The Rudolf Steiner Archive

60. Apocalypse II

[ 1 ] Last time, I spoke about the stage of human development at which a person becomes capable of speaking of an apocalypse. I showed that one must view the world in such a way that one’s gaze extends over such vast periods of time that it encompasses the time before humanity began undergoing its individual incarnations, as well as the time that lies beyond these cycles of birth and death. I further stated that, for this, it is necessary for the so-called chela to have attained the third degree of chelaship.

[ 2 ] The Book of Revelation also emerged from such a school. Those who view the world in this way do not see it any differently than other initiates do. This is something you must familiarize yourselves with above all else: that the “visions,” the “higher experiences,” or whatever else you may call them, are not different from one another; that—as strange as it may seem to the uninitiated—when, for example, the four living creatures are described, it will never sound any different from one initiate’s account than from another’s. Two initiates will not give differing accounts of the same thing.

[ 3 ] To give you an idea, I would like to speak about what every initiate of this kind learns regarding the course of human development. The one who conveyed the messages contained in the Book of Revelation surveyed the period preceding our present root race; he surveyed the two races that preceded our own; he surveyed the time when human beings first assumed their present form in the middle of the Lemurian epoch; and he surveyed life beyond birth and death. Now, prior to what we call the moment of human incarnation in the middle of the Lemurian epoch, there existed a very specific form of humanity that differed from what we now call a human being. I would like to begin with a very specific point.

[ 4 ] As you know, the modern human being consists of seven bodies. First, there is the physical body; second, the etheric double; third, the astral body; and four more. For now, we are interested only in the three lower bodies: the physical body, which can be perceived with the ordinary senses; then the so-called etheric double, which cannot be perceived with the ordinary senses. This etheric double can be seen by those who have acquired the ability to do so when they visualize the physical body disappearing. They then see in the room a double of the person, which is roughly the color of a peach blossom. Embedded within it, as it were, is the astral body, a luminous oval. When a person dies, the event of death initially means that the entire sum of the higher bodies—the etheric body together with the higher bodies—separates from the physical body. In the initial period after death, the astral body is united with the etheric double. Later, within a few days, the astral body leaves the etheric double. The astral body then follows the path it must traverse between death and a new birth. Today, the etheric double plays only a mediating role. It mediates the activity of the astral body with that of the physical body. While the human being walks the earth today, the physical body is of the greatest importance to him. The physical brain is the instrument of the human being’s highest mental activity. The etheric double acts as a link, mediating the activity of the physical body with that of the higher bodies. The dissolution [of the etheric body] had not yet taken place during the time of the first races, nor even in the early period of the third race. This was not yet the case in the early period of the third root race. In the so-called Polar race, the etheric body was the most significant. The entire body consisted of a fine, thin etheric substance. Only later did the etheric body become denser as it became imbued with physical matter. At the end of the first root race, human beings on our Earth were not yet bound to the ground in the same way as they are today; they floated through the etheric Earth, and their organs, too, were etheric. Human beings were etheric beings. Gradually they became denser, until, in the middle of the Lemurian epoch, they had reached the point where they transitioned into physical form. But even in the middle of the Lemurian epoch, human beings were not yet as dense as they are today. The matter at the beginning of our third root race was somewhat denser than the matter you can observe today in the misty clouds drifting over the mountains. These human beings would appear to us today like fiery clouds. That is why those who came to Earth from other regions at that time as the highest intelligences to instruct humanity are also called the “Sons of the Fire Mist.”

[ 5 ] When the geologist takes us back to that specific point on Earth where the physical remains of humans first cease to be found, the physical trail is lost. At a certain point in time, human beings were composed of such fine matter that no physical traces of them can be found in the early layers of the Earth. That transition from finer matter to physical matter—those beings who evolved up to physical density—is what the esotericist refers to—to use a term in our language—as the “Eagle” stage of humanity. He referred to the physical human being of that time as the eagle. In esoteric terminology, the eagle is the human being of the Lemurian race—the human being who works his way up from ethereal matter into dense matter.

[ 6 ] Next comes the Atlantean race. At first, it was endowed only with a denser etheric body. At that time, human beings were still able to master the life forces of the seeds within plants. They used the prana of the plants to power their ships, as described in Scott-Elliot’s book Atlantis. This shows us that humans at that time had greater mastery over their etheric double than humans do today. Later, humans will gain mastery over the higher bodies. The Apocalyptic writer describes this process—which is a genuine, real process—in detail.

[ 7 ] The second stage, in which the human being still has dominion over the etheric body, is referred to in esoteric terminology as the stage of the “Lion-Man.” This is a technical term for the Atlantean.

[ 8 ] Next comes the human being of the fifth, the Aryan race, who is referred to by the word “Bull,” because that is where physical strength is most prominently expressed.

[ 9 ] If you take these three terms, you have thereby designated three very specific, successive stages in human development. Those who are initiated into certain mystery schools learn a very specific language and script, through which those who come to know the comprehensive truths are able to express themselves and gain insight into their experiences. It is a language that all initiates throughout the world write and speak. It is a symbolic language. Anyone who has learned it understands it and knows, when they find a certain symbol in ancient documents, that it signifies something very specific.

[ 10 ] I will mention some of these symbols—the most basic ones—in the course of these lectures. A commonly used symbol said to characterize this stage of humanity consists of two interlocking triangles that together form a hexagonal figure. These two triangles still contain something else when they appear in occult works. [Here—see the drawing—in the angles marked A, L, and St are the images of an eagle, a lion, and a bull.] And at the bottom is a triangle that symbolizes the preceding states. The three angles remain unfilled. They represent the original three states of humanity. At the center is always the true human being. This enduring essence, which runs through all incarnations, remains throughout all stages. This is what is referred to as the human being.

[ 11 ] Here you have the four forms of being through which human beings have become human in the course of their development. You have depicted them in the two intertwined triangles. If you look at this symbol, you will understand why these animals appear wherever an apocalyptic writer speaks of these three stages of development. They also appear in the prophet Ezekiel. In John, they are described in a very special way.

[ 12 ] The apocalyptics transcend the veil that separates human beings from the realms where they can perceive those earlier stages. In order for human beings to truly gain insight into what has taken place on Earth, other faculties must develop within them. [These faculties are foreign to modern human beings.] The stages of development that humanity has gone through—and which have become imperceptible and unconscious to it—must be revived. The etheric body of the apocalyptic thinker must therefore be revitalized; he must begin to truly see, to become an eye, a complete eye.

[ 13 ] Therefore, the apocalyptic thinker must not only be able to transport himself back to the stage of the eagle, the stage of the lion, and the stage of the bull, but he must also be able to transport himself back while seeing. On the third stage, the chela truly attains this vision.

[ 14 ] What I have described here is what you will find in the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse [of John]. The Apocalypse describes not only the past stages of humanity, but also the future stages of human development. Only those who have an eye for the ascent toward the use of the etheric body and the higher bodies—which, so to speak, have fallen into disuse in the course of evolution—can comprehend this future. The human being of the fifth race can move freely and become conscious only within the physical body. However, he is developing in such a way that he will later be able to become conscious again in the higher bodies.

[ 15 ] We have achieved a very profound stage of development—the development of the purely physical intellect—in the current subrace of the fifth root race. Our current subrace will be followed by the sixth, and that by the seventh. This marks the end of our root race. Then a new, higher root race will come, and then yet another. This development thus consists in humanity becoming increasingly adept at using its higher bodies.

[ 16 ] We are heading toward a very specific goal, for we are, after all, on the path from the fifth to the sixth race. In all things, human beings make use of the physical mind; they make use of a very specific moral code and a religion. This governs them fundamentally because the physical mind reigns supreme. Essentially, the individual must seek his own happiness at the expense of others. The individual who strives for the higher is already striving beyond what general life dictates. In occult schools, there are three words that denote the new age, the age of a new, future humanity. In the realm of social life, it is “brotherly love,” love of community.

[ 17 ] That is why the Theosophical Society has adopted universal brotherhood as the most important point in its program, because it seeks to prepare humanity for life in the sixth root race. People will feel happy there only if that happiness is not achieved at the expense of others. That is morality. Our science is materialistic. This will be different in the next sub-race. We are striving toward a different scientific state. This means: “Pneumatology—the study of the spirit and the spiritual—will be decisive in the new race. And especially in the realm of religion, something will become decisive that is not yet possible today because the intellect stands in the way: ‘self-authority.’” Human beings will themselves receive the news of the existence of a divine world spirit. This is the free religious principle of the next race. Brotherhood, pneumatology, and self-authority in religious matters characterize the race that is gradually, slowly preparing itself and that will shape the future. A seventh race will take on entirely different forms, which we will address at another time.

[ 18 ] The race in which Christianity developed is the fourth. It was preceded by the third race. In certain cycles of time, what has already taken place is repeated. The first three subraces briefly reenacted the eagle, lion, and bull stages. These were preparatory races, whereas the task assigned to the race that followed was fulfilled within the fourth subrace, which is essentially characterized by the human being or by God made man. Christianity emerged within the fourth subrace. Around the middle of the Middle Ages, it was succeeded by the fifth—our present subrace—which we refer to in the broadest sense as the “Germanic.” It succeeded the so-called “Latin race”; by this term one understood everything that had slowly absorbed the current of Christianity and had also developed slowly in spiritual terms in Europe. It was preceded by three other races, which essentially briefly repeated the earlier conditions.

[ 19 ] In the Book of Revelation, these seven states are represented by the seven churches. The churches represent the seven sub-races. What is said to the church in Ephesus, to the church in Smyrna, and so on, are words addressed to the various sub-races. Even today, members of the various races still live in the world; members of the first sub-race of the fifth root race still exist. The Indian people essentially belong to this group. The Indian people have expressed the culture of thought in the highest sense. The highest deification of thought found expression in ancient India. This culture had to briefly repeat what the Lemurian human being had developed. The Lemurian human being was a being of feeling. The members of our race are beings of thought. Memory did not develop until the Atlantean race. The Lemurian had no memory yet. Although the human being of the first subrace did think, he thought in sensations, and what he thought is depicted in the ancient Vedic culture. You read these works correctly when you read them with the understanding that thought revels in a wondrous world of sensation. In cultures that serve thought more through memory—where external customs preserve the culture of memory through the veneration of heroes, since the memory of a great inventor, discoverer, or king is enshrined in morality—and where the long catalogs were compiled that eventually led to the calendar. Much was recorded by the early races, including the ancient Indians and the Persian magi. And from these records emerged the very beginnings of the calendar. Today’s human beings have emerged from these early sub-races. Humanity has advanced to the fifth race because it has understood: God is within itself; because it has understood the apocalyptic advance.

[ 20 ] But the first race, as expressed in the Vedas, was also the most prone to error. Sensibility is not yet strong enough for thought to become internalized. Thus it came to pass that the Indian cultural epoch has two distinct aspects existing side by side. On the one hand, we have the marvelous, lofty conceptions of spiritual deities as found in the ancient Vedic culture—that wondrous religion of which those unfamiliar with it cannot even begin to imagine the depth of Vedanta. All of this constitutes a purely spiritual teaching of such clarity that in Europe it is said—though this is more or less merely true—: Every day on which one delves anew into these marvelous depths is, for those who have already grown accustomed to remaining still and calm, yet another source of fresh admiration. Compared to what the ancient Vedic culture of India offers, the admiration directed toward our present-day life cannot be lasting. There is nothing that can compare to what this ancient Indian culture offers. On the other hand, we have the most depraved idolatry into which the people have fallen. What one usually finds in books about Indian culture is a colorful jumble of idolatrous and religious concepts that paints no clear picture at all. Idolatry among the people and the vast and powerful spiritual world of the Brahmins must be kept distinct. The great bright sides of humanity always have great dark sides as well. Peoples who, within their nation or tribe, often have members of the highest spiritual attainment, are themselves frequently stuck at the most superficial level. The Apocalypse seeks to illustrate these phenomena—which I have described to you—in the church of Ephesus: on the one hand, those who have kept their first love, and on the other, those who have abandoned the works of their first love and have fallen away. The Nicolaitans are cited as examples—those who see only the outward aspects of what a person should strive for. A solemn warning is to be directed at those who live in such a church.

[ 21 ] I just wanted to show how events of global significance are addressed by a passage such as the one directed to the church in Ephesus, as representative of these circumstances:

I know your deeds, your labor, and your patience, and that you cannot tolerate evil men; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be liars. You are patient and endure, and you work for my name’s sake and have not grown weary. But I have this against you: you have abandoned your first love. Remember where you have fallen from, and repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet you have this in your favor: you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Let anyone who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the churches: To the one who overcomes, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. [Rev 2:2–7]