The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] It was stated yesterday that those beings who are to be regarded as national spirits are at such a level that, in their present existence, they work on their etheric or Life-Body from their sense of self; that is, they shape this etheric or Life-Body from the innermost essence of their soul.

[ 2 ] Now, of course, each of you can say to yourselves: It must certainly be admitted that the work on this etheric or Life-Body cannot be seen directly with the external organs of perception, with physical eyes, but that this is, so to speak, a matter for clairvoyant consciousness. But if the activity of these beings—that is, these national spirits—extends into human life, then there must surely be something on the other side that can be pointed out, something that can be cited, which is in a certain way visible on the outside—a kind of imprint, a kind of reflection of the work of those national spirits or archangelic beings. Furthermore, these beings must, in a sense, also have a physical body. Their physical nature must find expression in some form. And this physical form in which they express themselves—the work and activity of these beings—must also be hinted at in some way in the world in which human beings live, for after all, the human body must have something to do with the work of these spiritual beings.

[ 3 ] We will begin with the etheric or Life-Body of these beings and with the work they perform within this etheric or Life-Body. Therefore, we will first have to turn to the research of clairvoyant consciousness. Where, then, does clairvoyant research find what can be described as such an etheric body of these archangelic beings, these Archangeloi, and how are we to understand this work? — You all know that the face, the surface of our Earth, varies from place to place, and that in the various regions of our Earth, conditions are present in the most diverse ways for the development of national characteristics and traits. Outward, materialistic consciousness will claim that climate, vegetation, and perhaps the water of a particular country or region on our Earth are decisive factors—along with various other factors—for what manifests as national characteristics and traits. That material consciousness—the consciousness of the physical plane—speaks in this way is not surprising, for this consciousness of the physical plane knows only what can be seen with the eyes. For clairvoyant consciousness, however, the matter is quite different. Anyone who travels through the various regions of our Earth with clairvoyant consciousness, anyone who sets foot on one or another part of our Earth with this consciousness, knows that the distinctive physical appearance of the vegetation and the unique configuration of the rocks do not encompass everything there is to know about that region, about the character of any given area of the Earth. But when, for the materialistic consciousness, we speak only of an abstraction—when we speak of a distinctive aroma, indeed, of an aura of a particular region of our Earth—this, in turn, is understandable. For the clairvoyant consciousness, this unique spiritual cloud formation—which must be described as the etheric aura of a particular region of the Earth—does indeed rise above every spot on our Earth. This etheric aura is different, quite different, over the landscapes of Switzerland than over those of Italy, and different again over the landscapes of Norway, Denmark, or Germany. Just as every human being has their own etheric body, so too does a kind of etheric aura hover over every region of our Earth’s surface.

[ 4 ] This etheric aura, however, differs very significantly from other etheric auras—for example, from the etheric auras of human beings. When we observe a human being living their life, we find that the human’s etheric aura is bound to that person as long as they live—that is, from birth to death. It is, so to speak, connected to their physical body and actually changes only to the extent that the person undergoes development in life, as they rise to higher levels in terms of intelligence, morality, and so on. But then we always see that this etheric aura of the human being changes, so to speak, from within, acquiring certain inclusions that shine and glow from within. The situation is different with those etheric auras that can be perceived over the various regions of the world. Certainly, they have a certain underlying tone over long periods of time, and they possess something that remains constant over long periods of time. But there are also rapid changes taking place within these etheric auras, and these rapid changes are what distinguish them from human auras, which change slowly and gradually and, when they do change, undergo that change only from within. These auras over the various regions of the Earth change, in fact, in the course of the development of humanity, whenever a people leaves its homeland and takes possession of another region of the Earth. This is the peculiarity: that, in fact, the etheric aura over a particular region of the Earth does not depend solely on what, so to speak, rises from the ground, but rather on which people most recently established their settlement in that region.

[ 5 ] Thus, those who wish to trace the true course of the destiny of the human race on Earth seek to observe the interplay of precisely this part of the etheric auras of our earthly regions. The various etheric auras of Europe underwent very, very significant changes during the period known as the Migration Period. From this you can already see that there is something in this etheric aura over an earthly region that is changeable—something that can indeed change suddenly—and this change can, in a certain sense, even be brought about from the outside. Thus, each such etheric aura is, in a certain sense, a convergence of what originates from the soil and what is, so to speak, carried into it by the migrations of peoples.

[ 6 ] When we consider this aura, we must be clear that, in a certain sense, the statement—which is so readily cited in Spiritual Science but is actually never truly understood, or at least never fully considered in its profound implications—has the broadest possible validity: the statement that everything physical consciousness sees out in the world is, after all, merely maya, or illusion. This statement is often made in the context of the theosophical worldview, but when considered in detail—so that it is truly brought to life—it is, in reality, given very little attention. It is spoken of more as an abstract truth. But when one seeks to consider concrete circumstances, one forgets it and remains stuck at the level of material consciousness. In truth, what mysteriously presents itself to us from that part of the earth inhabited by a people is the etheric aura of the respective region. What meets the physical eye in the green vegetation covering the earth, the distinctive configuration of the ground, and so on, is, in essence, merely maya—or external illusion—which is, as it were, a condensation of what is at work in the etheric aura. However, only that part of the external world is dependent on this etheric aura upon which the etheric aura—that is, a living, self-organizing principle—can exert influence. The archangels, who uphold the spiritual laws, cannot intervene in the physical laws. In those areas where only the physical laws are at work and come into play—such as mountainous terrain, the curvature of the earth’s surface, and so on—where the factors determining major changes in a people depend on physical conditions, the influence of the archangels does not extend; the archangels have not yet reached that stage in their development where they could intervene in physical conditions. Because they cannot do so—because they are dependent in this respect—they must wander across the earth at certain times; therefore, they incarnate in what the configuration of the terrain represents, as it were, as in a physical body—that is, in what is governed by physical laws. The etheric body of the people cannot yet enter there; it cannot yet extend into it in an organizing way. That is why the soil is sought out, if it is to prove suitable, and from this union between the etheric body—which is now being worked through by spiritual-soul forces— and the physical piece of earth, there arises that which confronts us as the magical breath in the outward expression of a people—that which a person who is not a clairvoyant can merely sense in a country, but which a person who perceives the land and the people with clairvoyant consciousness can truly behold.

[ 7 ] But how does that which is, so to speak, the work of the Archangel—the national spirit in the etheric body that rises above the earth—actually influence human life? What is the work of the archangel, and how does he influence the human beings who move upon this earth and live within this cloud of the national spirit? He influences them in such a way that this force finds expression in three ways within the human being. It is the etheric aura of the people that works into human beings, permeates them, and weaves through them; indeed, this etheric aura works into the human being in such a way that a threefold aspect of the human being is affected by it. Through the intermingling of this threefold aspect, the distinctive character of a person who lives within this etheric aura of the people then arises. This etheric aura—what does it affect in the human being? It affects a threefold aspect of the temperaments. It affects the temperaments that are themselves immersed in the human emotional life, which are at work within the human etheric body—but not the so-called melancholic temperament. The etheric aura of the people affects the choleric, phlegmatic, and sanguine temperaments. In general, then, the power of the people’s etheric aura flows into these three temperaments. Now, these three temperaments can be mixed and interact in the most varied ways within the individual human personality. You can imagine infinite diversity here when the three forces interact, when one influences the other, overpowers it, and so on. This gives rise to the most diverse configurations, which we encounter in different ways, for example, in Russia, Norway, and Germany. What shapes a person’s national character is what acts upon the temperaments. The difference that exists here among individual people is brought about solely by the degree of mixture. National temperaments are thus blended according to the influences of the national aura.

[ 8 ] Thus, the national spirits exert their influence across the earth. But they also have their own ways; for it is not essential to their own affairs that they influence the temperaments. They do so only because the forces in the world interact with one another. They do this first and foremost as their intentional actions, as part of their mission. In addition, however, the affairs of their own “I” also come into play. These consist in their own progress in development, in their own journey across the Earth, and in incarnating in this or that region of the Earth. But these are their own affairs. What they do in the temperaments of human beings is something they work on incidentally—it is their vocation. Of course, human beings also make progress through their work; it has a reciprocal effect on them. Therefore, human work also has a reciprocal effect on the national spirit. We will yet see what significance individual human beings have for the national spirit. This is important. The essential point, however, is that we can trace such a national spirit as it incarnates in the world, then lives for a time in the spiritual world, and subsequently incarnates elsewhere, and so on. When we observe these processes, we are always dealing only with the “I”-matters of these beings. So now imagine—so that you can create a clear mental image of this—the human etheric body embedded within the national etheric body; then imagine the interaction between the human etheric body and the national etheric body, and imagine that the national etheric body is reflected in the national temperaments—reflected in the mixture of the temperaments of individual human beings—and you will have the secret of how the national spirit, in its own way, presents itself to us within a nation.

[ 9 ] Now that we have said this, we have essentially covered the most important work of the archangels or national spirits themselves. However, we would be far from having exhausted the peculiarities of a people if we were to consider only the nature of the character that a human being possesses within that people. But the archangelic beings—who are the true spirits of the tribes—have this task.

[ 10 ] But, as you can easily surmise, a people possesses many other qualities as well. Where do these come from? If the archangel—the guiding spirit of a people—did not encounter other beings on the same land and did not collaborate with them within the human etheric body, then many of the characteristics of a people could not arise at all. The human being is a stage for the encounter of the archangels with other beings who interact with the archangels and, so to speak, collaborate with them. But something quite different arises from this collaboration. When the clairvoyant consciousness studies the peoples, it strangely discovers mysterious beings, apart from the Archangelic beings already described, which are related to the Archangels in a certain respect, yet in another respect are completely different from them—above all because they are capable of exerting much greater powers than the national spirits themselves. The national spirit acts in an extraordinarily subtle and intimate way upon the individual human soul through this interweaving into the temperaments. But other beings also influence the soul in a much stronger, more powerful way. We must first clarify these other beings based on our general knowledge of the hierarchies. There we will, so to speak, find the names for these other beings that clairvoyant consciousness observes. Imagine the hierarchies of spirits in the following way:

1. Humans,
2. Angels,
3. Archangels,
4. Primordial Beginnings or Spirits of Personality,
5. Powers or Spirits of Form.

[ 11 ] We would then move on to others, but we do not wish to consider them further today. If you now recall what we spoke about yesterday—and which you will also find discussed in detail in the messages from the Akasha Chronicle and in my book The Secret Science—you will say to yourselves: Of these beings, it is the archangels who passed through their human stage during the ancient Sun Age. At that time, the beings we call spirits of form or powers—who are now two levels higher than the archangels—were at the archangelic level; they were Archangeloi, beings similar to what are today characterized as national spirits. That was their normal stage of development at that time.

[ 12 ] Now, however, there is a peculiar mystery in evolution, namely the law of the lagging behind of certain entities—the law that causes certain entities to lag behind at every stage, so that at the next stage they do not reach the normal level but actually retain the character they should have had at earlier stages. Now, throughout our human evolution, entities have always been left behind. Among these entities left behind are also such spirits of form, such powers, and they have been left behind in a very peculiar way—namely, in such a way that, although they are spirits of form in terms of certain qualities, and through certain qualities are capable of what today only the spirits of form—who bestowed the “I” upon human beings on the Earth stage—can do; yet they cannot do this fully because they do not possess all the necessary qualities. They have remained at a stage where they do not pass through the Archangel stage on the Sun, but rather during their time on Earth, so that they are beings who now stand at the level of national spirits but possess entirely different qualities. While the national spirits work intimately within human life—because they stand two stages higher than human beings and are thus still related to them—these powers, these spirits of form, are elevated four stages above the human stage. They therefore possess an immense number and magnitude of powers that would not be suited to influencing human beings so intimately. They would exert a more robust influence, but would have no other sphere of activity than that occupied by the normal national spirits, the archangels.

[ 13 ] That is the difficulty: one must first learn to distinguish between things in the higher worlds. Those who believe they can get by in the higher worlds with just a few concepts are very much mistaken. A person who ascends into the higher worlds with superficial concepts will indeed find the archangels there. But one must distinguish between beings who have now normally attained the rank of archangel and those who should have stood at this level during the Earth’s solar state. Thus, in the same realm as the spirits of the tribes or the archangels, other beings work together who, so to speak, stand in the hierarchy of the archangels but are endowed with entirely different, more robust qualities—qualities such as those possessed by the other spirits of form—and who are thereby able to intervene deeply in human nature. For what have these spirits of form made of human beings during their earthly existence? Just imagine that human beings would not be able to say “I” to themselves if the spirits of form had not shaped the brain into what human beings possess as such today. Thus, such beings can exert their influence right down into the physical form, even though they stand only on the level of the archangels. They enter into a kind of competition with the national spirits in the realm where the national spirits are active.

[ 14 ] The first thing they primarily bring about—as these spirits collide from one side and others from the other—is language, which could not come into being without the entire structure and form of the human body. In the human constitution, we see the influence of these other national spirits, which are connected to the forces of nature and to human beings. Thus, we must not simply attribute language to the same entities that work intimately within the national temperament and, as beings standing two levels above the human being, impose their configuration upon the nation. The beings who bestow language possess great power; they are, in fact, forces. They act upon the Earth because they have remained on Earth, whereas their other companions, acting from the Sun into outer space, work within the “I.” Before the coming of Christ Jesus, human beings worshiped the Yahweh or Jehovah being, and afterward they worshiped the Christ being as one who acts from outer space. With regard to the spirits of language, we must say that what is loved in language is precisely that which has remained on Earth. We must accustom ourselves to entirely different perspectives. Human beings are accustomed to applying their own concepts to the entire universe. They are, of course, very much mistaken when they view the fact that these high beings lag behind in their evolution in much the same way as a schoolgirl who has to repeat a grade. They do not lag behind because they have not learned, but for reasons of great wisdom that governs the world. If certain beings had not renounced their normal further development and, instead of moving on with the Sun, had undergone their further development on Earth, what we call language could not have come into being on Earth. In a certain sense, human beings must love their language deeply, precisely because—so to speak—high beings have remained with them out of love, having renounced certain qualities so that humanity might develop in a way that corresponds to wisdom. Just as we must regard moving ahead as a kind of sacrifice, so too must we regard remaining behind in earlier epochs of evolution as a kind of sacrifice, and we must be absolutely clear that human beings could never have attained certain qualities if such sacrifices had not been made.

[ 15 ] Thus we see how, within the etheric body of the human being and within the etheric body of the national spirit under consideration, two kinds of beings exchange their work: the normally developed archangels and the spirits of form who have remained at the archangelic level, having renounced their own development in order to instill the national language into human beings during their earthly existence. They had to possess the power to transform the larynx and the entire speech apparatus in such a way that the result of these speech organs is a physical manifestation—namely, language itself. We must therefore regard as the result of this interaction precisely that which presents itself to us as the national character, the national temperament, in union with language. What a person is able to utter—through which they reveal themselves as a member of their people—what they let resound out into the air—is precisely what the spirits of form, allied with the national spirits, can bring about only because they have remained at the level of the national spirits with their great powers and forces. Thus, such a collaboration takes place within those realms, those spheres, where the national spirits are at work. A similar collaboration, however, also takes place in another sphere.

[ 16 ] Yesterday I mentioned that other forces—the primordial beginnings or the spirits of personality—are at work during earthly existence, representing what is called the “spirit of the age.” These forces work in such a way that they act from their true self—from their soul organization—into the physical body, thereby setting the forces of the physical body in motion. We must therefore assume that when, at a particular time, something occurs as a result of the influence of the spirit of the age—when something manifests within a spirit of the age that enables humanity to make progress—this corresponds to a working with physical forces within our earthly existence. You can see this very easily; you need only consider it to understand how truly physical conditions are necessary for this or that to arise within the spirit of the age. Or can you create a mental image of how, under different conditions, Kepler or Copernicus or Pericles could have lived in a different era? These personalities grow out of very specific conditions of the time—conditions that are shaped and organized at a specific point in time through the physical work of higher beings. It is indeed the physical conditions—though we must not create a mental image of these as material blocks, but rather as certain configurations within the physical fabric of our Earth. Sometimes this configuration emerges with tremendous force; sometimes, when the spirit of the age exerts its influence in some way, a very specific physical constellation must come into being. Just consider that once, when there were already precisely cut pieces of glass, these were assembled—through a child’s play in a glass-cutting workshop—in such a way that one could observe the optical effect of a telescope, so that the inventor of the telescope merely had to realize this law of the telescope.

[ 17 ] This is a historical fact. But just imagine what physical processes were necessary for all of this to take place! Lenses first had to be invented, ground, and assembled in the proper manner. You may well use the word “coincidence” here, but you can only apply it if you refrain from seeking to understand the laws governing even such events. These physical conditions bring together the Archai, the primal forces. The reflection of their work is what acts to bring things together at a single point on Earth—what otherwise manifests in manifold ways as the spirit of the age. Just imagine what would not have come to pass in recent times with regard to many physical things if this work of the Archai had not taken place within your physical bodies. Thus, it is indeed the work of the Archai that acts in this regard, in this direction.

[ 18 ] If these Archai act in this way and direct the spirit of the age, then we may ask ourselves once again: How, exactly, do these spirits of the age intuit human progress? They intuit it through the way in which physical events seem to inspire a person almost by chance. These are not merely legends, even if that is sometimes the case. I need only recall the swinging church lamp in the Pisa Cathedral, where Galileo discovered the law of the pendulum from the lamp’s regular oscillations, and how Kepler and Newton were subsequently inspired to make their own discoveries. One could recount hundreds and thousands of cases where physical events are linked to human thought, from which one could discern how the Archai or primal forces intuit what goes out into the world as ideas—as ideas of time—which then influence human beings in their development, govern their progress, and permeate it according to certain laws. But in this realm, too, the beings who have normally become spirits of personality during our earthly existence work together with others who, having remained on the Moon, are now not spirits of form or forces—as they would be on Earth—but are only now beginning to act as spirits of personality.

[ 19 ] Thus, those entities that did not renounce their existence at the solar stage but only at the lunar stage are now spirits of personality, yet they do not possess the qualities they would normally have; that is, they do not intuit in the same way as normal spirits of personality, but rather as retarded spirits of form. They do not stimulate from the outside and leave it intimately up to the human being to observe what is taking place in the physical realm; rather, they stimulate from within, they configure within the brain, and they give thought a certain direction. Consequently, human thinking is stimulated from within during different periods of time, so that each era has a specific way of thinking. This is connected to the subtle configurations of thought, to inner constellations. There, the retarded spirits of form—which possess the character of the spirits of personality—work within human beings and bring forth a certain way of thinking, a very specific form of concepts. This is why, from epoch to epoch, people are not merely guided in the sense of the intuitive spirits of personality—where they allow themselves to be inspired to do this or that—but are driven forward as if by inner forces, so that thinking manifests itself physically from within, just as what has remained on the other side as spirits of form manifests itself in language. Thus, the mode of thinking expresses itself as a manifestation of the spirits of form, which appear in our time as spirits of personality. These are not, therefore, spirits of personality that act in an intimate way, leaving it up to the individual to do as he or she pleases, but rather spirits that seize hold of the individual and drive him or her forward with overwhelming force. That is why you can always discern these two types in those people who are inspired by the spirit of the age. In those who are inspired by the true spirits of the age—those operating at the normal level—you can, so to speak, see the true representatives of their time. We can regard them as people who were bound to come, and their activity as something that could not have happened any other way.

[ 20 ] But there are also other people in whom those spirits of personality are at work that are actually spirits of form. These are the other spirits we have referred to as the spirits of thought, which advanced to their present position during the lunar cycle. The human being is now the stage on which all of this interacts. This interaction manifests itself in the interplay between language and thought, and in the fact that not only do the spirits at the same level interact, but the normal archangels, who govern the national spirit and national temperament, also enter into interaction with what has just been characterized, that is, not only with the spirits of form standing on the archangelic level, but also with those spirits of personality who are, in fact, spirits of form that have remained behind.

[ 21 ] These two types are present in human nature and the human being. This relationship is extremely interesting to study when one goes from one people to another armed with occult knowledge and occult insight. There one can see how the normal national spirits work, and how these normal national spirits then receive their commands from the spirits of the age; but also how these national spirits interact within the human being with the spirits of language and also with the spirits of thought, which influence human thoughts. There, within the human being, one finds not only normal archangels and abnormal archangels, but also the archangels in opposition to the abnormal spirits of the personality, which govern the thought processes of a particular era from within. This is where it becomes extremely interesting—I have said that certain states will be alluded to, which you must approach with your spiritual understanding, and which must be clothed in ordinary words, because no language has yet been created in human life that would make all this credible and understandable; one must express everything in words that convey the facts somewhat vividly, yet correspond to a significant reality of human development—it is therefore of the utmost interest and importance to follow the development of humanity in recent times, and it is important to know that at one point a mutual covenant was actually concluded between one of the guiding spirits of the peoples—who is a normal archangel—and a spirit that acts inwardly as the spirit of the powers of thought, that is, an abnormal spirit of personality; and in a certain historical epoch, the serious, significant result of this covenant becomes evident. To make this covenant particularly complete, a harmonious relationship was established with the corresponding abnormal archangel, who was the guiding spirit of language at that time, so that there is a point in human development where, so to speak, normal and abnormal archangelic forces work together, and where, moreover, the mode of thinking brought about from within by an abnormal spirit of personality also exerts its influence. This covenant between these three parties is reflected in a specific people. This is the Indian people, the people who, in the first post-Atlantean epoch, ushered in post-Atlantean culture. During this Indian culture, that constellation arose in which these three entities interacted most harmoniously. The result of this is everything we can describe as the historical role of this Indian people. Even in the times for which historical records already exist, the effects of what was agreed upon in that covenant at that time continue to be felt. This was the reason why the ancient sacred language of the Indians exerted such a powerful influence and had those immense historical cultural effects, and why it was still able to exert such a powerful influence in the subsequent era. This power was brought about by the extraordinary archangels who worked through the language. The power of the Sanskrit language rests precisely on the covenant of which I have just spoken. And in turn, the unique Indian philosophy—which, as a philosophy, as thinking that creates from within the human being, has not yet been attained by any other people in the world—is based on this; the inner coherence of Indian cultural thought is based on this. In all other regions, we observe different conditions. It was in Indian culture alone that what has now been characterized came to light at that time. That is why it is so infinitely fascinating to follow these trains of thought, which have a special configuration not because they arose from the dominance of the normal archangel over the abnormal one, but as something that stands in harmony with that coherence—because, in fact, every thought was absorbed by the national temperament and lovingly spun out into detail — back when the Indian people existed as the first cultural flowering of the post-Atlantean era. And the language continued to have this effect fundamentally because no conflict arose there—a conflict that would otherwise have arisen everywhere else—but rather because there was a collaboration between the archangel of normal development and the archangel of abnormal development, so that one can say that the language, poured forth from the purest temperament, is itself a product of that temperament. That is the secret of this first cultured people of the post-Atlantean era.

[ 22 ] But this is what must be considered in the case of all other peoples: namely, that a unique interplay arises among them between these three forces—between the normal national spirit or archangel, the abnormal archangel, and that which works inwardly within the abnormal spirit of the age (which does not act as a zeitgeist but works from within)—and finally, that which the true zeitgeist has imparted inwardly to the people. The true understanding of a people rests on listening to these forces within, on examining the role each factor plays in the constitution of the people. This is why it has become difficult for people who do not take the occult forces of human development into account to actually define the word “people.” Try taking a look at the various books in which the concept of the “people” has been defined anywhere in the world, and you will see the wide range of definitions that exist and how greatly they differ from one another. They must differ from one another, because one person senses more of what comes from one side—from the normal archangels—while another senses more of what stems from the abnormal archangel, and a third, in turn, senses what comes from the individual personalities of the people. Each person senses something different and incorporates it into their definition. This is precisely what has become clear to us through Spiritual Science: that these definitions need not always be wrong; they are simply always steeped in maya, in illusion. From what a person says, one can see whether they are considering only maya and whether they are disregarding the various forces at work. Therefore, one will naturally always arrive at a completely different understanding when, from the perspective of Spiritual Science, one considers a people such as the Swiss—who live on the same land and speak three languages—as opposed to peoples with a single language.

[ 23 ] We will have to discuss later why peoples act more out of the spirit of personality—that is, why their very existence is based on the interaction of individual personalities. We will also find such nations on Earth that derive their existence more from the abnormal spirit of personality. These spirits of personality do not work toward further development. You need only consider the character of the North American people to see a nation that, for the time being, is based on this principle. Thus, you will see that we will only understand world history—insofar as it is the history of peoples—when we trace normal and abnormal archangels, normal and abnormal spirits of personality, in their mutual hierarchy and interaction, and simultaneously in the succession of peoples throughout the course of world history.