The Rudolf Steiner Archive

15. The Logos and Atoms in the Light of Occultism

[ 1 ] A fundamental feeling must permeate us if we want to have a true understanding of theosophy: namely, that in the theosophical current we receive an expanded soul, feel our hearts become more comprehensive and elevated to higher tasks, to participate in the affairs of the world, of which one has no idea if one does not know something about occultism.

[ 2 ] There is often talk of the great intention of guiding humanity through the theosophical movement to that point in the future where a new human race will emerge, where our present intellect will no longer play the leading role in the world, but where it will be fertilized by Buddhi. We must cooperate in this great world movement and therefore have a great responsibility toward the theosophical movement. The task of the theosophist extends into the distant future. We are not entering a cloud cuckoo land, but what we learn about such a distant future awakens forces within us, creates something within us that we can also use in everyday life. Someone who spends even ten minutes a day thinking about these great world perspectives acts differently from someone who is absorbed in everyday life. They can bring something new, productive, and original into the present. All development is based on bringing something original into humanity.

[ 3 ] Let us start from something that is connected with the work of the devas. Devas are beings who stand on a higher level than human beings and are able to work on higher planes of existence. We find the devas when we enter the higher planes as seers. We find devas on the astral plane, on the rupaplan, on the arupaplan, and further up. What does the work of the devas mean for the world in which we ourselves live? In answering this question, we start from the question: What is the purpose of our human existence, of these continuous reincarnations? Human beings would come into the world in vain and without purpose if they could not learn a special lesson or fulfill a special task each time they arrived. Each time, the earth must have changed to such an extent that human beings encounter a situation that they have not yet encountered in their previous incarnation.

[ 4 ] Occult science calculates that an incarnation consists of a male and a female. Between 2,600 and 3,000 years lie two such related incarnations. The experiences that humans have in the world at the present stage of evolution are so different for men and women that it is very necessary to have them.

[ 5 ] The changes that take place between two incarnations of a human being in the world are actually quite incomprehensible to someone outside the theosophical world. In fact, however, people find themselves in completely different circumstances, not only morally but also physically. For those who look back occultly, physical conditions have also changed significantly over the last three thousand years. In the time of the ancient Greeks, the Greeks of Homer, 800 BC, we would encounter previous incarnations of ourselves on average. At that time, geographical and climatic conditions were completely different, with a significantly different flora and fauna. Essential changes are constantly taking place in these realms. An external expression of these changes is the progression of the sun across the sky. We have twelve constellations, and with the beginning of spring, the sun always moves from one to the next. Eight thousand years ago, the sun rose for the first time in the constellation of Cancer. The time during which the sun passes through a constellation, this time that flows by, lasts about 2,600 years. This is also the time between two incarnations of human beings. Around the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, the sun moved from the constellation of Aries to the constellation of Pisces, so that it now rises in the constellation of Pisces in the spring.^{1See under Notes.}

[ 6 ] People who still had a sense of the occult knew something about the connection between human life and these changes in the firmament. In the past, before the sun entered the sign of Aries, the cult of Taurus (Mithras, Apis) prevailed in Asia. This was followed by the worship of Aries, which began with the legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece. Christ is called the “Lamb of God.” Even further back, we find the Persian symbol of the twins. This is connected with the [Persian] culture of that time [and its view] of good and evil.

[ 7 ] When the sun shines on the earth under different conditions, different conditions always prevail. Therefore, the rising of the sun in a new constellation always brings about a new incarnation. Above in the sky, the sun progresses; below on earth, there is a change in climatic conditions, vegetation, and so on.

[ 8 ] Who causes this? The theosophist must ask, for there are no miracles for the theosophist. There are facts on higher planes, but no miracles. When considering the question of man's connection with the phenomena on earth, one must take a higher standpoint.

[ 9 ] After death, man is in Kamaloka. We do not ask: Do animals and plants have consciousness? Instead, we ask: Where do they have their consciousness? We know that animals have their consciousness in Kamaloka, on the astral plane, plants on the rupaplan, and minerals on the arupaplan. Man has his consciousness on the physical plane. Let us assume that a human being now comes to Kamaloka. Then he is in the same place where animals have their consciousness. Then he ascends to Devachan, where plants have their consciousness. At the present stage of evolution, human beings are not capable of exerting any influence on the animal or plant kingdoms. However, they do have this influence in the lower parts of the Devachan plane. All those who have a Devachan consciousness are there. These are forces, beings that create out of Devachan and cause the plant world to grow and flourish. The entire life of plants is directed from the Devachan plane. From there, humans participate in the creation and transformation of plants. Forces arise within them there, enabling them to actually influence vegetation. But the devas are there to govern this activity. Humans are guided by them so that they can participate in the transformation of the plant world. The forces that humans have gathered in an incarnation are used in the Devachan to transform the plant world. As the forces of existence change during the Devachan period, so does the vegetation on Earth. From the Devachan, humans actually change the environment that grows around them.

[ 10 ] Those who remain in the Devachan for a long time also work on changing the physical forces. If we go back a million years in Germany, we still find volcanic mountains; the Alps as low rolling hills. The later change was brought about by humans from the Arupa plane so that they would later find a physical configuration in Europe that suited them. The work of humans in the universe is, when seen from within, what we see in the environment from without.

[ 11 ] Now we come to how, in a different form, transformative work is carried out in the world on even higher planes.

[ 12 ] We often read about the descent of the Logos and wonder how this can be imagined, how we can arrive at a conception of the Logos that is more than just a word. Let us now consider the connection between the Logos and the smallest things. I will give you a description—not speculation—of the results of ancient occult research as it has been handed down, particularly as it was developed in the occult schools of Germany, especially from the 14th century onwards.

[ 13 ] When we think about the atom, we realize that it is a very small thing. It is clear to everyone that the tiny thing called an atom has never been seen by any microscope, even the most perfect. However, occult books provide descriptions of atoms, images of atoms. Where do these images come from? How can an occultist know anything about atoms?

[ 14 ] Well, imagine if it were possible to make an atom grow so that it became larger and larger until it was as big as the earth. Then you would find a very complicated world. Within this tiny thing, you would perceive many movements and various phenomena. Keep in mind this comparison that the atom would be enlarged to the size of the earth. If it were really possible to make the atom grow like this, we could observe all the individual processes within it. Only the occultist is able to make the atom grow like this and look inside it.

[ 15 ] Secondly, if we consider all human activity on Earth, starting from the lowest levels of human development, with its instincts and passions, rising to moral ideals, religious communities, and so on, we see that human beings spin threads between themselves, which intertwine from person to person and give rise to ever higher communities: the family, the tribe, and further ethnic and state communities, and finally religious communities. In these, the effect of higher individualities is already expressed. Such communities have arisen from the source and spring of the unified world wisdom through a religious founder. All religions agree [in the deeper sense] because they have founders who belong to the great lodge.

[ 16 ] There is a special white lodge, which has twelve members, seven of whom are particularly active, and from these religious communities are founded. Such were Buddha, Hermes, Pythagoras, and so on. The great plan of the entire development of humanity is actually being spiritually developed in the white lodge, which is as old as humanity itself. We are confronted there with an even plan for the guidance of the entire progress of humanity. All other communities are only offshoots; even family communities and so on are all linked to the great plan that leads us up to the lodge of the masters. There, the plan according to which the whole of humanity develops is spun and woven.

[ 17 ] Let us follow everything that happens next. First we must become acquainted with a special plan, namely the plan for our Earth. Let us consider the fourth earth cycle in which we find ourselves. It is destined to transform the mineral kingdom more and more into a human realm. Consider how the human mind has already transformed the mineral world, up to the transformation we see in Cologne Cathedral, up to the technical machine. Our humanity has the task of transforming the entire mineral world into a pure work of art. Electricity already points us to the occult depths of matter.

[ 18 ] When human beings have rebuilt the mineral world from within themselves, then the end of our Earth will have come; then the Earth will have reached the end of its physical development. The special plan according to which the mineral kingdom will be transformed lives in the lodge of the masters. Today this plan is already complete, so that if one understands it, one can see what marvelous buildings, marvelous machines, and so on will still arise from this mineral world. When the Earth reaches the end of its physical globe, the whole Earth will have an inner structure, an inner framework that human beings themselves will have given it, so that it will have become a work of art according to the plan of the Masters of the White Lodge. When this has happened, the Earth will pass into its astral state. This is similar to when a plant begins to wither. The physical passes away; everything enters the astral. Upon entering the astral world, the physical increasingly contracts, becoming an ever smaller core surrounded by the astral, which passes into the rupa state and then into the arupa state, and then disappears into a sleep-like state.

[ 19 ] What then remains of the physical? When the earth has passed into the arupa state, there remains within it, compressed together, a small imprint of the entire physical development of what was built up under the plan of the Masters, a kind of miniature version of what the mineral earth once was. This is what passes over [from the physical]. The physical is present only as this tiny miniature version of earlier developments, but the Arupa is large. When this passes over from the Devachanic state, it multiplies outward into countless identical things. And when the earth passes back into the physical state, it consists of countless such tiny globules, which are an imprint of what the earth used to be. But all are different kinds of globules, yet they all lead back to the same thing. Thus, the new physical earth of the fifth round will consist of such countless small parts, which contain everything that the Masters have as the goal of the mineral world, as the plan in their lodge. Every atom of the fifth round contains the entire plan of the Masters. Today, the Masters are working out the atom of the fifth round on a large scale. Everything that happens in humanity is compressed into one result: that is the atom of the fifth round.

[ 20 ] Therefore, when we look at the atom that exists today and go back in the Akashic Records, we see that today's atom is undergoing a process of growth. It grows more and more; it breaks apart more and more ... [gap in the text] ... and it contains the forces of humanity that were in turmoil in the third round. From this we can see the plan of the Masters of the third earth round. What is first completely outside becomes completely inside, and in the smallest atom we see a reflection of the plan of the Masters. These small special plans are nothing other than a piece of the whole plan for humanity. If we consider that the plan of one cycle is the atom of the next cycle, then we see the structure of the great world plan. In this way, the great world plan ascends to ever higher levels, to beings who have ever higher plans for the construction of the world. When we consider this plan, we have the third Logos. Thus, the Logos continually slips into the atom. First it is outside and becomes the plan for the atom, and then the atom becomes a reflection of this plan. The occultist simply draws the plan from the Akashic Chronicle of the previous rounds and thus investigates the atom.

[ 21 ] Where do higher beings get this plan? We get an answer to this when we consider that there are even higher stages of development where the plans are drawn up. There, the development of the world is pre-drawn. Reference is made to the highest stages among the ancients, for example, Dionysius, the disciple of the Apostle Paul, and also Nicolaus Cusanus. He recognized that higher than all knowledge and recognition is non-recognition. But this non-knowledge is super-knowledge, and this non-recognition is super-recognition.

[ 22 ] When we no longer look at what we receive from the world as thoughts and concepts, but turn to what springs up, to the power within, then we find something even higher. The masters can spin the [third] Logos because they have risen higher than the nature of thinking. When the higher powers are developed, then what is thought appears to such beings as something else. It is then like the spoken word for us. The thought, which for the master constitutes the innermost essence, can itself be the expression of a higher being, just as the word is the expression of the thought. When we ourselves regard the thought as the word of an even higher being, we approach the concept of the Logos. The knowledge extracted from the thought stands on an even higher plane.

[ 23 ] At one end of the world is the atom. It is a reflection of the plan that emerged from the depths of the spirit of the masters, which is the Logos.

[ 24 ] If we now seek the transformation of humanity itself in the great world period, we are led back into the world.

[ 25 ] Just as the human being descended, plunged down to the physical plane, so it is with the whole world. What drives the human self forward lies around the human being in the world.

[ 26 ] But then we are led down into the lower planes, which themselves contain the higher planes ... the lodge of the masters.

[ 27 ] The spirit of the earth lives today with the Masters, and this spirit of the earth will be the physical garment of the next planet. The smallest thing we do will have its effect in the smallest atom of the next planet. This feeling gives us a full connection with the Lodge of the Masters. This should be the center of the Theosophical Society, because we know what the knowledgeable know.

[ 28 ] When Goethe speaks of the Earth Spirit, he speaks the truth. The Earth Spirit weaves the garment of the next planet. “In floods of life, in storms of action,” the spirit [of the Earth] weaves the garment of the next planetary deity.

Addendum:

Two years later, again at the time of the General Assembly, Rudolf Steiner spoke once more about the atom in the sense of how one planet influences another spiritually, how “from the moon to the earth and again from the earth to its successor, Jupiter.”

The relevant excerpt reads:

[ 29 ] You all know that the Earth is guided in a certain relationship by the so-called white lodge, in which highly developed human individualities and individualities of an even higher order are united. What do they do there? They work; they guide the development of the Earth; while guiding the development of the Earth, they work out a very specific plan. It is indeed the case that during the development of every planet, a specific plan is formulated by the guiding powers. While the Earth is developing, the plan for the most minute details of how Jupiter, which will replace the Earth, must develop is drawn up in the so-called White Lodge of the Earth. The entire plan is developed in every detail. And it is the blessing and salvation of further development that everything is done in accordance with this plan.

[ 30 ] When a planetary development comes to an end, when our Earth reaches the end of its planetary development, then the Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings will also have completed the plan they have to work out for Jupiter. And now, at the end of such a planetary development, something highly peculiar happens.

[ 31 ] This plan is simultaneously reduced to infinity and multiplied infinitely through a process. So that there are infinitely many copies of the entire Jupiter plan, but entirely “in miniature.” It was the same on the moon: the plan for the development of the Earth was there, infinitely multiplied and reduced. And do you know what this reduced plan is, what has been worked out in the spiritual realm? These are the real atoms that form the basis of the Earth. And the atoms that will form the basis of Jupiter will in turn be the plan reduced to the smallest possible form, which is now being worked out in the leading white lodge. Only those who know this plan can also know what an atom is.

[ 32 ] If you want to gradually recognize this atom that forms the basis of the earth, you will encounter the wisdom that emanates from the great magicians of the world.

[ 33 ] Now, of course, we can only speak of these things in hints, but we can at least give something that gives us an idea of what we are talking about here.

[ 34 ] The earth is, in a certain sense, composed of these atoms. Every being, all of you yourselves, are composed of these atoms. And you are in harmony with the whole development of the earth because you carry within you, in infinite numbers, the miniature earth plan that was worked out earlier. This earth plan could only be worked out on the previous planetary state of our earth, the moon, through the activity of leading beings in harmony with the entire planetary evolution through Saturn, Sun, and Moon. Now, however, it was a matter of imparting to the infinitely many atoms that which brings them into the right relationships, arranges them in the right way. The leading spirits of the moon could only do this if they steered Earth's development along a very specific path, as I have often said before.

[ 35 ] When the Earth reappeared after the Moon's development, it was not yet really “Earth,” but Earth plus Sun plus Moon; a body that you would obtain if you mixed the Earth with the Sun and Moon and made a single body out of them. That was the Earth at first. Then the Sun separated first, and with it all those forces that were too thin and spiritual for human beings and under whose influence they would have become spiritualized much too quickly. If human beings had remained under the influence of the forces contained in this sun-moon-earth body, they would not have degenerated into physical materiality and would not have been able to attain the self-consciousness, the ego consciousness, that they needed to attain.