The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] In the previous lectures, we have presented a large number of facts relating to the evolution of the Earth and the entire solar system in connection with the nature of human beings. In the last two lectures in particular, we have taken care to emphasize those facts of the evolution of the sun, earth, and moon that have found their resurrection in the Egyptian mysteries, which were known both to the students of the Egyptian mysteries and to the entire Egyptian people. Through his clairvoyant vision, the student actually learned all the things we have mentioned and which we will supplement with our present consideration. The greater part of the people, who could not rise to clairvoyance, learned what this was all about in a meaningful image. We have already mentioned this image, which was held up as the most important image of the Egyptian worldview, on several occasions. It is the image that encompasses the Osiris and Isis sagas. We are all familiar with this image, which no one who knows anything believes to contain anything insignificant. This image, which was placed before him, was not just an image to him; and what the Isissage encompasses is told something like this:

[ 2 ] In ancient times, Osiris ruled on Earth for a long time for the benefit of humanity, until a certain point in time, which is later characterized by the sun standing in the sign of Scorpio. Then it came to pass that his brother Typhon or Set killed Osiris. He killed him by causing him to lie down in a chest, which he closed and cast into the sea. Isis, the sister and wife of Osiris, sought her brother and husband, and when she found him, she brought him to Egypt. But then the evil Typhon sought once again to destroy Osiris, and he dismembered him. Isis gathered the individual parts and buried them in different places. Even today, various tombs of Osiris can still be seen in Egypt. Then Isis gave birth to Horus, and Horus avenged his father Osiris on Typhon. Osiris was again accepted into the world of divine spiritual beings, and although he is no longer active on earth, he is active there for humans when they dwell in the spiritual world between death and a new birth. This is why the path of the dead in Egypt was imagined as the path to Osiris.

[ 3 ] This is the legend that belongs to the most ancient elements of the Egyptian view of life. While some things in it changed or were added, this Osiris legend permeated all the cults of the Egyptian land for as long as the Egyptian religious beliefs were alive.

[ 4 ] Now that we have considered this legend, which contains what was regarded as a real event in the sacred mysteries of the mystery schools, we must return to where we began yesterday and form a more precise idea of what has been caused in human beings by the influence of the various forms of the moon. We have spoken of the twenty-eight nerve strands that we see emanating from the spinal cord, which originate from the constellations of the moon during the twenty-eight days it takes for the moon to return to its same shape. We have explored the mystery of how these twenty-eight pairs of nerves were formed from outside by the cosmic forces in human beings. And now I ask you to pay close attention to the following.

[ 5 ] It should now be described as briefly and accurately as possible what the Egyptian student learned about human development in a broader sense. Some who are too strongly influenced by modern anatomy will say that this description is pure nonsense from today's point of view. They are free to say so. They should only be aware that this is the teaching that the Egyptian student to be initiated not only learned but also saw clairvoyantly. Now I speak for those who can follow their feelings. This teaching was not only the result of earlier visions for the Egyptians in the mysteries, but is also accepted as truth by today's modern occultists and appears exactly as it did then.

[ 6 ] Let us repeat what has already been said in the last lectures, that when the earth was in the beginning of its development, it consisted, so to speak, entirely of human germs, which formed the earth's primordial mist. Both the Indian and the Egyptian clairvoyants could see the whole later human form sprouting spiritually out of this spiritual human germ. Everything that later became of this human germ could be seen clairvoyantly at that time. But one could also look back to what first arose from the human being, from the human germ. The first thing that arose from this human germ, when the sun was still connected to the earth for a long time, was indeed like a kind of plant that opened its calyx upward. These forms filled the whole earth, so to speak, as they formed out of that primordial mist. But in the very earliest time, when this arose, opening up like a flower crown into the world space, in the very earliest time this crown was hardly visible; one could only perceive it by feeling its proximity as a chalice-like body of warmth. So at first there was a body of warmth. Even when the earth was still connected to the sun, the interior of this human form began to glow, and it radiated rays of light into the universe.

[ 7 ] If one had perceived it at that time as a being seeing with today's eyes and had approached such a luminous form, one would have seen something like a sparkling, glowing sphere, like a glittering sun sparkling in the universe with shimmering rays, in a regular shape. Hardly anyone today can form a clear picture of what it was like back then. They could only do so if they imagined that our Earth was filled with tiny fireflies in completely pure air, sending their light out into space. This is roughly how the first human beings would have shone into space when the Earth was still connected to the Sun. And not only that was present, but at the same time a kind of gaseous body was forming around this chalice-like structure. Many substances were dissolved in it, just as today liquid and solid substances are found in the bodies of animals and humans, but at that time they were gaseous. Soon after this came into being, however, other germs emerged from the collective mass of the earth, germs that became the first seeds of our present animal kingdom. The human kingdom was therefore the first to emerge, followed by the germs that became the seeds of the animal kingdom. Of course, the whole earth still consisted of a mass of air, of luminous bodies that emitted light and shone into the world space. Within this mass of air, the first seeds of sexless animals also emerged, which at that time stood at the lowest level of today's animal kingdom, and we will see that these animals, which are now emerging in their first form, have also acquired a certain significance for humans.

[ 8 ] Thus, the first germ forms of animals came into being, and it is particularly important for us to note that these animals that came into being were the densest gas masses, like dense gas inclusions. These animals developed to a certain height through the most diverse forms; and when the sun had just emerged from the earth, the highest animal form was the fish form, but not the fish form of today. The form of the animals at that time was completely different from that of today's fish, but it was at the relevant stage of fish development. These animals retained within themselves what could be developed when the sun was still within the earth. The earth now condensed into the watery earth, and the densest formations, the animals, swam in this watery earth. Now something very peculiar happened. Some of these primitive fish forms remained animals and, so to speak, did not concern themselves with the progress of evolution. There were others that developed a certain relationship to human forms, namely the following relationship. At the same moment that the sun emerged from the earth, the earth also began to rotate around its axis, so that it was once illuminated by the sun on one side and once unilluminated on this side, thus creating day and night. At that time, however, the days and nights were much longer than they are today. At the time when the moon had not yet split off, every time one of these human figures, which at that time had become considerably denser, was on the side of the sun, something of an animal form attached itself to this gas mass down in the watery earth. The human and animal forms were connected in such a way that we have the human form above and the animal form below; thus, the upper part protruded toward the sun, becoming weaker and weaker toward the bottom, where the animal body was attached. So we have this protrusion of the upper part above the watery earth; and because the sun's influence passes through the flower human being, it acts on the inner earth and moon forces. Because an animal form was joined to the human body here, which stood at the level of the fish stage, it was said that the sun shining on the human body stood in the sign of Pisces. Now, the first hint of this formation did indeed coincide with the sun also standing in the sign of Pisces in the sky, but it passed through this constellation many times before the next one formed. However, the starting point for this formation was the moment when the sun was also in the zodiac sign of Pisces in the sky. And from the fact that the beings on the fish stage were then attached to humans, the constellation got its name.

[ 9 ] Now, as we know, development proceeds in such a way that the moon and the earth form one body. When the sun separated from the earth, Yahweh remained with the earth with the forces of the moon, and among his servants was the god figure whom the Egyptians called Osiris.

[ 10 ] Until the moon emerged from the earth, development took place in a highly peculiar manner. We know that the earth was a watery earth, and the formation in the water reached an ever lower degree in the time before the moon emerged. When the moon emerged, man stood, in relation to his lower nature, at about the level of a large toad. This is what the Bible calls the serpent, what is called the lindworm or dragon. During the time when the moon emerged, more and more of the animal kingdom had formed into the lower human form. When the moon emerged, man had an animal-like, ugly form below, but above were the last remnants of a light form into which the forces of the sun flowed from outside. What remained to humans was that the light beings continued to work within them. The human being floated and swam in the primeval sea, allowing this peculiar light form to emerge from the watery earth. What was this light figure? It had meanwhile transformed itself into a comprehensive, powerful sense organ. When the moon came out, the transformation was complete. It was so that when man swam in the primordial sea, he could perceive with this organ when any dangerous being was nearby. He perceived heat and cold in particular. This organ later shrank; today it is known as the pineal gland. At that time, humans moved by floating and swimming in the earth's mass and used this organ as a kind of lantern. Even today, we can still find a soft spot on the heads of very young children; this is the place where one would have to look for the organ that once extended out into the world space.

[ 11 ] Humans absorbed increasingly higher animal forms. And at a certain point in human development, what had become of the fish, because it lived in water and carried within it the seed of later humans, was called the Aquarius. Another form that developed was what could be called the Capricorn. Now, the peculiar thing is that what corresponds to the lower limbs of the human being actually gave the respective constellation its name. The feet are in fact the original fish; the lower legs are the Aquarius, which for a long time enabled humans to give themselves direction when swimming; the knees of the human being are found in connection with the sign of Capricorn. Animal nature developed more and more, and what had become the upper legs is referred to as Sagittarius. It would take too long to explain the meaning of this term.

[ 12 ] Let us try to give a picture of what human beings looked like when animal nature corresponded to Sagittarius. At that time, human beings were animals that were able to move for the first time on the islands that had formed out of the water. Towards the top, the human being became increasingly refined, and at the very top remained the flower form. The form remained illuminated at the top by an organ that it carried on its head like a kind of lantern. One would imagine the form of the human being at that time correctly if one imagined it as ethereal at the top and animal-like at the bottom. In older illustrations of the zodiac, you can still see the sign of Sagittarius below as an animal form and above as a human form. These signs reflect the level of development at which humans stood, just as the centaur reflects a real stage of human development: horse below, human above. We should not take the horse literally, but as a representative of animal nature. That was the principle of art in earlier times; people had clairvoyants describe what they wanted to create artistically, or they saw it themselves. Artists themselves were also initiates. Homer is said to have been a blind seer, which means that he was a clairvoyant. He could look back into the Akashic Records. The blind seer Homer was much more scandalous, in a spiritual sense, than the other Greeks.

[ 13 ] The centaur is therefore a real human form. When humans looked like this, the moon had not yet emerged from the earth, and the power of the moon was still within the earth. What had previously formed during the solar period was still present in humans: the luminous pineal gland, which they carried on their heads like a kind of lantern. When the moon then emerged from the earth, sexuality entered. The centaur man was still asexual. Sexuality entered when the sun stood in the sign of Scorpio, and sexuality in humans is therefore related to the sign of Scorpio. The scorpion corresponds to the animal stage of development when humans had developed to the point of sexuality. The upper half of the human being was turned toward the cosmic forces, but the lower half existed as a hermaphroditic being. Humans had become sexual beings. When the clairvoyant student of the Egyptian mysteries turned his gaze to this period of Earth's development, he saw the Earth populated by human beings who, in accordance with their lower nature, developed a denser physical form towards the lower part of their bodies, but who had a light human form towards the upper part.

[ 14 ] Then began the period in which, through the forces of the moon, the nerve strands became integrated along the area that forms the spine. The formation above the spine, today's head region, had also become denser and had transformed into the human brain: this was the completely transformed light organ. Attached to this was the spine, from which the nerve strands emanated, and attached to this was the lower human being, as described above. This became apparent to the Egyptian student, and it became clear to him that whatever entity wanted to incarnate on Earth had to take on the corresponding human form. Osiris often visited the earth as a spirit and incarnated as a human being. People then felt that a god had come down — but he had the form of a human being. Every high being that visited the earth took on the form that humans had at that time. At that time, the human form was such that one could still see that luminous body, that strange headdress, the lantern of Osiris, which has been described figuratively as the strange eye of Polyphemus. That is the organ, the lantern, which was first outside the human body and then transformed into an internal organ in the brain. Everything in primitive art is a symbol of actual forms.

[ 15 ] When the Greek initiates became acquainted with these secrets of the Egyptians, they had already learned a great deal: basically the same as the Egyptian initiates. They only named it differently in their own language. The Egyptian initiates had developed their clairvoyant gifts to such a high degree that many of their disciples were able to look back clairvoyantly into those ancient, distant times. The Egyptian initiate had an original connection with those secrets; this is why Greek priests appeared to the Egyptian initiates as childlike stammers. Significant, therefore, are the words once spoken by an Egyptian priest who met Solon, when he said: “O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes always remain children; there is no such thing as an old Hellene! You are all young in spirit, for you have no old views based on many years of tradition, nor any knowledge grayed by time.

[ 16 ] The Egyptian pointed out that Egyptian wisdom was far superior to what could be experienced materially. Only in the Eleusinian mysteries had people reached the same level, but only a few had taken part in them. But what the Egyptian initiate saw in those stages of the earth's development—that the god Osiris had separated himself from the sun and gone to the moon, and from there reflected back the sunlight—what this god did was also sacred to the Greeks. They also knew that it was this god Osiris who formed the twenty-eight lunar phases and thereby laid down the twenty-eight nerve strands in human beings. Through Osiris, the nervous system is formed down the spinal cord, thereby shaping the entire upper body. For what arises as muscle can only obtain its form through the nerves as its formers. Everything that exists in the form of muscles, cartilage, and other organs, such as the heart and lungs, all receive their form solely through the nerves. Thus, what has formed as the brain and spinal cord came into being through the earlier activity of the sun, and the twenty-eight forms of Osiris and Isis work on this spinal cord from outside. Osiris and Isis are therefore their formers, and as the brain sends its feeling threads down into the spinal cord, Osiris works on the spinal cord. The Greeks also felt this, and when they became acquainted with the Egyptian mysteries, they recognized that Osiris was the same god as the one they called Apollo. They said that the Egyptian Osiris is Apollo, and just as he worked on the nerves to bring about the soul life within man, so does our Apollo.

[ 17 ] And now let us sketch out this configuration. Let us imagine the brain schematically drawn: it continues into the spinal cord, where the twenty-eight hands of Osiris reach in, where Osiris plays with his twenty-eight arms in what extends down from the brain as the spinal cord, as on a lyre. The Greeks gave a meaningful image of this: it is the lyre of Apollo. One need only think of it in reverse. The lyre is the brain, the nerves are the strings that Apollo's hands pluck. Apollo plays on the lyre of the world, on the great work of art that is the cosmos, and makes the tones that constitute the soul life of human beings resound within them. For the Eleusinian initiates, this was what the Egyptians had given in their pictures.

[ 18 ] From such an image, we can see that these must not be interpreted schematically, otherwise one would only be imagining things. For one will generally find that the images are in fact much deeper than what one can somehow dream up with the intellect. When the Greek clairvoyant spoke of Apollo, he had before him the mystery of Osiris-Apollo and the instrument of humanity. And Osiris stood before the Egyptian disciple when he was initiated into the mysteries of earthly existence. So we must say to ourselves that these symbols, these images that have been preserved for us, which characterize what has been taken from the primordial mysteries, that all the expressions of the primordial mysteries mean much more than anything that can be interpreted with the mind. This lyre was seen, the hands of Apollo were seen. And it is essential that we trace every symbol back to some real face, to a real vision. For there is no symbol, no legend that has not been seen.

[ 19 ] The Egyptian student to be initiated could only penetrate such secrets after a long, long time. The student was first prepared by a very specific teaching, which was similar to our elementary theosophy. Only then was he admitted to the actual exercises. There he experienced states of a kind of ecstasy that was not yet actual clairvoyance, but was more than a dream. In these states, he saw what he would later see in pictures. Truly, the disciple saw this going forth of the moon and with it Osiris, this working of Osiris from the moon down to the earth, as a mighty living dream. He actually dreamed the Osiris-Isis legend. Every disciple dreamed this Osiris-Isis dream. He had to dream it. If he had not dreamed it, he would not have been able to perceive the true facts. The student had to pass through the image, through the imagination. The legend of Osiris and Isis is lived through inwardly. This ecstatic state of soul was a kind of preliminary stage to true seeing, the prelude to seeing what takes place in the spiritual world. In the Akashic Records, the student could only read what has been described today if he was initiated to such a high degree as we have only hinted at today, and which we will discuss further tomorrow. Then we will also talk about the other images of the zodiac and their meaning.