The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. Occult Signs and Symbols II

in relation to the astral and spiritual worlds

[ 1 ] Yesterday we concluded with a reference to Noah’s Ark, noting that its proportions—in height, width, and length—reflected the proportions of the human body. To understand the significance of this ark in the religious narrative of the Bible, we must consider two points. We must not only understand the significance of a vessel intended to save humanity having specific dimensions that resemble those of the human body; it will also be necessary to delve into that period of human development in which the actual events referred to in the story of Noah took place.

[ 2 ] Whenever people who understood something of the occult created any object in the external world, it served a very specific purpose and held a very specific meaning for the human soul. Just think of the Gothic churches and cathedrals, of the very special characteristics of these structures, which were built in the early Middle Ages and spread from the West into Central Europe. These churches feature a very specific architectural style, expressed in the fact that the distinctive type of arch—consisting of two parts that taper to a point at the top—permeates the entire structure as a mood, that the whole structure strives upward, that the pillars have a specific shape, and so on. Anyone who were to claim that such a Gothic cathedral arose merely from external needs—such as a certain longing to create a house of God intended to express or signify this or that—would be quite wrong. Oh no! Something much deeper underlies the Gothic style. Those who provided the initial ideas for the emergence of Gothic buildings in the world were connoisseurs of the occult; they were, to a certain degree, initiates. Very specific intentions connected the great leaders of humanity with the emergence of such buildings, such architectural styles. Gothic architecture, the Gothic cathedrals and churches, evoke very specific spiritual impressions in those who enter them. It is as if one were entering a kind of grove within this high, vaulted dome with its soaring columns. Being there has a very different effect on the soul than, for example, entering an ordinary house or a building with a Renaissance dome or a dome in the Romanesque style. Very specific effects emanate from the forms. The ordinary person is not aware of this; for them, all of this lives in the unconscious, in their subconscious. Intellectually, people do not realize what is going on in their soul when they are surrounded by such forms. And what goes on there varies greatly depending on the nature of their surroundings. Many people believe that the materialism of our modern age stems from the fact that so many materialistic writings are read. But the occultist knows that this has only a minor influence. What the eye sees is of far greater importance, for it influences processes of the soul that take place more or less in the unconscious. This has an eminently practical significance. And once Spiritual Science truly takes hold of the soul, this practical effect will also become noticeable in public life. I have often pointed out that walking through the streets in the Middle Ages was quite different from today. To the right and left, on every house facade, everything bore the imprint of the one who had crafted it. Every object, everything that surrounded people, every door lock, every key, was made of something in which the maker’s soul embodied his feelings. Everything was made with love. Just imagine how the individual craftsman took joy in every piece, how he worked his soul into it. In every thing was a piece of his soul. And where there is soul in the outer form, the soul’s power also flows over to the one who sees and looks upon it. Compare that with a city of today. Where is there still soul in things today? There is a shoe store, a knife shop, a butcher’s shop, then a beer hall, and so on. Just take our poster art; what kind of products does it produce? We have such dreadful poster art! Old and young wander through a sea of such hideous creations that trigger the worst forces of the soul in the subconscious. Theosophical educational art will point out that what the eye sees deeply influences people. And just look at our modern humor magazines—what is offered there! This is not meant to be a criticism, but merely a pointing out of facts. For all of this pours a stream of forces into the human soul that steer people in a certain direction, forces that shape the times. The Spiritual Science expert knows how much depends on whether a person lives in this or that world of forms.

[ 3 ] Around the middle of the Middle Ages, a remarkable religious movement known as German mysticism emerged along the Rhine. A tremendous deepening and internalization emanated from the leading figures of Christian mysticism—Meister Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, Ruysbroek, and others—who were called “Pfaffen.” In the 13th and 14th centuries, the name “Pfaffe” did not yet carry the connotation it does today; it was still something worthy of reverence. At that time, the Rhine was called the “great priestly avenue of Europe.” And do you know where this great deepening and internalization of the human soul, these pious feelings that sought an intimate union with the divine forces of being, were generated? They were nurtured in the Gothic cathedrals with their pointed arches, pillars, and columns. That is what shaped these souls. That is how powerfully what is seen affects us. What a person sees, what is poured into their soul from their surroundings, becomes a force within them. They then shape themselves accordingly—right into their next incarnation.

[ 4 ] Let us try to visualize this schematically in terms of human development. An architectural style is not invented; it is born in a given era out of the great thoughts of the initiates, who allow it to flow into the world. The buildings arise; they have an effect on people; human souls absorb something of the spiritual power living within these forms. What the soul has absorbed by beholding the architectural forms—for example, the Gothic—emerges in the mood of the souls: fervent souls will arise who look up to the Highest. Centuries ago, people absorbed what lived in Gothic architecture. And now we follow these people a few centuries further; having absorbed the power of these architectural forms into their souls, they now express this inner state of mind in their physiognomy, in their faces, in their next incarnation. The souls of human beings have shaped the faces. Thus one recognizes why such arts are practiced. The initiates look far, far into the distant future of humanity. That is why, at a specific time, they shape external art forms, external architectural styles on a grand scale. Thus the seed for future epochs of humanity is planted in the human soul.

[ 5 ] If you really take this to heart, you will also understand what happened back then at the end of the Atlantean era. Let us transport ourselves back to the time when the end, the downfall of Atlantis, was upon us. At that time, there was no air as we know it today; the distribution of air and water was quite different; masses of fog surrounded Atlantis. The fog condensed into clouds, and the deluge poured down upon the land as torrential rain. One must create a mental image of the downfall of Atlantis as a very gradual process. It did not take place over short periods of time; it was a process that lasted millennia. As external living conditions changed, so too did human beings themselves. Previously, people perceived the world through a kind of clairvoyance. And when the torrential rains began, people had to gradually accustom themselves to an entirely new way of life, a new way of seeing, a new mode of perception. Human bodies had to change. You would be amazed if you ever saw depictions of the Atlanteans, how different they were from people today. But do not believe for a moment that this transformation happened of its own accord. The human body, with its sensory organs, developed only gradually. The human soul forces had to work on these human bodies over long periods of time and act in the way I described earlier using the simple example. First, the human being perceives the forms of architecture; they affect his or her mind, and the mind, in turn, influences the physiognomy—the human face—in a later life.

[ 6 ] As the Atlantean era gave way to the post-Atlantean era, the human soul first transformed itself and then reshaped the body accordingly. Let us delve even deeper into this. Let us imagine a rather elderly Atlantean; he still possessed clairvoyant consciousness, which was connected to the environment in which he lived, to the mist-filled atmosphere. As a result, things did not appear to him within clearly defined boundaries. Rather, images of color arose before him—floods of color surging in confusion—which revealed to him the states of people’s souls. Instead of the object approaching him, the Atlantean perceived a form of light—a blue one for love, a red one for passion, anger, and so on. The soul forces of all people spread out around him. If this state had continued, humanity would never have been able to attain its present physical body. When the air was freed from the water and objects emerged ever more clearly and distinctly, taking on their present contours, the time had come for the human soul to receive new impressions. And according to these impressions, it shaped its body. For according to what you think and feel, you shape your body. What, then, did the human soul have to experience as it rescued itself from the Atlantean water landscape into the new air landscape, so that the body could take on its present form? The human soul had to be surrounded by a form that had a certain length, a certain width, and a certain depth, so that the body could shape itself accordingly. This form was indeed given to it by what the Bible calls Noah’s Ark. Just as the mood of mysticism was shaped by the form of the Gothic cathedrals and a clairvoyant could demonstrate which faces were formed in accordance with them, so the bodies of the people of ancient Atlantis gradually transformed, because people actually lived in vessels that they had built under the influence of great initiates according to the dimensions described in the Bible for Noah’s Ark. Life in the time of ancient Atlantis was a kind of aquatic or maritime life, where people lived for the most part on vessels on the water and only gradually became accustomed to life on land. For ancient Atlantis was not only surrounded by a misty, watery atmosphere; a large part of Atlantis was covered by the sea. Man lived in these vessels so that his body could be built as it is today. This is the profound mystery of Noah’s Ark. If one is able to read the depth of its esoteric significance from the Bible, then a radiance of wisdom and infinite sublimity spreads over this text. Human beings lived on vessels because the sense of being enclosed within their own skin had to become ingrained in them. Thus, the initiates worked over the millennia to shape human development. What you encounter in the religious texts is drawn directly from the depths of occult reality.

[ 7 ] We find another symbol in the first chapter of the Bible, in Genesis: the symbol of the serpent. And in the Roman catacombs, we frequently encounter the sign of the fish. It is said that this fish, which appears repeatedly as an image, signifies Christianity or Christ himself. If one were to reflect on these symbols, one could probably uncover many profound insights, but that would be mere speculation; and we wish to deal only with realities. These images, too, have been given to us from the spiritual world. If you will follow me for a few minutes through the history of human development, you will see what truths are contained in these symbols of the serpent and the fish.

[ 8 ] Let us recall once again that the Earth has undergone just as many incarnations as human beings. You know that it was once Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon before it became the Earth. The human body already existed in the various planetary states, but it was only on Earth that human beings acquired their I. Let us now take a brief look at what this Earth looked like when it was still in its first incarnation, when it was still Saturn. There were no rocks or arable soil at that time. The human physical body did exist, but it was very subtle; only gradually did it condense into the physical form we see today.

[ 9 ] When we look at the materials around us today, we find that they exist in different states: solid, liquid, and gaseous. In occultism, all solid bodies are called “earth”; “water” refers to all liquid substances; and “air” refers to everything gaseous. Even finer than the other states is “fire,” or heat. Today’s physicists, of course, will not accept this. But the occultist knows that “fire” is indeed something comparable to earth, water, and air; it is simply an even finer state. Wherever you feel heat, there is something present that is even finer than air. Of what we call earth, water, and air in the occult sense, there was absolutely nothing present on Saturn. These solid, corporeal states first arose on the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth. The densest state on Saturn was heat or “fire.” The human body lived within this, and the ring surrounding Saturn—for every Saturn has a ring—are actually reflected images cast back, emanations from the fire. To elaborate on this further would take us too far from our topic today.

[ 10 ] Let us now move from Saturn to the Sun; there, air is added to the fire. On the Sun, the densest state was air. It was a kind of air-sun. On the Sun, the human being was an air-being and was imbued at that time with the etheric body. There were no beings other than air-beings. One could have walked right through these air-beings, for they were “permeable,” just as air is. One could compare them to a mirage, so light and fleeting were they. Of course, the air on the ancient Sun was denser than it is today. — On the ancient Moon, the watery state arose first, and everything that lived on this Moon was formed through a condensation of water. Jellyfish and slime molds, as they can still be seen today, give us a mental image of these water beings. Such was the nature of all physical bodies at that time, and only physical bodies of this kind were capable of taking on an astral body. Development then continued gradually. Thus these things are connected—humanity and the Earth—for humanity belongs to its planet. And now let us consider the meaning of this planetary development. On Saturn, only the seed, the predisposition for the physical body, was present. On the Sun, the etheric body was added; on the Moon, the astral body. But something else happened on the Moon. The ancient Moon split into two bodies: a kind of refined ancient Sun and the actual ancient Moon. The human being who remained on the old Moon at that time was, in essence, a far inferior being compared to today’s human; he was much lower in his development, for the astral body on the old Moon was filled with raging passions. It was not until much later, when the ego was added, that the purification of the astral body began.

[ 11 ] This required a further development: the Moon had to merge with the Sun once more; the two bodies, the old Moon and the Sun, had to become one body again. [Gaps in the transcripts.] The high beings who lived on the separated Sun had had to separate from the Moon in order to advance in their own development. Now, however, these beings who had remained on the Moon and had further solidified there had to be saved; therefore, the Sun had to reunite with the Moon.

[ 12 ] Let us now ask ourselves what would have happened if the Sun and the Moon had not reunited, if they had continued to evolve separately. Then human beings would never have been able to attain their present form. If the old Moon had gone its own way, it would not have been able to draw new strength from its reunion with the Sun; then the highest being it could ever have produced would have been something like today’s snakes. The solar beings, on the other hand, if they had remained alone, would have been able to attain, at most, the form of a fish. The fish form is the outer expression of beings who stand much higher than human beings. The fish group soul indeed stands very high even today; but the outer form is something quite different from the soul. Where, then, did those beings of the ancient Moon obtain the power to rise above the serpent? This power came to them from the beings of the Sun. And the purity of the solar state of those high beings is expressed materially in the form of a fish, for that is the highest material form that can be attained by the beings of the ancient Sun.

[ 13 ] Christ, the Sun Hero who brought the full power of the sun to Earth, is symbolized by the sign of the fish. Now you will understand with what deep intuition esoteric Christianity has grasped the significance of the fish figure; to it, the fish is the outward symbol of the power of the sun, the power of Christ. True, the fish is outwardly an imperfect being, but it has not descended so deeply into matter; it is only slightly permeated by selfishness.

[ 14 ] For the occultist, the serpent is the symbol of the Earth as it evolved from the ancient Moon, and the fish is the symbol of the spiritual being of the ancient Sun. Our Earth, with its solid substances, has symbolized its deepest essence—the Earth being—in the serpent. That which has separated as an aqueous substance is symbolized by the fish. To the occultist, the fish appears as something born out of water. What, then, is born out of air, and what out of fire? These are areas that are difficult to follow. At least a few hints should be given here.

[ 15 ] What was it like back then, when the Earth had just evolved from the Saturn state to the Sun state? Human beings were a kind of airy being; they knew nothing of death and dying in the modern sense. They simply transformed. Let us use a schematic drawing to clarify how humanity came to have the modern consciousness of death and dying. When the Earth had evolved from the Saturn state to the Sun state, the human soul still lived in the atmosphere surrounding the Sun, but it was connected to what was below as the body. Just as today, during sleep at night, the human astral body belongs to the physical body even when it has slipped out of it, so it was also on ancient Saturn and the ancient Sun; only, back then, the soul never slipped into the physical body. A soul possessing spiritual consciousness did indeed belong to a particular body, but it directed the body from the outside. You must have in your mind the mental image of the soul as something “external.” This body was not yet subject to the law of death. People knew nothing yet of dying. Growth and decay took place differently than is the case today. The body lost certain parts, but new parts grew back. Much as hunger and nourishment are related today, so did this process of destruction and regeneration of the physical body take place back then. For long periods, the soul continued to live in this way while the body underwent transformation. There was no dying, no death back then. However, from a certain point in the Sun stage, the human soul began first to form a specific body, that is, it transformed it into ever-changing, different forms. First, a body of a certain form was formed; then it transformed this form into another, then into yet another, and into a fourth; and thereafter it returned to the first state. The human being retained the same consciousness throughout. The forms changed; and when the human soul returned to the first form after having lived through the three other states, it felt newly incarnated. You can observe this process of development in the butterfly, which transforms into four forms: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly. The butterfly is the hieroglyph, the symbol for the human’s air state on the ancient Sun. Today’s butterfly, which lives under entirely different conditions, is, of course, a degenerate form of these states. The butterfly is a symbol of the air state that humanity has transcended. That is why it is referred to in occultism as an air being, just as the snake is referred to as an earth being and the fish as a water being. Why birds are not referred to as air beings will be explained later.

[ 16 ] Now let us return to the first Saturn state, where human beings were spiritual-soul beings who always had the same body, knew themselves to be immortal on a lower level, and continually transformed their bodies. This state has been preserved for us in a being that is quite unique in its communal life and which, when viewed as a group soul, stands in a certain sense higher than the human being. I am referring to the bee. The entire beehive must be viewed differently from the individual bee. The beehive—not the individual bee—possesses a spiritual being that, in a certain respect, corresponds to the nature of human beings on the former Saturn at a lower stage, a stage that humanity will once again attain on Venus at a higher level. The bee’s body has remained at the old Saturn stage. We must make a clear distinction: the beehive and the individual bee. The soul of the beehive is not an ordinary group soul, but a special being in its own right. The individual bee has preserved in its form what the human body underwent on Saturn. The spirit of the beehive stands higher than the spirit of the individual human; it already possesses a Venusian consciousness today. The bee is the symbol of the Spirit-Man who knows nothing of mortality. The spirituality that humans possessed when the planet was still in a fiery state [Saturn] will be attained again on a higher level when the planet, as Venus, becomes fiery once more. That is why the bee is referred to in occultism as a being of warmth or fire.

[ 17 ] It is very interesting to trace a parallel that physical science cannot explain very well. What, then, does modern humanity still possess from the Saturn state? Heat! The warmth of the blood. What was once distributed throughout Saturn—the heat—has separated out and now forms the warm blood of humans and animals. If you measure the temperature of a beehive, you will find it is roughly the same as that of human blood. The entire beehive thus develops a temperature corresponding to the temperature of human blood, and one that dates back to the same stage of development as human blood. That is why the occultist describes the bee as born of warmth, as a being of warmth, just as he describes the butterfly as born of air, as a being of air, the fish as a being of water, and the snake as a being of earth.

[ 18 ] As you can see from these remarks, there is a deep connection between what occult symbols and signs seek to express and the history of the planet’s and humanity’s development.