Lemurian epoch

The Lemurian epoch is the third epoch in the current Condition of Life and Form of planetary stage Earth, it came after the Hyperborean epoch with the separation of the Sun, and precedes the fourth Atlantean epoch and our current fifth Aryan or Current Postatlantean epoch. See also: Earth's seven epochs.

In the Lemurian epoch the Moon separated from the Earth, and from then onwards we find the Earth in a balance held between the Sun and Moon influences (see also Lucifer and Jehovah).

The Lemurian epoch is transformational and a most crucial phase in the development of Mankind, as the monad spirits descended from the group souls 'above' into physical bodies 'below' to inhabit them with the infusion of manas. Man became an upright being, warm blooded, bi-sexual, with the start of I-consciousness and physical reincarnation. It was also the start of good and evil due to the 'fall' or luciferic infection. Furthermore it was the start of the descent of souls incarnating on Earth to further their development, see Planets hosting beings at various stages of evolution.

The next Sixth epoch will be a mirror-reverse of the third Lemurian epoch and be similarly transformational, with the end of male/female gender and a spiritualisation of ascent of (part of) mankind. For more on this evolutionary pathway, see also The great journey of humanity (PDF file).

Aspects

General

• Man in the Lemurian epoch
• the nature of the Earth and its kingdoms
  • Earth and nature in the Lemurian epoch - before separation Moon
  • Earth and nature in the Lemurian epoch - after separation Moon
  • temperature was higher and the elements were no so differentiated as today (for a description, see 1904-06-27-GA090A)

Main evolutionary events

• Separation of Moon
• life in the Lemurian epoch had to receive a new impulse, which was brought about as the axis of the Earth was gradually turned. Previously there was a tropical climate at the North Pole; later through the turning around of the Earth axis the tropical climate came into the middle region. (1905-10-25-GA093a)
• the Fall - see also Fall and redemption - original sin and grace
  • root cause: called 'sin of the mindless' (by Blavatsky), and also appearing the Book of Dzyan (see Powell 1930 below, also: 1904-12-31-GA090A, 1904-06-28-GA090A and 1904-XX-XX-GA090A; and 1904-09-06-GA091 and 1905-10-25-GA093A, both on Three classes of Buddhas). As illustrated by Schema FMC00.457, the process of descent of monads to appropriate physical bodies consisted of different segments or cohorts both above and below. This resulted in three groups of beings:
    • the first pitris descended and gave rise to the advanced arhats (angels in human form)
    • a second group with underdeveloped brain (the brain could mirror but not recognize the spiritual - dream consciousness (1904-06-28-GA090A)), (also called dull-spirited or dumb-brained), these died out
    • a third group consisted of some pitris who refused to incarnate and thereby gave rise to the so-called 'amanasic' beings, a lower stage of humanity; man and animal (were not so different) and had intercourse, leading to a worsening of lower humanity. The bi-sexual humanity and animals follow out of this development.
      • about this third group, see also: Fall and redemption - original sin and grace#1904-05-23-GA093
• the start of self-consciousness or 'I-hood' by the impulse of the Spirits of Form and the joining of spiritual group souls of humanity with the physical bodies. This trickling in of the SoF or Elohim is also called the 'descent of the monads'.
  • the work of the SoF (Jehovah) made the existing embryonic senses into passive functioning physical senses, and the nervous system and brain. This had an effect on the forces of physical reproduction. The separation of the moon resulted in the fact that an organ for the intellect became developed enough for the monad to descend into, and also that the unisex physiology was split into male and female gender (for a concise summary description, see Gender and sexuality#1906-01-06-GA262)
• the luciferic influence
  • before the middle of the Lemurian epoch, Man only had an intuitive memory-knowing. Through the physical senses, and the monads descending into the brain and nervous system, Man now sees (outer forms), hears, .. and becomes aware of the outer world. Man thereby truly arrived or landed in the physical world (1904-07-26-GA090A)
  • this is often called the influence of backward spiritual beings
  • for a theosophical coverage, see also Powell in 'The solar system' (online here), Chapter XXXIV: The coming of the Lords of Venus, or the 'Lords of the flame'. The Secret Doctrine, spoke of Them as "projecting the spark of mind into the mindless men and awakening the intellect within them".
• the balance brought about by the impulse of a SoF Jehovah
• the current balance between Lucifer and Jehovah, or sun and moon influences. An understanding in terms of cosmic etheric and astral influences, links to the Mysteries of the Blood and the Mystery of the Heart.
• 'blinders on' for higher ethers to protect etheric body
• mars-passage
• the Book of Genesis and its description of what happened after separation of the Sun, especially the impulse of the Spirits of Form (Elohim)

Continent of Lemuria

• situated south of Asia, extended approx. from Ceylon to Madagascar; today's southern Asia and parts of Africa also belonged to it. See Schema FMC00.458 below (and compare with FMC00.206)

Destruction and remnants

• Lemuria perished as the result of the raging fires and the evilness of a large section of its population (under Luciferic influence). Migrations moved West towards the continent of Atlantis (1909-06-10-GA109)

• ".. those primitive constructions of gigantic size and strange form, as they are found on the Easter Island, are remains of the cyclopean constructions, extend into our time like monuments of those human beings" (1905-11-09-GA054)

Inspirational quotes

1904-GA011

The quote below (from Ch. 17) talks about the momental moment of the 'fusion' of the two developmental streams:

… a lower Man, consisting of physical body, ether body, and astral body, and a higher Man, consisting of spirit man (atma), life-spirit (buddhi), and spirit-self (manas). The lower and the higher nature of man followed separate paths at first. The Earth development serves to bring the two separate origins of Man together.

Illustrations

Development of humanity

Schema FMC00.480 pays tribute to the monumental and unique event in the history of mankind, with references to the quotes in what is probably the oldest knowledge in existence, the Book of Dzyan, and the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The text is rephrased from various lectures by Rudolf Steiner, see also Schema FMC00.457 and variants.

Schema FMC00.457 provides an overview of the 'descent of the monads' in the Lemurian epoch. The seven sub-races are shown, and the complex process is sketched through which monads (from the Old Moon stage of evolution) 'above' descended into physical bodies 'below'.

The diagram is taken from Arthur E. Powell: 'The Solar System' (1930) (available on Atlantean epoch#References and further reading). In the chapter of the Lemurian root race, Powell ties together to the best of his ability the various excerpts by Blavatsky into a coherent or more readable flow. The diagram needs to be studied together with this text to show the complexity of the process and transformational nature of that epoch.

Notes:

• It is useful to combine study of this chapter with correlated lecture extracts where Rudolf Steiner touches on or covers the various aspects - see FMC00.457A below for references. For example for the 'sin of the mindless', see ao 1904-09-06-GA091 and 1905-10-25-GA093A (both on Three classes of Buddhas).
• compare with the description for 'descent of the monads' on Development of the I#The main phases (from 1906-01-06/7-GA262). With barhishads, the lunar pitris or angels are meant. The 'descent of the lords of venus' (Chapter XXXIV in Powell's book) refers to the archangelic Venus-beings, a.o. one of those the being later known as Wotan-Buddha.
• See also: Schema FMC00.472A and FMC00.480 (on this page).

FMC00.457A provides a small reference table with lecture references to the various stages and transformational changes in the Lemurian epoch.

The table is not intended to be complete, rather a first cross reference overview (that can be developed further).

Schema FMC00.137 is an infographic as a reference to the moment in the Lemurian epoch where the fusion of the lower physical and higher spiritual part of Man took place, the human being assumed its upright position, and first got his astral body made up of a lower and a higher component. See also Centaur.

Schema FMC00.443 show a rare and actually exceptional description by Rudolf Steiner, in which he calls the lower bodily structure the 'hollow I' and Man's spiritual I (see Man's higher triad) the 'substantial I'. The descent in the Lemurian epoch is described. The use of the term 'hollow I' is remarkable because the recipient cavity for the I was first in the astral body, and hence the use of the term 'I' is peculiar.

Note for the Schema, the choice was made for a literal translation focusing on the correct technical meaning in the German original of the different Q&As, rather than the polished English translation in the translated volume GA284 which is also less complete.

See more on Development of the I

Imagery

Schema FMC00.579: shows two sketches by Rudolf Steiner in 1914 for the theme 'Lemuria' as part of the motifs for the cupola illustrations of the first Goetheanum. Left an oil crayon pastel sketch, right a pencil drawing. It shows a yellowish (albumen) red (fiery) atmosphere, the green face of the Earth, appearance of mountains and vulcanoes (on the right), the human face representing the start of the Human I, and various spiritual beings working their influences.

Schema FMC00.580: shows two oil crayon sketches by Rudolf Steiner as part of the motifs for the cupola illustrations of the first Goetheanum.

Left: the Elohim or Spirits of Form working creatively onto Man and the Earth. Right: Jehovah and the Luciferic temptation.

Continent of Lemuria

Schema FMC00.458 shows various maps from the continent referenced by the names Mu or Pan, corresponding to what was afterwards named Lemuria.

Compare the description (SWCC) below (by Helena Blavatsky in 'The secret doctrine') with the maps on FMC00.206 below.

Lemuria .. was a gigantic land and covered the area .. from the foot of the Himalayas, which separated it from the inland sea rolling its waves over what is now Tibet, Mongolia, and the great Gobi desert ; from Chittagong, westward to Hardwar, and eastward to Assam. From there it stretched South across what is known to us as Southern India, Ceylon, and Sumatra; then embracing on its way, as we go South, Madagascar on its right hand and Australia and Tasmania on its left, it ran down to within a few degrees of the Antarctic Circle; when, from Australia .. it extended far into the Pacific Ocean, not only beyond Rapa-nui (Easter Island) which now lies in latitude 26 S., and longitude 110 W. .. It not only embraced a vast area in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but extended in the shape of a horse-shoe past Madagascar, round South Africa (then in process of formation), through the Atlantic up to Norway. The great English fresh-water deposit called the Wealden is the bed of the main stream which drained Northern Lemuria in the Secondary Age. .. [description horse-shoe and link Atlantis] .. Lemuria stretched, east and west, as far as where the two Americas now lie, and the present Australia is but a portion of it, as are a few surviving islands on the face of the Pacific and a large bit of California, which belonged to it.

FMC00.206 shows various world maps projecting the continents in the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs (see also FMC00.209 on Earth's seven epochs), see correspondence with the FMC00.214 maps on Atlantean epoch

Book of Genesis

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.

Lecture coverage and references

Helena Blavatsky - Isis Unveiled (1877)

In terms of coverage in Helena Blavatsky's books, the name Lemuria is not directly by Blavatsky as a name in Isis Unveiled (1877), but appears extensively in 'The secret doctrine' (1888). In 'Isis Unveiled' often very specific literal quotes from existing publications are concatenated as a style and method to convey what is intended. Elements of existing publications are confirmed with some authority, and thereby the point is made in a no less convincing way.

So first the scientist Prof. Alexander Wilder (1823-1908) is quoted

It is most plausible, that the State of Central America, where we find the name Americ signifying (like the Hindu Meru we may add) great mountain, gave the continent its name. Vespucius would have used his surname if he had designed to give a title to a continent. If the Abbé de Bourbourg’s theory of Atlan as the source of Atlas and Atlantic is verified, the two hypotheses could agree most charmingly. As Plato was not the only writer that treated of a world beyond the pillars of Hercules, and as the ocean is still shallow and grows sea-weed all through the tropical part of the Atlantic, it is not wild to imagine that this continent projected, or that there was an island-world on that coast. The Pacific also shows signs of having been a populous island-empire of Malays or Javanese - if not a continent amid the North and South. We know that Lemuria in the Indian Ocean is a dream of scientists; and that the Sahara and the middle belt of Asia were perhaps once sea-beds.

to then quote extensively from Louis Jacolliot (1837-1890) and his complete works in twenty-one volumes. First qualifying this source

They are chiefly upon India and its old traditions, philosophy, and religion. This indefatigable writer has collected a world of information from various sources, mostly authentic. While we do not accept his personal views on many points, still we freely acknowledge the extreme value of his copious translations from the Indian sacred books. The more so, since we find them corroborating in every respect the assertions we have made. Among other instances is this matter of the submergence of continents in prehistoric days.

then an 'extensive quote frollows from Jacolliot's 'Histoire des Vierges: Les Peuples et les Continents Disparus' (1874)

One of the most ancient legends of India, preserved in the temples by oral and written tradition, relates that several hundred thousand years ago there existed in the Pacific Ocean, an immense continent which was destroyed by geological upheaval, and the fragments of which must be sought in Madagascar, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the principal isles of Polynesia.

The high plateaux of Hindustan and Asia, according to this hypothesis, would only have been represented in those distant epochs by great islands contiguous to the central continent. . . . According to the Brahmans this country had attained a high civilization, and the peninsula of Hindustan, enlarged by the displacement of the waters, at the time of the grand cataclysm, has but continued the chain of the primitive traditions born in this place. These traditions give the name of Rutas to the peoples which inhabited this immense equinoctial continent, and from their speech was derived the Sanscrit.”

The Indo-Hellenic tradition, preserved by the most intelligent population which emigrated from the plains of India, equally relates the existence of a continent and a people to which it gives the name of Atlantis and Atlantides, and which it locates in the Atlantic in the northern portion of the Tropics.

Apart from the fact that the supposition of an ancient continent in those latitudes, the vestiges of which may be found in the volcanic islands and mountainous surface of the Azores, the Canaries and Cape Verd, is not devoid of geographical probability, the Greeks, who, moreover, never dared to pass beyond the pillars of Hercules, on account of their dread of the mysterious ocean, appeared too late in antiquity for the stories preserved by Plato to be anything else than an echo of the Indian legend. Moreover, when we cast a look on a planisphere, at the sight of the islands and islets strewn from the Malayan Archipelago to Polynesia, from the straits of Sund to Easter Island, it is impossible, upon the hypothesis of continents preceding those which we inhabit, not to place there the most important of all.

A religious belief, common to Malacca and Polynesia, that is to say to the two opposite extremes of the Oceanic world, affirms ‘that all these islands once formed two immense countries, inhabited by yellow men and black men, always at war; and that the gods, wearied with their quarrels, having charged Ocean to pacify them, the latter swallowed up the two continents, and since, it had been impossible to make him give up his captives. Alone, the mountain-peaks and high plateaux escaped the flood, by the power of the gods, who perceived too late the mistake they had committed.’

Whatever there may be in these traditions, and whatever may have been the place where a civilization more ancient than that of Rome, of Greece, of Egypt, and of India was developed, it is certain that this civilization did exist, and that it is highly important for science to recover its traces, however feeble and fugitive they may be.

and Blavatsky adds:

This last tradition, translated by Louis Jacolliot from the Sanscrit manuscripts, corroborates the one we have given from the “Records of the Secret Doctrine.” The war mentioned between the yellow and the black men, relates to a struggle between the “sons of God” and the “sons of giants,” or the inhabitants and magicians of the Atlantis. The final conclusion of M. Jacolliot, who visited personally all the islands of Polynesia, and devoted years to the study of the religion, language, and traditions of nearly all the peoples, is as follows

and concludes with the quote from Jacolliot

As to the Polynesian continent which disappeared at the time of the final geological cataclysms, its existence rests on such proofs that to be logical we can doubt no longer.

The three summits of this continent, Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, Easter Island, are distant from each other from fifteen to eighteen hundred leagues, and the groups of intermediate islands, Viti, Samoa, Tonga, Foutouna, Ouvea, Marquesas, Tahiti, Pournouton, Gambiers, are themselves distant from these extreme points from seven or eight hundred to one thousand leagues.

All navigators agree in saying that the extreme and the central groups could never have communicated in view of their actual geographical position, and with the insufficient means they had at hand. It is physically impossible to cross such distances in a pirogue . . . without a compass, and travel months without provisions.

On the other hand, the aborigines of the Sandwich Islands, of Viti, of New Zealand, of the central groups, of Samoa, Tahiti, etc., had never known each other, had never heard of each other before the arrival of the Europeans. And yet, each of these people maintained that their island had at one time formed a part of an immense stretch of land which extended toward the West, on the side of Asia. And all, brought together, were found to speak the same language, to have the same usages, the same customs, the same religious belief.

And all to the question, ‘Where is the cradle of your race?’ for sole response, extended their hand toward the setting sun.

Alfred P. Sinnett - Esoteric Buddhism (1883)

Here the name 'Lemuria' (most probably stemming from Blavatsky) was explicitly published and later adopted further by theosophical sources

[quotes mean that Sinnett quotes his revered master teachers]

“Lemuria” (a former continent stretching southwards from India across what is now the Indian Ocean, but connected with Atlantis, for Africa was not then in existence) .. .. “should no more be confounded with the Atlantis continent than Europe with America. Both sank and were drowned, with their high civilizations and ‘gods'; yet between the two catastrophes a period of about 700.000 years elapsed, Lemuria flourishing and ending her career just about that lapse of time before the early part of the Eocene age, since its race was the third. Behold the relics of that once great nation in some of the flat-headed aborigines of your Australia.”

It is a mistake on the part of a recent writer on Atlantis to people India and Egypt with the colonies of that continent, but of that more anon.

“Why should not your geologists,” asks my revered Mahatma teacher, “bear in mind that under the continents explored and fathomed by them, in the bowels of which they have found the Eocene age, and forced it to deliver them its secrets, there may be hidden deep in the fathomless, or rather unfathomed ocean beds, other and far older continents whose strata have never been geologically explored; and that they may some day upset entirely their present theories? Why not admit that our present continents have, like Lemuria and Atlantis, been several times already submerged, and had the time to reappear again, and bear their new groups of mankind and civilization; and that at the first great geological upheaval at the next cataclysm, in the series of periodical cataclysms that occur from the beginning to the end of every round, our already autopsized continents will go down, and the Lemurias and Atlantises come up again?

Helena Blavatsky - The secret doctrine (1888)

For more on the references below, see theosophy.wiki/en/Lemuria

quote A: location

Their Sweta-Dwipa [the White Island], during the early day of Lemuria stood out like a giant-peak from the bottom of the sea; the area between Atlas [in North Africa] and Madagascar being occupied by the waters till about the early period of Atlantis (after the disappearance of Lemuria), when Africa emerged from the bottom of the ocean, and Atlas was half-sunk.

...

'Lemuria', as we have called the continent of the Third Race, was then a gigantic land. It covered the whole area of space from the foot of the Himalayas, which separated it from the inland sea rolling its waves over what is now Tibet, Mongolia, and the great desert of Schamo (Gobi); from Chittagong, westward to Hardwar, and eastward to Assam. From thence, it stretched South across what is known to us as Southern India, Ceylon, and Sumatra; then embracing on its way, as we go South, Madagascar on its right hand and Australia and Tasmania on its left, it ran down to within a few degrees of the Antarctic Circle; when, from Australia, an inland region on the Mother Continent in those ages, it extended far into the Pacific Ocean, not only beyond Rapa-nui (Teapy, or Easter Island) which now lies in latitude 26 S., and longitude 110 W.

...

[continent also extended North, showing the shape of a "horse-shoe", which was the basis for the future continent of Atlantis]

Lemuria, which served as the cradle of the Third Root-Race, not only embraced a vast area in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but extended in the shape of a horse-shoe past Madagascar, round “South Africa” (then a mere fragment in process of formation), through the Atlantic up to Norway. The great English fresh-water deposit called the Wealden—which every geologist regards as the mouth of a former great river—is the bed of the main stream which drained Northern Lemuria in the Secondary Age.

No more striking confirmation of our position could be given, than the fact that the ELEVATED RIDGE in the Atlantic basin, 9,000 feet in height, which runs for some two or three thousand miles southwards from a point near the British Islands, first slopes towards South America, then shifts almost at right angles to proceed in a SOUTH-EASTERLY line toward the African coast, whence it runs on southward to Tristan d’Acunha. This ridge is a remnant of an Atlantic continent, and, could it be traced further, would establish the reality of a submarine horse-shoe junction with a former continent in the Indian Ocean.

.

The Atlantic portion of Lemuria was the geological basis of what is generally known as Atlantis. The latter, indeed, must be regarded rather as a development of the Atlantic prolongation of Lemuria, than as an entirely new mass of land upheaved to meet the special requirements of the Fourth Root-Race. ..

[Lemuria] stretched, during the Third Race, east and west, as far as where the two Americas now lie, and since the present Australia is but a portion of it, as are also a few surviving islands sown hither and thither on the face of the Pacific and a large bit of California, which belonged to it.

Quote B: destruction and remnants

[late lemuria - separation of the huge common continent into smaller continents]

In the epoch we are treating of, the Continent of “Lemuria,” had already broken asunder in many places, and formed new separate continents. There was, nevertheless, neither Africa nor the Americas, still less Europe in those days, all these slumbering yet on the Ocean floors. Nor was there much of present Asia; for the cis-Himalayan regions were covered with seas, and beyond this stretched the “lotus leaves” of Sveta-dwipa, the countries now called Greenland, Eastern and Western Siberia, etc., etc. The immense Continent, which had once reigned supreme over the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans, now consisted of huge islands which were gradually disappearing one after the other, until the final convulsion engulfed the last remains of it. Easter Isle, for instance, belongs to the earliest civilisation of the Third Race. Submerged with the rest, a volcanic and sudden uplifting of the Ocean floor, raised the small relic of the Archaic ages untouched, with its volcano and statues, during the Champlain epoch of northern polar submersion, as a standing witness to the existence of Lemuria. It is said that some of the Australian tribes are the last remnants of the last descendants of the Third Race.

[destruction]

Lemuria is said to have perished about 700.000 years before the commencement of what is now called the Tertiary age (the Eocene), and it is during this Deluge also—an actual geological deluge this time—that Vaivasvata Manu is again shown as saving mankind (allegorically it is mankind, or a portion of it, the Fourth Race, which is saved).

[by subterranean fires (volcanoes)]

The immense Continent, which had once reigned supreme over the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans, now consisted of huge islands which were gradually disappearing one after the other, until the final convulsion engulfed the last remains of it.

[remnants]

The sinking and transformation of Lemuria beginning nearly at the Arctic Circle (Norway), the Third Race ended its career in Lanka, or rather on that which became Lanka with the Atlanteans. The small remnant now known as Ceylon is the Northern highland of ancient Lanka, while the enormous island of that name was, in the Lemurian period, the gigantic continent described a few pages back.

[Easter Island ]

[ was part of a greater land that was] "destroyed in one day by its volcanic fires and lava." .. [and later part of the land resurfaced to form the island known today] ... submerged with the rest, a volcanic and sudden uplifting of the Ocean floor, raised the small relic of the archaic ages untouched, with its volcano and statues, during the Champlain epoch of northern polar submersion, as a standing witness to the existence of Lemuria.

1903/1904-GA089

see: Human races#1903.2F1904-GA089

1904-GA011

quote A - Lemurian race

We are here concerned with the third human root race, of which it is said in theosophical books that it inhabited the Lemurian Continent. According to these books this continent was situated south of Asia, and extended approximately from Ceylon to Madagascar. What is today southern Asia and parts of Africa also belonged to it.

...

.. something will first be said of the character of this root race after these important events ...

[state of consciousness - language - communication]

• By and large, memory was not yet developed among this race. While men could have ideas of things and events, these ideas did not remain in the memory.
• Therefore they did not yet have a language in the true sense. Rather what they could utter were natural sounds which expressed their sensations, pleasure, joy, pain and so forth, but which did not designate external objects.
• But their ideas had a quite different strength from those of later men. Through this strength they acted upon their environment. Other men, animals, plants, and even lifeless objects could feel this action and could be influenced purely by ideas. Thus the Lemurian could communicate with his fellow-men without needing a language. This communication consisted in a kind of 'thought reading'.
• The Lemurian derived the strength of his ideas directly from the objects which surrounded him. It flowed to him from the energy of growth of plants, from the life force of animals. In this manner he understood plants and animals in their inner action and life. He even understood the physical and chemical forces of lifeless objects in the same way.

When he built something he did not first have to calculate the load-limit of a tree trunk, the weight of a stone; he could see how much the tree trunk could bear, where the stone in view of its weight and height would fit, where it would not. Thus the Lemurian built without engineering knowledge on the basis of his faculty of imagination which acted with the sureness of a kind of instinct.

• Moreover, to a great extent, he had power over his own body. When it was necessary, he could increase the strength of his arm by a simple effort of the will. For example, he could lift enormous loads merely by using his will. If later the Atlantean was helped by his control of the life force, the Lemurian was helped by his mastery of the will. He was — the expression should not be misinterpreted — a born magician in all fields of lower human activities.

The goal of the Lemurians was the development of the will, of the faculty of imagination. The education of children was wholly directed toward this. The boys were hardened in the strongest manner. They had to learn to undergo dangers, to overcome pain, to accomplish daring deeds. Those who could not bear tortures, who could not undergo dangers, were not regarded as useful members of mankind. They were left to perish under these exertions. What the Akasha Chronicle shows with respect to this raising of children surpasses everything contemporary man can picture to himself in his boldest imaginings — The bearing of heat, even of a searing fire, the piercing of the body with pointed objects, were quite common procedures.

The raising of girls was different. While the female child was also hardened, everything else was directed toward her developing a strong imagination. For example, she was exposed to the storm in order calmly to feel its dreadful beauty; she had to witness the combats of the men fearlessly, filled only with a feeling of appreciation of the strength and power she saw before her. Thereby propensities for dreaming and for fantasy developed in the girl, and these were highly valued. Because no memory existed, these propensities could not degenerate. The dream or fantasy conceptions in question lasted only as long as there was a corresponding external cause. Thus they had a real basis in external things. They did not lose themselves in bottomless depths. It was, so to speak, nature's own fantasy and dreaming which were put into the female soul.

The Lemurians did not have dwellings in our sense, except in their latest times. They lived where nature gave them the opportunity to do so. The caves which they used were only altered and extended insofar as necessary. Later they built such caves themselves and at that time they developed great skill for such constructions. One must not imagine, however, that they did not also execute more artful constructions. But these did not serve as dwellings. In the earliest times they originated in the desire to give to the things of nature a man-made form. Hills were remodeled in such a way that the form afforded man joy and pleasure. Stones were put together for the same purpose, or in order to be used for certain activities. The places where the children were hardened were surrounded with walls of this kind.

Toward the end of this period, the buildings which served for the cultivation of “divine wisdom and divine art” became more and more imposing and ornate. These institutions differed in every respect from what temples were later, for they were educational and scientific institutions at the same time. He who was found fit was here initiated into the science of the universal laws and into the handling of them. If the Lemurian was a born magician, this talent was here developed into art and insight. Only those could be admitted who, through all kinds of discipline, had acquired the ability to overcome themselves to the greatest extent. For all others what went on in these institutions was the deepest secret. Here one learned to know and to control the forces of nature through direct contemplation of them. But the learning was such that in man the forces of nature changed into forces of the will. He himself could thereby execute what nature accomplishes. What later mankind accomplished by reflection, by calculation, at that time had the character of an instinctive activity. But here one must not use the word “instinct” in the same sense in which one is accustomed to apply it to the animal world. For the activities of Lemurian humanity towered high above everything the animal world can produce through instinct. They even stood far above what mankind has since acquired in the way of arts and sciences through memory, reason and imagination. If one were to use an expression for these institutions which would facilitate an understanding of them, one could call them “colleges of will power and of the clairvoyant power of the imagination.”

From them emerged the men who, in every respect, became rulers of the others. Today it is difficult to give in words a true conception of all these conditions. For everything on earth has changed since that time. Nature itself and all human life were different, therefore human labor and the relationship of man to man differed greatly from what is customary today.

The air was much thicker even than in later Atlantean times, the water much thinner. And what forms the firm crust of our earth today was not yet as hard as it later became. The world of plants and animals had developed only as far as the amphibians, the birds, and the lower mammals, and as far as vegetable growths which resemble our palms and similar trees. However, all forms were different from what they are today. What now exists only all in forms was then developed to gigantic sizes. At that time our small ferns were trees and formed mighty forests. The modern higher mammals did not exist. On the other hand a great part of humanity was on such a low stage of development that one cannot but designate it as animal. What has been described here was true only of a small part of mankind, The rest lived their life in animalism. In their external appearance and in their way of life these animal men were quite different from the small group. They were not especially different from the lower mammals, which resembled them in form in certain respects.

A few more words must be said about the significance of the above-mentioned temple localities. What was cultivated there was not really religion. It was “divine wisdom and art.” Man felt that what was given to him there was a direct gift from the spiritual universal forces. When he received this gift he considered himself a “servant” of these universal forces. He felt himself “sanctified” from everything unspiritual. If one wishes to speak of religion at this stage of the development of mankind, one could call it “religion of the will.” The religious temper and dedication lay in the fact that man guarded the powers granted to him as a strict, divine “secret,” and that he led a life through which he sanctified his power. Persons who had such powers were regarded by others with great awe and veneration. And this awe and veneration were not called forth by laws or something similar, but by the immediate power which these persons exercised. The uninitiated of course stood under the magical influence of the initiated. It was also natural that the latter considered themselves to be sanctified personages. For in their temples they participated in direct contemplation of the active forces of nature. They looked into the creative workshop of nature. They experienced a communion with the beings which build the world itself. One can call this communication an association with the gods. What later developed as “initiation,” as “mystery,” emerged from this original manner of communication of men with the gods. In subsequent times this communication had to become different, since the human imagination, the human spirit, took other forms.

Of special importance is something which occurred in the course of Lemurian development by virtue of the fact that the women lived in the manner described above. They thereby developed special human powers. Their faculty of imagination which was in alliance with nature, became the basis for a higher development of the life of ideas. They took the forces of nature into themselves, where they had an after-effect in the soul. Thus the germs of memory were formed. With memory was also born the capacity to form the first and simplest moral concepts.

The development of the will among the male element at first knew nothing of this. The man followed instinctively either the impulses of nature or the influences emanating from the initiated.

It was from the manner of life of the women that the first ideas of “good and evil” arose. There one began to love some of the things which had made a special impression on the imagination, and to abhor others. While the control which the male element exercised was directed more toward the external action of the powers of the will, toward the manipulation of the forces of nature, beside it in the female element there developed an action through the soul, through the inner, personal forces of man. The development of mankind can only be correctly understood by the one who takes into consideration that the first progress in the life of the imagination was made by women. The development connected with the life of the imagination, with the formation of memory, of customs which formed the seeds for a life of law, for a kind of morals, came from this side. If man had seen and exercised the forces of nature, woman became the first interpreter of them. It was a special new manner of living through reflection which developed here. This manner had something much more personal than that of the men. One must imagine this manner of the women to have been also a kind of clairvoyance, although it differed from the magic of the will of the men. In her soul woman was accessible to another kind of spiritual powers. The latter spoke more to the feeling element of the soul, less to the spiritual, to which man was subject. Thus there emanated from men an effect which was more natural-divine, from women one which was more soul-divine.

The development which woman went through during the Lemurian period had the result that at the appearance of the next — the Atlantean — root race on earth, an important role devolved upon her. This appearance took place under the influence of highly developed entities, who were familiar with the laws of the formation of races and capable of guiding the existing forces of human nature into such paths that a new race could come into being. These beings will be specially mentioned further on. May it suffice for the moment to say that they possessed superhuman wisdom and power. They now isolated a small group out of Lemurian mankind and designated these to be the ancestors of the coming Atlantean race. The place where they did this was situated in the tropical zone. Under their direction the men of this group had been trained in the control of the natural forces. They were very strong, and knew how to win the most diverse treasures from the earth. They could cultivate the fields and use their fruits for their subsistence. They had become characters of strong will through the discipline to which they had been subjected. Their souls and hearts were developed only in small measure. On the other hand these had been developed among the women. Memory and fantasy and everything connected with them were to be found among the latter.

The above-mentioned leaders caused the group to divide itself into smaller groups. They put the women in charge of ordering and establishing these groups. Through her memory, woman had acquired the capacity to make the experiences and adventures of the past useful for the future. What had proved helpful yesterday she used today and realized that it would also be useful tomorrow. The institutions for communal life therefore emanated from her. Under her influence the concepts of “good and evil” developed. Through her thoughtful life she had acquired an understanding for nature. Out of the observation of nature, those ideas developed in her according to which she directed the actions of men. The leaders had arranged things in such a way that through the soul of woman, the willful nature, the vigorous strength of man was ennobled and refined. Of course one must represent all this to oneself as childish beginnings. The words of our language all too easily call up ideas which are taken from the life of the present.

By way of the awakened soul life of the women the leaders first developed the soul life of the men. In the colony we have described, the influence of the women was therefore very great. One had to go to them for advice when one wanted to interpret the signs of nature. The whole manner of their soul life however was still dominated by the “hidden” human soul forces. One does not describe the matter quite exactly, but fairly closely, if one speaks of a somnambulistic contemplating among these women. In certain higher dreams the secrets of nature were divulged to them and they received the impulses for their actions. Everything was animated for them and showed itself to them in soul powers and apparitions. They abandoned themselves to the mysterious weaving of their soul forces. That which impelled them to their actions were “inner voices,” or what plants, animals, stones, wind and clouds, the whispering of the trees, and so on, told them.

From this state of soul originated that which one can call human religion. The spiritual in nature and in human life gradually came to be venerated and worshiped. Some women attained a special preeminence because out of special mysterious depths they could interpret what the world contained.

Thus it could come to pass among such women that that which lived within them could transpose itself into a kind of natural language. For the beginning of language lies in something which is similar to song. The energy of thought was transformed into audible sound. The inner rhythm of nature sounded from the lips of “wise” women. One gathered around such women and in their songlike sentences felt the utterances of higher powers. Human worship of the gods began with such things.

For that period there can be no question of “sense” in that which was spoken. Sound, tone, and rhythm were perceived. One did not imagine anything along with these, but absorbed in the soul the power of what was heard. The whole process was under the direction of the higher leaders. They had inspired the “wise” priestesses with tones and rhythms in a manner which cannot now be further discussed. Thus they could have an ennobling effect on the souls of men. One can say that in this way the true life of the soul first awakened.

In this realm, beautiful scenes are shown by the Akasha Chronicle. One of these will be described. We are in a forest, near a mighty tree. The sun has just risen in the east. The palmlike tree, from around which the other trees have been removed, casts mighty shadows. The priestess, her face turned to the east, ecstatic, sits on a seat made of rare natural objects and plants. Slowly in rhythmical sequence, a few strange, constantly repeated sounds stream from her lips. A number of men and women are sitting in circles around her, their faces lost in dreams, absorbing inner life from what they hear.

Other scenes too can be seen. At a similarly arranged place a priestess “sings” in a similar manner, but her tones have in them something mightier, more powerful. Those around her move in rhythmic dances. For this was the other way in which “soul” entered into mankind. The mysterious rhythms which one had heard from Nature were imitated by the movements of the limbs. One thereby felt at one with nature and with the powers acting in her.

The place on earth in which this stock of a coming race of men was developed was especially suited for this purpose. It was one where the then still turbulent earth had become fairly calm. For Lemuria was turbulent. After all, the earth at that time did not yet have its later density. The thin ground was everywhere undermined by volcanic forces which broke forth in smaller or larger streams. Mighty volcanos existed almost everywhere and developed a continuous destructive activity. Men were accustomed to reckoning with this fiery activity in everything they did. They also used this fire in their labors and contrivances. Their occupations were often such that the fire of nature served as a basis for them in the same way as artificial fire does in human labor today.

It was through the activity of this volcanic fire that the destruction of the Lemurian land came about. While the part of Lemuria from which the parent race of the Atlanteans was to develop had a hot climate, it was by and large free of volcanic activity.

Human nature could unfold more calmly and peacefully here than in the other regions of the earth. The more nomadic life of former times was abandoned, and fixed settlements became more and more numerous.

One must represent to oneself that at that time the human body still had very malleable and pliant qualities. This body still changed form whenever the inner life changed. Not long before, men had still been quite diverse as regards their external form. At that time the external influence of region and climate were still decisive in respect to their form. Only in the colony described did the body of man increasingly become an expression of his inner soul life. Moreover, this colony had an advanced externally more nobly formed race of men. One must say that through the things which they had done, the leaders had really first created what is the true human form. This occurred quite slowly and gradually. It happened in such a way that the soul life of man was first developed and that the still soft and malleable body adapted itself to this. It is a law in the development of mankind that, as progress continues, man has less and less of a molding influence on his physical body. This physical human body in fact received a fairly unchanging form only with the development of the faculty of reason and with the hardening of the rock, mineral, and metal formations of earth connected with this development. For in the Lemurian and even in the Atlantean period, stones and metals were much softer than later.

This is not contradicted by the fact that there exist descendants of the last Lemurians and Atlanteans who today exhibit forms as fixed as the human races which were formed later. These remnants had to adapt themselves to the changed environmental conditions of earth and thus became more rigid. Just this is the reason for their decline. They did not transform themselves from within; instead, their less developed interior was forced into rigidity from the outside and thus compelled to stagnation. This stagnation is really a regression, for the inner life, too, has degenerated because it could not fulfill itself within the rigid external bodily structure.

Animal life was subject to even greater changeability. We shall speak further about the animal species existing at the time of the development of man and about their origin, as well as about the development of new animal forms after man already existed. Here we shall say only that the existing animal species continually transformed themselves and that new ones were developing. This transformation was of course a gradual one. The reasons for the transformation lay in part in a change of habitat and of the manner of life. The animals had a capacity of extraordinarily rapid adaptation to new conditions. The malleable body changed its organs comparatively rapidly, so that after a more or less brief period the descendants of a particular animal species resembled their ancestors only slightly. The same was the case in even greater measure for the plants. The greatest influence on the transformation of men and animals was exercised by man himself. This was true whether he instinctively brought organisms into such an environment that they assumed certain forms, or whether he achieved this by experiments in breeding. The transforming influence of man on nature was immeasurably great at that time, compared with the conditions of today. This was especially the case in the colony we have described. For there the leaders directed this transformation in a way of which men were not conscious. This was the case to such a degree that when men left the colony in order to found the different Atlantean races, they could take with them a highly developed knowledge of the breeding of animals and plants. The labor of cultivation in Atlantis was then essentially a consequence of the knowledge thus brought along. But here again it must be emphasized that this knowledge had an instinctive character. In this state essentially it remained among the first Atlantean races.

The preeminence of the feminine soul, which has been described, was especially strong in the last Lemurian period and continued into the Atlantean times, during which the fourth subrace was preparing itself. But one must not imagine that this was the case among all of mankind. It was true, however, for that part of the population of earth from which the truly advanced races later emerged. This influence exercised the strongest effect upon all that which in man is “unconscious.” The development of certain constant gestures, the refinements of sensory perception, the feeling for beauty, a good part of the general life of sensations and feelings which is common to all men — all this originally emanated from the spiritual influence of woman. It is not an over-statement if one interprets the reports in such a way as to affirm, “The civilized nations have a bodily form and expression, as well as certain bases of physical-soul life, which were imprinted upon them by woman.”

quote B - the last period before the division into the sexes

We shall now describe the state of man before his division into male and female.

At that time the body consisted of a soft malleable mass. The will had a much greater power over this mass than later. When man separated from his parent entity he appeared as a truly articulated organism, but as an incomplete one. The further development of the organs took place outside the parent entity. Much of what later matured inside the mother organism was at that time brought to completion outside of it by a force which was akin to our will power. In order to bring about such an external maturation the care of the parent being was necessary. Man brought certain organs into the world which he later cast off. Others, which were quite incomplete at his first appearance, developed more fully. The whole process had something which can be compared with the emergence from an egg-form and the casting off of an eggshell, but here one must not think of a firm eggshell.

The body of man was warm-blooded. This must be stated explicitly, for in even earlier times it was different, as will be shown later. The maturation which took place outside the mother organism occurred under the influence of an increased warmth which also was supplied from the outside. But one must by no means think that the egg-man (as he will be called for the sake of brevity) was brooded. The conditions of heat and fire on the Earth of that time were different from those of later times. By means of his powers Man could confine fire, or respectively, heat, to a certain space. He could, so to speak, contract, (concentrate) heat. He was thus in a position to supply the young organism with the warmth which it needed for its maturation.

The most highly developed organs of man at that time were the organs of motion. The sense organs of today were as yet quite undeveloped. The most advanced among them were the organs of hearing and of perception of cold and hot, the sense of touch; the perception of light lagged far behind. Man came into the world with the senses of hearing and touch; the perception of light developed somewhat later.

Everything which is said here applies to the last periods before the division into sexes. This division took place slowly and gradually. Long before its actual occurrence, human beings were already developing in such a way that one individual would be born with more male, another with more female characteristics. Each human being however also possessed the opposite sexual characteristics, so that self-impregnation was possible. But the latter could not always take place, because it depended on the influences of external conditions in certain seasons. With respect to many things and to a great extent, man was generally dependent on such outer conditions. Therefore he had to regulate all his institutions in accordance with such external conditions, for example, in accordance with the course of the sun and the moon. But his regulation did not take place consciously in the modern sense, but was accomplished in a manner which one must call instinctive. With this we already indicate the soul life of man of that time.

This soul life cannot be described as a true inner life. Physical and soul activities and qualities were not yet strictly separated. The outer life of nature was still experienced by the soul. Each single disturbance in the environment acted powerfully on the sense of hearing especially. Every disturbance of the air, every movement was “heard.” In their movements wind and water spoke an “eloquent language” to man. In this manner a perception of the mysterious activity of nature penetrated into him. This activity reverberated in his soul. His own activity was an echo of these impressions. He transformed the perceptions of sound into his own activity. He lived among such tonal movements and expressed them by his will. In this way he was impelled to all his daily labors.

He was influenced in a somewhat lesser degree by the influences which act upon the touch. But they also played an important role. He “felt” the environment in his body and acted accordingly. From such influences upon the touch he could tell when and how he had to work. He knew from them where he should rest. In them he recognized and avoided dangers which threatened his life. In accordance with these influences he regulated his food intake.

The remainder of the soul life took its course in a manner quite different from that of later periods. In the soul lived images of external objects, not conceptions of them. For instance, when man entered a warmer space from a colder one, a certain colored image arose in his soul. But this colored image had nothing to do with any external object. It originated in an inner force which was akin to the will. Such images continuously filled the soul. One can compare this only with the flowing dream impressions of man. At that time the images were not completely irregular, but proceeded according to law. Therefore, in relation to this stage of mankind, one should speak of an image consciousness rather than of a dream consciousness. For the most part, colored images filled this consciousness. But these were not the only kind. Thus man wandered through the world, and through his hearing and touch participated in the events of this world: but in his soul life this world was mirrored in images which were very unlike what existed in the external world. Joy and sorrow were associated with the images of the soul to a much lesser degree than is the case today with the ideas of men which reflect their perceptions of the external world. It is true that one image awakened happiness, another displeasure, one hate, another love; but these feelings had a much paler character.

On the other hand, strong feelings were aroused by something else. At that time man was much more active than later. Everything in his environment as well as the images in his soul, stimulated him to activity, to movement. When his activity could proceed without hindrance, he experienced pleasure, but when this activity was hindered in any way, he felt displeasure and discomfort. It was the absence or presence of hindrances to his will which determined the content of his sensations, his joy and his pain. This joy, or this pain were again released in his soul in a world of living images. Light, clear, beautiful images lived in him when he could be completely free in his actions; dark, misshapen images arose in his soul when his movements were hindered.

Until now the average man has been described. Among those who had developed into a kind of superhuman beings, (cf. page 96) soul life was different. Their soul life did not have this instinctive character. Through their senses of hearing and touch they perceived deeper mysteries of nature, which they could interpret consciously. In the rushing of the wind, in the rustling of the trees, the laws, the wisdom of nature were unveiled to them. The images in their souls did not merely represent reflections of the external world, but were likenesses of the spiritual powers of the world. They did not perceive sensory objects, but spiritual entities. For example, the average man experienced fear, and an ugly, dark image arose in his soul. By means of such images the superhuman being received information and revelation about the spiritual entities of the world. The processes of nature did not appear to him as dependent on lifeless natural laws, as they do to the scientist of today, but rather as the actions of spiritual beings. External reality did not yet exist, for there were no external senses. But spiritual reality was accessible to the higher beings. The spirit shone into them as the sun shines into the physical eye of man today. In these beings, cognition was what one may call intuitive knowledge in the fullest sense of the word. For them there was no combining and speculating, but an immediate perception of the activity of spiritual beings. Therefore, these superhuman individuals could receive communications from the spiritual world directly into their will. They consciously directed the other men. They received their mission from the world of spirits and acted accordingly.

When the time came in which the sexes separated, these beings considered it their task to act upon the new life in accordance with their mission. The regulation of sexual life emanated from them. Everything which relates to the reproduction of mankind originated with them. In this they acted quite consciously, but the other men could only feel this influence as an instinct implanted in them. Sexual love was implanted in man by immediate transference of thought. At first all its manifestations were of the noblest character. Everything in this area which has taken on an ugly character comes from later times, when men became more independent and when they corrupted an originally pure impulse. In these older times there was no satisfaction of the sexual impulse for its own sake. Then, everything was a sacrificial service for the continuation of human existence. Reproduction was regarded as a sacred matter, as a service which man owes to the world. Sacrificial priests were the directors and regulators in this field.

Of a different kind were the influences of the half superhuman beings (cf. page 96/97). The latter were not developed to the point of being able to receive the revelations of the spiritual world in an entirely pure form. Along with these impressions of the spiritual world, the effects of the sensible earth also arose among the images of their souls. The truly superhuman beings received no impressions of joy and pain through the external world. They were wholly given over to the revelations of the spiritual powers. Wisdom flowed to them as light does to sensory beings; their will was directed toward nothing but acting in accordance with this wisdom. In this acting lay their highest joy. Wisdom, will, and activity constituted their nature. This was different among the half superhuman entities. They felt the impulse to receive impressions from the outside, and with the satisfaction of this impulse they connected joy, with its frustration, displeasure. Through this they differed from the superhuman entities. To these entities, external impressions were nothing but confirmations of spiritual revelations They could look out into the world without receiving anything more than a reflection of what they had already received from the spirit. The half-superhuman beings learned something new, and therefore they could become leaders of men when in human souls mere images changed into likenesses and conceptions of external objects. This happened when a portion of the previous reproductive energy of man turned inward, at the time when entities with brains were developed. With the brain man also received the capacity to transform external sensory impressions into conceptions.

It must therefore be said that by half-superhuman beings man was brought to the point of directing his inner nature toward the sensuous external world. He was not permitted to open the images of his soul directly to pure spiritual influences. The capacity of perpetuating the existence of his kind was implanted in him as an instinctive impulse by superhuman beings. Spiritually, he would at first have had to continue a sort of dream existence if the half-superhuman beings had not intervened. Through their influence the images of his soul were directed toward the sensuous, external world. He became a being which was conscious of itself in the world of the senses. Thereby it came about that man could consciously direct his actions in accordance with his perceptions of the world of the senses. Before this he had acted from a kind of instinct. He had been under the spell of his external environment and of the powers of higher individualities, which acted on him. Now he began to follow the impulses and enticements of his conceptions. Therewith free choice became possible for man. This was the beginning of “good and evil.”

Before we continue in this direction, something will be said concerning the environment of man on earth. In addition to man there existed animals, which, for their kind, were at the same stage of development as he. According to current ideas one would include them among the reptiles. Apart from them, lower forms of animal life existed. Between man and the animals there was an essential difference. Because of his still malleable body, man could live only in those regions of the earth which had not yet passed over into the most solid material form. And in these regions animal organisms which had a similarly plastic body lived with him. But in other regions lived animals which already had dense bodies and also had developed separate sexedness and the senses. Where they had come from, will be explained later. These animals could not develop further because their bodies had taken on this denser materiality too soon. Some species of these became extinct, others have perpetuated their kind to the point of contemporary forms. Man could attain higher forms because he remained in the regions which corresponded to his state at that time. Thereby his body remained so pliant and soft that he could develop the organs which were to be fructified by the spirit. With this development his external body had reached the point where it could pass over into denser materiality and become a protective envelope for the more delicate spiritual organs.

[Second group]

Not all human bodies, however, had reached this point. There were few advanced ones. These were first animated by spirit.

Others were not animated. If the spirit had penetrated into them it could have developed only in a defective manner because of the as yet incomplete inner organs. Therefore, at first these human beings were compelled to develop further without spirit.

A third kind had reached the point where weak spiritual impulses could act in them. They stood between the two other kinds. Their mental activity remained dull. They had to be led by higher spiritual powers.

All possible transitions existed between these three kinds.

Further development was now possible only in that a portion of the human beings attained higher forms at the expense of the others. First, the completely mindless ones had to be abandoned. A mingling with them for the purpose of reproduction would have pulled the more highly developed down to their level. Everything which had been given a mind was therefore separated from them. Thereby the latter descended more and more to the level of animalism. Thus, alongside man there developed manlike animals. Man left a portion of his brothers behind on his road in order that he himself might ascend higher. This process had by no means come to an end. Among the men with a dull mental life those who stood somewhat higher could advance only if they were raised to an association with higher ones, and separated themselves from those less endowed with spirit. Only thus could they develop bodies which would be fit to receive the full human spirit. After a certain time the physical development had come to a kind of stopping-point, in that everything which lay above a certain boundary remained human. Meanwhile, the conditions of life on earth had changed in such a way that a further thrusting down would no longer produce animal-like creatures, but such as were no longer capable of living. That which had been thrust down into the animal world has either become extinct or survives in the different higher animals. Therefore, one must consider these animals as beings which had to stop at an earlier stage of human development. They have not retained the form which they had at the time of their separation, however, but have gone from a higher to a lower level. Thus the apes are men of a past epoch who have regressed. As man was once less perfect than he is at present, they were once more perfect than they are now.

That which has remained in the field of the human, has gone through a similar process, but within these human limits. Many savage tribes must be considered to be the degenerated descendants of human forms which were once more highly developed. They did not sink to the level of animalism, but only to that of savagery.

The immortal part of man is the spirit. It has been shown when the spirit entered the body. Before this, the spirit belonged to other regions. It could only associate itself with the body when the latter had attained a certain level of development. Only when one understands completely how this association came about, can one recognize the significance of birth and death, and can understand the nature of the eternal spirit.

1904-05-23-GA093

see: Fall and redemption - original sin and grace#1904-05-23-GA093

1904-09-06-GA091

is a key lecture regarding the descent of the first spirits (terminology-wise, the word souls is used) in the Lemurian epoch, and the context of the original sin

see: Three classes of Buddhas#1904-09-06-GA091

1904-12-31-GA090A

The great hermaphrodite beings in the first half of the Lemurian epoch were carrier of the most advanced pitris (arhats): divine, no karma, but also no freedom. Only in the sixth epoch will Man have reached this level (after having gone through karma) .. so with freedom and having overwon evil, thereby redeeming the luciferic backward moon beings. The reunion of the Earth with the Sun will be the moment of this redemption, see also Schema FMC00.426 (on Book of Revelation).

1905-10-16-GA093a

Going still further back we reach the Lemurian Epoch.

Here we come to a stage in human development at which the union of the maternal and paternal principles takes place for the first time. This etheric head naturally branches out into the astral body which surrounds the human beings with its rays ... [Gap in text ...].

If one had found the means of lifting the head with the astral body out of such a human being something quite peculiar would have occurred. He would thereby have lost the possibility of holding himself upright; he would have folded up. Just the opposite procedure was taken with Man at that time and through this he gradually raised himself to the upright posture.

In the Lemurian Epoch, however, Man was still at a stage at which he did not yet possess what we are assuming could be lifted out of him. In this earlier period he did not yet possess this etheric head with the astral body. At that time, they were not yet there.

Man as he wandered over the Earth was then really a being folded together. The two organs now used for work, the hands, were then turned backwards and formed additional organs of movement, so that he went on four legs. One must picture two people of the present day, man and woman, entwined in one another, think away the upper half of the body, leaving only the lower half there. The human being was actually male-female. He also had at that time an astral and etheric body, but not the one which he had later. This was a different astral body, that is, such a one as had reached its highest perfection on the Old Moon. There, on the Old Moon, the astral body together with the etheric body had acquired the capacity of developing a physical body which then had a crab-like form. The human being could stand on one pair of legs and make a kind of leaping movement.

This astral body with the etheric body was then of quite another nature. It had a form which was not entirely egg-shaped, but more like a bell which descended like a dome over the human being who went on all fours. The etheric body provided for all the life functions of this Lemurian human being. In his astral body he had a dull twilight consciousness similar to that of our dreams. His consciousness was however unlike the reminiscences inherent in our dreams, for he dreamt of realities. When he was approached by another human being unsympathetic to him, there arose in him a sensation of light which indicated what was unsympathetic.

Already on the Old Moon, Man had some slight power of using both his front limbs for the purpose of grasping, so that now the time came for assuming the upright posture.

His other living companions were, in the Lemurian Age, of the nature of reptiles; animals of grotesque shapes who have left no traces behind them. The ichthyosaurs and so on are descendants of these animals. It is a fact that at that time the earth was inhabited by beings reptilian in character; human bodies too were reptile-like.

When eventually this reptilian human being assumed the upright posture, the formation of the head, quite open in front, out of which gushed a fiery cloud, became visible. This gave rise to the tales about the winged serpent, about the dragon. Such was Man's grotesque form at that time, reptile-like. The Guardian of the Threshold, the lower nature of Man, frequently appears in a form of this kind. It represents the lower nature with the open formation of the head.

At that time, the union took place between these forms on the Earth and the other beings already described. The astral body with the head formation united with the winged-serpent body with its fiery opening. It was the fructification of the maternal Earth with the paternal spirit.

In this way there proceeded the fructification with the Manas forces. The lower astral body merged with the higher astral body. A great part of the astral body, as it then was, fell away. One portion formed the lower parts of the human astral body, and the other newly acquired astral body, connected with the head, united with the upper parts of the human being. What was then peeled off abandoned this astral body which was bound up with the form of the winged-serpent; it could no longer have any further development on the Earth.

It formed, as a conglomerate substance, the astral sphere of the moon, the so-called Eighth sphere. The moon actually provides shelter for astral beings which have come into existence through the fact that man has thrown something off.

1905-10-25-GA093a

When Man, by working out of the spirit, transmutes the physical body, he conquers death. The separate forces exhaust themselves when they take on special forms.

The force enters into the form with ever increasing density and hence life in the Lemurian Age had to receive a new impulse, which was brought about by the turning around of the Earth Globe. The axis of the Earth was gradually turned.

Previously there was a tropical climate at the North Pole; later through the turning around of the Earth axis the tropical climate came into the middle region.

This change proceeded with comparative rapidity but lasted nevertheless for perhaps four million years. [Rudolf Steiner later revised his time scale of earthly evolution to much shorter periods - editor] Four million years were needed by the Moon Pitris in order to turn the axis of the Earth. At that time the Moon Pitris development was already much further on than that of present day man.

1906-11-26-GA283

contains this key extract on the 'fusion' of higher and lower

… animality developed itself upward, while the soul descended.

As a whirling cloud of dust spirals up from the Earth and a rain cloud descends to meet it, so did the animal body and the human soul unite.

• The sentient body of this animal living below on Earth — Man's ancestor — had developed itself to the point where it could receive the 'I'.
• This 'I' was also composed of various members, namely the sentient soul, the intellectual soul, and the consciousness soul.
• Imperceptible to the outer senses, this 'I'-body [Ich-Leib] descended to meet the upwardly evolving physical body, etheric body, and sentient body.

Had beings possessing a physical body, an etheric body, and a sentient body existed a million years earlier, they would have been able to feel these “I's” hovering above. They would have been forced, however, to say, “A union with such beings is impossible, for the sentient souls hovering above are so delicately spiritual that they are unable to unite themselves with our coarse bodies.”

Gradually, however, the [sentient] soul above became coarser and the sentient body below more refined. A kinship came into being between the two, and now the soul descended. Like a sword fits into a scabbard, so the sentient soul fits into the sentient body. …

In the Lemurian age, a time long before the seven members of Man had united, we find beings existing on the physical plane who had not yet brought the physical body to the state of “fire.” They were as yet incapable of developing warm blood. Only a physical body capable of developing warm blood links a soul to itself. As soon as those beings had evolved to the level of warmth ether, the 'I'-soul [Ich-Seele] was ready to unite itself with the physical body. …

It was a moment of the utmost importance, when the being consisting of physical body, etheric body, and sentient body could, through the warm blood, be fructified with a human soul.

See also Schema FMC00.443 on Development of the I where a rare description uses the terms 'hollow I' and 'substantial I'.

1909-06-10-GA109

talks about the destruction of the Lemurian continent and culture

Through the wickedness of masses of human beings and the fact that man succumbed too completely to the influence of the luciferic beings and lent himself to evil, the forces of fire in Lemuria were kindled. Thus, Lemuria perished as the result of the raging fires and the wickedness of a large section of its population.

.

The human beings who were saved went to the West, to a continent lying between the present Africa, Europe and America, namely, Atlantis. There the evolution of humanity continued for long, long ages.

1909-06-28-GA112

Then comes the time in which the Earth is still united with the Moon and becomes increasingly desolate. We saw yesterday how the human souls abandoned the Earth, upon which only stunted human forms remained. In the literature of spiritual science this is called the ‘Lemurian’ age.

The separation of Moon from the Earth took place in this period and there ensued a revival of all the kingdoms which had their foundation upon the Earth. The mineral kingdom needed but little reviving; the vegetable kingdom somewhat more; the animal kingdom still more; while the human race needed the highest and most powerful forces for the furtherance of its development. This revival began simultaneously with the exit of the Moon.

We find then, as we said yesterday, only a small number of human beings, and these consisted of the three principles they had acquired in the evolution of Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon. To these the first beginning of the I was added on Earth.

But at the time of the Moon's exit from the Earth, Man did not yet exist in the fleshly substance which he assumed later. He was clothed in the finest substance of that age.

In the Lemurian age

• our present minerals were largely still in a fluid state, being dissolved in other substances which, as fluids, exist separately today, for instance, water.
• The atmosphere was still permeated with dense vapours of the most various substances.
• Pure air, pure water in our sense of the word, did not exist at that time, or at any rate only to a very slight extent.
• The human being of those times cast his tenuous delicate body in the purest substances available.
  • Had he used coarser substances, his body would have assumed a definite outline, and its form a sharply defined contour; the latter would have been bequeathed to his descendants and the human race would have remained stationary. Thus the coarse substances were inadmissible; indeed, Man had to provide that the matter assumed by his body should freely move in accordance with the impulses of his soul.
  • The matter in which Man's body was cast at that time was so soft that it followed the impulse of his will in all directions. You can stretch out your hand today, but you cannot prolong it three yards by an act of will. You cannot subject matter to your will, because its present form is inherited. This was not the case at that time. Man could assume any form at will; he could cast the form as his soul willed. It was conditional to his further development that, after the Moon's exit, he should incarnate in the softest substances, so that his body remained plastic and flexible, and followed the soul in every respect.

Then came the time in which certain parts of matter which are so necessary for our present existence — water and air — were gradually purged of the denser matter they contained, so that the substances which were initially dissolved in the water, now separated from it. As substances in solution fall when the water cools, the dissolved substances fell, as it were, to the Earth's crust. The water became clear and the air was freed from matter; air and water came into existence. Man was able to use this refined matter for the formation of his body. This third Lemurian epoch gradually led to an epoch which we call ‘Atlantean’ because the chief part of the human race then lived on a now submerged continent which extended between America and Europe and Africa — the area now covered by the Atlantic Ocean. When the Lemurian period had lasted a while, humanity pursued its development on the Atlantean continent. Here everything took place which I am about to describe, as well as much that was mentioned yesterday.

Only very few of the human souls who incarnated later, were present at the time of the Moon's exit, for these souls were then distributed over the various planets. They descended again during the late Lemurian and early Atlantean times. Few human beings, as I said, had lived through the crisis of the Lemurian epoch, for only the strongest souls could reside in the hardened substance, and survive the Moon crisis.

But when the substance began to soften, after the Moon's exit, and when descendants were produced who were not confined within a hard and fast, inherited form, but were flexible, the souls gradually descended from the various planets and took possession of the bodies.

The forms, however, which became physical soon after the Moon's exit, retained their fixed form through inheritance, and were therefore unable to receive into themselves human souls, even after the Moon's exit.

[continued, see lecture, as well as on: Planets hosting beings at various stages of evolution]

1909-08-26-GA113

When the Sun spirits had withdrawn the Saturn and Moon spirits were left on the Earth. The development of the Saturn spirits was such that they could direct and guide the separation of the Moon from the Earth; they had passed through the same stage on Old Saturn as the Sun spirits had done on the Old Sun; their maturity had preceded that of the Sun spirits, and they were therefore able to separate the Moon from the Earth and to stimulate from within the inner development of man, who, otherwise, would have hardened and become mummified.

It may be said that the withdrawal of the Sun was brought about by the Sun spirits, and that of the Moon by the Saturn spirits. The Sun is a cosmic symbol for the act of the Sun spirits, the Moon for that of the Saturn spirits. And what is left upon the Earth itself Spirits of the Old Moon period.

...

Zeus is a word of uncertain meaning when used in ancient times, for it was applied to spiritual individualities at very different stages of evolution. But men in ancient Greece who know something of initiation recognised in Zeus the ruler of the Sun spirits. Zeus lives in the influences which came to the Earth from the Sun.

Chthon is a designation of the somewhat chaotic condition of the Earth after the withdrawal of the moon, at which time neither plant nor animal nor human forms were to be found.

In most remarkable words, Pherecydes spoke of the holy primordial triad, of Zeus, Kronos and Chthon, principles fundamental to the earth, having come over from pre-terrestrial ages; he also speaks of a further evolution. But in ancient times men did not clothe matters of this kind in such dry, crude concepts as they do today, they drew vivid pictures of what they saw and recognised in spiritual realms.

Pherecydes said: ‘Chthon becomes Gea (today called earth), because of the gift of Zeus whereby she came to be covered as with a garment.’ This is a wonderful description of that evolution which I have just outlined in a few short words. The Earth was alone; outside it were the sun and the moon, the spiritual kingdoms of Zeus and of Kronos. The sun from without began to work upon the earth and to fructify it in its then chaotic state; or, in the language of the old Greek sage, Zeus fructified Chthon. The beneficent influences of the kingdom of Zeus were sent down to the physical earth in the warmth and light of the sun. This was the gift made by Zeus to the earth. The earth covered herself with the garment of plant and animal forms, and with the forms of physical men. Chthon becomes Gea; therefore, because of the gift of Zeus the earth covers herself with a garment.

Arthur E. Powell - 'The Solar System' (1930)

Then a curious thing happened. ”One-third refuses; two-thirds obey.”

The orange group of I’s; on seeing the bodies offered to them, refused to enter, not out of any wickedness, but from sheer pride, disdaining the unattractive forms, and also perhaps from their ancient hatred of sexual unions.

The yellow and pink groups, however, were docile, and obeyed, gradually improving the bodies they inhabited. Thus was made the fourth Lemurian sub-race. This was the first which was in any sense, except the embryonic, human; and it may be dated from the giving of the forms by the Barhishads.

In The Secret Doctrine H. P. Blavatsky speaks of this fourth sub-race as ”yellow,” apparently from the colour of the incoming yellow I’s from Globe B of the Moon Chain. The sub-race itself was black, this colour persisting for some time into later sub-races, as we shall see presently.

[sin of the mindless]

The descendants of these monsters, having through long centuries dwindled in size and become more densely physical, culminated in a race of Apes in the Miocene period, from which are descended the pithecoids of today. With these apes the Atlanteans (fourth Race) renewed the 'sin of the mindless'-this time with full responsibility, the results being the Apes we know as Anthropoid (vide The Secret Doctrine, II, 728).

It seems that these anthropoids will obtain human incarnation in the coming sixth Root-Race, doubtless in the bodies of the lowest races then existing on earth.

The area allotted to the orange group was thus left vacant.

The bodies, which they should have used, were gladly seized upon by the entities just emerging from the animal kingdom, the very lowest human type.

The consequence of this was, that instead of maintaining the advancement which had been gained by so much effort, the forms were allowed to drop back again into a condition even worse than before. The primitive humans inhabiting the forms even intermingled with some of the animal forms, quite naturally feeling little difference between themselves and the ranks from which they had only just emerged.

This was what H. P. Blavatsky called the 'sin of the mindless', and the result of it was various types of anthropoid apes.

The Book of Dzyan thus graphically describes the episode just mentioned:

”During the Third, the boneless animals grew and changed; they became animals with bones, their Chhâyas became solid.

”The animals separated the first. They began to breed.

The two-fold man separated also. He said: 'Let us as they; let us unite and make creatures.' They did.

”And those which had no Spark took huge she-animals unto them. They begat upon them dumb races. Dumb they were themselves.

But their tongues untied. The tongues of their progeny remained still. Monsters they bred. A race of crooked red-hair-covered monsters going on all fours. A dumb race to keep the shame untold.

”Seeing which, the Lhas who had not built men, wept, saying:

”'The Amanasa [mindless] have defiled our future abodes. This is Karma.

Let us dwell in others. Let us teach them better, lest worse should happen.' They did.”

”Then all men became endowed with Manas. They saw the sin of the mindless.”

The karma of the refusal of the orange group of I's to take their due place in the work of peopling the world was that, later on, they were forced into incarnation and had to take even lower and coarser bodies, the Lords of the Moon having by that time gone on to other work. They thus became a backward race, cunning but not good; and passed through many unpleasant experiences. They diminished in number by constantly coming into collision with the common order, and being hammered; largely by suffering, into ordinary folk.

Discussion

Note [1] - Origin of names Lemuria and Mu and their adoption

Origins of the names Lemuria and Mu

• 1864: Philip Sclater (1829-1913)uses the term 'Lemuria' for a continent supposedly to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, part of his to explain zoological coincidences relating Madagascar to India. The animal species 'lemurs' are found on Madagascar and some subclasses are named after Sclater.

• 1864: Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg (1814-1874) first uses the name 'Mu', believing that (a word from the Troano or Madrid Codex which he read as Mu)

Consecutive use of the names

• Augustus Le Plongeon (1825–1908) around the 1880s identified the Land of Mu as an alternative name for Atlantis, as part of his research into the Maya culture and claims that the Yucatan civilizations were older than those of Egypt and told the story of an ancient continent.

• 1882: Ignatius Donnelly (1831-1901) in 'Atlantis: The Antediluvian World' (1882), also mapped 'Mu' to the continent that had once existed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Adoption of the terms in spiritual science 1875-1925

• 1877: Helena Blavatsky quotes extensively from Louis Jacolliot (1837-1890) and his 'Histoire des Vierges: Les Peuples et les Continents Disparus' (1874) to confirm the existence of the continents of Atlantis and Lemuria
• 1883: 'Esoteric Buddhism' by Alfred P. Sinnett (1840-1921) was one of the first theosophical books and an influential 'bestseller'. It was based on a number of articles published in The Theosophist in 1882-1883 (inspired contents from letters he received) and discussions with Blavatsky.
• 1888: Helena Blavatsky also uses the name Lemuria and provides extensive description of location and the third root race in 'The secret doctrine' (1888)
• 1904-1925: Rudolf Steiner consistenly adopts the theosophical terminology including the name Lemuria

Period after 1925

• 1926: James Churchward (1851–1936) popularises the name Lemuria for the ancient continent in the Pacific Ocean in three books
• 1928: Edna Kenton (1876- 1954) published the 'The Book of Earths' with an objective overview of previous publications and sources (without taking any particular position in the matter)

For more info, see 'Further reading' section below.

Other sources

• 1882: In 1882 the book 'Oahspe: A New Bible' by John Ballou Newbrough (1828–1891) was published in America. He reported that the revelations or inspired contents or the book had not been written by him with his own personal mundane consciousness, but by automatic writing, and this over a two year period starting in 1880. This makes the book an interesting example of the 19th century spiritualist practices. [Rudolf Steiner and other later positioned these processes and their potential flaws.] Nevertheless, the huge volume is in broad lines not wholly inconsistent with the teachings of spiritial science as found in theosophy (Blavatsky) and anthroposophy (Steiner), and ao also gives details about ancient continents such as a large sunken continent called Pan or Whaga located in the Pacific Ocean.
• Tamil culture - use of the term Kumari Kandam (or Kumarikkandam) or Kumari Nadu (or Kumarinatu)

Note [2] - On schema FMC00.457 and variants

Schema FMC00.457 is useful to depict the huge transformational nature of the Lemurian epoch, and the vast changes in the evolution of mankind between its start and end. The main triggering event in this most crucial phase in the development of Mankind, is the descent of the monads: spirits descended from the group souls 'above' into physical bodies 'below'

However there is a multitude of major changes, and these different aspects have to be studied in their interrelationship:

• Man became an upright being
• warm blooded, and breathing
• by the end of the Lemurian epoch, Man had reached a human form representing what can be called the beginning of what we call human races
• from hermaphrodite to bi-sexual: the 'division of the sexes'
• the start of physical reincarnation
• the start of I-consciousness with the first physical sense(s) and the beginning of the sentient soul
• start of good and evil due to the 'fall' or luciferic infection of the astral body
• the start of the descent of souls incarnating on Earth to further their development, see Planets hosting beings at various stages of evolution.

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Besides the above consequences, also note how major cosmic influences take place to steer the process:

• the separation of Moon
• descent of the Lords of Venus (<-> Luciferic infection)
• changing of the Earth's axis

Related pages

• Man in the Lemurian epoch
• Earth and nature in the Lemurian epoch - before separation Moon
• Earth and nature in the Lemurian epoch - after separation Moon
• Earth's seven epochs
• Christ Module 3 - Evolutionary framework
• Evolution

References and further reading

• W. Scott-Elliot: 'The Lost Lemuria' (1904)
  • available online here
  • see notes about Scott-Elliott and the origin of these writings on the reference section on the Atlantean epoch
• James Churchward (1851–1936)
  • Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Man (1926), re-published later as The Lost Continent Mu (1931).
  • The Children of Mu (1931)
  • The Sacred Symbols of Mu (1933)
• Edna Kenton: The Book of Earths (1928)
  • available online here
• Eugen Kolisko: 'Geology No 3 - Lemuria – The Mesozoic Age'
• Andreas Delor (publisher) and Pascale Aeby (1966-2012)
  • Delor published 8 volumes of over 3900 pages in total, the first five focus on Atlantis, volumes 6 and 7 are on Lemuria, and volume 8 is on the first two epochs, the Hyperborean and Polarian.
  • Atlantis: nach neuesten hellsichtigen und wissenschaftlichen Quellen (8 volumes)
    • Band 6 - Lemurien I; Feuerkatastrophen, Inkarnation der Urvölker, Kain und Abel (2016)
    • Band 7 - Lemurien II Zwischen Sonnentrennung und Mondentrennung (2015)