THE
FOUR HUMAN GROUP SOULS
(Lion, Bull, Eagle, Man)
Lecture
by Dr. Rudolf Steiner Berlin, 29 October, 1908
Today we will consider
some things already known to you from a certain side. But in all
theosophical questions, we only fully penetrate them when they are
illuminated from different aspects. And within the theosophical
stream here in our central European regions, things are discussed
which are drawn from the most advanced occult investigations, and
which can thus be easily misunderstood. On the other hand, however,
we should not advance if we did not venture for once to speak about
such things quite plainly. Just call to mind that if we go back in
human evolution, through the various epochs of the post-Atlantean
age, as far back as Atlantis, and then back to the older periods even
in Atlantis — that then, if we turn our spiritual gaze on the
events of that time, we find quite different forms of humanity.
In the last third of
the Atlantean epoch the etheric body was still, to a certain extent,
outside the physical body. The head of the etheric body was not yet
united with the forces of the physical body, which are the forces of
the ego, of self-consciousness. If we observe the process lying
behind this we can say: progressive evolution consists in the widely
extending etheric head withdrawing into the physical head. If we see
a horse today, then the etheric head of the horse extends beyond the
physical head. I have also told you what a gigantic organization the
etheric parts of the elephant form, which stretch far, far beyond the
physical body — quite a house, so to say. So, with man, too, in
the Atlantean age, the etheric body was still outside, and gradually
entered in more and more. Such an entry of a more rarefied member
into a denser one brings about, at the same time, a densification of
what is physical. The physical head of man before the last third of
the Atlantean age thus appeared quite different from what it did
later. And if we went still further back into the last Lemurian
times, then one would see spiritually very little of the physical
head. It existed first in a quite soft, transparent matter. Only
through the gradual entry of the etheric head, through the gradual
assimilation of substances, parts of the head become densified, and
thus separated from their environment. Even in the later Atlantis man
was still endowed, to an extraordinary degree, with what has been
retained — but as a pathological state — as water on the
brain, as a watery brain. In addition to this we have to think of a
softening of the bones, a complete softening of the upper members of
man. That sounds terrible for modern man. That which today forms the
human head, and surrounds it, hardened out of this watery substance.
The comparison I sometimes give is not altogether inept: the
crystallizing of salt from a salt solution, in a glass. It gives a
fairly correct idea, this crystallizing from a watery salt solution.
What thus took place as regards the head at a later time, occurred
with the rest of man at a much earlier time.
All the other members
gradually developed out of a soft mass, so that we can say: Where was
the human ego then, in reality? Where was the present ego? It was not
really within man at that time but still in his environment. We can
say: the upper members of man harden through the entry of the egos.
Because the ego was outside man, it was still endowed with a quality
which later became different. Through entering the physical body, the
ego was enabled to become an individual I, whereas before it was
still a kind of group soul.
I will here give a
picture of the facts of the case. Imagine a circle of twelve men are
sitting somewhere. These twelve men are sitting in a circle. Through
evolution as it is today, each of these men has his ego within
himself. Thus twelve egos are sitting in this circle. Let us consider
such a circle of men in the Atlantean age; then the physical bodies
sat thus around, but the ego is only in the etheric body which is
still outside. The ego is thus to be found in front of each one. This
ego, however, has another characteristic. It is not so centralized.
It develops, as it were, its forces and unites with the egos of the
other men so that they form a ring which again sends its forces
towards its centre. Thus we have here an etheric circular body which
forms a unity in itself, and within it, the egos. Thus there is a
circle of physical bodies, and within an etheric circular surface,
which forms a unity because the egos are caught up in it, and the
single ego is enclosed. Through this image we come to a pictorial
idea of the group souls.
If we go further back,
then we can keep this image, but we must not imagine such a regular
circle of men; these human beings can be scattered in the world in
the most manifold way. Let us imagine one in west France, another in
the east of America, etc. — that is to say, not sitting
together. Where the laws of the spiritual world are in question the
egos can still be connected, although the human beings are scattered
over the world. These human beings form, then, this “round.”
That which is formed through the flowing together of their egos is
not indeed such a beautifully formed etheric body, but still it is a
Unity. Thus a group of people existed at that time, who were united
because their egos formed a unity — and indeed, there were
actually four such group egos. You must imagine these human beings in
accordance with the laws of the spiritual world. The group souls of
the four groups passed into each other. They were not inwardly
united, but passed into each other. One calls these four group souls
by the names of the apocalyptic beasts: Bull, Eagle, Lion, Man. The
Man, however, was at another stage of evolution than the man of
today. The names are taken from the organization of the group souls.
Why could one call them thus? I should like to make that clear today
from another aspect.
Let us place ourselves
as vividly as possible in the early ages of Lemurian life. The souls
which today are incarnated in human bodies had not yet descended as
far as the physical bodies. They had not yet the tendency to unite
themselves with physical matter. Even the bodies which later were to
become human bodies were very, very animal-like. The most grotesque
physical beings were on earth, which would even seem grotesque
compared with what we should call today the most grotesque creatures.
Everything was still in a soft, slippery form — seething,
watery, or fiery — human beings, as well as the environment.
Among these grotesque forms were already, of course, the ancestors of
the human physical bodies, but these were not yet taken possession of
by the egos. The four group souls, whom we have already characterized
as four group souls before the entry of the spirit into the physical
organization, actually represented four egos who waited to incarnate
— such egos as were adapted to quite special forms, which were
down there below. One category was adapted to enter the organizations
already existing physically, in quite definite shapes, another
category to enter another. The forms which were below must correspond
in their formation, in a certain way, to the kinds of egos which
waited. There were forms existing which were especially adapted to
receive the Lion egos, others the Bull egos, etc. That was in a very
early age of earth evolution. Now consider that the group soul we
have called the Bull soul enters quite definite forms which are there
below. These have a quite definite appearance. Similarly, the Lion
soul was drawn to other special forms.
Thus what is physical
on earth shows us a fourfold picture. The one group especially
develops the organs whose functions coincide more with those of the
heart. They were organized one-sidedly in the heart nature; an
especially aggressive, courageous, attacking element was in them.
They were courageous, self-assertive, sought to overcome the others —
were, as it were, already conquerors, born as conquering natures even
in their form. They were those in whom the heart, the seat of the
ego, had been made strong. In others, the organs of digestion, of
nourishment, of procreation, were especially developed. In the third
group, it was especially the organs of movement. In the fourth group,
these tendencies were equally shared — both the courageous,
aggressive, and the tranquil — which comes through the
development of the digestive organs. Both were developed. The group
in which the aggressive quality belonging to the organization of the
heart was specially developed, formed the human beings whose group
soul belonged to the Lion. The second group was that of the Bull. The
third group, with the mobile element that does not wish to know much
of the earth, belongs to the group soul of the Eagle. They are the
ones who can raise themselves above what is earthly. And those in
whom these things were held in equilibrium belonged to the group soul
“Man.” Thus we have, in due form, the projection of the
four group souls into the physical. At that time, a quite peculiar
sight would have offered itself to the observer. One would have found
one kind of race, of which someone with a prophetic gift could have
said: Those are physical beings who remind one somewhat of the lion,
who reproduce the character of the lion, even though they looked
different from the lion of today. They were lion-hearted people,
aggressive human germs. Then again there was a group of bull like
people, everything adapted to the physical plane. You can easily
complete for yourselves the third and fourth races. The third race
was already strongly visionary. While the first were combative, while
the second cultivated everything connected with the physical plane
and working it over, you would have found the third class of people,
who were very visionary. As a rule, they had something which, in
relation to the other bodies, was misshaped. They would have reminded
you of people who have much psychism and believe in visions, and
because they do not bother much about the physical, have something
dried up, something stunted compared with the abundant force of the
other two groups. They would have reminded you of the bird nature. “I
will hold back my Spirit,” that was the tendency of the eagle
men. The others had something which, as it were, was mixed out of all
the parts. Something else must be added to this.
If we go so far back as
to meet with these conditions on the earth, then we must also bear in
mind that everything that happened in the course of earth evolution,
occurred in such a way that the affairs of the earth were regulated
from out of the spiritual world. Everything was a detour in order to
arrive at the man of today. One who could have seen more deeply into
these things, could have made the experience that these lion natures
(who reminded one of what we see today in quite another way in the
lion body) developed a special attractive force for the male forms of
the etheric bodies. These felt themselves especially drawn to the
lion men, so that these were beings who had outwardly a lion body —
inwardly, however, a male etheric body. There was a powerful etheric
being with a male character, and a small part of this etheric being
densified itself to the physical lion body. The bull race, however,
had a special attractive force for the female etheric body. Thus the
bull body had the special force to attract the female etheric body
and unite with it. And now think further — the etheric bodies
go on continually working, penetrating and transforming. The relation
of the lion-like men to the bull-like was especially important in
older times. The others come less into consideration. The male
etheric bodies which crystallized a physical lion body out of
themselves, had the power of fructifying the physical lion body
itself, so that the procreation of humanity was especially cared for
by the lion-like race. It was a kind of fructification from out of
the spiritual, a non-sexual procreation. The bull race, however,
could also bring about the same thing. That which had become physical
worked back here on the female etheric body. In the course of
evolution, the process fashioned itself differently. Whereas the lion
nature retained this mode of procreation, since the fructifying force
came from above, out of the spiritual, whereas here this process
intensified, the other process was drive more and more back. The bull
humanity became more and more unfruitful. The result was that on the
one side there was a humanity which was maintained by fructification,
on the other side, another half which became more and more
unfruitful. The one side became the female sex, the other the male.
The modern female physical nature has in fact a male etheric body,
whereas the etheric body of the man is female. The physical body of
the woman has proceeded from the lion nature, whereas the physical
bull-body is the ancestor of the male body.
The spiritual in man
has a common origin, is neutral, and first entered the physical body
when the sexes had already differentiated. Only then was the spirit
taken hold of, and only then the head hardened. The etheric body of
the head united for the first time with the physical body; it was all
the same to it whether it joined on to a male or female body, since
both sexes were the same for it.
We must say that woman,
so long as we look away from what in general transcends this
differentiation, has, through her evolution, something lion-like in
her nature. One will certainly find this hidden courage. The woman
can develop inner courage; e.g. in war, in the care of the sick, in
order to work in the service of humanity. The male physical body has
that which in the true sense we can call the bull nature. That is
connected with the fact that the man, as he is usually organized, has
more of the activity based on physical creation. Occultly regarded,
these things reveal themselves precisely thus, even if it sounds
extraordinary. You thus see how these group souls have worked
together. They so work that the lion and bull group souls cooperate
in their work. These divine beings cooperate and, in the man of
today, the labours of the different divine group souls are concealed.
These pictures which I
have here put before you, in outline, will certainly have their
effect. If you follow humanity ever further back, to the time when no
procreation was yet possible, then we must say: The external physical
female body changes into something which was lion like, whereas the
male body was bull-like. Such things, however, must be taken in a
holy, earnest sense, if we will understand them aright. It would be
easy for those who have studied human anatomy, to deduce the
anatomical differences between the physical bodies of man and woman
from these lion- and bull-natures. Physical science will be utterly
fruitless and only describe external facts as long as it does not
penetrate into the spirit of these facts. Now it will no longer
appear so strange to you that once a race of people existed who had a
lion-like body. These took up the ego nature, and through this the
lion nature was changed more and more into the female body. Those who
received nothing of this spiritual element changed in quite another
way; i.e., into the modern lion, and what is related with it. We will
deal another time with the reason why these animals too are bisexual.
Those who shared nothing of spirituality formed the modern lion,
whereas those who did so developed the modern female body. In the
course of time many, many other aspects of these things can be shown.
Theosophical learning is not like the mathematical. First it was
shown, for instance, that there exist four group souls of which only
the names are at first given. Then some or other aspect is chosen,
and the matter is illuminated from outside. And so we approach
continually from another side. We go around what is first presented,
and illuminate it from the most diverse aspects. Whoever grasps this
will never be able to say that theosophical matters contradict each
other. This is also the case, even in the greatest things we
consider. The differences come from the various standpoints from
which one observes the matter. Let us take with us from this
gathering what one might call inner tolerance. May we succeed in our
special theosophical stream in bringing this inner spirit of
tolerance into the theosophical movement. Let us take that with us as
a content of feeling and try and work externally in such a way that
this spirit of the most inner understanding may become effective.
|