IN our last lecture we tried to consider a planetary system in its
dependence on the various spiritual beings of the three hierarchies,
ranged, as it were, one above the other; and which we tried to
describe in the previous lectures. We gained an idea of all that
participates in forming a planet, and we have seen how a planet
receives its form, its enclosed form, as a result of the activity of
the Spirits of Form. We saw further that the inner life, the inner
mobility of the planet, is the result of the activity of the Spirits
of Motion. What we may call the lowest consciousness of the planet,
which can be compared with the consciousness present in man in his
astral body, we have to allot to the Spirits of Wisdom. That impulse
through which the planet, instead of remaining stationary changes its
place in space, we have to allot to the Spirits of Will, or Thrones.
The organizing of the planet in such a way that it does not follow an
isolated course in space but so moves that its impulses of motion are
in harmony with the whole planetary system to which it belongs, the
regulating of the individual movements of the planet in harmony with
the whole system, that is an activity of the Cherubim. Finally we
ascribe to the Seraphim what we may call the inner soul-life of the
planet, whereby the planet comes as it were, into connection with the
other heavenly bodies, as a man by means of his speech enters into
relation with other men. So that we must observe a sort of coherence
in the planet; and in this, what comes from the Spirits of Form is but
a sort of kernel. On the other hand every planet has something like a
spiritual atmosphere, we might even say something like an aura, in
which work the spirits belonging to those two higher hierarchies which
are higher than the Spirits of Form. Now if we want to understand all
this aright, we must make ourselves acquainted with yet other concepts
than those I have just recalled to you concepts to which we
shall most easily attain if we begin with the beings of that hierarchy
which stands, so to speak, nearest to humanity in the spiritual world,
namely the beings of the Third Hierarchy.
We have said that characteristic of the beings of the Third Hierarchy
is the fact that what is perception in man is in them manifestation,
and that what in man is inner life, in them is being filled with
spirit. Even in those beings who start immediately above man in the
cosmic order, the Angels or Angeloi, we already find this peculiarity,
that they are actually conscious of that which they manifest from out
of themselves. When they return to their inner being, they have
nothing independent, nothing self-enclosed, like the inner life of
man; but they then feel shining and springing forth in their inner
being, the forces and beings of the higher hierarchies above them. In
short they feel themselves filled and inspired by the spirit and its
beings, immediately above them. Thus what we men call our independent
inner life, really does not exist in them. If they wish to develop
their own being, if they wish to feel, think and will somewhat as a
man does, all that is immediately manifested externally; not as in
man, who can shut up within himself his thoughts and feelings, and
allow the impulses of his will to remain unfulfilled. What lives as
thought in these beings, in so far as they themselves bring forth
these thoughts, is at the same time also externally revealed. If they
do not wish to manifest externally they have no other means of
returning into their inner being, but by once again filling themselves
with the world above them. Thus, in the inner life of these beings
dwells the world above them, and when they live a life of their own,
they project themselves externally, objectively.
Thus, as we have seen, these beings could hide nothing within them as
the product of their own thought and feeling, for whatever they bring
about in their inner being must show itself externally. As we
mentioned in one of the former lectures, they cannot lie, they cannot
be untrue to their nature so that their thoughts and feelings did not
harmonize with the external world; they cannot have an idea within
them which does not agree with the external world; for any ideas which
they have in their inner being, are perceived by them in their
manifestation. But now let us just suppose that these beings had a
desire to be untrue to their own nature, what would be the result?
Well, in the beings we have designated as Angels, Archangels, and
Spirits of the Age or Archai, we find throughout that everything which
reveals itself to them, everything which they can perceive is, so to
speak, their own being. If they were to wish to be untrue, they would
be obliged to develop something in their inner being which would not
be consistent with their own nature. Every untruth would be a denial
of their nature. That would mean nothing less than a deadening, a
damping-down of their own being. Now suppose that nevertheless these
beings had the desire to experience something in their inner nature
which they did not manifest externally; to do so they would have to
take on another nature.
What I have just described as the denial of their own nature by beings
of the Third Hierarchy, the taking on of another nature, did actually
take place; it did occur in the course of the ages. We shall see, as
these lectures go on, why this had to happen; but to begin with we
will confine our attention to the fact that it did happen; that, as a
matter of fact, among the beings of the Third Hierarchy there were
some possessed with this desire to have experiences in their inner
nature which they need not manifest externally. That is, they had the
wish to deny their own nature. What did this bring about in these
beings? Something entered, which the other beings, those of the Third
Hierarchy which retained their own nature, cannot have. The beings of
the Third Hierarchy can have no inner independence such as man has. If
they wish to live in their inner being, they must immediately be
filled with the spirit-world above them. A certain number of the
beings of the Third Hierarchy had the desire to develop something
within their inner being which they would not immediately encounter in
the external world as perception, or revelation of their own being.
Hence the necessity arose of denying their own nature and taking on
another nature. To develop an inner life of their own, to attain inner
independence, a number of beings of the Third Hierarchy had to give up
their own nature, to deny it. They had, so to speak, to bring about in
themselves the power not to manifest certain inner experiences
externally. Now let us ask: What then were the reasons which
moved these beings of the Third Hierarchy to develop such a desire
within them? If we fix our attention upon the nature of the beings of
the Third Hierarchy, with their manifestation and enfilling with
spirit, we see that these beings are in reality wholly at the service
of the beings of the higher hierarchies. Angels have no life of their
own; their own life is manifestation, which is for the whole world; as
soon as they do not manifest themselves there radiates into their
inner being the life of the higher hierarchies. That which induced a
number of them to deny their nature was a feeling of power, of
independence and freedom. At a certain time a number of beings of the
Third Hierarchy had an impulse, an urge, not merely to be dependent
upon the beings of the higher hierarchies, but to develop within
themselves an inner life of their own. The result of this was very
far-reaching for the whole evolution of the planetary system to which
we belong; for these beings whom we may call the rebels of the Third
Hierarchy, brought about nothing less than the actual independence of
man making it possible for him to develop an independent life
of his own, which does not immediately manifest externally, but can be
independent of external manifestation.
I am intentionally using many words to describe this circumstance,
because it is extremely important to grasp accurately what is here in
question, namely, that an impulse arose in a number of the Third
Hierarchy to develop an inner life of their own. Everything else was
simply the result, the consequence of this impulse. What then was this
result? It was in fact a terrible one, namely, the betrayal of their
own nature; untruth, falsehood. You see, it is important that you
should understand that the spirits of the Third Hierarchy which had
this impulse, did not do what they did for the sake of lying, but in
order to develop an independent life of their own; but in so doing
they had to take the consequence, they had to become Spirits of
Untruth spirits which betrayed their own being in other
words, Spirits of Lies. It is as though someone were to take a journey
on foot and he meets with a wet day; he must of necessity make
the best of it and put up with getting wet, which he did not at all
intend: in the same way the spirits of which we are speaking,
had no intention of doing something in order to sink into untruth.
Their action arose from their wish to develop an inner life, an inner
activity; but the result, the consequence was, that they at the same
time became Spirits of Untruth. Now all the spiritual beings which in
this way, through betraying their own nature, arose as a second
category beside the spirits of the Third Hierarchy, are called in
occultism, Luciferic Spirits.
The concept of the Luciferic Spirits consists essentially in the fact
that these beings wish to develop an inner life. Now the question is
What have these spirits to do, to attain their goal? We have
already seen what they had to develop as a result; and we shall now
inquire further what they had to do in order to attain this goal of an
inner independent life. What did these spirits wish to surmount? They
wished to prevent themselves from being filled wholly with the
substance of the higher hierarchies; they wished to be filled, not
only with the beings of the higher hierarchies, but with their own
being. They could only accomplish this in the following way: Instead
of filling themselves with the spirit of the higher hierarchies, and,
as it were, leaving themselves open to the free outlook towards the
higher hierarchies, they cut themselves off, detached themselves from
them, in order in this way to create substance of their own from the
substance of the higher hierarchies. We can gain a correct idea of
what is here in question if we think of the beings of the Third
Hierarchy in the following way. We think of them represented
symbolically, graphically, in such a way that they manifest their own
being outwardly, as it were, as though it were their skin; so that
each time they developed inner thought or feeling, a manifestation
arises, like a shining-forth of their own being. The moment they do
not manifest themselves, they take up the light of the higher
hierarchies which flows into them; they fill themselves with the
spirit of the higher hierarchies and, as it were, open their whole
being to them.
Those spiritual beings of the Third Hierarchy of which we have just
spoken did not wish to be filled with the spirit nor to be connected
with the spiritual substance of the hierarchies. They wanted an
independent spiritual life, they therefore cut themselves off, they
detached themselves, so that the being of the higher hierarchies was
above them; they cut the connection and detached themselves as
independent beings, retaining the actual light in their inner being.
Thus they, as it were, stole what should only have filled them, and
then returned to the higher hierarchies. They stole it for themselves,
filled their own inner being with it, and by that means developed an
independent side to their nature. This concept can provide an
explanation of events in the cosmos, without which we should be quite
unable to grasp a stellar system, the constitution of the stars in
general as we know them with our human physical consciousness. Without
these concepts one cannot possibly grasp the life of the stars, the
life of the heavenly bodies.
I have now tried to indicate to you how certain beings of the Third
Hierarchy have become quite different beings Luciferic Spirits.
That which took place in these beings of the Third Hierarchy cannot,
of course, take place in the same way in the beings of the other
hierarchies but something similar takes place even with these. If we
apply that which takes place in the beings of the other hierarchies to
a consideration of the Spirits of Form, it will give us an idea of how
a planetary system is actually formed. At the conclusion of the last
lecture it was said that what our vision first perceives in the
planets, proceeds from the Spirits of Form; but it is not quite
accurate to represent it thus. If you consider the planets
Mars, Saturn or Jupiter for instance which are outside in
cosmic space; as you see them with your physical eyes, or with the
telescope, you have in the form revealed to you, not merely the
Spirits of Form. Let us take, for example, the planet which for a long
period of time, has been reckoned as the outermost one in our system;
Uranus and Neptune were added later, as we shall see; but to begin
with we will consider Saturn as the outermost. If we look at Saturn
with physical vision we find him outside in cosmic space, a sort of
luminous globe (leaving his rings out of the question). To the
occultist who follows the spiritual events in the cosmos, this globe
which is seen out there is not what the occultist calls Saturn; to him
Saturn is that which fills the whole space bounded by the apparently
elliptical orbit of Saturn.
You know that astronomy describes an orbit of Saturn which it
interprets as the path of Saturn round the Sun. We will not at present
discuss the accuracy of that statement, but if you take this accepted
concept and here in the center imagine the Sun (S), and the outer
circle as the orbit of Saturn, as astronomy conceives it, then
everything which is within this orbit of Saturn, within the ellipse of
Saturn, is to the occultist Saturn. For to him not only is that which
the external eye sees as the most external physical matter, Saturn;
not only that which gleams in the heavens, for the occultist knows,
occult vision teaches him that, as a matter of fact, a sort of
accumulation exists which extends from the Sun to the orbit of Saturn
(a,a,a, in the diagram). So that if with occult vision we regard this
orbit of Saturn, we have a sort of etheric filling in of the whole
space: (the wide crosslines). That which lies within this orbit we
must think of as filled with matter, not however in the form of a
globe, for we have to do with a very flattened ball, a lens. Looked at
from the side, we should if we had the Sun at (S1) have to
draw the Saturn of the occultist thus: as a much flattened
ball, and at (a1), would be that which is designated the
physical Saturn. We shall understand still better what is in question
if we add an idea which we can gain in a similar manner from occult
science with regard to Jupiter. External physical astronomy knows as
Jupiter that shining body which revolves round the Sun as the second
planet (the inner circle). That to the occultist, is not Jupiter: to
him, Jupiter is all that lies within the orbit of Jupiter (narrow
sloping lines). Looked at from the side, we should have to draw
Jupiter so that if we put wide sloping lines for Saturn, we can put
narrow sloping lines for Jupiter. That which astronomy describes is
only a body (bl) which is, so to speak, on the outermost limits of the
true occult Jupiter.
What I am here saying is not a mere theoretical idea or fancy, the
fact actually is, that matter, not coarse physical matter but fine
etheric matter, fills the space within the orbit of Saturn in its
lenticular, flattened, ball-like form, as drawn here. It is just as
much a fact that the second smaller space for Jupiter is filled with a
different etheric substance which permeates the first; so that there
is simple etheric substance only between the two orbits; within, the
two etheric substances permeate one another, mutually permeate one
another.
Now let us ask: What is the task of the Spirits of Form in this whole
disposition? That Spirit of Form which forms the basis of Saturn, sets
a boundary, gives form to this etheric substance which in an occult
sense we call Saturn. Thus the outermost line in the formation of
Saturn has been shaped by the Spirit of Saturn, which is also a Spirit
of Form. In the same way the line of Jupiter was formed by the Spirit
of Form allotted to Jupiter; the line of Mars by the Spirit of Mars,
which is a Spirit of Form. Now we may ask: Where then actually dwells
the Spirit of Form which corresponds to Saturn, or Jupiter, or Mars?
If we can speak of a place in which these beings are, where is this
place? In the ordinary sense of the word we cannot so do; we can only
say: The spiritual beings which we call the Spirits of Form
work as forces within the etheric substance I have just mentioned; but
they all have a common center, and this is none other than the Sun.
Thus if we seek for the actual place whence the Spirits of Form work,
the Spirits of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, etc., as also the Spirit of Form
belonging to our Earth if we seek for the center, the starting
point from which the Spirits of Form work we find it in the
Sun. That means that the Spirits of Form corresponding to our planets,
comprise, as it were, a synod or council of Spirits, having its seat
in the Sun, and from there sets boundaries to certain etheric
substances, certain masses of ether, so that what we call occult
Saturn, occult Jupiter, comes into being. Now let us ask: How would it
be if the Spirits of Form alone were to work?
From the whole significance of these studies you will gather that
those physical planets would not be in existence if only the Spirits
of Form were to work. They would indeed have, as it were, their abode
in the Sun, where they form a sort of college; and we should have
around us the planetary spheres as far as the orbit of Saturn, for
there would be, so to speak, concentric globes, flattened balls in
existence as occult planets; the most external of these flattened
globes being of the finest etheric matter, the next somewhat denser
and the innermost of the densest etheric matter. Thus the physical
planets would not be in existence if these Spirits of Form alone were
to work, but there would be globe-shaped, accumulated masses bounded
by what the physical astronomy of to-day calls the orbits of the
planets. But within the cosmos there are certain spiritual beings
corresponding to the Spirits of Form, but who, as it were, are rebels
against those of their own class. Just as we find Luciferic Spirits
among the beings of the Third Hierarchy, which in order to set up
their own independent life, cut themselves off from the spiritual
substance of the higher hierarchies, so do we also find within the
category of the Spirits of Form that some separated and would not go
through the usual development of a Spirit of Form, but went through an
evolution of their own. These oppose the normal Spirits of Form, are
in opposition to them. What then happens is as follows.
Let us suppose that we had at point S the centre-point of the
spiritual Council of the Spirits of Form; the Spirit of Form working
upon Saturn would call forth this etheric globe, so that by the agency
of this Spirit of Form a flattened globe would arise, as in the
diagram. At an outermost point of this etheric globe, in opposition to
the Spirit of Form working from the centre of the Sun works the rebel,
the Luciferic Spirit of Form. He works from without inwards;
opposingly. Thus we have the normal Spirit of Form working outwards
from the Sun, centrifugally; he brings about the occult Saturn, which
is then to be seen as a mighty etheric globe with its centre-point in
the Sun. At the periphery, working inwards from cosmic space, is an
abnormal Spirit of Form who has cut himself off from the normal
evolution of the others; and at point (a) through the combined working
of the forces working inwards from cosmic space, and those others
working outwards from the sun, there occurs an inturning,
which finally becomes detached, and that is the physical planet
Saturn. Thus we have to imagine that where our physical eyes ace the
planet Saturn, there are two forces working together; the one, the,
normal force of the Spirit of Form working outward from the Sun; and
at a definite point in opposition works the detached Spirit of Form.
This produces an in-turned structure; the ether is
notched, and this notch appears to the physical eye as the physical
planet Saturn. Just the same occurs with the physical Jupiter, and
with the physical Mars. Hence, by this example you see how in
individual cases there actually arises what we call maya,
the great illusion. Where physical astronomy places a planet, there is
in truth a combined working of two forces; and only because, in truth,
a great and mighty etheric heavenly body is there, which, through the
contact of these opposing forces, is dented in and has a notch formed
in one place, does the appearance of the physical planet arise.
For in truth here we have actually to do with a turning in, and to be
really accurate the matter must in the first place be described as:
The Spirits of form working from the Sun extended the etheric
substance to a certain distance; there worked the abnormal Spirits of
Form in opposition, and caved the substance in, so that in reality a
hollow was made in the etheric substance. As regards the original
etheric substance of the planet, where the physical eye believes it
sees the planet there is really nothing; the actual planet is
where the physical eye sees nothing. That is the peculiarity of
maya. Where the physical planet is seen, there is a
hollow. It may perhaps be said: It is a very strange idea that
where the physical planet is to be seen, there is a hollow, for
you will ask about our Earth. In the sense of what has been expounded,
our Earth must also be a sort of flattened ball having its central
point in the Sun, and it must also be such a notch, such a sort of
hollow on the outermost rim. A fine thing that! you can
say, We know quite well that we are walking on firm, solid
earth. In like manner we might take for granted that where Saturn,
Jupiter or Mars are, there would naturally have to be solid filling,
not hollow. And nevertheless where you walk about on our Earth
where, in the sense of Maya-perception you believe yourselves to be
walking on solid, firm ground even then, in reality, you are
walking about on a hollow. Our Earth itself, in so far as it is an
accumulation of matter, is a hollow in cosmic space, something bored
into cosmic space. All physical matter comes into being through the
meeting together of forces coming from the Spirits of Form. In this
case we have the meeting of the forces of the normal Spirits of Form
and those of the abnormal Spirits of Form. They collide with one
another and in reality an indentation is produced and consequently at
this point a simultaneous breaking up of the form, but only of the
form. The form breaks up and this hollow space is bored. Now broken
spiritual form, crushed form, is in reality matter. In a physical
sense matter only exists when spiritual forms are broken up. Thus the
planets out there are also broken-up forms.
In our planetary system the Spirits of Form have helpers, as has been
made evident by our previous considerations. They themselves determine
the boundaries, as we have described: but above the Spirits of
Form stand the Spirits of Motion, above these the Spirits of Wisdom,
above these the Spirits of Will, above them the Cherubim, the
Seraphim. In all ranks of these spiritual beings there are those who
can be likened to what we have described as Luciferic Spirits. So that
wherever a planet is formed, on its outermost border not merely do the
Spirits of Form cooperate, but that which goes out from the Sun, from
the activities of the normal hierarchies, working from within
outwards, is always being opposed by the forces coming from the
abnormal, the rebellious hierarchies.
The Cherubim and Seraphim are those hierarchies which just as much
take part in the whole working of the forces, as do the Spirits of
Form. They have the task of bearing the power of light outwards from
the center-point of the planetary system, from the center of the Sun.
Inasmuch as the beings of the higher hierarchies, the Seraphim and
Cherubim, become the bearers of light, they have now the same relation
to the light as the forces of the Spirits of Form to the etheric
substance. Just as the forces of the normal Spirits of Form pass
outwards and encounter the forces of the abnormal spirits working in
opposition, and by that means a notch is hollowed out, so also do the
forces work which carry the light, filling the whole etheric space;
but in opposition to them work the abnormal forces
(See Figure 6, point a),
so that the planet arrests the light. Just as it arrests the
forces of the Spirits of Form, so does it arrest the light, and throw
it back; hence it appears as a reflector, as a thrower-back of the
light which the spirits we call the Cherubim and Seraphim carry to it
from the Sun.
Hence the planets have no light of their own, because they claim for
themselves the force of the light which would be their due as beings
if they were to open themselves to the normal Cherubim and Seraphim
because they veil themselves, cut themselves from the whole.
Thus every planet has a cut-off separated light. It is not correct to
say that the planets only have light borrowed from the Sun; every
planet has its own light; but it has cut it off, keeps it hidden
within itself, and develops it for its own independent inner life of
light. We shall see that each planet only shares this light with its
own beings, belonging to the kingdoms of nature on the planet in
question. But that light to which they ought to open themselves, which
they ought to take up from outside, is brought to them from the Sun by
the Cherubim and Seraphim, but to that they close themselves, and
throw it back. Hence, seen in cosmic space, they are stars which have
no light of their own. Thus, as it were, with the light which flows in
from the Sun a notch is formed and the planet throws itself against
that light flowing in from the Sun; arrests it and throws it back.
Thus to occult vision what we observe in the stellar world, is
absolutely different from what it appears to physical astronomy. What
exists for the latter is nothing but a description of a Maya, and only
behind this Maya does the truth lie; for the truth behind the material
world is the spiritual world. In reality the material world does not
exist at all. What is called the material world is the interplay of
the forces of the spiritual world.
We have tried to describe to-day how such a planetary system really
arises. Very little is really known in the external world, in the
world of physical science, of the origin of such a system; for though
physical science imagines that a planetary system arises from a sort
of massing of etheric substance, the first fundamental principle is
omitted which should hold good in all natural science. How often are
children told at school at least I do not know whether it is
done here, but in Central Europe they are always told that
according to the Kant-Laplace system of the origin of the world a mass
of original matter was in rotation from which then the separate
planets split off. (There may be some little improvement in that
to-day, but the principle is the same.) And in order that this may be
quite clear and comprehensible, the children are shown by means of a
little experiment how easily a planetary system can be formed. A large
drop of some oily substance which floats on water is taken, and a
circle ingeniously made in the line of the equator which is pierced
through with a card; then a needle is passed through from pole to
pole, then one begins to turn, and behold, out of the drop of oil
arises a pretty little planetary system. Quite in the sense of the
Kant-Laplace theory of the origin of the world, little drops separate
off and rotate, while in the center remains the big drop, the Sun.
What is more natural than to represent this to young people as a
visible proof that this was also once enacted in the great cosmic
spaces. But in so doing an important error is made, one which ought
never to be made in natural science. There are certain conditions that
ought never to be forgotten in making experiments. A scientist who
forgets conditions without which no experiment can come about does not
describe it accurately even according to natural science. If you omit
any essential condition you are not describing it correctly according
to natural science. The essential condition in the origin of this
planetary system is however that the teacher should stand there and
make it revolve, otherwise the whole system could not originate! The
Kant-Laplace theory would thus only be possible if those who believe
in it could at the same time supply a gigantic teacher in cosmic
space, who would revolve the whole etheric mass. People notice even
small errors in logic perhaps not always, but often; but
capital errors, such errors as those which in their effects extend to
the whole cosmic-conception, are not remarked.
Now there is no great teacher outside, making the axis of the world
revolve, but there are the individual beings of the various
hierarchies, who through the interplay of their forces, bring about
the distribution and regulation of the movements of the different
heavenly bodies. This should be the answer to those who would believe
that the ordinary materialistic theory as expressed in Kant-Laplace,
or in later hypotheses, is sufficient to explain the cosmic system,
and that it is not necessary to consider anything else, as do the
occultists. To those people who from a materialistic standpoint object
to this living interplay of the hierarchies, we must again reply: with
the capital error in logic which must be made by all cosmic
materialistic hypotheses we cannot reach our goal; for there is no
possibility of explaining a planetary system without calling to one's
aid what occult vision can actually see. It is certainly abundantly
proved to occult vision that what must he described with the physical
senses is indeed, considered in its reality, something quite
different. Thus what the eye sees is really nothing but the reflected
light, which is thrown back, because, when the Seraphim and Cherubim
carry the light of the Sun into cosmic space, the Luciferic Cherubim
and Seraphim throw themselves against them, so to speak, and insert
darkness into the substance of the sunlight; cutting off the light
within, and claiming for each of the planets a light of its own.
These thoughts, now given out on the basis of occult observation and
occult investigation, were first expounded in the post-Atlantean
period in a sublime way by the great Zarathustra to his pupils.
Everything which is rayed down from the Sun into cosmic space in the
way just described, by the beings of the higher hierarchies centered
in the Sun, was ascribed by Zarathustra to the Spirit whom he named
Ahura Mazdao, or Ormuzd. That spirit who carried the forces of his
being from the center-point of the Sun into the periphery, was
everywhere opposed by the abnormal spirits of the different
hierarchies, which in their totality, form the kingdom of Ahriman. We
shall, however, see that we must separate the kingdom of Ahriman from
that of Lucifer with regard to the planetary system. We shall have
more to say about this; but at the conclusion of this lecture,
attention must be drawn to the fact that Zarathustra in his own way
symbolically pointed out to his pupils this connection of the Light of
Ahura Mazdao, or Ormuzd, streaming out from the Sun, and of the
kingdom of Ahriman embedded within it. Zarathustra said: What proceeds
from the Sun we represent symbolically through that which the Seraphim
and Cherubim carry, i.e. through the light. That which is hurled
against the light in opposition by all the abnormal spirits of the
higher hierarchies, the notch thus hollowed out, we represent by what
is accepted as darkness. (That is, an individual light imprisoned
within, manifesting externally as darkness.) That, Zarathustra
represented as a kingdom of Angramanyu, or Ahriman. Thus we see how
this teaching which, having originated in Asia Minor, is in a sense,
once more given to us today, was met first in the Zarathustra
civilisation. What always fills us with such significant feelings with
regard to the evolution of humanity, is that we ourselves come upon
certain things which even if they were not traditional and not to be
observed in the Akasha Chronicle, are furnished by the results of
present-day occult investigations; and which we can re-discover in the
great teachings of antiquity. And only when we permeate ourselves with
the truth which at the present time can be found in occult
investigation, and when this same truth shines towards us from the old
teachers and leaders of humanity, do we acquire a right relation to
these leaders of humanity. Then only do they become living to us, then
only do we understand them aright. Then, too, does the evolution of
humanity reveal itself to us as a mighty discourse held by the
spirits, now not only resounding forth to one another in space, but
interpreting one another in the successive periods of time, completing
one another, and leading the stream of civilisation on into the
future.
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