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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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The Gospel of St. John
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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The Gospel of St. John
The metamorphoses of the Earth. The prototypes of created types. The servants of the Word.
Schmidt Number: S-2031
On-line since: 10th September, 2002
Those of you who have repeatedly attended my lectures on subjects
derived from spiritual science will have heard facts relating to the
higher worlds presented from the most diverse points of view. We have
approached some being or some fact, in one domain or another, and
thrown light upon it from one standpoint or another. Now, to prevent
misunderstandings, I should like today to remind you that,
superficially considered, apparent contradictions may be discovered
when some being or some fact illustrated now from one, now from
another, standpoint. A closer observation, however, will convince you
that the complicated facts of the spiritual world are rendered
comprehensible to us precisely through a many-sided treatment of this
nature. I must mention this because certain facts with which the great
majority of you are already acquainted, will be shown today in a new
light. When we take the most profound document of the New Testament
known as the Gospel of St. John, and read the significant words with
which we closed our considerations yesterday, we soon realize that
infinite mysteries of cosmic and human evolution lie hidden in the
opening words of that Gospel. We shall perhaps have occasion to show
why the great narrators of spiritual events often express sublime,
all-embracing truths in brief, exemplary fashion, as for instance in
the opening verses of St. John. Today we shall revert to certain
well-known truths of spiritual science, treating of them in a way
different from yesterday's, and then see how the same truths confront
us in the Gospel of St. John. Comparatively elementary facts of
spiritual science will form our starting point.
We know that man, as he confronts us in daily life, consists of
physical body, etheric or life body, astral body, and Ego or ‘I’. We
know that the daily life of the human being alternates between waking
and sleeping, and that, from morning when he wakes, until evening when
he falls asleep, these four members of his being are united as one
self-contained organism. We know that at night when he sleeps, man's
physical and etheric bodies remain in the bed, while the astral body
and the Ego are raised out of the physical and etheric bodies. Now we
must be clear on one point. In the present stage of human evolution,
the four component members of man's being present a unity welded by
necessity. At night, when we see him asleep and consisting of physical
and etheric bodies, we may to a certain extent say that man then has
the value of a plant. For the plant, as we see it in the world around
us, consists of physical and etheric or life body; it has neither
astral body nor Ego. This distinguishes the plant from the animal and
from man. The animal has an astral body and man has an Ego within him.
In the interval between night and morning, man is, as it were, a
plant-like being yet he is not a plant. This must be well
understood. A free and independent being existing at the present day
and consisting solely of etheric and physical body, must have the
appearance of a plant, in fact must necessarily be a plant. Man,
however, as he lies asleep, has outgrown the plant in value inasmuch
as he has joined to his physical and etheric body, in the course of
evolution, the astral body, the vehicle of pleasure and pain, of joy
and grief, of impulse, desire and passion, and finally the vehicle of
his Ego. But the addition of a higher principle to a being entails a
corresponding change in all its lower principles. Were we to endow a
plant with an astral body which, instead of bordering upon it,
permeated the plant, the substance which we now see filling out the
plant would necessarily turn into animal flesh; and a corresponding
metamorphosis would ensue if the plant had its Ego in the physical
world. We may therefore say that in a being possessed not only of a
physical body but also of higher, invisible, super-sensible members, an
expression of these higher members will be found in the lowest. Even
as the inner qualities of soul are superficially evidenced in features
and physiognomy, so too the physical body is an expression of the
activity of the astral body and the Ego. The physical body does not
express itself alone; it is also the physical expression of the
(physically) invisible members of man. Thus the human glandular
system, and all that thereto pertains, is an expression of the etheric
body; the nervous system is an expression of the astral body and the
circulation of the blood is an expression of the Ego. So that in the
physical body itself we have to distinguish a fourfold system, and
only a gross materialist could hold the various substances in the
physical human body to be of equal importance. The blood that pulsates
through our veins has become the substance it is, because an Ego
dwells in the human being. The nervous system has its present form and
substance because man has an astral body; and the glandular system is
as we see it, because man has an etheric body. Thus it is evident that
man, as he appears to us in the interval between evening, when he
falls asleep, and morning, when he awakens, is a self-contradictory
being. We might say: he should be a plant, yet he is not plant! For a
plant contains no nervous system, expressive of the astral body, and
no circulatory blood system, the expression of its Ego. A physical
being such as man, with glands, nerves and blood, can only exist if he
contains an etheric body, an astral body and an Ego. Now, as a human
being, in so far as your astral body and Ego are concerned, you leave
your physical and etheric bodies at night. You forsake them, as it
were, without a scruple and turn them into a self-contradictory being.
If no intervention of a spiritual nature occurred here, in the
interval between falling asleep and awakening; if you merely withdrew
from your physical and etheric bodies, remaining in your astral body
and Ego, you would find in the morning your nervous and blood systems
destroyed; for these cannot subsist without an astral body and Ego.
Hence the following procedure, perceptible to clairvoyant
consciousness, intervenes.
In proportion as the Ego and the astral body withdraw, a divine Ego
and a divine astral body are clairvoyantly seen to enter into man. For
it is indeed true that, in the interval between falling asleep and
awakening, an astral body and an Ego, or at any rate a substitute for
these, replace the others in the physical and etheric bodies. When the
astral body leaves the sleeper, a higher astrality enters into him, to
preserve him until he awakens, and likewise a substitute for his own
Ego. From this it is clear that other beings are at work in the sphere
of our lives, besides such as come to expression in the physical
world. In this world we find minerals, plants, animals and men. Men
are the highest of the beings in our physical sphere. They alone
possess a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body and an Ego.
From the fact that during the night the astral body and Ego withdraw
from the physical and etheric bodies, we may infer that the astral
body and Ego still have, even at the present time, a certain
independence; that they can detach themselves, as it were, and live
for a certain part of everyday life, apart from their physical and
etheric vehicles.
In the night, therefore, the following process takes place. Man's
physical and etheric bodies which, during the day, are the vehicles of
his Ego and astral body (that is, of his inmost being), become at
night the bearer or temple of higher astral and Ego beings, which
replace his own Ego and astral body, these having risen into higher
worlds. We now look with different eyes upon the sleeper as he lies in
bed; for there is in him an astral body but of divine spiritual
astrality, and likewise a divine spiritual Ego. We may say in a
certain sense that while man is asleep as regards his physical and
etheric bodies, he is guarded by these beings beings belonging
to the sphere of our life, which enter man's forsaken physical and
etheric bodies and preserve the structure of his organism.
There is much to be learnt from a fact like this which, when taken in
connection with certain observations of the seer, may elucidate many a
point regarding the evolution of man. We will now seek to connect
precisely the fact of this difference between waking and sleeping with
the great spiritual facts of evolution.
It is true that the astral body and the Ego of man appear to us as the
highest and most interior principles of human nature, but they are far
from being the most perfect. Even to superficial observation, the
physical is more perfect than the astral body. Two years ago
(Lecture-Cycle ‘Theosophy’, 16th-29th June 1907, Wilhelmshohe bei
Kassel, 14 lectures.) I pointed out to you here that the more closely
we examine man's physical body, the more wonderful it appears to us.
In the marvels of the human heart and the human brain we have more
than a subject for anatomical examination calculated to satisfy the
needs of the sharpest intellect; whoever brings his soul to bear upon
these marvels will feel himself aesthetically and morally elevated
before the sublime wisdom displayed by the structure of the physical
body. The astral body is not yet so far advanced. It is the vehicle of
joy and sorrow, of impulses, desires, pleasures, and so on, and we
must admit that, with regard to his desires, man takes up all kinds of
things in the world, which are altogether unsuited to promote the wise
and perfect adjustments of his heart and brain. His fondness for
pleasure leads him to seek satisfaction in such things which (as
coffee for instance) are poison and the like for the heart, thereby
proving that the astral body craves for enjoyments which are harmful
to the wise contrivances of the human heart. Yet the heart holds out
for decades against such poisons, absorbed to satisfy the cravings of
the astral body. Hence the physical body is seen to be more perfect
than the astral body, though it is true that at a future time the
astral body will, in its turn, be incomparably more perfect. At
present the physical body is more perfectly evolved, the reason being
that the physical body is the oldest constituent principle of the
human being. It provides the proof that the physical body was being
worked upon long before the genesis of our earth. The theories evolved
by materialistic thoughts on the subject of cosmogony are nothing but
materialistic illusions; whether it be the Kant-Laplace theory, or any
other modern theory, the name is immaterial. To be sure these
materialistic fancies are useful for the understanding of the external
structure of our planetary system, but they are of no value when we
endeavour to comprehend all that transcends the external picture
presented to the eye.
Spiritual investigation shows us that even as man passes from
incarnation to incarnation, a heavenly body such as our earth has
also, in remote times, passed through other forms and other planetary
conditions. Before it became our earth, this body existed in other
planetary conditions. It was a body called in spiritual investigation
the ‘Old Moon’. This was not our present Moon but a forerunner of our
Earth as a planetary being. Precisely as man evolves from a former to
his present incarnation, so too our Earth developed from the old Moon
into the Earth. The old Moon is, as it were, a former incarnation of
the Earth. Again, an earlier embodiment of the old Moon is the ‘Sun’
not the present Sun, but again a forerunner of our Earth.
Finally the forerunner of the old Sun is the old ‘Saturn’. Our Earth
traversed these earlier conditions Saturn, Sun, Moon and
has now reached its Earth-condition. The first germ of our physical
body was sown on the old Saturn, though nothing of all that now
surrounds us in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms existed on
that primeval sphere. Yet the first beginning of the present human
physical body was there, though its form of existence was entirely
different from present day conditions; it was in its earliest
embryonic stage and continued to develop during the Saturn evolution.
When that evolution was at an end, the old Saturn passed through a
kind of cosmic night, as man in a similar way passes through a
devachanic period in order to attain his next incarnation. Saturn then
became the (old) Sun. Here the human physical reappeared, as the plant
grows out of the seed, and became by degrees penetrated by an etheric
or life body. On the old Sun, therefore, the etheric or life body was
joined to the embryonic beginning of the physical body. The human
being was not a plant, but he had the value of a plant. He consisted
of a physical and an etheric body and his consciousness was similar to
that of sleep or to the consciousness of the vegetable kingdom, now
spread like a carpet over the physical Earth around us. The Sun period
came to an end. Once more there was a cosmic night, or if we prefer
the word, a cosmic Devachan. When the Sun had passed through this
state, it became transformed into the old Moon. Here those parts of
the human body which existed on Saturn and Sun (man's physical and
etheric bodies) again spring forth and are increased by the astral
body which was added during this lunar period. Man was now possessed
of physical, etheric, and astral bodies. Hence we see that the
physical body, having come into existence on Saturn, passed through
its third stage on the Moon; the etheric body, associated to the
physical on the Sun, had now advanced to its second stage of
perfection; the astral body, having just been added to the others, was
in its first stage on the Moon.
Something now happened on the Moon which would have been impossible on
Saturn or Sun. Whereas man was preserved in a certain degree of
uniformity during the Saturn and Sun development, the following event
took place at a certain point during the old lunar evolution. The
whole Moon-sphere became divided into two parts into a Sun and
a Moon satellite. So that whereas in the case of Saturn and Sun we
have to consider the evolution of a single planet, only the first part
of the lunar evolution can be described as that of a single planet. In
the first part of the lunar evolution everything that now composes our
Earth, Sun, and Moon was comprised in that one ancient Moon-sphere.
Later there was a division into two bodies. What appeared then as
‘Sun’ was not our Sun, nor yet the old Sun of which we have already
spoken; it was a new sphere which became separated from the old Moon
as a ‘Sun’, around which another planet circled, which, again, we call
the ‘Old Moon’. Now what is the meaning of this cleavage of the
forerunner of our Earth during the old Moon evolution?
The meaning of this division is that higher beings and finer
substances quitted the whole mass in company with this ‘Sun’ at its
separation; they left as ‘Sun’, whereas the grosser substances and
lower beings remained behind on the old Moon. Thus we have two instead
of one planetary body during the old Moon evolution: a Sun-body
harbouring the higher beings and a Moon-body harbouring the lower
beings. Had no division of the single planet occurred, certain beings
who evolved on the Moon after the separation, would have failed to
keep pace with the more rapid evolution of the solar beings. They were
not mature enough for the solar evolution and were therefore
constrained to separate the coarser substances and build for
themselves a sphere of action apart. The higher beings, on their part,
would have found it impossible to remain united to the coarser
substances, for their more rapid progress would have been hindered.
They too required a special sphere for their evolution, and the Sun
was this sphere. Let us now turn our attention to the beings who took
their abode upon the Sun and the Moon respectively, after the division
of the old Moon.
We have seen that the physical human being received its first
beginning during the Saturn evolution; on the Sun the etheric body was
added and on the Moon the astral body. Now these human beings, or, if
we may so call them, these primitive men on the Moon, had in fact
adhered to the Moon at the cleavage. These were precisely the beings
who could not keep pace with the rapid evolution of the Sun-beings,
who had gone forth with the Sun and now abode surrounded by finer
substances on that sphere. Hence these human beings coarsened during
the lunar evolution. As we have seen, man was constituted at that time
of a physical, an astral, and an etheric body. His stage of evolution
was therefore the same as that of the animal of the present day, which
also has a physical, an astral, and an etheric body. But you must not
imagine that the human being was actually an animal on the old Moon.
The human form had an altogether different appearance from that of the
animal on the Earth at the present day. Were I to describe the human
form of that time, it would appear most fantastic to you. Thus we find
on the old Moon forerunners of our present humanity, possessing
physical, astral, and etheric bodies which, after the separation into
Sun and Moon, became denser and coarser than would have been the case
had these beings remained united with the Sun. Now the beings who had
gone forth with the Sun had also passed through the three stages of
Saturn, Sun, Moon. Their direction however was that of the Sun,
whereas the ancestors of man followed the Moon. Among the Sun-beings
we distinguish a threefold nature which runs parallel with that of the
human being. There were beings on the Sun who had also advanced to the
stage of threefold nature (astral, etheric, and physical body), only
in their case, after the separation, instead of becoming coarser,
these principles grew finer. Picture the process as follows: After the
division of the old Moon, our human forefathers became beings of
greater density and coarseness than they were before that event; their
tendency was to harden. On the other hand, the corresponding beings on
the Sun grew finer. The addition of the astral body during the lunar
evolution had in a certain way the effect of lowering man to the level
of the animal. But the beings who had kept aloof and had withdrawn to
the Sun grew finer and more perfect. While man was hardening on the
Moon, beings of high spirituality were evolving on the Sun. In
spiritual science this spirituality is named the counterpart of that
which developed on the Moon. On the Moon the human beings developed to
the level of the animal, though they were not animals. Now in dealing
with the animal kingdom, we are justified in distinguishing different
grades of animals. The animal-man on the Moon also appeared in three
grades differing from one another, and known in spiritual science as
the grades of the ‘Bull’, the ‘Lion’, and the ‘Eagle’. These are, as
it were, typical forms assumed by animal nature. There were therefore
on the Moon three distinct groups: Bull-men, Lion-men, Eagle-men.
Though we may in no sense apply these designations to the present
animals, it is nevertheless true that the degenerated nature of the
so-called lion-men on the Moon is in a certain way expressed in the
present cat species, and in the character of the hoofed animals is
expressed the degenerated nature of the so-called bull-men, and so on.
Such was the nature of the human being, in a densified state, after
three stages of evolution. On the Sun, however, were the spiritual
counterparts of these beings, also in three groups. While the astral
development on the Moon lent form to these three types of animal-men,
the corresponding spiritual human beings evolved on the Sun as angelic
spiritual beings, which are also designated, but this time in their
character of spiritual counterparts) as ‘Lion’, ‘Eagle’, and ‘Bull’.
When we therefore behold the Sun, we find spiritual beings of whom we
may say that they represent to us the splendid prototypes fashioned in
wisdom. And on the Moon we have something like hardened reproductions
of the beings above on the Sun. There is, however, another mystery
underlying this.
The reproductions down below on the Moon are not without connection
with their prototypes on the Sun. We have on the Moon a group of
primitive bull-men and above, on the Sun, a group of spiritual beings
described as ‘Bull-spirits’; and there is a spiritual connection
between type and prototype. For the group-soul is the prototype and
functions, as prototype, upon the type or reproduction. The forces
proceed from the group-soul and govern its image below, the
lion-spirit directing the lion-men, the eagle-spirit the eagle-men,
and so on. Had the spirits in those high regions remained united with
the earth, had they remained bound to their counterparts and been
compelled to dwell in them, they would have been hemmed in and unable
to exercise the forces, upon which the preservation and development of
their counterparts depended. They came to the following conclusion:
‘We must now care in a higher sense for that which develops on the
Moon.’ The Bull-spirit said to himself: ‘I must care for the bull-men;
I cannot find on the Moon the conditions necessary for my own
progress; therefore I must dwell on the Sun and from there direct my
forces to the bull-men below.’ The same applies to the Lion-spirit and
the Eagle-spirit. That is the meaning of evolution. Certain beings
required a higher sphere of action than those who were, so to speak,
their physical counterparts. The latter needed a lower, inferior
sphere. To ensure their freedom of action, the higher beings were
compelled to withdraw with the Sun and send down their forces from
outside. Thus we see how there is one evolution with a downward, and
another with an upward trend.
The development on the old Moon proceeded apace. Through the action of
the higher beings upon their counterparts, the moon became
spiritualized, so that it could reunite at a later period with the
Sun. The prototypes now again united with their types, absorbing them
into themselves as it were. There again followed a universal Devachan
or cosmic night. (This is also called a Pralaya, while the conditions
known as Saturn, Sun, and Moon are called Manvantaras.) After the
cosmic night there issued from the dark womb of the universe our Earth
whose mission it is to advance human evolution so far that man can add
to his physical, astral, and etheric bodies the Ego or the bearer of
the ‘I’. This, however, must be preceded by a repetition of the
earlier stages. That is a cosmic law: whenever a higher stage is to be
reached, all that is previously achieved must first be repeated.
First, then, the Earth had to recapitulate the conditions of old
Saturn. Once more the first beginning of the physical body developed
as if from the cosmic germ. Then came a repetition of the old Sun and
finally of the old Moon. Sun, Moon, and Earth still formed one body;
then followed a repetition of the cleavage already described. The Sun
detached itself and again the more advanced beings who required a
higher evolutionary sphere, left with it. They took with them the
finer substances and established therewith the scene of their activity
in the Universe. Thus, as we have said, the Sun quitted the Earth
(which still bore the Moon within it), and took in its train the
beings whose maturity allowed of their continued progress on the Sun.
Foremost among these, of course, were the beings who formerly had
functioned as prototypes. All the beings who had attained the
requisite maturity upon the old Moon, progressed apace and in time
could no longer dwell among the coarser substances and beings of the
Earth-plus-Moon; they were compelled to withdraw from this sphere and
to establish a new existence upon the Sun our present Sun.
Who were these beings? They were the descendants of those other beings
who, during the old Moon period, had evolved on the Sun as Bull-,
Lion-, and Eagle-spirits. The highest and most advanced of these had
brought the bull, lion, and eagle nature to a harmonious unity in
themselves, and may be described in the true sense of the word as
‘human prototypes’, ‘spirit-men’. Let us bear in mind, therefore, that
certain of the Bull-, Lion-, and Eagle-spirits upon the Sun, during
the old Moon period, had advanced beyond the rest; these now again
prefer to take up their abode upon the Sun. They are the true
spirit-men. They constituted the spiritual counterpart of evolving
humanity down below on the Earth-plus-Moon. Now, as you may imagine,
since the tendency to densify and harden had already set in with the
beings on the old Moon, their descendants on Earth-plus-Moon showed
the same tendency particularly strongly. In fact there now began for
the severed portion consisting of Earth-plus-Moon a sad and dreary
time. Above on the Sun ever more vigorous and active development, and
ever fuller life. Below on the Earth sadness, desolation, and
ever-increasing solidification.
Something now happened failing which evolution would have come to a
standstill: our present Moon detached itself from the common cosmic
body (Earth-plus-Moon) and our planet, the Earth, remained behind.
With the Moon were withdrawn the coarser substances which would have
led to a complete hardening of the Earth, had they remained in it.
Thus at the beginning of our Earth evolution, the Earth was united
with the present Sun and Moon. Had the Earth remained with the Sun,
man would never have reached his present stage of evolution. He could
not have kept pace with the rate of development required by the beings
on the Sun. Indeed, the being evolving on the Sun was not man, as he
lives on Earth; it was man's spiritual prototype, of whom man, as he
confronts us today, is but the image. On the other hand, had the Moon
remained in the Earth, man would have withered up and become
mummified. The Earth would have become waste and shriveled, and man
would have found no possibility of development upon it. Instead of
human bodies as they now appear, lifeless statues and withered human
forms, growing out of the soil, would have appeared on Earth. That was
prevented when the Moon detached itself and went out into cosmic
space, taking with it the coarser substances. With this event it
became possible for the Ego to be suitably added to the physical,
etheric, and astral bodies, which the descendants of the old Moon
beings already possessed. The forces of Sun and Moon now worked from
outside, holding the balance and enabling man to be fructified by the
Ego or ‘I’.
Man now developed apace on Earth. Though a deterioration and a
downward tendency had been inherited from the old Moon, a new impulse
now gave development an upward trend. During this time the spiritual
beings who had departed with the Sun evolved there to ever higher
states.
Let us imagine that we have a block of iron beside us, and say that we
are men of average strength. We shower blows on the iron and try to
beat it flat. But we can give it no form. We cannot form it until we
have softened the substance by smelting. Something of this kind
happened to the Earth when it was freed of its densest substances at
the departure of the moon. The Earth-beings could now be formed, and
the Sun-beings intervened once more. (It will be remembered that
during the old Moon period, they had already acted, as Group-souls
from the Sun upon the Moon below.) Before the separation of the Moon,
the substances were too dense. These beings now made their influence
felt as forces which by degrees fashioned and completed the human body
in its present form. Let us consider this a little more closely.
Suppose that you had been able to take up a position on that old
sphere composed of Earth-plus-Moon. You would have seen the spiritual
beings whom we have described above. You would have observed on the
Earth a hardening process, a growing desolation, and you might have
said to yourself: ‘All around me is a waste; everything on Earth seems
lifeless; the forces of the Sun have no power to influence what
promises to become a huge graveyard filled with corpses.’ Then you
would have watched how the body of the Moon detached itself from the
Earth. The Earth's substance would have become soft, impressionable,
plastic, and you then might have said to yourself: ‘Everything has
grown soft and plastic; the forces proceeding from the Sun can now
again work upon the Earth.’ Then you might have seen how the
Bull-spirits regained their influence upon the human beings who were
their counterpart; likewise the Lion- and Eagle-spirits. And you might
have said: ‘The Moon is outside; its harmful influence is modified by
its removal and now works only from a distance. The Earth is thus
enabled once more to experience the activity of the spiritual beings.’
Tomorrow we shall consider the picture that presents itself to the eye
of the seer, when he traces remote scenes of past evolution in the
Akashic records.
We look back to the old Saturn period and say: There the earliest
beginning of the human physical body was formed. The physical human
form, as we see it today, first took shape on Saturn, as though
emerging from cosmic Chaos. Then came the Sun period. There the
etheric body was added to the first form of the physical body. On the
Moon the astral element was added, both to the beings on the Moon and
to those evolving on the separate Sun. We find the spiritual
prototypes on the Sun, and on the Moon their counterparts on the level
of the animal. Finally on the Earth a new condition was brought about,
enabling man to absorb into himself the astral element which had
developed on the Sun during the lunar period, and which henceforth
worked in him as a force. We will now trace these four conditions.
The sublime power which, during the evolution on Saturn, furnishes the
germ of the human body form out of cosmic Chaos, is called by the
writer of the Gospel of St. John the Logos. The element which appeared
on the Sun and united itself to the first bodily form, he calls Life;
it is what we call accordingly etheric or life body. The element added
on the Moon, he calls Light; for this is the spiritual light, the
astral light. This astral light causes a densification on the Moon,
but a spiritualization on the separate Sun. This spiritualized element
could evolve further, and did so evolve. And when the Sun again
separated, the force evolved during the third evolution (Moon) now
shone into men; but man was not yet able to behold that which shone
into him from the Sun. It worked upon man as a force and formed him,
but man could not behold it. The essential nature of the Saturn
evolution, as we have clearly understood it, we now express in the
words of St. John:
‘In the beginning was the Logos.’
We now pass to the Sun. When we express the fact that whatever
originated on Saturn was further developed on the Sun, we say: The
etheric body was added:
‘And the Logos was the Life.’
On the Moon the astral being was added, both of a corporal and of a
spiritual nature:
‘In the enlivened Logos was Light.’
The light developed further; on the one hand, to the light of
clairvoyance and, on the other, with man to darkness. For when he
should have received the Light, man, being darkness, comprehended it
not. Thus when we throw light from the Akashic records upon the Gospel
of St. John, we read of the evolution of the world as follows:
In the beginning, during the Saturn evolution, everything arose out of
the Logos. During the Sun evolution, there was Life in the Logos; and
from out of the living Logos, during the Moon evolution, there arose
Light. And from out of the Logos filled with Light and Life, there
arose, on the Sun, during Earth evolution, Light in a more glorious
form, but man fell into a state of darkness. From the Sun, the beings
who were the advanced Bull-, Lion-, Eagle-, and human-spirits shone
down as Light upon the Earth into the developing human forms. But
these were darkness; they could not comprehend the Light that shone
down upon them. (We must not confound this Light with physical light;
this Light consisted of the combined radiations of the spiritual
beings, the Bull-, Lion-, Eagle-, and human-spirits who represented
the spiritual evolution on the Moon in continued form.) This Light
that streamed down was spiritual Light. Men could not receive it; they
could not comprehend it; their whole evolution was furthered by it,
but they were unconscious of its presence.
‘The Light shone in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it
not.’
Such are the exemplary words of the writer of the Gospel of St. John,
when he places before us those great truths. And they who knew these
things were ever called ‘ministers and priests of the Logos, as He was
from the beginning.’ A priest or minister of the Logos, as he was from
the beginning, is one who speaks thus. In the Gospel of St. Luke we
have, strictly speaking, exactly the same order. Just try to read with
proper understanding what the writer of St. Luke's Gospel says. He
wishes to tell of the things which happened from the beginning, ‘even
as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were
eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word.’ And we believe that the
writers of these Gospels were ministers of the Word or Logos. We learn
to believe in them when we see, from our own spiritual research, how
things were, and how our earthly planet developed through Saturn, Sun,
and Moon. Then when we see, from the comprehensive words of St. John
and St. Luke, that we can find these truths independently of all
traditions, we learn to believe in them when we see, from our own
spiritual research, how things were, and how our earthly planet
developed through Saturn, Sun, and Moon. Then when we see, from the
comprehensive words of St. John and St. Luke, that we can find these
truths anew and to see in them a testimony that they who wrote them
down could read the characters of the spiritual world. An
understanding between ourselves and the men of former times is thereby
afforded; we behold these men, as it were, eye to eye, and say to
them: ‘We recognize and know you;’ for the things which they knew we
find again in spiritual science.
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Last Modified: 02-Nov-2024
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