The Rudolf Steiner Archive

21. About Lucifer

[ 1 ] The name Lucifer instills a mild sense of dread in some people, and it is generally associated with feelings of antipathy. Is this justified? The name Lucifer means “bearer of light,” “bringer of light.” Medieval views were different, but for those who have delved into the profound knowledge of the world, Lucifer actually signifies something entirely different.

[ 2 ] Spiritual beings influence human life. The religions of the East speak of devas and dhyan chohans, while those of the West, such as Christianity, speak of angels and archangels. To those familiar with the spiritual worlds, these terms denote something true and real. Higher beings play a role in human life. Among the guiding figures—whether leading or misleading—one also includes Lucifer.

[ 3 ] Here we must understand the dualism—the duality—that is at work in all areas of life. The ancients, including Pythagoras, speak of this duality: light and darkness, male and female, positive and negative magnetism; we could cite many such dualities. — When we make a glass rod electrically positive by rubbing it, we simultaneously make the object used for rubbing electrically negative. Thus, the electricity of the glass relates to that of the rubbing object as light relates to darkness. In the Persian creation myth, we find Ormuzd and Ahriman: the good deity and the evil deity. Everything that propels the world forward is done for it by the good god, while everything that holds it back or draws it backward comes from the evil god. Human beings are placed right in the middle of this.

[ 4 ] Remember that everything in the world has a good side and a bad side. Just think of all that humanity owes to fire through its culture. And on the other hand, consider how destructive the power of fire can be, for example, in volcanic eruptions. Germany’s great poet Schiller sang of this beautifully in “The Bell”: “Beneficial is the power of fire...” and so on.

[ 5 ] Such duality is at work within human beings as well. For centuries, one of these principles was regarded as evil. A distinction was made between the divine—which was good—and the Luciferic—which was evil. In the story of creation, the Luciferic principle was represented by the serpent. Human beings had to grow out of a state of dullness; then the serpent came and opened their eyes to good and evil, thereby setting another principle in opposition to the divine one. The ancient Indians referred to the Rishis as serpents.

[ 6 ] We must delve much deeper into the development of the human soul to see what reality underlies the Lucifer principle. In more recent times, views on this subject have undergone changes. These were already evident in the ancient Faust legend. Goethe reworked it to meet human needs. Faust did not merely wish to immerse himself in divine knowledge; he also sought to form an alliance with evil forces. He then wished to have nothing more to do with theology; he wanted to remain a physician. He cast the Bible aside, and this was seen as the reason for his [fall] into the clutches of evil forces. For Goethe, the [crux of the matter] lies in the second part of Faust: “Whoever strives with all his might, we can redeem.” Thus, it is not something that brings ruin, but rather a power is evoked that is not in opposition to the deity.

[ 7 ] If we are to understand this power, we must first understand how human beings position themselves within the world that surrounds them. Human beings constitute one of the kingdoms; alongside it are the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms. Human beings perceive themselves as self-conscious beings and carry within themselves all these kingdoms; they are the bearers of all these natures. He shares a physical body with the mineral kingdom; he also shares the etheric or life body with the plant kingdom. Through his world of sensation—which, as the astral body, is the bearer of passions, instincts, and desires—he has something in common with the animal kingdom. Thus, human beings stand in a reciprocal relationship to the three kingdoms.

[ 8 ] Humans can sustain their lives only by breathing. They inhale the air of life—oxygen—combine it with carbon in their bodies, and exhale this poison—carbon dioxide. However, humans and animals could not live if plants did not constantly ensure the renewal of this life-giving air. Humans and animals owe their very existence to plants. Plants, in turn, owe their existence to minerals. It is only logical to extend this chain of development beyond human beings—that is, not only to lower forms of life but also upward to other beings. Human beings belong to higher beings just as lower beings belong to them. The fact that human beings cannot see higher beings is no reason to believe that they do not exist. Higher senses can enable human beings to perceive them.

[ 9 ] Human beings are, first and foremost, a fourfold being: physical body, etheric body, astral body, and the “I.” They are beings in the process of becoming. How does this development take place? A primitive person still follows his animal instincts; he follows every impulse. Those at a higher level follow only certain impulses, and those at a very high level—such as, for example, Schiller or Francis of Assisi—follow the lower impulses even less, but rather transform them into ideals. This brings about a higher development of the astral body. The lower human being also has an astral body, but has worked little into it. A higher being elevates his astral body from the animal realm to a higher, nobler, and more perfect form. The astral body consists of two parts: that which other beings have endowed him with, and that which he himself has worked into it. What the individual has worked into it, we call “Manas,” the spiritual self, and by this we refer to the fifth member of the human being. Manas is nothing other than the transformed astral body. However, the human being is capable of much more than merely transforming his astral body. An undeveloped person knows nothing of morality, justice, or logic; he has developed Manas only to a limited extent.

[ 10 ] But there are even deeper changes. In the ninth and tenth centuries, not everyone had such complete understandings, but much of what they had learned was absorbed into their astral bodies, for the astral body is the vessel of everything we can learn in the world. What we learn changes rapidly, but habits and temperaments change more slowly. We could compare what changes rapidly to the minute hand of a clock, and what changes more slowly to the hour hand. But there are also opportunities to change our habits, and in doing so we change the etheric or life body: because it is denser, it presents the “I” with greater resistance to change. To the extent that a person transforms their etheric body, to that extent “Budhi” arises within them. Religions provide guidance on how “Budhi” is incorporated into the etheric body, whereas morality changes only the astral body. Art, in the highest sense, does the same as religions.

[ 11 ] Thus you will now find the human being with six members, even though Manas and Budhi are present in him only in embryonic form. However, there is already secret training that develops the etheric body. What is merely taught to a person is doctrine; what transforms humanity is an influence on the budhi—that is secret training. A chela, an occult student, works within his etheric body.

[ 12 ] But what is still barely present in its infancy is the “Atman.” It is such a powerful force that a person can use it to work deep into their physical body. What can a person today accomplish in their physical [body]? The person who is capable of developing—as an artistic person, as a chela—can become master of his habits; but the person who has worked this seventh limb, this Atman, into himself also learns to control his pulse. And in doing so, he partakes of the Eternal. This is an achievement of mastery.

[ 13 ] Now the human being stands before us with Manas, Budhi, and Atman. We now know that the human being—what we called the “I”—is related to the three lower realms, and we now see that he is related to a realm above him, the divine realm, through what he has internalized as Manas. In this divine realm we are to seek the Elohim, divine spirits, one of whom the Bible names as Jehovah.

[ 14 ] Through his Manas, his spiritual self, human beings become part of the higher worlds. That is why we speak of human beings as beings in the process of becoming, as gods-in-the-making. Christ Jesus says: “You are gods.” (John 10:34) One day, human beings will look back on their present spiritual level and see themselves as having completely outgrown it.

[ 15 ] If we believe in evolution, we must also consider this for other beings, and looking back, we see the time when our elder brothers, the Elohim—along with Jehovah—occupied, on an earlier planet or on an earlier incarnation of Earth, the stage that humanity now occupies on Earth’s current incarnation. The law of incarnation applies not only to human beings but underlies all beings. Goethe speaks of the Earth Spirit: “In floods of life, in a storm of deeds, I surge up and down,” and so on. The Earth was regarded by some as a spiritual being, with human beings as its limbs. The Earth has been incarnated many times, and in its previous incarnation it brought the stage of humanity to the present-day gods. And the human beings of the present age will, in a later incarnation of the Earth, attain the stage of their elder brothers, the Elohim or gods. There is no mention here of God, the Nameless One, the Unfathomable. Elohim or Deva—or, to put it more accurately in German: spirits.

[ 16 ] To illustrate this “step-by-step” process, I’ll offer a comparison, albeit a trivial one: Just as a student progresses through different grades, so too have the gods, in their previous incarnation on Earth, gone through the same stages that humanity is currently experiencing. Just as students sometimes fail to advance to the next grade, there have been beings who did not fully complete this process.

[ 17 ] Where do they stand today between humans and the gods? They are higher beings than humans, but lower than the gods. In a certain sense, they are intimately connected to humans. The following law applies: Each of the fundamental parts of the human being is developed during one incarnation on Earth. In the present earthly incarnation, the Manas is formed; in the previous one, the astral body. The essential aspect of this earthly evolution was that human beings transformed their entire astral body, so that they no longer possess any animal nature. Through the development of the Manas, they can enter into contact with manasic beings. Only when the Atman is developed can they develop independently. Today, older brothers are at work; later, in Budhi, even older ones, and in Atman, still older ones. These higher spirits who have remained behind are connected to the human astral body. They have already tasted the Divine. Just as in Manas, demigods also help us to be permeated and infused with the Divine. We would remain trapped in lower instincts if it were not for this inspiration. In this way, the passions are transformed into higher instincts. There would be nothing but a barren realm of moral principles, which, however, do not pulse within the human being.

[ 18 ] The Old Testament has beautifully elaborated on this law. The entities that evoke enthusiasm and a burning love for the Manasic realm are called Luciferic entities. Thus, Lucifer is the one who awakens in human beings an astral passion for the Divine. In this way, he stirs within the human being a desire—not as a duty, but as an inclination—to learn to love the Divine. He combines submission with independence. He is the instigator of human freedom.

[ 19 ] Human beings become free only by following the divine of their own accord. This is depicted in the biblical story of creation. God guided humankind; they could not choose. Then the serpent came, and the thought arose in people that it was not only desirable to live in God, but to become God themselves—to bear within themselves, as a personality, the image of the Deity. Through Lucifer—represented in the Bible by the serpent—the human body became a bearer of light, just as Lucifer himself was a bearer of light, until Christ entered the world as “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12) and realized the principle of love for the divine. External knowledge—knowing what the laws of the world are—now seems dull to human beings. This external knowledge is meant to penetrate our inner being, to intervene directly as theosophy, as an independent inner experience. This is how Lucifer takes root in human beings. This quest is called the School of Luciferic Aspiration. These people are called the Children of Lucifer.

[ 20 ] If the gods gave us science, Lucifer gave us enthusiasm.

[ 21 ] God: Revelation

[ 22 ] Lucifer: Freedom.

[ 23 ] We have a relationship of sonship with God; Lucifer awakened the sense of being an independent being, of freedom. Devotion was a voluntary sacrifice. As is the case everywhere, there must be a duality: God and Lucifer.

[ 24 ] Thus, the Luciferic beings have not remained behind in vain; they are the ones who strive to lead us to the Divine through our own free choice. For this to happen, human beings must also have the possibility of being evil. They can indeed become divine without it, but only through free choice.

[ 25 ] If the Supreme is to be free, it must be anchored in the other nature. In this way, God and Luciferic beings work toward perfection and freedom.

[ 26 ] Q&A: [What does the] Sphinx mean?

[ 27 ] Rudolf Steiner: What the intellect strives to discover today is, as a form of insight, nothing new. The pyramids represent the ancient insights of our ancestors: There are four lines on which it stands = the fourfold nature of the human being: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. This is the foundation. Above it rises the triangle, representing the three fundamental parts that the “I” distills from the fourfold nature: Atman, Budhi, Manas. The triad is not yet complete. If you wish to sense this, you must look upon the Sphinx. It represents the lower nature, and from its eye the mystery of future development radiates toward you. In it, humanity prophetically seeks its future.

[ 28 ] Question: [Not recorded.]

[ 29 ] Rudolf Steiner: There are two records—they are not writings in the strict sense of the word—one is preserved by a religious community, a secret church, and the other by a master, a great leader of humanity.