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The Foundations of Esotericism
GA 93a

16 October 1905, Berlin

Lecture XVIII

If we wish to obtain a more exact knowledge of how Karma comes about, we must go back a certain way in the development of humanity. If we transpose ourselves back some thousands of years we find Europe covered with ice. At that time, the glaciers of the Alps forced their way right down into the low-lying plain of Northern Germany. The districts in which we now live were then cold and raw. Here dwelt a race of human beings who made use of extremely simple and primitive tools. If we go back about a million years we find in the same territory a tropical climate such as today is only to be found in the hottest districts of Africa. In some parts there were huge primeval forests in which lived parrots, monkeys, especially the gibbon, and elephants. We should however hardly have met in our wanderings in these forests anything approximating to present day human beings and not even to those of periods some thousands of years later. Natural science can prove from certain strata of the earth which arose between these two epochs the existence of a type of human being in whom the front part of the brain was not yet as developed as it is today and whose brow receded far back. Only the back part of the brain was developed. We go back further to times in which people did not yet know the use of fire and made their weapons by grinding pieces of stone. The natural scientist likes to compare this stage of humanity with that of savages or of a clumsy child. Remains of such human beings have been found in the Neandertal and Croatia. They have a skull similar to that of the ape and the finds in Croatia reveal that before their death they were roasted, thus proving that cannibals lived there.

Now the materialistic thinker says: We trace man back into the times in which he was still undeveloped and clumsy and assume that the human being has developed from this childish stage of existence up to the present stage of human culture and that this primitive man has evolved from animals bearing a similarity to man. In this theory of evolution therefore he simply makes a leap from primitive human beings to animals similar to man. The natural scientist takes for granted that the more perfect has always evolved from the less perfect. This however is not always the case. If for example we trace the human being back to childhood we do not come to greater imperfection for the child is descended from father and mother. That is to say we come to a primitive condition deriving from a higher condition. This is important, for it is connected with the fact that already at birth the child has the predisposition to a later stage of perfection, whereas the animal remains at the lower stage.

When the natural scientist has gone back to the stage at which man had no frontal brain and no intellect he should say to himself: I must assume that the origin of man is to be sought elsewhere.

Just as a child is descended from his parents, so all those primitive human beings are descended from others who had already attained a high degree of development. We call these human beings Atlanteans. They lived on that part of the earth which is now covered with the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlanteans had even less frontal brain, an even farther-receding brow, nevertheless they still possessed something which differed from later human beings. They still had a much stronger, more vigorous etheric body. The etheric body of the Atlanteans had not yet developed certain connections with the brain; these arose later. Thus over the head there was still an immense etheric head. The physical head was comparatively small and embedded in an etheric head of immense size.

The functions which people now carry out with the help of the frontal brain were carried out in the case of the Atlanteans, with the help of organs in the etheric body. By this means they could enter into connection with beings to whom today access is barred to us, just because our frontal brain has been developed. With the Atlanteans a kind of fiery coloured formation was visible, which streamed out from the opening of the physical head towards the etheric head. He had access to all sorts of psychic influences. A head of this kind, which thinks as an etheric head, has power over the etheric, whereas a head which thinks in the physical brain only has power over the physical, over the putting together of purely mechanical things. He can make physical tools, while someone who still thinks in the etheric can cause a seed to grow and bloom.

The Atlantean civilisation was still in close connection with the growth forces of nature, of the vegetation, a power which present day man has lost. For instance, the Atlantean made no use of steam power to bring vehicles into motion, but used the seed power (samenkraft) of the plants. With this he propelled his vehicles. Only from the last third of the Atlantean epoch, from the time of the original Semites until the time when Atlantis was covered with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, did the frontal etheric head develop the frontal brain. Through this man lost the power of influencing the growth of plants and gained only the capacity of the physical brain, of intellect. With many things he now had to make a new beginning. He had to begin to learn mechanical work. In this he was like a child, clumsy and awkward, whereas before in developing the vegetable kingdom he had achieved great skill. It is necessary for man to pass through the stage of intelligence and then to regain what he could do earlier. At that time, higher spiritual beings had an influence on the unfree will; through the open etheric head they worked through the intellect.

Going still further back we reach the Lemurian Epoch. Here we come to a stage in human development at which the union of the maternal and paternal principles takes place for the first time. This etheric head naturally branches out into the astral body which surrounds the human beings with its rays ... [Gap in text ...]. If one had found the means of lifting the head with the astral body out of such a human being something quite peculiar would have occurred. He would thereby have lost the possibility of holding himself upright; he would have folded up. Just the opposite procedure was taken with man at that time and through this he gradually raised himself to the upright posture.

In the Lemurian Epoch, however, man was still at a stage at which he did not yet possess what we are assuming could be lifted out of him. In this earlier period he did not yet possess this etheric head with the astral body. At that time, they were not yet there. Man as he wandered over the earth was then really a being folded together. The two organs now used for work, the hands, were then turned backwards and formed additional organs of movement, so that he went on four legs. One must picture two people of the present day, man and woman, entwined in one another, think away the upper half of the body, leaving only the lower half there. The human being was actually male-female. He also had at that time an astral and etheric body, but not the one which he had later. This was a different astral body, that is, such a one as had reached its highest perfection on the Old Moon. There, on the Old Moon, the astral body together with the etheric body had acquired the capacity of developing a physical body which then had a crab-like form. The human being could stand on one pair of legs and make a kind of leaping movement.

This astral body with the etheric body was then of quite another nature. It had a form which was not entirely egg-shaped, but more like a bell which descended like a dome over the human being who went on all fours. The etheric body provided for all the life functions of this Lemurian human being. In his astral body he had a dull twilight consciousness similar to that of our dreams. His consciousness was however unlike the reminiscences inherent in our dreams, for he dreamt of realities. When he was approached by another human being unsympathetic to him, there arose in him a sensation of light which indicated what was unsympathetic.

Already on the Old Moon man had some slight power of using both his front limbs for the purpose of grasping, so that now the time came for assuming the upright posture. His other living companions were, in the Lemurian Age, of the nature of reptiles; animals of grotesque shapes who have left no traces behind them. The ichthyosaurs and so on are descendants of these animals. It is a fact that at that time the earth was inhabited by beings reptilian in character; human bodies too were reptile-like. When eventually this reptilian human being assumed the upright posture, the formation of the head, quite open in front, out of which gushed a fiery cloud, became visible. This gave rise to the tales about the winged serpent, about the dragon. Such was man's grotesque form at that time, reptile-like. The Guardian of the Threshold, the lower nature of man, frequently appears in a form of this kind. It represents the lower nature with the open formation of the head. At that time, the union took place between these forms on the earth and the other beings already described. The astral body with the head formation united with the winged-serpent body with its fiery opening. It was the fructification of the maternal earth with the paternal spirit.

In this way there proceeded the fructification with the Manas forces. The lower astral body merged with the higher astral body. A great part of the astral body, as it then was, fell away. One portion formed the lower parts of the human astral body, and the other newly acquired astral body, connected with the head, united with the upper parts of the human being. What was then peeled off abandoned this astral body which was bound up with the form of the winged-serpent; it could no longer have any further development on the Earth. It formed, as a conglomerate substance, the astral sphere of the moon, the so-called eighth sphere. The moon actually provides shelter for astral beings which have come into existence through the fact that man has thrown something off.

This union of the paternal spirit with the maternal substance was described in Egypt as the union of Osiris and Isis. From it came forth Horus. The merging of the serpent form with the etheric head, with the newly acquired astral body and head formation, led to the conception of the form of the sphinx. The sphinx is the expression of this thought in sculpture.

There were seven kinds or classes of such forms, all of which differed somewhat from each other, from the finest, approximating to the highly developed formation of the human form down to those which were utterly grotesque. These seven kinds of human forms had all to be fructified. One must conceive the descent of the ‘Sons of Manas’ in this pictorial way. Only then can one understand how the astral body of man came into existence. It is composed of two different members.

If we consider human development we shall find that the one part of the astral body is continually endeavouring to overcome the other half, the lower nature, and transform it. In so far as man today consists of astral body with etheric body and physical body, it is in fact only the physical body which in its present state is a product which has reached completion. In the case of the etheric body also there are two parts that seek to merge into one another.

Now when man dies he gives over to the forces of the earth his whole physical body, but the etheric body divides itself into two members. The one member is derived from the upper formation and this man takes with him. The remainder falls away, for over this he can exert no mastery; it came to him from outside. He can only exert mastery over it when he has become an occult pupil. This part of the etheric body therefore in the case of the ordinary person is given over to the etheric forces of cosmic space.

What clings to the person from that astral body which came with him from the Old Moon compels him to spend a period of time in Kamaloka until he has freed himself from this point as regards that particular life. Then he still has that part of the astral body which has found a state of balance; with this he makes his journey through Devachan and back to physical life. This is why one sees bell-like formations in astral space rushing about with terrific speed. These are the human souls again seeking incarnation. When here with us such a bell-like human being darts through astral space and an embryo in South America is karmically connected with it, this human bell must immediately be there. So these returning souls rush through astral space. This bell formation is reminiscent of those which appeared in the Lemurian Age, only it has already found its state of balance with the higher astral body. We know that the human being develops by working from the ego upon the three other bodies. The ego is nothing other than what worked at that time in a fructifying way; the upper auric part with the etheric head. The members which the human being has developed are the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body.

Upper Etheric or Mental body
Astral body as Buddhi
Astral body
Lower Etheric body
Physical body

The physical body has arisen through a transformation and ennobling of that serpent-like body which we meet with in the Lemurian Age. This was male-female. The present day human being is also male-female. In the case of a man the basis of the upper members is female, with a woman the basis of the upper etheric body is of male formation. So actually the physical nature of the human being is also male-female.

The etheric body consists of two members, that part of human nature which originally came over from the Old Moon and its opposite pole. They were at first not yet joined together; later they approached one another and became united. The one is the pole of animality, the other the pole of the spiritual. The pole of animality is called ‘etheric body’, the pole of the spiritual, ‘mental-body’. The mental body is materialised ether.

Between them is the astral body and this too has arisen out of the union of a duality. Fundamentally it is also a two-fold formation. We have to differentiate in it a lower and a higher nature. The higher nature was originally connected with the mental body. This part of the astral body which has its seat in the mental body—what therefore has come into it from above—is the other pole of the lower astral body. One of the characteristics of the lower astral body is that it has desires. The upper part has instead of these, devotion, love, the giving virtue. This part of the astral body is called Buddhi. The description here given of the human being is as seen in this way in the Cosmic Light. When man himself works into his sheathes it is different. The one portrays his cosmic structure, the other how he himself works into it.

Thus Buddhi is the ennobled astral, the Mental the ennobled etheric and the Physical has its opposite pole in Atma.

XVII

Wenn wir uns genauer ansehen wollen, wie Karma zustande kommt, müssen wir dabei ein wenig zurückgehen in der Entwickelung der Menschheit. Wenn wir einige tausend Jahre in Europa selbst zurückgehen, so finden wir Europa vereist. Die Gletscher der Alpen ragten damals tief herunter bis in die norddeutsche Tiefebene hinein. Die Gegenden, in denen wir jetzt leben, waren damals kalt und rauh. Darin lebte ein Menschengeschlecht, welches sich noch höchst einfacher und primitiver Werkzeuge bediente. Gehen wir etwa eine Million Jahre zurück, so finden wir auf demselben Boden ein tropisches Klima, wie es heute nur in den heißesten Gegenden Afrikas zu finden ist; in einzelnen Teilen mächtige Urwälder, darin Papageien, Affen, besonders der Gibbon, und Elefanten lebten. Kaum aber würden wir, wenn wir diese Wälder durchschweiften, etwas von dem jetzigen Menschen und auch nicht von dem der späteren Perioden vor einigen tausend Jahren antreffen. Die Naturwissenschaft kann aus gewissen Erdschichten, die entstanden sind zwischen jenen beiden Zeitaltern, einen Menschen nachweisen, bei dem sich das Vorderhirn noch nicht so ausgebildet hatte wie jetzt, und bei dem die Stirne weit zurückliegend war. Nur der hintere Teil des Gehirns war ausgebildet. Wir kommen da zurück in Zeiten, in denen die Menschen noch nicht das Feuer gekannt haben und sich Waffen durch Abschleifen von Steinen herstellten. Der Naturforscher vergleicht diesen Zustand des Menschen gerne mit dem Entwickelungszustand der Wilden oder demjenigen des unbeholfenen Kindes. Überreste von solchen Menschen hat man im Neandertal und in Kroatien gefunden. Sie haben einen affenähnlichen Schädel, und an den Funden in Kroatien ist zu erkennen, daß sie, ehe sie gestorben sind, gebraten worden sind, daß also damals dort Kannibalen gewohnt haben.

Nun sagt sich der materialistische Denker: Wir verfolgen so den Menschen bis in die Zeiten, in denen er noch unentwickelt und unbeholfen war, und nehmen an, daß sich der Mensch von dieser kindlichen Stufe des Daseins bis zur heutigen Kulturstufe der Menschheit entwickelt hat, und daß sich dieser primitive Mensch herausentwickelt hat aus menschenähnlichen Tieren. - Er macht also da einfach einen Sprung in dieser Entwickelungstheorie vom primitiven Menschen zu den menschenähnlichen Tieren. Der Naturforscher nimmt an, daß sich immer das Vollkommenere aus dem Unvollkommeneren entwickelt hat. Dies ist aber nicht immer der Fall. Verfolgen wir zum Beispiel den einzelnen Menschen zurück bis zur Kindheit, so kommt dann nichts Unvollkommeneres mehr, denn das Kind stammt ja von Vater und Mutter ab. Das heißt, wir kommen also zu einem primitiven Zustand, der wieder von einem höheren Zustand kommt. Das ist wichtig, denn das hängt damit zusammen, daß das Kind schon bei der Geburt die Anlage zu einem späteren Vollkommenheitsgrad hat, während das Tier auf der unteren Stufe zurückbleibt.

Wenn der Naturforscher bis zu der Stufe zurückgegangen ist, auf der der Mensch noch kein Vorderhirn und noch keinen Verstand hatte, dann sollte er sich sagen: Ich muß voraussetzen, daß der Ursprung des Menschen anderswo zu suchen ist.

Geradeso wie ein Kind von einem Elternpaar abstammt, so stammen alle jene primitiven Menschen von anderen Menschen ab, die schon einen gewissen Vollkommenheitsgrad erreicht hatten. Diese Menschen nennen wir die Atlantier. Sie haben gelebt auf dem Boden, der jetzt bedeckt ist mit den Fluten des Atlantischen Ozeans. Die Atlantier hatten noch weniger Vorderhirn und eine noch weiter zurückliegende Stirne. Aber sie hatten noch etwas anderes als die späteren Menschen. Sie hatten noch einen viel stärkeren, kräftigeren Ätherkörper. Der Ätherkörper der Atlantier hatte gewisse Verbindungen mit dem Gehirn noch nicht ausgebildet gehabt; sie entstanden erst später. So war noch über dem Kopf ein mächtig großer Ätherkopf entwickelt; der physische Kopf war verhältnismäßig klein und in einen mächtigen Ätherkopf eingebettet. Die Funktionen, die die Menschen jetzt mit Hilfe des Vorderhirns ausführen, wurden bei den Atlantiern mit Hilfe von Organen im Ätherkörper ausgeführt. Dadurch konnten sie mit Wesenheiten in Verbindung treten, zu denen uns der Zugang heute versperrt ist, weil eben der Mensch das Vorderhirn entwickelt hat. Bei den Atlantiern war sichtbar eine Art feuriger farbiger Bildung, die ausströmte aus der Öffnung des physischen Kopfes zu dem Ätherkopf hin. Er war zugänglich für eine Menge psychischer Einflüsse. Ein solcher Kopf, der als Ätherkopf denkt, hat Gewalt über das Ätherische, während ein Kopf, der im physischen Gehirn denkt, allein über das Physische Gewalt hat, über das Zusammenfügen rein mechanischer Dinge. Er kann sich physische Werkzeuge machen. Dagegen kann ein Mensch, der noch im Äther denkt, ein Samenkorn zum Aufblühen bringen, so daß es wirklich wächst.

Die atlantische Kultur hing wirklich noch mit dem Wachstum des Natürlichen, Vegetabilischen zusammen, über das der heutige Mensch die Macht verloren hat. Der Atlantier hat zum Beispiel nicht die Dampfkraft zur Bewegung von Fahrzeugen gebraucht, sondern die Samenkraft der Pflanzen, mit der er seine Fahrzeuge vorwärtsgetrieben hat. Erst vom letzten Drittel der atlantischen Zeit, von der Zeit der Ursemiten an bis zu der Zeit, als Atlantis von den Fluten des Atlantischen Ozeans bedeckt wurde, hat das ätherische Vorderhaupt das Vorderhirn ausgebildet. Dadurch verlor der Mensch die Macht, das Pflanzenwachstum zu beeinflussen und bekam nun die Fähigkeit des physischen Gehirns, den Verstand. Mit vielen Dingen mußte er nun neu anfangen. Er mußte anfangen mechanische Verrichtungen zu erlernen. Da war er noch wie ein Kind, unbeholfen und ungeschickt, während er es in der Entfaltung des Vegetabilischen vorher schon zu einer großen Geschicklichkeit gebracht hatte. Der Mensch muß durch die Intelligenz hindurchgehen und dann das wiedergewinnen, was er früher schon konnte. Höhere geistige Mächte hatten damals einen Einfluß auf den unfreien Willen; durch das offen gelassene ätherische Haupt wirkten sie durch ihren Verstand.

Noch weiter zurückgehend, kommen wir in die lemurische Zeit. Da zeigt sich uns eine Stufe der Menschheitsentwickelung, auf der eigentlich erst der Zusammenschluß des mütterlichen und väterlichen Prinzips stattfindet. Dieser Ätherkopf hat natürlich seine Auszweigungen im Astralleib, in dem was als Ausstrahlung den Menschen umgibt... (Lücke im Text.) Wenn man es zuwege gebracht hätte, den Kopf mit dem Astralleib aus einem solchen Menschen herauszuheben, dann wäre etwas Besonderes geschehen. Der Mensch würde dadurch die Möglichkeit verloren haben, sich aufrechtzuhalten, er würde zusammengeklappt sein. Gerade der umgekehrte Prozeß wurde damals mit dem Menschen vorgenommen, und dadurch richtete er sich allmählich auf.

In der lemurischen Zeit aber stand der Mensch noch auf einer Stufe, wo er das noch nicht besaß, wovon wir annahmen, daß man es aus ihm herausziehen könnte. Er hatte in einer früheren Periode noch nicht diesen Ätherkopf mit dem Astralleib. Die waren damals noch nicht da. Der irdisch herumwandernde Mensch war damals wirklich ein zusammengeklapptes Wesen. Die beiden Arbeitsorgane, die Hände, waren damals nach rückwärts geschlagen und bildeten auch Bewegungsorgane, so daß damals der Mensch auf vier Beinen ging. Man denke sich zwei Menschen von heute, Mann und Frau ineinander verschlungen, denke sich die obere Körperhälfte weg und nur die untere Körperhälfte da: der Mensch war tatsächlich männlich-weiblich. Der Mensch hat damals auch einen Astral- und einen Ätherleib gehabt, aber noch nicht den, den er später hatte. Das war ein anderer Astralleib, nämlich ein solcher, der zu seiner höchsten Vollkommenheit auf dem Monde gekommen war. Der Astralleib hatte da auf dem Monde im Zusammenhang mit dem Ätherkörper die Fähigkeit bekommen, einen physischen Körper auszubilden, der damals eine krabbenartige Gestalt hatte. Der Mensch konnte stehen auf dem einen Paar Beine und wirklich sprunghafte Bewegungen ausführen.

Dieser Astralleib mit dem Ätherleib war damals ganz andersgeartet. Er hatte eine Form, die nicht ganz eiförmig, sondern mehr glockenförmig war. Er wölbte sich über dem Menschen, der auf allen vieren ging. Der Ätherleib versorgte alle Lebensfunktionen dieses lemurischen Menschen. Der Mensch hatte damals im Astralleib ein dumpfes, dämmerhaftes Bewußtsein, wie wenn wir heute träumen. Aber nicht so wie die Reminiszenzen in unserem heutigen Träumen war sein Bewußtsein, sondern er träumte von Wirklichkeiten. Wenn sich ihm ein anderer, unsympathischer Mensch näherte, so stieg in ihm eine Lichtempfindung auf, die das Unsympathische andeutete.

Schon auf dem Monde hatte der Mensch ein wenig die Fähigkeit gehabt, die beiden vorderen Gliedmaßen als Greiforgane zu benutzen, so daß jetzt eine Zeit des Aufrichtens kam. Die anderen lebenden Kameraden der Menschen waren zur lemurischen Zeit reptilienartige Tiere von grotesken Formen, die keine Spuren zurückgelassen haben. Ichthyosaurier und so weiter sind Abkömmlinge von jenen Tieren. Tatsächlich war damals die Erde mit Wesen bevölkert, die einen reptilienartigen Charakter hatten; auch die Menschenleiber hatten damals einen reptilienartigen Charakter. Indem sich nun das damals reptilienartige menschliche Wesen aufrichtete, wurde eine nach vorn ganz offene Kopfbildung sichtbar, aus der eine feurige Wolke hervorquoll. Das hat Veranlassung gegeben zu der Erzählung vom Lindwurm, von dem Drachen. Das ist die groteske Bildung, die damals der Mensch selbst war, ein reptilienartiges Gebilde. Der Hüter der Schwelle, die niedere Natur des Menschen, erscheint gewöhnlich auch in einer derartigen Gestalt. Es ist die niedere Natur mit der offenen Kopfbildung. Dazumal trat nun die Ehe ein zwischen diesen Bildungen auf der Erde und dem vorher beschriebenen anderen Wesen. Der Astralleib mit der Kopfform verband sich mit dem lindwurmartigen Körper mit der feurigen Öffnung. Es war die Befruchtung der mütterlichen Erde mit dem väterlichen Geist.

So ging die Befruchtung mit den manasischen Kräften vor sich. Der niedere Astralkörper verschmolz mit dem höheren Astralleib. Ein großes Stück jenes damaligen Astralkörpers fiel ab. Ein Teil bildete die unteren Partien des menschlichen Astralkörpers, und der andere, neu hinzugetretene Astralkörper im Zusammenhang mit dem Kopf, verband sich mit den oberen Partien des Menschen. Was damals abgeschält wurde, heraustrat aus diesem Astralkörper, der mit dem Lindwurmgebilde verbunden war, das konnte auf der Erde keine Weiterentwickelung mehr haben. Das bildete als Konglomerat die Astralsphäre des Mondes, die sogenannte achte Sphäre. Der Mond beherbergt tatsächlich astrale Wesenheiten, die dadurch entstanden sind, daß der Mensch etwas abgeworfen hat.

Dieses Zusammengehen des väterlichen Geistes mit der mütterlichen Materie wurde in Ägypten als das Zusammengehen von Osiris und Isis beschrieben. Was da entstand, war Horus. Die Verschmelzung des Wurmgebildes mit dem Ätherkopf, mit dem Astralleibe des Menschen, der neu hinzukam, und der Kopfform, führte zu der Konzeption von dem Sphinxgebilde. Die Sphinx ist die Wiedergabe dieses Gedankens in der Plastik.

Es gab sieben Arten oder Klassen solcher Gebilde, die alle etwas voneinander verschieden waren, von den schönsten, fast zu einer hohen edlen Form ausgebildeten Menschenformen bis hinab zu den allergroteskesten Formen. Diese sieben Arten von Menschengebilden mußten alle befruchtet werden. Man muß sich das Herabsteigen der «Söhne des Manas» in dieser bildlichen Weise vorstellen. Nur dann kann man verstehen, wie der Astralleib des Menschen entstanden ist. Er ist aus zwei verschiedenen Gliedern zusammengesetzt.

Wenn man die menschliche Entwickelung betrachtet, wird man finden, daß fortwährend der eine Teil des Astralleibes bestrebt ist, die andere Hälfte, die niedere Natur, zu überwinden und umgekehrt. Wenn der Mensch heute aus Astralleib, Ätherleib und physischem Leib besteht, so ist eigentlich nur der physische Leib ein Produkt, welches, so wie es ist, fertig ist. Die anderen zwei Leiber sind in einem fortwährenden Kampfe begriffen. Auch bei dem Ätherleibe sind zwei Teile, die ineinander aufzugehen suchen.

Wenn der Mensch nun stirbt, übergibt er den ganzen physischen Leib den Kräften der Erde, der Ätherkörper des Menschen aber spaltet sich zunächst in zwei Glieder. Das eine Glied ist das, welches herstammt von der oberen Bildung und das nimmt der Mensch mit. Dagegen fällt der ganze übrige Ätherkörper ab, denn darüber kann der Mensch keine Herrschaft ausüben; das ist ihm zugefallen von außen. Darüber kann er erst eine Herrschaft ausüben, wenn er Geheimschüler geworden ist. Dieser Ätherkörperteil wird also beim gewöhnlichen Menschen den ätherischen Kräften des Weltenraumes übergeben.

Was dem Menschen anhängt von jenem Astralkörper, den er vom Monde mitbekommen hat, das zwingt ihn, eine Zeitlang im Kamaloka zu verbringen, bis er sich für das einzelne Leben von diesem Teile des Astralkörpers befreit hat. Dann hat er noch den Teil des Astralkörpers, der den Ausgleich schon gefunden hat; mit diesem macht er den Weg durch Devachan und zurück zum physischen Leben. Deswegen sieht man im Astralraume glockenartige Gebilde herumrasen mit einer riesenhaften Geschwindigkeit. Das sind die sich wieder inkarnieren wollenden Menschenseelen. Wenn hier bei uns eine solche Menschenglocke durch den Astralraum zuckt und ein menschlicher Embryo in Südamerika zu ihr in karmischer Verwandtschaft steht, so muß diese Menschenglocke auch schon direkt dort sein. So rasen durch den Astralraum diese wiederkehrenden Seelen. Diese Glockengebilde erinnern eben noch an jene in der lemurischen Zeit erscheinenden Gebilde, nur daß sie schon ihren Ausgleich gefunden haben mit dem höheren Astralleibe.

Wir wissen, daß der Mensch sich dadurch entwickelt, daß er vom Ich aus die drei anderen Körper bearbeitet. Nichts anderes ist das Ich, als was damals befruchtend gewirkt hat: der obere Aurenteil mit dem Ätherkopfe. Die Glieder, die der Mensch ausgebildet hat, sind der physische Leib, der Ätherleib, der Astralleib.

Oberer Ätherkörper oder Mentalleib
Astralkörper als Buddhi
Astralkörper
Unterer Ätherkörper
Physischer Körper.

Der physische Körper ist entstanden durch eine Umbildung und Veredelung jenes lindwurmartigen Körpers, den wir in der lemurischen Zeit antreffen. Er war männlich-weiblich. In dem jetzigen Menschen ist auch ein männlich-weiblicher Mensch. Bei dem Manne ist die Grundlage der oberen Glieder weiblich, beim Weibe ist die Grundlage des oberen Ätherkörpers von männlicher Bildung. Tatsächlich ist auch der Mensch der physischen Natur nach männlichweiblich.

Der Ätherkörper besteht aus zwei Gliedern: aus dem Teile der menschlichen Natur, der damals vom Monde herübergekommen ist, und seinem Gegenpol. Sie waren zuerst noch nicht miteinander verbunden, nachher näherten sie sich einander und verbanden sich. Das eine ist der Pol des Tierischen, das andere der Pol des Geistigen. Den Pol des Tierischen nennt man Ätherkörper, den Pol des Geistigen nennt man Mentalkörper. Der Mentalkörper ist materiell Äther.

Dazwischen ist der Astralkörper, der auch aus einer Verbindung von zweien entstanden ist. Er ist im Grunde auch ein doppeltes Gebilde. Man hat in ihm zu unterscheiden eine niedere und eine höhere Natur. Die höhere Natur ist ursprünglich mit dem Mentalkörper verbunden. Dies nun, was vom Astralkörper im Mentalkörper sitzt, was also von oben hereingekommen ist, das ist der andere Pol des unteren Astralkörpers. Eine Eigenschaft des unteren Astralkörpers ist, daß er Begierden hat. Der obere Teil hat statt dessen Hingabe, Liebe, die schenkende Tugend. Diesen Teil des Astralkörpers nennt man Buddhi. Diese Beschreibung des Menschen ist so gesehen in der kosmischen Beleuchtung. Wenn der Mensch selber in seine Hüllen hineinarbeitet, ist es anders. Das eine stellt dar, wie der Mensch kosmisch aufgebaut ist, das andere, wie er selbst hineinarbeitet.

So ist also Buddhi das veredelte Astrale, das Mentale das veredelte Ätherische, und das Physische hat seinen Gegenpol im Atma.

XVII

If we want to take a closer look at how karma comes about, we have to go back a little in the development of humanity. If we go back a few thousand years in Europe itself, we find Europe covered in ice. The glaciers of the Alps stretched far down into the North German Plain at that time. The areas where we now live were cold and harsh at that time. They were inhabited by a race of people who still used very simple and primitive tools. If we go back about a million years, we find a tropical climate on the same soil, such as can only be found today in the hottest regions of Africa; in some parts there were mighty primeval forests, inhabited by parrots, monkeys, especially gibbons, and elephants. But if we were to roam these forests, we would hardly encounter anything resembling modern humans, nor those of later periods a few thousand years ago. From certain layers of earth that were formed between those two eras, natural science can prove the existence of a human being whose frontal lobe was not yet as developed as it is today and whose forehead was set far back. Only the rear part of the brain was developed. This takes us back to a time when humans did not yet know fire and made weapons by grinding stones. Natural scientists like to compare this state of human beings with the developmental state of savages or that of clumsy children. Remains of such humans have been found in Neanderthal and Croatia. They have ape-like skulls, and the finds in Croatia show that they were roasted before they died, meaning that cannibals lived there at that time.

Now the materialistic thinker says to himself: We trace humans back to the times when they were still undeveloped and clumsy, and assume that humans have developed from this childlike stage of existence to the current cultural stage of humanity, and that these primitive humans evolved from human-like animals. So he simply makes a leap in this theory of development from primitive man to human-like animals. The natural scientist assumes that the more perfect has always developed from the imperfect. But this is not always the case. If we trace the individual human being back to childhood, for example, there is nothing more imperfect, because the child descends from its father and mother. This means that we arrive at a primitive state that again comes from a higher state. This is important because it is related to the fact that the child already has the predisposition for a later degree of perfection at birth, while the animal remains at the lower stage.

When the natural scientist has gone back to the stage when humans did not yet have a forebrain or a mind, he should say to himself: I must assume that the origin of humans is to be found elsewhere.

Just as a child descends from a pair of parents, so all those primitive humans descended from other humans who had already attained a certain degree of perfection. We call these humans the Atlanteans. They lived on land that is now covered by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlanteans had even less frontal lobe and an even more receding forehead. But they had something else that later humans did not have. They had a much stronger, more powerful etheric body. The etheric body of the Atlanteans had not yet formed certain connections with the brain; these developed later. Thus, a powerful etheric head had developed above the physical head, which was relatively small and embedded in a powerful etheric head. The functions that humans now perform with the help of the forebrain were performed by the Atlanteans with the help of organs in the etheric body. This enabled them to communicate with beings to whom we now have no access, precisely because humans have developed the forebrain. The Atlanteans had a visible kind of fiery, colorful formation that flowed out from the opening of the physical head to the etheric head. It was accessible to a multitude of psychic influences. Such a head, which thinks as an etheric head, has power over the etheric, while a head that thinks in the physical brain has power only over the physical, over the joining together of purely mechanical things. It can make physical tools. In contrast, a person who still thinks in the ether can make a seed blossom so that it really grows.

Atlantic culture was really still connected with the growth of the natural, vegetative world, over which modern man has lost power. For example, the Atlanteans did not use steam power to move their vehicles, but rather the seed power of plants, with which they propelled their vehicles forward. It was only in the last third of the Atlantean period, from the time of the ancient Semites until the time when Atlantis was covered by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, that the etheric forehead developed the frontal lobe. As a result, humans lost the power to influence plant growth and gained the ability of the physical brain, the intellect. They now had to start afresh with many things. They had to begin learning mechanical tasks. They were still like children, clumsy and awkward, whereas they had previously achieved great skill in the development of the vegetative. Humans must pass through intelligence and then regain what they were once able to do. Higher spiritual powers had an influence on the unfree will at that time; through the open etheric head, they worked through their intellect.

Going back even further, we come to the Lemurian period. Here we see a stage of human development in which the union of the maternal and paternal principles actually takes place. This etheric head naturally has its branches in the astral body, in what surrounds the human being as an aura... (Gap in the text.) If one had managed to lift the head with the astral body out of such a human being, something special would have happened. The human being would have lost the ability to stand upright and would have collapsed. It was precisely the opposite process that was carried out with human beings at that time, and as a result they gradually straightened up.

In the Lemurian period, however, human beings were still at a stage where they did not yet possess what we assumed could be drawn out of them. In an earlier period, they did not yet have this etheric head with the astral body. These were not yet there at that time. Human beings wandering around on earth at that time were truly collapsed beings. The two working organs, the hands, were bent backwards at that time and also formed organs of movement, so that humans walked on four legs. Imagine two humans of today, man and woman intertwined, imagine the upper half of the body gone and only the lower half remaining: humans were actually male-female. Humans at that time also had an astral and an etheric body, but not the ones they had later. It was a different astral body, one that had reached its highest perfection on the Moon. There on the Moon, in connection with the etheric body, the astral body had acquired the ability to form a physical body, which at that time had a crab-like shape. Humans could stand on one pair of legs and perform truly springy movements.

This astral body with the etheric body was very different at that time. It had a shape that was not quite egg-shaped, but more bell-shaped. It arched over the human being, who walked on all fours. The etheric body supplied all the life functions of this Lemurian human being. At that time, humans had a dull, twilight consciousness in their astral body, similar to how we dream today. But their consciousness was not like the reminiscences in our dreams today; rather, they dreamed of realities. When another, unsympathetic human being approached him, a sensation of light arose within him, indicating the unsympathetic nature of the other.

Even on the Moon, humans had already had a slight ability to use their two front limbs as grasping organs, so that now a time of upright walking began. The other living companions of humans during the Lemurian period were reptilian animals of grotesque forms that left no traces behind. Ichthyosaurs and so forth are descendants of those animals. In fact, at that time the earth was populated by beings that had a reptilian character; even human bodies had a reptilian character at that time. As the then reptilian human being straightened up, a head formation that was completely open at the front became visible, from which a fiery cloud poured forth. This gave rise to the story of the lindworm, the dragon. This is the grotesque formation that was man himself at that time, a reptilian creature. The guardian of the threshold, the lower nature of man, usually appears in such a form. It is the lower nature with the open head formation. At that time, a marriage took place on earth between these formations and the other being described above. The astral body with the head shape connected with the lindworm-like body with the fiery opening. It was the fertilization of the maternal earth with the paternal spirit.

Thus, fertilization with the manasic forces took place. The lower astral body merged with the higher astral body. A large piece of that astral body fell off. One part formed the lower parts of the human astral body, and the other, newly added astral body connected with the head, joined with the upper parts of the human being. What was peeled off at that time emerged from this astral body, which was connected with the lindworm formation, and could no longer develop further on Earth. This formed, as a conglomerate, the astral sphere of the moon, the so-called eighth sphere. The moon actually harbors astral beings that came into being because human beings shed something.

This union of the fatherly spirit with the motherly matter was described in Egypt as the union of Osiris and Isis. What came into being there was Horus. The fusion of the worm-like form with the etheric head, with the astral body of the human being who had newly arrived, and the head form, led to the conception of the sphinx form. The sphinx is the representation of this idea in sculpture.

There were seven types or classes of such beings, all slightly different from each other, ranging from the most beautiful, almost noble human forms to the most grotesque forms. All seven types of human beings had to be fertilized. One must imagine the descent of the “sons of Manas” in this figurative way. Only then can one understand how the astral body of the human being came into being. It is composed of two different parts.

If one considers human development, one will find that one part of the astral body is constantly striving to overcome the other half, the lower nature, and vice versa. If human beings today consist of an astral body, an etheric body, and a physical body, then only the physical body is actually a product that is complete as it is. The other two bodies are engaged in a constant struggle. The etheric body also has two parts that seek to merge into one another.

When a person dies, they surrender their entire physical body to the forces of the earth, but their etheric body initially splits into two parts. One part is that which originates from the higher formation, and this is what the person takes with them. The rest of the etheric body, however, falls away, because the person has no control over it; it has been given to them from outside. He can only exercise control over it once he has become a secret disciple. In ordinary human beings, this part of the etheric body is therefore surrendered to the etheric forces of the universe.

What remains attached to the human being from the astral body they received from the moon forces them to spend a period of time in Kamaloka until they have freed themselves from this part of the astral body for their individual life. Then they still have the part of the astral body that has already found balance; with this, they make their way through Devachan and back to physical life. That is why bell-like formations can be seen racing around in astral space at tremendous speed. These are the human souls that want to reincarnate. When such a human bell flashes through astral space here and a human embryo in South America has a karmic connection to it, this human bell must already be directly there. These returning souls race through astral space. These bell-like formations are reminiscent of those that appeared in the Lemurian period, except that they have already found their balance with the higher astral body.

We know that human beings develop by working on the three other bodies from the ego. The ego is nothing other than what had a fertilizing effect at that time: the upper part of the aura with the etheric head. The members that human beings have developed are the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body.

Upper etheric body or mental body
Astral body as Buddhi
Astral body
Lower etheric body
Physical body.

The physical body arose through a transformation and refinement of the lindworm-like body that we encounter in the Lemurian period. It was male-female. In the present human being there is also a male-female human being. In the man, the basis of the upper limbs is female, in the woman the basis of the upper etheric body is of male formation. In fact, human beings are also male-female in their physical nature.

The etheric body consists of two parts: the part of human nature that came over from the moon at that time, and its opposite pole. At first they were not connected to each other, but later they approached each other and connected. One is the animal pole, the other is the spiritual pole. The animal pole is called the etheric body, the spiritual pole is called the mental body. The mental body is materially etheric.

In between is the astral body, which also arose from a connection between two. It is basically also a double structure. One must distinguish between a lower and a higher nature within it. The higher nature is originally connected to the mental body. That part of the astral body which is located in the mental body, which has come in from above, is the other pole of the lower astral body. One characteristic of the lower astral body is that it has desires. The upper part, on the other hand, has devotion, love, the giving virtue. This part of the astral body is called Buddhi. This description of the human being is seen in cosmic illumination. When the human being himself works into his sheaths, it is different. One represents how the human being is cosmically constructed, the other how he himself works into it.

So Buddhi is the refined astral, the mental is the refined etheric, and the physical has its counterpart in the Atma.