VII
THE
BEGINNINGS OF SEX DUALITY
A DESCRIPTION of the
constitution of man before the division into male and female sexes
must now be given. The body consisted then of a soft, plastic
mass. Over it the will-power was far more potent than was the case
with mankind subsequently. On his separation from the parent being,
man appeared, it is true, as an organism with members, but
incomplete. His organs continued their further development
apart from the parent body. Much of that which at a later period
ripened within the maternal organism was then brought to perfection
by an external force akin to our will-power. The parent's fostering
care was necessary to promote such a ripening from without. Man
brought with him into the world certain organs which he afterwards
discarded. Others, still quite imperfect at his first appearance,
completed their development. The whole process permits of a
comparison with liberation from an egg-form and the casting off
of an outer covering; but we must here not think of a hard and
egg-like shell.
Man's body was warm-blooded. This must be
distinctly stated, for in former times it was otherwise, as will
afterwards be shown. The process of maturing apart from the
mother-entity was accomplished under the influence of increased
warmth, conveyed in like manner from without. But by no means must we
imagine a hatching-out of the egg-shaped man — so named for the
sake of brevity. The conditions of warmth and fire on the earth
were different then from those of later times. By means of his own
force a man could constrain and confine within a certain space
fire or warmth. In short, he could concentrate heat. He was thus in a
position to supply warmth to the young creature that required it for
his development.
The organs of
motion were at that time man's most highly developed organs. The
sense-organs of to-day were then quite unevolved. The most advanced
were the organ of hearing and the organs for the perception of cold
and heat (the sense of feeling); still far behind was the perception
of light. Man was born with the senses of hearing and of touch, and
then, somewhat later, the light-perception was evolved.
All that is stated here refers to the latest
period before the separation of the sexes. The latter proceeded
slowly and gradually. For a long time before its actual appearance,
mankind began to develop in such a way that one individual was born
with more of the masculine, the other with more of the feminine
character. Nevertheless, the characteristics of the opposite
sex were present in every individual, so that spontaneous generation
was possible, though not at all times, for it was dependent upon the
influences of external conditions at certain seasons of the year. In
diverse matters mankind as a whole depended to a large extent on such
external circumstances. For that reason he had to regulate all
his undertakings in accordance with such outer conditions; in
accordance, for example, with the course of sun and moon. This
regulation did not, however, take place consciously, in the present
sense of the term, but was carried out in a manner which must rather
be called instinctive, a term indicating the mental life of the man
of that time.
This mental life cannot be described as an
actual inner life. Bodily and mental activities and qualities were
not as yet rigidly separated from one another. The outer life of
Nature was still experienced by the soul. It was above all on the
sense of hearing that every single vibration from without made
a powerful impression. Every quiver in the air, every movement
in his surroundings was “heard.” The wind and the water
expressed in their motions what to man was an “eloquent
language.” It was a perception of the mysterious weaving
and working in Nature which thus penetrated man. And this weaving and
working resounded again in his soul. His activity was an echo of
these influences. He transformed the perception of sound into his own
activity. He lived amid those surgings of sound, and brought them
into expression by means of his own will. In like manner was he
impelled to accomplish all his daily work. To a somewhat less
degree, indeed, he was affected by the energy playing upon his
feelings. Nevertheless these too acted an important part. The
surroundings were sensed by him within his own body and he acted
accordingly. By the activities of his feelings he knew when and how
he ought to work. By these he knew where to settle, or recognised the
dangers threatening his life, and so avoided them. He regulated
the taking of sustenance accordingly.
Altogether different from that of later times
was the course taken by the rest of his mental life. Pictures lived
in his soul, but not as representations of external things. When, for
example, the man moved from a colder into a warmer place, there arose
in his soul a definite colour-picture, but this colour-picture had
nothing to do with any external object. It sprang from an inner force
akin to the will. Pictures like these continually filled the soul.
The whole can only be compared with the rising and falling
dream-visions of man. Only at that time the pictures were not
unregulated, but in conformity with laws; and for that reason we must
not speak, at this stage of humanity, of a dream-consciousness, but
rather of a picture-consciousness. In the main it was colour-pictures
with which this consciousness was filled, but these were not the only
kind. Thus man wandered through the world, experiencing its events by
means of his senses of hearing and feeling, but in his inner life
this world was reflected in pictures, very unlike those
existing in the outer world. Pleasure and pain were bound up with
these soul-pictures in a much smaller degree than is the case with
man's ideas to-day, which reflect his perceptions in the world
outside. Doubtless one picture caused him pleasure, another disgust;
the one hatred, and the other love; but these sensations bore a much
fainter character. On the other hand strong feelings were produced by
something else. Man was then much more agile, much more active than
later. Everything in his surroundings, as well as the pictures
in his soul, stirred him to activity, to movement. Now when his
activity, unhindered, had free play, he experienced a sensation of
well-being; when, however, this activity was checked in any
direction, he was overcome by unhappiness and discomfort. The absence
or presence of opposition to his will determined the content of his
life of feeling, his pleasure and his pain. And this pleasure or this
pain discharged itself again in his own soul as a living world of
pictures. Clear, bright, beautiful pictures lived within him when he
was able to expand unhindered; gloomy and misshapen were those
which appeared in his soul when his movements were hampered.
So far the average man has been
described. In the case of those who had developed into a kind
of superhuman state, the inner life was different. With them the
soul-life was not of this instinctive character. What they
perceived through their senses of hearing and of feeling were
Nature's deeper secrets, and these they could consciously interpret.
In the roaring of the wind, in the rustling of the trees, the laws
and the wisdom of Nature were disclosed; and in their soul-pictures
these were not mere reflections of an outer world, but images of the
spiritual powers in the world. It was not the things of sense which
they perceived, but spiritual intelligences. If the average
man, for example, experienced a sensation of fear, a hideous sinister
picture would arise in his soul. The superhuman being received by
means of such pictures information, revelation from the spiritual
beings of the world. The processes of Nature did not appear to him as
they do to the naturalist of to-day, dependent on lifeless natural
laws, but rather as the deeds of spiritual beings. The outer reality
did not as yet exist, for there were no outer senses, but to the
higher beings the inner reality revealed itself. The spirit poured
its rays into them as the sunlight streams into the physical eye of
the man of to-day. In these beings was knowledge in its fullest
sense, that which is called intuitive knowledge. There was no such
thing as combining and speculating among them, but a direct
contemplation of the working of spiritual beings. These
superhuman individualities could thus absorb directly, into their
wills, communications coming from the spiritual world. Consciously
they led the others. They received their mission from the spiritual
world and acted in accordance with it.
Now when the time arrived at which the sexes
separated, these beings naturally considered it their task to
influence the new life in conformity with their mission. The
regulation of sexual life originated with them. All arrangements
which had to do with the generation of mankind had their source in
them. In this they acted with perfect consciousness, but the other
human beings were sensible of the impulse only as an instinct
implanted in them. Sexual love was implanted in man by direct
thought-transference; and all its expressions were at first of the
noblest kind. Everything in this domain which has taken on an ugly
character dates from a later period, when man had become more
independent, and when he had sullied a desire originally pure. In
these early times there was no such thing as a satisfaction of
sexual desire for its own sake. Everything then was a service of
sacrifice for the continuance of human existence. Generation was
regarded as a sacred thing, as a service which man owed to the world,
and sacrificial priests were the leaders and rulers in this domain.
Of another kind were the influences of the
semi-superhuman beings. The latter were not developed to the stage at
which they could receive the revelations of the spiritual world in
all their purity. In their soul-pictures there arose besides the
impressions of the spiritual world the activities also of the world
of sense. Those who were in the fullest sense superhuman beings had
no sensation of either pleasure or pain from the external world. They
abandoned themselves entirely to the revelations of the
spiritual powers. Wisdom flowed into them as light flows into the
creatures of sense. Their will was directed towards nothing else but
to action in accordance with this wisdom, and in action of this kind
lay their highest pleasure. Wisdom, Will, and Activity composed their
very being. It was otherwise with the semi-superhuman beings.
They felt the desire to receive impressions from without, and
connected pleasure with the satisfaction of this desire,
disappointment with its lack. They were thus distinguishable
from the superhuman beings. For the latter, impressions from without
were nothing more than confirmation of spiritual revelations.
They might behold the outer world and receive nothing more than
a reflection of that which they had already received through the
spirit. The semi-superhuman beings experienced something new to
them, and on that account they were able to be the leaders of
mankind, when the latter began to change the mere pictures in the
soul into images, into representations of outer objects. This
happened when a part of the earlier human generative force turned
inwards and when beings possessing a brain were evolved. For
with the brain man also developed the capacity to change external
sense-impressions into mind-conceptions. It must be said, therefore,
that man was impelled by semi-superhuman beings to turn his soul
towards the external world of sense. It was, indeed, denied him to
expose his own soul-pictures directly to pure spiritual influences.
The ability to generate his kind was implanted in him as an
instinctive impulse by the superhuman beings. Mentally he would
have had to lead a sort of dream-existence at first, had not the
semi-superhuman beings interfered. Swayed by them, his soul-pictures
were directed to the world outside. He became a being
self-conscious in the world of sense. And thus man achieved the
ability to guide his actions consciously and according to his
perceptions in the world of sense. Once he had acted from a
kind of instinct, under the sway of his external surroundings and the
energizing forces playing upon him from higher individualities. Now
he began to follow the urgings, the allurements, of his own
conceptions. And with this the free will of mankind appeared in the
world. That was the beginning of “Good and Evil.”
Before advancing further in this
direction something must be said about man's environment on the
earth. Side by side with man there existed animals as well, which
according to their kind were at the same stage of development as he
was. In accordance with our present conceptions they would be
counted as reptiles. Besides these there were lower forms of the
animal world. Now there was an essential difference between man
and the animals. On account of his still plastic body, man could only
live in those regions of the earth which had not as yet reached the
densest material form, and in these regions animals possessing a like
plastic body lived with him. In other regions, however, animals lived
which had already dense bodies and which had also already developed
unisexuality and their sense organs. Whence they came will be shown
later. They could develop no farther because their bodies had taken
on the denser matter too soon. Some species among them have
disappeared, some have developed further after their kind into the
present forms. Man was able to reach higher forms because he remained
in those regions which at that time suited his structure. On that
account his body remained so flexible and soft that he was able to
single out of himself those organs which were capable of
fructification by the mind. His external body had then advanced so
far that it could densify and become a protecting sheath for the
finer mental organs. But all human bodies were not so far developed.
Those that were so advanced were few. These were first of all
vivified by the mind. Others were not vivified. Had the mind entered
the latter as well, it would only have been able partially to evolve,
because of the imperfect inner organs. And so these human
personalities had for the time being to continue their
development as a kind of mindless creature. A third kind had
proceeded so far that feeble mental impulses could make
themselves felt. These stood between the other two kinds. Their
mental activity remained dull. They had to be led by higher mental
powers. Between these three kinds were all possible grades of
transition. Further development was now only possible if one part of
mankind should educate itself more highly at the cost of another
part. First of all, the absolutely mindless had to be sacrificed. An
intermingling with them for the purpose of propagation would
only have dragged the more advanced down to their level. And so all
who had received the mind principle were singled out from among them.
Therefore they fell more and more to the level of animality. Thus,
side by side with mankind, animals resembling man evolved
themselves further.
Man left, as it were, a portion of his
brothers behind him on the path, so that he might himself mount
higher. This process was, however, by no means at an end here. Those
men also of dull mentality, who stood rather higher, could only
advance further by being drawn into association with higher beings
and by separating themselves from the less mentally gifted.
Only by these means could they develop bodies afterwards suited for
the reception of the entire human intelligence. Not until after
the lapse of a certain time had physical evolution advanced so
far that, in this direction, a sort of pause set in, during which all
lying beyond a fixed limit belonged to the human domain. The
conditions of life on the earth had meantime so changed that a
further rejection would have resulted in the production, not of
animal-like beings, but of such as were not even fit to live. But
what was thrust down into a state of animality has either died out or
lives on in the various higher animals. In such therefore we must
recognize creatures which had to remain behind, at an earlier stage
of human development. Only they have not retained the same form which
they had at the time of their separation, but have degenerated from a
higher to a lower type. Thus monkeys are retrograde human
beings of a bygone age. Just as man was at one time less perfect than
he is to-day, so were these at one time more perfect than at present.
And that which remained within the domain of man has undergone a like
process, within its own limits. In many a savage tribe we may see the
degraded descendants of human forms which were at one time more
exalted. These have not sunk to the level of the brute, but only to
that of the savage.
That which in man
is eternal is the mind. It has been shown at what period the mind
entered the body. Before that time the mind belonged to other
regions. It could not unite itself with the body till the latter had
attained a certain stage of development. Only when there is a perfect
comprehension of the way in which this union took place can the
meaning of birth and death be understood, or the character of
the everlasting mind become known.
|