Egyptian Myths and Mysteries
GA 106
5 September 1908, Leipzig
Fourth Lecture
The Experiences of Initiation. The Mysteries of the Planets. The Descent of the Primeval Word.
Yesterday we closed with the discussion of an extraordinarily important event in the inner life, in the real spiritual life of man. We attempted to bring before our souls an impression that the seeker for initiation had at the beginning of the last third of the Atlantean epoch. We saw how there stood before the soul of the neophyte an ideal human form, a thought-picture, on which he had to concentrate in meditation, and how this filled the would-be initiate's life of thinking, feeling and willing. This thought-picture had to become ever more the model for the man of the future.
Now we must try to conceive roughly how this thought-picture looked. It was not entirely similar to the man of today. If we can think of a kind of combination of man and woman in which the lower part is omitted, a sort of double figure in which only the upper part of the body is clearly perceptible, then we have the sensible-super-sensible picture that stood before the meditating person at that time. This picture worked so strongly that the neophytes could make their external bodies actually resemble it.
It is important that the meditating neophyte had within him, facing him, a sort of human form. If he had been sufficiently prepared to have this picture livingly before him, then he had to realize the following clearly, “As I look upon this picture I transport myself into the earliest condition of the earth's evolution, when earth, moon, and sun were not yet divided. At that time the earth consisted of the primeval atom, but in this atom the clairvoyant could see the picture that now arises before me. This picture was already present at the beginning of the earth when as yet there were no mineral, plant, or animal forms. At that time the earth consisted only of the human atom, of reawakened human beings.”
It is true that the first beginnings of the animals were created during the ancient Moon condition of the earth; animals already existed then.1Throughout this and the following lectures much is said of the development of human and animal forms. For an attempt to systematize Dr. Steiner's views in this field and to bring them into connection with ordinary scientific knowledge, the reader is again referred to Poppelbaum, Man and Animal (Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1960). But we know too that a planetary system, when it disappears, goes into a Pralaya, in which all forms are dissolved. Thus, although the ancient Moon was already populated with animal forms, the earth at first contained nothing similar to animals and plants. These first appeared later. Only after the separation of the sun did the animals gradually appear. The earth was purely human in its first beginnings.
The neophyte looked back upon this primeval condition of the earth. He saw in the primeval atom the ideal human form. Keeping this form before him, he realized, “Thus I transport myself into the earliest condition of the earth. What lives in the earth, the ideal human picture or form, tells me that the Godhead works from eternity to eternity. It has poured itself out into these forms. It has breathed out this original human form.” Then he asked himself what happened to the animals, plants, and other beings.
In spirit the neophyte saw the primal form of the Godhead. He saw the animals and plants as accompanying forms, which appeared on earth only at a later time. Everything in the lower kingdoms was regarded by the Atlantean neophyte as having proceeded from the human form. We understand this thought if we recollect how coal is formed. Think of the huge primeval forests that once flourished and are now coal. The plants have remained behind, evolving out of a higher kingdom into a lower one. The plants have hardened into stone.
Thus the pupil of the Atlantean mysteries saw everything in the world about him as the product of the human form. In primeval times, this impression was conjured before the soul of man. These impressions were retained in memory through the time of the flood. The ancient Indian initiators again called up in the souls of their pupils this picture of primeval man, of the man who had been breathed forth by the eternal self. When the Indian pupil had this picture before him, he felt that everything had sprung from it, that what appeared in this picture as the blood had become the waters of the earth, etc. This picture expanded until it became the foundation of the universe. Then the following was put before his soul. It was said to him, “In this picture you have two things before your eyes. First, the picture itself; but then, also, what lights up in you as your innermost essence when you contemplate this picture. Without is the macrocosm; within you is what you feel as a sort of extract, the microcosm.”
When the Greeks, under Alexander, pressed into India and met the last echoes of what the pupils had felt in ancient times, they experienced the following: When the pupil contemplates what is spread out in the universe as man, then he has Heracles before him. The Indians gave the name of Vach2The Sanscrit word is Vach or Vac; see Maurice Bloomfield's Religion of India (New York, Putnam, 1908), pages 191 and 243. Dr. Steiner uses WHA in German, but the first letter should be pronounced like the English V, hence the WHA becomes VHA in English. to what lives as the forces of the world-all. But in man, as a sort of extract of the whole, they felt what they called Brahman. Thus the Greeks expounded these echoes of what occurred in the soul of the pupil of the ancient holy Indian culture. This was the fruit of the Greek's campaign to India under Alexander the Great.
Out of precisely this fundamental feeling developed the sacred doctrine of the ancient Indian initiates, which appears like a spiritual image of that primeval state of the earth when it still contained the sun-forces and high beings, for whose sublimity man later yearned. Hence it was a great moment in his spiritual life when the pupil was initiated and could allow to arise within him what was grasped as Brahman. This was a mighty event in the human soul. It was a rising into higher worlds. In no other way could a man be initiated and achieve real vision, than by rising into higher worlds.
The world around us is the physical world. Within and around it surges the astral world. Higher stands Devachan, the world of the gods. The pupil must penetrate to the highest regions of Devachan if he is to feel Brahman, the primeval self, in the macrocosm. Then he is in highest Devachan, the world of the gods, whence springs the noblest that is in man. It was a realm of the highest and most perfect order into which the pupil was transported, a realm that offered much knowledge in addition to what has been described here.
Before we go any further, we must learn to know the teachers also. All of you have heard of the holy Rishis, who were the original founders of the ancient holy Indian culture and had Manu for their own teacher. Who were these seven great teachers of ancient India? As far as possible, we must explain the nature of the holy Rishis. This requires us to look again into the universe. We must be quite clear that what we perceive with the physical senses is a result of what is spiritual. If we think of the entire surrounding world as spiritualised, we can compare it with a primeval etheric mist. This mist then gradually became denser; it descended into the condition of matter and the various heavenly bodies condensed out of it. Sun, Moon, and Earth detached themselves.
But why did the other Planets split off? For it also occurred that Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury detached themselves. Why did this happen? We shall understand this if we realize that in the great universe there occurs something similar to an event in our trivial everyday life. It is not only in school that pupils sometimes fail to be promoted, but also in the cosmos there are beings who remain behind and cannot progress with the others. Let us be quite clear about this. There was one group of higher beings who could not continue with the earth's tempo. These abstracted the finest substances and formed therefrom the sun as their dwelling-place. These were the highest beings connected with our evolution, although they also had gone through an evolution of their own. Thus there were beings who were in the act of becoming sun-spirits, and others who had remained behind, standing lower than the sun-spirits but higher than man. These could not continue with the sun-spirits because they were not equally mature. They could not go out with the sun, for it would have scorched them. But on the other hand they were too noble for the earth. Therefore they abstracted certain substances, which were between sun and earth in fineness and corresponded to their nature, and built themselves dwelling-places between the sun and the earth. Thus Venus and Mercury were separated off. Here we have two groups of beings who are not as high as the sun-spirits, but are further along than man. They became the spirits of Venus and Mercury. These are the beings who caused the appearance of these two planets. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were formed earlier for other reasons, and they also became dwelling-places for certain beings.
Thus we, see how spirits caused the appearance of these planets. Now one should not believe that these beings inhabiting the various bodies of the solar system have no connection with the inhabitants of the earth. We must see that the physical boundaries are not the real boundaries, and that it is possible for the beings of the other heavenly bodies to exercise magical influences upon the earth. Thus the influences of the spirits of the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury extend into the earth. The two latter stand nearer to the earth, and after the sun had withdrawn they helped men to prepare the earth as we have it today.
Here I would like to add one thing, because misunderstandings have crept into the naming of the planets. In all occult nomenclature, what the astronomers call Venus is called Mercury, and vice versa. Astronomers know nothing of the mysteries behind this, because in the past it was not desired that the esoteric names should be revealed. This happened in order to conceal certain things.
All these spirits of the other planets influence the earth. From every planet influences descend upon man. To begin with, however, these influences had need of an intermediary. Through the great Manu this was provided by the seven Rishis being initiated in such a way that each understood the mysteries and influences of a single planet. Since there were seven planets there were seven Rishis, who collectively formed a sevenfold lodge that could transmit to the pupils the secrets of the solar system. We find hints of this in many ancient occult writings. When, for example, it is said that there are mysteries beyond the seven, the reference is to those preserved by the holy Manu himself concerning the time before the splitting-off of the planets.
The forces preserved by the planets were the subject of the mysteries of the seven Rishis. This choir of seven Rishis, in complete harmony with Manu, cooperated in the wonderful wisdom that was transmitted to the pupils.. If we were to characterize this, we would have to say that this primeval teaching contained approximately what we learn today as the evolution of humanity through the planetary conditions of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. The mysteries of evolution were secreted in the seven members of the lodge, each of whom typified one stage in the progress of humanity.
The pupil saw this—not only saw it, but heard it—when he raised himself into Devachan, into the Devachanic world, for this is a world of tones. There he heard the harmony of the spheres, of the seven planets. In the astral world he saw the picture; in the Devachanic world he heard the tone; and in the highest world he experienced the word. When the Indian pupil raised himself into upper Devachan he perceived through the music of the spheres and through the word of the spheres how the primordial spirit, Brahma, is divided through evolution into the seven-fold planetary chain. He heard this out of the primal word Vach. This was the designation of the primal tone of creation that the pupil heard. In it he heard the entire world-evolution. The word, split into seven members, the primal word of creation, worked in the soul of the pupil; this was the primal word, which he described to the uninitiated approximately as we today would describe our world evolution. What he perceived is described in an elementary way in my book, Theosophy, An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge. The description we find again in the ancient sacred tradition of the Indians, in what was called the Veda,3Selections from the Vedas are given in Sacred Books of the East (Oxford University Press, 1879-1910) but there seems to be no complete translation or index in English. or the Word. This is the true meaning of the Vedas, and what was later written down is only a last memory of the ancient sacred doctrine of the Word. The Word itself was only passed from mouth to mouth, for an ancient tradition is impaired by being written down. Only in the Vedas can one feel something of what flowed into this culture at that time. When the pupil experienced this in his memory, he could say to himself, “What I experience in my soul as Brahman, what I have in my soul as primal Word, this was already present on ancient Saturn; on Saturn resounded the first breath of the Veda-word.”
Evolution had now progressed through the Sun and Moon stages, as far as the Earth. The word had become continually denser, had taken on ever denser forms, and the picture of man in the primeval seed of the earth was already a condensation of the condition in which the primeval word existed on Saturn. What had happened here?
The divine Word, primeval man, had sheathed itself in ever new coverings, and we must see what sheaths the Word assumed in the evolution of the earth. The pupil knew that nothing in the universe repeats itself exactly, and that each planet has its mission. What on the ancient Sun he saw shape itself as life, what on the ancient Moon was injected into the foundation of all things as wisdom, was followed by the task or mission of the Earth, which is to develop love. This was not yet present on the ancient Moon. What was present on the latter planet in a much more spiritual (but also in a much colder) form, the primal image of man, clothed itself in a warm astral covering. On the Moon, what man was supposed to become was clothed in a warm astral sheath, and it is this part which on Earth enables the inner human life to develop love from the lowest to the highest form.
To the Indian pupil the human form, the primal image, became clearly perceptible in higher Devachan. In lower Devachan it then surrounded itself with an astral sheath, which contained the forces for developing love. Love, or Eros, was called Kama.4Kama is a Sanscrit word meaning desire, the nature of the astral body. Thus Kama acquires a meaning for earth-evolution. The divine Word, Brahman, clothed itself in Kama, and through Kama the primal Word resounded to the pupil. Kama was the garment of love, the garment of the primal Word Vach, which lies at the root of the Latin vox.
In his innermost being the pupil felt that the divine Word had taken on an astral garment of love, and he said to himself, “Man, who today consists of four members, physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego, has his ego as his highest member. This ego descended into the garment of love and formed Kama-Manas for itself. Kama, in which Manas clothed itself, was the innermost essence of man. This was the ego. But we know also that this innermost essence will evolve three higher members. These transform the lower members, transform even the physical body. As Manas grows out of the astral sheath, as Buddhi on a higher stage corresponds to Prana, so will the physical body, when it has been entirely spiritualised, be Atma.”
All this already existed germinally in the Vach, and a verse of the Veda recalls how the pupil brought the mystery of the innermost being to expression.
We know that the physical body first appeared on Saturn, the etheric on the Sun, the astral on the Moon, and the ego on the Earth. The true and original human germ, the primal Vach, however, already contained the three following members in itself. Man may still expect three higher members as well, and then only will he be a true image of the Word of creation, the primal Word. It was pointed out to the pupil that only to the initiate could the true nature of the physical, etheric and astral bodies be made clear. Today man is himself only when he expresses his “I am,” when he keeps in mind what is entirely his own. Only then is he fully Man. The other members are manifest, but in them he is still unconscious. In the fourth, however, the Vach becomes manifest.
“In the fourth, Man speaks.” This was the verse of the Veda. When the word of the ego resounds, the fourth part of the Vach resounds. The verse of the Veda reads, “Four parts of the Vach are manifest; three are visible; three are now concealed; in the fourth speaks Man.”
Here we have a wonderful description of what we have so often heard. This stood before the pupil's spiritual perception. His gaze was directed backward to the condition in which nothing was as yet separate, in which there was still a primeval earth, in which the full Vach spoke. This is expressed in another verse of the Veda. “Formerly I knew not what the I am is. Only when the first-born of the earth came upon me did the spirit become filled with light, and I had a share in the holy Vach.” In this is reproduced the vision that the initiate had.
In all this we have a hint of the experiences of the ancient pupils of the Rishis, of the wonderful teachings that flowed into the Indian culture, were transmitted to the following epochs, and were transformed in accordance with the needs of other peoples. But all of these understood the primeval Word, Vach.
We shall understand many things better if we keep in mind one mystery in its full scope. We must imagine that at that time the teacher's influence on the pupil was entirely different from what it is today. Such an influence is now possible only when the pupil has already been brought to a certain stage of initiation. The forces exerted by the teacher on the pupil were much stronger at that time. Not only what the teacher could transmit by word or writing had an effect. In reality, all this worked only on the intellectual soul, but apart from this, mysterious magical forces worked from the teacher to the pupil, and it was essentially the teacher's forces that were able to fill with brightness and living force the pictures that the teacher called up before the pupil's soul. This singular influence was lost only in the fourth post-Atlantean period, in the Greco-Latin culture. These forces simply change. When one of the old Egyptians confronted a young person, it was quite different from a teacher confronting a pupil today. Entirely different forces worked from age to youth. This will be recognized by anyone who seeks to understand what was still described in ancient Greece. Socrates actually had telepathic powers, which he allowed to work on his pupils while he instructed them. Such things can no longer work in our time, but they are hinted at in Plato's writings. What was entirely justified then would be rejected as a misdemeanor today. Changes take place, and today no one has a right to copy such methods. Certain phenomena today may remind us of this, but they must be considered reprehensible.
In ancient times, forces proceeded from the teacher to the pupil. Even in ancient Egypt there were still a great many people who could absorb forces in this manner. If a person who was especially sensitive stood before someone who had learned to strengthen his thoughts, a strong thought worked in such a way that it appeared as a picture in the soul of the sensitive person. In ancient Egypt such a telepathic influence was eminently possible, and thought-transference was present to a high degree. If a strong will-nature confronted someone who had not been strengthened, this was often the case. In Egypt one was able to guide and direct in a high degree through thoughts, in a way we today cannot imagine at all. Today such forces would be woefully misused. In ancient Egypt, however, initiation rested principally upon forces of this kind. This was likewise true in ancient India and Persia.
These forces also reinforced the method which, if an exoteric expression is desired, might be called medical. By this we do not mean the official medical practice of today. The Egyptian physician and initiate would have laughed to scorn what modern man calls medicine. The Egyptian physician knew one thing—that the conditions that prevailed in ancient Atlantis, and that could still be perceived in initiation, could in a certain sense be reawakened. The consciousness in which man lived in Atlantis was a dim clairvoyant consciousness. At that time (said the Egyptian initiate) the spiritual beings could exert a much greater influence on man. Today, when he sleeps, man knows nothing of the higher worlds, but the Atlantean, in his shadowy clairvoyant consciousness, then lived with the gods. If modern man can raise himself to an ideal, this is better for him than all moral teachings; similarly, the Egyptian initiate worked on his pupil through pictures of higher spiritual events. This had no mere external effect; it worked deeply within, and in such a way that a definite result ensued.
Let us think of a sick person, who is sick because certain bodily functions do not proceed in a normal way. What is the cause of this? A person with occult training knows that when the physical body functions irregularly, the cause does not lie outside the latter. On the contrary, all illnesses that do not come from outside the Physical body, originate in the fact that the etheric body is not in order. But the etheric body is ill because the astral body is out of order. If an Atlantean was threatened with a disorder in the distribution of fluids, this was quickly taken care of. In a sleeping condition he received from the spiritual worlds such force that through his sleep the disturbed functions were restored to order, and he was brought back to health. He rebuilt the healing forces through sleep.
The ancient Egyptian physicians did something similar. They reduced the patient's consciousness to a sort of hypnotic sleep, during which they could govern the soul-pictures that arose around the patient. They guided these pictures in such a way that they were able to work back on the physical body and make it healthy. This was the significance of the temple-sleep that was applied for internal ailments. The patient was given no medicine, but was allowed to sleep in the temple. His consciousness was damped down, and he was allowed to look into the spiritual worlds. Then his astral experiences were guided in such a way that they had the power to pour health into the body. This is no superstition; it is a secret that was known to the initiates. They introduced the spiritual into the patient's experiences. In this medical art, which we find so closely connected with the principle of initiation, the Atlantean conditions were artificially recreated during the healing. Since man did not work against himself through his day-consciousness, those forces could be active that were necessary for healing. This is how the temple-sleep worked.
In the Egyptian culture there still reigned that principle which, in India, reigned among those wise Rishis who guided affairs, who transmitted the planetary forces, who were the pupils of Manu, the great teacher of that first sublime culture. In the first post-Atlantean culture it was the Rishis who brought the sublime teaching that led men into lofty spiritual worlds, even into the world of higher Devachan. In the succeeding cultural periods, what was seen there was led down as far as the physical plane. Until the fourth post-Atlantean period there continued to descend into the physical plane that Being whom we learned to know as Brahman in the Indian period and whom we now designate as Christ. No longer does he transmit the spiritual; he himself became man in order to radiate over all men the mysterious power of the primal Word.
Thus the primal Word descended, in order that it might lead man upward again. Man must understand how that happened, if he is to make himself an instrument through which he can work into the future. We must learn to know what happened before our time, so that we ourselves can cooperate in an ever higher molding of what exists around us and for us.
We must create a spiritual world in the future. To do this, we must first understand the cosmos.
Vierter Vortrag
Gestern beschlossen wir unsere Betrachtung mit der Besprechung eines außerordentlich wichtigen Ereignisses im inneren Leben, im eigentlichen Geistesleben des Menschen. Wir versuchten vor unsere Seele zu rücken einen Eindruck, den der atlantische Einzuweihende hatte im Beginn des letzten Drittels der atlantischen Kulturepoche. Uns trat da vor die Seele, wie dem Einzuweihenden eine ideale Menschengestalt vor der Seele stand, die ein Gedankenbild war, auf das er sich zu konzentrieren hatte in der Meditation, und wie dies das Vorstellungs-, Gefühls- und Willensleben des atlantischen Einzuweihenden erfüllte. Dieses Gedankenbild sollte immer mehr und mehr das Modell für den zukünftigen Menschen werden.
Nun müssen wir uns noch einmal vor Augen führen, wie dieses Gedankenbild eigentlich ungefähr aussah. Es war nicht ganz dem Menschen von heute ähnlich; so war es nicht. Wenn wir uns eine Art Kombination denken würden aus Mann und Frau, wobei alles das, was niedrig ist, wegbleibt, wenn wir uns eine Art Doppelgestalt denken, von der nur erfaßbar deutlich der obere Teil des Leibes ist, so haben wir das eigentliche sinnlich-übersinnliche Bild, das vor dem Meditierenden damals stand. Dieses Bild wirkte so stark, daß diejenigen, welche Einzuweihende waren, wirklich ihren äußeren Leib immer ähnlicher machten diesem Bilde.
Nun ist ein Umstand sehr wichtig, das ist der, daß ja gerade der meditierende Einzuweihende eine Art Menschengestalt vor sich hatte, welche ihm gegenüberstand in seinem Inneren. Wenn der Einzuweihende vorbereitet worden war, daß er dieses Bild lebendig vor sich hatte, so mußte er sich folgendes klarmachen, wenn er dieses Bild vor sich aufleuchten sah: Indem ich dieses Bild anblicke, versetze ich mich in den Urzustand der Erdenentwickelung, als Erde, Mond und Sonne noch nicht getrennt waren. — Damals bestand die Erde aus ihrem Uratom, aber in diesem Atom war für den Hellseher das Bild zu sehen, das jetzt vor mir auftaucht. Das Bild war schon in der Urzeit der Erde vorhanden, als es noch keine 'Tier-, Pflanzenund Mineralformen gab. Damals bestand die Erde nur aus dem Menschenatom, aus den wiedererweckten Menschen. Allerdings haben sich ja schon die ersten Anlagen der Tiere während des Monden- zustandes der Erde gebildet; die Tiere waren schon da. Aber wir wissen auch, wenn ein planetarisches System verschwindet, daß dieses hineingeht in ein Pralaya, in das dann alle Formen aufgelöst werden. Wenn auch der alte Mond von Tierformen bereits bevölkert war, so hatte die Erde zuerst aber damit noch nicht gleich Tiere und Pflanzen, die kamen erst später. Erst nach der Abtrennung der Sonne tauchten die Tiere allmählich auf. Die Erde war bloß Mensch in ihrer Ürzeit.
Auf diesen Urzustand der Erde blickte also der Einzuweihende. Er sah im Uratom das Idealbild des Menschen. Diese Menschengestalt hatte der Einzuweihende vor sich, und nun wurde ihm klar: Also versetze ich mich in den Urzustand der Erde. Das was in der Erde lebt, das Idealbild, die Idealform des Menschen, das sagt mir folgendes: Die Gottheit wirkt von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit; sie hat sich ausgegossen in diese Formen und hat diese menschliche Urform aus sich herausgehaucht. — Jetzt sagte er sich: Wo sind die Tiere, Pflanzen und anderen Wesen hergekommen ?
Gleichsam die Urform der Gottheit sah der Einzuweihende im Geiste, und die Tiere sah er als Nebenformen, auch die Pflanzen sah er als Nebengestalten, die erst später entstanden waren. Alles das, was hier an niederen Reichen lebt, alles das sah der atlantische Einzuweihende an als erst aus der Menschengestalt hervorgegangen. Wir können uns eine Vorstellung von diesem Gedanken machen, wenn wir daran denken, wie die Steinkohle entstanden ist. Denken wir an die großen Urwälder, die damals entstanden und lebten und die jetzt Steinkohle sind. Sie sind zurückgeblieben, sie haben sich aus einem höheren in ein niederes Reich entwickelt. Da sehen wir, wie die Pflanzen zu Stein geworden, verhärtet sind.
So sah der atlantische Einzuweihende alles, die ganze Umwelt aus der Menschenform hervorgehen. Dieser Eindruck wurde in den urfernen Zeiten vor die Seele des Menschen hingezaubert, und diese Eindrücke wurden in der Erinnerung behalten durch die Zeit der Flut hindurch, und die alten indischen Initiatoren riefen dieses Bild des Urmenschen auch noch hervor in der Seele des Schülers, das Bild des Urmenschen, der vom ewigen Selbst ausgehaucht worden war. Wenn der indische Schüler dieses Bild vor sich hatte, dann fühlte er, daß alles aus diesem Bilde entstanden war, daß das, was wie das Blut vorhanden war in diesem Urbilde, zu den Wassern der Erde geworden ist und so weiter. Und so erweiterte sich dieses Bild zu dem Urgrund des Alls. Jetzt wurde ihm folgendes vor die Seele gestellt. Es wurde ihm gesagt: Zweierlei hast du in diesem Urbild vor Augen, einmal das Urbild selbst, dann aber auch das, was in dir als innerste Wesenheit aufleuchtete bei Betrachtung des Bildes. Draußen der Makrokosmos und dann das, was du gewissermaßen in dir als Extrakt empfindest, der Mikrokosmos.
Und als die Griechen bei den Alexanderzügen nach Indien drangen und die letzten Nachklänge vernahmen dessen, was der Schüler damals gefühlt hatte, da empfanden sie folgendes. Sie sagten: Wenn der Schüler das betrachtet, was in der großen Welt ausgebreitet ist als Mensch, dann hat er den Herakles vor sich. Der Inder nannte das, was als Kräfte des Weltalls lebt, Väc. - Im Menschen aber fühlten sie gewissermaßen als den Extrakt des Ganzen das Brahman. — So verdeutlichten sich die Griechen das, was Nachklänge sind von demjenigen, was in der Seele des Schülers vor sich ging in der uralt heiligen indischen Kultur. Das war die Frucht eines Zuges der Griechen unter Alexander dem Großen nach Indien. Gerade aus dieser Grundempfindung heraus entwickelte sich die uralt heilige indische Eingeweihtenlehre, die wie ein geistiges Abbild erscheint jenes Urzustandes der Erde, wo die Erde noch die Sonnenkräfte und hohen Wesenheiten in sich hatte, nach deren Erhabenheit man sich später sehnte. Deshalb war es ein hohes Gefühl geistigen Lebens, wenn der Schüler eingeweiht wurde, wenn er das in sich erstehen lassen konnte, was man als Brahman erfaßt. Es war ein ungeheurer Vorgang in der Menschenseele. Das war eine Erhebung in hohe Welten. Nicht anders konnte man eingeweiht werden und zum wirklichen Schauen gelangen, als wenn man sich erhob zu höchsten Welten. Diejenige Welt, die um uns ist, ist die physische Welt. Um sie und in ihr wogt die Astralwelt. Höher steht das Devachan, die Götterwelt, und in die höchsten Regionen des Devachan mußte entrückt werden der Schüler, wenn er in dem Makrokosmos das Brahman, das Urselbst fühlen sollte. Im obersten Devachan war dann der Schüler, in der Götterwelt, aus der herausstammt das Edelste, was der Mensch in sich hat. Es war ein Reich höchster, vollkommenster Ordnung, in das der Schüler entrückt wurde, ein Reich, das noch vieles andere bot an Erkenntnis; denn das, was hier geschildert wurde, war nicht das einzige.
Bevor wir aber weiteres schildern, müssen wir auch die Lehrer kennenlernen. Sie alle haben schon gehört von den heiligen Rishis, den ursprünglichen Begründern der uralt heiligen indischen Kultur, welche selbst den Manu zum Lehrer gehabt hatten. Wer waren diese sieben großen Lehrer des alten Indiens? Wir müssen die Natur der heiligen Rishis, soweit das möglich ist, uns ein wenig verdeutlichen. Dazu müssen wir noch einmal in die große Welt schauen. Wir müssen uns klar sein, daß dasjenige, was wir mit physischen Sinnen, Augen und so weiter wahrnehmen können, eine Folge des Geistigen ist. Wenn wir die ganze Umwelt, die wir erblicken, vergeistigt denken, so können wir sie etwa mit einem ätherischen Urnebel vergleichen. Dieser Nebel wurde dann allmählich dichter, er stieg hinab in den Zustand der Materie, und es ballten sich heraus verschiedene Weltkörper: die Sonne, der Mond, die Erde trennten sich.
Warum spalteten sich aber die anderen Planeten heraus? Denn das geschah während der einzelnen Trennungen auch. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Merkur spalteten sich ab. Warum geschah das?
Wir werden das begreifen, wenn wir uns sagen, daß im großen Weltenall etwas Ähnliches vor sich geht wie das, was sich auch in unserern gewöhnlichen, trivialen Leben abspielt. Es bleiben nicht bloß Schüler im Gymnasium sitzen, sondern auch im großen Kosmos gibt es Wesen, die zurückbleiben und nicht mitkommen können. Nun machen wir uns das einmal ganz klar. Eine Gruppe hoher Wesen waren es, die nicht das Tempo der Erde mitmachen konnten, die die feinsten Substanzen herausnahmen und daraus die Sonne gestalteten zu ihrem Wohnplatz. Das waren die höchsten Wesen, die mit unserer Evolution verknüpft waren. Sie hatten aber auch eine Entwickelung durchgemacht. Es gab also Wesen, die damals im Begriff standen, Sonnengeister zu werden und solche, die zurückgeblieben waren, die tiefer standen als die Sonnengeister, jedoch höher als der Mensch, die die Entwickelung der Sonnengeister nicht mitmachen konnten, weil sie nicht so reif waren wie diese. Sie konnten nicht mit der Sonne herausgehen; die Sonne hätte sie versengt. Für die Erde waren sie aber zu edel, daher hatten sie sich besondere Substanzen, die an Feinheit zwischen Sonne und Erde stehen, die ihrer Natur entsprachen, herausgenommen und sich Wohnplätze gebildet zwischen Sonne und Erde. So spalteten sich heraus Venus und Merkur. Da haben wir zwei Gruppen von Wesenheiten, die nicht so hoch gekommen waren wie die Sonnengeister, aber weiter waren als der Mensch. Sie wurden Venus-, sie wurden Merkurgeister. Diese Wesenheiten sind die Veranlasser der Entstehung dieser beiden Planeten. Ferner bildeten sich schon früher heraus Mars, Jupiter und Saturn, aus anderen Gründen. Diese wurden wiederum Wohnplätze für bestimmte Wesenheiten.
So sehen wir, wie Geister die Ursachen von der Entstehung der Planeten sind. Nun darf man nicht glauben, daß diese Wesenheiten, die die verschiedenen Körper des Sonnensystems bewohnen, daß die nicht in Zusammenhang stehen mit den Erdbewohnern. Wir müssen einsehen, daß die physischen Grenzen nicht die wirklichen Grenzen sind, daß auch über diese Grenzen hinaus vielfach die Möglichkeit besteht für die Wesenheiten der anderen Himmelskörper, magische Wirkungen auszuüben auf die Erde. So erstrecken sich die Wirkungen der Sonnen-, Mars-, Jupiter-, Saturn-, Venus-, Merkurgeister und so weiter in die Erde hinein. Die beiden letzteren stehen der Erde näher; sie haben den Menschen geholfen, als die Sonne herausgetreten war, die Erde so vorzubereiten, wie wir sie jetzt vor uns haben.
Ich möchte hier etwas einfügen, weil Mißverständnisse sich eingeschlichen haben, die sich beziehen auf die Benennung der Planeten. In allen okkulten Benennungen wird das, was heute astronomisch Merkur genannt wird, Venus genannt, und umgekehrt, was man astronomisch Venus nennt, wird Merkur genannt. Die rein äußerlichen Astronomen wissen nicht, daß da Geheimnisse zugrunde liegen, weil man tiefe, esoterische Benennungen nicht verraten wollte. Es ist das geschehen, um gewisse Dinge zu verhüllen.
Es wirken nun alle diese Geister der anderen Planeten auf die Erde. Von allen Planeten gehen Wirkungen auf den Menschen aus. Diese Wirkungen mußten aber zunächst dem Menschen vermittelt werden, und das geschah dadurch, daß durch den großen Manu die sieben Rishis so eingeweiht wurden, daß der einzelne Rishi die Geheimnisse eines dieser Planeten in ihren Wirkungen verstand. Und weil man sieben Planeten zählte, so waren diese sieben Rishis in ihrer Gemeinsamkeit dasjenige, was darstellt eine siebengliedrige Loge, welche die Lehren von den Geheimnissen unseres Sonnensystems ihren Schülern übermitteln konnte. Daher finden wir Hindeutungen darauf in manchen alten okkulten Schriften. Da steht zum Beispiel: Es gibt Geheimnisse, die zu suchen sind jenseits der Sieben, das sind die, die der heilige Manu selbst bewahrte, über die Zeit vor der Spaltung der Planeten.
Das was die Planeten als Kräfte bewahrten, das war dasjenige, was in den Geheimnissen der sieben Rishis verborgen war. Und so wirkte dieser Chor der sieben Rishis zusammen, in vollster Einheit mit dem Manu, in der wunderbaren Weisheit, die den Schülern von ihnen vermittelt wurde. Wenn wir das charakterisieren wollten, so müßten wir sagen: Diese Urlehre enthielt ungefähr dasjenige, was wir heute kennenlernen als die Evolution der Menschheit durch die planetarischen Zustände von Saturn, Sonne, Mond, Erde, Jupiter, Venus, Vulkan. Die Geheimnisse der Evolution waren hineingeheimnißt in die sieben Glieder der Loge, von denen ein jedes eine Stufe im Fortschritt der Menschheit bedeutete.
Das sah der Schüler. Er sah es nicht nur, er hörte es sogar, wenn er sich erhob in das Devachan, in die devachanische Welt: denn diese Welt ist eine Welt des Tönens. Da hörte er den Sphärenklang der sieben Planeten. Er sah in der astralischen Welt das Bild; in der devachanischen Welt hörte er den Ton, und in der obersten, der höchsten der Welten, erlebte er das Wort. Wenn also der indische Schüler sich erhob in das obere Devachan, so nahm er durch die Sphärenmusik und durch das Sphärenwort wahr, wie der Urgeist Brahma sich gliedert durch die Evolution, in der siebengliedrigen Planetenkette, und er hörte das aus dem Urwort Väc. Das war die Bezeichnung des Urtones der Schöpfung, den der Schüler hörte; darinnen hörte er die ganze Weltenentwickelung. Das in sieben Glieder gespaltene Wort, das Urwort der Schöpfung, das wirkte in der Seele des Schülers, das Urwort, das er den Nichteingeweihten ungefähr so beschrieb, wie wir heute beschreiben würden unsere Weltenevolution. Was er wahrnahm, ist elementar beschrieben in meiner «Theosophie», ‚Und diese Beschreibung finden wir zuerst wieder in. der uralt heiligen Religion der Inder, in dem, was man nannte den «Veda» oder auf deutsch das «Wort».
Das ist der wirkliche Sinn der Veden, und dasjenige, was später geschrieben ist, ist nur die letzte Erinnerung an die uralt heilige Wortlehre. Das Wort selbst ist nur von Mund zu Mund fortgepflanzt worden, denn durch das Niederschreiben wird die Urtradition verletzt. Nur aus den Veden kann man noch etwas herausfühlen von dem, was damals in diese Kultur eingeflossen ist. Wenn der Schüler das in seiner Erinnerung erlebte, konnte er sich sagen: Was ich als Brahman in meiner Seele erlebe, was ich als Urwort in meiner Seele habe, das war auch schon da auf dem alten Saturn; auf dem Saturn erklang schon der erste Hauch des Vedawortes.
Nun hatte sich die Entwickelung fortgesetzt durch Sonne und Mond bis zur Erde. Das Wort war immer dichter geworden, hatte immer dichtere Formen angenommen, und das Menschenbild im Ursamen der Erde war schon eine Verdichtung des Zustandes, in dem das Urwort auf dem Saturn war. Was war nun geschehen?
Das Gotteswort, der Urmensch hatte sich in immer neue Hüllen gehüllt, und es kam darauf an, welche Hüllen das Wort innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung annahm. Der Schüler wußte, daß sich nichts vollständig wiederholt im Weltenall und daß jeder Planet seine Mission hat. Was er auf der alten Sonne als das Leben sich gestalten sah, was auf dem alten Monde als Weisheit eingeimpft wurde auf den Grund aller Dinge, dem folgte auf der Erde, was die Aufgabe, die Mission der Erde ist, das ist, die Liebe zu entwickeln; die war auf dem alten Monde noch nicht da. So kleidete sich dasjenige, was in einer viel geistigeren, aber auch in einer viel kälteren Form auf dem vorigen Planeten vorhanden war, das Urbild des Menschen, es kleidete sich in eine warme astralische Umhüllung. Dasjenige, was Mensch werden sollte, war auf dem Monde in eine astralische Hülle gekleidet worden, und dieser Teil ist es, der auf der Erde das innere Menschenleben dazu fähig macht, Liebe zu entwickeln von der niedersten bis zur höchsten Form.
Dem indischen Schüler wurde die Menschengestalt, das Urbild, im oberen Devachan klar wahrnehmbar. Dann umhüllte es sich im niederen Devachan mit einer astralischen Hülle, die in sich die Kräfte hatte, Liebe zu entwickeln. Die Liebe, den Eros, nannte man Kama. So bekommt Kama einen Sinn für die Erdenentwickelung. Es kleidete sich das göttliche Wort, das Brahman, in Kama, und durch das Kama hindurch tönte dem Schüler das Urwort heraus. Das Kleid der Liebe war Kama, das Kleid des Urwortes Väc, des Wortes Väc, das dem lateinischen «vox» zugrunde liegt. Und so empfand der Schüler im innersten Wesen, daß sich das Gotteswort ein astralisches Liebeskleid umgelegt hatte, und nun sagte er sich: Der Mensch, der heute aus vier Gliedern besteht, aus dem physischen Leibe, dem Ätherleib, dem Astralleib und dem Ich, dieser Mensch hat als höchstes Glied sein Ich. Und dieses Ich stieg hinunter in das Liebeskleid und bildete sich Kama-Manas. Das war das innerste Wesen des Menschen, Kama war es, in das sich Manas kleidete: das war das Ich. Aber wir wissen auch, daß dieses innerste Wesen herausentwickeln wird drei Glieder, die höher sind, die wandeln die niederen Glieder um, wandeln auch den physischen Leib um, und wie das Manas aus der Astralhülle wird, wie dem Prana die Budhi auf höherer Stufe entspricht, so wird der physische Leib, wenn er ganz vergeistigt sein wird, Atma sein. Alles das war aber schon keimhaft veranlagt in der Väc, und ein Vedasatz erinnert noch daran, wie der Schüler das Geheimnis des innersten Wesens zum Ausdruck brachte.
Wir wissen, daß der physische Leib auf dem Saturn, der Ätherleib auf der Sonne, der Astralleib auf dem Monde, und das Ich auf der Erde erst entstanden ist. Aber die wahre, ursprüngliche Menschenanlage, das Urwort Väc, hatte auch schon die drei folgenden Glieder in sich. Drei höhere Glieder hat der Mensch noch zu erwarten, dann wird er erst ein getreues Abbild des Schöpfungswortes, des Urwortes sein. Und darauf sollte der Schüler hingewiesen werden, daß nur dem Eingeweihten die wahre Natur des physischen, ätherischen und astralischen Leibes klar sein konnte. Heute ist der Mensch er selbst nur, wenn er sein «Ich bin» ausspricht, wenn er das ins Auge faßt, was ganz sein eigen ist. Nur da ist er ganz Mensch. Die anderen Glieder sind zwar auch offenbar, aber da ist er noch unbewußt. Aber im vierten ist die Väc offenbar geworden: «Im vierten spricht der. Mensch!» Das war der Satz des Veda. Wenn das Wort des Ich ertönt, so tönt der vierte Teil der Väc. Der Vedasatz hieß: «Vier Vierteile der Väc sind bemessen; drei sind im Verborgenen bewahrt und rühren sich nicht; nur das vierte Vierteil sprechen die Menschen.»
Da haben wir eine wunderbare Beschreibung von dem, was wir so oft gehört haben. Das stand vor dem geistigen Blick des Schülers. Sein Blick wurde auf den Zustand zurückgelenkt, wo noch nichts getrennt war, wo noch eine Urerde war, wo die volle Väc sprach. Das drückt ein anderer Vedasatz aus: «Vorher wußte ich nicht, was das ist, das «Ich bin», erst als die Erstgebotene der Erde über mich kam, wurde der Geist lichtvoll erfüllt, und ich hatte Anteil an der heiligen Väc», der Weisheit. Darinnen ist ein Schauen wiedergegeben, das der Eingeweihte hatte.
Damit ist nur angedeutet einiges wenige von den Erlebnissen der alten Rishi-Schüler, von den wunderbaren Lehren, die einflossen in die indische Kultur, die überliefert wurden an die folgenden Zeitalter und die umgestaltet wurden nach den Lebensbedürfnissen anderer Völker. Aber alle hatten es verstanden, das Urwott Väc.
Wir werden manches besser verstehen, wenn wir ein Geheimnis in seinem ganzen Zusammenhang uns vor Augen führen. Wir müssen uns vorstellen, daß damals die Wirkung des Lehrers auf den Schüler eine ganz andere war als heute. Heute ist nur dann, wenn der Schüler auf eine gewisse Einweihungsstufe schon gebracht ist, einigermaßen eine solche Wirkung möglich. Damals waren die Kräfte des Lehrers, die auf den Schüler übergingen, viel stärker. Von diesen Kräften machen wir uns eine Vorstellung, wenn wir sagen: Nicht nur das, was der Lehrer durch das Wort oder durch die Schrift übermitteln konnte, wirkte. Das alles wirkte eigentlich nur auf die Verstandesseele, aber außerdem wirkten magische, geheimnisvolle Kräfte vom Lehrer auf den Schüler, und es waren im wesentlichen die Kräfte des Lehrers, die da imstande waren, die Bilder, die der Lehrer vor die Seele des Schülers rückte, zu erfüllen mit Helligkeit und lebendiger Kraft. Diese eigenartige Wirkung hat sich im vierten nachatlantischen Zeitalter, der griechisch-lateinischen Kultur, erst verloren. Die Kräfte ändern sich eben. Es war ganz etwas anderes, wenn ein alter Ägypter einem jungen gegenüberstand, als wenn heute ein Lehrer dem Schüler gegenübersteht. Ganz andere Kräfte wirkten vom Alter auf die Jugend. Das muß derjenige wissen, der verstehen will, was noch im alten Griechentum beschrieben ist. So&rates hatte tatsächlich telepathische Kräfte, die er auf seine Schüler übergehen ließ, während er sie belehrte. Solches kann in unserer Zeit nicht mehr wirken. Solche Dinge werden angedeutet in P/atos Schriften. Heute würde es selbstverständlich eine verwerfliche Untugend sein, was damals durchaus berechtigt war. Es gehen eben Änderungen vor sich; niemand hat das Recht, das heute zu kopieren. Heutige Erscheinungen wollen sich darauf berufen, aber dasselbe würde heute verwerflich sein.
Damals, in der alten Zeit, gingen Kräfte aus vom Lehrer zum Schüler. Noch im alten Ägypten gab es wirklich eine große Zahl Menschen, die fähig waren, auf eine derartige Weise Kräfte aufzunehmen. Wenn ein Mensch besonders empfänglich war und einem anderen gegenüberstand, der gelernt hatte, seine Gedanken zu verstärken, dann wirkte ein starker Gedanke so, daß er in der Seele des Empfänglichen auftauchte als Bild. Es war also im alten Ägypten eine solche telepathische Wirkung in hohem Grade möglich, und Gedankenübertragung war in hohem Maße vorhanden. Wenn eine starke Willensnatur einer nicht gestärkten gegenüberstand, war das sehr der Fall. So vermochte man auch noch in Ägypten einen anderen durch Gedanken zu lenken und zu leiten in einem Maße, wie man es sich heute gar nicht vorstellen kann, Heute würde man natürlich mit solchen Kräften argen Mißbrauch treiben. Im wesentlichen beruhten im alten Ägypten die Einweihungen auf ähnlichen Kräften. So war es auch im alten Indien möglich gewesen und in Persien. Diese Kräfte verstärkten noch die Methode, die, wenn man sich exoterisch ausdrücken wollte, man auch eine medizinische nennen könnte. Darunter ist natürlich nicht die offizielle Heilkunde von heute zu verstehen. Über das, was heute der Mensch Medizin nennt, darüber hätte der ägyptische Arzt und Eingeweihte nur gelacht. Der alte ägyptische Mediziner hat eins gewußt: er hat gewußt, daß jene Zustände, die in der Atlantis ursprünglich vorhanden waren, und wie man sie bei der Einweihung hat wahrnehmen können, auch jetzt noch in gewissem Sinne wieder zu erwecken waren. Das Bewußtsein, in dem der Mensch in der Atlantis lebte, war ein dumpfes Hellseherbewußtsein. Da gab es eine Zeit, sagte sich der ägyptische Eingeweihte, in der die geistigen Wesen eine viel größere Kraft auf den Menschen ausübten. Heute weiß der Mensch, wenn er schläft, nichts von den höheren Welten; aber der atlantische Mensch lebte da noch in einem dämmerhaften Hellseherbewußtsein mit den Göttern. Und so wie es viel besser wirkt als alle moralischen Lehren, wenn der heutige Mensch sich erheben kann zu einem idealen Menschen, so wirkte damals der ägyptische Eingeweihte durch Kräfte und Bilder höherer geistiger Vorgänge auf den Schüler. Das wirkte nicht bloß äußerlich, sondern tief innerlich, es wirkte so, daß ein ganz bestimmter Vorgang resultierte.
Denken wir uns einen kranken Menschen, der deshalb krank ist, weil bestimmte Verrichtungen nicht in normaler Weise verlaufen. Woher kommt das? Derjenige, der okkult geschult ist, weiß, daß es nicht von außen kommt, wenn der physische Leib unregelmäßig funktioniert; sondern alles, was an Krankheiten da ist und nicht von außen kommt, ist darauf zurückzuführen, daß der Ätherleib nicht in Ordnung ist. Aber der Ätherleib ist krank, weil der Astralleib in Unordnung ist. Wenn nun bei dem atlantischen Menschen Gefahr vorhanden war, daß irgendeine Unordnung in der Säfteverteilung eintreten konnte, dann war sehr bald dafür gesorgt, daß wieder Ordnung hineinkommen konnte. Der Mensch bekam im Schlafzustand aus den geistigen Welten eine solche Kraft, daß durch den Schlaf die gestörten Kräfte und Funktionen wieder hergestellt wurden, daß der Mensch wieder gesundete. Er stellte gewissermaßen durch Erschlafen die gesunden Kräfte wieder her. Die alten ägyptischen Ärzte gebrauchten etwas Ähnliches. Sie dämmerten das Bewußtsein des Patienten künstlich herab bis zu einer Art hypnotischen Schlafes, und nun waren sie Herren über die Bilder der Scelenwelt, die um den Patienten entstanden. Und diese Bilder lenkten sie so, daß sie Kräfte hatten, zurückzuwirken auf den physischen Leib und ihn gesund zu machen. Das war der Sinn des Tempelschlafs, den man für innerliche Krankheiten verwendete. Den Kranken gab man keine Medizin, sondern man ließ einen solchen Menschen im Tempel schlafen. Man umdämmerte sein Bewußtsein und ließ ihn in die geistigen Welten hineinschauen. Man lenkte nun seine astralischen Erlebnisse so, daß diese die Kräfte hatten, wieder Gesundheit in den Leib hineinzugießen. Das ist kein Aberglaube, das ist ein Geheimnis, das die Eingeweihten kannten: daß sie das Geistige in die Erlebnisse der Kranken hineinbrachten. In der Heilkunde, die wir daher so innig verbunden mit dem Prinzip der Einweihung finden, stellte man bei der Heilung gleichsam künstlich den atlantischen Zustand wieder her. Und dadurch, daß der Mensch durch sein Tagesbewußtsein nicht sich entgegensetzte, wirkten die Kräfte, die nötig waren zur Gesundung. So wirkte der Tempelschlaf.
In der ägyptischen Kultur herrschte das Prinzip auch noch, das in Indien bei den weisen Rishis herrschte, die selbst die Dinge lenkten, die selbst die Vermittler der Planetenkräfte waren, die Schüler des Manu, des großen Lehrers der ersten erhabenen Kultur. In der ersten Kultur der nachatlantischen Zeit waren es die Rishis, die jene erhabene Lehre brachten, eine Lehre, die den Menschen in hohe, erhabene, geistige Welten führte, bis in die obere Devachanwelt. Das, was da geschaut wurde, das wurde heruntergeführt in den folgenden Kulturperioden bis auf den physischen Plan; bis im vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum sich hineinsenkte in den physischen Plan die Wesenheit, die wir als das Brahman der indischen Kulturperiode kennengelernt haben, die wir als Christus bezeichnen, die nicht mehr das Geistige zu vermitteln hat, sondern selbst Mensch wurde, um über alle Menschen auszustrahlen die geheimnisvolle Macht des Urwortes.
So ist das Urwort herabgestiegen, um den Menschen wieder hinaufzubringen. Und der Mensch muß verstehen, wie das geschah, um ein Instrument aus sich zu bilden, durch das er in die Zukunft wirken kann. Wir müssen kennenlernen, was vor uns gewirkt hat, damit wir selbst mitarbeiten können an immer höherer Gestaltung dessen, was für uns um uns ist.
Eine geistige Welt müssen wir in Zukunft schaffen. Dazu ist nötig, daß wir zuerst den Kosmos verstehen.
Fourth Lecture
Yesterday we concluded our consideration with a discussion of an extraordinarily important event in the inner life, in the actual spiritual life of the human being. We tried to bring before our soul an impression that the Atlantic initiate had at the beginning of the last third of the Atlantic cultural epoch. We saw before our soul how an ideal human figure stood before the soul of the initiate, a thought image on which he had to concentrate in meditation, and how this filled the life of imagination, feeling, and will of the Atlantic initiate. This thought image was to become more and more the model for the future human being.
Now we must once again visualize what this thought image actually looked like. It was not quite similar to the human being of today; it was not like that. If we imagine a kind of combination of man and woman, with everything that is base removed, if we imagine a kind of double figure of which only the upper part of the body is clearly discernible, then we have the actual sensual-supersensory image that stood before the meditator at that time. This image had such a powerful effect that those who were to be initiated really made their outer bodies more and more similar to this image.
Now, one circumstance is very important, namely that the meditating initiate had a kind of human figure standing before him, facing him in his inner being. When the initiate had been prepared to see this image vividly before him, he had to realize the following when he saw this image appear before him: As I look at this image, I place myself in the original state of Earth's development, when the Earth, Moon, and Sun were not yet separate. At that time, the earth consisted of its primordial atom, but in this atom the clairvoyant could see the image that now appears before me. The image already existed in the primeval time of the earth, when there were no animal, plant, or mineral forms. At that time, the earth consisted only of the human atom, of the reawakened human beings. However, the first animal forms had already begun to develop during the lunar phase of the Earth; the animals were already there. But we also know that when a planetary system disappears, it enters a pralaya, in which all forms are dissolved. Even though the old moon was already populated by animal forms, the Earth did not initially have animals and plants; these came later. Only after the separation of the sun did animals gradually appear. In its primeval state, the earth was merely human.
The initiate thus looked upon this primeval state of the earth. He saw in the primordial atom the ideal image of the human being. The initiate had this human form before him, and now it became clear to him: I will place myself in the primeval state of the earth. That which lives in the earth, the ideal image, the ideal form of the human being, tells me the following: The deity works from eternity to eternity; it has poured itself into these forms and breathed this human archetype out of itself. Now he said to himself: Where did the animals, plants, and other beings come from?
The initiate saw, as it were, the archetype of the deity in his mind, and he saw the animals as secondary forms, and the plants as secondary figures that had come into being later. Everything that lives here in the lower realms, the Atlantean initiate saw as having first emerged from the human form. We can get an idea of this thought when we think about how coal came into being. Think of the great primeval forests that existed and thrived at that time and are now coal. They have been left behind, they have developed from a higher to a lower realm. There we see how the plants have turned to stone, have hardened.
This is how the Atlantean initiate saw everything, the entire environment emerging from the human form. This impression was conjured up in the soul of human beings in ancient times, and these impressions were retained in memory throughout the time of the flood, and the ancient Indian initiators also evoked this image of the primordial human being in the soul of the student, the image of the primordial human being who had been breathed out by the eternal Self. When the Indian disciple had this image before him, he felt that everything had arisen from this image, that what was present in this archetype like blood had become the waters of the earth, and so on. And so this image expanded to become the primordial ground of the universe. Now the following was presented to his soul. He was told: You have two things before your eyes in this archetype, first the archetype itself, but then also that which shone forth in you as your innermost essence when you contemplated the image. Outside is the macrocosm, and then that which you feel within yourself as an extract, so to speak, the microcosm.
And when the Greeks advanced into India during Alexander's campaigns and heard the last echoes of what the disciple had felt at that time, they felt the following. They said: When the disciple contemplates what is spread out in the great world as human beings, he has Heracles before him. The Indians called that which lives as the forces of the universe Väc. But in human beings they felt, as it were, the Brahman as the extract of the whole. This is how the Greeks explained the echoes of what was going on in the soul of the disciple in the ancient sacred Indian culture. This was the fruit of a journey to India undertaken by the Greeks under Alexander the Great. It was precisely from this basic feeling that the ancient sacred Indian teaching of the initiated developed, which appears as a spiritual image of that primordial state of the earth when the earth still had within itself the forces of the sun and high beings, whose sublimity was later longed for. Therefore, it was a high feeling of spiritual life when the student was initiated, when he could bring forth within himself what is understood as Brahman. It was an immense process in the human soul. It was an elevation into higher worlds. There was no other way to be initiated and attain true vision than by rising to the highest worlds. The world that surrounds us is the physical world. Around it and within it surges the astral world. Higher up is Devachan, the world of the gods, and the student had to be transported to the highest regions of Devachan if he was to feel Brahman, the primordial self, in the macrocosm. The student was then in the highest Devachan, in the world of the gods, from which comes the noblest thing that man has within himself. It was a realm of the highest, most perfect order into which the student was transported, a realm that offered much more in the way of knowledge, for what has been described here was not the only thing.
But before we describe anything further, we must also get to know the teachers. You have all heard of the holy Rishis, the original founders of the ancient sacred Indian culture, who themselves had Manu as their teacher. Who were these seven great teachers of ancient India? We must clarify the nature of the holy Rishis a little, as far as possible. To do this, we must once again look at the great world. We must be clear that what we can perceive with our physical senses, our eyes and so on, is a consequence of the spiritual. If we think of the entire environment that we see as spiritual, we can compare it to an ethereal primordial nebula. This nebula gradually became denser, descended into the state of matter, and various world bodies formed: the sun, the moon, and the earth separated.
But why did the other planets split off? For this also happened during the individual separations. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury split off. Why did this happen?
We will understand this when we tell ourselves that something similar to what happens in our ordinary, trivial lives also happens in the great universe. It is not only students who fail in high school, but also in the great cosmos there are beings who lag behind and cannot keep up. Let us make this very clear. There was a group of higher beings who could not keep up with the pace of the Earth, who took the finest substances and formed the sun as their dwelling place. These were the highest beings connected with our evolution. But they had also undergone a process of development. So there were beings who were in the process of becoming sun spirits, and there were those who had been left behind, who were lower than the sun spirits but higher than humans, who could not participate in the development of the sun spirits because they were not as mature as they were. They could not go out with the sun; the sun would have scorched them. But they were too noble for the Earth, so they took special substances that were between the Sun and the Earth in terms of fineness and corresponded to their nature, and formed dwellings between the Sun and the Earth. Thus Venus and Mercury split off. So we have two groups of beings that had not risen as high as the sun spirits, but were further than humans. They became Venus spirits and Mercury spirits. These beings are responsible for the formation of these two planets. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn had already formed earlier, for other reasons. These in turn became dwelling places for certain beings.
Thus we see how spirits are the causes of the formation of the planets. Now, one must not believe that these beings, who inhabit the various bodies of the solar system, are not connected with the inhabitants of the earth. We must realize that physical boundaries are not real boundaries, that even beyond these boundaries there are many possibilities for the beings of other heavenly bodies to exert magical influences on the earth. Thus, the effects of the spirits of the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, and so on extend into the Earth. The latter two are closer to the Earth; they helped humans, when the Sun emerged, to prepare the Earth as we now have it before us.
I would like to add something here, because misunderstandings have crept in regarding the naming of the planets. In all occult nomenclature, what is today called Mercury in astronomy is called Venus, and conversely, what is called Venus in astronomy is called Mercury. Astronomers who are concerned only with the external do not know that there are secrets underlying this, because deep, esoteric names were not to be revealed. This was done in order to conceal certain things.
All these spirits of the other planets now have an effect on Earth. All planets have an effect on human beings. However, these effects first had to be communicated to human beings, and this was done by the great Manu, who initiated the seven Rishis so that each individual Rishi understood the secrets of one of these planets in their effects. And because there were seven planets, these seven Rishis were, in their togetherness, what represents a seven-membered lodge that could convey the teachings of the mysteries of our solar system to their disciples. We therefore find references to this in some ancient occult writings. For example, it says: There are secrets to be sought beyond the seven, which are those that the holy Manu himself preserved about the time before the division of the planets.
What the planets preserved as forces was what was hidden in the secrets of the seven Rishis. And so this choir of the seven Rishis worked together, in complete unity with Manu, in the wonderful wisdom that was imparted to their disciples. If we wanted to characterize this, we would have to say: This original teaching contained approximately what we know today as the evolution of humanity through the planetary states of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. The secrets of evolution were hidden in the seven limbs of the Lodge, each of which represented a stage in the progress of humanity.
The disciple saw this. He not only saw it, he even heard it when he rose into the Devachan, into the Devachanic world: for this world is a world of sound. There he heard the spherical sound of the seven planets. He saw the image in the astral world; in the devachanic world he heard the sound, and in the highest of the worlds he experienced the word. So when the Indian disciple rose into the upper Devachan, he perceived through the music of the spheres and through the word of the spheres how the primordial spirit Brahma is structured through evolution in the sevenfold chain of planets, and he heard this from the primordial word Väc. This was the name of the primordial sound of creation that the disciple heard; in it he heard the entire evolution of the worlds. The word divided into seven members, the primordial word of creation, worked in the soul of the disciple, the primordial word that he described to the uninitiated in much the same way as we would describe the evolution of our worlds today. What he perceived is described in elementary terms in my “Theosophy,” “And we find this description again first in the ancient sacred religion of the Indians, in what was called the ‘Veda’ or, in English, the ”Word.”
This is the real meaning of the Vedas, and what was written later is only the last remembrance of the ancient sacred teaching of the Word. The Word itself has only been passed down from mouth to mouth, because writing it down violates the ancient tradition. Only from the Vedas can one still sense something of what flowed into this culture at that time. When the student experienced this in his memory, he could say to himself: What I experience as Brahman in my soul, what I have as the primordial word in my soul, was already there on ancient Saturn; the first breath of the Vedic word already sounded on Saturn.
Now the development had continued through the sun and moon to the earth. The word had become denser and denser, had taken on denser and denser forms, and the image of man in the original seed of the earth was already a condensation of the state in which the primordial word was on Saturn. What had happened now?
The word of God, the original human being, had wrapped itself in ever new shells, and it depended on what shells the word took on within the evolution of the earth. The student knew that nothing repeats itself completely in the universe and that every planet has its mission. What he saw taking shape on the old Sun as life, what was instilled on the old Moon as wisdom at the foundation of all things, was followed on Earth by what is the task, the mission of Earth, which is to develop love; this was not yet present on the old Moon. Thus, that which existed on the previous planet in a much more spiritual but also much colder form, the archetype of the human being, clothed itself in a warm astral envelope. That which was to become human had been clothed in an astral shell on the moon, and it is this part that enables the inner life of human beings on earth to develop love from the lowest to the highest form.
The Indian disciple could clearly perceive the human form, the archetype, in the higher Devachan. Then it enveloped itself in the lower Devachan with an astral envelope that had within it the powers to develop love. Love, Eros, was called Kama. Thus Kama acquires a meaning for earthly evolution. The divine Word, Brahman, clothed itself in Kama, and through Kama the primordial Word resounded to the disciple. The garment of love was Kama, the garment of the primordial Word Väc, the Word Väc, which is the basis of the Latin “vox.” And so the disciple felt in his innermost being that the word of God had clothed itself in an astral garment of love, and now he said to himself: The human being, who today consists of four members, the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I, this human being has the I as his highest member. And this I descended into the garment of love and formed Kama-Manas. That was the innermost being of the human being; it was Kama in which Manas clothed itself: that was the I. But we also know that this innermost being will develop three higher members, which transform the lower members, transform the physical body as well, and just as manas becomes the astral sheath, just as budhi corresponds to prana on a higher level, so the physical body, when it is completely spiritualized, will become Atma. All this was already germinally present in the Väc, and a Vedic saying still reminds us how the disciple expressed the secret of the innermost being.
We know that the physical body originated on Saturn, the etheric body on the sun, the astral body on the moon, and the I on the earth. But the true, original human constitution, the primordial word Véc, already contained the following three members. Man still has three higher members to look forward to, and only then will he be a true image of the creative word, the primordial word. And the student should be pointed out that only the initiated could understand the true nature of the physical, etheric, and astral bodies. Today, man is only himself when he utters his “I am,” when he contemplates what is wholly his own. Only then is he wholly human. The other elements are also apparent, but there he is still unconscious. But in the fourth, the Väc has become apparent: “In the fourth, man speaks!” That was the sentence of the Veda. When the word “I” sounds, the fourth part of the Véc sounds. The Vedic sentence was: “Four quarters of the Véc are measured; three are kept hidden and do not move; only the fourth quarter is spoken by humans.”
Here we have a wonderful description of what we have heard so often. This stood before the spiritual gaze of the student. His gaze was directed back to the state where nothing was yet separated, where there was still a primordial earth, where the full Véc spoke. This is expressed in another Vedic sentence: “Before, I did not know what this ‘I am’ is; only when the first-born of the earth came upon me was the spirit filled with light, and I had a share in the holy Véc,” the wisdom. This reflects a vision that the initiate had.
This is only a hint at some of the experiences of the ancient Rishi disciples, of the wonderful teachings that flowed into Indian culture, were passed down to subsequent ages, and were transformed according to the needs of other peoples. But all of them understood the primordial word Väc.
We will understand many things better if we consider a secret in its entire context. We must imagine that in those days the effect of the teacher on the disciple was quite different from what it is today. Today, such an effect is only possible to a certain extent when the disciple has already been brought to a certain level of initiation. At that time, the forces of the teacher that were transferred to the student were much stronger. We can imagine these forces when we say: It was not only what the teacher was able to convey through words or writing that had an effect. All of that actually only affected the intellectual soul, but in addition, magical, mysterious forces from the teacher affected the student, and it was essentially the forces of the teacher that were able to fill the images that the teacher presented to the student's soul with brightness and living power. This peculiar effect was only lost in the fourth post-Atlantean age, the Greek-Latin culture. Forces change. It was quite different when an ancient Egyptian stood before a young person than when a teacher stands before a student today. Completely different forces acted from the elderly to the young. Anyone who wants to understand what is still described in ancient Greek culture must know this. Socrates actually had telepathic powers, which he passed on to his students while he taught them. Such things can no longer work in our time. Such things are hinted at in Plato's writings. Today, it would of course be a reprehensible vice, whereas at that time it was entirely justified. Changes are taking place; no one has the right to copy that today. Present-day phenomena want to invoke it, but the same would be reprehensible today.
Back then, in ancient times, forces flowed from the teacher to the student. Even in ancient Egypt, there were still a large number of people who were capable of receiving forces in this way. If a person was particularly receptive and stood opposite someone who had learned to strengthen their thoughts, then a strong thought would have such an effect that it would appear as an image in the soul of the receptive person. In ancient Egypt, therefore, such telepathic effects were possible to a high degree, and thought transmission was very common. This was especially the case when a strong will faced an unstrengthened one. Thus, in Egypt, it was still possible to control and guide another person through thoughts to an extent that is unimaginable today. Today, of course, such powers would be seriously abused. Essentially, the initiations in ancient Egypt were based on similar powers. This was also possible in ancient India and Persia. These powers reinforced the method which, if one wanted to express it exoterically, could also be called medical. This is not, of course, to be understood as the official medicine of today. The Egyptian physician and initiate would have laughed at what people today call medicine. The ancient Egyptian physician knew one thing: he knew that the conditions that originally existed in Atlantis, and which could be perceived during initiation, could still be reawakened in a certain sense. The consciousness in which people lived in Atlantis was a dull clairvoyant consciousness. There was a time, said the Egyptian initiate, when spiritual beings exerted a much greater power over people. Today, when people sleep, they know nothing of the higher worlds; but the Atlantean human being still lived in a dim clairvoyant consciousness with the gods. And just as it has a much better effect than all moral teachings when people today can rise to become ideal human beings, so the Egyptian initiate worked on his pupils through forces and images of higher spiritual processes. This did not merely have an external effect, but a deep internal effect, resulting in a very specific process.
Let us imagine a sick person who is ill because certain functions are not working properly. Where does this come from? Those who are occultly trained know that it does not come from outside when the physical body functions irregularly; rather, everything that is present in the form of illness and does not come from outside can be traced back to the fact that the etheric body is not in order. But the etheric body is sick because the astral body is in disorder. Now, if there was a danger in the Atlantean human being that some disorder could arise in the distribution of fluids, then very soon provision was made to restore order. During sleep, the human being received such a force from the spiritual worlds that the disturbed forces and functions were restored through sleep, and the human being recovered. In a sense, he restored his healthy forces by falling asleep. The ancient Egyptian physicians used something similar. They artificially dimmed the patient's consciousness to a kind of hypnotic sleep, and then they were masters of the images of the spirit world that arose around the patient. And they directed these images in such a way that they had the power to act back on the physical body and make it healthy. This was the purpose of temple sleep, which was used for internal illnesses. The sick were not given medicine, but were allowed to sleep in the temple. Their consciousness was dimmed and they were allowed to look into the spiritual worlds. Their astral experiences were then guided in such a way that they had the power to restore health to the body. This is not superstition, it is a secret known to the initiated: that they brought the spiritual into the experiences of the sick. In medicine, which we therefore find so closely connected with the principle of initiation, the Atlantean state was artificially restored during healing. And because the person did not resist through their daytime consciousness, the forces necessary for healing were able to work. This is how temple sleep worked.
In Egyptian culture, the principle that prevailed in India among the wise Rishis, who themselves directed things, who themselves were the mediators of the planetary forces, the disciples of Manu, the great teacher of the first sublime culture, still prevailed. In the first culture of the post-Atlantean period, it was the rishis who brought that sublime teaching, a teaching that led human beings into high, sublime, spiritual worlds, up to the upper Devachan world. What was seen there was brought down in the following cultural periods to the physical plane, until in the fourth post-Atlantean period the entity sank into the physical plane which we have come to know as the Brahman of the Indian cultural period, which we call Christ, who no longer has the spiritual to impart, but became human himself in order to radiate the mysterious power of the primal word over all human beings.
Thus, the primal word descended in order to bring human beings back up again. And human beings must understand how this happened in order to form an instrument out of themselves through which they can work in the future. We must learn what has worked before us so that we ourselves can cooperate in the ever higher formation of what is around us.
We must create a spiritual world in the future. To do this, we must first understand the cosmos.