The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Tenth Lecture

[ 1 ] When the Earth emerged from the darkness of the Pralaya state, it did not appear alone, but initially united with the Sun and our present Moon. The Sun, Moon, and Earth were one giant body. That was the initial stage of our planet.

[ 2 ] At that time, the Earth consisted of very, very thin matter. There were no solid minerals, nor was there any water, only this fine matter that we call ether. The whole thing was therefore an ethereal, fine planet, surrounded by a spiritual atmosphere, like today's Earth is surrounded by a circle of air. This spiritual atmosphere contained everything that today forms the human soul. Your souls, which are now sunk into your bodies, were all up there in that spiritual atmosphere. The Earth was a large etheric sphere, much, much larger than our Earth today, surrounded by spiritual substance, and contained within this spiritual substance were the future human souls. Down below, in the thin matter of the etheric sphere, there was something denser, namely millions of shell-shaped formations. These were the human germs of Saturn coming out again. Here, what had formed in ancient times on Saturn was now repeating itself. Of course, there could be no question of physical reproduction and multiplication of these human germs; at that time, something completely different existed. The entire spiritual atmosphere surrounding the earth was, like our air circle, more or less a unified whole, only spiritual extensions stretched down from this spiritual envelope like a kind of tentacles into the ether sphere and enveloped the shell-like formations, so that you have to imagine that the spirit descended from above and enveloped the individual bodies. These tentacles worked on them and formed a human shape. When the structure was finished, the extension withdrew again, stretched out in another direction, and worked on other structures. What was produced was thus brought forth directly from the spiritual worlds. In the very beginning, there was a confused, swirling etheric substance below, much denser than the uniform divine spirit substance that stretched out its arms to create structures out of chaos. This was the first epoch of our Earth; it is beautifully expressed in the Genesis of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth, and the Earth was without form and void, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The ether, as it was below, is referred to in occult science as “water.”

[ 3 ] At that time, it would not have been possible to see the Earth, nor the shell-like formations; these were sounding human formations, and when one such formation came into being, it expressed itself in a certain tone. There was no individuality in the formations yet; this was still completely dissolved in the spiritual atmosphere. Seven types of fundamental tones could be distinguished in these formations. These seven groups formed the first seven human root races in embryo.

[ 4 ] After millions of years, a great cosmic process took place: the entire mighty etheric body constricted somewhat, took on a biscuit-like shape, and remained so for a time. Finally, a small part consisting of the Earth and Moon separated from this common structure. This process was associated with something very special for human development. The human germs were structured and differentiated; with the emergence of the sun, objects could now be illuminated from outside for the first time. All vision is based on the presence of light, on the sun's rays falling on objects and being reflected back. Light is the originator of the eyes. When the sun emerged, there were bodies that it could shine on. This made it possible for organs to gradually develop for the perception of illuminated objects. The environment became visible. This time is described in Genesis with the words: "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. " The entire Earth structure now began to rotate, and this created day and night. When one reads the Bible as a secret scientist, one can take everything literally again.

[ 5 ] Now a large part of the spiritual beings that had surrounded the Earth had departed with the sun. They formed the spiritual population of the sun and worked on the Earth from the sun. The physical-etheric human forms were now equipped with an astral shell. The whole, Earth and Moon, was now surrounded by an astral atmosphere. What had previously been spread out in the spiritual atmosphere now extended to the individual human forms, which had developed an independent physical and etheric body, and surrounded them. The physical and etheric bodies were now fully formed. However, there was no independence with regard to the astral body; there was still a common astral shell for all beings. This was the Earth spirit, and it stretched out its tentacles and enveloped each individual human ancestor. A new ability now emerged. Now each human form could bring forth another from its own substance: a kind of reproduction without fertilization by two beings. It was therefore a fertilization that was not of a sexual nature, but was carried out by the entire astral atmosphere. When a tentacle stretched down, it meant fertilization of the human being, who could then develop others. The human beings were bell-shaped and had a tubular opening at the top to receive the tentacles; they opened themselves to the sun. This was the Hyperborean primeval human being; this period is called the second great root race. These human beings were multi-membered. They did not die; there was no death in our sense of the word. Dying means the withdrawal of consciousness from the body. At that time, however, consciousness was not yet differentiated; it was a general consciousness for all human beings in the astral shell. The consciousness of the individual remained part of the collective consciousness, and when it withdrew from one entity, it descended into another without interruption. It was as if a piece of a cloud detached itself at the front and was immediately replaced by another at the back. It was only a metamorphosis, and there was an uninterrupted continuity of consciousness. Consciousness perceived it only as a change of clothing. And the whole lived in wonderful beauty, floating in the most magnificent colors, in a light ether, and gradually condensing.

[ 6 ] In addition to human ancestors, there were also animal and plant forms that were to be their companions. The plants were the lowly plants that have become dwarfed today. Likewise, the animals did not yet exist in their present form. They were luminous plants and animals swirling through the ether. There were no male and female animals; everything was still unisexual; only certain animals were just beginning to develop some degree of dual sexuality. A true mineral kingdom had not yet developed. Then the etheric forms became increasingly dense, so that the astral was also drawn in more and more.

[ 7 ] After a million years, the Earth and Moon looked very different: animals and plants were jelly-like, like egg whites, like certain jellyfish and sea plants; and in this dense matter with organs were the ancestors of humans. The animal and plant structures gradually condensed through the fertilizing astral force. Then came an important time when the fertilizing entities in the astral atmosphere manifested themselves through the natural structures living at that time, so that humans and animals received both the fertilizing and nourishing substance from the surrounding plant world. This secreted something that resembled the later milk of humans and animals. A last remnant of such milk-secreting plants is, for example, the dandelion. In this way, humans at that time nourished and fertilized themselves from the surrounding nature and were selfless. In this way, humans were complete vegetarians. They only took what nature freely gave. They nourished themselves with milk- and honey-like juices. It was a wonderful state in this distant past, which can hardly be described with images from our language.

[ 8 ] Now comes an extremely important moment: the Earth and Moon separate; the smaller Moon separates from the Earth. Now there are three bodies: Sun, Moon, and Earth. This provided something extremely important for living beings. The Moon took with it a large part of the forces that humans and animals needed to bring forth other beings from themselves. Each human being now had only half the fertilizing power that had previously been within them. The productive power was halved, and this gradually led to the separation into two sexes. Now humans had to be fertilized by a being of their own kind. This was the Lemurian period, the third root race. During this period, matter also became denser and thicker. Shortly before the separation of the Earth and the Moon, denser deposits had formed, and after the separation, cartilage-like substances with the potential for bone densification formed in humans and animals. As the outer mass of the Earth densified and the solid ground, the solid crust of the Earth, formed, solid bone mass formed in humans and animals. Solid mineral structures gradually emerged. Previously, everything had been ethereal, then airy and fluid; beings moved as if floating in water or flying in the air. Now the earth formed a solid framework in its rocks, like the skeleton inside humans. Bone and rock formation proceeded in parallel. The form of the humans of that time can be compared to a kind of fish-bird creature. Most of the earth was still watery, and the temperature was still very high. Much of what later became solid was still dissolved in this watery element, including, for example, metals and other substances. Humans moved in this element in a floating, suspended manner, so to speak. They could tolerate the tremendous heat that prevailed on Earth at that time; their bodies still consisted of a substance that corresponded to the conditions described, so that they could live in it.

[ 9 ] Small continents, island-like formations, were embedded in the water, on which humans wandered; but the entire landmass was riddled with volcanic activity, which continued with tremendous vehemence, destroying parts of the earth so that it was constantly exposed to elemental destruction and regeneration.

[ 10 ] Humans did not yet have lungs; they breathed through tubular gill organs. You see, humans at that time were already very complex creatures: they had developed a spine, first cartilaginous, then bony, and in order to move around by floating and swimming, they had a swim bladder, much like today's fish.

[ 11 ] Soon, that is, after millions of years, the Earth became more solid. The water receded, separating itself from the solid components, the air emerged in its purity, and under the influence of the air, the swim bladder gradually transformed into lungs. Humans now rose above the watery element. This was a particularly important and significant process. The gills transformed into other organs, some of which became hearing organs. With the development of the lungs came the ability to breathe; as a result, all of humanity lives in a common element, the air. Humans are surrounded by air. Every human being takes in a quantum of air, transforms it according to their form, and exhales it again. In the beginning, humans were filled with pure spirit, later with the astral, and now with air. Now humans had reached the point where warm breathing was transformed into air breathing. This made use of what Mars had brought: warm blood was now created. The moment has come when what used to be outside of humans entered into them: the spirit that used to surround them went into humans. And how? Through the air. The ability to breathe means the absorption of the individual human spirit. The human ego enters the human being with the air we breathe. When we speak of a common ego for all human beings, this also has a common body: the air. It is not without reason that the ancients called this communal ego Atma, which means breath. They knew exactly that they drew it in and exhaled it again when they breathed. We live in our common self because we live in the general air. Of course, the description of this process should not be taken too literally. The descent of the individual self into human beings is described in theosophical literature as the descent of Manas, the Manasaputras. With each breath, a human being slowly absorbed Manas, Budhi, and Atma more or less in their embryonic form. Genesis describes this moment, and we can take it literally: “And God breathed into Adam the breath of life, and he became a living soul.” This is the absorption of the individual spirit.

[ 12 ] Human beings now also had warm blood, which enabled them to retain heat within themselves. However, there is something else very important connected with this.

[ 13 ] There were also beings on the moon who were higher than the human world at that time. These were the gods, called angels and archangels in Christian tradition. They were once at the human level, and just as we will have risen higher on the next planet, so too have they risen higher over the course of time. They no longer had physical bodies, but were still connected to the Earth. They no longer needed what humans needed, but they needed the humans themselves, over whom they could rule.

[ 14 ] When the moon had completed its development, some of these gods remained behind in their development; they remained, so to speak, stuck. They were not yet as far along as they should have been. And so there were beings who stood between gods and humans: demigods. These beings became particularly important for the Earth and humanity. They could not completely transcend humanity and its sphere, but they could not incarnate in humans either. They could only anchor themselves in part of human nature in order to further their development with this part and at the same time help humans. They had breathed fire on the moon. They anchored themselves in the fire that had now become permanent in humans, in warm human blood, the original seat of passions and drives, and gave it some of the fire that had been their element on the moon. These are the hosts of Lucifer, the Luciferic beings. The Bible calls them the seducers of humans. They seduced humans insofar as they lived in their blood and made them independent. If these Luciferic beings had not been there, humans would have received everything as a gift from the gods. They would have become wise, but dependent, serene, but unfree. Because these beings anchored themselves in his blood, man not only became wise, but he also gained fire, passion for wisdom and ideals.

[ 15 ] But with this came the possibility of straying. Humans can turn away from the High. Man could now choose between good and evil. With this predisposition, with this possibility of evil, the Lemurian race gradually developed. This predisposition caused great upheavals on Earth. The Earth was shaken by tremors and quakes, and so Lemuria was largely destroyed by these passions of mankind.

[ 16 ] The Earth had changed again, becoming denser. Other continents had already emerged. The most important continent that had formed in the meantime was Atlantis, located between present-day Europe, Africa, and America. The descendants of the Lemurian race had spread across this continent. Over many millions of years, they had changed greatly and taken on a form similar to that of modern humans. Nevertheless, these people were very different from those of today. The shape of their heads was completely different, their foreheads were much lower, and their digestive organs were much more powerful. The etheric body of the Atlantean extended far beyond his physical head. In the etheric body of the head there was an important point that corresponded to a point in the physical head. The development now consisted in both points moving closer together, so that the point of the etheric head moved into the point of the physical body. At the moment when both points coincided, human beings could begin to say “I” to themselves. The forebrain could now become a tool for the spirit; self-consciousness arose. This moment first occurred among the Atlanteans living in the region of present-day Ireland.

[ 17 ] The Atlanteans gradually developed into seven sub-races: Rmoahals, Tlavatli, Urtolteken, Urturanier, Ursemites, Urakkadier, and Urmongols. Among the Ursemites, the two points united and clear self-awareness developed. The next two sub-races, the Urakkadier and Urmongols, actually overshot the goal of Atlantean humanity.

[ 18 ] Before this union of the two points, the soul forces of the Atlanteans were fundamentally different from today. The Atlanteans had much more agile bodies and, above all, in the very early days, a powerful, strong will. For example, they could regenerate lost limbs, make plants grow quickly, and thus exert a tremendous influence on nature. They had powerfully developed sensory organs; they could distinguish metals by touch, just as we distinguish smells. But then they also had a highly developed gift of clairvoyance. They did not sleep at night like modern humans, who have at most confused dreams, but like clairvoyants, only more dull. At night they communicated with the gods, and what they experienced there still lives on in myths and legends. They forced the forces of nature to serve them. Their dwellings were half natural formations and carved into rocks. The Atlanteans constructed airships, which they propelled not with inorganic power, such as today's coal power, but with organic plant power.

[ 19 ] Because the two points mentioned above were not yet connected, the Atlanteans did not have a combinatorial mind. For example, they could not calculate. But they had developed another soul power in particular: memory. The combinatorial logical power of the mind and self-awareness only emerged in the fifth sub-race, the Proto-Semites.

[ 20 ] Atlantis was destroyed by a massive water catastrophe. The entire continent was gradually flooded, and the masses migrated eastward to Europe and Asia. One main branch moved from Ireland through Europe to Asia. Masses of people were left behind everywhere. They were led by a high initiate whom they trusted completely. Through his wisdom, he then made a selection, took the best with him, and settled them in distant Asia at a place where the Gobi Desert is located today. There, in complete isolation, a small colony was specially trained. From this colony, colonizers then went to all inhabited countries and founded the cultures of the next root race: the Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egyptian-Babylonian-Assyrian, and the Greek-Latin cultures. And then the Germanic-Anglo-Saxon culture arose.

[ 21 ] Tomorrow we will see how the development continued.