The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture XVIII

[ 1 ] If we want to take a closer look at how karma comes about, we must go back a bit in the history of human development. If we go back a few thousand years in Europe itself, we find Europe covered in ice. At that time, the glaciers of the Alps extended far down into the North German Plain. The regions where we now live were cold and harsh back then. A human race lived there that still used extremely simple and primitive tools. If we go back about a million years, we find a tropical climate on the same land—one that today is found only in the hottest regions of Africa; in some parts, vast primeval forests where parrots, monkeys—especially gibbons—and elephants lived. But if we were to roam through these forests, we would hardly encounter any traces of modern humans, nor of those from later periods dating back a few thousand years. Natural science can identify, from certain geological strata formed between those two eras, a human being whose forebrain had not yet developed as it has today, and whose forehead was set far back. Only the rear part of the brain was developed. This takes us back to times when humans had not yet discovered fire and made weapons by grinding stones. Natural scientists often compare this state of human development to that of primitive peoples or an awkward child. Remains of such humans have been found in the Neander Valley and in Croatia. They have ape-like skulls, and the finds in Croatia indicate that they were roasted before they died—suggesting that cannibals lived there at that time.

[ 2 ] Now the materialist thinker says to himself: We trace human beings back to the times when they were still undeveloped and clumsy, and assume that humans have evolved from this childlike stage of existence to the current cultural stage of humanity, and that these primitive humans evolved from human-like animals. - Thus, in this theory of evolution, he simply makes a leap from primitive humans to human-like animals. The naturalist assumes that the more perfect has always developed from the less perfect. But this is not always the case. If, for example, we trace an individual human back to childhood, we find nothing more imperfect, for the child is, after all, descended from a father and mother. This means we arrive at a primitive state that itself originated from a higher state. This is important because it relates to the fact that the child already possesses, at birth, the potential for a future degree of perfection, whereas the animal remains at a lower level.

[ 3 ] If the naturalist has gone back to the stage at which humans had neither a forebrain nor reason, then he should say to himself: I must assume that the origin of humankind is to be found elsewhere.

[ 4 ] Just as a child is descended from a pair of parents, so all those primitive humans are descended from other humans who had already attained a certain degree of perfection. We call these humans the Atlanteans. They lived on land that is now covered by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlanteans had an even smaller forebrain and a forehead set even further back. But they had something else that later humans did not have. They still possessed a much stronger, more robust etheric body. The etheric body of the Atlanteans had not yet formed certain connections with the brain; these developed only later. Thus, a massive etheric head had developed above the physical head; the physical head was relatively small and embedded within this massive etheric head. The functions that humans now perform with the help of the forebrain were carried out by the Atlanteans with the aid of organs in the etheric body. This enabled them to communicate with beings to whom we have no access today, precisely because human beings have developed the forebrain. In the Atlanteans, a kind of fiery, colored formation was visible, streaming out from the opening of the physical head toward the etheric head. It was receptive to a multitude of psychic influences. Such a head, which thinks as an etheric head, has power over the etheric, whereas a head that thinks in the physical brain has power only over the physical—over the assembly of purely mechanical things. It can make physical tools. In contrast, a person who still thinks in the etheric realm can cause a seed to blossom, so that it truly grows.

[ 5 ] The Atlantean culture was indeed still connected to the growth of the natural, vegetative world, over which modern humans have lost control. The Atlanteans, for example, did not use steam power to propel their vehicles, but rather the seed power of plants, with which they propelled their vehicles forward. It was not until the last third of the Atlantean era—from the time of the Proto-Semites until the time when Atlantis was submerged by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean—that the etheric frontal head developed into the forebrain. As a result, human beings lost the power to influence plant growth and gained the capacity of the physical brain: the intellect. He now had to start anew in many areas. He had to begin learning mechanical tasks. In this regard, he was still like a child—clumsy and awkward—whereas he had previously attained great dexterity in the cultivation of plants. Human beings must pass through the stage of intelligence and then regain what they were once able to do. Higher spiritual powers exerted an influence on the unfree will at that time; through the etheric head, which was left open, they worked through their intellect.

[ 6 ] Going even further back, we arrive at the Lemurian era. Here we see a stage in human development at which the union of the maternal and paternal principles actually takes place for the first time. This etheric head naturally has its extensions into the astral body—that which surrounds the human being as an aura... (Gap in the text.) If one had managed to extract the head along with the astral body from such a human being, something extraordinary would have happened. The human being would thereby have lost the ability to stand upright; he would have collapsed. It was precisely the opposite process that was carried out on the human being at that time, and through this he gradually straightened up.

[ 7 ] During the Lemurian epoch, however, human beings were still at a stage where they did not yet possess what we assumed could be drawn out of them. In an earlier period, they did not yet have this etheric head with the astral body. Those were not yet present at that time. The human being wandering the Earth was truly a folded-up being back then. The two working organs, the hands, were turned backward and also served as locomotive organs, so that humans walked on all fours at that time. Imagine two people of today, a man and a woman entwined; imagine the upper half of the body gone and only the lower half remaining: human beings were, in fact, both male and female. Human beings at that time also had an astral and an etheric body, but not yet the ones they would later possess. It was a different astral body—one that had reached its highest perfection on the Moon. There on the Moon, in conjunction with the etheric body, the astral body had acquired the ability to form a physical body that at that time had a crab-like shape. Humans could stand on a single pair of legs and perform truly leaping movements.

[ 8 ] At that time, this astral body, together with the etheric body, was of a completely different nature. It had a shape that was not quite egg-shaped, but rather bell-shaped. It arched over the human being, who walked on all fours. The etheric body sustained all the vital functions of this Lemurian human being. At that time, the human being had a dull, twilight-like consciousness in the astral body, as if we were dreaming today. But his consciousness was not like the reminiscences in our dreams today; rather, he dreamed of realities. When another, unsympathetic person approached him, a sensation of light arose within him, signaling the unsympathetic nature of that person.

[ 9 ] Even on the Moon, humans had already developed some ability to use their two front limbs as grasping organs, so that a period of upright walking now began. The other living companions of humans during the Lemurian era were reptilian animals of grotesque forms that left no traces behind. Ichthyosaurs and the like are descendants of those animals. In fact, the Earth was populated at that time by beings of a reptilian nature; even human bodies had a reptilian character back then. As the then-reptilian human being began to stand upright, a skull structure that was completely open at the front became visible, from which a fiery cloud welled up. This gave rise to the tale of the lindworm, of the dragon. This is the grotesque form that human beings themselves were back then—a reptilian-like entity. The guardian of the threshold, the lower nature of the human being, usually appears in such a form as well. It is the lower nature with the open head. At that time, the union took place between these forms on Earth and the other being described earlier. The astral body with the head-like form united with the lindworm-like body with the fiery opening. It was the fertilization of the motherly Earth by the fatherly Spirit.

[ 10 ] This is how the fertilization with the Manasic forces took place. The lower astral body merged with the higher astral body. A large portion of that astral body from that time broke off. One part formed the lower regions of the human astral body, and the other, newly added astral body connected to the head, joined the upper regions of the human being. What was shed at that time—what emerged from this astral body, which was connected to the lindworm-like formation—could no longer undergo further development on Earth. This formed, as a conglomerate, the astral sphere of the Moon, the so-called eighth sphere. The Moon does indeed harbor astral beings that arose as a result of humanity having cast something off.

[ 11 ] This union of the paternal spirit with the maternal matter was described in Egypt as the union of Osiris and Isis. What emerged from this was Horus. The fusion of the worm-like form with the etheric head—the astral body of the newly arrived human—and the head shape led to the conception of the sphinx figure. The sphinx is the sculptural representation of this idea.

[ 12 ] There were seven types or classes of such forms, all of which differed somewhat from one another, ranging from the most beautiful human forms—almost developed into a lofty, noble form—down to the most grotesque forms. All seven of these types of human forms had to be fertilized. One must imagine the descent of the “Sons of Manas” in this figurative way. Only then can one understand how the human astral body came into being. It is composed of two distinct parts.

[ 13 ] If one considers human evolution, one will find that one part of the astral body is constantly striving to overcome the other half—the lower nature—and vice versa. If a person today consists of an astral body, an etheric body, and a physical body, then only the physical body is actually a product that is complete as it is. The other two bodies are engaged in a constant struggle. Even within the etheric body, there are two parts that seek to merge into one another.

[ 14 ] When a person dies, they surrender their entire physical body to the forces of the earth, but the person’s etheric body first divides into two parts. One part is that which originates from the higher formation, and the person takes this with them. In contrast, the entire remaining etheric body falls away, for the human being cannot exercise any control over it; it has been bestowed upon them from without. They can exercise control over it only once they have become a secret student. This part of the etheric body is thus, in the case of the ordinary human being, surrendered to the etheric forces of the universe.

[ 15 ] Whatever remains of the astral body that a person received from the Moon compels him to spend some time in Kamaloka until he has freed himself from that part of the astral body for that particular life. Then there remains the part of the astral body that has already found balance; with this part, the soul makes its way through Devachan and back to physical life. That is why one sees bell-like forms racing through astral space at tremendous speed. These are the human souls seeking to reincarnate. If here among us such a human “bell” flashes through the astral space and a human embryo in South America is karmically related to it, then this human “bell” must already be there. Thus do these returning souls race through the astral realm. These bell-like forms are reminiscent of those that appeared during the Lemurian era, except that they have already found their balance with the higher astral body.

[ 16 ] We know that human beings develop by working on the other three bodies from the perspective of the “I.” The “I” is nothing other than what had a fertilizing effect back then: the upper part of the aura with the etheric head. The members that the human being has developed are the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body.

Upper Etheric Body or Mental Body
Astral Body as Buddhi
Astral Body
Lower Etheric Body
Physical Body.

[ 17 ] The physical body arose through a transformation and refinement of that lizard-like body we encounter in the Lemurian era. It was both male and female. Within the present-day human being there is also a male-female human. In men, the foundation of the upper limbs is female; in women, the foundation of the upper etheric body is of male formation. In fact, the human being is also male-female in physical nature.

[ 18 ] The etheric body consists of two parts: the part of human nature that came from the Moon at that time, and its opposite pole. At first, they were not yet connected; later, they drew closer to one another and united. One is the pole of the animal nature, the other the pole of the spiritual nature. The animal pole is called the etheric body; the spiritual pole is called the mental body. The mental body is, in a material sense, ether.

[ 19 ] In between is the astral body, which also arose from a union of two. It, too, is essentially a dual structure. Within it, one must distinguish between a lower and a higher nature. The higher nature is originally connected to the mental body. Now, that part of the astral body which resides in the mental body—that which has entered from above—is the other pole of the lower astral body. A characteristic of the lower astral body is that it has desires. The upper part, on the other hand, possesses devotion, love, and the virtue of giving. This part of the astral body is called Buddhi. This description of the human being is viewed from a cosmic perspective. When the human being himself works into his sheaths, the situation is different. One describes how the human being is structurally organized cosmically; the other describes how he himself works into them.

[ 20 ] Thus, Buddhi is the refined astral, the mental is the refined etheric, and the physical has its antipole in the Atma.