Man's life development

The human life rolls off in stages of approximately seven years, see Seven year rhythm, whereby Man's bodily principles develop and various karmic challenges are encountered, related to the various planetary spheres mapping to these seven year periods.

However this development also includes other important rhythms such as the Eighteen year rhythm of the moon nodes, and the rhythms of the planets as described with transits in the language of astrology.

Biography work consists of looking back on one's life experience to date in a self-conscious way, as part of 'Know thyself'.

Aspects

• relation between childhood and old age
  • In childhood the foundation of what Man will have in old age is implanted into the astral. What one gives physically to the child goes over into his astral body and is present in the shape of definite forms. What is thus worked in, is however gradually worked out again in advanced age ...After the middle period a sort of reversal takes place; the astral then works into the physical plane. (1905-10-30-GA093A)

childhood

• development of the Embryo in the womb before birth
• during the first years "It is not the child that is speaking, but the angel is speaking out of the child" and "The spiritual world speaks through the child, but men are not aware of it. The wisest can learn most from a child. And when someone who is himself able to look into the spiritual worlds has a child before him, with the stream that rises up into the spiritual world, it is as if — forgive the homely expression — he has in the child something like a telephone-line into the spiritual worlds." (1911-02-11-GA127)
• the sense of authority between the 7th and 14th year
  • between the 7th and 14th/15th year there lives in the child an ability, that could be described as 'the power to act on authority'. There is nothing better for the child, than to undertake something out of veneration for the person who says: that’s good, that needs to be done. Nothing is more detrimental for the child than acquiring the habit of forming its own judgment at too early an age, before having reached sexual maturity. In the future, the sense of authority between the 7th and 14th year should be developed much more intensively than in the past. Education in these years will increasingly need to be consciously focused on developing a pure feeling for authority in the child; because what the child acquires in these years, will form the basis for experiencing the equality in the social organism that every person deserves. Equal rights will only arise in this way, because people will never mature as adults towards a feeling for equal rights, when they do not develop a sense for authority during childhood. In the past, a much less strong feeling for authority might have been enough; in the future, it will not be sufficient. (1919-08-09-GA296)

development of the I during human life

• growing up and I-consciousness (see ao Schema FMC00.244, 1909-06-17-GA107, and more on Human 'I')
  • premature awakening of I-consciousness
    • due to Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences around 2,5 and 9 years (see Seven year rhythm#1919-12-06-GA194)
    • developing the human faculties of: Walking Speaking Thinking (WST)
  • development of the I-principle and threefold soul in the period of 21 to 42 years (see ao Human character - the I and threefold soul)

the pivotal age 35

• The 35th year of life is an important boundary where Man crosses a bridge: the world he came out of withdraws, and from within he gives birth to a new world. (1915-11-18-GA157A)
• with the age of 35, Man gains his independence of soul. Up to this age, Man must learn from the world and from life, only from 35 on can the world learn from him. Only after this age, when Man is com­pletely finished with himself—around 35—only then is he mature enough to give to others, to give out what he has.
  • 35 marks the beginning when experiences can become a form of wisdom - Knowledge one can acquire, but Wisdom is something that must be developed within.
  • As genuine maturity is especially needed for work in spiritual science .. not before the age of about 35 should one step out before the world and teach spiritual-scientific truths.
• The age of 35 is a point of cul­mination: after age 35 the forces that earlier went into the body become now free; they become available and can be worked with. The sheaths of Man's bodily principles recede and the forces that have formerly built his physical body now begin to stream into his spiritual body in order to affect his sur­roundings. With age 35, the astral body (into which all developed potentials are now engraved) begins to harden, to recede .. this takes till around 40. The ether body begins to recede after age 42. "While the transience in Man declines, the eternal grows in Man" (see below Man's life development#Importance of age 35)
  • "on the one hand, we have a path of evolution where the various bodies - the physical, the etheric, and the astral bodies - develop; and on the other hand, we have a path where these bodies recede: an as­cending and a descending path. But it is on the latter path, as the sheaths decrease, that the eternal in man unfolds and grows." (1908-03-10)

maturity

• there are certain periods of time in which (rudimentary, shadowy) soul metamorphoses take place (matched by rudimentary bodily metamorphoses): there is such a period at the end of the forties (say around age 49), again at the end of the fifties (say age 59), and in the middle of the fifties. "They only appear in hints, but one notices quite clearly: in the forties, at the end of the forties, one becomes a different person and at the end of the fifties one becomes yet another person." (1920-03-24-GA073A)
• In the first half of life, everything has developed in rhythmic progression; in the second half, the boundaries are not so exact .. we are working toward the future. (1907-02-28-GA055)

late age

• dementia, alzheimer
  • old people become mentally weak because the physical body, which is the instrument of the soul, the reflection mirror, deteriorates and can no longer reflect (1907-03-16-GA097)
  • for mental diseases, see also Schizophrenia

Rhythms

• Yearly rhythm, see temporarily:
  • Rhythm of a year
  • Christ Module 17 - The experience of the year
• Seven year rhythm or phases of 7 years (and the link with the spiritual hierarchies)
• Eighteen year rhythm or phases of 18 years, also called the lunar nodes (and the link with the moon's nutation)

Full life

• Biography work
• for longitudinal studies of people's lives, see 'Further Reading' section below, eg George E. Vaillant and the Harvard Grant study
• the two halves of a human life
  • "during the first half of life, a Man is unable to acquire self-knowledge through his original being; he has to acquire it through Lucifer, while his original being goes on developing further. The Luciferic infuses him with self-knowledge during the first half of life. In the second half of life this brilliant self-knowledge is clouded over by Ahriman." (1918-10-05-GA184)

other

• the language of astrology (transits - rhythms of returns, birth chart reading, ..)
• life transitions and karma

immortality

• On the concept of immortality:
  • “To be immortal means having the power (acquired by initiation or received after death from the spiritual world) to preserve the renounced past existence in memory. That is the real definition of immortality“. (1912-08-28-GA138)
  • spiritual immortality of the soul is linked to the teachings of reincarnation, and covered in very many lectures. See eg Socrates doctrine of immortality in GA008, or 1911-11-17-GA069 discussing papers by Maximilian Drossbach (1810-1884): 'The Empirical Solution of the Immortality Question According to the Known Natural Laws' (1849) and 'Thoughts on Immortality as a Repetition of the Earth-life' (1851) by Gustav Widenmann (1812-1876)
• longevity - materialistic or 'ahrimanic immortality' and manipulation of deceased souls by secret societies (1917-01-20-GA173C, 1917-01-22-GA174, 1917-11-25-GA178) - see Structure of Man between death and a new birth#Aspects
  • Rudolf Steiner also touches on ancient secret techniques for extending life, but is very discrete and does not divulge details (lecture references to be added)
  • see also: Draja Mickaharic (1912-) first read 'Immortality' (2007) then 'The Long Lived' (2014) (also in his other writings), in which he describes several methods and illustrates by various (anonymized) stories that he was told over his long life as a magician:
    • by projecting one's soul and consciousness outside one's dying physical body before (or at) death and 'jumping' (projecting) into the physical body of another young and healthy person; then forcefully banishing the consciousness of the invaded out of the body. When seizing control, the new body becomes a new vessel to continue life. Seemingly this is an established technique that can be done ever again over centuries and millenia.
    • using an 'alchemical elixir of life' to transform the physical body completely, a transformation that affects skin, teeth, hair etc and whereby the person - as a helpless newborn infant - requires months of special (magical) care to restart physical regeneration and functioning (eg metabolism of drinking and eating). When the change is completely, the person has greater strength and can not be ill or be poisoned any more and will retain this for the remainer of a greatly extended lifespan.
  • other references: o.a. article in 'Prana' Apr-May-Jun 1918 editor Johannes Balzli (Karl Brandler-Pracht): 'Von magischen Kräften und Wundern. Ein Abschnitt aus Dr. Carl Vogels 'Unsterblichkeit'

Inspirational quotes

Jorge Luis Borges

from "Twenty-Four Conversations with Borges", a collection of interviews conducted by Roberto Alifano between 1981 and 1983

All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.237: depicts the Life Chart diagram by George and Gisela O'Neil (based on Rudolf Steiner's lecture of 1924-08-16-GA311) - see Schema FMC00.237A for more info. The diagram is is used for and appears in many books for personal biography work. Click image to download at any resolution.

Schema FMC00.244 illustrates the premature awakening of I-consciousness due to Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences, before the actual work of the normal Spirits of Form (SoF) between age 21 and 42. In the original plan, Man would have remained in a spiritual conditions outside of this period. Illustrations from 'The human life' by George O'Neil.

For consciousness at around 2,5 and 9 years, see ao Seven year rhythm#1919-12-06-GA194

Lecture coverage and references

1907-03-16-GA097

Question: Why do old people become mentally weak, even if the soul cannot change?

Answer: The soul, indeed, does not change. It never descends from the stage once reached. But its instrument has become weak, like a great pianist who can no longer play as he played formerly, if he has a bad instrument. You will say the soul no longer knows its own stage. Yes, the soul does not see itself as long as it is in a physical body.

In the physical body is only to be found the reflection of the soul, the mirror image. Now the mirror becomes clouded or broken.

Then it can no longer reflect.

1919-08-10-GA296

see: Meaning of life#1919-08-10-GA296

What helps to prepare people for life is

• the opportunity to imitate during the first seven years of life;
• that he can follow a worthy authority up to the fourteenth year;
• and that up to the twenty first year he learns to love in the right way

... because these forces can no longer be developed later. What human beings miss when certain forces that need to be developed during specific years of youth, are not awakened, turns them into problematic personalities.

1920-03-24-GA073A

quote A

On the other hand, the following emerges for the spiritual scientist's sharpened sense of observation. The essential thing is that the inner work that the spiritual scientist has to do in order to arrive at his modes of conception, and then to penetrate into nature in the way I have shown, sharpens his view of reality, his sense of observation for reality. This is how it turns out for this sharpened sense of observation: in the early stages of its development, the human being undergoes certain metamorphoses. One must only have an unbiased sense of what is going on in the early stages of human development.

We have an important stage of life in human life: from birth to the change of teeth around the age of seven. The soul life of the human being manifests itself in a very specific way during this period, and with the change of teeth it undergoes a transformation.

Until the change of teeth, the human being is in the epoch of his life where he is an imitative being who wants to imitate everything that is done in his environment, down to the movements, down to the formation of speech sounds, and who wants to imitate these things through inner forces. Up to the age of seven, he adapts so well to the human environment that he then, up to the next important stage in life, which is linked to the onset of sexual maturity, has the need to accept, on the basis of authority, that which he is supposed to believe. Then the whole organization of the human being changes again, and so does his soul life.

And anyone with enough sense of observation will be able to notice how the human being changes even in his early twenties, or perhaps in his late twenties. Later on, what corresponds to this youthful transformation of the human being can only be observed by the keen sense of observation of the spiritual researcher.

When a person has really undergone spiritual training, it becomes apparent that towards old age certain, I would say shadowy, transformations of the soul life occur. They only appear in hints, but one notices quite clearly: in the forties, at the end of the forties, one becomes a different person and at the end of the fifties one becomes yet another person. These metamorphoses occur in a shadowy, rudimentary way, as only hinted changes within, but anyone who can observe them can compare them with the hints that occur in embryonic life and that are repetitions of earlier physical forms that have been passed through in tribal development.

But one cannot simply transfer the scientific biogenetic law to history; instead of looking at the beginning of life, as the natural scientist must do, the historian is compelled to look at the end of life, at these shadowy, rudimentary transformations of the soul life. And just as for the natural man the beginning of life presents itself as a repetition of tribal history, so these rudimentary hints at the end of life turn out to be repetitions of what the human race has gone through on earth as a whole. We learn to understand that what is only rudimentarily present in our aging today was present in a pronounced sense in prehistoric man; we learn to understand that we can go back to a humanity that has undergone such transformations of the organic-mental life into old age as we do during the change of teeth and sexual maturation. And in our aging, we experience a rudimentary repetition of what humanity has gone through in its historical development. This is where it will become clear what the correlate of the biogenetic law is for historical science.

Those who think abstractly are always satisfied when they have found something, they then expand it and build an entire system of worldviews from it; they want to expand the biogenetic law to the historical becoming of humanity. To the real observer – and this is the observable reality for the spiritual researcher – something quite different presents itself. It shows that we are able to see in our own ageing and its rudimentary changes a repetition of what we find in earlier historical stages of human development.

We look back to ancient Indian and Persian times and know that even in old age people remained so capable of development that a metamorphosis could be seen in their organism even in the forties and fifties of human life, as can only be observed today during the change of teeth and sexual maturation. You see, here we have the difference between true observation of reality and the abstract desire to transfer, which has arisen precisely through materialism. And we then understand how, in primeval times, the human being lived as a child and young person alongside the old person and said to himself: One experiences something in old age that brings something completely new into life. Let us consider how deeply this true law allows us to see into the inner process of human development, how we can see into a state of humanity in which we understand patriarchal life because young people anticipated old age in such a way that they said to themselves: this old age offers me something completely new. And so we do not look at prehistoric humanity in the same way as today's materialistic anthropologist does. We look at this primitive humanity and understand it, I would say intimately human, and we can also recognize that in its entire element something quite different was present for this primitive humanity than for present-day humanity. But we must take an interest because we are approaching something directly human, for this metamorphosis from primitive man to our present time. And if we have to admit that the human organism has changed, we will also be able to point out other changes in the human organism in the right form.

quote B

Just as the inner experiences are immanent in time in a certain way in the memory-based review of the individual life path, one will - but only through comparative treatment of what one has in one's memory - arrive at the design of the time scheme for what presents itself to inner vision, if one only really knows how to work methodically. In this way one arrives at a truly methodical approach. The person who acquires the observant sense for what I have called the rudimentary soul metamorphoses of old age – but which are also matched by rudimentary bodily metamorphoses – will find that there are certain periods of time in which such metamorphoses take place. There is such a period at the end of the forties, again at the end of the fifties, and in the middle of the fifties, so that one does indeed get certain periods of inner experience for this rudimentary soul metamorphosis. Now, if one really applies inner methodology in the expansion of inner vision to the extra-individual realm and thereby arrives at certain time determinations, one can either rely on them directly, which is entirely the case with a developed spiritual-scientific method, or one can try to corroborate what presents itself in this way by verification from outside. For example, you can say to yourself that today, when you have already sharpened your sense of observation, let's say around the age of 35, you experience a certain life metamorphosis. Now you look for this in what is presented to you in the outer historical life, and you thereby fix a certain historical point in time. One then tries to find another life metamorphosis, for example that which presents itself at the end of the 1920s – one arrives at a later point in time. This provides us with individual epochs for what happens historically and what corresponds to an inner metamorphosis of life. In this way, one can relate these individual, unique life epochs to the past historical development of humanity. Is this indicative of the path? Of course, I can only sketch out this path. If you follow the idea, it will become clear to you that this path is an exact one.

Development of the I during human life

1909-06-17-GA107

We know that Man's development is a gradual and very complicated process. We have repeatedly emphasised that in the first seven years of his life, up to the change of teeth, man develops in quite a different way from the later period up to fourteen, and again from the fourteenth to the twenty-first year. We will only touch on this today, for you already know it.

According to spiritual science man passes through several births. The human being is born into the physical world when he leaves his mother's body and frees himself of the physical maternal sheath. But we know that when this has happened he is still enclosed in a second maternal sheath, an etheric one.

During the first seven years of his life the child's etheric body is completely enveloped in external etheric currents that come from the outer world, just as the physical body is enveloped until birth in a physical maternal sheath.

At the change of teeth this etheric sheath is stripped off, and not until now, at the age of seven, is the etheric body born. Then the astral body is still enclosed in the astral maternal sheath that is stripped off at puberty.

After this the astral body develops freely until the twenty-first or twenty-second year, which is the time when strictly speaking the actual I of man is born. Not until then does the human being awaken to his full inner intensity and the I that has evolved through the course of his earlier incarnations work its way free.

To clairvoyant consciousness a very special fact becomes apparent here. If you watch a very young child for several weeks or months, you will see the child's head surrounded by etheric and astral currents and forces. However, these currents and forces gradually become less distinct and vanish after a while.

What is really taking place there?

You can actually discover what is happening, even without clairvoyant vision, although clairvoyant vision confirms what we are about to say. Immediately after the birth of a human being his brain is not the same as it will be a few weeks or months later. The child already perceives the outer world, of course, but its brain is not yet an instrument capable of connecting external impressions in a definite way. By means of connecting-nerves running from one part of the brain to another, the human being learns by degrees to link together in thought what he perceives in the external world, but these connecting nerve-strands develop only after birth. A child will hear and see a bell, for instance, but the impression of the sound and the sight of the bell do not immediately combine to form the thought that the bell is ringing. The child learns this only gradually, because the part of the brain that is the instrument for the perception of sound and the part that is the instrument for visual perception become connected only in the course of life. And not until this has happened is it possible for the child to reach the conclusion: ‘What I see is the same thing that is making the sound’. Connecting-cords like this are developed in the brain, and the forces that develop these connecting-cords can be seen by the clairvoyant in the first weeks of the child's development as an extra covering round the brain. But this covering passes into the brain and subsequently lives within it, no longer working from outside but from within. What works from outside during the first weeks of the child's development could not go on working at the whole development of the growing human being were it not protected by the various sheaths. For when that which has been working from outside passes into the brain, it develops under the protecting sheath first of the etheric body then of the astral body and only when the twenty-second year has been reached does that which first worked from outside become active from within. What was outside the human being during the first months of his existence and then slipped inside, is active for the first time independently of sheaths in the twentieth to the twenty-second year; then it becomes free and awakens into intense activity.

[development of the I]

But up to the age of twenty-one, when the I is born in Man, his development is comparable to that of the animal. This must not lead to the conclusion that human development up to the age of twenty-one is identical to that of an animal, for that is not the case.

The I is already within the human being from the beginning, right from conception, and it now becomes free.

Hence, because there is something within Man from the beginning that becomes free at the age of twenty-one, he is from the outset no animal being, for the I, although not free, is nevertheless working in him from the start.

And it is essentially this I that can be educated. For it is this I, together with what it has accomplished in the astral, etheric and physical bodies, that passes from one incarnation to another. If this I received nothing new in a further incarnation, Man would not be able to take anything with him at his physical death, from his last life between birth and death. And if he were not able to take anything with him, he would be at exactly the same stage in the following life as he was in the previous one. Through the fact that you see Man going through a development in life, and acquiring what the animal cannot acquire, because the animal's possibilities of development do not go beyond its inborn capacities, Man is constantly enriching his I, and reaches higher levels from one incarnation to another.

It is because Man bears within him an I that has already been at work, although it only becomes free at his twenty-first year, that education is practicable, and something further can be done with him beyond his original possibilities. The lion brings its lion nature with it and lives it out. Man not only brings with him his nature as a member of the general human species, but also what he has attained as an I in his previous incarnation. This can be transformed more and more by education and life, and it will have acquired new impetus by the time man passes through the portal of death and has to prepare for a new incarnation. The point is that man acquires new factors of development and is constantly adding to his store.

1922-01-02-GA303

discusses the second seven year period. Upto the ninth-tenth year the muscular system cooperates with the soul which has an intimate relationship to breathing and blood circulation. This changes towards the twelfth year in such way that the muscles now incline more to the skeleton. The formative forces of the head pass to the muscular system, then into the skeleton.

Importance of age 35

1905-10-30-GA093A

Through everything that happens on the Earth, when all physical matter is worked over and the Earth has dissolved, through this the next astral Globe will arise of itself. It will simply be there as astral beings, as the effects of all the earlier physical processes. This is why Man must continually work with Karma. In his next life he must put right again the grotesque astral beings that he has bungled, otherwise they would produce meaningless creatures for the next Globe. This is Karma that he must rectify.

What takes place on a large scale on the Earth, takes place in a small way in Man.

• Let us think of a child. He is wrongly brought up, spoiled with sweets and so on. This not only brings about processes in the physical body but continually imparts them to the astral, so that in fact the astral body also is changed. What one gives physically to the infant goes over into his astral body, it is present in the shape of definite forms.
• What is thus worked in, is however gradually worked out again. In advanced age the sins against the child take their revenge. These sins remain throughout the whole life and have great importance particularly in the final years.

After the middle period a sort of reversal takes place; the astral then works into the physical plane.

[illustration]

In childhood the foundation of what Man will have in old age is implanted into the astral.

When a person perceives how he has been sinned against and works upon himself with this in view, then he can eliminate the damage in the astral body, otherwise he will break down in old age under the weaknesses of his childhood. Only what Man works into it consciously has a balancing effect on the astral body. If later in life the opposite qualities are not called up consciously, one cannot rid oneself of the failings.

1909-09-21-GA114

see: Seven year rhythm#1909-09-21-GA114

1977-81 - George and Gisela O'Neil

From Chapter 3: 'Maturity: the bridge at 35' in the book 'The human life'.

In the past, birth and death were called the gateways of the Moon and the Sun. These two unearthly sources irradiate each half of life. Youth forces through many transformations, working through the organism, blindly at times, carry us midway. The birth forces of the Moon, with all that its reflective nature im­plies, prepare us for what can transpire around age 35, when we turn to motivations from within. Increasingly, then, it is as though a link is joined with our own invisible being; we become inspired by our own higher Self. An inner sun begins to dawn, community within—inner communion—becomes possible.

The turning point at 35 marks the change-over from or­ganic sources to purely spiritual ones. Pre-birth impusles work up into consciousness by reflection, from the body via the soul. These are powerful forces that work instinctively, creating the longing for togetherness, resulting in family building and instinc­tive communal life. What follows in forward progressing lives, after the lonely years of the late thirties and early forties, is the awakening consciousness that companionship in spirit is today's form of community, which bestows the creative strengths.

What are intimations in youth of the inner music, the trail­ing glories we bring with us, become certainties in later life: cer­tainty of the victory of the spirit over death.

EXCERPTS FROM RUDOLF STEINER ON THE THEME: THE TURNING POINT AT 35

In the years 1907 and 1908, Rudolf Steiner gave in various European cities a lecture, "Man's Course of Life in the Light of Spiritual Science." Those given in Leip­zig Berlin, and Amheim are at hand. In addition, we have found other Berlin lectures (1907, 1908, and 1915) that touch on this very theme.

Advice and Counsel
from 1907-02-15 in 'Der Lebenslauf des Menschen in geisteswissenschaflicher Beleuchtung', Die Menschenschule Nr. 9 of 1967

What Man has brought with him from former incarnations works in the temporal realm on his soul up to 35; then Man begins to work inwardly toward the eternal. Everything we have learned becomes mature to be given to the world only from 35 on. This is the age when Man becomes firm within himself, acquires weight within himself.

Whereas up to this age, Man must learn from the world and from life, only from 35 on can the world learn from him. Youth should receive advice; to give advice can proceed only from him who has transcended the "sun- height" of his life. . . . Specially endowed persons can do this before 35, but it will have weight only after 35. The an­cient Greeks would never have allowed a person to give ad­vice before the age of 35. Doing things, yes, but not counseling. In all Mystery schools, all pupils under 35 entered only preparatory studies. Only when their forces had become emancipated could they ascend....

When we know how to live with the wisdom of the lofty sentence "Know Thyself!" it shows Man how the world creates him and how he then creates himself. It shows how we owe our existence to the world, but also how we become able to give. This path shows us the bliss of receiving and giving.

Sins of Omitting the Source
from 1907-03-04-GA096

Thus, with the age of 35, Man gains his independence of soul. His judgment exists now not only for him to learn something from the world, but others can now attend and listen; whereas before that age, he should pay attention to the world. Many sins are com­mitted here, especially when someone gets up and tells all kinds of things as though they were his own. If he recog­nizes himself as a pupil who is giving again what he has read, then he will not throw such roadblocks into his own path as it happens to him who presumes to stand on his own personal spirit judgment. Because thereby he makes his own best forces ineffective. Knowledge one can acquire, but Wisdom is something that must be developed within.

Organ-Building Sheath Development - Essential Before 35
from 1907-02-28-GA055

Around 35 is the middle of Man's life. In times when there ex­isted knowledge of spiritual science, this was considered as something of immense importance. . . . Before that age, Man has to learn through and from his surroundings; afterward, his judgment acquires for his surroundings a certain stability, and man will do well if he does not become too strongly hardened in his judgment about the world before that age. . . . Thirty-five marks the beginning when experiences can become a form of wisdom.

From 35 on, Man withdraws more and more within.... The most favorable age for the unfolding of spiritual potentials is the time after 35. The forces that earlier went into the body become now free; they become available and can be worked with. As long as Man is occupied with himself, and his forces are directed outward, so long can he not direct them in­wardly. Therefore, age 35 must be considered as a point of cul­mination.

In the first half of life, everything has developed in rhythmic progression; in the second half, the boundaries are not so exact. . . . We are working toward the future. When Man is in his later years, what he develops inwardly will, in the future, again become organ- and body-creating....

This division may perhaps, especially for youth, have something oppressive; but whoever really takes up the teachings of spiritual science cannot feel this way. If you can survey the human life from a lofty viewpoint, then you will see that such a study of the human life leads to the proper use and practice. Man will have to practice resignation in order to wait until he has the proper organs to work in the corresponding sphere.

Stored-up Treasures Are Now Drawn Upon
from 1908-03-10 in 'Der Lebenslauf des Menschen in geisteswissenschaflicher Beleuchtung', Das Goetheanum Nr 50 of 1944.

Age 35 marks a turning point for those who are well founded in spiritual science. When we consider the average life, we shall see that the age of 35 signifies that the unfolding of everything that was potential talent has come to an end. Up to then, Man has acquired everything that he could assimilate.

Toward the last years up to 35, the life center—when the apprentice's and journeyman's years have passed—man begins to practice in life his forces and capacities.

With 35, the astral body, which until then lived in free exchange with the outer world, and into which all developed potentials are engraved, this astral body now begins to harden, to recede. This takes till around 40. This is a very important epoch in the development of Man, since this receding is only one aspect of the matter; the other aspect is of much greater significance.

The moment when this last sheath, the astral body, begins to recede, when the forces of the astral body are being con­sumed—at this moment, the kernel of Man, the eternal kernel, is lifted or shelled out. If Man has been properly educated, the better can this kernel form the seed for the time after death.

While the transience in Man declines, dis­appears, the eternal grows in Man. This shows itself very strongly after 42, when, after the astral body, the etheric body begins to consume itself.

Objective Judgment is Possible After 42
from 1908-03-10 in 'Der Lebenslauf des Menschen in geisteswissenschaflicher Beleuchtung', Das Goetheanum Nr 50 of 1944.

This is not generally known today, yet there were times, long ago, when all this was known. It was known, for example, that 35 is the mid­dle of life, and that only after this age, when Man is com­pletely finished with himself—around 35—only then is he mature enough to give to others, to give out what he has in abundance.

Up to then, Man has to take care of the development of his own sheaths; hence, up to 35, Man is occupied with himself. Once he is finished with himself—namely after 35, because his sheaths recede—the forces that have formerly built his physical body now begin to stream into his spiritual body in order to affect his sur­roundings.

In times when an intimation of these things ex­isted, age 35 was taken to be very important. Man was believed capable of judgment and counseling only after he had reached 35, after he had received all of his forces. Only then, it was said, is Man capable of judging; others have to listen to his judgment, once he is no longer occupied with himself. And this was valid as long as Man is in the process of consuming his astral body. When the ether body begins to recede [after 42], his judgment is valid not only to the degree that one pays attention to it, but it becomes valid to be taken up by the community in which he lives.

In olden times, when this was still understood, it was known that he who has entered the age when he needs no longer to add to his ether body—because it is already receding—then the person of this age could express his views in the council of the community. In times when such things were known, life was structured accordingly, and something wonderful was expressed in those times when this was felt. It was said that once Man has reached the age when his physical body gradually declines—so that it has no more needs and gradually withers—then one can heed him, then his judgment is sublime, his advice can be accepted. Such things existed, and many were conscious of them.. ..

There is such an initiation into the Mysteries of existence in special Mystery schools. And there, a Man whose life was not as yet on the descending line was never considered ma­ture enough to speak about spiritual-scientific facts while he was still occupied with himself.

If you survey all this from the perspective of spiritual science, you will see that on the one hand, we have a path of evolution where the various bodies—the physical, the etheric, and the astral bodies—develop: and on the other hand, we have a path where these bodies recede: an as­cending and a descending path. But it is on the latter path, as the sheaths decrease, that the eternal in man unfolds and grows.

Then, as Man passes through the threshold of death, the forces which in mysterious ways have developed within the sheaths become prominent.

The Premature Can Harm Himself (The So-Called Dangers of Initiation)
from 1907-12-12-GA056

Mankind must ever more come to require maturity of him who is to express judgment. Genuine maturity is especially needed for work in spiritual science. Hence it is necessary that those who would be leaders in so-called esoteric schools work first within their own circles. Not before the age of about 35 should they step out before the world and teach spiritual-scientific truths. Before that age they may teach views from the sphere of philosophy to the world. Only from that moment on, when the spiritual force is no longer needed for the building up of the body, does Man become mature enough to create out of the spirit. The forces on which logical judgment is founded must flow into the body for as long as the body is in its growth phase. Thus, it is possible that genuine poems have come to a poet before the middle of life.

But Man does not so easily understand that life's highest maturity is necessary in order to penetrate to the depths, in order to understand something—not only for his own satisfaction and his own growth, but to be able to stand with full responsibility before mankind and speak for spiritual science. This can be attained only in advanced years. No maturity is needed to thrash out anthroposophical rhetoric. It is the characteristic feature of the highest matters that maturity is a necessity if they are to be worked through thoroughly. . . . Hence, especially in this area, we ex­perience the blossoming forth of empty words and pet phrases, and the working on and on of what is immature—most immature. He who speaks from immaturity harms himself even more than the world. The world eventually will eliminate what comes from this corner.

If you engage yourself in this direction, you will block your further development. You will not progress.

A Life Observation (Human Character)
from 1909-10-29 in Beiträge zur Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgaben Heft 81 of 1983

If we are aware of the true nature of knowledge we realize that all previous acquisition of knowledge can only be a preparation. The ripeness of experience which ensures a comprehensive and farsighted knowledge of things cannot be actually forthcoming until, on an average, the 35th year of life is passed. Such laws do indeed exist. A refusal to observe them is equivalent to a refusal to observe life itself!

The Incision
from 1915-11-16-GA157A

It is true that the periods which I have indi­cated for this physical life are of great importance. I have given them as: the first, up to the seventh year, the change of teeth; then to 14, puberty; then to 21, and so on, from seven to seven years. If you take seriously what lies within these differentiations of the on-flowing life, then the age of 35 brings an important incision.

Up to then we are, so to speak, in a kind of preparation, whereas later we have finished this preparation and build our lives on the basis of what has been prepared up to 35.

This 35th year of life is of very great importance. . . . It must be emphasized decisively that many a thing related to maturity of life can be gained only after the age of 35.

The Bridge
from 1915-11-18-GA157A

The 35th year of life is an important boundary. There Man crosses, so to speak, a bridge. There the world he came out of withdraws, and from within he gives birth to a new world.

Longevity

The quotes below are examples that describe the elixir of life and immortality as the quest towards the future spiritual immortality of Man, not of physical immortality. That is why Rudolf Steiner also called anthroposophy or spiritual science the much needed elixir of life for humanity's future. However in certain lectures Rudolf Steiner did hint to ancient techniques for extending life, but he did not unveil anything further.

1907-06-29-GA100

The idea of the Stone of Wise was connected with the meaning that little by little it enabled one to know man's immortal part, which cannot decay after death, for it leads one up into the higher worlds. If a human being realizes that this immortal part cannot fall a prey to death, he acquires an immortal life through the possession of the Stone of the Wise, and thus he overcomes death.

This had been interpreted as meaning that one would never die. But it means instead that thereby one learns to know the world where man lives after death. Moreover one saw in the Stone of the Wise an elixir of life. All this rendered the Stone of the Wise extremely desirable. Those who knew the true meaning of these things must have found these words strangely correct; for they are true—but those who do not know the secret cannot do much with them.

...

Now you will be able to understand the indications which were published by that strange man, though he did not understand them. The Stone of the Wise is the ordinary black coal; but you must learn the process enabling you to elaborate the carbon through your inner forces: this constitutes the future of mankind. The present coal is a prototype of that which will one day constitute the most important substance of the human being. Bear in mind the clear diamond: also the diamond is nothing but carbon! This was called, the “Preparation of the Stone of the Wise” in the Rosicrucian world-conception. It conceals a process of transformation in the human being and the call to work upon future conditions of humanity,. All who work in this way help to prepare the human bodies of the future, the bodies which will in future be needed by the human souls.

1910-12-27-GA126

Eabani comes to know a woman of Erech and is attracted by her into the City. He becomes the friend of Gilgamesh and this brings peace to the city. Gilgamesh and Eabani together are now the rulers. Then Ishtar, the Goddess of Erech, is stolen by a neighbouring city. There upon Eabani and Gilgamesh go to war with the marauding city, conquer the king and bring the Goddess back again to Erech. Gilgamesh lives near her, and here we come to the strange fact that he has no understanding of the essential nature of the Goddess. A scene takes place, directly reminiscent of a Biblical scene described in the Gospel of St. John. Gilgamesh confronts Ishtar, but his conduct is very different from that of Christ Jesus. He upbraids the Goddess for having loved many other men before she had encountered him, reproaching her particularly for her most recent attachment. Thereupon the Goddess carries her complaints to that deity, that Being of the higher Hierarchies, to whom she belongs. She goes to Anu. And now Anu sends a bull down to the earth; Gilgamesh has to engage in combat with it. Those who recall Mithras's fight with the bull will see a resemblance here. All these events—and when we come to explain the myth we shall see what depths it contains—have led meanwhile to the death of Eabani. Gilgamesh is now alone. A thought comes to him that gnaws at the very fibres of his soul. Under the impression of what he has experienced, he becomes conscious for the first time of the thought that man is mortal; a thought to which he had previously paid no heed comes before his soul in all its terror. And then he hears of the only man of earth who has remained immortal, whereas all other human beings in the Post-Atlantean epoch have become conscious of mortality: he hears of the immortal Xisuthros far away in the West. And because he is resolved to fathom the riddle of life and death, he sets out on the perilous journey to the West.⁵

I can tell you at once that this journey to the West is nothing else than the search for the secrets of ancient Atlantis, for happenings prior to the great Atlantean catastrophe.

Gilgamesh sets out on his journey. The details are interesting. He has to pass through an entrance guarded by giant scorpions; the spirit leads him into the realm of death; he enters the kingdom of Xisuthros and there learns that in the Post-Atlantean epoch all men will inevitably be more and more penetrated with the consciousness of death.

Gilgamesh now asks Xisuthros whence he has knowledge of his eternal being; how comes it that he is conscious of immortality? Thereupon Xisuthros says to him: “You too can have this consciousness, but you must undergo all that I had to experience in overcoming the terror, anxiety and loneliness through which it was my lot to pass. When the god Ea had resolved to let perish” (in what we call the Atlantean catastrophe) “that part of humanity which was to live no longer, he bade me to withdraw into a kind of ship. I was to take with me the animals that were to remain, and those Individualities who are truly to be called the Masters. By means of this ship I outlived the great catastrophe.” Xisuthros then tells Gilgamesh: “What was there undergone, you can experience only in your innermost being; but you can attain the consciousness of immortality if for seven nights and six days you refrain from sleep.” Gilgamesh wishes to submit to the test but soon falls asleep. Then the wife of Xisuthros baked seven mystic loaves which by being eaten are to be a substitute for what would have been attained in the seven nights and six days without sleep. With this “life-elixir” Gilgamesh continues his journeying, bathes as it were in a fountain of youth, and again reaches the borders of his own country in the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris. A serpent deprives him of the power of the life-elixir and so he reaches his country without it, but all the same with the consciousness that there is indeed immortality, and filled with longing to see the spirit at least, of Eabani. The spirit of Eabani appears to him, and from the discourse which then takes place we can glean how, for the culture of the Egypto-Chaldean epoch, a consciousness of the link with the spiritual world could arise.—This relationship between Gilgamesh and Eabani is very significant. I have now outlined pictures from the significant myth of Gilgamesh which, as we shall see, will lead us into the spiritual depths lying behind the Chaldean-Babylonian culture-epoch. These pictures show that two individualities stand there: the individuality of one—Gilgamesh—into whom a divine-spiritual being has penetrated; and an individuality who is more of a human being, but of such a nature that he may be called a young soul, who has had few incarnations and for that reason has carried over ancient clairvoyance into later times—Eabani.

Related pages

• Man - the human being
• Cosmic breathing
• Seven year rhythm
• Eighteen year rhythm
• From physical conception to physical birth
• Biography work
• Q00.006 - spiritual events at various points in life

References and further reading

• Friedrich A. Kipp: Die Evolution des Menschen im Hinblick auf seine lange Jugendzeit
• Rudolf Meyer: 'Das Kind' Vom Wunder der Menschwerdung und von der Pflege der Kinderseele (1927, 1974)
• Norbert Glas
  • Conception, Birth and Early Childhood (1983)
  • Lebensalter des Menschen (3 Volumes)
    • Band 1:
      • Frühe Kindheit. Ein Führer für alle, die an der Entwicklung kleiner Kinder interessiert sind (1954, 1985)
      • Early childhood: Guidance for all who are interested in the development of young children (1953)
    • Band 2: Jugendzeit und mittleres Lebensalter. Wege und Hemmnisse. Betrachtungen und Ratschläge eines Arztes (1960, 1990)
      • 14. bis 21. Lebensjahr und mittlers Lebensalter
    • Band 3:
      • Lichtvolles Alter. Ein Wegweiser für jüngere und ältere Menschen (1956, 1992)
      • The Fulfillment of Old Age (1986)
• Hans Erhard Lauer: 'Der Menschliche Lebenslauf' (1952)
• George and Gisela O'Neil: The human life (published 1977-1981, first book edition 1990, third edition 1998)
  • in FR as 'La vie humaine - saisir le sens de son parcours terrestre' (1996)
  • in DE as 'Der Lebenslauf: Lesen in der eigenen Biographie' (2014)
  • in ES as 'La Vida Humana: Comprender tu biografía' (2019)
• Bernard Lievegoed: Phases - The spiritual rhythms of adult life (2008, first EN in 1979, first in NL in 1976 as 'De levensloop van de mens')
• Siegfried Woitinas: 'Lebensrhythmen : Entwicklungen und Krisen im menschlichen Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod' (1987)
• Klaus Raschen: 'Der Mensch im Alter' (der alternde Mensch und die Gemeinschaft : Das Verhältnis von Leben und Bewusstsein : Geburt und Tod : Angst vor dem Sterben) (1989)
• William Bryant: The Veiled Pulse of Time: Life Cycles and Destiny' (1993, also in DE as 'Der verborgene Puls der Zeit: vom Geheimnis kosmischer Rhythmen im Lebenslauf')
• George E. Vaillant:
  • Aging well - surprising guideposts to a happier life from the Landmark study of adult development (2002)
  • Triumphs of experience - the men of the Harvard Grant study (2012)
• More information about longitudinal studies (following the lives of hundreds of people over a 75 year period) such as the Harvard Grant study, see Harvard Study of Adult Development.
• Signe Eklund Schaefer, Karen Gierlach: Elder Flowering - Lived Experiences of Growing Older (2024)