The Rudolf Steiner Archive

13. The First, Second and Third Logos

[ 1 ] [The beginning of the statement is missing.]

[ 2 ] When the selfless stream returns to its starting point in two cyclical outpourings and matter dissolves again, nothing has happened but that it returns enriched to its origin. Only by absorbing and overcoming the selfish current will the unselfish current develop such a strongly vibrating power that it must go beyond itself, that is, beyond the cosmic circle that forms the first meeting of the two currents. A new region will be born out of the selflessness, called forth by it: Paranirvana, the negative matter, because in contrast to matter held within the cosmic circle by attraction, it spreads outwards. One can visualize the process by imagining the swinging of a pendulum. The pendulum swinging forward will immediately swing back and, if it is not stopped by obstacles in its path, will swing so strongly that it goes beyond its starting point – just as a cart rolling forward cannot suddenly stop, but must roll a little further.

[ 3 ] With this preparation and gradual development of matter, the material components for a planetary formation would now have been created, but planetary life itself cannot yet arise. So the Logos could not remain in paranirvana; he had to return, and on this return journey he formed the maha-paranirvana region. From here, the Logos had to make the sacrifice and begin the cycle through matter again, so that other life, besides himself, but out of him, could arise.

[ 4 ] All life in manifold forms has emerged from the unity, the one Logos. In him, all diversity still rests undivided, undifferentiated, hidden. As soon as he becomes recognizable, perceiving himself as self, he emerges from the absolute, from the undifferentiated, and creates the non-self, his mirror image, the second logos. He animates and invigorates this mirror image; it is his third aspect, the third logos.

[ 5 ] Thus, the first Logos would be the undifferentiated, in which life and form rest undivided, to be regarded as the Father. Time begins with his existence; he separates his reflection from himself, the form, the feminine, which he fills with his life, the second Logos; and from this inspiration, the third Logos emerges as son, as animated form. Thus, all religions have conceived of their God in threefold form, as Father, Mother and Son. Thus Uranus and Gäa, the maternal Earth; and Kronos, Time, emerged from her womb as a son; Osiris, Isis and Horus and so on.

[ 6 ] The sacrifice of the Logos is: the spirit descends into matter, animating its reflection, and thus the world of animated forms is also given its existence, all of which lead their special existence and go through the cycle of evolution in order to become one again with the Logos as the most highly developed individualities, who receive the wealth of experience through them. If He had not poured Himself out to animate all these forms, there would be no independent growth and development. All movement, all becoming would have no life of its own; it would only stir and move according to the direction of God.

[ 7 ] Just as people are only interested in the unknown, the individual, about people, and are indifferent to anything they can calculate and understand, so too the Logos can only take joy in independently developing life that emerges from it, for which it sacrifices and devotes itself.

[ 8 ] The process of development of matter begins, in which the qualities of the being are reflected and are effective until these reflections begin their activity as separate forms and thus spiritualize and animate matter more and more until it becomes one again with the being Atma, Budhi, Manas... [space]

[ 9 ] First, the cosmic basis was created by the coming together of the two qualities of selfhood and selflessness of the first Logos. Through the second current of the same, guided by harmony, the atomic essence was formed. This enveloped itself with the already existing mother substance, and the atom was formed. These atoms, with their shells of varying degrees of density, gradually formed matter, which could serve as a medium for the second Logos, which is the mirror image of the first, to give up its mirror image of the same. The second Logos now flows into this matter, which, on its first, the nirvana level, is of such a fine texture that it can flow through it unhindered and unchanged. It now reaches the region of Budhi; here it is detained, and even if in this region selflessness is so strong that it does not want to retain the Logos for its realm, it still claims it for its entire cosmos. Here the sacrifice of the Logos begins, the voice, the sound emerges from it: it wants to animate matter with its spirit, so that its thoughts shall have their existence as independent forms. Here, where the divine thought becomes sound and voice, in the sphere of Budhi, is the divine realm for the Middle Ages. Enveloped in Budhi, the Logos now flows into the mental region, which is divided into the stages of Arupa and Rupa; the divine world of thought now pours into this region, the exemplary ideas surge through each other. What later becomes a special being and still rests enclosed in the Logos in the Budhi sphere is called into existence here as an exemplary idea. This Arupa level of the mental sphere is the world of ideas of Plato, the world of reason of the Middle Ages. On the Arupa level, these ideas take on their first forms. As divine geniuses, they begin their special existence and float around together, still penetrating each other as similar spiritual beings. This is the heavenly realm of the Middle Ages.

[ 10 ] These spiritual beings now enter the astral sphere; here, enveloped in a denser substance, they awaken through touch; only now do they feel themselves as separate beings, they feel the separation. It is the elemental realm, the world of the elemental. Having descended into the etheric sphere, this sensation is pushed out from within, it swells up, expands and grows through the etheric vegetative power, only to be enclosed and crystallized by physical matter, because here the ego is still striving mightily for limitation. Thus is the sensation enclosed in the mineral kingdom and the divine ideas sleep in sublime calm in the chaste rock. The stone - a frozen thought of God: “The stones are mute. I have placed and hidden the eternal creator word in them; chaste and shameful, they hold it locked within themselves.” So reads an old Druid saying, a prayer formula. In the Middle Ages, the etheric and physical realms, or mineral kingdom, were called microcosm or the small realm.

[ 11 ] As it flowed in, the Logos surrounded itself with ever denser shells until it had learned to define itself firmly in the rock. However, the stones are mute; they cannot reveal the eternal creative word. The rigid physical shell must be cast off again; it remains in its realm, while now the crystalline forms in their soft etheric shell expand, growing from within, that is, being able to live, because life is growth; the stone becomes a plant. And ascending further, the Logos also sheds this etheric shell and arrives at the astral sphere of sensation. Here, through the interaction of touch and perception, activity unfolds; the sentient animal existence is formed out of sensation and will. In this way, the animal gradually develops its organs of perception, with the stimulus from outside acting as a sensation within. The types are formed. Crossing over into the mental realm, this sensation perceives itself, and with the consciousness of self, the stage of humanity is reached.

[ 12 ] From the cosmic point of view, the Logos' descent into the mineral kingdom marks its deepest descent into matter, and the casting off of the first shell marks the beginning of the Logos' ascent. Seen from the point of view of man, however, in the anthropocentric sense, as adopted, among others, by the ancient Druid priests, the resting of the spirit in the chaste rock would be an exalted stage of existence. Untouched by selfish will, the stone obeys only the law of causality. For the human being at the lower mental level, at which we now stand, the rock would be a symbol of higher development. Through lower, earthy passions and trials, we develop into an ethereal plant existence, living and growing from within in selfless self-evidence, in order to later live in our causal body, untouched by anything outside, as pure spirit resting within ourselves, like the crystallized spirit enclosed in stone.

[ 13 ] The second Logos, as the mover and animator of the matter in which it is enclosed, has only reached as far as the lower mental sphere. Through self-awareness, the sentient animal has reached the human stage of existence. It is able to relate the external world to its personality; it perceives itself. Nature has led and guided him so far, but here she leaves him alone and in freedom. The further development of man now depends solely on his will. He must make himself the vessel, strip off the outer shell of the lower mental sphere, so that he can now receive the inflow of the first Logos, just as the seed opens and waits for fertilization, without which it cannot grow and bear fruit.

[ 14 ] The first logos is the eternal in the universe, the immutable law according to which the stars move in their orbits, the basis of all things. The individual forms are subject to destruction and change. We perceive colors with our sensory vision that may appear different to another vision. The external, solid object, which is held together by its parts in a certain form, can disappear at a certain temperature, its parts can dissolve, but the law according to which it has become remains and is eternal. Thus the whole universe moves according to eternal laws, the first logos flows spread out in it. Man must raise himself up to him with his will. He must develop in himself the selfless lower soul knowledge (Antahkarana). He must perceive through pure contemplation this eternal immutable law in the transitory; he must learn to distinguish what is only a transitory phenomenon in a particular form and what is its essential core; he must absorb and preserve what he has seen as a thought. Thus he gradually becomes acquainted with the unreal in the world of phenomena; the thought becomes for him the real; he gradually ascends to the stage of Arupa, he lives in the pure world of thought. The many dissolves for him and merges in the One; he feels himself one with the All. Thus he has raised himself so high that he can receive the inflow from the first Logos directly as intuition. But not to every individual soul does a single soul flow in this way; no, it is the All-Soul, it is the soul of Plato and others, in which he shares, with whom he becomes one in thought. Gradually, the higher man develops from the lower.

[ 15 ] At this turning point, where he is to rise up in freedom through his will, he needs a teacher, and that is why the Sons of Manas descended and incarnated in the third race of the fourth round, the Lemurian period, to serve as guides. With the simple act of counting, with the understanding of numbers, mental development began and distinguished the thinking human from the animal, which only senses through the senses.