The Rudolf Steiner Archive

16. The Children of Lucifer

The Replacement of Blood Love by Spiritual Love

[ 1 ] We can say that there are two kinds of people on earth. Two great spiritual currents can be recognized in humanity. The difference between the two is this: some strive more to see everything in the light of knowledge, while others want to be guided in a certain way. The very nature of the reception of the spiritual-scientific worldview shows that the striving to seek bright, clear light is not very widespread. The majority of people are not yet ready to want to know something about everything. Many are quite content with a clouding of consciousness; it embarrasses them when they are asked to achieve complete clarity in any matter. But everything that can lead to a clouding of consciousness must be renounced. This also applies to one's entire way of life. People must also be abstinent in their diet and avoid anything that clouds the consciousness, such as alcohol. There are countless other things that lead people away from clarity. Renouncing these things also makes people more practical in their daily lives. Belief in authority also leads to clouding. One should only allow oneself to be inspired, but not rely on authority.

[ 2 ] What we mean here by clarity is least connected with a subordinate way of seeing the higher worlds. Such a subordinate way is in fact connected with a spiritual twilight of consciousness. Such a state was common in earlier times in human history. In the time of the Atlanteans, human consciousness was much less clear than it is now. Now even the wildest peoples have advanced far beyond the state of consciousness of the Atlanteans. As we go further and further back in human development, we come more and more into states where human beings see from within, but do not comprehend with the intellect. With the Atlantean race, the intellect dawned for the first time. At one time, the Atlanteans lived in the place that is now Ireland. When another human being approached an Atlantean, astral images arose within him. The Atlanteans were not yet capable of reflection. Only when the forebrain is developed can a human being say “I” to himself. In the part of Atlantis that was located where Ireland is today, humans first began to develop self-awareness. From this place, the Atlanteans spread across Europe to Asia. The human bones found in Neanderthal are those of the descendants of the Atlanteans; they still have a receding forehead. From that time on, humans slowly learned to think rationally and to develop self-awareness. At the moment when humans began their spiritually enriched existence here on Earth, they were already far beyond the level of animals, but they could not yet speak or think.

[ 3 ] At that time, there were divine beings called devas who did not need a physical body and who floated in the astral space. What they could acquire through a physical body, they had already experienced on the moon. But there were also other beings who had not completed their evolution on the moon, who had not finished it. These are the Luciferic beings who had remained behind the Devas. The gods or Devas lived on earth from what had become a characteristic of human beings, from bisexual love. The love of human beings is the air or even the food that the gods enjoy. In Greek mythology, they were referred to as nectar and ambrosia.

[ 4 ] As long as humans were still somnambulistic, the hosts of Lucifer had no real task in humanity. It was only in the fifth root race that they really made humans their own children. Human thinking is not yet very old. What is called ancient wisdom was native to the oldest peoples. This ancient wisdom is the wisdom of the priests, revealed from within. However, true knowledge only emerged a few centuries before the birth of Christ, around 600 BC. The power of judgment also developed in the world only later.

[ 5 ] This brings us to an important mystery with a fact that can be found among ancient peoples. Only those who can shine light into the spiritual world are able to comprehend this fact. A North American Indian tribe has peculiar names for family relationships. Among the Iroquois, siblings called each other “brothers and sisters” — but only the children of brothers, not those of sisters. This is another relic from ancient Atlantis. In this early period of human history, family ties were the only thing that mattered. Women had several husbands, and it was impossible to determine who the father of the children was. All peoples originally had ancestors who did not pay much attention to avoiding marriage between close relatives. Close blood ties were by no means an obstacle to marriage. It was said that children descended from the closest relatives were the most enlightened: they were somnambulists. Further evolution is now increasingly moving toward the union of people who are not blood relatives. It is a law that through the union of distant relatives, the etheric body of human beings loosens itself from the physical body. In blood-related marriages, the etheric body was firmly attached to the offspring. It was illuminated from within. They thought even more with their solar plexus, but they lacked judgment. This grows through distant relationships and occurs to the same extent as the old blood-related marriages decline. The old somnambulistic way of seeing then disappears, and a new way of seeing emerges: judgment. This new epoch is marked by the emergence of the Dionysian principle. Dionysus is dismembered, only the heart is saved. When the Dionysian appeared, people were dismembered and then brought together again through the heart, the spiritual kinship associated with a complete change in sexual life. The intellect is transformed former kinship sexuality.

[ 6 ] The earlier stages of human development are now repeated in individual human lives in seven-year cycles. From the first to the seventh year, the child's etheric body still recedes completely. Therefore, before the age of seven, one should not train the memory, but only the senses. One can then influence the senses, and the inner powers are awakened with the help of the senses. These powers should be stimulated by giving children toys that allow their imagination to be active, such as a wooden block with painted dots for eyes, etc., but not ready-made dolls, to which the child can add nothing more with its imagination. From the age of seven to fourteen, children should mainly be taught to form firm habits, which will then give them a certain stability in later life. During these years, everything related to memory must be approached by the human being. It is therefore better not to influence the power of judgment during this stage of life. The child should then be surrounded by authority, but not be an authority itself. One should influence the child through stories, not preach morality, but point to great examples, to role models. For morality, it would be necessary to develop a feeling for it in the old Pythagorean form. Pythagoras said to his students: You should not strike the fire with a sword — an image for not doing useless things. Another such Pythagorean saying was: “You should not turn back on your path before you have reached the end.” Only after reaching sexual maturity should a person learn to judge for themselves. At this point, the etheric body is loosened, and the astral body is now ready to act outwardly.

[ 7 ] This development, which today the individual human being undergoes in seven-year cycles, has been completed by humanity as a whole in the course of its great epochs of development. Some of the subordinate forces in the human being were raised up to develop the power of judgment. Only then could the hosts of Lucifer intervene. This Luciferic power expresses itself in the independent judgment of human beings. In these times of intervention by the Luciferic principle, human beings' own works appeared for the first time. If we look back at ancient times, we can say that only those who formed a family came together at that time. Those who wanted to replace blood relations with the purely spiritual were those who worked in the name of Lucifer. The Church developed as a continuation of the ancient priestly wisdom. Alongside this, however, there arose a movement that sought light for itself, the Luciferic people, such as the Knights Templar. They said that one must seek light and truth for oneself. There was a sect in the Middle Ages that understood this. Its members called themselves Luciferians. They said: If human beings can still attain bliss without the light of knowledge, then this is not our concern — we want to strive for the light.

[ 8 ] These are the two currents in humanity. One current is that which only wants to attain bliss, the other wants the light as well. Those who fear knowledge regard Lucifer as evil. But for the others, Lucifer is the light bearer, the bringer of light. There is a manuscript in the Vatican that mentions this, but it is kept secret by the Church, and this ecclesiastical direction warns people against Lucifer.

[ 9 ] Dogma can certainly contain truth. Thus, the Pythagorean theorem is a dogma for those who have not understood it. But once they understand it, it becomes bright, clear knowledge for them. Dogmas are presented as based on authority. Once they are understood, they also become clear knowledge.

[ 10 ] In the time when Paul lived, Christianity was such that it was supposed to lead to universal love for humanity. A tribal and folk religion was to become a world religion. The belief in revelation is linked to the blood community. Moses gives fixed laws. Christ does not give fixed laws, but instead of the law comes grace. It is the revival of the innermost part of the human soul.

[ 11 ] A descending wave is what is sought in the church organization, and an ascending wave in the pursuit of freedom of opinion. There are such aspirations in certain brotherhoods, such as the Knights Templar, who strive for the light. This race, which struggles for the light, are the children of Lucifer.

[ 12 ] Edouard Schuré set the drama “The Children of Lucifer” at the time when Christianity began to organize itself strictly. There is one ecclesiastical current, and alongside it another, the Luciferic principle. The children of Lucifer are the children of inner light, not of revealed faith. Those who strive toward the future must feel a kindred spirit in a genius-like way. In our time, the spiritual-scientific movement has expressed that one should come to the light through one's own striving. Deepest inner freedom should be developed within the human soul.

[ 13 ] The theosophical magazine was deliberately named “Lucifer.” It is connected with the innermost essence of the theosophical movement. It should be documented that the Luciferic principle was consciously introduced into the world. When the Catholic Church established the dogma of infallibility, the emphasis on the Luciferic principle emerged as a counteracting pole. Or, conversely, one could say that theosophy's proclamation of spiritual freedom created the dogma of infallibility as the other pole, because this was the only way the Church could save itself.