The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. Occult History I

[ 1 ] Today we will discuss a chapter from the field of theosophy that, on the one hand, will build somewhat on various topics we covered during our last course here, but which, in a certain sense, is nonetheless entirely independent. In the sense that has already been characterized here, we will again discuss something today that is intended for more advanced students—not in the sense that one needs to be advanced in intellect and knowledge, but rather advanced in terms of those feelings one needs in order to accept higher truths, which very often appear to the materialistic mind as paradoxical, strange, fantastical, in the sense of accepting them—not as one accepts everyday events, but as something that is not merely possible, but indeed real.

[ 2 ] Today we want to reflect on a chapter from occult history. Each of us knows what history is in the external, physical sense. Everyone knows that history represents the successive events of the outer physical world, as far back as human beings can trace them—whether through documents, records, or traditions; and indeed, in the field of spiritual science, we go even further back in this outer history—according to the spiritual records available to us, all the way back to the great Atlantean flood. We observe the successive cultural epochs in the same way; we go back even beyond this great flood, which has been preserved as tradition in the flood myths of various peoples, and we go back very, very far in time. All of this, however, is history—explored through occult means—but in a certain sense it is still external, physical, or more or less physical factual history. But there is also an occult history, and to what extent such a history can exist will become clear to you once you ask yourself the following question: All of your souls have lived before they entered these bodies of our present-day cultures—aside from everything that came before—in ancient Indian, ancient Persian, Egyptian-Chaldean, Greco-Roman bodies, and so on. When these souls entered the outer physical plane through birth, they saw what can be experienced on the physical plane. These souls looked out upon the works of ancient Indian culture; they beheld the gigantic pyramids of the Egyptians, the Greek temples, and so on. From this, we can all form a picture of how progressive the events are that human beings undergo throughout history on the outer physical plane in the life between birth and death. Now, however, one might ask: What happens when the soul passes through the gate of death and traverses the life between death and a new birth?—These souls, who are now incarnated, have passed through death in ancient India, ancient Persia, and so on. Did the same thing always take place there between death and a new birth? Is there perhaps something like a history on the other side of life—the phase we go through between death and a new birth? Did the souls experience something different when they passed through the gate of death in ancient India or ancient Persia, and so on, and do they experience something different today in our present cycle? Does something like a sequential sequence of events take place over there?

[ 3 ] Today we are discussing what happens between death and a new birth—the experience of the Kamaloka period, the time in Devachan leading up to a new incarnation—and we are discussing it quite rightly as we do. Some anthroposophists may believe that this experience is the same for all times. It would be wrong to believe that. For just as the soul, when it passes through the gate of birth, experiences different things in successive eras, so too are the events between death and a new birth subject to a historical process. We are right to discuss these events today as we do, because that is how they unfold. But there, too, there is a history; there, too, the facts are not the same in every age, and today we want to consider a little of what the other side of existence goes through in terms of history—essentially what it goes through in the post-Atlantean era. To this end, it is helpful if we cast our gaze upon some familiar things, upon the ancient Atlantean era.

[ 4 ] You know that life in the Atlantean era was different from what it was later. When the soul of the ancient Atlantean had left the physical and etheric bodies at night and ascended into the spiritual worlds, darkness and gloom did not spread as they do today; rather, the soul was then, in its nocturnal consciousness, to a high degree in divine-spiritual worlds; divine-spiritual beings were its companions. This alternation between day and night was, after all, quite different in the ancient Atlantean era. When the Atlantean awoke early—that is, when he re-entered his physical and etheric bodies with his astral body and I—he saw external objects, even then in the ancient times of Atlantis, not with sharp outlines as we do today, but blurred, just as when we go out in the evening amid a thick November fog and do not see the streetlights casting their light with clear, sharp outlines, but rather surrounded by an aura. This is how indistinctly the ancient Atlantean saw everything on the physical plane. Gradually, objects acquired their sharp contours in daytime consciousness. When he stepped out in the evening with his astral body and I from the physical and etheric bodies, he was not in a world of unconsciousness; he had blurred, yet fully experienced perceptions of the divine-spiritual worlds. And what has been preserved as the names and conceptions of the gods—let us say Wotan, Thor, Baldur, Zeus, Apollo—these are not mere figments of the imagination; they are beings whom humanity itself experienced in the ancient Atlantean era.

[ 5 ] Then came the great flood. The most advanced group of Atlanteans moved from west to east, settling the European lands; they migrated to Asia and founded in Central Asia the great cultural colony of Manu, who was the leader of this then highly developed, most advanced group of Atlanteans, which then gave rise to the various cultural epochs from Central Asia. We must bear in mind that Asia and Africa had already been settled through earlier and later migrations and by other peoples—descendants of earlier epochs—and that it was precisely these colonies that moved in various directions to spread new cultural currents. The first moved from Central Asia to India. Manu, who was living in seclusion for certain reasons, sent his first disciples to India. Manu’s first disciples became the teachers and leaders of the first post-Atlantean civilized people, the ancient Indian people. There, the first civilization arose under the influence of the first post-Atlantean teachers, the ancient, holy Rishis.

[ 6 ] We already know what the underlying spirit of this culture was. The disciples of the Rishis had a kind of memory of ancient times, of how things were back in Atlantis, of how they themselves had once been companions and fellow inhabitants of the gods. That was their true homeland, in the spiritual world. Now we have been placed in the physical world. That is why we find in India that great longing for humanity’s spiritual ancestral home. People felt like strangers in the physical world. To them, it was an illusion, māyā—a mere outward expression of the true spiritual realm. Hence the longing for the spiritual, hence the view of the physical world as an illusion, a deception, māyā. They did not yet love the physical world; they still longed for the spiritual world. They saw the stars, the rivers, the mountains, but these did not yet interest them. What took place between birth and death was illusion, Maya. They knew that between death and a new birth they lived in their spiritual homeland. That was the fundamental mindset of the ancient Indians. But they continually received news and messages from the spiritual worlds through the holy Rishis, the disciples of the great Manu. And it is good for us to form certain ideas about the nature of these great Indian teachers. Anyone who can gain a glimpse of what was happening spiritually at that time in the northern part of India between the Rishis and their disciples is, so to speak, filled with a feeling of the deepest, most sacred reverence when contemplating this first starting point of post-Atlantean humanity. It is hardly possible today, in our time—now that people have strayed so far onto the physical plane and adopted such a materialistic way of thinking—for anyone to form a clear picture—unless they increasingly seek to acquire this understanding through esoteric science—of the kind of knowledge that Manu brought with him from the ancient Atlantean era, traveling from the West to the East. For even if the book with the twelve chapters—in which the Manu had preserved the primordial tradition of the Earth, and in which was written down what could be proclaimed as laws in ancient times when human beings were in the bosom of the gods—were laid before people today, even if they were presented with it, they would understand nothing of this book. Nevertheless, it contained the instructions that Manu gave to his closest disciples, and through which the seven sacred Rishis were able to prepare for their calling.

[ 7 ] If we wish to form an idea of the holy Rishis, we can do so in the following way: Anyone who had seen them in life would have seen them as simple people. For a large part of their lives, they were such simple people.

[ 8 ] But then there came a time when these Rishis were something entirely different from ordinary human beings. Nor were they scholars in the modern sense; during that era, they served as mouthpieces and instruments of higher spiritual beings. Higher spiritual beings animated the Rishis in those ancient times, and when the Rishis spoke back then, they did not speak what they knew, but rather what the spirit that had entered them spoke. The essence of a higher spirit permeated the sacred Rishis right down into their physical bodies, and it was the seven planetary spirits—who were themselves connected at that time to the first post-Atlantean human civilization—the seven spirits of our planetary world. They spoke through the mouths of the Rishis, who were merely instruments for the seven planetary rulers of our universe, and thus they uttered great, significant magical words that had magical effects; these were not merely words of teaching, but commands for what people were to do at that time, messages from the cosmos; these were spoken by the seven holy Rishis.

[ 9 ] What is later contained in Vedic literature is merely a faint echo of the Great and Mighty that flowed to humanity through the instrument of the holy Rishis from the cosmos itself at that time as the first manifestation of the post-Atlantean Divine. But the Rishis were inspired by the planetary spirits only at certain times. They were therefore able to convey great and mighty things to humanity. Much greater and mightier things were spoken through them to humanity when they were between birth and death during this first post-Atlantean era than in the world beyond; for the Rishis were able to proclaim all the mysteries to which human beings could no longer look up from the physical world.

[ 10 ] It is the case with initiates that they can not only move about in this earthly world, not only serve as teachers here, but that they also transition—even while in the physical body—into the spiritual world through alternating states of consciousness, becoming teachers between death and a new birth. The great teachers teach here and there; they also continue to teach between death and a new birth. The Rishis were also the teachers of the people in the afterlife. There, although they could proclaim the same great spiritual truths they spoke of here in the physical world, they could tell the dead nothing particularly valuable about the other side of existence—about the physical world. Nothing happened there that could have any value for life after death. The ancient Indian longed for this life between death and rebirth. He was glad to be part of this life and had no inclination toward physical life. And so, when the ancient Indian passed through the afterlife, this life presented itself to him in such a way that he was not only aware to a certain degree, nor did he merely observe the events taking place up to a certain level. He was also able—because human beings must do something in the other world—to work skillfully there. The souls of the ancient Indians were much more skilled at working over there than they were over here. The tools of the physical world at that time were simple and primitive. People were still unskilled on the physical plane, but over there they possessed great dexterity. It had remained with them from an earlier time. People led a more vibrant life between death and rebirth than they did here in the physical world. People were more active and lively over there. The spiritual world deeply satisfied them; everything was light and bright after death.

[ 11 ] Then world history continued. The pre-Persian culture began. On the physical plane, humanity had advanced to the extent that it now began to love the physical plane. It already wanted to perform work on the physical plane and felt that it should use its spiritual powers to cultivate the earth. The Persians came to cherish the culture inspired by Manu a little more. Zarathustra now became the great teacher. The teachings that had coalesced from the inspirations of the Rishis now passed through Zarathustra during the second stage of culture. He was a great teacher, and he had to set himself the task of providing a counterbalance to what arose of its own accord. People were indeed meant to grow ever more attached to the physical plane, to the physical earth; they were meant to become more conscious of it, to discover the means of culture, to settle into the physical plane—not merely perceiving it as an illusion, as Maya, but as a revelation of the divine powers. But Zarathustra told them: Within the material realm lives something that is the opposite of the purely spiritual; the power of evil is mingled with the material. But if you unite with the servants of the good spirit, then, together with them, you will overcome that which is mingled with the material as evil.”—It could not be otherwise than that the danger was already present—the first glimmer of it—namely, losing all connection with the spiritual. Therefore, the teachers had the special task, in addition to the stories about the spiritual world that they told, of drawing people’s attention to the fact that the spiritual reveals itself in the material, and they had to bring back those who had fallen into an excessive belief in the material to a belief in the Spirit, to a belief that God reveals Himself in the material.

[ 12 ] That was what Zarathustra had to proclaim. He spoke powerful words. In today’s languages, it is no longer possible to convey even a hint of the fiery words with which he proclaimed what he was still able to perceive, since he was the successor to the disciples of Manu. For example, when he looked at the sun, he saw not merely the outer, physical sun, but the spiritual beings who live within it—of whom the physical sun is merely the physical form—and he called these spiritual beings Ahura Mazda, the great solar aura that has become Ahura Mazda or Ormuzd. From this sprang the inspiration for all the teachings he was to instill in the second cultural epoch, which was already destined to fall prey to the temptations of Ahriman. These were mighty words that Zarathustra proclaimed to humanity. Thus he spoke, for example: “I will speak; now listen and hear me, you who yearn for this from near and far.” Take careful note of everything. For He is manifest; no longer shall the false teacher corrupt the world—he, the Evil One, who has professed false faith with his mouth. I will speak of what is greatest in the world, what He has revealed to me—He, the Mighty One. Whoever does not follow my words as I mean them will experience misery at the end of the world. —That He, the great Spirit who permeates the world, is manifest in the outward world, and that he who already believed he could seduce mankind—he who would say: ‘The material is the only thing’—that he shall not prevail was proclaimed in such mighty words, and Zarathustra already pointed out that one will come, when the times are fulfilled, who, in human form, will be the embodiment of all the powers that surge through and interweave the world, which are now only foretold; He calls him Saoshyant—he who will be the power that lives in the sun, which can now be seen only through its outer shell, he who will come in human form. Zarathustra foretells the Christ. Zarathustra had two disciples whom he did not instruct to go out and teach the Persians. They belonged to that class of disciples who are always found among the great Initiates—those who prepare in silence for their future calling and who, at first, refrain from going out to teach. Hermes, the great Egyptian teacher, and Moses were these two disciples in a previous incarnation.

[ 13 ] That was the nature of what radiated in the second post-Atlantean culture; it had to be that way, because humanity had advanced a step and people had become somewhat more attached to the physical plane. But this, in a certain sense, obscured what could be experienced between death and a new birth. True, people were still able to see into the spiritual world, but no longer with the same clarity as in the ancient Indian cultural epoch. It was paler and darker when the souls passed from their Persian bodies into the Devachan, and in the Devachan, people became less adept at the activities there to the same extent that they became more skilled in dealing with the external world. If we have an ascending line in the outer world, we have a descending one in the world beyond death. And when the initiates journeyed over—this is a spiritual journey during which the initiates remain connected to the physical body—into the world beyond to visit people who were between death and a new birth, they were able to speak at length about the important things that people had once seen but which had now become obscured in physical life. They could be teachers of the higher spiritual truths and wisdom that gradually faded for human beings between death and a new birth, but they could not yet communicate anything about what was happening in the physical world. That did not yet hold great significance for the afterlife. Had they recounted what people were doing there, it would not have been uplifting for those in the period between death and a new birth. The only events taking place there were those resulting from the spiritual world. No event occurred on the physical plane that would have been worth communicating to the world beyond.

[ 14 ] The Egyptian era dawned. People had gained even greater mastery of the physical plane; they had become even more skilled and influential within it. For them, it was no longer Maya, an illusion. People looked up at the stars, and in the constellations and the movements of the stars they saw a script of the gods. They saw revelations of the divine-spiritual beings in the physical world. And down below, they cultivated the earth with the knowledge they could gain through their human powers. We need only think of the cultivation of the soil. The bond between the human spiritual powers—which humanity had brought with it from the spiritual world into the physical world—and this physical world grew ever stronger. Now, in his new incarnation, Hermes became the first important teacher of Egypt. Let us try to form a picture of what he was able to teach. Above all, what Hermes was able to teach his Egyptians will become clear to us if we consider the figure of Osiris precisely from the perspective that is of interest to us today. .

[ 15 ] Osiris is, in a sense, the center of Egypt, the god who was revered above all others. The Egyptian gods were worshipped under various names by laypeople, initiates, and priests. You know the legend of Osiris. It is said that Osiris ruled over humanity, that his evil brother Typhon came and, through trickery, placed him in a chest, that he cast him out into the sea inside it, that his grieving wife Isis remained behind, searched for the body, and found it, but was unable to bring Osiris back into this world; that a ray of Osiris fell upon Isis from the afterlife, and she gave birth to Horus, Osiris’s successor on this earth. Osiris remained in the world beyond. And what was told to the Egyptians? They were told: Behold, Osiris is a being who stands close to humanity. He is one of the last beings with whom humans were together when they lived consciously in the spiritual world above. Humans descended into the physical world to continue their development here, so that they might ascend again, enriched by the experiences of the physical world. Osiris is one of the beings who no longer needed to descend into the physical world, because they had already risen so high earlier that they did not need to. They moved to a higher plane; they were not meant to dwell in a physical body, which is the vessel. They could only come into fleeting contact with it. “Osiris can only be found when a person passes into the afterlife,” said the initiate to the Egyptian. “He is the last being you will ever experience—if you make yourselves worthy, if you follow all the precepts.” Then, after death, when you are judged, you will be together with Osiris. He will, so to speak, form your being; you will feel like members of Osiris. —Thus, those who wished to be united with Osiris had to be sent beyond death. But since what people could experience after death had grown even more faint, it was the case that even when they were united with Osiris, they could only experience—dimly and weakly—that which constituted their highest bliss: union with Osiris. But in this life, through the faith instilled in them by the priests, they knew and hoped that they would be united with Osiris, and during moments of celebration they felt themselves there as members belonging to the soul of Osiris. Gradually, this sense of belonging waned. As culture on the physical plane advanced, culture in the spiritual world between death and a new birth grew ever weaker. People’s vision in the devachanic world grew ever fainter. And when the initiates then passed over into the world beyond, they were still unable to report that anything had occurred in the physical world that would have any special significance for the world beyond. What happened there was merely a consequence of the spiritual world. The souls of the dead could not be very interested in what was happening in the physical world. All that could be done was to prepare for the Osiris experience, but that was merely preparation for what they would receive over there in the spiritual depths.

[ 16 ] Then came the Greco-Roman era, the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. During this time, the union between the human spirit and external matter became even more intimate, and the splendor of Greek culture is based on this union between the spiritual faculties of the human being and external physical life. When we behold the Greek temple in all its wondrous forms—even in its echoes, such as in the temple at Paestum—we see what the human spirit has achieved in overcoming external matter. In the lines and distribution of forces of the Greek temple, the highest level of architectural achievement has been attained. The Greek temple represents such a marvel of architecture and art because everything in it is an expression of the spiritual. That is why it is so blissful to gaze into the harmony of the Greek temple. And something peculiar must be mentioned regarding what occurs in the clairvoyant consciousness when contemplating a Greek temple. Let us suppose that the clairvoyant consciousness were standing before the last echoes of a Greek temple, such as the Doric-style temple at Paestum in southern Italy, and could still feel the aftereffects that the Greeks felt on the physical plane; let us suppose the clairvoyant consciousness, when beholding the physical form within the body, could experience all the bliss that one can truly experience there, then it would be as follows for the clairvoyant consciousness: When it steps back, ceases to use the physical organs, and looks with the spirit, then the Greek temple, with all its splendors, has vanished from the spiritual world. What is so perfect, grand, mighty, and magnificent in the physical world cannot be carried over—not even by a modern clairvoyant consciousness—into the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, there is nothing corresponding to the spot in space where the magnificent temple was seen! And so it was with all the great cultural achievements of that admirable era, the Greco-Roman period. Indeed, this was true in another respect as well. It was, after all, this very same period when, in Rome, human self-awareness was expressed most strongly here in the physical world. The Roman first felt himself to be a personal citizen of the earth, firmly grounded on this earth. To the same extent that human beings felt so firmly rooted on earth, they felt weak between death and a new birth—weak, listless, and ill-equipped for the life beyond. Even more than before, life between death and a new birth had lost its luster. Of all that was so magnificently experienced in this life, nothing could be carried over into the life beyond.

[ 17 ] What has been handed down from this Greek era is no legend: one of the most glorious heroes, visited by an initiate in the underworld, in the realm of shadows, said: “Better to be a beggar in the upper world than a king in the realm of shadows”—because between death and a new birth, man felt shadowy and faded, and longed with all his being for the life between birth and death, which was filled with such beauty and such grandeur. Life had descended, so to speak, to the most perfect union between the human spirit and the outer form; in return, life had descended into the realm between death and a new birth.

[ 18 ] It was during this period that the event took place which had been prepared by another initiate—Moses—who was already a disciple of Zarathustra. Moses was chosen—in the form that was possible at that time—to proclaim a God who can also reveal Himself in the physical world, who is also present in the physical world. However, this revelation took place in such a way that what cannot yet be grasped by the senses was to become the sole image of the God who weaves through the world. And when Moses announced himself at the outset of his mission with the “Ehyeh asher ehyeh”—“I am who I am”—this was the first proclamation of the God who is now to be found not merely in the world beyond, but who has crossed over into this world and is to be experienced here. The figure of Yahweh revealed himself through this second of the disciples of Zarathustra, and through him the great appearance of Christ—the Mystery of Golgotha—was prepared. You know in part what this Mystery of Golgotha means for the physical plane: actual proof that life in the Spirit conquers death. This was achieved because that which the prophets had proclaimed—that which existed even at the creation of all the natural kingdoms—walked upon the earth. It is fitting that this primordial being of the world, who is the Spirit of the Sun, be named with a Greek name; for it could and had to appear in the Greek era, when humanity needed the impulse to rise upward. As an eternal reminder that this had to happen at that time, the being who incarnated as Jesus of Nazareth is called by the name Christ. This name is taken from the age in which Christ had to appear.

[ 19 ] At the very moment when the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth died on Golgotha, something occurred that is not merely a legend, but something that can still be verified today by anyone who has the necessary preparation through spiritual science. At the very moment that death on the cross occurred, the Christ appeared in the other world among the dead—among those who were between death and a new birth—and it was like a flash of lightning at that moment on the other side of the world. This appearance of Christ had the effect of a flash of lightning, illuminating the life in the afterlife that had been reduced to a shadowy existence. For the first time, something could now be proclaimed in the world beyond death that was different from what the earlier initiates could proclaim when they passed into the afterlife. Even an initiate of the Eleusinian Mysteries could, at most, have spoken of the beauties of the physical world that the dead could no longer see—and he would certainly have aroused a longing for the physical. He would have brought the dead nothing of particular significance had he told them what was taking place in the physical world. But this was the first proclamation that Christ could make to the dead: that in the world of this life, between birth and death, something had taken place that is not only significant for this life but also extends into the life beyond. What had happened over there in the physical world was an event that lived on into the spiritual world. And we can experience in detail how it continues to have an effect there. When we contemplate the most beautiful temple, the most beautiful work of art from ancient Greek times in this world and experience bliss through it—it fades and is no longer there in the world beyond. But when we immerse ourselves in the Gospel of John or in the Book of Revelation—which proclaim the events that follow on from the Mystery of Golgotha—then we experience something truly great here in this world. We can have wonderful experiences there if we allow them to take effect upon us, if our clairvoyant consciousness allows them to take effect, and when we then pass over into the spiritual world, these sensations do not fade but continue and only become truly magnificent and comprehensible in the spiritual world. There, what connects to the event of Golgotha is even more magnificent.

[ 20 ] This is not the case with everything connected to it. No matter how much you may admire the pyramids, only a faint echo can be felt over in the world beyond; no matter how much one may be filled with delight at the sight of a Greek temple or a Greek tragedy, nothing carries over into the spirit world—neither for the initiated nor for the uninitiated. But when you stand before a painting by Raphael in which Christian truths are embodied: you take the most beautiful part of the painting with you into the spiritual world, and there you will come to understand things that you cannot yet see here at all. There they become a light that illuminates the spiritual world anew, and thus, through the event at Golgotha, the first glimmer appeared with the manifestation of Christ in the world of shadows. And more and more, through everything that has come into the world through Christianity, it will shine forth in the spiritual world. In this way, culture descends from the heights of the Atlantean world down to the Greco-Latin era, when humanity was at its most decadent in terms of experiencing the spiritual world, and when it sank deepest into the material world. People of that time found existence between death and rebirth in the spiritual world to be the most desolate. Now, with the appearance of Christ in the “underworld,” the great impulse of light has entered; existence between death and rebirth is becoming ever brighter and brighter. Now the ascent begins; the upward direction in the history of the life beyond begins. Christianity is only just beginning today. It will become increasingly evident that through what a person can experience here, they become ever more spiritual; that they carry with them into the world beyond what they experience here in connection with the event on Golgotha; and that there is an upward trajectory in the spiritual world.

[ 21 ] Thus, over in the world between death and a new birth, a story is also unfolding, and when we contemplate this story of the hidden side of the world, we see just how immeasurably great the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha is. For it does not merely have significance in the physical world; it has significance for the so-called three worlds in which human beings live. Indeed, the Being who is connected to our evolution—who co-created everything around us, who lived in Jesus of Nazareth, and who said at that time: “How will you believe me if you do not believe Moses and the prophets, for they spoke of me in ancient times”—clearly pointing out that Moses spoke of him in those passages where he spoke of how the divine being had revealed itself to him in the “I Am that I Am.” - The being within Jesus of Nazareth accomplished something in our world that is not only significant for the physical plane, but which, as the most earth-shattering event, permeated all three worlds, from the physical to the spiritual. So powerfully does this event of Golgotha stand before our soul through occult history.