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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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Universe, Earth and Man
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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Universe, Earth and Man
Animal forms -- the physiognomical expression of human passions. The religion of Egypt -- a remembrance of Lemurian times. Fish and serpent symbols. The remembrance of Atlantis in Europe. The Light of Christ.
Schmidt Number: S-1813
On-line since: 11th July, 2002
Animal forms the physiognomical expression of human passions. The religion of Egypt a remembrance of Lemurian times. Fish and serpent symbols. The remembrance of Atlantis in Europe. The Light of Christ.
In the last lecture it was shown how a differentiation had arisen in
evolution generally, and particularly in human evolution, because
human beings, and other beings also, could not await the right point
in their evolution; they therefore fell behind and became hardened to
a certain degree, while others retained the necessary softness and
pliability until the right moment, and were thus able to carry out the
changes that were fitting. It was also shown that it was only in the
middle of the Atlantean epoch that the true human form appeared. In
the previous epoch, and indeed at a very early period, the external
form of man was very mobile; not only could he move his limbs as at
present, but through inner powers he could elongate or shorten them,
etc. To the ordinary consciousness of today it seems a kind of outrage
to say such things about past conditions of the earth and of man. Even
here among Anthroposophists you may have observed that we endeavour to
develop certain truths step by step; we give them forth gradually, in
small doses they are then more easily digested.
Let us turn our attention once more to this early development. Even the
Atlantean epoch had a beginning, and it came to an end through mighty
water catastrophes of a very complicated kind. The Atlantean epoch
lasted for a long, a very long, time. When we go back still further we
come to other catastrophes in the course of evolution, these may be
called volcanic in nature, when large tracts of land lying south of
Asia, east of Africa, and north of Australia were demolished. On these
tracts of land humanity had dwelt, and, to borrow a term from natural
science, the land was called the Lemurian continent.
At that time humanity had a body much softer and more plastic than it
is now; it was a period when man could assume many shapes; if we were
to describe them they would seem very grotesque to the consciousness
of the present day. We arrive here at a point of time before which no
kind of feeling of personality, no feeling of selfhood, had as yet
come to man. As he had no consciousness of self, and as the human
shape was still very mobile and unfinished, something else happened.
The shape which man presented outwardly and which changed
according to his emotions, being one thing at one time and something
quite different at another was in this way a kind of betrayer
of his inner being; according as his thoughts and passions were good
or bad his external shape assumed a different form. It was impossible
at that time to entertain an evil thought and keep it hidden, for the
external bodily form immediately expressed it, therefore man appeared
in all kinds of shapes.
There were at this time very few of the higher kinds of animals; the
earth was peopled by the lower animals and man. And if one were
companionable and such indeed we all were fundamentally
one could find one's fellowman through the expression they gave to
this or that thought, or to this or that passion. What really are all
such expressions? What are the physiognomical expressions of passions
and thoughts? They are the shapes of animals. When we observe the form
of animals we see in the higher orders of the animal kingdom nothing
but thoughts and passions of all sorts worked into a great piece of
tapestry. Everything that moves within the human astral body today,
and remains hidden, was such a strong force at that time that it
imparted at once to the soft body (which was really only formed out of
fire-mist) the shape which was the expression of that passion. A large
part of our present higher animals consists of human beings who were
so entangled in their passions that they became hardened in these
forms and fell behind in evolution. Anyone who looks with really
occult perception on his environment can express his feeling
approximately as follows: In the course of becoming an ego I have
passed through that which I now see in lions and snakes; I lived in
all these forms, for in my inner being I experienced the qualities
which are expressed in these animal shapes.
Those human beings who were capable of rising, who maintained their
inner centre, found a certain balance, so that they have within them
only the possibility of these passions, which are, however, of a soul
nature only, and take on no external form. This is what man's higher
development means. In animals we see our own past, although these have
not the same form as that in which they appeared in past ages, for
millions of years have passed away since then. Let us suppose that
passions such as are now found in lions were made manifest at that
time in man's outward form, giving him the semblance of a lion, that
this form then hardened, and the genus lion originated. Since that
time, however, the genus lion has also passed through further
development, and because of this the present lion has no longer the
same form as at that time. The present lion is the descendant of a
genus that branched off from the human long ages ago. In the various
animals we have, in a certain sense, to see our degenerate
descendants; this should help us to look with understanding into the
world around us.
We must not, however, imagine that all the animal forms we see around
us, and which represent certain conditions of hardening, are the
result of evil human passions. Passions were necessary; man had to
experience them in order that he might absorb from them into his own
nature all that was useful; so that when we look back into such
periods of the earth's evolution we find in our environment animal
shapes that are in a state of material self-metamorphosis.
These are the expressions of passions, and working in them we find
those Spiritual beings with whom we have become acquainted in previous
lectures. We have to think of the earth as being still of a soft
substance, and Spiritual beings working upon this substance, and
forming the various animal-like shapes.
Let us now recall how it was said that the Egyptian religion repeated
the facts of the third epoch of the earth, preserving the results of
it as religious knowledge. The Egyptian form of religion contained as
knowledge that which had taken place at one time on earth. You will
now wonder no longer that so many animal and animal-headed shapes
appeared in Egyptian art. This was a spiritual repetition of what had
actually existed on the earth at one time, and was more than a mere
simile. In a certain sense it is literally true when we say that the
souls who principally incarnated in Egyptian bodies remembered the
Lemurian epoch, and that their religion was spiritually a reborn
memory of it.
Thus epoch after epoch of the earth is born again within the souls of
men in the various religious conceptions through which the world
passes. Even at a period later than this the environment of man was
absolutely different from what it is now, and, of course, the
conditions of consciousness were essentially different.
We must clearly understand that from the Lemurian epoch to the middle
of the Atlantean epoch the present human form was only gradually
constructed. By the middle of the Atlantean epoch it had reached, in a
normal way, to a certain perfection through Jehovah and the Spirits of
Form; the totality of what we find in man today was first formed
throughout this period, viz., from the Lemurian epoch to the Atlantean
epoch. The man of Lemuria, had we been able to see him clairvoyantly,
would have presented still further problems, for functions which today
are separate were still united in him in a certain way. For example,
when the Lemurian evolution was in its prime neither such a breathing
system nor such a system of alimentation existed as we have now.
Substances were quite different; respiration and nutrition were in a
certain sense connected; they performed one common function which was
only divided later. Man absorbed a kind of watery, milky substance,
and this supplied him at the one time with that which he now acquires
separately in the processes of respiration and nutrition.
Another thing was also not as yet separated. We know that in the
course of the period with which we are dealing the senses first opened
to the outer world. Our present senses did not perceive external
objects at that time man was limited to a picture-consciousness; vivid
dream pictures rose within him, but there was no external objective
consciousness. On the other hand, he received, as the first heralding
of outer life the first inkling of outer sense perception
the capacity to distinguish heat and cold in his environment.
This was the very first beginning of sense perception on the earth,
for the man of that time still moved within the fluidic element, but
he now knew whether he was approaching a warm place or a cold one.
This was made possible through an organ which he possessed at that
time and which has since become atrophied.
You will have heard that within the human brain there is an organ
called the pineal gland; today it is atrophied, but formerly it was
open outwardly; it was an organ of force, and sent forth rays. Man
moved about in the watery element with a kind of lantern which
developed a certain light. This lantern, when the pineal gland was
developed, projected from the head, enabling man to distinguish
different degrees of warmth. It was the first universal sense organ.
Natural science describes it as a degenerated eye. This it never was;
it was an organ of warmth, and could in fact perceive not only in its
immediate environment, but also at a distance. It had also another
duty.
This organ, which closed when the other senses opened, was in certain
ancient periods an organ of fertilization, so that sense-perception
and fertilization were associated at one time. Through this organ man
absorbed into himself from his environment the forces which made him
capable of bringing forth his like. At one particular period, when the
sun was in a certain position and the moon still one with the earth,
the atmosphere of the earth was able to furnish the substance which
caused this organ to shine. There actually were periods (and certain
fishes which at times develop a light remind us of them) when there
was a common fertilization of the human being, who was without sex at
that time, and when, because of the sun being in a particular
position, he was enabled to bring forth his like. Sense-perception and
fertilization, nutrition and breathing, were intimately connected in
the primeval past.
The various organs were differentiated gradually, and very gradually
man acquired the form he now possesses. Through this he became more
and more fitted to be his own master, and to develop what we call
ego-consciousness. But all through the period when he moved through
the earth's atmosphere guided by his perception of warmth he was under
the influence of higher beings. It was principally the forces of the
sun (which had already left the earth) working upon the earth's
atmosphere that stimulated the organ of self-consciousness. On the
other hand, there was another organ which was specially stimulated
through the moon-forces (both before and after it withdrew from the
earth). This is situated in another part of the brain, and is usually
called the pituitary body. Today this organ has no particular duty,
formerly it regulated the lower functions, those of nutrition and
respiration, which originally were one. With this pituitary body were
connected all the inner forces by which man inflated himself and was
enabled to assume various shapes everything by which he could
voluntarily alter his form. Those alterations which were less
voluntary depended on the other organ, the pineal gland.
From this we see how man has changed, and how, through obtaining a
solid, definite shape, he has separated himself from the beings
working on him from outside, who had made of him an instinctive being.
All this gives us a clearer idea of the processes in human evolution
which led at length to that condition when, in the middle of the
Atlantean epoch he was sufficiently matured for the outer world to
influence him through his sense organs, and he reached a position
where he could form an opinion of the outer world. Up till that time
judgment had flowed into him from without. What we might call a kind
of thinking flowed into him, somewhat as is the case with animals
today. We have to bear in mind that humanity progressed irregularly,
one portion entered into a condition of hardening earlier, another
later, and we have already seen the various kinds of human forms that
developed. We saw how certain human beings became stunted in their
development by allowing this hardening process to take place too soon,
by assuming some particular shape too soon, and how through this
different races developed. Only those people, who migrated from their
homes in the neighbourhood of Ireland were really mature enough to be
receptive of what the earth had to offer to their outward sight; and
as they traveled from the West to the East they populated the various
countries they passed through in which remnants of those people were
found who had gone by other paths. With these they mingled, and from
this union the various civilizations originated, while from those who
were most backward when migration took place has sprung the European
civilizations.
In order to complete our preliminary studies we must first glance into
the mighty cosmos and then at the earth itself. We have explained
man's evolution in connection with the animals, and shown how he
thrust them from him and left them behind at an earlier stage of
evolution. There is, of course, a great difference in animals; between
the higher and the lower forms there is a certain boundary in
development that is of importance.
Remember that as man evolved he gradually thrust aside the animal
forms, and that he had only a very fine etheric form at the time when
earth and sun were still united. When these separated he thrust from
him certain animal forms, and these have remained behind at the stage
in evolution which corresponds to the time when the sun was still
within the earth. From these entirely different forms have naturally
arisen in the course of time, for we are here concerned with a very
long after-development. Were we to select a characteristic form which
is still to be found today, and which may in some way be compared with
those which remained behind when the earth was thrust away by the sun,
we must select the form of the fish. This is the form which remained
over when the earth was thrown, as it were, on its own resources; it
is that which still has within it the last echo of the Sun-Forces. Let
us keep this moment before us. There were quite other beings which
were more of a plant-like nature, but with these we shall not deal at
present.
The beings who represented the first material construction of the
human form at the time of the sun's departure have undergone manifold
changes, but in fishes is preserved that which reminds us of our
separation from the sun; reminds us that at one time we belonged to
the sun.
The sun departed from the earth and began to influence it from
outside, and it also influenced the earth-man; gradually alternating
conditions of consciousness developed those of waking and
sleeping. Gradually the condition developed in which man was more
united with his ego and also with his higher principles (his etheric
and astral body), and this condition alternated with another in which
the astral body withdrew from the physical body. This condition is
still preserved today in the alternation between waking and sleeping.
Let us for a while study this alternating condition. We all know it,
for it belongs to the most elementary teaching of Anthroposophy; we
know that when man is awake there is a regular connection between his
physical, etheric, and astral bodies, and his ego. When he is asleep
the astral body and the ego withdraw from the physical and etheric
body.
In the very early epoch with which we have been dealing the ego was
not yet present, and in its place part of the etheric body withdrew;
this condition may be compared with that of sleep. Now we must clearly
understand that when man leaves the physical and etheric body behind
on the bed he really bestows on them the value of a plant. Plants have
a sleep-consciousness; so has man's physical and etheric body during
sleep. But at the present time during sleep the astral body and ego of
the normal man have also a kind of vegetable consciousness, for he is
not aware of his environment. This was different in olden times, for
then when the astral body and ego withdrew the man was dimly conscious
of the spiritual world which was around him.
We can now form an idea of another important fact which came to pass
through the sun separating from the earth. Before this took place the
whole man, as regards his physical, etheric, and astral bodies, was
under the influence and the control of the material and spiritual
Sun-Forces, but after it depended upon the sun's position; it depended
on whether the man in regard to his physical, etheric, and astral
bodies came under the sun's influence, and whether it shone on him
directly or not. We may now ask: Was there not at this epoch another
influence coming from the sun?
Yes; at the time when no physical eye had as yet seen the sun, when
the sun did not as yet penetrate the dense atmosphere of the earth,
man's etheric and astral body (when outside the physical body)
received important influences from the Spiritual Forces proceeding
from the sun. He was unable to perceive these influences, for he was
not mature enough, but later he became able to do so through receiving
a force which enabled him to see that which came to him spiritually
from the sun.
What was this event which made man capable of perceiving the forces
which dwelt in the sun, those very exalted forces which had to leave
the earth and unite themselves with the sun? When did this perception
come to him? Gradually these forces streamed into the earth, and the
most important point of time, that into which the whole thing resolves
itself, was when man received full power to assimilate not only the
physical forces, but also the spiritual forces of the sun in full
consciousness. This was the moment of Christ's coming to the earth.
One might say therefore: There was a time when man was separated
physically from the sun. Among animals the fish directs our thoughts
to this time, for it recalls the condition of man before he was
obliged to be separated from the sun. Then came the time when the
higher forces whose leader is Christ the great Sun-Spirit
left the earth; after which man gradually matured until able to
receive these higher forces in the same way he received the physical
Sun-Forces from outside. Inward spiritual power had to appear on earth
as a fact, just as earlier the physical sun forces had appeared.
Of what was it the duty of Initiates to remind man when Christ
appeared? They had to remind him of his ancient home on the Sun, and
the symbol used for this was the symbol of the fish. This is why the
fish appears in the catacombs as a true symbol connected with the
evolution of humanity, and the disciples of the early centuries,
seeing the fish symbol everywhere, received the words of the Initiates
which rang in their ears with deep emotion, for spiritually it led
them to the inward holiness of the story of Palestine, and at the same
time led them forth cosmically into the mighty evolutionary phases of
the earth.
Such things as these were studied in the schools of the Initiates, and
in outward symbols like that of the fish, which were to be found in
many places, we have an expression of these mysteries, just as
geologists see in the fossils of plants tokens of a primeval past. But
just as the impress of a fossil points to an original reality, so the
symbol of the fish is a token of that which was cultivated within the
mysteries.
This symbol did not appear suddenly. Long before the coming of Christ
the Prophets of the Messiah had directed their pupils to His coming,
and everywhere, back to the time of the Druidic Mysteries, the fish
symbol played its part.
To proceed: a time came when the moon separated from the earth;
previously the earth and the moon had formed one body. Then the
threefold formation sun, moon, and earth came into
being. Mighty were the natural catastrophes which then took place;
events were of a very stormy nature. The physical part of man was not
then at a very high stage of development, and he left it behind him as
an ossified type.
In order to understand this we must keep one thing in mind: when the
sun separated from the earth, the earth went back in development, it
degenerated; and only after the moon withdrew with the worst
constituents did improvement again take place. There was, therefore,
for some time an ascending development until the departure of the sun;
then a descending one, when everything became worse, more grotesque;
then, after the moon withdrew, a re-ascending development again.
From this stage of evolution we have also a form which has
degenerated, and which does not by any means appear now as it did
then, but it exists; it is the form which belonged to man before the
moon withdrew, before he had an ego. The animal form which recalls the
lowest stage of earthly devilment, the time when man plunged most
deeply into passions and when his astral body was susceptible to the
worst external influences, is that of the serpent, a creature in which
is preserved the shameful depths of our evolution on this planet,
although what we see now has degenerated still further. The symbol of
the serpent is also derived from evolution; it has not been thought
out, but is rooted in the depth of things.
Fish and snake symbols are derived from the mysteries of our
evolution. It is quite natural for a person to experience a feeling of
pleasure when he sees the glistening body of a fish in the pure,
chaste watery element; it gives him a feeling of peace; just as to
those of a pure disposition it gives a feeling of horror to see a
creeping snake. Such feelings are by no means meaningless memories of
things once passed through. Man likes to see the wonderful living
sunny form of a fish in water; he recalls his former innocence when as
yet he possessed no ego, but was directed by the best Spirits in
evolution; and it is a fact that he remembers the most horrible period
in evolution, the time when he was near to falling out of evolution,
when a crawling snake approaches him.
One can now understand the unconscious experiences of the human soul
which are so puzzling to us, and which appear with such vividness when
man is unaffected by culture, when we realize that the feelings we
thus experience are connected with cosmic facts. Through this
knowledge many things are made clear. Man can certainly overcome his
fear of snakes, but this is by culture; but the fundamental feeling of
repulsion is in his soul, and it points us back to the ancient times
of which I am speaking. They were times when man was physically at the
snake stage, when those elemental Beings set to work of whom we said
that they prepared man for freedom, prepared him to receive the Christ
in His full meaning and grandeur.
We now ask: Who were the elemental Beings who helped man not to sink
into the depths? They are those mentioned in the last lecture, those
who worked on him when he had descended to the depths, and who led him
again to the heights the Luciferic beings. The Sun-Spirits did
not yet work upon him, but those beings did who sacrificed themselves.
They moved among the people of the earth in a very remarkable way.
Outwardly they had a certain human form, for even the highest spirits
have to incarnate in forms which are to be found on earth, so these
Beings took upon them the external shape that was man's at that time.
They said: In form we are similar to man, but our true home is not on
the earth; it is upon the two intermediate planets, Venus and Mercury.
The best part of their souls were on these planets, but their outward
form, which in fact was a kind of illusion, was on earth.
They gave to man what he needed, namely, guidance and teaching, for
the reason that their home was not on earth, which was the first
planet to be formed, but upon Venus and Mercury. These beings must be
described as the first teachers, the first Initiates of humanity;
outwardly they resembled the human beings of that time, but inwardly
they possessed lofty and important qualities enabling them to work
upon humanity as a whole, and also to work on the more advanced
individuals in special schools, which were the first Mystery schools.
There were always some of these more advanced individuals who had
their home in the stars and who, although connected with the stars,
had a human shape and walked among men.
Man himself continued to progress, and now passed on into the middle
of the Atlantean epoch; the present human form only began to develop
during the first half of that epoch; only then did man begin to feel
fully at home in it.
Now, there were some beings in those ancient times who were very low
down in the scale of humanity; these became the backward races; there
were others who kept themselves plastic; and, again, others who only
occasionally inhabited human bodies. What I am now about to describe
happened very frequently in the first part of the Atlantean epoch.
Imagine a man of that time who for an Atlantean was highly evolved;
through certain procedures it frequently happened that such a man was
caused to separate his physical body (which was then very plastic) and
his etheric and astral bodies from his more spiritual parts, which
then withdrew more into the spiritual world so as later to take on
another body.
It very frequently happened that, long before the physical, etheric
and astral bodies were ready to die, they were willingly vacated by
their soul and spirit-principles. These, when they had belonged to
especially exalted individuals, were pure and good bodies. Highly
spiritual beings then let themselves descend into these bodies; and so
it frequently happened during the ancient Atlantean epoch that beings
who were otherwise unable to incarnate on earth made use of such
advanced bodies in order to descend among men. These were the beings
who acted as great teachers in the Atlantean schools of initiation.
They worked powerfully with the means available at that time.
When at that time man left his physical body at night he had what may
be called a dim clairvoyant consciousness; during the day the outline
of objects was still indistinct, and there was no such clearly defined
difference between the conditions of sleeping and waking as exists
today. It happened, therefore, that the ordinary man beheld such an
individual as I have described in an alternating manner by day
he saw him like a man, but at night he saw him quite otherwise, in a
spiritual soul-like way, though he knew it was the same being who
appeared to him by day in a physical body. These were beings
belonging to Venus and Mercury who interposed into human existence and
were with man day and night. The remembrance of these beings remained
in the souls who incarnated again and again among the peoples of
Europe, and they recalled them when they uttered the names Wotan,
Thor, etc.
When the inhabitants of ancient Europe spoke of the Gods they were no
imaginary figures to them, but memories of forms seen in Atlantis. In
the same way, when the Greeks spoke of Zeus, Apollo, and Ares these
were forms they had themselves perceived during the Atlantean epoch.
Whereas in the Egyptian age memories of ancient Lemuria arose, in the
Grecian age memories of the earthly experiences on Atlantis rose
within the souls of the people.
We must clearly understand that if everything contained in later
religions was a memory of facts connected with the earth at an earlier
age some very important event would have to take place when the last
of these memories had appeared; this was about the time when the
Greeks and Romans recalled the Atlantean epoch. This was also the time
when the Christ brought an essentially new Impulse into evolution. We
indicated the nature of this Impulse when we spoke about the long
intermediate period of evolution in which Luciferic beings were
preparing mankind, making him capable of receiving the Christ Impulse,
so that the sun should not merely send down its force externally, but
that inner forces should also stream into man from it. This period has
not nearly come to an end; it is still in its beginning, for with the
coming of Christ only the first impulse was given for the inwardly
spiritual part of the sun to stream to earth in addition to the
physical sunlight. Ever stronger will that light become, which as
Spiritual Sunlight, or Christ-light, will irradiate mankind from
within as the physical sunlight illuminates him from without.
It will come to pass in the future that man will look upon the sun,
not only with his external eyes perceiving its glory, but he will also
experience the spiritual side of the sun in his inner being. Only when
he is in a position to do this will he fully understand what really
dwelt on earth as the Being whom we call Christ Jesus. Only slowly and
gradually will man come to an understanding of this; and just as truly
as in pre-Christian times he had to understand the pronouncements of
those spiritual beings who guided man when he contracted in his
descent into the physical world, so by a truly spiritual effort he
must henceforth try to understand the Spiritual Power which at one
time went forth from the earth with the sun. Man must be able to
receive this Power again as an inner spiritual force; he must
comprehend this Christ power this Spiritual power which imparts
to him the great impulse for the future.
The object of spiritual science, and of all that can be acquired as
spiritual teaching, is to enable us to comprehend this Power of
Christ. One cannot say that Anthroposophy is Christianity, but one can
say that what has been given to man and to the earth by the Christ
Principle will be gradually made comprehensible through the
instrumentality of Anthroposophy. When that mighty Impulse is
understood it will pour into humanity more and more, for man has need
of it in order that, after having contracted and sunk most deeply into
matter, he may once more tear himself free and turn again to his
spiritual home.
Last Modified: 07-Oct-2024
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