The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] If you follow the spirit of the reflections we have been engaging in here over the past few days, you will find it understandable that not only is the course of events on our Earth—and above all in human evolution—guided and directed by the beings and forces of the various hierarchies, but that the beings of these hierarchies themselves undergo a kind of evolution, a kind of development. We spoke of this in the last lectures, how the beings of this or that hierarchy intervene in a guiding capacity, how they organize together, for example, the races as spirits of form in normal and abnormal development.

[ 2 ] Now let us ask ourselves this question: Are these spiritual beings we are dealing with also advancing in their own evolution? Especially with regard to certain spiritual beings, we can observe during our present epoch of development the phenomenon that they are, so to speak, advancing a step further in their own evolution, in their own development. Since the Atlantean catastrophe, since post-Atlantean development began, we have been living in an age in which certain archangelic beings, certain entities from the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, are ascending into the hierarchy of the Archai or the spirits of the ages. This is extraordinarily interesting to observe, for when we consider how the national spirits, the national souls, whom we call archangels, ascend to a higher rank, only then do we gain a true understanding of how things actually unfold in the greater world. This ascent is connected to the fact that, into that division of humanity which we must regard as the racial division, a second kind of national, of human current has been sent in since Atlantean times. For we must look far back, back to the earliest Atlantean times, if we wish to grasp the period when the division into the five main races we have spoken of took place, if we wish to ask: When did those people who later formed the black or Ethiopian race arrive at that specific point in Africa, and when did those peoples who constitute the Malay race arrive in South Asia? We would have to look back to the early Atlantean times. But later, other currents were sent to follow these earlier ones.

[ 3 ] So while the Earth was already populated by the ancestors of these races, others were sent into the already inhabited regions of the Earth. Here we are dealing with a later current, a current from the later Atlantean period. If we wish to understand what took place in Europe, Africa, and America in terms of racial distribution as Atlantis gradually crumbled, and what was subsequently sent later toward the end of the Atlantean period—and in part was only sent later during the post-Atlantean development— we must be clear that we are dealing with that mighty stream of humanity that extends all the way into Asia, into the Indian region, and that—as has often been indicated—masses of people remain behind at various points, from which the various peoples of Asia, Africa, and Europe subsequently emerged. We are thus dealing with an earlier dispersion and a later advance, a second current. The purpose of this second current was to send out, in the direction from west to east, such communities of people as were each led by an archangel. But these archangels were the guiding spiritual powers of these dispatched tribes, which were more or less developed—in other words, more or less close to attaining the rank of a time spirit. The stream of peoples whose archangel was the very first to ascend to the rank of a time spirit is to be found in the Far East. This was the stream of peoples that united with the indigenous population of India, the stream of peoples that formed the ruling race in India and provided the foundation for the first post-Atlantean culture, after the archangel of this ethnic community had been elevated to the rank of a time spirit—the first time spirit or Archangel—of the post-Atlantean cultural period. Now this Zeitgeist guided the ancient, sacred culture of India and made it the leading culture of the first post-Atlantean period. The other peoples of Asia, who gradually came into being, were for a long time merely under the guidance of archangels.

[ 4 ] Even the peoples of Europe, who had been left behind during the migration from west to east, remained under the guidance of archangels for a long time after the Archangel of India had already risen to the rank of Arch&, who, through his intuitive influence, worked upon the great teachers of India, the holy Rishis, who, having received the mediation of this sublime and significant spirit, were thereby able to fulfill their high mission in the manner already described. This spirit of the age continued to work for a long time, while the people situated north of ancient India were still under the guidance of the archangel. After the spirit of the age of India had fulfilled its mission, it was elevated to the leadership of the entire evolution of post-Atlantean humanity.

[ 5 ] In the period we refer to as the Proto-Persian era, we then have the spirit of personality, the Zeitgeist, who is the intuitive mind of the great Zarathustra or Zoroaster, the Zarathustra of primeval times. This is yet another example of how an archangel—that is, a folk soul—rises to the rank of a Zeitgeist. This is precisely the spectacle that we are witnessing in our own epoch, as we mentioned at the beginning of our present exposition: that the archangels, through the mission they carry out, work their way up to become guiding and ruling Zeitgeists.

[ 6 ] A later development then takes place involving the Egyptian people and their archangel on the one hand, and the Chaldean people and their archangel on the other. Here the event takes place whereby the archangel of the Egyptian people rises to the rank of a leading spirit of the age and, so to speak, assumes the guidance and direction of what previously fell to the Chaldean archangel, so that the leader in the Chaldean-Egyptian period becomes the third leading, powerful time spirit, which has gradually developed from the rank of the Egyptian archangel. But this is also the time when another significant development takes place: the development that runs parallel to the Egyptian-Chaldean culture, and to which refers what we had to emphasize particularly in the last lecture.

[ 7 ] We have seen that everything associated with the Semitic tribes takes on a special place and a special significance, and that within the Semitic world, Yahweh or Jehovah had singled out precisely this race and chosen it as his special people. By choosing a single race as his chosen people, as this race gradually grew, he first needed a kind of archangel to serve as his representative to the people, so that in the maturing Semitic people, in ancient times, we have an archangel standing under the constant inspiration of Yahweh or Jehovah, who later grows into a time spirit himself. We therefore have, so to speak, in addition to the ordinary, progressive time spirits of the ancient Indian, ancient Persian, and ancient Chaldean peoples, a time spirit that plays a special role in that it works within a single people. We have here a spirit of the age that thus appears, in a certain sense, in the mission of a national spirit; we have a spirit of the age that we must call the Semitic national spirit. It had a very special task. This will seem understandable to you when you consider that this particular people was, in fact, set apart from normal development and had special guidance, that special arrangements had been made, so to speak, to guide this people. Through these special arrangements, this people had received a mission that was truly of very special importance and significance for the post-Atlantean era, one that differed from the mission of all other peoples and nationalities. One can actually best understand this mission of Semitism by considering it in conjunction with what the various other peoples had as this or that mission in the post-Atlantean era.

[ 8 ] There are two spiritual currents within humanity. One spiritual current must be called, if one wishes to describe it correctly, that which proceeds from pluralism—one might also say, from monadology—which thus sees the origin and source of existence primarily in a multiplicity of beings and forces. You can now look around the world; in one way or another, you will see that the peoples of the post-Atlantean era proceeded from a plurality of the divine. Begin with the triad of ancient India, which later found its expression in Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. Look at German mythology, and you will find the triad of Odin, Hönir, and Lödur, and so on. Thus, everywhere you will find a trinity, and this trinity structured into a multiplicity. You see this characteristic not only where, so to speak, myths and teachings about gods appear, but also in philosophies, where it confronts us as monadology. This is the one current which, because it proceeds from multiplicity, can assume the greatest possible diversity. One could say: In the post-Atlantean era, from the far east in India and in a wide arc through Asia to Europe, this service to multiplicity—which is fundamentally expressed in our spiritual-scientific worldview by our recognition of a sum of the most diverse beings and the most diverse hierarchies—has gained its most manifold representations and forms.

[ 9 ] This service to diversity had to be counterbalanced by a synthetic, unifying movement—a movement that stemmed strictly from the monon, from monism. The true inspirers, the driving forces behind all monotheism and monism, behind all the concept of a single deity, are the Semitic peoples. For them, it is in their nature—and, if you recall what was said this morning, it is in their blood—to uphold the one God, the Monon.

[ 10 ] When a person looks out upon the vastness of the world, they would not get very far if they always emphasized only this: that a single unity, a monon, underlies the world. Monism or monotheism, taken on its own, is something that can represent only a final ideal. However, this could never lead to a true understanding of the world, to a thoroughly concrete worldview. Yet in the post-Atlantean era, the current of monotheism also had to find its expression, so that one people was entrusted with providing the impetus for this monotheism. This task was entrusted to the Semitic people. Hence you see how, so to speak, with a certain abstract rigor, an abstract relentlessness, the monistic principle is represented precisely in this people, and all other peoples, insofar as they synthesize their various divine entities into a unity, have received the impulse for this from this side. The monistic impulse has always come from this side. The other peoples have pluralistic impulses.

[ 11 ] It is of the utmost importance to bear this in mind. Anyone who studies the continuing influence of ancient Hebrew impulses can still see monotheism at work today in the learned rabbi and in learned Rabbinism at its most extreme. It is the task of this very people to convey the idea that the world principle can be only a unified one. One could therefore say: All other nations, peoples, and zeitgeists had an analytical task, a task of presenting the world principle as structured into various entities, just as, for example, the extreme abstraction of the Monon in India soon disintegrated into a trinity, just as the one God of Christianity disintegrates into the three persons. The other peoples all have the task of analyzing the foundation of the world and thereby creating much content for the individual parts of this foundation, filling themselves with rich imaginative material that can lovingly embrace phenomena. The Semitic people have the task of setting aside all multiplicity and devoting themselves synthetically to unity; hence the power of speculation, the power of synthetic thinking—for example, in Kabbalah—is the greatest conceivable precisely because of this impulse.

[ 12 ] Whatever could ever be spun out of unity through the synthetic, synthesizing activity of the ego has been spun out over the course of millennia by the Semitic spirit. This is the great polarity between pluralism and monism, and this is the significance of the Semitic impulse in the world. Monism is not possible without pluralism, nor is pluralism possible without monism. Therefore, we must acknowledge the necessity of both.

[ 13 ] The objective language of facts often leads to insights quite different from the sympathies and antipathies that prevail here and there. That is why we must truly understand the individual national spirits. While the leaders of the individual peoples over in Asia and Africa had long since risen to the rank of time spirits or spirits of personality, and in some cases had even already been granted the privilege of transforming from time spirits to the next higher stage, spirits of form — such as, for example, the spirit of the age that worked in ancient India, which in a certain sense had already risen to the rank of spirits of form — the individual peoples of Europe were still long guided by their individual archangels. It was not until the fourth post-Atlantean epoch that the Archangel of Hellenism rose to a leading position among the various peoples of Europe who had been guided by their archangels, by becoming the dominant time spirit of the Greek, the fourth leading epoch in the post-Atlantean era, so that we thus see the Archangel of Hellenism ascend to the rank of an Archai, a Spirit of Personality. That for which this Archangel of Hellenism had prepared himself emerges, once he had become the spirit of the age, for the world in Asia, Africa, and Europe, whose center had become the Greek people. While his Archangel had developed into an Arch&, the active spirit of the age of the Egyptian and also the Persian peoples had risen to a kind of Spirit of Form. What we are now coming to is something extraordinarily interesting in the course of post-Atlantean development. Through all the development that the Archangel of Hellenism had undergone earlier, he was able to pass through, in a relatively rapid manner, that which enabled him to assume a very special leading position as a time spirit. Consequently, however, something highly significant occurred in the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch.

[ 14 ] We know that the event we refer to as humanity’s reception of the Christ impulse took place at that time. The Christ impulse was received; the Mystery of Golgotha took place. The impulse that was given there was to gradually spread across the Earth over the course of the following centuries and millennia. This required not only the fact that this event took place, but also certain guiding and leading beings from the ranks of the Hierarchies. And here the most remarkable and interesting thing occurred: at a specific moment in time—which roughly coincides with the coming of the Christ impulse to Earth—the spirit of the age of Hellenism, for the sake of our present period, renounced the ascent into the region of the spirits of form that had become possible for it at that time, and became the guiding spirit of the age, one that continues to exert its influence through the ages. It becomes the vicarious, leading spirit of exoteric Christianity, so that the leading spirit of Greek culture stands before the Christ impulse of the Ark. This is why Greek culture decays so rapidly during the time in which Christianity develops, because it has, so to speak, relinquished its leading spirit so that it could become the guide of exoteric Christianity. The spirit of the age of ancient Hellenism became the missionary, the inspirer, or rather the intuitive guide of the spreading exoteric Christianity. Here, then, we have before us the spectacle of such a resignation, of which we have spoken, in a concrete case. Because the spirit of the age of ancient Greece had fulfilled its mission so extraordinarily well in the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, it was able to ascend to a higher realm; yet it chose to renounce this and thereby became the guiding spirit of the spreading exoteric Christianity, through which it worked across the various peoples.

[ 15 ] Such a renunciation takes place once more, and this second renunciation is, in turn, of particular interest, especially for those who call themselves students of spiritual knowledge. Essentially, while over in Asia, extending into Egyptian and Greek civilization, the individual archangels develop into time spirits, in Europe we have individual peoples and tribes guided by their respective archangels. There, in Europe, while the corresponding archangels—who were once sent from west to east—had ascended into the ranks of the spirits of the age, there was still an archangel who worked among the Germanic and, above all, the Celtic peoples—peoples who, at the time when Christianity began, were spread across a large part of Western Europe, all the way into present-day Hungary, through southern Germany and across the Alps. These peoples had the Celtic national spirit as their archangel. The peoples of the Celtic spirit were also widespread far up into the northeast of Europe. They were guided by a significant archangel who, soon after the Christian impulse had been given to humanity, had renounced becoming an Arch&, a spirit of personality, and who decided to remain at the level of an archangel and in the future to subordinate himself to the most diverse time spirits that would arise, for example, within Europe. Thus the Celtic peoples also faded away as a united people, precisely because their archangel had exercised a special resignation and taken on a special mission. This is a characteristic example of how, let us say, remaining behind in such a case contributes to the initiation of special missions. What then became of this archangel of the Celtic peoples once he had renounced becoming a spirit of personality? He became the inspiring spirit of esoteric Christianity, and his inspirations are particularly evident in those teachings and impulses that underlie esoteric Christianity—true esoteric Christianity. In Western Europe lay the mysterious site for those initiated into these mysteries, where inspiration took place through this guiding spirit, who had originally undergone significant training as an archangel of the Celts, who had renounced ascension and taken on another mission: to be the inspirer of esoteric Christianity, which was to continue working through the mysteries of the Holy Grail, to continue working through Rosicrucianism. Here you have an example of a sacrifice, of such a being from the hierarchies choosing to remain behind, and here you also have an example through which you can immediately and concretely recognize the significance of such a decision to remain behind. Although this archangel could have ascended to the rank of an archangel, he remained at the rank of an archangel and instead guided the significant current of esoteric Christianity, which is to continue working through the most diverse zeitgeists. Whatever the influence of the spirit of the age may be, this esoteric Christianity will be a source for everything that can be transformed and metamorphosed under the influence of the various spirits of the age. Here, then, we have another example of how such a resignation takes place, whereas otherwise we witness the great spectacle of national spirits rising to become spirits of the age, especially in our own epoch.

[ 16 ] Now we have—in the European region—the various Germanic peoples. These various Germanic peoples of Europe, who were originally guided by an archangelic being, were called upon to gradually come under the guidance of a wide variety of archangels, forming national individualities in the most diverse ways. It is, of course, exceedingly difficult—difficult only because, in a certain sense, it can easily arouse passion and jealousy—to speak impartially about these matters. Therefore, only a gentle hint can be given regarding very specific mysteries of this development. From the sum of those archangels emerged the Arch&, the leading spirit of our fifth cultural epoch of the post-Atlantean era. He emerged after one of the Archangels of the Germanic peoples had undergone a certain training over a long, long period of time. The spirit of the age that was the national spirit of the Greco-Latin epoch became the spirit of the age which, as you know, was later engaged in spreading exoteric Christianity. Later Roman history was also guided by a kind of Zeitgeist that had risen from the archangel of Romanism and joined forces with the Christian Zeitgeist in its activity. These two were the educators of that Archangel who led the Germanic peoples, who was one of their leading Archangels, and who then rose to become the Zeitgeist of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. Much was necessary, but above all, a strong individualization and intermingling of the various ethnic elements in Europe had to take place. This was only possible because, while over in Asia and Africa the archangels had long since risen to become time spirits, in Europe leadership still lay with the archangels themselves; the individual peoples were guided by their national souls, unconcerned with the time spirits, wholly devoted to the impulses of the national spirits themselves. As the Christian impulse swept over humanity, there was in Europe an interplay of individual national spirits filled with free will, each of which went its own way, and which, in essence, made it difficult for a spirit of the age of the fifth cultural epoch—one that would guide the individual national spirits—to emerge. To make possible, so to speak, the people inhabiting the French territory, Romanic, Celtic, and Frankish national elements intermingled. Through this intermingling, the entire leadership naturally took on a specific form. It passed, so to speak, from the individual guiding archangels—who had been assigned other tasks—to others. — We have already described the mission entrusted to the leading archangel of the Celts. We could similarly describe the missions of the archangels for the other peoples. — Thus, among the peoples that arose through intermingling, other archangels came who assumed their rule as the various elements blended. Indeed, for a long time—even into the Middle Ages—in central and northern Europe, the leading element among the archangels was, in essence, one that was only gradually influenced by the common spirit of the age that preceded the Christ impulse. The individual national spirits in Europe often became the servants of the Christ spirit of the age. The archangels of Europe placed themselves in the service of this common Christ spirit of the age, while the individual peoples were scarcely in a position to allow any of the archangels to rise to the rank of a spirit of the age. It was not until the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries—beginning around the twelfth century—that the groundwork was laid for the emergence of the leading spirit of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, under whose influence we still stand today. It belongs just as much to the great, leading time spirits as those that were the great, leading time spirits during the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian, Proto-Persian, and Indian epochs. But this spirit of our fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch worked in a very peculiar way. For it had to enter into a kind of compromise with one of the ancient spirits that were active before the Christian impulse, namely the Egyptian spirit, which, as we have heard, has in a certain sense risen to the rank of a spirit of form. Thus it is that our fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, in which we now stand, is actually dominated by a spirit of the age that is, in a certain sense, very, very much subject to the influence and impulses of the spirit of the age of ancient Egyptian culture, and which is, so to speak, a spirit of form in its very earliest stages.

[ 17 ] This has led to the many divisions and rifts of our age. The spirit of our time in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch strives, in a certain sense, to rise to spiritual heights and to elevate the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch to a higher level. But inherent in this is what constitutes a materialistic inclination, a materialistic tendency; and depending on the extent to which the various archangelic beings and the various national souls have a greater or lesser inclination toward this materialistic tendency, a more or less materialistic people emerges under the guidance of this spirit of the times of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period—a people that, so to speak, gives the spirit of the times a greater nuance toward the materialistic. An idealistic people, on the other hand, is one that gives the spirit of the age a nuance leaning more toward idealism.

[ 18 ] From the twelfth to the sixteenth century, something did indeed increasingly take shape that, in a certain sense, operated alongside the Christian zeitgeist—which is the enduring Greek zeitgeist—so that, in fact, in a remarkable way, what we call the Christian zeitgeist flows into our culture, combined with the actual zeitgeist of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, and here the ancient Egyptian culture exerts its influence once more, its zeitgeist having risen to a certain level of the spirits of form. But it is precisely because such a trifolium is at work in our entire contemporary culture that it has become possible for the most diverse nuances of cultural and national soul currents to emerge in the fifth epoch. It became possible for the Zeitgeist to exhibit the most diverse colors and nuances in its workings. The archangels, who received their commands from the spirit of the age, worked in the most diverse ways.

[ 19 ] Those who live in the north will be interested in something we will discuss in more detail in the following reflections; they will be particularly interested in the question: What was the influence of that archangel who was once sent to this region among the Nordic peoples, the Scandinavian peoples, and from whom the various archangelic beings of Europe—namely those of Western, Central, and Northern Europe—received their inspirations? In the outside world, it can only be regarded as folly to point specifically to that point on the European continent from which the greatest impulses once radiated in all directions, to that point which was the seat of exalted spirits before the Celtic folk spirit, as a Celtic archangelic being, had established a new center in the stronghold of the Grail. From that point, which in ancient times was the center for the outpouring of European spirituality, there also emanated that which the Nordic folk archangel initially received as his mission. To the outside world, as I said, it must appear as folly when we designate as the point from which radiates that which works toward the most diverse Germanic tribes the very region that today lies over central Germany, but is actually situated above the earth. If you were to draw a circle, for example, such that the cities of Dermold and Paderborn would fall within it, you would arrive in the region from which the mission of the most exalted spirits radiated, spirits who extended their mission to Northern and Western Europe. Because that was the great center of inspiration, the legend later arose that Asgard was actually situated at this point on the Earth’s surface. But it was there that the great center of inspiration lay in ancient times, the center that later transferred its main influence to the center of the Holy Grail.

[ 20 ] The peoples of Scandinavia, with their first archangels, were endowed at that time with very different predispositions—predispositions that today are really only expressed in the unique configuration of Norse mythology. Anyone who, in an occult sense, compares Norse mythology with other mythologies that have prevailed across the earth may know that this Norse mythology represents the original disposition of the archangel who was sent up here to the North—the original disposition that remained at the stage of its formation, as we might, so to speak, observe in a child when certain talents, latent genius, and so on, had remained at the childhood stage. In the archangel who was sent to Scandinavia, we find those predispositions that then emerge in the unique configuration of Norse mythology. Hence the great significance of Norse mythology for understanding the true, inner essence of the Scandinavian national soul. Hence, too, the great significance that this understanding of mythology has for the further development of this archangel, who does indeed possess the potential, in a certain sense, to rise to the rank of an archangel. But for this, many things are necessary. It is necessary that those potentials develop in a very specific way, potentials that today have, in a certain sense, receded behind the twilight, shadowy influence of the Zeitgeist, which has placed itself before the impulses of Christianity. However strangely similar some aspects of Germanic-Nordic mythology may be to the depictions of Greek mythology, it must nevertheless be said that there is no other mythology on earth which, in its unique structure and distinctive presentation, offers a more significant or clearer picture of the evolution of the world than this Nordic mythology, so that this picture can be regarded as a preliminary stage of the spiritual-scientific picture of the world’s development.

[ 21 ] Germanic mythology, in the way it has developed from the archetype of the Archangel, bears the most significant resemblance in its imagery to what is gradually to emerge as the spiritual-scientific worldview for humanity. The question will be how those predispositions that an archangel once brought into the world can develop, and how they can develop after this archangel has undergone the education of the Christ spirit. These predispositions will be able to become an important link in the leading spirit of the age if, in the later stages of a people’s development, it is understood in the right way how to develop what that people’s development contains as a predisposition from an earlier age. With this, we have merely pointed to an important problem, to an important evolution of a European archangel; we have, so to speak, pointed to the extent to which he possesses a predisposition toward a spirit of the age.

[ 22 ] Let us pause here for a moment and then continue our discussion by attempting to move from the configuration of the national soul into an esoteric consideration of mythology. Thus, as a special chapter, the description of the entire fascinating character of Germanic and, in particular, Norse mythology will be brought before our souls.