VIII
WE have said
repeatedly that our epoch will end, when the seventh age has passed
away, by the War of All against All, but this war must really be
pictured quite differently from the way we have been accustomed
to think of war. We must bear in mind the foundation, the real
cause of this war. This foundation or cause is the increase of
egoism, of self-seeking and selfishness on the part of man.
And we have now progressed so far in our considerations that
we have seen what a sharp two-edged sword this “I” of man
is. He who does not fully realize that this “I” is a
two-edged sword will scarcely be able to grasp the entire
meaning of the evolution of humanity and the world. On the
one hand this “I” is the cause that man hardens within
himself, and that he desires to draw into the service of his
“I” his inner capacities and all the other objects at his
disposal. This “I” is the cause of man's directing
all his wishes to the satisfaction of this “I” as such. Its
striving to draw to itself as its own possession a part of
the earth which belongs to all, to drive away all the other
Egos from its realm, to fight them, to be at war with them,
is one side of the “I.” But on the other hand the must not
forget that the “I” is at the same time that which gives
man his independence and his inner freedom, which in the
truest sense of the word elevates him. His dignity is founded
in this “I,” it is the basis of the Divine in man.
This
conception of the “I” offers difficulty to many
people. It has become clear to us that this “I”
of man has developed from a group-soul nature, from a kind of
all-inclusive universal “I” out of which it has
been differentiated. It would be wrong if man were to crave
to go down again with his “I” into some sort of
universal consciousness, into some sort of common
consciousness. Everything which causes a man to strive to
lose his “I” and dissolve it into a universal
consciousness, is the result of weakness. He alone
understands the “I” who knows that after he has
gained it in the course of cosmic evolution it cannot be
lost; and above all man must strive for the strength (if he
understands the mission of the world) to make this
“I” more and more inward, more and more divine.
True Anthroposophists possess nothing of the empty talk which
continually emphasizes the dissolution of the “I”
in a universal self, the melting into some sort of primeval
sea. True Anthroposophy can only put forward as the final
goal, the community of free and independent Egos, of Egos
which have become individualized. It is just this that is the
mission of the earth, which is expressed in love, that the
Egos learn to confront one another freely. Love is not
perfect if it proceeds from coercion, from people being
chained together, but only when each “I” is so
free and independent that it need not love, is its love an
entirely free gift. It is the divine plan to make this “I”
so independent that as an individual being in all freedom it
can offer love even to God. It would amount to man being led
by strings of dependence if he could in any way be forced to
love, even if only in the slightest degree.
Thus the “I” will be the pledge for the highest goal of
man. But at the same time, if it does not discover love, if
it hardens within itself, it is the tempter that plunges him
into the abyss. For it is that which separates men from one
another which brings them to the great War of All against
All, not only to the war of nation against nation (for the
conception of a nation will then no longer have the
significance it possesses to-day) but to the war of each
single person against every other person in every branch of
life; to the war of class against class, of caste against
caste and sex against sex. Thus in every field of life the
“I” will become the apple of discord; and hence we may say
that it can lead on the one hand to the highest and on the
other hand to the lowest. For this reason it is a sharp
two-edged sword. And he who brought the full
Ego-consciousness to man, Christ Jesus, is, as we have seen,
symbolically and correctly represented in the Apocalypse as
one who has the sharp two-edged sword in his mouth.
We have
represented it as a high achievement of man that just through
Christianity he has been able to ascend to this concept of the
free “I.” Christ Jesus brought the “I” in all its
fullness. Hence this “I” must be expressed by the sharp
two-edged sword which you already know from one of our seals.
And the fact that this sharp two-edged sword proceeds from
the mouth of the Son of Man is also comprehensible, for when
man has learnt to utter the “I” with full consciousness it
is in his power to rise to the highest or sink to the lowest.
The sharp two-edged sword is one of the most important
symbols met with in the Apocalypse.
Now if we
understand what was said at the close of our last lecture,
that after our present civilization will follow that which is
characterized in our last lecture through the community of
Philadelphia, we must particularly notice that from the sixth
age will be taken those human souls who have to pass over
into the following epoch. For, after the War of All against
All — as we have already said — there will be
expressed in the features all that is in our age being
prepared in men's souls. The so-called seventh age will
be of very little importance. We are now living in the fifth
age of civilization; then follows the sixth, from which will
proceed a number of people full of understanding for the
spiritual world, filled with the spirit of brotherly love,
which results from spiritual knowledge. The ripest fruit of
our present civilization will appear in the sixth age. And
that which follows it will be what is lukewarm, neither warm
nor cold; the seventh age is something like an overripe
fruit, which outlasts the War of All against All, but
contains no principle of progress.
This was the
case also when our culture originated. Let as think of the
time before the Atlantean flood. We have said that it was in
the last third of the Atlantean epoch — which men
experienced on the land now covered by the Atlantic
Ocean — when a small group was formed in the
neighbourhood of the present Ireland, which had reached the
highest stage of Atlantean civilization, and this group then
migrated to the East, whence all later civilizations have
proceeded. Let us keep this clearly in mind, let us think of
this portion of the earth which now forms the ocean west of
Ireland, let us think of a migration of people starting from
there and going towards the East and from it a number of
tribes proceeding, which then populate Europe. All that is
contained in the population of Europe originated in this way.
The most gifted portion of the Atlanteans wandered towards
central Asia; from there proceeded the various civilizations
up to our own, as we have described. So we see that our
present civilization originated in a small group of Atlanteans.
Atlantis,
however, had seven consecutive stages just as our own
civilization has seven stages which we know as the ancient
Indian, ancient Persian, Assyrian-Babylonian-Chaldean-Egyptian-Jewish,
the Graeco-Latin, our own and two further ones. It was in the
fifth stage when this emigration began; so that the specially
chosen population of Atlantis which lies at the foundation of
our culture is taken from the fifth Atlantean race, for in
Atlantis we may speak of races. A sixth and a seventh
followed. These were, so to speak the lukewarm races. They
also survived the great flood but there was no living
sprouting force in them. They were related to the fifth
Atlanteans civilization somewhat as the bark which is
lignified and hardened is related to the sappy stem. These
two races which followed the actual root-race were incapable
of developing, they were overripe, so to speak. You may still
see stragglers of these old overripe races to-day, especially
among the Chinese. This Chinese people is characterized by
the fact that it has not identified itself with what was
manifested in the fifth race, the root-race. It was when the
etheric body entered into the physical body that man received
the first germs which enabled him to say “I.” They had
passed over that period; they had, however, thereby developed
the high civilization which is known to-day but which was not
capable of development. The fifth Atlantean race sent its
people every-where, and they founded new civilizations,
civilizations capable of growing and becoming more perfect.
Indeed, this all developed from the ancient Indian
civilization to our own. The sixth and seventh races of
Atlantis allowed themselves to become hardened and therefore
became stationary. As we have said, the Chinese civilization
is a remainder of that ancient civilization. The old Chinese
possessed a wonderful Atlantean heritage but they could not
progress any further. Nothing remains uninfluenced from
outside. You may examine ancient Chinese literature; it has
been influenced from every direction, but its fundamental
tendency bears the Atlantean character. This
self-completeness, this capacity of making discoveries and
going no further, could never bring the Chinese beyond a
certain stage — all this proceeds from the character of
Atlantis.
Just as it
happened at that time with the fifth race, that it provided
men who were capable of development and with the sixth and
seventh, that they experienced a descent, so will it also be
in our epoch. We are now looking with great longing towards
the sixth civilization, to that which must be described as
developing out of the spiritual marriage between West and
East. The sixth stage will be the foundation for the new
civilizations which will arise after the great War of All
against All; just as our civilization arose after the
Atlantean epoch. On the other hand, the seventh race of
culture will be characterized by the lukewarm. This seventh
age will continue into the new epoch, just as the sixth and
seventh races of the Atlantean epoch continued into our epoch
as races hardened and stiffening. After the War of All
against All, there will be two streams in humanity: on the
one hand the stream of Philadelphia will survive with the
principle of progress, of inner freedom, of brotherly love, a
small group drawn from every tribe and nation; and on the
other hand the great mass of all those who are lukewarm, the
remains of those who are now becoming lukewarm (Laodicea).
After
the great War of All against All, gradually the evil
stream will be led over to good by the good race, by the good
stream. This will be one of the principal tasks after the
great War of All against All; to rescue what can be rescued
from those who after the great war will only have the impulse
to fight one another and to allow the “I” to express itself
in the most external egoism. Such things are always provided
for in advance in the spiritual guidance of humanity.
Do not
consider it a hard thing in the plan of creation, as
something which should be altered, that humanity will be
divided into those who will stand on the right and those who
will stand on the left; consider it rather as something that
is wise in the highest degree in the plan of creation.
Consider that through the evil separating from the good, the
good will receive its greatest strengthening. For after the
great War of All against All, the good will have to make
every possible effort to rescue the evil during the period in
which this will still be possible. This will not merely be a
work of education such as exists to-day, but occult forces
will co-operate. For in this next great epoch men will
understand how to set occult forces in motion. The good will
have the task of working upon their brothers of the evil
movement. Everything is prepared beforehand in the hidden
occult movements, but the deepest of all occult cosmic
currents is the least understood. The movement which is
preparing for this, says the following to its pupils: “Men
speak of good and evil, but they do not know that it is
necessary in the great plan that evil, too, should come to
its peals, in order that those who have to overcome it
should, in the very overcoming of evil, so use their force
that a still greater good results from it.” The most capable
must be chosen and prepared to live beyond the period of the
great War of All against All when men will confront those who
bear in their countenances the sign of evil; they must be so
prepared that as much good force as possible will flow into
humanity. It will still be possible for those bodies, which
are to a certain extent soft, to be transformed after the War
of All against All by the converted souls, by the souls who
will still be led to the good in this last epoch. In this way
much will be accomplished. The good would not be so great a
good if it were not to grow through the conquest of evil.
Love would not be so intense if it had not to become love so
great as to be able even to overcome the wickedness in the
countenances of evil men. This is already being prepared for
and the pupils are told, “You must not think that evil has
no part in the plan of creation. It is there in order that
through it may come the greater good.” Those who are being
prepared in their souls by such teachings, so that in the
future they will, be able to accomplish this great task of
education, are the pupils of the Manichaean School. The
Manichaean teaching is generally misunderstood. When you hear
anything or read something about it, you find merely phrases.
You may read that the Manichees believed that from the very
beginning of the world there have been two principles: good
and evil. This is not so, the teaching of the Manichees is
what we have just explained. By the name “Manichaeism”
should be understood the above teaching and its development
in the future, and the pupils who are so led that they can
accomplish such a task in future incarnations. Manes is that
exalted individuality, who is repeatedly incarnated on the
earth, who is the guiding spirit of those whose task it is to
transform evil. When we speak of the great leaders of mankind
we must also think of this individuality who has set himself
this task. Although at the present day this principle of
Manes has had to step very much into the background because
there is little understanding for spiritual work, this
wonderful and lofty Manichaean principle will win more and
more pupils the nearer we approach the understanding of
spiritual life.
Thus you see
how the present-day humanity will pass into the new epoch
beyond the War of All against All, just as that root-race of
the Atlanteans lived over into our epoch and founded our
civilizations. After the great War of All against All
humanity will develop in seven consecutive stages. We have
already seen how that which is said concerning the opening of
the seven seals in the Apocalypse of John gives us the
character of the seven consecutive civilizations after the
great war. Then when this civilization — which can only
be seen by the initiates in the astral world and in its
symbolism — has run its course, a new epoch will begin
for our earth development in which again new forms will
appear. And this new epoch, which will follow the one just
described, is symbolized in the Apocalypse of John by the
sounding of the seven trumpets. Just as the epoch after the
great War of All against All is characterized by the seven
seals, because the seer can only see it to-day from the
astral world, so by the sounding of the trumpets is
characterized the stage of civilization which follows,
because man can only perceive it from the true spiritual
world where the tones of the spheres sound forth. In the
astral world man perceives the world in pictures, in symbols,
in Devachan he perceives it in inspiring music; and in this
Devachan is contained the climax, as it were, of what is
revealed concerning what follows the great War of All against All.
Thus if we
represent it in a diagram, we have our seven ages of civilization
in the space between the letters a–b, so that we
have the ancient Indian civilization as the first,
the ancient Persian as the second, the
Assyrian-Babylonian-Chaldean-Egyptian-Jewish, the
Graeco-Latin,and our own as the fifth stage of the
post-Atlantean epoch. The figure IV would be the Atlantean
epoch, (a) the great flood by which this comes to an end, and
(b) the great War of All against All. Then follows an epoch
of seven stages (VI) which is represented by the seven seals,
then follows another (VII) also containing seven stages,
represented by the seven trumpets. Here again lies the
boundary of our physical earth development.
Now the
Atlantean civilization (IV), which preceded our own, was also
preceded by other stages of civilization; for that of our own
(V), which follows the Atlantean, is the fifth -Stage on our
earth. Four stages of civilization preceded it. But we can
scarcely call the first stage a civilization culture.
Everything was still etheric and spiritual, all in such a
condition that if it had developed further in this way it
would not have become visible at all to sense organs such as
ours. The first stage developed when the sun was still bound
up with our earth. There were then quite different
conditions, one could not speak of anything which looked like
the objects now surrounding us. Then followed a stage
characterized by the sun separating. Then one characterized
by the moon leaving the earth; this was the third stage,
which we call the ancient Lemurian. At this point the present
man appeared on our earth in his very first form, concerning
which I have pointed out that they were such grotesque bodily
forms that it would shock you if you were to hear them
described. After the Lemurian followed the Atlantean, and
finally our own.
So you see
that we have on our earth seven epochs of development. The
first two were absolutely unlike our epoch.; the third partly
ran its course in a region lying between the present Africa,
Asia and Australia, in ancient Lemuria. In the very last
Lemurian race there was again a small group of the most
advanced. These were able to emigrate, and from them
developed the seven races of the Atlanteans. The last
Lemurian race founded the Atlantean races. The fifth of the
Atlantean races founded our civilizations, of which the sixth
will found the future civilization after the great War of All
against All. And the very last of those civilizations will
have to found that which is indicated by the seven trumpets.
After that, what will happen? Our earth will then have
reached the goal of its physical evolution. All the objects
and all the beings upon it will then have been transformed.
For if we have had to say that already in the sixth epoch men
will show good and evil un their faces, we shall have to say
all the more of the seventh that the form of man and the
forms of all the other beings will be an expression of good
and evil to a much higher degree than in the sixth epoch. All
matter will bear the stamp of the spirit. There will be
absolutely nothing in this seventh epoch that can be hidden
in any way. Even those belonging to the sixth epoch will be
unable to hide anything from him who has the necessary
vision. An evil man will express his evil, a good man will
express the good that is within him; but in the seventh epoch
it will be quite impossible by speech to hide what is in the
soul. Thought will no longer remain dumb so that it can be
hidden, for when the soul thinks, its thought will ring forth
outwardly. It will then be just as thought is already to the
Initiates to-day. To them thought now rings out in Devachan.
But this Devachan will have descended into the physical
world, just as the astral world will have descended into the
physical world in the sixth epoch. Even now the sixth epoch
can be found in the astral world and the seventh in the
heavenly world. The sixth epoch is the descended astral
world, that is to say the images, the expressions, the
manifestations of it. The seventh epoch will be the descended
heavenly world, the expression of it. And then the earth will
have reached the goal of its physical evolution. The earth,
together with all its beings, will then change into an astral
heavenly body. Physical substance as such will disappear. The
part which until then had been able to spiritualize itself,
will pass over into the spirit, into astral sub-stance.
Imagine all the beings of the earth who up to that time have
been able to express what is good, noble, intellectual and
beautiful in their external material form; who will bear an
expression of Christ Jesus in their countenances, whose words
will manifest Christ Jesus, for they will ring out as
resounding thoughts — all these will have the power to
dissolve what they have within them as physical matter, as
warm water dissolves salt. Everything physical will pass over
into an astral globe. But those who up to that time have not
progressed so far as to be a material and corporeal
expression of what is noble, beautiful, intellectual and
good, will not have the power to dissolve matter; for them
matter will remain. They will become hardened in matter; they
will retain material form. At this point in the earth's
evolution there will be an ascent into the spirit of forms
which will live in the astral and which will separate from
them-selves another material globe, a globe which will
contain beings unfit for the ascent because they are unable
to dissolve the material part. In this way our earth will
advance towards its future. Through the souls gradually
refining matter from within, the substance of the earth will
become more and more refined until it receives the power to
dissolve. Then will come the time when the insoluble part
will be ejected as a special planet. In the course of seven
ages that which has hardened itself in matter will be driven
out, and the power which drives it out will be the opposite
force to that which will have forced the good beings
upward.
What, then,
will they have used to dissolve matter? The power of love
gained through the Christ-principle. Beings become capable of
dissolving matter through taking love into their souls. The
more the soul is warmed by love the more power-fully will it
be able to work on matter; it will spiritualize the whole
earth and transform it into an astral globe. But just as love
dissolves matter, as warm water dissolves salt, so will the
opposite of love press down — again throughout seven
stages everything which has not become capable of fulfilling
the earth mission. The contrary of divine love is called
divine wrath, that is the technical expression for it. Just
as in the course of the fourth stage of civilization this
love was imprinted in humanity, just as it will become warmer
and warmer through the last stages in our epoch, the sixth
and seventh, so on the other hand there is growing that which
hardens matter around itself the divine wrath. This effect of
the divine wrath, this expulsion of matter is indicated in
the Apocalypse of John by the outpouring of the seven vials
of divine wrath. Imagine what the whole condition will be;
the substance of the earth will become finer and finer, the
substantial part of man will also become more and more
spiritual, and the coarsest parts will only be visible in the
finer part like the skins or shells sloughed off, for
example, by reptiles or snails. These harder parts will thus
become more and more incorporated in the substance which is
growing finer. In the last epoch, the epoch of the sounding
of the trumpets, you would with spiritual vision see how men
consist of delicate, spiritualized bodies; and how those who
have hardened the material principle in themselves have
preserved in themselves what to-day are the most important
constituents of matter; and how this will fall as husks into
the material globe which will be left after the epoch
indicated by the sounding of the trumpets.
This is
prophetically described in the Apocalypse of John, and it is
important to develop a feeling in our souls about this
knowledge of what is coming, so that it may fire our will.
For what will man have made of himself when the sixth and
seventh epochs are over? What will he have made of his body?
If we now observe the human body we find that it is not yet
the expression of the soul within; but it will gradually
become an expression of what the soul experiences within.
Man's outer body will thus become an expression of the
good by his receiving the highest message, the highest
teaching there is on this earth; and this highest teaching is
the message of Christ Jesus on the earth; the highest that
can be given to us is the message of Christ Jesus. We must
take it up thoroughly, not merely with the understanding; we
must take it into our innermost being, just as one takes
nourishment into the physical body. And as humanity develops
further it will take up the joyful message into its inner
being more and more. It is just this reception of the message
of love which it will have to regard as the result of the
earth's mission. The power of love is contained in the
Gospels, the whole power of love, and the seer can say
nothing else than: “In the spirit I see a time before me
when that which is in the Gospel will no longer be outside in
a book but when it will be devoured by man himself.”
Our earth
evolution depends upon two things. Our earth was preceded by
what we call the Cosmos of Wisdom, and that was preceded by
what we call the Cosmos of Strength, of Power (certainly the
word does not convey much, but we must use it because it has
become customary). Wisdom and strength have been received as
a heritage from previous stages of evolution, from the
ancient Moon and the ancient Sun. We shall see that during
our earth evolution this is also expressed by our naming the
first half after the representative of the Sun forces, Mars,
for we only need note at this point that within our earth
evolution we have in Mars that which implanted iron in the
earth; in Mars we see the bringer of strength. And in that
which rules the second half of the earth evolution we have
the representative of the ancient Moon evolution, Mercury,
which embodies in the earth the heritage received from the
Moon, wisdom. Thus the earth evolution consists of two parts,
Mars and Mercury. It has received as a heritage two mighty
forces. That which it has inherited from the cosmos of
strength is expressed in Mars, and that which it has inherited
from the cosmos of wisdom is expressed in Mercury. The
mission of the earth itself is to bring love. Love is to be
gloriously manifested as the result of the earth evolution.
This is a very profound thought expressed by the writer of
the Apocalypse. It is the profound thought underlying the
whole of the earth evolution.
Let us once
more go back to the first portion of the Atlantean epoch, to
the time of which we said that the air was still saturated
with water. Man was still organized for a water existence.
Only in the middle of Atlantis had he progressed so far that
he forsook the water and trod upon solid ground. Up to the
middle of the earth's evolution we must regard water as
the vehicle of human evolution, just as afterwards solid
earth. It was only comparatively late that the solid earth
became the field of human evolution. It is only half the
truth if we speak of the whole of Atlantis as consisting of
dry land. In many respects it was not covered, let us say, by
the ocean, but by something between air and water,
air-saturated with water. And this water-air was the element
in which man lived. Only later did he become capable of
living in clear air and standing on solid ground. That was,
comparatively speaking, not long ago; so that if we survey
the earth's evolution, we may say, expressing it
symbolically: On the one hand we have earth and on the other
hand water — that is the earlier period. From the water
emanates one of the forces, and from the earth emanates the
other force, up to the first half of evolution. In the middle
of the fourth period we speak of the Mars forces, of the
forces given by water, so to speak, and we speak of the
Mercury forces in the later time when the solid earth gives
the supporting forces. This fits quite accurately into the
conception that man is supported in his entire earth mission
by two pillars. They represent two parts of the earth's
mission, the two heritages man has received from earlier
periods. And above them is symbolized what is to be attained
through the earth itself, namely love, which is there
gloriously revealing itself, which is supported by these
heritages. Thus the writer of the Apocalypse really describes
it just as it presents itself to those who ascend. Therefore,
when we observe what lies beyond the earth and what confronts
us when earthly substance dissolves into the spiritual, this
is symbolically indicated by what we see in the fourth seal.
[See Dr. Steiner's
Occult Seals and Symbols.]
Of course it has to appear
reversed, because it represents what belongs to the future.
We see the two forces which the earth has received as
heritage from the cosmos of wisdom and the cosmos of
strength, and we see all that appears as the fulfilment of
the earth's mission, as the force of love which man
develops. The whole appears to its as the personification of
the man of the future. The man of the future here confronts
us symbolically, supported by these forces, permeated by this
power. The message of love, the book before him, is a book
which influences him not only from without but he has to
devour it. Here we behold before us the mighty picture which
appears at this stage. “And I saw another mighty angel”
(that is, a being which is presented thus, because he is
already above the present man), “descend from the spiritual
spheres” (that is how it is seen by the Seer) “clothed with
a cloud, and his countenance was like the sun and his feet
like pillars of fire” — these are the two forces
of which we have spoken, which the earth has received as a
heritage. “And he had in his hand a little book opened; and
his right foot was set upon the sea and his left upon the
earth. ... And I said unto him, Give me the little book. And
he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall pain
thee in thy belly, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as
honey. And I took the little book from the hand of the angel
and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey.”
Here we have the feeling arising in the seer when he directs
his gaze to the point when the earth passes from the
physically material into the astrally spiritual, when the
earth mission is attained. And when the seer sees this he
learns what is really connected with this message of love,
which entered in as an impulse in the fourth age, he learns
even in the present life, as the Apocalyptist learnt, what
bliss is and the bliss that may lie before humanity. But he
learns it in his present body; for if a being wished to live
with man, however high he might be, he would be obliged to
incarnate in the flesh. And in many respects the present
body, just because it offers the spirit the possibility of
rising high, also gives the possibility of suffering. While,
there-fore, the soul is able to ascend — the soul of
the seer — as the Apocalyptist has described, into
spiritual regions, in order to receive the Gospel of Love,
and in spirit is able to feel the bliss sweet as honey, yet
the seer lives in a present-day body, and in accordance with
this he must say that the ascent produces in the present body
the antithesis of that bliss in many respects. He expresses
this by saying that although the little book is at first
sweet as honey when he eats it, it gives him severe pains in
the belly. But this is only a small reflection of the
“being crucified in the body.” The higher the
spirit rises, the more difficult it is for it to dwell in the
body, and this is the symbolical expression for these pains:
“being crucified in the body.”
Thus we have
briefly sketched what will happen in our earth evolution,
what lies in front of man in his earthly evolution. We have
arrived at the point when man is changed into an astral
being; when the best parts of the earth disappear as physical
earth and pass over into the spiritual; when only something
like a separated portion will through the divine wrath fall
into the abyss. And we shall see that even there the last
stage at which salvation would not be possible has not yet
been reached, although that which is in the abyss is pictured
by the most frightful symbols, by the seven-headed and
ten-horned beast and by the two-horned beast.
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