SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS
This Synopsis of Contents is in
no sense authoritative but is merely intended for the possible convenience
of students: —
LECTURE 1.
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The
homeless man. Message to the Folk-Souls: ‘know yourselves’.
The work of the Ego in transforming man, in connection also with
previous embodiments of earth. Angels, archangels, archai.
Transformation of their principles or bodies. Future full
consciousness in sleep. Division of man. His power on a future
Jupiter. Beings prematurely developed: Birds. Archangels —
Folk-spirits. Post-Atlantean epochs. Time Spirit or Zeitgeist.
Spirits of Cyclic Periods. The repetition of one epoch in another.
Angels the link between Folk-spirits and man.
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LECTURE 2.
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Etheric
aura of countries. Archangels. Choleric, sanguine and phlegmatic
temperaments effective by etheric aura of a people. Variations
form national character. Spirit of Form: normal, abnormal. The
abnormal are going through archangel stage. Creation of
Speech. Spirit of the age, archai. Galileo, oscillation. Abnormal
Spirits of Form remaining on moon, influence man's brain, from
within. Two types of men: those influenced by normal spirits of
age and those influenced by abnormal Spirit of Form from moon.
Spirits of Languages and Thought Spirits. An abnormal Spirit of
Form at Stage of Spirit of Personality may also be called an
abnormal Spirit of Personality working on Thought. The abnormal
archangel is really an abnormal spirit of Form working on speech.
Sanskrit was created by a triple agreement between these two
abnormal beings and an abnormal archangel; a constellation arose
at the right time for this purpose. North Americans are under an
abnormal Spirit of Personality.
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LECTURE 3.
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Normal
Folk-spirit, transforming his etheric body into Budhi or
Life-spirit, two degrees above man; but man is spun into the web
of this work. The three soul principles, three modifications of
the astral body. The Folk-spirit has three modifications of the
etheric body. To conceive of an archangel, one proceeds by
pure thought, such as mathematics, no way dependent on an outer
world. Archangel does not share in our sentient soul, but shares
in our moral ideals in the intellectual soul or soul of higher
feelings. Art and religion are influences of the archangel,
because there are the operations within of moral ideals. Ego of
archangel is two stages above man. As we are conscious of warmth
and cold the archangel is conscious from within of the
temperaments of individuals and realises their separate auras as
centres of activity or negation. He realises his youth and age in
his decline of a people. He is born into a people when it begins
to produce blossom; but withdraws into Devachan when his people
decline. Angels transform their Astral body into Spirit-self or
Manas, but have not nearly finished doing it. Man is beginning to
do this transformation. Angel's Ego reaches much further than
man's. A case given where the spirit of the age controls the
archangels is where the Dutch separated from the common German
stock in order to carry the mission of the spirit of the age
overseas. The same occurred when the Portuguese broke from Spain.
After the active interference of the spirit of the age, the Dutch
and Portuguese each receive their respective archangels normal and
abnormal. Spirits of Form, Motion, Wisdom. Distinction between
race and people. Normal Spirit of Form would keep one united
humanity, but abnormal Spirit of Motion takes the lower grade of
Spirit of Form and divides mankind into races. This belated Spirit
of Motion may be called an abnormal Spirit of Motion or an
abnormal Spirit of Form.
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LECTURE 4.
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The three
ages of man in which Spirit of Form takes no interest. Spirit
of Form only interested in Ego, therefore when man is 19 –
20. Owing to Spirit of Motion abnormally remaining behind,
man attains consciousness soon after birth, these are active as
abnormal Spirits of Form. Up to 20 man under these abnormal
spirits. The last third of his life under normal Spirits of Form,
to whom he must repay the first third. Reason for man's dependence
on earth during middle third. Only in the past were racial
characteristics dependent on place of birth; owing to propagation
they are inherited. Only in later Atlantis did heredity succeed
locality. Idea of ever revolving wheel in evolution is wrong (c.f.
Sinnett in Esoteric Buddhism). Due to abnormal spirits that
place became important in another sense: Earth radiations of
Africa affect childhood; of Asia affect youth; of Europe affect
maturity. Hence black, yellow, white. Earth radiations of North
America affect man in his decline and death. In our day racial
characteristics are being overcome. After evolution of races had
died in West, evolution of civilisation began and went to East.
Soul characteristics (India) take the place of physical race
characteristics and Atlantis is repeated in old Indian
civilisation in a higher state. Battle between normal and abnormal
Spirits of Form in old Persia in Ormuzd and Ahriman. Freshness of
youth always declines as it goes West; productive forces decline.
Physical development begins in Africa, shown in shape of African
Continent, compare Asia and Europe, the latter compressed with its
lands and peninsulas. The further we go West the more need to
take something from East. Romans took their spiritual life
from the Greek they had conquered. Rosicrucianism is the evolution
of all humanity and not one part. Plato's ancestry and race.
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LECTURE 5.
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Contour
of earth's surface formed by a balance between forces of Spirits
of Will and Spirits of Motion; this was the original means and is
shown in Alps; something has since been added to give solidity:
Spirit of Form on earth, Cherubim in air, Seraphim in heat. All
radiations from centre of earth. Spirits of Form, Motion, Wisdom,
work from outside earth: form in light, motion in chemical forces
(Music of Spheres), wisdom in life ether. After effects of Saturn
in outer as physical body; in inner man as will; of Sun in outer
as etheric body; in inner man as feeling; of Moon in outer as
astral body; in inner as thinking. The external physical body
emanating from Spirits of Will is will seen externally. For this a
whole planet had to come into existence and disappear. Similar for
Sun and Moon. Earth missive must bring equilibrium to the three,
and man must do this first within himself. Equilateral triangle
and its centre. Fourth element thus added, Love. Trinity becomes
Quaternary. This is missive of normal Spirits of Form called
Spirits of Love. Here a very useful summary of Spirits.
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LECTURE 6.
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For a
proper understanding, one course of lectures should be studied
alongside of other courses. On Sun are found seven Elohim or
Spirits of Love. To save confusion from abnormal Spirits of Form
Jehovah goes to Moon. The abnormal have centre in other planets,
and form the five root races
[a mistranslation of the German, Hauptrasse, Steiner was
referring to main races here – e.Ed]
— Negroes, Mercury; Malays,
Venus; Mongolians, Mars; Europeans, Jupiter. In America races die,
Saturn. These centres form Mystery places in Atlantis. To form the
above races, mercurial spirits affect etheric or glandular
system; Venus astral or nervous system, indirectly through
breathing deep down in the sub-conscious solar plexus. Mars
affects Mongolians and enters the blood thus coming in
contact with Elohim on Sun and Jehovah on Moon; hence the
formation of the Semitic, a modification of collective humanity.
Jupiter works through senses and nervous system through
respiratory organs into solar plexus of Caucasians. Greeks saw the
spiritual in the physical and became basic for sculptures and art.
Council of Buddha, Skythianos, Zarathas, and One still greater.
Saturn ossifies the glandular system of the North American. The
North American looked from old Atlantis to the One Great Spirit,
not divided as later into six or seven. The picture of the meeting
between a Red Indian and a white man.
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LECTURE 7.
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Ethiopians
and Malays formed in early Atlantis. The first archangel to become
Spirit of the Age was he who in the East guided sacred Indian
culture in first post-Atlantean epoch. After leading the Rishis he
was given the leadership of post-Atlantean humanity. An archangel
was promoted for Persian epoch; another for Egypt; another for
Chaldea; another employed by Jehovah for the Jews. Two
spiritual currents: monotheism and polytheism. Monotheism the
peculiar characteristic of Semites. Archangels of Europe took
longer and by the time Spirit of the Age for Egypt and Persians
had become Spirits of Form, the archangel of Greece had only
become a Spirit of the Age in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch.
This spirit, at the time of Christ, renounced promotion to a
Spirit of Form, and became the guiding spirit of exoteric
Christianity, the guiding spirit of the age; as he withdrew from
the Greeks, the Greeks withdrew away. The Celtic archangel
renounced promotion to archai and remained archangel and the
leader of esoteric Christianity, and the Celts vanished as a
combined people. Mysteries of Holy Grail and Rosy Cross. The
Archai of fifth post-Atlantean epoch was promoted from one of the
many archangels of the manifold German peoples. And as in Europe
people adhered long to Folk-spirit or archangel, the work of
Spirit of the Age came very late. The German Spirit of the Age now
ruling is under the influence of the Egyptian Spirit of the Age
who had been promoted to Spirit of Form and is still immature.
Before the Celtic archangel found his centre for the Grail, the
Scandinavian had found his centre above the earth near
Paderborn and Detmold, but he moved it to the Grail centre. No
mythology gives so clear an Anthroposophical picture of evolution
as Scandinavia. The question is how far will their tendencies be
developed after the Scandinavian Spirit has been educated by the
‘Christian Spirit’ of the age.
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LECTURE 8.
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Germanic
Scandinavian Mythology. In old India the experiences of the
Ego objectively came later than it did in the Scandinavian. During
dim clairvoyances the Indian had not been conscious of the work of
Spiritual Beings and the Folk-spirit. When they awoke to
self-consciousness they could reach spiritual worlds unaided and
therefore more independently than those of the West. They
had, however, forgotten the lower hierarchies, and attended more
to totalities of the Spirits of Motion and Wisdom. The Persian was
interested one stage lower (i.e., the Spirits of Form) when
his Ego awoke, but he had forgotten the other hierarchies. When
the Ego of the Chaldean awoke, he was aware of Archai. The
Græco-Latin had a memory of archangels and angels, and this
memory was more distinct than actual experience. The Oriental
having forgotten so much of the Spirits he had experienced in
dim clairvoyance cannot understand the Westerner who is
conscious of angels and Folk-spirits. The Oriental had developed
too far to understand the Christ. The Oriental Ego had not
awakened. The Ego of the Westerner awoke much earlier but in a
lower state; when conscious of angels. Wotan or Odin and speech.
Mimir, wisdom. Hoeder, imagination. Loder, complexion, blood.
These were normal archangels; but Villy and Ve, abnormal, working
within. Thor remained behind as angel to guide the
German-Scandinavian, upon waking the Ego. Thor, son of Odin.
Odin transforms air into words. The air passes through into Ego
and produces blood, whose pulsation the hammer of Thor. Nebelheim
and Muspelheim. Ginnungagap. Riesenheim.
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LECTURE 9.
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Elucidation
of 8. To the Indian, the objective Ego is unimportant; to the
Westerner, all important. Lucifer in inner being or astral.
Freedom and the possibility of evil. Lucifer from within leads to
Ahriman outside. Old Testament conscious of Lucifer not of
Ahriman. St. Mark mentions Satan, Ahriman. Difference between Mark
and Matthew. Old Persian realised Ahriman. Old Indian realised
Lucifer not Ahriman. The German-Scandinavian realised Lucifer and
Ahriman. Loki. Lucifer influences both etheric and physical body
from the astral body; and turns the etheric body to lies. The
astral body which is the inner part of man, is turned to
selfishness. The physical body to sickness and death. Midgard,
snake, selfishness. Fenris-wolf, self-deceit. The wolf pursues
Sun. The eclipse, Moon in front of Sun. Hela, sickness, death.
Loki is the parent of these three influences. These myths
originate from clairvoyant consciousness: Loki cause blind Hoeder
to kill Balder, the one who sees clairvoyantly and Ahriman
arrives. Norse mythology was actively experienced before and after
the time of Christ, whereas in the Greeks it was a memory.
Difference in the East. John Baptist. To the Norse man, Christ's
coming meant return of Balder and the time spent on earth was a
time of transition. The Northern initiates taught that men would
again see into the spirit world but other powers will be added and
conditions changed. Ragnarok, twilight of Gods.
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LECTURE 10.
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Recapitulation.
Tacitus and German Group Soul. Thor, representing Ego has
for spouse Sif, the group soul. The Celtic group soul or
Folk-spirit had task of educating youthful Ego of European
peoples, this was done by Druids. As it became necessary for
Folk-spirits to teach men independence, so the mysteries began to
withdraw, and they withdrew into more secret depths. The
successive stages of post-Atlantean civilisation (see
diagram). Scandinavia, Rome, the Peninsulas, France, Britain, in
relation to the Ego. The Impulse of the Spirit Soul penetrating
human Ego is shown by Britain in its external constitution and
world mission. The different work of the South German firstly in
the Spirit Soul with Sentient Soul and the work of North German
with Spirit Soul and Intellectual Soul. Hegel represents the
Spirit Soul. So too Fichte. This Developing Impulse is the mission
of the North Germans in Central Europe. The two opposite poles of
post-Atlantis — Indian and Chinese will some day clash. The
Indian is capable of development, but the Chinese remain rigid as
in old Atlantis. The Great Wall of China. The old Gulf Stream
encircling the Atlantean continent. Oceanos. The Chinese have
enclosed within the Great Wall what they rescued from Atlantis.
The sixth age of civilisation when the Spirit-self shines into the
Spirit-soul is a receptive civilisation and is being prepared by
Slavs of East Europe and West Asia. The West has received a series
of successive worlds. In the East we find distinct consciousness
of Cosmic Father, and this Father from Devachanic world fertilises
Mother Earth world, and the Blessed Child in the third world. The
fourth world is from Persia, the Sun. The fifth world is the Elves
of Light. The Slav is receptive of West European culture showing
the will to receive something better, but takes no interest in
details of West Europe, Solovioff. Feeling, Thinking, Willing,
human and divine. Solovioff goes further than Hegel and Kant. He is
the prophetic dawn of the sixth post-Atlantean civilisation.
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LECTURE 11.
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Norse
Mythology. Descent from planets during end of Lemuria and
Atlantis, of souls who previously had gone to the planets.
Tacitus. Nerthus. Njodr. Riesenheim. Freyr and Freya. Gerda.
Bluthuf, horse of Freyr. Miraculous expanding at sleep and
contracting into skull by day. In Germanic North are best
conditions for understanding second coming of Christ. Kalijuga
ended in 1899. How the vision will come to a few. This new
manifestation of Christ more common from middle of twentieth
century. Christ appeared on physical plane because at that time
the forces of man were adjusted to the physical plane; now we are
becoming more highly developed. Anthroposophy is a preparation for
the reception of Christ. The appearance of Christ may take a
materialistic form, if man gets too materialistic. Always false
Messiahs. Old clairvoyance will take a different form, but
the world of Odin and Balder will return when other forces have
been working in the human soul. The Folk-spirit of Scandinavia has
a special clairvoyant faculty. Etheric clairvoyance is the next
clairvoyance. Freyr overcome by flaming sword of Surtur. Fenris
Wolf (false clairvoyance) remains to fight Odin. Etheric form of
Christ will embody in etheric form of Vidar, who has all this time
been silent, and he will overcome Fenris Wolf. A picture near
Cologne has a likeness of Vidar, but no one knows whom it
represents. These matters cannot be dealt with by feelings of
sympathy or antipathy, but only by the truth revealed.
Christianity belongs to no sect, place or people, for Christ is
God of all humanity. We are bound as Anthroposophists to reject
Dogma. The best Anthroposophists are those who take what is said
as a stimulus, and prove it by life itself. Anthroposophical
tolerance.
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