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

27 Jun 1909, Kassel

4. The Hierarchical Beings of our Solar System and the Kingdoms of the Earth

As the starting point of yesterday's discussion we took the alternation in our daily life that consists of waking and sleeping, and we pointed out that during sleep man's astral body and ego, as we term them, are out in space, while his physical and etheric bodies remain in bed. And at the same time we had to emphasize the fact that the principles remaining in bed could not continue to exist were it not for the entrance of a divine-spiritual astrality and a divine-spiritual ego. In other words, this alternation in the conditions of everyday human life means that at falling asleep man—with his human ego and human astral body—abandons his physical and etheric bodies, but that in their stead there enter divine-spiritual astral beings and divine spiritual ego beings. In the waking state, on the other hand, he himself fills out his physical and etheric bodies with his own astral body and ego.

That was one of our two points of departure yesterday. The other was the result of what we have gleaned from a comprehensive survey of our entire human evolution through the former embodiments of our Earth—through Saturn, Sun, and Moon. We also discussed certain details of this survey, and we found that as regards the progress of our planet earth a severance set in with the Moon evolution: certain beings who required baser, inferior substances, so to speak, for their further development divided off with the old Moon, while higher beings of a more spiritual nature detached themselves as an older form of the sun evolution. Next, we saw the two parts reunited later on, together passing through a world devachan or pralaya, and thus achieving their development. Then this Earth evolution proceeded in such a way that a repetition of the separation of the sun occurred, leaving for a time earth-plus-moon as a coarser, denser body, and the sun as a special, more rarefied body, dwelling place of higher, loftier beings. We learned further that if the earth had remained united with the moon substance it would inevitably have become barren and hard, and all living things would have died—or, more accurately, mummified. The moon, together with all that it embraces today, had to be cast out of the Earth evolution at a given time. The result was a rejuvenating process in the evolving human being. We saw that the lofty beings, who found the conditions for their advancement on the sun, could not influence human substances and beings until the moon had been sloughed off, but that then they could act upon them again with rejuvenating effect. This means that human evolution proper could not have commenced until after the separation of moon and earth. The sundering of the moon is of enormous importance for the whole of evolution, and today we will study it more closely. First, however, we shall show how our two starting points in yesterday's lecture merge, so to speak.

We observe a man as he stands before us in his daytime state: a being consisting of physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. But when clairvoyant consciousness observes him during sleep at night—his physical and etheric bodies in bed—higher beings are seen to enter this physical and etheric body. And who are these beings? Precisely those whose field of action we described as being on the sun. That is by no means impossible: only one who imagines all spirit as physical, and who fain would apply everything physical to his conception of spiritual beings—only such a person could doubt that solar beings, dwelling on the sun, can enter a man's physical and etheric bodies at night. For beings so exalted as to inhabit the sun, no such spatial conditions exist as obtain for beings of the physical world. Such beings can very well inhabit the sun and yet send their forces down into human physical bodies at night.

We can put it this way, then: During the day the human being is awake—that is, he inhabits his physical and etheric bodies; at night he is asleep—that is, he is outside his physical and etheric bodies. During the night the Gods or other extra-terrestrial beings watch over man's physical and etheric bodies. That is expressed half figuratively, yet it is entirely pertinent. Thus we know whence come the beings who must enter our physical and etheric bodies at night, and this links up our two points. But we shall presently see that these beings are not only important for our life at night, but are gradually gaining in significance for our daytime life as well. First, however, we must consider a few other matters if we are clearly to understand the whole import of the moon's withdrawal from Earth evolution. Today we will occupy ourselves with the genesis of other beings that surround us.

Turning back once more to Saturn, we can say that it consisted exclusively of human beings. There was no animal, plant, or mineral kingdom. The whole sphere was composed of the earliest human germs in much the same form as a blackberry is made up of tiny individual berries; and everything that pertained to Saturn surrounded it and acted upon it from the environment. If we now ask, Whence came that which gave man this first impulse, on old Saturn, for his physical body, we can say in a certain sense that it derived from two sources. In the first instance, higher spiritual beings poured forth their own substance: a momentous sacrifice occurred on old Saturn, and the beings that achieved it are called Thrones in the sense of Christian esotericism. Human thinking or even human clairvoyance may scarcely presume to contemplate the august evolution the Thrones had to undergo before being able to sacrifice that which could form the germinal indication of the human physical body.

Let us try to understand in some degree what such a sacrifice means. If today you contemplate the human being—the being with which you are best acquainted—it will occur to you that he demands certain things of the world, and gives it certain things. Goethe summarized this very beautifully in the words, “Human life runs its course in the metamorphosis between receiving and giving.”1Das menschliche Leben verfliesst in der Metamorphose zwischen Nehmen and Geben. Man derives not only bodily nourishment but mental sustenance from the outer world; and in this way he grows and receives what he needs for his own development. But through this process he also develops the capacity for giving, in turn, what he has brought to maturity in the way of ideas and feeling, and ultimately, of love. By his taking something from the world and giving something else to his surroundings, his capacities keep constantly increasing: he becomes sensible and intelligent, able to develop concepts which he can sacrifice to the common life of humanity. He develops feelings and sensations that are transformed into love; and by offering these he stimulates his fellow creatures. We need only call to mind what a vitalizing effect love can have on our fellow beings—how one who is really able to pour forth love upon his fellow men can quicken and comfort and elevate them through his love alone.

Now man has attained to the virtue of sacrifice. But no matter how great a capacity for sacrifice we may acquire, it is slight when compared with that of the Thrones. Evolution, however, consists in constantly increasing this capacity for sacrifice, until finally a being is able to sacrifice his own substance and essence, as it were, experiencing as highest blessedness the giving of all he had developed as matter and substance. There are august beings that rise to higher planes of existence by sacrificing their own substance.—A materialistic soul will naturally object: When beings reach the point of sacrificing their own substance, how can they then rise to a higher plane? They would be sacrificing themselves, and nothing would be left of them! Thus speaks the materialistic soul, incapable of understanding that there is a spiritual existence, that such a being continues to exist though sacrificing what he had gradually received into himself. On Saturn the Thrones were on a plane where they were able to pour forth the substantiality they had acquired during their previous development; and thereby they themselves rose to a higher stage of evolution. And that which flowed from the Thrones—analogous, in a way, to what the spider secretes for weaving its web—was primarily the basis for the formation of the human physical body.

Then the Thrones were joined by another kind of beings, ranking lower than Thrones, whom we call the Spirits of Personality, or the Principalities—Archai in Christian esotericism. These Spirits of Personality worked over, as it were, what had flowed from the Thrones; and through the collaboration of these two kinds of beings the first inception of the human physical body came into being. This work continued over a long period of time. Then, as mentioned yesterday, a cosmic night, or world devachan, intervened, and there came about the second embodiment of the earth, the Sun phase. Human beings emerged again, and other spiritual beings appeared on the scene: the Spirits of Fire, or Archangels, as they are known in Christian esotericism, and the Spirits of Wisdom, or Kyriotetes. These were mainly concerned with the further development of what reappeared as the human physical body. Now it was the turn of the Kyriotetes—the Dominions, or Spirits of Wisdom—to sacrifice their substantiality; and what we call the etheric body flowed into the physical body. This etheric body was then worked upon by the Spirits of Fire, or Archangels, in collaboration with the Spirits of Personality; and thereby man became a being of the rank of a plant. We may say that on Saturn the human being had the status of a mineral, for our minerals have only a physical body, and so had the man of Saturn; hence he lived a mineral existence. On the Sun he had the status of a plant, for he had a physical and an etheric body.

Now we come to a concept which we must make our own as an especially important one if we are to understand evolution in its entirety. Here I always like to draw attention to the existence in the cosmos of something that corresponds to a certain daily commonplace—a source of anxiety and annoyance to parents—namely, that some children flunk, do not arrive at the goal of their class, and must repeat the work. Certain beings do not reach the goal of a given cosmic grade; and in this sense certain Spirits of Personality, who should have reached their goal on Saturn, lagged behind: they had not done all that was necessary for raising man to the grade of a mineral, which would have brought him to perfection in that,particular evolutionary stage. Such beings must then make up during the next grade what they had previously neglected.

Now, in what way could these retarded Spirits of Personality work during the Sun existence? They could not create a being such as man was due to become on the Sun, a being with physical body and etheric body: that called for the Spirits of Fire. Nor could they create on the Sun anything beyond what they had done on Saturn, namely, a potential physical body of mineral grade. So during the Sun period their influence brought about the genesis of beings one grade lower. These beings now constituted a lower kingdom, inferior to the human kingdom; and they are the ancestors of our present animals. While our present human kingdom had already attained to the plant status on the Sun, our present animal kingdom was at that time on a level with mineral beings, having the physical body only. In this way the animal kingdom, in its first indications, was added to the human kingdom.

So if we ask, what being among all those that surround us has passed through the longest development, the answer is, man. And the other beings arose because the forces of development associated with human existence withheld what in a different stage might have become man, allowing it to become a lower being at a later stage. Had the retarded Spirits of Personality performed their task on Saturn instead of on the Sun, the animal kingdom would not have come into being.

In like manner—I need only sketch this—the Moon evolution showed the following: Man progressed upward by reason of having received an astral body from certain beings we call Angels and from other higher spirits, the Spirits of Motion, or Dynamis in Christian terminology. This gave man the rank of an animal during the Moon existence, while most of those beings who, during the Sun existence, had appeared as a second kingdom now arrived at the status of plants on the Moon. These were the precursors of our animals. And to these were added—again through retarded spiritual beings, as explained—those beings that belong to our present plant kingdom. On the Sun there was as yet no plant kingdom, but only a human and an animal kingdom: the plant kingdom was added on the Moon. A mineral kingdom, such as today constitutes the solid foundation upon which all else stands, had not yet come into existence on the Moon.—In this way the kingdoms evolved one after another, with the human kingdom, highest of these, as the first one. Something in the nature of an outcast, something of the human kingdom that remained behind, is the animal kingdom; and what lagged one step farther still became the plant kingdom.

When the old Moon evolution was accomplished, that of the Earth commenced; and in connection with the latter we described the splitting off of the sun and moon. During this period all the germs of the former kingdoms reappeared: the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, and finally—when the moon, as to its substance, was still united with the earth—the mineral kingdom. The appearance of the mineral kingdom as the solid foundation was what caused the hardening and desiccation that rendered the earth so barren; for the mineral kingdom that surrounds us today is nothing but what was sloughed off by the higher kingdoms. I have drawn attention in the past to the fact that you need only consider thoughtfully what modern science recognizes, and you will be able to imagine how the mineral kingdom was gradually ejected. Consider that coal, a mineral product proper, is taken out of the earth. What was this coal long, long ago? Trees that grew on the earth, plants that perished and petrified and became minerals. What you now dig out as coal was once a quantity of plants, hence it is a product that was first discarded: originally there were plant beings where now there is coal.

You can now readily imagine that everything else forming the solid foundation of our earth is also matter that was cast off by the higher kingdoms. Think, for example of certain mineral products that even today remain the secretions of animal beings, such as the shells of snails and mussels. Formerly nothing of a mineral nature existed: only in the course of time has it come about through elimination. Not until the earth evolution was in progress did the mineral kingdom join the others; and the reason for its formation was that beings like those on Saturn were still present and active on the earth. It was only through the activity of the Spirits of Personality that the mineral kingdom came into being; in fact, those beings are active in all the higher stages. Yet if evolution had proceeded in this manner there would have been so many mineral influences, so much hardening and densification, that gradually the whole earth would have become a desert waste.

This brings us to an important moment in the evolution of our earth. We visualize the sun as having split off, and we think of those beings who are now spiritual beings on the sun as having withdrawn as well, along with the finest substances. We behold the earth with its increasing desolation, becoming ever denser as mineral; and we see as well the growing desiccation of the forms it harbors—even the human forms. Already at that time a certain change came over the conditions under which human beings lived; and an illustration from the growth of the plant will clarify what then confronted men as well.

From the insignificant seed the plant sprouts forth in the spring, unfolds into blossom and fruit, and withers again during autumn. All that gladdens the eye in spring and summer disappears in the fall, and outwardly, physically, only an unpretentious remnant remains. But if you imagined that during winter nothing of the real being of the plant persisted, or if you looked for it only in the physical seed, you would not comprehend the plant. True, as constituted today the plant consists of physical body and etheric body, but observed clairvoyantly its upper part is seen to be surrounded by an astral being, as by a border; and this astral being is animated by a force that streams to earth from the sun, from the spiritual element of the sun. For clairvoyant consciousness every blossom is surrounded as though by a cloud, and this cloud breathes the life that is exchanged between sun and earth. While the plants are sprouting and burgeoning during spring and summer, something of the sun being approaches and hovers over the surface of the plant; and with the coming of autumn the astral being withdraws and unites with the life of the sun. It can be put this way: In spring the plant astrality seeks its physical plant body on the earth and embodies itself—not in it, but at least around it; and in the fall it returns to the sun, leaving behind the seed as a sort of pledge that it will find its way back to its physical expression.

Similarly, a sort of exchange took place between the physical human beings and the sun beings, although the human forms were still primitive and simple. And there was a time when the sun spirits surrounded human bodies with astrality, just as today the plant astrality hovers over plants from spring to fall. We can therefore say that during certain epochs the astral principle of man united, to a certain extent, with his physical body on earth, that it then withdrew to the sun, and again returned; and only the seed was left behind in the physical principle. But the earth kept on hardening; and then something of great importance occurred, something I shall ask you to keep well in mind. While formerly, when the sun had first withdrawn from the earth, it was still possible for the astral beings to reunite with the physical body when they returned after the separation, the earth, which the descending beings sought to occupy, had now become so hard under the ever increasing influence of the moon that they could no longer use it.

That is a more accurate description of what I characterized yesterday somewhat abstractly. I had said: The sun forces had lost the power of forming the substances on earth; but expressing it more concretely one can say: The substances dried up, and the beings no longer found suitable bodies. This resulted in the desolation of the earth, and human souls wanting to descend again realized that the bodies were no longer suitable. They had to abandon them to their fate, and only the strongest bodies could prevail through this period of desolation. The latter reached its climax at the time when the moon was about to withdraw from the earth. The souls who during that time yearned to be human souls were unable to make use of such bodies, with the result that only a handful of people still inhabited the earth. This desolation appeared to forecast a gradual extinction of life on the earth, and the situation is described quite accurately by saying that when the moon withdrew, only very few human beings had survived these conditions: there were very few cases in which a union had come about between souls craving embodiment and the physical forms with which they wished to unite.

Now I must describe these conditions more in detail. Let us go back once more to the point in time at which the Moon evolution had run its course and the Earth re-emerged from the womb of the cosmos. It did not come into being as did the old Saturn, for what here appeared comprised within it the after-effects of all that had occurred previously; nor was it physical matter only that was connected with it, but also all the beings who had been active before. The fact that the Thrones united with Saturn means that they remained connected with the entire evolution; and they came forward again when the Earth emerged once more from the obscurity of the cosmic womb. In like manner there appeared again the Spirits of Personality, the Spirits of Motion, and so on, as well as the germs of human beings, animals, and plants, for all this was contained in the earth.

Our physical science sets up hypotheses that are pure fancy. In connection with cosmogony, for example, a theory is proffered to the effect that once there was a great cosmic fog reaching out past Saturn. Now, a cosmic nebula of that kind, consisting of mere mists and vapors, is a fantastic conception: there never was any such thing. If one had been able to see only with external, physical eyes, something of the sort could indeed have been perceived: a vast fog mass would have been visible. But this fog mass contained something that physical eyes could not have seen, namely, all the beings associated with this evolution. The fact that later all this became organized and formed was not brought about by a mere rotary motion, but rather, because of the needs of those beings that were linked with it all. You will arrive at a sensible view of these matters only after you have completely emancipated yourselves from all that represents the official view of today, from what is inoculated in our children from the beginning of their school days. The children are told that in olden times only childish views and conceptions prevailed: those misguided ancient Indians believed in a Brahma who filled out all cosmic space! And queer people such as the old Persians believed in Ormuzd, the good God, and Ahriman, who opposed him! Worse yet: the old Greeks, who had a lot of divinities—Zeus, Pallas Athene, and so forth! We know today, of course—so the children are told—that all those beings originated in popular imagination and childish conceptions. Think of the old Germanic Gods—Wotan, Thor—we've long since known them for mythological figures; nowadays we know that such Gods had nothing to do with the development of the world. No: In the beginning there was a primeval fog in space, and it began to rotate. It cast a sphere out of its mass and kept on rotating. In time a second sphere split off, then a third, and so on.

As a matter of fact, these conceptions are but the form of a modern, physico-Copernican mythology which in time will be supplanted by some other mythology; but the earlier mythologies have one point of superiority over the present form: they come nearer the truth than do the later ones which have extracted merely what is abstract and pertains wholly to outward matter. We should ever keep in mind how easy it is to present, for the children's benefit, this most plausible way for a cosmic system to come into being. You take a drop of oil, cut a little card into the shape of a disk, insert this horizontally into the drop, stick a pin through the disk from above, and place it in water, where it floats. Now you begin to turn the whole thing, explaining, “just the way the cosmic fog once revolved”. First the oil drop flattens out, then a smaller drop is thrown off, then a second and a third, while a big drop remains in the middle—and lo, a little cosmic system has come into being! Then it is quite easy to explain plausibly that what here appeared on a small scale is analogous to what took place on a large scale. But people who perform this experiment forget one thing—something which in other circumstances may be a very good thing to forget: themselves. They forget that they are doing the turning. The whole analogy could have validity only if some worthy professor deigned to add something like the following: Just as I stand here and turn the pin, so there is a gigantic professor somewhere out there, seeing to it that the whole comes into rotation and that the planets split off, as did the drops of oil on a small scale.—In that case it might pass.

We know that there is no giant professor out there twirling the pin, but that beings of all ranks are there, and that it is these spiritual beings who attract appropriate matter to themselves. The beings that needed certain conditions for their life drew to themselves the requisite matter when they proceeded to the sun, appropriated it, and fashioned a sphere of action by means of their spiritual forces; and other beings took for themselves of the earth substance. That which acts right into the tiniest particle of matter—into the atom, if we chose to call it that—is spirit. It is erroneous to ascribe any sort of activity to mere matter. Men will learn what takes place in the smallest confines only when they understand that spirit acts throughout the greatest spaces. And by this is not meant spirit in general, of which people say, “in general, matter simply contains spirit”—a universal or primordial spirit. That sort of thing opens the way for concocting almost anything. No, we must learn to know the spirits in their concrete reality, in detail, and in their various vital requirements.

Now I will supplement a point we touched upon yesterday: the separation of the sun from the earth-plus-moon, and the subsequent division of the moon and the earth. In its main outline that is a correct picture, but it must be completed. Before the sun could withdraw, it became necessary for certain beings to segregate special fields of action for themselves, and these spheres figure today as the outer planets, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. It can therefore be said that universal matter, which contained sun and moon, comprised Saturn, Jupiter, and so forth, as well; and certain beings withdrew from the beginning with these heavenly bodies, beings requiring for their life precisely what these planets could offer. Then the sun split off, together with the highest beings, and what remained was earth-plus-moon. This evolution proceeded until the moon was cast out in the manner described.—But of the beings who had gone with the sun, not all were able to keep pace with the sun development. Speaking figuratively—it is difficult to find words in our prosaic language, hence it is occasionally necessary to use images—we can say that when the sun withdrew, certain beings believed they would be able to travel with the sun; but in reality only the most exalted beings could accomplish this, and the rest had to withdraw later. And the fact that the latter created special spheres for themselves accounts for the genesis of Venus and Mercury. So the separation of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars occurred before the division of sun and earth, while later Venus and Mercury split off from the sun, and finally the moon from the earth.

There we have a spiritual picture of this evolution. We have comprehended the development of our solar system to the extent of visualizing the various beings dwelling on the different heavenly bodies. With this in mind we can now answer the question, What happened to those spirit-astral beings who wished to descend as human beings, but found hardened bodies they could not enter? Not all of these beings could unite with the sun spirits for lack of sufficient maturity, and so the following occurred: Those beings who had to abandon the bodies on earth withdrew temporarily to Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. While down below, the earth was becoming desolate, producing only bodies incapable of harboring human soul beings, we find the souls betaking themselves to these planetary worlds, there to await the time when they should again be able to find appropriate human bodies. Only very few, only the most tenacious human bodies, were capable of receiving souls in order to preserve life during the moon crisis. The other souls ascended to other cosmic bodies.

Then the moon was cast out of the earth, and in consequence the sun forces were enabled once again to work upon human forms. The human form received a new impetus and once more became soft, pliable, plastic; and the souls who had waited on Saturn, Jupiter, and so forth, could now occupy these pliant human bodies. While formerly they had been compelled to quit the earth, they now gradually returned—after the expulsion of the moon—and populated the rejuvenated human bodies. So the casting out of the moon was followed by a period in which more and more new bodies kept emerging. During the moon crisis the number of human beings extant was very small. These never lacked descendants; but when the souls came down they could make no use of the bodies, and they left them to perish. The human race was headed for extinction; but after the rejuvenation had set in the descendants of those human beings who had survived the moon crisis were again able to receive the souls from Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. The earth was gradually peopled with souls.—Now you will understand what a significant, deeply incisive event this exit of the moon was: really everything was changed by it.

Let us return once more to the development preceding the moon's withdrawal. We found that man must be designated the first-born of our creation, for he came into being on Saturn. On the Sun was added the animal kingdom, on the Moon, the plant kingdom, and on the Earth, the mineral kingdom. But now, beginning with the splitting off of the moon, matters assume a different aspect. Had the moon not withdrawn, everything on the earth would have perished: first the human beings, then the animals, and finally the plants; and the earth would have become mummified. But it was rescued from this fate by the withdrawal of the moon: everything revived and experienced a recovery.

How did this regeneration come about? The lowest kingdom, the mineral, required the least aid; the plant kingdom, though in a way withered, could also revive rapidly; and the animal kingdom as well was able gradually to resume its upward development in certain respects. The human forms took longest to come into their own, to be able to receive the souls flowing toward them out of the highest regions of the world. The world development is thus reversed after the moon's withdrawal: while originally the human kingdom was the first to come into being, followed by the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms in this order, it is now the mineral kingdom that is first capable of exploiting the revivifying forces. This is followed by the plant kingdom, then by the animal and the human kingdoms, each in turn developing upward to its highest forms. After the moon's withdrawal the entire plan of evolution appears in reverse; and the beings that had been able to wait longest, so to speak, to unite their spirit with matter, these are the ones who, after the moon's departure, ascended to a more spiritual sphere in the highest sense of the word. Those whose spiritual development stopped earlier remained behind in a less perfect stage.

After the exit of the moon those who had remained behind reappeared first, and you will readily understand the reason for this. Consider a human soul, or any soul-endowed being, that had previously been unwilling to incarnate because of the condition of solidification. Such a soul might have reflected—again expressed in our human language—Shall I incarnate now or shall I wait still longer?—Let us assume that the moon had not been gone very long, and that consequently all substance was still very hard; but the being desiring to incarnate is impatient, descends whether or no, and makes the best of an inadequately developed body. This means that it must remain at a lower level. Another being reflects, I would better wait longer, remaining in cosmic space until such time as the earth shall have further lightened and rarefied its physical being.—Such a being, by awaiting a later point in time, succeeds in physically molding the being in which it embodies, making it into its own image.

All the beings that incarnated too soon came to a standstill on a lower plane, while those who were willing to wait advanced to a higher one. Our higher animals stopped at the animal level because they did not wait long enough after the secession of the moon: they put up with whatever bodies they could find. Those descending somewhat later could form the bodies only into those of the lower human races, which were dying out or about to do so. Then came a point in time that was just right for the union of souls and bodies, and this period produced what was capable of genuine human development.

What we have, then, is desolation on earth up to the moon's withdrawal, after this a regeneration of earthly conditions, and from then on the reappearance of those beings who had left the earth because it had too far deteriorated for their purposes. And this refers not only to those who develop the higher human beings but also to others who descended for quite different reasons. Here again it is a matter of awaiting the right moment to enable such a being to enter a body on the earth. Going back to the time of ancient India, we find human beings in a very high stage of development. Just as the souls descending from Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter sought their bodies, so more exalted beings sought bodies of a higher type in order to carry on their activity in man's inner nature. Consider the great and holy teachers of the ancient Indians, the Rishis: a portion of their being they placed at the disposal of certain higher beings who took up their dwelling there. But other higher beings said, No, we shall wait until other beings appear down there, beings who themselves are undergoing a higher development. We have no desire to descend yet: we will remain above until men have reached a greater inner maturity; then we will descend, for at present we would find the inner nature of man ill prepared to receive us.

Then, during the Persian cultural epoch, certain higher beings said to themselves, Now we can descend into man's inner nature as it has thus far developed. And again in Egyptian times this occurred in the same way. But the loftiest one among the sun beings still waited. He sent His forces down to the holy Rishis from without; and when these gazed up to the Being they called Vishva Karman they said, He is beyond our sphere. He waited, for He knew that the inner nature of man was not sufficiently prepared to receive Him. Then came the Persian epoch in which Zarathustra gazed up to the sun and saw there Ahura Mazdao; but still this exalted Being did not descend to the earthly sphere.

There followed the Egyptian epoch and the civilization of that people which had waited longest. And there appeared the man who had waited longest and had already developed his inner nature through many incarnations. Then the Sun Being gazed down and beheld the inner nature of this man who lived in Jesus of Nazareth and who had perfected his inner nature. The loftiest of the sun beings gazed down and said, As the lower beings once descended to build up bodies, so I now descend to occupy the inner nature of this man who has waited longest.—Beings of a high order, to be sure, had united with men in the past; but the one who had waited longest—he it was who received into himself the Christ: he was so far advanced at the Baptism in the Jordan that the Spirit Who hitherto had remained in cosmic spheres could now descend and unite with his inner nature. Ever since the Baptism the Christ had dwelt in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, because the individuality that permeated Jesus of Nazareth had attained, through many incarnations, to the degree of maturity which enabled it to receive this lofty Spirit in its own spirit-permeated body.

This Christ Spirit had always existed; but after the withdrawal of the moon it was necessary that all beings attain to a certain degree of maturity. First there gradually emerged the lowest beings, those who in respect of their spiritual principle had been least able to wait; then progressively the higher ones. And when man had achieved an ever higher development of his inner nature, and the time had come when Jesus of Nazareth had attained to the stage that enabled Him to receive the Christ, then he who enjoyed the gift of higher vision could say:

I saw the Spirit descending upon him.

And what could He say, He upon Whom the Spirit had descended, if He voiced what now lived within Him? It was the same Being the Rishis knew as Vishva Karman. What would Vishva Karman have had to say of Himself—not if the Rishis had spoken, but if He Himself had spoken? This lofty Sun Spirit, active in light as spirit, would have had to say, I am the light of the world. What would Ahura Mazdao have had to say of Himself? I am the light of the world. And what did the same Spirit say when a human being had become ripe to receive Him into Himself? How does that which heretofore had dwelt in cosmic space, on the sun, now speak out of a human being? What does it now say from within a human being? I am the light of the world.

The utterance of heavenly choirs—innermost self-revelation of the leading cosmic Spirit—we hear intoned again out of the inner being of a man when the Being Itself had come to dwell in a human principle. Inevitably there sound forth from Jesus of Nazareth, when the Christ is within him, the words:

I am the Light of the World.

Vierter Vortrag

Die gestrige Betrachtung hat ihren Ausgangspunkt davon genommen, daß im alltäglichen Menschenleben ein solcher Wechsel der Zustände im Menschen eintritt, daß der Mensch während der Nacht, vom Abend, wo er einschläft, bis morgens, wo er aufwacht, seinen physischen Leib und seinen Äther- oder Lebensleib im Bette liegen hat, und daß draußen ist außer dem Bette, was wir astralischen Leib und Ich nennen. Zu gleicher Zeit mußten wir aber betonen, daß das, was im Bette liegen bleibt physischer Leib und Ätherleib -, nicht weiterbestehen könnte, wenn nicht ein göttlich-geistiges Astralisches und ein göttlich-geistiges Ich hineindringen würde. Mit anderen Worten: Der Wechsel in diesen Zuständen des menschlichen Lebens im Alltag besteht darin, daß der Mensch des Abends, wenn er einschläft, mit seinem menschlichen Ich und seinem menschlichen Astralleib seinen physischen Leib und Ätherleib verläßt, daß dafür aber einziehen in diesen physischen Leib und Atherleib göttlich-geistige astralische Wesenheiten und göttlich-geistige Ich-Wesenheiten. Im Tageszustande ist es dann so, daß der Mensch selber mit seinem astralischen Leib und seinem Ich seinen physischen Leib und Ätherleib ausfüllt. Das war das eine, was wir gestern an die Spitze unserer Betrachtung stellten.

Das andere aber war das, was wir gewonnen haben dutch eine umfassende Betrachtung unserer ganzen menschlichen Entwickelung durch die früheren Verkörperungen unserer Erde — Saturn, Sonne, Mond hindurch. Wir haben auch Einzelheiten aus dieser umfassenden Betrachtung besprochen. Es hat sich uns ergeben, daß in bezug auf den Fortschritt unseres Erdenplaneten eine Spaltung seit der Mondenentwickelung eingetreten ist, daß gewisse Wesenheiten, die sozusagen niedere, mindere Substanzen brauchten zur Weiterentwickelung, sich abspalteten mit dem alten Mond, und daß sich höhere Wesenheiten geistigerer Art als eine ältere Form der Sonnenentwickelung abgespaltet haben.

Wir haben dann gesehen, wie sich beide Teile später wieder verbunden haben, wie sie gemeinsam durch ein Welten-Devachan oder Pralaya durchgegangen und dann zur Erdentwickelung gekommen sind. Diese Erdentwickelung ist wiederum so verlaufen, daß eine Wiederholung der Sonnenabspaltung eintrat, so daß wir eine Zeitlang Erde plusMond als einen gröberen, dichteren Körper, und die Sonne mit höheren, erhabeneren Wesenheiten als einen besonderen, feineren Körper haben. Wir haben gesehen, daß die Erde, wenn sie mit der Mondensubstanz verbunden geblieben wäre, hätte veröden, verhärten müssen, daß alles Leben auf ihr erstorben oder, besser gesagt, mumifiziert wäre. Es mußte zu einer bestimmten Zeit der Mond mit dem, was er heute in sich schließt, herausgeworfen werden aus der Erdentwickelung. Dadurch trat gleichsam mit dem, was sich als menschliche Wesenheit entwickeln sollte, ein Verjüngungsprozeß ein. Wir haben gesehen, wie die erhabenen Wesenheiten, die auf der Sonne ihren Fortschritt genommen hatten, nicht einwirken konnten auf die menschlichen Substanzen und Wesenheiten, bevor der Mond sich abgespalten hatte, daß sie dann aber verjüngend wieder auf sie wirken konnten, so daß die eigentliche Menschheitsentwickelung erst möglich war von dem Zeitpunkt an, wo sich der Mond von der Erde abgetrennt hatte. Diese Mondabspaltung bedeutet etwas ungeheuer Wichtiges für die ganze Entwickelung, und wir wollen sie heute noch genauer ins Auge fassen. Vorerst aber wollen wir nur darauf aufmerksam machen, wie sich die beiden Ausgangspunkte unserer gestrigen Betrachtung sozusagen zusammenschließen.

Wir sehen uns den Menschen an, wie er während des Tageslebens vor uns steht. Da ist er eine Wesenheit, bestehend aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib, astralischem Leib und Ich. Jetzt sehen wir uns den Menschen an während seines Nachtschlafens, wo er, seinem physischen und Ätherleibe nach, im Bette liegt. Da sieht das hellseherische Bewußtsein, wie höhere Wesenheiten hineinziehen in den physischen Leib und Ätherleib. Wer sind diese Wesenheiten? Es sind eben die Wesenheiten, von denen wir haben sagen können, daß sie ihren Schauplatz im allgemeinen auf der Sonne haben. Das ist keine Unmöglichkeit. Nur wer sich alles Geistige physisch vorstellt und alles Physische anwenden möchte auf die Vorstellungen geistiger Wesenheiten, der allein könnte sagen: Wie können Sonnenwesen, die auf der Sonne wohnen, in der Nacht in einen physischen und ätherischen Menschenleib einziehen? — Für Wesenheiten, die auf einer so erhabenen Höhe stehen, daß sie die Sonne bewohnen, gibt es nicht dieselben räumlichen Bedingungen wie für solche, die in der physischen Welt sind. Solche Wesenheiten können ganz gut die Sonne bewohnen und dennoch ihre Kräfte während der Nacht in den physischen Leib des Menschen hineinsenden. Wir können also sagen: Bei Tage wacht der Mensch, das heißt, er bewohnt seinen physischen Leib und Ätherleib. In der Nacht schläft er, das heißt, er ist außerhalb seines physischen Leibes und seines Ätherleibes. Die Götter oder andere außerirdische Wesenheiten wachen in bezug auf des Menschen physischen Leib und Ätherleib während der Nacht. Wenn das auch eine halb bildliche Redensart ist, so ist sie doch durchaus zutreffend. Wir wissen also, woher die Wesenheiten kommen, die einziehen müssen in unseren physischen Leib und Ätherleib während der Nacht. Und so schließen sich für uns diese beiden Punkte zusammen. Aber wir werden gleich sehen, daß diese Wesenheiten nicht nur in bezug auf das Nachtleben ihre Bedeutung haben, sondern daß sie nach und nach auch Bedeutung gewinnen in bezug auf das Tagesleben. Vorerst aber müssen wir, um uns die ganze Bedeutung des Mondaustrittes aus der Erdentwickelung klarzumachen, noch einiges andere betrachten. Wir wollen heute auch die anderen Wesenheiten, die um uns herum sind, in bezug auf ihre Entstehungsweise betrachten.

Wenn wir auf den Saturn noch einmal zurückblicken, können wir sagen: Dieser Saturn besteht nur aus Menschen. Es ist noch kein Tierreich, kein Pflanzenreich und kein Mineralreich auf ihm vorhanden. Die ganze Saturnkugel ist nur aus den ersten Menschenanlagen zusammengesetzt. Wie eine Brombeere aus den einzelnen Beerchen, so war der Saturn aus Menschen zusammengesetzt. Und was zu dem Saturn gehörte, das umgab ihn und wirkte von dem Umkreis her auf den Saturn. Wir fragen uns jetzt einmal: Woher ist denn das gekommen, was dem Menschen auf dem alten Saturn die erste Anlage zu seinem physischen Leibe gegeben hat? In gewisser Beziehung können wir sagen, daß es von zwei Seiten her gekommen ist. Höhere geistige Wesenheiten haben ihre eigene Substanz zunächst ausgegossen. Ein großes Opfer ist auf dem alten Saturn geschehen, und die Wesenheiten, die dieses Opfer vollbracht haben, nennen wir im Sinne der christlichen Esoterik die « Throne». Es kann sich menschliches Denken und selbst menschliches Hellsehen kaum vermessen, hineinzusehen in jene erhabene Entwickelung, die die Throne vorher durchmachen mußten, bevor sie imstande waren, das hinzuopfern, was die erste Anlage bilden konnte für den menschlichen physischen Leib. Versuchen wir, ein wenig zu verstehen, was ein solches Opfer heißt.

Wenn Sie das Ihnen bekannteste Wesen, den Menschen, heute betrachten, werden Sie sagen: Der Mensch, wie er heute ist, fordert gewisse Dinge von der Welt und gibt gewisse Dinge der Welt. Goethe hat das sehr schön in den Worten zusammengefaßt: «Das menschliche Leben verfließt in der Metamorphose zwischen Nehmen und Geben.» Der Mensch muß nicht nur die physische Nahrung von der Außenwelt nehmen, auch sein Verstand muß seine Nahrung aus der Außenwelt schöpfen. Dadurch wächst er und bekommt das, was er zu seiner eigenen Entwickelung braucht. Dadurch entwickelt er aber auch Fähigkeiten, wiederum zu geben, was er an Ideen und Empfindungen und zuletzt an Liebe ausreift. Daß er etwas aus der Welt nimmt, anderes wiederum gibt an die Umgebung, dadurch werden seine Fähigkeiten immer höher und höher. Er wird ein verständiger und intellektueller Mensch, kann Begriffe entwickeln, die er hinopfern kann dem gemeinschaftlichen Menschheitsleben. Es entwickelt der Mensch Gefühle und Empfindungen, die sich zur Liebe umgestalten, und wenn er diese Gefühle und Empfindungen den Mitmenschen darbringt, dann belebt er seine Mitwesen. Wir brauchen uns nur vor die Seele zu rufen, wie belebend die Liebe auf die Mitwesen wirken kann, wie der, der wirklich imstande ist, Liebe auszugießen auf die Mitmenschen, durch seine Liebe allein beleben und trösten und erheben kann. Da hat der Mensch die Gabe, etwas hinzuopfern. Aber wenn wir uns noch soviel erwerben in bezug auf solche Opfermöglichkeit, gegen die der Throne ist es gering. Die Entwickelung aber besteht darin, daß ein Wesen immer mehr und mehr die Fähigkeit erlangt, hinzuopfern, bis es zum Schluß imstande ist, sozusagen die eigene Substanz und Wesenheit hinzuopfern, es als die höchste Seligkeit empfindet, das hinzugeben, was es als Stoff und Substanz entwickelt hat.

Es gibt solche hohe Wesenheiten, die dadurch zu einer höheren Stufe des Daseins aufsteigen, daß sie ihre eigene Substanz hinopfern. Ein materialistisches Gemüt wird natürlich wiederum sagen: Wenn Wesenheiten so weit gekommen sind, daß sie ihre eigene Substanz hinopfern, wie können sie da zu einer höheren Stufe aufsteigen? Da opfern sie sich ja selbst, da ist ja von ihnen nichts mehr vorhanden! — Das sagt das materialistische Gemüt, denn es kann nicht begreifen, daß es ein geistiges Dasein gibt, daß ein solches Wesen erhalten bleibt, wenn es das wiederum hingibt, was es nach und nach aufgenommen hat. Die Throne waren auf dem Saturn auf einer solchen Stufe, daß sie ausgießen konnten die Substantialität, die sie sich während der vorherigen Entwickelung angeeignet hatten. Dadurch steigen sie selbst zu einer höheren Stufe der Entwickelung empor. Und was da ausfloß von den Thronen, wie etwa das, was die Spinne aus sich heraussetzt, um ihr Netz zu spinnen, das war zunächst die Grundlage zum Bilden des physischen Menschenleibes. Dann kam noch eine andere Art von Wesenheiten hinzu — nicht so hoch stehend wie die Throne -, die wir die «Geister der Persönlichkeit» nennen, oder die «Urkräfte», «Archai» im Sinne der christlichen Esoterik. Diese Geister der Persönlichkeit durcharbeiteten gleichsam das, was von den Thronen ausgeflossen war. Und aus dem Zusammenwirken dieser beiden Wesenheiten entstand die erste Anlage des physischen Menschenleibes.

Während langer Zeiträume wurde diese physische MenschenleibAnlage ausgearbeitet. Dann kam, wie wir gestern schon erwähnt haben, eine Weltennacht oder ein Weltendevachan, und es entstand die zweite Verkörperung der Erde, die Sonnenstufe. Die Menschen kamen wiederum heraus, andere geistige Wesenheiten kamen jetzt hinzu: Das waren die «Feuergeister» oder «Erzengel» im Sinne der christlichen Esoterik, und die «Geister der Weisheit» oder «Kyriotetes». Die hatten es jetzt zumeist zu tun mit der Fortentwickelung dessen, was als physischer Menschenleib wiedererschien. Und hinopfern konnten jetzt die Kyriotetes, die Herrschaften oder Geister der Weisheit, ihre Substantialität, und es floß das, was wir den Ätherleib nennen, in den physischen Leib ein. Den bearbeiteten zusammen mit den Geistern der Persönlichkeit die Feuergeister oder Erzengel. Dadurch wurde der Mensch jetzt zu einem Wesen vom Werte der Pflanze entwickelt. Wir können sagen: Auf dem Saturn war der Mensch vom Werte unseres Minerals. Unsere Mineralien haben bloß einen physischen Leib. Auf dem Saturn hatte der Mensch auch nur einen physischen Leib; daher war er noch im mineralischen Dasein. Auf der Sonne war der Mensch vom Wert der Pflanze; er hatte einen physischen und einen Ätherleib.

Nun kommt etwas, was wir uns als einen ganz besonders wichtigen Begriff aneignen müssen, wenn wir die volle Entwickelung verstehen wollen.

Ich sage immer gern in diesem Falle, daß es ein solches Ereignis, wie es in unserem gewöhnlichen Leben zur Sorge und auch zum Ärger der Eltern gibt: daß nämlich Kinder sitzen bleiben, das Ziel einer Klasse nicht erreichen und repetieren müssen — auch im Kosmos gibt. Es bleiben gewisse Wesenheiten hinter dem Ziel einer kosmischen Stufe zurück, So sind gewisse Geister der Persönlichkeit, die auf dem Saturn das Ziel hätten erreichen sollen, zurückgeblieben. Sie hatten nicht alles dazu getan, was nötig gewesen wäre, um dem Menschen den Wert des Minerals zu geben und ihn so zu seiner Vollendung gerade auf dieser Stufe zu bringen. Solche Wesenheiten müssen dann während der nächsten Stufe nachholen, was sie vorher unterlassen haben. In welcher Weise konnten nun diese Geister der Persönlichkeit, die da zurückgeblieben waren, während des Sonnendaseins wirken? Sie konnten nicht eine Wesenheit schaffen, wie es der Mensch auf der Sonne hätte sein sollen, eine Wesenheit mit physischem Leib und Ätherleib. Dazu waren die Feuergeister notwendig. Sie, diese Geister der Persönlichkeit, konnten auf der Sonne auch nur das schaffen, was sie auf dem Saturn geschaffen hatten: eine physische Anlage vom Wert des Minerals. Dadurch entstanden während der Sonnenzeit durch ihren Einfluß Wesenheiten, die um eine Stufe tiefer standen. Diese Wesenheiten bildeten nun ein niedrigeres Reich gegenüber dem Menschenreich. Das sind die Vorfahren unseres heutigen Tierreiches. Während unser heutiges Menschenreich auf der Sonne bereits zum Werte der Pflanzen vorgeschritten wat, stand unser heutiges Tierreich auf der Sonne im Werte eines mineralischen Wesens, hatte bloß physischen Leib. So kam unser Tierreich in seiner Anlage hinzu zum Menschenreich. Wir fragen uns also: Welches von all den Wesen, die uns umgeben, hat die älteste Entwickelung hinter sich? Wer ist der Erstgeborene unserer Schöpfung? Der Mensch! Und die anderen Wesenheiten sind dadurch entstanden, daß die Entwickelungskräfte, die mit dem Menschendasein verbunden sind, das, was auf einer anderen Stufe hätte Mensch werden können, zurückbehalten und dann auf einer späteren Stufe zu einem niedrigeren Wesen haben werden lassen. Hätten die zurückgebliebenen Geister der Persönlichkeit die Arbeit auf dem Saturn verrichtet, die sie auf der Sonne verrichteten, dann wäre nicht das Tierreich entstanden.

Ebenso — das brauche ich jetzt nur anzudeuten - entstand während des Mondes das Folgende: Der Mensch rückte hinauf, indem er durch gewisse Wesenheiten, die wir Engel nennen, und dutch andere höhere Geister, durch die «Geister der Bewegung » - in der christlichen Terminologie: «Dynamis » — den astralischen Leib erhielt. Dadurch wurde der Mensch während des Mondendaseins ein Wesen vom Werte des Tieres. Diejenigen Wesenheiten aber, die als ein zweites Reich während des Sonnendaseins entstanden waren, erhielten jetzt auf dem Monde zum größten Teil den Wert von Pflanzen. Das waren die Vorläufer unserer Tiere. Dann kamen hinzu, wiederum dürch geistige Wesenheiten, die in der angedeuteten Weise zurückgeblieben waren, diejenigen We- _ sen, die heute unserem Pflanzenreich angehören. Auf der Sonne gab es noch kein Pflanzenreich, nur Menschen- und Tierreich. Auf dem Monde kam erst das Pflanzenreich hinzu. Ein Mineralreich, wie es heute der Grund und Boden ist, auf dem alles übrige steht, gab es auf dem Monde noch nicht. So entwickelten sich die Reiche nach und nach. Das höchste der Reiche, das Menschenreich, hat sich zuerst entwickelt. So etwas wie ein Ausgestoßenes von diesem Menschenteich, etwas Zurückgebliebenes davon ist das Tierreich. Und was noch weiter zurückblieb, das wurde das Pflanzenreich.

Als die alte Mondenentwickelung vollendet war, begann die Erdenentwickelung. Von dieser Erdenentwickelung haben wir geschildert, wie sich Sonne und Mond von der Erde trennten. Während dieser Zeit kamen alle die Keime der früheren Reiche wieder zum Vorschein: Tierreich, Pflanzenreich, und zuletzt, als der Mond noch mit seiner Substanz mit der Erde vereinigt war, das Mineralreich. Gerade dadurch, daß das Mineralreich hinzukam als die feste Grundlage, geschah die Verhärtung und Vertrocknung, welche die Erde so verödete. Denn das Mineralreich, das uns heute umgibt, ist nichts anderes als das, was ausgeschieden ist aus den höheren Reichen. Ich habe schon früher darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß Sie nur einmal denkend zu betrachten brauchen, was die heutige Wissenschaft anerkennt. Dann werden Sie sich schon vorstellen können, wie das Mineralreich nach und nach ausgeschieden worden ist. Denken Sie, daß die Steinkohle, ein richtiges mineralisches Produkt, aus der Erde herausgeholt wird. Was war denn die Steinkohle vor langer, langer Zeit? Bäume waren es, die auf der Erde wuchsen, Pflanzen, die zugrunde gingen und eben zu Steinmassen, zu Mineralien wurden. Was Sie jetzt als Steinkohle herausgraben, das waren einst Pflanzenmassen. Also ist das ein Produkt, das erst ausgeschieden ist; ursprünglich waren statt der Steinkohlen Pflanzenwesen da. So werden Sie sich auch vorstellen können, daß auch alles übrige, was den Grund und Boden unserer Erde bildet, aus höheren Reichen ausgeschieden ist. Denken Sie nur einmal, wie heute noch gewisse mineralische Produkte Ausscheidungen sind aus tierischen Wesenheiten, als Gehäuse der Schnecken, der Muscheln und so weiter. Alles Mineralische war früher nicht da; es ist erst im Laufe der Zeit ausgeschieden worden. Auf der Erde erst kam das Mineralreich hinzu, und es bildete sich deshalb, weil auf der Erde noch immer solche Wesenheiten vorhanden waren und jetzt auch noch so wirkten, wie sie auf dem Saturn gewirkt hatten. Das Mineralreich kam überhaupt zustande durch die: Tätigkeit der Geister der Persönlichkeit, und auf allen höheren Stufen sind solche Wesenheiten tätig. Aber wenn die Entwickelung so fortgegangen wäre, dann wären so viele mineralische Einschläge gekommen, so viele Verhärtungen und Verdichtungen, daß die ganze Erde nach und nach verödet wäre.

Nun kommen wir an einen wichtigen Punkt der Entwickelung unserer Erde. Wir stellen uns vor, wie die Sonne sich schon getrennt hat, und wie mit den feinsten Substanzen auch die Wesenheiten herausgegangen sind, die nun auf der Sonne geistige Wesenheiten sind. Wir schauen uns die Erde an, wie sie verödet, wie ihr mineralischer Einschlag immer dichter und dichter wird, wie dadurch aber auch die Gestalten auf ihr, auch die menschlichen Gestalten, immer vertrockneter werden. Damals schon fand ein gewisser Wechsel in den Lebenszuständen der menschlichen Wesenheiten statt. Ich möchte es Ihnen an der Pflanzenentwickelung veranschaulichen, was damals auch für die Menschen eintrat.

Aus dem unscheinbaren Samenkorn sprießt die Pflanze im Frühling heraus, entfaltet sich bis zur Blüte und Frucht und verwelkt wiederum während des Herbstes. Was das Auge während des Frühlings und Sommers erfreut, das verschwindet im Herbst, und es bleibt äußerlich, physisch nur Unscheinbares übrig. Aber wenn Sie glauben wollten, daß während des Winters nichts von dem eigentlichen Wesen der Pflanze vorhanden wäre, oder es allein im physischen Samenkorn suchen würden, dann würden Sie die Pflanze schlecht verstehen. So wie sie heute ist, besteht die Pflanze allerdings aus physischem Leib und Ätherleib, aber wenn man sie hellseherisch anschaut, ist sie oben auch von einer astralischen Wesenheit, wie von einem Saum umgeben. Und diese astralische Wesenheit wird von einer Kraft belebt, die von der Sonne, von dem Geistigen der Sonne her, zur Erde strömt. Für das hellseherische Bewußtsein ist jede Blüte umgeben wie von einer Wolke. Diese Wolke atmet das Leben, das zwischen Sonne und Erde ausgetauscht wird. Während des Frühlings und Sommers, während die Pflanzen sprossen und sprießen, naht sich etwas von dem Sonnenwesen und umspielt die Pflanzen an der Oberfläche. Kommt der Herbst, dann zieht sich das astralische Wesen zurück, es vereinigt sich mit dem Sonnenleben. Wir dürfen sagen: Das, was Pflanzenastralität ist, sucht im Frühling seinen physischen Pflanzenleib auf der Erde auf, verkörpert sich, wenn auch nicht in demselben, so doch an demselben. Im Herbste dann kehrt es zur Sonne zurück und hinterläßt nur den Keim. Gleichsam zum Pfände hinterläßt es den Keim, damit es sich wiederum zurückfindet zu seiner physischen Wesenheit.

In gleicher Art war eine Art Austausch zwischen den physischen Menschenwesenheiten und den Sonnenwesenheiten, wenn auch die Gestalt der Menschen noch primitiv und einfach war. Und es gab Zeiten, da wirkten die Sonnengeister so herunter, daß sie die Menschenleiber mit Astralität umspielten, wie heute die Pflanzenastralität vom Frühling bis zum Herbst die Pflanzen umspielt. Wir können also für diese Zeiten davon sprechen, daß das astralische Wesen des Menschen in gewisser Beziehung durch gewisse Epochen hindurch vereinigt war mit dem physischen Leib auf der Erde, daß es dann sich zurückzog zur Sonne ung wiederum zurückkam. Zurückgelassen wurde in dem, was physisch war, nur der Keim.

Aber die Erde verhärtete immer mehr und mehr. Und da stellte sich dann etwas heraus, was von großer Wichtigkeit ist und was ich besonders festzuhalten bitte. Während früher, als die Sonne eben erst die Erde verlassen hatte, es noch möglich war, daß die astralischen Wesenheiten, welche die Erde verließen, sich wieder mit dem physischen Leib vereinigten, wenn sie nach ihrer Trennung wieder zurückkamen, so wurde durch den immer mehr zunehmenden Mondeinfluß dieser Körper da unten, den die heruntersteigenden Wesenheiten beziehen wollten, so sehr verhärtet, daß sie nichts mehr mit ihm anfangen konnten. Da haben Sie das jetzt genauer geschildert, was ich Ihnen gestern mehr abstrakt schildern konnte. Ich sagte: Es verloren die Sonnenkräfte die Möglichkeit, die Substanzen auf der Erde zu gestalten. Konkreter ausgedrückt, kann man sagen: Die Substanzen vertrockneten, und die Wesenheiten fanden nicht mehr geeignete Leiber. Das bewirkte auch die Verödung der Erde, und die Menschenseelen, die wieder heruntersteigen wollten, fanden endlich, daß sich die Leiber für sie nicht mehr eigneten. Sie mußten sie sich selbst überlassen, und nur die Leiber mit den stärksten Kräften konnten sich hinüberretten über diese Verödungszeit. Diese Verödung erreichte ihren höchsten Gipfel, als der Mond noch in der Erde drinnen war und eben heraus wollte. Da waren die Seelen, die noch Menschenseelen sein wollten, nicht mehr imstande, diese Leiber zu beziehen. Nur noch wenige Menschen bewohnten damals die Erde. Wie ein allmähliches Aussterben auf der Erde nimmt sich diese Verödung aus. Und man schildert die Zustände ziemlich genau, wenn man sagt: Als der Mond herausging, da waren nur noch ganz wenige Menschen vorhanden, die es ausgehalten hatten, daß das, was sich mit den Gestalten unten vereinigen wollte, sich wirklich vereinigte.

Nun muß ich diese Verhältnisse noch genauer schildern. Gehen wir noch einmal zurück zu dem Zeitpunkt, nachdem die Mondenentwickelung abgelaufen war, und die Erde wiedererstand aus dem Weltenschoße heraus. Da erstand sie nicht etwa wie der alte Saturn, sondern was sich da herausentwickelte, hatte in sich die Nachwirkungen alles dessen, was früher geschehen war. Es war nicht bloß physische Materie damit verbunden, sondern alle die Wesenheiten auch, die da gewirkt hatten. Daß die Throne sich mit dem Saturn vereinigten, das bedeutet, daß sie mit der ganzen Entwickelung verbunden blieben; und sie kamen wieder heraus, als aus dem Dunkel des Weltenschoßes die Erde sich wieder heraushob. Ebenso kamen wieder heraus die Geister der Persönlichkeit, die Geister der Bewegung und so weiter, und auch die Menschen-, Tier- und Pflanzenkeime, denn das alles war darinnen.

Unsere physische Wissenschaft stellt Hypothesen auf, die die reinen Phantasien sind. Da wird heute bei der Weltentstehungslehre die Theorie aufgestellt, daß es einstmals einen großen Weltennebel gegeben habe, der bis über den Saturn hinausreichte. Ein solcher Weltennebel aus bloßen Dünsten oder Dämpfen ist eine phantastische Vorstellung — den hat es nie gegeben. Wenn man nur mit äußeren physischen Augen hätte sehen können, was da vorging, dann hätte man allerdings so etwas wahrnehmen können; man hätte in der Tat eine riesige Nebelmasse gesehen. Aber in dieser Nebelmasse war etwas, was physische Augen nicht hätten sehen können: alle die Wesenheiten, die mit dieser Entwickelung verbunden waren! Daß sich später alles gliederte und gestaltete, das ist nicht durch eine bloße rotierende Bewegung zustande gekommen, sondern durch die Bedürfnisse der Wesenheiten, die mit dem Ganzen verknüpft waren. Sie werden über diese Sachen erst eine vernünftige Anschauung gewinnen, wenn Sie sich ganz und gar losgemacht haben von dem, was heute die schulmäßige Anschauung ist, was unseren Kindern eingeimpft wird von Anbeginn der Schule an. Da wird den Kindern gesagt, daß die alten Zeiten nur kindliche Anschauungen und Vorstellungen gehabt haben: Diese armen alten Inder haben geglaubt an einen Brahma, der den ganzen Weltenraum ausgefüllt hat! Und solch ein Mensch, wie ein alter Perser, hat geglaubt an den Ormuzd, den guten Gott, und den ihm entgegengesetzten Ahriman!

Und gar die alten Griechen mit ihrer ganzen Menge von Gottheiten, Zeus, Pallas Athene und so weiter! Das wissen wir doch heute, daß das alles von der Volksphantasie, von einer kindlichen Vorstellung ausgedachte Wesenheiten sind! Und gar die Götter der alten Deutschen, Wotan, Thor, das sind mythologische Figuren, darüber sind wir längst hinaus! Wir wissen heute, daß solche Götter nichts zu tun hatten mit der Entwickelung der Welt. Da war anfangs ein großer Urnebel im Weltenraum, der hat angefangen zu rotieren. Da hat er zuerst einen Ball von seiner Masse losgestoßen. Dann hat er weiter rotiert; da hat sich mit der Zeit ein zweiter Ball losgelöst, dann ein dritter Ball usw. Aber diese Vorstellungen sind nur die Form einer heutigen, physikalischkopernikanischen Mythologie. Das wird ebenso von einer anderen Mythologie abgelöst werden. Nur haben die früheren Mythologien gegen diese heutige Form das voraus, daß sie wahrer sind als die späteren, die nur das Abstrakte, nur das ganz äußere Materielle herausgeschält haben. Das muß man sich immer wieder vor Augen halten, daß es recht bequem ist, den Kindern vorzumachen, wie schön plausibel sich ein solches Weltsystem bildet: Man nimmt einen fettartigen Tropfen, schneidet aus einem Kartenblättchen eine kreisförmige Scheibe, steckt sie in der Äquatorrichtung hindurch, steckt von oben eine Nadel hindurch und bringt es ins Wasser; da schwimmt es. Nun fängt man an, das Ganze zu drehen, «wie sich der Weltennebel einst gedreht hat», sagt man. Da bildet sich erst eine Abplattung, dann löst sich los ein Tropfen, ein zweiter Tropfen, ein dritter Tropfen, und ein großer Tropfen bleibt in der Mitte zurück: Ein kleines Weltsystem ist entstanden! Und man kann jetzt recht plausibel machen: Wie sich im kleinen das darstellt, so ist es auch im großen gegangen. Diejenigen, die eine solche Betrachtung anstellen, vergessen nur das eine, was bei anderen Gelegenheiten recht schön sein kann zu vergessen: sich selbst. Sie vergessen, daß sie selbst da oben drehen. Der ganze Vergleich würde nur gelten, wenn so ein wackerer Professor sich herbeiließe zu sagen: Wie ich da stehe und die kleine Nadel drehe, so ist draußen ein Riesenprofessor und sorgt dafür, daß das Ganze in Rotation kommt und sich die Planeten abspalten, wie wir es mit dem Fett-Tropfen im kleinen bekamen. — In diesem Falle möchte das noch hingehen.

Wir wissen, daß kein Riesenprofessor die Nadel draußen dreht, sondern daß da Wesenheiten aller Grade vorhanden sind, und daß diese geistigen Wesenheiten es sind, die die entsprechende Materie an sich ziehen. Die Wesenheiten, die bestimmte Lebensverhältnisse brauchten, zogen die Materie, wenn sie zur Sonne gingen, zu sich hin, nahmen sie sich und bildeten sich den Schauplatz durch die Macht ihrer Geisteskräfte; und wieder andere Wesenheiten trennten sich die Erdensubstanz ab. Geist ist es, der bis in das kleinste materielle Teilchen, bis ins Atom, wenn wir es so nennen wollen, hineinwirkt! Und unwahr ist es, wenn man der bloßen Materie eine Wirkungsweise zuschreibt. Erst dann wird man verstehen, wie es im kleinsten Raumesteil zugeht, wenn man versteht, daß Geist hineinwirkt bis in den größten Raumesteil. Und zwar nicht Geist im allgemeinen, von dem man sagt, «es ist eben. im allgemeinen Geist in dem Materiellen», ein «Allgeist» oder ein «Urgeist». Da könnten Sie wieder alles mögliche hineinrühren. Damit ist es nicht getan. Wir müssen die «Geister » in ihrer Konkretheit erkennen, in ihren Einzelheiten und in ihren verschiedenen Lebensbedürfnissen.

Und jetzt will ich Ihnen etwas als Ergänzung sagen zu dem, was wir schon gestern berühren konnten, zu der Tatsache, daß sich die Sonne von Erde plus Mond trennte, und daß sich dann wiederum der Mond von der Erde lostrennte. Das ist im Hauptverhältnis richtig, aber dieses Bild muß ergänzt werden.

Bevor sich die Sonne trennen konnte, erwies sich schon die Notwendigkeit für gewisse Wesenheiten, sich besondere Schauplätze abzutrennen. Das, was sie abtrennten, figuriert heute als die äußeren Planeten Saturn, Jupiter und Mars. Wir können also sagen: In der allgemeinen Materie, wo Sonne und Mond drinnen waren, waren auch Saturn, Jupiter und so weiter drinnen, und gewisse Wesenheiten trennten sich zuerst mit diesen Weltenkörpern heraus. Das waren Wesenheiten, die solche Lebensbedürfnisse hatten, wie sie gerade durch ein Leben auf diesen Planeten befriedigt werden konnten, Dann trennte sich mit den höchsten Wesenheiten die Sonne los, und es war zurückgeblieben Erde plus Mond. Das entwickelte sich weiter, bis der Mond in der geschilderten Weise herausgeworfen wurde. Aber nicht alle Wesenheiten, die mit der Sonne gegangen waren, waren fähig, auch die Sonnenentwickelung mitzumachen. Wenn wir etwa bildlich sprechen dürfen - es ist schwer, Worte aus der prosaischen Sprache dafür zu finden; daher ist es manchmal notwendig, vergleichsweise zu sprechen -, dann können wir sagen: Als sich die Sonne losspaltete, glaubten gewisse Wesenheiten, sie könnten es ertragen, die Reise der Sonne mitzumachen. In Wirklichkeit konnten es nur die höchsten Wesenheiten, die anderen mußten sich später herausspalten. Und dadurch, daß sich diese Wesenheiten besondere Schauplätze schufen, entstanden Venus und Merkur. So sehen wir die Abspaltung von Saturn, Jupiter, Mars vor der Trennung der Sonne von der Erde. Nachher spalten sich von der Sonne ab Venus und Merkur, und dann trennt sich der Mond von der Erde.

So haben wir diese Entwickelung einmal aus dem Geiste heraus vor uns hingestellt. Wir haben die Entwickelung unseres Sonnensystemes so begriffen, daß wir auf den verschiedenen Weltkörpern die verschiedenen Wesenheiten haben. Wenn wir dies vor unsere Seele hingestellt haben, dann können wir uns jetzt auch die Antwort auf die Frage geben: Was geschah denn mit jenen geistig astralischen Wesenheiten, die als Menschen herunter wollten und unten verhärtete Leiber fanden, die sie nicht beziehen konnten?

Nicht alle konnten sich mit den Sonnengeistern vereinigen, dazu waren sie auch nicht reif. So geschah denn folgendes: Diejenigen Wesenheiten, welche die Leiber auf der Erde verlassen mußten, zogen sich auf eine Weile auf Saturn, Jupiter, Mars zurück. Während unten die Erde verödet, während sie nur Leiber erzeugt, die nicht imstande sind, menschliche Seelenwesenheiten aufzunehmen, haben wir die Tatsache, daß die Seelen sich hinaufbegeben in diese planetarischen Welten, um dort zu warten, bis die Zeit eingetreten ist, wo sie wiederum für sich Menschenleiber finden.

Nur ganz wenige, nur die stärksten Menschenleiber waren imstande, Seelen in sich aufzunehmen, um das Leben hinüberzuretten über die Mondkrisis. Die anderen Seelen gingen hinauf zu den anderen Weltenkörpern. Und dann wurde der Mond hinausgestoßen aus der Erde. Dadurch konnten wiederum die Sonnenkräfte wirken auf die menschlichen Gestalten. Die menschliche Gestalt erhielt einen neuen Antrieb und wurde wieder weich und biegsam und plastisch; und in diese plastisch gestalteten Menschenleiber konnten diejenigen Seelen wieder einziehen, welche auf Saturn, Jupiter und so weiter gewartet haben. Während diese Seelen früher die Erde verlassen mußten, kamen sie jetzt nach dem Mondaustritt nach und nach zurück und bevölkerten die durch die Erfrischung neu erstehenden menschlichen Leiber. So haben wir nach dem Mondaustritt eine Zeit, wo immer neue und neue Leiber herauskommen. Wir haben über die Mondkrisis hinüber nur eine ganz geringe Anzahl von Menschen. Nachkommen haben die Menschen immer gehabt. Aber die Seelen konnten, wenn sie herunter kamen, die Gestalten nicht brauchen und ließen sie verkümmern. Das Menschengeschlecht starb nach und nach aus. Als aber wieder die Neubelebung eingetreten war, da waren die Nachkommen derjenigen Menschen, welche die Mondkrisis überdauert hatten, wiederum fähig, die Seelen von Saturn, Jupiter, Mars aufzunehmen. Die Erde wurde nach und nach mit Seelen bevölkert. Und jetzt können Sie begreifen, was für ein bedeutendes, tief einschneidendes Ereignis dieser Austritt des Mondes war. Es änderte sich eigentlich alles durch den Mondaustritt.

Betrachten wir noch einmal die Entwickelung vor dem Mondaustritt. Wir haben ansprechen müssen den Menschen als den Erstgeborenen unserer Schöpfung. Er entstand schon während des Saturns. Auf der Sonne kam dann hinzu das Tierreich, auf dem Monde das Pflanzenreich, und das Mineralreich ist auf der Erde hinzugekommen. Jetzt aber, von dem Mondaustritt an, wird die Sache anders. Wenn der Mond nicht ausgetreten wäre, wäre alles auf der Erde erstorben. Zuerst die Menschen, dann die Tiere, zuletzt die Pflanzen. Die Erde wäre mumifiziert worden. Davor ist die Erde durch den Mondaustritt gerettet worden. Es lebte alles wieder auf und erfuhr eine Erfrischung. Wie geschah nun diese Wiederauflebung?

Was das tiefste Reich war, das Mineralreich, das brauchte am wenigsten dazu. Das Pflanzenreich war wohl in einer gewissen Weise ausgedorrt, aber es konnte auch schnell wieder aufleben. Auch das Tierreich konnte sich in einer gewissen Beziehung nach und nach herauf entwickeln. Am spätesten konnten die Menschengestalten zu ihrer Geltung kommen, um die Seelen, die ihnen aus den höchsten Regionen der Welt zuflossen, aufzunehmen. Es kehrt sich also die ganze Entwikkelung um nach dem Mondaustritt. Während vorher zuerst das Menschenreich, dann das Tierreich, dann das Pflanzenreich und zuletzt das Mineralreich entstand, ist jetzt das Mineralreich am ehesten fähig, die wiederbelebenden Kräfte zur Geltung zu bringen. Dann kommt das Pflanzenreich und entwickelt sich zu den höchsten Formen hinauf, dann das Tierreich, und zuletzt erst kann sich das Menschenreich zu den höchsten Formen hinauf entwickeln. Nach dem Mondaustritt kehrt sich der ganze Sinn der Entwickelung um. Und die Wesenheiten, die sozusagen am längsten haben warten können, um sich mit ihrem Geistigen dem Physischen zu vereinigen, das sind solche, die, im höchsten Sinne des Wortes, nach dem Mondaustritt in eine geistigere Sphäre hinaufgestiegen sind. Jene, welche mit ihrer geistigen Entwickelung früher zum Abschluß gekommen waren, sind auf einer weniger vollkommenen Stufe zurückgeblieben. Nach dem Mondaustritt erscheinen die Zurückgebliebenen früher. Sie werden leicht begreifen können, warum,

Betrachten wir einmal irgendeine Menschenseele, oder irgendein seelisches Wesen, das sich früher wegen der Verhärtung nicht hat verkörpern wollen. Das konnte etwa folgende Überlegung haben, wenn wir das wieder in menschliche Sprache übertragen: Soll ich mich jetzt verkörpern oder soll ich noch warten? Nehmen wir an, der Mond sei noch nicht sehr lange draußen, die Dinge also noch sehr hart. Das Wesen aber, das sich verkörpern will, hat es eilig; es geht also unter allen Umständen herunter und nimmt mit den noch nicht weit nach vorwärts entwickelten Körpern vorlieb. Dadurch muß es sozusagen auf einer niedrigeren Stufe stehen bleiben. Ein anderes Wesen sagt sich: Ich warte lieber länger und bleibe noch eine Weile im Weltenraum, bis die Erde ihre physische Wesenheit noch mehr erleichtert und verdünnt hat. Eine solche Wesenheit wartet also bis zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt, und es gelingt ihr dadurch, diejenige Wesenheit, in die sie sich verkörpert, physisch zu bearbeiten, physisch zu ihrem Ebenbild zu machen. So müssen alle die Wesenheiten, die sich zu früh verkörpern, auf untergeordneten Stufen stehen bleiben. Diejenigen, die warten können, kommen zu den höheren Stufen. Unsere höheren Tiere sind deshalb auf der Tierstufe stehen geblieben, weil sie nicht haben warten können nach dem Mondaustritt. Die haben vorlieb genommen mit den Körpern, die sie gerade haben erhalten können. Diejenigen, die später herunterkamen, konnten die Körper nur gestalten zu den niederen Menschenrassen, die ausstarben oder im Aussterben waren. Dann kam ein Zeitpunkt, der gerade recht war, wo sich die Seelen mit den Leibern vereinigten, und der schuf dasjenige, was eigentlich menschlich entwickelungsfähig war.

So sehen wir eine Verödung der Erde bis zum Mondaustritt, dann ein Wiederaufblühen der Erdenverhältnisse nach dem Mondaustritt, und von da ab wieder ein Herabsteigen derjenigen Wesenheiten, die von der Erde fortgegangen waren, weil ihnen die Erde zu schlecht wurde. Aber das bezieht sich jetzt nicht nur auf die Wesenheiten, die nur den höheren Menschen bilden, sondern auf noch andere Wesenheiten, die zu ganz anderen Dingen herunterstiegen, als um den Menschen heranzubilden. Auch da handelt es sich darum, daß immer der richtige Zeitpunkt abgewartet wird, damit ein solches Wesen einen Körper auf der Erde beziehen kann.

Gehen wir zurück in die indische Zeit. Da gab es Menschen auf einer hohen Stufe der Entwickelung. Gerade wie die von Mars, Saturn und Jupiter herunterkommenden Seelen ihre Leiber aufsuchten, so suchten höhere Wesenheiten höher stehende Leiber auf, um im Innern des Menschen zu wirken. Nehmen wir die großen heiligen Lehrer der alten Inder, die Rischis: einen Teil ihrer Wesenheit stellten sie zur Verfügung; gewisse höhere Wesenheiten nahmen in ihnen Wohnung. Aber andere höhere Wesenheiten sagten: Nein, wir warten, bis da unten noch andere Wesenheiten sind, die selbst eine höhere Entwickelung durchmachen. Wir mögen noch nicht herunter, wir bleiben noch oben, bis die Menschen ihr Inneres noch reifer gemacht haben; dann steigen wir herunter, denn jetzt finden wir das Innere der Menschen nur wenig vorbereitet für uns.

Dann sagten sich während der persischen Kultur gewisse höhere Wesenheiten: Jetzt können wir heruntersteigen in das menschliche Innere, wie es sich bis jetzt entwickelt hat. - Und ebenso während der ägyptischen Zeit.

Diejenige Wesenheit aber, welche die höchste war unter den Sonnenwesenheiten, wartete noch immer. Von auswärts her schickte sie ihre Kräfte zu den heiligen Rischis hinunter. Die heiligen Rischis schauten hinauf zu demjenigen, den sie Vishva Karman nannten und von dem sie sagten: Vishva Karman ist außer unserer Sphäre. — Er wartete, denn er sagte sich: Noch nicht ist das menschliche Innere so weit vorbereitet, daß ich darin Platz haben kann. —- Dann kam die persische Kultur. Da sah Zarathustra zur Sonne hinauf und sah Ahura Mazdao in der Sonne. Aber immer noch stieg diese hohe Wesenheit nicht in die irdische Sphäre hinunter. Dann kam die ägyptische Kultur und die Kultur desjenigen Volkes, das am längsten gewartet hatte. Und es kam derjenige Mensch, der am längsten wartete, der sein Inneres durch viele Inkarnationen bereits entwickelt hatte. Da schaute das Sonnenwesen herunter, sah das Innere dieses Menschen, der in dem Jesus von Nazareth wohnte und der sein Inneres bereit gemacht hatte. Das höchste der Sonnenwesen sah herunter und sagte: Wie einst die niederen Wesenheiten heruntergestiegen sind, um die Leiber aufzubauen, so steige ich jetzt herunter und nehme das Innere desjenigen Menschen ein, der am längsten gewartet hat. - Gewiß, es haben sich auch schon früher höhere Wesenheiten mit den Menschen vereinigt. Aber der, der am längsten gewartet hatte, der nahm den Christus in sich auf; der war bei der Jordantaufe so weit, daß derselbe Geist, der bis dahin sich in den Sphären des Weltenraumes gehalten hatte, heruntersteigen und sich mit seinem Innern vereinigen konnte. Der Christus war seit der Johannes-Taufe in dem Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth, weil die den Jesus von Nazareth durchwirkende Individualität durch wiederholte Inkarnationen die Reife erlangt hatte, in dem so durchgeistigten Leibe diesen hohen Geist aufzunehmen.

Dieser Christus-Geist war immer da. Aber nach der Abtrennung des Mondes mußten alle Wesenheiten erst heranreifen. Erst kamen nach und nach die niedersten Wesenheiten heraus, die am wenigsten hatten warten können ihrem geistigen Teile nach, dann immer höhere und höhere Wesenheiten. Und als der Mensch sein Inneres immer höher hat entwickeln können, und als die Zeit gekommen war, da der Jesus von Nazareth die Reife erlangt hatte, den Christus in sich aufzunehmen, da konnte derjenige, der die Fähigkeit des höheren Schauens hatte, sagen: «Ich habe gesehen, wie der Geis? auf ihn hinabfuhr!» Und was konnte der, auf den der Geist herabgefahren war, sagen, wenn er sprechen ließ, was jetzt in seinem Innern lebte? Es war ja dasselbe Wesen, das die Rischis als Vishva Karman kannten. Was hätte Vishva Karman von sich sagen müssen, nicht wenn die Rischis gesprochen hätten, sondern wenn er gesprochen hätte? Er ist ja der hohe Sonnengeist, der als Geist im Lichte wirkt; er hätte sagen müssen: Ich bin das Licht der Welt! - Was hätte Ahura Mazdao sagen müssen, wenn er hätte von sich sprechen wollen? Ich bin das Licht der Welt!- Und was sprach derselbe Geist, da ein Mensch reif geworden war, um ihn in sich aufzunehmen? Wie spricht das, was früher im Weltenraum, auf der Sonne war, jetzt aus einem Menschen heraus? «Ich bin das Licht der Welt!»

Was aus Weltenhöhen heruntergeklungen hat auf die Erde als die innerste Selbstcharakteristik des leitenden kosmischen Geistes, wir hören es wiederklingen aus einem menschlichen Innern, da das Wesen selbst in einem menschlichen Innern Platz genommen hat. Da tönt es aus dem Jesus von Nazareth, als der Christus in ihm ist, mit Recht:

«Ich bin das Licht der Welt!»

Fourth Lecture

Yesterday's reflection took its starting point from the fact that in everyday human life such a change of states occurs in man that during the night, from the evening when he falls asleep until the morning when he wakes up, man has his physical body and his etheric or life body lying in bed, and that outside of the bed is what we call the astral body and ego. At the same time, however, we had to emphasize that what remains in the bed - physical body and etheric body - could not continue to exist if a divine-spiritual astral body and a divine-spiritual ego did not penetrate into it. In other words: The change in these states of human life in everyday life consists in the fact that in the evening, when a person falls asleep, he leaves his physical body and etheric body with his human ego and his human astral body, but instead divine-spiritual astral entities and divine-spiritual ego entities move into this physical body and etheric body. In the daily state it is then the case that the human being himself fills his physical body and etheric body with his astral body and his ego. That was the one thing we placed at the head of our considerations yesterday.

The other, however, was what we gained through a comprehensive consideration of our entire human development through the earlier embodiments of our earth - Saturn, Sun, Moon. We also discussed details from this comprehensive observation. It has become apparent to us that, with regard to the progress of our earth planet, a split has occurred since the evolution of the moon, that certain entities, which needed lower, inferior substances, so to speak, for further development, split off with the old moon, and that higher entities of a more spiritual nature split off as an older form of solar evolution.

We have then seen how both parts later reunited, how they passed together through a world devachan or pralaya and then came to earth evolution. This earth evolution again proceeded in such a way that a repetition of the splitting of the sun occurred, so that for a time we have earth plus moon as a coarser, denser body, and the sun with higher, more exalted beings as a special, finer body. We have seen that the earth, if it had remained connected with the lunar substance, would have become desolate, hardened, that all life on it would have died or, better said, mummified. At a certain time the moon had to be thrown out of the earth's development with that which it contains today. Thus a process of rejuvenation occurred, as it were, with that which was to develop as a human being. We have seen how the sublime entities that had made their progress on the sun could not have an effect on human substances and entities before the moon had split off, but that they could then have a rejuvenating effect on them again, so that the actual development of mankind was only possible from the time when the moon had separated itself from the earth. This separation of the moon means something tremendously important for the whole development, and we want to take a closer look at it today. For the time being, however, we only want to draw attention to the way in which the two starting points of our yesterday's observations join together, so to speak.

We look at the human being as he stands before us during the day. There he is an entity consisting of physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego. Now we look at the human being during his night sleep, where he lies in bed according to his physical and etheric body. There the clairvoyant consciousness sees how higher beings move into the physical body and etheric body. Who are these beings? They are precisely the beings of whom we have been able to say that they generally have their scene on the sun. This is not an impossibility. Only he who imagines everything spiritual physically and wants to apply everything physical to the ideas of spiritual beings could say: How can solar beings, who live on the sun, move into a physical and etheric human body at night? - For beings who are at such a lofty height that they inhabit the sun, there are not the same spatial conditions as for those who are in the physical world. Such beings can inhabit the sun quite well and still send their powers into the physical body of the human being during the night. So we can say: During the day, man is awake, that is, he inhabits his physical body and etheric body. At night he sleeps, that is, he is outside his physical body and his etheric body. The gods or other extraterrestrial beings watch over man's physical body and etheric body during the night. Even if this is a semi-figurative expression, it is nevertheless quite accurate. So we know where the entities come from that have to enter our physical body and etheric body during the night. And so these two points come together for us. But we shall see in a moment that these entities not only have their significance in relation to night life, but that they also gradually gain significance in relation to day life. First, however, in order to realize the full significance of the moon's exit from the earth's evolution, we must consider a few other things. Today we also want to look at the other beings around us with regard to their mode of origin.

If we look back at Saturn once again, we can say: This Saturn consists only of human beings. There is as yet no animal kingdom, no plant kingdom and no mineral kingdom on it. The entire sphere of Saturn is composed only of the first human plants. Like a blackberry made up of individual berries, Saturn was made up of human beings. And what belonged to Saturn surrounded it and had an effect on Saturn from the surrounding area. Let us now ask ourselves: Where did that come from which gave the human being on the old Saturn the first structure of his physical body? In a certain sense we can say that it came from two sides. Higher spiritual beings first poured out their own substance. A great sacrifice was made on ancient Saturn, and the beings who performed this sacrifice are called the “thrones” in the sense of Christian esotericism. Human thinking and even human clairvoyance can hardly presume to look into that sublime development which the thrones had to undergo before they were able to sacrifice that which could form the first anlage for the human physical body. Let us try to understand a little what such a sacrifice means.

If you look at the being you know best, man, today, you will say: Man as he is today demands certain things from the world and gives certain things to the world. Goethe summarized this very nicely in the words: “Human life flows in the metamorphosis between taking and giving.” Man must not only take physical nourishment from the outside world, his intellect must also draw its nourishment from the outside world. In this way he grows and receives what he needs for his own development. Through this, however, he also develops the ability to give in turn what he matures in ideas and feelings and finally in love. By taking something from the world and giving something else to his surroundings, his abilities become higher and higher. He becomes an intelligent and intellectual man, can develop concepts which he can sacrifice to the common life of mankind. Man develops feelings and sensations which are transformed into love, and when he offers these feelings and sensations to his fellow men, he enlivens his fellow beings. We need only call to mind how invigorating love can have an effect on fellow beings, how he who is truly able to pour out love on his fellow human beings can invigorate and comfort and uplift them through his love alone. Man has the gift of sacrifice. But no matter how much we acquire in terms of such sacrificial possibilities, it is little compared to that of the thrones. The development, however, consists in the fact that a being acquires more and more the ability to sacrifice until it is finally able to sacrifice, so to speak, its own substance and being, to feel it as the highest bliss to give what it has developed as matter and substance.

There are such high beings who ascend to a higher level of existence by sacrificing their own substance. A materialistic mind will of course say again: If beings have come so far that they sacrifice their own substance, how can they ascend to a higher level? They are sacrificing themselves, there is nothing left of them! - This is what the materialistic mind says, for it cannot comprehend that there is a spiritual existence, that such a being is preserved when it gives up what it has gradually absorbed. The thrones on Saturn were at such a stage that they could pour out the substantiality which they had acquired during the previous evolution. Thus they themselves ascend to a higher stage of development. And what flowed out from the thrones, like what the spider puts out of itself to spin its web, was initially the basis for forming the physical human body. Then came another kind of entity - not as high up as the thrones - which we call the “spirits of personality”, or the “elemental forces”, “archai” in the sense of Christian esotericism. These spirits of personality worked through, as it were, what had flowed out from the thrones. And from the interaction of these two entities arose the first structure of the physical human body.

During long periods of time this physical human body was worked out. Then came, as we mentioned yesterday, a world night or a world evachan, and the second embodiment of the earth, the solar stage, came into being. The humans came out again, and other spiritual beings were added: these were the “spirits of fire” or “archangels” in the sense of Christian esotericism, and the “spirits of wisdom” or “kyriotetes”. They now mostly had to deal with the further development of what reappeared as the physical human body. And now the Kyriotetes, the dominions or spirits of wisdom, could sacrifice their substantiality, and what we call the etheric body flowed into the physical body. Together with the spirits of personality, the fire spirits or archangels worked on it. Thus the human being was now developed into a being of plant value. We can say: On Saturn man was of the value of our mineral. Our minerals only have a physical body. On Saturn man also had only a physical body; therefore he was still in mineral existence. On the sun man was of the value of a plant; he had a physical and an etheric body.

Now comes something that we must adopt as a particularly important concept if we want to understand the full development.

I always like to say in this case that there is such an event as occurs in our ordinary life to the concern and also to the annoyance of parents: namely, that children remain seated, do not reach the goal of a class and have to repeat - also exists in the cosmos. Certain entities fall short of the goal of a cosmic level. For example, certain spirits of personality who should have reached the goal on Saturn fell behind. They had not done all that would have been necessary to give man the value of the mineral and thus bring him to his perfection at this particular stage. Such entities then have to make up for what they failed to do before during the next stage. In what way could these spirits of personality, which had remained behind, work during the sun's existence? They could not create an entity like the human being on the sun should have been, an entity with a physical body and an etheric body. The fire spirits were necessary for this. They, these spirits of personality, could only create on the sun what they had created on Saturn: a physical structure of the value of the mineral. Thus, during the time of the sun, through their influence, beings arose who were one step lower. These beings now formed a lower kingdom compared to the human kingdom. These are the ancestors of our present-day animal kingdom. While our present human kingdom on the sun had already advanced to the level of plants, our present animal kingdom on the sun had the level of a mineral being, had only a physical body. Thus our animal kingdom was added to the human kingdom. So we ask ourselves: Which of all the beings that surround us has the oldest development behind it? Who is the firstborn of our creation? The human being! And the other beings have come into being because the forces of development connected with the human being have held back what could have become a human being at another stage and then allowed it to become a lower being at a later stage. If the spirits of personality that had remained behind had done the work on Saturn that they did on the sun, the animal kingdom would not have come into being.

Similarly - I need only hint at this now - the following came into being during the moon: Man moved upwards by receiving the astral body through certain beings whom we call angels and through other higher spirits, through the “spirits of movement” - in Christian terminology: “Dynamis”. As a result, man became an animal-like being during his moon existence. Those beings, however, which had come into being as a second kingdom during the solar existence, now received for the most part the value of plants on the moon. These were the forerunners of our animals. Then came, again through spiritual beings who had remained behind in the manner indicated, those beings which today belong to our plant kingdom. On the sun there was still no plant kingdom, only the human and animal kingdoms. Only on the moon was the plant kingdom added. There was no mineral kingdom on the moon, as there is today with the land on which everything else stands. So the kingdoms developed gradually. The highest of the kingdoms, the human kingdom, developed first. The animal kingdom is something of an outcast from this human pond, something left behind. And what remained even further behind was the plant kingdom.

When the old lunar evolution was complete, the earth evolution began. Of this earth evolution we have described how the sun and moon separated from the earth. During this time all the germs of the earlier kingdoms reappeared: the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, and finally, when the moon was still united with its substance with the earth, the mineral kingdom. It was precisely through the addition of the mineral kingdom as the solid foundation that the hardening and desiccation that so desolated the earth took place. For the mineral kingdom that surrounds us today is nothing other than that which has been excreted from the higher kingdoms. I have already drawn your attention to the fact that you need only think once about what today's science recognizes. Then you will be able to imagine how the mineral kingdom has gradually been eliminated. Think of hard coal, a real mineral product, being extracted from the earth. What was coal a long, long time ago? It was trees that grew on the earth, plants that perished and became masses of stone, minerals. What you are now digging up as hard coal was once a mass of plants. So it is a product that was first excreted; originally there were plant creatures instead of coal. So you will also be able to imagine that everything else that forms the foundation and soil of our earth was excreted from higher realms. Just think how today certain mineral products are still excretions from animal beings, as the shells of snails, mussels and so on. Everything mineral was not there in the past; it was only excreted in the course of time. The mineral kingdom only came into being on earth, and it was formed because such entities were still present on earth and were still working in the same way as they had worked on Saturn. The mineral kingdom came into being through the activity of the spirits of personality: The mineral kingdom came into being through the activity of the spirits of personality, and such beings are active on all higher levels. But if the development had continued in this way, there would have been so many mineral impacts, so many hardenings and densifications, that the whole earth would have gradually become desolate.

Now we come to an important point in the development of our earth. We imagine how the sun has already separated, and how the beings have gone out with the finest substances, which are now spiritual beings on the sun. We look at the earth, how it is becoming desolate, how its mineral impact is becoming denser and denser, but also how the forms on it, including the human forms, are becoming more and more arid. Even then, a certain change took place in the life states of human beings. I would like to illustrate what happened to human beings at that time with the development of plants.

The plant sprouts from the inconspicuous seed in spring, develops into blossom and fruit and withers again in the fall. What delights the eye during the spring and summer disappears in the fall, and all that remains externally, physically, is something inconspicuous. But if you wanted to believe that nothing of the actual essence of the plant is present during the winter, or if you were to look for it in the physical seed alone, then you would understand the plant badly. As it is today, the plant does indeed consist of a physical body and an etheric body, but if you look at it clairvoyantly, it is also surrounded by an astral entity at the top, as if by a hem. And this astral entity is animated by a force that flows from the sun, from the spiritual of the sun, to the earth. For the clairvoyant consciousness, every blossom is surrounded as if by a cloud. This cloud breathes the life that is exchanged between the sun and the earth. During spring and summer, while the plants sprout and grow, something of the solar being approaches and surrounds the plants on the surface. When autumn comes, the astral being withdraws and unites with the solar life. We may say: That which is plant astrality seeks out its physical plant body on earth in spring and embodies itself, if not in it, at least in it. Then in autumn it returns to the sun, leaving behind only the germ. It leaves behind the germ, as it were, as a pledge, so that it can find its way back to its physical being.

In the same way there was a kind of exchange between the physical human beings and the solar beings, even if the form of the human beings was still primitive and simple. And there were times when the sun spirits worked down in such a way that they enveloped the human bodies with astrality, just as today the plant astrality envelops the plants from spring to fall. We can therefore say for these times that the astral being of man was united in a certain relationship with the physical body on earth through certain epochs, that it then withdrew to the sun and came back again. Only the germ was left behind in that which was physical.

But the earth hardened more and more. And then something emerged which is of great importance and which I would like to emphasize. Whereas earlier, when the sun had just left the earth, it was still possible for the astral entities that left the earth to reunite with the physical body when they returned after their separation, the ever-increasing influence of the moon hardened this body down there, which the descending entities wanted to occupy, to such an extent that they could no longer do anything with it. You have now described in more detail what I was able to describe to you more abstractly yesterday. I said: The solar forces lost the possibility of shaping the substances on earth. To put it more concretely, you could say that the substances dried up and the entities could no longer find suitable bodies. This also caused the earth to become desolate, and the human souls who wanted to descend again finally found that the bodies were no longer suitable for them. They had to leave them to themselves, and only the bodies with the strongest powers were able to survive this time of desolation. This desolation reached its highest peak when the moon was still inside the earth and was about to come out. The souls that still wanted to be human souls were no longer able to occupy these bodies. Only a few people still inhabited the earth at that time. This desolation looks like a gradual extinction on earth. And one describes the conditions quite exactly when one says: When the moon went out, there were only very few people left who had endured that what wanted to unite with the forms below really united.

Now I must describe these circumstances in more detail. Let us go back once more to the time after the moon's evolution had come to an end, and the earth arose again out of the world-shot. There it did not arise like the old Saturn, but what developed out of it had in it the after-effects of all that had happened before. Not only physical matter was connected with it, but also all the entities that had worked there. That the thrones united with Saturn means that they remained connected with the whole development; and they came out again when the earth rose out of the darkness of the womb. In the same way, the spirits of personality, the spirits of movement and so on came out again, and also the human, animal and plant germs, for all these were within.

Our physical science puts forward hypotheses that are pure fantasies. Today, in the theory of the origin of the world, the theory is put forward that there was once a great world nebula that extended beyond Saturn. Such a world nebula of mere vapors or steam is a fantastic idea - it never existed. If one could only have seen what was going on with external physical eyes, then one could have perceived something like this; one would indeed have seen a huge nebulous mass. But there was something in this mass of mist that physical eyes could not have seen: all the entities that were connected with this development! The fact that everything was later structured and formed did not come about through a mere rotating movement, but through the needs of the entities that were connected with the whole. You will only gain a sensible view of these things when you have completely freed yourselves from what is today the scholastic view, what is inculcated in our children from the very beginning of school. The children are told that the old times had only childish views and ideas: Those poor old Indians believed in a Brahma who filled the whole universe! And such a person, like an ancient Persian, believed in Ormuzd, the good god, and the opposite Ahriman!

And even the ancient Greeks with their whole host of deities, Zeus, Pallas Athena and so on! We know today that these are all entities invented by the popular imagination, by a child's imagination! And even the gods of the old Germans, Wotan, Thor, these are mythological figures, we have long since gone beyond that! We know today that such gods had nothing to do with the development of the world. In the beginning there was a great primeval nebula in the universe, which began to rotate. First it pushed a ball loose from its mass. Then it continued to rotate; over time a second ball was released, then a third ball, and so on. But these ideas are only the form of today's physical-copernican mythology. This will also be replaced by another mythology. The only difference between the earlier mythologies and this present-day form is that they are truer than the later ones, which have only separated out the abstract, only the completely external material. One must always bear this in mind, that it is quite convenient to make children believe how beautifully plausible such a world system is: You take a fat-like drop, cut a circular disk out of a sheet of card, stick it through in the direction of the equator, stick a needle through it from above and put it in the water; there it floats. Now you start to rotate the whole thing, “as the nebula once rotated”, they say. First a flattening forms, then a drop is released, a second drop, a third drop, and a large drop remains in the middle: a small world system has been created! And you can now make it quite plausible: Just as this happens on a small scale, it also happens on a large scale. Those who make such an observation forget only one thing, which can be quite nice to forget on other occasions: themselves. They forget that they themselves are spinning up there. The whole comparison would only be valid if such a brave professor were so bold as to say: As I stand there and turn the little needle, so there is a giant professor outside and makes sure that the whole thing rotates and the planets split off, as we did with the drop of fat in the small one. - In this case, that would still be possible.

We know that no giant professor is turning the needle outside, but that there are entities of all degrees present, and that it is these spiritual entities that attract the corresponding matter to themselves. The beings who needed certain living conditions drew the matter to themselves when they went to the sun, took it and formed the scene through the power of their spiritual forces; and again other beings separated the earth substance from themselves. It is spirit that works down to the smallest material particle, down to the atom, if we want to call it that! And it is untrue to ascribe a mode of action to mere matter. Only then will one understand how it works in the smallest part of space, when one understands that spirit works into the largest part of space. And not spirit in general, of which one says, “it is just spirit in general in the material”, an “all-spirit” or a “primordial spirit”. Again, you could stir anything into it. That is not enough. We have to recognize the “spirits” in their concreteness, in their details and in their various life needs.

And now I want to tell you something in addition to what we were able to touch on yesterday, to the fact that the sun separated from the earth plus the moon, and that the moon in turn separated from the earth. This is correct in the main relationship, but this picture must be supplemented.

Before the sun could separate, it was already necessary for certain entities to separate particular locations. That which they separated off figures today as the outer planets Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. So we can say that Saturn, Jupiter and so on were also in the general matter where the Sun and Moon were, and certain entities first separated out with these world bodies. These were beings who had such needs for life as could be satisfied by a life on these planets, then the sun separated with the highest beings, and the earth plus moon remained. This developed further until the moon was thrown out in the manner described. But not all the beings that had gone with the sun were able to take part in the solar evolution. If we may speak figuratively - it is difficult to find words for this in prosaic language; therefore it is sometimes necessary to speak comparatively - then we can say: When the sun split off, certain beings believed that they could bear to take part in the sun's journey. In reality, only the highest beings could, the others had to split off later. And because these entities created special places for themselves, Venus and Mercury came into being. Thus we see the separation of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars before the separation of the sun from the earth. Afterwards, Venus and Mercury split off from the Sun, and then the Moon separated from the Earth.

This is how we have visualized this development in our minds. We have understood the development of our solar system in such a way that we have the different entities on the various world bodies. When we have placed this before our soul, then we can now also give ourselves the answer to the question: What happened to those spiritual astral beings who wanted to descend as human beings and found hardened bodies below which they could not occupy?

Not all of them were able to unite with the sun spirits, nor were they mature enough to do so. So the following happened: Those beings who had to leave the bodies on earth withdrew for a while to Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. While the earth below becomes desolate, while it only produces bodies that are incapable of receiving human soul-beings, we have the fact that the souls go up into these planetary worlds to wait there until the time has come when they again find human bodies for themselves.

Only very few, only the strongest human bodies were able to take souls into themselves in order to carry life over the lunar crisis. The other souls went up to the other world bodies. And then the moon was ejected from the earth. This allowed the solar forces to work on the human forms again. The human form received a new impulse and became soft and pliable and plastic again; and into these plastic human bodies those souls could move in again who had been waiting for Saturn, Jupiter and so on. While these souls had to leave the earth earlier, they now gradually returned after the moon's exit and populated the human bodies that were newly created through the refreshment. Thus after the exit from the moon we have a time when new and new bodies come forth. We only have a very small number of people after the lunar crisis. People have always had descendants. But the souls, when they came down, could not use the forms and let them wither away. The human race gradually died out. But when the revival came again, the descendants of those human beings who had survived the lunar crisis were again able to absorb the souls of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. The earth was gradually populated with souls. And now you can understand what a significant, deeply incisive event this exit of the moon was. Everything actually changed as a result of the moon's exit.

Let's take another look at the development before the moon's exit. We have to address man as the first-born of our creation. He already came into being during Saturn. Then the animal kingdom was added on the sun, the plant kingdom on the moon, and the mineral kingdom was added on the earth. But now, after the moon's exit, things are different. If the moon had not left, everything on earth would have died. First the people, then the animals, finally the plants. The earth would have been mummified. The earth was saved from this by the moon's exit. Everything came back to life and was refreshed. How did this revival happen?

What was the deepest kingdom, the mineral kingdom, needed the least. The plant kingdom had probably dried up in a certain way, but it was also able to revive quickly. The animal kingdom was also able to develop gradually in a certain respect. The human forms were the latest to come into their own, in order to absorb the souls that flowed to them from the highest regions of the world. Thus the whole development is reversed after the exit from the moon. Whereas previously the human kingdom came into being first, then the animal kingdom, then the plant kingdom and finally the mineral kingdom, it is now the mineral kingdom that is most capable of bringing the revitalizing forces to bear. Then comes the plant kingdom and develops upwards to the highest forms, then the animal kingdom, and only finally can the human kingdom develop upwards to the highest forms. After the exit of the moon the whole sense of development is reversed. And the beings that have, so to speak, been able to wait the longest to unite with their spiritual to the physical are those who, in the highest sense of the word, have ascended into a more spiritual sphere after the exit from the moon. Those who had come to the end of their spiritual development earlier have remained behind on a less perfect level. After the exit from the moon, those who have remained behind appear earlier. You will easily understand why,

Consider any human soul or any spiritual being that did not want to embody itself earlier because of the hardening. This could have the following consideration, if we translate this back into human language: Should I incarnate now or should I wait? Let's assume that the moon has not been out for very long, so things are still very hard. But the being that wants to incarnate is in a hurry; so it goes down under all circumstances and makes do with the bodies that are not yet far advanced. As a result, it has to remain on a lower level, so to speak. Another being says to itself: I prefer to wait longer and remain a while longer in world space until the earth has lightened and diluted its physical entity even more. Such an entity therefore waits until a later point in time and thereby succeeds in physically working on the entity into which it embodies itself, physically making it into its image. Thus all the entities that embody themselves too early must remain on subordinate levels. Those who can wait come to the higher levels. Our higher animals stopped at the animal level because they could not wait after the moon's exit. They made do with the bodies they had just been able to obtain. Those who came down later could only shape the bodies into the lower human races that were dying out or were in the process of dying out. Then came a time that was just right, when the souls united with the bodies, and that created what was actually capable of human development.

Thus we see a desolation of the earth until the exit of the moon, then a revival of earthly conditions after the exit of the moon, and from then on again a descent of those beings who had left the earth because the earth became too bad for them. But now this does not only refer to the beings that only form the higher man, but to still other beings that descended to quite other things than to form man. Here, too, it is a question of always waiting for the right time for such a being to take possession of a body on earth.

Let us go back to Indian times. There were people at a high stage of development. Just as the souls descending from Mars, Saturn and Jupiter sought out their bodies, so higher beings sought out higher bodies in order to work within the human being. Let us take the great holy teachers of the ancient Indians, the Rishis: they made a part of their being available; certain higher beings took up residence in them. But other higher beings said: No, we will wait until there are other beings down there who are undergoing a higher development themselves. We do not like to descend yet, we will remain above until men have made their inner being more mature; then we will descend, for now we find the inner being of men little prepared for us.

Then, during the Persian civilization, certain higher beings said to themselves: Now we can descend into the human inner being as it has developed up to now. - And likewise during the Egyptian period.

But the being who was the highest among the solar beings was still waiting. From abroad it sent down its forces to the holy Rishis. The holy Rishis looked up to the one whom they called Vishva Karman and of whom they said: Vishva Karman is beyond our sphere. - He waited, for he said to himself: “The human interior is not yet prepared so far that I can have a place in it. -- Then came the Persian culture. Then Zarathustra looked up to the sun and saw Ahura Mazdao in the sun. But still this high being did not descend into the earthly sphere. Then came the Egyptian culture and the culture of the people who had waited the longest. And there came the person who had waited the longest, who had already developed his inner being through many incarnations. Then the sun being looked down and saw the inner being of this man who dwelt in Jesus of Nazareth and who had made his inner being ready. The highest of the solar beings looked down and said: “Just as the lower beings once descended to build up the bodies, so now I descend and take up the interior of the person who has waited the longest. - Of course, higher beings have also united with human beings in the past. But the one who had waited the longest took the Christ into himself; at the baptism in the Jordan he was so far advanced that the same spirit which until then had remained in the spheres of world space was able to descend and unite with his inner being. The Christ had been in the body of Jesus of Nazareth since John's baptism, because the individuality working through Jesus of Nazareth had attained the maturity through repeated incarnations to receive this high spirit in the thus spiritualized body.

This Christ spirit was always there. But after the separation of the moon, all beings first had to mature. First the lowest beings, who had been least able to wait for their spiritual part, came out little by little, then higher and higher beings. And when man was able to develop his inner being higher and higher, and when the time had come that Jesus of Nazareth had attained the maturity to receive the Christ within himself, then he who had the ability of higher vision could say: “I have seen how the spirit descended upon him!” And what could the one on whom the spirit had descended say when he allowed what was now living inside him to speak? It was the same being that the Rishis knew as Vishva Karman. What would Vishva Karman have had to say about himself, not if the Rishis had spoken, but if he had spoken? After all, he is the high sun spirit who works as a spirit in the light; he should have said: I am the light of the world! - What would Ahura Mazdao have had to say if he had wanted to speak about himself? I am the light of the world!” And what did the same spirit say when a human being had become ripe to receive him into himself? How does that which was once in the universe, on the sun, now speak out of a human being? “I am the light of the world!”

What has sounded down from the heights of the world to the earth as the innermost self-characterization of the guiding cosmic spirit, we hear it sounding again from a human inner being, since the being itself has taken its place in a human inner being. Jesus of Nazareth, as the Christ in him, rightly resounds:

"I am the light of the world!”