The Rudolf Steiner Archive

39. The Fifth Root Race: Fire

[ 1 ] We know that the matter of our globe has gradually become denser and that the substances we have today are not the true ones. The states that have arisen through differentiation over the course of time are different from the earlier ones. During the first race, there was a state of matter that was much thinner than our present-day air and which, in occult terminology, is called ether; during the second race, we find a state that already corresponds to our present-day Earth in that it is similar to what we call vapor; during the third race, a state arose that lies midway between the solid and the liquid; it is akin to coagulated egg white; it is a primordial substance such as we find today in lower animal forms. The state of matter during the fourth race is somewhat denser and more difficult to describe, because it has since undergone a much greater degree of condensation. However, everything else lies latent within every condensed substance. One such latent force during this period was the seed force, with which the Atlanteans could accomplish anything, and which they called “Tao.” With the degree of condensation reached during the fifth root race, however, another force came into play—one that had not previously been able to manifest—namely, fire. Therefore, the most important invention for the fifth root race is that of fire, and this is why the Prometheus legend states that Prometheus stole fire from the gods—that he revealed the occult fire. This is the light that is poured out over the fundamental structure of the civilization of the fifth root race. The captured natural fire was regarded as more potent and sacred than the fire extracted from the mineral world. This belief led to the fire cult of Zarathustra, the Vesta cult. As is well known, once lit, this fire was never to be allowed to go out. The secret of the fourth race—the use of the seed force, also called the Vril force—was lost with the demise of Atlantean culture. The surviving initiates selected a specific lineage, namely from the fifth subrace, the Proto-Hebrews, set them apart, and brought them to the Gobi Desert under the leadership of Manu. They first worked on refining the body, which had to become capable of receiving thought. However, in order for thought to bear the character of the spiritual, pure bodies had to be bred by eliminating from the kamic force everything that was directly connected to the life force. Nothing related to sexuality was to be consumed as food. They selected only those substances that were living nutrients and produced no waste products. They consumed only those nutrients that produced no excretions: nothing at all from the animal kingdom; from the plant kingdom, only what had a restorative effect.

[ 2 ] Back then, only a superficial, primitive culture had been created, since it had to produce only the few things that people enjoyed. - Today, unspeakable mental, spiritual, and physical energy is expended to nourish human beings. As waste and spent matter, it is cast into what is called the eighth sphere. The strongest mental energy is put to the service of this waste. - The driving force of the original race was directed toward developing the spiritual. To provide for the physical means to draw power away from the spiritual. Thus, however, immense power was accumulated for spiritual life, and it still flowed out in its entirety in the Indo-Aryan subrace. It had not yet needed to extract fire from matter that had become dense, and it revered the spirit spiritually. - Now, in such a state, human beings hold the Vril force in particularly high regard and know that they are to generate—at least psychically—the forces associated with the Vril force.

[ 3 ] It is now an important occult law: You deprive yourself of as much Vril power as you destroy. — With every being killed, no matter how insignificant—even the lowliest insect—a person deprives himself of as much Vril power as he kills. Therefore, the destruction of life in the Fifth Race is just as much a means of attaining black magic as the cultivation of Vril power is in the Turanian Race. Pain increases the life force outside of me and dulls it within me. Therefore, the black magician kills the life-Vril power within himself: he deprives himself of so much of the Tao that its opposite is awakened within him. - By depriving myself of the light Vril force, I enter into a relationship with the lower force of fire that slumbers within densified matter. This is an occult process in the fifth root race: through killing—as among hunting peoples—they lower themselves and awaken the fire force. To symbolize this occult reality, religions have created the animal sacrifice—a symbol of the truth that the fire kindled on the altar consumes what was the defining element of the fourth race: namely, life. - The black magician will be enabled to perform his arts through even deeper forces of fire. From this, it becomes clear to us why a certain type of ceremonial magic tempts people to commit suicide.

[ 4 ] Since the original Manu was aware of all this, he strictly forbade the first subrace from taking any life, because it was destined to live out the spiritual life. Later, it was only possible to achieve the sanctification of the entire race by having some abstain and leave physical life to the others. This is the basis of the caste system.

[ 5 ] The Indian race is therefore the religious one, and Brahmanism is the main religion of the fifth root race—the others are variations.

[ 6 ] The second subrace had to begin conquering the physical plane; it had to settle where cultivation of the land was necessary, and branches of it migrated to the regions between the Euphrates and the Tigris and to Egypt, where they founded the Egyptian culture of the fifth race and the Babylonian-Median-Persian culture. In order to conquer the material plane, fire became the external means of culture. The Indians did not yet need it. Yet it was necessary to eliminate the art that could produce fire in an inner way from nature itself. Wherever something, in its negative aspect, can lead to evil arts, it becomes necessary to banish it into religion. Fire was placed at the center of religious worship. The Fire Cult means: “Fire has been given to you, but the moment you fail to worship it, you will lose your proper relationship to it.” Therefore, the first Zoroaster introduced the Fire Cult, the cult of Ahura Mazda. If a person uses fire for his work throughout the week, he must worship it on one day while kneeling: hence the Sabbath day. For the Persians, fire was the object of direct worship; for the Jews, God appeared in a pillar of fire; Christianity calls God a consuming fire.

[ 7 ] The term “magician” is already applied to all those who revere the fire service, whether on the right or the left. All magic traces its origin to fire. It provided the foundation from which the culture of the fifth race could spring.

[ 8 ] This Gobi race was, after all, descended from the Proto-Semites, and humanity had now reached the point where it could utilize the original Semitic cultural foundation. Thought could now find expression, and the next subrace was destined for this purpose.

[ 9 ] The thought, expressed directly on the physical plane, is the commandment. The commandment—the embodiment of life in thought—is the mission of the Israelite people. Before, life was habit; now it appears in mental form, as a commandment. Hammurabi is a proclaimer of the Commandment, followed by Moses. It is the mission of the Semitic tribe, of which the Israelite people are the principal manifestation. — Previously, the psychic aspect was more developed; now people began to regulate life through mental means. Hence the distinctive character of the Jewish people.

[ 10 ] The concept existed among the Indo-Aryan race, but initially in a spiritual sense. The Vedas are spiritual and intuitive.

[ 11 ] Among the Persian-Chaldean peoples, we encounter thought as a feeling, as a service to nature. — The third is thought in its immediate form, as a commandment. Thus, we distinguish three kinds:

The Indians revere thought as a spirit.
The Persians revere it as a force of nature.
The Jews revere thought itself.

[ 12 ] But thought on the physical plane must be attributed to a being; it must have a vehicle. The Indian recognizes it as spirit; the Jew knows not the cosmic thought but only the human thought and must therefore humanize, or anthropomorphize, his God, Yahweh.

[ 13 ] Everything that is temporal leads to a humanization of the divine principle, as seen among the Greeks and other peoples. Therefore, we see how, throughout the third subrace, spiritualistic pantheism and naturalistic pantheism give way to anthropomorphic religion.

[ 14 ] The task now is to become acquainted with the other type of civilization as well. The state appears as a theocracy among the Jews, with God as king. Hence the ethical character of the Jewish state. The principle of sin pervades life; everything is punished.

[ 15 ] Gradually, human beings become so at home on the physical plane that they gain that profound understanding, as we see, for example, in the Greeks, who developed the arts. Existence between birth and death now becomes the essential reality for them. Achilles, for example, says: “Better to be a beggar in the upper world than a king in the realm of shadows.” Human beings now regard what lies beyond the physical plane as a shadow realm. For the Greeks, reality lies in the beautiful spiritual form: in art.

[ 16 ] Now we come to the point that this physical plane must be sanctified. The Indian looked up to the spiritual plane. The Persian recognized it as a feeling. The Jew has already permeated Kama with it; he has a passionate God. The Greek gods are full of passions. What has not yet been deified is the immediate physical plane. The Bible tells us: Three things gave birth on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood.

[ 17 ] We know that in biblical language, “water” refers to the astral and kamic realms, while “blood” refers to the earthly and physical realms. All passions had already been imbued with divine expression: Kama had been deified. Now the flesh—the expression of the physical—was to be conquered. In Christianity, which belongs to the fourth, Latin race, the purification of the flesh becomes the truth. The Word is incarnated in the flesh; the body is transfigured; and the divine then dwells in the transfigured body.

[ 18 ] The new addition is the sanctification of the flesh, which sees its purpose in the resurrection of the flesh. If material life is to be purified in order to begin the ascending line, the flesh must be sanctified.

[ 19 ] Worshiping God incarnate in the flesh was the task of the Latin race, just as worshiping [God] incarnate in passions was the [task] of the Jewish race.

[ 20 ] As the idea was poured out into the material realm, its original form was increasingly lost. The Christian worships God as a person; a personal sense of belonging develops within him. He clings to the blood. — Through this sense of belonging, the idea itself had to be lost. The Jewish people, who had first brought the idea onto the physical plane, had to revive it once more—namely, in the principle that there can be no other God besides the One; others are merely His prophets. From the kindred Moorish culture, as a Semitic influence, the principle of abstract science arises and is passed on to the Germanic race.

[ 21 ] In the Copernican-Galilean era, it actually comes to pass. The powerful flourishing of the Germanic-English races takes place within the realm of abstract science.

[ 22 ] Now that the thought has conquered the physical plane, it can ascend once again to the spiritual.