X
THE
SECOND, OR HYPERBOREAN, RACE
IN the last
chapter the Ākāshic studies are carried to that point of
time at which man's soul is incarnated in the subtle matter of the
firemist. We must understand very clearly that man only assumed
dense matter, which he now regards as his own, at a later date, and
then only very gradually. If we wish to form an idea of his bodily
appearance at the stage of his development just depicted, we can best
do so by thinking of it as water-vapour, or as a cloud floating in
the air; but this representation is, of course, on which merely
approaches the reality superficially; for the fiery-cloud
“man” is inwardly vitalized and organized. But in
comparison to that which he becomes later, we must picture him at
this stage as psychically slumbering, as yet but dimly conscious. All
that we can call intelligence, understanding, and reason are
yet lacking in him. He moves about with a floating, rather than
pacing, motion, by means of four limb-like organs, forwards,
backwards, sideways, and in all directions. But as regards the soul
of this being something has already been said.
We must not think, however, that the
movements, or other expressions of life evinced by these beings, were
irrational or unregulated. On the contrary, they were perfectly
regulated, and nothing happened without purpose and meaning, the only
difference being that the guiding power, or understanding, was not
within the beings themselves; rather were they controlled by an
intelligence outside themselves. Higher beings, more fully developed
than they, hovered round them, as it were, and guided them; for that
is the all-important and fundamental quality of the firemist, that
human beings at this stage of evolution could incarnate in it, while
at the same time higher beings could also incorporate therein, and
could thus be in full intercommunication with man. Man had developed
his inclinations, instincts, and passions, up to a point at which
they could clothe themselves in the firemist; but the other order of
beings here mentioned could, by the power of their reason, create
within this firemist, by means of their intelligent activity. For
these latter possessed still higher faculties by means of which they
could reach up to higher regions. From these regions their
determinations and impulses emanated, but the actual effects of these
determinations were apparent in the firemist. All that was done on
the earth by man originated in the regulated intercourse of the
human firemist body with that of those higher beings.
We can therefore say that man strove to climb
upwards; in the firemist he was to evolve higher qualities — in
a human sense — than he had possessed before. The other beings,
however, strove downwards towards the material. Their course of
evolution was to seek expression for their creative forces in ever
denser and denser material forms; but in a wider sense this in no
wise meant a degradation for them. We must come to a very clear
understanding on this point: it requires higher power and capacity to
control denser than rarer forms of matter. These higher beings, too,
had in former periods of their evolution a power as limited in extent
as that of man at the present time. And they, like man to-day, once
had dominion only over that which took place within them; they had no
control over the outer coarse matter. They now strove to reach a
condition in which they should magically direct external things, and
were, therefore, at this period ahead of man in evolution. Man
reached upwards, striving first to embody the mind in finer
substances, so that it could afterwards direct its activity outwards.
He had already assimilated reason, and now became possessed of
magic power in order to permeate with reason the surrounding world.
Thus man advanced upwards through the stage of the firemist, while
his companions pressed downwards through the same stage in order to
increase their power.
The forces which
above all others were most effective in the firemist were those known
to men as lower passions and impulses. Man, as well as the higher
beings, makes use of these forces at the firemist period described;
and these forces, working at that stage within the human form, have
the effect of developing organs which enabled man to think, and thus
to develop his personality. In the higher beings, however, these
forces worked, at the stage with which we are now dealing, in such a
manner that the beings mentioned could make use of them in order
impersonally to bring about terrestrial conditions
through their medium. By this means there arose on the earth, through
these beings, forms which were themselves an image of the laws of
reason. Thus, through the activity of the passional forces, there
appeared in man the personal reasoning organs, and round about
him, by means of the same forces, organisations replete with
intelligence were formed.
Let us now think of this process as a little
further advanced, or rather, let us bring before us what we find
registered in the Ākāshic Records, when we glance at a
somewhat later period: The moon has separated from the earth; a great
revolution has thereby been accomplished. A great part of the heat
has escaped from the objects surrounding man, whereby these objects
have passed into a coarser and denser order of matter. Man must live
in this colder environment, and he can only do so by altering his own
matter; and a change of form goes hand in hand with this
densification of substance. For the condition of firemist on earth
has itself given place to one which is entirely different. The
result of this is that the higher beings spoken of no longer have the
firemist as a medium for their activity. Nor can they consequently
any longer exercise an influence over the expression of man's
soul-life, formerly their chief sphere of activity. But they have
obtained power over the human form which they themselves had
before created from the firemist.
This change of activities goes hand in hand
with a transformation of the human form. One half of the latter, with
two motory organs, has been transformed into the lower half of the
body, which has thus become mainly the vehicle of nutrition and
generation. The other half is, as it were, directed upwards. Out of
the two other organs of motion grow rudimentary hands. And such
organs as had once also served for nutrition and generation are
remodelled into organs of speech and thought. Man stands upright.
That is the immediate consequence of the moon's exit. And together
with the moon the terrestrial globe is deprived of all those forces
which, in the period of the firemist, had enabled man to practise
self-fructification and to bring forth beings like himself without
external influence. The whole lower half of his body — that
which we often call his lower nature — is now subject to the
formative influence, governed by reason, of those higher beings. That
which these beings had themselves been able to regulate before in
man, while the volume of forces, henceforth withdrawn into the
moon, were still united with the earth, must now be organized by them
with the co-operation of the two sexes. This explains why the moon
has been regarded by Initiates as the symbol of generative forces,
these forces clinging to it, as it were.
The higher beings, described above, being akin
to the moon, are in a certain sense, moon-gods. Before the separation
of the moon, they worked by its force in man; afterwards their forces
worked from outside to effect the propagation of man. We may also
truly say that those exalted spiritual forces which were formerly
acting upon man's still higher instincts through the medium of the
firemist have now descended to unfold their powers in the realm of
reproduction. Lofty, divine forces are actually at work in regulating
and organising this function.
In this we have the expression of an important
teaching of Occult Science, which says that the high and sublime
god-like forces are akin to the — apparently — lower
forces of human nature. The word “apparently” must here
be understood in its full significance; for it would be a
complete misconception of occult truths to regard the force of
generation in itself as something ignoble. It is only when man
misuses this force and compels it to serve his passions and
desires that evil lurks in it; but not
when he ennobles it by the thought that it contains divine, spiritual
strength. Then will he place these forces at the service of the
evolution of the earth, and will carry out the plans of those higher
beings by means of his own generative forces. To raise this entire
domain and place it under divine laws — not to destroy it
— is what Occult Science teaches us. The latter can be the only
result of superficially understood occult principles,
distorted into mistaken asceticism.
We see that man had developed in the upper
half of his body something over which the higher beings we spoke of
had no influence; over this part other beings now obtain authority.
They are those who had, indeed, at earlier stages of development
advanced beyond humanity, but had not yet risen so high as the
moon-gods. They could, so far, develop no power in the firemist; but
now that a later condition has appeared in which, through the
firemist, something in man's reasoning organs had attained
development, something to which they themselves had approached
earlier — now their time has come.
In the case
of the moon-gods the stage at which reason worked and organized outwardly
had arrived earlier. In them this reason was present at the beginning
of the firemist epoch. They could act outwardly on terrestrial
objects, but the beings just described had not at an earlier period
attained the development of an outwardly active reason, and therefore
the firemist period found them unprepared. Now, however, reason is
there. It is present in man, and they seize this human reason in
order that they may work upon the things of earth through it. Just as
formerly the moon-gods had worked upon the whole man, these work now
on his lower half only, whereas the influence of the lower beings
spoken of is at work upon his upper half.
Thus man is subject to a twofold guidance. In
his lower nature he is subject to the power of the moon-gods, but in
his evolved personality he has come under the leadership of those
beings called collectively by the name of their regent
“Lucifer.” For the Lucifer-beings complete their own
evolution by making use of the awakened forces of man's reason. They
could not attain this stage earlier. But they confer on man at the
same time the disposition towards freedom, the tendency to
distinguish “good” from “evil.” Under the
sole guidance of the moon-gods the human reasoning organ is indeed
formed, but these gods would have allowed the organ to slumber; they
would have had no interest in using it for themselves. They had
their own powers of reason. The Lucifer-beings had an interest in
developing human reason, in guiding it to the objects of earth for
their own sake, and therefore they became for humanity the teachers
of all that can be accomplished through man's reason. They could,
however, be no more than instigators. For they could not
develop reason in themselves, but, as we have seen, they could
only do so in man. There arose thus a twofold stream of activity on
earth. The one, arising from the direct influence of the
moon-deities, was regulated from the beginning by law and reason; for
the moon-gods, having already finished their time of apprenticeship,
were now beyond the possibility of error. On the other hand, the
Lucifer-gods, who had intercourse with man, had first of all to work
their way to the light of such knowledge. Under their guidance man had
to learn the laws of his nature; under the guidance of Lucifer he must
himself become as “a god among gods.”
The question arises: if the Lucifer-beings had
not progressed in their evolution to the point of intelligent
creation in the firemist, where did they fall behind? Up to what
stage in the earth's evolution were they able to co-operate with the
moon-gods? The Ākāshic Records show us that they were able
to take part in earthly creation up to the period at which the sun
separated from the earth. We are shown that up to this time they
performed what, it is true, was work of a somewhat inferior
nature to that of the moon-gods, but nevertheless they belonged to
the band of divine creators. After the separation of earth and sun,
an activity — the work in the firemist — began on the
former for which the moon-deities, but not the Lucifer-Spirits, were
prepared. For these a period of inactivity and waiting then began.
Now, when the universal firemist had rolled
away and the human beings began to work on the formation of their
intellectual organs, the Lucifer-Spirits could again emerge
from their period of rest. For the creation of reason is correlated
with solar activity, and the dawn of intelligence in human
nature is the rise of an inner sun. This is affirmed not merely
figuratively, but in an absolutely real sense. These beings found
thus an opportunity of resuming their activity within the human
being, in conjunction with the sun, when the firemist epoch had
passed away from earth. From this it is easy to see the origin of the
name “Lucifer” — that is,
“Light-bearer” — and to understand why these beings
are characterised in Occult Science as “sun-gods.”
* * *
The readings from the Ākāshic Records describing the
first beginnings of our earth and its inhabitants are to be found in
An Outline Of Occult Science
— the most important of Dr Steiner's works which has so far appeared
— in the fifth chapter entitled “The Evolution of the
World and Man.” The reader will there find the present studies
of the Ākāshic Records carried back to the origins of what
we find in the worlds to-day.
|