The Rudolf Steiner Archive

19. From a Chapter on Occult History: The Rishis

[ 1 ] In their various incarnations, people always experience different circumstances. In each incarnation, they encounter different circumstances, and their own circumstances also take shape accordingly between birth and death. Now the question may arise: Are the experiences between death and rebirth always the same, given that experiences in the physical realm are so different? In other words: Has life in Devachan always been the same throughout all stages of physical evolution? The following explanations will show that there is also a history to life in the afterlife.

[ 2 ] Let us recall the state of consciousness of the ancient Atlantean, who, while still in a clairvoyant state, saw physical objects in faint, misty outlines during the day—the parable of the lantern in the mist—and who, at night, was a companion of the gods; yet day and night were not strictly separated as they are today.

[ 3 ] The most advanced group of Atlanteans—that is, those who had already largely lost their clairvoyant consciousness and could already perceive the things around them physically with sharper contours—lived in the region of present-day Ireland under a high spiritual being: Manu. They migrated in separate groups—one of them led by Manu—from west to east. Then came the Great Flood. Afterward, colonies were established from a center in Central Asia. The first of these marked the founding of Indian civilization.

[ 4 ] For the ancient Indian, who still carried within himself the memory of the time of Atlantis, when he was still a companion of the gods, everything he encountered in the earthly realm was illusion, Maya—the entire environment, including the stars. The connection to the spiritual world, for which the Indians longed, was maintained by the holy Rishis. They proclaimed the existence of the spiritual worlds. There were seven Rishis; they were the disciples of Manu. They could teach only at certain times, when they were in a special state. At such times, they were wholly devoted to high spiritual beings. They were the sole comfort and source of strength for the Indian world of that era; they spoke of the wonders and laws of the spiritual worlds. When people died, they experienced what the Rishis had described—though only up to a certain level of Devachan, for only the initiate, the Rishi, experiences Devachan in its entirety. But the people of that time were well-equipped for work in the life beyond.

[ 5 ] The initiate lived alternately in the physical and spiritual realms. Sometimes he taught the eternal truth to the living, and sometimes to the dead. But people had not yet grown fond of the physical plane: they regarded the spiritual world as their true home, and the holy Rishis had little to tell them in the afterlife about this life. The people in the afterlife had no interest in earthly matters.

[ 6 ] In the second post-Atlantean culture, the Persian one—where agriculture first appeared—people had already come to prefer the physical plane. To the same extent, however, consciousness of the beyond grew dimmer. The Devachan grew darker. After all, people were becoming increasingly drawn to the earthly realm. Therefore, the disciples of Zarathustra had to use stronger language to point to the spiritual world; but in the world beyond, they could tell nothing of this life.

[ 7 ] The third culture, the Egyptian, shows an even greater devotion to the physical plane. People studied the laws of the spiritual realm in the stars. People increasingly sought to impose their spirit upon things. But the more skilled people became in earthly matters, the less capable they became of spiritual cooperation in the beyond.

[ 8 ] A high point in the mastery of the earthly plane is Greco-Roman culture. There, the union of the spiritual with the physical had been accomplished. The Greek temple is the expression of spiritual laws. The Greeks loved life. That is what Greek culture signifies; but it signifies something else as well. When a clairvoyant today gazes upon a Greek temple—for example, the one at Paestum—he experiences something special about that temple: one feels the magnificent harmonies in which spiritual life is expressed. If the clairvoyant now, in the very moment of this physical contemplation—in the moment of the magnificent sensation of the harmonies of this work of art—transports himself into the spiritual world, nothing remains, nothing at all, precisely because the Greek temple is such a perfect expression of the spiritual world. This is what the Greek soul experienced in death; it longed for the pure, harmonious expressions and forms of the physical plane. The Roman, who felt strong in life at the height of his ego-consciousness, was as if paralyzed when he entered the afterlife. “Better to be a beggar in this life than a king in the realm of shadows.” —That is how shadowy the awareness of the world beyond was at that time. If the glorious things of this world had been recounted in the realm of shadows, it would only have made these beings even more unhappy. In this life, people could experience more of the spiritual than in the hereafter, in the realm of shadows.

[ 9 ] This fourth culture was the era when the upward impulse was given by the appearance of the Christ. We described the significance of the event at Golgotha in August; today we will do so in relation to the afterlife. - For at the very moment when physical death occurs on the cross, something happens in the world of shadows: Christ appeared among them. For the first time, something of significance for the afterlife could be reported from over there—namely, that life in the spirit can conquer death. The life of the world beyond, which had become shadowy, lit up like a flash of lightning. The most momentous event for the afterlife had taken place: over here in this life, there is something that also holds significance for the afterlife.

[ 10 ] What a person now experiences—in contrast to the first four cultures—for example, through the Gospel of John, is not erased when he enters the spiritual realm. From now on, a person carries over everything that he or she has spiritually perceived and acquired on the physical plane. The more one delves into the deep occult truths of the Bible, the more one will carry over into the afterlife. Before the fourth culture, the afterlife shone into this life, its light gradually diminishing. Now it is the other way around:

[ 11 ] In the afterlife, there is now an upward progression; it is getting brighter and brighter.

[ 12 ] The spiritual forces that are today expended on inventions and discoveries serve only to produce external cultural products. It was different in the past: then these forces were used to explore the spiritual world and its laws. Today, the spirit serves as a slave to material needs. All the intelligence that has gone into steam engines and other inventions acts as a stumbling block to the spiritual world—a deficit! The opposite is true of anthroposophical work. What is gained here on Earth serves to illuminate the world beyond.

[ 13 ] Christ appeared during the fourth cultural epoch; hence the Greek name “Christ.” However, to ensure that Christ’s appearance would not catch people off guard, Moses and the prophets came first. The proclamation of the “I” God, Yahweh, was necessary so that humanity would have a goal to hold onto. The event at Golgotha could only be understood through the proclamation of the God without image. More on that tomorrow.