Egyptian Myths and Mysteries
GA 106
4 September 1908, Leipzig
Third Lecture
The Old Initiation Centers. The Human Form as the Subject of Meditation.
Yesterday we spoke of the mysterious connection between the earlier evolutionary conditions of our earth and the various world-conceptions of the successive post-Atlantean periods. The remarkable fact emerged that when the Atlantean catastrophe had altered the face of the earth, the holy pre-Vedic Indian culture, in its philosophical conceptions, showed something like a mirror-picture of the events that, in the beginning of the, earth's evolution, took place in that remote past when sun, moon, and earth were still united. What the eye of the spirit beheld at that time was nothing but a spiritually conceived form of what actually existed when our earth stood at the beginning of its evolution.
The second condition of the earth, when the sun had detached itself but earth and moon still formed one body, came to light during the second cultural period, the old Persian, as a philosophic-religious system in the opposition of the light-principle in the sun-aura to the principle of darkness, the opposition of Ormuzd to Ahriman. The third period, the Egyptian-Babylonian-Assyrian, is a spiritual reflection of what took place when earth, sun, and moon had become three bodies. We also pointed out that the trinity of Osiris, Isis, and Horus reflected the third epoch's astral trinity of sun, earth, and moon.
This separation occurred in the Lemurian time. After this followed the Atlantean time, the fourth evolutionary condition of the earth, in which there prevailed conditions of consciousness entirely different from those of today. Through these different forms of consciousness man lived with the gods, he was acquainted with the gods who were later named Wotan, Balder, Thor, Zeus, Apollo, etc. These were beings whom the Atlantean man could perceive with his clairvoyance. We have a repetition of the Atlantean perception of divine-spiritual beings in the memory of the peoples of the Greco-Latin time, and also among the peoples of northern Europe. It was a memory of the experiences of earlier conditions of consciousness. Be it Wotan or Zeus, be it Mars, Hera, or Athena, all were a memory of the spirit-forms of that old world of gods.
Today we must gradually penetrate a little more into the souls of the ancient Indian, Persian, and Egyptian cultures. If we want to form a true picture of the religious experiences of these ancient cultures, we must bear in mind that, the most important parts of the population among these ancient peoples, including the seers, prophets, and enlightened persons, were successors of men who had already lived in the Atlantean time. Furthermore, it was by no means the case that the whole of Atlantean culture was destroyed immediately after the great catastrophe; on the contrary, what remained was gradually carried over and planted into the new time. We will best understand the souls of the post-Atlantean descendants if we steep ourselves in the soul-life of the last Atlanteans.
In the latter Atlantean time men were different one from another, some having retained a high degree of clairvoyant ability. This faculty did not vanish suddenly, but was still present in many of the men who took part in the great migration from west to east. In others, however, it had already disappeared. There were advanced persons and retarded persons and, in accordance with the whole nature of evolution at that time, we can understand that the least advanced were those who were the most clairvoyant, for in a certain way they had remained stationary and had preserved the old Atlantean character. The most advanced were those who had already achieved a physical perceiving of the world, thus approaching our form of day-consciousness. It was they who, ceased to see the spiritual world clairvoyantly at night, and who during their waking hours saw objects with sharper contours. That little handful of whom we have already spoken, who were led by the greatest initiate (generally known as Manu1Echoes of this term were preserved by many peoples: e.g. Menes in Egypt, Manu in India, Minos in Crete, and Manitu in America. ) and his pupils deep into Asia and thence fructified the other cultures, just this handful, being composed of the most advanced men of that time, first lost the ancient gift of clairvoyance for the ordinary relationships of life. For them the true day-consciousness, in which we see physical objects sharply contoured, became ever clearer. Their great leader led this group farthest into Asia, so that they could live in isolation; otherwise they would have come too closely in touch with other peoples who still preserved the old clairvoyance. Only because they remained separated from other peoples for a time could they grow into a new type of man. A colony was established in inner Asia, whence the great cultural streams could flow into the most varied peoples.
Northern India was the first country to receive its new cultural current from this center. It has already been pointed out that these little groups of cultural pioneers nowhere found un-populated territory. Earlier still, before their great migration from west to east, there had been other wanderings, and whenever new stretches of land rose from the sea, they were peopled by the wanderers. The persons sent out from this colony in Asia had to mix with other peoples, all of whom were more backward than they who had been led by Manu. Among these other peoples were many persons who had retained the old clairvoyance.
It was not the custom of the initiates to establish colonies as this is done today; they colonized in a different way. They knew that they had to start with the souls of the persons whom they met in the lands that were to be colonized. The emissaries did not impose what they had to say. They reckoned with what they found. A balance was reached that took into account the needs of the old inhabitants. This reckoned with their religious views, which were based on the memory of earlier epochs, and also with the old clairvoyant disposition. So it was natural that only a handful of the most advanced could develop true concepts. The great masses could form only ideas that were a sort of compromise between the old Atlantean and the post-Atlantean attitudes. Therefore, we find in all these countries, in India, in Persia, in Egypt, whenever the different post-Atlantean cultures appeared, religious ideas which for that age are less advanced, less cultivated; which are nothing but a sort of continuation of the old Atlantean ideas.
To understand what kind of conceptions really appeared in these folk-religions we must form a picture of them. We must transport ourselves into the souls of the last Atlantean population. We must bear in mind that in the Atlantean time man was not unconscious at night, but that he could then perceive just as he perceived by day—if we can speak at all of night or day in that time. By day he perceived the first traces of what we today so clearly see as the world of sense-perceptions. By night he was the companion of the divine spiritual beings. He needed no proof of the existence of gods, just as we today need no proof of the existence of minerals. The gods were his companions; he himself was a spiritual being during the night. In his astral body and ego he wandered about the spiritual world. He was himself a spirit and he met beings who were of like nature with himself.
Naturally, man did not meet only these higher spiritual beings. He also met beings lower than those who were later known as Wotan, Zeus, etc. These were the choicest figures, but by no means the only ones. It was like seeing kings and emperors to day. Many do not see them, yet still believe that there are kings and emperors.
In this state, which was common to everyone, man perceived the surrounding objects in a way different from his perception today. This was true even while he was conscious during the day. We must try to understand what this consciousness of the latter Atlanteans was.
We have described how the divine beings became imperceptible to man when he dived down into his physical body in the morning. He saw objects as though they were surrounded by mist. These were the images of his waking day at that time. But these pictures had another remarkable property, which we must grasp clearly. Let us suppose that such a man approached a pond. He did not see the water in the pond so clearly defined as we do today, but when he directed his attention to it he experienced something quite different. In approaching the pond a feeling arose in him, merely through looking at it, that was like a taste of what lay before him physically, without his having to drink the water. Simply through looking at it he would have felt that the water was sweet or salty. It was not at all like our seeing water today. We see only the surface and do not penetrate into the inner qualities. But while a dim clairvoyance still prevailed, the man who approached the pond had no alien feeling toward it. He felt himself as being within the properties of the water; he did not stand over against the object as we do; it was as though he could penetrate into the water.
If we had encountered a block of salt at that time, we would have noticed its taste as we approached it. Today we must lick it before we perceive what was then given through mere sight. Man was, as it were, within the whole, and he perceived things as though they were ensouled. He perceived beings that imparted a salty taste to the block. Everything was ensouled for him; air, earth, water, fire. Everything revealed something to him. He could feel himself into the interior of objects; he experienced their inner essence. Nothing appeared to him as a soulless object in the modern way. Therefore man felt everything with sympathy and antipathy because he saw its inner nature. He felt, he experienced, the inner being of the objects.
Memories of these experiences remained everywhere. The parts of the Indian population encountered by the colonists had such a relation to things. They knew that souls lived in things. They had preserved the ability to see the properties of things. Let us bear in mind this whole relationship of men to things. At that time man could perceive how the water tasted as he approached the pond. There he saw a spiritual being, who gave the water its taste. He could meet this spiritual being during the night if he lay down by the water and fell asleep. By day he saw the material; by night he saw what lived in things. By day he saw stones, plants, and animals, he heard the wind blow and the waters roar; by night he saw within himself, in its true form, what he only sensed by day—the spirits that live in all things. When he said that spirits live in the minerals, in the plants, in the water, in the clouds, in the wind, this was for him no poetic license, no mere fantasy, but something that he could see.
We must live, deeply into these souls in order to understand them. Then we understand what dreadful folly it is when our scholars speak of animism and allege that it is the “folk-imagination” that ensouls and personifies things. There is no such folk-imagination. One who really knows the folk does not speak in this way. Repeatedly we find this singular analogy; just as a child, bumping against a table, strikes the table in revenge because (so say the scholars) it thinks of the table as having a soul, so did the primeval man in his childishness ensoul the objects of nature, such as the trees. This is repeated ad nauseam. Certainly there is imagination here, but it is the imagination of the scholars rather than of the folk. It is the scholars who are dreaming. Those who originally saw everything as ensouled were not dreaming; they only reported what they actually saw.
As a sort of remnant, this kind of perception emerged among the ancient peoples as a memory. But the error in the above analogy is that the child does not see the table as ensouled; he does not yet feel a soul in himself, but regards himself as a lump of wood. Feeling himself soulless, he places himself on the same level as the soulless table that he bangs. The fact is just the opposite of what we read in the learned books. Whether we look at India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, or any other place, we find everywhere the same images that were described above, and into these images was poured the culture that was given out by the old initiates.
In ancient India the Rishis guided the culture. We must try to understand something of what gave the impulse to a form that developed into one of the most important forms of the Indian outlook. We know that in all ages there have been so-called mystery schools, where those who could develop their spiritual faculties learned to see more deeply into the world-all, awakening the slumbering faculties so as to see the spiritual connections of things. From these mystery-places proceeded the spiritual impulses of the various cultures. In order really to understand the initiates, we usually consider them as they were in post-Atlantean times, since their nature at that time is most easily comprehensible. But in Atlantis we could encounter something similar to initiate-schools. In order to understand them thoroughly, let us examine the methods of such an ancient Atlantean initiation-school.
If we go back to those times, we find that the above-described conditions of consciousness prevailed and also that man did not then have his present shape. He had quite a different form.2The genesis of the human form is much discussed in this and succedding chapters. The reader will find Dr. H. Poppelbaum's book Man and Animal (Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1960) to be a helpful companion in this study. Let us go back to the first half of the Atlantean period. Man consisted already of physical, etheric, and astral bodies, plus the ego, but the physical body still looked quite different. We might compare it with the bodies of certain sea-animals, transparent, hardly to be seen, although laced with luminous threads in certain directions. It was much softer than today, having as yet no bones. It is true that there was already cartilage in some parts, but in these ancient times the physical body was definitely not of its present form.
The etheric body was a much more important member. The physical body was then more or less the same size as now, but the etheric body was extraordinarily large. This etheric body varied among individuals, but one could perceive four different types. One part of mankind would resemble one type, another part another. These four types may be designated by the names of the apocalyptic beasts: bull, lion, eagle, man. It would not be correct to imagine that these beasts were exactly similar to the present animals, but the impression that they made reminds us of these. The impressions that the etheric bodies made can be understood through the picture of a lion, bull, eagle, or man. We can compare with the bull the portion of mankind that gave the impression of having powerful reproductive forces or an unusual appetite. Another portion lived more in the spiritual; these were the eagle men, who felt less at home in the physical world. Then there were men in whom the etheric body was already similar to the present-day physical body; it was not quite identical, but it was like the human form. However, we must not imagine that each man represented only one type; all four types would show some traces in each person, but one or another would predominate.
Such were the etheric bodies of the Atlantean population. As to the astral body, it was especially powerful but largely undeveloped, while the ego was still wholly outside of man. People were entirely different at that time from today. Naturally, some men matured earlier and assumed the ultimate form before the others, but in the main one can describe the men of that time as we have just done. This was the normal condition of the average man.
It was entirely different with the more advanced persons, with the pupils of the mystery-places, who strove after the initiation of the ancient Atlantis. Let us enter in spirit such a center of initiation and try to picture what the teacher had to give. First, what was this teacher himself?
If one meets an initiate today, there is nothing in his general appearance by which he can be recognized. Few persons would recognize him today. The initiate must live in a physical body, and the physical body has developed a long way; hence it differs from others only in certain inner refinements. At that time, however, the initiate was vastly different from other men. The others still had a more animal-like form; the physical body was small in comparison with the gigantic etheric bodies, forming a clumsy animal-like mass. The initiate differed from these in that his physical body was more similar to the modern formation; his countenance was similar to that of modern man, and he had a forebrain such as that of the average man of today. His brain was highly developed, which was not true of other men at that time. These initiates had their schools, into which they admitted pupils who, having proved themselves mature and sufficiently developed, were selected out of the ordinary run of men by special methods.
We must bear one thing in mind if we wish fully to understand what follows. We must realize that in the course of time the power of man's spiritual members over his physical body has almost completely disappeared. The man of today has a certain degree of control over his body. He can move his arms and legs, pedal on bicycles, and exercise some command over his physiognomy, but this is only a last meager remnant of the mastery over the physical body that obtained in ancient Atlantean times. In those days the thoughts and feelings had a much greater influence over the physical body. If today a person were to concentrate for weeks, months, or even years on a certain thought, only in exceptional cases would this influence more than the etheric body. Seldom would the physical body be influenced by a meditation. If, for example, someone should succeed by this means in making his brain move further forward, thus working even on the bones of his forehead, this would be an astounding achievement. Very, very seldom does this happen today. Extraordinary energy would have to be developed today for a thought to work on the physical body. It is easier to affect the blood-circulation or the breathing, but even this is difficult. Thoughts can work on the etheric body today, and in the next incarnation they will have worked so powerfully as to alter the external physical structure. Man should work today in the knowledge that he is working not for one incarnation but for many incarnations to come. The soul is eternal; it continually returns.
Things were different in the ancient initiation schools. Thinking had such mastery there that it could influence the physical body in a comparatively short time. The pupil of the mysteries could mold his own organization until it resembled the human. One could accept a pupil out of the normal run of men and had only to give him the right impulse. The pupil himself did not have to think; through a sort of suggestion thoughts were implanted in his soul. A definite spiritual form had to stand before his soul, and the pupil had to steep himself in this form. Everywhere the Atlantean initiates gave to their pupils a thought-form, into which the pupils had to immerse themselves over and over again. What kind of picture was this? What did the pupil have to think? What did he meditate on?
We have already pointed to the original condition of the earth, sketching out the whole of evolution and mentioning the light-form in the primeval dust. Had one at that time looked about clairvoyantly, the archetype of the man of, today would have arisen. This grew out of that pollen, out of that primeval atom. Not the form of ancient man or of Atlantean man, but the form of modern man grew out of that atom. And what did the Atlantean initiate do? He placed before the soul of his pupil precisely this archetype that reared itself out of the primeval seed.
The pupil had to meditate on this archetype. The initiate placed before the pupil's gaze the human shape as a thought-form, with all the impulses and feelings that were contained in it. Whether the pupil was of the lion type or of one of the others, he had to hold before himself this picture of what man was to become in post-Atlantean times. He received this thought-picture as an ideal. He had to will the thought, “My physical body must become like this picture.” Through the power of this picture his body was so influenced that it became different from the bodies of other men. Certain parts were transformed, and gradually the most advanced pupils became more similar to the man of today.
Thus we look back on remarkable mysteries, the mysteries of ancient Atlantis. No matter how the various men might be formed, there floated before their souls, as a picture, a thing that was already present as a spiritual picture when the sun was still united with the earth. This picture emerged more and more as the meaning of the earth, as what lies spiritually at the foundation of the earth. This picture did not appear to them as this or that form, as the picture of this or that race; it appeared to them as the universal ideal of mankind.
This is the feeling that the pupil was to develop through this picture: “The highest spiritual beings have willed this picture, through which unity comes into mankind. This picture is the meaning of the earth's evolution; to bring this picture to realization the sun separated itself from the earth and the moon detached itself. Through this man could become man. This is the One who will at last appear as the high ideal of the earth.”
Into this high ideal streamed the feelings that enlivened the pupil in his meditation.
So did things stand about the middle of the Atlantean epoch. We will see later how this picture, which stood before the pupil as the human form, transformed itself into something different, and how this was salvaged after the Atlantean catastrophe. This is what lived again in the Indian initiation-teaching, where it was summed up in the ancient sacred name of Brahm. What the God-head willed as the meaning of the earth was the most sacred thing for the ancient Indian initiate. He spoke of it as Brahma. From this sprang later Zarathustra's teaching and the Egyptian wisdom, both of which will be discussed later. How it transformed itself from Brahma to the Egyptian wisdom we will see tomorrow.
Dritter Vortrag
Wir haben gestern über den geheimnisvollen Zusammenhang gesprochen, in dem die früheren Entwickelungszustände unserer Erde mit den verschiedenen Weltanschauungen der aufeinanderfolgenden Kulturperioden der nachatlantischen Zeit stehen. Und es hat sich die merkwürdige Tatsache uns erschlossen, daß da, als die atlantische Katastrophe das Antlitz der Erde verändert hatte, in Indien die vorvedische, uralt heilige indische Kultur mit ihrer gewaltigen philosophischen Auffassung der ersten Kulturperiode etwas zeigte wie ein Spiegelbild der Tatsachen, die sich im Beginne der Erdenentwickelung abgespielt haben in einer urfernen Vergangenheit, als Sonne, Mond und Erde noch vereinigt waren. Das, was damals im Geiste gesehen worden ist, und wozu sich erhoben diejenigen, denen es gegeben war, das war nichts anderes, als eine im Geiste erfaßte, spirituelle Gestalt, die wirklich war, als unsere Erde im Beginne ihrer Entwickelung stand. Und wir haben gesehen, daß der zweite Zustand der Erde, als die Sonne sich losgelöst hatte, aber Erde und Mond noch einen Körper bildeten, daß dieses eigentümliche Gegenüberstehen von zwei Welten in der zweiten Kulturperiode, der urpersischen, als philosophischreligiöses System zum Vorschein kam in den Gegensätzen des Lichtprinzips in der Sonnenaura und des Prinzips der Finsternis, als der Gegensatz des Ormuzd und Ahriman. Die dritte der großen Kulturperioden, die ägyptisch-babylonisch-assyrische, ist eine geistige Spiegelung dessen, was sich abgespielt hat, als Erde, Sonne und Mond drei Körper geworden waren. Und wir konnten auch schon skizzenhaft darauf hinweisen, daß in der Dreiheit Osiris, Isis, Horus sich spiegelt diese astrale Dreiheit der dritten Erdepoche, diese Sternendreiheit: Sonne, Erde und Mond. Wir haben auch schon darauf hingewiesen, daß diese Trennung in dem lemurischen Zeitalter erfolgte, und daß auf dieses das atlantische Zeitalter folgte, der vierte Entwikkelungszustand unserer Erde, wo ganz andere Bewußtseinsverhältnisse herrschten als heute. Damals lebte der Mensch durch die andere Bewußtseinsform mit den Göttern zusammen, die er kannte, mit den Göttern, die man später Wotan, Baldur, Thor, Zeus, Apollo und so weiter benannte. Das sind Wesen, die der atlantische Mensch mit seinem Hellsehen hat wahrnehmen können. Wir haben die Wiederholung dieses Schauens von göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten in der atlantischen Epoche in der Erinnerung der Völker der griechischlateinischen Zeit, auch bei den Völkern im Norden Europas. Es war die Erinnerung an die Erlebnisse früherer Bewußtseinszustände. Sei es Wotan oder Zeus, sei es Mars, Hera, Athene, alle waren eine Erinnerung an die alten Geistgestalten, die den Inhalt jener alten Götterwelt ausmachten.
So nimmt sich die vierte Kulturperiode aus, daß in ihren Religionen Spiegelbilder erscheinen dessen, was sich in der Erdenentwikkelung abgespielt hat während der atlantischen Zeit. Nun müssen wir uns heute allmählich ein wenig mehr in die Seelen der alten indischen, persischen, ägyptischen Kulturmenschheit vertiefen. Wenn wir uns so recht ein Bild machen wollen von diesen Erlebnissen, von dem, was religiös in den alten Kulturperioden lebte, so müssen wir bedenken, daß sowohl die wichtigsten Volksbestandteile dieser alten Völker wie auch die erleuchteten Personen, die Seher und Propheten, alle Nachfolger waren derjenigen Menschen, die auch schon in der atlantischen Zeit gelebt haben, und daß keineswegs unmittelbar nach der großen Katastrophe gleich alles zugrunde gegangen war, was alte atlantische Kultur war, sondern, daß nach und nach dasjenige, was damals lebte, in die neue Zeit hinübergepflanzt worden ist. Und wir werden die Seelen der alten nachatlantischen Nachkommen am besten verstehen, wenn wir uns in das Seelenleben der letzten Atlantier versenken.
In der letzten atlantischen Zeit waren die Menschen sehr verschieden voneinander. Die einen hatten sich noch einen hohen Grad von hellseherischen Fähigkeiten bewahrt. Dieses Hellsehervermögen war nicht plötzlich ganz verschwunden, es war noch bei vielen der Menschen vorhanden, die teilnahmen an dem großen Zuge vom Westen nach dem Osten, während es aber anderen schon abhanden gekommen war. Es gab vorgeschrittene und zurückgebliebene Menschen, und es ist zu begreifen, daß nach der ganzen Art der damaligen Entwickelung gerade die wenigst vorgeschrittenen diejenigen waren, die am besten hellsehen konnten, denn sie waren gewissermaßen stehengeblieben und hatten bewahrt den alten Charakter der Atlantier. Die Fortgeschrittensten waren die, die sich zuerst angeeignet haben das physische Wahrnehmen der Welt, die schon mehr unsere Art der Tagesanschauung angenommen hatten. Das waren die Fortgeschrittensten, die aufhörten, in der Nacht hellseherisch zu sehen die geistige Welt, die immer schärfere Konturen der Gegenstände sahen während des Tagwachens. Und gerade jenes kleine Häuflein, von dem schon gesprochen worden ist, das geführt wurde von einem der großen, von dem größten Eingeweihten, den man gewöhnlich als Manz bezeichnet, und seinen Schülern, dieses Völkchen, das bis tief nach Asien hineingeführt wurde und das von da aus die anderen Kulturländer befruchtete, gerade dieses Völkchen, das am frühesten für die gewöhnlichen Verhältnisse des Lebens die Gabe des alten Helisehens verlor, das setzte sich zusammen aus den fortgeschrittensten Menschen der damaligen Zeit. Immer deutlicher trat für sie das Tagesbewußtsein in Erscheinung, das was wir schen als physische Gegenstände mit ihren scharfen Grenzen. Und ihre großen Führer hatten dieses Volk am weitesten nach Asien geführt, damit es in Abgeschlossenheit leben konnte; sonst wäre es zu sehr in Berührung gekommen mit anderen Völkern, die sich das alte Hellsehen noch bewahrt hatten. Nur, indem es eine Zeitlang getrennt blieb von den anderen Völkern, konnte es zu einer neuen Art Menschsein heranwachsen. Eine Kolonie wurde in Innerasien begründet, von wo aus die großen Kulturströme zu den verschiedensten Völkern gehen sollten.
Zunächst war das nördliche Indien dasjenige Land, das von diesem Zentrum seine neue Kulturströmung erhalten hatte. Nun ist hier schon angedeutet worden, daß diese kleinen Völkermassen, die ausgesandt wurden als Kulturpioniere, nirgends unbewohntes Land gefunden haben, denn früher schon, bevor jener große Zug sich von Westen nach Osten bewegte, waren schon immer große Wanderungen geschehen, und immer, wenn neue Landstrecken aus dem Meeresgrunde sich erhoben, waren sie von den wandernden Scharen bevölkert worden. So daß das Volk, das ausgesandt wurde von jener Kolonie Asiens, sich vermischen mußte mit anderen Völkermassen, die aber alle zurückgebliebener waren als diejenigen, die vom Manu geführt worden waren. Bei den anderen Völkern traf man noch viele, die das alte Hellsehen bewahrt hatten.
Nicht so wie heute kolonisiert wird, pflegten die Eingeweihten Kolonien zu begründen; sie machten es anders. Sie wußten, daß man von den Seelen derjenigen ausgehen mußte, welche man antraf in den Ländern, die kolonisiert werden sollten. Es war nicht so, daß die Sendlinge aufoktroyierten, was sie zu sagen hatten. Es wurde gerechnet mit dem, was man antraf. Es wurde ein Ausgleich geschaffen, und es wurden die Bedürfnisse derjenigen berücksichtigt, die die alten Insassen waren. Man mußte mit der religiösen Anschauung rechnen, die sich auf die Erinnerung an frühere Zeiten gründete, und mit den alten hellseherischen Anlagen. Daher war es natürlich, daß nur bei einem kleinen Häuflein der Fortgeschrittensten die reinen Vorstellungen sich ausbilden konnten. Bei der großen Masse bildeten sich Kompromißvorstellungen aus der alten atlantischen und der nachatlantischen Anschauung. Deshalb finden wir überall in diesen Völkermassen, sowohl in Indien wie in Persien, wie auch in Ägypten, überall, wo die verschiedenen nachatlantischen Kulturen entstanden, da finden wir auf dem Grunde überall für die damalige Zeit weniger fortgeschrittene, unkultiviertere religiöse Vorstellungen, die aber nichts anderes waren als eine Art Fortpflanzung der alten atlantischen Vorstellungen.
Um nun zu verstehen, was das eigentlich für Vorstellungen waren in diesen Volksreligionen, müssen wir uns einmal ein Bild davon machen. Da müssen wir uns in die Seelen der letzten atlantischen Bevölkerung versetzen. Wir müssen uns erinnern, daß in der atlantischen Zeit der Mensch in der Nacht nicht bewußtlos war, sondern daß er dann ebenso wahrnahm, wie er bei Tage wahrnahm, wenn man überhaupt in dieser Zeit von Tag und Nacht sprechen darf. Bei Tage nahm er die erste Spur dessen wahr, was wit heute so klar sehen als die Welt der Sinneswahrnehmungen. Bei Nacht war er ein Genosse der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten. Er brauchte keinen Beweis dafür, daß es Götter gab, ebensowenig wie wir heute einen Beweis dafür brauchen, daß es Mineralien gibt. Die Götter waren seine Genossen, er selbst war in der Nacht eine geistige Wesenheit. In seinem Astralleibe und Ich wandelte er in der geistigen Welt umher. Er war selbst ein Geist und traf Wesen, die mit ihm gleichartiger Natur waren. Natürlich waren die höheren geistigen Wesen nicht die einzigen, die er dann antraf. Er traf auch niedrigere Geister, als die waren, die später als Zeus, Wotan und so weiter beschrieben wurden. Diese waren natürlich nicht die einzigen, es waren nur die auserwähltesten Gestalten. Es war damit so, wie wenn man heute Könige und Kaiser sieht. Viele sehen sie nicht und glauben doch, daß es Könige oder Kaiser gibt. In diesem Zustande, der allgemein menschlich war, nahm man, auch wenn man während des Tages bewußt war, die umliegenden Gegenstände anders wahr als heute, auch das Tagesbewußtsein war anders, und wir müssen versuchen zu verstehen, wie dieses letztere Bewußtsein der Atlantier war.
Es ist beschrieben worden, wie dem Menschen sich die göttlichen Wesenheiten entzogen, wenn er morgens hinuntertauchte in seinen physischen Leib. Er sah die Gegenstände wie mit einem Nebel umhüllt. So waren die Bilder des damaligen Tagwachens. Diese Bilder hatten aber noch eine andere eigentümliche Eigenschaft, die wir ganz genau erfassen müssen. Denken wir uns, eine solche Seele näherte sich einem Teiche. Das Wasser in diesem Teiche sah diese Seele nicht so scharf begrenzt wie heute; aber wenn diese Seele ihre Aufmerksamkeit darauf richtete, dann erlebte sie noch etwas ganz anderes, als wenn heute sich jemand einem Teiche nähert. Beim Annähern an den Teich, schon durch die bloße Anschauung, stieg in ihr ein Gefühl auf, wie wenn sie einen Geschmack bekäme von dem, was da physisch vor ihr lag, ohne daß sie das Wasser des Teiches zu trinken brauchte. Durch das bloße Anschauen würde sie gefühlt haben: das Wasser ist süß oder salzig. Überhaupt war es nicht so, wie wenn wir heute Wasser sehen. Wir sehen heute nur die Oberfläche, aber ins Innere kommen wir nicht hinein. Derjenige, der früher, als es noch dämmerhaftes Hellsehen gab, sich dem Teiche näherte, der hatte nicht das Gefühl der Fremdheit diesem gegenüber, er fühlte sich darinnen in den Eigenschaften des Wassers; er stand dem Gegenstande gar nicht so gegenüber wie heute, es war so, als wenn er in das Wasser hätte eindringen können. Nehmen wir an, wir wären einem Salzklotz entgegengetreten, wir hätten, indem wir uns annäherten, den Geschmack gemerkt. Heute müssen wir das Salz erst kosten, damals wäre das durch die Anschauung gegeben worden. Der Mensch war wie darinnen in dem ganzen, und er nahm die Dinge wie beseelt wahr. Er nahrn sozusagen die Wesenheiten wahr, die zum Beispiel dem Dinge den salzigen Geschmack verliehen. So beseelte sich ihm alles. Luft, Erde, Wasser, Feuer, alles, alles verriet ihm etwas. Der Mensch konnte sich in das Innere der Gegenstände hineinfühlen, er lebte im Inneren ihrer Wesenheit. Das was heute dem Bewußtsein als seelenlose Gegenstände erscheint, gab es damals nicht. Daher empfand der Mensch auch alles mit Sympathie und Antipathie, weil er das Innere sah. Er fühlte, er erlebte das innere Wesen der Gegenstände.
Überall waren noch die Erinnerungen an diese Erlebnisse geblieben. So daß die Teile der indischen Bevölkerung, die angetroffen wurden von den Kolonisten, von einem solchen Zusammenhang mit den Dingen beseelt waren. Sie wußten: in den Dingen lebten Seelen. Sie hatten sich die Fähigkeit bewahrt, die Eigenschaften der Dinge zu sehen. Nun stellen wir uns dieses ganze Verhältnis des Menschen zu den Dingen vor. Der Mensch nimmt damals wahr, wie das Wasser schmeckt, indem er sich dem Teiche nähert. Da sieht er eine geistige Wesenheit, die dem Wasser den Geschmack gibt. Diese geistige Wesenheit kann er während der Nacht treffen, wenn er sich neben das Wasser legt und einschläft. Bei Tage sieht er das Materielle, bei Nacht sieht er das, was alles durchlebt. Bei Tage sieht er die Gegenstände, Steine, Pflanzen, Tiere, er hört den Wind wehen, das Wasser rauschen; bei Nacht sieht er in seinem Inneren das, was er bei Tage empfindet, in seiner wirklichen Gestalt, da sieht er die Geister, die in allem leben. Wenn er sagte: In den Mineralien, in den Pflanzen, im Wasser, in den Wolken, im Winde, da leben Geister, überall leben Geister - so waren das für ihn ganz und gar keine Dichtungen, das war ihm keine Phantasie, das war etwas, was er wahrnehmen konnte.
So tief müssen wir jetzt in die Seelen hinuntersteigen, um sie zu verstehen. Und dann begreift man, daß es ein furchtbarer Unsinn ist, wenn die heutigen Gelehrten von Animismus reden, der die Volksphantasie veranlaßt, alles zu beseelen und zu personifizieren. Eine solche Volksphantasie gibt es nicht. Der redet nicht davon, der das Volk wirklich kennt. Man kann wiederholt das sonderbare Beispiel finden: Gerade wie ein Kind, wenn es sich an einem Tisch stößt, diesen Tisch nun schlägt, weil es den Tisch beseele — so reden die Gelehrten -, ebenso hätte der Urmensch, der kindliche Mensch, die Gegenstände in der Natur, die Bäume und so weiter beseelt, in alles etwas hineingedichtet. — Bis zur Ermüdung wurde dieses Gleichnis wiederholt. Es ist gewiß, daß dabei Phantasie ist, aber die Phantasie haben die Gelehrten gehabt, nicht das Volk. Sie sind es, die geträumt haben. Diejenigen, die ursprünglich alles beseelt wahrgenommen haben, die haben nicht geträumt, die haben nur das wiedergegeben, was sie selber wahrgenommen haben.
Als ein Rest tauchte diese Wahrnehmung als Erinnerung bei den alten Völkern auf. Auch das Kind sieht den Tisch nicht als beseelt an; es fühlt noch nicht in sich die Seele, es sieht sich selbst wie einen Holzklotz an. Weil es sich selbst eben seelenlos fühlt, deshalb stellt es sich auf gleiche Stufe mit dem seelenlosen 'Tisch, indem es ihn haut. Gerade das Gegenteil von dem, was in den Büchern der Gelehrten darüber steht, ist Tatsache. Ob wir nach Indien gehen, nach Persien, nach Ägypten, nach Griechenland, oder sonstwohin, überall finden wir da auf dem Grunde dieselben Vorstellungen, die oben charakterisiert worden sind. Und in diese Vorstellungen wurde hineinergossen das, was als Kultur von den alten Eingeweihten gegeben wurde.
Im alten Indien lenkten die Kultur die Rishis. Nun müssen wir aber auch ein wenig verstehen, was eigentlich die Veranlassung gegeben hat zu der Gestalt, die sich als eine der wichtigsten Gestalten der indischen Anschauung herausgebildet hat. Wir wissen, daß es zu allen Zeiten sogenannte Mysterienschulen gegeben hat, wo diejenigen, welche ihre geistigen Fähigkeiten entwickeln konnten, lernten, tiefer hineinzuschauen in das Weltall, wo sie die schlummernden Fähigkeiten erweckten, um den geistigen Zusammenhang der Dinge zu sehen. Von diesen Mysterienstätten gingen überall die geistigen Impulse der Kulturen aus. Und damit wir die Eingeweihten recht von Grund aus verstehen, wenn wir diese Eingeweihten betrachten, so betrachten wir sie gewöhnlich in der nachatlantischen Zeit, weil ihr Wesen da am leichtesten verständlich ist, jedoch würden wir in der atlantischen Zeit auch schon auf ähnliches wie Eingeweihtenschulen stoßen. Damit wir sie nun so recht von Grund aus verstehen, wollen wir uns einmal versetzen in die Methode einer solchen alten atlantischen Einweihungsschule.
Damals waren also jene eben beschriebenen Bewußtseinszustände vorhanden. Wenn wir in jene Zeiten zurückgehen, dann finden wir den Menschen noch nicht in seiner heutigen Gestalt. Damals war er noch ganz anders gestaltet. Wir gehen da allerdings in die erste Hälfte der atlantischen Zeit zurück. Der Mensch bestand da auch schon aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib und dem Ich, aber der physische Leib sah noch ganz anders aus. Der physische Leib war so, daß wir ihn etwa vergleichen könnten mit den Körpern mancher Meerestiere, durchsichtig, die wir kaum sehen würden, die wir gerade greifen könnten, zwar schon durchzogen von gewissen Richtungslinien, die in ihnen aufglänzten. Es war der physische Leib des Menschen viel weicher als heute, es gab noch keine Knochen. Wenn es auch schon knorpelartige Ansätze gab, so war doch dieser physische Leib in der ältesten Zeit durchaus nicht von der heutigen Gestalt.
Dagegen war der Ätherleib des Menschen das viel wichtigere Glied. Der physische Leib der Menschen war damals mehr oder weniger klein, der Ätherleib dagegen war damals außerordentlich groß. Dieser Ätherleib unterschied sich für die einzelnen so, daß man etwa vier verschiedene Typen hätte wahrnehmen können. Diese vier typischen Gestalten waren so vorhanden, daß ein Teil der Menschen den einen Typus zeigte, ein anderer den anderen. Nun haben sich in vier Namen die Typen erhalten. Es sind die Namen der apokalyptischen Tiere: Ochs oder Stier, Löwe, Adler, Mensch. Nun ist es nicht ganz richtig, wenn wir uns vorstellen wollten, daß diese Gestalten den heutigen Tieren vollkommen ähnlich gewesen wären, aber sie erinnerten dennoch durch ihren Eindruck an die Art des Eindrucks, den heute die entsprechenden Tiere machen. Man konnte die Eindrücke, die die Ätherleiber machten, verstehen durch das Bild des Löwen, Stieres, Adlers oder Menschen. Einen Teil, der die Eigenschaften eines starken Fortpflanzungsvermögens als Eindruck machte, oder wegen eines außerordentlichen Appetits, den verglich man zum Beispiel mit dem Stier; eine andere Art von Menschen war eine solche, die schon mehr im Geistigen lebte, das waren die Adlermenschen, die sich wenig wohl fühlten in der physischen Welt. Und dann gab es noch Menschen, die sozusagen schon in ihrem Ätherleibe ähnlich waren dem heutigen physischen Leibe; zwar war er nicht ganz gleich, aber er war doch schon wie die Menschengestalt. Wir müssen uns natürlich vorstellen, daß im einzelnen nicht nur der eine Typus allein vertreten war, sondern daß in jedem alle vier veranlagt waren, aber daß einer dieser vier dominierte.
So war also die Beschaffenheit der Ätherleiber der atlantischen Bevölkerung. Dann war besonders mächtig, aber unentwickelt, der Astralleib, und das Ich war noch ganz außerhalb des Menschen. Also ganz anders sahen damals die Menschen aus als heute. Natürlich nahmen frühreife Menschen die spätere Gestalt schon früher an, aber im wesentlichen kann man die Menschen der damaligen Zeit so charakterisieren, wie wir das eben getan haben. Das war also der normale Durchschnittszustand der damaligen Menschheit.
Ganz anders war es bei den Vorgerückteren, bei den Schülern der Mysterienstätten, bei denen, die die Einweihung der alten Atlantis erstrebten. Betreten wir nun im Geiste eine solche alte atlantische Einweihungsstätte, und versuchen wir einmal dasjenige, was der Lehrer zu geben hatte, uns vor Augen zu stellen. Was war dieser Lehrer denn selbst?
Wenn heute der Mensch einem Eingeweihten begegnete, so würde er ihn am Äußeren überhaupt gar nicht zu erkennen vermögen. Die wenigsten Menschen würden heute einen solchen Eingeweihten äußerlich erkennen, denn heute, nachdem der physische Körper des Menschen so weit fortgebildet ist, der Eingeweihte aber doch im Körper leben muß, unterscheidet sich dieser nur in intimen Feinheiten von den anderen Menschen. Damals aber war der Eingeweihte sehr, sehr verschieden von den anderen Menschen. Die anderen hatten noch mehr tierische Gestalten, der physische Leib war klein im Verhältnis zu den riesenhaften Ätherleibern, er bildete mehr eine plumpe tierische Substanz und Masse. Nun unterschied sich der Eingeweihte dadurch, daß er in seinem physischen Leibe ähnlicher war der heutigen Menschenbildung, daß er ein ähnliches Menschenantlitz trug wie der heutige Mensch, daß er ein Vorderhirn besaß wie der heutige Durchschnittsmensch. Damals hatten die Eingeweihten schon ein sehr ausgebildetes Gehirn für die damalige Zeit, während bei den anderen das Gehirn noch unausgebildet war. Nun waren solche Eingeweihte da und hatten ihre Schulen, und in diese Einweihungsschulen nahmen sie, durch bestimmte Methoden, aus der normalen Menschheit Schüler auf, je nachdem sich diese Zöglinge als reif und genügend entwickelt erwiesen.
Etwas müssen wir berücksichtigen, wenn wir das Folgende ganz verstehen wollen. Wir müssen uns klarmachen, daß mit der sich fortentwickelnden Zeit die Herrschaft der geistigen Glieder des Menschen über den physischen Leib beim heutigen Menschen bis auf weniges vollständig abgenommen hat. Wenn auch heute der Mensch seine Beine und Arme bewegen kann und auf dem Fahrrad strampeln kann, wenn er auch seine Physiognomie beherrschen kann, kurz, in einem gewissen Grade eine Herrschaft über den Körper hat, so ist das alles nur ein armseliger, letzter Rest des alten Hetrschaftsverhältnisses über den physischen Leib, wie es in der atlantischen Zeit war. Damals hatte der Gedanke, das Gefühl einen viel größeren Einfluß auf den physischen Leib. Das was der Mensch denkt, übte damals einen viel wesentlicheren Einfluß auf den physischen Leib aus. Wenn heute jemandem ein Gedanke gegeben wird für Wochen, Monate oder gar Jahre, wird er nur in ganz besonderen Ausnahmefällen weiter wirken als auf den Ätherleib. Sehr selten wird zum Beispiel durch eine Meditation der physische Leib beeinflußt werden. Gelänge es jemandem, dadurch zum Beispiel ein etwas zurückliegendes Gehirn etwas mehr vorzurücken, das heißt, wenn die Stirnknochen etwas weiter nach vorne rückten, also eine Wirkung bis in die Knochen da wäre, so wäre das schon ein ungeheurer Erfolg für heute. Das ist heute sehr, sehr selten der Fall. Es muß heute eine ungeheure Energie entwickelt werden, wenn der Gedanke auf den physischen Leib wirken soll. Leichter ist es schon, auf die Blutzirkulation oder auf die Atmungsverhältnisse einzuwirken, aber das ist auch noch schwer. Auf den Ätherleib kann heute der Gedanke schon wirken, und in der nächsten Inkarnation, da wird der Gedanke so mächtig gewirkt haben, daß dann die äußeren Körperverhältnisse sich geändert haben werden. Man soll heute eben so arbeiten, daß man weiß, man arbeitet nicht für eine Inkarnation, sondern darüber hinaus für zukünftige Inkarnationen. Die Seele ist ein Ewiges, sie kehrt immer wieder.
Ganz anders war das aber in den alten Einweihungsschulen. Da war es die Herrschaft des Gedankens, der Einfluß hatte auf den physischen Leib in einer verhältnismäßig kurzen Zeit. Der Mysterienschüler konnte seine Organisation selber ins Menschenähnliche hinaufarbeiten. Man konnte also damals einen Schüler annehmen aus der normalen Menschheit, man mußte ihm nur den rechten Impuls geben. Der Schüler brauchte nicht einmal selber zu denken, es wurden ihm durch eine Art Suggestion Gedanken in seine Seele einverleibt. Es mußte vor seiner Seele eine ganz bestimmte geistige Gestalt stehen, in die sich der Schüler immer hat vertiefen müssen. Überall gab der atlantische Eingeweihte dem Schüler eine Gedankenform, in die dieser sich wieder und wieder versenken mußte. Was war das für ein Bild? Was hatte der Schüler zu denken? Was meditierte er?
Es ist schon auf den Urzustand der Erde hingewiesen worden, es ist die ganze Entwickelung schon skizziert worden, es ist auch gesprochen worden von der Lichtgestalt im Urstaub. Hätte man damals hellseherisch das Atom angesehen, so wäre herausgewachsen das Urbild des heutigen Menschen. Das wuchs aus diesem Staubkorn, diesem Uratom heraus. Nicht die Gestalt des Menschen der alten Zeiten, nicht des atlantischen Menschen, sondern die Gestalt des heutigen Menschen wuchs heraus aus diesem Uratom. Und was tat der atlantische Eingeweihte? Eben dieses Urbild, dieses menschliche Urbild, das sich aus dem Ursamen heraus erhebt, das stellte er vor die Seele seiner Schüler. So mußte der Schüler meditieren über dieses Urbild. Die Menschengestalt als Gedankenform stellte der Eingeweihte der Atlantis vor den sehenden Blick des Schülers hin, mit all den Impulsen und Empfindungen, die darin waren. Und ob nun der Schüler den Löwentypus oder einen anderen besaß, er mußte sich das Gedankenbild vorhalten, was der Mensch werden sollte in der nachatlantischen Zeit. Dieses Gedankenbild bekam er immer als Ideal. Er mußte diesen Gedanken wollen: Mein physischer Leib soll werden wie dieses Bild. — Und durch die Kräfte dieses Bildes, das der Schüler lernen mußte, wurde so auf den Körper gewirkt, daß er sich dann von den anderen Menschen unterschied. Durch die Kräfte dieses Bildes wurden bestimmte Teile umgebildet, und allmählich wurden die vorgerücktesten Schüler immer ähnlicher den heutigen Menschen.
Da blicken wir auf merkwürdige Geheimnisse zurück, da blicken wir in die Mysterien der atlantischen Zeit. Und auch ein anderes wird uns auffallen. Wie auch die Menschen gestaltet waren, eins schwebte vor ihrer Seele als Bild, das als Geistbild schon vorhanden war, als die Sonne mit der Erde noch vereint war. Und dieses Bild trat immer mehr heraus als der Sinn der Erde, als das, was der Erde geistig zugrunde liegt. Und dieses Bild erschien ihnen nicht in der oder jener Gestalt, als das Bild der oder jener Rasse, es erschien ihnen als das allgemeine Ideal der Menschheit.
Das ist das Gefühl, das der Schüler sich an diesem Bilde hat entwickeln sollen: Die höchsten geistigen Wesen haben dieses Bild gewollt, dieses Bild, durch das Einheit kommt in die Menschheit. Dieses Bild ist der Sinn der Erdenentwickelung, dieses Bild zu verwirklichen, hat die Sonne sich getrennt von der Erde, ist der Mond herausgetreten. Dadurch konnte der Mensch Mersch werden. Das ist das eine, was zuletzt erscheinen soll als das hohe Ideal der Erde. Und in dieses hohe Ideal strömten ein die Gefühle, welche den Schüler in seiner Meditation belebten.
So war es ungefähr um die Mitte der atlantischen Zeit, und wir werden zu verfolgen haben, wie dieses Bild der Meditation, das da vor dem Schüler als Menschengestalt stand, sich umwandelte in etwas anderes, und wie dieses herübergerettet wurde nach der atlantischen Katastrophe. Das ist es, was auflebte in dem indischen Eingeweihtenunterricht, das, was man zusammenfassen kann in dem uralt heiligen Namen: Brahma. Das was die Weltengottheit gewollt hat als Sinn der Erde, das war das Heiligste des alten indischen Eingeweihten, dann sprach er von Brahma. Daraus entsprang später die ZarathustraLehre und die ägyptische Weisheit, wovon dann später gesprochen werden soll. Wie es sich umbildet aus Brahma zur ägyptischen Weisheit, das wollen wir morgen weiter sehen.
Third Lecture
Yesterday we spoke about the mysterious connection between the earlier stages of our Earth's development and the various worldviews of the successive cultural periods of the post-Atlantean era. And we discovered the remarkable fact that when the Atlantean catastrophe changed the face of the Earth, the pre-Vedic, ancient sacred Indian culture with its powerful philosophical conception of the first cultural period showed something like a mirror image of the events that took place at the beginning of Earth's development in a distant past, when the sun, moon, and Earth were still united. What was seen in the spirit at that time, and to which those who were given it rose, was nothing other than a spiritual form grasped in the spirit, which was real when our Earth stood at the beginning of its development. And we have seen that the second state of the Earth, when the Sun had detached itself but the Earth and Moon still formed one body, that this peculiar juxtaposition of two worlds in the second cultural period, the ancient Persian, emerged as a philosophical-religious system in the opposites of the principle of light in the sun's aura and the principle of darkness, as the opposition of Ormuzd and Ahriman. The third of the great cultural periods, the Egyptian-Babylonian-Assyrian, is a spiritual reflection of what took place when the Earth, Sun, and Moon became three bodies. And we have already been able to sketch out that the astral trinity of the third epoch of the Earth, the trinity of stars: Sun, Earth, and Moon, is reflected in the trinity of Osiris, Isis, and Horus. We have also already pointed out that this separation took place in the Lemurian epoch, which was followed by the Atlantean epoch, the fourth stage of our Earth's development, where completely different conditions of consciousness prevailed than today. At that time, human beings lived together with the gods they knew through a different form of consciousness, with the gods who were later named Wotan, Baldur, Thor, Zeus, Apollo, and so on. These are beings that the Atlantean human being was able to perceive with his clairvoyance. We have the repetition of this vision of divine-spiritual beings in the Atlantic epoch in the memory of the peoples of the Greco-Latin period, including the peoples of northern Europe. It was the memory of the experiences of earlier states of consciousness. Whether it was Wotan or Zeus, Mars, Hera, or Athena, they were all memories of the ancient spirit figures that made up the content of that ancient world of gods.
Thus, the fourth cultural period appears in such a way that its religions reflect what took place in the Earth's development during the Atlantean epoch. Now we must gradually delve a little deeper into the souls of the ancient Indian, Persian, and Egyptian cultural humanity. If we want to form a true picture of these experiences, of what lived religiously in the ancient cultural epochs, we must bear in mind that both the most important elements of these ancient peoples and the enlightened individuals, the seers and prophets, were all successors of those human beings who had already lived in the Atlantean epoch, and that by no means did everything immediately perish after the great catastrophe. What was the ancient Atlantean culture? Rather, what lived at that time was gradually transplanted into the new era. And we will best understand the souls of the ancient post-Atlantean descendants if we immerse ourselves in the soul life of the last Atlanteans.
In the last Atlantean period, people were very different from one another. Some had retained a high degree of clairvoyant abilities. This clairvoyant ability did not suddenly disappear completely; it was still present in many of the people who took part in the great migration from the West to the East, while others had already lost it. There were advanced and backward people, and it is understandable that, according to the whole nature of the development at that time, it was precisely the least advanced who were best able to see clairvoyantly, for they had, so to speak, remained standing still and had preserved the old character of the Atlanteans. The most advanced were those who first acquired physical perception of the world, who had already adopted our way of seeing things during the day. These were the most advanced, who ceased to see the spiritual world clairvoyantly at night and saw the ever sharper contours of objects during the day. And it was precisely this small group, already mentioned, led by one of the great, by the greatest initiate, commonly referred to as Manz, and his disciples, this little people, which was led deep into Asia and from there fertilized the other cultural countries, precisely this little group, which lost the gift of ancient clairvoyance earliest in relation to the ordinary conditions of life, was composed of the most advanced people of that time. Day consciousness became increasingly apparent to them, what we perceive as physical objects with their sharp boundaries. And their great leaders had led this people as far as possible into Asia so that they could live in seclusion; otherwise they would have come into too much contact with other peoples who had still preserved the old clairvoyance. Only by remaining separated from other peoples for a time could they grow into a new kind of humanity. A colony was established in Inner Asia, from where the great cultural currents were to spread to the most diverse peoples.
Initially, northern India was the country that received its new cultural current from this center. Now, it has already been hinted here that these small masses of people who were sent out as cultural pioneers did not find any uninhabited land, because even before that great migration from west to east, there had always been large migrations, and whenever new stretches of land rose from the sea, they were populated by the migrating hordes. So the people who were sent out from that Asian colony had to mix with other masses of people, who were all more backward than those who had been led by Manu. Among the other peoples, there were still many who had preserved the old clairvoyance.
The initiates did not colonize in the same way as today; they did it differently. They knew that one had to start with the souls of those one encountered in the countries to be colonized. It was not that the emissaries imposed what they had to say. They took into account what they encountered. A balance was created, and the needs of those who were the old inhabitants were taken into consideration. One had to reckon with the religious beliefs based on memories of earlier times and with the old clairvoyant abilities. It was therefore natural that pure ideas could only develop among a small group of the most advanced. Among the masses, compromise ideas developed from the old Atlantean and post-Atlantean beliefs. That is why we find everywhere in these masses of people, both in India and Persia, as well as in Egypt, everywhere where the various post-Atlantean cultures arose, we find everywhere at the bottom, for that time, less advanced, more uncultivated religious ideas, which were nothing other than a kind of reproduction of the old Atlantean ideas.
In order to understand what these ideas actually were in these folk religions, we must first form a picture of them. We must put ourselves in the souls of the last Atlantic population. We must remember that in the Atlantic era, human beings were not unconscious at night, but perceived just as they did during the day, if one can speak of day and night at all in this era. During the day, they perceived the first traces of what we now see so clearly as the world of sensory perceptions. At night, they were companions of divine spiritual beings. They needed no proof that gods existed, just as we today need no proof that minerals exist. The gods were their companions; they themselves were spiritual beings at night. In his astral body and ego, he wandered around in the spiritual world. He himself was a spirit and met beings who were of a similar nature to him. Of course, the higher spiritual beings were not the only ones he encountered. He also met lower spirits than those who were later described as Zeus, Wotan, and so on. These were not the only ones, of course; they were only the most select figures. It was like when we see kings and emperors today. Many people do not see them, yet they believe that kings and emperors exist. In this state, which was generally human, even though we were conscious during the day, we perceived the objects around us differently than we do today. Even our daytime consciousness was different, and we must try to understand what this latter consciousness of the Atlanteans was like.
It has been described how divine beings withdrew from human beings when they descended into their physical bodies in the morning. They saw objects as if enveloped in a mist. Such were the images of waking life at that time. But these images had another peculiar quality that we must understand very clearly. Let us imagine that such a soul approached a pond. The water in this pond did not appear to this soul as sharply defined as it does today; but when this soul focused its attention on it, it experienced something quite different from what someone experiences today when approaching a pond. As it approached the pond, simply by looking at it, a feeling arose within it, as if it were getting a taste of what was physically in front of it, without needing to drink the water from the pond. By simply looking at it, it would have felt that the water was sweet or salty. It was not at all like the way we see water today. Today, we only see the surface, but we cannot get inside. In the past, when there was still a dim form of clairvoyance, those who approached the pond did not feel alienated from it; they felt themselves inside it, in the properties of the water; they did not stand opposite the object as we do today; it was as if they could penetrate the water. Let us suppose we came upon a block of salt and, as we approached it, we noticed its taste. Today we must first taste the salt, but in those days this would have been given to us through our perception. Man was as if inside the whole thing, and he perceived things as if they were animated. He perceived, so to speak, the essences that gave things their salty taste, for example. In this way, everything was animated for him. Air, earth, water, fire, everything, everything revealed something to him. Man could feel his way into the inner nature of objects; he lived within their essence. What today appears to consciousness as soulless objects did not exist then. Therefore, man also felt everything with sympathy and antipathy, because he saw the inner nature. They felt and experienced the inner essence of objects.
Memories of these experiences remained everywhere. As a result, the parts of the Indian population that encountered the colonists were imbued with such a connection to things. They knew that souls lived in things. They had retained the ability to see the properties of things. Now let us imagine this whole relationship between human beings and things. At that time, when a person approached a pond, he perceived the taste of the water. He saw a spiritual being that gave the water its taste. He could meet this spiritual being during the night when he lay down beside the water and fell asleep. During the day, they see the material world; at night, they see what lives through everything. During the day, they see objects, stones, plants, animals; they hear the wind blowing, the water rushing; at night, they see within themselves what they perceive during the day in its true form; they see the spirits that live in everything. When he said: In minerals, in plants, in water, in clouds, in the wind, spirits live, spirits live everywhere—this was not poetry for him, it was not fantasy, it was something he could perceive.
We must now descend so deeply into the souls to understand them. And then one understands that it is terrible nonsense when today's scholars speak of animism, which causes the popular imagination to animate and personify everything. Such a popular imagination does not exist. Those who really know the people do not speak of this. One can repeatedly find the strange example: just as a child, when it bumps into a table, hits the table because it animates the table — so the scholars say — so too would primitive man, childlike man, have animated the objects in nature, the trees and so on, having imagined something into everything. This analogy has been repeated ad nauseam. There is certainly imagination involved, but it was the scholars who had the imagination, not the people. It is they who dreamed. Those who originally perceived everything as animated did not dream; they only reproduced what they themselves perceived.
This perception emerged as a remnant in the memory of ancient peoples. Even a child does not see the table as animate; it does not yet feel the soul within itself, it sees itself as a block of wood. Because it feels itself to be soulless, it places itself on the same level as the soulless table by hitting it. The opposite of what is written in the books of scholars is the truth. Whether we go to India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, or anywhere else, we find the same ideas that have been described above. And into these ideas was poured what was given as culture by the ancient initiates.
In ancient India, culture was guided by the rishis. But now we must also understand a little what actually gave rise to the figure that emerged as one of the most important figures in Indian thought. We know that at all times there have been so-called mystery schools where those who were able to develop their spiritual abilities learned to look deeper into the universe, where they awakened dormant abilities to see the spiritual connection between things. The spiritual impulses of cultures emanated from these mystery centers everywhere. And in order to understand the initiates properly from the ground up when we look at them, we usually look at them in the post-Atlantean era, because their nature is easiest to understand there. However, we would also encounter something similar to schools of initiates in the Atlantean era. In order to understand them properly from the ground up, let us put ourselves in the shoes of such an ancient Atlantean initiation school.
At that time, the states of consciousness just described existed. When we go back to those times, we find that human beings were not yet in their present form. At that time, they were still very different. We are going back to the first half of the Atlantean period. Human beings already consisted of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and the I, but the physical body looked very different. The physical body was such that we could compare it to the bodies of some sea creatures, transparent, which we could hardly see, which we could just about grasp, already permeated by certain lines of direction that shone within them. The physical body of human beings was much softer than it is today; there were no bones yet. Although there were already cartilage-like beginnings, this physical body in the earliest times was not at all like the one we have today.
In contrast, the etheric body of human beings was the much more important member. The physical body of human beings was more or less small at that time, but the etheric body was extraordinarily large. This etheric body differed for each individual in such a way that one could perceive about four different types. These four typical forms existed in such a way that some people showed one type, others another. Now these types have been preserved in four names. They are the names of the apocalyptic animals: ox or bull, lion, eagle, man. Now, it is not entirely correct to imagine that these forms were completely similar to today's animals, but they nevertheless resembled the impression made by the corresponding animals today. The impressions made by the etheric bodies could be understood through the image of the lion, bull, eagle, or human being. One group made an impression with their strong reproductive capacity or extraordinary appetite, which was compared, for example, to that of the bull; another type of human being was one that already lived more in the spiritual realm, the eagle people, who did not feel very comfortable in the physical world. And then there were people who were already similar in their etheric bodies to today's physical bodies; although they were not quite the same, they were already like the human form. We must of course imagine that in individual cases not only one type was represented, but that all four were present in everyone, but that one of these four dominated.
Such was the nature of the etheric bodies of the Atlantean population. Then the astral body was particularly powerful but undeveloped, and the I was still completely outside the human being. So people looked very different then than they do today. Of course, precocious individuals took on their later form earlier, but essentially the people of that time can be characterized as we have just done. This was the normal average state of humanity at that time.
It was quite different for the more advanced, for the students of the mystery centers, for those who sought initiation in ancient Atlantis. Let us now enter in spirit one of these ancient Atlantean initiation centers and try to imagine what the teacher had to give us. What was this teacher himself?
If a person today were to encounter an initiate, they would not be able to recognize them at all by their outward appearance. Very few people today would recognize such an initiate outwardly, because today, after the physical body of the human being has developed so far, but the initiate still has to live in the body, they differ from other people only in intimate subtleties. At that time, however, the initiate was very, very different from other people. The others still had more animal-like forms, their physical bodies were small in relation to their gigantic etheric bodies, and they were more of a clumsy animal substance and mass. Now, the initiated person differed in that he was more similar in his physical body to the human form of today, that he had a human face similar to that of today's human beings, that he possessed a forebrain like the average human being of today. At that time, the initiated already had a very well-developed brain for that time, while the brain of the others was still undeveloped. Now there were such initiates, and they had their schools, and into these initiation schools they admitted pupils from normal humanity, using certain methods, depending on how mature and sufficiently developed these pupils proved to be.
We must take something into account if we want to understand the following completely. We must realize that with the passage of time, the dominion of the spiritual members of the human being over the physical body has, with a few exceptions, completely disappeared in modern humans. Even though human beings today can move their legs and arms and pedal a bicycle, even though they can control their facial expressions, in short, even though they have a certain degree of control over their bodies, all this is only a poor remnant of the old relationship of domination over the physical body that existed in the Atlantean era. At that time, thought and feeling had a much greater influence on the physical body. What people thought had a much more significant influence on the physical body. If someone today is given a thought for weeks, months, or even years, it will only continue to have an effect beyond the etheric body in very special exceptional cases. For example, the physical body is very rarely influenced by meditation. If someone were to succeed in advancing a slightly receding brain a little, for example, that is, if the frontal bones were to move forward a little, so that there would be an effect down to the bones, that would be an enormous success today. This is very, very rare today. Today, an enormous amount of energy must be developed if the thought is to have an effect on the physical body. It is easier to influence the blood circulation or the breathing, but that is still difficult. Thought can already influence the etheric body today, and in the next incarnation, thought will have had such a powerful effect that the outer physical conditions will have changed. Today, we should work in such a way that we know we are not working for one incarnation, but beyond that, for future incarnations. The soul is eternal; it returns again and again.
But it was quite different in the ancient schools of initiation. There, it was the power of thought that influenced the physical body in a relatively short time. The mystery student could work his own organization up to the human level. So at that time, one could take a student from normal humanity; one only had to give him the right impulse. The student did not even need to think for himself; thoughts were incorporated into his soul through a kind of suggestion. A very specific spiritual form had to stand before his soul, into which the student always had to immerse himself. Everywhere, the Atlantean initiate gave the student a thought form into which he had to immerse himself again and again. What was this image? What was the student supposed to think? What was he meditating on?
Reference has already been made to the original state of the earth; the entire development has already been outlined; and there has also been mention of the light figure in the primordial dust. If one had looked at the atom clairvoyantly at that time, the archetype of today's human being would have emerged. It grew out of this speck of dust, this primordial atom. Not the form of the human beings of ancient times, not the Atlantean human being, but the form of the human being of today grew out of this primordial atom. And what did the Atlantean initiate do? He presented this archetype, this human archetype that arises from the primordial seed, to the souls of his students. The students had to meditate on this archetype. The initiate of Atlantis placed the human form as a thought form before the seeing eye of the disciple, with all the impulses and sensations that were in it. And whether the disciple possessed the lion type or another, he had to hold before himself the thought image of what man was to become in the post-Atlantean era. This thought image was always given to him as an ideal. He had to want this thought: My physical body shall become like this image. And through the powers of this image, which the student had to learn, the body was influenced in such a way that it then differed from other human beings. Through the powers of this image, certain parts were transformed, and gradually the most advanced students became more and more similar to the human beings of today.
Here we look back on strange secrets; here we look into the mysteries of the Atlantean era. And something else will also strike us. However people were formed, one thing hovered before their souls as an image that already existed as a spiritual image when the sun was still united with the earth. And this image emerged more and more as the meaning of the earth, as that which lies spiritually at the foundation of the earth. And this image did not appear to them in this or that form, as the image of this or that race, it appeared to them as the general ideal of humanity.
This is the feeling that the student should have developed in relation to this image: the highest spiritual beings wanted this image, this image through which unity comes into humanity. This image is the meaning of Earth's development. To realize this image, the Sun separated from the Earth, and the Moon emerged. This enabled human beings to become Mersch. This is the one thing that should ultimately appear as the high ideal of the Earth. And into this high ideal flowed the feelings that animated the student in his meditation.
This was roughly around the middle of the Atlantean epoch, and we will have to follow how this image of meditation, which stood before the disciple as a human figure, transformed into something else, and how this was carried over after the Atlantean catastrophe. This is what revived in the Indian initiatory teaching, what can be summarized in the ancient sacred name: Brahma. What the world deity wanted as the meaning of the earth was the most sacred thing for the ancient Indian initiates, and so they spoke of Brahma. From this later arose the teachings of Zarathustra and the Egyptian wisdom, which will be discussed later. Tomorrow we will see how it transforms from Brahma into Egyptian wisdom.