Awareness - Life - Form
GA 89
9 June 1904, Berlin
Theosophical Cosmology III
A week ago I attempted to explain a way of thinking which is very alien to people in the West and which gives the theosopher insights into the cosmos. The lectures must of necessity be sketchy in character, and this prevents me from presenting the theosophical cosmology in full detail. I will, however, attempt to give you a picture of the genesis of the world which is the basis of theosophy, doing so in narrative form. I would ask those who demand something scientific to remember that it simply is not possible for me to give any kind of scientific foundation for what I have to say in three short lectures. Anyone who wants such a scientific foundation will find it in a later course, when I will be speaking on the subject in more detail.37It appears this was never given. Elements may be found in public lectures, e.g. Berlin, 9 March 1905 on the origin of the Earth [in German, in GA 53]. A second volume of my Theosophy, which is due to appear soon, will also be on cosmology.38See in ‘About this volume’.
Above all let me give you an important initial idea which essentially is very simple, but must be considered by anyone who seeks to understand evolution in theosophical terms. Speaking of evolution on the large scale, we mean not only animal or plant life arising from another life, but also the great transformations in our universe, and this includes the origin of matter, matter in the actual sense, as we are able to perceive it with our physical senses today.
The last time we spoke of the seven successive levels to be distinguished in the evolution of our planet, and I described them to you at least briefly. You need to envisage our earthly planet going through seven stages in rhythmical sequence, as it were, stages we call rounds. Everything that exists and lives on our Earth today did also exist before our present-day Earth came into existence; it existed, however, in a kind of seed stage, just as the whole plant exists already in a seed, lying dormant in it, as it were, before it unfolds in the outside world. In theosophy we also call such a dormant stage of all human beings ‘pralaya’. The state in which everything awakens to life, gradually emerging and progressing from beginnings to perfection, to a peak, is called a ‘manvantara’. When perfection has been reached, pralaya again follows, to be followed in turn by a state of being awake and growing. The planet is going through this sequence seven times, awakening to a new round seven times. The period between one manvantara and another thus passes in a state where everything that is alive and active on our Earth goes to sleep, as it were. This sleep cannot be compared with ordinary human sleep. With the latter, only the activities of the rational mind and the human senses are suspended, whilst human physical life continues. You have to see the Earth’s sleep state as something very different. This state of the Earth would only be perceptible to the opened eye of the most highly developed seer, a dangma.
Such a state cannot be described in our words, for our words are not made for this form of existence. I cannot find words for this state in any language. The developed seer would therefore say something quite different to give an idea of this state. He would say: Imagine a plant. You see it. Now think of a kind of plaster cast of this plant, with the plant in all its parts now a hollow space surrounded by plaster of Paris. Now imagine that everything which is plaster of Paris is spiritual and only perceptible to certain sensory perceptions. Someone who is able to see the plant cannot see the plaster cast at the same time, it being the negative of the plant.39See for instance the lecture given in Berlin on 30 October 1905, in Foundations of Esotericism (note 13). This would be more or less what a developed seer would be able to perceive of the Earth in its pralaya sleep. The Earth would not be there. It would be the cavity, the hollow form. It is as if it were in an great, tremendous sea of most sublime spirits which is gradually thinning out in all directions, with the existence of Earth itself pouring forth from this, as it were.
Then something began to develop in this hollow space, but it was not yet perceptible to physical eyes, only to a highly developed seer who is able to move freely in the sphere of the devachanic plane. Someone who has this vision would see an orb in space at the beginning of earthly existence, a purely spiritual orb, with anything on it also spiritual, only perceptible to the devachanic seer’s eye. Before a new round began, our Earth was in such a spiritual state. Awaking from pralaya sleep it awakened to such an orb. The devachanic seer perceives it to have a marvellous reddish shimmer. The orb is not visible to someone with astral vision only. It still holds everything in it which will later be Earth. Even the densest bodies are already there.
How can we get a picture of this? We may consider a simple process. Imagine a vessel containing water. The water is liquid. As you reduce the temperature the water will freeze and turn to ice. You have the same thing as before—ice being nothing but water, only in a different form. When you increase the temperature the ice will turn to water again, and if you heat it further even to steam. You can imagine that all materiality arises through condensation from the spiritual. The spiritual orb—only visible to a highly developed seer’s eye—condenses more and more, having first gone through a minor pralaya. It will then also be apparent to a less highly developed seer’s eye. A kind of short sleep state follows, and then the whole sphere presents in a more condensed state. It is then visible to the astral eye, that is, to someone whose senses have been opened on the astral plane. Then comes another pralaya state, and the orb emerges again, now in form of condensed physical matter. It is only now that physical eyes can see it, physical ears hear it, physical hands take hold of it. This is the fourth state. After another short pralaya the state dissolves again, and we have an astral orb again, but the spirits in it are much more highly developed now. An analogous state develops in the sixth round, which again is only visible to a devachanic seer. After a further pralaya the state is such that only the most highly developed seer’s eye can see it. Then the orb vanishes even for a dangma. A major pralaya follows, after which the whole process begins to repeat itself. This happens seven times over. The Earth is thus transformed from its lowest to its highest level.
Let us now look at the first round. The best way of studying it is to look at what was then densest on our Earth. Mineral forms did not exist in the first round, nor did physical forces of nature or chemical forces. The Earth had by then only developed far enough to provide a basis for physical existence; it created this basis in order to prepare for physical existence in the fourth round. The Earth then presented as a fiery mass, at such a tremendously high temperature that none of the forms of matter we have today could have the form which they have today. All substances were primeval mass—a kind of mush if I may use such a common term—uniform and undifferentiated. In theosophy the Earth is said to have been in the fire state at that time. This is no ordinary fire, however, but a fire of a higher, spiritual kind. No chemical elements existed. Yet there was activity inside this matter. Two kinds of spirits were active in it—those we call ‘dhyan-chohans’ and others which had not yet descended into the state of physical materiality, partly having a spirit body and partly being enveloped in astral matter; these flooded the fire matter with tremendous speed. We see irregular forms continually arising and disappearing, including forms which are already reminiscent of what will later exist on Earth. It seems like a kind of template, always coming and going. Something bubbles up which reminds us of the forms of later crystals and later plants, and indeed even something which is already assuming human forms, only to blow away again. The human beings who would incarnate at a later time lived in that fire, developing and modelling the bodies, preparing them. That is how this state in the first round on Earth presents itself to us. This fiery, flowing Earth then went into a sleep state.
The second round started in the same way. Let us again look at the earth where it was at its densest. This state now took a completely different form compared to before. It was a form which modem physicists also know, calling it ‘ether’. Ether is subtler than present-day gases, but denser than the Earth had been in the earlier round. In this extremely subtle matter, something evolved which we call chemical elements. You will find this second stage referred to in a truly marvellous way, saying that the gods arranged everything according to measure, number and weight.40See notes on the Logoi (2 July 1904) in this volume. Something which until then had been irregular became organized into chemical elements, and these assumed order by numbers. Chemists will understand this, for they know the regular periodic system of the elements. Matter thus developed specific proportions of measure and number once it had gained a degree of density, an etheric form. Individual substances still did not relate at this stage. They were alien to one another. Now, with matter differentiating, we see the most marvellous forms develop which are reminiscent of those that would come later, but are not yet stable—star-like forms, angular forms, tetrahedrons, polyhedrons, rounded forms, and so on. A hint is given of the forms that will later appear in the natural world. In the first round, crystalline forms had their precursors; now in the second round preparation is made for the plant world. Then the whole passed away again; the astral and the devachanic went through pralaya again before appearing in the third round.
If we consider the physical state of the third round we find that matter had changed considerably. It was not yet differentiated into air and water but was a kind of vapour or mist. No longer in ether form but like a kind of water vapour, mist, or like our clouds today—that is how we would have to envisage the Earth at this third stage. With those mists—we find them in ancient legends like those of Niflheim (land of mist)—matter was now no longer organized according to number but endowed with energies. Occult scientists speak of the law of elective affinities here. Chemical substances regulate themselves according to this law. Now, in the third round, energy appeared, making it possible for small things to grow larger and expand. Substances were able to organize themselves fully from inside, filling themselves with energy. Not only did the beginnings of plant nature appear, which we already saw in the second round, but growth had become possible. The first animal forms appeared, though we would consider them utterly grotesque today. Gigantic, colossal forms arose from the mist. There is some truth in it for an occultist when he looks up at the clouds and sees that one looks like a camel, another like a horse. In this third round entities were nebulous forms, with reproduction consisting in one changing into the other, one arising from another, like today’s lower cell organisms, which remind us of that time. The animal-like bodies arising from the mist were able to provide a first basis so that individual entities that had come across from earlier worlds would find a body. The human being was then able to incarnate, finding a housing that allowed him to come to expression, though initially in an imperfect, primitive and awkward way. Incarnations may also misfire. We may say that entities were on Earth in the third round that were intermediate between human and animal, with the human being not entirely at ease in them but still able to incarnate.
Then came another pralaya, followed by the fourth round. This is the round of which we ourselves are part. The Earth had thus first gone through the devachanic state, then down through the astral and etheric state, finally coming to the physical state which we have now reached. In the first round, the basis for the mineral world developed, in the second, the basis for the plant world; in the third round the potential arose for the development of animal forms. Now, in the fourth round, the human being has been given the ability to assume the form which he now has.
Let us take a closer look at the state of our physical Earth, our present round. The state of the Earth at this fourth level must be said to be very much denser than the states of the earlier rounds. Initially there was a fiery state, then a misty one, and then one that was between air and water. Now, however, at the beginning of the fourth round, we have a kind of swelling matter, rather like protein. The whole Earth was in that state at the beginning of the fourth round. Then everything gradually condensed, and matter as we know it on Earth today is nothing but the condensed matter which had originally been swelling—just as ice is condensed water matter. At the beginning of this fourth round, all entities were such that they could live in this swelling matter. The form of the human being did resemble that of today, but man was still in an utterly dim state of consciousness which would be comparable to a dreaming person today. He dreamt his way through life in a kind of sleep level of consciousness; he did not yet have a mind and spirit.
Let us take a closer look at this. The human being was possible in the swelling material. We would call the human being of that first race a human being in a dream. It is difficult to describe the human being of that first race. This state was followed by another, when matter condensed more and differentiated into a materiality that was more spiritual and another that was more physical—north pole and south pole, as it were. I would ask you to take note of the difference between the occult view of this and the generally accepted Darwinian view. When the Earth was in that state, the human being was present, and so was the plant world; the animal world was also extant, but in forms where there was as yet no sexual reproduction and no warm blood. These life forms were not yet able to produce sounds from inside themselves. The human being himself was still silent. Nor was he able to think, being unable to have even the dimmest ideas. The mind and spirit had not yet come to the living body. In the next race, the second one, matter differentiated to create two poles. The human being was, as it were, withdrawing the matter which was useful to him, setting anything less useful aside; this led to the higher animals developing as a kind of lateral branches. The lower animals already looked similar to today’s molluscs, and even fish-like forms were evolving.
The human being continued to develop. At the third level of race evolution he again set aside matter which he was unable to make the vehicle for a higher form of conscious awareness. He again let this go to provide material for creatures which then looked more or less like amphibians, in giant forms. Myth and fable refer to them as flying dragons, and so on. So far none of the life forms which had evolved had sexual reproduction. Only in the middle of the third race, the middle of the Lemurian age, did the beginnings of this appear. The arena for these events was in Lemuria, in the region of today’s Indochina in the Indian Ocean.
In the middle of the Lemurian age came the great event which made the human being human. Not all the humans which had come across from earlier planetary states were at the same level of evolution. Those who had achieved normal evolution during the earlier cycle on the misty Earth, were able to embody themselves during the third race. A number of them had, however, already reached a higher level, and they were completely unable to embody themselves in the third round. In every round, some human beings evolved to a normal level and others to a stage that went beyond this. Those who went beyond the normal level were masters, more highly developed individuals. In theosophical terminology they are called ‘solar pitris’. They had gained a higher level of spirituality but could not embody themselves in the body which the human being had at that time, just as today’s human being cannot incarnate in a plant body. They waited for evolution to continue until the right moment had come and their first true incarnation became possible in the fourth race. Then those more highly developed individuals, the solar pitris, were able to take possession of the existing forms. A humanity arose that had reached a high level of spiritual development. Legend and myths tell that there were people in those times who stood high above other human beings—individuals like Prometheus,41See lecture given in Berlin on 7 October 1904, in The Temple Legend (note 22). the rishis of the Indians, fire rishis who then became the actual leaders of the human race, and also the manus which gave later humanity their laws. Only those solar pitris were able to incarnate as adepts.
As I told you, sexuality did not yet exist at the beginning of the fourth round. The division into sexes only came in the Lemurian age. And it was only with this that incarnation became possible, taking possession of a body, something which had not existed before. Previously, one entity had arisen from another. With the division into sexes in the middle of the Lemurian age, birth and death came on Earth, and this also meant the possibility for karma to be active. People could burden themselves with guilt. Everything we know to be ‘human’ arose at that time.
The continent of Lemuria perished in fire-like catastrophes, and the continent of Atlantis then arose from what today is the Atlantic Ocean. Another important event came in Atlantean times. I drew your attention to it when I spoke about Pentecost.42On 23 May 1904. In German in GA 93. I said then that except for the solar pitris, all existing entities were at a low level of mind and spirit. Only selected bodies were able to receive the solar pitris. The others would merely have made it possible for those spirits to live in a state of dim conscious awareness. People without heart and mind would have arisen if the bodies of that time had been used. The pitris therefore waited until specific animal forms had developed further. These had gone down more deeply into the life of drives on the one hand, but on the other hand this had created the preconditions for brain development at a later time. Matter had differentiated into ‘nerve matter’ and ‘gender matter’. The pitris who had waited for this later stage then became embodied in this poorer form of matter. This is called ‘the Fall’ in religious terminology—the descent into matter of a poorer kind. If this had not been done, they would all have remained at a much less consciously aware level. They could not have been used for the clear life of thought which we have today, but would have remained in a much dimmer, duller state. The price they paid for this was that they let the body get worse on the one hand, so that on the other hand they could enhance it and develop brain matter, achieving a higher level of conscious awareness. A special outcome of the Atlantean race’s evolution was a phenomenal memory.
When Atlantis had perished—through water—our present fifth race became a later continuation. Its special achievement has been the associative mind which enables the fifth race to take art and science to their highest levels, something which had not been possible before. In the fifth sub-race of the fourth round the human being reached a high point—control through the spirit, a spirit which had descended into matter so that it might now be taken upwards again to higher and higher levels. We have seen the cosmos evolve in rhythmic sequence of stages to the point where we are today. Earlier rounds led to the development of
- mineral world,
- plant world,
- animal world,
- [and then] human being.
Theosophical cosmology is an edifice complete in itself which has arisen from the wisdom of the most highly developed seers. If only I had a bit more time, I would be able to show you how particular natural scientific facts go powerfully in the direction of substantiating this image of the world. Consider Haeckel’s famous genealogies, for instance, with all evolution interpreted in a purely material sense.43See Ernst Haeckel, The Natural History of Creation vol. 2. But if you take the spiritual states as they are described in theosophy, rather than matter, or crystal, you can produce genealogies, just as Haeckel has done, though the explanation would be a different one.
Let me draw your attention to the following to prevent you from confusing the different astral or physical states described in some theosophical works with what I have been saying here. Evolution is often described as though different states ran side by side; you see orbs put side by side, so that it seems as if life moved from one to the other. In reality there is, however, only a single orb, and it is only its condition or state which changes. It is always the same orb going through the different metamorphoses—spiritual, astral, physical, and so on.
We have seen, therefore, that the starting point, which we took from Goethe’s words, has its full justification, the words being that ultimately it is the human being who shows himself to be the goal, as it were, a mission of the earthly planet.44See Note 32. The occultist knows that every planet has a particular mission. Nothing in the cosmos is random chance. The mission of physical evolution is to let the principle which is arising for us luman beings reach its goal. You would not find a human being like the present-day human being on any other planet. Spirits—yes, humans—no. The Earth exists so that the human being could evolve as an entity aware of being an I. The natural worlds evolved in the first four rounds in order that in the fourth the human being would have self-awareness, able to mirror himself consciously in the body. He will continue to ascend to higher states, and only very few people can form a real idea of these.45E.g. essays in Cosmic Memory (note 11, chapter on the Earth and its future); lecture given in Oslo on 12 June 1912, in Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy and Philosophy, GA 137, London & New York: Rudolf Steiner Publ. Co. & Anthroposophic Press 1945. In the next, the fifth round, the mineral world will disappear completely. All mineral matter will be transformed into plant matter. Everything will live in the plant idea—speaking in occult terms. Then the plant world, too, will reach perfection, and in the following round the animal principle will be the lowest world. In the seventh round the human being will have reached the height of his evolution. He will then be what he is meant to become in his planetary evolution.
Someone who understands this may also gain profound insight into religious source documents. There was a time when people believed in them like children. There followed a period of enlightenment, when nothing was believed. Now a time will come when people will learn to understand the images again which have been preserved for us in religious writings, tales and fables. Thus we have the seven rounds shown as the seven days of creation in the Bible. The first three days of creation have passed, we are now in the fourth. The last three are still to come. The first three days of creation represent the rounds that lie in the past; in the last three we have an indication of what will come in future. Properly understood, what Moses wanted to say in describing the fourth day of creation was that we are in the fourth round; he also described this day specifically. This is also why you have two creations in the Book of Genesis.46See lectures given in Berlin on 4 Nov. & 8 Dec. 1903 [in German] in GA 88, and lecture course Genesis, GA 122, tr. D. Lenn, O. Barfield; London: Anthroposophical Publ. Co. 1959. People who merely apply the rational mind to the Bible will never understand this. The human being of the seventh day has not yet been created. Creating man out of clay is a simile for our fourth round. The double creation story speaks in image form of what has been created, of the state in which we are now, and of the state which will exist at the end of the seventh round. When we look at the Bible texts in this way, these documents suddenly gain a meaning of which we could not have the least idea before. Now humanity will finally realize that the meaning of it all is so profound that we almost have to become different human beings in order to understand. It will be necessary for the sublime spiritual meaning of this, the oldest document to be made plain again,47See lecture course Genesis (note 46). which is the mission of the theosophical movement. This does not find fault with the materialistic aspects of our time, realising that they are necessary. But it works towards the goal of letting humanity recognize the spiritual meaning of those documents again. This is also what we want to work on in the winter which lies ahead. Today’s lecture is the last in the course. But our Mondays will continue. We’ll meet here every Monday night at eight.
Dritter Vortrag
Vor acht Tagen versuchte ich, die dem Abendlande so fremde Denkweise zu erläutern, durch die der Theosoph zu seinen Einsichten und Erkenntnissen in den Kosmos kommt. Der skizzenhafte Charakter, den diese Vorträge haben müssen, hindert mich, in aller Ausführlichkeit die theosophische Kosmologie auseinanderzusetzen. Indessen werde ich versuchen, Ihnen heute wenigstens in erzählender Form ein Bild von der Weltentstehung zu geben, wie es der Theosophie zugrundeliegt. Ich bitte diejenigen, die wissenschaftliche Anforderungen stellen, zu bedenken, daß es mir natürlich nicht möglich ist, in der Kürze von drei Vorträgen irgendwelche wissenschaftlich ausschauende Begründung dessen zu geben, was ich heute sagen werde. Wer eine solche wissenschaftliche Begründung haben will, wird sie in einem späteren Zyklus finden, wo ich ausführlicher über diesen Gegenstand sprechen werde. Und auch ein zweiter Band meiner «Theosophie», der bald erscheinen wird, soll von der Kosmologie handeln.
Vor allem lassen Sie mich eine wichtige Vorstellung voraussetzen, die im Grunde genommen sehr einfach ist, die aber derjenige sich vergegenwärtigen muß, der die Entwicklung im theosophischen Sinne verstehen will. Wenn wir von der Entwicklung im Großen sprechen, dann meinen wir damit nicht nur das Hervorgehen des tierischen oder pflanzlichen Lebens aus einem anderen, sondern wir meinen die großen Umwandlungen innerhalb dieses Weltenalls, und wir zählen dazu auch die Entstehung der Materie, der Materie im eigentlichen Sinne, die wir heute durch unsere physischen Sinne wahrnehmen können.
Wir haben das letzte Mal davon gesprochen, daß wir in der Entwicklungsgeschichte unseres Planeten sieben aufeinanderfolgende Stufen zu unterscheiden haben, und ich habe Ihnen diese auch beschrieben, wenigstens andeutungsweise. Sie müssen sich also denken, daß unser irdischer Planet gleichsam in rhythmischer Folge sieben Stufen, die wir Runden nennen, durchmacht. Alles, was heute auf unserer Erde ist und lebt, war auch vorhanden, bevor unsere heutige Erde entstanden ist; es war aber vorhanden in einer Art von Keimzustand, so wie ja auch die ganze Pflanze im Keime schon vorhanden ist, gleichsam im Keime schläft, bevor sie sich in der äußeren Welt gestaltet. Einen solchen Schlummerzustand aller menschlichen Wesen bezeichnen wir in der Theosophie als ein «Pralaya». Dagegen nennt man den Zustand, in dem alles zum Leben erwacht, nach und nach herauskommt und von Anfängen bis zur Vervollkommnung, bis zu einem Höhepunkt fortschreitet, ein «Manvantara». Wenn der Zustand der Vollkommenheit eingetreten ist, dann folgt neuerdings wieder ein Pralaya, ein Schlafzustand, und auf diesen folgt wiederum ein Zustand des Wachens und Wachsens. So geht der Planet siebenmal durch diese Folge von Zuständen hindurch, siebenmal wieder erwachend zu einem neuen Rundenleben. Die Zeit zwischen einem Manvantara und dem anderen verfließt also in einem solchen Zustand, in dem alles, was lebt und webt auf unserer Erde, gleichsam schläft. Aber es ist das kein Schlaf, der sich vergleichen läßt mit dem gewöhnlichen menschlichen Schlaf. Beim gewöhnlichen menschlichen Schlaf ist nur die Verstandestätigkeit und die Sinnestätigkeit des Menschen unterbrochen, aber Sie sehen sein physisches Leben. Den Schlafzustand der Erde müssen Sie sich ganz anders vorstellen. Es ist so, daß von keinem Wesen auf unserer Erde irgend etwas während dieses Schlafzustandes zu sehen ist. Nur für das geöffnete Auge des höchstentwickelten Sehers, des sogenannten Dangma, wäre dieser Zustand der Erde wahrnehmbar. Unbeschreibbar mit unseren Worten ist dieser Zustand, denn unsere Worte sind nicht geprägt für diese Art des Seins. Ich finde in keiner Sprache Worte für diesen Zustand. Daher sagt der entwickelte Seher, um eine Vorstellung von diesem Zustande hervorzurufen, etwas ganz anderes. Er sagt: Stellt euch eine Pflanze vor. Diese Pflanze seht ihr. Nun stellt euch von dieser Pflanze eine Art Gipsabdruck vor, aber so, daß alles, was die Pflanze ist, hohl ist, leerer Raum, und ringsherum die Gipsmasse. Nehmen Sie nun an, alles dasjenige, was Gips ist, wäre geistig und nur für bestimmte Sinneswahrnehmungen bemerkbar. Derjenige welcher die Pflanze sehen kann, kann dann nicht zugleich den Gipsabdruck sehen, also das Negativ der Pflanze. So etwa würde sich dasjenige verhalten, was der entwickelte Seher von der Erde im Pralayaschlafe wahrzunehmen vermag. Die Erde ist nicht da. Sie ist die Aushöhlung, die Hohlform, sie ist wie in einem nach allen Seiten verschwimmenden, allmählich aufhörenden, großen, gewaltigen Meer höchster geistiger Wesenheiten, aus dem gleichsam herausfließt das Dasein der Erde selbst.
Nun beginnt innerhalb dieses Hohlraumes etwas zu entstehen, aber was da entsteht, ist immer noch nicht wahrnehmbar für sinnliche Augen, es ist nur wahrnehmbar für einen hochentwickelten Seher, der sich auf dem Gebiete des Devachanplanes bewußt bewegen kann. Derjenige, der dieses Sehen hat, würde im Beginne des irdischen Daseins im Raume eine Kugel sehen, eine rein geistige Kugel, auf der alles nur geistig vorhanden ist und die nur für das devachanische Seherauge wahrnehmbar wäre. Jedesmal bevor eine neue Runde beginnt, ist unsere Erde in einem solchen geistigen Zustande. Wenn sie erwacht aus dem Pralayaschlafe, so erwacht sie zu einer solchen Kugel. In einem wunderbaren rötlichen Schimmer sieht sie der das Devachanische Schauende. Selbst für den astralen Seher ist die Kugel nicht sichtbar. Aber dennoch enthält die Kugel schon alles, was später Erde wird. Auch die dichtesten Körper sind schon in dieser Kugel enthalten.
Wie haben wir uns. das nun vorzustellen? Wir können uns das durch einen einfachen Vorgang klarmachen. Stellen Sie sich ein Gefäß mit Wasser vor. Das Wasser ist flüssig. Wenn Sie die Temperatur abkühlen, wird das Wasser zu Eis erstarren. Sie haben dasselbe vor sich wie vorher - Eis ist nichts anderes als Wasser, nur in einer anderen Form. Erhöhen Sie die Temperatur, so geht das Eis wieder in Wasser über, bei noch weiterer Erhitzung sogar in Dampf. So können Sie sich auch vorstellen, daß alle Materialität durch Verdichtung aus dem Geistigen hervorgeht. Die geistige Kugel - nur für das entwickelte Seherauge zu sehen - verdichtet sich immer mehr und mehr, nachdem sie durch ein kleines Pralaya durchgegangen ist. Sie ist dann auch zu sehen für ein minder entwickeltes Seherauge. Dann kommt wieder eine Art von kurzem Schlafzustand, und dann tritt die ganze Kugel uns wiederum in einem verdichteteren Zustand entgegen, und jetzt ist diese Kugel sichtbar für das astrale Auge, also für denjenigen, dessen Sinne auf dem astralen Plan geöffnet sind. Es kommt wieder ein Pralayazustand, und wieder taucht die Kugel auf, jetzt als ganz dicht gewordene physische Materie. Jetzt erst können physische Augen sie sehen, physische Ohren hören, physische Hände greifen. Das ist der vierte Zustand. Danach kommt wiederum ein kurzes Pralaya. Der Zustand löst sich wieder auf und neuerdings tritt eine astrale Kugel uns entgegen, aber mit viel höher entwickelten Wesen. Ein analoger Zustand tritt auf in der sechsten Runde, der wiederum nur für den devachanischen Seher sichtbar ist. Danach wieder ein Pralaya und dann ein nur für das höchste Seherauge sichtbarer Zustand. Dann folgt das Hinschwinden selbst für den Dangma. Nun folgt ein großes Pralaya und dann beginnt der ganze Prozeß sich zu wiederholen. Dies geschieht siebenmal. So verwandelt sich die Erde vom Niedersten zum Höchsten.
Lassen Sie uns jetzt die erste Runde verfolgen. Diese können wir am besten dadurch studieren, daß wir uns klarmachen, was auf unserer Erde vorhanden ist, da, wo sie am dichtesten ist. In der ersten Runde sind noch keine mineralischen Formen vorhanden, auch keine physischen Naturkräfte und keine chemischen Kräfte. Die Erde hat die bisherige Entwicklungsarbeit nur verrichtet, um die Grundlage für das physische Dasein zu schaffen; sie hat diese Grundlagen geschaffen, um ein physisches Dasein in der vierten Runde vorzubereiten. Wie eine feurige Masse erscheint hier unsere Erde, von so gewaltig hoher Temperatur, daß darin keiner unserer gegenwärtigen Stoffe die Form haben könnte, die er jetzt hat. Alle Stoffe sind in diesem Feuer-Urbrei - lassen Sie mich dieses triviale Wort gebrauchen -, in einer einheitlichen, undifferenzierten Materie durcheinandergeflutet. Die Theosophie sagt: Die Erde ist im Zustande des Feuers. - Damit ist aber nicht ein gewöhnliches Feuer gemeint, sondern ein Feuer höherer, geistiger Art. Da finden sich noch keine chemischen Elemente. Aber das, was im Innern dieser Materie ist, ist doch schon tätig. Zweierlei Arten von geistigen Wesenheiten sind darin tätig: diejenigen, die wir als «Dhyani Chohans» bezeichnen und solche Wesenheiten, die noch nicht zur physischen Materialität heruntergestiegen sind, die zum Teil nur einen Geistkörper haben, zum Teil eingehüllt sind in astrale Materie, und die mit ungeheurer Schnelligkeit die Feuermaterie durchfluten. Wir sehen da ein fortwährendes Entstehen und Vergehen von regellosen Formen, auch von solchen Formen, die schon erinnern an das, was später auf der Erde vorhanden ist. Wie eine Art Schablonen erscheint das, was fortwährend entsteht und vergeht. Es sprudelt etwas auf, was uns an die Gestalten von späteren Kristallen und von späteren Pflanzen erinnert; ja sogar etwas, das schon menschliche Formen annimmt und dann wieder zerstiebt. Die Menschen, die später inkarniert sein werden, sie lebten in diesem Feuer, die Körper ausmodellierend, sie vorbereitend. So erscheint uns dieser Zustand der ersten Runde der Erde. Dann folgt der Übergang dieser feurigfließenden Erde in den Schlafzustand.
Die zweite Runde beginnt in derselben geistigen Weise. Betrachten wir wieder die Erde da, wo sie am dichtesten ist. Jetzt hat dieser Zustand eine. ganz andere Form als früher. Jetzt hat er eine Form, welche die heutige Physik schon kennt; der heutige Physiker nennt sie «Äther». Äther ist feiner als unsere heutigen Gase, aber dichter als die Erde in der früheren Runde war. In dieser ganz feinen Materie bildet sich dasjenige aus, was wir chemische Elemente nennen. Diese zweite Stufe können Sie in allen Religionsbüchern in wunderbar schöner Weise angedeutet finden, indem gesagt wird, daß die göttlichen Wesenheiten alles nach Maß, Zahl und Gewicht ordneten. Was früher regellos war, ordnete sich jetzt in chemische Elemente, und diese ordneten sich durch die Zahl. Der Chemiker wird mich verstehen, denn er kennt das regelmäßige periodische System der Elemente. So ist die Materie in bestimmte Maß- und Zahlenverhältnisse zueinander gekommen, nachdem sie als Materie eine gewisse Dichtigkeit, eine ätherische Form angenommen hat. Die einzelnen Stoffe haben auf dieser Stufe noch nichts miteinander zu tun. Sie stehen sich fremd gegenüber. Erst jetzt, wo sich die Materie differenziert, sehen wir die wunderbarsten Formen sich bilden, die uns an die späteren erinnern, sie sind nur noch nicht festbestehend: sternförmige Formen, eckige Formen, Tetraeder, Polyeder, runde Formen und so weiter. Da sind die Formen angedeutet, welche später im Naturreich auftreten. Wie in der ersten Runde die Kristallformen vorgebildet wurden, so bildet sich jetzt in der zweiten Runde das Pflanzenreich vor. Dann flutet das Ganze wieder ab; das Astralische und das Devachanische gehen wieder durch einen Pralaya-Zustand hindurch und erscheinen dann wieder in der dritten Runde.
Wenn wir den physischen Zustand in der dritten Runde betrachten, so finden wir da die Materie schon in einem wesentlich anderen Zustand. Sie ist noch nicht geordnet nach Luft und Wasser, sondern sie hat eine Art von Nebelform, von Dampfform. Nicht mehr in Ätherform, sondern wie eine Art von Wasserdampf, von Nebel oder wie Wolkengebilde heute sind, so würden wir uns die Erde auf dieser dritten Stufe vorzustellen haben. Und innerhalb dieser Nebelgebilde, die wir in alten Sagen erhalten finden - die Sagen von Nebelheim, Niflheim, zeigen uns diesen Zustand -, zeigt sich uns die Materie in anderer Form, nicht mehr nach der Zahl geordnet, sondern mit Kräften ausgestattet. Der okkulte Forscher spricht hier von dem Gesetz der Wahlverwandtschaften. Die chemischen Stoffe regeln sich nach dem Gesetz der Wahlverwandtschaft. Jetzt aber, in der dritten Runde, tritt Kraft auf, die bewirkt, daß das Kleine größer werden kann, sich ausdehnen kann. Die Stoffe können sich von innen heraus durchorganisieren, durchkraften. Nicht nur die Anfänge des Pflanzentums, die wir in der zweiten Runde kennengelernt haben, treten auf, sondern Wachstum ist jetzt möglich. Die ersten tierischen Bildungen treten auf, die uns heute höchst grotesk anmuten würden. Riesig große, kolossale Formen bildeten sich selbst aus dieser Nebelmasse. Es hat für den Okkultisten etwas von Wahrheit an sich, wenn er in die Wolken hinaufschaut und sieht, daß die eine Wolke wie ein Kamel, die andere wie ein Pferd ausschaut. In dieser dritten Runde sind die Wesen nebelhafte Gestalten, die sich dadurch fortpflanzen, daß eines in das andere sich verwandelt, eines aus dem anderen hervorgeht, so wie niedere Zellorganismen, die eine Erinnerung daran sind. Diese tierischen Körper, die aus dem Nebel entstanden sind, können jetzt die erste Grundlage abgeben, damit diejenigen Individualitäten, die von früheren Welten herübergekommen sind, einen Körper finden. Jetzt kann der Mensch sich verkörpern, er findet ein Gehäuse vor, das ihm gestattet, sich zum Ausdruck zu bringen, zuerst allerdings in unvollkommener, in primitiver, täppischer Weise. Auch mißglückte Inkarnationen sind möglich. Man kann davon sprechen, daß während der dritten Runde sich Wesen auf der Erde befunden haben, Zwischenwesen zwischen Mensch und Tier, in denen sich der Mensch zwar nicht ganz wohl fühlte, sich aber doch inkarnieren konnte.
Nun kommt wieder ein Pralaya und dann die vierte Runde. Das ist die Runde, der wir selbst heute angehören. Die Erde machte also erst den devachanischen Zustand durch, ging dann herunter durch den astralen und den ätherischen Zustand und kommt endlich in den physischen Zustand, den wir jetzt erreicht haben. Während der ersten Runde hat sich die Grundlage für das Mineralreich gebildet, während der zweiten Runde bildete sich die Grundlage für das Pflanzenreich, während der dritten Runde entstand die Möglichkeit, daß tierische Bildungen auftreten konnten. Und jetzt, während der vierten Runde, bekommt der Mensch die Fähigkeit, die Gestalt anzunehmen, die er heute hat.
Betrachten wir den Zustand unserer physischen Erde, unserer jetzigen Runde etwas genauer. Der Zustand der Erde auf dieser vierten Stufe muß als sehr viel dichter bezeichnet werden als die Zustände in den früheren Runden. Zuerst war ein feuriger Zustand, dann ein nebliger, dann ein solcher zwischen Luft und Wasser. Jetzt aber, im Anfang der vierten Runde, haben wir eine Art quellende Materie, ähnlich dem Eiweiß. In diesem Zustand befand sich die ganze Erde im Anfang der vierten Runde. Allmählich hat sich aber alles verdichtet, und was wir heute auf der Erde als Materie kennen, ist nichts anderes als die verdichtete, ursprünglich quellende Materie — genauso, wie das Eis verdichtete Wassermaterie ist. Im Anfang dieser vierten Runde waren alle Wesenheiten so beschaffen, daß sie in dieser quellenden Materie leben konnten. Der Mensch hatte eine Gestalt, die schon ähnlich war der heutigen, aber er war noch in einem völlig dumpfen Bewußtseinszustand, der zu vergleichen ist mit dem Zustand eines träumenden Menschen. Er träumte sein Dasein dahin in einer Art von Schlafbewußtsein; es fehlte ihm noch der Geist. Betrachten wir diesen Zustand etwas genauer. Der Mensch war also in dieser quellenden Materie schon möglich. Traum-Menschen nennen wir den Menschen dieser ersten Rasse. Es ist schwer, eine Beschreibung des Menschen der ersten Rasse zu geben. Diesem Zustand folgte ein anderer, in dem die Materie sich weiter verdichtete und sich getrennt hat in eine mehr geistige und eine mehr physische Materialität, gleichsam in Nordpol und Südpol. Nur bitte ich Sie, dabei zu berücksichtigen den Unterschied zwischen der okkulten Auffassung und der landläufigen Auffassung des Darwinismus. Wir haben also in diesem angedeuteten Zustand der Erde ursprünglich den Menschen vorhanden, und wir haben das Pflanzenreich; auch das Tierreich war vorhanden, aber in denjenigen Formen, wo noch keine geschlechtliche Fortpflanzung da ist und kein warmes Blut. Diese Wesen waren noch nicht fähig, Töne aus dem Inneren hervorzubringen. Der Mensch selbst ist noch stumm. Und er kann noch nicht denken, nicht einmal dumpfe Vorstellungen kann er sich bilden. Der Geist ist noch nicht in den Körper eingezogen. In der folgenden, der zweiten Rasse, sondert sich die Materie in zwei Pole. Der Mensch zieht sich gleichsam diejenige Materie heraus, die für ihn brauchbar ist und sondert das minder Brauchbare aus, woraus sich als eine Art Seitenzweige die höheren Tiere heranbilden. Die unteren Tierarten sind schon ähnlich den Formen der heutigen Mollusken, sogar fischähnliche Formen entwickeln sich schon.
Der Mensch entwickelt sich immer höher und auf der dritten Stufe der Rassenbildung sondert er wiederum Materie aus, die er nicht zum Träger eines höheren Bewußtseins machen kann. Er gibt sie wieder ab als Material für die Tiere, die nun aussehen etwa wie Amphibien, die riesige Formen haben. Sie werden uns in den Fabeln und Mythen der Völker beschrieben als fliegende Drachen und so weiter. Auch jetzt hat noch kein Wesen, das sich entwickelt hat, eine geschlechtliche Fortpflanzung. Erst ist der Mitte der dritten Rasse, in der Mitte der lemurischen Zeit, treten die Anfänge davon auf. Der Schauplatz dieser Ereignisse befand sich in Lemurien, in der Gegend von Hinterindien im Indischen Ozean.
In der Mitte der lemurischen Zeit geschah das große Ereignis, das den Menschen zum Menschen gemacht hat. Unter den menschlichen Wesen, die herübergekommen sind von früheren planetarischen Zuständen befanden sich nicht alle auf der gleichen Entwicklungsstufe. Diejenigen, die schon während des früheren Zyklus auf der Nebelerde eine normale Entwicklung erreicht hatten, konnten sich während der dritten Rasse verkörpern. Unter diesen aber war eine Anzahl, die schon eine höhere Stufe erlangt hatte; diese konnten sich während der dritten Runde überhaupt nicht verkörpern. In jeder Runde entwickeln sich Menschen zu einer normalen Stufe und andere zu einem solchen Stadium, das darüber hinausgeht. Meister sind diejenigen, welche über das normale Maß hinausgeschritten sind. Sie sind höherentwickelte Individualitäten. Diese höherentwickelten Individualitäten, die über das normale Maß schon hinausgeschritten sind, nennt man in der Theosophie Solarpitris oder Sonnenpitris. Sie haben schon eine höhere Geistigkeit erlangt, aber sie konnten sich in den Körper des damaligen Menschen ebensowenig verkörpern, wie der heutige Mensch im Pflanzenbau sich verkörpern könnte. Sie warteten die weitere Entwicklung ab, bis der richtige Zeitpunkt gekommen war und in der vierten Rasse ihre erste wirkliche Verkörperung stattfinden konnte. Jetzt erst konnten diese höher entwickelten Individualitäten, die Solarpitris, von den vorhandenen Formen Besitz ergreifen. Es entstand eine geistig hochentwickelte Menschheit. Die Sagen und Mythen berichten davon, daß es seinerzeit Persönlichkeiten gegeben hat, welche weit über ihre Mitmenschen hinausragten. Individualitäten wie Prometheus, die Rishis der Inder, Feuer-Rishis, die dann zu den eigentlichen Führern der Menschheit wurden, zu den Manus, die den späteren Menschen:die Gesetze gaben. Nur diese Solarpitris konnten sich zu Adepten verkörpern.
Ich habe Ihnen erzählt, daß im Beginn der vierten Runde noch keine Geschlechtlichkeit vorhanden war. Erst in der lemurischen Zeit trat die Trennung der Geschlechter auf. Dadurch wurde auch erst die Inkarnation möglich, das Inbesitznehmen eines Körpers, das es vorher nicht gab. Früher ging ein Wesen aus dem anderen hervor. Mit der Trennung der Geschlechter in der Mitte der lemurischen Zeit trat Geburt und Tod ein und damit war auch die Möglichkeit der Wirkung von Karma gegeben. Der Mensch konnte eine Schuld auf sich laden. Alles, was wir als «menschlich» kennen, entstand damals.
Der Kontinent Lemurien ging durch feuerähnliche Katastrophen zugrunde, und nun entstand der atlantische Kontinent auf dem Boden des heutigen Atlantischen Ozeans. In der atlantischen Zeit trat wieder ein wichtiges Ereignis ein, auf das ich Sie aufmerksam gemacht habe, als ich über das Pfingstfest sprach. Ich habe da gesagt, daß mit Ausnahme der Solarpitris alle Wesenheiten in niedrigem Geisteszustande lebten. Nur ausgewählte Körper konnten die Solarpitris aufnehmen. Die anderen Körper hätten diesen Wesen nur die Möglichkeit geboten, im Zustand eines dumpfen Bewußtseins zu leben. Gemütlose Menschen wären entstanden, wenn die damaligen Körper benutzt worden wären. Es warteten deshalb die Pitris, bis sich gewisse tierische Formen weiter ausgebildet hatten. Diese waren auf der einen Seite tiefer in das Triebleben gesunken, aber andererseits hatten sich dadurch die Vorbedingungen für die spätere Entwicklung eines Gehirns gebildet. Die Materie hatte sich differenziert in eine Nervenmaterie und eine Geschlechtsmaterie. In dieser verschlechterten Materie haben sich dann diejenigen Pitris verkörpert, die gewartet haben bis zu diesem späteren Zustand. Das ist das, was die Religion als den Sündenfall der Menschheit bezeichnet hat: das Hinabsteigen in die schlechter geartete Materie. Wäre das unterblieben, so wären sie alle in einem viel weniger bewußten Zustande geblieben. Sie wären nicht zu dem klaren Gedankenleben brauchbar gewesen, wie wir es heute haben, sondern in einem viel dumpferen Zustand geblieben. Das haben sie erkauft dadurch, daß sie den Körper auf der einen Seite sich verschlechtern ließen, um ihn auf der anderen Seite zu Gehirn-Materie zu veredeln, um ein höheres Bewußtsein erreichen zu können. Dadurch konnten sie schon damals zu einer gewissen geistigen Höhe emporsteigen. Ein besonderes Ergebnis der Entwicklung der atlantischen Rasse war die Ausbildung eines phänomenalen Gedächtnisses.
Nachdem die Atlantis untergegangen war - durch Wasser -, entwickelte sich als spätere Fortsetzung unsere gegenwärtige fünfte Rasse, die als besondere Errungenschaft den kombinierenden Verstand ausgebildet hat, der sie befähigt, Kunst und Wissenschaft zu höchster Entwicklung zu bringen, was vorher nicht möglich war. In der fünften Unterrasse der vierten Runde erreicht der Mensch einen Höhepunkt: Die Beherrschung durch den Geist, der herabgestiegen ist in die Materie, damit er nun wiederum hinaufgetragen werden kann zu immer höher und höheren Stufen. Wir haben gesehen, wie sich der Kosmos in rhythmischer Stufenfolge entwickelt hat bis zu dem Punkt, wo wir heute stehen. In den früheren Runden wurden entwickelt:
1. das Mineralreich,
2. das Pflanzenreich,
3. das Tierreich, und dann
4. der Mensch.
Die theosophische Kosmologie ist ein in sich geschlossenes Gebäude, das aus der Weisheit der höchstentwickelten Seher entsprungen ist. Wenn ich nur einigermaßen mehr Zeit hätte, so würde ich Ihnen zeigen können, wie gerade gewisse naturwissenschaftliche Tatsachen dazu hindrängen, dieses Weltbild aus der Wissenschaft heraus zu bezeugen. Sehen wir uns zum Beispiel die berühmten Stammbäume Haeckels an, in denen alle Entwicklung rein materiell gedeutet ist. Wenn Sie aber statt der Materie, anstelle des Kristalles, die geistigen Zustände nehmen, wie die Theosophie sie beschreibt, dann können Sie die Stammbäume machen, wie Haeckel sie gemacht hat - nur die Erklärung ist eine andere.
Damit Sie das, was ich gesagt habe, nicht verwechseln mit dem, was in manchen theosophischen Büchern als die verschiedenen astralen oder physischen Zustände beschrieben wird, mache ich auf folgendes aufmerksam: Die Entwicklung wird oft so beschrieben, als ob das nebeneinanderliegende Zustände wären; Sie finden Kugeln nebeneinandergestellt, so daß es scheint, als ob das Leben von einer Kugel zur anderen ginge. In Wirklichkeit ist aber nur eine einzige Kugel vorhanden, und nur der Zustand derselben ändert sich. Es ist immer dieselbe Kugel, welche die verschiedenen Metamorphosen durchmacht: geistig, astral, physisch und so weiter.
So haben wir gesehen, daß der Ausgangspunkt, den wir von den Worten Goethes genommen haben, vollberechtigt ist, die Worte, daß es zuletzt doch der Mensch ist, was sozusagen als ein Ziel, als eine Aufgabe des irdischen Planeten erscheint. Der Okkultist weiß, daß jeder Planet seine bestimmte Aufgabe hat. Nichts ist in dem ganzen Kosmos zufällig. Daß das, was für uns Menschen entsteht, sein Ziel erreicht, das ist die Aufgabe der physischen Entwicklung. Einen Menschen, der so ist wie der heutige Mensch, würden Sie auf keinem anderen Planeten finden. Wesen - ja, aber nicht Menschen. Daß der Mensch als ich-bewußtes Wesen entstehen konnte, dazu ist die Erde da. Durch die ersten vier Runden haben sich die Reiche der Natur entwickelt, um in der vierten den Menschen zum selbstbewußten Wesen zu machen, das sich im Körper bewußt spiegeln kann. Nun wird er weiter zu höheren Zuständen aufsteigen, von denen nur sehr wenige sich einen richtigen Begriff machen können. In der nächsten, der fünften Runde wird das Mineralreich ganz verschwinden. Alle mineralische Materie wird in Pflanzenmaterie verwandelt sein. Alles wird leben im Pflanzengedanken - okkultistisch gesprochen. Dann wird das Pflanzenreich auch seine Vollendung erreichen und in der nächsten Runde wird das Tierische das unterste Reich bilden. In der siebenten Runde wird dann der Mensch die Höhe seiner Entwicklung erreicht haben. Da wird er das sein, was er in seiner planetarischen Entwicklung werden soll.
Wer das versteht, der kann wiederum einen tiefen Einblick haben in die religiösen Urkunden. Es gab eine Zeit, wo die Menschen an die Religionsurkunden glaubten wie Kinder. Dann kam die Zeit der Aufklärung, wo nichts mehr geglaubt wurde, und nun kommt eine Zeit, wo die Menschen wiederum die Bilder begreifen lernen werden, die uns in religiösen Urkunden, in Märchen und in Fabeln aufbewahrt sind. So haben wir die sieben Runden als die sieben Schöpfungstage in der Bibel. Die drei ersten Schöpfungstage sind vergangen, im vierten Schöpfungstage stehen wir jetzt, und die drei letzten Schöpfungstage werden noch kommen. Die drei ersten Schöpfungstage der Genesis stellen die vergangenen Runden dar, in den drei letzten wird angedeutet, was in der Zukunft kommen wird. Richtig aufgefaßt will Moses mit der Beschreibung des vierten Schöpfungstages sagen, daß wir in der vierten Runde leben; er beschreibt auch den vierten Schöpfungstag besonders. Deshalb finden Sie auch in der Genesis eine zweifache Schöpfung. Diejenigen, die die Bibel nur mit dem Verstande messen, können das niemals verstehen. Der Mensch des siebenten Schöpfungstages ist noch nicht erschaffen. Daß der Mensch aus Ton und Lehm gemacht ist, ist ein Sinnbild für unsere vierte Runde. Die zweifache Schöpfung sagt uns in bildlicher Form von dem Geschaffenen, von dem Zustand, in dem wir uns jetzt befinden, und von dem Zustand am Ende der siebenten Runde. Wenn wir das durch die Bibel Überlieferte so ansehen, dann kommt plötzlich ein Sinn aus diesen Urkunden, den wir früher nicht ahnen konnten. Nun wird die Menschheit endlich sehen, daß darin ein so tiefer Sinn liegt, daß man fast ein anderer Mensch werden muß, um ihn zu verstehen. Es ist notwendig, daß in der gegenwärtigen Zeit der hohe, spirituelle Sinn dieser ältesten Urkunde den Menschen wieder erschlossen wird, und das ist die Aufgabe der theosophischen Bewegung. Sie tadelt nicht das Materialistische unserer Zeit, weil sie dies für etwas Notwendiges hält. Aber sie arbeitet daran, daß die Menschen den spirituellen Sinn dieser Urkunden wieder erkennen sollen. Daran lassen Sie uns auch im kommenden Winter arbeiten. Unter den Zyklus-Vorträgen ist dieser heutige der letzte. Unsere Montage aber bleiben. Jeden Montag um acht Uhr abends treffen wir uns wieder hier.
Third Lecture
Eight days ago, I attempted to explain the way of thinking so foreign to the West, through which the theosophist arrives at his insights and knowledge of the cosmos. The sketchy nature of these lectures prevents me from discussing theosophical cosmology in detail. However, today I will try to give you at least a narrative picture of the origin of the world as it is understood in theosophy. I ask those who have scientific requirements to bear in mind that it is of course not possible for me to give any scientific-looking justification for what I am going to say today in the brevity of three lectures. Anyone who wants such a scientific justification will find it in a later cycle, where I will speak in more detail on this subject. And a second volume of my “Theosophy,” which will appear soon, will also deal with cosmology.
First of all, let me assume an important mental image that is basically very simple, but which must be kept in mind by anyone who wants to understand development in the theosophical sense. When we speak of development in the grand scheme of things, we do not mean only the emergence of animal or plant life from another, but we mean the great transformations within this universe, and we also include the emergence of matter, matter in the true sense, which we can perceive today through our physical senses.
Last time we spoke about the fact that we can distinguish seven successive stages in the evolutionary history of our planet, and I also described these to you, at least in outline. You must therefore imagine that our earthly planet undergoes seven stages, which we call rounds, in a rhythmic sequence, as it were. Everything that exists and lives on our Earth today was also present before our present Earth came into being; but it was present in a kind of embryonic state, just as the whole plant is already present in the seed, sleeping in the seed, so to speak, before it takes shape in the outer world. In Theosophy, we refer to this state of slumber of all human beings as a “Pralaya.” In contrast, the state in which everything awakens to life, gradually emerges and progresses from beginnings to perfection, to a climax, is called a “Manvantara.” When the state of perfection has been reached, a new Pralaya, a state of sleep, follows, and this is followed in turn by a state of waking and growing. Thus, the planet goes through this sequence of states seven times, awakening seven times to a new cycle of life. The time between one Manvantara and the next thus passes in a state in which everything that lives and breathes on our Earth is, as it were, asleep. But this is not a sleep that can be compared to ordinary human sleep. In ordinary human sleep, only the mental and sensory activities of the human being are interrupted, but you can see his physical life. You must form a completely different mental image of the sleeping state of the earth. It is so that nothing can be seen of any being on our earth during this sleeping state. Only to the open eye of the most highly developed seer, the so-called Dangma, would this state of the earth be perceptible. This state is indescribable with our words, because our words are not suited to this kind of being. I cannot find words for this state in any language. Therefore, in order to evoke a mental image of this state, the developed seer says something completely different. He says: Imagine a plant. You see this plant. Now imagine a kind of plaster cast of this plant, but in such a way that everything that is the plant is hollow, empty space, and surrounded by the plaster mass. Now suppose that everything that is plaster is spiritual and only perceptible to certain senses. The one who can see the plant cannot at the same time see the plaster cast, that is, the negative of the plant. This is roughly how the developed seer perceives the earth in the Pralaya sleep. The earth is not there. It is the hollow, the hollow form, it is like a large, mighty sea of highest spiritual beings, blurring on all sides, gradually ceasing, from which the existence of the earth itself flows out, as it were.
Now something begins to arise within this hollow space, but what arises there is still not perceptible to the sensory eyes; it is only perceptible to a highly developed seer who can consciously move in the realm of the Devachan plane. Those who have this vision would see a sphere in space at the beginning of earthly existence, a purely spiritual sphere on which everything exists only spiritually and which would only be perceptible to the devachanic seer's eye. Every time before a new cycle begins, our Earth is in such a spiritual state. When it awakens from the Pralaya sleep, it awakens to such a sphere. The Devachanic seer sees it in a wonderful reddish glow. Even for the astral seer, the sphere is not visible. But nevertheless, the sphere already contains everything that will later become Earth. Even the densest bodies are already contained in this sphere.
How do we form a mental image of this? We can clarify this through a simple process. Imagine a vessel filled with water. The water is liquid. If you cool the temperature, the water will freeze into ice. You have the same thing in front of you as before—ice is nothing other than water, only in a different form. If you increase the temperature, the ice turns back into water, and if you heat it further, it even turns into steam. In the same way, you can form the mental image that all materiality arises from the spiritual through condensation. The spiritual sphere – visible only to the developed seer's eye – condenses more and more after passing through a small pralaya. It can then also be seen by a less developed seer's eye. Then comes another kind of brief sleep state, and then the whole sphere appears to us again in a more condensed state, and now this sphere is visible to the astral eye, that is, to those whose senses are open on the astral plane. Another pralaya state occurs, and the sphere reappears, now as physical matter that has become completely dense. Only now can physical eyes see it, physical ears hear it, and physical hands grasp it. This is the fourth state. After that, another short pralaya occurs. The state dissolves again and a new astral sphere appears before us, but with much more highly developed beings. An analogous state occurs in the sixth round, which is again only visible to the devachanic seer. After that, another Pralaya and then a state visible only to the highest seer's eye. Then follows the disappearance even for the Dangma. Now a great Pralaya follows, and then the whole process begins to repeat itself. This happens seven times. Thus, the earth is transformed from the lowest to the highest.
Let us now follow the first round. We can best study this by realizing what is present on our earth where it is densest. In the first round, there are no mineral forms yet, nor are there any physical forces of nature or chemical forces. The earth has only carried out its development work so far in order to create the basis for physical existence; it has created these foundations in order to prepare for physical existence in the fourth round. Our earth appears here as a fiery mass, of such enormously high temperature that none of our present substances could have the form they now have. All substances are mixed together in this primordial fire – let me use this trivial word – in a uniform, undifferentiated matter. Theosophy says: The Earth is in a state of fire. However, this does not mean ordinary fire, but a fire of a higher, spiritual nature. There are no chemical elements yet. But what is inside this matter is already active. Two kinds of spiritual beings are active within it: those we call “Dhyani Chohans” and those beings who have not yet descended into physical materiality, some of whom have only a spirit body, some of whom are enveloped in astral matter, and who flood through the fire matter with tremendous speed. We see a continuous emergence and disappearance of irregular forms, including forms that are reminiscent of what will later exist on Earth. What continuously emerges and disappears appears like a kind of template. Something bubbles up that reminds us of the shapes of later crystals and plants; even something that already takes on human forms and then disperses again. The people who will later be incarnated lived in this fire, modeling the bodies, preparing them. This is how the state of the first round of the Earth appears to us. Then follows the transition of this fiery, flowing Earth into a state of sleep.
The second round begins in the same spiritual way. Let us again consider the Earth where it is densest. Now this state has a completely different form than before. Now it has a form that is already known to today's physics; today's physicists call it “ether.” Ether is finer than our present gases, but denser than the Earth was in the earlier round. In this very fine matter, what we call chemical elements are formed. You can find this second stage indicated in a wonderfully beautiful way in all religious books, which say that the divine beings arranged everything according to measure, number, and weight. What was previously disordered now arranged itself into chemical elements, and these arranged themselves according to number. Chemists will understand me, for they know the regular periodic system of elements. Thus, matter came into certain proportions and numerical relationships with each other after it had assumed a certain density, an ethereal form, as matter. At this stage, the individual substances still have nothing to do with each other. They stand opposite each other as strangers. Only now, when matter differentiates, do we see the most wonderful forms taking shape, reminiscent of those that will appear later, but not yet fixed: star-shaped forms, angular forms, tetrahedrons, polyhedrons, round forms, and so on. Here we see the beginnings of the forms that will later appear in the natural world. Just as the crystal forms were prefigured in the first round, so now in the second round the plant kingdom is prefigured. Then the whole thing floods away again; the astral and the devachanic pass through a pralaya state again and then reappear in the third round.
When we look at the physical state in the third round, we find matter already in a significantly different state. It is not yet ordered according to air and water, but has a kind of misty, vaporous form. No longer in etheric form, but like a kind of water vapor, mist, or cloud formations today, this is how we would have to form a mental image of the Earth at this third stage. And within these mist formations, which we find preserved in ancient legends – the legends of Nebelheim and Niflheim show us this state – matter appears to us in a different form, no longer ordered according to number, but endowed with forces. The occult researcher speaks here of the law of elective affinity. Chemical substances are governed by the law of elective affinity. But now, in the third round, a force appears that causes the small to become larger, to expand. Substances can organize themselves from within, empower themselves. Not only do the beginnings of plant life, which we learned about in the second round, appear, but growth is now possible. The first animal formations appear, which would seem highly grotesque to us today. Huge, colossal forms formed themselves out of this mass of mist. There is something of truth in it for the occultist when he looks up into the clouds and sees that one cloud looks like a camel, another like a horse. In this third round, the beings are nebulous forms that reproduce by one transforming into the other, one emerging from the other, like lower cellular organisms that are a reminder of this. These animal bodies that arose from the mist can now provide the first basis for those individualities that have come over from earlier worlds to find a body. Now human beings can incarnate; they find a shell that allows them to express themselves, albeit at first in an imperfect, primitive, clumsy way. Failed incarnations are also possible. It can be said that during the third round there were beings on earth, intermediate beings between humans and animals, in which humans did not feel entirely comfortable, but in which they were nevertheless able to incarnate.
Now another Pralaya is coming, and then the fourth round. That is the round to which we ourselves belong today. So the earth first went through the devachanic state, then descended through the astral and etheric states, and finally arrived at the physical state we have now reached. During the first round, the basis for the mineral kingdom was formed; during the second round, the basis for the plant kingdom was formed; during the third round, the possibility arose for animal formations to appear. And now, during the fourth round, humans are gaining the ability to take on the form they have today.
Let us consider the state of our physical Earth, our present cycle, in more detail. The state of the Earth at this fourth stage must be described as much denser than the states in the earlier cycles. First there was a fiery state, then a misty one, then one between air and water. But now, at the beginning of the fourth round, we have a kind of springing matter, similar to egg white. The whole Earth was in this state at the beginning of the fourth round. Gradually, however, everything became denser, and what we know today on Earth as matter is nothing other than the densified, originally springing matter — just as ice is densified water matter. At the beginning of this fourth round, all beings were constituted in such a way that they could live in this swelling matter. Human beings had a form that was already similar to today's, but they were still in a completely dull state of consciousness, comparable to the state of a dreaming person. They dreamed their existence away in a kind of sleep consciousness; they still lacked the spirit. Let us consider this state a little more closely. Human beings were already possible in this gushing matter. We call the human beings of this first race dream people. It is difficult to describe the human beings of the first race. This state was followed by another in which matter became more dense and separated into a more spiritual and a more physical materiality, like the North Pole and South Pole. But I ask you to take into account the difference between the occult view and the common view of Darwinism. So, in this suggested state of the Earth, we originally have humans, and we have the plant kingdom; the animal kingdom was also present, but in forms where there is no sexual reproduction and no warm blood. These beings were not yet capable of producing sounds from within. Man himself is still mute. And he cannot yet think, he cannot even form mental images. The spirit has not yet entered the body. In the following, the second race, matter separates into two poles. Humans draw out, as it were, the matter that is useful to them and separate out the less useful matter, from which the higher animals develop as a kind of side branch. The lower animal species are already similar to the forms of today's mollusks, and even fish-like forms are already developing.
Human beings continue to develop higher and higher, and in the third stage of racial formation, they again separate out matter that they cannot make the carrier of a higher consciousness. They give it back as material for the animals, which now look something like amphibians and have gigantic forms. They are described to us in the fables and myths of the peoples as flying dragons and so on. Even now, no being that has developed has sexual reproduction. Only in the middle of the third race, in the middle of the Lemurian period, do the beginnings of this appear. The scene of these events was in Lemuria, in the area of Hinterindia in the Indian Ocean.
In the middle of the Lemurian epoch, the great event took place that made humans into humans. Among the human beings who came over from earlier planetary states, not all were at the same stage of development. Those who had already achieved normal development during the earlier cycle on the Nebula were able to incarnate during the third race. Among these, however, there were a number who had already attained a higher stage; they were unable to incarnate at all during the third round. In each round, some humans develop to a normal stage and others to a stage that goes beyond it. Masters are those who have progressed beyond the normal level. They are more highly developed individualities. These more highly developed individualities, who have already advanced beyond the normal level, are called solar pitris or sun pitris in theosophy. They have already attained a higher spirituality, but they were just as unable to incarnate in the bodies of the people of that time as today's humans would be unable to incarnate in plants. They waited for further development until the right moment had come and their first real incarnation could take place in the fourth race. Only then could these more highly developed individualities, the Solar Pitris, take possession of the existing forms. A spiritually highly developed humanity arose. Legends and myths tell of personalities who far surpassed their fellow human beings at that time. Individualities such as Prometheus, the rishis of the Indians, fire rishis, who then became the actual leaders of humanity, the Manus, who gave the laws to later humans. Only these Solar Pitris could incarnate as adepts.
I have told you that at the beginning of the fourth round, sexuality did not yet exist. It was not until the Lemurian period that the separation of the sexes occurred. This also made incarnation possible, the taking possession of a body, which did not exist before. Previously, one being emerged from another. With the separation of the sexes in the middle of the Lemurian period, birth and death occurred, and with them the possibility of karma. Human beings could incur guilt. Everything we know as “human” came into being at that time.
The continent of Lemuria was destroyed by fire-like catastrophes, and now the Atlantic continent arose on the floor of what is now the Atlantic Ocean. In the Atlantean period, another important event occurred, which I drew your attention to when I spoke about the feast of Pentecost. I said then that, with the exception of the Solar Pitris, all beings lived in a low state of consciousness. Only selected bodies could accommodate the Solar Pitris. The other bodies would have offered these beings only the possibility of living in a state of dull consciousness. If the bodies of that time had been used, soulless human beings would have come into being. The Pitris therefore waited until certain animal forms had developed further. On the one hand, these had sunk deeper into the life of instincts, but on the other hand, this had created the preconditions for the later development of a brain. Matter had differentiated into nerve matter and sexual matter. In this deteriorated matter, those Pitris who had waited until this later state then incarnated. This is what religion has called the Fall of Man: the descent into inferior matter. Had this not happened, they would all have remained in a much less conscious state. They would not have been capable of the clear thinking we have today, but would have remained in a much duller state. They paid for this by allowing the body to deteriorate on the one hand, in order to refine it into brain matter on the other, so that they could attain a higher consciousness. This enabled them to rise to a certain spiritual height even then. A special result of the development of the Atlantean race was the formation of a phenomenal memory.
After Atlantis sank – through water – our present fifth race developed as a later continuation, which has developed the combining mind as a special achievement, enabling it to bring art and science to the highest level of development, which was not possible before. In the fifth sub-race of the fourth round, humanity reaches a peak: mastery by the spirit, which has descended into matter so that it can now be carried up again to ever higher and higher levels. We have seen how the cosmos has developed in a rhythmic sequence of stages to the point where we stand today. In the earlier rounds, the following were developed:
1. the mineral kingdom,
2. the plant kingdom,
3. the animal kingdom, and then
4. the human being.
Theosophical cosmology is a self-contained edifice that has sprung from the wisdom of the most highly developed seers. If I had a little more time, I could show you how certain scientific facts urge us to attest to this worldview from a scientific perspective. Let us look, for example, at Haeckel's famous family trees, in which all development is interpreted in purely material terms. But if, instead of matter, instead of crystals, you take the spiritual states as described by theosophy, then you can construct family trees like Haeckel's – only the explanation is different.
So that you do not confuse what I have said with what is described in some theosophical books as the various astral or physical states, I would like to point out the following: Development is often described as if these were juxtaposed states; you find spheres placed side by side, so that it seems as if life passed from one sphere to another. In reality, however, there is only one sphere, and only its state changes. It is always the same sphere that undergoes the various metamorphoses: spiritual, astral, physical, and so on.
So we have seen that the starting point we took from Goethe's words is entirely justified, the words that ultimately it is the human being who appears, so to speak, as the goal, as the task of the earthly planet. The occultist knows that every planet has its specific task. Nothing in the entire cosmos is accidental. It is the task of physical development to ensure that what arises for us humans achieves its goal. You would not find a human being like today's human being on any other planet. Beings – yes, but not humans. The Earth is there so that humans could arise as self-conscious beings. Through the first four rounds, the kingdoms of nature have developed in order to make humans, in the fourth round, self-conscious beings who can consciously reflect themselves in their bodies. Now they will continue to ascend to higher states, of which very few can form a correct concept. In the next, fifth round, the mineral kingdom will disappear completely. All mineral matter will be transformed into plant matter. Everything will live in the plant concept – occultistically speaking. Then the plant kingdom will also reach its completion, and in the next round, the animal kingdom will form the lowest kingdom. In the seventh round, humans will have reached the height of their development. There they will be what they are meant to become in their planetary development.
Those who understand this can in turn gain a deep insight into religious documents. There was a time when people believed in religious documents like children. Then came the Age of Enlightenment, when nothing was believed anymore, and now a time is coming when people will once again learn to understand the images preserved for us in religious documents, fairy tales, and fables. Thus, we have the seven cycles as the seven days of creation in the Bible. The first three days of creation have passed, we are now in the fourth day of creation, and the last three days of creation are yet to come. The first three days of creation in Genesis represent the past cycles, while the last three hint at what is to come in the future. Correctly understood, Moses wants to say with his description of the fourth day of creation that we are living in the fourth round; he also describes the fourth day of creation in particular. That is why you also find a twofold creation in Genesis. Those who measure the Bible only with their intellect can never understand this. The human being of the seventh day of creation has not yet been created. The fact that man is made of clay and mud is a symbol of our fourth round. The twofold creation tells us in pictorial form about what has been created, about the state we are in now, and about the state at the end of the seventh round. When we look at what has been handed down through the Bible in this way, a meaning suddenly emerges from these documents that we could not have guessed before. Now humanity will finally see that there is such a deep meaning in it that one almost has to become a different person to understand it. It is necessary that in the present time the high spiritual meaning of this oldest document be made accessible to people again, and that is the task of the theosophical movement. It does not condemn the materialism of our time, because it considers it to be something necessary. But it works to ensure that people recognize the spiritual meaning of these documents again. Let us continue to work on this in the coming winter. Today's lecture is the last in the series. But our Mondays remain. Every Monday at eight o'clock in the evening, we meet here again.