The Rudolf Steiner Archive

36. On Atlantic Culture

[ 1 ] Nothing in the world happens by chance; rather, every age, every people, and every human being has specific tasks. The current root race has the task of developing the human intellect and everything related to it: arithmetic, building machines.

[ 2 ] The intellect is essentially tied to the personality. In earlier root races, something else was paramount—even in the case of the Egyptian pyramids, for whose construction people sacrificed their entire lives. They were firmly convinced of reincarnation. And sustained by this firm belief, the worker willingly did everything that was required of him. This practice had been preserved from earlier times into the early stages of the root race.

[ 3 ] As long as individuality was [not yet] the primary focus, other forms of religion were needed, and other cultures had to be found. The current master race, with its culture of the mind and personality, dates back ten thousand years.

[ 4 ] The first subrace was the one that had settled on the Indian subcontinent. The second race, originating in Persia, spread across the earth. The third was the Egyptian. The fourth, the Roman, embraced Christianity. The fifth is the Germanic-Anglo-Saxon race, the sixth will be the Slavic race, and the seventh will be the American race. The latter will establish an empire that will span the entire globe, but it will be short-lived and, like the Chinese [gap in the transcript]

[ 5 ] The Atlantic culture that preceded it was quite different. Its main center was located on the floor of what is now the Atlantic Ocean, but it extended further into other regions.

[ 6 ] You have to imagine the people of the Atlantic as being completely different from us.

[ 7 ] The first Atlanteans, who lived about one million years ago, did not yet possess reason, but had a highly developed memory. When one ability comes to the fore, others recede into the background. Because, as development progressed, the ability to think in a combinatory manner had to come to the fore, memory receded into the background.

[ 8 ] He had no rules, but the image that emerged in his mind was what mattered most. People used characteristic images to convey important things that might be encountered—not rules. That is why they were very conservative. A young person could not rise to a high position because one had to have a wealth of experience behind them. Everything we have that is similar to an Areopagus still originates from Atlantis.

[ 9 ] All forces that were closer to nature, as in the case of undeveloped peoples. For example, they could use life force or the power of plant seeds. Coal contains stored heat that is burned in locomotives. Just as steam heat is converted into propulsive power, so too can power be extracted from piles of grain. Thus, the Atlanteans had a small type of airship that used converted Vril power as its propulsive force.

[ 10 ] This arrangement benefited from the fact that the waters were thinner and the air was thicker. Plants were cultivated, just as coal mines are established today, to serve transportation. Humans and animals that feed on thinner water have entirely different organ structures. He was able to increase his strength through his willpower. Water was more closely aligned with his willpower. He had greater control over his organism.

[ 11 ] They made no plans for the cities; they lacked the ability to think in a comprehensive way. They planted trees in an ellipse; the trees grew faster that way. Fruit on the outside—housing on the inside. That was the first Atlantean era, lasting until six hundred thousand years ago.

[ 12 ] The first race of the Rmoahals was like this; then they began to resemble the present-day race. But the second race, the Tlavatli, and the third, the Toltecs, were also similar. In the third race, the seeds of intellectual activity began to take root. The peoples were very obedient, though this tendency diminished among the Turanians. They were the notorious black magicians of Atlantis. They were also great engineers; they did not make grand plans, but they had everything under control—when they quarried rock, they knew exactly how much weight it could bear. Everything depended on personal skill. They then recorded this in symbolic drawings. Many secrets were revealed, morality declined, and doom was brought upon them. They were saved only by the Proto-Semites, who were the fifth subrace. They were a people of mathematicians and merchants, from whom the entire present-day root race has grown. They were the fundamental strategists.

[ 13 ] Sixth, the Akkadians, who were essentially a colonizing people. They went, for example, to Ireland, where this highly developed Akkadian culture had flourished even before the Celtic one. Seventh: the Mongols, who, of course, survived.

[ 14 ] Then we return to the topic of catastrophes. Among the Atlanteans: flooding by water. The Rmoahals were preceded by destruction by fire—that is, among the Lemurians—in Australia and neighboring regions. We must make a clear distinction between the first Lemurians and the second; in total, this spans a million years. It was not until the middle of the Lemurian race that two sexes emerged. The original teaching refers to the sexless beings as Adam Kadmon. They had no memory, but rather imagination. The Lemurians were not yet able to retain an image; it soon faded away. That is why the decadent Lemurians in Australia still have no memory. Their imagination, however, was much more vivid. For example, the distinction between heat and cold.

[ 15 ] At that time, the elements were not yet as distinct as they are now. The sea was filled as if with drifting mists. There were denser and thinner mists, but water and air were not yet separated.