The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Popular Occultism X

[ 1 ] We have traced the course of human evolution back to Atlantis and will now turn our attention to Lemuria and discuss the Lemurian human forms. These humans were the first to represent the true human being, in whom the body is permeated by a soul. Let us first consider the nature of the Lemurian continent and that of the human type that inhabited it. In the Lemurian era, everything was filled with a water-like mass from which islands protruded, all of which were volcanic. Typical of Lemuria is the ever-changing nature of the environment, forms, and life. There was a rapid transformation of individual forms and species. The soul qualities of the Atlanteans were even more pronounced in the Lemurians, especially the will, which had the greatest influence on the formation of the physical body. The physical body itself consisted only of gelatinous, transparent substances into which what are now bones and muscles first had to be incorporated. An organ that plays a very significant role today—the lungs—was then only in its very earliest stages of development. This is very significant, for the soul-endowment of the human being is closely connected to the development of the lungs. This soul-endowment did not occur in an instant, but took place over very long periods of time.

[ 2 ] What kind of relationship did the human soul have with that physical body—which, by today’s standards, was severely deformed—before it animated it? It had the same relationship to that body as it does today while asleep: it was outside the body, hovering around it on an Earth that was still permeated by powerful life currents at that time. The Lemurian was constantly in a sleep-like state comparable to our dream consciousness, in which a vivid world of images unfolds. This was the only way he could perceive; he understood the meaning of the individual images and thereby knew the spiritual nature of things.

[ 3 ] A major milestone in his development was the moment when he first used his body to perceive his surroundings. Human movement consisted of floating. Within his body cavity, he possessed a special organ for this purpose—a kind of swim bladder. Under the influence of the soul surrounding him, the lungs then gradually developed from this swim bladder. As the human being began to breathe with the lungs, his soul entered the body. With the air he breathed in, the human being actually breathed in his soul. This process is, in turn, described literally and accurately in Genesis in the account of the six days of creation with the sentence: “And God breathed into the human being His breath, and he became a living soul.”

[ 4 ] Outwardly, humans at that time looked something like a very soft-bodied lindworm—the word “snake” doesn’t quite capture the reality. His companions were toads, fish, frogs, and so on—in short, a primitive world of reptiles and amphibians, whose modern-day descendants, however, can no longer be compared to them, for they are thoroughly degenerate descendants. There were no mammals back then. No remains of either those animals or the humans of that time can be found today.

[ 5 ] How, then, should one conceive of the relationship between animals and humans? — The theory of descent from apes may be considered outdated; it is based on a flawed line of reasoning. Imagine a morally depraved person and a person of high moral character. The claim that humans are descended from apes is akin to saying that the perfect is descended from the imperfect. They need not be descended from one another, but they can have a common father and be brothers. One develops upward, the other descends into decadence. This is also how the relationship between apes and humans should be viewed. At the beginning of the Atlantean era, the human form was still ape-like, and in Lemuria, the soul took possession of a body that was even more imperfect. This body then evolved upward. The ape-like forms, however, partially fell into decadence and became the apes of today. Apes are therefore the physical brothers of humans who have fallen into decadence. During the Atlantean era, a branching off took place—a divergence within the human species: one main branch evolved upward into modern humans, the other downward into modern apes. Thus, all the animals living around us are humans who have been cast out into degeneration. Only through the sacrifice of certain beings is the ascent of others possible. The higher expels the lower in order to ascend even higher. Later, a compensation takes place for those who have been expelled.

[ 6 ] In this context, we must mention a cosmic event of the utmost significance, without which the incorporation of the soul could not have taken place at all. This is the separation of the Moon from the Earth. The Moon split off from the Earth and formed a satellite. Before that, the Moon and the Earth were a single planet. Thus, the evolution of the Earth and the evolution of humankind are closely linked. What the astronomer sees of the Moon is not the whole Moon, for every thing in the world also has a soul. Thus, the Moon, too, has its soul. The Moon emerged from the Earth with all its forces, with its entire astral aura. This astral aura of the Moon is closely connected with everything we call fertilization and procreation. In the ancient Greek mysteries, this was still known. The Lemurian era marked the beginning of sexual differentiation; before that, humans were hermaphrodites. There was no act of procreation or fertilization yet; reproduction occurred in a manner that has been preserved among certain lower forms of life. The separation of the sexes coincides with the separation of the Moon. This applies to all living beings. At that time, certain forces were separated from the Earth, forces that had given humans the ability to produce offspring without another being. These forces were separated through the separation of the Moon. At that time, the Earth and the Moon orbited the Sun together. However, the Moon has retained the movement of the Earth-Moon planet from that time by not rotating on its own axis like the Earth does. Just as today’s Moon always presents the same side—never its far side—to the Earth, its “Sun,” so it was back then with the Earth-Moon planet, which always showed the Sun the same side. The Sun, Moon, and planets are also inhabited by beings.

[ 7 ] In even earlier times, the sun, moon, and Earth were a single body, and everything that today constitutes humans, animals, and plants still lived together with the sun back then. At that time, human beings were still of a wholly ethereal form, composed of very fine matter, and lived a kind of plant-like existence. It was only later that animal and human forms emerged; all creatures were still at the same stage of plant existence. These solar plants were, of course, quite different in nature from today’s plants. But one can still say that, with their blossoms, they reached toward the Sun—that is, the center of the planet—and stretched their roots upward. The moment the sun was separated from the earth, the plants turned completely around, turning their blossoms back toward the sun. From then on, the blossom reached upward and the root downward. The animals turned only a right angle when the Moon emerged from the Earth. Human beings turned completely around, so that they are an inverted plant, just as the plant is an inverted human being. The life soul passes through the three kingdoms of nature. That is why Plato says: The world soul is attached to the world cross. And the human soul, too, is fastened to the cross in that it must pass through the three kingdoms of nature. This is the meaning of the cross in the ancient mysteries. From the perspective of world history, the entire process of formation exists for the sake of the human being. The living can arise only from the living, but the living excludes the non-living. Everything inanimate has arisen from the living. Minerals are deposits from the living. The living, however, originates from the spiritual. It is therefore the spirit that is the Primordial, from which everything originates. And humanity is the firstborn of creation. It has separated out the animals, plants, and minerals. The lower always emerges from the higher.

[ 8 ] Tomorrow we will discuss the conditions under which human beings can attain higher levels of knowledge.