VIII
MAN'S
FIRST ANCESTORS
THE
observations of the Ākāshic Record, which will be
described in the following pages, date from a period immediately
preceding the incidents related in the previous chapter. In view of
the materialistic tendency of thought at the present day, the
risk attending the publication of the following facts is even greater
than that incurred by the descriptions given in the preceding
chapters. One is so liable in these days, when dealing with matters
of this kind, to be dubbed fantastic, or accused of groundless
speculation, that nothing but the conviction that the
information we offer with regard to spiritual experience is
true and accurate could induce us to publish these statements,
knowing, as we do only too well, that any one who is versed in the
teachings of Physical Science, as accepted by the present generation,
will be unable even to approach the matter in a serious
attitude of mind. Nothing is herein stated, but what has been
carefully tested according to the methods employed by Spiritual
Science; and all we ask of the ordinary scientist is that he shall
accord to the student of the Higher Science the same tolerance as the
latter shows to the mode of thought of Physical Science.
(See my
Welt- und Lebensanschauungen im Neunzehnten
Jahrhundert,
where I think I have shown my appreciation of the
views held by materialistic Science.)
Nevertheless, for the benefit of any who may
be sympathetically inclined towards the teachings of the Higher
Science, I would add a further special remark with reference to the
present expositions: we shall here touch upon matters of very great
significance, pertaining to an age now long past, matters which,
portrayed by the Records of Ākāsha, it is by no means an
easy task to decipher. The writer, indeed, makes no claim on blind
faith; he merely sets forth the results of investigations on which
the utmost care has been bestowed, and any correction, if based on a
practical knowledge of such matters, would be welcomed. The signs of
the times are such as to impress him with a sense of duty, nay,
urgency, in making known
these events in the evolution of mankind. Moreover, we shall first
have to sketch briefly an extensive period of existence, in order to
gain at the outset a good general idea. Many things, therefore, which
are now merely indicated, will receive a more detailed exposition in
later chapters.
It is, however, difficult to translate the
inscriptions of the Ākāshic Records into everyday language.
It were easier to decipher the occult language of symbolical
signs used in occult schools, but this is not yet permitted in our
time. The reader is therefore begged to give a hearing to much that
may seem obscure and hard to understand, to make a valiant endeavour
to grasp their meaning, as the author, on his part, has striven to
devise a mode of interpretation capable of being understood by all.
The trouble expended in mastering many a difficult passage will be
rewarded by the insight gained into the profound mysteries, the
momentous problems of humanity herein revealed. These
Ākāshic Records — which, for the occult investigator,
are as much an undeniable reality as mountains and rivers are for the
physical eye — constitute for man the basis of a true knowledge
of self. An error of perception is, of course, as possible for the
one as for the other.
It must be
remembered that the present chapter relates only to the evolution of
man. As a matter of course, the other kingdoms of Nature, the
mineral, the plant, and the animal, are evolving side by side with
humanity, and these other evolutions will be dealt with in future
chapters. In these we shall discuss certain other subjects destined
to illumine and to render more comprehensible the details given
concerning man's evolution. On the other hand, we shall not be able
to study the evolution of the other terrestrial kingdoms from the
occult standpoint until the gradual development of man has been shown.
When we retrace still further the earth's
evolutionary history — further back even than we have done in
the foregoing pages — we find our celestial globe
composed of ever finer conditions of matter. The matter which
later became solid was, at a previous stage, liquid; before that,
gaseous and of the nature of vapour; while at a still remoter period
we find it in its finest form, that is to say, as ether. The decrease
of temperature, however, caused the gradual solidification of matter.
In our present studies we shall go back to the
time when our earthly dwelling-place was composed of matter in its
finest etheric state. In that epoch of the earth's evolution man
began his earthly career. In earlier times he had lived in other
worlds, which will be the subject of study elsewhere.
[See
An Outline Of Occult Science,
by Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D.]
We will here only say a word or two about the existence which immediately
preceded his earth-life. It was what we should call an astral or
spiritual world, peopled with beings who had no outer, that is to
say, no physical, corporeal existence. Neither had man. He had by
that time perfected the picture-consciousness, or dream-consciousness,
which was described in a foregoing chapter. He possessed feelings and
desires, but all confined in a soul-body: a human being at that stage
would only have been visible to clairvoyant sight.
It is true that the more highly evolved human beings of that period
possessed such sight, though it was of a rather vague and dreamy
description; it was not self-conscious clairvoyance. These astral
beings are, in a certain sense, man's ancestors; for what to-day we call
“Man” contains an indwelling, self-conscious Spirit. This
Spirit became united to the being which descended from that ancestor
about the middle of the Lemurian phase of civilisation. (This union
of the Soul-Ancestor with the Physical-Ancestor has already been
mentioned in earlier chapters. The subject will be taken up again,
and treated more explicitly, after we have followed the evolution of
man's ancestors up to that point.)
The astral or Soul-Ancestors of man were
transplanted to the subtle matter of the etheric world. They absorbed
this subtle matter into themselves — roughly putting it —
something after the manner of a sponge. Thus, by permeating
themselves with etheric matter their etheric bodies were formed. They
were elongated, and elliptic in form; yet subtle differentiations of
matter, tendencies to form limbs and other organs to be developed at
a later period, were even then perceptible. The whole process
perceptible in the mass of etheric matter was, however, purely
physico-chemical, though regulated and controlled by the soul.
When one of
these ovoids of matter had reached a certain size, it split into two,
forming two new masses each resembling the one which gave it birth,
and reproducing the same activities which were at work in the
parent form. Every one of these new forms possessed a soul similar to
that of the mother-being. The reason of this was that not only a
definite number of human souls incarnated on the physical plane, but
there was what we might call a Soul-Tree (or Group Soul), which was
able, as it were, to give off innumerable individual souls, sprung
from its common root. Just as a plant springs up again and again from
numberless seeds, so did the soul-life reincarnate in the
countless offshoots which were created as the result of these
continual cleavings. (Of course, there existed from the beginning a
very limited number of soul species, but within these species,
evolution proceeded in the manner described, every soul species
putting forth innumerable scions.)
With incarnation
in physical matter a most important change came over the souls
themselves. As long as the souls remained unconnected with the
material world, no outward material occurrence could affect them. All
influences affecting them were purely psychic, or
clairvoyant. Thus in their life they shared the astral
influences of their surroundings, and it was in this way that they
took part in, or experienced, everything that existed at that time.
The impressions made by stones, plants, and animals, then also
existing in a purely astral (Soul) form, were felt as inner
experiences of the soul. On entering the plane of our earth,
something quite new was added. Outer material events brought
influences to bear upon the soul, which had thus robed itself in a
garment of etheric matter. At first these influences consisted of
motions in the outer material world which caused corresponding
activity in the etheric body. In the same way as the vibrations
of the air now affect us in the form of sound, so were those etheric
beings affected by the vibrations of the etheric matter
surrounding them. Such a being was, in fact, a single organ of
hearing. This sense was the first to be developed; but from this we
see that the separated organ of hearing was formed at a later period.
With the increasing solidification of physical
matter, the soul-nature gradually lost control over its formation.
The bodies already formed could only reproduce bodies after
their own image. A change now occurs in the manner of generation,
that is to say, the offspring of the mother-being appears
considerably smaller, only growing gradually to the size of the
parent. Organs of generation now begin to appear, whereas hitherto
they had not existed. Henceforward it is no mere physico-chemical
process which takes place within the form. Such a process is now no
longer sufficient for the purpose of generation: for the outer
matter, growing denser and denser, is no longer capable of being
directly influenced by the soul. A special portion within the form is
therefore set apart for this function, being withdrawn from the
immediate influence of the outside material world. Only the body,
exclusive of the specialised part, is still exposed to these
influences; and it remains in the condition which was formerly that
of the whole body. In the specialised part the psychic nature
continues to work, and the soul becomes at this point the vehicle of
the life-principle (called in Theosophical literature
“Prāna”).
We now find the physical human ancestor in
possession of two principles: one being the physical body, which is
subject to the chemical and physical laws of the world surrounding
it; and the second, the sum total of the organs directly controlled
by the individual life-principle. In this manner a part of the
activity of the soul has been liberated. No longer retaining power
over the physical sheath, the soul turns this part of its activity
inwards, transforming part of the body into special organs; and so
begins an inner life of the body. It no longer merely participates in
the vibrations from without, but begins to feel them inwardly
as individual experiences. Here sensation begins. At first, the
sensation somewhat resembles the sense of touch: the subject
feels the movements of the outer world, the pressure caused
by substances, and so on; also a sensation of heat and cold began
now to be developed.
At this point man has reached an important
stage in his evolution. The direct influence of the soul has been
withdrawn from the physical body, the latter being entirely
surrendered to the physical and chemical activities of the material
world. The moment the soul, at work in the other principles, relaxes
its hold over the body, the latter dissolves. This is the
beginning of what we call “death.” We cannot speak of
death in reference to previous states. In the simple case of
separation, the life of the mother-form is continued in the
offspring, for in the latter are at work all the transformed
soul-forces which hitherto had sought expression in the one
parent-form: after the separation, nothing remains that is
soulless.
A change now takes place: as soon as the soul
ceases to retain its power over the physical body, the latter is
subject to the chemical and physical laws of the outer world, that is
to say, it decays. The field of activity for the soul-powers is
limited to generation and the developed inner life; for through this
generative power, descendants are brought forth, which are in their
turn endowed with a surplus of organ-forming power. In this surplus
the soul always returns to life again. As the whole body was formerly
filled with psychic activity at the separation, so were now the organs
of reproduction and of sensation. We must recognise in this nothing
less than a Rebirth of the soul-life in the new growing organism.
Theosophical literature describes these two evolutionary stages of
man as the first two Root-Races of our earth. The first is called the
Polar Race, the second the Hyperborean Race.
We must bear in mind that the field of
sensation possessed by these human forefathers was of a general
character and as yet quite vague and indefinite. So far, only two of
the kinds of sensation we now possess were differentiated: the sense
of hearing and that of touch. By reason of the changes, however,
which the body was undergoing, as well as its physical environment,
the whole human form was no longer capable of acting, so to speak, as
“all ear.” Henceforward a specialised part of the body
retained the power of responding to the delicate vibrations, and
supplied the material from which was gradually developed the organ of
hearing we now possess, whilst the rest of the body remained almost
entirely an organ of touch.
Obviously, the whole process of the evolution
of man has hitherto been connected with the alteration in the
degree of warmth of our earth; it was, in fact, due to the heat in
his surroundings that man evolved to the stage we have just
described. The heat from without, however, had now reached a
point at which further progress in the formation of the human body
was no longer possible. Thus, with the cooling off of the earth, a
corresponding reaction set in within the form itself, and man became
the generator of his own supply of heat, whereas hitherto his
temperature had been that of his surroundings. Organs now appear in
him, enabling him to generate for himself the degree of heat
necessary for his life. Up till now, currents of substances had
circulated within him, dependent on the environment for the necessary
heat; but now he could generate his own heat, for these substances
and the fluids of the body turned into warm blood. Thus he had
attained a far greater degree of self-dependence as a physical being
than ever before, and his whole inner life was intensified. Sensation
still depended entirely upon the effects of the outer world.
The filling of the body with its own warmth gave it an independent
physical inner life. The soul had now a field of activity within the
body, where it could unfold an existence which would no longer be a
mere sharing in the life of the outer world.
By this proceeding, the astral, or soul life,
was drawn into the sphere of physical matter. Hitherto desires,
longings and passions, joy and sorrow of soul, could only arise
through psychic influences; and attraction and aversion were
awakened, passions excited, and so on, by that which proceeded from
one soul to another. No other external physical object could have
produced such effects. Now, for the first time, the possibility arose
that such outer objects had a significance for the soul. For the
quickening of the inner life which followed the power of generating
its own heat caused it to experience the sensation of pleasure, while
the disturbance of this inner life caused it discomfort; an outer
object qualified to maintain bodily comfort could become an object of
desire, or longing. The astral, or desire body — known as
“Kāma” in Theosophical literature, — was
united with terrestrial man, and the objects of the senses became
objects capable of being desired; man was thus bound through his
desire body to earthly existence.
The foregoing fact coincides with a great
cosmic event, with which it is causally connected. Till now there had
been no material separation between sun, earth, and moon: these three
affected man as a single body. At this point separation occurs: the
finer matter, including all that which had hitherto conferred on the
soul the power of directly giving life, was separated off as sun; the
grossest matter went forth as moon; while the earth, with its
materiality, occupied a position between the two. Of course, the
separation did not occur suddenly; for the whole process was
gradually taking place while man was advancing from the stage of
generation by cleavage to that just described. The advance in man's
evolution was, indeed, accomplished just through the cosmic
happenings mentioned. First, the sun withdrew its substance from the
common globe. The soul was thereby deprived of the possibility of
directly vivifying the earth substance left behind. Then the moon
began to take form, in this way bringing about a condition of
the earth favourable to the growth of the capacity for sensation just
as we have already described.
In conjunction
with this occurrence, a new sense was developed. The conditions
of warmth of the earth became such that the bodies gradually took on
a definite outline, dividing the transparent matter from the opaque.
The sun, which had withdrawn from the earth-body, now assumed its
task as light-giver, and awoke in the human body the sense of sight.
It was not at first what we know as sight to-day. Light and darkness
were perceptible to man as vague sensations. For instance, he
was aware that under certain conditions light gave him a sense of
comfort and well-being, quickening the life in his body; therefore he
sought it and strove towards it.
Meanwhile the actual soul-life continued
to run its course in the form of dreamlike pictures. Colour-pictures
came and went in this life, without having any particular connection
with the things of the outer world, and these colour-pictures were
still attributed by man to soul activities. Light colour-pictures
appeared to him when his astral experiences were pleasant; sombre
pictures when he was affected by disagreeable astral influences. That
which was effected as the result of self-generated heat we have
called in the foregoing the “inner life.” Nevertheless,
we see that it was not an inner life in the sense of later human
development. All things advance step by step, and so does the
evolution of the inner life. In the sense in which it has been spoken
of in a former chapter, this true inner life only begins when the
fructification by the mind takes place, when man begins to think
about these outer influences. All that has been described here does
but show how man climbed upward to the state depicted in the
preceding chapter. And we really live over again the times there
described when we picture to ourselves the following. More and more
the soul learns to relate to the outer bodily existence that
which it formerly lived through in itself and which it only
attributed to soul influences.
The same thing now happened with regard to the
colour-pictures. Just as before the impression of a sympathetic
psychic influence was connected in the individual soul with a
bright colour-picture, so did it now become a brilliant
light-impression from outside. The soul began to perceive in colours
the objects surrounding it. This was in conjunction with the
development of new organs of sight. At its previous stages the body
had one eye, which does not exist to-day, by means of which it
vaguely sensed the light and the darkness. (The legend of the Cyclops
with one eye is a reminiscence of this state.)
The two eyes developed when the soul began to
associate the external light-impressions more intimately with its own
life, and thus was lost the capacity of perception of the surrounding
astral world. The soul became more and more a mirror of the outer
world, the latter being reproduced within it as an image; and
simultaneously with this the separation of the sexes appeared.
On the one hand, the human body became capable of fecundation only by
another human being, while on the other hand there developed in the
body “soul-organs” (the nervous system), by which the
sense-impressions of the outer world were reflected in the soul,
thereby preparing the way for the mind, or thinking principle, in the
human body.
|