Lucifer and Jehovah

Introduction

After the Sun had separated from Earth in the Hyperborean epoch (to allow spiritual beings to continue their development at their much faster speed, not fitted for humanity), and afterwards in the Lemurian epoch the Moon separated from the Earth (to avoid the hardening of Man), we then find the Earth in a new constellation between Sun and Moon, with spiritual influences from both spheres. See Schema FMC00.190A below.

This way a balanced system Sun-Earth-Moon was constituted.

The impact for the development of Man is related to divine impulses, and this is referenced as the balance between Lucifer and Jehovah. Both Lucifer and Jehovah are terms to denote a class of spiritual beings.

We live in the midst of this force-field of opposing counterbalancing spiritual influences that work in Man.

Jehovah-Lucifer-Christ

The relationship between Jehovah, Lucifer and the Christ is essential for an overall understanding of the Christ Impulse and hence it is key to study this deeply. It can be approached from various angles:

from the evolutionary perspective and the Lemurian epoch - see also description in Book of Genesis
from a physical study of the mineral and etheric
from the perspective of what the influences bring: Lucifer the bearer of light, Christ the bringer of Love

Jehovah

In the Lemurian epoch, one class of the seven Spirits of Form (or Elohim) described by the name Jehovah, brought the higher Self or monad down to Earth where it was connected with the lower Self of Man. This was a first divine intervention - see Schema FMC00.185 - that brought the two streams of development, the lower physical and higher spiritual together. This was also the origin of the warm blood and blood-based love.

Lucifer

In the Lemurian epoch and down to the Atlantean epoch, the Spirits of Form sacrificed their being whereby they infused the I-substance in Man - see oa Schema FMC00.046 on Development of the I.

This rippling in of the I-consciousness was a slow gradual process, in which certain backward spirits (that did not reach their normal evolutionary goal on Old Moon), saw an opportunity to continue their development. Hence they came to do so by residing in Man, thereby on the one hand giving Man freedom, but also infecting his astral body. This is the so-called Fall in the Bible, the opening of Man's eyes after temptation by the snake Lucifer. See also Book of Genesis

Lucifer therefore brought Man his freedom, but also an unbalance in his bodily principles from the I downwards to astral, etheric and physical body .. thereby bringing also the origin of illness and physical death. See also Fall and redemption - original sin and grace

Christ

The Christ Impulse - as the second divine intervention (Schema FMC00.185) - is the 'healing' compensation for the Luciferic infection and replaces the blood-relationship based love brought by Jehovah by brotherly spiritual love for the whole humanity.

Aspects

see also The two etheric streams (as well as the illustration of the heart's two blood circuits (and the parallel with the heart circulation between heart-lungs-brain).
Man between Sun and Moon
- the Emerald Tablet and the famous extract "Its Father is the Sun; its Mother is the Moon..." etc, see References to the concept of the Golden Chain#The Tabula Smaragdina Hermetic or Emerald Table
- see the right section of Schema FMC00.542 below:
  - from the intake of oxygen (remnant of the separation of the moon): the carbonic acid stream 'flows up' to combine with sodium and iron to carbonic iron (and links Man to the moon); this is why 'soda in the head-nerve subsystem' is linked to thinking.
  - from the intake of nitrogen (remnant of the separation of the Sun: the cyanic acid stream 'flows down' to combine with calcium oxides (lime) to generate cyanide (and links Man to the sun); this links to the limb system and willing.
- the Christ Impulse has affected in many ways the balance between Sun and Moon that arose after the separation from Sun and the separation from Moon of the Earth in earlier epochs. See also Christ as spirit of the Earth, and the workings of the higher ethers. See also Christ Module 11 - A new physics#Two astronomies

Lucifer is represented as the Winged Form of the Dragon; Ezekiel describes him as the Winged Bull (1905-10-25-GA093A)

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.428 illustrates the human 'I' as the center or cardinal point of two opposing streams of Jehovah (Spirits of Form) and Lucifer. The Jehovah SoF impulse infused love into Man's physical blood from below, the Luciferic influence brought Man's freedom and egoism from above. Both influences were first subconscious, and mature to full consciousness only with the maturing of Man's threefold soul.

The Christ Impulse brought about a shift, see Schema FMC00.428A on Human character - the I and threefold soul.

Schema FMC00.018 depicts the relationship of opposing influences between Jehovah (one of the normally developed seven Spirits of Form) and the beings that 'underdeveloped' or stayed behind on Old Moon, 'backward' beings called Luciferic spirits.

Another way to depict this in relation to Man, is Schema FMC00.238 on I-less human beings

Schema FMC00.472A illustrates the roles of the hierarchies contributing the development of the I. The descent of the monads with the first divine impulse by the Jehovah beings led to the fusion of higher astral and lower astral and the development of the human group souls and sentient soul. The image can be a support to contemplate the role of the beings of the third hierarchy on this process, especially angels and archangels (but also luciferic beings). For a start see for example 1906-01-06/07-GA262. A different aspect is the role of the archai in the later stage of development.

Schema FMC00.190A illustrates the Earth held in balance between Sun and Moon, the Moon counterbalancing the Sun influences.

Schema FMC00.299 provides an overview reference to the first creation in the Book of Genesis, as explained in the 1910-08-GA122 lectures. This takes place fully in the Lemurian epoch.

Schema FMC00.542 illustrates the process of breathing air and the two streams of oxygen and nitrogen combining with liquid carbon in the human body and giving rise to processes generating carbonic acid and cyanic acid. Click twice and open in new tab to enlarge.

from the intake of oxygen (remnant of the separation of the moon): the carbonic acid stream 'flows up' to combine with sodium and iron to carbonic iron (and links Man to the moon); this is why 'soda in the head-nerve subsystem' is linked to thinking.
from the intake of nitrogen (remnant of the separation of the Sun: the cyanic acid stream 'flows down' to combine with calcium oxides (lime) to generate cyanide (and links Man to the sun); this links to the limb system and willing.

Note this schema focuses on the stream of coarse breathing of air as part of the middle rhythmic subsystem of Man. The silica and calcium processes (see above head and below the figure) are polar opposites related more typically to the head-nerve and metabolic-limb systems, though these processes work in the whole human body and affect all three subsystems (see 1921-04-11-GA313 and 1920-03-29-GA312 and other schemas).

Lecture coverage and references

Overview coverage

Some early lectures sketch the Luciferic situation in a theosophical terminology and from a more cosmogonic perspective, on the basis of fundamentals of evolution. Examples are 1904-12-28-GA090A and 1904-09-03-GA091.

Reference extracts

The Emerald Stone

The planetary spheres have to be considered as supersensible influence with a ‘range of action’ similar to a large sphere. The planets we see represent like the physical border or each sphere. Hence we have to see the various spheres as embedded into one another, similar to the idea of russian dolls, meaning all supersensible influences superimpose and work together in Man.

A short extract from the famous Emerald tablet, describing creation on earth as follows:

The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse

The father of it is the sun, the mother the moon. The wind bore it in the womb. Its nurse is the earth, the mother of all perfection.

The Sun is the father and the Moon the mother. The wind carries it in its stomach. The Earth is its nourisher and its receptacle.

These three translations (ao by Newton, Fulcanelli, ..) point to Earth as the ‘nurse’ or ‘receptacle’ (vessel, holder, container) and a product of father Sun and mother Moon.

1904-09-03-GA091

lecture 'Manas as Light and Love' describes the Lucifer-Jehovah topic in a unique way:

[Plant]
Let us recall once more the sequence of the three kingdoms of nature. The mineral kingdom involves especially the elements of form. The plant takes the element of life from general nature and applies it to a single being. Therefore, it seeks a constant source of life in universal nature. This is the difference between the plant and the animal – for the animal's life depends on its ancestors.
Hence, the plant's life, which is intricately interwoven with nature as a whole, is a chaste life.
[Man in previous three globes]
Man has already gone through these three realms on three different globes. He materialised in mineral, plant and animal form. Admittedly, the form was different.

In the mineral realm it resembled an automaton;

human plants had the shape of rays;

and human animal forms were egg-shaped.

On the first three planes Man reached a kind of closure. In the sequence of the kingdoms, he could not have perfected himself any further – only as an animal. Animality can have a much greater degree of perfection.
[Animals and working of manas - instinct]
We must be clear about the fact, that as long as an animal remains an animal, Manas does not work in the animal world on the physical plane, but on a higher plane. Let us recall an animal: under the circumstances, it differs from Man through the fact that its Manas is not inside it, but remains on a higher plane; so that if we wish to imagine this more concretely, we would have to think of the animal as made of threads.
The intellect exists on a higher plane and works into the lower one. This is the case in Man's lower organs. A thigh, for example, is made in such an artistic way, that one could not have shaped it in a more ingenious way even with the most concise art of engineering.
To train the animal means that Manas can do nothing if the animal has no organ for it. If the brain cannot be used for counting, then Manas cannot count. If you prepare the animal's brain for counting, then you give Manas the opportunity to influence an animal from the higher plane down. Hence, only occultists and mysticists should undertake is. Otherwise, one may do something that would cause damage in the universe.
In the ancient Atlantean race, the animals were developed and trained into new species artificially, through cross-breeding. Our animals now owe them their higher qualities. Thus, one must not wonder, that certain animals are Man's rivals in terms of their skills and abilities.
Lake Moeris had been build with perfect art. The old Egyptians still knew how to conduct the water of the Nile into an artificial lake, which watered the land through canals. It was still a highly instinctive art form – Manas influenced them from a higher plane.
[Man: manas inside]
Man differs from the animals in that Manas works within him, not from above. Manas has descended all the way into the physical plane.
This is why an animal can develop further than Man, yet it is qualitatively inferior to Man. – That which shows me the time is the spirit of the inventor of the clock. He works from a different sphere. This is Manas in the higher sense.
[Fourth globe inside versus previous outside]
At the same time, we can also call that which Man reached in the three former globes as the highest: these are beings into which Manas worked from outside. It is the task of earthly evolution to transform the body in such a way, that Manas can truly work from inside.
And now you shall also become clear about the difference between Man who stands at the fourth stage of evolution and Man who stood at the third evolutionary stage: that which formerly worked on him from outside, now emerges from inside.
Now everything must be properly prepared. Let us think of the lunar period as having passed. Now everything had to be repeated briefly, and previous stages were necessary for this to happen. First, the Lemurian Age was sufficiently developed, so that Manas could undertake the transformations.
The Lemurian race also had seven sub-stages. In the fourth (Lemurian) sub-stage, Manas emerges from within the human being.
[Appearance of freedom (and evil)]
Let us imagine the polar opposite to this: the certainty with which Manas works in the animal from outside, whereby fallibility is unthinkable. Hence, free will is unthinkable too. Only when Manas enters into the inner realm, fallibility becomes possible.
Now, since the ~~globes~~ spheres are closed and Manas is inside, he is enclosed in a prison, as it were, and depends on meeting his fellow Manasses. Fallibility only appears when Manas shines forth from inside. In the whole of human evolution, the possibility of freedom, the ability to choose between good and evil, appeared. In the whole former macrocosmic nature, one cannot speak of freedom. Until this point in time there lived animals who were afflicted by absolute certainty.
All animals with warm blood and fighting instincts [editor: warm blooded animals: mammals and birds] emerged only after the middle of the Lemurian Age, at the same time as sexuality.
Before that, there were single beings, conducted by Manas. Now there emerged single beings with freedom of choice.
[New harmonizing element: love instead of instinct]
Something new must now arise, something which will harmonise those beings. The impulse cannot come from Manas, because he has lost his certainty. A new element emerges. It is the element of love. Love was not necessary before, due to the certainty of instinct. That which we call love now emerged, from the lowest to the highest form. Even the most inferior form, sexual love, and all the way up to the forms of spiritual love, emerged only now. Then, our whole earthly macrocosm became enveloped in love as in a kind of atmosphere.
[Link with blood]
This love in the organic realm was related to the development of warm blood. It was the physical vehicle for love.
Those beings who were previously mighty, great beings, could not stay. It was the fish, they degenerated. Cold-blooded animals of today are the last remnants of great, mighty fish of Lemurian times. Only warm-blooded animals feel good now.
And now we gain insight into what became of earthly evolution since that time. The animal prepares its being like an sheath over something which enters from outside and manifests there: "The animal will pass away/ disappear."
Man reveals himself. The fact that he turns it around, that he sends the threads of his Manas outward, represents a higher evolution. He surrenders the threads of his beings as love.
[Revelation – egotism – love]
Thus, on the one hand, revelation – until the animal, then interim-realm of egotism, then the realm of love.
Exusiai – The streaming of a higher being into a lower one. Revelation. The light is the physical expression for this shining-in, for this revelation.
Occult light is the revelation of a higher element through a lower being.
Love is the renunciation of a being's own higher elements through a being that appears as a lower one.
Humanity still stands in this struggle. Earthly evolution is the war between light and love.
What lives in people themselves? A drop of Manas, the inner light itself.
Love is the cause for Manas pushing himself outward.
Two principles.
[Lucifer and Jehovah]

The Manassian being, which works in endlessly many facets as the human soul, is called Lucifer. This is the esoteric name for that which works as light upon Man.

The force which allows the light to stream out, which pushes its way outward, is Jehovah. The being of love, which pushes the Manassian being outward, is Jehovah. "God is Love". It has entered into the world in the middle of Lemurian Age.
That which wants to fully express itself outwardly, when the human path of love reaches its goal, manifests as divine wrath as long as it is still in an imperfect, incomplete state.

and through it, we see that Jehova gave a first version of the divine love, but only a reflection, contemplate - whether this maps to the love of blood relations, a precursor of the divine love or buddhi of christ

1904-12-28-GA090A

(free translation) sketches the picture 'from wisdom to love', with Old Moon being the planet of wisdom and Earth the planet of Love. In other words: the God of Wisdom is being replaced by the God of Love.

Jehovah - First initiates = Arhats, human Manas

Nice description of Luciferic principle: beings that were able to achieve their evolutionary goal on old moon, and joined their future development (destiny) and longing for wisdom with Man

Christinianity is about redeeming this Luciferic principle

Evil is a result from Freedom that came along with this Luciferic principle

Higher principle always thanks the lower principle that stays behind

The higher dhyan cohans had to get out of the luciferic to get the ability to embody manas

A good God could never create Free Man .. for this another being – left behind – was required to provide counterimpulses

Two influences are playing: the wisdom that is involved appears as spirit (manas) and the faculty that is being poured in is Love.
The wisdom that beings got on Old Moon enabled them to infuse sexuality into beings. Adepts or Masters were first initiates, the good guidance of mankind and human manas
Beings that did not reach their evolutionary goal on Old Moon, wanted to continue their development within the human astral body, gave Man a passion for wisdom. They shared their destiny with Man in that they had to evolve and rise along, and hence became Man's best friend. This is the Luciferic principle.
Lucifer's development that should have taken place on Old Moon, caused the origin of evil on Earth but also gave the freedom to Man. So Man indirectly owes his future developments .. to this ability to do evil.
Now the general principle in evolution is that to enable a higher development step, something else has to stay at a lower development.
The other normal developed beings had to push out and down this luciferic principle (leaving it behind), in order to shape beings with spirit (manas). So divine beings in the current cycle actually owe their ability and development to Lucifer.
Therefore, in order to grow, Man has to redeem Lucifer in order that these divine beings are 'rid' of this 'debt'. Man is not only there for himself, but contributes to the divine development. The good God could not have created free Man with the possibility to do evil. Therefore he had to be working on Man only from one side with impulses, whereas another being he had left behind worked on Man from the other side.
There are therefore multiple steps or gradations in this luciferic principle and the retarded beings. Wisdom can be pursued for itself (editor: and spirit, self consciousness), but also in service of the astrality (editor: redeeming of the astral infected by the luciferian spirits).
The luciferic principle also was the basis and foundation for the arts and sciences, in service of sensory gratification.

1905-10-25-GA093A

We have thus learned to know a two-fold order of human beings: those who succumbed to the Jehovah Principle, the bringing of perfection to the physical Earth, and also spiritual human beings who were becoming more highly developed.
Jehovah and Lucifer are engaged in an unceasing battle.
It is the intention of Lucifer to develop everything upwards, towards knowledge, towards the light. In the spirit world the human being can bring a certain degree of advancement to the Luciferic principle. The longer he remains in the spirit world the more of this can he develop. He must pass through as many incarnations as are necessary in order to bring this Principle fully to perfection.
Thus there exists in the world a Jehovah Principle and a Lucifer Principle.
If the Jehovah Principle alone were to be taught, man would succumb to the Earth. If the teaching of reincarnation and karma were allowed to disappear entirely from the Earth we should win back for Jehovah all the Monads and physical man would be given over to the Earth, to a petrified planet. If however one teaches reincarnation and karma, man is led upwards to spiritualisation.
Christianity therefore made the absolutely right compromise, and for a period of time did not teach reincarnation and karma, but the importance of the single human existence, in order that man should learn to love the Earth, waiting until he is mature enough for a new Christianity, with the teaching of reincarnation and karma, which is the saving of the Earth and brings the whole of what has been sown into the spirit world.
As a result, in Christianity itself there is conflict between the two Principles: the one without reincarnation and karma, the other with this teaching.

In the former case, everything which Lucifer could bring about would be taken from human beings. They would actually drop out of reincarnation and turn their backs on the Earth, becoming degenerate angels. In that case the Earth would be going towards its downfall.

Were the hosts of Jehovah to be victorious on the Earth, the Earth would remain behind as a kind of Moon, as a rigidified body. The possibility of spiritualisation would then be a missed opportunity.

.
The battle in the Bhagavad Gitadescribes the conflict between Jehovah and Lucifer and their hosts.
It might still be possible today for the teaching of Christianity without reincarnation and karma to prevail. Then the Earth would be lost for the Principle of Lucifer.
The whole earth is still a battlefield of these two principles. The principle that leads the earth towards spirituality is Lucifer. In order to live in accordance with this Principle one must first love the Earth, one must descend on to the Earth. Lucifer is the Prince who reigns in the kingdom of science and art, but he cannot descend altogether on to the Earth: for this, his power does not suffice. Quite alone, it would be impossible for Lucifer to lead upwards what is on the Earth.
For this, not only is the power of a Moon Adept necessary, but of a Sun Adept, who embraces the universality of human life, not manifesting only in science and art. Lucifer is represented as the Winged Form of the Dragon; Ezekiel describes him as the Winged Bull.

1908-08-08-GA105

contents: The sacrifice of the substance by the Thrones, Kyriotetes, Dynamis, and Exusiai. Jehovah and the Elohim, and their co-operative activity in the stages of human development.

[Jehovah]
.. the Beings who at first sent their own forces down from the sun to the earth, thus bringing about the evolution of humanity, are the Spirits of Form: they are the Beings nearest to earthly evolution.

After the separation of the sun the leader of the Spirits of Form remained with the Earth, and later departed from it with the moon. We can therefore speak of a moon-deity; he is that deity who in the Biblical records is called Jehovah.

The Sun Powers, those who sent light to Earth from outside, are called in the Bible the Elohim (or spirits of light).

Under the influence of the Elohim on one hand and Jehovah on the other, balance was maintained in the evolution of Man.
Not only Man goes through development, but that all the Beings in the cosmos are undergoing development also. Those exalted Beings who sent down their forces to us with the light — the Spirits of Form — have also passed through a development; previously they were at a lower stage and have gradually struggled upwards to their present position.
What was said just now regarding the Elohim and Jehovah applies to the most mature of these spirits, those who have made themselves fully capable of carrying on their development from the genesis of the Earth, either upon the sun or the moon; but there are beings everywhere who have fallen behind at some stage.

Yesterday we heard that planets, such as Venus and Mercury, owe their existence to the circumstance that beings have remained behind, between Man on the one hand and exalted Sun-spirits on the other. They required a dwelling-place more exalted than the Earth, but were unable to inhabit the sun because they were not sufficiently mature. These beings are far beyond the evolution of humanity, but have not yet reached the condition of the Sun spirits. They form a very important group of beings as regards human evolution. On one hand we have very mature beings, on the other, between them and mankind, are others whom we designate generally the Luciferic beings, after their leader Lucifer.

[setting the frame for the tension field]
Now we must try clearly to understand how Jehovah and the Elohim on one hand, Lucifer and his hosts on the other, are concerned with the evolution of Man.
Through the cooperation of the Sun-Gods with the Moon-God a duality arose ..
[Parenthesis on evolution]
[for the Old Saturn and Old Sun stages , see the respective topic pages]
Old Sun gradually passed over into the Old Moon incarnation, having meanwhile entered into a condition of rest.
On the material side the airy formation condensed to a watery one, and thus the fluid element arose. Old Moon was in fact a fluidic body.
In this fluid body of Old Moon you might have found physical human bodies as plastic structures, consisting now of flowing sap, or watery constituents, in which currents of air coursed just as breath and warmth intermingle in Man's body today. The physical body now consisted of three parts water, gas or air, and warmth; and the etheric body which it had previously possessed now passed over with it into the Old Moon period. Man was now in a position to assimilate an astral body, and from this time onwards he consisted of three principles: the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body.
[separation of Sun]
During the Old Moon period it was not possible for all the beings connected with it to maintain the same rate of progress in their development. It was not only during the development of our Earth, but also earlier, during Old Moon development, that the Sun separated off from the common world-body; so that in the middle of the Moon period we have two spheres — the Moon (Earth plus moon) and the Sun, which as you know had departed along with the most advanced of the spiritual beings.
Through the withdrawal of the finer forces and higher beings the grosser had been left behind upon the Moon; this planet therefore (Earth plus Moon) began to densify and harden. You must realize that even during the Old Moon period, the Sun with its beings worked for a time from outside upon the backward Moon-body.
It will now be necessary to describe more in detail these bodies which had remained behind after the departure of the Sun, for we went through a portion of our evolution upon them.
On Old Saturn there was only the physical body of Man; he was at the mineral stage.
Upon Old Sun he raised himself to the vegetable stage, he had then physical body and etheric body, but at this stage certain beings became backward, they did not rise so high as to the human-plant existence upon the Old Sun, they remained at the Old Saturn stage.
These were the forerunners of certain animals of the present day. Man's past reaches back to Old Saturn, whereas the forerunners of a certain portion of our present animal kingdom had its origin only on the Sun as a second kingdom to that of man.
From the same cause (the remaining behind of certain beings) Man, when he had worked himself upward on the Moon to a condition when he was the possessor of three principles, was surrounded by two other kingdoms; one a kingdom which on the Moon had remained behind at the stage of plants, and one that was still at the stage of minerals, these last were the forerunners of our present plants.
Our mineral kingdom did not as yet exist on the Moon. It came into existence last, as a sort of deposit from the other kingdoms. Of course anyone who affirms such things knows very well that it seems nonsense according to present ideas to say that plants could originate without the basis of a mineral kingdom, but formerly conditions were entirely different. In fact, upon the ancient Moon man developed in the animal kingdom; animals in the vegetable kingdom; and at the time when the Moon was separated from the Sun all the kingdoms were arranged in the following way:

The human kingdom (really animal kingdom, consisting of physical body, etheric, and astral bodies).

The animal kingdom (really vegetable kingdom, consisting of physical and etheric bodies).

The vegetable kingdom (really mineral kingdom, because it consisted only of a physical body).

Our present mineral kingdom did not as yet exist.
Now, when the Moon and Sun separated the Beings and forces of the Sun were completely liberated from the gross material of the Moon, so that they could act all the more strongly. The result was that all three kingdoms were raised about half a stage higher. The human astral body was lifted out of its close connection with the lower principles, so that viewing man at the beginning of the Moon period with his physical, etheric, and astral bodies, one would later have perceived a change. Through the Sun having departed and having begun to shine from outside, the astral and etheric bodies were partly liberated. The consequence was that something happened which we must try to picture in the following way: Imagine that the man of today consisted only of physical body, etheric body, and astral body; and that there now came an external force which pushed out man's etheric and astral bodies; to the clairvoyant these would now exist outside him, but through these two bodies being liberated from the weight of the physical body man could be raised about half a stage upward in evolution.
Something like this took place at the time of which I am speaking; man was lifted up, he became a Being standing midway between the present man and the present animal. In a Spiritual sense he was, however, guided and directed by the exalted Sun-Powers.
In like manner the two other kingdoms were raised about half a stage, so that about the middle of the Moon period we do not find our present kingdoms, but intermediate ones: we have a human-animal kingdom, an animal-vegetable kingdom, and a vegetable-mineral kingdom.
We on the earth walk upon a solid mineral ground; the Beings of the ancient Moon walked on what was the lowest kingdom of the Moon — the vegetable-mineral. This basic substance of the Moon was not a mineral substance such as we have on the earth, but something that was half-alive. One has an approximate idea of what this basic substance of the Moon was if we think of something resembling a mossy bog or boiled spinach, a kind of mush, but living, bubbling. There were no rocks projecting out of this mass, but there was something like dense, woody, vegetable masses, horny structures; and these took the place of our present rocks. To clairvoyant vision it appears as if man moved upon a vegetable-mineral foundation which later underwent condensation and became the stones of today. From out this substance grew the animal-plants. These were more or less firmly rooted; they were more movable, it is true, than plants are now, but they grew out of this viscous element and had a certain degree of sensation when touched. Animal-man rose from out the finest substances; he by no means reached down into the grossest, but formed his physical body from the finest substances.
This physical body, which was in a continual state of transformation, had a very strange appearance: the clairvoyant is unable to discover upon the ancient Moon a human head such as man possesses today. Although the physical body was still soft and fluidic, he can find only animal-like heads, and from out this animal-head formation the etheric and astral bodies projected.
To physical sight all these animal-men had various forms that recall our present animals, but they only remind us of these; it is only when we rise from physical sight to astral vision that we perceive the higher nature of the animal-man of the Moon. Such were the denizens of the ancient Moon.
When we examine closely the course of human development and culture, in so far as it is of a mental and spiritual nature, we find in many instances that the myths and legends that have been handed down to us are in many respects wiser than our present-day science. When more is known about the spiritual foundations of the world men will recognize in many of the myths, legends, and fairy tales a truly deep wisdom, deeper than science, which has apparently progressed so far.
Let us return for a moment to the ancient Moon, in the basic substance of which only the ancient animal-plants could flourish, and let us leave the study of the further development of the Moon itself. We must clearly understand that all these Moon-beings were the forerunners of the present Earth-beings. Our present mineral kingdom has sprung from the vegetable-mineral of the Moon epoch, from the animal-plants have sprung our present plants, and from the backward animals, men. From those men who do not progress have sprung the largest portion of our present day animals. Thus we see that our minerals, our plants, our animals, and our human beings are really the descendants of the Beings of the ancient Moon.
There is today a remarkable plant which does not thrive in a mineral soil, namely, the mistletoe. It is remarkable because when observed clairvoyantly it is seen to be different from other plants. It exhibits rudiments of an astral body passing into the mistletoe, as is the case with animals. Although this plant has no sensation it has something appertaining to the outer form of animals. This is because it belongs to those backward plant-animals of the Moon period, which were unable to become plants, and on this account cannot thrive on a mineral soil, but require other plants on which to take root.
The mistletoe has preserved the condition of the ancient Moon. The ancestors of some of the European peoples knew this fact and embodied the knowledge in a wonderful legend. The Germanic and Norse peoples recognized in Loki a power still belonging to those forces which passed from the field of activity on ancient Moon to the Earth. When the earth became Earth it came under the influence of other forces, which these ancient peoples symbolized in the God Baldur. He represents all those forces which work upon mature earth-beings, but those who had remained at the Moon stage felt an inner relationship to Loki, the Moon-God. Hence arose the wonderful legend telling how once upon a time when the Gods were playing, all creatures swore an oath that they would not injure Baldur; the mistletoe alone did not take this oath. Why? Because it is not related to the earth forces incarnated in Baldur, but is a backward Moon-creation, and so has power to injure the basic earth-force — Baldur. Loki had to be served by a being belonging to himself. This legend has its origin deep down in the hidden foundations of the world. Further, when we know that in many respects what is opposed to healthy development must be of service to unhealthy development, we understand the wise intuition of our forefathers which led them to look to the mistletoe for special curative forces and juices. They knew that of which we have just spoken, hence the role they gave to the mistletoe. From this example we can see that profound wisdom regarding the evolution of the world is frequently hidden in myth and legend.
Through the withdrawal of a part of the etheric and astral body of the animal-man upon the Moon the necessity arose, even at that time, for a change of consciousness. But we must first speak of another development which ran parallel with this.
Each of the stages of development — that on Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth — was at the same time a stage in the development of consciousness. Upon Saturn, consciousness was dim ... it was at the first stage. Such consciousness as we have in dreamless sleep — the consciousness possessed by eternally sleeping plants — is clearer than that which man had upon Saturn, which may be compared to the consciousness of minerals. Only on the Sun did man rise to a consciousness such as is possessed by plants; through the astral body, which he received upon the Moon, his consciousness rose one degree higher, to that which we designate picture-consciousness. This may be compared in a certain sense with our present dream-consciousness, although our dreams have meaning only in exceptional cases. Upon the Moon this was different, the pictures which then rose and disappeared signified something. When another being approached a man he was unable to perceive its outer form and colour, but he perceived something which rose within himself (much as is now the case in dreams); a picture rose within him of the inner nature of the approaching being, and in accordance with the colour and character of this picture he knew whether this being was friendly towards him or the reverse — whether he should remain or flee.
As already stated, a change of consciousness took place upon the Moon during the time when the Sun was outside; there were periods of alternating consciousness, times when consciousness was more vivid, and times when it was dimmer. Today we have interchanging periods of day and night. In the morning man draws into his physical body and etheric body, and the eternal world with its beings and objects rises before him. Everything around him becomes light and clear because he makes use of his senses, but at night when he goes forth with his ego and astral body, he has no instruments wherewith to perceive; everything is dark around him.
In the same way, dreamless-sleep consciousness, which was first given to man on the Sun, alternated with the waking, earth-consciousness. These conditions were already prepared for on the ancient Moon. At that time the etheric and astral bodies were not continuously outside man, there were periods when they sank into his physical body; for the ancient Moon already moved round the Sun, and this rotation brought about conditions in which man was shone upon by the Sun at certain times, and not at others. Through this an exit and entrance of the etheric and astral bodies into the physical body were brought about. The change was certainly not so strongly contrasted as at present.
During the periods of the withdrawal of these bodies from the Moon, when man was shone upon by the forces of the Sun, he was in clear consciousness — in spiritual consciousness he perceived that which was spiritual clearly, and when his etheric and astral bodies sank back into the physical body his consciousness became darkened. You see, it was the reverse of present conditions.
For long, long periods of time, alternating states of clear and dim consciousness occurred upon the Moon, and it was in the dim state of consciousness that — without man being aware of it — what is called fructification took place. In order that the powers of reproduction might be developed, and that man might bring forth, his higher being had to sink down into the physical body, and when it was released it rose again into the higher world. At that time preparation was gradually made for what has since been fully developed upon earth. Through the separation of the Sun, and because of its having given stronger forces to its creatures, man along with all the other beings was able to develop more highly. If the Sun had been limited for a longer period by the ancient Moon it could not have acted so powerfully; but once it was released from the hindrance of the Moon-substances, the Moon and all its denizens were advanced rapidly. After a time the Moon had attained such maturity that it could again be absorbed by the Sun. This was followed by a condition when all the planets which had been separated could also be again absorbed, when they all reentered the spiritual state of rest which we call Pralaya.
After this pause there came forth once more what we may call the first etheric germs of the Earth-body, out of which at a later period — everything was again differentiated.
Now let us enquire:
Whence came the physical body upon Old Saturn, whence came the etheric body on Old Sun, and the astral body on Old Moon?
These questions go to the very root of the matter. Anthroposophists do not enquire like many who imagine they are enquiring philosophically.

For there are people who ask: Whence comes this or that? and when answered they ask further and further without end. This is only done as long as the inquirer has not risen to a spiritual observation of the world. Reasonably, one must come at last to a point where the significance of questions ceases. One might ask: Whence come these furrows on the road? The answer is: A cart passed this way. Then comes the further question: Whence came the cart? And one might answer: A man on certain business was using it. They then ask: What kind of business? At length the questions would come to an end; you would have been led so far that you would have arrived in quite different realms. If the subject of the interrogation is concerned with an idea, one only arrives if one remains in abstractions, at endless questions.

But in concrete observations one arrives at last at spiritual beings, and one then inquires no longer: Why are they doing this? But one asks: What are they doing? It is necessary that one should educate oneself to see the limitations of questions.
Occult observation reveals that in the beginning, when Old Saturn began to be formed, certain Spiritual Beings poured forth the fundamental substance of Old Saturn — warmth — from their own substance as a sacrifice. They had matured so far that they did not need to absorb anything as nourishment, they were even in a position to sacrifice themselves to pour out their own substance. These Beings are the Thrones. It is they who through their sacrifice formed the foundations of the human physical body. One who can occultly observe the physical body on Saturn can say: It has flowed forth from the substance of the Thrones. The physical body changes from stage to stage, it develops ever higher, but that which we bear within us is always the transformed substance of the Thrones.
We will now pass on to the Ancient Sun. Here the etheric body was added to the physical body. Here again are Spiritual Beings lower than the Thrones, whom we call Spirits of Wisdom. They had not developed far enough on Saturn to be able to pour out their own being, but on the Sun they had progressed far enough, and there now flowed from them the substance of their etheric body. Since the Sun period we carry within us our etheric bodies; these are of the substance of the Spirits of Wisdom.
Upon the Moon the astral body was added to us. Here again there were Spiritual Beings who sacrificed their substance. These were the Spirits of Motion. Lastly we pass from the Moon to the Earth.
Here other Beings pour their force into us — we receive the Ego. To the three members we already possess is now added the “I.” This is bestowed on us by the Spirits of Form or Exusiai; they are the Elohim, who give to us their Sun-light, also Jehovah, who, from the moon, gives form to the human spirit. Herein we see the cooperation of the two categories of Spirits of Form who from outside endow man with the rudiments of his Ego.
Thus we find that from stage to stage Spiritual Beings incorporate within human evolution: on Saturn the Thrones; on the Sun the Spirits of Wisdom; on the Moon the Spirits of Motion or Dynamis; and on the Earth the Spirits of Form — Jehovah and the Elohim. From all these Beings man has received his present shape and formation, they have allowed their own Being to pour into him. In the Bible we are clearly shown how the Being of one of the Spirits of Form streamed into the Being of man. Profound secrets lie behind what is found in the Torah.
Imagine that one of the Spirits of Form united himself to the Moon as Jehovah, that from thence he worked as a Spirit of Form upon man, and, bestowing on him that which gave to him his divine form, “God made man after His Own image.” He gave to him the form of the Gods. The Spirits of Form gave to man the human form, that is, the divine form. The Elohim poured the sun-force as light upon the earth. The God Jehovah renounced the outer form of light; he streamed to earth as a darker God, thus limiting Himself to the period between birth and death. Through the air, which the light penetrates, the Spirits of the air made themselves his companions. If we wish to form a picture of what streams physically and spiritually from the sun to the earth we have to see the sun's rays caught by the moon and returned to man; we have to see these rays bringing with them that which streams to us from the Jehovah Spirit; and how with them comes also that which exists spiritually in the air.
The moment in which Jehovah poured forth His principle of force, permitting part of His Being to flow into man, is indicated in the Bible in the words: “Jehovah poured into man the living breath, and he became a living soul.”
Such a statement ought to be taken quite literally, and we must try to understand what it really contains. A thrill of awe pervades us when we begin to understand such a statement, and when we learn its meaning; telling as it does that after the Thrones on Saturn, the Spirits of Wisdom on the Sun, the Spirits of Motion on the Moon had poured their principles into man, then — on the Earth — the Spirits of Form pervaded him. It is this mighty moment that is referred to in words of the Bible quoted above.
In the next lecture we shall learn further of the Elohim and Jehovah, and how they cooperated with Luciferic Beings throughout the Atlantean epoch and on into our own.

1908-08-10-GA105

contents: The Spirits of Form as regents of earthly existence. Participation of the Luciferic beings. The formation of race.

It belongs to the very nature of our theme that these lectures should proceed in a particular way, that we should approach our goal, as it were, in circles; that starting from the circumference we should draw ever smaller circles to reach that which we desire. Hence it may seem in the beginning as if there were no system in our observations, but by gradually approaching the inner from without we shall arrive at a right understanding of the whole.
In our last lecture we reached a point where we found that the Spirits of Form, or Exusiai as they are called in Christian esotericism, are the special regents of human earthly existence. The heart of the matter is contained in the fact that these Spirits of Form worked in the course of earthly evolution both into the substance and into the soul nature of man. At a certain point of time they reached such a high stage of development that they could no longer make use of the earth as a field of action but, drawing with them the finer forces and substances, they left the earth and formed a new field for their activities on our sun.
What do we mean when we say:
“The Spirits of Form are the special regents of earthly existence?” Were these Spirits not already active in the earlier stages of development of our planet, during the Saturn, Sun, and Moon epochs?
Yes, they certainly were, but they had then a different field of activity to what they have on the earth. This can be understood when we consider the facts already brought before us.
Upon Saturn the rudiments of the physical body alone existed; neither the etheric nor the astral body had as yet poured into it. Of course the Spirits of Form, of whom Jehovah is one, were active even at that time; but, to make use of a trivial expression, they had not then such a well-prepared foundation on which to work. Only through the Spirits of Wisdom giving man an etheric body on the Sun, and the Spirits of Motion giving him an astral body on the Moon, did the Spirits of Form find a sufficiently prepared human being on which they could work on earth. For only when man possessed a physical, an etheric, and an astral body within himself could the Spirits of Form give him what we now know as the human form. The form you are able to observe in your selves today existed at no earlier stage of evolution.
The conditions that were present on the Moon, Sun, and Saturn were preparatory stages; everything had first to undergo a certain development before man could rise to his present noble form. If asked why the Spirits of Form could not set to work on Saturn we must reply: because the germinal rudiments of the physical body were then too immature; a certain state of maturity had first to come about. This maturity was only reached at the time when our earth, together with the Sun, formed one planet of a very fine substance. The Spirits of Form were even then active, working slowly and gradually at the human body.
[Atlantean epoch]
We can indicate the period when this fashioning of man came to a certain conclusion, when the human form was, in a way, finished. This was not the case in the first part of the Atlantean epoch.
If you go back to a time long before the great catastrophe swept Atlantis away we find our ancestors in a condition very different from our own. It was only about the middle of the Atlantean epoch that man received a form essentially the same as he has today. Before then his material parts were softer. We find man consisting of a soft substance having no trace of his present hard bones, nothing even so solid as cartilage. He swam in the air, which was still permeated by dense fluid; he was a kind of water being, such as certain medusae are today that can hardly be distinguished from the surrounding water. At that time the forces of man's bone structure were organized, but the bones themselves had not hardened, and the connection between the higher and the lower principles of man was very different to what it is now.
We know when man is asleep today that his physical and etheric body lie on the bed, while his astral body and ego are outside. As the etheric body is nowadays approximately the same in size and form as the physical body man is also quickly free from it when he withdraws with his astral body from the physical body. This was not so in the first part of the Atlantean epoch; the etheric body then projected on all sides beyond the physical body, especially as regards the head. The consequence of this was that when the astral body withdrew it always remained connected with the etheric body. In the case of a man of the present day, the moment the astral body leaves the physical body it has also left the etheric body. The consequence of the earlier connection between the astral body and the etheric body, when the physical vehicle had been left behind, was that during the night man had not such darkness and lack of consciousness around and in him as there is today.
At that time when outside his physical body he could perceive psycho-spiritual beings with his dim clairvoyance. It is as if when your astral body withdrew on going to sleep, and your vision was turned away from the physical world, that in its place a world appeared peopled with psycho-spiritual beings.
The early Atlanteans had no use for a solid skeleton, and as the physical body was soft it was also pliable. This is something which clairvoyant consciousness can see as having actually existed, outrageous as it may seem to the present materialistic consciousness. During the Atlantean period man had great power over the shape of his body. If he wished that a member of his body, which later became a hand, should appear differently, that it should be lengthened, for example, elastically, he could do it; he had power not only to move his limbs, but to lengthen them; he could, as it were, inflate himself. This was actually possible at the time with which we are dealing; he could stretch out and lengthen his fingers. We find this more particularly the case when we go back to the Lemurian epoch. I will ask you now to note a connection between two things. When did man lose the power to lengthen and contract his limbs? At the time the Spirits of Form had completed the construction of his form. So long as man had not received the completed physical form, the form he was to retain, other Spirits could rule him, and he could change his shape. So that if we go back to the period beyond the Atlantean epoch we find that man had no definite form, but a continually changing one. We have to realize that there came a point of time when the Spirits of Form had finished all they had to do in order to make the human form similar to their own form, for it was their own shape they gave to man.
Let us now suppose that certain human beings had not been able to wait until the point of time referred to when the Spirits of Form had finished their work. Such beings would have hardened at some earlier stage of development, their form would, to a certain extent, have ossified, thus preserving some earlier form. It was, however, necessary that the being who was to become man should keep his shape supple until the right moment came for it to assume a solid form.
Let us briefly consider a period lying very far back, for here we are dealing with vast periods of time when man's external being was of such a nature that it had constant need of the forces that worked upon it to re-model and ennoble it. Suppose that through events which we will consider later certain human beings had partly freed themselves from the ever working Forces of Form, that they were no longer so entirely pervaded by these forces as they had been; such human beings would in this case have remained at some previous stage.
This actually happened; the beings which freed themselves too early and did not allow the Spirits of Form to complete their work are indeed those that most closely resemble us — the apes. They could not wait; they did not remain long enough in the bosom of those Divine beings whom we call the Spirits of Form. What occurred in the case of the apes was continually happening with other creatures; again and again some beings remained behind and became hardened in form.
It was thus that the whole range of the present animal creation arose. But if you ask: Did human beings originate from such animal forms, the answer is No. Man remained above the surface of the earth in the purer elements, and only solidified when the time was ripe for him to do so. This point of time, when man descended to earth from spiritual heights, is beautifully portrayed in the Bible in the legend of Paradise. In spite of all investigations Paradise is not to be found upon earth, but above it. Man only descended from Paradise to earth after he had received his definite form.
Let us now see what ought to have happened in the middle of the Atlantean epoch when the Spirits of Form had finished the construction of the physical body.
Man should have been able to look on his environment with his senses, which would then have been perfected; he should have lived for the first time with his external physical environment. Up to that time everything about him had indefinite outlines; only then could he enter into relationship with the external world in what we may call the normal way. Only then could he have learned to distinguish himself from other objects; for he only then had a physical body which could be considered a suitable vehicle for his ego. We have already said that certain beings had remained behind at every stage of evolution. Not all of them had reached the stage they might have reached; not even all the beings whom we have called the Spirits of Form, and it is these backward beings who enter most essentially into all considerations about the evolution of man on earth.
We have already explained that besides the exalted beings working from the sun and moon there are others at an intermediate stage between man and the high Sun and Moon-Spirits; these have their home on Mercury and Venus, the celestial bodies lying between the sun and earth. The Sun-Spirits had now attained normal development, and had exactly hit off the point of time at which they were able to work in the right way.
But there were other beings between the Earth and the Sun-Spirits who did not find this point of time, and because they were outside the course of normal development they were active at other times.
Let us now consider what was the result of this. We will once more consider the course of human evolution. Let us keep before us the fact that man consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. We know that the task of the ego is to transform man's other principles; it must begin by gradually bringing the astral body under control; this means that man must learn to control his passions and impulses. A time had been appointed when the ego in the normal way should appear in man and proceed to work upon the astral body, when the astral body was to be gradually transformed and the Spirit-Self built up. The first possibility of this work of transformation was when the Spirits of Form became active in the Middle of the Atlantean epoch.
We must now try to understand the remarkable function carried out at that time by backward beings. They had not progressed far enough to assist man in the formation of the Spirit-Self, consequently they worked upon his astral body, which had not yet progressed far enough to receive the ego.
Thus, there was a time in the evolution of earthly humanity when the undeveloped astral body was exposed to the influence of these backward spiritual beings. You will understand this better if you remember that upon the Moon man had a physical, etheric, and astral body, and at that time the Spirits of Form worked normally upon his astral body, but these Beings who meanwhile had developed further now worked normally upon the ego; while the backward ones continued to work upon the astral body, as they had done during the Moon period. So that before man's ego was formed these backward but highly exalted beings worked upon his astral body. We call these beings after their leader — Luciferic beings. Two kinds of beings, therefore, worked upon man; the normally working Spirits of Form, of whom we have spoken, and these Luciferic beings who had not advanced sufficiently to be able to work upon the ego, and who already had been working on the astral body. These latter beings, therefore, retarded man's development if they had not worked upon him at the time he would in the middle of the Atlantean epoch have been sufficiently advanced for the Spirits of Form to work upon his ego.
We might now ask: Can that which the backward Spirits did to man — as compared with what the exalted normal Spirits did — be termed bad in the trivial sense?
No, certainly not. If we consider the facts which clairvoyant vision is able to test we find that in reality they have accelerated human evolution. Man would have had to wait until the very last period of time for the development of certain capacities, whereas through the action of these beings he gained them earlier. Therefore, through the Luciferic beings man received certain mental qualities before the destined time, thus attaining a certain stage of mental development.
This was not wrong, but, wonderful as it may seem, something which even in a higher sense indicates an infinitely wise guidance in the progressive evolution of humanity. For, through man having attained at a lower stage certain capacities which otherwise were only destined for him in the middle of the Atlantean epoch, he came to them in an entirely different state of consciousness — one that was without self-consciousness. Man would have been tied to leading strings up to the middle of the Atlantean epoch if these backward beings had not intervened. How, then, must we regard their having remained behind? Looked at superficially, one might easily think of them as one thinks of backward students at college. These Spirits are not, however, backward on account of laziness, but the reason of their remaining behind was their willingness to sacrifice themselves. They sacrificed themselves so as to give to man the possibility of receiving the gifts of the Spirits of Form in a higher way — in a free way.
There was a long period in human evolution when through these Luciferic beings man received the first beginnings of speech and of thought, especially the memory of thought; when he received the rudimentary germ of Art and of Science; this he could not have attained previously, for he would then have acquired it merely as an instinctive activity. Through this something else came within his domain, something which, under the guidance of the Spirits of Form, would have passed him by; he was exposed to the possibility of straying from the right path — he was exposed to good and evil. Without the intervention of the Luciferic beings man would never have been exposed to this; but this also happened for the sake of freedom. Because the Luciferic beings accelerated a part of development they brought freedom to man in an earlier age. We all bear within us the seeds of the work of the Luciferic Spirits.
By the middle of the Atlantean epoch the Spirits of Form had perfected their development so far that they were capable of endowing man with what they themselves possessed. Man would have received the complete rudiments of his ego at this time if these Spirits alone had worked on him, but Luciferic beings had been active from an earlier period, and had accelerated evolution considerably; upwards on the one hand, and downwards on the other. Through this something else of great importance came about.
If evolution had proceeded without the Luciferic beings man would have attained a certain maturity by the middle of the Atlantean epoch, but without the possibility of freedom. Through no merit of his own man would have become mature enough to receive the gift of the Spirits of Form. Now that Luciferic beings had matured him earlier a certain deterioration approached him from another direction, and on this account neither the higher Sun Powers nor the forces of the Spirits of Form were able to work upon him at this period. Something of very great importance is here involved. If man had reached the middle of the Atlantean epoch merely by a higher spiritual instinct, without freedom, and, therefore, without any merit of his own, he would have been sufficiently mature for the descent to earth of that Principle which we call the Christ Principle; the Christ would have appeared then. Freedom had, however, been given to man, and he had thereby been pushed down below the stage of instinctive normal development. He had consequently now to mature by himself, so that he might later be able to receive the Christ Principle. We must clearly understand that the descent of Christ and his work was retarded by the intervention of the Luciferic beings, but through this intervention mankind was more mature when the Christ ultimately did descend.
From this we see that it was Luciferic beings who made man what he is today, and who prepared him for the great event of the descent of the Christ Principle. The Luciferic beings might have said If we leave man in such a condition that he only lives instinctively on into the Atlantean epoch he will receive the Christ Principle also instinctively. He will not be free, not mature in freedom. We will, therefore, sacrifice ourselves; we will develop in him certain capacities and qualities, thus delaying the moment when he can see the Christ.
Luciferic beings began their work as long before the middle of the Atlantean epoch as Christ appeared after it.
If we now ask, What was given to Man by these Luciferic powers? What was he really able to receive in the middle of the Atlantean epoch? We must answer, “He received something which could come to him only from outside, something to which he could not yet attain through his own soul.” On this account everything which came to him from the Spirits of Form, who had worked on him previously, came in such a way that it did not flow from his own innermost being; he followed more an outer impulse; he obeyed laws.
Just as the animal has to follow instinctively the laws implanted in it, so Jehovah gave laws to man. He gave him the “law” which was then realized externally by Moses and the prophets. Meanwhile man matured, so that he could receive into himself the motives and impulses for his actions. Without participation on his part the Spirits of Form had regulated his life on earth.
Where, then, do the Spirits of Form work? They work principally where the blood speaks, in reproduction, and in all that is connected therewith.
In ancient times we find Gods and Folk spirits, or group spirits, work within the groups through the ordinances of the law. There we find that what is related by blood loves its own; it loves because love is implanted by the laws of nature; and the further back we go the more we find that all those related by blood consider themselves as belonging to one another. Everything loves that has had love implanted in it by the laws of nature, by the forces appertaining to the external form. Jehovah worked in the forces of blood relationship; hence the feeling of belonging one to another. Jehovah produced order and harmony through the relationship that is connected with the blood and those who opposed him were the Luciferic beings, who directed their strongest attacks against the principle of blood relationship. They always wished, up to the time of the coming of Christ, to centre man within his own personality; and tear him away from blood relationship. Then the Christ appears and centres man entirely within his own personality by giving him His inward power, thereby making wisdom and grace the most inward impulses of his being.
The Luciferic beings had prepared man for this through very long periods of time. Only at the time of Christ's coming was man ready for what these Luciferic beings desired. Those who uttered the words “Christus verus Luciferus,” Christ the true Lucifer, knew well what they were saying. This is an esoteric statement.
We have seen that two principles were in fact continually at work in those olden times we call pre-Christian; there was a binding principle which worked through blood relationship, and a sundering principle which sought to centre man in his own personality. We can see how the whole of humanity has been fashioned under the influence of these two principles.
Let us picture a certain stage of human evolution in the Atlantean epoch when man was approaching the time of his hardening, the time when the bone appeared. The spirits guiding man had now to take care that the bones should not harden too quickly. For a considerable length of time in Atlantean evolution the skeleton of man had to remain soft enough for it to be modified. Beings, however, as we know, remained behind at every stage, and certain groups of human beings remained behind at an early period through the bony system becoming hard too soon.
The principles worked in such a way that the principle of form prevailed, holding a group of human beings to the form they had then attained. What was the consequence? Forms may be hardened and held back, but evolution as a whole goes forward, so that forms which have thus been held back artificially arrive at a time later on to which they are no longer suited. A time came when there was less moisture in the air, when climatic conditions changed and were no longer adapted to those who had remained behind.
Groups of men in whom the bones had, as it were, become too strong, were now left behind as degenerate races. They could not adapt themselves to post-Atlantean conditions; the last remnant of these people are the American Indians; they had degenerated. There are other backward groups in whom not only the system of the bones, but also the system concerned with nutrition hardened too early, that system governed by the forces of the etheric body; while the bony system is governed by the forces of the physical body. The last remnant of those human groups in which the nutritive system hardened too soon now forms the Negroid races. Then there are those who degenerated at too early a stage through the nervous system becoming hardened and not remaining soft long enough for it to become available as an instrument of higher thought; of these the Malays are the last relic. Therefore, among them are tendencies towards certain passionate and sensuous instincts.
Lastly, we have those in whom at a certain stage the ego hardened within itself; it hardened in the blood which is the expression of the ego. We might say of these people that the ego had not progressed to Spirit-Self. Those who (to speak symbolically) are thus hardened as regards the blood have their last offshoots in the peoples of the Mongolian races. Those men who kept the above named principle supple, so that they did not remain fixed at any form, but were always able to develop further and overcome the enclosing of the ego, formed that human group that journeyed from the regions now covered by the Atlantic Ocean into those of Europe and Asia of today.
Connected with this we find the following remarkable fact: we find that several emigrations left the Atlantean continent; that they consisted of human beings who, having hardened in various ways, went in different directions; those in whom the bones had hardened journeyed westward, and their last descendants were found when America was discovered. Those whose nutritive system had hardened went principally to Africa; others (the Malays) went towards Asia. Then there are those who formed the ancestors of the Mongolian race. The last to migrate were those who dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Ireland of today; those who had kept themselves pliant the longest. These wandered from the West towards the East, and left behind them certain communities of people all over the Continent of Europe. The most advanced journeyed towards Asia, and there mixed in various ways with others who had come by different paths.
Let us now think of a period that lies not so very far behind us, an age when men possessed dim clairvoyance, and when initiates had still a very great influence; an age when there was a consciousness among men of the facts which have just been mentioned. How did this consciousness find expression?
The ancient Greeks found a people who had hardened earlier than themselves; south of them was a race which had originated through mixing with others; that had preserved the vision, the power to look backwards to a still earlier condition. When the Greek looked backwards over the course of his evolution he said to himself: I look towards Africa, and there I find in the Egyptian age advanced human beings who had been influenced by previous ages of civilization (the Babylonian-Chaldean); still earlier there was a people in this region among whom there had been a strong tendency towards hardening in regard to those qualities which reached down into the lower nature, into the principle that has to do with nutrition. Another state developed later when this people had come in contact with Asiatic emigrants. In addition to these were those who had kept themselves pliant the longest.
In the sculptured forms of his Gods the Greek idealized his knowledge regarding the evolution of man, which he saw to be the result of divinely working forces. He knew that at a very early stage certain human beings had hardened, and that others had preserved their softness and pliability. He then observed himself; he saw that in certain things he was indeed backward, but he belonged to those who had kept supple and plastic the longest. All this is wonderfully portrayed in Greek sculpture. If we examine it carefully we find three types of Gods:

The Zeus type, to which belong the Gods grouped round Zeus.

The Hermes or Mercury type. This was added later to the Zeus type, and was portrayed by the Greeks as an entirely distinct form. If you observe the type of hair in the case of Zeus and his kind, and, on the other hand the curly hair of Hermes, also the formation of the eyes and the position of the ears, you will see that the Greeks wished to express something different by this.

The faun type. This type belongs to a still older humanity, and can be clearly distinguished from the Mercury type.

We here have something which the Greek wished to express in his own way. That which was south of him he expressed in the faun type. That which was in the east he associated with the Hermes type and that which might be called his own type, the race which founded the Aryan stock, he expressed in the sublime idealistic Zeus type.
Anyone who wishes can see in all these forms how beautifully the Greek accommodated that which is contained in the external form to the inward formative forces. I will point to one more detail which shows how refined the Greek artists were in their efforts to give expression, in forms of art, to the great conceptions of the world.
Observe for a moment the Asiatic type embodied in the form of Hermes. This type, because it had remained with the lower human forces, worked so that the forces which came into prominence and gave form to the face were those that ruled in the lower part of the human being. On the other hand, the forces belonging to the type of the Greek himself worked in the higher parts. This can be seen most characteristically in Zeus in the noble shape of the forehead.
The special consciousness of the Greek worked into the plastic forms of his art, and we can only understand what has been produced in the course of evolution when we follow these active forces and see how the artists formed such details as the eyes, for example. We see in this not only the minute observation of the Greek artists, but we see in the special form of that which he produced that he realized how the inner formative forces had moulded the external form. We recognize how racial peculiarities have been embodied in the figures of Greek Mythology, and we see how in the varied forms of Greek art are embodied in a unique manner those forces which work spiritually, even down to such details as the shape of an eye.

1912-04-14-GA136

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