The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Gospel of John IV

[ 1 ] We must begin our discussion today with an important term from the spiritual sciences. In Christian esotericism, the Moon is called the Cosmos of Wisdom and the Earth the Cosmos of Love. By “Moon,” we mean the Earth’s lunar phase. The designation of the Moon as the Cosmos of Wisdom is based on the fact that everything that was formed during that time was permeated by wisdom. The replacement of the lunar phase by the Earth phase signifies the replacement of the Cosmos of Wisdom by the Cosmos of Love. When the Earth emerged once more from the state of twilight, Pralaya, the seeds that had been cultivated on the Moon sprouted, including the seeds of the human physical, etheric, and astral bodies. Wisdom was imbued into these three bodies and their mutual relationships while they were on the Moon. Therefore, wisdom is also found in the structure of these three bodies. The greatest wisdom lies in the structure of the physical body, less so in that of the etheric body, and even less so in that of the astral body. Whoever contemplates the physical nature of the human being not only with the intellect but also with a meditative soul will discover this wisdom in every organ, in every limb of the body. If, for example, one examines the human femur, one finds within it a veritable network of crisscrossing beams, seemingly random; yet no engineer today would be capable of constructing these two pillars, which support the human upper body with the least possible expenditure of force and material. As long as the divine spirits were still building the human bodies, only wisdom was imbued into them. People generally regard the human physical body as the lowest, but wrongly so, for it is precisely in the body that the greatest wisdom is revealed. It is only through this wisdom that the physical body is able to withstand the attacks that the astral body constantly launches against it without collapsing prematurely. The passions that are active in the physical body—drinking coffee, tea, and so on—are all attacks by the astral body on the physical body, and especially on the heart. Therefore, the heart had to be so wisely constructed that these attacks would be unable to destroy it for decades. Of course, the appropriate form of the heart first had to be determined through a process of manifold transformation.

[ 2 ] Precisely because wisdom underlies the structure of the world, it can be sought and found within it by our minds. But wisdom did not come into the world all at once; its infusion has taken place only slowly and gradually, and just as slowly and gradually will love permeate the earth. This permeation of the Earth with love is the purpose of the Earth’s evolution. Love began on Earth on a very small scale, but it is spreading more and more, and at the end of the Earth phase, everything will be just as saturated with love as it was saturated with wisdom at the end of the lunar phase.

[ 3 ] When the Moon emerged from the Earth, the power of love was still in its infancy. At first, only blood relatives loved one another. This lasted for a long time; gradually, the sphere of love expanded. A certain degree of independence on the part of beings is necessary for them to feel and act upon love. From the very beginning, two kinds of forces had been at work in human evolution: a unifying force and a separating force—the forces of the Sun and the Moon. Under the influence of these forces, human beings developed to the point where their three bodies, together with the ego-bearer, were drawn toward the spiritual self, the life spirit, and the spiritual human. However, a definitive union could not yet take place without the intervention of a new cosmic force. This force, which exerted a particularly strong influence after the separation of the Moon, came from another planet that entered into a remarkable relationship with the Earth. This planet, Mars, made a sort of passage through the Earth’s mass as the Earth began its evolution. One metal had been missing on Earth until then: iron. Its appearance on Earth suddenly altered the course of its development. It was the planet Mars that brought iron to Earth. From that point on, it became possible for human beings to develop warm, iron-rich blood. The astral body, too, received a new component through Mars: the feeling soul, the courageous soul. With the arrival of Mars, the aggressive aspect developed within the soul. We must now distinguish the following in human beings: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the feeling soul. The effect of the feeling soul on the physical body was the emergence of red, warm blood. Now, little by little, the fertilizing “I” could integrate itself.

[ 4 ] “Blood is a very special fluid,” says Goethe in Faust. The God of Form, Yahweh, plays a particularly important role in this. Above all, he took control of the newly formed organ—the blood—infused it with his powers, transformed the aggressive qualities of the soul of courage into the forces of love, and made the blood the physical vehicle of the “I.”

[ 5 ] Not every human individual initially had his own “I.” Among all blood relatives—who preserved the same blood through close kinship, family marriages, and shared lineage—the same Yahweh force, the “I” force of the same “I,” was at work. Thus, such a small group had a collective “I.” The individual related to the entire family as a finger relates to the whole body. In the beginning, there were group souls. The individual perceived himself only as a part of the tribe. People perceived the same “I” not only in those living at the same time; it also lived on through the different generations, as long as the blood remained unmixed, as long as members of the tribe married only within close kinship. Thus, the “I” was not perceived as something personal, but as something shared by all members of the tribe. Just as a person remembers what he has experienced since birth, so did the people of that time remember what the ancestors of the same bloodline had done—as if they had experienced it themselves. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren felt within themselves the same “I” as their grandfather and great-grandfather. This helps us understand the mystery of the patriarchs’ great age. “Adam,” for example, was not the name of a single individual, but of the collective “I” that flowed through the generations. It has been stated above that Yahweh made the blood the physical carrier of the “I.” He did this by bringing about the formation of blood. He expressed His power through the act of breathing. Thus, man became a “Yahweh-human” because Yahweh gave him breath. It is to be taken literally that man, now endowed with the necessary prerequisites, was breathed into with the life-giving breath. “Yahweh breathed the breath of life into the man, and he became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). However, this breathing in of the soul did not happen suddenly but is to be understood as a very long-lasting process. Through this, man became an air-breather.

[ 6 ] On the Moon, something else corresponded to the process of breathing. While modern humans inhale and exhale air and thereby have a source of heat within themselves, their ancestors on the Moon—who consisted of a physical, etheric, and astral body—inhaled and exhaled heat substance or fire. The human ancestors on the Moon were fire-breathers. Esoteric science calls these beings “fire beings,” whereas it refers to humans on Earth as “air beings.” Esoteric science sees all matter as merely an expression of the spirit. We breathe in and out not only air, but also the spirit. Air is the body of Yahweh, just as flesh is that of man. This memory is expressed in the Germanic legend of Wotan, who rides on the wind. What was breathed in and out on the Moon, too, was the spirit.

[ 7 ] The Moon was inhabited by the same spiritual beings as the Earth. There they lived in fire; on Earth, they have become air spirits. In the course of cosmic evolution, some beings fell behind, just as some students repeat a grade in school. Those beings who have made the Sun their home had developed more rapidly and made the transition from fire spirits to air spirits, while a large host of beings did not make this transition. The former now act upon human beings as spiritual forces from outside, coming from the Sun and the Moon. Human beings take them in through their breath. Between human beings and these highly developed solar spirits stand those spiritual beings who, although they have advanced much further on the Moon than human beings, have not progressed as far as the solar spirits and the God Yahweh. They were not yet able to influence human beings through their breath, but nevertheless strove to exert an influence on them. These were the fire spirits that had not yet reached completion. Their element was heat, and in human beings this heat was present only in the blood. They had to live off this heat.

[ 8 ] In the course of his evolution, man was thus placed between the air spirits, who live in his breath; the highest spirits, who spiritualize him; and the fire spirits, who sought out the elements of his blood. They act in his blood as adversaries of the God Yahweh. Yahweh sought to hold people together in small groups through love. He wanted to imbue them with a sense of belonging. But if only love had been present, human beings would never have become independent beings. They would have had to develop into, as it were, “love machines.” The fire spirits, however, directed their attacks against this, with the result that human beings attained personal freedom. The small groups of people were driven apart. The God Yahweh was interested only in uniting people through love. In the realm of blood, He acted as the God of blood-based love. The effect of the fire spirits was different; it was they who brought art and science to humankind. These spirits are also called the Luciferic spirits. The further development of humankind proceeds under the influence of Lucifer, who brings freedom and wisdom to humankind. Under the guidance of the God Yahweh, humankind was to be united through the principle of blood brotherhood. Humanity owes its status as a free citizen of the Earth to Lucifer. Yahweh placed humanity in the paradise of love. Then the fire spirit—the serpent—appeared in the form that humanity once had when it still breathed fire, and opened humanity’s eyes to what remained of the Moon. This Luciferic influence was perceived as temptation. Those educated in the secret schools, however, did not regard this enlightenment as seduction. The great initiates did not deify the serpent, but exalted it, as Moses did in the wilderness. (Numbers 21:8–9.)

[ 9 ] What was to be revealed in humanity had long been revealed through Yahweh as the love of blood. Alongside this, the Spirit of Wisdom was at work—a principle whose purpose was to prepare something else. Gradually, love spread from smaller to larger groups of people, from families to tribes. A characteristic example of this is the Jewish people, who saw themselves as a cohesive group and referred to all others as Galileans—that is, as those who did not belong to their bloodline. Humanity was not to be given merely blood kinship, but spiritual love, which will encompass the entire earth in a brotherhood. The time when humanity was held together only by kinship love is to be regarded merely as a period of learning for what was to come later. Even the influence of Lucifer, which consisted in breaking apart the restrictive bonds, is merely the preparation for the influence of a Higher Being who was to come. In the Christian esoteric school, this Higher Being was called the true Bearer of Light, the true Lucifer, the Christ.

[ 10 ] Let us now go back to the time when the Atlantean people lived on Earth. The Earth looked quite different back then. Between Europe and America, where a vast ocean now stretches, there was land—a continent that now lies at the bottom of the ocean. Even modern science is gradually coming to the realization that a continent once existed where the Atlantic Ocean now stretches. People of a completely different kind than those of today inhabited Atlantis. At that time, the relationship between the etheric and physical bodies was quite different from what it is today. A clairvoyant sees two points in the head of a modern human: one in the etheric brain and the other in the physical brain, between the eyes, about one centimeter deep. In modern humans, these two points coincide. This was different for the Atlanteans. The etheric brain protruded considerably beyond the physical brain, and the two centers of the brains did not coincide. In exceptional cases, it can also happen in modern humans that these two points do not coincide; one consequence of this is mental retardation. It was not until the last third of the Atlantean era that the centers of the two brains merged, and only then did humans learn to consciously say “I” to themselves. Nor were the Atlanteans previously capable of calculating, counting, judging, or thinking logically. Instead, they possessed a vast memory that spanned generations and a dim form of clairvoyance. They did not see the outlines of physical bodies clearly, but they perceived the soul processes. When an Atlantean encountered an animal, he sensed clairvoyantly how the animal related to him. If, for example, they saw a reddish-brown color, they would step aside; they knew that a hostile influence was at work. But if they saw a reddish-violet color, they knew they were encountering something friendly. Foodstuffs were also assessed for their value with the help of this clairvoyance. Today’s animals, which have retained this dull form of clairvoyance, similarly distinguish plants in the pasture according to whether they are beneficial or harmful. The experience that humans have retained in their dreams is a decadent remnant of the clairvoyance of the ancient Atlanteans. Among the Atlanteans, there was no such sharp distinction between sleep and waking consciousness as there is among people today. Daytime consciousness was less clear than it is today. Sleep and dream consciousness were more vivid. In the earliest Atlantean times, states of complete unconsciousness also occurred, states that were permeated by powerful dream images. The Atlanteans of the earliest period knew nothing of the act of procreation. It took place in states of complete unconsciousness. When the Atlantean awoke, he knew nothing of procreation. The process of procreation was revealed to him only through symbols. This is still recalled in the Greek legend of the two humans, Deucalion and Pyrrha, who migrated to Greece and threw stones behind them, which then turned into people. The process of procreation remained shrouded in unconsciousness as long as marriages were contracted only between blood relatives. The fact that human beings awoke to consciousness and consciously recognized the act of procreation can be attributed to the activity of the Luciferic spirits, who “opened the eyes” of humanity. Humanity learned to distinguish between good and evil. Because people were now aware of their love and no longer sought only kinship by blood, they became independent. Then Yahweh was replaced by Christ, who brought a higher love into the world and made people independent of their tribal kin and blood relatives. This universal love is still in its initial stage. But once the Earth has surrendered its beings to Jupiter, they will be completely permeated by this spiritual love. Christ’s saying points to this universal love: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters—and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). The Spirit that is pouring out this universal love more and more upon the Earth is the Spirit of Christ. Earth’s evolution is divided into two parts by the appearance of Christ Jesus. The blood that flowed on Golgotha signifies the replacement of familial love by spiritual love. This is the connection between Yahweh, Lucifer, and Christ.