The Rudolf Steiner Archive

69. On the Migration of the Races

[ 1 ] If we want to understand the migrations of the fifth post-Atlantean race, we must first and foremost be aware that it is difficult to see clearly amid this chaos. Descendants of all earlier races have settled among us, and we are already in the fourth [root] race, with a population spreading out like rays, which is itself intermingled with descendants of other races. The situation is most complicated in the fifth race. Everywhere we find remnants of populations that once had a culture of their own. As far as the peoples of the South Asian continent are concerned, we have remnants of the ancient Lemurian population. Their descendants can still be found in the interior of Australia. In West and North Asia, in Central Asia, and in Southern Europe, we find remnants of the fourth Atlantean epoch. This is the soil into which the branches of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch sink. Thus, we have here the result of two currents: the Lemurian-Aryan on the one hand, and the Atlantean-Aryan on the other. All these cultures, however, have absorbed an even older one; Siberia, Scandinavia, northern Russia, and China even have remnants of the Hyperborean culture. These mixtures are difficult to unravel. Let us seek to trace the course of the Aryan cultural influence.

[ 2 ] From a point in Central Asia—roughly near the Gobi and Chamo deserts—this culture spread out in concentric circles. It was a distinct priestly culture that prepared a spiritually highly developed race to enter the chaos of the nations and send out colonies from which new civilizations were to emerge. This small tribal people had emerged from the fifth subrace, the Proto-Semites of the fourth Atlantean epoch. We must bear in mind that these Proto-Semites were given a specific task—expressed in the Laws of Manu—to offer humanity, to the fullest extent, what is expressed in the words of Jesus: “The Kingdom of God does not come with outward signs, but the Kingdom of God is among you.” Everything that came before was merely preparation for this moment. This was what became the guiding principle of Christianity: the sanctification of the personality, the complete descent onto the physical plane. This mission first had to be carefully prepared.

[ 3 ] From the very beginning, the Manu attached very little importance within the original race to matters beyond human birth and death. These teachings had previously played a major role but were now slowly fading away, eventually disappearing. The Manu of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch sought to guide humanity down to the physical plane in order to enable them to understand the physical heart, brain, and lungs. Thus, these teachings concerning what lies beyond birth and death slowly faded in the first three post-Atlantean cultures. For even a Manu cannot direct destinies and events as he pleases, but must accomplish everything in accordance with the great laws of nature. Two things were before him: the culture that still existed among the Lemurian population in southern Asia, and the remnants of the Atlantean culture in Africa. There he sent his colonies with initiated priests—some to India, others to Africa. He imparted to them the teaching of non-reincarnation, the teaching [about life] between birth and death. In fact, the oldest Vedas contain nothing that goes beyond birth and death. He said to himself: Here, peoples who know nothing of reincarnation are coming together with those who have a precise knowledge of it. The result will be the right one.

[ 4 ] In Egypt, they came into contact with the Atlanteans, who did not have such a strict doctrine of reincarnation. For while the last Lemurians had developed it to the highest degree, it had already become distorted among the Atlanteans; among them, everything had become focused on memory; memory was so acute among the Atlanteans that it outweighed everything else, so that everything physical lived on in it through heredity. Thus, in this first offshoot, we have two branches: the Indo-Aryans and the Hamites.

[ 5 ] In India, the migrating Indo-Aryans—who arrived bearing the ancient teaching of the Word revealed by God (the Vedic Word)—adopted the doctrine of reincarnation, and in Brahmanism we find what so beautifully emerges as the doctrine of reincarnation. This was brought about by Manu. Meanwhile, the subjugated Lemurians became the Pariahs, and the Indians were divided into the four castes. This is the principle of the initiates: the blending of what is newly arrived with what is already there—in this case, the powerful manasic spirituality with the doctrine of reincarnation.

[ 6 ] In the Hamitic branch—the three sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the doctrine of reincarnation took a somewhat back seat. It was less clearly defined outwardly. The Egyptians placed greater emphasis on the preservation of corpses. The system of heredity was emphasized more strongly, placing primary value on physical continuity. The value of the individual life was emphasized and had already transformed the ancient Rishi teachings. A less definitive doctrine of reincarnation blended here with the doctrine of personality.

[ 7 ] The second migration consists, as it were, of a new branch being sent out. We can trace it by first looking eastward at the Medes and Persians, and then at the tribe that passed through Chaldea and found its historical expression in the migrations of Abraham—from Ur in Chaldea. On the one hand, the tribe that went west also came into contact with the remnants of the Atlantic culture, specifically with the fourth subrace of the Atlanteans, the Turanian people, who had engaged in agriculture.

[ 8 ] This results in a peculiar mixture. It is grafted onto that Turanian branch that once practiced magic—and it must be grafted vigorously! From here, the teachings of the Medes and Bactrians spread. Here, the first Zarathustras were active, striving to apply the outward techniques of the magical age in the service of material culture. The result is a powerful flourishing of agriculture and viticulture; in them we see the revival of the ancient magical skills.

[ 9 ] A branch of the colonists continued westward and encountered remnants of the undistributed Proto-Semites of the Atlantic race, and these form what is known as the ancient Semitic tribe: Chaldeans, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Arabs. They form a new Semitic culture.

[ 10 ] The most significant events first occur among the Medes and Persians. They are contained in an ancient legend that has undergone many reinterpretations and is ultimately presented to us in the story of Cyrus: King Astyages had a daughter, Mandane, who married not a Mede but a Persian. Her father dreamed that a tree was sprouting from his daughter’s womb. The dream was interpreted to mean that the Persian tribe would overshadow the Median one. The ancient legend of Cyrus has a deeply esoteric meaning. Cyrus represents the farming Persians in contrast to the non-farming Medes, and the [farmer] symbolizes that agricultural culture will prevail: the ancient culture passes on to the farmers.

[ 11 ] We can see how this came about from the nature of the Persian people. They were to become physically strong. There were no Lemurians here; the Atlanteans had laid the groundwork for the development of the individual personality. Among the Persians, personal virtues were emphasized above all else. It is a remarkable feature that they were taught to tell the truth; this was a main subject for the boys alongside their physical exercises. And that is very important. It laid the groundwork for personal excellence to reach its peak.

[ 12 ] Now we come to the point where the original Semitic element mingled with the new. Priest-rishis migrated there and found decadent ancient Semites and equally decadent Akkadians. Thus, Manu formed a new branch by uniting his immigrants with the decadent Semites—those who had developed the art of calculation during their Atlantean heyday. What emerged from this was Chaldean wisdom. [...] Astrology, astronomy, observatories, the calendar, and systems of weights and measures emerged. Those immigrants who had encountered the Akkadians, the ancient trading people, were used to establish new colonies within this mixture. They were the Phoenicians.

[ 13 ] Another excerpt followed: A Rishi colony, along with its followers, crossed over to Europe. There he found the ancient Hyperborean element, and in the south, the Atlantean one. The Hyperboreans had already intermingled with the Atlanteans; thus, only a faint echo of them remained. In the south, the Hyperborean influence had all but disappeared. Here, on the soil of ancient Greece, the Pelasgian population now emerged with a form of nature worship that in many ways recalls Egyptian practices; only here it is more of a local cult than an ancestor cult: we find sacred trees and sacred caves; it is more closely tied to nature. There was a belief that the sacred was tied more to the place than to the tribe—Zeus of Dodona and others. The physical place becomes sacred. That was the new formation.

[ 14 ] In Italy, too, a blend of ancient Atlantean and Rishi culture was once again brought to the physical plane. Here, what had developed among the Atlanteans as a social nature and an attachment to technical culture found expression in the social legislation and technical skills of the Etruscans.

[ 15 ] In the north, the blend of Hyperborean and Rishi cultures gave rise to the formation of Celtic culture. What was found there was an Atlantean-Hyperborean culture that offered little to work with. A new direction had to be taken, and the result is the Celtic synthesis with the Druidic culture. This culture possesses such a rich spiritual dimension because it incorporated the highly spiritual elements that transcended the spiritual aspects of the Atlantean and Lemurian eras. Because it contained the Hyperborean element, the Celtic culture could not truly endure and was absorbed into later cultures.

[ 16 ] We now come to the third outpouring. It is very complex. In part, it builds upon what had previously been prepared by the first two. We have received it in the traditions of various peoples. It is found wherever traditions already feature strong, vigorous people in the foreground. Above all, a group of initiates went west and once again infused the already-infused proto-Semitic element. For the aim is to synthesize everything that was originally poured into the great idea of state formation. The result of this third mission toward this body of literature is Genesis, the Old Testament.

[ 17 ] Another group of initiates traveled to Asia Minor, where they established what has been preserved in Trojan culture and its offshoot cultures, one of which is the Albalongian culture. These initiates were tasked with establishing states in a manner suited to the various peoples.

[ 18 ] We have thus encountered three groups of initiates, the first of which was tasked with creating religious culture, the second with establishing the material foundation of culture—Persia—and the third with forming the state and consolidating the passions. This takes place in forms adapted to the various peoples, as in Troy, for example, or Alba Longa, or the theocratic theocracy of Palestine. Essentially, however, these were merely preparations carried out among peoples who were not at all destined to form states. Among the people most destined to carry the spiritual realm into the physical plane through their culture, the formation of a state is least successful: the Greeks are, above all, a people of art. The highest personal reality brought into the physical plane—that is art. The initiate of the third group—among the Greeks—is the hero, the strong human being.

[ 19 ] Over in Asia, the peoples had already intermingled repeatedly. And those who had received the highest law—the Jews—were so intermingled that they had already become hypertrophied. In contrast, in Europe, in central Italy, there had been a simpler intermingling. We find a very strong Atlantic element there. The Etruscan colony had collaborated with Alba Longa, the priestly state, and brought Rome into being. Here, racial formation was simple and contained a great deal of the Atlantic element. These two traits were sufficient to establish what is called Etruscan-Roman culture, with the priestly influence that was bound to lead to the institution of the Pontifex Maximus. The circumstances were straightforward, and thus from them emerged the people of the Roman Republic, who cultivated personal bravery as an end in itself. The Roman citizen, the cives, was the fully realized human being who felt himself to be a complete personality. The Greeks, on the other hand, had to see themselves above all as sages and artists. When they cultivated what arises most from the personality—the art of rhetoric and the law—they were bound to decline. Private law and the art of rhetoric, or eloquence, were only brought to perfection in Rome. The Greeks first intuited [...] and then developed the perfect personality by representing it in their gods. The Roman embodies within himself the self-contained personality as a citizen, as a true human being. The works of the Greek sculptors, as it were, rise up in the Romans and come to life.

[ 20 ] So something was taking shape in Rome that the Lodge of the Initiates could use to make a further impact. To do this, they had to draw upon the very pinnacle of spiritual life. This could only be found where the greatest spiritual influences had taken hold—namely, in the Near East. There, spirit had been grafted onto spirit:

1. The self-imposed migration: the fifth subrace of the Atlantean Proto-Semites into the first subrace of the Aryan population.
2. The migration into the region of the Euphrates and Tigris.
3. The patriarchal era—the age of heroes.
4. The theocracy.

[ 21 ] This wonderful blend finds expression in all branches of intellectual life. The new direction there could only have come from a figure who was far away, not from their own country.

[ 22 ] The Lodge carefully selected the family from which an Initiate was to emerge. The ancient Rishi culture had laid the groundwork and foretold the coming of the Initiate who was now to arrive. It was written down in the Sibylline Books.

[ 23 ] Thus, in secret, apart from Judaism, in Galilee, the Messiah of the fourth subrace is being prepared. There in Galilee, Judaism had never gained a firm foothold; it had not penetrated there. The Galileans are very mixed in terms of racial character. The point was that he should have nothing of the Galilean in him, that he should come as if from the hidden realm. That is why the Apocrypha tell of him as the son of his mother, speaking of his illegitimate birth. This was Jesus of Nazareth, the Galilean. He had been initiated up to the third degree of a disciple. Now the task was to make him the highest initiate for everything that was to be realized on the physical plane. This was accomplished by the entire personality being taken over by another who represents the entire fifth root race—Christ. The entire fifth post-Atlantean epoch emerged within the Greco-Latin culture, and this is symbolically represented by the descent of the dove. If one were to express the truths at stake here, one could only choose the highest form.

[ 24 ] The Manu said to himself, “I will make the fourth subrace a synthesis of all previous influences and endow it with the spirit of the entire fifth root race.” Only the Christ, who is the true essence of the entire fifth root race, can do this. The Manu had prepared the way; Christ was to step, as it were, into what had been prepared. The revelation of the true mystery of the fourth root race was to take place. Previously, it had only been prepared; the highest initiates had beheld it, and the others had been prepared. That was the darkness into which the light came.

[ 25 ] If we look at the overall development, we see results that are brought about by the fact that the first three sub-races are gradually educated to develop their personalities—until, in the fourth, the innermost essence of the personality is grasped: the equality of all people before God.

[ 26 ] The Initiates who were sent out were not conceived by a father and mother of the race in question. They were all asexual.

[ 27 ] That is indeed what is said in the Gospel of John:

He came to his own, and his own did not receive him; but to all who did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God—to those who believe in his name. They were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [John 1:11–13]

[ 28 ] Christ is the inner divine principle; he must pour himself into forms and takes on the form of law from the theocratic state, from Judaism. The Jews could not accept these new forms; they already had their own, which was the highest. But He had to adopt them; step by step, He had to emerge onto the physical plane. He therefore expressed His wisdom through the wisdom of ancient Judaism. Now, this wisdom had to be understood. One could understand this wisdom where the physical plane had already been mastered, where philosophy existed. That is why the first Church Fathers came from the Greeks. In their philosophy, they had developed the capacity to understand that which emerged onto the physical plane. When the will emerged in the personality, they were also able to understand that personality.

[ 29 ] The people who had created Zeus—who had embodied a god in their own sculpture—were also able to understand the idea of the incarnate god. At first, this idea could only come to life through what emerged from the Roman people. The human being who had developed the concept of personality was capable of grasping this idea. That was the Roman.

[ 30 ] Christ himself is formed within the Jewish people; he is understood through Greek gnosis and the Greek apostles: Paul and John, the Greek evangelist. None of this, however, could have led to the spread of Christianity on the physical plane, but at most to an understanding of it. The Romans, who adopted Greek culture, destroyed Jerusalem, and went to Asia, became Christians.

So:
The Jews form Christ.
The Greeks understand Christ.
The Romans become Christians.

[ 31 ] That is why Christianity did not begin to spread until after the destruction of Jerusalem and took on a distinctly Roman form. In Rome, the physical vessel for the Christ had already been prepared: namely, the state, which had already established the world empire, and the priest who could administer it, the Pontifex Maximus. This brings us to the fourth sub-race. We have seen that it was carefully prepared. The fifth sub-race is, after all, still in the making.

[ 32 ] We have reached the summit or the center. The following teachers are therefore those who must preserve what has been created in order to apply it once again to the specific physical realm. The point is that certain Initiates must specify these ascended summits for individuals. Thus, we have preserved the Christian tradition within the Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. Christianity is constantly decaying and degenerating. The task, therefore, is to continually provide new impulses from what is called Mount Montsalvatsch, the Grail. These impulses take on a different character. Once again, it is the rishis who experience the true teaching in the Christian way and seek only to protect original Christianity against degeneration.

[ 33 ] In this way, a wide variety of attempts at regeneration have been made. The first attempt can be traced back to a figure who cannot yet play a role in history, because this period is still prehistory. He is, however, mentioned in legend. It is the German apostle Boniface. It was he who brought the original form in which Christianity came from Ireland to Germany—a blend of Druidic culture, Indian influence, and the ideas of Dionysius the Areopagite.

[ 34 ] A new direction was set, and a new possibility was created by the Initiate known as Lohengrin. This initiation took place under very complex circumstances; just as all initiations are complex. For it was necessary to reconcile original Christianity, which had developed continuously from Dionysius the Areopagite through Scotus Eriugena up to Scholasticism and Mysticism. Although this current could influence the people through preaching, it had gradually been lost to the people because it ascended to the highest heights of thought. Therefore, a fresh infusion of the original spiritual element had to be drawn upon. A pinnacle had been reached, but it was at the same time a dead end; and in order to influence the initiate Lohengrin, a new infusion from the East—brought about through the Crusades—had to be effected. The essential outcome of this process was the Knights Templar, the true messengers of the Holy Grail. They built a sanctuary of wisdom on the site of Solomon’s Temple, and after being prepared there, they became servants of the Holy Grail and were initiated by the Grail itself. This took place at the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was prepared during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

[ 35 ] We are now in the preparatory stage of the fifth subrace, the Germanic-English one. From the Templar Order, we can see that this involves the application of Christianity to a new race. The service of the Knights Templar prepares the way for the transformation of Christianity into a fully external form [...] within Christianity, which later leads to Protestantism. Through this, we understand the true creed of the Knights Templar and their secret cult. They said to themselves: The Christ represented by the Western Church means nothing to us, for this is the Christ on the cross. But we proclaim the Christ who walked in Jerusalem and received initiation from John the Baptist; our teachers regarding Christ are therefore not the Church Fathers, but John the Baptist, the Initiator himself. Hence, the main ceremony consisted of their spitting out the crucifix—the symbol of Western worship—and the unconsecrated host. This symbolically expressed the complete contempt for Roman Christianity—that which had developed into Catholicism—and it paved the way for a return from the Catholic Christ to the Evangelical Christ. That was one principle. Another was:

1. We return to a belief in the elemental forces of the world.
2. We believe that human destinies are a result of celestial configurations and that human beings themselves are born out of these great celestial configurations—the laws of nature.

[ 36 ] The culture of the Germanic-English race has evolved from these two principles: the religious-Protestant tradition on the one hand, and the scientific exploration of the physical world on the other.

[ 37 ] But that was only the container. The contents arrived via a detour

[ 38 ] by the Moors. So here again we have a Semitic influence. There were five Semitic influences that shaped the content. The form was always prepared in advance.

[ 39 ] The Rosicrucians safeguarded the common foundation of what was splitting apart into a purely secular science and a materialistic religion. It was they who sought to hold it all together. The Rosicrucians essentially cultivated the study of evolution in concrete terms within the fifth sub-race, prepared the social legislation, and will be the true leaders of the sixth sub-race.