CHAPTER IV
N view of what has been said we may ask whether all the spiritual beings in
existence are to be found behind the phenomena of the sense world, or whether
there are others having no expression or manifestation in the
physical world. Supersensible consciousness knows that although it is
true that a spiritual being or spiritual fact is to be found behind
every external phenomenon, yet there do exist spiritual beings having
no expression in the physical world. Experiences await the initiate
other than those whose projections or shadow images are thrown into
the physical sense world. There exist, moreover, spiritual beings and
spiritual facts that have no expression in the inner life of the
soul, in the phenomena of conscience, thought, feeling, and sensation
... The spiritual world is seen by the higher consciousness to
embrace much more than can be experienced in the physical world.
Those of my readers who have
studied earlier lectures on these subjects, will realise that a host of
spiritual beings, at different stages of evolution, have been
involved in what has come to pass in the human, animal, vegetable and
mineral kingdoms during the course of our Earth evolution All such
beings intervene in some way or other in the evolutionary texture of
the Earth and of the kingdoms belonging to it. Behind the phenomena
surrounding us is a richly constituted spiritual world, just as there
was during the periods of Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon. We must
not attempt to understand these spiritual kingdoms by inventing
permanent names for these spiritual beings. The names used are not,
for the most part, intended to designate individualities, but offices
or spheres of duties. So if a particular name is used in connection
with a being active during the Old Sun period it cannot be applied in
the same sense to that being as regards its work or function in the
Earth evolution; it has progressed by that time. It is necessary to
speak of these matters with great accuracy and precision.
The
Earth period was not only preceded by three embodiments of the Earth
globe, but by three mighty spiritual kingdoms, essentially different
from one another when examined by super-sensible consciousness.
Investigation of the Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon periods reveals
many things which cannot be compared with anything we can name on the
Earth, and of which one can only speak by analogy.
It
will be remembered that I have spoken of the Old Saturn period as
being essentially one of warmth, or of fire; on Old Sun this warmth
condensed to air; on Old Moon the air condensed to water, and on
Earth the earth element appeared for the first time. But the
application of our concept of fire or warmth directly to the
evolution of Old Saturn would result in an incorrect picture, for the
fire of Saturn differed essentially from the fire of our Earth. There
is only one phenomenon which can legitimately be compared to the
Saturn fire, and that is the fire which permeates the blood as
warmth. This vital warmth, or life principle, is more or less
comparable to the substance of which Old Saturn was entirely
composed, and the physical fire of today is a descendant, a later
product of the Saturn fire; in its external form as perceived in
space, it has appeared for the first time on the Earth. The warmth of
the blood, then, is the only thing which can be compared to what was
present during the physical evolutionary period of Old Saturn. There
is very little indeed in the realm of our present day experience
which can be compared in any way with the qualities of these earlier
evolutionary periods, all of which were very different from our
present Earth existence.
It
must be understood, however, that everything in the Saturn, Old Sun
and Old Moon periods is comprised within the Earth evolution, only it
has changed in character. What was laid as a germ on Old Saturn and
evolved through the Sun and Moon periods, is to be found in the Earth
evolution, although in a changed condition; we can, however, instance
the fundamental elements brought over from the earlier evolutionary
periods by examining what is not to be found in this transformed
state.
When
the Earth first appeared it had absorbed into itself three preceding
evolutionary conditions, and all the degrees of spiritual beings
involved in them. The beings were at different stages of evolution,
however, so it is obvious that distinction must be made between these
three different realms of spiritual beings and of spiritual
substances; we must realise, in considering the beginnings of the
Earth, that certain things which we find there could come into
existence only because the Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon periods
preceded our Earth evolution, and at its beginning the three are
united within it.
This
fact was always present in the ancient, instinctive consciousness of
man, which connected him with the spiritual world. And when the
number Three was mentioned as characteristic of the higher worlds,
those individuals who looked at things in the concrete and not in the
abstract, who had facts rather than conceptions or ideas in their
mind's eye, always felt in their souls the truth that our Earth has
received, into her womb, as it were, everything that came over from
Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon. That is the so-called higher,
pre-terrestrial triad ... This triad consisting of Old Saturn, Old
Sun and Old Moon has evolved into our Earth. In its concrete meaning
the higher triad signifies these three pre-terrestrial states; but
the quaternary refers to the gradual transformation of these three
into the Earth. Accordingly men whose instinctive consciousness
brought them into touch with the realities of the spiritual world
felt the mystery of the birth of the Earth to be expressed by the
relation of three to four. And they turned reverent eyes to the
sacred triad of Saturn, Sun and Moon, which had become the quaternary
manifested by the Earth period. It is obvious that the modern
expressions Saturn, Sun and Moon had other equivalents in the
instinctive consciousness of ancient humanity.
If
we now follow up the course of the Earth evolution we may ask how the
separate classes of spiritual beings participate in its progress.
Spiritual beings at different stages of evolution directed the
processes of the separation of the Sun and Moon from the earth, as a
result of which that progress came to pass. We have first to consider
a class of spiritual beings which attained a certain stage of
evolution during the Old Sun period; they belong to the Old Sun
evolution because it was destined to provide a field of action for
them. These are beings which separated the sun from the earth during
the Earth period, because during Old Sun they were Sun-bound in the
same way as humanity is now Earthbound. As we have seen, they needed
the Sun for their further evolution and with the Sun they left the
Earth in order to work upon the latter from without. When the Sun
spirits had withdrawn the Saturn and Moon spirits were left on the
Earth. The development of the Saturn spirits was such that they could
direct and guide the separation of the Moon from the Earth; they had
passed through the same stage on Old Saturn as the Sun spirits had
done on the Old Sun; their maturity had preceded that of the Sun
spirits, and they were therefore able to separate the Moon from the
Earth and to stimulate from within the inner development of man, who,
otherwise, would have hardened and become mummified. It may be said
that the withdrawal of the Sun was brought about by the Sun spirits,
and that of the Moon by the Saturn spirits. The Sun is a cosmic
symbol for the act of the Sun spirits, the Moon for that of the
Saturn spirits. And what is left upon the earth itself Spirits of the
Old Moon period.
It
will be useful at this point to bear in mind a definite epoch of the
Earth evolution; that at which the Moon had just left the Earth. The
Earth, from which the Sun had withdrawn still earlier, was then in a
very different condition from that of today. If the Earth had then
been in an exactly similar state to that of today, the whole process
would have been unnecessary.
It
was compared to the present mineral vegetable, animal and human
kingdoms — very imperfect in that early period. The various
continents had not separated off from each other everything was in a
kind of chaos. Super-sensible sight would search in vain at that
period for the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms as they
are today. These forms have all developed as a result of the
influence of the Sun and the Moon from without, and this was the
purpose of the withdrawal of these two bodies. The influences which
worked upon the Earth from the Sun and the Moon charmed from it, as
it were, everything that has since arisen upon it and all that
surrounds us today. The outer forms of the minerals, the plants, the
animals and of physical man have been produced by the beings which
work from the Sun; whereas the beings which work from the Moon have
stimulated the soul life of men and of animals. This is an
approximate and broad sketch of evolution from the so-called Lemurian
epoch on into that of Atlantis. It was during the Atlantean epoch
that, very slowly and gradually, the Earth began to wear an
appearance more or less similar to that which we see around us today.
It is necessary, therefore, to distinguish in the course of the Earth
evolution since the withdrawal of the Moon, between a chaotic Earth
and an organised one which has been influenced by the Spiritual
beings in its environment.
What
is here stated need not necessarily be acquired from historical
tradition. Suppose for example that the initiate wisdom of ancient
and venerable India, of the Persian sages, of the Egyptian
initiations, or of the Greek Mysteries had all been lost; suppose no
external documents of any kind whatever were left to tell us of the
pristine teaching concerning the spiritual foundations of our earth
evolution. Even then the possibility of developing super-sensible
consciousness would not be lost; everything that is said here can be
discovered by means of super-sensible investigation without the aid of
any historical document. We have to do with something, which at the
present time can be studied at its source; even mathematics may also
be learnt from original sources.
Let
us now try to find a link between the results which super-sensible
investigation has given us and life in ancient times. It is obvious
that some other method might be adopted, but the purpose of this
course of lectures is to compare what can be found irrespective of
any historical record, with what has been handed down by another kind
of tradition. We will go back, not so very far, to a historical
personage who lived in a comparatively ancient period of Greek
culture, of whom history knows very little and the length of whose
life even is veiled in much uncertainty. Pherecydes of Syros is in a
certain respect the forerunner of the other Greek sages.
He
lived at a time in Greek spiritual development called the epoch of
the Seven Sages. — This period preceded that of all historical
Greek philosophy. The little that external history tells us of
Pherecydes of Syros is very interesting; he, among others, is spoken
of as the teacher of Pythagoras; and many of the teachings of
Herakleitos, of Plato and of later sages can be traced back to him.
It is said that he taught the existence of three principles
fundamental to the whole of evolution, and called them Zeus, Kronos
and Chthon. Now what precisely did he mean by these names? It will at
once be realised that Kronos is only another name for the Old Saturn
evolution. In the teaching of Pherecydes, Kronos is the totality of
spiritual beings belonging to the kingdom of Old Saturn, who during
the course of the Earth evolution were able to bring about the
separation of the Moon. Now for Zeus! Zeus is a word of uncertain
meaning when used in ancient times, for it was applied to spiritual
individualities at very different stages of evolution. But men in
ancient Greece who know something of initiation recognised in Zeus
the ruler of the Sun spirits. Zeus lives in the influences which came
to the Earth from the Sun. Chthon is a designation of the somewhat
chaotic condition of the earth after the withdrawal of the moon, at
which time neither plant nor animal nor human forms were to be found.
In most remarkable words, Pherecydes spoke of the holy primordial
triad, of Zeus, Kronos and Chthon, principles fundamental to the
earth, having come over from pre-terrestrial ages; he also speaks of
a further evolution. But in ancient times men did not clothe matters
of this kind in such dry, crude concepts as they do today, they drew
vivid pictures of what they saw and recognised in spiritual realms.
Pherecydes said: ‘Chthon becomes Gea (today called earth),
because of the gift of Zeus whereby she came to be covered as with a
garment.’ This is a wonderful description of that evolution
which I have just outlined in a few short words. The earth was alone;
outside it were the sun and the moon, the spiritual kingdoms of Zeus
and of Kronos. The sun from without began to work upon the earth and
to fructify it in its then chaotic state; or, in the language of the
old Greek sage, Zeus fructified Chthon. The beneficent influences of
the kingdom of Zeus were sent down to the physical earth in the
warmth and light of the sun. This was the gift made by Zeus to the
earth. The earth covered herself with the garment of plant and animal
forms, and with the forms of physical men. Chthon becomes Gea;
therefore, because of the gift of Zeus the earth covers herself with
a garment.
This
is a wonderful picture, expressed in beautiful language, of what
super-sensible consciousness is able today to rediscover in the epoch
of the Seven Greek Sages. And Pherecydes could not have made such
strikingly vivid statements, which can be verified by modern
super-sensible consciousness, without definite personal knowledge.
This knowledge he derived from the so-called Phoenician initiation.
He was an initiate of the temples of ancient Phoenicia and had
brought over into Greece the Temple wisdom which he was at liberty to
teach. A great deal of oriental wisdom came over in this way.
This
is one example, among many, of the things that may be re-discovered
in the words of the old sages independently of historical tradition.
In this instance we have not gone back so very far in human history.
If we are able rightly to interpret the expressions used, it is also
possible to re-discover original teachings of very ancient times. It
would, however, be false to accept the simple explanation that this
or that Eastern teaching concerning the evolution of the world is
found under the same form in Pherecydes of Syros, in the old Egyptian
epoch, in the days of the Chaldean sages, and in the ancient Indian
period. If this were the case, it might well be imagined that a
wisdom rediscovered today is to be found, in different form, wherever
humanity has striven after it; that wisdom is one and the same at all
times and in all places. In its abstract sense there is not the
slightest objection to be raised to this statement; it is true, but
it expresses only a portion of the whole truth. Just as from the rest
of a plant to the fruit there is not a regular succession of similar
forms, but a variety, composed of green leaves, coloured petals,
stamens, etc., of higher and higher development, so does diversity
appear in the progress of human life on earth. Correct though it is
to say that the sense wisdom appears again and again in different
forms, an evolution or a development does nevertheless take place;
and it is not at all correct to say that we find in ancient Indian
times exactly the same conditions as exist today. That would be as
inaccurate as to state that the blossom of a plant is the same as the
root. True, the same force exists within it, but the reality emerges
only if progress and development are recognised to be fundamental
expressions of the secrets underlying human evolution. The teachings
of the first post-Atlantean epoch may still be given today; what
Pherecydes of Syros taught can be repeated today; but the earth
evolution has also been enriched, and impulses have since been poured
into it.
The
importance of the Christ impulse in human evolution has already been
indicated. That is a thing apart, standing alone in the evolution of
the earth; there is nothing which can be compared with it. It has
come to my knowledge that people have spoken of injustice in
connection with human evolution if it were true that, for so many
thousands of years before the coming of the Christ, full wisdom could
not be imparted to mankind. Why was it, these people ask, that
anything could be withheld from pre-Christian men? They seem to
think, in view of the fact that justice is universal, that although
the forms of truth have changed, new truths cannot have been added to
the old; for if it were otherwise, men living in post-Christian days
would be destined to receive something higher than men of
pre-Christian times. Now it is understandable that such things should
be said in the outer world, but it is not understandable that
students of spiritual science should make such statements. And why?
Because the men who incarnate during the post-Christian epoch are
those who have passed through previous incarnations, and what they
could not possibly learn before the appearance of Christ on earth
they must learn after that event. Anyone who believes that man
incarnates again and again only to learn exactly the same wisdom, has
no serious appreciation and feeling for reincarnation in his soul;
for to believe in reincarnation seriously means to realise its goal
and its purpose and to know that there is good reason for our
returning to earth repeatedly. We come back in order to have new
experiences. It is a platitude to say that exactly the same wisdom is
to be met with again and again in different conceptions of the world.
The concrete fact is that wisdom develops, that it takes on higher
and higher forms, until there comes into being on the Earth something
that is ripe to pass over into another condition, in the same way as
Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon passed over to the Earth condition.
There is real progress and not mere repetition — that is the
whole point. And here lies the difference between Eastern and Western
modes of thought. Western thought, in face of the whole task and
mission of the West, can never separate itself from an actual, a
concrete historical conception of the evolution of the Earth; and an
historical conception implies the idea of progress, not of mere
repetition. It was in the West that the real concept of historical
development arose. If anyone falls into a purely oriental way of
thought (and its truth is not in any way questioned, only the
historical sense must be added to it) because he has not grasped the
idea of historical progress, he may easily lose sight of the meaning
of history altogether. He may find himself faced with the question:
‘What is the purpose of this eternal repetition or recurrence
of the same thing?’ That was a problem raised by Schopenhauer
who had no understanding of history in its real sense, and whose
exoteric teaching was influenced in high degrees by what he had
absorbed from Oriental life. Statement of a higher truth in no way
impugns a lower, lesser truth; spiritual science fully assents to
statements of a non-historical nature in Oriental spiritual life. But
the point at issue here is that of raising a mode of thinking to a
higher level; or, as we may say, of illuminating Oriental thought by
the light of the West. [This seemingly rather sweeping
statement is justified by the fact that it deliberately opposes the
oft-repeated declaration of mystical world-conceptions that
fundamentally the, different religions, etc., are only the
transformation of a single primordial wisdom and nothing more than
that.]
What
I have said here in general terms I should like to illustrate by an
example. From what has been said it will be realised that the
discoveries of modern super-sensible investigation are to be found
under another form in ancient times, if we look for them there. It is
only possible to throw light on antiquity by starting from the
present. Let us in this connection take a definite spiritual
individuality. If we go back to a time when men brought down into the
Vedas what was in a certain respect an echo of the sublime wisdom of
the Holy Rishis, we find, among many appellations of divine beings,
the name of Indra. If, from the point of view of modern super-sensible
investigation I were to give an answer to the question: ‘What
kind of being is the Indra mentioned in the Vedas?’ it would be
best for me to explain how it is possible for a modern man to acquire
a conception of that being by means of spiritual sight. We have
already seen that by rising from the physical to the soul world,
Spiritual beings can be perceived behind everything surrounding us in
the world, behind fire, air, water and earth, which are their
external expressions or manifestations. In the spiritual realm behind
the element of air, for instance, a host of spiritual beings appear,
beings which do not descend so far as the physical world, but express
themselves — therein through the air. In the soul-world we meet
them as entities, as individualities, and the mightiest of them is
still to be found today in him who in ancient India was named
‘Indra.’ Indra is associated with the whole regulation of
man's breathing process, and to his activity we owe the fact that we
breathe as we do today. Humanity may look up to this being forever
and realise that it is the mighty Indra who has endowed them with the
instrument of breath. The activities of such a being are not however
limited to one sphere, and humanity owes much else to Indra; they owe
to Indra the force which must pour through their muscles if their
enemies are to be conquered in war. Hence men were able to pray to
mighty Indra for power to be victorious in battle, since this also
was one of his functions. To this same being (which needs no name if
only its presence is realised) is to be ascribed the flashing of the
lightning effects of storms. For these things, too, prayers may be
raised, if, in the praying, the gods are thought of.
Indra
exists for us today as he existed in ancient Vedic times, but we must
now pass on to another consideration. Suppose we take this being
named Indra as actually seen by the Old Indian initiates when their
spiritual sight was opened in the soul world, and ask ourselves
whether the initiate of modern days sees him in the same form? The
answer is that he does, in fact, see everything perceptible to the
ancient initiate, but something else as well. To take a rather
trivial example, suppose we consider a man in the fortieth year of
his life and call him Muller. He is the same person who thirty years
previously was a boy of ten, but he has changed, even if his name is
the same. It would be incorrect to describe this man Muller as a man
of forty if we took his appearance at the age of ten; he has passed
through a certain development, which must be taken into account when
speaking of him in his present condition. Is it to be imagined, then,
that while men on the earth continually develop during their single
lives and also from life to life, spiritual beings remain at the same
stage at which they manifested themselves to the spiritual
consciousness of an ancient Indian initiate? Is it right to conceive
of the gods as remaining unchanged through thousands of years? It
certainly is not; Indra has passed through an evolution since the
days when seers of ancient India looked up to him with reverence. Now
what has happened to this mighty figure of Indra, and how does his
evolution manifest itself if we look back upon it with spiritual
consciousness? At a certain moment in evolution something very
remarkable with regard to Indra comes to pass. In order to have a
clear conception we must repeat certain things. We will direct our
spiritual consciousness in the soul world to the ancient Indian god,
Indra and follow him through thousands of years. We come to a point
of time when there is an appearance of rays of light falling from an
entirely different spiritual being upon Indra, who is himself
illumined by them and ascends to a higher stage of development. It is
rather like learning something important from another individual at a
certain age, which changed one's whole life. This happened in the
case of great Indra, and since that time there has streamed from him
the same influence as was to be found in ancient India, only enriched
by the spiritual light of another being which was shed upon him. It
is possible to indicate the precise moment in the history of the
evolution of humanity when this took place. The God, Indra, is to be
found in the soul world at a time when the Christ was not yet
perceptible to Earth evolution, although the Christ light shone upon
him. A man who is able to perceive Indra may well say that this Being
now reveals something different from his earliest revelations; for at
first the Christ light did not ray back from him. Since the point of
time in question, Indra has not shed his own light into the spiritual
evolution of the earth, but has reflected the light of Christ, just
as the moon reflects the light of the sun. The light thus rayed back
by Indra, not directly perceptible on earth and in which therefore we
cannot actually recognise Christ, was proclaimed by Moses to his
people. Moses gave the name of Jahve or Jehovah to this Christ light
rayed back by Indra as the sunlight is reflected by the moon. In
lectures upon the Gospel of St. John, I have spoken about another
aspect of this matter. The Christ is heralded, and Jahve or Jehovah
is the name of the Christ light rayed back by an ancient deity. It is
a prophetic heralding of Christ. Indra himself passed to a higher
stage of evolution through this contact with the Christ light. He did
not of course become Jehovah. It is not correct to say that Jehovah
is Indra. But we can understand that as Indra manifests himself in
lightning and thunder, even so does Jehovah manifest himself therein,
because a being can only reflect in accordance with its own nature.
Jehovah therefore was manifested in lightning and thunder.
This
is an instance of spiritual being accomplished in its own realm in
the same way as human evolution in our world, and of the fact that
the same picture of the spiritual beings is not forthcoming after the
lapse of thousands of years. History is being made in the spiritual
world, and earth history is only the outer expression of this
spiritual history. Every earthly occurrence has its course in events
of the spiritual world, and it is necessary to understand these
spiritual events in detail.
By
this example I have tried to show what it means to throw light upon
antiquity from a modern point of view. History is a concept which
must be taken quite seriously, and the instance given should
elucidate spiritual life. If we bear in mind the fact that there are
wisdom-beings to be found today by occult research which we encounter
again when we go back in time, only under different names and
different manifestations — and at the same time remember that
historical evolution and progress are realities in spiritual life —
which underlie all that is physical, we have grasped two principles
of fundamental importance to all progressive spiritual science that
is to influence the future of humanity.
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