The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Third Lecture

[ 1 ] It has become clear to us that the seven letters in the first chapters of the Apocalypse were intended by the writer of Revelation for the seven representatives of the seven cultural epochs of the post-Atlantean period, which followed the great water catastrophe also known as the Flood. The age that follows the seven post-Atlantean cultural periods is revealed to the initiated in seven seals as seven periods of time, similar to those of our post-Atlantean time.

[ 2 ] Above all, we must realize that the soul development of humanity will still have to undergo many and varied changes in the future. The more we go back to the times of ancient, dim self-awareness, the more we find dim clairvoyance, and the less people appear to us as individuals. If we go far back to the Atlantean era, we see people not as individual beings, but as connected in consciousness to group souls. But even in historical times, in the last centuries before Christ, we find group soul beings; at that time, people in Central Europe felt themselves to be members of an organism, members of a tribe. Tacitus tells us how the individual Cherusci did not feel themselves to be individuals, but members of the tribal ego.

[ 3 ] In the early Atlantean period, we find that people are very similar to each other across vast areas; they break down into groups of great and striking similarity. Around the middle of the Atlantean period, humanity still breaks down into four main groups. During the first stage of Atlantic evolution, the members of the individual groups still looked very much alike, with only the groups themselves differing greatly from one another. At that time, clairvoyants could see very little of what today constitutes the physical body; the physical human body was still made of a very soft matter, like that of certain sea creatures, which today can hardly be distinguished from the water around them. The air was completely permeated with the watery element, and the physical body of the human being was still very difficult to distinguish from this surrounding element. However, the bones and the nervous system were already present as forces at that time. It is only through hardening that the human being becomes an actual earthly human being.

[ 4 ] If, based on today's ideas, so to speak, one wants to describe the different people of that time, one can first see those who have developed the physical nature most densely; the occultist calls them Taurus people. The people in whom the etheric body is most developed are the aggressive people, the forceful natures, the Leo people. A third group has an astral body that strongly dominates the other members; this is the group that is now referred to as actual human beings. Then there are those who could be called eagles, who have already developed their ego to such an extent that they rule over the others. Thus, one can speak of these four group souls, and the clairvoyant perceives them by looking back into those ancient times.

[ 5 ] These four groups of people were characterized by what was most developed on earth at that time. The Taurus people of that time had the most developed digestive system; the Leo people had the most developed heart and blood circulation.... [gap in the transcript] The clairvoyant can see four such group souls; this is what appears during initiation into the astral world. What then presents itself to the clairvoyant can be roughly compared to what the four animals are today. Anyone who looks at human evolution today with occult insight sees this image of the four groups of people symbolized in these four animals.

[ 6 ] The war of all against all will be the expression of the ever-increasing egoism conjured up by today's humanity as the ego becomes stronger and stronger. This will be the end of the last post-Atlantean culture. This catastrophe will also have its mission, its benefit in the advancement of the whole of humanity. However, the great war of all against all will be something much worse than today's war with weapons. It will be a war of souls, of souls that no longer understand each other, a war of classes, of social strata. This future catastrophe is difficult to comprehend for today's consciousness.

[ 7 ] The Atlanteans were magicians. Just as humans today use the forces that lie dormant in coal, the Atlanteans used the forces in seeds; they put the seed forces of organisms at the service of their technology and industry.

[ 8 ] There is a mysterious connection between these forces. As long as the Atlanteans used the seed forces correctly, they were in harmony with the forces of air and water. From the middle of the Atlantean era, however, the magic of the Atlanteans increasingly led to their moral decline, and in the mysteries of the black occult schools, terrible abuse was made of these magical forces. They were placed at the service of the most terrible egoism. Thus, the forces of air and water became increasingly agitated until the great Atlantean water catastrophe was inevitable. Those who today know the secret of how to use these forces are well aware that if such seed forces were used today, it would be black magic that would bring about the same results. Magic must never be used for selfish purposes. Thus, today the seed forces of plants must not be used in the service of white magic. In the Lemurian era, however, the seed forces of animals were used. But wherever these animal growth forces are misused, the most terrible forces of fire, the volcanic element of the earth, are awakened.

[ 9 ] Today these things are not so obvious; today the element of self-consciousness, of exaggerated egoism in human beings, causes the drying up and desolation of those regions of the earth that have carried this egoism to the highest degree. It is absolutely true that on the surface of the earth this war of all against all is being prepared, in that there is a connection between the egoistic drying up of the soul forces and the stagnation of the productive forces of the earth. This is told to us in the Norse myth of the twilight of the gods.

[ 10 ] First, however, we must learn to understand the difference between soul development and physical development. Human souls find themselves in different bodies from epoch to epoch, and because these souls will one day see the strife that will prevail among the human souls born into the last post-Atlantean epoch, this will be a lesson for them in liberation from egoism. In this way, they will grow into a time when they will have the fruits of selfhood, but without its harmful effects. And then a time will come that will be similar to the old clairvoyant states of Atlantis, but with free self-consciousness. In these seven cultures of the post-Atlantean era, human beings will have learned what they can conquer in the physical world; this sense of self can only awaken in the physical body, but human beings must once again subdue the physical body. After the war of all against all, human beings will have reached a stage and a state of physicality where they will no longer be slaves, but masters of their physical bodies.

[ 11 ] And this impulse comes precisely through the Christ principle. The Christ event falls right in the middle between the epoch of the Atlantean catastrophe and the war of all against all. Thus, on the one hand, human beings owe their sense of self within their physical bodies to their descent into matter, and on the other hand, they owe their ascent with the achievements of the physical world to the Christ event. Human beings owe it to the Christ principle that they will ascend to universal brotherly love, to universal love for humanity, as human beings will reunite in love for one another in groups.

[ 12 ] If we now look back to the time of the original group souls of Atlantis and then into the future, these four group souls appear; in their midst will stand the Lamb as a sign of the love that will unite human beings in a less dense physical body.

[ 13 ] But this state must be prepared by a small group separating itself out today, a group that can carry over brotherly love. That is why a current has arisen in our time that leads to brotherly love through real spiritual knowledge. Preaching brotherly love will not bring humanity to brotherly love, but knowledge will. Preachers who always talk about love achieve nothing; but if you give people the wisdom, the knowledge of evolution, in such a way that this knowledge is life in the soul, then humanity will come to love. The soul attains this when it is warmed by wisdom; then it can radiate love.

[ 14 ] That is why the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings have established this current for the radiation of love into humanity and for the inflow of wisdom into humanity. Humanity, rushing headlong into war against all, will then find the fruit of the theosophical movement in the understanding of peace, while all around them the nature of human beings will have led those who have not heard the call of the masters of wisdom and harmony of feeling, based on the Christ impulse of the fourth period, into strife.

[ 15 ] Let us look back once more to the first period of our culture, to the holy Rishis who point to the Vishva Karman, which they see as clairvoyants through the etheric bodies of the Atlantean initiates whom they carry within themselves. The apocalyptic clairvoyant directs his spiritual gaze upon Him and sees how He holds the seven star oracles in His hand through the seven rishis. These holy, simple men wanted to awaken the spiritual sense of humanity by telling them that the world around them was Maya or illusion; they called only the spirit behind it truth — to which the holy seven Rishis pointed. Human beings had to descend into this physical life; but in order to protect them from descending too deeply into matter, they first had to absorb the teaching of Maya or illusion. The souls that now dwell in our bodies lived in Indian bodies and learned at that time to regard matter as illusion. But all around them were the souls of the many people bound in the chains of matter. Today, this means that these reincarnated people are theoretical materialists. They are the most harmless, for in the future these thoughts will be driven out of them by the fact that the earth will become desolate and only the soul, in which they no longer believe today, will remain alive. But what is worse is practical materialism. This form of materialism was even more dangerous in ancient times because then the memories of magical powers were still alive; this materialism had to lead to black magic. Thus, this materialism always meant a decline into black magic at that time; and the apocalyptic writer always speaks of these people as the Nicolaitans, who were the first to abandon the glorious love of the spirit. Thus, where he has cause to praise, he says that the Nicolaitans are to be hated.

[ 16 ] Within the ancient Indian culture, we find the least of black magic; we find most of it as abuse in Egypt, since the high teaching of Hermes passed into the art of black magic. Balaam refers to a black magician; the apocalyptic writer addresses his warning to the church of Pergamum in verse 14: “But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the teaching of Balaam.” (Rev. 2:14) This does not refer to ordinary fornication, but to the development of the powers of matter, black magic.

[ 17 ] In the occult schools of the early post-Christian period, the Apocalypse was a favorite book. The ancient mysteries explored the primordial wisdom, the wisdom of the Atlanteans. The Christian mysteries, on the other hand, sought to direct the gaze toward the future, not only to know, but also to stimulate the will so that humanity could undergo ever higher incarnations with spiritual goods.