The Rudolf Steiner Archive

10. The Trojan War

[ 1 ] Since there are a few newcomers here today, I would just like to briefly mention that over the course of these sessions I have attempted to show how esoteric content is recorded in various myths and legends, and that one need only be able to interpret the language of myths and legends to discover, under certain circumstances, profound esoteric truths within them. Today I would like to speak in particular about one of those legends that exhibits the remarkable peculiarity of being, on the one hand, a legend and, on the other hand, having a content that is entirely external to the physical plane—that is, expressing a very specific physical event.

[ 2 ] Before I speak about this legend, I would like to mention a fact that most of you are already familiar with, but one that must be repeatedly emphasized. That is, during the course of our fifth root race—that is, in the period from the downfall of Atlantis in the fourth root race until the next root race—a most important step was taken in the entire evolution of humanity, namely, that leaders of humanity, the Manus, arose from within humanity itself. All the great leaders, the Manus, who advanced humanity during the earlier root races and gave it its great impulses—they did not complete their development solely on Earth, but spent part of it on other celestial bodies; in doing so, they brought to Earth from other worlds the great impulses they were to bestow upon humanity. The Manus of the Lemurian and Atlantean races, as well as the Root Manu of our fifth root race, are superhuman individualities who underwent their great schooling—through which they were able to become the leaders of humanity—on other planets. In contrast, during our fifth root race, such highly developed individualities emerged from within humanity itself that they can now become the leaders of humanity starting with the sixth root race. Specifically, the chief leader of the sixth root race will be a human being just like us—only one of the most advanced, indeed the most advanced of all humans. It will be a being who began his development at the very time when human evolution first took place in the middle of the Lemurian period, who has always been a human among humans, but who was able to progress more rapidly and has gone through all the stages of human development. This will be the fundamental character of the Manu of the sixth root race. The Chief Manu of the sixth root race and all who stand by his side must pass through the most diverse initiations; they must have been initiated repeatedly. That is why, ever since its inception, there have always been initiated people in the fifth root race—people who were, so to speak, initiated in such a way that they could follow their own voluntary path. This was not the case throughout the entire Lemurian period, nor throughout the entire Atlantean period. During those times, those who helped humanity forward—who governed and guided it, who were leaders of states and of great religious communities—were under the influence of higher beings. During the Lemurian and Atlantean eras, they were directly dependent on those more highly developed beings who had undergone their own evolution on other planets. It is only in the fifth root race that humanity is increasingly set free. There we have initiates who, while still connected to the higher beings, do not receive advice that is so detailed as to be fully worked out; rather, the initiates of the fifth root race are granted ever greater freedom in the details. In general, the initiates are given directives and impulses, but in such a way that they carry out their tasks based on their own spiritual insight and power of judgment.

[ 3 ] Our fifth root race comprises seven sub-races. They occupy the following positions in the course of evolution: The first sub-race is the race of spirituality, of the spirit; it is the race from which the Indian cultural community emerged—the Rishi culture, the Vedic culture. Then we have the second subrace, the race of the flame—that is, the Persian cultural community, which finds its expression in the religion of Zarathustra. Then we have the third subrace, which we call the race of the stars—the Proto-Chaldeans—of which the Israelite people form a major branch. The fourth subrace is the cultural community from which the Greeks and Romans emerged—the Race of Personality. The fifth subrace is the Race of the World; it is the one within which we ourselves stand, the cultural community of the Germanic-Anglo-Saxon peoples, which is currently in the stage of development and which transforms human beings into free personalities—the race that is conquering the world. It will be succeeded by the Slavic subrace, a cultural community advancing from Asia.

[ 4 ] In my last lecture, I spoke to you about the great Initiates in the Nordic regions. I already hinted there that symbolic designations existed for the Initiate or for one who was connected in some way to the initiations, and that one such symbolic expression is that the Initiate is invulnerable. This invulnerability, which we encountered in Siegfried, is also found in Achilles. In fact, a deeply esoteric meaning is hidden within the myth in which Achilles is woven. You must bear in mind that what I have explained is taking place step by step in the course of the fifth root race. The Manu organized the leadership of humanity at the beginning of the fifth root race in such a way that governance was entirely subject to the priesthood, which received its inspiration directly from the higher divine beings, from superhuman beings. This initiated priesthood could be entrusted with the task of classifying humanity itself. It would have been impossible to carry out a just division of people into castes in cultural communities other than those governed by priest-rulers. You therefore find caste divisions, in fact, only in true priestly cultures—in ancient India and ancient Egypt—where initiated priests stood at the helm, following not kamic impulses but higher directives. They acted impersonally, free from kama, and it could be entrusted to them to carry out that serious division of people into castes, which was originally fully justified in Egypt and India. If you examine these castes, you will find in them, in a pronounced form, the entire plan for the development of the fifth root race.

[ 5 ] This plan is that, little by little, the leadership and guidance of this fifth root race will shift from a priestly mindset to a worldly mindset, from the priest to the king. A secular king who was not a priest would have been entirely impossible in the early days of the fifth root race. During the Atlantean era, when human beings did not yet receive their impulses through the thinking mind but from other forces, and also at the beginning of the fifth root race, the guidance of humanity had to be removed from any secular power and entrusted to those who received divine inspiration. That is why you find pure priestly rule in Indian and Egyptian culture. The priest is the ruler; he is the one from whom everything emanates. The priest belongs to the highest caste. The warriors, who have a purely worldly occupation, belong to the second caste. Then the hierarchy descends to those who are engaged in agriculture.

[ 6 ] Gradually, these boxes should become independent step by step. In what develops in temporality, we have never presented what actually exists externally in space. Please keep this in mind. When a spatial relationship is to become temporal, this occurs in a ratio of four to seven, in such a way that the fourfold expands into the sevenfold. The four castes standing side by side in space come to the fore temporally in the course of the fifth root race in such a way that we see the seven subraces gradually developing toward independence. The ratio of four to seven is based on a very specific law. Today I wish only to say that the seven sub-races develop in such a way that, in the first sub-race, we are essentially dealing with governance exclusively by priests, and in the second sub-race, with governance by priest-kings and magicians. Zarathustra, the true magician, is the advisor to the priest-king. During the third sub-race, rule may pass to secular kings, who still follow the advice of the priests. It is not until the fourth sub-race that we encounter secular kings who no longer have any connection to priestly authority. The first secular kings first appear among the Greek people, and as Greek rule becomes established, it is through secular kings.

[ 7 ] The spread of Hellenism is depicted—in a legendary way—in the myth of the Trojan War. This legend of the Trojan War is nothing other than the mythical representation of an esoteric truth, namely the flourishing of the fourth subrace of the fifth root race and the replacement of the priestly rule in its final stage by a purely secular rule. This is hinted at in an extraordinarily subtle way right at the beginning of the Trojan legend.

[ 8 ] You are surely aware that in esotericism, matter is universally represented by the symbol of water. Water is the esoteric symbol for matter. I need only point out one example from theology: In the Nicene Creed, where it says “...suffered under Pontius Pilate,” it should actually read “suffered in Póntos Pyletós,” which means “in the compressed water.” The Son of God descended to suffer within the matter that exists on the physical plane. In the creed of the Christian faith, “póntos,” meaning the sea, was Latinized to “Pontius,” and “Pyletós” became “Pilate.”

[ 9 ] When Thales states that everything arose from water, what he actually means is all-encompassing physical matter. We are dealing here with water as physical matter. This physical matter is to become the guiding principle for those who are now taking charge of humanity: the earthly kings. Previously, there were only kings who were connected to the divine. Peleus is the king who is to rule on the physical plane, drawing his power from the physical plane itself. This was presented to the people in the Mysteries as a myth through the story that Peleus married the sea goddess Thetis. What we are dealing with here is the union of humanity’s leadership with the matter of the physical plane. Thetis is the goddess of water, of the sea. And the one born of this union is Achilles. Achilles is the first initiate of this kind. He is therefore invulnerable—except for his heel. All initiates of the fourth sub-race are still vulnerable in some way. It is not until the end of the fifth subrace that there will be initiates so advanced that they are no longer vulnerable at all. Achilles has been immersed in the Styx; that is to say, he has died to all earthly things and has been transported to a higher plane.

[ 10 ] Here you have an important phase in human evolution. In the middle of the fourth sub-race, spiritual life first descends, and it is then that we have the first initiates of the physical plane. With this, something very special occurs. The earlier world-rulers were free from kama; they were without desires; they had to shed all that was kama-related through the various preceding stages of initiation leading up to spiritual initiation. As long as there were priests in the old sense, it was impossible for anything of kama to influence the governance of the world. But kama brings about division; kama makes it possible for people to turn against one another. In the past, there was also strife and conflict, but people had not yet reached the point of contrasting good and evil. Conflict and war among the people of that time must not be measured by our present-day standards; they must be measured by the same yardstick we use today for the animal kingdom. One could not say that something was good or evil, any more than a lion or a tiger is good or evil. True evil only began when Manas united with Kama, so that human beings were directed by Kama, and this led to people consciously fighting one another.

[ 11 ] This is hinted at in the legend by the fact that, at the wedding of Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis, all the gods are present, but one goddess is missing. Eris, the goddess of discord, is absent because humanity had not yet reached the stage where Kama united with Manas and the separation arose through which people came to oppose one another. But now the goddess Eris appears; she tosses an apple among the guests, inscribed with the words “To the Fairest,” in order to stir up discord. This provides the impetus for war—which does not occur until the fifth root race and is carried out under full human responsibility. Only from this point onward can one speak of a conscious rampage of humans against one another.

[ 12 ] Everything else in the myth is a elaboration of what began here. The most beautiful of the goddesses is to receive Eris’s apple. The three goddesses—Hera, Pallas Athena, and Aphrodite—quarrel over the apple. The three goddesses represent different stages of the soul’s life on the higher, spiritual planes. But now the decision is to be made not on the spiritual plane, but on the physical plane. That is why Paris is summoned to decide from the physical plane. Herein lies the real crux of the matter—where we can tangibly grasp what really matters. What must we face when decisions are made from the physical plane?

[ 13 ] When Manas first appeared on the physical plane, it mingled with Kama. Before that, humans were indeed also Kamaic, but that did not yet carry the connotation of good and evil. Now, however, Manas unites with Kama, and thus human beings become conscious of their actions. Manas draws into that which man is by virtue of his lower nature. He had already acquired this Kamaic development on the ancient Moon. The coarsest aspect of Kama fell away from the Earth when the Moon separated and now accompanies the Earth as a satellite in the Moon. In esotericism, the Moon is the leitmotif, the symbol of the lower nature—representing what pulls us down, and where we may end up if we ourselves succumb to the lower nature.

[ 14 ] The fateful aspect of the union of Manas and Kama during the fourth sub-race must therefore lie in the fact that the human being, who has decisions to make, becomes connected with the Kamaic principle, the lunar principle, Selene. The name Helena is derived from Selene. In the union of Paris and Helen, we have symbolically expressed the marriage of Manas and Kama in the fourth subrace. The human being on the physical plane has seized the lunar principle for himself. You can find this everywhere in esotericism whenever the “Moon” is mentioned. The fact that the entire connection between the Manas principle and the Kama principle is consciously established directly on the physical plane gives rise to war. The Trojan War is both a symbol and a historical fact. It actually took place; the most important events of the Trojan War unfolded on the physical plane. But they also have symbolic significance. The legend of the Trojan War has a mystical content, but the events also took place outwardly on the physical plane.

[ 15 ] Now I ask you to consider one more thing. When the fifth root race has reached its end and the sixth root race is beginning to emerge, an influence will have developed in the realm of conscious intellect that is still very much in the background during the fifth subrace, but which is already taking shape. It is something that emanates from music. The significance of music will become increasingly evident in the fifth subrace. Music will not merely be an art form, but will become a means of expression for things quite different from the purely artistic. Here lies something that points to the influence of a very specific principle on the physical plane. In the realm of music or music-like expression, the most significant impulses will be given by the initiates of the fifth root race. What must flow into the fifth root race—specifically in the realm of conscious intellectual life—is what is called the Kundalini fire. This is a force that still lies dormant within human beings but will gain greater and greater significance. Already today, it exerts a major influence and plays a significant role in what is perceived through the sense of hearing. As development progresses in the sixth subrace of the fifth root race, this Kundalini fire will exert a major influence on what lives within the human heart. The human heart will truly contain that Kundalini fire within itself. Human beings will then be permeated by a special force that will live in their hearts, so that in the sixth root race they will no longer distinguish between their own well-being and the well-being of the whole. Human beings will be so permeated by the Kundalini light that they will have the principle of love as their very own nature.

[ 16 ] In the seventh sub-race, all of humanity will indeed be in a state of utter chaos, for the root race will then be nearing its end. But a small portion of the people of the seventh subrace will be the true sons of the Kundalini fire. They will be imbued with all the powers of the Kundalini fire; they will provide the foundation for the next root race—for those who will guide the further evolution of humanity. Thus the fifth root race is heading toward those heights where the divine fire—the Kundalini fire—will, with sacred fervor, kindle the divine principle within human beings, so that man will no longer be separated from man, but—as far as the thinking mind can reach—a brotherhood will be brought about. This fire will one day live within human beings. And in those human beings who are initiated during the course of the fifth root race, a hint of this divine fire already lives—a fire that contains the power of brotherhood and will abolish the separation among human beings. But it is only just working its way through; it is only beginning to emerge; it is still veiled, obscured by what are the dividing passions of human beings—the separating forces of Kama. And where it appears individually as a harbinger of a coming age, it takes on a different form, a completely different character. On the plane of delusion, the divine fire is divine wrath. Only when brotherhood floods all of humanity will it be divine love. But as long as it asserts itself in the individual as zeal, it is divine wrath, and it asserts itself as a powerful force in the individual precisely because the rest of humanity is not yet ripe.

[ 17 ] The initiated poet—Homer is called the “blind” poet because he sees inwardly—also expresses this in his poetry: “Sing to me, O Muse, of the wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus.” This is the divine wrath of which the poet speaks here right at the beginning of the Iliad. In the Iliad, the manifestation of the Kundalini fire on the physical plane is depicted. In the dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles, wrath flares up as divine wrath. The legend of the Trojan War illustrates how the ancient priest-kingdom is replaced by secular kingship. For Troy is a state in which the king stands under the influence of the ancient priestly rule. He is supplanted by the principle of worldly shrewdness. This is beautifully depicted: it is worldly shrewdness that prevails. Odysseus, the cunning one, triumphs. He is the initiate of the fifth subrace, who received his initiation through his wanderings. The spirituality of the ancient priests is replaced by intellectualism. This is also expressed through the image of Laocoön being entwined by snakes. The snakes, the symbol of worldly wisdom, ensnare the priest Laocoön, the representative of the ancient spirituality.

[ 18 ] If you follow all of this, you will see that even the Trojan legend records nothing other than a world-historical context. Such events were depicted in the Mysteries. In the earlier mysteries, which preceded the Eleusinian ones, this very important moment—the emergence of the fourth subrace of the fifth root race—was depicted, among other things. The Trojan War, which did indeed take place, was already depicted in the Mysteries before it occurred. To someone unfamiliar with theosophy, this seems fantastic. But it is a principle of the Mysteries to depict not only past events but also events of the future. And because they anticipate future events, they had to be kept secret. The Mysteries were not there to satisfy people’s curiosity; rather, they were intended for those who were called to play a formative role in shaping the future. There they were to draw the inspiration for their task. That is the purpose of the Mysteries.

[ 19 ] If, therefore, someone were to reveal a mystery, it would mean that he would publicly tell people what is to happen in the future. In doing so, he would inevitably cause confusion among his fellow human beings. Only a few advanced individuals receive the inspiration to do so. Their task is to gradually guide people toward where they are ultimately meant to arrive. Only a few mature individuals—who may be five hundred years ahead of their fellow human beings—are capable of bearing these secrets and acting in accordance with the mysteries. Suppose others were to hear of this; they would immediately want to bring about what humanity is not yet ready for. Every mystery will one day become public knowledge under significantly changed circumstances. Everything will be revealed at a specific time. The secret nature of these teachings lies solely in the fact that, at first, only a few individuals must prepare for the future; they must become the guides to lead the rest of humanity.

[ 20 ] There are still mysteries today that can only be revealed in the sixth root race, when entirely different conditions of brotherhood will prevail—conditions that have not yet been realized. Those who knew anything of these facts were, of course, terribly afraid that some of the mysteries might be betrayed through carelessness. In the past, betrayal of the mysteries was punishable by the most severe penalties; in ancient times, it was the death penalty. It was not the initiated priests who imposed the death penalty, but rather those on the outside who knew something of the mysteries and were not initiated. The fear of betraying the mysteries brought about the tragic end of many a great figure. Socrates, too, fell victim to such a judgment, though unjustly.