The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture XXIII

[ 1 ] Let us recall the moment when human beings, in the midst of the Lemurian race, rose to spirituality. Only then was it possible for them to be imbued with the Spirit, with the Monad. Gradually, through separation from humankind, other beings had emerged from the chaotic Earth to dwell on Earth as companions to humankind. Humankind had developed a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. The astral body had been purified and was, at that time, just ready to receive Manas, Buddhi, and Atma.

[ 2 ] Everything on Earth came into being very gradually, so that humanity—which as yet had no intellect and no ability to speak—emerged from the formless mass of earth. We now ask: How did this happen? — A plant does not grow out of nothing either. A seed must have been planted in the earth. The same was true of the human beings who were there at that time. Human beings, too, had sprouted from the earth, and for that to happen, there had to be a seed on the earth as well. A similar being had existed before. This “seed-human” had come into being on the ancient Moon. There, it entered the seed state, passed through a Pralaya, and then reappeared on Earth.

[ 3 ] The Earth's stage of development had three preliminary stages: (Saturn, Sun, and Moon). During the first three Earth cycles, these three preliminary stages were briefly repeated. In the first Earth epoch, the Saturn existence was repeated; in the second epoch, the Sun existence; and in the third epoch, the Moon existence. It was not until the fourth cycle that the actual Earth existence emerged, and by then humanity had reached a somewhat higher stage than it had on the Moon. On the Moon, human development was not yet complete—not yet pure enough to receive the monad. On the Moon, the astral body was still wild and passionate. On Earth, it first had to purify itself in order to be able to receive the higher principles. This purification was completed in the middle of the Lemurian period.

[ 4 ] The last human beings during the Lunar existence are our physical ancestors. They initially evolved somewhat further on Earth. The Earth humans of the pre-Lemurian era are the true descendants of the Moon dwellers. That is why we also call the Moon dwellers the fathers or Pitris of Earth humans. At first, these Earth humans could not use their front limbs for work. They were animal-like beings of a certain great beauty. They were composed of much softer material than physical matter is today; their matter was even much softer than that which we now find in lower animals. It was translucent, and the inner fire shone through it. During the time when humans had undergone an earlier stage of development, they were even more beautiful and had an even more noble form.

[ 5 ] In the era that preceded the Lemurian era, we have the Hyperborean era on Earth, the era of the Sun-people, the Apollo-people. They were composed of an even nobler and more ethereal substance. Then we go back even further, to the very first race, the Polar people. They lived at that time in the tropical polar climate—a race that was able to attain a special level of development because it received remarkable and substantial assistance. The most beautiful forms of the Moon Pitris descended to Earth. The Polar humans were very similar to four-legged animals, but they were formed from a soft, supple substance, similar to a jellyfish, yet much warmer. The human beings with the finest forms and the noblest qualities received special assistance at that time, namely because beings who had previously attained a higher level were still connected to the Earth.

[ 6 ] In all esoteric teachings, the Sun is initially recognized as a planet; it only later became a fixed star. The sequence of stages that the Earth has gone through is: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth. When the Sun itself was a planet, everything that is now on the Moon and on Earth was still within the Sun. Later, the Sun and the Moon separated from the Earth.

[ 7 ] Let us now imagine ourselves back to the time of the ancient Sun. At that time, everything that now lives on Earth dwelled on the Sun. These beings were shaped quite differently back then. At that time, human beings had only the physical body—which was far less dense than it is now—and the etheric body. The entire way of life of human beings at that time was plant-like. These beings lived in the light of the Sun. At that time, this light came to them from the center of their own planet. They were quite different from humans today. Compared to modern humans, the “Sun-human” stood on his head, and the light shone down on his head. Everything related to reproduction developed freely in the opposite direction. Back then, humans, so to speak, stretched their legs into the air. The plant has remained at this stage; it is still rooted in the ground today and stretches its reproductive organs—stamens and pistils—into the air: (plant). This Sun-Man developed through seven distinct stages. He stands on the planet just as today’s plant is rooted in the earth. Then, during the Earth’s third incarnation, he became the Moon Man. There he bent forward: the vertical became horizontal (Animal). The potential for a spine arose within him. The symbol for this is the Tau = T. On Earth, he turned completely around. The symbol for this is the cross. The cross symbolizes the development from the Sun, through the Moon, toward the Earth. On Earth, it has reached the cross in its uppermost beam. It continues onward, carrying the cross on its back.

[ 8 ] The Sun People had also attained a certain high level of development. There were also adepts of the Sun who had progressed further than the rest of the Sun People. They crossed over to the Moon. There, too, they had the opportunity to rise above the Moon People, and they developed to a very special level there. They were the ancestors of the Earth humans, but had far outpaced the others. When, during the second epoch of the fourth globe, the Hyperboreans were living in their soft forms, these Sons of the Sun were able to incarnate and formed a particularly beautiful race. They were the Solarpitris. They had already developed an upright form during the Hyperborean era. They completely transformed the Hyperborean body; the other humans at that time would not have been capable of doing so. During the Hyperborean era, the Solarpitris became the beautiful Apollo-people, who were already upright in the second race.

[ 9 ] The Sun contained everything that was later cast out to become the Moon and the Earth. All life and all warmth radiated from the center of the Sun. Then, in the next Manvantara (the ancient Moon), the following takes place: The Sun emerges from the darkness of Pralaya. A portion of the Sun’s matter seeks to break away. Initially, a sort of sponge-like formation arises.

[ 10 ] Then one part breaks away completely, and the two bodies travel side by side as the Sun and the Moon. The Sun retained the ability to shine and give off heat. The Moon retained the power of creation. It could bring forth once again the beings that had been on the Sun; but they had to be illuminated and warmed by the Sun. On the unlit side of the Moon, the turning of the beings toward the Sun had to take place. All plants therefore turned around on the Moon. The animals turned halfway, and even human beings did so only halfway. But on the Moon they received the astral body, the kama, as a substitute, and thereby develop warmth from within. The kama was at that time still a significantly warming force. That is why they did not turn completely toward the Sun even then. There was also life in the darkness. The Moon also orbited the Sun back then, but not like our Earth does now. The Moon revolved around the Sun in such a way that it always presented only one side to it. A lunar day thus lasted as long as half a year does today. This resulted in immense heat on one side and immense cold on the other.

[ 11 ] On the ancient Moon, the predecessors of humankind once again underwent a certain normal evolution. But there are also lunar adepts who are ahead of the rest of humanity. These Pitric beings at the end of the Moon’s evolution are much more advanced than the rest, much as the adepts today are ahead of the rest of humanity.

[ 12 ] Now we come to the actual evolution of the Earth. In the next Pralaya, following the evolution of the Moon, the Moon fell back into the Sun. Together they went through the Pralaya. When the Earth then emerged from the darkness, the entire solar mass was one with it. This marks the beginning of the first, or polar, race. Under the conditions prevailing at that time, the former solar beings were able to form this privileged race of the Sons of the Sun, because the Sun was still connected to the Earth.

[ 13 ] During the Hyperborean era, the whole splits apart once more. One part breaks away again, and the Earth emerges from the Sun. At this point, the Kant-Laplace theory begins to apply. The state at that time was the Kant-Laplace primordial nebula. From the outside, it looked like the rings around Saturn. Now the second, or Hyperborean, race began to emerge. Gradually, the seeds of the moon people—the Pitris, in various stages of development—began to emerge on Earth. At that time, they all still had the ability to reproduce from within themselves through self-fertilization.

[ 14 ] Then a second separation took place. With the Moon, everything on Earth that constitutes the power of self-generation disappears, so that we now have three bodies: the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon. This marks the end of the possibility of self-fertilization; the Moon has drawn out what made self-fertilization possible. Now the Moon stands apart, and we have beings who are no longer capable of reproducing on their own; and now, during the Lemurian epoch, two sexes emerge.

[ 15 ] Such developments take place only under the guidance of higher beings, the Devas. The purpose of this is to ensure that development proceeds in a certain way. The leader of the entire movement is the same deity whom the Hebrew tradition calls Yahweh, Jehovah. He was a lunar deity. In the highest sense, he possessed the power that had developed on the Moon, and he strove to further develop humanity in this sense. Within the earthly world, Yahweh represents the deity who grants beings the ability to reproduce physically. Everything else (intellect) was not part of Yahweh’s intention. However, if Yahweh’s intention had developed on its own, humanity would eventually have ceased to reproduce, because the power of procreation would have been exhausted. Humanity would then have concerned itself solely with creating beautiful forms, for the inner, intellectual aspect was of no concern to it. Jehovah wanted to create beautifully formed human beings—a kind of beautiful statue. According to his intention, the power of procreation was to continue until it ceased. He wanted a planet that bore only beautiful but completely rigid forms. If the Earth, with the Moon within it, had continued to evolve, it would have developed into a rigid, icy form. Jehovah would have immortalized his planet as a monument to the intention of its evolution. This would undoubtedly have come to pass had it not been for those adepts who had surged ahead of the Moon’s development and now stepped forward. They emerged at that very moment. These beings had already developed on the Moon what we have only recently developed on Earth: intellect and spirit. They now took the rest of humanity under their wing and rescued them from the fate to which they would otherwise have fallen. A new spark was kindled in the human astral body. They gave the astral body of that time the impetus to develop beyond the critical point. Yahweh could then save himself in no other way than by changing his mode of action. He created man alongside woman. What could not be preserved in a single sex was distributed among two sexes.

[ 16 ] There were now two currents at work: that of Yahweh and that of the Moon Adepts. The Moon Adepts were interested in spiritualizing humanity. But Yahweh wanted to turn them into beautiful statues. These two forces were in conflict with one another at that time.

[ 17 ] We are thus dealing with a force on Earth that possesses the power of self-generation: Kriyashakti. Today, this force exists on Earth only within the very highest mysteries. Back then, everyone possessed it within themselves. Through this power, human beings were able to reproduce; it was then split into two halves. This gave rise to the two sexes on Earth.

[ 18 ] Jehovah drew the entire power of self-generation out of the Earth and placed it in the Moon, next to the Earth. This explains the connection between the power of reproduction and the lunar beings. Now we have human beings with weakened reproductive power, but not yet with the ability to spiritualize themselves. These were the predecessors of present-day humanity. The lunar adepts then came to them. They said to them: “You need not follow Jehovah; he will not lead you to knowledge; but you shall attain knowledge.”—This is the serpent. The serpent stands opposite the woman, for the woman had the power to procreate of her own accord. Now Jehovah says: “Man has become like one of us”—and thus brings death into the world and all that is connected with it.

[ 19 ] The lunar adepts are called “Lucifer”; they are the givers of what constitutes human intellectuality. They bestowed this upon the astral and physical bodies; otherwise, the monad could not have entered them, and the Earth would then have become a planetary monument to Jehovah’s greatness. Through the intervention of the Luciferic principle, human independence—spirituality—was saved. To prevent humanity from becoming entirely spiritual, Jehovah then halved the power of self-generation. However, what would also have been lost had Jehovah acted alone is now reemerging in the sixth root race; there, humanity will be so spiritualized that it will regain Kriyashakti, the creative power of reproduction. It will be able to bring forth its own kind once more. Thus, humanity was saved from the brink of disaster.

[ 20 ] Through Jehovah’s power, human beings thus carry within themselves the potential to become rigid. If one observes the three lower bodies, they contain within themselves the seed to return to the physical state of the Earth. The higher parts—Atma, Buddhi, and Manas—were only able to enter human beings through the arrival of the serpent. Through this, human beings received new life and the power to remain on the earthly planet. But the reproductive power became bisexual, and through this, birth and death entered the world; before that, there was no birth and no death.

[ 21 ] When a human being works through the physical body from the spirit, he overcomes death. Individual forces are exhausted when they take on specific forms. The force enters the form, becoming ever denser, and for this reason, life in the Lemurian race had to take a new direction, which was brought about by a reversal of the Earth’s axis. The Earth’s axis was gradually reversed. Previously, the North Pole had a tropical climate; later, due to the reversal of the Earth’s axis, the tropical climate shifted to the center. This reversal took place with relative speed, though it still lasted perhaps four million years. The Lemurian era was twenty-two million years ago. It took the Moon Pitris four million years to reverse the axis. The intelligence of the Moon Pitris was already much more highly developed at that time than that of modern humans.

[ 22 ] Thus, the two-sexed human being developed from the single-sexed human being at that time. In the early days, among the single-sex human beings there were individuals who were very underdeveloped, but also some who were very advanced. Only a small portion served as a suitable dwelling place for the descending monads. It was then that human beings divided into two sexes. Animals had already transitioned to a two-sex system earlier. Alongside human beings, male and female animals lived on Earth at that time. They were very grotesque creatures that were able to live on an Earth that was of a completely different nature at that time. They also had the ability to fly. They carried within themselves the precursors of what humans possess today. The esoteric religions refer to—and certain animal symbols allude to—the humans who were capable of reproducing on their own as “bulls.” The bull is a symbol of fertility; before it came the lion, the symbol of courage, and before that, the eagle. In Ezekiel’s vision, with regard to earlier times, the animals have wings because they could rise slightly above the earth. Only later did human beings emerge.

[ 23 ] So we have humans, as they evolve from unisexuality to bisexuality, and alongside them, animals that are already bisexual—male and female. It was only through the Lunarpitris that humans became mature enough to have a body capable of receiving the monad. However, only the most highly developed individuals receive these and develop a noble human form; they must, however, completely refrain from associating with everything else, otherwise they would lose their noble form. It was only then that the body began to take shape in accordance with the monad. The other forms, which were less advanced, did not please the descending monads; therefore, they imparted only a portion of their spiritual power into the imperfect human bodies, and the third wave refused entirely to incarnate. As a result, there were human bodies that were, in part, only very weakly imbued with spirit, and others devoid of any spirit at all.

[ 24 ] Thus, in the middle of the Lemurian era, we find the first Sons of the Fire Nebula; they incarnated in the fiery element that surrounded the Earth at that time. The Sons of the Fire Nebula were the first Arhats. Then the other two types emerged. Those who had received only a small spark were ill-suited to develop a civilization within the first Lemurian human race and soon perished. In contrast, those who had received nothing at all gave particular expression to their lower nature. They intermingled with the animals. From this arose the final races of the Lemurians. Wild, animalistic instincts lived within wild, animal-like human forms. This brought about a deterioration of the entire human substance.

[ 25 ] If all human beings had been imbued with monads back then, the entire human race would have become much better. The first evil arose because some monads refused to incarnate. From this—through intermingling—the deterioration arose. Thus, human beings had been significantly degraded physically. It was a time when the human race was being held back. It was not until the Atlantean era that the monads repented of their earlier refusal, came down, and populated all of humanity. This gave rise to the various Atlantean races.

[ 26 ] We have come to the realization that there was a time when something happened that led to the deterioration of the Earth. The overall deterioration of the races also caused a deterioration of the Earth. This is the origin of primordial karma. It was then that the first seed of karma was sown. Everything that followed is a consequence of primordial karma; for if all the monads had incarnated into human forms at the right time, humans would have possessed the security of animals—they could not have erred—but they would not have been able to develop freedom. The original Arhats cannot err; they are angels in human form. The lunar adepts, however, caused certain monads to delay their incarnation. This is how the principle of asceticism entered the world—the desire not to dwell on Earth. This discord between higher and lower nature arose at that time. As a result, human beings became uncertain; they must now try, by oscillating through various experiences, to find their way in the world. Because they have primordial karma, their subsequent karma also arises. This enables them to err.

[ 27 ] It was intended that human beings should attain knowledge. This could only be brought about by primordial karma. The Luciferic principle—the lunar adepts—sought to guide human beings toward ever greater freedom and independence. This is beautifully expressed in the legend of Prometheus: Zeus does not want humans to receive fire, but Prometheus gives them fire—the ability to develop higher and higher. In doing so, he condemns humanity to suffering. They must now wait until a Sun Hero comes, until the principle of the Sun Hero in the sixth race enables humanity to continue developing without Luciferic knowledge. Those who have advanced as far as Prometheus are Sun Heroes.

[ 28 ] Thus we have a twofold human being: one who has succumbed to Jehovah’s principle of perfecting the physical earth, and then the spiritual human being, who evolves to a higher level. Jehovah and Lucifer are engaged in a constant struggle. Lucifer seeks to elevate everything toward knowledge and light. In Devachan, the human being can allow this one principle—that of Lucifer—to mature a little further. The longer he remains in Devachan, the more he can develop this principle. He must go through so many incarnations until he has fully developed this principle.

[ 29 ] There is, therefore, a Jehovah principle and a Lucifer principle in the world. If only the Jehovah principle were taught, humanity would fall prey to the Earth. If the teachings of reincarnation and karma were to disappear entirely from the Earth, all monads would be reclaimed for Jehovah, and physical humanity would be surrendered to the Earth, a petrified planet. But if reincarnation and karma are taught, humanity is led upward toward spiritualization. Therefore, Christianity formed the most appropriate compromise and, for a time, did not teach reincarnation and karma, but rather the importance of this one earthly existence, so that humanity might grow to love the Earth until it is ready for a new Christianity with the teachings of reincarnation and karma—one that saves the Earth and brings the entire seed into Devachan. Even within Christianity itself, these two principles are in conflict today: one without reincarnation and karma, the other with this teaching. Under the first teaching, everything that Lucifer was able to bring about would be taken away from human beings. They would, in fact, fall out of the cycle of reincarnation and turn their backs on the Earth, becoming fallen angels. The Earth would then face destruction. If the hosts of Jehovah were to triumph on Earth, the Earth would be left behind as a kind of moon, a solidified body. The duty of spiritualization would then have been neglected. The battle described in the Bhagavad Gita depicts the struggle between Jehovah and Lucifer and their hosts.

[ 30 ] It might still be possible today for Christianity to prevail without the doctrine of reincarnation and karma. Then the Earth would be lost to the principle of Lucifer. The entire Earth is still a battlefield between these two principles. The principle that leads the Earth toward spirituality is Lucifer. Moreover, in order to live in accordance with this principle, one must first grow to love the Earth; one must descend to the Earth. Lucifer is the prince who exercises his rule in the realms of science and art. But he cannot descend fully to the Earth; his power is not sufficient for that. Luzifer alone could never possibly lead upward what is on Earth. This requires not only the power of a lunar adept, but also that of a solar adept, who also embraces the life that expresses itself in the solidarity of humankind—not in art and science. Luzifer is depicted as a winged dragon; in Ezekiel, as a winged bull.

[ 31 ] Now there came a solar hero, similar to those who appeared in the Hyperborean Age, who was represented in Ezekiel by the winged lion. This hero, who gives the second impetus, is Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The representative of the eagle will come only later; he embodies the Father principle. Christ is a solar hero, a lion-like being, a solar pitri.

[ 32 ] The third is what will represent an adept who was already an adept on Saturn. Such an adept cannot yet incarnate on Earth. Only when humanity is able not only to develop its higher nature but also to completely renounce its lower nature and act creatively will this highest adept—the Saturn Adept, the Father Principle, the hidden God—be able to incarnate.