The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Sixth Lecture

[ 1 ] Some of you, upon reflecting on the observations made in recent days regarding the evolution of our Earth—and, in a broader sense, of the solar system—in relation to humankind, may have encountered a contradiction that seems strange to you, one that conflicts with many cherished notions about life. Some of you may have said to yourselves: “Well, we heard yesterday that the worst forces in evolution are bound to the Moon, and that it was only at the moment the Moon separated from the Earth that these worst forces departed with it, and that it was only through this that a state of the Earth remained in which humanity could find its evolution.” — We’ve heard all that now, but where is all the romance of the moon? All that poetry, which sprang from true feelings, that relates to all the marvelous effects of the moon on human beings?

[ 2 ] This contradiction is only apparent, and it resolves itself when we do not view the facts one-sidedly, but rather when we consider the totality of the facts. If, however, we were to examine the Moon today in terms of its physical mass, we would find that it would appear unsuitable for sustaining the kind of life we now have on Earth. At the same time, however, we must also say that everything that is ethereal and connected to the Moon and its physical substances is, to a large extent, of such a nature that it appears to be something very inferior, even decadent, compared to what resides as the ethereal in our own physicality. And if we were to observe clairvoyantly what constitutes the astral aspect of the individual lunar beings—of whom we can certainly speak—we would be able to convince ourselves that, compared to the worst of the base emotions present on our Earth, there is something countless times worse and inferior on the Moon. Thus, with regard to the astral, the ethereal, and the physical aspects of the Moon, we may speak of beings, of elements that had to be separated so that our Earth could follow its course free from harmful influences.

[ 3 ] Now, however, we must become aware of another fact. We must not overlook the fact that we must not dwell on the bad and the evil. For everything that becomes low and evil in the course of evolution is always subject to a significant truth. As long as it is at all possible, everything that has descended deeply into lower spheres must be purified by other, more perfect beings, raised up, and refined, so that it may be reused in the order of the universe. If we find a place in the universe where there are particularly low beings, we can be certain that these lower beings are connected to other, higher ones who possess such great power of the good, the beautiful, and the glorious that they are capable of steering even the lowest forces toward the good. Therefore, it is true that all that is low is linked to the lunar realm; on the other hand, however, high and highest beings are in turn linked to it. We already know, for example, that the high, very high spiritual being Yahweh dwells on the Moon. Such a high being, with such power and glory, however, has beneath him, in his work, vast, vast hosts of serving beings of a good nature. So we must imagine that, while the lowest elements from the Earth did indeed depart with the Moon, those beings capable of transforming the evil into good and the ugly into beautiful remained connected to the Moon. They could not have done this if they had left the ugly within the earthly body; they had to remove it. But why, then, must that which exists as ugly and evil come into being at all? It had to come into being because, without the influence of the ugly and the evil, nothing else could possibly have come into being: human beings could never have become beings that are formed and complete within themselves. Let us recall the previous consideration. There we saw how the lower nature of the human being was rooted in water, how he extended halfway into the dark water-earth. There were no bones; there was no fixed human form. There was a metamorphosing form—vegetal, flower-like—whose shape was constantly changing. Humanity would have remained in this state had the forces not developed in the way they were brought forth by the Moon. Had the Earth remained exposed solely to the Sun, the mobility of the human being would have risen to the highest degree; the Earth would have adopted a pace impossible for humanity; humanity could not have come into being in its present form. If, on the other hand, only the lunar forces had been at work, then human beings would have solidified immediately; their form would have solidified at the moment of birth, they would have become mummies and thus been immortalized. Today, human beings develop right in the middle of these two extremes: between unlimited mobility and solidification into form. Because the formative forces reside in the Moon, the physical Moon has also become a slag. Only the high, powerful beings connected to the Moon can work within these forms. Thus, two forces act upon the Earth: the solar forces and the lunar forces, the former driving, the latter mummifying. Imagine if a gigantic being were to drag the Sun away—at that very moment, we would all freeze into mummies, so completely that we would never again be able to shed this form. But suppose a giant were to drag the Moon away—then all the beautiful, measured, rounded movements we have today would become jerky. We would become completely agile on the inside; we would see our hands extend to gigantic proportions and then shrink back again. The power of metamorphosis would increase to gigantic proportions. But now, human beings are caught between these two forces.

[ 4 ] But even within this cosmos—not only in the forms and substances, but also in the relationships between things—there are many aspects that are arranged with extraordinary wisdom. And now, to bring home to us today just how much infinite wisdom lies within the cosmos, we will examine a relationship connected to the figure of Osiris.

[ 5 ] In the form of Osiris, the Egyptians saw the effect of the sun on our Earth at a time when mists still swirled around the Earth, when there was no air yet, and they saw that when human beings began to breathe air, at that very moment the unified being, Osiris-Set, split apart. Set, or Typhon, causes the breath of air to enter us. Typhon, the breath of wind, separated from the light of the sun, and Osiris acts only as the light of the sun. But it is also the very moment when birth and death entered the human being. A great change had come over what was once a process of formation and dissolution—a process that, until then, had been much like putting on and taking off a coat. If human beings back then—at a time when the effects emanating from the sun had not yet left the earth itself, the effects that emanated from those high beings who later departed with the sun—had been able to perceive these effects, they would have looked up with gratitude toward these solar beings. But as the Sun now separated more and more from the Earth, and as the so-called “mist sphere”—which, admittedly, was then the realm of human beings’ higher nature—became increasingly refined, human beings, who were able to perceive the Sun’s direct influence less and less, became aware of the forces within their lower nature, and came to grasp their “I” there. It was only when he immersed himself in his lower nature that he became aware of himself.

[ 6 ] Why, then, was the entity we know as the Osiris entity darkened? The light ceased to shine when the Sun departed, but Yahweh remained on Earth for a time, until the Moon separated. Osiris was the spirit who contained within himself the power of sunlight to such an extent that later, when the moon separated, he went with the moon and was given the task of directing the sunlight from the moon onto the earth. So first we see the sun depart; Yahweh remains on earth with his host, along with Osiris. Man learns to breathe. At the same time, however, the Moon emerged; Osiris went out with the Moon and was given the task of reflecting the sunlight from the Moon onto the Earth. Osiris is placed in a coffin—that is, he withdraws with the Moon. Previously, humankind had received the Osiris effect from the Sun; now they sensed that what had formerly come to them from the Sun was now streaming toward them from the Moon. At that time, when the moon shone down, human beings said to themselves: “Osiris, it is you who shines the light of the sun upon me from the moon, a light that belongs to your very being.”

[ 7 ] But this light of the sun is reflected back in a different phase each day. When the moon appears in the sky as a faint crescent, we have the first phase; when it has grown on the second day, the second phase, and so on through fourteen days, we have fourteen phases leading up to the full moon. Over the course of fourteen days, Osiris turns toward the Earth in the fourteen phases of the illuminated lunar disk. It is of profound significance that the moon—that is, Osiris—assumes these fourteen phases, these fourteen stages of growth, in order to radiate the light of the sun to us. What the Moon does here is linked in the cosmos to the fact that human beings have learned to breathe. Only when this phenomenon was fully manifest in the sky in its own way could human beings breathe; and through this, they became connected to the physical world, and the first seed of the “I” could arise within the human being.

[ 8 ] Later Egyptian understanding perceived everything described here and recounted it as follows: Osiris once ruled the Earth, but then Typhon, the wind, appeared. — This is the time when the waters recede far enough for air to emerge, causing humans to become air-breathers. The Osiris consciousness defeated Typhon; Typhon killed Osiris, placed him in a chest, and cast him into the sea. How could this cosmic event be expressed more meaningfully in imagery? First, the sun god Osiris reigns; then he is driven out into the moon. The moon is the chest that is thrust out into the sea of outer space; now Osiris is in outer space. But let us also recall that the legend states that when Osiris was found again, when he emerged in outer space, he appeared in fourteen forms. The legend tells us: Osiris was dismembered into fourteen parts and buried in fourteen tombs. Here we have a marvelous reference in this profound legend to the cosmic process. The fourteen forms of the moon—the lunar phases—are the fourteen pieces of the dismembered Osiris. The whole of Osiris is the whole lunar disk.

[ 9 ] At first glance, this might seem as if it were all just a symbol. But we can already see that it had real significance. And now we come to something without which the mysteries of the cosmos will never become clear to us. If such a constellation of the Sun, Moon, and Earth had not come to pass, if the Moon had not appeared in fourteen phases, then something else would not have come to pass, for these fourteen phases have brought about something quite special. Each one of them has had a great, powerful influence on human beings in their development on Earth. Now I must tell you something strange, but it is true. Back then, when none of this had yet happened, when Osiris had not yet departed, human beings in their luminous form did not even possess the rudiments of something that is of the utmost importance today. We know that the spinal cord is very important; nerves branch out from it. These were not even present in embryonic form at the time when the Moon had not yet emerged. The fourteen phases of the Moon, in the order in which they follow one another, were the cause of fourteen nerve tracts becoming attached to the human spinal cord. The cosmic forces acted in such a way that these fourteen nerve tracts correspond to the fourteen phases of the Moon. This is the result of the Osiris effect.

[ 10 ] Now, there is something else that corresponds to the Moon’s development. These fourteen phases are, after all, only half of the Moon’s manifestations. The Moon has fourteen phases from the new moon to the full moon and fourteen phases from the full moon to the new moon. During the fourteen days leading up to the new moon, there is no Osiris effect. During this time, the Moon is illuminated by the Sun in such a way that it gradually turns its unlit side toward the Earth as a new moon. These fourteen phases from the full moon to the new moon also have their own effect, and this effect is achieved in Egyptian consciousness through Isis. These fourteen phases are governed by Isis. Through the influence of Isis, fourteen other nerve tracts extend from the spinal cord. This makes a total of twenty-eight nerve tracts, corresponding to the various phases of the moon. Here we see the origin of very specific parts of the human organism, arising from cosmic events. Some might now say: “But that’s not all the nerve tracts—there are only twenty-eight.” — There would be only twenty-eight if the lunar year coincided with the solar year. But the solar year is longer, and the difference between the solar year and the lunar year has given rise to the additional nerve tracts. Thus, the influence of Isis and the influence of Osiris have been incorporated into the human organism from the Moon. But something else is connected to this as well.

[ 11 ] Until the moment the Moon began to exert its influence from the outside, there was no sexual dimorphism. Until then, there was only one human being who was, so to speak, both male and female. That separation occurred only through the alternating influence of Isis and Osiris emanating from the moon, and depending on whether the Osiris nerves or the Isis nerves exert a particular influence on the organism, the human being becomes either male or female. An organism in which the Isis influence predominates becomes male; a body in which the Osiris influence predominates becomes female. Of course, both forces—Isis and Osiris—are at work in every man and every woman, but in such a way that in a man, the etheric body is feminine, and in a woman, the etheric body is masculine. Here we have a glimpse of the wondrous connection between the individual being and the positions within the cosmos.

[ 12 ] We have now discovered that influences on human beings arise not only from the forces but also from the constellations of the celestial bodies. Under the influence of these twenty-eight nerve tracts, which originate in the spinal cord, everything pertaining to the male and female organisms took shape. Now we shall mention something else that will allow us to shed light deep into the cosmos and its connections with human development. These forces shape the human form, but the human being does not become fixed in it; a state of equilibrium is created between the influences of the Sun and the Moon. In what follows, we must not think that we are dealing merely with some kind of symbolism; we are dealing with real facts.

[ 13 ] What is the original Osiris, the undismembered Osiris? What is the dismembered Osiris? What was previously a unity within the human being is now fragmented into the twenty-eight nerves. We have seen how he lies dismembered within us. Without this, the human form could never have come into being. But what was first formed under the influence of the sun and moon? First, through the interaction of all the nerve strands, not only did male and female forms emerge externally, but something also arose within the human being through the influence of the male and female principles. The inner Isis effect came into being, and this inner Isis effect is the lung. The lung is the regulator of the influences of Typhon or Set. And what acts upon the human being from Osiris does so by stimulating the feminine effect in a masculine way, such that the lung is made productive through the breath. The male and female principles are regulated by the influences emanating from the sun and the moon: within every female there is a male element—the larynx; within every male there is a female element—the lungs.

[ 14 ] Isis and Osiris work within every human being, in relation to their higher nature. Thus, every human being is hermaphroditic, for every human being has lungs and a larynx. Every human being, whether woman or man, has the same number of nerves. And now, after Isis and Osiris have thus freed themselves from the lower nature, they have given birth to the son, the creator of the future earthly human being. Together they have brought forth Horus. Isis and Osiris have conceived the child, guarded and nurtured by Isis: the human heart, guarded and nurtured by the lungs of Mother Isis. Here, in the Egyptian conception, we have something that shows us that in these ancient mystery schools, what had become the higher nature of the human being was regarded as masculine-feminine: that which the Indians recognized as Brahma. To the Indian disciple, what would later appear as that higher form was already revealed in the primordial human. Horus, the child, was shown to him, and he was told: all of this came into being through the primordial sound, through the Vāc, the primordial sound that differentiates itself into many sounds. — And what the Indian student experienced has been preserved for us in a remarkable verse in the Rigveda. There is a passage in it that reads: “And upon the human being come the seven from below, the eight from above, the nine from behind, the ten from the depths of the rocky vault, and the ten from within, while the mother cares for the child to be nursed.” — This is a remarkable passage. Let us imagine this Isis, whom I described as the lung, and this Osiris, whom I described as the respiratory system, and let us consider all of this: how the voice works within them, differentiating itself as laryngeal sounds, pulmonary sounds, and how it differentiates itself into letters. These letters come from different directions: seven come from below, from the throat, and so on. The unique workings of everything connected with our respiratory system are laid out here. Where the sound differentiates and structures itself, there is the higher mother who nurtures and cares for the child—the mother: the lung; the child: the human heart, formed under all these influences, from which the impulses arise that animate the voice.

[ 15 ] Thus the mysterious workings and interweaving within the cosmos were revealed to the initiate, and thus they unfolded over the course of time. And we shall see how the other parts of the human being have been woven into this fabric. Thus, in this Egyptian esoteric teaching, we also have a chapter on occult anatomy, as it was practiced in an Egyptian secret school, insofar as knowledge existed of cosmic forces, cosmic beings, and their connection to the human physical body.