The Rudolf Steiner Archive

68. The Seven Post-Atlantic Subraces

[ 1 ] Today we want to explore a rephrasing of the statement that the entire world is meaningful, that the entire world is thought. By seeing creative thoughts in the world, we can discover the thought. The mystics have never arranged things in an arbitrary manner, but rather in such a way that human institutions, too, are a reflection of the world’s thoughts.

[ 2 ] There is a certain regularity to the names of the days of the week. The days of the week are named after the planets. Let us learn how the Chaldean magicians established the names of the days of the week. The ancient Chaldean magicians said: Every day has four parts—morning, afternoon, early night, and late night. They had to regard these four parts of the day as the first element of time, as the most immediate division of time. They related the four-part day to the seven known planets.

[ 2 ] There is a certain regularity to the names of the days of the week. The days of the week are named after the planets. Let us learn how the Chaldean magicians established the names of the days of the week. The ancient Chaldean magicians said: Every day has four parts—morning, afternoon, early night, and late night. They had to regard these four parts of the day as the first element of time, as the most immediate division of time. They related the four-part day to the seven known planets.

[ 2 ] There is a certain regularity to the names of the days of the week. The days of the week are named after the planets. Let us learn how the Chaldean magicians established the names of the days of the week. The ancient Chaldean magicians said: Every day has four parts—morning, afternoon, early night, and late night. They had to regard these four parts of the day as the first element of time, as the most immediate division of time. They related the four-part day to the seven known planets.

Morning - Moon = Monday
Afternoon — Mercury
Midnight (morning) — Venus
Midnight (afternoon) - Sun

Morning — Mars = Mars Day = Tuesday - Tin
Afternoon — Jupiter
Midnight (morning) - Saturn
After midnight — Moon

Morning — Mercury = Wednesday, Mercury Day, Wednesday - Wotan
Afternoon — Venus
Before midnight — Sun
After midnight — Mars

Morning — Jupiter = Thursday - Donar -, Jupiter Day
Afternoon — Saturn
Midnight (morning) — Moon
Midnight (evening) — Mercury

Morning — Venus = Friday, Venus Day
Afternoon — Sun
Before midnight — Mars
After midnight — Jupiter

Morning — Saturn = Saturday, Saturn Day
Afternoon - Moon
Before midnight - Mercury
After midnight - Venus

Morning - Sun = Sunday
Afternoon - Mars
Before midnight - Jupiter
After midnight - Saturn

[ 5 ] Commercial culture no longer had any understanding for naming the days of the week after the stars. For there is a very specific ratio—namely, four to seven—relating the fourfold nature to the seven principles. The naming of the days of the week is a human institution. However, it was not created arbitrarily, but rather in accordance with the ratios that were already established. The people of that time allowed the cosmic ratios to resonate in everything and allowed the institutions to function in the same way that the microcosm relates to the macrocosm.

[ 6 ] If one examines this environment closely, one will see that it is based on a very specific conception of the world and life. It is a kama-manasic conception that belongs to the lower mental plane. If peoples were to move toward such definitions that involve measure and number, they would have to draw inspiration from the rupa plane of the mental realm.

[ 7 ] Let us note that the time when something like this could happen must have been inspired by the mental rupa-plane. Thus, these terms originated in a time when people were inspired by the mental rupa-plane.

[ 8 ] The next plane from which they drew inspiration is the Astral Plane. The relationship between inspiration and the various planes, as expressed in the different subraces of the five root races, is as follows.

1st Subrace	Arupa Plane	the Divine
2nd Subrace	Rupa Plane Measure and Number	The Celestial
3rd Subrace	Astral Plane Justice	The Earthly
4th Subrace	Physical Plane Love
5th Subrace	Astral Plane	Community Life, Justice
6th Subrace	Rupa Plane	Community Organization, Measure and Number
7th Subrace	Arupa Plane	Collective Consciousness

[ 9 ] Let us assume that inspiration originates from the astral plane and that Kama is therefore ordered. Inspiration regarding spatial proportions also came from the mental plane—for example, the inspiration for building pyramids, whose proportions are based on the orbits of the stars. Kama can be ordered from the astral plane by imbuing it with the idea of justice—the ordering of human instincts and emotions according to justice.

[ 10 ] If we descend even further, we arrive at the physical plane. There, human actions can no longer be ordered according to the idea of justice. There, the principle of action must be instilled within each individual. What justice once was on the astral plane, and measure and number on the mental plane, must be placed within the human heart itself on the physical plane.

[ 11 ] Above the Rupaplane lies the Arupaplane, where measure and number cease; determination based on very specific proportions and forms ceases; there is only the direct inflow of the Divine. Thus, during the time of the Arupa Plane, when the spirit was still inspired by the Arupa Plane—in the first subrace, the Indian one—there was a direct inspiration from the Divine. At that time, the Rishi culture existed. The Vedas came into being with incredible speed. Subsequently, the influence slowed down as it descended to the physical plane and became increasingly slower. What was the principle of love in the individual on the physical plane is now rising again to take hold of the majority. On the next Rupa plane, communal life is now organized according to measure and number. The peoples themselves determine races and classes according to their own reason. On the Arupa plane, a completely communal consciousness then follows.

[ 12 ] These seven periods are, in fact, distributed among the seven sub-races of the fifth root race.

1. The first subrace, the Indian subrace, belongs to the inspiration of the Arupa Plane—the Rishi culture.

2. The peoples who were inspired by the Rupa Plane are the Persian and Chaldean magicians, the Persian race.

3. Inspired by the Astral Plane are all those who adhere to the same principle—the principle of justice. These were the peoples who gave the commandments—the ancient Israelites—and all those who, in the pre-Christian era, prepared the way for Christianity: the Semitic-Celtic subrace.

4. The Greco-Latin race, which, toward the end of its existence, developed the principle of love within Christianity.

5. Gradually developing a sense of community is what is reserved for our race. However, it will only achieve this toward the end of its existence—the Germanic subrace.

6. The sixth

7. and seventh sub-races are races of the future, which are to develop socialism arising from the spiritual realm. The peoples will organize themselves.

[ 13 ] To bring order to oneself, one must understand such things. We have been incarnated in all races. In the second sub-race, measure and number became part of us. In the next incarnation, we had to develop measure and number. This will bear fruit as the karma of the sixth subrace, in which humanity will establish institutions based on measure and number. Likewise, inspiration on the Arupa plane will come to the fore in the seventh subrace. We, in the fifth subrace, are living out what was taught in the third subrace: justice.

[ 14 ] The fourth subrace is a special phenomenon: love. It works its way back through everything, but does not express its own nature until the sixth root race. True Christianity is expressed only in the sixth root race. In the sixth subrace, the forms are created into which the life of the sixth root race will be poured. Our subrace has not progressed beyond a sufficient form of legal consciousness; this was laid down in the third subrace. The principle of justice.

[ 15 ] The communal life of the fifth sub-race is intended to prepare the way for the Theosophical Society. This can only come to fruition in the second half of the sixth sub-race. The Theosophical Society upholds the principle of love throughout the course of evolution. Communal life must be established; this is a physical necessity. Love, however, must be sustained—through service to humanity.

[ 16 ] Among the Slavic race, those who became known for their activities belonged to the second subrace, which was characterized by moderation and numbers. Figures such as Robespierre were also present in the third subrace.

[ 17 ] The sixth subrace is once again inhabited by the magicians from the second subrace.

[ 18 ] Those in the seventh sub-race will be those who have worked in secret—adepts or masters—during the other sub-races. After the first sub-race, they remain in hiding.

[ 19 ] That which is Being must first have been activity. The activity of the third sub-race becomes Being in the fifth sub-race. The activity of the fourth sub-race is self-contained.

[ 20 ] Laocoon represents the ancient priestly order of justice, which is taken by surprise by Odysseus—by his serpent, that is, by cunning—just as Troy was taken by the Greeks, and just as the third subrace was taken by the fourth. The legend of the wooden horse was composed by an initiate. This is the great karmic question that determines the course of human history through the cyclical nature of existence.

[ 21 ] Evolution through the races proceeded at an ever-slower pace until the physical stage was reached, but then accelerated rapidly. Future events will not be long in coming; a certain number of people will then be saved to carry the culture from the fifth [root race] to the sixth [root race].

From the Q&A

[ 22 ] During the course of human evolution, humankind gradually shed the various kingdoms that lay below it; these kingdoms—the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms (including cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals)—continued to exist alongside humankind. The forces from which these kingdoms continued to develop were previously necessary for human beings themselves in their own development. But then, step by step, there came times when these forces would have hindered human development. Therefore, they were shed—distilled out of human nature. When this happened, the corresponding predispositions looked quite different from the present-day mineral, plant, and animal forms. By shedding certain aspects of his nature, humanity has gradually attained certain higher powers. That is why the other kingdoms—and especially the animal kingdom—stand in a very specific relationship to humanity, a relationship that can be traced down to the individual animal species. The symbol of the horse points to such a connection. - During the time of the second race, the Hyperboreans, humanity acquired the capacity to assimilate intellectual activity by shedding that which later developed into the horse in the animal kingdom. Humanity had to shed this; otherwise, it would not have been able to assimilate Manas later on. Humanity was ready to assimilate Manas during the third race, in the middle of the Lemurian epoch. The horse as we know it did not evolve until the fourth race, during the Atlantean epoch.

[ 23 ] Thus, the development of the human intellect is in a certain relationship to the horse, to the nature of the horse. For this reason, the horse was held sacred by all ancient peoples and was often used as a symbol—in the Book of Revelation, for example. The ancient peoples, especially the Atlanteans, were aware of these connections without directly understanding them. A figure from legend, the centaur, actually existed during the transitional period when human beings gradually shed what became the nature of the horse. The power of thought was now the means by which human beings could elevate themselves to the higher, divine realm. Therefore, a horse was given as a symbol to those who had overcome their lower nature, who understood how to fully accomplish this elevation, and who had become initiates into the essence of the higher nature.