The Rudolf Steiner Archive

23. The Children of Lucifer

[ 1 ] A few weeks ago, I spoke about the principle of Lucifer and its global significance. Today, we will discuss this principle in connection with the play of the same name by Edouard Schuré. I do not intend to discuss the work of art itself.

[ 2 ] In this poem, we have something that few works of art possess; for it was created from a theosophical perspective. Schur& drew his material from events and occurrences of the fourth century A.D. and thus artistically portrayed the two great currents of human development.

[ 3 ] Today I want to speak about these two currents: what might be called the Luciferic principle, which concerns the deification of the human being, as opposed to the other principle, the incarnation of God—or of the gods. Indeed, these two currents meet within the human being.

[ 4 ] In the Mysteries, these greatest secrets of world events were spiritually depicted: the passage of the Divine through all the realms of nature, until finally ascending to humanity—and humanity’s ascent through the physical and astral realms to deification. E[douard] Schur€ shows how these two currents intersected.

[ 5 ] For us, the most important event is what is known as the Fall, the expulsion from Paradise. Today we want to speak freely about this phase in human evolution. You know that human beings have a series of incarnations both behind and ahead of them. Everything that exists and lives on Earth is subject to the same law of incarnation; this also applies to the great beings we call planets. The Earth, too, was once in a different planetary state; it, too, has planetary ancestors. The purpose of such transformations is for these beings to ascend to higher stages: humans, animals, plants, and minerals existed before, but in lower forms. It would be an incomplete view to assume that the ascending series ends with human beings. Huxley says: “If one considers the truths in this way, then nothing prevents perfection from extending beyond human beings all the way up to God.”

[ 6 ] Occultism, however, says the following about human evolution on earlier planets: At that time, humans were not yet human; other beings existed there. And when Earth transforms into another planet, present-day humans will have reached the same spiritual level as those beings, and other beings will be below them. The predecessors of humanity had a completely different form and engaged in different activities. Humanity will develop like them, though not exactly the same spiritually.

[ 7 ] These beings also appear in the biblical account of creation as Elohim or spirits of light. As the earlier planet evolved, these beings ascended from the status of human beings to that of gods. At the next stage, human beings become Elohim. The Bible contains theosophical truths. If we are to understand the task assigned to these Elohim, we must first realize that there are three types of activity. The first is to perceive, the second is to live, and the third is to create. Every being must pass through these three stages. The Elohim have ascended to the stage of life and have moved on to creation. Human beings were observers at their earlier stage; now they live, and at a later stage they will create. “In the beginning, God created human beings and breathed into them the breath of life. Thus, human beings became living souls.” (Gen. 2:7) One of the seven Elohim is Yahweh or Jehovah. His task at the beginning of the Earth was to create. We say: Man originated in the third root race, but modern man is entirely unlike the primordial Lemurian man.

[ 8 ] The Lemurian mainland was riddled with massive bodies of fire and was destroyed at that time by volcanic upheavals. The atmosphere was not merely a body of water, but was filled with substances that had not yet precipitated.

[ 9 ] The land that emerged later, Atlantis, was submerged by floods. With it went the fourth root race.

[ 10 ] The culture of the fifth root race is widespread across Europe, Asia, and Africa.

[ 11 ] What happened at the beginning of the physical sex? What came over from the earlier planet?

[ 12 ] First came the highest forms of humanity. And then, between today’s animals and humans, there existed a human-animal hybrid, the likes of which no longer exist today. In the ancient Lemurian era, however, these beings did not walk about, for they were semi-etheric beings with a hint of physical substance. Like a breath of air, they swept across the Earth’s surface. Opposite them stood a series of physical beings, very different from minerals, plants, and animals; yet the latter evolved from them. From the earlier planet, the physical aspects of the three kingdoms took shape, and those individuals who were capable of evolving upward were able to lay the foundation and provide the framework for further development into human beings. This is expressed in the Mosaic account of creation with the words: “And God formed man from the dust of the ground.” (Genesis 2:7)

[ 13 ] How did that transformation come about? It was the work of the creative Elohim. These spirits of light transformed the earlier creation; their work was directed toward human beings—they did not need to create the soul. For the soul came down as a breath from the earlier world. Thus, within the highest beings of the Lemurian era lived a physical being that stood higher than its predecessors on the earlier planet. These beings were threefold. They had a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. In the new human being, the “I” now also worked and helped build the physical body. Thus, the new human being was fourfold, and the fact that he became an “I” was the work of the spirits of light.

[ 14 ] This quaternity is considered the most important mystery. The trinity is transformed into a quaternity. If you visualize these structures, you will understand the dual nature of humanity: the outer shell and the divine. Here the seven Elohim are at work, and Jehovah’s task is to transform the dual-gendered nature into a single-gendered one. Thus, it was only on Earth that the male and female genders came into being. It is only with Jehovah’s creation—with the bringing forth of single-gendered human beings—that humanity on Earth begins to receive its true purpose. The former planet was the planet of wisdom; the Earth is the planet of love, and the attraction between the sexes is the lowest degree of love. What is love today was once wisdom. Every part of the human body—whether we examine the brain, the sensory organs, or anything else—gives us the impression of a wise design. This is because humanity has passed through the world of wisdom. The planet of that time was permeated by wisdom; the present one is permeated by love. Every planet has its purpose. With this love, humanity was given not only the relationship between the sexes, but everything—everything that humanity possesses in terms of newly acquired earthly goods.

[ 15 ] To give an idea of what the result of this newly emerging love was in ancient times, let us trace humanity back to the point where the distinction between the sexes began. At that time, there were small communities of people who were descended from a single couple. Blood relatives married one another. And blood kinship is the only reason that love remains within the same bloodline, extending beyond husband and wife. It was only later that marriages between distant relatives replaced marriages between close relatives. This relationship of love as blood kinship can be traced back to the time of ancient Judaism. Love between the sexes is rooted in love for the people. The Jews form, as it were, one large family. Jehovah planted what was inherited; the Jehovah Principle is inheritance, and inherited love is connected to it.

[ 16 ] We know that in ancient times, blood relatives possessed a very different kind of memory. Such a person remembered the experiences of earlier generations. Personal memory arose from family memory. The names Adam, Cain, and Seth refer to a continuous memory. Everything connected to this memory is referred to as the Jehovah Principle. All truth, wisdom, and knowledge are linked to it. What people today regard as mere rhetoric was, back then, the truth.

[ 17 ] I would like to quote a conversation here between Rosegger and Anzengruber. In Rosegger’s work, the peasant characters are all carefully studied, and you can sense that about them; in Anzengruber’s, they come to life before our eyes. Rosegger noticed this and said to Anzengruber: “It would be better for you to observe peasants.” Anzengruber replied: “I have never looked at a farmer; but my ancestors were farmers, and it’s in my blood!” This is the last remnant of something that used to be commonplace. It was not merely poetic imagination, but a way of seeing. One saw not only one’s ancestors, but the very process of the earth itself. What exists as ancient wisdom is not recorded in any other way; it lay in the blood. Only Rosicrucian theosophy takes a different approach. This is how humankind came to be; this is how wisdom and love were implanted in its blood; it “arises,” to use Jakob Böhme’s expression, from the love of the two sexes. There is an intermediate stage between human beings and those Elohim. In everyday language, I compared it to students repeating a grade. Thus, some of the Elohim remained on the planet that preceded Earth. These are the Luciferic spirits, with Lucifer as their leader or the most prominent among them. Above human beings, therefore, stand the Elohim and those who have been left behind. The latter must now make up for what they have missed. What kind of beings are they? A fully developed being has formed its seven fundamental parts. A human being has not yet fully developed them. The human being, with its fourfold nature, is on the path to developing the seven fundamental parts. The Luciferic beings had not developed Atma; most of them reached only as far as the development of Budhi, the life spirit. Thus they are exalted above human beings but stand below the Elohim. The beings who attained Budhi were in the Venus state. Venus was the sixth fundamental part, or Budhi. They did not fully develop on the planet of wisdom; they did not attain the ability to create through love. They were able to create in what constituted external wisdom—art and science—but not in what human beings create within. The Jehovah principle creates within: love, a community of people, nations; everything that manifests externally, such as art and science, is inherited as a remnant from the preceding planet and functions as a second principle. That is why this appears as a kind of enemy. While the Jehovah principle seeks to elevate us to love, this one seeks to elevate us to wisdom. It makes the “I” a wise being. On the previous planet, wisdom had not yet been implanted as the “I,” for the “I” was not yet developed there. There was no egoistic wisdom there yet.

[ 18 ] Wisdom and love are two great currents that acted as forces within the process of human evolution. Then the striving for freedom made its presence felt. The Luciferic principle does not have the struggle for existence as its goal; warfare is not its purpose; its purpose is freedom, independence, science, and knowledge. A change in the interplay of these two principles occurred with the coming of Christ Jesus. This gave the development of the Earth a completely new impetus. A fundamental saying states: “Whoever does not forsake wife, brother, and sister cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26; Matthew 19:29) Love, bound by blood ties, must extend to larger communities. Through Jesus Christ, all barriers must cease, and the first step must be taken toward loving everyone. The Christ principle must be extended to all of humanity, and love must be purified to the highest degree. Thus, what began in weakness as the base sexual instinct could be transformed into love for humanity. And only then will the Earth become the planet of love. What was founded in the Jehovah Principle was raised to the highest level by the Son Principle, and from that point on, the possibility was gained to set strong love in opposition to wisdom.

[ 19 ] Ever since the Christ Principle intervened on Earth, Christ and Lucifer have stood in opposition to one another as two poles. The Christ principle has internalized love and made it the essence of the soul. In the early Christian centuries, Hellenism—Greek culture—elevated the external world to its highest peak. Whether in sculpture, theater, the political state, or in everything the Greeks created, the Jehovah principle was represented externally in a one-sided manner.

[ 20 ] How did this Greek culture come to develop? What happened there? Plato has been called an Attic—Greek—speaking Moses. Plato gave solid form to the formless ideas of the initiated Moses. Wisdom and love—if only we understand them with sufficient open-heartedness—breathe toward us in Hellenic culture and manifest themselves in the god Dionysus. The divine, as it appears to us, split into individual works of art. Spirit has become form in Dionysian Greek culture. Just as the Hellenic people have become a body of culture in their entirety, so love in Christ has become a soul of culture in its entirety. Occultism depicts the spirit within the body and within the soul, which is inner: feminine = the soul, masculine = the body, which is permeated by the spirit. The spirit-filled body stands opposite the soul.

[ 21 ] Schuré contrasts Phosphoros—the embodiment of the Hellenic spirit and the wisdom that creates outward form—with Kleonis, the Christian soul, who is entirely imbued with the theosophical spirit.

[ 22 ] The purpose of all great poetry is to depict human development, and it is a great achievement that we are once again producing works of art that spring from the theosophical spirit.

[ 23 ] Just as there were children of God in ancient times who proclaimed revelations handed down from above, so there have always been children of Lucifer who manifested themselves as spirits of fire and were teachers of wisdom.

[ 24 ] And Jehovah instilled love in them until they matured into the Christ principle—a wisdom that is also love, and a love that can also produce wisdom. Then the children of God and the children of Lucifer will meet, and the two currents will converge into one. This is what happens in Christ: He is the God who became man and the man who became God.

[ 25 ] In the union of the Christian virgin Kleonis with the pagan spirit Phosphoros, love and wisdom were united. The struggle between love and wisdom existed. But when the children of Lucifer and the children of God unite, the medieval notion that the children of Lucifer are God’s enemies will fade away. And thus, humanity’s great mission on Earth will be fulfilled.