The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] In our last discussion, we briefly touched upon the relationship between the spiritual forces at work within the beings of the Earth’s natural kingdoms and what is visible on the outside. Let us briefly recall today how this was explained, because it seems necessary to shed even more light on these matters, which form an essential part of our topic; for they will lead us to what our lectures are actually intended to culminate in: an understanding of the living interplay of the beings of the various hierarchies and their descendants in the celestial bodies and natural kingdoms. We have explained that on the physical plane, the human being has the four members of his being active: the physical, the etheric, the astral body, and the I. We have further maintained that for the animal, essentially the three members—the physical, etheric, and astral bodies—are active on the physical plane, whereas the group-I is active on the astral plane. We have further seen that for plants, the physical and etheric bodies are active on the physical plane, the astral body on the astral plane, and the group-I on the devachanic plane. Then, for the mineral, we found the physical body alone on the physical plane, the etheric body on the astral plane, the astral body on the devachanic plane, and what we might call a higher devachanic plane, which is inhabited by the group-I of the mineral.

[ 2 ] Let us now examine in more detail what all this actually means in reality. Up to now, it has only been possible to say that the occult gaze, which rises to the first supersensible world immediately accessible to us, does not find within the physical world in animals what it still finds in human beings within the physical world, the ‘I,’ but rather that what we call the ‘I’ in human beings can only be found in animals on the astral plane, in the supersensible world, and only there does it have a point of action. We see from this that occult science cannot attribute the ego to the animal within the physical plane. It does not deny the animal an ego, but says that what can be addressed as the ego in the animal is to be found only in the astral world.

[ 3 ] One might easily object that this denies animals—including higher animals—a sense of self on the physical plane, whereas one must acknowledge that animals display extraordinary intelligence and a truly remarkable intellect in many of their activities, so that much of what the animal does on the physical plane could well be compared to what humans do on the physical plane. Now it must be said that whoever expresses such a view has not grasped the actual fundamental principle of this matter. It would never occur to anyone who delves into these matters to deny that what we call the human soul forces exist in the animal realm on the physical plane. That is not the issue at all. It is in this very area that the root of the most manifold errors and misunderstandings lies. We encounter a misunderstanding right away when a certain materialistic Darwinism of our time might say, for example: “Yes, you anthroposophists view the matter as if human beings must necessarily be placed on a higher level of spirituality than animals, whereas one can observe how animals develop intelligence.” There is so much intelligence, and indeed so much of a certain instinctive morality, present in the animal kingdom that what human beings possess in their soul powers can quite well be seen as a kind of higher stage than what is already found in the animal kingdom. — The perspective at issue here is completely skewed. An unbiased observer would never think to deny that the animal kingdom possesses intellect and reason. One need only consider facts such as the one that humanity, in its development, arrived at the invention of paper relatively late in its cultural process. How, in our historical accounts, is this invention of paper by the human intellect presented as a great achievement—and in a certain sense it is indeed a sign of human progress. But wasps had already known this same art millions of years earlier, for what the wasp makes in its nest is genuine paper. So that we can say: What the human intellect accomplishes as intellect, we already have in the animal kingdom down there, far, far below. It does not even occur to the unbiased observer to deny the animal kingdom the same spiritual powers as those of humanity. Indeed, in the realm of occultism, we are even convinced that intellect and reason function much more reliably, much more precisely, and with far fewer errors in the animal kingdom than in humans. The essential point at issue is that in humans in the physical world, all these soul forces are related to an “I” that develops independently within this physical world, an “I” that undergoes this independent development initially through upbringing. When we consider a member of any animal group, we know that the scope of its development is determined simply by the species to which the animal belongs—that is, in a manner entirely different from that of human beings, who develop individually.

[ 4 ] If we now turn our attention to the animal kingdom, we find within the animal world the most diverse forms, which differ greatly from one another—quite unlike, for example, the human races. We do indeed find a great diversity of human races across the globe, but if you compare this with the vast diversity of animals—from the less perfect to the more perfect species—you will immediately notice how immense the differentiation within the animal kingdom is; quite unlike that among humans. Where does this come from? We come closer to an answer when we first ask ourselves: What causes the various groups of the animal kingdom, the various species, that we find characteristically distributed across the globe?

[ 5 ] Here the occult view shows us that what causes the diversity of animal species does not originate solely from the Earth; rather, animal species receive their forms from outer space, in such a way that the forces leading to one species originate from a different part of outer space than the forces leading to another species. The forces that form the various animal forms, in fact, stream down onto our Earth from the other planets of our solar system. We can actually divide the entire animal kingdom into six to seven different main groups, and these main groups have their supreme group-Iches. These supreme group-Iches have their active impulses within the six to seven main planets belonging to our planetary system, so that spiritually the forces that form the main groups of animals act from the planets. But in doing so, we have at the same time clearly indicated what it actually means to speak of group-Iches in connection with animals. It means that spiritual forces live within the animals whose essence we do not have to seek on Earth itself, but whose essence we must seek outside of Earth in outer space, and specifically, first and foremost, in the planetary world. As it were, the rulers of the main animal groups live on our planets, and they had to withdraw to these planets in order to act upon the Earth with their forces from the correct distances and from the correct direction. For only from these directions can that which constitutes the main animal forms be brought about in the right way. Now you see, if the planets were to allow only such forces to stream down upon our Earth, then we would indeed not have such a diversity of the animal kingdom as we have now, but we would have seven principal forms. Once, in a very distant primeval time, there were indeed only seven main forms of the animal kingdom. But these seven main forms were very malleable and adaptable, so that they were, as it were, soft and plastic in their formation, easily transformed—one form into such a specific form, another into another—and this was also brought about in a later time. The seven main forms lie far, far back in time. But then other forces came into play that acted, as it were, to support or inhibit the forces of the planets.

[ 6 ] Now I must first speak of how these other forces come into being. When one casts one’s ordinary gaze out into the vastness of the heavens, it is very easy to believe that everything out there is actually uniform. But that is not the case. When we direct our gaze into space in a certain direction, the occult eye perceives something quite different than when we direct our gaze in another direction of space. Space is by no means a homogeneous entity, not something that is the same in all directions, but rather, different forces act upon us from the various directions of space throughout the universe. The entire cosmos is filled with spiritual beings of the various hierarchies, who act upon the Earth in different ways from the various directions. In those times when people possessed a certain original, primitive clairvoyance, it was clear to them: If I direct my gaze toward the sky in one particular direction at a certain time of day, then certain forces come toward me, and on another side I find other forces. And people also perceived that from certain points in the heavens came particularly precise and specific forces that were of special importance to the Earth. These are all arranged in the circle of stars in the heavens that has been called the zodiac since ancient times. It was certainly not for nothing that people spoke of the zodiac in ancient times; rather, they knew why they did so. In the heavens, it is the case that, let us say, the forces that worked down from the planet Mars and brought about one of the seven main forms within the still-malleable animal realm act differently depending on whether Mars is positioned over one part of the zodiac or another. The zodiac was then divided into twelve signs, which naturally correspond to the constellations, and depending on whether the forces of Mars—which are decisive for a particular animal form—are positioned above Aries, Taurus, or another constellation, they act differently. This is how the seven main forms are specified. From this arises a whole range of possibilities for various animal forms. And when you consider how, in addition, Mars can exert a determining influence by standing above Leo, so that it displaces the influence of Leo in relation to the Earth, or how it exerts a determining influence from the other side, with the Earth coming to stand between the Sun and Mars, there is an even greater number of possibilities. All these are forces that have worked together to further differentiate the seven main groups of the animal kingdom. Thus, the entire diversity of our animal forms on Earth has arisen because the forces of the planets are actually the seats of the group souls, the group-I’s of the animals, and because these group-I’s fulfill their task from these seats, since they can only fulfill this task from there. For it is only because that group-I of an animal form, which is to work down from Mars, has chosen precisely this location in the heavens that it can exert the corresponding effect down upon the Earth. Here lie the forces that have formed the diversity of our animal forms, and when we use the expression: “The animal group-I is to be found on the astral plane,” this actually means: If the occult gaze seeks the group-I of any animal form, it must not look on Earth, but on a planet. What the occult gaze finds in humans on Earth, it finds for the animal only in the celestial realm out among the planets. And just as, let us say, a human being who has a task to perform on Earth that requires different perspectives must go to those very different perspectives, so the Group-I, which resides on the planet, must traverse the celestial space above the zodiac in order to differentiate its forces from there.

[ 7 ] If we relate this fact, which we have just stated, to the fact that people today so often seek the origins of animal forms in some principle inherent in the Earth itself—for example, in the struggle for existence, in some form of natural selection, and the like— then, on the one hand, the facts that have come about through these endeavors—as Darwin, for example, has described them—truly appear magnificent, insofar as Darwin remained confined to the facts. For unconsciously, Darwinism has described how the mobility of animal forms exists, how creation actually takes place from the basic forms. But in accordance with the whole outlook of our time, one has disregarded the fact that the forces which create these forms act from outer space, that is, that the creators of animal forms are to be sought in the world of the planets belonging to our planetary system but located outside our Earth.

[ 8 ] If we now ask ourselves: How does the same apply to human beings? — we will only find an answer once we have first answered the other question: What kind of spirits are these that we have just referred to as the group souls of animals, and which have their abode on the various planets? It turns out that these group-I’s of the animals are descendants of that category of spiritual beings whom I have referred to in the course of these lectures as the spirits of movement. So we must regard the group-I’s of the animals as descendants of the spirits of movement. For it was the spirits of movement who, out of their own substance, gave human beings their astral body during the old lunar state. To summarize, we can say: This Earth was preceded by the lunar state; during this lunar state, human beings received their astral bodies from the spirits of movement. In other words: When the Earth was the Moon—the ancient Moon, not the present one; the present one is, after all, merely a detached fragment of the Earth itself, whereas the ancient Moon is something like a previous incarnation of our Earth—while the Earth was in this ancient lunar state, the spirits of movement circled this ancient Moon and, as it were, infused their own substance into what humanity had brought over from even earlier states. So that what the human being received as an astral body—which was new to him, for at that time he had only a physical body and an etheric body—originates from the spirits of movement. The old Moon has disappeared, the Earth has formed, and the spirits of movement have, in addition to their own further development, also developed descendants. These descendants of the spirits of movement are those beings we refer to as the group-I’s of the animals, who have now established their abodes not on Earth but on other planets, in order to work from there upon Earth in such a way as to bring forth the animal forms in the manner described. This is the specific point of what I have said: that we can characterize group-I’s in a certain sense as descendants of the beings of the second hierarchy.

[ 9 ] We must now ask the following question: Just as these descendants of the spirits of movement act upon the animals from the planets—do similar spiritual beings also act upon human beings, upon the human race spread across the Earth? We cannot say this of those spiritual beings whom we have cited as the normal members of the individual hierarchies. But we have, of course, cited the special category that we have called the Luciferic spirits, and we have described how these Luciferic spirits relate to the normal spirits. For every category of the various hierarchies, there are also the Luciferic spirits in our present age. While the group souls of the animals are quite normal descendants, true descendants of the spirits of movement, the Luciferic spirits corresponding to the spirits of movement are those who have rebelled against the normal path of the spirits of movement, who have opposed these normal spirits of movement. These Luciferic spirits of movement are just as grouped on the various planets in relation to Earth as the true descendants of the spirits of movement; they have also, so to speak, distributed their roles in such a way that they have established their abodes on the various planets. Just as the group souls of the animals dwell on the planets, so too do certain Luciferic spirits of movement dwell on the planets. They have set themselves the task that once corresponded to the spirits of movement: to work formatively from the planets inward, so that groups of the corresponding beings arise on Earth. Just as seven main animal groups were formed, which were specified only by the conditions described, so the Luciferic beings of movement worked from the planets into the Earth by specifying the human race, which is actually conceived in a certain way according to a single plan. Thus, while humanity was conceived within the overall world plan such that a single human form was to have taken hold across the Earth, these Luciferic spirits of movement acted from the various planets and specified the human form in such a way that the forms for the individual major human races could emerge across the Earth. More details can be found in the lectures I gave in Christiania on the particular, specific way in which these Luciferic spirits of movement work to shape races.

[ 10 ] Thus, we must distinguish between the descendants of the spirits of movement and the Luciferic spirits of movement. But now, one more thing. We must now naturally raise the question: Where, then, are the normal spirits of movement who gave human beings their astral bodies during the ancient Lunar period? That is, those who reached the goal of their development in that era, which came to an end with the transition from the formation of the Moon to the formation of the Earth—these fully matured spirits of movement—where are they? These spirits of movement, too, have the peculiarity that they have their actual abode—or rather, to put it better, the sphere of their activity—on the planets of our solar system, so that they do not, for example, act directly as spirits of movement from the Sun, where they have, so to speak, their main gathering place, but rather first send out their rays to the planets and from there act back upon the Earth. Insofar as we are dealing with the true spirits of movement, their immediate activity originates from the planets of our solar system. But all of this—how these spiritual beings act from the planets—naturally belongs to the supersensible, invisible world as such. Only the effects themselves manifest very clearly on Earth; the effects come to pass on Earth. What, then, do these spirits of movement do for human beings, who once, on the ancient Moon, gave them their astral body out of their own substance? This astral body was contained as a seed within earthly existence, and after the ancient Moon had vanished and an intervening period had passed and the Earth had reformed anew, this astral body had also developed anew from the seed. The spirits of movement, however, have evolved toward a higher activity. We know that their descendants have become animal group souls; we know that those who rebelled against them played a part in the differentiation of the human races. Where, then, do these advanced, genuine, normally developed spirits of movement manifest themselves? Let an example illustrate how they reveal themselves.

[ 11 ] We know that the individual human being is guided, first and foremost, by what we call his angel. We know that nations are spiritually guided, first and foremost, by their national spirits or archangels—nations are distinct from races. We know that successive historical cultures are guided by the spirits of the age, the Archai. We know, then, that above the Archai stands that category of hierarchies which we call the Spirits of Form, and above them the Spirits of Movement. We wish to consider them in the state in which they exist on Earth, having already accomplished the task of giving human beings the astral body and having themselves made their proper progress. There is now in human evolution something that goes beyond the characters of the mere Spirits of Time, something that is more significant, more powerful for all of humanity than the sphere of the individual Spirits of Time. The Spirits of Time work on Earth for a specific period of time. But there are spiritual developments within the entire course of human evolution that encompass greater spheres than those of the mere Spirits of Time. Such greater epochs of humanity, which transcend the sphere of mere zeitgeists, have as their rulers the normally developed spirits of movement. These normally developed spirits of movement thus manifest themselves in their effect on the process of human becoming in such a way that they provide the great cultural impulses. And when we now survey human history, the history of human culture, we see that individual human beings are guided by angels, angeloi; peoples by archangels, archangeloi; throughout certain periods, cultures are guided by time spirits, and also, as we shall yet see, certain spheres by the spirits of form. But then we have the entire cultural course of human development such that, throughout certain long periods—which are much longer than those spanned by a single time spirit—the Spirit of Movement, which works down from one planet, and the Spirit of Movement, which works down from another planet, are active in larger spheres as inspiring forces. And so these Spirits of Movement, which have a normal development, work down from the planets in such a way that they now alternate in the process of human becoming and manifest themselves in the great cultural impulses of Earth’s development that extend beyond the spheres of the time spirits. For example, the cultural impulse of the Spirit of Movement that works down from the planet which modern astronomy calls Venus and which ancient astronomy called Mercury—these two names have been confused—this cultural impulse originally came from that Spirit of Movement which expressed itself in Buddhism. Other cultural impulses that work beyond the mere time spirits came from spirits of movement originating from other planets. Thus, while the group souls of animals come from the descendants of the spirits of movement and the racial form of humanity from the Luciferic spirits of movement, these great cultural impulses come from the spirits of movement that have reached their normal stage of development. There are many other impulses coming from this source, but for now it is important to consider the cultural impulses from this perspective as well.

[ 12 ] You see, here, for example, you have something that has developed, I would say, from our entire planetary system—something you will find alluded to among the great truths which, as every expert knows, are contained in A. P. Blavatsky’s *The Secret Doctrine*. Experts will find them alluded to there. There is a line that reads: Buddha—Mercury. Buddha is equal to Mercury; that is to say, the leading individuality for Buddhism is traced back in occultism to that spirit of movement which works down from this planet. He is the inspirer; from him comes that influence which finds expression in this cultural current. It is certainly the case that this very remarkable book, Blavatsky’s Esoteric Doctrine, contains great truths that one must simply learn to recognize in the right way. One must not simply accept this book as a book of dogmas, but must investigate every single detail. Only then will one recognize the greatness of this book. Of all the great truths taught by the true occultist, you will occasionally find significant hints precisely in Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine. And when this was written down by the inspirer of Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine—Buddha is like Mercury—the great truth was at work that the inspirer of H.P. Blavatsky knew: That individuality, who became the Buddha in the twenty-ninth year of her life, was able at that moment—symbolically indicated to us by her sitting beneath the Bodhi tree—to begin to be inspired by the Spirit of Movement enthroned upon Mercury. Thus this individuality had become a Buddha from a Bodhisattva, that is, one of the spirits who receive the inspiration that fills them not from the earthly sphere, but from outer space, from the cosmos. Thus he was transported from the earthly sphere to Nirvana, that is, into the realm where the earthly sphere no longer plays a part. — H.P. Blavatsky knew nothing of many of these things in her ordinary consciousness, but her inspirer knew them. These things must be drawn from the depths of occultism, and in these subtle and also great truths, everything must not be thrown into confusion. Now, my claim is not that at the moment a Bodhisattva was elevated to the status of a Buddha, only the Spirit of Movement was acting as an inspiration, but rather that through him the Beings of the higher Hierarchies then began to act. The essential point is that from that moment on, the other spirits of the lower hierarchies were no longer involved, so that he could, so to speak, reach directly those beings whom one designates as the normally developed spirits of the movement.

[ 13 ] Now, before we consider the human cultural process in relation to another point, let us turn to the plant kingdom. In the plant kingdom, we see that the astral body is already to be found on the astral plane, where the animal group-I is located. This in turn leads back to the real fact, visible to the occult eye, that forces are at work for plants not only in the group-I but already in the plant’s astral body—forces that now also act from the planetary system, from the stars. While in the animal kingdom the spirits of movement act only within the group forces—the forces that create the group forms—the same forces belonging to the sphere of the spirits of movement are already at work on the plant’s astral body. The descendants of the spirits of movement are also such, but they differ from the other descendants in that they formed at a somewhat different time; yet they act just as much as descendants of the spirits of movement upon the astral body of plants, not merely upon the ego. For we can say once again that the forces of the spirits of movement or their descendants act upon the astral body of plants from the planets of the planetary system. For the astral body is, in every being, that which provides the impulse for movement. On the physical plane, we have the physical and etheric bodies of the plant. If any forces from the sphere of the spirits of movement were to act upon the plant, these forces—because the astral body is not inside the plant but surrounds it—would set the plant in motion, but not in the way that humans and animals move, but rather in such a way that they lift the plant, as it first emerges, away from the earth. When you observe how the forces in a plant develop in spirals from leaf base to leaf base, you are witnessing the activity of these forces that act upon the plant from the planets. And depending on whether the forces of the descendants of the spirits of movement act from this or that planet, this distinctive line where the leaves attach takes on a different form.

[ 14 ] There is a certain method for studying the actual orbits of the individual planets as reflected in their images; and once this fact has been recognized in conventional science, there will be much to correct in the existing astronomical systems. Certain plants are assigned to the forces of the spirits of motion that are on Mars, others to those on Venus, and still others to those on Mercury. This is where they exert their influence, and depending on whether they act from one planet or another, they impart to the plant the movement expressed in the spiral coiling of its leaves: the very same movement that the corresponding planet makes, the absolute movement it makes in the heavens. If you take an ordinary field bindweed, especially one where the stem itself is twisted, you will find in the spiral movements of the stem even imitations of planetary movements that originate from the spirits of movement. Where the stem stands firm, you will find in the leaf bases reflections of those forces that originate from the spirits of movement of the planets in the solar system. These forces act in the plant together with the actual group-Iches, and these group-Iches of the plants all act in such a way that we can determine the direction of their forces simply by connecting the sun with the center of the Earth; that is, acting together with the forces that come from the spirits of movement are other forces that run in the direction of the plant stem, which always acts toward the center of the Earth. We must therefore compose the entire plant from that which grows toward the sun or toward the center of the Earth, and that which winds its way around and reproduces the movements of the planets in the leaf bases. This corresponds to the real fact that we must seek the immediate impulses of action for the group-Iches of the plants in the direction from the Earth toward the sun. That is to say, if we now direct our occult gaze not toward the planets but toward the Sun, we obtain the individual group-I’s for the plants. These group-I’s of the plants are now just as much descendants of the spirits of wisdom as the group-I’s of the animals are descendants of the spirits of movement. So in the group-I’s of the plants we must see descendants of the spirits of wisdom.

[ 15 ] Now, in the course of these lectures, I have explained that we must regard the nature spirits as descendants of the third hierarchy, and the group-Ics as descendants of the second hierarchy. To this we must now add the spirits of the cycles, who govern the cycles of time. Here we have reached a point where we can point out the function of a certain category of such spirits of the cycles. For at this point we can point out that certain spirits of the cycles connect for the plant the effects of the spiral-acting forces of motion coming from the planets with the forces coming from the sun. These are connected at a specific time by the spirits of the cycles, namely when the time of year arrives when the plant proceeds to its fertilization. There the spiral principle of movement combines with the principle that grows in the stem. Hence we also have the principle that acts spirally in the stamens and the principle that is the direct continuation of the stem in the ovary at the center of the plant. When the plant’s cycle has run its course—that is, when the spirits of the cycles connect the activity of the planetary spirits with that of the Sun spirit for the plant—then in the plant, which is now complete, those organs that until then had followed the planets in a spiral arrange themselves neatly in a circle, like the stamens all around, and the stem grows and culminates in the ovary. The two are united. Plant growth is completed when the activity of the spirits of the cycles—which unite the two spiritual entities in a kind of marriage—is added to the two spiritual activities of the spirits of movement and the spirits of wisdom, or rather their descendants.

[ 16 ] Thus, in the plant kingdom, we have had the opportunity to become acquainted with the descendants of the Spirits of Wisdom. We must again assume that these descendants of the spirits of wisdom—and you can read more about this in my *Secret Science* or in the *Akashic Records*—have developed from these spirits of wisdom ever since the time when the spirits of wisdom themselves, out of their own substance, gave humanity its etheric body. This occurred while the Earth was in the state of the Old Sun. At that time, the human etheric body was derived from the Spirits of Wisdom. Since then, however, the Old Sun has progressed to the Lunar state, and the Lunar state has in turn progressed to our present Earth state. Even during the lunar state, the spirits of wisdom—who once, during the old Sun, had the ability to give humanity its etheric body from their own substance—had advanced so far that they no longer needed to develop the ability to give anything to humanity directly from themselves. They had advanced to higher activities on Earth. Now it is not only characteristic of the descendants of the spirits of wisdom, whom we have found as group-I’s for the plant kingdom, that they give their immediate impulse from the Sun, so that it thus seems to come not only from the planets but from the Sun; it is also characteristic of the actual spirits of wisdom that they manifest themselves as coming directly from the Sun to the Earth. How, then, do the impulses manifest that come from the Spirits of Wisdom who have undergone their normal development?

[ 17 ] We have seen that in spirits such as the one that inspired the Buddha, a normally developed spirit of motion initially acts from a planet. Now we come to the task of seeking out the normal spirits of wisdom. In light of all our previous considerations, we must seek them on the Sun. We must seek them on the Sun in the same sense that we must seek the normal spirits of motion acting from the planets, even though their actual abode is on the Sun. We must seek the impulses of the normally developed spirits of wisdom emanating directly from the Sun. Here, however, we encounter something peculiar. True, we can distinguish differences in the case of plants—since we are dealing with the descendants of the spirits of wisdom—if we proceed with occult precision; but when we view the plants on Earth in their relationship to the spirits of wisdom on the Sun, their movements all appear to us, more or less, as a vertical connection from the Sun to the center of the Earth. We can distinguish what in the plant form originates from the spirits that have their seat on the planets, but what we perceive as originating from the spirits of wisdom flows together for us into a single vertical line. The situation is similar, and anyone familiar with the occult facts in this field will be able to give you exactly the same account: that in the realm we are entering when we turn our gaze toward the Sun—for that is where we must seek the normal spirits of wisdom—we can no longer distinguish any further differentiations. There we perceive a unity. What emanates from the normal spirits flows together into a unity for us. And when we now ask, where does that which emanates from this unity of the spirits of wisdom, who have their seat directly in the sun, where does that manifest in the earth’s activity, then we enter an even more far-reaching sphere.

[ 18 ] The sphere of a spirit such as that which inspired the Buddha—that is, the spirit of movement on Mercury—is still small in comparison to the far more comprehensive sphere that is directed in the process of human evolution by the spiritual entity of wisdom, perceived as a unity, which is to be found on the Sun. If we go back to the culture of ancient India, we find that the seven holy Rishis spoke of what each of them, for their own occult reasons, had to give to humanity. They were aware that they had preserved what had been guided through seven long cultural epochs by the spirits of movement. And just as if seven successive periods in the Earth’s development were to take effect at once by placing great individualities side by side in a college, so it came to pass that these seven successive influences of the spirits of the planets were revealed in what the seven holy Rishis had to say to humanity, each in his own right. They did not thereby claim that what they had to give was a direct outflow of a Spirit of Movement, but they said that it was like a remembrance in each soul of what the Spirits of Movement had given earlier. For the high wisdom that the holy Rishis gave to Earth’s humanity was the great remembrance of the ancient Atlantean cultures, only newly shaped. But these seven holy Rishis also said: Above what we have to offer as the cultures of successive epochs lies something else that exists beyond our sphere. The holy Rishis called that which lay beyond their sphere Vischvakarman. They thus pointed to something that lies beyond their sphere, something that encompasses a greater earthly sphere than that of the individual spirits of the movement. Just as with these spheres of the spirits of the age, the holy Rishis pointed to cultural epochs that lie above the spheres of the individual spirits of the movement.

[ 19 ] Then came the Zarathustrian culture, and Zarathustra, in turn, pointed to the very same thing that the holy Rishis had called Vishvakarman. Only he pointed to it in his own way. He called it Ahura Mazdao. Both the holy Rishis and Zarathustra knew that what is meant by Vischvakarman represents the spirit of wisdom, which flows comprehensively over the earth and has greater spheres than the sphere of the individual spirits of movement. Zarathustra, too, believed that Ahura Mazdao has greater spheres than the spirits of movement.

[ 20 ] And then came Egyptian culture, which, for certain reasons, recognized the need to say: The present—that is, the Egyptian present of that time—is not suited to raising its gaze to that solar spirit of wisdom which Zarathustra, in his own way, had sensed. — Therefore, Egyptian culture clothed its conception of the nature of this spirit in the legend that this spirit, when it sought to reveal itself to the earth, was immediately dismembered. Osiris, who is dismembered by his brother, is a reference to what the holy Rishis had already pointed to with their Vishvakarman. And then came the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, which indicated that what every cultural epoch had pointed toward could be attained through direct perception precisely because of the special conditions of this fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch; that is to say, that through the special processes of the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, the possibility was given for a being to be inspired by it.

[ 21 ] The seven Rishis pointed out that this being exists, Zarathustra, that the occult gaze directed toward the Sun beholds this being; Egyptian culture, that this being is still so foreign to the Earth that human beings encounter it only after death; the fourth cultural epoch was able to point out that, within the course of Earth’s development, the conditions had arisen whereby, for three years, a human being could be directly inspired by this Spirit of Wisdom. And it was thereby possible to recognize that the sphere of this Solar Spirit of Wisdom is indeed more comprehensive than the sphere of the Spirits of Movement, because it now encompasses the entire cultural process of the Earth. That is to say, that which is called Vischvakarman in the language of the holy Rishis, Ahura Mazdao in that of Zarathustra, and—if one truly understands what lies behind the name—Osiris in Egyptian culture, and what was designated in the language of the fourth cultural epoch by the word Christ—this has shone in through the gate of the Sun Spirit of Wisdom. —Just as I have not said that it is only the Spirit of Movement that has shone in through the Buddha, so I do not say that it is only the Sun Spirit of Wisdom that has shone in through the Christ. He was the gateway through which the occult gaze was directed out into infinite spheres where the spirits of the higher hierarchies are present; but the entrance was the Spirit of Wisdom, the Sun Spirit of Wisdom. Just as the Sun relates to the planets, so does the Solar Spirit of Wisdom relate to the spirits of motion, which in turn find expression in such spirits as the one who inspired the Buddha. This is what H. P. Blavatsky meant in her good old theory. It never occurred to her to identify the Christ with any of the planetary spirits of motion.

[ 22 ] It would be a grave departure from the original spirit of the Theosophical Movement—in which so much that is great, true, and significant regarding profound occult truths has prevailed—if one were to confuse what occultism can teach us about such spirits, which culminate in a name like Buddha, whom H.P. Blavatsky so clearly demonstrated in her simple exposition that he corresponds to the spirit of Mercury—it would be a break with all the original starting points of the Theosophical proclamation, with this teaching that was correctly understood at the time and from which the spirit of Buddha would never have been confused with the spirit of Christ—if one were to confuse these individual entities today; if, based on the fundamental elements of occult teaching, one were unable to distinguish between those spirits who guide the process of becoming human across successive spheres of time and who reach their pinnacle in spirits such as Buddha, and that Spirit to whom all others, including the Buddha himself, have pointed—who is the Spirit of Unity for Earth’s culture, just as the Solar Being is the unifying body for the planetary system. And this Spirit of Unity must be designated as the Christ in the sense of the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. Within the solar system, one cannot speak in the ordinary sense of two suns and say, for example, that there is one sun that covers Aries at one time and another sun that covers Capricorn at another time. One must be clear that it is the same sun that passes through the entire zodiac, and that it is different planets that pass through the zodiacal signs. But one must also be clear of this when speaking of the Christ who passes through the cultural spheres of the entire human development of the Earth, as has been recognized by all religions at all times, wherever these religions reached their zeniths. Then one must distinguish this Christ Spirit from the spirits of the individual spheres, which culminate in their great individualities much as Buddhism culminates in its Buddha. This shows us how the objective aspect in these things is to be found. |

[ 23 ] When the Western occultist is compelled to point out this fact, he must not be accused of advocating something that is intolerant toward other religious systems, whereas theosophy has the task of allowing every religious system to have its due. In making such a reproach, one must not forget that what is demanded of the Western occultist has already been accomplished. Did the Christ impulse originate in the West? Did any Western people give birth to the Christ impulse from within their own national character or racial heritage? No, it has accepted the Christ impulse as an impulse that applies to all of humanity, even though this Christ impulse was foreign to the peoples of the West in terms of its outward appearance. Western culture has thus first demonstrated that it has an understanding of that self-renunciation which is necessary in relation to one’s own. By renouncing the spirit of the movement on Mars as its immediate inspirer—at the time when it exchanged this inspirer for the Christ spirit, for the inspirer corresponding to the spirit of wisdom on the Sun—the West accomplished a historic, significant deed. And it is inappropriate for other religious groups to accuse the West of intolerance precisely because of this matter. The great leaders of other religions demonstrate everywhere that they recognize the Spirit of Wisdom above the spirits of movement. Only those who wish to make their own Spirit of Movement, under a different name, into a kind of guiding spirit—those who themselves do not wish to take the step of ascending from their own spirit to the Sun Spirit—can speak of intolerance on the part of those who have already achieved tolerance. Let us first practice in other areas the very tolerance that the West has achieved by exchanging its spirit of movement for the spirit of wisdom.

[ 24 ] Thus, even before theosophy emerged, this act had already accomplished the theosophical task of doing justice to the various religions, in that no impulse belonging to any particular group of people is claimed for Christ, but only that which theosophy itself claims: to seek that impulse which is a human impulse, in contrast to the specific religions, just as the solar impulse is for all the planets. This arises from the depths of occultism when this fact is presented objectively, and if it were ever said that this presentation of the Christ impulse springs from any particular national or ethnic interest or Western interest, it would be possible only out of ignorance of the factual circumstances or out of a distortion of them. In all things, it is essential that we look the objective facts in the eye, unvarnished and boldly. We can do this only if we look into the depths of the unfolding of the world. All occult truths ultimately show us how the world unfolds. But we must have the courage, we must also have the impartiality, to confront this world-becoming. What do names matter to us, whether they are borrowed from the East or the West, whether they are carried by this or that personal spirit; they are of no concern to us. What works in the world—that concerns us; that we must acknowledge. And Spiritual Science leads us to observe, to see, what is at work in the world. After all, in the field of Spiritual Science, we have it so easy—I would say—to find the right path simply by instinct. We need not always crave new sensations, but rather seek to understand a little of what lies in the first impulses of the theosophical movement. In identifying the Buddha with Mercury, H. P. Blavatsky expressed a great truth that is all the more clearly recognized the more one understands, in the occult realm, the relationship of the Buddha to the Christ—just as one understands cosmic relationships better when one understands the relationship of the planet Mercury to the fixed star Sun. Things cannot be thrown off balance by human prejudices. They only have the right effect in the cultural process when we look at them with an open mind.

[ 25 ] This observation may be added precisely to what was said today about the spirits active in the planets and the Sun, for these spirits extend their influence to the Earth, and the world has no inkling of how deeply rooted in occult causes much of what must be taught in popular lectures truly is. How deeply grounded is the relationship between the successive cultural spheres that may now be revealed, one of which culminates in the Buddha, the other in what you may call, if you will, the fourth cultural epoch—Christ. How one differs from the other can only be learned from the depths of occultism. But occultism also testifies to us how, when viewed correctly, the cosmos offers us signs everywhere of what speaks deeply into our hearts. So that we can say: If we come to know the scripture that is spread out in the cosmos, in the stars, in their arrangement and movement, then what speaks from the cosmos everywhere is that which permeates our hearts with truth, with love, and with that piety that carries the development of humanity forward from epoch to epoch.