The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Tenth Lecture

[ 1 ] When the Earth emerged from the darkness of the Pralaya state, it did not appear alone, but was initially united with the Sun and what is now our Moon. The Sun, the Moon, and the Earth were a single gigantic body. That was the initial stage of our planet.

[ 2 ] At that time, the Earth consisted of a very, very fine substance. There were no solid minerals, nor any water—only this fine substance that we call ether. The whole was thus an ethereal, fine planet, surrounded by a spiritual atmosphere, just as today’s Earth is surrounded by a layer of air. This spiritual atmosphere contained everything that today constitutes the human soul. Your souls, which are now immersed in your bodies, were all up there in that spiritual atmosphere. The Earth was a great sphere of ether, much, much larger than our Earth today, surrounded by spiritual substance, and within this spiritual substance were contained the future human souls. Down below, within the thin matter of the etheric sphere, there existed something denser: namely, millions of shell-like formations. These were the human embryos of Saturn re-emerging. Here, then, what had formed on Saturn in ancient times was now repeating itself. Of course, there could be no question of physical reproduction or multiplication of these human embryos; something entirely different existed at that time. The entire spiritual atmosphere surrounding the Earth was, like our atmosphere, more or less a unified whole; only, spiritual extensions—like a kind of tentacle—extended downward from this spiritual envelope into the etheric sphere and enveloped the shell-like formations, so that you must imagine the Spirit descending from above and enveloping the individual bodies. These tentacles worked on them and formed a human shape. Once the form was complete, the extension withdrew again, stretched out in another direction, and began working on other forms. What was brought into being was thus directly produced by the spiritual worlds. In the very beginning, there was a chaotic, swirling etheric substance below—much denser than the unified divine spiritual substance that extended its arms to create forms out of the chaos. That was the first epoch of our Earth; it is beautifully expressed in the Book of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and empty, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” The ether, as it existed below, is referred to in esoteric science as “water.”

[ 3 ] At that time, one could not have seen the Earth, nor the shell-like formations; these were resonant human formations, and when one such formation arose, it expressed itself in a specific tone. There was still no individuality in the forms; it was still entirely dissolved in the spiritual atmosphere. Within these forms, one could distinguish seven types of fundamental tones. These seven groups formed the seeds of the first seven human root races.

[ 4 ] After millions of years, a major cosmic event occurred: the entire mighty etheric body contracted slightly, took on a biscuit-like shape, and remained that way for a time. Finally, a small part consisting of the Earth and the Moon separated from this unified structure. This event was linked to something very special for human evolution. The human embryos were structured; they became differentiated. With the emergence of the Sun, external objects could now be illuminated for the first time. All vision depends on the presence of light—on the sun’s rays falling upon objects and being reflected back. Light is the origin of the eyes. When the Sun emerged, there were bodies upon which it could shine. This made it possible for organs to develop very gradually for the perception of illuminated objects. The surroundings became visible. This period is described in Genesis with the words: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.” The entire Earth now began to rotate, and this gave rise to day and night. When one reads the Bible as a scholar of esoteric knowledge, one can take everything literally again.

[ 5 ] Now a large portion of the spiritual beings that had surrounded the Earth had departed with the Sun. They formed the spiritual population of the Sun and worked upon the Earth from the Sun. The physical-etheric human forms were now endowed with an astral sheath. The entire system—Earth and Moon—was now surrounded by an astral atmosphere. What had previously been spread out in the spiritual atmosphere now extended to the individual human forms, which had developed independent physical and etheric bodies, and surrounded them. The physical and etheric bodies were now fully formed. With regard to the astral body, however, there was no independence; there was still a common astral sheath for all beings. This was the Earth Spirit, and it, in turn, reached in with its tentacles and embraced every single human ancestor. A new ability now emerged. Now each human form could bring forth another from its own substance: a kind of reproduction without fertilization by two beings. It was, therefore, a form of fertilization that was not of a sexual nature, but was carried out by the entire astral atmosphere. When a tentacle reached down, it signified the fertilization of the human being, who could thereby develop others in turn. The human forms were bell-shaped and had a tubular opening at the top to receive the tentacles; they opened themselves to the sun. This was the Hyperborean proto-human; this period is called the second great root race. These human forms were highly articulated. They did not die; there was no death in our sense of the word. To die means the withdrawal of consciousness from the body. At that time, however, consciousness was not yet differentiated; it was a general consciousness shared by all human beings within the astral sheath. The consciousness of the individual remained a part of the collective consciousness, and when it withdrew from one form, it descended into another without interruption. It was, as it were, as if a piece broke away from the front of a cloud, only to be replaced immediately at the back by another. It was merely a metamorphosis, and there was an uninterrupted continuity of consciousness. Consciousness perceived it merely as a change of clothing. And the whole existed in wondrous beauty; it floated in the most magnificent colors, in a luminous ether, and gradually became more dense.

[ 6 ] In addition to human ancestors, however, there were already forms of animals and plants that were to become his companions. The plants were the low-growing species that have since become dwarf-like. Likewise, the animals did not yet exist in their present form. They were luminous plants and animals swirling through the ether. There were no male and female animals; everything was still unisex; only certain animals were just beginning to develop some degree of sexual differentiation. A true mineral kingdom had not yet emerged. Then a densification of the etheric forms set in more and more, so that the astral realm, too, was drawn in more and more.

[ 7 ] After a million years, the Earth and the Moon looked completely different: animals and plants were gelatinous, like egg whites, like certain jellyfish and sea plants; and within this condensed matter, which possessed organs, were the ancestors of humankind. The animal and plant forms gradually became more condensed through the fertilizing astral force. Then came an important period when the fertilizing entities in the astral atmosphere manifested themselves through the natural forms living at that time, so that humans and animals received both the fertilizing and nourishing substance from the surrounding plant world. This world secreted a substance that resembled the milk later produced by humans and animals. A final remnant of such milk-secreting plants is, for example, the dandelion. In this way, people in those days nourished and fertilized themselves from the surrounding nature and lived selflessly. In this way, people were complete vegetarians. They consumed only what nature freely provided. They nourished themselves with milk- and honey-like juices. It was a wonderful state in this distant past, one that can scarcely be described with the imagery of our language.

[ 8 ] Now comes an extremely important moment: the Earth and the Moon separate; the smaller Moon breaks away from the Earth. Now there are three bodies: the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth. This provided something extraordinarily important for living beings. The Moon carried away with it a large portion of the forces that human and animal forms needed to bring forth other beings from within themselves. Each human now possessed only half the fertilizing power that had previously been within them. The productive power was halved, and as a result, the division into two sexes gradually came about. Now, a human had to be fertilized by a being of the same kind. This was the Lemurian period, the third root race. During this time, there was also a greater densification and thickening of matter. Shortly before the separation of the Earth and the Moon, denser deposits had formed, and after the separation, cartilage-like substances with the potential for bone densification developed in humans and animals. To the same extent that the outer Earth’s mass became denser and the solid ground—the solid Earth’s crust—began to form, solid bone mass developed in humans and animals. Gradually, solid mineral structures emerged. Previously, everything had been ethereal, then air-like and liquid; the beings moved by floating as if in water or flying as if in the air. Now the Earth formed a solid framework within its rocks, much like the skeletal framework inside the human being. Bone formation and rock formation proceeded in parallel. The form of human beings at that time can be compared to a kind of fish-bird creature. Most of the Earth was still watery, and the temperature was still very high. Many substances were still dissolved in this watery element that would later solidify—for example, the metals and other materials we know today. Within it, human beings moved, so to speak, in a floating, suspended manner. They could tolerate the immense heat that prevailed on Earth at that time quite well; after all, their bodies were still composed of a substance suited to the conditions described, enabling them to live in it.

[ 9 ] Small continents and island-like formations were scattered throughout the waters, upon which humans wandered; but the entire landmass was riddled with volcanic activity, which continued to destroy parts of the Earth with tremendous force, so that it was constantly subjected to elemental destruction and regeneration.

[ 10 ] Humans did not yet have lungs; they breathed through tubular gill-like organs. As you can see, humans at that time were already very complex creatures: they had developed a spine—first cartilaginous, then bony—and, in order to move by floating and swimming, they had a swim bladder, much like the fish of today.

[ 11 ] Soon—that is, after millions of years—the Earth became more solid. The water receded, separating from the solid components; pure air emerged; and, under the influence of the air, the swim bladder gradually transformed into lungs. Human beings now rose above the watery element. This was a particularly important and significant process. The gills transformed into other organs, in part into organs of hearing. With the development of the lungs came the ability to breathe; as a result, all of humanity lives in a shared element—the air. Human beings are surrounded by air. Every person takes in a certain amount of air, transforms it according to their own form, and exhales it again. At first, human beings were filled with the pure spirit; later, with the astral; and now, with air. Now humanity had reached the point where warm-blooded respiration transformed into air respiration. Thus, what Mars had brought was utilized: warm blood now came into being. The moment has arrived when that which had previously been outside of humanity entered into it: the spirit that had formerly surrounded humanity entered into humanity. And through what? Through the air. The ability to breathe signifies the reception of the individual human spirit. The human “I” enters the human being with the breath of air. When we speak of a common “I” shared by all human beings, this “I” also has a common body: the air. It is no coincidence that the ancients called this communal “I” Atma, which means “breath.” They knew full well that they draw it in and exhale it again when breathing. We live within our collective “I” because we live in the universal air. Of course, this description of the process should not be taken too literally. The sinking of the individual “I” into human beings is described in theosophical literature as the descent of Manas, the Manasaputras. With every breath, a human being slowly absorbed Manas, Budhi, and Atma, more or less in their embryonic form. Genesis describes this moment, and we can take it literally: “And God breathed into Adam the breath of life, and he became a living soul.” This is the absorption of the individual spirit.

[ 12 ] Humans now also had warm blood, which allowed them to retain heat within their bodies. However, there is something else very important connected to this.

[ 13 ] There had also been beings on the Moon who were at a higher level than the human world of that time. These were the gods, referred to in Christian tradition as angels and archangels. They had once been at the human level, and just as we will have risen higher on the next planet, so too have they ascended higher over the course of time. They no longer had physical bodies, but were still connected to Earth. They no longer needed what humans needed, but they did need humans themselves, over whom they could reign.

[ 14 ] When the Moon had completed its evolution, some of these gods lagged behind in their development; they remained, so to speak, stuck. They had not yet reached the stage they should have. And so there were beings who stood between the gods and human beings: demigods. These beings have become particularly important for the Earth and for humanity. They could not quite transcend humanity and its sphere, nor could they incarnate within human beings. They could only anchor themselves in a part of human nature in order to advance their own evolution through that part and, at the same time, to help humanity. On the Moon, they had breathed fire. In the fire that had now become a permanent part of human beings—in the warm human blood, the very seat of passions and instincts—they anchored themselves and imparted to it some of the fire that had been their element on the Moon. These are the hosts of Lucifer, the Luciferic beings. The Bible calls them the tempters of humankind. They tempted humankind insofar as they lived within its blood and made it independent. Had these Luciferic entities not existed, human beings would have received everything from the gods as a gift. They would have become wise but dependent, serene but unfree. Because these entities took root in human blood, human beings not only became wise but also gained fire—a passion for wisdom and ideals.

[ 15 ] But with that came the possibility of straying. Human beings can turn away from the Divine. Human beings could now choose between good and evil. With this predisposition—this capacity for evil—the Lemurian race gradually evolved. This predisposition brought about great upheavals on Earth. The Earth was shaken by tremors and quakes, and thus Lemuria was largely destroyed by these human passions.

[ 16 ] The Earth had changed once again, becoming more compact. Other continents had already formed. The most important continent that had emerged by this time was Atlantis, located between present-day Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The descendants of the Lemurian race had spread across this continent. Over many millions of years, they had changed greatly and taken on a form resembling that of modern humans. Nevertheless, these people were very different from those of today. The shape of their heads was quite different; their foreheads were much lower, and their digestive organs were much more powerfully developed. The etheric body of the Atlantean extended far beyond his physical head. In the etheric body of the head there was a key point that corresponded to a point in the physical head. The process of evolution now consisted in these two points moving closer together, so that the point in the etheric head slipped into the point in the physical body. At that very moment, when the two points coincided, human beings were able to begin to say “I” to themselves. The forebrain could now become a tool for the spirit; self-consciousness arose. This moment first occurred among the Atlanteans living in the region of present-day Ireland.

[ 17 ] The Atlanteans gradually evolved into seven subraces: the Rmoahals, Tlavatli, Urtolteken, Urturanians, Ursemites, Urakkadians, and Urmongols. Among the Ursemites, the union of the two points took place, and a clear sense of self-awareness developed. The next two subraces, the Ur-Akkadians and Ur-Mongols, actually went beyond the goal of Atlantean humanity.

[ 18 ] Before these two points were united, the spiritual powers of the Atlanteans were fundamentally different from what they are today. The Atlanteans had much more agile bodies and, above all, in the very earliest times, a powerful, strong will. For example, they could regenerate lost limbs, make plants grow rapidly, and thereby exerted a tremendous influence on nature. They had highly developed sensory organs; they could distinguish metals by touch, just as we distinguish smells. But they also possessed a highly developed gift of clairvoyance. They did not sleep at night like modern humans, who at most have confused dreams, but rather like clairvoyants—only in a more subdued state. At night, they communicated with the gods, and what they experienced there still lives on in myths and legends. They harnessed the forces of nature to their service. Their dwellings were half-natural structures, hewn into the rock. The Atlanteans constructed airships, propelling them not with inorganic power—such as today’s coal-fired power—but with the organic propulsive force of plants.

[ 19 ] Because the two points mentioned above had not yet been linked, the Atlanteans lacked a combinatory intellect. For example, they were unable to perform arithmetic. However, they had developed another soul power to a particularly high degree: memory. The ability for logical, combinatorial thinking and self-awareness did not emerge until the fifth subrace, the Proto-Semites.

[ 20 ] Atlantis was destroyed by a massive flood. The entire continent was gradually submerged, and the masses migrated eastward, toward Europe and Asia. One major branch moved from Ireland through Europe to Asia. Large groups of people were left behind everywhere. They were led by a high-ranking initiate whom they trusted completely. Through his wisdom, he then brought about a selection process; he took the best with him and settled them in distant Asia at a site where the Gobi Desert lies today. There, in complete isolation, a small colony received special training. From this colony, colonizers then went out to all inhabited lands and established the cultures of the next root race: the Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egyptian-Babylonian-Assyrian, and the Greek-Latin cultures. And then the Germanic-Anglo-Saxon culture arose.

[ 21 ] We'll see tomorrow how things turned out.