The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Popular Occultism XI

[ 1 ] The human soul is capable of development; its present state can be transformed through training, particularly of the etheric body. People who are ahead of others in their inner development are called initiates. The path they follow and teach is that of the secret school. Our root race, the Aryan race, descends from the most highly developed subrace of the Atlanteans—the Proto-Semitic subrace—which last dwelt in the region of present-day Ireland. The island of Poseidonis, mentioned by Plato, can be regarded as the last remnant of the sinking Atlantis. Manu, a leading figure among the Atlanteans, led the most spiritually mature people eastward. From there they migrated to the region of present-day India. An ancient culture arose. This primordial Indian culture predates the time when the Vedas were composed by far. It still possessed something dreamlike, purely inner. The spiritual disposition of the ancient Indian was the exact opposite of our own today. To him, everything external and visible was considered Maya, an illusion, and reality was only Brahman and whatever could be grasped by Brahman.

[ 2 ] Another culture emerged further to the west. This second culture was the Proto-Persian culture, whose founder and principal leader was the great Zarathustra, or Zoroaster. The Persians had already brought spirit and matter into harmony and began to shape and transform the material world through the human spirit.

[ 3 ] A third culture emerged even further to the west: the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian culture. Here, human attention is focused even more on the material world; the external sciences emerge, along with the study of natural forces and their laws. From time immemorial, this ancient primordial science has taught the following about our Earth: The Earth is also a being subject to reincarnation. It has passed through earlier stages and will undergo further incarnations in the future. There is speak of seven planetary states or “planets” through which the Earth is developing. The names of these “planets” do not refer to our current planets, but rather to past or future states of the Earth. It is precisely these states that are related to those of the planets after which they are named. The first incarnation of the Earth is called “Saturn.” This is followed by the “Sun,” and then the “Moon.” “Mars” and “Mercury” refer to the first and second halves of Earth’s development. The states that follow are “Jupiter” and “Venus.” These seven incarnations of Earth are intimately connected with human development and are therefore even reflected in everyday life in the names of the days of the week:

[ 4 ] Thus, the world of the stars was closely linked to everyday life. The ancient Egyptians were able to determine the exact timing of the Nile’s flooding and its subsequent receding based on the appearance of the Dog Star, and they organized their farming accordingly.

[ 5 ] A fourth cultural epoch is the Greco-Latin one. The ancient Greeks and Romans not only believed in the laws of wisdom, but they also sought to imbue things with this wisdom. This gave rise to their works of art. At the heart of this culture lies the deed of Christ, the mystery of Golgotha.

[ 6 ] We ourselves are living in the fifth cultural epoch of the fifth root race of the fifth Earth period. This is the Germanic-English-American culture. Its main task is the conquest of the physical plane. The subsequent sixth cultural epoch will have the task of leading outer culture back toward spiritual life, and that is what Theosophy is working toward. The future task of culture as a whole is to reconnect with the spirit. Every epoch has its own specific tasks. Modern science has dismissed Ptolemy’s world system as incorrect and recognized Galileo and Copernicus as correct. For the astral plane, however, the Ptolemaic system is correct, since one must proceed from entirely different perspectives there. The sixth cultural epoch still lies in a nascent state in Eastern Europe. It will be the bearer of the spiritual culture of the future.

[ 7 ] A time will come when humankind will have overcome the duality of the sexes. Lower faculties—such as sexual drives—will be transformed into higher ones. This is not a matter of destroying these drives, but of refining them. For example, the imagination is a result of the refinement of the spirit; it is an effect of passions that have already been purified. The higher development of the imagination leads to clairvoyant imagination. Just as the initiates do now, all people in the future will be able to perceive the inner life of their fellow human beings. Today, the spoken word can convey spiritual experiences through the air; later, the spoken word will bring forth living beings, and ultimately the spoken word itself will be creative: then human beings will be magicians of the word.

[ 8 ] The information regarding occult training is based on a deeply grounded science. Fundamental to this are two qualities that a person must possess. One must be able to endure what is called great solitude, and one must cultivate a certain underlying spirit of devotion. As for the first, this refers to a few minutes a day of solitude in the midst of an active life, during which one devotes oneself to meditation and concentration. This alone gives the soul inner strength. In the beginning, a sense of inner emptiness and sadness will set in, but this must be overcome. All people who have achieved great things have used this inner solitude for their spiritual gathering of the mind. The second main requirement is devotion—the reverent looking upward toward a Higher Power. Whoever wishes to ascend must first be below and feel that they are below. Indian esoteric training demands the student’s complete submission to his guru. Rosicrucian initiation is the right one for modern Westerners. Christian initiation preceded it. All three types of initiation are, in essence, expressions of the same initiation, but the methods must adapt to the times.