The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] It will have become clear from yesterday’s lecture that, in order to approach the facts underlying this analysis without prejudice, it is indeed necessary to rise above all those feelings and emotions that would otherwise easily influence us from precisely the perspective we must now objectively characterize. As long as one is still in any way inclined to take an objective characterization of this or that race, this or that folk culture, or the like, personally, an unbiased understanding of the facts of this very lecture series will be difficult to achieve. This is also connected to the fact that these matters can be discussed on no other ground than that of spiritual science. For whatever one may hear about the characteristics of this or that people, and however much one might be drawn to it—precisely because one stands within a certain race or people with one’s own sensibilities, feelings, and so on—one possesses, as a spiritual scientist, a sufficient counterweight to place in the other pan of the scales. This is the truly understood doctrine of karma and reincarnation. It offers us a glimpse of the fact that, with the innermost core of our being, we are incarnated in successive ages within the most diverse races and peoples. Thus, when we look to this core of our being, we can be certain that through it we will participate not only in the sunny or perhaps also the shadowy sides of all races and peoples, but we can be certain that in our innermost being we will absorb, contribution by contribution, the blessings of all races and peoples, as we are incarnated here and there.

[ 2 ] These ideas of karma and reincarnation broaden our consciousness and expand our horizons. That is why it is only through them that we learn to bear what must now appear before our spiritual eye regarding the mysteries of racial and national relationships. Thus, precisely through what has been discussed in this reflection—if it is correctly understood—a sense of dissatisfaction regarding being incarnated in this or that people or race cannot be instilled in us. Nevertheless, such an objective view of human national and racial characters can still bring discord and disharmony into humanity if it is not received with the prerequisites indicated. The spiritual seeker will learn through the doctrine of karma and reincarnation how every people—even the smallest—must make its contribution to the overall development of humanity. This is precisely what will be significant: in the second part of these lectures, it will be shown how the individual influences of the national missions flow into the whole of humanity, and how even individual fragments of peoples, scattered here and there among the great masses, have their significance in the overall harmony of human evolution. But this will only gradually come into view before our spiritual eye.

[ 3 ] In order to gain a full understanding of the characteristics of individual national souls, we will have to focus on examples that, in a certain sense, are clearer to us than the national characteristics of the present day—the very era in which we ourselves live with our civilization— and on the other hand, we may have to examine national characters that are somewhat more distant from our own time, so that we may acquire an understanding of how national characters and national missions can be understood at all. With this, we have thus far characterized only in general terms what is racial and what is national.

[ 4 ] The fact that we have discovered in the course of our recent lectures that, within a race, a “normal” and an “abnormal” spirit of form must work together, so to speak; that within a people, an archangelic spirit in the process of normal development and one in the process of abnormal development must be at work, has, so to speak, made it clear to us how the beings we have come to know as the spiritual hierarchies intervene in evolution.

[ 5 ] Now let us ask ourselves: How do spiritual beings of a higher order influence the material world? It will be helpful today if we lay a foundation by first gaining an understanding of the hierarchies to which, as we know, human beings belong as the lowest link. If you recall what we have already heard, you will know that we conceive of these hierarchies in such a way that we say: Human beings stand on the lowest level. — Below them lie the three kingdoms of nature: the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the mineral kingdom. — Then come the angels, then the archangels, then the primordial forces or Archai. This is what we can describe as the first of the hierarchies, ascending from the human being. The second of the hierarchies is as follows:

1. Spirits of Form — Virtues
2. Spirits of Motion — Powers
3. Spirits of Wisdom — Dominions

[ 6 ] Then we have the highest of the three hierarchies:

1. Spirits of Will — Thrones
2. Cherubim
3. Seraphim

[ 7 ] Now let us ask ourselves: Since all spiritual beings reveal themselves in some way, appearing somewhere within the realm of Maya, or illusion—that is, within the realm of the sensory world—where can we find them at the lowest level of revelation, at the level of deception? In their ordinary observation of nature and the spirit, human beings are familiar only with the realm of Maya, or illusion—the outermost expression of these spiritual beings. I will show you with an example how human beings actually know only the outermost manifestation, the outermost revelation of these beings.

[ 8 ] For example, a person walks across a rocky landscape in the Nordic region. At first, they might say: “There is matter spread out here,” and they will describe this dense rock over which they are walking as they initially see it, calling it “hard rock” in their everyday language. The one who penetrates into the essence of things sees something quite different in this rock matter. What is it, actually, that we step upon and that offers us resistance? What people believe to be there is not there at all; it is an illusion. The outermost surface of our Earth is merely an illusion. The truth is this: forces are at work from below, which in turn are nothing other than forces emanating from certain beings, so that we can say: In such a piece of ground, we see before us that which initially presents itself as a force acting out from the earth in all directions. These forces are truly there and radiate out into space in all directions. However, a human being could not walk on the Earth if only these forces were present. These forces alone would hurl the human being out into space at breakneck speed. The fact that he can stand on solid ground is due to the circumstance that other forces radiate in from outer space on all sides. The sphere of the inward-radiating forces constantly meets that of the outward-radiating forces, and where they come together, they form, so to speak, a boundary, and that is the surface of the Earth. Thus, what we see as the surface is merely an illusion resulting from inward and outward radiating forces that act in such a way that they counteract one another precisely at the surface in question. What flows out from there is essentially the same as what we must call the effects of the Thrones, the effects of the Spirits of Will. These Spirits radiate their forces from the Earth in all directions, and what comes in from outer space is essentially what one might call the inward-radiating, inward-working forces of certain Spirits of Movement. These two kinds of forces thus meet here, and this interaction of the Thrones with the Spirits of Movement—in that the Thrones are held back in their action by the Spirits of Movement—gives rise to the variously configured surface, so that what you see out there as the Earth’s surface is the most untrue thing, the ultimate deception. What is really there is a balance of forces and, as it were, a contract between the spirits of will and the spirits of movement, which is concluded in such a way that it configures the Earth in the most diverse ways.

[ 9 ] However, that would still not be enough for our Earth, as it is right now, to form as such a planet. The interaction between the spirits of will and the spirits of movement would not yet be sufficient for this. There would need to be something quite different. For if only the spirits of will were to act from within the Earth and had only the spirits of movement as their counterpart, then the Earth would be in a state of constant flux, in a ceaseless inner current. The planet would not yet be able to come to rest at any point. It would then, admittedly, not be as fluid as today’s ocean; it would be an element that does not cast or form waves as easily as water, but it would cast and form waves within a denser mass.

[ 10 ] If you would like to get an idea of how the spirits of the will and the spirits of movement originally interacted, I would like to give you an example and ask you to follow along with me on the map. First, I would like to point out the Alps, which today form a solid mountain range, so that, like a solid bedrock, the Alpine massif separates the Italian peninsula in the south from the other European regions. How did this Alpine range actually come into being? There was a time—it lies far back in the distant past—when the Alpine massif did not yet exist at all, but to the north and west there were already older elevations that had solidified by then. It was viscous waves that were then thrown up from the south, so that we can imagine the process as follows:

[ 11 ] Here at point A, we would have the Bohemian Plateau. Now imagine that a massive wave was thrust upward from the south, splitting and spreading out to the right toward the Bohemian Plateau and to the left toward the French Central Plateau. This massive wave thus formed the Alpine massif in ancient times. Even a popular conception can lead to this conclusion. Anyone who has ever stood on a mountain peak in the Alps and surveyed the peculiar configuration of the Alpine range can see—even if they did not know it—what spiritual science has long established and what today’s geologists even observe: the peculiar wave formation that took place at a time when the Earth’s primordial mass was still in a viscous state. Thus, through the interaction of the spirits of will and the spirits of movement, the Earth would still be taking shape today if another force had not intervened—a force that is extraordinarily enduring and that manifests itself on the Earth’s surface by incorporating into the forces of will, which interact with the spirits of movement, what we call the spirits of form. You can thus imagine that these spirits of form, dancing, as it were, upon the waves, bring the moving masses to rest, casting them into forms, so that we thus have a cooperation of three kinds of forces. These three forces lead back to three kinds of beings. On the one hand, you see the spirits of form at work, acting both upward and downward, both into the sphere of the spirits of will and into the sphere of the spirits of movement. Above them are the spirits of movement, below them the spirits of will. — That which on our Earth appears outwardly primarily as a liquid element—though not our present-day water, but the ancient liquid element that has been brought to rest by the spirits of form—we must regard as the outermost manifestation of the spirits of will or the Thrones. But another element always intermingles with this activity; the spirits of the Will or Thrones are, so to speak, assisted by the Cherubim and Seraphim. The Cherubim provide assistance in the element of air, in everything that, as an airy form, permeates the apparent matter of the Earth. Air is, as it were, an illusion, and behind it stand the powerful beings we call cherubim. The seraphim work in what we know as heat, behind everything that exists as heat.

[ 12 ] We are thus looking at what is brought about on our planet by radiations emanating from within, from the center. We can therefore say: Our planet is composed in such a way that the spirits of will—the Thrones, the Cherubim, and the Seraphim—act from its center. We must understand our planet in this way: Where its boundary of air and heat lies—the air sea belongs to our planet just as much as the water or the solid earth—a surface is formed, as it were. On this surface, the spirits of form literally dance upon the waves and bring them to rest, to form. For this reason they were given this name, because they bring the viscous element to rest. Behind them stand the spirits of movement. Into their element is again mingled that which we call the spirits of wisdom. So that when we look toward the center of our planet, we can say: There are sublime beings, thrones, cherubim, seraphim. — When we look out, we first gaze through the sphere of the spirits of form, who permeate the air and warmth with their element, toward the spirits of movement and the spirits of wisdom. Everything we have in terms of natural forces and phenomena, when we direct our gaze outward into the sphere of our Earth, when we look up into the heights of the heavens, is essentially attributable to the second hierarchy. Everything we behold when we look down into the depths of the Earth, we attribute to the beings we have designated as the third hierarchy. The unique interplay of the second and third hierarchies gives rise to the configuration of our surroundings.

[ 13 ] In which of the three natural elements—water, air, and fire, which we have identified as being connected to the spirits of will, the cherubim and seraphim—do the spirits of form now reveal themselves? These are the next beings that dance upon the surface where we weave, live, and exist. They enter from outer space, but now unfold their power in what flows up from the earth. For our observation, they are concentrated in what we call the radiating rays of the sun. Light is thus the element in which the spirits of form initially weave and live. But as the effects of light, with all that they contain, unfold at the boundary where the spirits of movement and the spirits of will interact, solid forms are produced.

[ 14 ] Human beings initially have no organs with which to look up into what lies beyond those forces of light—which we also call the spirits of form—nor do they have organs with which to look into what is woven into the light. Everything on our Earth that causes decomposition and composition, everything that acts upon it as chemical forces, is here still interwoven into the light, and this is essentially the terrain on which the spirits of movement are active. When a human being learns to perceive something of what they otherwise see only as Maya in the effects of chemical combinations and decompositions, then they hear these spirits of movement; then they perceive the music of the spheres of which the Pythagorean and other secret schools speak. This is also what Goethe describes when he speaks of the sun not as the giver of light, but says: “The sun resounds in the brotherly spheres with a song of competition in the old manner, and it completes its prescribed journey with a thunderous roar.”

[ 15 ] This music of the spheres is still present even now; it is just that ordinary consciousness cannot hear it. This music of the spheres is real; it reaches all human beings as an astral influence from without. People simply do not hear it. If they were to experience the same kind of alternation with regard to this music of the spheres as they do with light—which they do not see at certain times, when darkness falls—then they would also hear it at certain times. But it resounds day and night, and therefore they can only hear it when they undergo a certain occult training, a certain occult development. While light flows toward us as light during the day and continues to weave as absorbed light during the night, the music of the spheres resounds day and night. It is thus for human beings as it is for the miller, who hears the mill only when it stands still.

[ 16 ] There are also the spirits of wisdom, who send their influences from outside and work their way into the weaving light and the music of the spheres that permeates space. This is the life of the world-ether radiating down to Earth. Life flows from outer space onto Earth and is received by human beings. This comes from the spirits of wisdom.

[ 17 ] Thus we gaze into the far reaches of the universe and first look up to the sun, in which these forces are concentrated for us, and see how flowing life, weaving sound, and shaping light—the Trinity of the second hierarchy—stream in from space. From below, the highest of the hierarchies flows toward us: the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. Woven into all this activity across the earth, working more within the inner being of creatures, is the first hierarchy. This includes, first of all, the Archai, who act as spirits of the times. These spirits of the times weave within what has been prepared for them by the higher hierarchies and bring about what we call our human history, the cultural evolution on Earth. Then, in the circle around them, we find the archangels, the spirits of the tribes, and finally the mediators between the individual human being and the archangels: the angels.

[ 18 ] We can therefore say: The forces of nature that we have on the Earth—earth, water, air, and fire—are permeated by the beings of the third hierarchy, who work in opposition to the activity of the spirits of form coming from outside. From the outside, the beings of the second hierarchy flow in, and in the sphere surrounding the Earth are the beings of the first hierarchy, which is, so to speak, for the time being the one with the weakest forces. Just imagine for a moment what powerful forces the exalted beings possess, whom we call the spirits of will, who actually carve out the ground upon which we walk. Then we have those forces that stream in from the outside. Let us take those closest to us, the Spirits of Form, who plastically model the masses. Then we have that which works intimately within the human soul, that which we call the angels, archangels, and archai. — In the third hierarchy, then, we have those forces of nature that we know as the strongest, as the subterranean forces of nature, as the forces of our earthly foundations. In the second, we have those forces that live and weave around us in the etheric element, and in the first hierarchy, we have that which intimately permeates and weaves through us.

[ 19 ] When we consider these three hierarchies in their interaction and observe how they work on our planet Earth, how they shape it out of the entire womb of the universe, we gain an understanding of what was necessary to bring this Earth into being. The Earth had to pass through various incarnations before it could become Earth: through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon states. If you follow the descriptions in my book *From the Akashic Records* and in my *Secret Science*, you will see that even during earlier incarnations of our Earth, these various spiritual beings worked together, only that this interaction took place in a manner different from the present one. Each time a new incarnation occurred—that is, the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth states—there was a different kind of interaction among these hierarchical beings, because each of these states through which our Earth has passed represents a specific task that these hierarchical beings set for themselves. We can certainly say that each of the states our Earth has gone through, and the states it will yet go through, signify and have signified a special mission in cosmic evolution.

[ 20 ] It is now extremely difficult—since all concepts change from one planetary state to another—to define what the mission of the ancient Saturn, Sun, and Moon epochs was. This is not easy because one must first characterize the mission of our Earth in very abstract terms. The easiest way to get an idea of this is to consider the nature of the various forces that manifest themselves in the cosmos. Now, when you look at the human inner life—at the life of the soul—you have willing, feeling, and thinking; and conversely, when you look at the human outer forms—at the exterior of human nature—you have the physical body, etheric body, and astral body, so that when you look at modern human beings and initially disregard their ego, you can perceive them as a fabric of the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, into which—as into an outer shell—will, feeling, and thinking are woven.

[ 21 ] Now, these forces within the human being—both in the outer and inner human being—are always connected to some earlier mission that was linked to previous incarnations on Earth. Take, for example, the Saturn mission. If you wish to form a rough idea of it, you can think of it as related to what the human physical body is on the one hand and the human will on the other. This means that if there had been no Saturn incarnation of our Earth, the human will on the one hand and the human physical body on the other could not have come into their present form. Humanity owes what it possesses in terms of will and physical body to the ancient Saturn. That we owe the physical body to Saturn is evident from the Akashic Records. However, every preceding state also continues to exert an influence on the forms that follow it. What therefore manifests itself today as will can be traced back to the aftereffect of the Saturn element. This results in the human being’s essence manifesting as will from within. You can gain an understanding of the mission of the solar state by considering what is called the human etheric body and linking feeling to it. You have already been told that the etheric body dates back to the ancient Sun. However, the aftereffect works in such a way that human beings were able to develop the inner powers of feeling at a later stage. And when we finally turn our gaze to the lunar state, we see that the human astral body and human thinking are bound to it. So that we can say: In order for these forces of the inner and outer human being—physical body, etheric body, and astral body; willing, feeling, and thinking—to have developed in such a way that human beings possess them today as outer and inner life, three successive cosmic missions were necessary. And those beings whom we have designated as the beings of the hierarchies had to work together each time in a corresponding alternation of activity so that the task of the three successive incarnations of our Earth could be fulfilled and humanity could be endowed with what is manifested in its present constitution.

[ 22 ] Thus, the mission of the ancient Saturn state had to be fulfilled; otherwise, human beings would not have been able to receive the physical body and the faculty of willing. The mission of the Sun had to be fulfilled, otherwise humanity could not have received the etheric body and feeling, and finally, the mission of the Moon had to be fulfilled, otherwise humanity could not have received the astral body and what we call the power of thought. Thus, the three preceding incarnations of our Earth are dedicated in particular to what we might call one of the predominant elements of our own personal being, our “I.” For the fact is that the outer, physical body, which has flowed forth from the being of the old Saturn, from the spirits of will, represents nothing other than the will as seen from the outside. In us, the will acts as an inner life from within. — These words are chosen with great precision; they are not fanciful, but correspond exactly to the nature of the matter. You can learn much from them. — The Earth underwent the Solar period in order to establish the etheric body, on the one hand, through the influence of the spirits of wisdom, and, on the other hand, through the continuing action of the element of wisdom, to establish that which reflects inner wisdom: feeling. What the Lunar mission was is connected in a similar way to the astral body and to thinking.

[ 23 ] The question now is: What special mission did the spirits of form—who are primarily active on Earth and shape the Earth—choose for themselves? We can say, first of all, that the spirits who were primarily active on Saturn, the spirits of will or Thrones, had the mission of weaving in the element that would later manifest itself in the will during the Earth’s development. That is the great Saturn mission: to instill the will, to implant the forces of the will. When we contemplate such things, we gain deep reverence and respect for the ruling cosmic powers. We gain a true appreciation for these powers when we see that a special planetary mission was necessary for the artful weaving of the outer will, which lives in the physical body, and the inner will. The entire world of the hierarchies had to bring a planet into being and allow it to pass away again in order to bring about the relationship that is woven into us as the outer and inner elements of will. Likewise, the ancient Sun had to come into being in order to bring forth the etheric body and the emotional element, the inner element of wisdom. What is then reflected in our thinking element, in our astral nature, as the inner element of thought in human beings—for this, the lunar mission was necessary.

[ 24 ] What, then, is the mission of the spirits of form? What, in fact, is the true mission on Earth? If you associate the Saturn mission with the imprinting of the will, the Sun mission primarily with the imprinting of the emotional element, and the Moon mission primarily with the imprinting of the mental element—that is, what is present in the human astral body— then the mission of the Earth planet is to bring about a complete balance of these three elements, to establish the equilibrium of these three elements, each of which held sway during one of the earlier states of our planet, so that in a state of equilibrium these three elements—each of which held hegemony in one of the Earth’s earlier incarnations—work together. That is the mission of our Earth. To bring the struggle of these elements to a standstill by bringing them into the proper balance—that is the Earth’s mission. Humanity is woven into this Earth mission in order to first establish this balance within itself through thinking, feeling, and willing. In this regard, at the time of the Earth’s formation, the human being was indeed a chaotic web of thinking, feeling, and willing. Just as the inner balance in the present-day human being is not yet complete, but is often in disharmony and disorder, so can anyone who possesses even a little self-knowledge feel this within themselves. Human beings are first called upon to establish within themselves the balance between thinking, feeling, and willing, through which they can radiate from within and transmit to the Earth what this balance of thinking, feeling, and willing signifies.

[ 25 ] In occult symbolism, the mission of the Earth has always been expressed in a very special way through a particular figure. If you examine all geometric figures, you will find none that corresponds as precisely to the interplay of forces in the sense of balance as the equilateral triangle. If you simply draw an equilateral triangle, you will find that the three sides are equal to one another, the three angles are equal to one another, each vertex is equidistant from the others, and all are equidistant from the center. The center of the equilateral triangle is an absolute symbol of the principle of balance, so that when the occultist looks at the triangle, he can see in it a symbol of the absolutely balanced interaction of that which held hegemony in each of the three previous incarnations of our Earth. The deeds of the ego in the human being mean nothing other than the creation of an active, dynamic center within human nature, through which this state of equilibrium can be prepared from within. Thus, in fact, the human being is called to greatness on our Earth, namely to bring about, from within through his entire being, the equilibrium of that which previously prevailed in the most diverse ways and at various times.

[ 26 ] At first glance, this is a rather abstract definition of our mission on Earth, but it essentially consists of what has been said. The mystery of this mission lies in the fact that, through this interplay—through this balance of the three forces—the inner self actually brings about something new and productive. This truly generates a fourth element in addition to the three preceding ones, and this fourth element is the element of love. Love can only develop within the workings of the world if an absolute balance is established among the three forces that have alternately held hegemony in earlier times. — We will have more to say about this in the coming days. For now, please accept this as an abstract characterization.

[ 27 ] Thus, our planet is the planet of love, and that is why this balance—which emerges from the interplay of these three forces—ultimately manifests as the work of love; and this work of love is to be woven into the entire course of evolution through all subsequent incarnations on Earth, specifically through the mission of earthly activity. Through this, the trinity becomes a quaternity, and this quaternity begins with its fourth element at the lowest level, begins, so to speak, with the lowest form of love, which is purified and refined to such an extent that, at the end of the entire development of the Earth, love will appear as a fully equal element. To fulfill the mission of balance for our Earth planet therefore essentially means: to make the Trinity into a Quaternity. That is why the mystery of Earth existence is usually expressed in occult terms with the words “to make the Trinity into a Quaternity.” The fourth element is, of course, still very imperfect today. But when the Earth has fulfilled its mission, it will shine just as brightly as the sacred triangle, which, with its balanced position, stands before us as the highest symbol we have for our earthly ideal, insofar as we remember the Earth’s past.

[ 28 ] It is this interplay of the elements of thinking, feeling, and willing within the human being that, at first, causes this very inner being to become the substance of love. This is what can be called the truly productive, the innerly productive force in earthly existence. Therefore, because they have precisely this mission of bringing the three earlier states into balance, the spirits of form must be designated in their entirety as the spirits of love.

[ 29 ] When we consider earthly existence in this way, we have first characterized the willing, feeling, and thinking, as well as the workings of love, outside our planet Earth; and we have been able to identify the special task of the Spirits of Form as the instilling and imprinting of love, which is the result of balance. This, then, constitutes the overall mission of the Earth. To bring about this power of love that permeates the Earth, the interaction and collaboration of all that we have described as the work of the lowest hierarchies is necessary. As we have already begun to characterize in our previous discussion, the net of love must be woven through this, so to speak, and this fabric of love must be woven in such a way that the main threads are woven into it—because this corresponds to their fundamental mission—by the normal spirits of form. Then the abnormal spirits of form—who are actually spirits of movement—weave into it that which gives rise to the races. Then the normal and abnormal spirits of time weave in the historical development, and then the archangels, with normal and abnormal development, weave in the individual developments of peoples and languages, and finally the beings who place humanity in the right place on Earth—the angels—work into it. Thus is this mighty web of love woven. But what is woven as the web of love, as the actual mission of the Earth, is visible on our Earth only as a reflection, as Maya.

[ 30 ] The next realm above the physical world where this web can be seen is the astral world. But as one ascends from the astral world into the world of the lower and higher Devachan, one sees ever more clearly the work of the Hierarchies on the truths that underlie our outer Maya. Then one sees how this fabric is woven. When one ascends to the astral world, however, one does not yet perceive what is primarily weaving from within, namely the spirits of will, the cherubim and seraphim. If one wishes to find these spirits at work, one must ascend to even higher worlds to observe them. But there is one thing we already find in the astral world: what we call the abnormal spirits of form, who, had they attained normal development, would be weaving from the outside. We have seen that the spirits of the second hierarchy are supposed to weave from the outside; here, however, we see that they weave from the inside. We can therefore say: In this web, in which the spirits of movement, the spirits of form, and the spirits of wisdom weave from the outside, and the spirits of will, the Seraphim and Cherubim, weave from the inside, there are also beings weaving from the inside who should actually be weaving from the outside. But they weave beneath the surface, much as the silkworm weaves its cocoon. Innerly is what is first seen in the astral world. These peculiar spirits of movement, which are displaced, fallen spirits, are the next to become visible among these spiritual beings weaving and surging in the spiritual atmosphere of the Earth. These spiritual beings, who are the first to become visible on the astral plane—even before the angelic beings or Angeloi, who normally appear, become visible—are, for clairvoyant perception, in a certain sense the seductive spirits, even though they are necessary for the creation of the races in the deepest sense. These spirits, each of whom in turn has many under them—because each generates many spiritually subordinate beings—are enveloped in the spiritual world within a host of spiritual beings who always stand beneath the respective hierarchies. Even the higher spirits have such subordinate entities among them; the spirits of will: the undines; the cherubim: the sylphs; the seraphim: the salamanders. But even these abnormal spirits of form—which are actually spirits of movement, appearing on the astral plane as a kind of ugly spiritual beings—have their subordinate spirits. They are the spirits that weave and live within what is connected to the emergence of the human races—that is, what in humans is connected to, so to speak, the element we have characterized as earth-bound, as that which is connected to procreation and the like. These are beings; this is, in general, a realm that belongs to the most colorful and dangerous of the astral world, and it is, unfortunately, the realm—this is best said in context here—that can most easily be found by those who come to see in an incorrect way. The host of those spirits who are concerned with the propagation of the race and are its serving members comes to the fore most easily. Many a person who has ventured into the occult realm prematurely and in an incorrect manner has had to pay dearly for it, in that the host of these spiritual beings confronted him without the harmonizing influence of other spiritual beings.

[ 31 ] In this way, we have been able to shed light on what spins and weaves within reality to create the fabric from which the actual spiritual world of human beings then unfolds. Tomorrow we will continue to discuss how this foundation, which we have now glimpsed, manifests itself in the origins of races, peoples, and so on.