The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] When we consider the human being in his present form—composed of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and the “I”—the clairvoyant consciousness first and foremost reveals the important fact that the physical body and the etheric body are approximately the same in size and shape—at least in the upper parts of the human being. In particular, when we consider the human head as it appears to us physically, it almost completely coincides with the etheric part of the head; only does the human etheric head extend slightly beyond the physical head on all sides. This is by no means the case with animals. Even among the higher animals, there is a vast difference between the shape and size of the etheric part of the head and the physical head. If you were to observe a horse, for example, with clairvoyant awareness, you would see that the etheric head extends far beyond the physical head and in a form quite different from that of the physical head. If I were to describe to you the structure that an elephant has above its trunk and above its head, you would be quite astonished by the nature of such an animal. For what physical perception sees in such an animal is, after all, only the solidified physical part in the center. Let us consider this fact for a moment.

[ 2 ] Human perfection on our physical plane is fundamentally based on the fact that the etheric body corresponds so closely to the physical body. But this was not always the case. During the periods of Earth’s evolution that we have traced in our recent reflections, there were also epochs when the human etheric body did not coincide with the physical body in the same way as it does today. Indeed, human progress in the course of evolution consists in the fact that, little by little, the etheric body—which extended beyond the physical body—crept, as it were, into the physical body and gradually came to coincide with it. Now it is essential to realize that this interpenetration of the etheric body and the physical body had to take place at a very specific time in the Earth’s evolution if humanity was to undergo its development in the proper way. If the human etheric body had become one with the physical body earlier, human beings would have reached a certain stage of development too soon and become fixed in it, so that they would have had to remain at that stage. The fact that they attained a certain capacity for development stems from the fact that this merging took place at a very specific point in time. To understand this, we must take a closer look at the process of development that we outlined in broad strokes yesterday and the day before.

[ 3 ] Let us imagine once more that, at the beginning of Earth’s evolution, the Earth was united with the Sun and the Moon. At that time, the human being had emerged anew from its germ, which contained within itself the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body. In his first earthly form, so to speak, he existed just as he could have existed when the Earth still contained the Sun and the Moon within itself. This period of Earth’s evolution, which humanity underwent along with its planet, is usually referred to in spiritual scientific literature as the “polar era” of Earth’s evolution. Explaining why it is called the Polar Age would take us too far afield today; let us simply accept this name. Then comes the time when the Sun prepares to emerge from the Earth, during which those beings who, so to speak, cannot continue with the coarser or increasingly coarse substances of the Earth separate themselves from the Earth through the finer substances of the Sun. We call this period the Hyperborean Age. Then comes an age in which the Earth is united only with the Moon, a time of continuous desolation of our earthly life. We saw yesterday how human souls leave this Earth, and how only stunted human forms remain behind. This is the period referred to in spiritual scientific literature as the Lemurian Age. During this era, the Moon separates from the Earth, and a revival takes place on Earth of all the kingdoms that have established themselves there. The mineral kingdom requires the least revival; the plant kingdom needs somewhat more, the animal kingdom even more, and the human race requires the most significant and strongest forces so that it can continue to develop. This revitalization begins with the Moon’s departure. As we discussed yesterday, there are only a small number of human beings at this time, and these human beings consist of the three members they have taken on during the Saturn, Sun, and Moon phases of development, to which the germ of the “I” has been added on Earth.

[ 4 ] But at that time, when the Moon separated from the Earth, human beings did not yet exist in the physical form in which they later appeared to us. They existed in the finest forms of matter of that era. During the Lemurian period, the Earth was in a state such that, for example, much of what today exists as a solid mineral was still liquid, dissolved in the other substances that are now separated as water, such as water itself. It was a time when the air was still permeated with dense vapors of the most diverse substances. Pure air and pure water, as we understand them today, did not really exist at that time—or at least only in the smallest regions of the Earth. Thus, in the purest substances of that time, human beings formed their ethereal, subtle bodies. Had they formed their bodies in a coarser substance back then, the form of that body would have developed into a very specific outline, into a figure with sharp contours. These contours would have been passed down to their descendants, and the human race would have remained stagnant as a result. Human beings were not permitted to create their form out of such matter; rather, they had to ensure that they could freely shape the matter of their physical body according to the impulses of the soul. The matter in which their bodies took shape was so malleable back then that it followed the impulses of the will in every direction. Today you can stretch out your hand, but you cannot, by your will alone, make it three meters long. You cannot master matter, because the form is inherited just as it is today.

[ 5 ] That was not the case back then. Human beings could be shaped at will; they could mold their form however their soul desired. This was, so to speak, a prerequisite for humanity’s further development: after the moon had departed, humans embodied themselves in the softest substances, so that their bodies remained malleable and supple and followed the soul in every respect.

[ 6 ] Now came the time when certain elements of matter—water and air, which are so essential to our lives today—gradually purified themselves of the dense matter they contained; in other words, what had previously been dissolved in the water separated from it, as it were. Just as substances dissolved in cooling water settle to the bottom, so too did the dissolved matter, as it were, fall to the ground. The water was set free; the matter was separated from the air, and air and water were formed. Human beings were able to use this refined matter for their own development.

[ 7 ] From this third age, humanity gradually transitioned into a period of Earth’s development that we call the Atlantean era, because during this time the majority of the human race lived on a continent that has since disappeared, located between present-day America, Europe, and Africa—where the Atlantic Ocean now lies. Thus, after the Lemurian period had continued for a while longer, human beings continued to evolve on the Atlantean continent. And that is when all the events I am about to describe to you took place, as well as much of what we already discussed yesterday.

[ 8 ] At the very moment the Moon left the Earth, very few of the human souls that would later be incarnated were actually on Earth. Those human souls were scattered across the various celestial bodies. During the late Lemurian period and the early Atlantean period, these human souls descended. Few people, as I told you, were able to experience the crisis during the Lemurian epoch, for only the strongest—those who, before the Moon’s departure, were able to absorb this hardened matter, which had not yet softened again—survived the Earth’s lunar crisis. But when everything that had hardened during the lunar crisis began to soften again, and when descendants emerged who were not pressed into fixed contours by hereditary conditions but were instead flexible, the souls gradually descended once more from the various planets and took up residence in these bodies. Those beings, however, who became physical very early on after the separation of the Moon retained their fixed form through heredity and were therefore unable to receive human souls even after the Moon’s separation. We can imagine the process in such a way that these souls feel the need to come down to Earth again. Down there, the most diverse forms arise—descendants of the forms that remained after the separation of the Moon—and among these there are varying degrees of solidification. Those human souls—indeed, those soul entities—which, in a certain sense, already had the least urge to unite completely with matter chose the softest of these forms and soon left them again. In contrast, the other soul beings, who had already united with the hardened forms, were bound to these forms, and as a result, they lagged behind in their development. The animals closest to humans came into being precisely because certain souls that had descended from outer space were unable to wait. They sought out bodies down below too early and made them into forms that were too rigidly defined, before these bodies could become fully permeated by the etheric body. The human form remained malleable until it could fully adapt to the etheric body. This gave rise to that covering of which I have spoken, which took place roughly during the last third of the Atlantean epoch. Previously, the part of the human soul that descended kept the body fluid and ensured that the etheric body did not completely fuse with any part of the physical body. This interlocking of the etheric body and the physical body occurred at a very specific point in time. It was not until the Atlantean epoch that the human physical body assumed a specific configuration and began to harden.

[ 9 ] If nothing else had happened at this point in Atlantic development—if nothing else had occurred at all—then the course of development would have been different from what actually happened. In that case, human beings would have transitioned quite rapidly from an earlier state of consciousness to a later one. Before human beings were fully united in terms of their physical and soul aspects, they were clairvoyant beings, but this clairvoyance was dim and vague. Human beings had the ability to glimpse into the spiritual world, but they could not say “I” to themselves; they could not distinguish themselves from their surroundings. He lacked self-awareness. This arose at the point in development where the physical body united with the etheric body. And if nothing else had happened, the following would have taken place in a relatively short time.

[ 10 ] Before this time, human beings were aware of the spiritual world. They could not see animals, plants, and so on clearly, but they could perceive a spiritual presence surrounding them. For example, they would not have seen the form of an elephant clearly, but they would have seen the etheric body extending over the elephant’s physical body. This human awareness would have gradually faded; the “I” would have developed as the physical and etheric bodies merged, and human beings would have seen the world approaching them as if from another side. Whereas he had previously beheld clairvoyant images, from that point on he would have perceived an external world, but at the same time also the spiritual beings and spiritual forces underlying that external world. He would not have seen the physical image of the plant as we see it today, but simultaneously with this physical image, he would have perceived the spiritual essence of the plant. Why was the dull clairvoyant consciousness not simply replaced in the course of evolution by a consciousness of objects that would at the same time have enabled human beings to perceive and know the spiritual?

[ 11 ] This did not happen because, precisely during the lunar crisis, when humanity was reviving, it was influenced by beings who must be described as “backward,” yet who are higher than human beings. We have already encountered various such higher beings. We know that there are some who have ascended to the Sun, and others who have gone to other planets. But there were also spiritual beings who had not completed the task they were supposed to have accomplished on the Moon. We refer to these beings—who stand lower than the gods but higher than humankind—as the Luciferic beings, named after their leader, the highest and strongest among them, Lucifer.

[ 12 ] During the time of the Lunar Crisis, humankind had evolved to the point where it possessed a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and an “I.” It was thanks to the influence of the “Spirits of Form” that humanity acquired the “I,” just as it owed its astral body to the “Spirits of Movement,” its etheric body to the “Spirits of Wisdom,” and its physical body to the influence of the “Thrones.” It was the Spirits of Form—known as the “Exusiai” or “Powers” in Christian esotericism—who made it possible for the seed of the “I” to be added to the other three members. If humanity had simply remained in the normal course of development and all the beings around it had fulfilled their respective tasks, then certain beings would have acted upon the physical body, others upon the etheric body, others upon the astral body, and still others upon the “I”—we might say, just as it should have been, each kind acting upon the member to which it belonged. But now there were these beings who had remained behind on the lunar stage—the Luciferic beings. Had they been able to continue acting properly, they would have been called upon to act upon the “I.” On the Moon, however, they had learned only to act upon the astral body, and this had a significant consequence. Had these Luciferic spirits not been present, human beings would have assimilated their I-potential within themselves and developed by the final third of the Atlantean epoch to the point where they would have exchanged their twilight clairvoyant consciousness for external object consciousness. Instead, the effects of the Luciferic spirits penetrated his astral body, as it were, like rays of force. What did these effects consist of?

[ 13 ] The astral body is the vehicle for drives, desires, passions, instincts, and so on. Human beings would have developed a very different structure of their astral bodies if the Luciferic spirits had not approached them. He would then have developed only those drives that would have guided him with certainty and moved him only forward. The spirits would have guided him to perceive the world through objects behind which the spiritual beings would have become visible. But he would have lacked freedom, enthusiasm, a sense of independence, and passion for this Higher Reality. Humanity would have lost the ancient clairvoyant consciousness. He would have beheld the splendor of the world like a kind of god, for he would have become a part of the Divinity. And this view of the world would have created its reflection in his mind with great perfection. But man would have been nothing more than a great mirror of the universe in its perfection.

[ 14 ] Before this point in time, the Luciferic spirits poured passions, instincts, and desires into the astral body, which merged with what the human being had absorbed within himself along his path of development. As a result, he was not only able to behold the stars, but at the same time to be stirred by them, to kindle enthusiasm and passion—not merely to follow the deified impulses of the astral body, but to develop his own impulses out of his own freedom. This is what the Luciferic spirits had poured into his astral body. But in doing so, they had also given him something else: the capacity for evil, for sin. He would not have had this if he had been guided step by step by the higher gods. The Luciferic spirits set humanity free, instilled enthusiasm in them, but at the same time gave them the capacity for base desires. In a normal course of development, human beings would have, so to speak, associated normal feelings with every single thing. But as it was, the things of the sensory world could please them more than they should have. They could become attached to the things of the sensory world. And the result was that they fell into this physical hardening sooner than would otherwise have been the case.

[ 15 ] Human beings thus attained a solid form earlier than had been, so to speak, decreed for the divine-spiritual beings. In fact, they should have descended from an ethereal to a solid form during the last third of the Atlantean era. Instead, however, they descended before that time and became solid beings. This is what is described to us in the Bible as the Fall. This is the Luciferic influence making itself felt there. Yet even in the periods we have just considered, there are also high spiritual beings who act upon the human “I,” which they have bestowed upon humanity. They allow the forces to flow in that propel human beings forward along their path in the cosmos, to the same extent that these human beings in turn descend and unite with human bodies. They hold their protective hand over humanity. On the other hand, however, there are those beings who have not elevated themselves to the point of influencing the “I.” They now act upon the human astral body and develop very specific impulses within it.

[ 16 ] When we consider human physical life during this period, we see a reflection of these two opposing forces: the divine-spiritual forces acting upon the “I,” and the Luciferic beings. If we trace the spiritual aspect of the process a little, we can say to ourselves: While the Earth lay desolate, human souls ascended to the various celestial bodies that belong to our solar system. Now these souls are returning, depending on whether they find bodies within the physical line of descent. If you consider that the Earth was least populated precisely at the time of the Moon’s separation, you can imagine that the human race branched out from just a few people. Gradually, it is multiplying, and more and more souls are descending to inhabit the bodies that are coming into being on Earth. For a long time, it was the case that descendants arose only from the few people who were present at the time of the Moon’s separation. The high solar forces themselves acted upon these people. These people had, after all, remained strong enough to provide a point of entry for the solar forces even during the lunar crisis. All these people and their descendants felt, so to speak, like “solar beings.” Let’s take a moment to understand this.

[ 17 ] For the sake of simplicity, imagine that during the lunar crisis, only that one human couple was there. I do not wish to decide whether that was actually the case. This human couple had descendants, who in turn had descendants, and so on. This is how the human race branched out. As long as there were, in the strict sense, mere descendants of the ancient Sun-people, all these people still possessed a very special state of consciousness by virtue of their ancient clairvoyance. Back then, human beings did not merely have a memory of what they themselves had experienced from birth onward—or, as is the case today, from a point in time later than birth—but they also remembered everything their father, grandfather, and so on had experienced. Their memory extended back to their ancestors, to all those with whom they were related by blood. This was because, in a certain sense, the solar forces maintained their influence over all those who were related by blood and whose lineage could be traced back to the people who had survived the separation from the Moon. The solar forces had brought about self-consciousness and sustained it throughout the entire bloodline. Now the human race multiplied, and the souls that had gone out into the cosmos returned to Earth. But those souls in whom the solar forces were strong enough still felt these solar forces, even though they had come down and were now connected to spheres entirely different from the Sun.

[ 18 ] But then there came a time when these souls—if they were later descendants—lost their connection to the forces of the sun. And with that, they lost this shared memory with their ancestors. And the more the human race multiplied, the more this living consciousness—which was linked to heredity—was lost. Specifically, it was lost because the Luciferic forces, which acted upon the astral body, came into opposition to those forces that guided humanity forward and implanted the “I” within them. They worked against everything that held people together. They wanted to teach human beings freedom and self-consciousness. Thus, after the separation from the Moon, the earliest humans spoke of an “I” not only in relation to what they themselves experienced, but also to what their ancestors had experienced. They felt the shared solar being working within their blood. And even after that had already died out, those who had come from Mars, for example, still felt the bond that united them with the protective spirit of Mars. The descendants of those who had descended from Mars felt—precisely because they were composed of Martian souls—the protective force emanating from the spirit of Mars.

[ 19 ] The Luciferic spirits launched their attack against this sense of belonging to groups in which love reigns. They sought to cultivate the individual ego of each person in contrast to the collective ego that emerged in such groups.

[ 20 ] When we look back to ancient times, we find everywhere—and the further back we go, the more so—a sense of community tied to blood ties. And the further we move forward, the more this consciousness fades, and the more the human being feels independent, sensing that he must develop an individual “I” in contrast to the collective “I.” Thus, two realms are at work within the human being: the realm of the Luciferic spirits and that of the divine-spiritual beings. The divine-spiritual beings lead the human being toward other human beings, but through the bonds of blood. The Luciferic beings seek to separate, to isolate one human being from another. These two forces were at work throughout the Atlantean era. And they continued to work even as the Atlantean continent was destroyed by great catastrophes and Europe, Asia, Africa, and, on the other side, America took on their present forms. They continued to work into the fifth epoch of the Earth, right up to our own time.

[ 21 ] Thus, we have been able to describe five epochs of Earth’s history: the Polar Epoch, when the Earth was still united with the Sun; the Hyperborean Epoch, when the Moon was still united with the Earth; then the Lemurian Epoch; then the Atlantean Epoch; and finally the Post-Atlantean Epoch, our own time. We saw how the Luciferic spirits intervened and how they counteracted the divine-spiritual powers that brought human beings together. And we must acknowledge: Something entirely different would have happened if the Luciferic spirits had not intervened in human evolution. In the last third of the Atlantean era, the ancient clairvoyant consciousness would have been replaced by a consciousness of objects—but one permeated by the spirit. Instead, however, the Luciferic spirits led humanity earlier to a hardened physical body. As a result, human beings began to look out into the physical world earlier than they otherwise would have been able to. And the consequence of this was that humanity entered the last third of the Atlantean epoch in a completely different state than would have been the case had only the divine-spiritual powers been in charge.

[ 22 ] Whereas human beings would otherwise have seen an outer world as if it were radiant and imbued with higher beings, it was now the case that they saw only a physical world, and that the divine world had withdrawn from them. The Luciferic spirits had mingled with their astral bodies. In his external perception—in the relationship of the “I” to the external world, in the distinction between the “I” and the external world—the Ahrimanic spirits of Zarathustra, whom we may also call the Mephistophelean spirits, now interfered because human beings had become connected to the sensory world. Human beings do not possess their physical body, etheric body, and astral body in the same way they would have if only the higher gods had been at work. They have taken into their astral body beings whom we call the Luciferic spirits, and who led them out of Paradise earlier than they actually should have left. And the consequence of the influence of the Luciferic spirits is that the Ahrimanic and Mephistophelean spirits have intermingled with human perception, now showing the external world to the human being merely in its sensory form, not as it truly is. That is why the Hebrew world calls these spirits, which deceive human beings into believing falsehoods, “mephiz-topel” — “mephiz,” the corrupter, and “topel,” the liar. “Mephistopheles” is the name that has come from this. This is the same spirit as Ahriman. What, then, has Ahriman brought about in human beings, in contrast to Lucifer?

[ 23 ] Lucifer caused the forces of the astral body to deteriorate beyond what they would otherwise have become, and caused human beings to densify their physical matter earlier than they otherwise would have. However, this also enabled human beings to attain a freedom they would not otherwise have achieved. The Mephistophelean spirits have caused human beings not to see the spiritual foundation of the world, but rather to be led to believe in an illusion of the world. Mephistopheles has instilled in human beings the belief that the external world has only a material existence, that there is not a spiritual element within and behind every material thing. Throughout all of humanity, the scene that Goethe so wonderfully depicts in his Faust has always played out. There we see, on the one hand, Faust, who seeks the path into the spiritual world, and on the other hand, Mephistopheles, who describes this spiritual world as nothingness because he has an interest in presenting the sensory world to him as the whole. Faust replies to him with what any spiritual researcher would say in this situation: “In your nothingness I hope to find the universe!” Only when one knows how spirit is present in every tiniest particle of matter, and how the concept of matter is a lie; only when one recognizes that Mephistopheles is the spirit in the world that corrupts our perceptions—only then does one arrive at a true understanding of the external world.

[ 24 ] What was necessary for humanity to move forward again, so as not to let it sink into the fate that would have been brought upon it by Lucifer and Ahriman?

[ 25 ] Even during the Atlantean era, efforts had to be made to ensure that the influence of the Luciferic beings did not become too great. Even in the ancient Atlantean times, there were people who worked on themselves in such a way that the Luciferic influence could not become too great in their astral bodies; they paid attention to what came from Lucifer and sought out within their own souls the passions, instincts, and desires that originated from Lucifer. What happened as a result of their eradicating these qualities that came from Lucifer? In doing so, they regained the ability to perceive, in its pure form, what a human being would have seen had they not been subjected to the influence of the Luciferic and, later, the Ahrimanic spirits. Through a pure way of life and careful self-knowledge, certain people of the Atlantean era sought to cast out this influence of Lucifer from within themselves. And this enabled them, in those times when remnants of the ancient clairvoyance still existed, to look into the spiritual world and perceive higher realities than those who, through the influence of Lucifer, had allowed physical matter to harden within themselves. Such people, who eradicated the Luciferic influence through a self-knowledge rooted in character, became the leaders of the Atlantean era; we might also call them the Atlantean initiates. — What, then, did Lucifer actually do?

[ 26 ] Lucifer directed his attack primarily against what held people together—what was bound to blood through love. Now, these people knew how to combat Lucifer’s influence. As a result, they attained the ability to perceive this connection spiritually, so that they could say: It is not in separation, not in isolation, that lies what moves humanity forward, but in what unites people. Thus, these people, who worked against the Luciferic influence, sought, as it were, to restore the ancient state of affairs, when the higher spiritual world had not yet been endangered by Lucifer’s power. They strove to eradicate the personal element: Kill that which gives you a personal “I,” and look back to those ancient times when kinship was still so vivid that the descendant felt his “I” extending all the way back to the first ancestor, when the first forefather, long since deceased, was still regarded as sacred! — The leaders of the Atlantean era wanted to lead humanity back to those times of primeval human community. Throughout the entire course of evolution, there have been such leaders of humanity who appeared time and again and said: Do not succumb to the influences that seek to drive you into the personal “I”; seek to recognize what held people together in ancient times! Then you will find the path to the divine Spirit!

[ 27 ] Essentially, this mindset had been preserved in its purest form among those we know as the ancient Hebrew people. Try to truly understand the sermons of those who were the leaders of this ancient Hebrew people. They stood before their people and said to them: You have reached the point where each of you emphasizes your personal self within yourselves, where each of you seeks your essence only within yourselves. But you will promote development if you put the personal self to death and mobilize all those forces that lead you to the awareness that you all descend from Abraham and are connected all the way back to Abraham, that you are members of the great organism extending all the way back to Abraham. When you are told, “I and Father Abraham are one,” and you accept this while setting aside all that is personal within you, then you possess the true consciousness that leads you to the Divine, for the path to the Divine passes through the forefather. - The Hebrew people preserved this—which is the fundamental driving force behind the leadership of those who fought against the Luciferic influence—for the longest time.

[ 28 ] But human beings were entrusted with the mission not to destroy the ego, but to develop and cultivate it. The ancient initiates could offer no argument against the personal ego other than that one should rise above the ancestors to the ancient gods.

[ 29 ] When the great impulse came to Earth—as we described yesterday—when the Christ impulse came, a different message resounded first, very clearly and distinctly. And it could be heard so clearly and distinctly precisely among the Hebrew people because this people had preserved, right up to the very end, what we might describe as the echo of the ancient Atlantean initiates.

[ 30 ] Christ transformed that teaching of the ancient initiates and said: There is a way for human beings to cultivate their own personality—not merely to follow the physical bonds of blood kinship, but to look within their own “I” and there seek and find the Divine! In what we have characterized as the Christ impulse lies the power which, when we unite with it, enables us—despite the individuality of the “I”—to forge a spiritual bond of brotherhood from person to person. Thus, the power of Christ was different from that which prevailed in the circle into which he was placed. There they said: “I and Father Abraham are one! I must know this if I am to find my way back to the Divine.” But Christ said: “There is another Father through whom the ‘I’ will find the way to the Divine; for the ‘I’ or ‘I Am’ and the Divine are one! There is an Eternal One whom you can find if you remain within yourself.” Therefore, Christ was able to describe the power he wished to impart to humanity with the words of the Gospel of John: “Before Abraham was, the I Am was!” And the I Am was no other name than the one Christ himself assumed. And when a person kindles this awareness—that within me lives something that existed long before Abraham; I need not go back as far as Abraham; I find the divine Father-Spirit within myself!—then he can transform into good that which was brought by Lucifer for the nurturing and cultivation of the “I,” and which led to the hindrance of humanity. This is the deed of Christ: that he transformed the influence of Lucifer into good.

[ 31 ] Let us suppose that only the higher spiritual-divine beings had been at work—those who tied love exclusively to blood ties and who always demanded of human beings: “You must ascend through the entire bloodline if you wish to find the path to the gods!” —then human beings, without their full consciousness being involved, would have been herded together into a human community, and they would never have attained a full awareness of their freedom and independence. This is what the Luciferic spirits instilled in human beings’ astral bodies before the coming of Christ. They isolated human beings, seeking to make each one stand on their own two feet. Christ, however, transformed into good what would have inevitably come to pass had the Luciferic influence gone to extremes. Had the Luciferic influence gone to extremes, human beings would have fallen into lovelessness. Lucifer brought freedom and independence to human beings; Christ transformed this freedom into love. And through the bond of Christ, human beings are led to spiritual love.

[ 32 ] From this perspective, what the Luciferic spirits have done appears in a different light. Can we still describe their having once “remained behind” as carelessness and laziness? No! They remained behind to fulfill a specific mission on Earth: to prevent human beings from being fused together like a mere pulp by natural bonds alone. And they were to prepare the way for Christ. They said, as it were, on the Moon: “We will renounce our lunar destiny so that we may work on Earth in the spirit of further development!” — This is one example of how something that appears to be evil, an apparent error, is nevertheless turned to the best within the overall context of the world. So that the Christ could intervene in Earth’s development at the right time, certain lunar spirits had to sacrifice their lunar mission and prepare the way for the Christ. We can see from this that we can just as well regard Lucifer’s remaining behind on the Moon as a sacrifice.

[ 33 ] In this way, we will come ever closer to a truth that humankind should inscribe in its soul as a lofty moral principle: When you see evil in the world, do not say, “Here is evil, and therefore something imperfect,” but ask: How can I develop myself to the point of realizing that, within a higher context, this evil is transformed into good by the wisdom that exists in the cosmos? How do I reach the point where I can say to myself: “The fact that you see something imperfect here stems from the fact that you have not yet reached the stage where you can perceive the perfection even in this imperfection.” — Whenever a person sees something evil, they should look into their own soul and ask themselves: Why is it that here, where evil confronts me, I am not yet ready to recognize the good within this evil?

[ 34 ] More on that tomorrow.