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The Gospel of St. John
in Relation to the Other Three Gospels
GA 112

26 Jun 1909, Kassel

3. The Metamorphoses of the Earth

Those of you who have been attending my lecture cycles or single lectures on spiritual-scientific subjects have had various phenomena of the higher worlds presented from many different aspects, and various beings as well have appeared to us from one realm or another and were shown in different lights. In order to anticipate any possible misconceptions that might arise I should like to point out today that when these beings and phenomena are illuminated, now from one angle, now from another, a superficial view might see contradictions. But if you look more closely you will see that these complicated facts of the spiritual world can be clarified only by throwing light on them from many sides. It is necessary to say this because certain facts with which most of you are already familiar from one aspect must in part be illuminated today from another, a new angle. We need only turn to that most profound document of the New Testament, familiar as the Gospel according to St. John, and read the pregnant words with which we brought yesterday's discussion to a close, in order to sense the literally endless enigmas of cosmic and human evolution hidden in the opening words of this Gospel. In the course of our observations the opportunity may present itself to show why the great narrators of spiritual events often expressed precisely the mighty, comprehensive truths in such a concise, paradigmatical form as we find in the opening verses of the John Gospel. Today we will return to certain well-known facts of spiritual science, treating them from an aspect differing from yesterday's, and see in what form we meet them again in the Gospel of St. John. Let us take our point of departure from the most elementary facts of spiritual science, comparatively speaking.

As we know, man in his ordinary state consists of four principles: physical body, etheric or life body, astral body, and ego, and we know that his daily life alternates in such a way that during his waking hours these four members of his being are organically interconnected and interpenetrative in him, whereas during sleep, while the physical and etheric bodies remain in bed, the astral body and the ego bearer—we may call it simply the ego—are removed. Now, there is one point we must thoroughly understand today. In a man of our present stage of evolution we have before us this fourfold state as an inherent demand. As he lies in bed at night with only his physical and etheric bodies present he has, in a sense, the status of a plant; for the plant, as it appears in the outer world, consists only of physical body and etheric or life body; it bears no astral body or ego, and is thus differentiated from the animal and from man. The animal is the first in the scale to have an astral body, and man, an ego. Hence it can be said that during sleep, when his physical and etheric bodies alone remain in bed, man is in a sense a plantlike being. But again, he is not like a plant, and this must be rightly understood. In the present age a free and independent being having neither astral body nor ego, but consisting solely of etheric body and physical body, must have the appearance of a plant—must, in fact, be a plant. On the other hand man, as he lies asleep in bed, has grown beyond the status of a plant, because during the course of evolution he has added an astral body—vehicle of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, impulses, desires, and passions—and also the vehicle of the ego. But the acquisition of a higher principle always involves a corresponding alteration in all that pertains to the lower principles. If an astral body were added to the plant we see today as a being of outer nature, if this astral body were not only to hover over the plant but to permeate it, then what we see penetrating the plant in its substance would have to become animal flesh. That is because upon entering, the astral body would transform the plant in such a way as to convert the substance into animal flesh. And the addition of an ego in the physical world would entail an analogous transformation.

We may therefore say that in a being like man, whose nature embraces not only a physical body but invisible, higher, super-sensible principles as well, the super-sensible members find expression in the lowest ones. Just as the inner qualities of your soul are superficially expressed in your features, in your physiognomy, so your physical body is an expression of the work performed by your astral body and ego; and the physical body does not represent merely itself: it stands as the physical expression of the human principles that are physically invisible. Thus the glandular system and all that pertains to it is an expression of the etheric body, everything connected with the nervous system is an expression of the astral body, and all that is comprised in the circulation is an expression of the ego bearer. So in the physical body itself we again have to take into account a fourfold organization; and only one who worships a crass materialistic world conception could classify the various substances in the human body as equivalent. The blood pulsating in our veins became the substance it is as a result of the fact that an ego dwells in us; the form and substance of the nervous system are due to the presence of an astral body; and the glandular system is the outcome of the etheric body.

If you will take all this into consideration you will readily see that between falling asleep at night and waking up in the morning the human being is really a contradiction in terms. One is inclined to call him a plant, yet he is not a plant because the physical substance of a plant lacks the expression of the astral body—the nervous system—as well as the expression of the ego—the circulatory system. A physical being such as man, equipped with a glandular, a nervous, and a circulatory system, can exist only by means of an etheric body, an astral body, and an ego; but in the night you forsake your physical and etheric bodies—that is, in as far as your astral body and ego constitute you a human being. You basely abandon them, as it were, making them into a self-contradictory being. Were nothing of a spiritual nature to intervene at this time, while you simply withdraw your astral body and ego from your physical and etheric bodies, you would find your nervous and circulatory systems destroyed when you woke up in the morning; for these cannot exist without your having an astral body and an ego within you. Therefore the following takes place, perceptible to clairvoyant consciousness:

In proportion to the withdrawal of the ego and astral body the clairvoyant sees a divine ego and a divine astral body enter into man. Actually there is during sleep, too, an astral body and an ego—or at least a substitute for these—in the physical and etheric bodies. When man's astral principle passes out, a higher one moves in—as does similarly a substitute for the ego. From this it is evident that within the realm of our lives, within their sphere, beings are at work that have no immediate expression in the physical world. What comes to expression in the physical world are minerals, plants, animals, and human beings. The last are for the moment the highest of the beings within our physical sphere, for they alone have physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. The fact that in sleep the astral body and ego withdraw from the physical and etheric bodies shows us that even today the former retain a certain independence; that they detach themselves, so to speak, and can live for a certain length of time every day thus sundered from the physical and etheric vehicles.
At night, then, we have the following condition: Just as the human physical body and the human etheric body are by day the bearers of the human ego and the human astral body—in other words, of the innermost principles—so by night they become the bearers, or the temple, of higher astral and ego beings. Now we look with different eyes at the sleeper, for the astral principle within him is a divine-spiritual principle, and there is also an ego, but a divine-spiritual ego. In a sense it can be said that while we are asleep in respect of our astral body and ego, we are watched over and the structure of our organization is maintained by these beings that thus become a part of our life, beings that enter our physical and etheric bodies when we ourselves abandon these. A great deal can be learned from a fact of this sort; and especially if taken in conjunction with certain clairvoyant observations it can elucidate much concerning the evolution of man. What we shall now do is to correlate this difference between waking and sleeping with the great spiritual facts of evolution.

The astral body and the ego appear, to be sure, as the highest and most intimate principles of man's nature, but by no means do they prove to be the most perfect. Even to superficial observation the physical body is more perfect than the astral body. Two years ago I pointed out here1Cf. Lectures delivered in Whilhelmshöhe near Kasel, June 16-19, 1907. that the more closely we examine man's physical body, the more admirable it appears in its entire structure. Not only does the marvel of the human heart or the human brain when examined anatomically satisfy the mind's acute, intellectual thirst for knowledge, but whoever approaches these with his soul feels an aesthetic and moral uplift when he realizes how sublime and wise are the provisions made in this physical body. The astral body is as yet less advanced. It is the bearer of joy and sorrow, of impulses, desires, indulgence, and so forth; and we must admit that in order to satisfy his desires man turns to all sorts of things hardly calculated to further the wise and ingenious workings of the heart or the brain. His craving for enjoyment leads him to seek satisfaction in things like coffee, that are poison for the heart, thereby proving the astral body's craving for pleasures that harm the wisely contrived human heart; yet for decades the heart withstands such poisons consumed by man as a result of his astral body's craving for enjoyment.

This proves that the physical body is more nearly perfect than the astral body. At some time in the future the astral body will be incomparably the more perfect of the two, but at present the development of the physical body is the most advanced. That is because it is actually the oldest principle of man's nature. The physical body itself furnishes the evidence that it was worked upon long before our earth came into being.

The modern doctrine of the origin of the world grew out of purely materialistic conceptions, and what it teaches is nothing but a materialistic fantasy; nor does it matter whether it is called the Kant-Laplace theory or, in the case of a later one, something else. For comprehending the outer structure of our world system these materialistic flights are undoubtedly useful, but they are of no avail in helping us understand anything higher than what the outer eye sees. Spiritual research shows that just as the human being passes from incarnation to incarnation, so a cosmic body like our earth has experienced other formations, other planetary conditions, in the remote past. Before our earth came into being it was in a different planetary state, the spiritual state science calls the “old Moon”.2In his translation of Occult Science, an Outline, by Rudolf Steiner, Mr. Henry B. Monges provided an ingenious device for eliminating the confusion that arises so easily in connection with the study of planetary evolution. The following footnote, quoted from Occult Science, explains it.

In order to make clear the difference between the designations for the Planetary Evolutions and our present planetary bodies, which bear the same names, the following device has been determined on: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, Vulcan printed in italics with initial capitals designate the great cosmic planetary cycles of evolution. In the Sun evolution, after the separation of the main cosmic body into two parts, the designation is Sun and Saturn, spelt with capitals, but not with italics. In the Moon evolution, when a separation takes place, the remaining body is spelt Moon, with an initial capital, the separating planetary sun is spelt with small letters. In the Earth evolution, the separated planetary bodies are spelt as is customary: The planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury with initial capitals; sun, moon, earth with small letters.”

The device is gratefully adopted in this translation
This does not refer to our present moon but to an ancestor of our earth as a planetary being; and just as the human being has developed from an earlier form of embodiment into what he is today, so our earth has developed from old Moon to Earth: the old Moon is a sort of previous incarnation of the Earth. Going still farther back: a previous incorporation of the old Moon was the Sun—again not the present sun but an ancestor of our present earth; and finally, the precursor of this old Sun was the old Saturn. Those are the states our Earth passed through: a Saturn state, a Sun state, and a Moon state, and now it has reached its earth state.

The first germ of our physical body appeared on the old Saturn. In other words, while nothing of all that surrounds us today existed on that primeval cosmic body we designate the old Saturn (not the present planet)—nothing of our animal or plant life, or even of our mineral kingdom—yet there were the first rudiments of the present-day human physical body. This physical human body was constituted very differently from what it is today: it was present in its earliest germinal state, then developed during the Saturn evolution; and when the latter was completed the old Saturn passed through a sort of cosmic night in the same manner in which man passes through a devachan in order to reach his next incarnation. Then Saturn became the Sun; and as the plant arises out of the seed, so the human physical body reappeared on the old Sun. Gradually this physical body became permeated by an etheric or life body, so that on the old Sun the germinal physical body was joined by the etheric or life body. Man was then not a plant, but he had the status of a plant. He consisted of physical body and etheric body, and his consciousness resembled that of sleep, the consciousness of the carpet of plants that is spread out around us in the physical world today.

The Sun existence came to an end, and again there intervened a cosmic night, or world devachan, as we can call it. When the Sun had passed through this cosmic devachan it was transformed into the old Moon state. Again we find the human physical and etheric bodies that had entered on Saturn and the Sun respectively, but during the Moon evolution the astral body was added. Now the human being possessed a physical, an etheric, and an astral body. Thus you see that the physical body, having come into being on Saturn, was already passing through its third state on the Moon; and the etheric body that had been added on the Sun now rose to its second stage of perfection. The astral body, just engendered, was in its first stage in the Moon period.

Something now happened on the Moon that would not have been possible during the Saturn and Sun stages. While the latter had kept man a comparatively homogeneous being, the following event occurred when the old Moon was at a certain stage of development: The whole heavenly body split into two members, a sun and its satellite, the Moon; so that while in the case of Saturn and the Sun we have the evolution of a single planet, only the first part of the Lunar evolution can be thus characterized. That is because in the beginning everything that constitutes our present earth, sun, and moon was united in one primordial cosmic body in a single state, and then two bodies came into being. The sun that had its genesis at that time was not our sun, nor was it the old Sun, mentioned above: it was a special state that detached itself from the old Moon as a sun state; and along with it there came into being a planet, outside of the sun and circling it, which in turn we call the old Moon minus the sun; that is, the Moon.

Now, what is the significance of this division that took place in our earth's predecessor during the evolution of the old Moon? It lies in the fact that along with the sun the higher beings and the finer substances withdrew from the whole stellar mass as sun, while the coarser substances and the lower beings remained with the Moon. So during the evolution of the old Moon we have two heavenly bodies instead of one: a sun body, harboring the higher beings, and a Moon body, the dwelling place of the lower beings. Had the whole remained united, with no separation occurring, certain beings who developed on the sundered Moon could not have kept pace with the sun beings: they were not sufficiently mature, and therefore had to segregate, cast out, the coarser substances and build for themselves a sphere of action apart. Nor could the higher beings have remained united with these coarser substances, for it would have obstructed their more rapid progress. They, too, required a special field for their development, and that was the Sun.

Now let us turn to the beings dwelling on the old Sun and those on the old Moon, after the separation. We have learned that the potential human physical body had its inception during the Saturn state, that on the Sun the etheric body was added, and on the Moon, the astral body. Now, these human beings—or primeval men, if we may so call them—on the Moon had, in fact, remained with the Moon when it split off; and these were the ones who could not keep pace with the rapid development of the sun beings—those who had gone with the sun and now dwelt within the finer substances and matter on the sun. This also accounts for their becoming coarser during the Moon evolution. During this period, then, we have man in a state consisting of physical body, etheric body, and astral body; in other words, he had attained to the evolutionary stage of a present-day animal, for an animal has the physical, etheric, and astral bodies. But you must not imagine man on the old Moon as having been really an animal: his form was very different in appearance from anything in the present animal world, and it would strike you as utterly fantastic if I were to describe it.

Summing up, then: On the old Moon we find what may be called the ancestors of present-day man, equipped with physical, etheric, and astral bodies, in whom these principles tended to become rigid after the division—to become coarser than they would have become had they remained with the sun. But all that had split off with the sun had also passed through this threefold development, the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions. This, however, proceeded in the direction taken by the sun, whereas the ancestors of men followed the Moon. These beings that went with the sun show a threefold organism closely paralleling that of man. On the sun, too, were beings who had acquired three principles, so to speak; but these had become finer instead of coarser after the separation. Think of the process as follows: After the split the human forebears became denser beings than they were before, they tended to solidify; while corresponding beings on the sun became more rarefied. Through having acquired an astral body during the Moon evolution, man in a sense descended to the level of an animal; but the beings that did not take part in this development—those that carried the finer substances with them to the sun—became finer.

So while man was hardening on the Moon, being of lofty spirituality arose on the sun. In spiritual science this spirituality is designated the counterpart of what evolved on the Moon. On the Moon men developed up to the rank of the animal, so to speak, although they were not animals. Now, in dealing with the animal kingdom people have always quite justifiably distinguished between different grades of animals, and the animal men on the Moon appeared in three grades differing essentially from one another. In spiritual science these are termed the grades of the “Bull”, the “Lion”, and the “Eagle”. Those are typical configurations, as it were, of the animal world. The old Moon was inhabited by the three groups: Bull men, Lion men, and Eagle men.—Although these connotations apply in no way to our present bulls, lions, and eagles, the deteriorated character of those primordial Moon men which we call Lion-men is nevertheless expressed, to a certain extent, in the feline species; in the character of the hoofed animals there comes to expression the degenerated nature of the so-called Bull men, and so forth.—That describes the densified nature of man after a three-stage development.

But on the sun dwelt the spiritual counterparts of these, also consisting of three groups. While the development of the astral principle on the Moon was shaping these three different animal men, the corresponding spiritual men arose on the sun as Angelical beings, spirit beings. These, too, are known as Lion, Eagle, and Bull, but as the spiritual counterparts of the others. So when you contemplate the sun you see spiritual beings whom you envision as the beautiful prototypes conceived in wisdom, while on the Moon you find something like hardened replicas of what dwells on the sun.

But something in the nature of a mystery underlies all this. These images down on the Moon are not without connection with their spiritual counterparts on the sun. On the Moon we have a group of primordial men, the Bull men, and on the sun a group of spirit beings connoted “Bull spirits”; and there is a spiritual connection between prototype and image. That is because the group soul is the prototype and acts as such upon the images. The forces proceed from the group soul and direct the image down below: the Lion spirit directs the beings who, as Lion men, are its image; the Eagle spirit guides the Eagle men, and so on. If these spirits up above had remained united with the Moon, bound to their replicas and inhabiting them, their activity would have been paralyzed; they could not have exercised the forces needed for the salvation and development of the images. They understood that they had to foster on a higher level what was destined to evolve on the Moon. The Bull spirit felt, I must care for the Bull men; but on the Moon I cannot find the conditions for my own progress, hence I must dwell on the sun and from there send down my forces to the Bull men.—And the same applies to the Lion spirit, and the Eagle spirit.

That is the way evolution proceeded. Certain beings needed a sphere of action above those that were their physical images, so to speak. The latter required a lower, lesser field. In order to function effectually the spiritual beings had to sunder the sun from the Moon and then send down their forces from without. Thus we see on the one hand a development downward, so to say, and on the other, an upward trend.

The evolution of the old Moon (as a cosmic period) proceeds. By acting upon their images from without, the spiritual beings spiritualize the Moon, with the result that the latter can in time reunite with the sun. The prototypes take their images back into themselves, absorb them, as it were. Another world devachan comes about, a cosmic night. (This is also known as a pralaya, whereas stages like Saturn, Sun, and Moon are called manvantaras.) Following this cosmic night there issues out of the obscurity of the cosmic womb our Earth stage, whose mission it is to advance man to the stage at which he can add the ego, or ego bearer, to his physical, etheric, and astral bodies. In the meantime, however, all previous evolution must be repeated; for whenever a higher stage is to be reached a cosmic law demands the repetition of all that had already taken place. The Earth had thus to pass once more through the old Saturn stage: again the first potential beginnings of the physical body evolved as out of the cosmic germ; and then followed a repetition of the Sun and Moon stages.

At this time sun, earth, and moon still formed a single body; but now a repetition of previous events takes place: the sun again splits off, and again those loftier beings that need this higher sphere for their development depart with the sun, carrying with them the finer substances they need for creating their cosmic sphere of action. Thus the sun left the Earth, which at that time still bore the moon within its body, and took with it those beings who were sufficiently advanced to find their further development on the sun. You will readily imagine that among these beings were to be found primarily those that had previously functioned as prototypes. All these beings, who during the old Moon period had attained to adequate maturity, progressed rapidly, with the result that they could no longer live in the denser substances and among the earth-plus-moon beings: they had to detach themselves and establish a new existence on the sun—our present sun.

Who were these beings? They were the descendants of those who, back in the old Moon state, had developed on the sun as the Bull, Lion, and Eagle spirits; and the loftiest of these, the most advanced, were those who had merged within themselves the natures of Eagle, Lion, and Bull in a harmonious unity. They are the beings that can be connoted human prototypes—spirit men in the true sense of the term. Keep in mind that among the spiritual beings, who during the old Moon period were to be found on the sun as Bull, Eagle, and Lion spirits, some had attained to a higher plane of development, and these are the Spirit Men proper whose dwelling place is now principally the sun. They are spiritual counterparts, so to speak, of what is in the process of evolution down below on the severed earth-plus-moon; but those that are developing down there are the descendants of the beings that had lived on the old Moon. Now, you can imagine that since a certain condensation, a solidification of these beings had already set in on the old Moon, a tendency to condense, to solidify, to dry out would be all the more pronounced in their descendants. Indeed, a sad and dreary period commenced for this sundered portion which then comprised earth-plusmoon. Above, on the sun, an ever fresher and livelier development, ever fuller life; below, on the Earth, misery and barrenness, steadily increasing rigidity.

Something now occurred without which evolution would have been brought to a standstill: the moon as we know it today separated from the earth-plus-moon body, and what remained is our present earth. In this way the coarsest substances withdrew before rendering the earth completely hard, and the latter was saved from total desolation.

To summarize all this: At the beginning of our Earth evolution the Earth formed one body with our present sun and moon. Had the Earth (earth plus moon) remained with the sun, man would never have been able to reach his present stage of development: he could not have kept pace with a development such as the beings on the sun needed. What developed up there was not man as he is on earth, but his spiritual prototype of which, as he appears in his physical body, he is really but an image. And on the other hand, had the moon remained within the earth, man would have gradually dried out and mummified, and have found no possibility of further development on Earth. The Earth would have become a barren, arid cosmic body; and in place of human bodies as we know them today, something like lifeless statutes would have developed, growing up out of the ground like desiccated men. This was prevented by the secession of the moon, which withdrew into cosmic space and took with it the coarsest substances. That made it possible for an ego to be added to the physical, etheric, and astral bodies already present in the descendants of the old Moon beings; and because the forces of sun and moon acted from without and there held each other in balance, man could experience fructification by the ego.

The earth was now the scene of further human evolution. All that had come over from the old Moon represented in a certain respect a devolution, a development into a lower stage; but now there appeared a new impetus, an impulse upward.—And in the meantime the progress of those corresponding spiritual beings who had remained with the sun steadily continued.

Let us suppose we have a block of hard iron before us and that our muscles are of average strength. We pound and hammer the iron, trying to beat it flat, but we cannot manage to give it any form until we have softened the substance by heat. Something of this sort happened to the earth after the densest substances had withdrawn with the moon. Now the earth beings could be formed, and now the sun beings again took a hand—those beings who as early as the old Moon state had intervened there from the sun as the group souls. Before the moon split off, substances were too dense; but now these beings asserted themselves as forces that gradually shaped and developed man to his present form.

Let us examine this more closely. Imagine you could have stood on this ancient heavenly body that consisted of earth-plus-moon. You would have beheld the sun out in space; and if you had been clairvoyant you would also have seen the spiritual beings described above. On the Earth you would have perceived a sort of solidification, of desolation, and it would have struck you that all about was nothing but aridity and death on the Earth; for the forces of the sun could gain no influence over all this that was on its way to becoming a great cosmic graveyard.—And then you would have seen the body of the moon detach itself from the Earth. You would have seen the substances of the earth becoming malleable and plastic, with the result that the forces descending from the sun were once more able to act. And you would have seen the Bull, Lion, and Eagle spirits regaining their influence over the human beings that were their images. You would have understood that the moon, isolated, had lost some of its harmful influence through its withdrawal, for thenceforth it could act only from a distance; and that in this way the earth was rendered capable of receiving what the spiritual beings had to give. Tomorrow we shall see what sort of a picture presents itself to the clairvoyant when he traces the more remote phases of evolution in the akashic record.

We know that during the old Saturn stage the first beginning of the human physical body was formed. What today we see as the physical human form first took shape on Saturn as though emerging from cosmic chaos. Then came the Sun stage during which the etheric body was added to the physical; and on the old Moon these were joined by the astral element in the case of those beings who continued their development on the sundered Moon, as well as of the spirits who had remained with the sun. On the sun dwelt the spiritual prototypes, on the Moon, their counterparts on the animal level; and finally, upon the Earth there had gradually evolved a condition under which man was once more able to receive into himself the astral element developed on the sun during the Moon evolution, an element that now acted in him as a force.

Let us now trace these four states. The exalted power which during the Saturn stage provided the spiritual germ of the physical human form is called by the author of the John Gospel the Logos. The element that was added on the Sun and merged with what had arisen on Saturn he designates Life, known to us accordingly as the etheric or life body. And what was subjoined on the Moon he terms the Light, for it is the spiritual light, the astral light. On the severed Moon this astral light effected a hardening, but on the sun itself, a spiritualization. What was thus engendered as spirit could and did continue to develop; and when the sun again split off, the principle that had evolved during the third stage shone into men, but man was as yet unable to see what thus shone in from the sun. It took part in the shaping of man, acted as a force; but man could not see it.

What we have in this way come to recognize as the essence of the Saturn evolution we can now express in the words of the Gospel of St. John:

In the beginning was the Logos.

Now we pass to the Sun. To denote what came into being on Saturn and was further developed on the Sun, we say, the etheric body was added:

And the Logos was Life.

On the Moon the astral element entered into both the physical and the spiritual aspects of men:

Within the animated Logos Light arose.

When the separation occurred the light developed in two directions: on the sun into a clairvoyant light, among men into darkness. For when man was to receive the light he, who was the darkness, comprehended it not.

So if we illuminate the John Gospel by means of the akashic record, what we read concerning cosmic evolution is a follows: In the beginning, during the Saturn evolution, everything had come into being out of the Logos; during the Sun evolution, Life was in the Logos; and out of this living Logos there arose Light during the Moon evolution. Finally, out of the living, light-filled Logos there appeared on the sun, during the Earth evolution, the Light in heightened luster—but men walked in darkness. And the beings who had become the advanced spirits of Bull, Lion, Eagle, and Man, shone down as light from the sun to the earth and into the forms of men that were taking shape. But these were the darkness, and they could not comprehend the light that shone down upon them.—Naturally we must not think of this as the physical light, but rather, as the Light that was the sum of the radiations from the spiritual beings, the spirits of Bull, Lion, Eagle, and Man, who constituted the continuation of the spiritual evolution of the Moon. It was the spiritual Light that streamed down. Men could not receive it, could not comprehend it. Their whole development was advanced by it, but without their consciousness taking part. The light shone in the darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Thus paradigmatically does the writer of the John Gospel present these great verities; and those versed in such matters have ever been called the “servants or ministers of the Logos as it was from the beginning.” He who speaks thus was such a minister or servant of the Logos as it was from the beginning; and in the Luke Gospel we find what is basically the identical disposition. Just read understandingly what the writer of the Luke Gospel says: his purpose is to report events as they occurred from the beginning, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the Word.

And we believe that these documents were written by servants of the Word, or the Logos. We learn to believe this when by means of our own spiritual research we see what took place, when we see how our Earth evolution came about by way of Saturn, Sun, and Moon. And when we then find that we can rediscover, independent of all documents, what is presented in the comprehensive words of the John Gospel and in the words of the Luke Gospel, we learn anew to appreciate these documents and to find in them their own evidence that they were written by those who could read in the spiritual world. They provide a means of communication with men of remote times whom we can face, in a sense, and say, We recognize and know you—because what they knew we have found again in Spiritual Science.

Dritter Vortrag

Diejenigen von Ihnen, welche wiederholt Vortragszyklen oder überhaupt Vorträge aus dem Gebiete der Geisteswissenschaft von mir gehört haben, sie haben das eine oder das andere aus den Tatsachen der höheren Welten schon von den verschiedensten Seiten her dargestellt bekommen. Und die eine oder die andere Wesenheit, die eine oder die andere Tatsache ist uns entgegengetreten in dem einen oder in dem andern Gebiet und wurde dann immer von dieser oder jener Seite her beleuchtet. Es kann dabei vorkommen - und ich möchte insbesondere heute darauf hinweisen, damit nicht Mißverständnisse einreißen —, daß scheinbat, obenhin' betrachtet, Widersprüche vorhanden sind, wenn diese oder jene Wesenheit, diese oder jene 'Tatsache einmal von der einen, ein anderes Mal von der andern Seite beleuchtet wird. Wenn Sie aber genau zusehen, dann werden Sie finden, daß gerade durch eine solche verschiedenartige Beleuchtung die komplizierten Tatsachen der geistigen Welten erst klar werden können. Ich mußte das sagen, weil ich gewisse Tatsachen, welche dem weitaus größten Teil der heutigen Zuhörer von einer gewissen Seite her schon bekannt sind, heute wiederum zum Teil von einer neuen Seite her werde beleuchten müssen. Gerade wenn wir die tiefste Urkunde des Neuen Testamentes nehmen, die unter dem Namen des Evangeliums nach Johannes bekannt ist, und die bedeutungsvollen Worte lesen, mit denen wir unsere gestrige Betrachtung geschlossen haben, dann wird uns ja bald klar, daß schier unendliche Geheimnisse des Weltenwerdens und des Menschenwerdens schon in diesen ersten Worten des Johannes-Evangeliums liegen. Wir werden vielleicht noch im Laufe unserer Betrachtungen Gelegenheit haben, zu zeigen, warum die großen Darsteller der geistigen Ereignisse oftmals gerade die großen, umfassenden Wahrheiten in kurzer, paradigrmatischer Art zum Ausdruck bringen, wie das in den ersten Versen des Johannes-Evangeliums geschehen ist. Heute wollen wir in einer anderen Weise, als das gestern geschehen ist, auf gewisse bekannte Tatsachen der Geisteswissenschaft zurückkommen und sehen, wie sie uns in dem Johannes-Evangelium wieder entgegentreten. Die verhältnismäßig einfachsten Tatsachen der Geisteswissenschaft sollen es sein, von denen wir ausgehen.

Von dem Menschen, wie er in seinem alltäglichen Lebenszustande vor uns steht, wissen wir, daß er aus vier Gliedern besteht: dem physischen Leib, dem Äther- oder Lebensleib, dem astralischen Leibund dem Ich. Wir wissen, daß das tägliche Leben des Menschen so wechselt, daß er vom Morgen, da er aufwacht, bis zum Abend, da er einschläft, diese vier Glieder seiner Wesenheit organisch miteinander verbunden, ineinander hat. Wir wissen, daß, wenn der Mensch nachts schläft, der physische Leib und der Ätherleib im Bette liegen, und daß herausgehoben sind aus dem physischen Leib und dem Ätherleib der astralische Leib und der Ich-Träger, oder das Ich kurzweg.

Nun müssen wir uns eines heute ganz besonders klarmachen. Wenn wir einen Menschen vor uns haben in dem jetzigen Entwickelungszustand, so haben wir diese Vierheit, physischen Leib, Ätherleib, astralischen Leib und Ich, als eine ineinandergefügte Notwendigkeit. Wenn wir dann in der Nacht diesen Menschen im Bette liegen sehen, und da nur der physische Leib und der Ätherleib im Bette liegen, so hat gewissermaßen dieser im Bette liegende Mensch den Wert einer Pflanze. Denn die Pflanze, wie sie uns in der äußeren Welt erscheint, besteht ja aus dem physischen Leib und dem Äther- oder Lebensleib; sie hat in sich keinen astralischen Leib und kein Ich. Dadurch unterscheidet sie sich vom Tier und vom Menschen. Das’Tier erst hat einen astralischen Leib, und der Mensch erst hat ein Ich in sich. Daher können wir sagen: Vom Abend bis zum Morgen liegen im Bette der physische Leib und der Ätherleib vom Menschen; da ist er gleichsam ein Wesen wie eine Pflanze und doch wieder nicht wie eine Pflanze. Das müssen wir uns klarmachen.

Wenn eine freie Wesenheit, eine selbständige Wesenheit heute existiert, die keinen astralischen Leib und kein Ich hat, die bloß besteht aus physischem Leib und Ätherleib, dann muß sie aussehen wie eine Pflanze, dann muß sie eine Pflanze sein. Der Mensch ist aber, wenn er im Bette liegt, über den Wert der Pflanze hinausgewachsen, weil er im Laufe der Entwickelung zu seinem physischen Leib und seinem Ätherleib hinzufügte den astralischen Leib, den Träger von Lust und Leid, Freude und Schmerz, von Trieb, Begierde und Leidenschaft, und hinzufügte den Ichträger. Jedesmal aber, wenn ein höheres Glied zu einer Wesenheit hinzugefügt wird, ändert sich auch bei dieser Wesenheit alles an den niederen Gliedern. Würde man zu der Pflanze, wie sie uns heute als ein Wesen draußen in der Natur entgegentritt, hinzufügen einen astralischen Leib, würde ein astralischer Leib die Pflanze nicht bloß oben umsäumen, sondern sie durchdringen, so würde das, was wir in der Pflanzensubstanz die Pflanze durchdringen sehen, tierisches Fleisch werden müssen. Denn der eindringende astralische Leib verwandelt eben die Pflanze so, daß die Substanz tierisches Fleisch wird. Und entsprechend ähnlich müßte die Pflanze umgestaltet werden, wenn sie in der physischen Welt ein Ich in sich hätte. Daher können wir auch sagen: Wenn wir ein Wesen vor uns haben, das wie der Mensch nicht nur den physischen Leib hat, sondern unsichtbare, höhere, übersinnliche Glieder seiner Natur, so finden sich die übersinnlichen Glieder in den niedersten Gliedern ausgedrückt. So wie Ihre inneren Seeleneigenschaften oberflächlich ausgedrückt sind in Ihren Gesichtszügen, in Ihrer Physiognomie, so ist Ihr physischer Leib auch ein Ausdruck für die Arbeit des astralischen Leibes und des Ich. Und der physische Leib stellt nicht nur sich selbst dar, sondern er stellt auch einen physischen Ausdruck dar der physisch unsichtbaren Glieder des Menschen.

So ist des Menschen Drüsensystem und alles, was wir dazu zählen, ein Ausdruck des Ätherleibes im Menschen. Alles, was wir zum Nervensystem zählen, ist ein Ausdruck des astralischen Leibes, und alles, was wir zum Blutsystem zählen, ein Ausdruck seines Ichträgers. Also im physischen Leibe selber haben wir wieder eine Vierheit zu unterscheiden, und nur der, welcher einer grobsinnlichen Weltanschauung huldigt, kann die verschiedenen Substanzen im menschlichen physischen Leibe als gleichwertig bezeichnen. Was uns als Blut durchpulst, ist eine solche Substanz dadurch geworden, daß in dem Menschen ein Ich wohnt. Das Nervensystem ist so gestaltet und von einer solchen Substanz, weil uns im Menschen ein astralischer Leib entgegentritt. Und das Drüsensystem ist so geworden dadurch, daß im Menschen ein Ätherleib ist. Wenn Sie das beachten, werden Sie leicht einsehen, daß im Grunde genommen das Menschenwesen vom Abend, wo der Mensch einschläft, bis zum Morgen, wo er aufwacht, ein in sich widerspruchsvolles Wesen ist. Man möchte sagen, es sollte eine Pflanze sein, ist aber doch keine Pflanze. Denn eine Pflanze hat nicht in ihrer physischen Substanz den Ausdruck des astralischen Leibes, das Nervensystem, und auch nicht den Ausdruck des Ichs, das Blutsystem. Eine solche physische Wesenheit, wie es der Mensch ist, mit Drüsen-, Nerven- und Blutsystem, kann nur bestehen, wenn in ihr sich findet ein Ätherleib, ein astralischer Leib und ein Ich.

Nun verlassen Sie aber als Mensch in bezug auf Ihren astralischen Leib und Ihr Ich in der Nacht Ihren physischen Leib und Ihren Ätherleib. Sie verlassen sie sozusagen schnöde, machen sie zu einem in sich widerspruchsvollen Wesen. Wenn hier nichts Geistiges geschehen würde von Ihrem Einschlafen an bis zum Aufwachen und Sie bloß Ihren astralischen Leib und Ihr Ich herausziehen würden aus physischem Leib und Ätherleib, dann würden Sie Ihr Nerven- und Ihr Blutsystem am Morgen zerstört finden, denn die können nicht bestehen, wenn sie nicht einen astralischen Leib und ein Ich in sich haben. Daher geschieht, wahrnehmbar für das hellseherische Bewußtsein, das Folgende.

In demselben Maße, als sich Ich und astralischer Leib herausziehen, sieht der Hellseher, wie ein göttliches Ich und ein göttlicher astralischer Leib hineintreten in den Menschen. In der Tat ist auch in der Nacht, vom Einschlafen des Menschen bis zum Aufwachen, ein astralischer Leib und ein Ich, oder wenigstens ein Ersatz dafür, im physischen Leibe und Ätherleibe. Wenn des Menschen Astralisches sich herauszieht, zieht ein höheres Astralisches in den Menschen hinein, um ihn zu erhalten bis zum Aufwachen, und ebenso ein Ersatz für das Ich. Daraus sehen Sie also, daß im Bereiche unseres Lebens, in der Sphäre unseres Lebens, noch andere Wesenheiten am Werke sind, als sich zunächst innerhalb der physischen Welt zum Ausdruck bringen. In der physischen Welt bringen sich zum Ausdruck die Mineralien, die Pflanzen, die Tiere, die Menschen. Diese Menschen sind zunächst innerhalb unserer physischen Sphäre die höchsten der Wesenheiten. Sie allein haben einen physischen Leib, einen Ätherleib, einen astralischen Leib und ein Ich.

Aus der Tatsache, daß in der Nacht der astralische Leib und das Ich sich herausziehen aus physischem Leib und Ätherleib, daraus können Sie entnehmen, daß der astralische Leib und das Ich eine gewisse Selbständigkeit heute noch haben, daß sie sozusagen sich absondern und eine gewisse Zeit des alltäglichen Lebens so abgesondert von dem physischen und ätherischen Träger leben können.

Es zeigt sich uns also in der Nacht folgendes. Ebenso wie der menschliche physische Leib und der menschliche Ätherleib bei Tag Träger sind des menschlichen Ich und des menschlichen astralischen Leibes — also gerade der innerlichsten Glieder des Menschen -, werden sie des Nachts Träger oder Tempel von höheren astralischen und Ich-Wesenheiten. Jetzt sehen wir das, was im Bette liegt, anders an, denn darinnen ist ja auch vorhanden ein Astralisches, aber ein göttlich-geistiges Astralisches, und auch ein Ich, aber ein göttlich-geistiges Ich. Wir können in gewisser Weise sagen: Während der Mensch schläft in bezug auf seinen astralischen Leib und sein Ich, wachen in ihm und erhalten aufrecht das Gefüge seiner Organisation diese Wesenheiten, die nun auch zum Bereiche unseres Lebens gehören, die einziehen in unseren physischen Leib und Ätherleib, wenn wir diese letzteren verlassen. Eine solche Tatsache kann uns viel lehren; und insbesondere, wenn wir sie zusammenhalten mit gewissen Beobachtungen des Hellsehers, kann sie uns manchen Aufschluß geben über die Entwickelung des Menschen. Wir wollen gerade diese Tatsache des Unterschiedes zwischen Wachen und Schlafen einmal mit den großen geistigen Entwickelungstatsachen in Zusammenhang bringen.

Zwar erscheinen des Menschen astralischer Leib und des Menschen Ich als die höchsten, als die innerlichsten Glieder der Menschennatur, aber keineswegs zeigen sie sich als die vollkommensten. Vollkommener als der astralische Leib ist ja schon für eine oberflächliche Betrachtung der physische Leib. Ich habe ja auch hier schon vor zwei Jahren darauf hingewiesen, wie der physische Leib des Menschen uns immer bewundernswerter erscheint in bezug auf sein ganzes Gefüge, je mehr wit in ihn hineinschauen. An dem Wunderbau des menschlichen Herzens und des menschlichen Gehirnes kann nicht nur der Verstand sein raffiniertes intellektuelles Erkenntnisbedürfnis befriedigen, wenn er sie anatomisch untersucht, sondern derjenige, der mit seiner Seele an sie herangeht, empfindet sein ästhetisches und moralisches Gefühl gehoben, wenn er sich sagen kann, welche erhabenen, weisheitsvollen Einrichtungen in diesem physischen Leibe sind.

So weit ist der astralische Leib heute noch nicht. Er ist der Träger von Lust und Leid, Trieben, Begierden und Genüssen und so weiter, und wir müssen uns sagen, daß der Mensch in bezug auf seine Begierden zu allerlei Dingen in der Welt greift, die durchaus nicht dazu dienen, die weisheitsvollen und kunstvollen Einrichtungen des Herzens oder des Gehirnes zu fördern. Durch seine Genußsucht sucht sich der Mensch Befriedigung zu verschaffen durch Dinge, die, wie der Kaffee, Herzgifte oder ähnliches sind. Darin liefert er den Beweis, daß der astralische Leib Sehnsucht hat nach Genüssen, die zum Beispiel den weisheitsvollen Einrichtungen im menschlichen Herzen schädlich sind: Jahrzehnte hindurch hält das Herz stand gegen solche Herzgifte, die der Mensch aus der Genußsucht seines astralischen Leibes heraus zu sich nimmt. Daraus können Sie sehen, daß der physische Leib vollkommener ist als der astralische. Wenn auch in der Zukunft der astralische Leib einmal ungleich vollkommener sein wird, heute ist der physische Leib in seiner Entwickelung am vollkommensten. Das rührt davon her, daß der physische Leib in der Tat das älteste ist unter den Gliedern der menschlichen Natur. Er stellt den Beweis dar, daß an diesem physischen Leibe schon gearbeitet wurde, lange bevor unsere Erde entstanden ist.

Das, was die heutige, aus bloßen materialistischen Vorstellungen herausgewachsene Weltentstehungslehre sagt, ist ja weiter nichts als eine materialistische Phantasie; ob sie nun Kant-Laplacesche Theorie oder als irgendeine neuere 'Theorie so oder so genannt wird, darauf kommt es nicht an. Um das äußere Gefüge unseres Weltsystems zu begreifen, dazu sind diese materialistischen Phantasien allerdings von Nutzen, aber sie taugen nicht, wenn wir das, was höher ist als die äußeren Augenbilder, begreifen wollen.

Die geistige Forschung zeigt uns, daß ebenso, wie der Mensch von Verkörperung zu Verkörperung geht, auch ein Weltkörper wie unsere Erde früher in uralten Zeiten andere Gestaltungen, andere planetarische Zustände durchgemacht hat. Ehe unsere Erde geworden ist, war sie in einem anderen planetarischen Zustand. Sie war das, was man in der Geistesforschung den «alten Mond» nennt. Das ist nicht der heutige Mond, sondern ein Vorfahr unserer Erde als planetarische Wesenheit. Und ebenso, wie sich der Mensch von einer früheren Verkörperung in die heutige hineinentwickelt hat, so hat unsere Erde sich von dem alten Mond zur Erde entwickelt. Der alte Mond ist gleichsam eine vorhergehende Verkörperung der Erde. Wiederum eine vorhergehende Verkörperung des alten Mondes ist die Sonne, nicht die heutige Sonne, sondern auch wieder ein Vorfahr unserer heutigen Erde. Und endlich ein Vorfahr dieser alten Sonne ist der alte Saturn. Diese früheren Zustände hat unsere Erde durchgemacht: einen Saturnzustand, einen Sonnenzustand, einen Mondenzustand. Und jetzt ist sie in ihrem Erdenzustand angekommen.

Der erste Keim zu unserem physischen Leibe ist auf dem alten Saturn gelegt worden. Wir könnten auch sagen: Nichts von alledem, was heute den Menschen umgibt, nichts von unserem gegenwärtigen Tierreich, Pflanzenreich, nichts von unserem heutigen Mineralreich war auf diesem uralten Weltenkörper vorhanden, den wir als den alten — nicht als den heutigen — Saturn bezeichnen. Aber es war vorhanden auf ihm die erste Anlage des heutigen physischen Menschenleibes. Dieser physische Menschenleib bestand in ganz anderer Weise als heute. Er war dazumal im ersten Keimzustande vorhanden, und dann entwickelte er sich während der Saturnentwickelung. Und als diese zu Ende war, da ging der alte Saturn ebenso durch eine Art Weltennacht hindurch, wie der Mensch durch ein Devachan geht, um zu einer nächsten Verkörperung zu kommen. Und dann wurde der Saturn Sonne.

Und wie die Pflanze aus dem Keim entsteht, so erstand nun wiederum auf der alten Sonne der physische Menschenleib. Nach und nach wurde dieser physische Menschenleib durchdrungen von einem Äther- oder Lebensleib, so daß also auf der Sonne zu der Keimanlage des physischen Leibes hinzukam der Äther- oder Lebensleib. Der Mensch war keine Pflanze, aber er hatte den Wert einer Pflanze. Er bestand aus physischern Leib und Ätherleib, und sein Bewußtsein dazumal war ähnlich dem Schlafbewußtsein oder ähnlich dem Bewußtsein, das die ganze Pflanzendecke der physischen Welt um uns herum heute hat. Das Sonnendasein ging zu Ende; wiederum kam eine Weltennacht, oder wenn wir so sagen wollen, ein Welten-Devachan. Nachdem die Sonne durchgegangen war durch dieses Welten-Devachan, verwandelte sie sich in den alten Mondenzustand.

Und wiederum sprießen diejenigen Teile der menschlichen Wesenheit hervor, die schon auf Saturn und Sonne da waren: des Menschen physischer Leib und Ätherleib. Und hinzu kam während der Mondenentwickelung der astralische Leib. Jetzt hatte der Mensch physischen Leib, Ätherleib und astralischen Leib. Sie sehen daraus, daß der physische Leib, nachdem er auf dem Saturn entstanden war, auf dem Monde bereits seinen dritten Zustand durchmachte. Der Ätherleib ist auf der Sonne dazugekommen, er wurde jetzt zu einer zweiten Vollkommenheitsstufe heraufgehoben. Der astralische Leib, der eben erst hinzugekommen war, stand auf dem Monde auf seiner ersten Stufe.

Nun geschieht auf dem Monde etwas, was während Saturn und Sonne nicht geschehen konnte. Während die Saturn- und Sonnenentwickelung den Menschen als ein verhältnismäßig einheitliches Wesen enthielt, trat in einem bestimmten Zustand der alten Mondenentwickelung folgendes auf. Es spaltete sich der ganze Weltenkörper in zwei Glieder: in eine Sonne und in einen Nebenplaneten dieser Sonne, in den Mond. Während wir also bei der Saturnentwickelung gewissermaßen von einer planetarischen Entwickelung sprechen, und ebenso auch bei der Sonne, sprechen wir bei dem Monde nur für die erste Zeit dieser Mondenentwickelung von eiser Entwickelung. Das kommt daher, weil zuerst alles, was unsere Erde, Sonne und Mond ist, in diesem einen alten Weltenkörper in einem Zustande beisammen war. Dann entstehen zwei Körper. Was da als Sonne entsteht, ist nicht unsere Sonne, noch auch die alte Sonne, die wir vorhin erwähnt haben. Es ist ein besonderer Zustand, der von dem alten Monde als ein Sonnenzustand sich aussonderte, und es entsteht daneben ein außerhalb dieser Sonne befindlicher, diese Sonne umkreisender Planet, den wir wiederum nun den «alten Mond» nennen. Welches ist nun der Sinn dieser Spaltung unseres Erdenvorgängers während der alten Mondenentwickelung ?

Der Sinn dieser Spaltung ist der, daß mit der Sonne, die sich abspaltete, die höheren Wesenheiten und die feineren Substanzen aus der ganzen Masse herausgingen, als Sonne herausgingen. Die gröberen Substanzen und die niederen Wesenheiten blieben bei dem alten Monde zurück. So haben wir jetzt während der alten Monden-Entwickelung statt eines Weltenkörpers zwei Körper: einen Sonnenkörper, der höhere Wesenheiten beherbergt, und einen Mondenkörper, der niedere Wesenheiten beherbergt. Wäre das Ganze zusammengeblieben und die Spaltung nicht geschehen, dann hätten gewisse Wesenheiten, die sich auf dem abgespaltenen Monde entwickelten, das Tempo der Sonnenwesen nicht mitmachen können. Sie waren nicht reif dazu. Sie mußten daher die gröberen Substanzen absondern und sich einen gesonderten Schauplatz bauen. Aber auch die höheren Wesenheiten hätten mit diesen gröberen Substanzen nicht vereinigt bleiben können; das würde ihren schnelleren Fortschritt gehemmt haben. Auch sie brauchten einen besonderen Schauplatz der Entwickelung, und das war die Sonne.

Schauen wir uns jetzt die Wesenheiten an, die sich auf der alten Sonne finden nach der Abspaltung, und diejenigen, die den alten Mond nach der Abspaltung bewohnen. Wir wissen ja, daß während des Saturnzustandes der physische Menschenleib veranlagt worden ist, daß auf der Sonne hinzugekommen ist der Ätherleib, und auf dem Monde der astralische Leib. Nun waren diese menschlichen Wesenheiten, oder wenn wir so sagen dürfen, diese Urmenschen auf dem Monde in der Tat mit dem abgespaltenen Monde gegangen. Sie waren es eben, die nicht mitmachen konnten die rasche Entwickelung der Sonnenwesen, jener Wesenheiten, die sich mit der Sonne abgespalten hatten und die nun innerhalb der feineren Substanzen und Materie auf der Sonne lebten. Daher vergröberten sich auch diese Menschenwesen während der Mondenentwickelung. Wir finden also während der Mondenentwickelung den Menschen in einem Zustand, wo er besteht aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib und astralischem Leib. Er hatte also jene Stufe der Entwickelung, welche das heutige Tier hat. Auch das Tier hat physischen Leib, Ätherleib und astralischen Leib. Nur dürfen Sie sich nicht vorstellen, daß der Mensch auf dem alten Mond wirklich ein Tier gewesen wäre. Die Gestalt des Menschen auf dem alten Monde schaute ganz anders aus als das irdische Tierwesen heute. Sie würde Ihnen sehr phantastisch erscheinen, wenn ich sie Ihnen schildern wollte. Also wir finden sozusagen von unserem heutigen Menschen auf diesem alten Monde Vorfahren, welche physischen Leib, Ätherleib und astralischen Leib hatten, und die, nachdem sich das Ganze von der Sonne abgespalten hat, diese Glieder verhärten, in sich gröber machen, als es geschehen wäre, wenn sie bei der Sonne geblieben wären.

Nun hatte aber das, was sich mit der Sonne abgespalten hatte, auch diese dreifache Entwickelung durchgemacht: Saturn-, Sonnen- und Mondenentwickelung. Nur ging alles dieses sozusagen die Sonnenrichtung, während die Vorfahren der Menschen die Mondenrichtung gingen. Bei diesen Wesenheiten, die mit der Sonne mitgegangen sind, können wir ebenso ein Dreigliedriges unterscheiden, das durchaus parallel geht mit der Dreigliedrigkeit des Menschen. Auch auf der Sonne waren Wesenheiten, die es sozusagen zu drei Gliedern gebracht hatten. Nur, statt daß sie diese drei Glieder nach der Abspaltung zur Vergröberung getrieben hatten, waren die drei Glieder jetzt zur Verfeinerung gekommen. Denken Sie sich den Vorgang so: Nach der Abspaltung werden die menschlichen Vorfahren gröbere Wesenheiten, als sie früher waren, sie verhärten sich. Die entsprechenden Wesenheiten auf der Sonne dagegen verfeinern sich.

Was aus dem Menschen dadurch geworden ist, daß er während der Mondenentwickelung einen astralischen Leib bekommen hat, das bringt ihn in einer gewissen Weise herunter zur Stufe der Tierheit. Die Wesenheiten, die das nicht mitmachen, die sich die feineren Substanzen zur Sonne heraufholen, die verfeinern sich. Wie also sich der Mensch auf dem Monde verhärtet, so entstehen auf der Sonne Wesenheiten von einer hohen Geistigkeit. Diese Geistigkeit bezeichnet man in der Geisteswissenschaft als die Gegenbilder dessen, was sich auf dem Monde entwickelte.

Auf dem Monde entwickelten sich die Menschen sozusagen zum Wert des Tieres, obwohl sie keine Tiere waren. Nun hat man immer mit einer gewissen Berechtigung da, wo Tierisches auftritt, Tiere verschiedener Stufen unterschieden. Die Tier-Menschen auf dem Monde traten ganz wesentlich verschieden in drei Stufen auf, die man in der Geisteswissenschaft bezeichnet als die Stufe des «Stieres», des «Löwen» und des « Adlers». Das sind gleichsam typische Gestaltungen der Tierheit. Es waren also auf dem alten Monde drei verschiedene Gruppierungen: Stier-Menschen, Löwen-Menschen und Adler-Menschen. Wenn wir auch mit diesen Namen durchaus nicht die heutigen Tiere Stier, Löwe und Adler bezeichnen dürfen, so ist doch in einer gewissen Weise die herabgekommene Natur jener Urmenschen, die man auf dem Monde als Löwen-Menschen bezeichnen muß, in den Katzenarten ausgedrückt. Und in dem Charakter der Huftiere ist ausgedrückt die herabgekommene Natur derjenigen Menschen, die man als Stier-Menschen bezeichnet, und so weiter. Das war die vergröberte Natur nach einer dreistufigen Entwickelung. Auf der Sonne aber waren die geistigen Gegenbilder davon vorhanden. Da waren auch drei Gruppen. Während die Entwickelung des Astralischen auf dem Monde diese drei verschiedenen Tier-Menschen bildete, entstanden die entsprechenden geistigen Menschen auf der Sonne, und zwar als engelartige Wesenheiten, geistige Wesenheiten, die man auch bezeichnet - jetzt aber als geistige Gegenbilder - als Löwe, Adler und Stier. Wenn Sie also nach der Sonne hinblicken, so haben Sie geistige Wesenheiten, von denen Sie sich sagen: Sie stellen mir dar die schönen, weisheitgestalteten Urbilder! Und auf dem alten Mond haben Sie etwas wie verhärtete Abbilder dessen, was da oben auf der Sonne ist. Aber es gibt noch etwas, was dahinter als ein Geheimnis ruht.

Diese Abbilder unten aufdem Mond sind nicht ohne Zusammenhang mit ihren geistigen Gegenbildern auf der Sonne. Da haben wir auf dem alten Mond eine Gruppe von Urmenschen, die Stier-Menschen, oben auf der Sonne eine Gruppe von Geistwesen, die man als die StierGeister bezeichnet, und es besteht ein geistiger Zusammenhang zwischen Urbild und Abbild. Denn die Gruppenseele ist das Urbild und wirkt als Urbild auf die Abbilder. Die Kräfte gehen von der Gruppenseele aus und dirigieren unten das Abbild: der Löwen-Geist dirigiert die Wesenheiten, die als Löwen-Menschen sein Abbild sind, der AdlerGeist die Adler-Menschen und so weiter. Wären diese Geister, die da oben sind, mit der Erde vereinigt geblieben, wären sie gebunden geblieben an ihre Abbilder, hätten sie in ihren Abbildern wohnen müssen, so hätten sie sich nicht rühren können, hätten die Kräfte nicht ausüben können, die sie ausüben mußten zum Heil und zur Entwickelung der Abbilder. Sie mußten sich sagen: Wir müssen jetzt in einem höheren Stile sorgen für das, was sich auf dem Monde entwickeln muß! Der Stier-Geist sagte sich: Ich muß sorgen für die Stier-Menschen. Auf dem Monde unten kann ich für mein eigenes Fortkommen nicht die Bedingungen finden. Dazu muß ich auf der Sonne wohnen und muß von der Sonne aus meine Kräfte herunterschicken zu den Stier-Menschen. Ebenso war es mit dem Löwen-Geist und ebenso mit dem Adler-Geist. So ist der Sinn der Entwickelung. Gewisse Wesenheiten brauchten einen höheren Schauplatz als die Wesenheiten, die sozusagen ihr physisches Abbild waren. Diese physischen Abbilder brauchten einen niederen, minderen Schauplatz. Damit die geistigen Wesenheiten wirken konnten, mußten sie sich die Sonne herauszichen und von außen her ihre Kräfte niedersenden. So also sehen wir, wie auf der einen Seite eine Entwickelung sozusagen heruntergeht, auf der anderen Seite eine Entwickelung hinaufsteigt.

Nun geht die Entwickelung des alten Mondes weiter. Dadurch, daß die geistigen Wesenheiten von außen auf ihre Abbilder wirken, vergeistigen sie den Mond, so daß er sich später wieder mit der Sonne vereinigen kann. Die Urbilder nehmen wieder die Abbilder auf, saugen sie gleichsam auf. Es bildet sich wieder ein Welten-Devachan, eine Weltennacht. -— Man nennt das auch ein «Pralaya», während man jene Zustände, wie Saturn, Sonne, Mond, « Manvantaras » nennt. — Nach dieser Weltennacht geht aus dem Dunkel des Weltenschoßes hervor unser Erdenzustand, der dazu berufen ist, den Menschen so weit zu bringen, daß er zu dem physischen, Äther- und astralischen Leib noch das Ich oder den Ichträger hinzufügen kann.

Aber jetzt muß alles das noch einmal wiederholt werden, was sich früher schon entwickelt hat. Das ist ein kosmisches Gesetz: wenn irgendein höherer Zustand entstehen soll, muß vorher wiederholt werden, was früher schon da war. Zuerst mußte die Erde also noch einmal durchmachen den alten Saturnzustand. Noch einmal entwickelte sich wie aus dem Weltenkeim heraus die erste Anlage zu dem physischen Leib. Dann kommt eine Wiederholung des Sonnenzustandes und eine Wiederholung des Mondenzustandes.

Noch sind Sonne, Erde und Mond zu einem Körper vereinigt. Dann tritt eine Wiederholung dessen ein, was früher schon geschehen war: es spaltet sich die Sonne wieder ab. Wiederum gehen mit der Sonne heraus jene höheren Wesenheiten, die diesen höheren Schauplatz der Entwickelung brauchen. Sie nehmen mit sich die feineren Substanzen, damit sie sich darinnen eben ihren Weltenschauplatz begründen können. Also es trennt sich von der Erde, die damals noch den Mond in ihrem Leib hatte, die Sonne und nimmt jene Wesenheiten mit, die reif sind, auf der Sonne ihr weiteres Fortkommen zu finden. Sie können sich denken, daß unter diesen Wesenheiten vor allen Dingen diejenigen waren, die früher als die Urbilder funktioniert hatten. Alle diese Wesenheiten, welche während der alten Mondenzeit die richtige Reife erlangt hatten, die schritten vorwärts und konnten infolgedessen nicht mehr in den gröberen Substanzen und Wesenheiten wohnen, welche die Erde plus Mond in sich hatte. Sie mußten sich loslösen, mußten sich auf der neuen Sonne, der heutigen Sonne, ein neues Dasein begründen.

Was waren das für Wesenheiten? Es waren die Nachkommen derjenigen Wesenheiten, die schon auf der Sonne während des alten Mondenzustandes sich entwickelt hatten als Stier-Geist, Löwen-Geist und Adler-Geist. Und die höchsten, die fortgeschrittensten von ihnen, das waren solche, die die Natur von Adler, Löwe und Stier in sich vereinigt hatten zu einer harmonischen Einheit. Die fortgeschrittensten geistigen Wesenheiten, die jetzt auf der Sonne ihren Wohnplatz nahmen, das waren die Wesenheiten, welche man bezeichnen kann als « MenschenUrbilder», als «Geistes-Menschen » im eigentlichen Sinne. Also denken Sie sich, daß unter jenen geistigen Wesenheiten, die während der alten Mondenzeit auf der Sonne als Stier-Geist, Adler-Geist, LöwenGeist zu finden waren, es solche gegeben hat, die eine höhere Stufe der Entwickelung erlangt hatten. Sie sind die eigentlichen Geistes-Menschen, die jetzt auf der Sonne vorzugsweise ihren Wohnplatz einnehmen. Sie sind sozusagen geistige Gegenbilder dessen, was sich da unten auf derabgetrennten Erde plus Mond entwickelt. Da unten entwickeln sich aber die Nachkommen derjenigen Gestalten, die auf dem alten Monde waren. Nun können Sie sich denken: Da schon auf dem alten Monde in einer gewissen Beziehung eine Verdichtung, eine Verhärtung dieser Wesenheiten eingetreten war, so mußten jetzt die Nachkommen dieser Wesenheiten des alten Mondes erst recht mit der Anlage zur Verdichtung, zur Verhärtung, zur Vertrocknung erscheinen. Es tritt in der Tat für den abgespaltenen Teil, der dazumal Erde plus Mond enthielt, eine traurige, öde Zeit ein. Oben auf der Sonne ein immer frischeres und regeres Entwickeln, ein immer volleres Leben - unten auf der Erde Traurigkeit, Öde, eine immer mehr und mehr hervortretende Verhärtung.

Nun trat etwas ein, was allein die Weiterentwickelung möglich gemacht hat: Das, was der heutige Mond ist, spaltete sich heraus aus dem gemeinsamen Weltenkörper Erde plus Mond, und das, was heute Erde ist, blieb zurück. Damit gingen die gröbsten Substanzen heraus, die die Erde in eine völlige Verhärtung hineingetrieben hätten, und die Erde wurde befreit von dem, was sie zur völligen Verödung gebracht hätte.

Im Beginn also unserer Erdenentwickelung war die Erde mit der heutigen Sonne und dem heutigen Monde vereinigt. Wäre die Erde bei der Sonne geblieben, so hätte der Mensch nie zu der heutigen Entwickelung kommen können; er hätte nicht Schritt halten können mit einer Entwickelung, wie sie die Wesen auf der Sonne brauchten. Da oben entwickelte sich nicht der Mensch, wie er auf der Erde lebt; da entwickelte sich ein geistiges Urbild des Menschen, wovon im Grunde genommen der heutige Mensch, wie er uns in der physischen Gestalt entgegentritt, nur ein Abbild ist. Wäre aber anderseits der Mond in der Erde geblieben, so wäre der Mensch allmählich vertrocknet, wäre mumifiziert worden und hätte keine Entwickelungsmöglichkeit auf der Erde gefunden. Die Erde wäre ein öder, trockener Weltenkörper geworden. Statt der Menschenkörper, wie sie heute auf der Erde sind, wäre etwas entstanden wie tote Denkmäler, die wie vertrocknete Menschen herausgewachsen wären aus dem Erdengrund. Das wurde verhindert, indem der Mond sich herausspaltete und mit den gröbsten Stoffen in den Weltenraum hinausging. Dadurch entstand auf der Erde die Möglichkeit, daß zu dem, was in den Nachkommen der Gestalten des alten Mondes als physischer, Äther- und astralischer Leib vorhanden war, in entsprechender Weise das Ich hinzukam, so daß der Mensch gerade dadurch die Befruchtung mit dem Ich erleben konnte, daß die Kräfte von Sonne und Mond von außen wirkten und sich da die Waage hielten.

Auf der Erde fand der Mensch seine Weiterentwickelung. Was vom alten Mond herübergekommen war, das stellte in einer gewissen Beziehung eine Entwickelung nach unten dar, in einen niederen Zustand hinein. Jetzt aber empfing er eine neue Anfeuerung, einen Antrieb nach oben. Während dieser ganzen Zeit entwickelten sich die entsprechenden geistigen Wesenheiten, die sich mit der Sonne abgespalten hatten, immer weiter und weiter.

Was war dadurch möglich geworden, daß sich der Mond von der Erde abgespalten hatte? Das können Sie sich leicht denken, wenn Sie einen Vergleich gebrauchen. Denken Sie sich einmal, wir hätten vor uns einen Block von hartem Eisen, und, sagen wit, wir seien Menschen von mittlerer Muskelstärke. Wir klopfen und klopfen und wollen das Eisen breit klopfen, wir können ihm aber keine Form beibringen. Erst wenn wir die Substanz durch Schmelzen weich machen, dann können wir sie formen. So etwas war mit der Erde eingetreten, nachdem die gröbsten Substanzen mit dem Monde herausgegangen waren. Jetzt konnten die Erdenwesen geformt werden. Jetzt griffen jene Wesenheiten aufs neue ein, die auf der Sonne ihren Schauplatz hatten, und die bereits während des alten Mondzustandes von der Sonne aus auf den alten Mond als die Gruppenseelen eingegriffen hatten. Vor der Mondabtrennung waren die Substanzen zu dicht. Jetzt machten sich diese Wesenheiten geltend, die ihren Schauplatz auf der Sonne hatten, machten sich als Kräfte geltend, die den Menschen nach und nach in seiner heutigen Gestalt ausgestalteten und bildeten.

Betrachten wir das ein bißchen genauer. Denken Sie, Sie hätten sich auf diesen alten Weltenkörper stellen können, der aus Erde plus Mond bestand. Da würden Sie gesehen haben draußen die Sonne. Wären Sie auch noch hellseherisch gewesen, so würden Sie die geistigen Wesenheiten gesehen haben, die wir vorhin geschildert haben. Auf der Erde würden Sie gesehen haben eine Art von Verhärtung, von Verödung, und Sie hätten sich sagen können: Ringsumher ist nichts als Verödung. Alles scheint tot zu sein auf der Erde. Die Kräfte der Sonne können nicht Einfluß gewinnen auf das, was sich vorbereitet, ein großes Leichenerdenfeld zu werden. - Und dann hätten Sie es erlebt, wie die Mondmasse sich heraussonderte aus der Erde. Weich und bildsam und plastisch wären die Substanzen der Erde geworden, und nun hätten Sie sich sagen können: Alles ist bildsam und plastisch geworden; die Kräfte, die von der Sonne heruntergehen, finden jetzt wieder die Möglichkeit, zu wirken. Da hätten Sie gesehen, wie jetzt die Stier-Geister wieder Einfluß gewinnen konnten auf die Menschenwesen, die Abbilder dieser Stier-Geister waren, und ebenso bei den Löwen-Geistern und bei den Adler-Geistern. Und Sie hätten sich gesagt: Draußen ist der Mond. Er hat seinen schädlichen Einfluß dadurch gedämpft, daß er herausgegangen ist und jetzt nur noch von der Ferne her wirkt. Dadurch hat er die Erde fähig gemacht, daß die geistigen Wesenheiten wieder auf sie wirken können.

Morgen werden wir sehen, was für ein Bild sich dem Hellseher darbietet, wenn er aus der Akasha-Chronik die weiter zurückliegenden Bilder der Entwickelung in der Vergangenheit verfolgt.

Wir blicken zurück zum alten Saturnzustand und sagen uns: da ist gebildet worden die erste Anlage zum physischen Leibe des Menschen. Was wir heute als physische Leibesgestaltung ansehen, das bildete sich auf dem Saturn zuerst wie aus dem Weltenchaos heraus. Dann kam der Sonnenzustand. Zu der ersten Gestalt des physischen Leibes kam hinzu der Ätherleib. Auf dem alten Monde kam hinzu das astralische Element, sowohl bei denjenigen Gestalten, die sich auf dem abgespaltenen Monde weiter entwickelten, als auch bei den Geistern auf der abgespaltenen Sonne. Auf dem Monde leben die auf Tierwert stehenden Abbilder, auf der Sonne leben die geistigen Urbilder. Auf der Erde endlich hat sich allmählich ein Zustand herausgebildet, durch den der Mensch fähig wurde, wieder das in sich aufzunehmen, was während der Mondentwickelung als astralisches Element auf der Sonne sich entwickelt hat und das nun in ihm als Kraft wirkte. Und jetzt verfolgen wir diese vier Zustände, wie sie uns geschildert werden im Johannes-Evangelium.

Diejenige hohe Kraft, welche aus dem Weltenchaos heraus während der Saturnentwickelung den geistigen Keim zur physischen Menschengestalt liefert, nennt der Schreiber des Johannes-Evangeliums den «Logos». Was auf der Sonne hinzukam und sich dem eingliederte, was auf dem Saturn entstanden war, nennt er das «Leben», — was wir in entsprechender Weise den Äther- oder Lebensleib nennen. Was auf dem Monde hinzukam, nennt er das «Licht», denn es ist das geistige Licht, das astralische Licht. Dieses astralische Licht bewirkt auf dem abgespaltenen Monde eine Verhärtung, auf der Sonne selber eine Vergeistigung. Was als ein Vergeistigtes entstanden war, das konnte sich weiterentwickeln und entwickelte sich auch weiter. Und als die Sonne sich auf der Erde neuerdings abspaltete, da schien das, was sich auf der dritten Stufe entwickelt hatte, in den Menschen hinein. Aber der Mensch war da noch nicht fähig, das zu schauen, was da von der Sonne hineinschien. Es gestaltete am Menschen, wirkte als Kraft, schauen aber konnte der Mensch es nicht.

Was wir uns so als das Wesentliche der Saturnentwickelung klargemacht haben, das sprechen wir jetzt aus mit den Worten des JohannesEvangeliums:

«Im Urbeginne war der Logos.»

Nun gehen wir zur Sonne. Sprechen wir den Tatbestand aus, wie das, was auf dem Saturn entstanden war, auf der Sonne sich weiterentwickelte, so sagen wir: Der Ätherleib kam hinzu:

«Und der Logos war das Leben.»

Auf dem Monde kam hinzu die astralische Wesenheit, sowohl bei der körperlichen wie auch bei der geistigen Art:

«In dem belebten Logos wurde das Licht.»

Das Licht entwickelt sich weiter, auf der einen Seite zum hellseherischen Licht, als sich die Sonne von der Erde abspaltete, auf der anderen Seite mit dem Menschen zur Finsternis. Denn als er das Licht aufnehmen sollte, da verstand er, der die Finsternis war, das Licht nicht.

So lesen wir, wenn wir das Johannes-Evangelium beleuchten aus der Akasha-Chronik heraus, in folgender Weise über die Weltentwickelung:

Im Urbeginne während der Saturnentwickelung war alles entstanden aus dem Logos. Während der Sonnenentwickelung war in dem Logos das Leben. Und aus dem belebten Logos entstand während der Mondentwickelung das Licht. Und aus dem leuchtend-belebten Logos entstand während der Erdentwickelung auf der Sonne das Licht in einer erhöhten Gestalt, die Menschen aber in einem Zustande der Finsternis. Und von der Sonne schienen die Wesenheiten, welche die fortgeschrittenen Stier-, Löwen-, Adler- und Menschen-Geister waren, als Licht herunter auf die Erde in die sich bildenden Gestalten der Menschen. Die waren aber die Finsternis und konnten das Licht, das da herunterschien, nicht begreifen. -— Nur dürfen wir uns darunter nicht das physische Licht vorstellen, sondern das Licht, das die Summe der Ausstrahlungen der geistigen Wesenheiten war, der Stier-, Löwen-, Adler- und Menschen-Geister, welche die Fortsetzung der geistigen Entwickelung des Mondes waren. - Was herunterströmte, war das geistige Licht. Die Menschen konnten es nicht aufnehmen, verstanden es nicht. Sie wurden in ihrer ganzen Entwickelung dadurch gefördert, aber ohne daß sie ein Bewußtsein dafür hatten:

«Das Licht schien in die Finsternis, aber die Finsternis konnte das Licht nicht begreifen.»

So stellt paradigmatisch der Schreiber des Johannes-Evangeliums diese großen Wahrheiten hin. Und diejenigen, welche solches wußten, die wurden von jeher genannt die «Diener» oder «Priester des Logos, wie er von Urbeginn war». Ein solcher Priester oder Diener des Logos, wie er von Urbeginn war, der spricht also. Im Lukas-Evangelium finden wir im Grunde genau dasselbe in der Einleitung. Versuchen Sie einmal, mit richtigem Verständnis zu lesen, was der Schreiber des LukasEvangeliums sagt. Er will Nachricht geben von den Dingen, die von Anfang an geschehen sind, « wie uns das gegeben haben, die es von Anfang selbst gesehen, und Diener des Wortes gewesen sind».

Und wir glauben daran, daß Diener des Wortes oder des Logos diese Urkunden geschrieben haben. Wir lernen daran glauben, wenn wir aus der eigenen geistigen Forschung sehen, wie die Dinge waren, wenn wir sehen, wie durch Saturn, Sonne und Mond unsere Erdentwickelung wird. Wenn wir dann in den umfassenden Worten des Johannes-Evangeliums und in den Worten des Lukas-Evangeliums sehen, daß wir das unabhängig von jeder Urkunde wiederfinden können, dann lernen wir diese Urkunden wieder schätzen und sagen uns: Sie sind uns ein Dokument dafür, daß sie hingeschrieben sind von solchen, die in der geistigen Welt lesen konnten, und sie sind uns ein Verständigungsmittel mit denen, die in der Vorzeit gelebt haben. Wir schauen ihnen in gewisser Beziehung ins Auge und sagen: Wir erkennen euch! - indem wir das, was sie erkannt haben, wiederfinden in der Geisteswissenschaft.

Third lecture

Those of you who have repeatedly heard lecture cycles or lectures in general from me in the field of spiritual science have already been presented with one or another aspect of the facts of the higher worlds from a wide variety of perspectives. And one or another being, one or another fact has appeared to us in one field or another and has then always been illuminated from this or that perspective. It can happen — and I would like to point this out today in particular so that no misunderstandings arise — that, when viewed superficially, there appear to be contradictions when this or that being, this or that fact, is illuminated from one side and then from another. But if you look closely, you will find that it is precisely through such different perspectives that the complicated facts of the spiritual worlds can become clear. I had to say this because I will have to shed light on certain facts, which are already known to the vast majority of today's listeners from a certain perspective, from a new perspective. When we take the deepest document of the New Testament, known as the Gospel according to John, and read the meaningful words with which we concluded our meditation yesterday, it soon becomes clear to us that the almost infinite mysteries of the becoming of the world and of the becoming of man are already contained in these first words of the Gospel of John. Perhaps in the course of our reflections we will have occasion to show why the great portrayers of spiritual events often express the great, comprehensive truths in a short, paradigmatic way, as is the case in the first verses of the Gospel of John. Today we want to return to certain well-known facts of spiritual science in a different way than we did yesterday and see how they reappear in the Gospel of John. We will start with the relatively simplest facts of spiritual science.

We know that the human being, as he stands before us in his everyday state of life, consists of four members: the physical body, the etheric or life body, the astral body, and the I. We know that human daily life changes in such a way that from the morning when we wake up to the evening when we fall asleep, these four members of our being are organically connected and intertwined. We know that when a human being sleeps at night, the physical body and the etheric body lie in the bed, and that the astral body and the ego carrier, or simply the ego, are lifted out of the physical body and the etheric body.

Now we must make one thing particularly clear to ourselves today. When we have a human being before us in their present state of development, we have this fourfold nature — physical body, etheric body, astral body, and I — as an interwoven necessity. When we then see this human being lying in bed at night, with only the physical body and the etheric body lying in the bed, this human being lying in bed has, in a sense, the value of a plant. For the plant, as it appears to us in the outer world, consists of the physical body and the etheric or life body; it has no astral body and no I within itself. This distinguishes it from animals and humans. Only animals have an astral body, and only humans have an I within themselves. We can therefore say that from evening to morning, the physical body and the etheric body of the human being lie in bed; there he is, as it were, a being like a plant, and yet not like a plant. We must be clear about this.

If a free being, an independent being, exists today that has no astral body and no ego, that consists only of a physical body and an etheric body, then it must look like a plant; then it must be a plant. But when a human being lies in bed, he has grown beyond the value of a plant, because in the course of his development he has added to his physical body and his etheric body the astral body, the bearer of pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, of instinct, desire, and passion, and he has added the ego bearer. But every time a higher member is added to a being, everything in the lower members of that being also changes. If we were to add an astral body to the plant as it appears to us today as a being in nature, if an astral body were not merely to surround the plant, but to penetrate it, then what we see in the substance of the plant would have to become animal flesh. For the penetrating astral body transforms the plant in such a way that the substance becomes animal flesh. And the plant would have to be transformed in a similar way if it had an I within itself in the physical world. Therefore, we can also say that when we have before us a being that, like the human being, has not only a physical body but also invisible, higher, supersensible members of its nature, the supersensible members are expressed in the lowest members. Just as your inner soul qualities are expressed superficially in your facial features, in your physiognomy, so your physical body is also an expression of the work of the astral body and the I. And the physical body does not represent itself alone, but also represents a physical expression of the physically invisible members of the human being.

Thus, the human glandular system and everything we include in it is an expression of the etheric body in the human being. Everything we consider to be part of the nervous system is an expression of the astral body, and everything we consider to be part of the blood system is an expression of its ego carrier. So in the physical body itself we again have to distinguish a fourfold nature, and only those who adhere to a grossly materialistic worldview can describe the different substances in the human physical body as equivalent. What pulsates through us as blood has become such a substance because an I dwells in the human being. The nervous system is so structured and made of such a substance because we encounter an astral body in the human being. And the glandular system has become what it is because there is an etheric body in the human being. If you consider this, you will easily see that, fundamentally, the human being is a contradictory being from the evening when he falls asleep until the morning when he wakes up. One might say that he should be a plant, but he is not a plant. For a plant does not have in its physical substance the expression of the astral body, the nervous system, nor the expression of the I, the blood system. Such a physical entity as the human being, with its glandular, nervous, and blood systems, can only exist if it contains an etheric body, an astral body, and an I.

Now, however, as a human being, you leave your physical body and your etheric body at night in relation to your astral body and your ego. You leave them, so to speak, contemptuously, turning them into a contradictory being. If nothing spiritual happened between the moment you fell asleep and the moment you woke up, and you simply withdrew your astral body and your ego from your physical body and etheric body, you would find your nervous and blood systems destroyed in the morning, because they cannot exist without an astral body and an ego within them. Therefore, the following happens, perceptible to clairvoyant consciousness.

To the same extent that the ego and astral body withdraw, the clairvoyant sees a divine ego and a divine astral body entering the human being. In fact, during the night, from the moment a person falls asleep until they wake up, an astral body and an ego, or at least a substitute for them, are present in the physical body and etheric body. When the human astral body withdraws, a higher astral body enters the human being to sustain them until they wake up, and likewise a substitute for the ego. From this you can see that in the realm of our life, in the sphere of our life, there are other beings at work than those that initially express themselves within the physical world. In the physical world, minerals, plants, animals, and human beings express themselves. These human beings are initially the highest of the beings within our physical sphere. They alone have a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an I.

From the fact that at night the astral body and the I withdraw from the physical body and the etheric body, you can conclude that the astral body and the I still have a certain independence today, that they separate themselves, so to speak, and can live for a certain period of everyday life separated from their physical and etheric carriers.

The following is therefore revealed to us at night. Just as the human physical body and the human etheric body are the carriers of the human ego and the human astral body during the day — that is, of the innermost members of the human being — so at night they become the carriers or temples of higher astral and ego beings. Now we see what lies in the bed differently, for there is also something astral present there, but it is a divine-spiritual astral, and there is also an I, but it is a divine-spiritual I. In a certain sense, we can say that while the human being sleeps in relation to his astral body and his ego, these entities, which now also belong to the realm of our life and which enter our physical body and etheric body when we leave the latter, remain awake within him and maintain the structure of his organization. Such a fact can teach us a great deal; and especially when we hold it together with certain observations of the clairvoyant, it can give us some insight into the development of the human being. Let us now connect this fact of the difference between waking and sleeping with the great spiritual facts of development.

Although the human astral body and the human I appear to be the highest, the innermost members of human nature, they are by no means the most perfect. Even a superficial observation shows that the physical body is more perfect than the astral body. Two years ago, I pointed out here how the physical body of the human being appears to us more and more admirable in terms of its entire structure the more we look into it. The marvelous construction of the human heart and brain not only satisfies the intellect's refined intellectual need for knowledge when it is examined anatomically, but also elevates the aesthetic and moral feelings of those who approach it with their soul, when they can say to themselves what sublime, wise institutions are contained in this physical body.

The astral body has not yet reached this stage. It is the carrier of pleasure and pain, drives, desires, and pleasures, and so on, and we must tell ourselves that, in relation to his desires, man reaches out to all kinds of things in the world that do not serve to promote the wise and artistic structures of the heart or the brain. Through his lust for pleasure, man seeks satisfaction in things that are, like coffee, heart poisons or the like. In this he proves that the astral body longs for pleasures that are harmful, for example, to the wise institutions in the human heart: for decades the heart withstands such heart poisons that man takes in out of the pleasure-seeking of his astral body. From this you can see that the physical body is more perfect than the astral body. Even if the astral body will one day be incomparably more perfect, today the physical body is at the highest stage of its development. This stems from the fact that the physical body is indeed the oldest of the members of human nature. It is proof that work was already being done on this physical body long before our Earth came into being.

What today's theory of the origin of the world, which has grown out of mere materialistic ideas, says is nothing more than materialistic fantasy; whether it is called Kant-Laplace theory or some newer 'theory' of this or that kind is irrelevant. These materialistic fantasies are useful for understanding the external structure of our world system, but they are useless if we want to understand what is higher than the external images of the eyes.

Spiritual research shows us that just as human beings pass from one embodiment to another, a world body such as our Earth also underwent other forms and other planetary states in ancient times. Before our Earth came into being, it was in a different planetary state. It was what spiritual research calls the “old moon.” This is not the moon we know today, but an ancestor of our Earth as a planetary entity. And just as human beings have developed from an earlier embodiment into their present one, so our Earth has developed from the old moon into the Earth. The old moon is, as it were, a previous embodiment of the Earth. In turn, a previous embodiment of the old moon is the sun, not the sun of today, but again an ancestor of our present Earth. And finally, an ancestor of this old sun is the old Saturn. Our Earth has passed through these earlier states: a Saturn state, a sun state, a moon state. And now it has arrived in its Earth state.

The first seed of our physical body was laid on the old Saturn. We could also say: Nothing of what surrounds human beings today, nothing of our present animal kingdom, plant kingdom, nothing of our present mineral kingdom was present on this ancient world body, which we call the old Saturn, not the present Saturn. But the first seed of the present physical human body was present on it. This physical human body existed in a completely different way than it does today. It existed at that time in its first embryonic state, and then it developed during the Saturn evolution. And when this was over, the old Saturn passed through a kind of world night, just as a human being passes through a devachan in order to come to the next incarnation. And then Saturn became the Sun.

And just as the plant arises from the seed, so the physical human body arose again on the old sun. Gradually, this physical human body was permeated by an etheric or life body, so that on the sun, the etheric or life body was added to the seed of the physical body. Man was not a plant, but he had the value of a plant. He consisted of a physical body and an etheric body, and his consciousness at that time was similar to the consciousness of sleep or to the consciousness that the entire plant cover of the physical world around us has today. The solar existence came to an end; once again there was a world night, or, if we may say so, a world devachan. After the sun had passed through this world devachan, it transformed into the old lunar state.

And once again, those parts of the human being that were already present on Saturn and the sun sprouted forth: the physical body and etheric body of the human being. And during the lunar evolution, the astral body was added. Now man had a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. You can see from this that the physical body, after it had come into being on Saturn, was already undergoing its third state on the Moon. The etheric body was added on the Sun, where it was raised to a second stage of perfection. The astral body, which had just been added, was on the Moon at its first stage.

Now something happens on the moon that could not happen during Saturn and the sun. While the Saturn and sun evolutions contained human beings as relatively uniform beings, the following occurred in a certain state of the ancient moon evolution. The entire world body split into two parts: into a sun and into a secondary planet of this sun, the moon. So while we speak of a planetary evolution in the case of Saturn, and likewise in the case of the Sun, we speak of an iron evolution in the case of the Moon, but only for the first period of this lunar evolution. This is because at first everything that is our Earth, Sun, and Moon was together in this one ancient world body in one state. Then two bodies arise. What emerges as the sun is not our sun, nor is it the old sun we mentioned earlier. It is a special state that separated from the old moon as a solar state, and next to it a planet emerges outside this sun, orbiting this sun, which we now call the “old moon.” What is the meaning of this division of our Earth's predecessor during the old lunar evolution?

The purpose of this division is that with the sun that separated, the higher beings and the finer substances left the whole mass and emerged as the sun. The coarser substances and the lower beings remained with the old moon. Thus, during the old lunar development, we now have two bodies instead of one world body: a sun body, which houses higher beings, and a moon body, which houses lower beings. If the whole had remained together and the division had not taken place, certain beings that developed on the separated moon would not have been able to keep up with the pace of the sun beings. They were not ready for it. They therefore had to separate the coarser substances and build a separate arena for themselves. But even the higher beings could not have remained united with these coarser substances; that would have hindered their faster progress. They too needed a special arena for their development, and that was the sun.

Let us now look at the beings that are found on the old sun after the separation, and those that inhabit the old moon after the separation. We know that during the Saturn state, the physical human body was formed, that the etheric body was added on the sun, and the astral body on the moon. Now these human beings, or if we may say so, these primitive humans on the moon, had indeed gone with the separated moon. It was they who could not participate in the rapid development of the sun beings, those beings who had separated from the sun and now lived within the finer substances and matter on the sun. Therefore, these human beings also became coarser during the lunar evolution. So during the lunar evolution, we find human beings in a state where they consist of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. They had reached the stage of development that animals have today. Animals also have a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. But you must not imagine that human beings on the old moon were really animals. The form of human beings on the old moon looked completely different from the animals on Earth today. It would seem very fantastic to you if I tried to describe it to you. So we find, as it were, ancestors of our present human beings on this old moon who had physical bodies, etheric bodies, and astral bodies, and who, after the whole thing separated from the sun, hardened these members and made them coarser than they would have been if they had remained with the sun.

Now, however, what had separated from the sun had also undergone this threefold development: Saturn, sun, and moon development. Only, all this went, so to speak, in the direction of the sun, while the ancestors of human beings went in the direction of the moon. In these beings that went with the sun, we can also distinguish a threefold nature that runs entirely parallel to the threefold nature of human beings. There were also beings on the sun that had, so to speak, developed into three members. Only instead of driving these three members toward coarsening after the separation, the three members had now come to refinement. Think of the process like this: after the separation, the human ancestors become coarser beings than they were before; they harden. The corresponding beings on the sun, on the other hand, become more refined.

What has become of human beings as a result of acquiring an astral body during the lunar evolution brings them down, in a certain sense, to the level of animality. The beings that do not go along with this, that draw the finer substances up to the sun, become more refined. Just as humans harden on the moon, so beings of a high spirituality arise on the sun. In spiritual science, this spirituality is described as the counter-images of what developed on the moon.

On the moon, humans developed, so to speak, to the level of animals, even though they were not animals. Now, where animal life appears, it has always been justified to distinguish between animals of different stages. The animal-humans on the moon appeared in three very different stages, which spiritual science refers to as the stages of the “bull,” the “lion,” and the “eagle.” These are, as it were, typical forms of animal nature. So there were three different groups on the old moon: bull-humans, lion-humans, and eagle-humans. Even though we cannot use these names to refer to today's animals, bulls, lions, and eagles, the degenerate nature of those primitive humans who must be called lion-people on the moon is expressed in a certain way in the cat species. And the character of the hoofed animals expresses the degraded nature of those humans who are called bull-people, and so on. This was the coarsened nature after a three-stage development. But on the sun, the spiritual counterparts of these existed. There were also three groups. While the development of the astral on the moon formed these three different animal-men, the corresponding spiritual men arose on the sun, namely as angelic beings, spiritual beings, which are also called—but now as spiritual counterparts—the lion, the eagle, and the bull. So when you look at the sun, you see spiritual beings of whom you say: They represent the beautiful, wisdom-formed archetypes! And on the old moon you have something like hardened images of what is up there on the sun. But there is something else that lies behind it as a mystery.

These images down on the moon are not unrelated to their spiritual counterparts on the sun. On the old moon we have a group of primordial humans, the Taurus humans, and above them on the sun a group of spirit beings called the Taurus spirits, and there is a spiritual connection between the archetype and the image. For the group soul is the archetype and acts as an archetype on the images. The forces emanate from the group soul and direct the image below: the lion spirit directs the beings who are its image as lion-men, the eagle spirit directs the eagle-men, and so on. If these spirits up above had remained united with the earth, they would have remained bound to their images, they would have had to dwell in their images, and they would not have been able to move or exercise the forces they needed to exercise for the salvation and development of their images. They had to say to themselves: We must now care for what must develop on the moon in a higher style! The spirit of Taurus said to itself: I must care for the Taurus people. On the moon below, I cannot find the conditions for my own advancement. To do so, I must dwell on the sun and send my powers down from the sun to the Taurus people. It was the same with the lion spirit and the eagle spirit. Such is the meaning of evolution. Certain beings needed a higher sphere than the beings who were, so to speak, their physical images. These physical images needed a lower, lesser stage. In order for the spiritual beings to be effective, they had to carve out the sun and send their forces down from outside. So we see how, on the one hand, a development descends, so to speak, and on the other hand, a development ascends.

Now the development of the old moon continues. By acting on their images from outside, the spiritual beings spiritualize the moon so that it can later reunite with the sun. The archetypes take up the images again, absorbing them, as it were. A world devachan, a world night, is formed again. This is also called a “Pralaya,” while those states such as Saturn, Sun, and Moon are called “Manvantaras.” After this world night, our earthly state emerges from the darkness of the world womb, called upon to bring human beings to the point where they can add the I or the I-bearer to the physical, etheric, and astral bodies.

But now everything that has already developed must be repeated once again. This is a cosmic law: if any higher state is to arise, what was there before must be repeated. First, the Earth had to go through the old Saturn state once again. Once again, the first beginnings of the physical body developed as if from the world germ. Then comes a repetition of the solar state and a repetition of the lunar state.

The sun, earth, and moon are still united in one body. Then a repetition of what had happened before occurs: the sun splits off again. Once more, those higher beings who need this higher stage of development go out with the sun. They take with them the finer substances so that they can establish their world arena within them. Thus, the sun separates from the earth, which at that time still had the moon in its body, and takes with it those beings who are ready to find their further progress on the sun. You can imagine that among these beings were above all those who had previously functioned as archetypes. All these beings, which had attained the right maturity during the old lunar period, moved forward and consequently could no longer dwell in the coarser substances and beings that the Earth plus the moon contained. They had to detach themselves and establish a new existence on the new sun, the present sun.

What were these beings? They were the descendants of those beings who had already developed on the sun during the old lunar state as bull spirits, lion spirits, and eagle spirits. And the highest, the most advanced among them, were those who had united the nature of the eagle, the lion, and the bull into a harmonious unity. The most advanced spiritual beings who now took up their dwelling place on the sun were the beings who can be described as “human archetypes,” as “spirit-humans” in the true sense of the word. So imagine that among those spiritual beings that were to be found on the sun during the ancient lunar period as bull spirits, eagle spirits, and lion spirits, there were some who had attained a higher stage of development. They are the actual spirit-men who now reside primarily on the sun. They are, so to speak, spiritual counterparts of what is developing down there on the separated Earth and Moon. Down there, however, the descendants of those beings who were on the old Moon are developing. Now you can imagine: since a certain condensation, a hardening of these beings had already taken place on the old moon, the descendants of these beings of the old moon had to appear with an even greater tendency toward condensation, hardening, and drying up. Indeed, a sad, desolate time began for the separated part that once contained the Earth and the moon. Above, on the Sun, there was an ever fresher and more active development, an ever fuller life; below, on the Earth, there was sadness, desolation, and an increasingly prominent hardening.

Now something happened that alone made further development possible: what is now the moon split off from the common world body of Earth and moon, and what is now Earth remained behind. With this, the coarsest substances that would have driven the Earth into complete hardening were removed, and the Earth was freed from what would have led to its complete desolation.

At the beginning of our Earth's development, the Earth was united with what are now the Sun and the Moon. If the Earth had remained with the Sun, human beings would never have been able to develop as they have today; they would not have been able to keep pace with the development required by the beings on the Sun. Human beings did not develop up there as they live on Earth; what developed there was a spiritual archetype of human beings, of which today's human beings, as they appear to us in their physical form, are only a reflection. If, on the other hand, the moon had remained in the Earth, human beings would have gradually dried up, become mummified, and found no possibility of development on Earth. The Earth would have become a barren, dry world. Instead of human bodies as they are today on Earth, something like dead monuments would have arisen, which would have grown out of the ground like dried-up human beings. This was prevented by the Moon splitting off and going out into space with the coarsest substances. This made it possible on Earth for the ego to be added in a corresponding way to what was present in the descendants of the figures of the old moon as physical, etheric, and astral bodies, so that human beings could experience fertilization with the ego precisely because the forces of the sun and moon were working from outside and were in balance there.

Human beings found their further development on Earth. What had come over from the old moon represented, in a certain sense, a downward development into a lower state. Now, however, it received a new impetus, a drive upward. During this entire period, the corresponding spiritual beings that had separated from the sun continued to develop further and further.

What had become possible as a result of the moon separating from the earth? You can easily imagine this if you use a comparison. Imagine that we have a block of hard iron in front of us, and let us say that we are people of average muscular strength. We knock and knock and want to knock the iron flat, but we cannot give it any shape. Only when we soften the substance by melting it can we shape it. Something similar happened to the earth after the coarsest substances had left with the moon. Now the earth beings could be formed. Now those beings who had their sphere of activity on the sun intervened again, beings who had already intervened from the sun on the old moon during the old lunar state as group souls. Before the separation of the moon, the substances were too dense. Now these beings, who had their scene of activity on the sun, made themselves felt as forces that gradually shaped and formed human beings into their present form.

Let us consider this a little more closely. Imagine that you could have stood on this old world body, which consisted of the Earth and the Moon. You would have seen the Sun outside. If you had also been clairvoyant, you would have seen the spiritual beings we described earlier. On the Earth, you would have seen a kind of hardening, a desolation, and you could have said to yourself: All around is nothing but desolation. Everything on Earth seems to be dead. The forces of the sun cannot influence what is preparing to become a great field of corpses. And then you would have experienced how the mass of the moon separated from the Earth. The substances of the Earth would have become soft, malleable, and plastic, and now you could have said to yourself: Everything has become malleable and plastic; the forces coming down from the sun now find the opportunity to work again. You would have seen how the Taurus spirits were now able to regain their influence over human beings, who were the images of these Taurus spirits, and likewise with the lion spirits and the eagle spirits. And you would have said to yourself: The moon is outside. It has dampened its harmful influence by moving away and now only works from a distance. In this way, it has enabled the spiritual beings to work on the earth again.

Tomorrow we will see what kind of picture presents itself to the clairvoyant when he traces the more distant images of past development in the Akashic Chronicle.

We look back to the old Saturn state and say to ourselves: there the first beginnings of the physical body of the human being were formed. What we regard today as the physical body was first formed on Saturn as if out of the chaos of the world. Then came the Sun state. The etheric body was added to the first form of the physical body. On the old Moon, the astral element was added, both to the forms that continued to develop on the separated Moon and to the spirits on the separated Sun. The images corresponding to the animal kingdom live on the Moon, and the spiritual archetypes live on the Sun. Finally, on Earth, a state gradually developed through which human beings became capable of taking back into themselves what had developed on the Sun as the astral element during the Moon's evolution and was now working in them as a force. And now let us follow these four states as they are described to us in the Gospel of John.

The writer of the Gospel of John calls the high power that emerged from the chaos of the universe during the Saturn evolution and provided the spiritual seed for the physical human form the “Logos.” He calls what was added on the sun and integrated into what had been created on Saturn “life” — what we correspondingly call the etheric or life body. What was added on the moon he calls “light,” for it is spiritual light, astral light. This astral light causes hardening on the separated moon and spiritualization on the sun itself. What had arisen as spiritualized matter was able to develop further, and did develop further. And when the sun split off again on the earth, what had developed on the third stage shone into human beings. But human beings were not yet able to see what was shining in from the sun. It shaped human beings, worked as a force, but human beings could not see it.

What we have clarified as the essence of Saturn's development, we now express in the words of the Gospel of John:

“In the beginning was the Logos.”

Now let us turn to the sun. If we express the fact that what had arisen on Saturn continued to develop on the sun, we say: The etheric body was added:

“And the Logos was life.”

On the moon, the astral entity was added, both in its physical and spiritual form:

“In the living Logos, light became.”

Light continued to develop, on the one hand into clairvoyant light when the sun separated from the earth, and on the other hand into darkness with the human being. For when it was time for him to receive the light, he who was darkness did not understand the light.

Thus, when we examine the Gospel of John from the perspective of the Akashic Records, we read the following about the development of the world:

In the beginning, during the Saturn evolution, everything arose from the Logos. During the Sun evolution, life was in the Logos. And from the living Logos, light arose during the Moon evolution. And from the luminous, living Logos, light arose during the Earth evolution on the Sun in an elevated form, but humans were in a state of darkness. And from the sun, the beings that were the advanced spirits of the bull, lion, eagle, and human beings shone down as light onto the earth into the forming shapes of human beings. But these were darkness and could not comprehend the light that shone down upon them. — But we must not imagine this as physical light, but as the light that was the sum of the radiations of the spiritual beings, the bull, lion, eagle, and human spirits, which were the continuation of the spiritual development of the moon. — What streamed down was spiritual light. People couldn't take it in or understand it. It helped them in their whole development, but they weren't aware of it:

“The light shone in the darkness, but the darkness couldn't understand the light.”

This is how the writer of the Gospel of John presents these great truths in a paradigmatic way. And those who knew this were always called the “servants” or “priests of the Logos as he was from the beginning.” Such a priest or servant of the Logos as he was from the beginning is the one who speaks. In the Gospel of Luke, we find basically the same thing in the introduction. Try to read with a proper understanding what the writer of the Gospel of Luke says. He wants to give news of the things that happened from the beginning, “as those who saw them from the beginning and were servants of the Word have given them to us.”

And we believe that servants of the Word or of the Logos wrote these documents. We learn to believe this when we see from our own spiritual research how things were, when we see how our earth's development came about through Saturn, the sun, and the moon. When we then see in the comprehensive words of the Gospel of John and in the words of the Gospel of Luke that we can find this again independently of any document, then we learn to appreciate these documents again and say to ourselves: They are a document for us that they were written by those who could read in the spiritual world, and they are a means of communication for us with those who lived in ancient times. In a certain sense, we look them in the eye and say: We recognize you! — because we find what they recognized in spiritual science.