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The Mission of Folk-Souls
GA 121

12 June 1910 a.m., Christiania

Lecture VI

As you may imagine, it is a very complicated matter, when the Spirits of the different hierarchies have so to work together with their forces that the mission of the earth can be fulfilled; when they have so to work that finally a state of equilibrium comes about. Hence you will understand also, that statements such as those made in our last lecture can only be made when one takes a quite definite period in evolution, and that the whole presentation is immediately altered if one considers evolution at another period. Hence also, if you wish to arrive at a complete understanding of these very complicated matters you must always take one course of lectures in connection with the others.

I shall here draw attention to one point, and it should be taken as a sort of annotation. In the equilibrium of our earth the whole co-operation of the hierarchies is such, that we must look at what we described in our last lecture as the third hierarchy, the Spirits of Will, the Cherubim and Seraphim, as being something which, as regards this state of equilibrium, works from within the earth. You must naturally picture to yourselves this hierarchy as originally unfolding its powers from out of the universe towards the centre of the earth, and that the way in which man becomes aware of these forces does not correspond to their first direction, but the reverse direction they take when they are thrown back, reflected.

You will therefore only be able to form a complete idea of the very intimate processes which here take place, if you compare what was said in the last lecture with much that was said in my course of lectures given at Düsseldorf on the Hierarchies, in which a comprehensive idea was given of the heavenly part of the activity of the three hierarchies. These things are by no means so simple, and, to make the mission of the earth comprehensible, it is necessary to select the point of view in such a way that we may see the reflections of the Spirits of these hierarchies in what we call the elements of earth-existence.

But if you take this into consideration, you will then also acquire a feeling of the infinite wisdom contained in the whole harmony of the forces of the universe, in the forces of the cosmos. You will also to a certain extent have the feeling that knowledge must be continually extended, that there must be no limit to it, as things are so complicated that when we think we have grasped one point of view, we are immediately compelled to pass on to another, which then throws light on the matter from another aspect. We can only advance little by little in our knowledge; nevertheless, from the indications given in the last lecture, especially at the close, you will have become somewhat more closely acquainted with what may be called the cooperation of the abnormal and the normal Spirits of Form, which brings about in our life on earth that there should be not merely one kind of humanity spread over the whole earth, but that a humanity might arise which can be manifested in the different races. For that uniform humanity, which man can only attain to again in the course of the evolution of the earth, the pure activity of the normal Spirits of Form would have been necessary. These are the same spiritual Beings who in Genesis are called the Elohim, and we can really recognize seven of these normal Spirits of Form in the entire universe which surrounds our earth and together with it makes one whole.

There are seven Spirits of Form or seven Elohim. If we wish to form a conception of these seven with their various missions, and their vocation of establishing equilibrium or Love in the whole mission of the earth, we must clearly understand that these seven Spirits of Form so co-operate that what we have described in one of these lectures as ‘man in the second third of his life’ would actually be brought about. Thus if all these seven Spirits of Form could work in the way they have proposed among themselves, the essential ‘I’-man would express himself. But as other spiritual Beings co-operate with them, and vary this uniform humanity, a quite special arrangement was necessary in the cosmos. If to-day you wished to seek in the cosmos the locality from whence the normal Spirits of Form are active, those Beings who, as described in our last lecture, in our present cosmos shine towards us in the light, then you must seek for them in the Sun. You must always seek in the direction of the Sun for that Cosmic Lodge, that community in the universe, in which these Spirits of Form take counsel together for the establishing of the earthly equilibrium, for the fulfillment of the mission of the earth. One thing only was necessary so that the abnormal Spirits of Form should not by their activity produce too much disorder as far as man is concerned; it was necessary that one of the Spirits of Form should detach Himself from the community; so that, in reality, you have only to look for six Spirits of Form or Elohim in the direction of the Sun, one of these Spirits had to isolate Himself, in order that through the simultaneous activity of the abnormal Spirits of Form, who are really Spirits of Motion, the equilibrium should not be completely upset. He it was Who in the Bible, in Genesis, is called Jahve or Jehovah. If you wish to look for His activity in the universe, you must not seek for it in the direction of Sun, but in that in which Moon for the time being is to be found. This is also indicated in my Occult Science, although looked at there from another aspect, when it is shown that the Spirits of Form go away with the separation of Sun, but that only in the special arrangement that took place in the separation of Moon, were the preliminary conditions created for the further evolution of man. For if Moon had remained united with Earth, the evolution of man could not have taken place. This further evolution of man was only made possible through one of the Elohim, Jahve, going forth with Moon, while the other six Spirits remained in Sun; it was only made possible through Jahve's co-operative work with His six other companions.

Now it may be asked: Why was Sun split off at all? That was necessary for the following reasons: As soon as certain older Spirits of Motion—who possess greater power than the Spirits of Form, for they stand higher in the rank of the hierarchies—had decided to remain behind, the normal Spirits of Form had to weaken their activity by splitting off one of themselves. They would not otherwise have been able to bring about the equilibrium requisite for further evolution.

If we want to obtain a satisfactory conception of the activities of these normal Spirits of Form, it is best to think of them as streaming down to us in the sunlight. But if we want to obtain an idea of the abnormal Spirits of Form, and of how they act in combination with the normal Spirits of Form, who are centered in Sun as it were (for it was only in order that the equilibrium could be brought about that Jehovah split off towards Moon); then we must imagine that a certain sun-force, which streams towards us in the normal Spirits of Form, is altered by the force that streams to us from the abnormal Spirits of Form, who are really Spirits of Motion. These have their centre in the other five planets, speaking of the planets in the old way. You must therefore seek for the centre of these others, the abnormal Spirits of Form, in Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury.

You have now, when you look into the cosmos, a sort of distribution of the normal and the abnormal Spirits of Form. Six of the normal Spirits of Form are centered in Sun, one of them—Jahve or Jehovah—forms the equilibrium for them from Moon, by ruling and guiding the latter. The activities of this Spirit of Form are influenced by the activities proceeding from Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury. These forces stream down upon Earth, are stemmed there and ray up again from Earth, as was described at the close of our last lecture.

Thus if you have a part of Earth's surface upon which a certain activity is exercised from the Sun by the Elohim or normal Spirits of Form, then nothing would come into existence on that particular part of the Earth's surface but the entirely normal ‘I’, that which gives man his normal being, which produces the average general human nature. Now into these forces of the Spirits of Form, which through the state of equilibrium would otherwise dance here upon the surface, are intermingled the forces of Mercury. Hence in that which here unfolds as the force of the Spirits of Form, there dances and vibrates not only the normal, but also that which intermingles in the normal forces of the Elohim, in the normal forces of the Spirits of Form, that namely, which comes from the abnormal Spirits of Form who are centered in the several planets. From this we see, that through these abnormal Spirits of Form, there are five possible centers of influence, and these, in their reflection upon humanity from the centre of the Earth, really produce what we know as the five main races [from the German, Hauptrassen – e.Ed] who inhabit the Earth.

If we now more closely characterize the spot which in our recent statements we placed in Africa, by saying, that through the co-operation of the normal Spirits of Form with the abnormal ones centered in Mercury, the negro race came into existence, we are then, from an occult standpoint, quite correct in describing what appears in the black race, as the ‘Mercury race’.

Let us now follow on further along the line which we then drew through the central points from which the several races sprang. We then come to Asia and find there the Venus-race or the Malay race. We then pass on across the wide domain of Asia and in the Mongolian race we find the Mars-race. We then pass over into the domain of Europe and we find in the Europeans, in their basic character, in their racial character, the Jupiter men. If we cross over the ocean to America, where the place is at which the races or civilizations die, we then find the race of the dark Saturn, the original American-Indian race, the American race. The American-Indian race is the Saturn race.

In this way, if occultly you picture this matter more and more clearly, you find in these five planets the forces which have experienced their external manifestations in these five parts of the world.

If you form a more and more distinct and concrete conception of this, you will acquire an inner knowledge of these unique racial characters which are spread over the Earth, a knowledge of this peculiar co-operation of the normal and abnormal Spirits of Form. Thus we have, as it were, drawn the picture which holds good for a certain point. But what I have said about the different parts of the Earth, again only holds good for a quite definite epoch of evolution. It holds good for the epoch when, at a definite moment of the old Atlantean evolution, the migration of peoples started from a spot in Atlantis and wandered across to the right place where they could receive the corresponding racial cultivation. Hence in my Occult Science you will find it pointed out that in old Atlantis, in certain Mystery Places, named the Atlantean Oracles, the guidance of this distribution of mankind over the Earth was taken in hand, so that in fact that equilibrium, that state of balance could be brought about which led to the corresponding distribution of the races. In one such Mystery-Oracle the truths of which we are now speaking were always investigated, and originally man was entirely guided by them. In this manner, what happened on the Earth was correspondingly directed from such centers.

In the stream of peoples that traveled across Africa and crystallized into the Ethiopian race, we have to look for an impulse which could be given by the Mercury-oracle, in which one could clearly observe how the normal Spirits of Form, (the six Elohim and Jahve or Jehovah) co-operated, and how the abnormal Spirits of Form whose activities proceeded from the centre of Mercury also worked in. According to the astrological co-operation of these various centers of force, the point of equilibrium was sought for on our Earth, and in accordance with this the centre of balance was taken as the point of radiation for the race in question.

The formation of the other races was also directed in a similar way. In accordance with this, the great map is then drawn, into which are entered the influences with respect to peoples, families, etc. That is the great map, which is an image of the heavenly activity which originates through the forces of the heavenly powers flowing into man, radiating back from him, and forming his destiny. What may we now consider a man of the Mercury race, of the Ethiopian race as being? We may so look upon him that we say: This man is originally destined and organized by the Elohim to express in himself the whole human nature. But now from the Mercury centre the abnormal Spirits of Form worked with great power and caused man to be so varied that the form of the Ethiopian race arose; and it was the same with each of the other races. Thereby the streams of the peoples were guided in quite a definite way from the original centre, and thus the line which I drew for you a few days ago originated.

You must therefore imagine the Spirits of Form radiating from a centre. We have to suppose this centre as being at a definite period of time in old Atlantis. There we have that which sank down into the Atlantean continent and shaped it in such a way that the human spirits were brought under the ruler ship of the corresponding abnormal Spirits of Form.

Thus were the great foundations of the races created, and when man looks up into the infinite expanses of the heavens, he must there seek the forces which constitute him. They constitute him however in their rays which return from the Earth. When he looks up to the normal Spirits of Form, to the Elohim, he is looking up to that which really makes him into man; and when he looks up to what is centered in the several Planetary Spirits (with the exception of the Sun and Moon), he sees that which makes him belong to a particular race.

Now how do these Race-spirits work in and upon man? They work in a very unique way, so that, as one might say, they excite his forces first of all when they reach the physical body. You know that what we call the four fundamental parts of man, are projected and imaged in certain parts of the physical body, so that we may say, the ‘I’ images itself in the blood; the astral body in the nervous system; the etheric or life-body in the glandular system, and only the physical body stands for itself, it is an image of its own being, and for the man of the present day it has all its laws within itself. The ‘I’ reflects itself in the blood, the astral body in the nervous system, the etheric body in the glandular system.

Those spiritual Beings, who there seethe and boil in man so that his racial character may come about, cannot at first work directly into his higher parts. They seethe first of all in these images of the higher parts in the physical body. They cannot as yet enter right into the physical body, but they seethe in the other three members, in that which is the image of the ‘I’, the blood; in the image of the astral body, the nervous system; and in that which is the image of the etheric body, the glandular system. In these three systems, which belong to the physical body but are reflections of the higher members, the Race-spirits, the abnormal Spirits of Form.

Here you see that the physical body of man is determined from within; so that these various spiritual Beings set to work in those parts of the physical body which are the projections, the shadows of the higher members. Now where for instance does Mercury set to work? I say Mercury, so as to include all the abnormal Spirits of Form to be found in Mercury. He intervenes by co-operating with others, especially in the glandular system. He seethes in the glandular system, and there are expressed the forces which originate through that preponderance of the Mercury forces, which work in the Ethiopian race. Everything which gives the Ethiopian race its special characteristics comes from the fact that the Mercury forces seethe and surge in the glandular system of this people. What modifies the universal human form into the special form of the Ethiopian race with black skin and woolly hair and so on, is the result of their activity. This modification of the common human form comes therefore from these forces.

If you now pass further over to Asia, you find there in a similar manner something we might describe as Venus forces, as an abnormal development of the Spirits of Form. These Venus forces operate by attacking principally that which we call the reflection of the astral body, the nervous system. They operate however in a peculiar way, and indeed not directly as Venus-spirits upon the nervous system. For the nervous system can be affected in two indirect ways; one way is through the respiration. When the breathing is specially worked upon, these activities establish themselves in man's respiratory and nervous system, and give it a definite form. This indirect way is selected by the abnormal Spirits of Form whom we may call Venus Beings, in the Malay race, in the yellow tinted races of Southern Asia, and towards the Malay Archipelago. Just as the glandular type of man is spread over the land of Ethiopia, so over these parts of Malaya there is spread the type of man in whom the abnormal Spirits of Form work upon the nervous system indirectly through the respiratory system. There the nervous system is worked upon indirectly through the respiratory system. In the nervous system is brewed that which, with special modifications, produces the more or less yellow-colored part of humanity. The transformation there brought about, certainly expresses itself more in that part of the nervous system which we sum up in the expression ‘Solar Plexus’, therefore not really in the higher nervous system but in that mysterious part of the nervous system which runs in two strands parallel with the spinal marrow and spreads out in various directions. This part of the nervous system, therefore, is worked upon indirectly through the respiratory system, this part which in our sense does not yet belong to the higher mental activity. These Venus-forces which work in this race, seethe deep down in the unconscious organism.

Now let us go up over the wide Mongolian plains. In those plains those Spirits of Form are principally active who work indirectly through the blood. There in the blood is brewed that which brings about a modification of humanity and produces the basic character of the race. There is, however, something very peculiar in this Mongolian race. There the Mars-spirits enter the blood: But they work in it in quite a definite way, viz., they are there able to work towards the six Elohim who are centered in the Sun. In the Mongolian race, therefore, they work towards these six Elohim, and in doing so they make a special attack in the other direction towards Jahve or Jehovah Who has separated His field of action from that of the six Elohim.

But besides this co-operation of the Mars-spirits with the six Elohim and Jahve, which results in the Mongolian race, there is still something quite special. Just as the six Elohim from the Sun and Jahve from the Moon act upon the Mongolians, whilst the Mars-spirits work towards them, so in another case we must imagine that from the direction of the Moon the Jahve forces again meet and co-operate with the Mars-spirits, and that thus a special modification arises. Here you have a special modification of humanity, viz., that which belongs to the Semitic race, explained from its most occult background. In the Semites you have a modification of collective humanity, in which Jahve or Jehovah shuts Himself off from the other Elohim and invests this people with a special character, by co-operating with the Spirits of Mars, in order to bring about the special modification of this people.

You will now perceive the special element contained in the Semitic people and its mission. In a certain deep occult sense the writer of the Bible was able to say, that Jahve or Jehovah had made this people His own, and when to this you add the fact that there was here a co-operation with the Mars-spirits who direct their attacks chiefly upon the blood, then you will also comprehend why the continuous action of the blood from generation to generation was of quite special importance to the Semitic Hebrew people, and why the God Jahve describes Himself in the Semitic people as the God Who comes down in the blood from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and so on. That is the important thing: how the blood runs through all these generations. By describing Himself as ‘I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’, Jehovah says: ‘I act in your blood’. That which always works in the blood, that which must be fought out in the blood,—the co-operation with the Mars-spirits,—that is one of the mysteries which lead us deeply into the wise guidance of the entire humanity of the Earth.

So you see, that the blood of mankind is acted upon in a twofold manner; that two races originate, by the blood of mankind being acted upon; on the one side we have that which we call the Mongolian race, on the other that which we may describe as belonging to the Semitic race. That is a great polarity in humanity, and we shall have to trace much that is of immense importance back to this polarity, if we wish to understand the depths of the Folk-souls.

We shall now go back still further and trace how the Spirits and Beings who have their centre in Jupiter seethe and boil in man. These select for themselves the second point of attack, so as to act indirectly upon the nervous system. The one point of attack is through the senses of man; the other point of attack which works into the nervous system, goes indirectly through the respiratory system into the solar plexus. The attack proceeding from Jupiter goes indirectly through the sense-impressions and streams out from thence upon those portions of the nervous system which are centered in the brain and spinal cord. Here flow in, in those races belonging to the Jupiter humanity, those forces which give the special stamp to the racial character. This is more or less the case in the Aryans, in the peoples of Asia Minor and Europe, those whom we reckon as belonging to the Caucasian race. In these arises that modification of universal humanity which comes from the abnormal Spirits of Form whom we may describe as Jupiter Spirits, working upon the senses. The Caucasians therefore are determined through the senses.

Now you will also understand that a people like the Greeks, who were quite specially and consciously under the influence of Jupiter or Zeus, who felt themselves to be a centre for the Zeus influence, were pre-eminently determined by what flows into the nervous system through the senses. Of course the Greeks were also influenced by the Elohim who stream in from Sun. But the case was such, that among the Greeks everything that acts upon the senses was devoted to the influence of Jupiter or Zeus, and by that means this people attained its greatness. Everything the Greeks saw in the way of external form, external life, contained important meanings for them. They saw the spiritual in their perceptions of the physical, and hence became the basic people for all sculpture, for all external form-giving. This indicates a very special mission of the Greek people, who are so eminently the people of Jupiter or Zeus, who even at the time when,—especially through the entrance of the star-constellation,—the co-operation of the Zeus or Jupiter-forces with the universal Elohim-forces took place, felt themselves to be the people of Zeus.

All the peoples of Asia Minor and especially the European peoples, are on the whole modifications of this Jupiter influence, and you may now divine that, as man has many senses, many modifications can come about, and that in the formation of the several peoples within this basic race which were formed by the senses working upon the nervous system, one or other of the senses may have the mastery. Through this the various peoples may assume different forms. According as the eye or the ear or one of the other senses has the upper hand, so will the different peoples be determined in this or that direction for the special national tendency within the racial character. Through this they get quite definite tasks. One task, which specially devolves upon the Caucasian race is, that it is to tread the path to the spiritual through the senses, for it is built especially upon the senses.

Herein lies something that leads one into the deeper starting-points of occultism and it will show you that in those peoples whose sign, so to speak, lies in the Venus-character, the principal starting-point, even in occult training, must be made where the breathing is the most important thing. On the other hand in the peoples living more to the West, the starting-point of their deepening and spiritualizing must be taken from what is in the sense world. This is possessed by peoples who occupy countries more towards the West, in their stages of higher cognition, in imagination, inspiration and intuition, in accordance with the way in which the Jupiter-spirit originally modified the character.

Hence there were always these two centers in the evolution of humanity, the one ruled more by the Spirits of Venus, and the other ruled more by the Spirits of Jupiter. The Spirits of Jupiter were specially observed in those Mysteries in which—as those of you will know who took part in my course of lectures at Munich1The East in the Light of the West last year—the three Individualities met together, the three spiritual Beings, Buddha, Zarathustra or Zarathas in his later incarnation, and that great leader of humanity whom we describe by the name of Skythianos. That is the Council which, under the guidance of One still greater, set itself the task of investigating into the mysterious forces which must be developed for the evolution of humanity, whose starting-point was taken from that part which is originally connected with the Jupiter forces and which was preordained in the map of the Earth already mentioned.

Finally, what we may describe as the abnormal Spirits of Form who have their centre in Saturn, act upon the glandular system, but in a roundabout way through all the other systems. Therefore in all that we must describe as the Saturn-race, in everything to which we must attribute the Saturn-character, we must look for something which draws together and embraces that which leads again to the evening twilight of humanity, whose development brings humanity in a certain way to a real conclusion, to a dying away. The expression of this action on the glandular system is seen in the American-Indian race. From that action comes its mortality, its disappearance. The Saturn influence acts through all the other systems finally upon the glandular system. It separates out the hardest parts of man, and we may therefore say that this dying-out consists in a sort of ossification, and this may also clearly be seen in the outer form.

If you look at the pictures of the old American Indians, the process above described is palpable in the decline of this race. In a race such as this, everything which existed in the Saturn-evolution is now present in them, and that in a special manner; it has withdrawn into itself and left man alone with his hard bone system, and brought him into decline. One feels something of this truly occult activity, if one observes how, even in the nineteenth century, a representative of these old Indians speaks of how in him there dwells what formerly was great and mighty for man, but which could not possibly go along with further evolution. There is in existence a description of a beautiful scene, in which a leader of these Indians who are dying out, confronts a European invader.

Imagine what is felt in the heart when two such men confront each other, men who came across from Europe, and men who in the earliest ages, when the races were divided, went over to the West. The Indians then took over with them to the West all that was great in the Atlantean culture. What was the greatest thing of all to the Indian? It was that he was still able dimly to sense something of the ancient greatness and majesty of a period which existed in the old Atlantean epoch, in which the division of the races had hardly begun, in which men could look up to the Sun and perceive the Spirits of Form penetrating through a sea of mist. Through an ocean of mist the Atlantean gazed up at that which to him was not divided into six or seven, but which acted together. This co-operative activity of the seven Spirits of Form was called by the Atlanteans the Great Spirit who revealed himself to man in ancient Atlantis. The Atlantean had not taken into himself all that the Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter Spirits brought about in the East, through which were developed all the civilizations which reached their zenith in Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century. In all this the son of the brown race did not participate. He clung firmly to the Great Spirit of the primeval past. That which the others had done, those who in a primeval past had also received the Great Spirit, passed before his eyes when a paper was laid before him on which were many little signs, letters, of which he understood nothing. All that was foreign to him, but in his soul he still had the Great Spirit. His speech has been preserved to us; it is worthy of note because it points to what we have explained, and it runs somewhat as follows: ‘There, in the ground upon which walk the conquerors of our country, the bones of my brothers are buried. Why are the feet of our conquerors allowed to walk over the graves of my brothers? Because they are in possession of that which makes the white man great. The brown man is made great by something else; he is made great by the Great Spirit, Who speaks to him in the sighing of the wind, in the rustling of the forest, in the surging of the waves, in the gurgling of the spring, in thunder and lightning! That is the Spirit Who to us speaks truth. Oh, the Great Spirit speaks truth! Your Spirits, whom you have here on paper, and who express what to you is great, they do not speak truth.’ Thus spoke the Indian Chief, from his point of view. The brown man belongs to the Great Spirit; the pale man belongs to the spirits who, in black shapes, as little dwarf-like beings—he meant the letters—hop about on the paper and who do not speak the truth. That is a world-historic dialogue, which was carried on between the conquerors and the last of the great Chiefs of the brown men. Here we see what belongs to Saturn and his activity, and what originates on the earth from his co-operation with other Spirits, at such a moment as this, when two different directions meet.

Thus we have seen how humanity in general was brought to the surface of our Earth by the Elohim or the normal Spirits of Form, how then the five principal races of human evolution lift themselves out of the collective mass of mankind, out of the ocean of humanity, and how these five races are connected with the guiding Spirits belonging to the ranks of the abnormal Spirits of Form whom we must call by the names which we take from the live planets, whereas the normal Spirits of Form are to be sought for in the Sun and in the Moon. From this point we shall proceed further, and pass on to something that will be easier to us, because we shall be connecting on to something familiar to us, namely, to tribes and peoples.

Sechster Vortrag

Sie können sich denken, daß es eine sehr komplizierte Sache ist, wenn die Geister der verschiedenen Hierarchien mit ihren Kräften so zusammenwirken müssen, daß die Erdenmission erfüllt werden kann, sozusagen so wirken müssen, daß zuletzt eine Gleichgewichtslage herauskommt. Daher werden Sie auch begreifen, daß Angaben wie diejenigen, die gestern gemacht worden sind, immer nur dann gemacht werden können, wenn man einen ganz bestimmten Punkt der Entwickelung ergreift, und daß sich die ganze Darstellung sofort verändert, wenn man die Evolution an einem anderen Punkte betrachtet. Daher werden Sie auch, wenn Sie zu einem geschlossenen Verständnis gerade dieser sehr komplizierten Sache kommen wollen, immer den einen Vortragszyklus mit dem andern zusammenhalten müssen.

Ich will nur einen Punkt hervorheben, und das, was ich jetzt in diesem Augenblicke sage, soll eine Art von Anmerkung sein. In unserem Erdengleichgewicht stellt sich das ganze Zusammenwirken der Hierarchien so dar, daß wir das, was wir gestern als dritte Hierarchie bezeichneten — die Geister des Willens, die Cherubim und Seraphim —, suchen müssen als etwas, was in bezug auf diese Gleichgewichtslage aus der Erde heraus wirkt. Natürlich müssen Sie sich vorstellen, daß diese Hierarchie ursprünglich aus dem Weltall herein gegen den Erdmittelpunkt ihre Kräfte entfaltet, und daß, wie der Mensch diese Kräfte gewahr wird, nicht deren direkter Richtung entspricht, sondern der umgekehrten, welche sie erfahren, indem sie zurückgeworfen, reflektiert werden. Daher werden Sie zum Beispiel von dem ganz Intimen der Vorgänge, die da stattfinden, erst dann sich eine geschlossene Vorstellung zu machen vermögen, wenn Sie das gestern Gesagte mit manchem vergleichen, was über die Hierarchien in meinem Vortragszyklus in Düsseldorf gesagt worden ist, wo der himmlische Teil des Wirkens der drei Hierarchien in geschlossener Darstellung gegeben wurde. Diese Dinge sind eben nicht einfach, und um die Erdenmission begreiflich zu machen, ist es notwendig, den Gesichtspunkt so zu wählen, daß wir die Zurückstrahlungen der Geister dieser Hierarchien in dem, was wir die Elemente des Erdendaseins nennen, erblicken.

Wenn Sie dies berücksichtigen, dann werden Sie aber auch ein Gefühl bekommen von der unendlichen Weisheit, welche in dem ganzen Zusammenhang der Kräfte des Universums, der Kräfte des Kosmos ruht. Sie werden gewissermaßen auch dafür ein Gefühl erhalten, daß die Erkenntnisse immer weiter zu gehen haben, daß sie keine Grenze haben, da die Dinge so kompliziert sind, daß, wenn wir einen Gesichtspunkt erfaßt zu haben glauben, wir gleich genötigt sind, zu einem anderen überzugehen, der uns die Sache wieder von einer anderen Seite beleuchtet erscheinen läßt. Wir können nur nach und nach in unseren Erkenntnissen aufrücken, aber Sie werden dennoch aus den Andeutungen, die gestern gemacht worden sind, namentlich am Schlusse der Darstellung, sich etwas genauer bekannt gemacht haben mit dem, was man nennen kann: Zusammenwirken der abnormen und normalen Geister der Form, damit innerhalb unseres Erdenlebens nicht bloß ein einheitliches, sich über die ganze Erde ausbreitendes, gleichartiges Menschentum entsteht, sondern damit ein solches Menschentum entsteht, das sich in der Mannigfaltigkeit der einzelnen Rassen ausleben kann. Zu jenem einheitlichen Menschentum, das der Mensch nur im Verlaufe der Erdenevolution wieder erreichen kann, wäre notwendig gewesen die reine Wirksamkeit der normalen Geister der Form. Es sind das dieselben geistigen Wesenheiten, welche in der Genesis mit dem Namen der Elohim benannt werden, und es sind eigentlich im gesamten Universum, das die Erde umgibt und mit ihr zusammen ein Ganzes ausmacht, sieben solcher Geister der Form in normaler Entwickelung zu erkennen. Es gibt also sieben Geister der Form oder sieben Elohim. Wenn wir uns diese sieben Elohim mit ihren verschiedenen Missionen und dem Beruf, in der gesamten Erdenmission das Gleichgewicht oder die Liebe herzustellen, vorstellen wollen, dann müssen wir uns klar sein darüber, daß diese sieben Geister der Form in dem gesamten Weltall so zusammenwirken, daß wirklich das zustande kommen würde, was wir in einem der Vorträge als «den Menschen im zweiten Drittel seines Lebens» charakterisiert haben. Da würde der eigentliche Ich-Mensch sich ausprägen, wenn alle diese sieben Geister der Form in der entsprechenden Weise, wie sie es für sich allein durch ihre eigene Gemeinschaft sich vorgenommen haben, wirken könnten. Weil aber andere geistige Wesenheiten mitwirken und dieses einheitliche Menschentum vermannigfaltigen, so war im Kosmos eine ganz besondere Einrichtung notwendig. Wenn Sie heute die Lokalität im Kosmos suchen wollen, von der aus die normalen Geister der Form wirksam sind — also diejenigen Wesenheiten, die, wie ich das gestern charakterisierte, uns zuletzt im Lichte entgegenstrahlen innerhalb unseres gegenwärtigen Kosmos —, so müssen Siedieselben in der Sonnesuchen. Sie müssen jedesmal inder Richtung der Sonne jene kosmische Loge, jene Gemeinschaft im Weltall suchen, wo diese Geister der Form ihre Beratungen pflegen zur Herstellung des irdischen Gleichgewichts, zur Erfüllung der irdischen Mission. Nur eines war notwendig, damit die abnormen Geister der Form durch ihre Wirksamkeit nicht gar zu große Unordnung in bezug auf den Menschen hervorriefen, es war notwendig, daß sich einer der Geister der Form ablöste aus der Gemeinschaft, so daß Sie eigentlich nur sechs dieser Geister der Form oder Elohim in der Sonnenrichtung zu suchen haben. Einer dieser Geister mußte sich, damit durch die gleichzeitige Wirksamkeit der abnormen Geister der Form — die eigentlich Geister der Bewegung sind — nicht völlige Unordnung in das Gleichgewicht hineingebracht wurde, absondern. Das war derjenige, welcher in der Bibel, in der Genesis, Jahve oder Jehova genannt wird. Wenn Sie dessen Wirksamkeit im Weltall suchen wollen, so dürfen Sie nicht suchen in der Richtung, wo die Sonne steht, sondern in der Richtung, wo sich jeweilig der Mond befindet. Das ist auch in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» angedeutet, nur von einer anderen Seite her betrachtet, indem gezeigt wird, daß die Geister der Form mit der Sonnentrennung weggehen, daß aber mit der besonderen Einrichtung, die mit der Mondtrennung zustande kommt, erst die Vorbedingung für die fernere Entwickelung des Menschen geschaffen wird. Denn, wenn der Mond mit der Erde vereinigt geblieben wäre, so hätte die Evolution des Menschen nicht stattfinden können. Diese fernere Evolution des Menschen ist nur dadurch möglich gewesen, daß einer der Elohim, Jahve, mit dem Monde heraustrat — während die anderen sechs Geister in der Sonne verblieben —, nur dadurch, daß Jahve im Entgegenwirken zusammenwirkte mit seinen sechs anderen Genossen.

Sie können nun die Frage aufwerfen: Warum wurde überhaupt diese Sonne abgespalten? Das war aus folgenden Gründen notwendig. Nachdem einmal ältere Geister der Bewegung, welche eine größere Kraft als die Geister der Form haben — denn sie stehen in der Reihe der Hierarchien höher —, sich entschlossen hatten, zurückzubleiben, mußten die normalen Geister der Form ihre Wirksamkeit durch die Abspaltung des einen abschwächen. Sie hätten sonst nicht das Gleichgewicht hervorbringen können, welches für die fernere Entwickelung erforderlich war.

Wenn wir eine genügende Vorstellung haben wollen von dem Wirken dieser normalen Geister der Form, so ist es das Beste, wenn wir uns sagen: Sie strahlen uns im Sonnenlichte zu. Wenn wir aber von den abnormen Geistern der Form eine Vorstellung gewinnen wollen, wie sie zusammenwirken mit den normalen Geistern der Form, die gleichsam zentriert sind in der Sonne — denn nur, damit das Gleichgewicht hergestellt werden kann, hat sich Jehova in der Mondrichtung abgespalten —, dann müssen wir uns vorstellen, daß eine bestimmte Sonnenkraft, die in den normalen Geistern der Form uns zuströmt, abgeändert wird durch die Kraft, die uns zuströmt von den abnormen Geistern der Form, die eigentlich Geister der Bewegung sind. Diese finden ihren Mittelpunkt in den anderen fünf Planeten, im alten Planetenstile gesprochen. Da haben Sie den Mittelpunkt zu suchen für diese anderen, für die abnormen Geister der Form, also im Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Merkur.

Jetzt haben Sie, wenn Sie in den Kosmos hinaussehen, eine Art Verteilung für die normalen und abnormen Geister der Form. Die normalen Geister der Form sind zu sechs zentriert in der Sonne, der Eine — Jahve oder Jehova — hält das Gleichgewicht jenen, vom Monde aus, indem er den letzteren regiert und leitet. Beeinflußt werden die Wirkungen dieser Geister der Form durch jene Wirkungen, die von Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus und Merkur ausgehen. Diese Kräfte strahlen herunter auf die Erde, werden aufgehalten und strahlen wieder von der Erde auf in der Weise, wie das gestern am Ende des Vortrages beschrieben worden ist. Wenn Sie also ein Stück Erdoberfläche haben, und von der Sonne aus eine bestimmte Wirkung auf dieselbe durch die Elohim oder normalen Geister der Form ausgeübt wird, so würde auf dem betreffenden Punkte der Erdoberfläche nichts anderes entstehen als das ganz normale Ich. Es würde dasjenige entstehen, was dem Menschen sein normales Sein, durchschnittlich sein gesamtes Menschentum gibt. Nun mischen sich hinein in diese Kräfte der Geister der Form — die sonst durch die Gleichgewichtslage hier auf der Oberfläche tanzen würden — zum Beispiel die Kräfte des Merkur. Dadurch tanzt und vibriert in dem, was hier als Kraft der Geister der Form sich entfaltet, nicht nur das Normale,sondern auch dasjenige, was sich hineinmischt in dienormalenKräfteder Elohim, in die normalen Kräfte der Geister der Form, nämlich das, was von diesen in den Mittelpunkten der einzelnen Planeten zentrierten, abnormen Geistern der Form kommt. Hieraus ergibt sich, daß fünf Mittelpunkte der Beeinflussung möglich sind durch diese abnormen Geister der Form, und diese fünf Mittelpunkte der Beeinflussung ergeben in ihrer Rückstrahlung, in ihrer Reflektierung vom Erdmittelpunkte aus auf die Menschheit in der Tat dasjenige, was wir anerkennen als die fünf Grundrassen im Erdendasein.

Wenn wir den Punkt, den wir vor einigen Tagen in unseren Darlegungen in Afrika gefunden haben, uns jetzt näher dadurch charakterisieren, daß, weil die normalen Geister der Form zusammenwirken mit denjenigen abnormen Geistern der Form, die im Merkur zentriert sind, die Rasse der Neger entsteht, so bezeichnen wir okkult ganz richtig das, was in der schwarzen Rasse herauskommt, als die MerkurRasse.

Jetzt verfolgen wir diese Linie weiter, die wir dazumal durch die Mittelpunkte der einzelnen Rassenausstrahlungen gezogen haben. Da kommen wir nach Asien und finden die Venus-Rasse oder die malayische Rasse. Wir kommen dann durch das breite Gebiet Asiens hindurch und finden in der mongolischen Rasse die Mars-Rasse. Wir gehen dann herüber auf europäisches Gebiet und finden in den europäischen Menschen, in ihrem Urcharakter, in ihrem Rassencharakter die JupiterMenschen. Gehen wir über das Meer hinüber nach Amerika, wo der Punkt, der Ort ist, an dem die Rassen oder Kulturen sterben, so finden wir die Rasse des finsteren Saturn, die ursprüngliche indianische Rasse, die amerikanische Rasse. Die indianische Rasse ist also die SaturnRasse. Auf diese Weise bekommen Sie, wenn Sie sich okkult die Sache immer genauer vorstellen, die Kräfte, die in diesen Weltenpunkten, diesen fünf Planeten, ihre äußere materielle Offenbarung erfahren haben.

Wenn Sie sich davon eine immer deutlichere und konkretere Vorstellung machen, dann bekommen Sie eine innere Erkenntnis dieser eigentümlichen, über die Erde hin verbreiteten Rassen-Charaktere, eine Erkenntnis dieses eigenartigen Zusammenwirkens der normalen und der abnormen Geister der Form. Damit haben wir gleichsam das Bild gezeichnet, wie wir es in einem bestimmten Punkt festhalten können. Aber es gilt das, was ich gesagt habe für die verschiedenen Punkte der Erde, wieder nur für einen ganz bestimmten Zeitpunkt der Entwickelung. Es gilt für den Zeitpunkt, wo an einem bestimmten Momente der alten atlantischen Entwickelung die Völkerzüge von einem Punkt der Atlantis ausgehen und dorthin wandern, wo sie die entsprechende Rassenausbildung in dem betreffenden Punkte erhalten können. Daher finden Sie in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» auch darauf hingewiesen, daß in der alten Atlantis, an ganz bestimmten Mysterienstätten, die dort die atlantischen Orakel genannt sind, die Leitung dieser Verteilung der Menschen über die Erde in die Hand genommen wird, so daß in der Tat jenes Equilibrium, jene Gleichgewichtslage hervorgebracht werden konnte, die zur entsprechenden Rassenverteilung führte. In einem solchen Mysterien-Orakel wurden immer die Wahrheiten erforscht, die wir jetzt erzählen, und ursprünglich hat man sich ganz danach gerichtet. Es wurde auf diese Weise das, was auf der Erde geschah, von solchen Zentren aus in entsprechender Weise geleitet.

Wir haben also gleichsam in der Völkerströmung, die durch Afrika hinüberzog und sich in der äthiopischen Rasse auskristallisierte, einen Impuls zu suchen, der von dem Merkur-Orakel gegeben werden konnte, in dem man ganz genau beobachtete, wie zusammenwirkten die normalen Geister der Form, die sechs Elohim mit Jahve oder Jehova, und wie hineinwirkten die abnormen Geister der Form, die vom Mittelpunkte des Merkur aus wirkten. Nach dem astrologischen Zusammenwirken dieser verschiedenen Punkte der Kräfte wurde der Gleichgewichtspunkt ausgesucht auf unserer Erde und danach wurde der Gleichgewichtspunkt als Ausstrahlungspunkt für die betreffende Rasse angenommen.

In ähnlicher Weise wurde auch die Bildung der anderen Rassen geleitet. Danach wird dann die große Landkarte gezeichnet, in welche die Einflüsse eingetragen werden mit Bezug auf Völker, Geschlechter und so weiter. Das ist die große Landkarte, die ein Abbild der Himmelswirksamkeit ist, die dadurch entsteht, daß die Kräfte der Himmelswirksamkeit in die Erde hineinstrahlen, von ihr zurückstrahlen und den Menschen bestimmen.

Als was können wir nun einen Menschen der Merkur-Rasse, der äthiopischen Rasse ansehen? Wir können ihn so ansehen, daß wir sagen: Dieser Mensch ist ursprünglich durch die Elohim dazu bestimmt, dazu veranlagt gewesen, das gesamte Menschliche in seiner Totalität in sich auszudrücken. Aber nun wirkten von dem Merkurmittelpunkt aus die abnormen Geister der Form mit großer Gewalt und variierten den Menschen so, daß die Form der äthiopischen Rasse herauskam. Und so ähnlich verhält es sich bei jeder einzelnen Rasse. Dadurch aber, daß die Völkerströmungen in ganz bestimmter Weise von dem ursprünglichen Mittelpunkte aus geleitet worden sind, ist erst diese Linie, die ich Ihnen vor einigen Tagen zeichnete, entstanden. Sie müssen sich also denken, daß die Geister der Form von einem Mittelpunkte ausstrahlten. Diesen Mittelpunkt haben wir anzunehmen in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkte der alten Atlantis. Da haben wir das, was sich hinuntersenkt in den atlantischen Kontinent und ihn so ausgestaltet, daß die Menschengeister unter die Herrschaft der entsprechenden abnormen Geister der Form gebracht wurden.

Damit war die große Völkergrundlage geschaffen, und der Mensch hat, wenn er hinaufsieht in die unendlichen Weiten des Himmelsraumes, dort die Kräfte zu suchen, welche ihn konstituierten. Sie konstituierten ihn aber in ihrer Rückstrahlung von der Erde. Indem er hinaufblickt zu den normalen Geistern der Form, zu den Elohim, sieht er zu dem auf, was ihn eigentlich zum Menschen macht, und indem er hinaufblickt zu dem, was in den einzelnen Planetengeistern — abgesehen von Sonne und Mond — zentriert ist, sieht er das, was ihn zu einer bestimmten Rasse macht.

Wie arbeiten nun in und an den Menschen diese Rassengeister? Sie arbeiten in sehr eigentümlicher Art, so, daß sie, man möchte sagen, durch kochen seine Kräfte zunächst bis in den physischen Leib hinein. Nun wissen Sie ja, daß sich dasjenige, was wir die vier Grundteile des Menschen nennen, projiziert, abbildet in jeweiligen Teilen des physischen Leibes, so daß wir sagen können: Es bildet sich ab dasjenige, was das Ich ist, im Blut; dasjenige, was der astralische Leib ist, im Nervensystem; dasjenige, was der Äther- oder Lebensleib ist, im Drüsensystem, und erst der physische Leib ist ein Sichselbstsein, ein Abbild seines eigenen Wesens, das für den heutigen Menschen in sich selbst seine geschlossenen Gesetze hat. Das Ich bildet sich also ab im Blute, der Astralleib im Nervensystem, der Ätherleib im Drüsensystem.

Zunächst können diejenigen geistigen Wesenheiten, die da in dem Menschen kochen, damit sein Rassencharakter entsteht, nicht gleich unmittelbar in die höheren Teile hineinwirken. Sie kochen zunächst in diesen Abbildungen der höheren Glieder im physischen Leibe. In den physischen Leib können sie nicht recht herein, aber sie kochen in den drei anderen Gliedern: in dem, was Abbild des Ich ist, im Blut, in dem, was Abbild des Astralleibes ist, im Nervensystem und in dem, was Abbild des Ätherleibes ist, im Drüsensystem. In diesen drei Systemen, die dem physischen Leibe angehören, aber Abbilder der höheren Glieder sind, kochen die Rassengeister, die abnormen Geister der Form.

Sie sehen hier, daß des Menschen physischer Leib von innen bestimmt wird, so bestimmt wird, daß diese verschiedenen geistigen Wesenheiten eingreifen in die Glieder im physischen Leibe, welche die Projektionen, die Schattenbilder der höheren Glieder sind. Wo greift nun zum Beispiel der Merkur ein? — ich sage Merkur, um das zusammenzufassen, was sich als abnorme Geister der Form im Merkur befindet. Er greift so ein, daß er mit anderen zusammenwirkt, namentlich in das Drüsensystem. Er kocht in dem Drüsensystem drinnen, und da leben sich die Kräfte aus, die durch jenes Übergewicht der Merkurkräfte entstehen, die in der äthiopischen Rasse wirken. Alles, was der äthiopischen Rasse ihre besonderen Merkmale verleiht, das kommt davon her, daß die Merkurkräfte in dem Drüsensystem der betreffenden Menschen kochen und brodeln. Das kommt davon her, daß sie auskochen, was die allgemeine, gleiche Menschengestalt zu der besonderen der äthiopischen Rasse macht mit der schwarzen Hautfarbe, dem wolligen Haar und so weiter. Diese Modifikation der allgemeinen Menschengestalt kommt also von diesen Kräften her.

Gehen Sie nun weiter nach Asien herüber, so haben Sie in ähnlicher Weise etwas, was man als Venuskräfte bezeichnen könnte, als eine abnorme Ausgestaltung der Geister der Form. Diese Venuskräfte wirken wiederum, indem sie ihren Angriffspunkt vorzugsweise auf das verlegen, was wir Abbild des astralischen Leibes nennen, im Nervensystem. Aber sie wirken auf eine besondere Art, und zwar nicht direkt als Venusgeister, auf das Nervensystem. Es kann nämlich auf zwei Umwegen auf das Nervensystem gewirkt werden. Der eine Umweg ist durch die Atmung. Indem nämlich besonders auf die Atmung gewirkt wird, setzen sich im Menschen selber diese Wirkungen im Atmungs- und im Nervensystem fest und geben ihm eine bestimmte Form. Diesen Umweg wählen sich die abnormen Geister der Form, die wir Venuswesen nennen können, eben in der malayischen Rasse, in den gelbschattierten Rassen von Südasien und nach den Inseln des malayischen Gebietes hin. Da ist ausgebreitet, so wie über das äthiopische Gebiet die Drüsenmenschheit, über diese Fläche die Menschheit, bei der die abnormen Geister der Form auf dem Umwege durch das Atmungssystem auf das Nervensystem wirken. Im Nervensystem wird auf dem Umwege über das Atmungssystem gewirkt. Im Nervensystem wird ausgekocht das, was mit besonderen Modifikationen die mehr oder weniger gelbgefärbte Menschheit gibt. Die Umwandlung, welche da bewirkt wird, drückt sich allerdings mehr in jenem Nervensystem aus, das wir mit dem Ausdruck Sonnengeflecht zusammenfassen, also nicht eigentlich in dem höheren Nervensystem, sondern in jenem geheimnisvollen Teile des Nervensystems, der in zwei Strängen parallel dem Rückenmark läuft und sich in der verschiedensten Weise ausbreitet. Es wird also in diesem Teile des Nervensystems auf dem Umwege durch das Atmungssystem gewirkt, der in unserem Sinne noch nicht zu der höheren geistigen Tätigkeit gehört. Es wird tief im unterbewußten Organismus durch diese Venuskräfte gewühlt, die in diesem Rassenteile der Menschheit wirken.

Jetzt gehen wir über die breiten, mongolischen Flächen herauf. Das sind diejenigen Flächen, in denen die Geister der Form vorzugsweise wirken, die den Umweg durch das Blut genommen haben. Da wird im Blute dasjenige ausgekocht, was die eigentliche Modifikation aus der Menschheit heraus, den Grundcharakter der Rasse bewirkt. Nun ist aber bei dieser mongolischen Rasse etwas höchst Eigentümliches vorhanden. Da gehen ins Blut hinein die Marsgeister. Sie arbeiten aber auf eine ganz bestimmte Weise im Blute, so daß sie den sechs Elohim, die in der Sonne zentriert sind, entgegenwirken können. Diesen sechs Elohim wirken sie also entgegen in der mongolischen Rasse. Dabei machen sie eine ganz besondere Attacke nach der anderen Seite, nach Jahve oder Jehova, der abgetrennt hat sein Wirkungsgebiet von dem der sechs Elohim. Aber außer diesem Zusammenwirken der Marsgeister mit den sechs Elohim und Jahve, das die mongolische Rasse ergibt, gibt es noch ein Besonderes. Wenn wir die Art dieses besonderen Einflusses angeben wollen, so müssen wir sagen: Wie in das Mongolische hinein die sechs Elohim von der Sonne, Jahve vom Monde und ihnen entgegen die Marsgeister wirken, so müssen wir in einem anderen Falle annehmen, daß von der Mondrichtung her die Jahvekräfte wieder zusammentreten und zusammenwirken mit den Marsgeistern, und daß dadurch eine besondere Modifikation entsteht. Hier haben Sie, aus dem okkultesten Hintergrunde heraus erklärt, eine besondere Modifikation der Menschheit, nämlich diejenige, die zum Semitentum gehört. Im Semitentum haben Sie eine Modifikation des gesamten Menschentums, so, daß sich ausschließt von den anderen Elohim Jahve oder Jehova und dieses Volk mit einem besonderen Charakter veranlagt, indem er zusammenwirkt mit den Geistern des Mars, um die besondere Modifikation dieses Volkes hervorzubringen. Jetzt werden Sie auch das Besondere einsehen, das in dem semitischen Volk und seiner Mission liegt. In einem gewissen, tiefen okkulten Sinn konnte der Schreiber der Bibel sagen, daß Jahve oder Jehova dieses Volk zu seinem Volke gemacht habe, und wenn Sie jetzt das dazu nehmen, daß hier ein Zusammenwirken stattfindet mit den Marsgeistern, und daß die Marsgeister ihre Angriffe vorzugsweise auf das Blut richten, dann werden Sie auch begreifen, warum gerade die fortgehende Wirkung des Blutes von Geschlecht zu Geschlecht, von Generation zu Generation für das semitisch-hebräische Volk von ganz besonderer Wichtigkeit ist, und warum im semitischen Volk der Gott Jahve sich als der Gott bezeichnet, der mit dem Blute herunterrinnt von Abraham, Isaak, Jakob und so weiter. Das ist der Weg, wie das Blut rinnt durch alle diese Geschlechter. Indem sich Jahve bezeichnet: «Ich bin der Gott Abrahams, Isaaks und Jakobs», sagt er: Ich wirke in eurem Blute. — Was immer im Blute wirkt, was im Blute ausgefochten werden muß, das Zusammenwirken mit den Marsgeistern, das ist eines der Mysterien, die uns tief hineinführen in die weise Führung der gesamten Menschheit der Erde.

So also sehen Sie, daß auf das Blut der Menschheit in zweifacher Weise gewirkt wird, daß zwei Rassenbildungen sozusagen entstehen, indem auf das Blut der Menschheit gewirkt wird. Auf der einen Seite haben wir alles dasjenige, was wir die mongolische Rasse nennen, auf der anderen Seite dasjenige, was wir als zum Semitentum gehörig bezeichnen können. Das ist eine große Polarität in der Menschheit, und wir werden auf diese Polarität unendlich Bedeutungsvolles zurückzuführen haben, wenn wir die Tiefen der Volksseelen werden verstehen wollen.

Wir haben noch weiter zu verfolgen, wie die Geister und Wesenheiten, die im Jupiter ihren Mittelpunkt haben, in dem Menschen kochen und brodeln. Diese wählen sich nun den zweiten Angriffspunkt, um unmittelbar auf das Nervensystem zu wirken, und zwar geht durch alles das, was die Sinne des Menschen sind, der eine Angriffspunkt; der andere Angriffspunkt, der in das Nervensystem hineinwirkt, geht auf dem Umwege durch das Atmungssystem in das Sonnengeflecht. Der Angriff, der von dem Jupiter ausgeht, geht auf dem Umweg durch die Sinneseindrücke und strömt von da aus auf die Teile des Nervensystems, die im Gehirn und Rückenmark zentriert sind. Da hinein fließen also bei denjenigen Rassen, die zur Jupiter-Menschheit gehören, jene Kräfte, die den Rassencharakter besonders ausprägen. Das ist bei den arischen, vorderasiatischen und europäischen Völkern, bei denen, die wir zu den Kaukasiern rechnen, mehr oder weniger der Fall. Da tritt die Modifikation der allgemeinen Menschheit, die von den abnormen Geistern der Form herrührt, dadurch ein, daß die abnormen Geister, die wir als Jupiter-Geister bezeichnen können, auf die Sinne einwirken. Also durch die Sinne werden die Kaukasier bestimmt.

Nun werden Sie auch begreifen, daß ein ganz eminent und bewußt unter dem Jupiter- oder Zeus-Einfluß stehendes Volk, wie die Griechen, die sich als Mittelpunkt für den Zeus-Einfluß fühlen, hervorragend bestimmt wird durch das, was durch die Sinne in das Nervensystem einfließt. Natürlich sind auch die Griechen beeinflußt durch die von der Sonne einströmenden Elohim. Aber die Sache ging so vor sich, daß bei den Griechen alles, was auf die Sinne wirkt, dem Jupiter- oder ZeusEinfluß hingegeben war, und dieses Volk dadurch seine Größe erlangte. In alledem, was die Griechen sehen als äußere Form, äußeres Leben, ist für sie ein wichtiger Sinn vorhanden. Sie sehen das Geistige in den sinnlichen Anschauungen und werden dadurch das Grundvolk aller Plastik, das Grundvolk aller äußeren Formgebung. Damit haben wir schon hingewiesen auf eine ganz besondere Mission des griechischen Volkes, das gerade in ausgezeichneter Weise das Jupiter- oder Zeus-Volk ist, welches sich, auch in der Zeit, in der insbesondere durch die eintretende Sternkonstellation das Zusammenwirken der Zeus- oder Jupiter-Kräfte mit den allgemeinen Elohim-Kräften stattfand, als das Zeus-Volk fühlte.

Modifikationen dieses Jupiter-Einflusses sind im Grunde genommen alle vorderasiatischen und namentlich europäischen Völker, und Sie können jetzt schon ahnen — da der Mensch viele Sinne hat —, daß viele Modifikationen eintreten können und daß für die Ausgestaltung der einzelnen Völker innerhalb dieser Grundrasse, die durch die Einwirkung der Sinne auf das Nervensystem gebildet werden, der eine oder andere Sinn die Hegemonie erhalten kann. Dadurch können die verschiedenen Völker die verschiedenste Gestalt annehmen. Je nachdem das Auge oder das Ohr oder einer der anderen Sinne die Oberherrschaft hat, je nachdem werden die verschiedenen Völker in dieser oder jener Richtung disponiert zu der besonderen Volksrichtung innerhalb des Rassencharakters. Dadurch erwachsen ihnen ganz bestimmte Aufgaben. Eine Aufgabe, die besonders der kaukasischen Rasse obliegt, ist die: Sie soll den Weg machen durch die Sinne zum Geistigen, denn sie ist auf die Sinne hin organisiert.

Hier liegt etwas von dem, was auch in die tieferen Ausgangspunkte des Okkultismus hineinführt und Ihnen zeigen wird, daß bei denjenigen Völkern, deren Zeichen sozusagen in dem Venus-Charakter liegt, der Hauptausgangspunkt — auch in der okkulten Ausbildung — da genommen werden muß, wo das Atmen das Wichtigste ist. Dagegen muß bei allem, was mehr im Westen liegt, der Ausgangspunkt von einer Vertiefung und Vergeistigung dessen genommen werden, was in der Sinneswelt liegt. Das haben in den höheren Erkenntnisstufen, in der Imagination, Inspiration und Intuition ganz in dem Sinne, wie der Jupitergeist ursprünglich den Charakter modifiziert, diejenigen Volkstümer, die nach dem Westen gelegen sind. Deshalb gab es diese zwei Zentren immer in der Menschheitsevolution: jenes Zentrum, das sozusagen mehr von den Geistern der Venus regiert wurde, und jenes Zentrum, das mehr regiert wurde von den Geistern des Jupiter. Die Geister des Jupiter wurden besonders beobachtet in jenen Mysterien, in denen sich zuletzt zusammengefunden haben — wie diejenigen wissen werden, die an meinem vorjährigen Münchener Vortragszyklus teilgenommen haben — die drei Individualitäten, die drei geistigen Wesenheiten des Buddha, des Zarathustra oder Zarathas in seiner späteren Inkarnation und desjenigen großen Führers der Menschheit, den wir mit dem Namen Skythianos bezeichnen. Das ist das Kollegium, das sich, unter der Führung eines noch Größeren, die Aufgabe gesetzt hat, die geheimnisvollen Kräfte zu untersuchen, welche ausgebildet werden müssen für die Evolution der Menschheit, deren Ausgangspunkt genommen worden ist von jenem Punkte, der ursprünglich zusammenhängt mit den Jupiter-Kräften und in der erwähnten Landkarte der Erde vorherbestimmt war.

Auf das Drüsen-System endlich — nur auf dem Umwege durch alle anderen Systeme — wirkt dasjenige, was wir bezeichnen können als die abnormen Geister der Form, die im Saturn ihren Mittelpunkt haben. Da haben wir in allem, was wir als Saturn-Rasse zu bezeichnen haben, in allem, dem wir den Saturn-Charakter beizumessen haben, etwas zu suchen, was sozusagen zusammenführt, zusammenschließt das, was wieder der Abenddämmerung der Menschheit zuführt, deren Entwikkelung in gewisser Weise zum Abschluß bringt, und zwar zu einem wirklichen Abschluß, zu einem Hinsterben. Wie sich das Wirken auf das Drüsensystem ausdrückt, sehen wir an der indianischen Rasse. Darauf beruht die Sterblichkeit derselben, ihr Verschwinden. Der SaturnEinfluß wirkt durch alle anderen Systeme zuletzt auf das Drüsensystem ein. Das sondert aus die härtesten Teile des Menschen, und man kann daher sagen, daß dieses Hinsterben in einer Art Verknöcherung besteht, wie dies im Äußeren doch deutlich sich offenbart. Sehen Sie sich doch die Bilder der alten Indianer an, und Sie werden gleichsam mit Händen greifen können den geschilderten Vorgang, in dem Niedergang dieser Rasse. In einer solchen Rasse ist alles dasjenige gegenwärtig geworden, auf eine besondere Art gegenwärtig geworden, was in der Saturnentwickelung vorhanden war; dann aber hat es sich in sich selber zurückgezogen und hat den Menschen mit seinem harten Knochensystem allein gelassen, hat ihn zum Absterben gebracht. Man fühlt etwas von dieser wirklich okkulten Wirksamkeit, wenn man noch im neunzehnten Jahrhundert sieht, wie ein Vertreter dieser alten Indianer davon spricht, daß in ihm lebt, was vorher für die Menschen groß und gewaltig war, das aber die Weiterentwickelung unmöglich mitmachen konnte. Es existiert die Schilderung einer schönen Szene, bei welcher ein Führer der untergehenden Indianer einem europäischen Eindringling gegenübersteht. Denken Sie sich, was da Herz gegen Herz fühlt, indem sich zwei solche Menschen gegenüberstehen: Menschen, die von Europa herüberkamen, und Menschen, die in frühester Zeit, als die Rassen verteilt wurden, nach Westen hinübergegangen sind. Da haben die Indianer nach Westen hinübergenommen alles, was groß war in der atlantischen Kultur. Was war für den Indianer das Größte? Es war, daß er noch ahnen konnte etwas von der alten Größe und Herrlichkeit eines Zeitalters, das in der alten atlantischen Zeit vorhanden war, wo noch wenig um sich gegriffen hatte die Rassenspaltung, wo die Menschen hinaufschauen konnten nach der Sonne und wahrzunehmen vermochten die durch das Nebelmeer eindringenden Geister der Form. Durch ein Nebelmeer blickte der Atlantier hinauf zu dem, was sich für ihn nicht spaltete in eine Sechs- oder Siebenheit, sondern zusammenwirkte. Das, was zusammenwirkte von den sieben Geistern der Form, das nannte der Atlantier den Großen Geist, der in der alten Atlantis dem Menschen sich offenbarte. Dadurch hat er nicht mit aufgenommen das, was die Venus-, Merkur-, Mars- und Jupiter-Geister bewirkt haben im Osten. Durch dieses haben sich gebildet alle die Kulturen, die in Europa in der Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts zur Blüte gebracht wurden. Das alles hat er, der Sohn der braunen Rasse, nicht mitgemacht. Er hat festgehalten an dem Großen Geist der urfernen Vergangenheit. Das, was die anderen gemacht haben, die in urferner Vergangenheit auch den Großen Geist aufgenommen haben, das trat ihm vor Augen, als ihm ein Blatt Papier mit vielen kleinen Zeichen, den Buchstaben, von welchen er nichts verstand, vorgelegt wurde. Alles das war ihm fremd, aber er hatte noch in seiner Seele den Großen Geist. Seine Rede ist uns aufbewahrt; sie ist bezeichnend, weil sie auf das Angedeutete hinweist, und sie lautet etwa so: «Da in dem Erdboden, wo die Eroberer unseres Landes schreiten, sind die Gebeine meiner Brüder begraben. Warum dürfen die Füße unserer Überwinder über die Gräber meiner Brüder schreiten? Weil sie im Besitze sind dessen, was groß macht den weißen Mann. Den braunen Mann macht etwas anderes groß. Ihn macht groß der große Geist, der zu ihm spricht in dem Wehen des Windes, in dem Rauschen des Waldes, dem Wogen des Wassers, in dem Rieseln der Quelle, in Blitz und Donner. Das ist der Geist, der für uns Wahrheit spricht. Oh, der Große Geist spricht Wahrheit! Eure Geister, die ihr auf dem Papiere hier habt, und die dasjenige ausdrücken, was für euch groß ist, die sprechen nicht die Wahrheit.» So sagte der Indianerhäuptling von seinem Standpunkte aus. Dem Großen Geiste gehört der braune Mann, der blasse Mann gehört den Geistern, die in schwarzer Gestalt als kleine zwerghafte Wesen — er meinte die Buchstaben — auf dem Papier herumhüpfen; die sprechen nicht wahr. — Das ist ein welthistorischer Dialog, der gepflogen worden ist zwischen den Eroberern und dem letzten der großen Häuptlinge der braunen Männer. Da sehen wir, was dem Saturn mit seinem Wirken angehört und was aus dem Zusammenwirken mit anderen Geistern in einem solchen Momente, wo zwei Richtungen sich begegnen, auf der Erde entsteht.

So haben wir gesehen, wie auf der Oberfläche unserer Erde herbeigeführt wird die allgemeine Menschheit durch die Elohim oder die normalen Geister der Form, wie sich dann heraushebt aus der gesamten Menschenmasse, aus der gesamten Menschenflut dasjenige, was die fünf Hauptrassen der Menschheitsentwickelung sind und wie diese zusammenhängen mit den führenden Geistern in der Reihe der abnormen Geister der Form, die wir mit den Namen benennen müssen, welche wir den fünf Planeten entnehmen, während die normalen Geister der Form in der Sonne und im Mond zu suchen sind. Von da werden wir weitergehen, übergehen zu etwas, das uns leichter werden wird, weil wir an Bekanntes, an Stämme und Völker werden anknüpfen können.

Sixth lecture

You can imagine that it is a very complicated matter when the spirits of the various hierarchies have to work together with their powers in such a way that the earthly mission can be fulfilled, so to speak, in such a way that ultimately a state of equilibrium emerges. You will therefore also understand that statements such as those made yesterday can only be made when one takes a very specific point in the development, and that the whole picture changes immediately when one looks at the evolution from a different point. Therefore, if you want to gain a complete understanding of this very complicated matter, you will always have to keep one lecture cycle together with the other.

I want to emphasize just one point, and what I am saying now is meant to be a kind of comment. In our earthly equilibrium, the entire interaction of the hierarchies is such that we must seek what we yesterday called the third hierarchy — the spirits of the will, the cherubim and seraphim — as something that works out of the earth in relation to this equilibrium. Of course, you must imagine that this hierarchy originally unfolds its forces from the universe toward the center of the earth, and that when human beings perceive these forces, it is not in the direction in which they are directed, but in the opposite direction, which they experience when they are thrown back, reflected. Therefore, for example, you will only be able to form a coherent picture of the innermost workings of the processes taking place here when you compare what was said yesterday with some of what has been said about the hierarchies in my lecture cycle in Düsseldorf, where the heavenly part of the work of the three hierarchies was presented in a coherent form. These things are not simple, and in order to make the earthly mission comprehensible, it is necessary to choose a point of view that allows us to see the reflections of the spirits of these hierarchies in what we call the elements of earthly existence.

If you take this into account, you will also gain a sense of the infinite wisdom that rests in the entire context of the forces of the universe, the forces of the cosmos. You will also gain a sense that knowledge must always go further, that it has no limits, because things are so complicated that as soon as we think we have grasped one point of view, we are immediately compelled to move on to another, which shows us the matter from a different angle. We can only advance in our knowledge little by little, but nevertheless, from the hints that were given yesterday, especially at the end of the presentation, you will have become somewhat more familiar with what can be called: the interaction of abnormal and normal spirits of form, so that within our earthly life there arises not merely a uniform, homogeneous humanity spreading over the whole earth, but a humanity that can live out its diversity in the individual races. For that unified humanity, which human beings can only achieve again in the course of earthly evolution, the pure activity of the normal spirits of form would have been necessary. These are the same spiritual beings that are named Elohim in Genesis, and there are actually seven such spirits of form in normal development that can be recognized in the entire universe that surrounds the earth and together with it forms a whole. So there are seven spirits of form or seven Elohim. If we want to imagine these seven Elohim with their different missions and their task of establishing balance or love throughout the entire Earth mission, then we must be clear that these seven spirits of form work together throughout the entire universe in such a way that what we characterized in one of the lectures as “the human being in the second third of his life” would actually come about. The actual I-human would then develop if all these seven spirits of form could work in the appropriate way, as they have planned for themselves through their own community. But because other spiritual beings are also at work and diversify this unified humanity, a very special arrangement was necessary in the cosmos. If you want to find the location in the cosmos from which the normal spirits of form are active — that is, those beings who, as I characterized yesterday, ultimately shine toward us in the light within our present cosmos — you must look for them in the sun. You must always look in the direction of the sun for that cosmic lodge, that community in the universe, where these spirits of form hold their consultations for the establishment of earthly equilibrium and the fulfillment of the earthly mission. Only one thing was necessary to prevent the abnormal spirits of form from causing too much disorder in relation to human beings through their activity: it was necessary for one of the spirits of form to detach itself from the community, so that you actually only have to seek six of these spirits of form, or Elohim, in the direction of the sun. One of these spirits had to separate itself so that the simultaneous activity of the abnormal spirits of form—which are actually spirits of movement—would not bring complete disorder into the balance. That was the one who is called Yahweh or Jehovah in the Bible, in Genesis. If you want to look for its activity in the universe, you must not look in the direction of the sun, but in the direction of the moon. This is also hinted at in my “Secret Science,” only viewed from a different angle, in that it shows that the spirits of form depart with the separation of the sun, but that it is only with the special arrangement that comes about with the separation of the moon that the precondition for the further development of man is created. For if the moon had remained united with the earth, the evolution of man could not have taken place. This further evolution of man was only possible because one of the Elohim, Yahweh, stepped out with the moon — while the other six spirits remained in the sun — only because Yahweh worked in opposition with his six other companions.

You may now ask the question: Why was this sun split off in the first place? This was necessary for the following reasons. Once the older spirits of movement, which have greater power than the spirits of form because they are higher in the hierarchy, had decided to remain behind, the normal spirits of form had to weaken their effectiveness by splitting off one of them. Otherwise, they would not have been able to bring about the balance that was necessary for further development.

If we want to have a sufficient idea of the working of these normal spirits of form, it is best to say to ourselves: They shine upon us in the sunlight. But if we want to gain an idea of the abnormal spirits of form, how they work together with the normal spirits of form, which are, as it were, centered in the sun — for only in this way can equilibrium be established Jehovah split off in the direction of the moon — then we must imagine that a certain solar force flowing toward us in the normal spirits of form is modified by the force flowing toward us from the abnormal spirits of form, which are actually spirits of movement. These find their center in the other five planets, in the old planetary style of speaking. There you must look for the center of these others, the abnormal spirits of form, that is, in Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury.

Now, when you look out into the cosmos, you have a kind of distribution for the normal and abnormal spirits of form. The normal spirits of form are centered in the Sun, and the One—Yahweh or Jehovah—maintains the balance of those from the Moon by ruling and guiding the latter. The effects of these spirits of form are influenced by the effects emanating from Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. These forces radiate down to the earth, are held back, and radiate back up from the earth in the manner described yesterday at the end of the lecture. So if you have a piece of the earth's surface, and a certain effect is exerted on it from the sun through the Elohim or normal spirits of form, then nothing else would arise at that point on the earth's surface other than the normal ego. What would arise would be that which gives human beings their normal being, on average their entire humanity. Now, mixed into these forces of the spirits of form — which would otherwise dance here on the surface due to the state of equilibrium — are, for example, the forces of Mercury. As a result, not only the normal forces unfold here as the forces of the spirits of form, but also those forces that mix with the normal forces of the Elohim, with the normal forces of the spirits of form, namely those forces that come from the abnormal spirits of form centered in the middle of the individual planets. This means that five centers of influence are possible through these abnormal spirits of form, and these five centers of influence, in their reflection from the center of the Earth onto humanity, actually produce what we recognize as the five basic races in Earth existence.

If we now characterize more closely the point we found a few days ago in our explanations in Africa, namely that because the normal spirits of form interact with those abnormal spirits of form that are centered in Mercury, the Negro race arises, then we describe quite correctly in occult terms what emerges in the black race as the Mercury race.

Now let us continue along the line we drew at that time through the centers of the individual racial emanations. This brings us to Asia, where we find the Venus race or the Malay race. We then pass through the broad region of Asia and find the Mars race in the Mongolian race. We then move over to European territory and find the Jupiter people in the European people, in their original character, in their racial character. If we cross the sea to America, where the point, the place where the races or cultures die, we find the race of dark Saturn, the original Indian race, the American race. The Indian race is therefore the Saturn race. In this way, if you imagine the matter more and more precisely in an occult way, you will understand the forces that have experienced their outer material manifestation in these world points, these five planets.

If you form an increasingly clear and concrete idea of this, you will gain an inner insight into these peculiar racial characters spread across the Earth, an insight into this strange interaction between normal and abnormal form spirits. We have thus drawn a picture, as it were, which we can hold fast at a certain point. But what I have said applies to the various points on Earth, again only at a very specific point in time in the course of evolution. It applies to the point in time when, at a certain moment in the ancient Atlantean evolution, the migrations set out from a point in Atlantis and wandered to where they could receive the corresponding racial formation at the points in question. That is why you will also find in my “Secret Science” that in ancient Atlantis, at very specific mystery sites called the Atlantean oracles, the distribution of human beings across the Earth was taken into hand so that the equilibrium, the balance, that led to the corresponding distribution of races could indeed be brought about. In such mystery oracles, the truths we are now recounting were always researched, and originally people lived their lives entirely according to these truths. In this way, what happened on Earth was guided in an appropriate manner from such centers.

We must therefore seek, as it were, in the stream of peoples that passed through Africa and crystallized in the Ethiopian race, an impulse that could have been given by the Mercury oracle, where it was observed very precisely how the normal spirits of form, the six Elohim with Yahweh or Jehovah, interacted and how the abnormal spirits of form, which worked from the center of Mercury. According to the astrological interaction of these different points of force, the point of equilibrium was chosen on our earth, and this point of equilibrium was then taken as the point of radiation for the race in question.

The formation of the other races was guided in a similar way. Then the large map is drawn, in which the influences are entered with reference to peoples, genders, and so on. This is the large map that is a reflection of the heavenly activity that arises when the forces of heavenly activity radiate into the Earth, reflect back from it, and determine human beings.

How can we now view a person of the Mercury race, the Ethiopian race? We can view them in such a way that we say: This person was originally destined by the Elohim, predisposed to express the entire human being in its totality. But then the abnormal spirits of form worked with great force from the Mercury center and varied human beings in such a way that the form of the Ethiopian race emerged. And it is similar with every single race. But because the peoples' currents were guided in a very specific way from the original center, this line that I drew for you a few days ago came into being. You must therefore imagine that the spirits of form radiated from a center. We must assume that this center existed at a certain point in time in ancient Atlantis. There we have what sank down into the Atlantean continent and shaped it in such a way that the human spirits were brought under the rule of the corresponding abnormal spirits of form.

This created the great foundation of humanity, and when humans look up into the infinite vastness of the heavens, they seek there the forces that constitute them. But these forces constitute them in their reflection from the earth. By looking up to the normal spirits of form, to the Elohim, he looks up to what actually makes him human, and by looking up to what is centered in the individual planetary spirits — apart from the sun and moon — he sees what makes him a member of a particular race.

How do these race spirits work in and on human beings? They work in a very peculiar way, so that one might say they first boil his forces into the physical body. Now you know that what we call the four basic parts of the human being are projected, imprinted in respective parts of the physical body, so that we can say: That which is the I is reflected in the blood; that which is the astral body is reflected in the nervous system; that which is the etheric or life body is reflected in the glandular system; and only the physical body is a self-being, a reflection of its own essence, which for modern human beings has its own closed laws within itself. The ego is thus formed in the blood, the astral body in the nervous system, and the etheric body in the glandular system.

At first, the spiritual beings that are active in the human being, giving rise to his racial character, cannot immediately influence the higher parts. They are initially active in these images of the higher members in the physical body. They cannot really enter the physical body, but they boil in the three other members: in that which is the image of the ego, in the blood; in that which is the image of the astral body, in the nervous system; and in that which is the image of the etheric body, in the glandular system. In these three systems, which belong to the physical body but are images of the higher members, the racial spirits, the abnormal spirits of form, boil.

You see here that the physical body of the human being is determined from within, determined in such a way that these different spiritual beings intervene in the members of the physical body, which are the projections, the shadow images of the higher members. Where, for example, does Mercury intervene? — I say Mercury to summarize what is found in Mercury as abnormal spirits of form. It intervenes by working together with others, particularly in the glandular system. It boils inside the glandular system, and there the forces that arise from the predominance of Mercury forces working in the Ethiopian race are lived out. Everything that gives the Ethiopian race its special characteristics comes from the fact that the Mercury forces boil and bubble in the glandular system of the people concerned. This comes from the fact that they boil away what makes the general, common human form into the special form of the Ethiopian race with its black skin color, woolly hair, and so on. This modification of the general human form therefore comes from these forces.

If you now move on to Asia, you will find something similar that could be described as Venus forces, as an abnormal development of the spirits of form. These Venus forces in turn work by preferentially shifting their point of attack to what we call the image of the astral body in the nervous system. But they do not act directly as Venus spirits on the nervous system. They can act on the nervous system in two indirect ways. One indirect way is through breathing. By acting particularly on the respiration, these effects become established in the human being's respiratory and nervous systems and give them a certain form. The abnormal spirits of form, which we can call Venus beings, choose this indirect route in the Malay race, in the yellow-shaded races of South Asia and towards the islands of the Malay region. Just as glandular humanity is spread over the Ethiopian region, so humanity is spread over this area, where the abnormal spirits of form act on the nervous system via the respiratory system. The nervous system is affected indirectly via the respiratory system. The nervous system boils down what, with special modifications, constitutes the more or less yellow-colored humanity. The transformation that takes place there is expressed more in the nervous system that we summarize with the term solar plexus, i.e., not actually in the higher nervous system, but in that mysterious part of the nervous system that runs in two strands parallel to the spinal cord and spreads in various ways. So, in this part of the nervous system, the effect is exerted indirectly through the respiratory system, which in our sense does not yet belong to the higher mental activity. These Venus forces, which are active in this part of the human race, dig deep into the subconscious organism.

Now let us move up to the broad Mongolian plains. These are the areas where the spirits of form, which have taken the detour through the blood, prefer to work. There, the blood boils away that which causes the actual modification of humanity, the basic character of the race. Now, however, there is something highly peculiar about this Mongolian race. The spirits of Mars enter the blood. But they work in the blood in a very specific way so that they can counteract the six Elohim who are centered in the sun. They thus counteract these six Elohim in the Mongolian race. In doing so, they launch one very special attack after another against Yahweh or Jehovah, who has separated his sphere of influence from that of the six Elohim. But apart from this interaction between the Mars spirits, the six Elohim, and Yahweh, which results in the Mongolian race, there is something else that is special. If we want to describe the nature of this special influence, we must say: Just as the six Elohim from the sun, Yahweh from the moon, and the Mars spirits work within the Mongols, so in another case we must assume that the Yahweh forces come together again from the direction of the moon and interact with the Mars spirits, thereby creating a special modification. Here you have, explained from the most occult background, a special modification of humanity, namely that which belongs to Semitism. In Semitism you have a modification of the whole of humanity, so that Yahweh or Jehovah is excluded from the other Elohim and this people is endowed with a special character, working together with the spirits of Mars to bring about the special modification of this people. Now you will also understand what is special about the Semitic people and their mission. In a certain deep occult sense, the writer of the Bible could say that Yahweh or Jehovah made this people his people, and if you now add to this that there is a cooperation with the spirits of Mars, and that the spirits of Mars direct their attacks primarily at the blood, then you will also understand why the continuing effect of blood from generation to generation is of such special importance for the Semitic-Hebrew people, and why in the Semitic people the God Yahweh describes himself as the God who flows down with the blood of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so on. This is the way the blood flows through all these generations. By calling himself “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” Yahweh is saying: I work in your blood. Whatever works in the blood, whatever must be fought out in the blood, the interaction with the Mars spirits, is one of the mysteries that leads us deep into the wise guidance of all humanity on Earth.

So you see that the blood of humanity is affected in two ways, that two races are formed, so to speak, by the influence on the blood of humanity. On the one hand, we have everything we call the Mongolian race, and on the other hand, we have what we can describe as belonging to Semitism. This is a great polarity in humanity, and we will have to trace infinitely significant things back to this polarity if we want to understand the depths of the souls of peoples.

We must continue to pursue how the spirits and beings that have their center in Jupiter boil and bubble within human beings. They now choose their second point of attack in order to act directly on the nervous system, and this point of attack passes through everything that constitutes the human senses; the other point of attack, which acts on the nervous system, passes through the respiratory system and into the solar plexus. The attack emanating from Jupiter takes a detour through the sensory impressions and from there flows to the parts of the nervous system centered in the brain and spinal cord. Thus, in those races belonging to the Jupiter humanity, the forces that particularly characterize the racial character flow into these parts. This is more or less the case with the Aryan, Near Eastern, and European peoples, whom we consider to be Caucasians. Here, the modification of general humanity, which originates from the abnormal spirits of form, occurs through the abnormal spirits, which we can call Jupiter spirits, acting upon the senses. Thus, the Caucasians are determined through the senses.

Now you will also understand that a people who are eminently and consciously under the influence of Jupiter or Zeus, such as the Greeks, who feel themselves to be the center of the Zeus influence, are outstandingly determined by what flows into the nervous system through the senses. Of course, the Greeks are also influenced by the Elohim streaming in from the sun. But the thing was that, for the Greeks, everything that affected the senses was given over to the influence of Jupiter or Zeus, and this is how this people attained its greatness. In everything that the Greeks see as outer form, outer life, there is an important meaning for them. They see the spiritual in sensory perceptions and thereby become the basic people of all plastic arts, the basic people of all outer form. We have thus already pointed to a very special mission of the Greek people, who are in an excellent way the people of Jupiter or Zeus, who, even in the time when the interaction of the forces of Zeus or Jupiter with the general forces of the Elohim took place, especially through the constellation of the stars, felt themselves to be the people of Zeus.

Modifications of this Jupiter influence are basically all the peoples of the Near East and especially Europe, and you can already guess — since human beings have many senses — that many modifications can occur and that, for the development of the individual peoples within this basic race, which are formed by the influence of the senses on the nervous system, one sense or another can gain hegemony. This allows the different peoples to take on the most diverse forms. Depending on whether the eye or the ear or one of the other senses has supremacy, the different peoples are disposed in this or that direction toward the particular national character within the racial character. This gives rise to very specific tasks for them. One task that is particularly incumbent upon the Caucasian race is this: It should pave the way through the senses to the spiritual, for it is organized toward the senses.

Herein lies something that also leads into the deeper starting points of occultism and will show you that for those peoples whose sign lies, so to speak, in the Venus character, the main starting point — also in occult training — must be taken where breathing is the most important thing. In contrast, in everything that lies more to the West, the starting point must be taken from a deepening and spiritualization of what lies in the sensory world. In the higher stages of knowledge, in imagination, inspiration, and intuition, this is found in the peoples who are located to the West, in the sense in which the spirit of Jupiter originally modified the character. That is why there have always been these two centers in human evolution: the center that was, so to speak, more governed by the spirits of Venus, and the center that was more governed by the spirits of Jupiter. The spirits of Jupiter were particularly observed in those mysteries in which, as those who attended my lecture cycle in Munich last year will know, the three individualities, the three spiritual beings of Buddha, Zarathustra or Zarathas in his later incarnation, and that great leader of humanity whom we call Skythianos, finally came together. This is the college which, under the leadership of one even greater, has set itself the task of investigating the mysterious forces that must be developed for the evolution of humanity, whose starting point was taken from that point which is originally connected with the forces of Jupiter and was predetermined in the aforementioned map of the Earth.

Finally, what we can call the abnormal spirits of form, which have their center in Saturn, act on the glandular system — but only indirectly, through all the other systems. In everything we call the Saturn race, in everything we attribute to the Saturn character, we must seek something that brings together, unites, so to speak, that which leads humanity back to the twilight of its development, bringing it to a certain conclusion, to a real conclusion, to a dying away. We can see how this influence is expressed in the glandular system in the Indian race. This is the basis of their mortality, their disappearance. The influence of Saturn acts through all the other systems and finally on the glandular system. This separates the hardest parts of the human being, and one can therefore say that this dying consists in a kind of ossification, as is clearly evident in the external appearance. Just look at the pictures of the ancient Indians, and you will be able to grasp with your hands, as it were, the process described in the decline of this race. In such a race, everything that was present in the Saturn evolution has become present in a special way; but then it has withdrawn into itself and left the human being alone with his hard skeletal system, causing him to die. One senses something of this truly occult influence when, even in the nineteenth century, one hears a representative of these ancient Indians say that what was once great and powerful for humans lives on in him, but that further development made it impossible for him to participate in it. There is a beautiful description of a scene in which a leader of the dying Indians stands facing a European intruder. Imagine what the hearts of these two people feel when they stand face to face: people who came over from Europe and people who, in the earliest times, when the races were distributed, went over to the West. There, the Indians took over everything that was great in the Atlantean culture. What was the greatest thing for the Indian? It was that he could still sense something of the ancient greatness and glory of an age that existed in the old Atlantean time, when racial division had not yet taken hold, when people could look up at the sun and perceive the spirits of form penetrating through the sea of mist. Through a sea of mist, the Atlantean looked up to what did not divide into six or seven for him, but worked together. The Atlantean called the interaction of the seven spirits of form the Great Spirit, which revealed itself to man in ancient Atlantis. As a result, he did not take in what the spirits of Venus, Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter had accomplished in the East. This gave rise to all the cultures that flourished in Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century. He, the son of the brown race, did not participate in any of this. He held fast to the Great Spirit of the distant past. What the others had done, who in the distant past had also accepted the Great Spirit, became apparent to him when he was presented with a sheet of paper with many small symbols, letters, which he did not understand. All this was foreign to him, but he still had the Great Spirit in his soul. His speech has been preserved; it is significant because it points to what is implied, and it goes something like this: “There in the ground where the conquerors of our land walk, the bones of my brothers are buried. Why should the feet of our conquerors walk over the graves of my brothers? Because they possess what makes the white man great. Something else makes the brown man great. He is made great by the Great Spirit who speaks to him in the blowing of the wind, in the rustling of the forest, in the waves of the water, in the trickling of the spring, in lightning and thunder. That is the spirit that speaks truth to us. Oh, the Great Spirit speaks truth! Your spirits, which you have here on paper and which express what is great to you, do not speak the truth.” So said the Indian chief from his point of view. The brown man belongs to the Great Spirit, the pale man belongs to the spirits who, in black form as small dwarf-like beings — he meant the letters — jump around on paper; they do not speak the truth. This is a world-historical dialogue that took place between the conquerors and the last of the great chiefs of the brown men. Here we see what belongs to Saturn with his work and what arises on earth from the interaction with other spirits at such a moment when two directions meet.

Thus we have seen how, on the surface of our Earth, the general humanity is brought about by the Elohim or the normal spirits of form, how then, out of the entire mass of human beings, out of the entire flood of human beings, there emerges that which constitutes the five main races of human evolution, and how these are connected with the leading spirits in the series of abnormal spirits of form, which we must name after the five planets, while the normal spirits of form are to be found in the sun and the moon. From there we will move on to something that will be easier for us because we will be able to connect with what is familiar, with tribes and peoples.