Egyptian Myths and Mysteries
The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of Evolution, Modern Coarsening
Schmidt Number: S-1833
On-line since: 20th November, 2000
The Ancient Egyptian Doctrine of Evolution.
The Cosmic View of the Organs
and their Coarsening in Modern Times.
AT various points in this cycle of lectures we have tried to present
the facts of post-Atlantean evolution, and we have indicated that in
our time there is a kind of repetition or resurrection of the
experiences that mankind went through during the Egypto-Chaldean
culture. It has been stated that the Indian period will repeat itself
in the seventh period, the Persian in the sixth, the Egyptian in our
time, and that the fourth, the Greco-Latin, stands by itself, so to
say. Now, connecting the Egyptian time and our own, we shall try to
indicate how a certain recrudescence of outer and inner experiences is
to be seen when we bring our time into connection with the Egyptian.
We have seen that in the spiritual worlds there exist mysterious
forces, to which there correspond certain other forces in the physical
world which effectuate the appearance of these repetitions. Thus do
these resurrections of outer and inner experiences originate. In the
middle between these stands the Greco-Latin period, during which the
Christ appeared upon the earth and the Mystery of Golgotha took place.
It was also pointed out that not only the external evolutionary
relationships on the physical plane had changed, but that also the
relationships in the spiritual world had become different. I have
described how the soul was in the Egyptian time, when it looked upon
the gigantic pyramids, how different it was when it reincarnated in
the Greco-Latin period, and how different it is in our time. We have
seen that not only does this occur, but that also for the period
between death and a new birth, in kamaloka and Devachan, there takes
place a sort of progress or transformation, so that the soul does not
experience the same thing when it enters into kamaloka or Devachan
from an Egyptian, a Greek, or a modern body. Externally the world of
the physical plane alters, but progress also occurs in the spiritual
world so that the soul always experiences something different there.
It is primarily from the standpoint of this beyond that
today we shall consider the mighty event of the Christ's appearance on
our earth. We shall approach in a much deeper way the question, What
significance has the advent of the Christ on our earth? What
significance has the Christ's appearance for the dead souls, for the
life on the other side, the spiritual side, of existence? For this
purpose we must explore many different things that affected souls in
the Egyptian period both within and beyond the physical plane.
From our studies of the earlier great epochs of earth evolution we can
derive that the Egypto-Chaldean period furnishes a mirroring in
knowledge and experience of what happened in the Lemurian time, of
what happened on the earth during and after the departure of the moon.
What men experienced then, they experienced again as a memory in what
the Egyptian initiates gave them. The Egyptian initiate himself
experienced during his initiation events that man otherwise
experiences only when he passes through the portal of death. To be
sure, the Egyptian initiate experienced this in a different way than
does the ordinary person who dies. He experienced it differently and
in a much fuller way. It will be well for us now, as a basis for these
considerations, to describe the essence of Egyptian initiation in a
few words. This initiation is essentially different from that of the
time after Christ, for through his advent initiation was fundamentally
altered.
We have seen that men had to descend further and further into the
material world, gaining increasing interest in the physical world. In
the same proportion, however, the experience in the spiritual world
between death and a new birth became more pale and shadowy. The
livelier man's consciousness became in the physical world, the more he
enjoyed being there, the, more he discovered the laws of the physical
plane, the dimmer his consciousness in the spiritual world became. The
consciousness in the spiritual world reached its low point in the
Greco-Latin time. But even before man had fully descended into these
depths of matter, it had become impossible for him, within the
physical body, to experience completely what one must experience if,
during the period between birth and death, one seeks to gain insight
into the spiritual world.
The initiation event may be briefly described, and it is the same for
initiations before and after Christ, although the conclusion is
different. Initiation is nothing other than man's gaining the capacity
of developing organs of vision in his higher bodies. Today man sees
darkness when it is night; he is in the dark. This is because man has
no organs of perception in his astral body. As the eyes and ears have
formed themselves into physical organs of perception, so super-sensible
organs must be developed out of the higher members and assimilated
into them. This occurs through certain exercises of concentration and
meditation being given to the pupil. These exercises are performed
after the pupil has first surveyed the knowledge of the spiritual
worlds that can be given by the initiates. It has always been the case
that the pupils had to learn what we today would call elementary
theosophy. Much more strongly than today it was required that the
pupils become acquainted with the truth in a regular progression. When
there was enough theoretical preparation, and when the pupils were
sufficiently mature, the exercises were given to them. These exercises
have a definite purpose.
When in his daily life man lets the impressions of the senses work
upon him, these impressions bring certain fruits for the ordinary life
on the physical plane. These impressions pass over into the astral
body, which in turn transmits them to the ego. But these impressions
are such that man cannot hold them fast when, with his astral body and
ego, he slips out of his physical and etheric bodies during the night.
What man receives in this way from the physical plane does not
penetrate into him so strongly that he can retain it as a permanent
impression. But when a person performs the exercises of meditation and
concentration, these are so adjusted, in accordance with thousands of
years of experience, that the astral body no longer loses the
impressions, but retains them when it slips out of the physical body
in the night. Through the exercises the astral body receives plastic
impressions, which shape and member it as the physical organs have
been membered. Thus the astral body is worked on for certain periods
through these exercises. Thereby the super-sensible organs of vision
are imprinted on the astral body. It would be a long time, however,
before man could use his organs of vision if they were imprinted only
into his astral body. Something further must take place so that the
astral body, when it returns into the etheric body, may stamp upon
that body, like the impression of a seal, what has taken shape within
itself. Only when what has taken shape in the astral body imprints
itself upon the etheric body, only then does the illumination take
place that makes it possible for the person to see the spiritual world
as he sees the physical world today.
Here we can begin to grasp what kind of an impulse we have received
through the appearance of Christ on earth. In the old initiations the
astral body had the strength to work upon the etheric body only when
the etheric body had been lifted out of the physical body. This was
because at that time the etheric body, had it remained connected with
the physical body, would have exerted so much resistance that it could
not have received the imprint of what the astral body had formed
within itself. In the ancient initiations, therefore, for a period of
three and a half days, the candidate was put into a deathlike
condition in which the physical body was deserted by the etheric body
while this latter, freed from the physical, united itself with the
astral body. The astral then stamped into the etheric all that had
been built into the astral through the exercises. When the Hierophant
again awakened the candidate, the latter was illuminated. He knew what
took place in the spiritual world, for he had made a remarkable
journey during the three and a half days. He had been led through the
fields of the spiritual world. He had seen what went on there, and he
knew from direct experience what another person could learn only
through revelation. A person thus initiated could, out of his own
experiences, give knowledge of the beings who were in the spiritual
world, beyond the physical plane.
When man had not yet descended so far into the physical plane, he
could learn what was experienced in the spiritual world. There the
candidate became acquainted with the true form of Osiris, Isis, and
Horus. The initiate saw the contents of the myths during this journey
into the spiritual world. He could then transmit this to other persons
when he had dressed it as myth or saga. He saw all this; he saw in
what a special way the Osiris influences had shaped themselves when
the moon had withdrawn from the earth; he saw how Horus issued from
Isis and Osiris; he saw the four human types, the bull, the lion, the
eagle, and the true man. He also saw what happened to man between
death and a new birth. The Sphinx appeared to him as a real form; he
experienced it. He could say, Oh, I have seen the Sphinx, man
as he was when he still had an animal-like form, and his etheric body
similar to the human only projected out of this
animal-like form! The Sphinx was a real experience for the
initiate. He even heard the question of the Sphinx with its enigmatic
content. He saw how the human body prepared itself out of the
animality, at a time when the head was only an etheric form, the
ether-head of the Sphinx. This was truth for the initiate, as were
also the older forms of the gods, who had, so to speak, taken a
different course of evolution.
It has recently been said that certain beings pursued a different path
in evolution. The individuality of Wotan, for example, takes such a
different course. Up to a certain stage it travels together with man,
but then it does not descend so deeply. Man descends further into
matter and only later will he again join these beings, who are
completing their evolution in the earth-time. We have seen that a time
came when Wotan no longer walked on our earth. Such beings, however,
were not like Osiris and Isis. These latter were beings who had
branched off still earlier, who completed their evolution on a higher
level in full invisibility. These forms went through their special
experiences.
Let us look back into the Lemurian period. At that time the etheric
was not yet manlike in its form. In his etheric body man was still
similar to the animals, and the gods who descended then had to
accommodate themselves to the same animal forms in which man lived on
the earth. If a being wishes to enter into a certain plane, it must
fulfill the conditions of that plane. This is also the case here. The
divine beings who were connected with the earth during the departure
of the sun and moon, who were on the earth, had to take on a form that
was possible at that time, an animal-like form. And since the Egyptian
religious views present in a certain way a recapitulation of the
Lemurian time, the Egyptian initiate looked upon the gods, Osiris and
Isis for example, as having animal-like forms. He still saw the higher
gods with animal heads. Therefore from an occult view it was quite
correct when such forms were represented with the head of a hawk or a
ram in accordance with what the initiates knew. The gods were
portrayed in the forms they had when they walked the earth. The outer
images could only resemble what the initiate saw, but they were
faithfully reproduced. The various divine beings changed a good deal.
The forms in Lemuria were different from those in Atlantis. In those
times beings went through much more rapid changes than they do now. In
addition, these forms were still filled with spirit. When one looks
back on them one sees them in their three bodies, but illuminated and
rayed through by the astral and etheric light. This was accurately
portrayed in the pictures. Modern men may laugh over the forms that
were represented, but they do not know how
realistic they were.*
There was one being who performed special services in that period of
human evolution when, through the cosmic-tellurian powers, the
combining intellect was being organized in man. At that time the
physical brain was prepared in such a way that man was able to develop
intelligence later. This capacity was implanted in man and reckoned as
one of the deeds of the god Manu. What was worked into man as
intelligence was connected with this. If today we examine a person in
whom a well-formed ability for judging and combining is present, if we
examine him clairvoyantly, we find a strong expression and reflection
of this fact in a green glittering and shining of the astral body, of
the astral aura. The capacity for combining shows itself in green
colors in the aura, especially in those who have keen mathematical
understanding. The ancient Egyptian initiates saw the god who
implanted the faculty of intelligence in men, and in portraying him they
painted him green because they saw
the green shimmering of his luminous astral and etheric form. Today
this is still the color that glitters in the aura when the person's
intelligence is stirred. Much time could be devoted to these
connections if people really wanted to study this wonderful realism of
the forms of the Egyptian gods. These representations of the divine
forms, through the fact that they were so realistic and not at all
arbitrary, had magical power; and one who could see more deeply would
perceive that many mysteries were present in the coloring of these
ancient forms. Here one can, see deep into the workings of human
evolution.
We have seen how what the initiates saw was retained in the Sphinx. Of
course, this was not retained in a photographic way, yet it was
realistic. But the forms were always changing. The form of the Sphinx
gives an image of how man once looked. His present form has been
shaped by man himself. We know that through evolution on the earth
various animal forms have been split off. What is an animal form? It
is a form that has remained static, while man proceeded further in
evolution. In these forms we see arrested stages of evolution, to the
extent that these forms have become physical. In the spiritual
something else has taken place. What man is spiritually has nothing to
do with his physical forebears. Only the physical is connected with
that. Man does not descend from the animals; the animal forms have
remained unchanged. In man, however, the shape has been transformed to
a certain level. The animals are previous physical human forms fallen
into decadence. The situation is different in another realm of
evolution. Not only have the physical forms of the animals remained
unchanged, but also the rudiments of the etheric and astral forms as
well. Just as the lion, at the time when it split off, looked quite
different than now, so certain soul-spiritual forms degenerate in the
course of time when they remain at a particular stage. It is a law of
the spiritual world that anything that stands still on the same level
of spirit or soul becomes more and more decadent.
If, for example, the Sphinx stands still, it degenerates and receives
a form that is like a caricature of what it originally was. The Sphinx
has been preserved in this way on the astral plane up to our own time.
To those who, as initiates or in some other lawful manner, penetrate
into the higher worlds, these decadent forms have little interest,
being only decayed vagabonds in the spiritual world. But when, in
exceptional cases, persons equipped with inferior clairvoyant gifts
are led into the astral world, such decadent forms approach them. The
true Sphinx approached Oedipus, but it has not died even yet. Up to
today it has not died; it only approaches man in another form. When
persons who have remained standing at a certain stage of evolution,
among the peasants perhaps, rest in the fields at midday in the hot
glow of the summer sun, and fall asleep, they may have what could be
called a latent sun-stroke. Through such an impact on the physical
body, the astral and etheric are loosened from a part of the physical.
Then such persons are translated to the astral plane and they see this
last decadent offspring of the Sphinx. This apparition is called by
different names. In certain regions it is called the midday woman.
Many people in the country will recount that they have met the midday
woman. She appears in many regions under many different names. She is
a descendent of the ancient Sphinx, and as the ancient Sphinx put
questions to the men who experienced her, so this midday woman also
asks questions. You may hear it told how the midday woman asks endless
questions of the men whom she meets. This torment by questions is a
relic of the old Sphinx. The midday woman has grown out of the ancient
Sphinx. This indicates how evolution proceeds beyond the physical
world, how whole tribes of spiritual beings decline until at last they
are mere shadows of what they were originally. Here we see another
characteristic of the way in which things are connected in evolution.
We have mentioned this so it may be seen how manifold evolution is.
Now, to understand everything correctly, we must give some thought to
the fact that in the course of time man has organized the fourth
member, the ego, into what he brought with him at the beginning of
earth evolution as his physical, etheric, and astral bodies. I have
shown how this ego permeates the astral body, claims it for itself so
that it dominates it as higher spiritual beings formerly dominated it.
It is a deed of the higher beings that this ego was implanted in the
astral body. If evolution had proceeded further in accordance with the
views of certain higher beings, it would have been a different
evolution from what has actually taken place. However, certain beings
remained unchanged. They had not become capable of collaborating in
implanting the ego in the astral body.
When man appeared on the earth he consisted of the physical, etheric,
and astral bodies, all of which he shaped further. Now he was endowed
with egohood by certain sublime beings who had their dwellings mainly
on the sun and moon. These beings collaborated, so to speak, on the
ego. But there were certain other beings who, during the Saturn, Sun,
and Moon evolutions, had not raised themselves so far that they could
take part in this organizing of the ego. They could do only what they
had learned on the moon. They had to limit themselves to working on
the astral body, hence there was implanted in man's astral body
something that did not belong to his noblest qualities, did not come
from the higher sublime beings but from the retarded intruders who had
remained behind. Had these beings done this on the moon, it would have
been something lofty. But through the fact that they did this on earth
as stragglers, they worked into the astral body something that placed
it lower than it would have been otherwise. It became endowed with
instincts and passions, and with egoism. We must heed this fact that
man was influenced from two sides, that he received impacts in his
astral body through which the latter became debased.
Such a thing does not influence the astral body alone. Man is so
constituted that the astral body transmits such an influence to the
etheric body, and this again to the physical body. The astral body is
active in all parts, hence these spirits work on the etheric and
physical through the astral body. Had these spiritual beings not been
able to exercise such an influence, something would not have appeared
in man at that time. This is an enhanced selfhood in man, an increased
ego-feeling. What this caused in the etheric body was all that
appeared as darkening of judgment, as the possibility of error. All
that the astral body accomplished in the physical body is the basis of
what appeared as illness. That is the spiritual cause of illnesses in
man; among animals, becoming ill is something different. We see how
illness has been transplanted into man; illness is connected with the
causes we have indicated here. And since the physical and etheric
bodies are connected with the facts of heredity, so the principle of
illness proceeds through the hereditary line. Let us again emphasize,
however, that we must distinguish between inner illnesses and external
injuries. If a man is run over, that is something entirely different.
Also, certain internal illnesses can be connected with external
causes; for example, if one eats something that upsets the stomach,
that is something external.
Before the above-mentioned beings gained influence over man in the
course of evolution, he was so organized that he reacted far more
powerfully than today toward evil pressing upon him from without. But
in proportion to the influence that they gained over him, he lost the
instincts he had possessed for what was not right. Formerly, man's
whole organization was such that he had fine instincts as to what was
not right for him. Substances that are taken into the stomach today
and there cause illness were then rejected simply through instinct.
Gazing backward in time we come to periods when man stood in a
delicate relationship to the forces of his environment, reacting
sensitively to the forces in his surroundings. In this respect man
grew ever less sure, less capable of rejecting what was not
serviceable to him.
This is connected with something else. As man grew more inward,
something occurred in the world outside; what we know as the three
other kingdoms of nature arose. The three kingdoms around us arose
gradually. At first, only man was present. Then the animal kingdom was
added; then the plant kingdom, and finally the mineral kingdom. If we
were to look back on the primeval earth when the sun was still united
with it, we would find a human being in and out of whom all the
substances of the physical world moved. Man still lived in the womb of
the gods: everything still agreed with him, so to say. Then he had to
leave behind what was precipitated as the animal kingdom. Had he
carried this with him, he would not have been able to develop further.
He had to expel the animal kingdom, and later the plant kingdom. What
exists outside in the animals and plants is nothing other than
temperaments, passions, certain traits of men that they had to expel.
And when man formed his bones he expelled the mineral world. After a
certain length of time, man could look upon his environment and say,
Formerly I could endure you; formerly you went in and out of me
as air now does. When I still lived in the water-earth I could endure
you; I digested you. Now you are outside, and I can no longer endure
you, no longer digest you. As man became enclosed in his skin,
as he became a self-contained separate being, he saw, in the same
proportion, these kingdoms around him.
If these beings had not worked on man, something else would not have
happened. As long as man is healthy, he will stand in a normal
relationship to the outer world. When he has disturbed forces within
him, these must be driven back by the powers that man has. If his
powers are too weak for this, if he cannot provide the normal
resistance, then something must be infused into him from outside.
Something must be implanted into him to furnish the resistance that he
still had at the time the forces from outside breathed in and out of
him. It may be necessary, when a person is ill, that the forces of a
metal, for example, should be injected into him. It is because man was
in connection with metals earlier, in connection with plant juices and
similar things, that we are justified in applying them as medicaments.
When the Egyptian initiates could look back over the whole course of
world evolution, they knew precisely how the individual organs of the
human body corresponded with the substances of the external world.
They knew which plants and which metals had to be administered to the
patient. A great treasure of occult wisdom in the domain of medicine
will be raised to light one day, wisdom that mankind formerly
possessed. Not only are many things bungled in medicine today, but
often special healing powers are ascribed to this or that in a
one-sided way. The true occultist will never be one-sided. How often
must we reject efforts that would make a compromise with the science
of the spirit! The latter cannot support a one-sided method: on the
contrary, it seeks to establish diversified research. It is one-sided
to say, Away with all poisons! People who say this do
not know the true healing forces. Naturally many stupid things are
done today, for the professionals in most cases cannot grasp all the
relationships, and a certain tyranny in medical science excludes what
can proceed from occultism. If there were no campaigns against the
oldest methods of medicine, against the injection of metals, there
could be a reform. With modern experimentation nothing is discovered
that can hold its own against the traditional remedies, which only a
lay ignorance can oppose as strongly as is often done. The ancient
Egyptian initiates excelled in these secrets. They had an insight into
the real relationships of evolution, and if today certain physicians
speak in a condescending way of Egyptian medicine, you can soon tell
from their tone that they know nothing about it. Here we touch upon
something in the Egyptian initiation that should be known.
It was such things as these that went over into the
folk-consciousness. Now we must reflect that the same souls that are
in our bodies today were also incarnated in that ancient time. Let us
remember that these souls saw all the images that the initiates made
of what they knew through vision in the spiritual world. We know that
what a soul takes into itself from incarnation to incarnation, ever
and again bears fruits in one or another way. Even though man cannot
remember it, it is still true that what lives in the soul today lives
in it because it was deposited there earlier. The soul is formed both
within and beyond the physical life. When it was between birth and
death, when it was between death and a new birth, Egyptian ideas were
influential and modern ideas have proceeded from these. Today certain
definite ideas are developing out of the Egyptian ideas. What is
called Darwinism today did not arise because of external reasons. We
are the same souls who, in Egypt, received the pictures of the animal
forms of man's forebears. The old views have awakened again, but man
has descended more deeply into the material world. He remembers that
it was said to him, Our ancestors were animal forms. But
he does not remember that these forms were gods. This is the
psychological basis for the emergence of Darwinism. The figures of the
gods appear in materialistic form. Thus there is an intimate spiritual
connection between the old and the new, between the third and the
fifth cultural periods.
Now it is not the whole destiny of our time that man should see in
material form what previously he saw in the spiritual. That would have
been our fate had not the Christ-impulse entered into human evolution
in the meantime. This was not significant only for life on the
physical plane. Today we shall see what significance the events of
Palestine had for the other side of life, where the souls of the
Egyptians sojourned after death. Here on the physical plane occurred
the things we have already discussed. But the three years of Christ's
activity, like the event of Golgotha and the baptism in Jordan, were
of significance equally to the souls incarnated on earth and to those
who were in the condition between death and a new birth.
Let us recall the fact that the external physical expression for the
ego is the blood. What works physically in the forces of the blood is
the physical expression of the ego. In the course of evolution too
strong a measure of egoism made its appearance, which means that the
egohood impressed the blood too powerfully. This surplus
of egoism had to be expelled again if spirituality was to be restored
to mankind. On Golgotha the impulse was given for this expulsion of
egoism. In the same moment when the Redeemer's blood flowed on
Golgotha, still other events were taking place in the spiritual world.
The Redeemer's blood flowed out in the material world, while the
superfluity of egoism passed over into the spiritual world. The
superfluous egoism had to vanish from the world, and the impulse for
this was given on Golgotha. In place of egoism, universal human love
entered into mankind.
But what was this event of Golgotha? What was this event of a
three-and-a-half-day death on the physical plane? It was the enactment
on the physical plane of what also had been experienced in spiritual
development by one who was initiated. He was dead for three and a half
days. One who had gone through this symbolical death could say to
mankind, There is a conquering of death. There is something
eternal in the world. Death was conquered by the initiates, and
they felt themselves to be victors over death. The event of Golgotha
signifies that what had often taken place in the mysteries of ancient
times became, for once, an historical event: the conquering of death
through the spirit. This was taken out into the world on the physical
plane. If we let this work upon our souls, we sense what happened with
the Mystery of Golgotha as something new, but also as an image of the
ancient initiation. We feel this unique event entering into the world
historically.
What was the consequence of this? What could the initiate do? Out of
his own experiences he could say to his fellow men, I know
there is a spiritual world, that man can live in the spiritual world.
I have lived in it for three and a half days and bring you tidings
thence. I bring you the gifts of the spiritual world. These
gifts were useful and healing to mankind.
On the other hand, one who had lived as an initiate in the physical
world could bring nothing similar to the dead. To the dead he could
only say, All that happens on the physical plane is so ordered
that man ought to be redeemed. Thus it was when, in the
spiritual world, the ancient initiates held converse with the dead, to
whom they could give only the teaching that Life is suffering;
only redemption will bring healing. Thus did Buddha still
teach. Thus did the initiate teach both the living and the dead. But
through the event of Golgotha death was conquered in the physical
world, and this signified something for those who had died and were in
the spiritual world. Those who take up Christ in their innermost parts
illuminate again their shadowy life in Devachan. The more man
experiences here of the Christ, the brighter it becomes over there in
the spiritual world. After the blood had flowed from the wounds of the
Redeemer this is something that belongs to the mysteries of
Christianity the Christ-spirit descended to the dead. This is one of
the deepest mysteries of mankind. Christ descended to the dead and
said to them, Over there something has happened, of which it
cannot be said that what happens there is not so important as what
happens here. What man brings with him into the spiritual realm as a
consequence of this event is a gift that can be brought out of the
physical world into the spiritual world. These are the tidings
that Christ brought to the dead in the three and a half days. He
descended to the dead in order to redeem them.
In the ancient initiation one could say that the fruits of the
spiritual were reaped in the physical. Now an event occurred in the
physical world that produced its fruits and did its work in the
spiritual world. One can say that it was not in vain that man
completed his descent to the physical plane. He completed it so that
here in the physical world fruits could be produced for the spiritual
world.
That these fruits could be produced came to pass through Christ, who
was present among the living and among the dead, who gave an impulse
so intense and so powerful that it shook the whole world.
* Note 1: Fantastic speculation on the reason why the Egyptians worshipped animal-headed gods began in classical times. See Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, Sec. 72.
Note 2: For pictures of the Green Osiris, see the frontispieces in both volumes of Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, and in Volumes II, X, and XII of Maspero and Rappaport, History of Egypt (London, Grolier, 1901). See also text in Budge, Vol. II, p.355.
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