The Rudolf Steiner Archive

2. Old Norse and Persian Myths

[ 1 ] Eight days ago, we discussed important connections between human organization and physical constitution and the astral world, based on the Germanic creation myth. We saw the interesting connection between the twelve pairs of cranial nerves and the twelve currents that our ancestors perceived on the astral plane through their form of clairvoyance, and which are nothing other than the inflows of what then forms the twelve pairs of cranial nerves in the human being. We have also seen how the so-to-speak softer parts of the human organism—that which pertains to the larynx, the heart, and the lower organic parts—are connected to the roots of the World Ash—which is, after all, an astral phenomenon—and how the formation of the human brain is connected to the crown and the branches of the World Ash. There we have looked deeply into the connection between what the myth tells us and what we can grasp through our own insight. We have also seen that such signs and symbols, as the myth presents them to us, are not things that have been thought up or invented by the imagination, but that they correspond to actual observations in the astral world. This must be emphasized again and again: all the talk about symbols and signs that arises from the intellect and speculation is worthless. For the true symbols that play a role in occultism are representations of experiences in the spiritual world.

[ 2 ] Today we will take an even deeper look into this area. We will come to a chapter that can really only be discussed in a working group that has been dealing with these questions for quite some time. Now, younger members are still joining such working groups. They have to get used to hearing things that may still be shocking to them under certain circumstances. But we wouldn’t make any progress if we didn’t also want to discuss matters that apply to advanced students. This does not mean advanced in terms of study and knowledge; rather, what is meant by “advanced” here is that the members who have been here for some time have acquired a certain sense that one can speak of spiritual beings and other worlds as if they were things or people one encounters on the physical plane, and with whom, under certain circumstances, one can interact and speak familiarly just as one does with the beings one encounters when stepping out the door onto the street. In this sense, I mean “advanced” in that they are not shocked when spiritual worlds and their inhabitants are spoken of in an uninhibited manner. And the younger members may, at least for the time being, have the goodwill to listen to such things and accept them as uninhibitedly as a story from the ordinary sensory world. The structure of today’s lecture will also seem somewhat varied. But that does not matter. We will gain an overview, on the one hand, of an important chapter of the spiritual world and, on the other hand, of the connection with our own human physicality.

[ 3 ] As you know, within our sensory world there extends a second world, which we call the astral world; it initially appears as a surging sea of light in which colors and forms flow. For the researcher in the astral world, these color formations align with specific entities, which he recognizes as astral beings that are just as real there as plants and animals are here in the physical world. Then, integrated into the astral and physical worlds is the world of spiritual sound, of the harmonies of the spheres, the world of Devachan, which can be perceived through clairaudience. We will discuss that another time. Today we will limit ourselves to the astral world from a few perspectives.

[ 4 ] Anyone who studies the astral world using the methods that those who delve deeper into these matters can gradually learn through their own development will find that this world is truly much, much more populated than our physical world. For the astral world possesses a quality that the physical world does not, and this quality is referred to in occultism as “permeability.” Namely, astral beings can pass right through one another; physical beings are not capable of this. From this you can already infer that the astral world can be much more populated, can contain far more beings than the physical world. This is indeed the case.

[ 5 ] Think back to the time when a large number of people were still able to glimpse into the spiritual world through their natural gifts, even without occult training. You will then gain a somewhat different understanding of many of the old paintings created by artists of the past. I need only remind you of the “Sistine Madonna,” which is located in Dresden. Even if some have not seen the “Sistine Madonna” themselves, they are certainly familiar with the fine engravings that exist of it. There you will have seen that the entire background is filled with the heads of angels or genies. Just as the perception of nature usually causes cloud formations to emerge from the air, so do figures of angels or genies emerge there. This is not mere fantasy, but something that is a full reality for those who can see the astral world. Such is the astral world, which surrounds us as a surging sea of light, filled with beings that, as it were, spring forth from every point in space with infinite vitality. This is how the astral plane appears in every respect; there is a vibrant spiritual life within it. Now, it should not be said that the painters who lived in Raphael’s time had this view to its full extent. That would be an exaggeration; but there were great predecessors of these painters, whose works have long since disappeared, who in many respects were true clairvoyants, who, through their clairvoyance, conveyed the tradition in such a way that a painter like Raphael, even if he was not a clairvoyant, knew from the tradition: this is how it is, and was therefore able to render it accurately. Even more accurate are older paintings from the 13th and 14th centuries. If you go back to a time best known for the painter Cimabue, you will see how the remarkable phenomenon of the gold ground confronts you in the paintings, and how angelic or genius figures emerge from it. This, too, corresponds fully to the reality of astral vision. Right down to the gold background, it corresponds to reality. For indeed, when we enter the higher regions of the astral plane, the surging sea of light—which glows and is illuminated in other hues—transforms into a surging sea of light that appears to be glowing with gold. This is beautifully rendered in a painting by Raphael, a fresco titled “The Disputation,” opposite another painting called “The School of Athens”—a name that, in truth, would be best dropped. In the “Disputa,” you have the disputing figures at the very bottom—believed to be Church Fathers, popes, and Doctors of the Church—then the region of the apostles and prophets begins, and following that is the region depicted by Raphael in the heads of the genii; this is the region we might call the lower astral plane. Further up in the same painting, the region of the higher astral plane is accurately depicted as glowing golden. This is why the paintings of these old masters are so compelling: because those who know these things find the truth of inner vision reflected in them. They are also compelling to those who do not know this, because they can sense in their subconscious the profound truth from which these things were created. I mention this to draw attention to how people in earlier times were aware of these higher realities and also depicted them in their paintings.

[ 6 ] Today we would like to discuss this world, which we have just attempted to describe as it has been depicted by painters. We will focus today on very specific beings that the clairvoyant encounters in the astral world, some in the lower astral world and others in the higher astral world. There are beings there that are shaped like a very complex bird’s body, yet of immense beauty, endowed with powerful wing-like organs and a head resembling that of a human; this is how they appear in form and shape. These are very real entities of the astral plane. The great teachers of the religions, who were able to look into this realm, were well acquainted with this kind of being. And when, in the most ancient times, people attempted to depict these beings—the cherubim, or the somewhat less accurate but at least well-intentioned griffins—they painted such strange figures that stand midway between a genius and a mythical creature.

[ 7 ] If one recalls the ancient legends, one sees in them humanity’s attempt to depict these higher, genius-like beings. They are portrayed in the most diverse ways, and those who worked in the mystery schools and knew them have, as it were, characterized this choir of beings. These kinds of beings are grouped into six classes. Like six regents, like six leaders of these hosts, there are six principal genii. They have been named in various ways, these six principal genii of the higher astral plane, the golden region. Persian esoteric teaching calls them “Amshaspands”; it speaks of the six Amshaspands.

[ 8 ] A second type of such astral beings, found in a somewhat lower region, looks different; they do not resemble any forms that exist here on the physical plane. But one can at least make oneself understood by attempting to describe their forms using those of the physical plane. This is also what the secret teachers did who gave the peoples their mythologies and the art we have spoken of, which arose from the secret teachings. There are no forms that look exactly like these beings, so we can only characterize them by depicting them as having a kind of human body with all sorts of different animal heads. The Egyptians, who were particularly well-versed in this realm of the astral plane and knew the spiritual beings of this sphere quite well, endeavored to depict precisely this category of spirits of the astral plane in various forms, such as human figures with the head of a sparrowhawk or human figures with other animal heads. These, too, are not arbitrarily invented fantasies, but forms with which one can interact on the astral plane just as one does with humans and animals on the physical plane.

[ 9 ] Then there is a third type of being. There are now countless of them; one can no longer really characterize them well by drawing comparisons from the animal or human world, but rather by trying to draw on the plant kingdom or the lower animals for their physicality and the human head as their head, so that the whole is roughly similar to a plant body from which a human head grows, or a fish body with a human head. All of this provides a rough picture of the beings that exist on the astral plane.

[ 10 ] As I have told you, there are six types of such genius beings, whom the Persians called “Amshaspands.” You are now also familiar with the second type, which is best characterized by a human form with an animal head; they take on the most diverse forms. If one goes through these forms, one arrives at about twenty-eight to thirty-one groups, and each of these groups is in turn led by a regent, so that there are twenty-eight to thirty-one such beings serving as regents on the astral plane. The Persian secret teachers called these regents the twenty-eight or thirty-one “Izards.” The beings I have discussed as the third category, they called “Farohars.” These are innumerable, and one would never finish if one were to classify them all numerically into groups. Today we need only be interested in the six Amshaspands with their hosts and the twenty-eight to thirty-one Izards with theirs, for they have a very special significance for the whole of human life. Anyone who looks into the spiritual world knows how to answer the question someone might raise: What exactly do these beings of the astral plane do? What do they do all the time? — It would be quite wrong to believe that these genies and spirits are merely there to form groups. One might easily think, based on certain poetic descriptions, that they are merely arranged in the various spheres to form groups. That would, of course, be a very tedious existence for these spirits. The formation of living groups is not what the spiritual world is about. All these beings have their mission within the world plan. These entities, whom the Persians called Amshaspands and Izards, were also known to the ancient Germanic peoples, the ancient Trots, and the Druid priests; they simply list them differently. According to some traditions, there are twenty-eight; according to others, thirty or thirty-one. We will soon hear why the number is uncertain. The entities that the Persians call Amshaspands are higher spiritual beings who preside over and guide the forces of nature surrounding us. The forces of nature—that which causes plants to grow, animals to thrive, and humans to live—these forces that surround us, which we call light, heat, electricity, magnetism, and so on, nervous energy, blood energy, reproductive energy—call it what you will—these are not merely non-spiritual forces. It is a superstition to believe that they are non-spiritual forces. These forces are the outward expression of spiritual beings. The great forces of existence—light, air, heat, electricity, and also the great chemical forces that permeate the world—are all the outward expression of the active Amshaspands and their hosts. They are at work within them. If I may put it in trivial terms: they “stir” the world. To the physical eye, they are behind the scenes. But you can still form a mental image of them if you imagine, for example, as in a puppet theater, a puppeteer who is not visible himself but can be recognized by the way he works through strings and wires. Just as the puppeteer works behind the figures in a puppet theater, so the spiritual beings stand behind the forces of nature. It is a tragedy for materialistic superstition when it sees only the puppets and has no awareness that spiritual beings are behind them. This, then, is the work of the Amshaspands, the six great genii who, as Persian theology teaches, stand by the side of the good God Ahura Mazda or Ormuzd as executive genii.

[ 11 ] Subordinate to them are the twenty-eight Izards. What is their significance? This is best revealed through direct clairvoyant observation, if one observes them day after day. You will understand me best if I speak quite bluntly about these twenty-eight Izards. If the six Amshaspands were to work with light, air, heat, and so on without the Izards, then the structure of our world would not come into being as it is. For this world to come into being, there must be a lower form of assistance. There must be subordinate, executive spirits. These are the twenty-eight Izards. And there is a very peculiar hierarchy to be observed. For if one observes day after day the way in which the work is done, one sees that the six great group genii, the Amshaspands, work constantly, ceaselessly, and evenly. They are tireless. But the subordinate twenty-eight Izards have a significantly shorter working period. They take turns, so that on one day one category of Izards is seen as the helper, on the second day the second category, and on the third day the third, and so on. This is what enables the world to move forward at all. When a certain genus of plants emerges in the spring, the Amshaspands are at work. Although they always work tirelessly, one of them takes the lead for a certain period of time; that one is then the most active. The others are also active, but they do not hold the lead. After some time, another one takes the lead. When a plant species emerges in spring, it is the case that the Amshaspands act in the manner of the great forces of nature, and that the lower forces, the Izards, work in such a way that everything fits and aligns precisely on a specific day. That the climate is right, for example, that the temperature is just right on this particular day, is brought about by a category of the Izards. Plant growth could not continue if another category of Izards did not come into play on the following day. After twenty-eight days, however, the first category returns, and so it goes on. This is indeed the structure of the spiritual order that underlies nature. Here we look directly into the workings of this mechanism; we see how things operate on the astral plane.

[ 12 ] Let us now recall what we said eight days ago. We said that the part of the Germanic myth we discussed then ties in with that exodus of the chosen few near present-day Ireland, which was once part of Atlantis, whose population had advanced in its development and then migrated eastward. What is called the more advanced race of the Atlanteans founded the eastern cultures. The story of the World Ash expresses the becoming of the new human being, as it was perceived in the astral world at that time. It was observed how the twelve streams, which we described last time, flowed down from the north and poured in over long ages. These twelve streams truly exist on the astral plane, even today. For if you trace the twelve pairs of nerve strands that run through your head and extend the lines further out into the world, they all unite with the twelve fundamental streams that exist on the astral plane outside. They actually flow in through the six openings of the head—through two eyes, two ears, and two nostrils. Inside, they become twelve streams again, two by two. And who sends them in there? Since light and air, which act as natural forces outside, are directed by the six Amshaspands, at the highest level of human formation these twelve streams are sent into our head to form our cranial nerves. This is what the secret teachers saw in the six Amshaspands. They saw the six directing spirits who send the twelve streams into the head, so that the human being gains the ability to perceive the world with the help of his nervous system. Thus you see the human head as connected to these six genii, as it were, through a kind of telephone or telegraphic connection. To them you owe the ability to perceive through your senses. Thus, the human being stands as a microcosm, as a small world, in connection with the great world, the macrocosm.

[ 13 ] And what do the subordinate spirits, the twenty-eight Izards, do in this process? You see, before human beings were ready to absorb the higher powers of the Amshaspands themselves, they were already fully ready to absorb the powers of the Izards, which are expressed through their lower nerves. Just as the aforementioned currents flow into the cranial nerves and build them up, so do the currents of the twenty-eight Izards flow into the human torso, which was formed earlier than the head. Before humans were capable of absorbing the powers of the Amshaspands and forming the head from them, the human torso was capable of absorbing the inflows of the twenty-eight Izards. Do they still possess the powers of the Izards within themselves?

[ 14 ] When we examine the human spinal cord, we find that it runs through the spine as a nerve cord with whitish matter on the outside and gray matter on the inside, whereas in the brain, the inside is white and the outside is gray—exactly the opposite. This has special significance. It is interesting to note that nerve cords extend from the spinal cord along the entire length of the spine, supplying the lower functions of the body. They extend downward from the top and spread throughout the entire body. How many such nerve cords are there? If we want to understand how many there are, we must first answer the question: Where do they come from? — These are, in fact, the strands that were formed by the inflows of the twenty-eight Izards; therefore, there are twenty-eight to thirty-one pairs of such nerve strands extending to the left and right. You know that before the formation of the human being on Earth, there was a lunar formation. During the lunar stage, only twenty-eight such nerve strands were initially formed as a predisposition. Then, as the Moon developed into the Earth, two or three new ones were added. Thus, the number of the original twenty-eight Izards, which already served the higher genii on the Moon, has been increased by three. Because the higher formation of the human being had to be prepared on Earth, three additional Izards had to be added. These last three are Izards that act specifically only upon human beings; they have no task in the external natural world. This is very interesting to consider.

[ 15 ] Now it is also extremely interesting to observe all these processes in such a way that we consider them not only in human beings but also out in the great natural world. For human beings have, after all, been gradually shaped according to the constellations of the great natural world outside. If our Earth were not in the vicinity of the Sun, around which it orbits in a year, and if the Moon were not in its vicinity, moving around it in a month and appearing in four phases, then human beings would be different, for all these things are closely interconnected. Light and air have a different effect when the sun shines on the Earth from a certain point in the sky, and a different one when the sun shines on the Earth from another point. Why is that so? Because the apparent progression of the sun is precisely connected to the fact that the Amshaspands take turns in leadership. From month to month, over the course of six months, the Amshaspands take turns in leadership. This is connected to the sun’s passage through the twelve signs of the zodiac. Every six months, an Amshaspand’s turn comes again, so that we have one reign of the Amshaspands during the summer months and another during the winter months. Each year, an Amshaspand has two months to act, and within this reign the Izards take turns; they take turns precisely with the changing of the moon. Therefore, the moon needs twenty-eight days to return to its original form through its four phases. The moon’s orbit governs the work of the Izards, while the sun’s orbit governs the rule of the Amshaspands.

[ 16 ] And so the development of the human brain, with its twelve pairs of nerves, is connected to the sun’s annual cycle and to the twelve months. What the twelve months are in nature outside us, the twelve pairs of cranial nerves are within us; and what the twenty-eight lunar days are outside us, the twenty-eight nerves of the spinal cord are within us. And because it was necessary for a new order to emerge when our Earth was being formed anew from the old lunar form, three new Izards were added, thereby establishing that order in which the months must necessarily vary between thirty and thirty-one days. Today’s astronomical division is not entirely accurate, because the three extra Izards affect humans specifically and have less of an effect out in nature. If a month always had thirty-one days, then all thirty-one Izards would indeed affect human beings. They regulate the functions of the physical body below the head, and so these functions of the physical body are indeed connected to the various reigns of the Izards, even if they shift from person to person. Originally, they are connected to the division of the great natural order.

[ 17 ] Here you can see deeply into the connection between the inner human constitution and the spiritual world of the astral plane. Various popular theosophical works speak of the “Formers.” Here you can see them at work, how they act upon you from the outside and build you up; here you also see what a complex structure the human being is, and all the beings that are at work so that the human being—this complex being—can be built up. Six categories of spirits must be present so that his thinking mind can be built; and twenty-eight to thirty-one lower spirits must be present so that his torso and all the functions of his torso can come into being. This is a wondrous connection between the human being and the spiritual world. You will now understand that it is not enough, for the understanding of the human being’s relationship to the infinite, merely to ramble on about the fact that the human being is built from the spiritual world, but that we must patiently study how this is so. For every organ within the human being, occultism can identify the beings who assembled the organ from the outside. This is an occult anatomy that leads you from the effects in the sensory world to the causes in the spiritual world. Anyone who observes the world with an open mind can see the effects; the causes can only be learned through occultism. You can see from this that we strive not to present abstract proofs with all sorts of logical conclusions for the existence of a spiritual world. For everything that can be proven can also be refuted. One can object to everything. That is not the point. But if one gathers the individual insights piece by piece, so that the things correspond with the effects that exist in the sensory world, then one can come to recognize as true what the occultist perceives: how the human being is formed from the spiritual world. It did not occur to the Persians to count the twenty-eight nerve cords of the spinal cord; they saw the twenty-eight Izards at work. You can find the whole human being in the mythologies and legends. This is what gives the true occult study of the world of legends its great appeal.

[ 18 ] These phenomena, which we have studied here, can be found everywhere in the mystery schools, from Persia all the way to Central Europe among the Druids. Whether one calls the highest spirit presiding over the Amshaspands Ahura Mazda, Ormuzd, or Huu—as he was called in the Druidic schools—is irrelevant. People were familiar with the spiritual beings that were bestowed upon humanity in the mythologies. The individual gods and spirit figures are not fantastical inventions of a folk imagination. Those who speak of “popular imagination” have a certain right to do so, but the imagination does not lie with those who gave the figures to the peoples; rather, the imagination lies with our modern, educated scholars, who speak of a popular imagination that does not even exist. And in many cases, scholarship is a far worse superstition than what scholarship labels as superstition. In myths and legends, a much, much deeper wisdom is often to be found, for they go back to the origins of things that lay beyond the sensory realm in the invisible. When one considers this, it is as if a person were to cease being confined within their own skin, and their existence were to continue from the inside out. They become familiar with the beings that dwell in the spiritual world; these beings have formed them, and they can once again enter into a relationship with these beings. For it is a genuine entering into relationship with these beings that we attain through the path of knowledge leading into the higher worlds. We ascend from the effects visible to the senses to the supersensory, invisible causes. Through the path of knowledge, the human being becomes one with the universe once more.

[ 19 ] We could, following this line of thought, cite many, many examples; but let us conclude this discussion today—so as not to prolong it too much—with a fact from Germanic mythology that will show you how, on the one hand, things unfold in human development, and how, on the other hand, these events are preserved in myth, just as many things are preserved in simple folk belief.

[ 20 ] What is physical today was once entirely spiritual. Before these twelve cranial nerves took shape, there were simply the astral currents flowing into them, and before the twenty-eight nerve tracts of the spinal cord had even formed, the corresponding astral currents were already present. How, then, do these nerve deposits arise in humans? In the following way: Imagine that there was originally a watery, slimy fluid. Imagine the brain like that. You can still see this today in the part of the brain that has remained fluid and watery; if it remains too fluid, hydrocephalus develops. Our brain emerged from such a watery brain and then became gelatinous. At first, astral currents coming from outside flowed through this watery mass in all directions, and along these astral currents the gelatinous mass organized itself and hardened, and the nerves arose. Where nerves run today, there were originally astral currents, then etheric currents, and finally they became physical nerves. Imagine the human being as he gradually hardened. The mass was barely cartilaginous when the first rudiments of the spine appeared. The bony covering was still soft. Astral currents flowed in from the right and left, which later became the spinal nerves. We are looking back to an ancient time when the twenty-eight Izards began to send their currents—first astral—into human beings.

[ 21 ] The twenty-eight Izards also had a leader, a ruler who held a position of authority between the Izards and the Amshaspands; this leader of the Izards was a kind of foreman, a divine-spiritual being. When we look back to ancient times, we see him acting in such a way that he commanded the twenty-eight Izards and directed them to channel the astral currents into human beings. The entire Earth was surrounded by this astral sphere; and just as the winds flow through the Earth’s atmosphere today, so did the astral currents flow into human bodies. The ancient clairvoyants truly saw these currents flowing into the heads and spines of the people of the Atlantean era. This was a living astral image. As the physical nerves gradually developed, this image disappeared, and this meant: its origin was forgotten; it was forgotten how the currents had been directed into the body.

[ 22 ] The leader of the twenty-eight Izards initially commanded the forces of nature as they operated day by day. Over the course of the year, all of this unfolded rhythmically and harmoniously. In the course of a single day, however, it operated somewhat irregularly. Terrible flashes of lightning, thunder, and storms lashed through the air surrounding the Earth, which still contained the astral within it. Then the god, the leader of the Izards, who had been working out there, changed his domain and worked within, in the twenty-eight nerve currents of the spinal cord. He emerged from that spiritual sphere surrounding the Earth and ultimately unfolded his powers within the human being. Germanic mythology calls this god Thor or Donar. According to Germanic belief, he is the same deity who is later called Jupiter in Roman belief. He is rightly worshipped as the god of storms who caused the tempests. He is also regarded as married to Sif, the astral atmosphere of the Earth; these two now have a daughter who is something quite particularly characteristic. How does this daughter come into being? Through Thor’s withdrawal into the inner being of the human and his working through the twenty-eight nerve strands. Through the twenty-eight nerve strands, humans do not perceive the astral externally, but in certain exceptional states they do perceive it, for example in the dreamlike state of sleep. Those who were particularly predisposed to perceive this would then say, according to popular belief: “Thrud is weighing on me”—and this is none other than the daughter of Thor. People still knew that Thrud was born where Thor lives with his wife. That is why they called it “Thrudheim.”

[ 23 ] You see, folk legends are so deeply intertwined with occult truths. In this way, we can gradually gain a deep insight into that marvelous edifice—the human being—which has been built up by so many beings. How childish and petty a materialistic science seems to us, which seeks to understand this marvelous structure in such a trivial way. In earlier times, people felt quite differently about this. People expressed through feeling what modern science knows through knowledge. And when the ancient poet looked around and sensed how, among the beings he sees on the physical plane, the human being stands as the marvelous culmination, as the work of so many infinite beings, he was permitted to utter that beautiful, grand phrase that emotionally conveys such a profound truth:

Many mighty things exist,
yet nothing is mightier
(among the visible)
than man.