The Rudolf Steiner Archive

16. The Children of Lucifer

The Replacement of Blood Ties with Spiritual Love

[ 1 ] We can say that there are two kinds of people on Earth. Two major spiritual currents can be discerned within humanity. The difference between the two lies in this: Some strive more to see everything in the light of knowledge, while others wish to be guided in a certain sense. The very way in which the spiritual-scientific worldview is received shows that the striving to seek bright, clear light is not very widespread. The majority of people are not yet ready to want to know something about everything. Many are quite content with a haze of confusion; it embarrasses them when they are expected to attain complete clarity on any given matter. However, one must renounce everything that can lead to a clouding of consciousness. This also applies to one’s entire way of life. Thus, a person must also practice moderation in regard to their diet and avoid everything that clouds consciousness, as is the case, for example, with alcohol. There are countless other things that lead people away from clarity. Renouncing these things also makes people more practical in their daily lives. Blind faith in authority also leads to a clouding of the mind. One should allow oneself to be inspired, but not rely on authority.

[ 2 ] What we mean here by “clarity” has very little to do with a lower form of perceiving the higher worlds. Such a lower form is, in fact, associated with a spiritual dimming of consciousness. This kind of state was widespread in the early periods of human history. In the time of the Atlanteans, human consciousness was far less clear than it is now. Today, even the most primitive peoples have far surpassed the Atlanteans’ state of consciousness. As we go further and further back in human evolution, we encounter states in which people perceive from within but do not comprehend with the intellect. With the Atlantean race, the intellect began to dawn for the first time. At one time, the Atlanteans lived in the region that is now Ireland. When another person approached an Atlantean, astral images would arise within him. The Atlantean was not yet capable of reflection. Only when the forebrain is developed can a person say “I” to himself. In the part of Atlantis that lay where Ireland is today, human beings first began to develop self-consciousness. From this location, the Atlanteans spread across Europe and on into Asia. The human bones found in the Neander Valley are those of the descendants of the Atlanteans; they still have a receding forehead. From that time onward, human beings very slowly learned to think rationally and to develop a sense of the “I.” At the moment when human beings began their spirit-enriched existence here on Earth, they had already far surpassed the animal realm, but were not yet able to speak or think.

[ 3 ] At that time, there were divine beings known as the Devas, who did not need a physical body and who soared through the astral realm. Whatever they could gain through a physical body, they had already experienced on the Moon. But there were also other beings who had not completed their evolution on the Moon, who had not finished that process. These are the Luciferic beings who had fallen behind the Devas. The gods, or Devas, lived on what had become a characteristic of human beings on Earth: love between the sexes. Human love is the air—or the nourishment—that the gods enjoy. In Greek mythology, these were referred to as nectar and ambrosia.

[ 4 ] As long as human beings were still in a somnambulistic state, the hosts of Lucifer had no real role to play in humanity. It was not until the fifth root race that they truly became, so to speak, the children of humanity. Human thinking is not all that old. What is called ancient wisdom was native to the most ancient peoples. This ancient wisdom is the wisdom of the priests, revealed from within. True knowledge, however, did not emerge until a few centuries before the birth of Christ, around 600 B.C. The power of judgment, too, developed only later in the world.

[ 5 ] This brings us to an important mystery involving a fact found among ancient peoples. Only those who can shed light on the spiritual world are able to comprehend this fact. Among a North American Indian tribe, one finds peculiar terms for family relationships. Among the Iroquois, siblings called each other “siblings”—but only the children of brothers, not those of sisters. This is yet another relic from ancient Atlantis. In this early period of human history, family ties were the only thing that mattered. A woman had several husbands, and it was impossible to determine who the father of the children was. All peoples originally had ancestors who did not pay much attention to avoiding marriage with close relatives. A close blood relationship was by no means an obstacle to marriage. It was said that children descended from the closest relatives were the most enlightened: they were somnambulists. Further evolution is now increasingly leading toward unions between people who are not blood relatives. It is a law that, through the union of distantly related individuals, the etheric body of human beings becomes detached from the physical body. In marriages between blood relatives, the etheric body remained firmly attached to the physical body in the offspring. It was illuminated from within. They still thought primarily with the solar plexus, but they lacked the power of judgment. This power grows through marriage between distant relatives and emerges in direct proportion to the decline of the old blood-related marriages. The old somnambulistic way of perceiving then fades, and a new kind of perception emerges: the power of judgment. This new epoch is marked by the emergence of the Dionysian principle. Dionysus is dismembered; only the heart is spared. When the Dionysian emerged, people were dismembered and then brought together anew through the heart—the spiritual kinship associated with a complete transformation of sexual life. The intellect is transformed former kinship-based sexuality.

[ 6 ] The earlier stages of human development are repeated once more in the individual human life in seven-year cycles. From the first to the seventh year, the child’s etheric body is still largely in the background. Therefore, before the age of seven, one should not yet develop the memory, but only the senses. One can then work on the senses, and the inner powers are awakened with the help of the senses. These powers should be stimulated by giving children toys that allow the imagination to be active—for example, a wooden block with painted dots for eyes and so on—but not ready-made dolls, to which the child can add nothing more through their imagination. From the seventh to the fourteenth year, one must primarily develop firm habits in children that will then provide them with a certain foundation in later life. During these years, everything related to memory must come to the fore in a person. Therefore, it is better not to influence the child’s power of judgment during this stage of life. The child should then be surrounded by authority, but should not be an authority figure themselves. One should influence the child through stories, not by preaching morality, but by pointing to great examples and role models. For morality, it would be necessary to cultivate a sense of it in the old Pythagorean manner. Pythagoras said to his students: “You shall not strike the fire with a sword”—an image illustrating that one should not do useless things. Another such Pythagorean saying was: “You shall not turn back on your path until you have reached the end.” — Only after reaching sexual maturity should a person learn to judge for themselves. At this point, the etheric body becomes more flexible, and only now is the astral body ready to act outwardly.

[ 7 ] This development, which the individual human being today undergoes in seven-year cycles, has been completed by humanity as a whole in the course of its great epochs of development. A portion of the lower forces within the human being was elevated to develop the power of judgment. Only then were the hosts of Lucifer able to intervene. This Luciferic force finds expression in human independent judgment. It was during these times of the Luciferic principle’s intervention that truly human endeavors first emerged. If one traces back to ancient times, one might say: Back then, only what constitutes a family had come together. Those who sought to replace blood kinship with the purely spiritual were the ones who worked in the name of Lucifer. The Church emerged as a continuation of the ancient priestly wisdom. Alongside it, however, arose a movement that sought light on its own—the Luciferic people, such as the Knights Templar. They said that one must seek light and truth for oneself. There was a sect in the Middle Ages that understood this. Its members called themselves Luciferians. They said: “Even if a person can attain bliss without the light of knowledge, that is not our concern—we want to strive toward the light.”

[ 8 ] These are the two currents within humanity. One current consists of those who merely seek salvation; the others seek the light in the process. Those who fear knowledge regard Lucifer as the Evil One. But for the others, Lucifer is the bearer of light, the bringer of light. There is a manuscript in the Vatican that mentions this, but it is kept secret by the Church, and this branch of the Church warns people against Lucifer.

[ 9 ] Dogma can certainly contain truth. For example, the Pythagorean theorem is a dogma to those who have not grasped it. But once they understand it, it becomes clear and lucid knowledge to them. Dogmas are presented as being based on authority. Once understood, they, too, become clear knowledge.

[ 10 ] In Paul’s time, Christianity was intended to lead to universal love for humanity. A world religion was to emerge from a tribal and national religion. Faith in revelation is rooted in kinship. Fixed laws were given by Moses. Christ does not give fixed laws; rather, grace takes the place of the law. It is the awakening of the innermost being in the human soul.

[ 11 ] It is a downward wave that is sought within the church organization, and an upward wave in the pursuit of freedom of opinion. Such aspirations exist in certain brotherhoods, such as among the Knights Templar, who strive for the light. This lineage, which strives for the light, are the children of Lucifer.

[ 12 ] Edouard Schuré set his play The Children of Lucifer at the time when Christianity began to organize itself strictly. There is one ecclesiastical current, and alongside it another: the Luciferian principle. The Children of Lucifer are the children of the inner light, not of revelational faith. Those who strive toward the future must feel a kinship with one another in a profound way. In our time, the spiritual science movement has articulated that one should come to the light through one’s own striving. The deepest inner freedom is to be developed within the human soul.

[ 13 ] The Theosophical magazine was deliberately named “Luzifer.” This name is connected to the innermost essence of the Theosophical movement. It was intended to document that the Luciferic principle had been deliberately cast into the world. When the Catholic Church established the dogma of infallibility, the emphasis on the Luciferic principle emerged as a countervailing force. Or, to put it another way: the fact that Theosophy proclaimed spiritual freedom gave rise, as a countervailing force, to the dogma of infallibility, because that was the only way the Church could save itself.