The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. The Ten Commandments

[ 1 ] Today we will examine an important document for humanity that, although it may seem far removed from the scope of our previous series of reflections, is nonetheless intrinsically connected to it. These are the Ten Commandments, which we would like to examine from the perspective of spiritual science, for the reason that spiritual science may be particularly well-suited to shedding the proper light on this document of humanity and facilitating its understanding.

[ 2 ] Scholarly theologians often claim that these Ten Commandments correspond to various laws and commandments of other ancient peoples and are not actually anything special. At most, they are noteworthy only insofar as they are a compilation of what can be found here and there as commandments and laws among various ancient peoples, for example, in the works of Lycurgus of Sparta or in the Code of Hammurabi.

[ 3 ] What has occupied our thoughts as we have observed the course of human development in the post-Atlantean era and allowed it to take effect upon our souls can also, in a certain sense, serve as a guide to help us comprehend the great and mighty event that struck humanity when the Ten Commandments were given on Mount Sinai. Let us recall what we encountered when we considered the course of human development in the post-Atlantean era. We have seen that the five cultural epochs—the Indian, Persian, Chaldean-Egyptian-Jewish, Greco-Roman, and Germanic cultural epochs—represent a gradual conquest of the physical plane by humanity. Now, at the end of the third epoch and the beginning of the fourth, we are confronted with what we might call the “mission of Moses.” What does this mission consist of?

[ 4 ] Let us now take a closer look at what the inspirations of the initiates were actually like during successive periods of time. Yesterday we spoke of the Rishis, who were the inspirers of their people in ancient India. The Rishis revealed that in their ordinary lives they were, so to speak, simple people, but that at certain times they served as instruments—as mouthpieces—for the inspirations of higher spiritual beings. This fact was particularly striking in the times of ancient India, and these ancient Rishis—the greatest teachers of the post-Atlantean cultural epoch—were able to speak of lofty spiritual truths. Let us ask ourselves: Into which regions of the spirit did these ancient Rishis transport themselves when they were, so to speak, permeated and filled from within by the higher beings who spoke through them? While the higher powers dwelt within them, these Rishis rose not merely to the astral or lower Devachan plane, but all the way up to the upper Devachan, so that what they taught originally emanated from the upper Devachan. In those ancient times, shortly after the Atlantean catastrophe, this was still possible because the ancient Indian bodies still fully afforded human beings the opportunity to step outside of them and enter into relationship with the beings of higher worlds.

[ 5 ] Now the stages of civilization progress. In the cultural epoch of Zarathustra—the ancient Persian era—the highest initiates are still able to speak of the highest spiritual beings, but their ascent cannot readily extend into the upper regions of Devachan. They can only ascend as far as the lower Devachan. Nevertheless, they can be instructed about the higher planes, for these high beings of the lower Devachan plane also know of the higher planes.

[ 6 ] In the world where the Egyptian initiates were primarily at home, it was customary to ascend to the astral plane, and by no means was it only a small circle of people in ancient Egypt who were still able to ascend to this astral plane. There was still a relatively large number of people who knew from their own observations what can take place on the astral plane. At least in certain intermediate states of consciousness—between sleeping and waking, for example—many experienced communion with those beings who do not descend to the physical plane but who are still at home on the astral plane. Thus, those who moved freely on the astral plane—the ancient Egyptian initiates—still found it easy to proclaim the things that took place in the higher worlds.

[ 7 ] As we draw ever closer to the later cultural epochs, the curtain over the spiritual worlds is, so to speak, closing more and more. The number of people capable of making observations even in the spiritual worlds is steadily decreasing, and as a result, a special form of proclamation by the initiates became necessary as the fourth cultural epoch approached. One of these initiates, who was well-versed in all the occult arts of the Egyptian initiates, was Moses; he moved quite freely on the astral plane. His people, in particular, were chosen to receive a certain revelation that would be of significance to them even when they could no longer look up into the higher worlds. There had always been initiates—though their numbers had steadily dwindled—who knew, directly or indirectly, of the higher worlds because they could consciously live outside their physical bodies. The vast majority of the people, however, had to limit their lives entirely to the physical plane. The task that needed to be fulfilled for humanity at the time when Moses’ mission began was this: to give those people who were entirely dependent on the physical plane a revelation from the spiritual realm that lies beyond the physical plane, according to which they could order their lives. How, then, was this mission of Moses to be shaped at first?

[ 8 ] Just imagine that people first had to be made to understand: What is out there around you, what you can see and feel—that is simply the physical plane; there is nothing spiritual there at all. You must not regard this as something that could in any way represent the spiritual to you; rather, you must be clear that the spiritual must be sought in the spiritual realm, and that there is only one place where you can seek the spiritual.

[ 9 ] In the days of ancient Indian civilization, when the holy Rishis spoke from the upper regions of Devachan, it was also possible to provide images that symbolized and metaphorically represented what was spoken from the upper Devachan as an external image. One could provide images and representations, and it was relatively easy to make people understand: “We do indeed give you images, but since you regard the external world as an illusion—as Maya—these images will be nothing more to you than images, representations of a supernatural world.” - There was no danger that idolatry could be practiced with these images. How could that have been possible among a people who regarded everything sensory as Maya, as illusion? This people could never have practiced idolatry. That came much later. However, it was precisely later in Eastern culture that the idol replaced the symbol. But it was therefore easy for the holy Rishis to make it clear to the entire Indian people: What we have to proclaim to you originates from the higher realms of Devachan, and the visible, the physical, is a symbol of that which is so high and sublime that you can only perceive it through symbols.

[ 10 ] During the Persian cultural period, however, the disciples of Zarathustra could not proceed in the same way. They could only establish a kind of connection between their people and the lower regions of the Devachan plane. Therefore, they were only able to speak of the supersensible realm in images—but in spiritual images. They did not use any sensory images. Above all, they spoke to their people of the true spiritual, benevolent being whom they called Ahura Mazdao—the being whose outer physical form is the sun, and with whom humanity allies itself against the dark spirit: Ahriman. This was presented to people, so to speak, as a sensory-supernatural image. People were to imagine this spiritual being of light in their minds. But they were not to create a finished image or a likeness. At most, they could imagine this divine Ahura Mazda in a process—for example, in fire—but not in a rigid, external, sensory image. Everything that constitutes sensory images—images of gods—dates from a later period. Ancient Persian culture employed pictorial representations intended to express the supernatural. That was progress.

[ 11 ] Now we come to the third stage of culture, which we encounter primarily in Egyptian culture. As we know, the figure of Osiris stood, so to speak, at the center of all religious thought and feeling. You will easily understand what must now be said. What kind of being is Osiris, particularly in his divine form? Consider that the Egyptian spiritual leaders told people: If you fulfill your task here in the physical world correctly, if you do everything that makes you a worthy human being in regard to your soul, then after death you will be united with Osiris. - On the other hand, they were told: Osiris had only a short life here on earth, for he was overcome by his brother Typhon—Seth—and has lived ever since in the supernatural realms. His lowest realm is no longer the physical plane, but the astral plane; he does not descend any further. It is no longer possible for Osiris to enter the physical plane. Therefore, a person cannot encounter Osiris during his lifetime. After death, however, if he has made himself worthy of it, he will be united with Osiris, because then the person enters the world where Osiris dwells. The person must thus go to meet Osiris, either after he has died or when, as an initiate, he enters the astral plane. For this reason, it was made clear to adherents of the Osiris religion: You should not conceive of the supersensible realm—with which you yourself are still connected—in any other way than through the image of your own soul, a soul as we conceive it under the concept of the astral body. Osiris was presented as an ideal human figure possessing every possible virtue, and since both instincts and virtues are present in the astral body, an astral human being, so to speak, was presented as the essence of Osiris.

[ 12 ] For the Semitic people, who had, in a sense, passed through the school of Egyptian culture, and who were to prepare for that great event through which the Spiritual, Christ, descended into the physical world—not merely to the astral plane, as Osiris did, but as Christ, who came to the physical plane—for this people, it was no longer permissible to live with a God in allegory, as in ancient Indian culture, nor could they worship a God in a sensory-supersensory image, as in Persian culture, nor in the image of an astral being, as in Egyptian culture, but solely and exclusively through the supersensory concept of the “I.” All the images originally given to the ancient Indians to help them conceive of the spiritual were borrowed from the physical world, from the mineral kingdom; they were images expressed in physical-mineral forms. The form in which the initiates of Persian culture made the supersensible realm clear to their people was drawn from that which also lives in the human etheric body—the living-etheric—for Ahura Mazda, too, became visible to them by revealing himself in an etheric form, the solar aura. Osiris had been conceived by the Egyptians as an astral being. The deity, however, who revealed himself to the Jewish people was to have no other qualities than those of the “I,” the fourth member of the human being. Through the “I,” the human being grasps something that alone can say “I” to itself.

[ 13 ] But there was something else connected with this as well. Humanity was now to internalize the mission of Moses; it was to conceive of the Deity in the image of this “I.” From now on, humanity had to be told: Just as an “I” lives within every human being and reigns over all the members of human nature, so you should conceive of the Being that weaves and lives and reigns and rules over all creation in the world as a creative Being. No sensory image, no etheric image, and no astral image can convey this. Only in the form of the “I,” and solely under the name “I Am Who I Am,” should you conceive of the highest Being. - In the “I Am” itself, every human being should perceive an image of the Divinity. That was the mission, the calling of Moses: to tell humanity, “Look within yourself; there alone will you find a true image of the pure Divinity.” - Therefore, from now on, all interaction among human beings should proceed only from “I” to “I.” This was to be prepared by the mission of Moses.

[ 14 ] Let’s immerse ourselves once more in Egyptian culture. There was a great deal of influence, but it did not flow from one individual to another; rather, it flowed from astral body to astral body. What does that mean? Imagine how such a gigantic pyramid was built. A vast army of people was needed to construct such a pyramid. The workers building such a pyramid followed the instructions of those who were the master builders—the temple priests, the spiritual leaders of the culture. Do not imagine that these instructions were given the way orders are given today, from one “I” to another. That was not the case. You will most easily understand what was happening back then if we use the word “suggestion.” Psychic forces were employed to guide the masses. The Egyptian priests mastered such forces to a high degree. They did not act upon the “I” by saying, “Do this or that”—rather, they controlled the crowd in the way that one who can wield psychic forces does, so that people followed these priests without will of their own, transcending the “I.” The priests, as initiates, held high office. They could not be trusted to abuse these powers; they placed them in the service of the good. Thus, it was through inspirations—psychic inspirations—that they worked, and there was no question of the ego’s freedom in relation to the temple priest. If you understand this, you will also grasp that in ancient India the holy Rishis applied spiritual powers to an even greater degree. With them, it was this: When they appeared and delivered significant messages from the spiritual worlds, it was only natural that the entire people followed them without question. Just as the hand follows the head in our case, so did the great masses of people follow their leaders, the initiates. This influence diminished the further humanity descended into the physical plane, but in ancient Egypt these psychic powers were still very much at work. To tear people away from this kind of influence and to proclaim in advance the confrontation with the “I”—that was Moses’ mission. To seek within every human being the divine source, to regard the great World-I—the I that ripples and sweeps through space—as the archetype of one’s own I: that was the great calling linked to Moses’ mission.

[ 15 ] From this perspective, we will understand how this great Cosmic “I” had to reveal itself through Moses. This is how the proclamation of the “I” Commandments must be translated into modern language so that we truly capture what was felt, sensed, and thought when, for example, people heard the first commandment in those days. All dictionary translations render the text in the most inaccurate way imaginable. And now I would like to present the First Commandment to you as it must truly be translated in order to express what people imagined when they heard it back then.

[ 16 ] First Commandment. I am the eternal Divine that you feel within yourself. I led you out of the land of Egypt, where you could not follow Me within yourself. From now on, you shall not place other gods above Me. You shall not acknowledge as higher gods that which an image shows you—whether it shines in the heavens above, works from within the earth, or acts between heaven and earth. You shall not worship any of these things, for they are all beneath the Divine within you. For I am the Eternal One within you and am a Divine Presence that continues to act. If you do not recognize Me within yourself, I, as your Divine, will vanish from your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and their bodies will wither away. If you recognize Me within yourself, I will live on as you through a thousand generations, and the bodies of your people will flourish.

[ 17 ] Here we find the indication that we should recognize in the individual “I” the archetype of the “I”—the reflection of the divine primordial “I”—and, at the same time, the indication that whoever recognizes his “I” as divine is freed from the way people in ancient Egypt related to their leaders. “I have led you out of the land of Egypt, where you could not follow Me within yourself.” There, people followed the will of the initiates; there, human beings were not free. These initiates employed their psychic powers, which people followed. The first dawn of that human freedom, which later emerged as the freedom of grace in Christianity, is revealed in this statement: “I have led you out of the land of Egypt, where you could not follow Me within yourself.” “From now on, you shall not set other gods above Me.” Precisely so that the Jewish people could become the great preparatory people for the revelation in Christianity, it had to be made clear that all other representations of the Divine—the archetype of the I—had to be set aside. Whatever takes the form of a divine being—be it the constellations or anything else—had to be set aside. The divine is not to be represented by anything at all, for in order for human beings to become free, in order for them to find the source of everything within them, they must experience everything they can feel about the divine within their own “I” as the reflection of the great World-I. “ “You shall not acknowledge as higher gods that which presents you with an image of something that shines above in the heavens, that works from within the earth, or that acts between heaven and earth.” A formless Divine! The only legitimate expression of it is the human “I,” the image of “I Am Who I Am.” “You shall not worship that which is within you among all that is divine.”

[ 18 ] We have emphasized this: In ancient India, the image was taken from the physical body; in Persian culture, from the etheric body; and among the Egyptians, from the astral body. All of these are subordinate to the “I.” Henceforth, nothing in the image should be taken from the divine. We know that the physical body is derived from the mineral realm, the etheric body from the etheric realm, and the astral body from the same realm from which the astral bodies of animals are also derived. Of all that is in the lower aspects of human nature, of all that is derived from the rest of nature, of all that is beneath the “I,” nothing is to be taken for what the human being worships. “For I am the Eternal within you and am a divinity that continues to work.” There you have an important statement. What had previously been a fact was given to the Jews as law. We have already pointed out how, among all peoples through whom a common blood flowed, a certain consciousness ran through the generations—how the son felt connected through the blood to the father and to the grandfather. Common blood felt itself as a common “I.” The “I” lived on through the generations. The God who first revealed Himself as “I” to the Jewish people had to reveal Himself by saying that it is He who works as God through the generations. “If you truly grasp Me within yourself, then you grasp what continues to work from generation to generation.” This has been translated as: “I am a jealous God,” or even as: “an angry God,” whereas the true meaning is: “I am a God who continues to work from generation to generation.”

[ 19 ] “Never seek to form a false conception of Me; preserve the truth within yourself as your conception of Me, and you will pass on health through the blood from generation to generation.” A correct medical understanding is connected to this, for the One who gave this commandment associated with it the idea that when a person has a pure conception of his connection with the Divine, a healing sense of self also flows through the blood, and the people remain healthy from generation to generation. We cannot gain a true understanding of the life-giving substance of what Moses gave his people when he proclaimed the laws if we merely think conceptually about what he said. No, it is stated on the premise that the right thought is an active reality. “If you form a false conception of the divine, it will be passed down from generation to generation, manifesting as illness or infirmity.” Right thoughts bring about health, while wrong thoughts bring about illness. This is a conception held in the true sense of anthroposophy or occultism. All of this must be taken into account; otherwise, one cannot form a correct understanding or conception of this first commandment. The Jewish people are thus admonished: Do not, under any circumstances, imagine your God in a false image. When you kneel before the golden calf, a false conception of God flows into you, and this false image of God—as it passes down through the generations with the blood—gives rise to the enduring sin that then manifests as illness. “If you do not recognize Me within yourself, I, as your Divine essence, will disappear from your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and their bodies will wither away.” You will produce viable children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren if you embrace the correct conception of the Divine; otherwise, however, that which depends on the blood will die out. By correctly recognizing Me—the Original Source of the Self—within your Self, a power passes from generation to generation, for I am a Divine Presence that continues to act. I disappear from the bodies when I dwell within you based on a false conception. This, in turn, is a thoroughly occult medical instruction. “If you recognize Me within yourself, I will live on down to the thousandth generation, and the bodies of your people will be purified and therefore flourish.” Thus the physical realm will flourish—in the truly occult sense—when human beings connect to the correct conception of the spiritual. At the same time, a breath of human freedom enters into human development: humanity is placed, so to speak, at the very pinnacle of the ever-active “I,” and this “I” then connects to the Divine. This cannot be compared to any other set of laws, and it is pure amateurism to equate these Ten Commandments with other legal codes and to declare, one-sidedly, that because they outwardly resemble one another in words, they are the same. The legislation of the Ten Commandments from Sinai is unique and can be explained only by the unique mission of Moses. And just as with this first commandment, so it is with all the other commandments, if we translate them correctly. From all of them, the entire spirit of Moses’ mission becomes clear to us, with regard to the “I” impulse that is now to be instilled into humanity.

[ 20 ] Second Commandment. You shall not speak of Me within you in error, for every error concerning the Self within you will corrupt your body. Here you have directly established the necessity of spiritually correct thought, which is the true creator of a healthy body. Error regarding the reign of the highest Divine within oneself produces infirmity in the body to the fullest extent. It is extremely important to realize that this second commandment states: “Error regarding the ‘I’ within you will ruin your body.” There is a later proverb: A beautiful soul dwells in a beautiful body. - Modern, materialistic humanity sometimes interprets this as follows: “So take good care of your body, and then there will be a beautiful soul within it.” - But what is meant is that a soul that is powerful within itself—because it brings with it from previous incarnations what it has attained through the spiritualization of the soul—is the true creator of the body and brings forth a healthy, powerful body. It is not that the body creates the soul; exactly the opposite is meant. Here we see that sometimes it does not matter all that much to quote the exact wording. Each era, according to the impulses that live within it, forms a different conception of the same wording. Depending on how the era feels or is disposed, it is interpreted one way or another. Thus, one has not always demonstrated the correct understanding simply by pointing to the same wording, but only by penetrating the spirit of the age and seeking to understand this or that word through it.

[ 21 ] Third Commandment. You shall distinguish between workdays and holidays, so that your existence may become a reflection of My existence. For that which lives within you as I formed the world in six days and dwelt within itself on the seventh day. Therefore, your actions, and the actions of your son, and the actions of your daughter, and the actions of your servants, and the actions of your livestock, and the actions of all that is with you, shall be directed outward for only six days; but on the seventh day, your gaze shall seek Me within you. — This is the translation that most accurately captures the meaning of this third commandment. The Divine in man must not become the image of the Primordial Self through external images; rather, it must become the image of the Primordial Self in what this “I” does. And just as the Primordial Self created the work of the world’s creation in six world-days and rested within itself on the seventh day, so too shall man distinguish between workdays and days of rest, work for six days, and on the seventh day seek the Divine with the help of the “I.” Thus we see in what wonderful way this third commandment presents the image of the Primordial “I” within us as the path leading to God.

[ 22 ] In these first three commandments, we find an indication of how human beings, in this era ushered in by the mission of Moses, are to relate to the Divine, which is revealing itself in a new way. In the fourth commandment, we see a shift to the physical plane. The first three commandments describe how a human being should properly relate to the higher worlds through the activity of the “I.”

[ 23 ] The fourth commandment is: Continue to act in the spirit of your father and mother, so that the property they have acquired through the power I have formed within them may remain yours as an inheritance.

[ 24 ] Here we do not have the rather meaningless phrase, “Honor your father and mother, so that it may go well with you and you may live long on earth.” The point is that he must now truly act outwardly in a way that perpetuates the deeds of the “I,” after the human being has established within himself—spiritually and, as we might put it, so to speak, also medically—the Divine, which works within him as a drop. This fourth commandment is, in fact, a practical commandment. It says: As a descendant, look to your ancestors; if, as a descendant, you stand in opposition to them, a calm and prosperous course of development can never take place. Just as the “I” is transmitted inwardly through the blood, so too must that which has been acquired outwardly as property through the “I” be preserved. The strong “I” that has been formed flows, on the one hand, through the blood down through the generations; on the other hand, however, by strengthening the “I,” one should also exert an influence on the outer world. What a strong “I” has established must be preserved; development must not be continually interrupted. Continue to act in the spirit of your father, so that what your father and mother have created through the work of their “I” may also remain intact in the external world. — This is what shows you how the external rules of conduct are now also given, so that what is provided as an inner impulse—creating a new culture—is not destroyed from the outside.

[ 25 ] And now come the commandments, which the “I” independently sets in relation to the “I” of the other, and which, in this sense, are meant to govern the world of facts, social life. They actually say the same thing that Paul says, and what the Bible verse describes: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal. 5:14). - See in the other person a self just as you see in yourself. - As a special mission, this ancient Hebrew people received the impulse to trace the divine all the way into the self that weaves itself within the human soul. That is why this people had to receive the commandments, which prescribe not only the preservation of one’s own self, but also the respect for and preservation of the other’s self.

[ 26 ] Fifth Commandment: You shall not murder.

[ 27 ] Sixth Commandment: Do not commit adultery.

[ 28 ] Seventh Commandment: You shall not steal.

[ 29 ] The one commandment explained as three commandments: See in your neighbor just as much of the “I” as you see in yourself! In this way, the Jewish people were indeed spiritually led out of the land of Egypt—by recognizing the “I” in others through respect for their “I,” for in the land of Egypt, people did not act by respecting the “I” of others, but by suppressing that “I” through suggestion. And it goes on to say:

[ 30 ] The Eighth Commandment: Do not belittle the worth of your fellow human being by speaking untruths about him. — Not only should one refrain from harming or impairing another’s sense of self through one’s actions, but one should also refrain from diminishing the worth of another’s sense of self even with a single spoken word. One must not say anything untrue about another “I.” Whoever says something untrue about another “I” fails to recognize that the other “I” is the same as one’s own “I.” This pattern continues systematically throughout these Ten Commandments. Attention is drawn to whatever can still have a harmful effect in the coexistence of one “I” and another. An action directly and harmfully encroaches upon the sphere of the other “I,” while a word does so more covertly. But if you truly wish to acknowledge the other’s “I,” then you must not encroach upon your neighbor’s sphere through your lusts or desires either. Not only by stealing from them, but even by simply desiring something they possess, you encroach upon the other’s “I” sphere. You demonstrate your full respect for the other’s “I” by not allowing yourself to covet what belongs to your neighbor. Hence the last two commandments:

[ 31 ] Ninth Commandment: Do not covet what your fellow human being owns.

[ 32 ] Tenth Commandment: Do not look with envy upon your neighbor’s wife, nor upon his servants or the other beings through whom he finds his success.

[ 33 ] Only by not begrudging others what is theirs can we find a healthy relationship between one person and another. Thus, a person is placed alongside others in such a way that he respects and honors in every “I” a reflection of the divine “I.” This established the relationship among the individual “I’s.” This was one of the greatest spiritual influences to have come upon humanity. What was to come through Christ had not yet been articulated—that which lies in the words that everyone can find within themselves the connection to the Father. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” In this legislation, the impulse was still, so to speak, given for the collective “I” that flowed through the generations. But at the same time, the foreshadowing was given that the “I” is not merely a reflection of the Divine, but that God Himself is living essence within this “I.” The “I” is, in substance and essence, identical with its Father.—“I and the Father are one.”

[ 34 ] Thus we see how the impulses that guide the development of the world follow one another. It is easy to say: In the development of the world, everything is interconnected as cause and effect, yet there is no sign of any wise guidance or direction of the world. - But when we look into the development of the world as we have done in this reflection, we gain a sense of how the right thing always happens at the right time to further the development of humanity; and then, I would say, one has no choice but to acknowledge the wise guidance and direction in the development of the world. When one observes through occult research how, at the end of the third cultural epoch and into the fourth period, the proclamation of the Ten Commandments took place—so that people were given time to prepare for what was the greatest event, the Mystery of Golgotha—one sees how precisely this is an expression of the greatest wisdom in the guidance of the world.

[ 35 ] Throughout the Ten Commandments, if we understand them correctly, we see how the Divinity reveals itself in a prototypical manner, in preparation for the moment when the divine Spirit truly incarnates in a human being. In order for people to be led to comprehend God in the flesh—the God who became flesh—they first had to learn to comprehend God in the deepest recesses of their souls, in terms of His substance and essence. When we consider this document of humanity—the Ten Commandments—we see from its entire tone that the Godhead speaks to humankind through it, and that this message is entirely in harmony with humanity’s ever-increasing advancement onto the physical plane—an advancement that can only occur correctly if the Divine is properly grasped. It is always pointed out that the bodies thrive when the Divine is properly understood. Guidance is given on how to worship the Divine in such a way that external things on the physical plane also thrive. It is correctly pointed out that a sound, healthy development must take place so that external social relationships may flourish.

[ 36 ] The mission of Moses ensures that the Divine is preserved within the human being, but also that the human race can achieve mastery of the physical plane in the proper way—in accordance with post-Atlantean development and in harmony with this Divine.

[ 37 ] During the lecture, Rudolf Steiner wrote the following schematic overview on the blackboard (starting from the bottom):