The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eighth Lecture

[ 1 ] We have now become acquainted with significant developmental processes of the human organism. We have traced this organism from its origin up to the point at which the Moon separated from the Earth. When we say “point in time,” this is, of course, spoken in an imprecise sense, for these processes take quite a long time. From the first moment when the Moon began to show signs of moving away until the last, when it had completely separated, long periods of time elapsed, and many things were still taking place in the development during that time. Roughly speaking, however, we have considered the human being up to the point when the Moon separated. We have come to understand this form of the human being—the form that, from the lower half of the body onward, roughly from the middle of the human body, from about hip level, already exhibited a shape not entirely unlike that of today. After all, viewed through modern eyes, one would have been able to see this body—albeit as soft tissue—while the upper parts would have been visible only to a clairvoyant consciousness. We have already pointed out how legend, religion, and art have preserved something of the human nature of that time in the figure of the centaur. And in the individual parts of the body, we have come to recognize human limbs that gradually developed into the feet, lower legs, knees, and thighs—which at that time represented the animal forms of our Earth, animal forms that had, however, remained at a certain stage of development, a stage that humanity had since transcended. Now let us examine this in great detail.

[ 2 ] In ancient times, when the sun first rose, no animal forms had yet come into being. Once the sun had risen, the highest form of animals at that time was a type of creature that was at the level of today’s fish. Now, when it is said that human feet corresponded to this fish-like form, and when we have considered the feet in connection with the fish, what does that actually mean? It means that back then, such beings remained who swam about like fish in the water-earth, and that during that time, only the feet were physically perceptible to human beings. The rest existed only in a fine, ethereal form. What has been described as the chalice-like or flower-like form—the luminous organ—was entirely ethereal, a translucent air form, and only the lowest part of the human being was such that it truly permeated the water-earth like the fish that remained behind. After that, there were higher animals, represented—to speak figuratively—by the Aquarian, the human being who retained a visible body up to the lower leg. Thus, the human being developed in such a way that at every stage of his existence he left behind certain animal forms, which he gradually transcended.

[ 3 ] And when the Moon began to recede, human beings had reached a stage where, although they had already physically developed the lower half—the lower nature—the upper nature was still fully capable of developing within them. Then we saw how, from the Moon, that which we have come to know through the effect of moonlight in the form the Egyptians called Osiris intervenes—how, through the Moon’s various phases, it can influence the human being, and how, from the Moon, that which is the most important structure of the upper body—the nerves, which are the driving forces of today’s upper body—is integrated. The nerves emanating from the spinal cord formed the upper body. Through those tones that Osiris-Apollo plays on the human lyre, the human center—the center of the hips—begins to develop first. Everything that had to remain at this point—beyond which humanity moved on—remained stagnant in its further development in the amphibian form.

[ 4 ] As long as the Moon was connected to the Earth, it more or less held back human evolution. The form of the fish was still connected to the Sun; this is the source of the feelings that healthy people have toward fish today. Let us consider the joy it can bring a person to see a beautiful, shimmering fish or beautiful, luminous aquatic creatures—how these forms can delight them—and let us recall the feeling of antipathy a person experiences upon seeing creatures that, while higher in the evolutionary scale than fish—such as amphibians, frogs, toad, or snake—crawling and writhing. Although today’s amphibians are forms from that era that have fallen into complete decadence, humans once possessed such forms in their lower physicality. As long as human beings possessed only their lower physical form—down to the hips—they were merely a kind of lindworm; only later, as the upper body took on a distinct form, did they reshape their lower physical form. We can say: the fish form reflects the level at which humanity stood through those forces it still received when the Sun was still united with the Earth; until the Sun separated, humanity stood at the level of the fish.

[ 5 ] Then the great beings, the leaders of evolution, went forth, having shaped their sun, only to reunite with the Earth much later. And one of the spirits who went forth with it—the highest of the guiding solar spirits—is Christ. Here we stand before an event that fills us with a deep sense of awe when we learn that, up until then, humanity had been united with the being who once departed from the Earth with the Sun as the noblest spirit. It has been felt that the fish form could once be used to symbolize both the time of the Sun’s departure from the Earth and the subsequent shaping carried out by Christ himself. In the past, humanity was connected to the Sun within the Earth, and when the Sun departed, humanity saw the form it owed to the Sun Spirits preserved in the figure of the fish. As humanity moved forward, the Sun Spirits were no longer with it. Christ emerged from the Earth at the time when humanity took the form of a fish. This form has now been preserved by the initiates of early Christian development. In the Roman catacombs, this fish symbol was present as the symbol of Christ, and it was meant to commemorate the great cosmic event of evolution during the time when Christ was still united with them within the earth. Humanity had progressed to the fish form when the Sun separated: the first Christians perceived the reference to the human-Christ form in the fish symbol as something immensely profound. How far removed is such a significant sign—which we perceive as a symbol of a cosmic epoch of evolution—from those superficial interpretations that are often offered. The true symbols were those that referred to spiritual, higher realities. To the early Christians, they did not merely “signify” something. Such a symbol is an image of this or that which one can truly perceive in the spiritual world, and no symbol is correctly interpreted until one can point to what can be perceived in the spiritual world that corresponds to it. All speculation serves, at most, a preparatory purpose; the expression “it means” is not yet accurate, but the symbol is truly recognized only when one shows that a spiritual reality is depicted within it.

[ 6 ] Now let us continue with the evolution of humanity. Human beings have taken on a wide variety of forms, and when they had evolved to waist height, they were at their ugliest in their physical form. This form that human beings had at that time is preserved in a decadent state in the snake. The period during which humankind had reached the amphibian form—when the Moon was still within the Earth—is the era of shame and ruin in the evolution of humankind. Had the Moon not emerged from the Earth at that time, the human race would have fallen prey to a horrific fate; it would have descended ever further into the form of the hideous and the evil. Therefore, the emotional response that the naive, uncorrupted mind feels toward the serpent—which embodies the state in which humanity had sunk to its lowest point—this feeling of antipathy is entirely justified. It is precisely the uncorrupted mind—which does not claim that there is nothing ugly in nature—that feels revulsion toward the serpent precisely because it is the symbol of humanity’s disgrace. This is not meant in a moral sense, but rather points to the lowest point in the development of humanity.

[ 7 ] Now, however, humankind had to rise above this low point. It could do so only by shedding its animal form and by beginning to densify its spiritual, higher part as well. We have seen that all the nobler parts could develop only through the influence of the forces of Isis and Osiris. For the forces of Osiris to work within him, so that the nobler part might develop, one very important thing had to happen first: the upper part of the human being had to find a way to bring the spinal cord from a horizontal position into a vertical one. All of this took place through the influence of Isis and Osiris. Step by step, human beings were guided by the Sun and the Moon, which maintained a balance. When human beings had become physically formed halfway, the Sun and the Moon were in balance; hence, the center of the hips is referred to as the “scales.” At that time, the Sun was also in the sign of Libra.

[ 8 ] Now, one must not imagine—and this must be explicitly noted—that after the Sun had been in the sign of Scorpio and then in the sign of Libra, the hip would have developed immediately thereafter. That would be to conceive of the course of evolution as proceeding far too quickly. The Sun traverses the entire zodiac in a period of 25,920 years. The Sun once rose in the spring in Aries; before that, it rose in the sign of Taurus. The vernal equinox kept shifting further and further; the Sun, with its vernal equinox, traversed the constellation of Taurus, and so on. Around 747 B.C., the Sun re-entered Aries; in our time, it rises in the constellation of Pisces in the spring. Now, the time it takes for the Sun to pass through a constellation does mean something, but such a period would not be sufficient for the transformation that had to take place for humanity to progress from sexuality under the sign of Scorpio to the height of hip development under the sign of Libra.

[ 9 ] It would be a misconception to think that this happens as the Sun completes a single cycle. The Sun makes a complete circuit through the zodiac, and only after this entire cycle has been completed does progress occur. In earlier times, it had to complete its orbit even more often before any progress occurred. Therefore, one must not apply the well-known chronologies of the post-Atlantean epoch to earlier epochs. The Sun first had to complete a full circuit—in earlier times, even several times—before evolution advanced a step upward. For those members that required more intensive development, the process simply took longer. — Through this evolution, humanity now ascends ever higher. The next stage, in which what is referred to as the lower limbs of the human torso were formed, is designated by the sign of Virgo.

[ 10 ] We will best understand this development if we realize that, while human beings are becoming more and more human-like, certain animal entities have remained at certain stages. It has already been said that human beings also developed lungs, a heart, and a larynx through the influence of the lunar forces. I have also shown the extent to which Osiris and Isis are involved in this. Now we must realize that the higher organs of the human being—such as the heart, lungs, larynx, and so on—could only develop because the higher members of the human being—the etheric body, the astral body, and also the “I,” as the actual spiritual members of the human being—were already participating in a certain way. Much more than in previous epochs, these higher members were active from the stage that had been reached in Libra. Consequently, the most diverse forms were able to arise. For example, the etheric body could exert a particularly strong influence, or the astral body, or even the ego. Indeed, it could also happen that the physical body held greater sway than the other three members. As a result, four human types emerged. A number of people developed in whom the physical body was particularly well-developed. Then there were people whose character was shaped by the etheric body, as well as people in whom the astral nature predominated. There were also “I”-oriented people—distinctly “I”-oriented individuals. Thus, in every human being, what was predominant within them came to the fore. |

[ 11 ] In ancient times, when these four forms came into being, one would have encountered grotesque figures, and the clairvoyant would then have discerned what was present in the various types. There are depictions—albeit less well-known—in which the memory of this has been preserved. For example, among people whose physical nature had become particularly strong and had influenced their upper bodies, this was expressed as a distinctive feature in their upper bodies. Something had then formed that was entirely adapted to the lower form of existence, and through the forces at work there, the figure emerged that we see captured in the apocalyptic image of the bull—not a modern bull, which is a decadent form. That which, during a certain period, was predominantly determined by the physical body has remained at the stage of “bull-ness.” This, then, finds its representative in the bull and in everything belonging to this animal species: cows, cattle, and so on.

[ 12 ] The group of human beings in whom the physical body was not as strongly developed, but rather the etheric body—in whom, in particular, everything became strong that one might call the parts of the torso more closely associated with the heart—this stage of human development is also preserved in the animal kingdom. This stage, which humanity has moved beyond, is preserved in the lion. The lion embodies the archetype that emerged from the group of humans in whom the etheric body was intensely active.

[ 13 ] That stage of human development in which the astral body has overcome the etheric body and the physical body—this group has been preserved for us, albeit in a degenerate form, in the flying bird species and is depicted in the Apocalypse in the image of the eagle. The predominant astral nature has been cast off here; it rose from the ground as the bird-like existence.

[ 14 ] And where the “I” grew strong, a being developed that may truly be called a union of the three other natures, because the “I” harmonized all three aspects. In this group, the clairvoyant indeed sees before him what is depicted in the Sphinx, where the Sphinx has, in particular, the distinct lion’s body, then the eagle’s wings, but also something bull-like—in the oldest depictions of the Sphinx, there was even a reptilian tail, which points to the ancient reptilian form—and facing forward we have the human form, which harmonizes the other parts.

[ 15 ] These are the four types in which, during the Atlantean era, the human element predominated, as the human form—which harmonized these natures within itself—gradually took shape from the eagle-like, lion-like, and bovine-like qualities, evolving into ever greater unity. They merged into one to form the full human form, and this gradually took on the form that existed in the middle of Atlantis.

[ 16 ] And then something else happened as a result of all these processes. We can imagine that four different elements, four aspects within the human being, merged harmoniously, so to speak. One is present in the physical body, in the bull nature: these are the predominant forces that developed up to the evolutionary epoch of Libra; then, in the etheric body, we have the lion nature; then, in the astral body—in the predominant forces of the astral—the eagle or vulture nature; and finally, the predominant forces of the “I,” the true human nature. One of these four components had gained the upper hand in individual beings. This gave rise to the four types. But other combinations could also be found. For example, the physical body, the astral body, and the “I” could each exert an equal influence and have the upper hand over the etheric body. This is a distinct type of humanity. Then there were beings in whom the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I” held the upper hand, while the physical body was less developed, so that we have such people in whom the higher principles hold the upper hand over the physical body. Those human beings in whom the physical body, the astral body, and the “I” held the upper hand are the physical ancestors of today’s men, and those human beings in whom the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I” held the upper hand are the physical ancestors of today’s women. The other types gradually disappeared; only these two remained and developed into the male and female forms.

[ 17 ] What made it possible for these two forms in particular to gradually emerge? This, in turn, was due to the different ways in which the forces of Isis and Osiris exerted their influence.

[ 18 ] We have seen that during the new moon phases, when the moon is dark, the Isis principle is manifested, but that Osiris is manifested during the luminous full moon phases. Isis and Osiris are spiritual beings on the moon, but we find their deeds on Earth. We find them on Earth because it was through these deeds that the human race was divided into two genders. The female ancestors of humankind were formed through the influence of Osiris, while the male ancestors were formed through the influence of Isis. The influence of Isis and Osiris on humanity occurs through the nerve strands, through whose action humanity is formed into a male and a female part. This is depicted in the legend by Isis’s search for Osiris; the masculine and the feminine seek one another on Earth. We see time and again that wondrous processes of cosmic evolution are enshrined in these legends.

[ 19 ] It was only after the point of no return had been passed that the distinctions we refer to as male and female gradually emerged in the upper limbs of humans. Humans remained unisex for much longer than animals. What had long since occurred in other animals was only now beginning to take place in humans. There was a time when, so to speak, there was a uniform human form, in which there was no trace of the mode of reproduction that later developed, and in which human nature still embodied both sexes in a single being. “And God created humankind male and female” is written in the Bible, not “a little boy and a little girl.” He created both in one. The worst possible translation is to say that he created “a little boy and a little girl.” For that makes no sense in light of the actual facts.

[ 20 ] Thus we look back to a time when human nature was still a unity, when every human being gave birth virginally. The Egyptian tradition presents this stage of human development to us through the vision of the initiates. I have already pointed out that the older depictions of Isis are as follows: Isis nurses Horus, but behind her stands a second Isis with vulture wings—an Isis who hands Horus the ankh—suggesting that humanity originates from a time when these archetypes were still separate, so that later the other astral entity also became imbued within human beings. This second Isis points to how the astral element once predominated. That which later became united with the human form is depicted here behind the mother as the astral figure that would have had vulture wings had she followed only the astral realm. The time, however, when the etheric body predominated, is depicted behind her in a third, lion-headed Isis. This threefold Isis is thus presented to us through profound insight.

[ 21 ] From this perspective, however, we will also come to understand something else: namely, that there must have been a transitional period from sexual unity to the separation of the sexes; that, in fact, a certain intermediate state may have existed between that virgin reproduction—in which fertilization occurred as a result of the forces living in the earth, which were at the same time the fertilizing agents—and the other form of bisexual reproduction. This sexual reproduction did not become fully established until the middle of the Atlantean epoch. Before that, there was an intermediate stage. During this intermediate stage, a change in consciousness took place at a certain epoch. At that time, human beings went through a transformation of consciousness over much longer periods than today. This was a time when consciousness was particularly strong, during which human beings experienced themselves at night as spiritual beings among their spiritual companions. Daytime consciousness, by contrast, was weak. This state of consciousness gave way to another period in which the consciousness that human beings possess when they are in their physical bodies became strong, and in which the soul life grew weaker when human beings left the physical plane at night. Now there were periods in human evolution in which we must recognize a transitional stage. At that time, consciousness of the physical world was still subdued. And it was in this subdued state of consciousness that fertilization occurred. In those times of dimmed consciousness, when a person stepped out of the physical world into the spiritual world, that is when conception took place, and the person perceived it only through a symbolic act in a dream. In a delicate, noble way, they sensed that conception had occurred during sleep, and only a delicate, wondrous “dream”—such as a person throwing a stone, the stone falling into the earth, and then a flower emerging from the earth—was present in their consciousness.

[ 22 ] At this point, we should take particular note of the fact that those who had already reached a later stage earlier on were also considered. When we say that certain beings remained at the bull stage, others at the lion stage, others at the eagle stage, and so on, what does that mean? It means that if those beings had been able to wait and had chosen to develop their full love for the physical world much later, they would have become human beings. If the lion had not wanted to enter the earthly sphere too early—it would have become human, as would the other animals that had split off by then. Let’s put it this way: Everything that was human at the time the lion was forming either said to itself, “No, I don’t want to take on the lower substances yet; I don’t want to descend into physical humanity”—or, “I want to descend; I want what has been developed to come to fruition.”

[ 23 ] So let us imagine two beings: one remains up in the realm of the air-ether and extends down to Earth only in its earthly aspects, while the other strives to descend all the way to Earth. The latter perhaps became a lion; the former became a human being.

[ 24 ] Just as the animals had come to a standstill, so too did human beings. These were not the best of humanity—those who became human too soon; the better ones were able to wait. They persisted for a long time in not descending to Earth to consciously perform the act of conception; they remained in the state of awareness where the act of conception was a dream. These people lived, as one says, in paradise. And the people who descended to Earth earliest, we would find them with a particularly strongly developed physicality, with a crude, brutal facial expression, while we would find those who first sought to shape the nobler parts in a much more human form.

[ 25 ] What has just been described has been preserved in a wondrous legend and a ritual. The ritual is well known; it is mentioned by Tacitus—the legend of the goddess Nerthus or Hertha, who descends each year into the depths of the sea in a chariot. But those who pull her must be killed. Nerthus was regarded—as such things are—as some phantom born of the imagination, as some goddess to whom a cult was supposedly established on some island. The site of Nerthus was believed to be Lake Hertha on the island of Rügen. There, people believed they had found the spot where the chariot had plunged into the water. A strange fantasy. The name “Lake Hertha” is, in fact, a completely new invention. It used to be called the Black Lake because of its color, and it never occurred to anyone to call it Lake Hertha and associate it with the goddess. In truth, there is something much deeper in this legend. Nerthus represents the transitional stage from virgin conception to later human procreation. Nerthus, who sinks into a twilight state of consciousness, perceives—when she is submerged into the sea of passion—only a delicate, symbolic act; she perceives only a reflection of it. But those who had descended during the time when higher humanity still felt this way had already lost their original naivety; they had already witnessed this act and were lost to the higher human consciousness—they were worthy of death.

[ 26 ] The memory of this prehistoric event was preserved in ritual in numerous regions of Europe. At certain times, during commemorative festivals, a ceremony was performed. It involved the chariot bearing the image of Nerthus, which plunged into the sea of passion. And there was even a cruel custom: those who were permitted to serve, who had to pull the chariot, who were allowed to witness it—they had to be slaves and were killed during the ritual, as a sign that it was mortal humanity that witnessed this act. Only the priests who had been initiated were permitted to attend the ceremony unharmed. Thus, we see from this example that in those times, when what has been recounted here was known in certain regions, the cult of Nerthus existed in those regions. In these regions, there was a consciousness that gave shape to this legend and the ritual. Thus humanity developed through the most diverse forms, and thus what are real facts are depicted in these images. It has already been said that such images are not meant to be allegories, but that their content stands in relation to real facts. Such images appeared like dream images. Thus the Osiris legend, too, was first dreamed before the student truly beheld the fact of human evolution. And only that which prepares one for real perception is, in the occult sense, a symbol. A symbol is a depiction of real processes in images. And as for the effect of these depictions, that will be discussed in the next lecture.