The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Sixth Lecture

[ 1 ] Anyone who carefully reflects once more on the last lecture given here and recalls how certain states previously experienced are repeated at a later stage—for example, how on our Earth a Saturnian, a Solar, and a Lunar state gradually emerge, and only then does our Earth state fully develop—might feel compelled to make the following observation.

[ 2 ] He might say: It has been claimed in various earlier lectures that on Saturn, the first physical human form underwent something like a kind of sensory system, as if this first Saturnian form of the human physical body had consisted of primitive, elemental sense organs. A glandular system would then have developed on the Sun, the nervous system on the Moon, and everything was repeated here on our Earth. But how does this fit with what was said last time: The first thing to emerge on Earth is the first rudiment of the circulatory system, a sort of “heat-being”; then, as the Earth’s state condenses into the air state and light is added, a kind of air system forms on one side, which later transforms into today’s respiratory system, while the heat system transforms into the later circulatory system; and on the other side, under the influence of light, a kind of inwardly perceiving nervous system emerges. It was further described how all of this is still in a fine, ethereal state, and how it is then, as it were, filled with a kind of protein substance that, under the influence of the world sound, the world tone, differentiates into the individual substances. If I now assume—the person in question might say—that the glandular system does not begin until this organic substance is incorporated, then there would first be on Earth a kind of thermal system that forms the initial basis for the circulatory system, and a kind of nervous system that is, of course, present in fine etheric lines of force; then the endocrine system would emerge, which in a certain sense is already organic and material, and finally the mineral would be incorporated, as was described last time. If these successive states of Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon have occurred in this way and these states are then repeated on Earth, it is nevertheless strange that a sensory system does not appear first on Earth, followed by a glandular system, a nervous system, and finally a circulatory system. Last time, however, it was described exactly the other way around: first blood, then nerves, glands, and finally the solid deposits, which, as has been emphasized, are what first open the senses to the outside world. One might say that this principle of repetition has been portrayed very poorly, in that last time, in particular, a sort of reversed order was described compared to what one would have expected if a truly literal repetition were taking place.

[ 3 ] It must be admitted that if someone were to describe the following circumstances based solely on intellect—as a mere repetition of the preceding ones—he would likely have given a description that would have meant the opposite of what actually happened. For the intellect would conclude that what was experienced on Saturn is first repeated on Earth in a formulaic manner, then what was experienced on the Sun, and then what was experienced on the Moon—and only then would the blood system emerge. I have often emphasized that in occultism one generally goes astray and can commit grievous errors if one does not describe things based on occult facts, but instead relies on mere intellect or on purely logical conclusions. For when one traces the evolution of Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon in the Akashic Records, it is indeed the case that one must say: on Saturn, a kind of sensory system is predisposed; on the Sun, a glandular system; on the Moon, a nervous system; and with the Earth, the blood system is added. If one then continues to trace the occult facts, it is the case on Earth that first a kind of circulatory system appears, then a glandular system, a nervous system, and only then does what appears as the sensory system in this form—suitable for Earthly conditions—take shape. So if one wishes to speak of repetitions, one would have to speak, in accordance with the facts, of a reverse repetition. What has been described previously, and what was described in the last lecture, does not stem from speculation but corresponds to actual facts; and in this context, such a reversal of the facts becomes apparent, which makes the repetition far more complicated.

[ 4 ] Nor must we now be content with the assumption that we are dealing with a mere reversal. Rather, just as the blood system first emerges in the initial constitution on our Earth as a kind of “heat-being,” as I described last time, so the blood system is in fact, at the same time, a kind of sensory system. For it is, in fact, a system of warmth and cognition. The human being is, so to speak, entirely a blood- or warmth-being. He is not permeated by blood substance, but by ethereal lines of warmth-force, and these ethereal lines of warmth-force—from which the blood system later arises—are, in the first stage of development, quite clearly a kind of sensory system. It exists only in its initial form and is itself a sensory system, while the nervous and light systems are, on Earth, initially a kind of glandular system; and indeed, the later glandular system can only integrate itself through the advancement in development of the other systems—the circulatory and nervous systems—which have already integrated themselves. This advancement occurs in the following manner: While the nervous system develops as a kind of glandular system, something of the blood remains behind as the later foundation of the blood. But at the same time, even during the second stage, the circulatory system itself transforms into a kind of nervous system; and once this is achieved and the endocrine system integrates itself in the third stage, the two earlier systems in turn transform again, so that in fact the circulatory system advances another step and the nervous system also advances another step. Thus, transformations and metamorphoses take place continuously. Development is indeed a very complicated process, and one should not be lulled into complacency by the concept of “reverse repetition.” For this reversal, too, is only partial; the circulatory system is a sensory system that later transforms, and the same is true of the nervous system, and so on.

[ 5 ] So you see, what has taken place to enable humankind to reach its present level is by no means a simple matter for the mind, and the point is that one must, with patience and perseverance, familiarize oneself with this complex course of development. However, this is merely a kind of introduction I wanted to offer to those who have once again earnestly reflected on what was said last time.

[ 6 ] Today, however, we have a very different task before us: to observe human beings on Earth in their development from an entirely different perspective, so that this human being may become increasingly vivid and clear before our eyes. If, for this purpose, we look back once more at the previous incarnation of our Earth—the ancient Moon—and bring the image of the human being on the ancient Moon before our inner eye, we see that this human being possesses a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body, but not yet a personal “I,” as he now has on Earth. If we now examine the state of consciousness of such a lunar human being, it is in fact radically different from that of the earthly human being. The state of the earthly human being is truly expressed in what one might call “personality.” This word says a great deal about the nature of the earthly human being; for on the ancient Moon, personality did not yet exist. We have seen that it was only on Earth that this personality gradually developed fully, and that in ancient times, human beings felt themselves to be much more a part of a greater community. Even if we do not go very far back in the regions where we ourselves live—indeed, even if we go back to the first centuries after Christ—we still find there the last echoes of an ancient consciousness. The ancient Cherusci, Sugambri, Heruli, and Brukteri did not yet feel themselves to be individual human beings to the same extent as people do today; rather, they felt themselves to be members of their tribe. And when they said “I,” this “I” still meant something entirely different from what it means today. Today, when a person says “I,” they mean the essence of their personality, as it were, enclosed within their own skin. Back then, a person felt toward their tribe much as a limb feels toward our organism. They felt first and foremost as a Sugambri, a Heruli, a Brukteri, or a Cherusci, and only secondarily as an individual “I.” You will better understand many conditions of that ancient time if you consider this radical change in the concept of personality, if you realize, for example, that certain forms of blood feud, family vendetta, and tribal revenge find their complete explanation in the collective consciousness of the tribe—in the consciousness of a kind of group soul. People simply saw themselves as groups bound by common blood, whereby a killing was avenged against the murderer’s entire tribe as well as against himself. And if we go back even further to the classical Old Testament era, to the time of the Jewish people, we know that the individual Jew felt himself to be a member of the entire Jewish people; that when he said “I,” he did not feel himself to be a representative of his personal self, but rather felt the blood of the entire Jewish people, as it had flowed down through the generations since the father Abraham: “I and the father Abraham are one!” In this awareness, the member of the people felt secure and valued. He felt this group soul in his blood reaching far back, all the way to Father Abraham. And if we go back even further to the primeval times of the Earth, we find the group soul aspect even more clearly pronounced. There, the individual recalls, as if in memory, what the ancestors did, all the way back to the forefather. The descendant’s memory reaches back centuries.

[ 7 ] In our time, under ordinary circumstances, people no longer remember what their father did unless they saw it themselves. They no longer remember what their ancestors experienced. Their memory encompasses only their own lives. In ancient times, people remembered inwardly—through their memory—not only what they themselves had experienced, but also what their ancestors, with whom they shared a common bloodline, had experienced—not because they knew it, but because memory was passed down beyond birth, And we know that the age of the ancient patriarchs—Adam and the subsequent ancestors of the Jewish people—originally meant nothing other than the length of memory: how far back one could recall in the ancestral line. Why did Adam and the other patriarchs live so long? Not because one referred to the individual personality, but because one remembered so far back through the generations as one remembers one’s own youth today. This was expressed with a collective term. The individual personality was not even a consideration. People did not merely recall what they had experienced in their own childhood, but also what their father had experienced in his childhood, what their grandfather had experienced, and so on through the centuries; and the content of this memory was summarized as a single entity and, for my sake, called “Adam” or “Noah” and the like. In ancient times, the individual personality by no means had the value it has today; rather, memory extended beyond one’s father, mother, grandfather, and so on; and as far as it reached, a collective name was used. This is something that appears crude and fanciful to the present-day materialistic worldview; yet it is precisely what a thorough study of the soul—one that knows how to reckon with the facts—must ascertain from the depths of those facts.

[ 8 ] We are already arriving at a point on our Earth where human beings had a kind of group consciousness that was attached to their group soul. If we were to go back to the ancient Moon, where human beings did not have such a limited “I” embedded in group consciousness, but rather where they had no “I” at all—where they still consisted of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body— we would find that consciousness on that ancient Moon was not a smaller one, but encompassed vast, great groups; that, in fact, all-encompassing group souls underlay the human race of the Moon. These group souls of the Moon, which, so to speak, placed the individual Moon humans on the Moon merely as their members, were wise souls. We have, after all, also described the animal group souls on Earth, and in doing so have found wisdom to be a prominent characteristic. These group souls of the Moon implanted in our planet, in its previous incarnation, the very wisdom that we know and admire today. And when we admire today how every bone, how the heart and brain, how every plant leaf is permeated and imbued with wisdom, then we know that this wisdom dripped down from the group souls that were in the atmosphere of the ancient Moon—just as the clouds today let the rain drip down — and became integrated into all beings who absorbed it as a potential and brought it forth again when they reemerged on Earth after the Pralaya. Thus, wise and all-encompassing Group Souls existed on the Moon.

[ 9 ] If we were to search the ancient Moon for a quality that we find today on our Earth on an ever-greater scale as Earth’s evolution progresses, we would not find this quality among the lunar beings. This quality is love, the impulse that draws beings to one another of their own free will. Love is the mission of our Earth. That is why, in occultism, we also call the Moon the “Cosmos of Wisdom” and the Earth the “Cosmos of Love.” And just as we today, standing on Earth, admire the wisdom inherent in it, so will the beings of Jupiter one day stand before beings from whom love will emanate toward them. They will, so to speak, taste and smell the love emanating from the beings around them. Just as wisdom shines forth toward us here on Earth, so will the beings of Jupiter be enveloped by the fragrance of what develops as love here on Earth—ranging from pure sexual love to the Spinozist love of God. It will emanate, just as plants today emit their various fragrances. Thus, the degrees of love will flow forth as that fragrance which will rise from the cosmos we have named Jupiter, the successor to our Earth. In this way, conditions change in the course of evolution, and whenever any progress occurs in evolution, the beings participate in it. Then the beings associated with the respective planetary stage of development ascend to ever higher stages of development. Today, the people living on Earth are, so to speak, the instruments of the development of love; previously, the animal kingdom developed these various forms of love as rudimentary forms, and to the extent that love manifests itself in animals, a simple observation would show that all of these are preliminary stages of human love, which is becoming increasingly spiritual. Just as human beings on Earth are the instruments of the evolution of love, so too, when they have evolved as far as Jupiter, they will be capable of assimilating an even higher quality. In the same way, those beings who poured wisdom down from the vicinity of the Moon became capable of a higher evolution when the Moon became Earth; they ascended to a higher level. These beings, who at that time had the power to infuse wisdom into the lunar beings, were in fact precisely the same ones who, at that point in Earth’s evolution when the Sun emerged from the Earth, had reached a stage where they could go out with the Sun and make the Sun their sphere of activity. The beings who were the spirits of wisdom on the Moon—the wisdom that trickled down—(these are different spirits of wisdom from those mentioned in connection with Saturn)—these spirits, or at least a large number of them, chose the Sun as their realm. Only the being known as Yahweh or Jehovah—who had most recently attained full maturity on the Moon—became the Lord of Form on Earth, the ruler of the lunar forces.

[ 10 ] But we have already spoken of other beings who had not completed the Moon’s full evolution, who had, so to speak, come to a standstill in the middle, between human and divine existence. We have characterized them in a wide variety of ways. We have pointed out that, at a certain stage of its evolution, the Sun split off Venus and Mercury from itself in order to provide these beings with a setting suited to them. We have also already discussed how beings—who, like the Venusian and Mercurian beings, became the great teachers of humanity in the mysteries—have participated in the ongoing development of humankind. Today we wish to supplement this picture from a different perspective.

[ 11 ] We have already indicated that if those forces and beings that emerged from the Earth along with the Sun had remained connected to the Earth in their original way, human beings would have had to develop at such a rapid pace that they could not have endured it. Humanity would not have been able to develop at all if the spirits of wisdom had remained connected to the Earth as they were connected to the Moon. They had to withdraw and exert their influence from the outside so that humanity could maintain the proper pace in its development. Otherwise, humans would grow old again almost as soon as they were born; their development would proceed at too rapid a pace. I can also illustrate this to you in another way.

[ 12 ] These spirits, who have evolved to the level of the Sun, have no interest in humanity progressing step by step through the various stages of life—childhood, youth, maturity, and old age—and slowly and gradually gaining earthly experiences in physical form. They are interested only in the complete development toward spiritual existence. Had they remained connected to the Earth, their bodies would, in a certain sense, have withered away or been consumed. Without bearing the fruits of conquering earthly existence, the spirit would have moved toward rapid development, and human beings would have lost everything they can learn on the Earthly stage. Above all, the imprint of love would have remained hidden from cosmic evolution. In order for love to develop on Earth, the body first had to be developed to a primitive stage. Love had to be laid down in its lowest form as sexual love in order to develop upward through the various stages, and finally, when the Earth has reached its completion in its last epoch, love will be ennobled and elevated, manifesting itself in human beings as purely spiritual love. All lower forms of love are training for higher love. Earthly human beings are meant to cultivate love within themselves so that, at the end of their development, they may return it to the Earth; for everything that is developed in the microcosm is ultimately poured into the macrocosm. Human progress becomes a further development of the macrocosm. The wisdom that has flowed into the lunar beings shines forth toward the earthly human being as wisdom that permeates his very being. The love that is gradually implanted in human beings during the Earth period will radiate toward the Jupiter beings from the entire realm of Jupiter. This is the path that the individual cosmic forces must follow.

[ 13 ] Thus, the starting point of our mission on Earth—the instilling of love—was, so to speak, confronted with the following two directions: The spirits of wisdom—the creators of wisdom who, from the Moon, poured wisdom into the earthly realms—were, on Earth, concerned only with themselves as spirits of wisdom and had no interest in the physical nature of human beings. Since they were interested only in wisdom, they entrusted the specific Earth mission to the spirits of love, who belong to a different class and who, as spirits of love, were initially also capable of developing for a time on the Sun. In this way, we have two aspects in the development of the Earth: an inflow of love, which appears, so to speak, anew, and an inflow of wisdom, which acts from the outside, because the spirits who are primarily interested in wisdom have withdrawn to the solar realm. It is very important that we correctly grasp this interplay between the spirits of wisdom and the spirits of love, for an infinitely important contrast is expressed in this interplay between the spirits of wisdom and the spirits of love. If I now wish to translate what happened there into human language, this contrast is expressed in the fact that the spirits of wisdom leave the individual human being—as he develops between birth and death—entirely in the care of the spirits of love, while they themselves assume the governance of the individuality that passes through the various personalities in the course of reincarnations. Now, when you imagine the human being in his entirety, you have seen under which two realms of governance the human being stands within the cosmic order. What the human being is between birth and death—what he develops within himself because he lives in a physical body, what, so to speak, truly makes him a being who stands here on Earth with both feet—that stands under the governance of the spirits of love. What runs through the personalities as the enduring individuality—what is born with the human being, dies, is reborn, dies again, and so on—is, in a certain sense, subject to the rule of the spirits of wisdom. But now you must not, in turn, resort to generalizations and say: “So you’re claiming that human individuality is under the influence of the spirits of wisdom, and human personality is under that of the spirits of love.” If one were to generalize in this way, the result would again be sheer nonsense. For concepts are valid only when one understands them in their relativity, when one knows that every concept has two sides. Only if you were of the opinion that this one life between birth and death were meaningless for all subsequent lives would you be justified in generalizing in this way. But if you bear in mind what I have always emphasized—that the fruits of every single earthly life, that is, the fruits of everything gained under the influence of the Spirits of Love, flow into the entire process of development, into that which is guided by the Spirits of Wisdom—and if, on the other hand, you realize that everything arises under the power of the Spirits of Wisdom, —what is within the human body, extending even to the astral body—for we have already described how the experiences made on Earth must be transformed and reshaped—then the Spirits of Wisdom once again exert their influence on the human being’s essence, since he possesses a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. And because what a human being develops as personality under the element of love—once developed—becomes permanent for his individuality, the Spirits of Love, in turn, influence what is developed in the individual human life through the mediation of wisdom. Thus they work together. Thus, the rule of these spirits is again divided in such a way that everything that constitutes the personality is immediately and directly subject to the rule of love, and everything that takes place between birth and death is indirectly subject to the element of wisdom.

[ 14 ] Thus we see how human personality and human individuality are present within various directions and currents. This is important for the following reason: If those spirits of wisdom—to whom we are now referring—had, so to speak, assumed control, that effervescent, vehement development would have taken place which one could also characterize by saying: the human being would have experienced, compressed into a single incarnation, all possible perfection from all incarnations. Instead, however, what the Spirits of Wisdom were to bestow was distributed across all successive incarnations on Earth. In occultism, this is expressed by a very specific term. Had the Spirits of Wisdom remained in the process of evolution, humanity would have rapidly developed into a spiritual being, physically burning itself out as it passed through all stages of development. Instead, however, the Spirits of Wisdom refrained from bringing humanity to such a rapid development. They departed from Earth to circle around it, in order to moderate the periods that would otherwise have passed rapidly, making them more measured. It is therefore said in occultism that these Spirits of Wisdom became “Spirits of the Cyclical Periods.” In successive cycles, governed by the course of the celestial bodies, human beings’ successive incarnations were regulated. The spirits of wisdom became spirits of the cycles. They would have been capable of lifting humanity away from Earth through their wisdom-filled power; but humanity would then have had to forgo bearing the fruits that can ripen only within time. The fruits of love and earthly experience would not have been attainable. The mysteries that beings must possess and take to heart in order to bear the fruits of love and earthly experience were hidden from these Spirits of the Cycles. That is why it is written in Scripture: “They veiled their faces from the mystical Lamb!” For the “mystical Lamb” is the Sun Spirit, who possesses the secret not only of lifting the spirits from the earth, but also of redeeming the bodies from the earth and spiritualizing them after they have passed through many incarnations. The possessor of the mystery of love is the Spirit of the Sun, whom we call Christ; and because He is concerned not only with individuality but directly with every single personality on Earth, we therefore call Him the “great sacrifice of the Earth” or the “mystical Lamb.”

[ 15 ] Thus, some became the spirits of the cycles and governed the successive incarnations. Christ became the center insofar as the individual personalities of human beings were to be sanctified and purified. Everything that a person can bring into their individuality as a fruit of their unique personality is attained through their connection with the Christ Being. Contemplation and a sense of connection with the Christ Being purify and ennoble the personality. Had Earth’s evolution proceeded without the appearance of the Christ, the human body—if we use the term in its broadest sense—would have remained evil; it would have had to unite with the Earth and would have fallen forever into materiality. And if, despite this, the Spirits of Wisdom had not refrained from spiritualizing human beings right at the beginning of Earth’s actual development, the following could have occurred: Either the Spirits of Wisdom would have torn human beings out of their bodies immediately at the start of Earth’s development—that is, during the Lemurian period—guided them toward rapid spiritual development, and swiftly burned their bodies; in that case, the Earth would never have been able to fulfill its mission. Or the Spirits of Wisdom might have said: “We do not want that; we want the human body to develop fully; but we ourselves have no interest in it, so we leave that to the One born later, to Jehovah, who is the Lord of Form!” Then the human being would have been mummified, would have withered away. But the human body would have remained connected to the Earth; it would never have moved toward spiritualization.

[ 16 ] Neither path was chosen; rather, so that a balance might be established between the spirits of wisdom and the Last-Born of the Moon—the Lord of Form, who is the starting point for the creation of the Moon—a middle ground was established; and this middle ground prepared the way for the appearance of the Christ, who is exalted above wisdom, before whom the spirits of wisdom humbly veil their faces, and who will redeem humanity as people become increasingly filled with and permeated by his spirit. And when the Earth itself reaches the point where humanity has become fully spiritualized, then not a barren sphere will fall out of the course of evolution, but rather, through what humanity has been able to draw from this development, it will lead its ever-more-ennobled human form toward complete spiritualization. And we see how human beings are becoming spiritualized. If we were to look at the original human bodies of the Lemurian era—I will never describe these Lemurian human bodies in a public lecture!—we would find that they appear to us as standing at the very limit of ugliness. Only gradually did the human body take on the form we know today. And human beings appear ever more refined as they are purified more and more by love. But humanity will also evolve beyond the human face as we know it today. Just as the human body has become increasingly spiritualized since the Lemurian race, so too will the human face become increasingly spiritualized. We are now in the fifth race. Just as the goodness and nobility that live in the soul are already expressed in the human face, so in the sixth race the human face will radiate inner goodness. Human beings will then have an entirely different physiognomy, so that one will be able to recognize from their outward appearance just how good and noble they are, and one will be able to discern from their face what inner spiritual qualities reside within them; and increasingly, the nobility and goodness contained in the human soul will be imprinted upon human physiognomy, until, at the end of the Earth’s history, the physical body of humankind is completely permeated by the spiritual and will stand out entirely from those who have remained attached to materiality—those who will represent the image of evil, who will remain at the mineral level. This is what is to come, and what is called the “Last Judgment”—the separation of the good from the evil. It is the spiritualization of the human body or, as it is popularly called, the “resurrection of the flesh.” One need only understand these things with sound reasoning grounded in occultism; then no attack can be launched against them. The Enlightenment, however, will not be able to understand that what is matter could one day become something other than matter. What might be called, in the best sense of the word, the “madness of materialism” will never be able to conceive that the material could one day become spiritual—that is, that something will one day occur that is called spiritualization, the resurrection of the flesh. But this is how things are, and this is the course of Earth’s evolution, and this is how the meaning of Earth’s evolution and the place of Christ within it emerge.

[ 17 ] If we were to consider only all that we have taken into account so far in our present exposition, a peculiar picture of the Earth’s evolution would emerge. This picture would be such that a balance would indeed be maintained between the spirits of form and the spirits that have become the spirits of the cosmic cycles—the true spirits of light. Because Christ, through the Mystery of Golgotha, is to guide future Earth evolution, these spirits would be in a state of equilibrium, and a gradual ascent would indeed be what lies ahead. But the matter is not quite that simple. We know that certain spirits have remained behind—spirits who had not attained the full maturity of wisdom’s development and who therefore have no interest in yielding their dominion to the current of love. These spirits wished to continue their influence and to keep wisdom flowing. They acted upon humanity and therefore did not act fruitlessly on Earth. They brought freedom to humanity. Just as the Christ principle brought love, so these spirits—whom we call the Luciferic spirits—brought freedom to humanity: the freedom of the personality. They gave humanity the ability to choose between good and evil. Even the fact that certain spirits remained behind has its very positive side, and everything—whether progress or remaining behind—is of a divine nature. Thus, there were spirits of the cycles who guided the successive incarnations—that which passes through all incarnations as individuality; and there were spirits of love under the guidance of the Christ principle, who prepared this individuality in such a way that the personality can gradually transition into a realm of love. If we wish to characterize the great ideal that we envision as a realm of love, we can do so in the following way.

[ 18 ] Even today, the profound misconception is widespread, even in the broadest circles, that the well-being and salvation of the individual is possible without the well-being and salvation of all other individuals on Earth. Even if people do not admit this directly, in practice everything is based on the fact that, as we live today, the individual lives at the expense of others, and the belief is widespread that the well-being of the individual is independent of the well-being of others. Future development will bring about full spiritual communion; that is to say, on Jupiter the belief will begin to prevail that there is no well-being or salvation for the individual without the well-being and salvation of all others—and indeed, the very same well-being and salvation for all other individuals. Christianity prepares the ground for this view, and its purpose is to prepare it. A sense of community has initially emerged on Earth through love bound by blood ties. Through this, pure selfishness was overcome. Christianity now has the task of kindling in people that love which is no longer bound by blood—that is, they must learn to find pure love, in which the well-being and salvation of the individual cannot even be conceived of without the well-being and salvation of others. The Kingdom of Love will manifest itself in such a way that, just as blood ties once bound people together, people will now see a kinship in every human being, regardless of shared blood. This is implied in the words: “Whoever does not leave father and mother, wife and child, brother and sister, cannot be my disciple.” Anything else is not true Christianity. This is how we can characterize humanity’s evolution toward a higher state. But this evolution toward such a state occurs in cycles, not successively. You can understand these cycles clearly through simple observation.

[ 19 ] Observe how, in the first epoch of the post-Atlantean era, a culture—the Brahmanic culture—emerges, reaches its zenith, and then falls into decadence; how it attains its zenith in the realm of escape from materiality, in which it seeks its salvation; and how, however, it must decline again because it sought its culture in the realm of the non-acknowledgment of matter. You will then see how a new cycle begins in ancient Persian culture, how ancient Persian culture conquers the globe by acknowledging matter—albeit as a force opposed to humanity, which humans subdue through their labor; and once again, this culture reaches its zenith and sinks into decadence. But a new culture rises, the Egyptian-Chaldean-Assyrian-Babylonian culture, which no longer merely acknowledges matter but permeates it with human intelligence—where the paths of the stars are explored, where structures are erected in accordance with what was derived from the wisdom of the stars, and where human settlements on Earth are laid out according to the laws of geometry. Matter is now no longer merely a resistant force, but is recast and transformed into the spiritual. The pyramids are a reflection of what humanity saw in the stars. And we move on further, after the Egyptian-Chaldean-Assyrian-Babylonian culture had fallen into decadence, to the Greco-Latin culture, where, in Greek art, humanity reshaped matter in such a way that it formed its own image within it, where humanity achieved the overcoming of matter through beauty. This was not the case earlier—that, as in Greek sculpture, architecture, and drama, humans would imprint their own image upon matter. The human personality is glorified in Greek art as the highest expression of beauty. And with Roman culture, we see the legal concept of personality emerge. It is yet another example of completely misguided scholarship—a single glance from a discerning person can see this—to claim that the legal concept of personality already existed in earlier times. The Code of Hammurabi is something entirely different from what was created in Rome as jurisprudence. This is truly a Roman product, for jurisprudence emerged where the individual personality also creates its image within the law; there, the human being is entirely grounded in his or her own personality. One should study and compare the will in Roman law with what is found in the Code of Hammurabi, where the human personality was entirely subsumed within a theocracy. The “Roman citizen” is a new element in the cycle of human development. In the fifth, Germanic culture, humanity must descend even deeper into the material world; the mastery of natural forces and the triumphs of technology are the result of this. Yet we have moved somewhat beyond the lowest point of this development. And a new cycle will be the one that emerges when people have fully embraced what is revealed today as theosophy. We see how every cultural cycle reaches its peak and then declines, and how every new cycle has the task of advancing culture... [Gap in the text.]

[ 20 ] ...This stable state of equilibrium gives human beings the assurance that they can be redeemed from the earth; and this striving upward and downward is what we call the pursuit of true freedom—a concept that the Luciferic spirits have instilled in humanity. Thus, in the course of world history, the Christ principle and the Luciferic spirits work together and give rise to civilization. It does not matter that in the early days of Christianity the Luciferic principle was excluded, and people were directed solely toward the Christ principle. Humanity will once again come to win its freedom through complete devotion to the Christ principle; for the Christ principle is so all-encompassing that only those who attempt to embrace it on the level of the highest wisdom can grasp it.

[ 21 ] Let us look back to pre-Christian times. There we find that religions existed as a preparation for Christianity. We do indeed see religions among the Indians and Persians, but these are religions suited to the specific peoples from whom they arose. These are national, tribal, and racial religions that arise with the people from whom they originated, limited in their inner nature because, in a certain sense, they still emerge from the group souls and are connected to them. With the Christian religion, an element enters human evolution that is truly the element of Earth’s evolution. In its early stages, Christianity immediately breaks through all earlier religious principles. It stands in stark contrast to the statement: “I and Abraham’s father are one.” First, it opposes the idea that one can feel a sense of unity with anything that is merely a human group; rather, the soul that dwells within every individual must be able to feel at one with the eternal foundation of the world—which is called the “Father” and which dwells within every soul—and this is expressed in the statement: “I and the Father are one.” And in contrast to the Old Testament, which begins with the words, “In the beginning was the light,” Christianity, as the New Testament, sets forth the words: “In the very beginning was the Word!” This marked one of the greatest advances in human development. For when speaking of light that emerges—insofar as one can speak of light at all—one is referring to something outwardly visible. Therefore, the ancient texts contain a Genesis that presents the physical as a revelation of light. The “Word,” however, is that which emerges from the innermost being. And before any revelation of light had come, what belonged to humanity was “what was, what is, what will be”—that is to say, what is meant by the innermost being of the human being. In the very beginning, it was not the light, but the Word. The Gospel of John is a document that must not be placed alongside the others; rather, it expands the other texts from the temporal to the eternal.

[ 22 ] Thus, Christianity does not stand as a religion that is a tribal religion, but rather as a religion of humanity, when properly understood. As the Christian feels at one with the “Father,” soul faces soul, regardless of which tribe it belongs to. Thus, all barriers must fall under the influence of Christianity, and the Jupiter state must be prepared under the influence of this principle. That is why Christianity began as a religion, for humanity was built upon religion. Religion, however, is something that must be superseded in the course of human development by wisdom, by knowledge. Insofar as religion is built upon faith and is not imbued with full knowledge, it is something that must be superseded in the course of human progress. And while in the past human beings had to believe in order to attain knowledge, in the future full insight will shine forth, and human beings will know and, from there, ascend to the recognition of the highest spiritual worlds. From religion, humanity is evolving toward wisdom once again inflamed by love. First wisdom, then love, then wisdom inflamed by love.

[ 23 ] Now we may ask: But when religion is absorbed into knowledge, when humanity is no longer given religion in its old form—so that it is guided solely by faith toward the wisdom that directs evolution—will Christianity then also cease to exist? There will be no other religion built on mere faith. Christianity will remain, for although Christianity was a religion in its beginnings, Christianity is greater than all religion! This is the Rosicrucian wisdom. In its early days, the religious principle of Christianity was more comprehensive than the religious principles of all other religions. But Christianity is even greater than the religious principle itself. When the veils of faith fall away, it will become a form of wisdom. It can completely shed the veils of faith and become a religion of wisdom, and spiritual science will help prepare people for this. People will be able to live without the old forms of religion and faith, but they will not be able to live without Christianity; for Christianity is greater than all religion. Christianity exists to transcend all forms of religion, and that which fills people as Christianity will still be present when human souls have outgrown all mere religious life.