The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] I would like to begin today’s lecture with a comment regarding the conclusion of yesterday’s lecture. I noticed that some of you in the audience attached a certain significance to the fact—and of course this can certainly be interpreted as a thought—that in the rough sketch I provided, the individual planets were all lined up in a row with the Sun, forming a sort of general, as one might say, conjunction—but I would like to expressly point out that this is not at all relevant to the matter at hand. We will need this later, you see. It is necessary that we do not succumb to false ideas.

[ 2 ] First, in accordance with the Copernican system, we draw the Sun; then what is now called Mercury, but which in esoteric terms is called Venus; then Venus, or rather Mercury in the esoteric sense. Next, according to the Copernican system, comes the Earth with its Moon, followed by the orbit of Mars, then the orbit of Jupiter, and finally the orbit of Saturn. That would be the Copernican world system. And now I have said that I would like to do this as it was taught in a Zarathustra school. You must not think that Zarathustra himself must always have taught this; these are elementary truths that were taught in the Zarathustra schools. [The same drawing as on page 103.]

[ 3 ] If we now imagine the constellation of Gemini, then we take those points that simply lie on this line II to the Sun. Connect—it doesn’t matter whether such a conjunction exists or not—simply the Sun with the constellation of Gemini. Wherever Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are located is irrelevant; I have drawn them here merely to indicate the orbits. These are, for now, the boundary points for the individual hierarchies.

[ 4 ] Now, if we want to draw the sphere of Saturn, for example, we must not think of the Sun but of the Earth as the center, and we must draw a sort of circle—it is not really a circle—a sort of egg shape, so that the Earth becomes the center. We must do the same for the other celestial bodies. So please, do not mistake the secondary details in this drawing for the main point. The main point is that we identify the corresponding figures for the spheres of influence of the respective hierarchies.

[ 5 ] Today we want to take a closer look at the nature of those members of the higher hierarchies who stand immediately above human beings. It is helpful, in order to study this, to begin with human beings. For only by fully clarifying for ourselves what we have repeatedly said about the nature of human beings and their development can we ascend to the nature of the members of the higher hierarchies.

[ 6 ] We know that human beings, as they first set foot on Earth and develop here, essentially consist of four parts. These four parts are the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. Today we will sketch these four members of the human being schematically, just as we need to. We will first draw the human physical body as a circle, likewise the etheric body, the astral body, and finally the ego as a small circle. You now know how human development proceeds. In the course of their earthly development, human beings begin to work on the astral body from the ego. And we can generally say: To the extent that a human being has processed the astral body from their ego, so that this processed part of the astral body has come under the dominion of the ego, to that extent it is called Manas or the spiritual self; so that, as has often been emphasized, Manas or the spiritual self is not to be regarded as something newly acquired, but is simply a transformed product of the human astral body. Mind you, all these things that are now being said here apply to human beings. It is important that we do not generalize this, but rather realize that the beings of the world are very, very different from one another.

[ 7 ] Now, as a fifth element, we draw the transformed astral body—that is, Manas—as a separate circle; strictly speaking, it should actually be drawn within the astral body. Likewise, we must draw the transformed etheric body above it here, for whatever portion of the etheric body has been transformed, we designate as Budhi or life spirit, and when it is fully transformed, it is entirely Budhi. Likewise, the physical body is transformed into Atma when we consider the human being in the perfection he can attain through development via Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. So when the human being has reached his highest perfection in the Vulcan state, we can schematically depict him in the following way: We would have to say that we have his Atma, Budhi, Manas, the ego, the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body. And we would then have to regard as the characteristic feature of this diagram that the human being, with his seven principles, is a whole, that these seven principles are all contained within one another. That is the essential point.

[ 8 ] For when we now turn to the members of the next hierarchy, the angels, this is not the case with them. We can apply this schema to human beings, but not to any angelic being. There we must say: This angel has developed a physical body, 1, an etheric body, 2, and an astral body, 3, so that these, in a certain sense, form a whole. But now we must depict the I, 4, separately from these, along with Manas, 5, Budhi, 6, and Atma, 7. If you wish to understand the nature of an angel, you must imagine that the higher members it possesses—and toward which it can indeed develop (for in reality it has only fully developed the Manas; the other two it will develop later)—that these higher members, so to speak, hover in a spiritual world above that which exists of it in the physical realm. So if one were to study the nature of an angel, one would have to say to oneself: The angel does not have an “I” that walks about directly in a body on Earth like a human being. Nor does he develop his Manas at the present stage of his development on Earth. That is why what of him is on Earth does not look at all as if it belonged to a spiritual being. When you meet a human being, you can see from their appearance: They have their principles within them; therefore, everything is organically structured. If you wish to seek out an angel, you must take into account that their physical form down here is merely something like a reflection of their spiritual principles, which can also only be perceived in the spiritual realm. In the flowing and trickling water, in the water dissolving into mist, furthermore in the winds of the air and in the lightning flashing through the air and the like—there you must seek the physical body of the angelic beings. And the difficulty for human beings lies first of all in the fact that they believe a body must be distinctly bounded all around. It is difficult for a human being to say to themselves: I stand before a rising or falling mist, I stand before a spraying spring, I stand in the rushing wind, I see the lightning shooting from the clouds and know that these are the manifestations of the angels; and I must perceive, behind this physical body—which is not as limited as the human one—a spiritual reality.

[ 9 ] Human beings are meant to develop all their principles within themselves; this is why they cannot imagine that a physical body can be diffuse or ethereal, or that it need not even be clearly defined. You must certainly conceive that eighty angels belong together, having the densest part of their physical body in a single section of this or that body of water. Nor does this physical body of the angels need to be conceived of as necessarily limited at all; one part of water may belong to it here, another part far away. In short, we see that we must imagine everything that surrounds us—water, air, and fire of the earth—as containing within itself the bodies of the hierarchy immediately above humanity. And one must look into the astral world with clairvoyant vision to behold the angelic I and angelic manas—which gaze upon us from the higher world. And the region of the solar system where we must search when seeking the angelic beings extends as far as the orbit of the Moon. With these angels, the matter is still relatively simple, for it is such that if, for example, we have the physical body of an angel down there in a body of water or the like, and we look clairvoyantly at this watery region or a wind, we find an etheric body and an astral body within it. That is why these three things have also been drawn together here. Of course, what rushes through the wind, what flows or scatters in the water, is not merely the material image that the gross mind perceives; rather, the etheric and astral aspects of the angels—the next hierarchy above humanity—live in the most manifold ways within water, air, and fire. If you wish to seek the spiritual-soul entity of these angels, then you must look in the astral realm; you must gaze into it clairvoyantly.

[ 10 ] But if we now consider the next level, that of the archangels, the situation is quite different. The archangels do not at all have what we have depicted here as the astral body connected to the physical body and the etheric body; and what we can look for in them as their lowest member, we must depict as follows: physical body, etheric body, 1, 2—they have, so to speak, separated these, and all the higher principles are now present in a higher world up there. So that we have the complete picture of the archangels only when we look in two places, when we say to ourselves: Here, unlike with human beings, everything is not united in a single being; here, as it were, the spiritual is above, and the spiritual is reflected below. — A physical body and an etheric body can unite on their own only if this physical body consists solely of air and fire. Thus, for example, you could not feel the archangels rushing toward you through some body of water in terms of their physical body, but you could perceive them only in wind and fire; and for this rushing wind and this fire, you must therefore seek the spiritual counterpart in the spiritual world through clairvoyance. This is not united with their physical body, nor even with their etheric body.

[ 11 ] And finally we come to those entities we refer to as Archai, primordial beginnings, primordial forces, and spirits of personality. Here we can only depict the physical body at the bottom; everything else is up above in the spiritual world. Such a physical body can only live in fire. Only in the flames of fire can you perceive the physical body of the primal forces. When you see the flickering fire of a lightning bolt, you can say to yourself each time: There is something of the body of the primal forces in there, but up in the spiritual world, through clairvoyance, I will find the spiritual counterpart, which in this case is separated from its physical body. It is precisely with these Archai, the primordial beginnings or spirits of the personality, that the clairvoyant faculty can make the matter relatively simple. Imagine that these spirits of personality are in the realm that extends as far as astronomical Mercury—that is, as far as Venus in the sense of the Mysteries. Let us suppose that someone has attained the ability to observe what is developing up there on Mercury: there they can perceive these highly evolved beings, these spirits of personality. When they direct their clairvoyant gaze upward toward Venus to observe the assembly of the spirits of personality up there, and then see the flash of lightning darting through the clouds, they see the spirits of personality reflected in that flash of lightning, for that is where they have their body.

[ 12 ] We then ascend to the higher spiritual beings that extend up to the solar sphere. These powers, the Exusiai, are of less interest to us today. Let it simply be emphasized that their executive organs are the Venus beings and the Mercury beings—the Venus beings, who have their physical bodies in fire, and the Mercury beings, who have theirs in fire and wind. Interpret this to mean that the beings who live in the Sun make the Venus spirits in the flames of fire and the Mercury spirits in the roar of the wind their subordinate organs. “And God makes the flames of fire his servants and the winds his messengers” [as it is written in the Bible]. Read this: these things in the religious texts are taken directly from spiritual realities and correspond to the observations of clairvoyant perception.

[ 13 ] So we have seen that our own existence is linked, first and foremost, to these three hierarchies that stand above us. Human beings are what they are because they have received something from the solid, from the earth. This is what makes them so separate from all other beings; it makes them a unified being composed of individual members. On the moon, human beings were still beings like the others; there they underwent transformations, much like masses of water that form a constantly changing body. It was only on Earth that human beings were, so to speak, captured within their skin and now form a self-contained being, so that we can say: Human beings consist of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an I. This self-containment, strictly speaking, did not occur all that long ago. If we go back to the ancient Atlantean era, we encounter, even in the first epoch of that era, a human being who had not yet fully felt the ego within, who was, so to speak, still waiting to fully receive the ego. And if we were to go further back in the Earth’s development, we would have to say: What we have down there of the human being on Earth consists, after all, only of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. And if you go back to the Lemurian era, you will find a human being down on Earth who, in his nature down there, no longer has a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body any more than the angels down there do. With the emergence of the human ego, from this point onward through the Atlantean era, unification occurs. Thus, in the Lemurian era, human beings walk the Earth who possess only a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body; but these are not human beings who think in the modern sense, who can develop as human beings in the modern sense.

[ 14 ] And now something most remarkable is happening on our Earth. These people, who are wandering about in the Lemurian era and possess only the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body, cannot help themselves; they are unfamiliar with the Earth and do not know what to do there. Descending to these beings from the realm of heaven are, first of all, the inhabitants of Venus, who, because they have a connection to a physical body, so to speak, are able precisely through this to permeate and animate the physical bodies of the first inhabitants of the Earth. Thus, among these Lemurian people, there are individuals who walk about among the masses of humanity in a very peculiar way; they have a physical body different from that of the others. Such a particularly gifted human being did not have an ordinary physical body, but one that was animated and permeated by one of the Venus spirits, the spirits of personality. But because this human being of the ancient Lemurian era walked about with a Venus spirit in his physical body, he had a tremendous influence on his entire surroundings. Outwardly, such Lemurians did not differ particularly from their fellow beings; but because a spirit of personality resided vicariously within their physical body, these select individuals exerted a suggestive influence on their surroundings in the highest sense of the word. The respect, reverence, and obedience shown toward them—there is nothing comparable to that today. All the migrations undertaken on Earth to populate its various regions were led by such beings into whom spirits of personality had entered. No language was needed—it did not exist back then—nor were signs required; the mere presence of such a personality was sufficient. And when they deemed it necessary to lead large masses of people from one place to another, these masses followed without giving it a second thought. Reflection did not exist back then either; that developed only later.

[ 15 ] Thus did the spirits of personality descend as Venus spirits in the ancient Lemurian era. And we can therefore say that these Venus spirits, who wore human form on Earth—as human form could be at that time—meant something quite different within the context of the entire cosmos. If one considers their cosmic significance, it extended all the way up to Venus, and their actions had meaning within the entire context of the cosmic system. They were able to guide people from one place to another because they knew this from the context that can be understood when one is familiar with the Earth’s surroundings and not just the Earth itself.

[ 16 ] Humanity’s evolution continued. It then became necessary for archangels and spirits of Mercury to intervene in this evolution; they now had to animate and enliven what existed down here on Earth. This occurred primarily during the Atlantean era. Then spirits of Mercury, archangels, Archangeloi, descended. They were able to animate and inspire the physical and etheric bodies of the people concerned. Thus, among the Atlanteans there were again such people who outwardly did not differ particularly from the others, but who were animated in their physical and etheric bodies by an archangel. And if you consider that we said yesterday that the archangels have the task of guiding entire peoples, you will understand that such a person, who carried an archangel within, could indeed readily impart the corresponding laws—derived from heaven—to an entire Atlantean tribe.

[ 17 ] Thus, the great leaders of the ancient Lemurian era, when it was still necessary to exert a much broader influence, were inspired by spirits from Venus. Those who had to lead smaller groups of people in the Atlantean era were inspired by archangels. What are called the priest-kings of the Atlantean era are mayas; they are not at all as they appear on the outside. An archangel lives within their physical and etheric bodies; he is the one who actually acts. And we can go back to the Atlantean era; we can seek out the secret sites of these leaders of humanity. From the Atlantean secret sites they worked; there they explored the mysteries of the cosmos. What was explored and commanded in those ancient Atlantean secret sites can be described by the name “oracle,” although this word originates from later times. The name “oracle site” fits very well with the actual places of learning and government of these Atlanteans, who carried the archangels within themselves. From there they worked as great teachers, so that they could also draw other people to them and make them servants and priests in the oracle sites of the Atlanteans.

[ 18 ] It is important to know that in ancient Atlantis there were people who were actually archangels, who embodied an archangel in their physical and etheric bodies. If a clairvoyant gaze had been directed at such a person, it would indeed have seen the physical human being and, rising behind the physical human being—as if in a gigantic form, rising upward and losing itself in indefinite regions—the archangel who inspired him. Such a personality was a dual being, as if behind the physical human being, emerging from the indefinite, the archangel inspiring him had been present. When these people died, the physical body perished according to the laws of Atlantis. The physical body, which the archangel had of course also inspired, dissolved, but the etheric body did not dissolve. There is a spiritual economy that demands exceptions to what must generally be presented as spiritual-scientific truth. We say—and generally this is quite correct—that when a human being dies, they shed their physical body, and after some time also their etheric body, and the etheric body dissolves with the exception of an extract. But this is only generally the case. There is a vast difference between an etheric body such as that possessed by these initiates of the Atlantean oracles—which was permeated by an archangel—and an ordinary etheric body. Such a precious etheric body is not lost; it is preserved in the spiritual world. And the seven most significant etheric bodies of the seven great leaders of these oracles were initially preserved by the highest leader of the Atlantean oracles. They were thus originally woven together because archangels had dwelt within these etheric bodies, who naturally returned to the higher worlds upon death. Such things are preserved, of course not in boxes, but according to spiritual laws. The Atlantean initiate of the Sun Oracle, however, is none other than the one so often called the Manu, who led the remaining Atlantean population over to Asia to establish the post-Atlantean cultures. He took his small band and led them over to Asia. Through generations he cultivated the people, and when the suitable Seven had been bred and raised, he wove into their own etheric bodies the seven preserved etheric bodies that had been woven in ancient Atlantis by archangels. Those seven who were sent down by the great leader to establish the first post-Atlantean culture—the seven holy Rishis of Indian culture—carried within their being the etheric bodies of the great Atlantean leaders, who in turn had received these etheric bodies from the archangels themselves. Thus past, present, and future worked together. In these seven people, whom one calls the holy Rishis, you would have found simple folk, for they did not stand on the same level as their etheric bodies with their astral bodies and their I. Woven into the etheric body was that which they were actually capable of; therefore, they had certain moments when inspiration worked within their etheric bodies. Then they spoke of things they could not have attained on their own; what flowed from their lips was what had been inspired into them through their etheric body. Thus they were simple people when left to their own judgment; but when they had those moments of inspiration, when the etheric body was at work, they spoke of the greatest mysteries of our solar system, indeed of the world itself.

[ 19 ] In the post-Atlantean era, humanity had not yet reached the point where, so to speak, it no longer needed anything from above, where it no longer required any kind of spiritual animation; rather, a form of spiritual animation from above still took place. We have seen how such an animation took place among the Lemurian population through the physical body being animated by spirits of personality; in the Atlantean era, the physical and etheric bodies were animated by archangels; and now the great leaders of humanity in the post-Atlantean era were initially animated by angels descending into their physical, etheric, and astral bodies. The great leaders of the early post-Atlantean era thus had not merely their human physical body, etheric body, and astral body, but within them dwelt an angel. This enabled these great leaders to look back upon their earlier incarnations. The ordinary human being cannot do this, because he has not yet developed up to the level of the manas; he must first become an angel himself. These leaders, who were born from the ordinary population, carried within their physical, etheric, and astral bodies an angelic being that animated them, that permeated them. This, then, was again Maya; these were beings who are something other than what they appear to be on Earth. And the great leaders of humanity in ancient times were indeed something quite different from what they appeared to be on the outside. They were personalities in whom an angel dwelt, inspiring them with what they needed to be teachers and guides to humanity. The great founders and leaders of religions were such people possessed by angels. Angels spoke through them.

[ 20 ] Now, while the things of the world can certainly be described in terms of complete regularity, the processes of development are always intertwined. What we describe as occurring with perfect regularity does not actually unfold with perfect regularity. Certainly, the general principle holds true: that is, during the Lemurian epoch, spirits of personality spoke through human beings; during the Atlantean epoch, archangels; and during the post-Atlantean epoch, angels. But there are also beings who extend into the post-Atlantean era who are permeated right down to their physical bodies by spirits of personality; thus, although they live in the post-Atlantean era, they are actually in the same situation as those beings in the Lemurian era through whom spirits of personality spoke. Thus, there may be people in the post-Atlantean era who certainly bear the characteristic traits of the outer peoples, but who, because humanity also needed such great leaders, still carry within themselves a Spirit of Personality, being the outer embodiment of such a Spirit. Then there are also such people in the post-Atlantean era who, in turn, carry within themselves an archangel, a Mercury spirit, who animates their physical and, in particular, their etheric body. And finally, there is the third type of people who are animated, who are inspired in their physical body, etheric body, and astral body by an angelic being, through whom an angel speaks.

[ 21 ] In the sense of Eastern teachings, such human personalities are now once again given special names. Thus, a human personality who, although outwardly a human being of our post-Atlantean era, actually carries within themselves a spirit of personality—who is permeated by a spirit of personality right down into their physical body—is called a Dhyani-Buddha in Eastern teachings. Dhyani-Buddha is thus a general term for human individualities who are animated by a spirit of personality right down into their physical body. Those personalities who are imbued with spirit right down into their etheric body, who carry an archangel within themselves in the post-Atlantean era, are called Bodhisattvas. And those who carry an angel within themselves—that is, who are imbued with spirit in their physical body, etheric body, and astral body—are called human Buddhas. Thus we have three stages: the Dhyani Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, and the human Buddhas. This is the true teaching of the Buddhas, concerning the classes and categories of Buddhas, which we must consider in connection with the entire way in which the hierarchies manifest themselves.

[ 22 ] What is truly wondrous when we look back at the earlier, undeveloped human beings is that among them we find individuals through whom the great hierarchies of the cosmos actually speak down into the planet, and that only gradually do the spirits of the higher hierarchies, who were already active before the formation of our Earth, release the human beings dwelling down there—the planetary human beings—to the extent that they become ready. We are looking into an immense wisdom here. And it is extraordinarily important that we perceive this wisdom precisely in this sense, as it was taught in ancient times, when the primordial wisdom of the world was taught to humanity.

[ 23 ] So when you hear about the Buddhas—and in Eastern teachings, it is not just one Buddha who is spoken of, but many, among whom there are, of course, varying degrees of perfection—please note: A Buddha walks the earth, but behind the Buddha, so to speak, came the Bodhisattva and even the Dhyani Buddha. Now, however, it could also be the case that, for example, the Dhyani-Buddha and the Bodhisattva did not descend all the way to animate the physical body, but that the Bodhisattva descended only as far as animating the etheric body, so that you can imagine a being who does not go so far as to animate and inspire the human physical body, but only the etheric body. It can happen, however, that such a Bodhisattva—who is therefore not physically visible at all, for if he appears only in an etheric body, he is not physically visible, and there were certainly such Bodhisattvas who were not physically visible—that such a Bodhisattva, as a higher being, can in turn particularly inspire the human Buddha. So we have the human Buddha, who is already inspired by an angelic being, but who is further inspired in his etheric body by an archangelic being.

[ 24 ] The essential point is that we are looking into the wondrous complexity of the human being. And there are many individuals from earlier times whom we can truly understand only if we view them as a focal point for various beings who express themselves and make their presence known through the human being. For truly, many an age has not had enough great human beings who can be inspired by the spirits that are to work. There, a single personality must sometimes be permeated and animated by the most diverse individualities of the higher hierarchies. And sometimes, so to speak, it is not only the population of Mercury that speaks to us, but those of Mercury and Venus speak to us when we have a certain personality before us. So, you see, these are the concepts that lead us to an understanding of human evolution, so that we recognize personalities in their true form, whereas when they appear to us as physical human beings, they are actually merely Maya.

[ 25 ] Tomorrow we will begin to understand the origin of each physical planet—which we have so far regarded merely as a marker—so that we may then perceive it as a dwelling place for the corresponding beings.