. And so the human being becomes a being from that which has already arisen and been sent down earlier, from the [spirit-germ of the] physical body, from the etheric body, which he has, so to speak, gathered around himself in the last moment of his cosmic existence, from the astral body and the ego, which have passed through life between death and new birth.

So man descends, after he has had the purely spiritual experiences, to a new existence in the physical world.

From what has been said it will become clear to you that man, by living through the world between death and a new birth, experiences it in remembrance of the prehistory of earth development, indeed of the prehistory of that which we can call world development. That which the human being lives through as world memories, but which become his deeds - for he “does” something with these memories in union with those higher beings of whom I have spoken and who must be spoken of further - what he carries out there, being active in remembering and remembering in being active, that is a significant perspective into the earth and world past.

What the human being goes through during his relationships with the moon population brings up again in the human soul a time that the human being has gone through in earlier earth lives in such a way that in these earlier earth lives he has already been in such a relationship to them as he is now. The human being looks over a series of earth lives that are similar to the present one. But then man looks further back to a time on earth when he was still closer to the present population of the moon. He looks back to a time from which he is separated in his outer physical existence by what geologists call the Ice Age. He looks back to a form of earthly development which you will find described in my literature as the Atlantean period. But it also looks further back to what you will find described as the Lemurian period. At that time he was still in a completely different relationship to the earth. Man did not yet live in such an earthbound way that he walked around on the earth with his feet. At that time he still lived more in the earth's surroundings, in the atmosphere of the earth itself as an etheric being. He could do this because the atmosphere still contained, dissolved in itself, above all all water, which today has settled in the seas and continents; but also other substances, which today have become solid earth, were then dissolved in the atmosphere. Man lived more in the area during a time - again, the terminology is not important - that can also be called the Lemurian period, in reference to what natural scientists call the oldest time on earth.

But then we look back to a time when man was still united with the solar beings themselves, with the solar population, before the sun separated from the earth in the cosmic development. One does not look back to that time which I described in the book “Secret Science” as the solar time of the earth itself, as the second of the times of earthly development; but one looks back first to the repetition of this cosmic development only in earthly existence. But one looks back to this repetition. And to a certain extent, when the knowledge of man is supplemented by what man can experience between death and a new birth, the knowledge of man becomes cosmological knowledge. That which was earthly development rises, combined with the results of the repeated stages of earthly existence, in the human deeds which he accomplishes together with higher beings. The past of the earth in its connection with the whole planetary system, sun, moon and the planets dependent on them, reappears in the deeds of human beings. And from what occurs there, man then forms the piece of the future that he first has to form, his next earthly existence. But at the same time he is interwoven into the preparation of all those futures that are being prepared for the world: Jupiter existence, Venus existence, Vulcan existence, into which the earth existence will pass.

When we look into these things, we can understand how a part of the world development of the earth was, so to speak, in the old cosmic times. We are looking back to a time when the present population of the moon gave its teachers to the people of the earth. Then this lunar population withdrew with these latest great teachers of humanity into the lunar fortress of the cosmos.

But again and again people were born on earth who in their whole karmic life had the possibility to remain in an intimate connection with the experiences of the moon population. So that these beings, who were born again and again in the course of the earth's evolution, appeared like emissaries of the great assembly within the lunar population to those who populated the earth in the first, second, third post-Atlantean cultural epoch and developed a higher civilization in the Orient. They were called Bodhisattvas, emissaries of the moon, so to speak. They were human beings on earth, but in them lived that which was directly present on earth through the great lunar teachers.

It now happens again and again and again that times occur in the universe when the lunar population, since it is closer to the solar population than to the earth population, establishes particularly intimate relationships with the solar population, so that in this detour through the lunar emissaries, who were called Bodhisattvas in the Orient, the wisdom of the sun could also come to the people of the earth in the older oriental civilizations. Then, however, the progress of earthly development made it necessary that earthly civilization should no longer be fed, as it were, by the beings of the moon alone. The whole development of the earth would have had to take a completely different course, which was not predetermined by cosmic wisdom, if it had only continued in the same way that these lunar emissaries had appeared in the development of the earth. Therefore the great, the significant event occurred which we call the Mystery of Golgotha.

While it was lunar emissaries in a certain way who brought solar wisdom to earth in older times, the leading solar being itself, the being that is leading in the series of solar spirits, descended to earth through the Mystery of Golgotha and embodied itself in the man Jesus. As a result, quite different conditions have arisen for earthly development. That which has become the wisdom of the solar population has been brought into the earth evolution itself as an impulse through the Christ Jesus. Therefore the further earth development must proceed under the impulse of Christ Jesus.

When the Mystery of Golgotha was there, there was still so much moon wisdom spread on earth that the old moon wisdom as Gnosis, as Pistis Sophia - it is after all old moon wisdom - could understand what the Christ means. And gnosis was essentially an effort to understand the Christ in all his spirituality. Now, gnosis has been eradicated. The first act of that evolution, which depended on the temporary non-understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, is the eradication of gnosis, almost - except for the [representations in the] writings of the opponents.

Now imagine if all that remained of today's anthroposophy was what the opponents have written about it, then you will get an idea of what people actually know of Gnosis through external knowledge. After all, they know nothing but what the opponents have said, as well as some things in the Pistis Sophia writing and so on that they do not understand. This is what people know about Gnosticism. Gnosis was, one might say, a gift of the moon from ancient times to the first centuries, above all to the first four centuries of Christian development; for from the fourth century onwards Gnosis was no longer understood at all. It was therefore that which, as one might say, could be said from the old lunar wisdom, from the lunar Logos to the solar Logos who had arrived on earth, to the Christ. Anyone who knows this connection can actually really understand Gnosis, which is so much misunderstood, about which such strange things are actually said in the present day.

But it cannot remain at that, because the development on earth must continue. We really must advance from the old lunar wisdom into a new solar wisdom. We must learn to understand the wisdom of the sun directly. Tomorrow I will have to describe to you how the old lunar wisdom - after it had essentially come to a certain conclusion - still spoke to man through a kind of yoga breathing, through a transformation of the breathing process. It was through this transformation that the old lunar wisdom came to be understood.

This type of yoga is no longer appropriate for the Western population. They must come directly to the imagination. This is also the next stage that must be striven for in general civilization: to come to the imagination. But there are many obstacles. And that is why the development of human civilization can only continue in an ascending way if humanity again takes up a spiritual impulse.

This is connected with their most intimate destinies. In all the times in which the Bodhisattvas have appeared, they have not found a reluctant humanity on the whole. Even if the ancient times often appear cruel, terrible and horrible to us on the outside, there has always been the possibility of bringing good will to the impulses from the spiritual world. Thus the Bodhisattvas encountered a humanity in which they at least found acceptance for that which was the old Moon Logos, the reflection of the Sun Logos. But it will never again be possible to speak to humanity in this old way.

What once was, however, continues, so that the old lunar wisdom, the old lunar logos, cannot cease, but that it must continue; only it will have to be seized by the word of the sun, which now, after the loss of the last inheritance in gnosis, must also be found again. But it will not be possible to speak to humanity in the actual language of the sun until humanity has shown good will towards the word of the sun. Therefore mankind will also wait in vain for the arrival of one of the successors of the old Bodhisattvas. For whether or not a bodhisattva is there for humanity depends on whether or not humanity shows him understanding.

Today, humanity is deeply divided into an Eastern and a Western humanity. And those who do not look deeply enough into these relationships do not judge correctly how humanity is divided into East and West, how the East expects something of a new Bodhisattva in his way in a completely different way than the West can even imagine. That general consciousness of humanity which must essentially be a result of the Christ-impulse has not yet come sufficiently beyond today's nationalistic striving. But humanity will also not find the ascent to this generally human, to this truly Christian impulse, and therefore will not be able to understand sooner what a possible Bodhisattva would have to say to it, until it has again developed spiritual longing in itself to a sufficient degree, until it will have the bridge across the whole earth to the understanding between the East and the West precisely through this spiritual longing.

I am thus touching on a subject which must be developed further tomorrow and which will essentially describe how it is not the case today that people have to wait for the Bodhisattva, but that the Bodhisattva must wait for the understanding that humanity brings to him before he can speak to it in its language; for humanity has entered the epoch of freedom.

It is precisely about this entry into the epoch of freedom in connection with the subject just touched upon that we shall continue our reflections tomorrow. But all that humanity will have to go through in order to really find the innermost impulse into the spiritual world is connected with many seemingly insignificant systems and symptoms of cultural civilization.

Pardon me for combining the great things I have just said with small things, but you can see the great things in the small symptoms. I said a few days ago that it is precisely here, where the imaginations are already firmly established in the mind, that the cars become disturbing. I am not speaking against cars, I have already mentioned that; anthroposophy cannot express anything reactionary. Of course I am passionately fond of driving a car when it is necessary, because one must not want to reduce the world, but one must be able to counter what occurs on the one side with the other, so that driving in a car is quite right. But in addition to driving a car and everything that goes with it, there must be a heart that leans towards the spiritual world. And then, even if other things will come besides driving a car, humanity will be able to push itself further through its own strength and freedom, which had to arise, but which in turn must also lead to the bodhisattva.

Humanity will be able to help itself against the things that enter the world for the mechanical performance of human services. And so we can already say: humanity will be able to help itself against everything that arises from cars, typewriters and so on.

The situation is different - forgive me for finishing with this seemingly trivial point - with the gramophone. In the case of the gramophone, humanity wants to force art into the mechanical. So if mankind were to develop a passionate fondness for such things, where that which comes down into the world as a shadow of the spiritual is mechanized, if mankind were to show enthusiasm for something like this, for which the gramophone is an expression, then it could not help itself. The gods would have to help it.

Well, the gods are merciful, and today there is hope that, with regard to the advancement of human civilization, the merciful gods themselves will continue to help over such aberrations of taste as are expressed in the gramophone.

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Evolution of ConsciousnessGA 227