The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] If one wishes to delve into the relationship between the human races—which, after all, form the foundation from which individual ethnic communities emerge—one must take into account that the human being before us, whom we ourselves are, is actually a rather complex being and could only have come into being in its present form and nature through the interaction of many, many entities of the universe. We know, after all, from studying the “Akashic Records” and from other studies concerning human evolution, that our Earth itself—before it reached its present state—had to pass through three stages. In the course of these three stages, the three so-called members of the human being—the physical body, the etheric or Life-Body, and the astral body—were gradually laid down and developed to their present degree. It is only during the present incarnation of the Earth that human beings have become capable of incorporating a fourth member, an “I,” within themselves. These four members of the human being reveal to us everything that has taken place throughout the three or four incarnations of our Earth—through its incarnations as Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon, and through the Earth era itself, as far as it has progressed to date. If you let all the beings who have worked together there pass before your eyes—these Spirits of Will or “Thrones,” the Spirits of Wisdom, Spirits of Movement, Spirits of Form, Spirits of Personality, Archangels, all the way down to the angels, and above the Spirits of Will or Thrones, the Cherubim and Seraphim— then you will be able to say to yourself that only through a highly complex interplay could that which makes humanity’s present organization possible have come into being. We have seen that it was not only necessary for so many beings and natural forces to interact in the cosmos, but that for the emergence of the human being it was also necessary for certain beings, at certain epochs, to forgo the normal course of their development and remain behind, so that they could intervene in the human organism in a way that would not have been possible had they followed their normal course of development.

[ 2 ] So, if we truly want to understand human beings as they appear to us today, we are looking into a wonderfully multifaceted and diverse tapestry. We must also be clear that only when we, so to speak, unravel this fabric and listen in on the activities of the individual entities can we begin to understand how human beings came into being through the interplay of these entities. We can now say: The most important being relevant to modern humanity is the one that has given humanity the ability to say “I” to itself, to gradually arrive at self-consciousness. And we know that this ability was first bestowed by the spirits of form, by those beings we call the Exusiai. If we were to observe these very beings in the work they do for humanity and ask ourselves, as it were: What would become of humanity if only these beings—and specifically only that type of these beings that is in the process of normal development—were primarily active within humanity?—then we would find: They are the bestowers of the “I” organization. This already implies that, when we consider them in terms of their own nature, their primary interest lies in leading the human being to his or her “I.” However, what these beings are actually called upon to accomplish in the human being does not become relevant in modern human life until a certain age; it only comes to light at a certain age.

[ 3 ] If you recall what has been said about the child’s upbringing from the perspective of Spiritual Science, you will say to yourself: Human beings develop their physical body primarily between their physical birth and the time their baby teeth fall out—that is, up to the age of seven. These spirits of form have no particular interest in the development of this physical body, for this development is, in essence, a repetition of what happened to human beings on ancient Saturn—a process that has already been repeated many times—and which, following the last physical birth, has been repeated in a special way for the time being—and likely for the last time—up to the age of seven. Then comes the period from the seventh to the fourteenth year, that is, until sexual maturity. This, too, is a time in which the spirits of form have no particular interest; it is a repetition of the ancient Solar Age, and the spirits of form actually intended to intervene with their main activity—the bestowal of the “I”—only in the state of Earth life. We then come to the third stage of life, which takes place between the ages of fifteen and twenty-one or twenty-two. During this period, the astral body—which normally belongs to the lunar phase of development—is repeatedly developed within the human being. At this stage, the spirits of form, which develop normally, still have no interest in the human being, so that we must say: The three stages of human life that precede the actual birth of the “I”—which occurs only around the age of twenty—are of no immediate interest to the spirits of form. They intervene—one might say, by their very nature—only around the age of twenty, so that, when you consider this, you will no longer find it quite so strange when it is said: According to the true intention of the Spirits of Form, the human being would need to be present only in the state in which he finds himself around the age of twenty. What develops in the human being up to that point is, in essence, a kind of embryonic, a kind of germinal state for these Spirits of Form. And if I may speak figuratively, I would like to say: The spirits of form, having developed normally, would prefer it if everything proceeded with a certain regularity, if no one interfered with their work until then. If no one were to interfere with these spirits of form until the age of twenty, then during the first seven years of development, the human being would possess the consciousness that pertains to the physical body; for this is, in fact, a very dull consciousness, similar to that of the mineral world. In the second stage—from the seventh to the fourteenth year—he would have a sleeping consciousness. From the fourteenth to the twentieth year, he would be intensely active inwardly, yet lead a kind of dreamlike existence. Only after this phase of consciousness as a lunar being—around the age of twenty-one—would the human being truly awaken. Only then would he attain self-consciousness. If development proceeded normally, it would be only then that he would step outside of himself and survey the external world through the worldview that is familiar to us today.

[ 4 ] So you see that, essentially, if we consider only the activity of the spirits of form, human beings attain their current level of consciousness much too early; for you know that in modern humans, this consciousness awakens to a certain degree soon after physical birth. It would not awaken in such a way as to perceive the physical external world clearly and distinctly if other spirits—who are actually spirits of movement—had not remained behind and renounced the development of certain abilities that they could have attained by the time of Earth’s evolution, had they not halted their own evolution, so that they can now intervene in human development in a special way during Earth’s evolution. Because they have undergone their development in a different way, they are able to teach human beings at an earlier stage what they would otherwise not achieve until around the age of twenty. Thus, these are spiritual beings who have renounced the opportunity to continue their development in the normal way up to the stage of Earth’s evolution—spiritual beings who could have been Spirits of Movement during Earth’s evolution but who have remained at the stage of Spirits of Form and now act as Spirits of Form within Earth’s evolution. In this way, during Earth’s evolution, they can bestow upon human beings—who are not yet truly ready for this and who still have much to make up for from earlier times—what the normal course of development would not bestow until around the age of twenty. Thus, human beings enter life and receive from the abnormal spirits of form abilities that they would otherwise not acquire until around the age of twenty.

[ 5 ] All of this has very significant consequences. Just imagine for a moment that this were not the case. If it were not so—if these spirits with abnormal development did not intervene—then human beings would only come into consideration for the physical world in the state they are in around the age of twenty; that is, they would have to be born as physical beings in this state and would have to go through entirely different embryonic stages. In fact, through these abnormal spirits of form, human development is already projected into the physical world from birth until the age of twenty; that is roughly the first third of our earthly life. We must therefore say: The first third of our earthly life is governed not by the spiritual beings that rule the earthly realm, but by other, abnormal spiritual beings; and because these participate in our development, we humans do not have the form we would have if we were born in the state we are in around the age of twenty. Human beings must pay for this by spending one-third of their lives—the time up to their twentieth year—in a state where they are subject to the powerful influence of these abnormal spiritual beings. In fact, human beings undergo their entire growth under the influence of these abnormal spiritual beings. He must pay for this by the fact that, after the middle third has elapsed—which essentially belongs only to the normal spirits of form—the descending path, a retreat, begins, and his etheric and astral organizations disintegrate, so that life is divided into three parts or sections: an ascending, a middle, and a descending third. It is in the middle third that human beings truly become human during their earthly lives, and in the final third they must give back what they received during the first, ascending third; they must make the corresponding down payment. If human beings had in fact been subject exclusively to the influences of the normal spirits of form, then everything that occurs today up to the age of twenty would take on a completely different appearance, a completely different form. Everything would have unfolded quite differently, so that everything connected with human development today—in the first of the three epochs of life—is, in essence, an existence that anticipates much of what lies in the later epochs of life. As a result, by the second epoch of his life, a human being has become a more material being than he otherwise would have become. Otherwise, up to this point in his life, human beings would have experienced only spiritual states and would not have descended to the present level of material densification until the stage of development that they now undergo in their twentieth or twenty-first year of life, when they find themselves bound to the Earth. Spiritual Science thus tells us that, had this development proceeded in this way, human beings would not have truly descended to Earth until they reached the state they attain today in their twentieth or twenty-first year of life; they would not have been able to pass through the preceding states on Earth. They would have had to pass through them elevated above the Earth, in the sphere surrounding the Earth. And now you can grasp the entire course of human childhood and adolescent development.

[ 6 ] We can see that if we designate this straight line B C as the path of the Earth, it would be the spirits of form who would have destined humankind to descend only at this point (20/21 in the drawing). Here, then, humanity would have reached Earth for the first time, and would ascend again after the fortieth year, spending the last third of its life in a spiritualized state. The abnormal entities compelled humanity to descend already here (at A in the drawing) and begin life on Earth. That is the mystery of our existence. Thus we see that we are fully governed by the normal beings who actually guide us only during the middle third of our lives, while our periods of growth and decline are under the influence of entirely different beings who have, in some way, renounced their normal development. If all this had turned out as it did not—if human beings had spent the first and third thirds of their lives elevated in the orbit around the Earth and had touched the Earth only during the middle part, thus essentially becoming a completely different kind of being—then human beings would not be bound to the Earth to the extent that they actually are today. If that had come to pass, then all human beings who set foot on Earth would be of the same form and nature; then all human beings who have walked the Earth would have been of the same form. There would be only one humanity. That which makes us the kind of beings from whom the specific characteristics of the races—which find expression in humanity—arise is not contained within the middle third of life. Through everything that precedes this—what takes place in the first third of life—we are bound to the Earth with all our powers to a greater extent than the normal spirits of form have intended for us. As a result, however, human beings have become more dependent on the Earth on which they live than they otherwise would have been. They have become dependent on the specific place on Earth where they live. Because human beings descend to Earth earlier—so to speak, against the intentions of the spirits of form—they become dependent on that specific location, since they connect with the Earth in a way that was not at all intended for them. Human beings would have remained independent of whether they set foot on Earth in the north or south, in the east or west, had they only set foot on it during the middle third of their lives. But because he becomes dependent on the Earth—because he undergoes a youth in the manner we have described—he becomes earthbound; he becomes a being connected to and belonging to the region where he was born. Consequently, they become dependent on all the earthly conditions associated with that place—the angle of the sun’s rays, whether the region is near the equator in the tropics or in a more temperate zone, and whether they were born in a low-lying area or on a high plateau. After all, one breathes quite differently on the plain than in the mountains. Human beings thus become entirely dependent on earthly conditions, on the place where they are born. Thus we see that human beings have literally grown together with their Earth-mother through their close connection to the place, to the region of the Earth, where they are born, and that they are shaped by the qualities they acquire as a result of the Earth’s forces—which are determined by that particular location—acting within them. All of this determines their racial character, and in this roundabout way, the abnormal spirits of form—those spirits of form or forces that, at a time other than between the ages of twenty-one and forty-three, give human beings what we call modern earthly consciousness—are the causes of racial differences among human beings across the entire Earth, which thus depend on the place on Earth where a person is born.

[ 7 ] Now, during this period—which is, in essence, under the dominion of the abnormal spirits of form—human beings also acquire the ability to produce their own kind. This ability, too, is acquired during a time when human beings are not guided purely by the normal spirits of form. This makes it possible not only for human beings to become dependent on the place where they are born in the manner described, but also for the characteristics they thereby acquire to be passed on to their descendants; in other words, racial affiliation is expressed not only in the influences of one’s place of residence but also in what is inherited through the race. Herein lies the explanation for why race is that which is hereditary, and we will understand what Spiritual Science reveals: that it was only in the past that racial characteristics were brought about by the place where people were born. This was the case during the late Lemurian and early Atlantean epochs, when human beings were directly dependent on their earthly environment. In later times, the race began to take on the character of being bound to heredity rather than to place. Thus we see in the race something that was originally bound to a specific place on Earth and that then propagated itself within humanity through heredity, but became increasingly independent of that place. From what I have just said, you will recognize in which period of evolution it first makes sense to speak of the concept of race. It makes no sense—in the true sense of the word—to speak of the concept of race before the Lemurian period, for it was only during this time that human beings first descended to Earth. Before that, he was in the vicinity of the Earth; then he came to Earth, and racial characteristics were passed down through heredity during the Atlantean era and right up into our post-Atlantean epoch. We will see how, in our time, national characteristics are what are once again driving apart the racial traits—what is beginning to erase them. We will look at all of this later. We must now take care not to view the world as if evolution were merely a wheel rolling endlessly around itself; the mental image of the rolling wheel, which is so extensively elaborated in certain mystical worldviews, introduces terrible confusion into the concept of actual human evolution. If one has a mental image of the process as everything moving, so to speak, around a permanent center, divided into so many races, then one actually has no concept of the fact that everything is in a state of development, and that the races, too, are evolving. The races have arisen and will one day pass away; they will one day no longer exist. They do not repeat themselves in exactly the same way, as Sinnett erroneously portrays in Esoteric Buddhism. In the ancient Lemurian era, we must look for the emergence of racial characteristics and traits; we must then trace their continuation right up to our own time, while being clear that, when our present fifth epoch of evolution is succeeded by the sixth and seventh, there can no longer be any question of a state that we can describe as a race. But if we have a mental image of this evolution as if it were simply rolling along uniformly, then we have nothing more than a kind of millwheel in our minds and are far removed from an understanding of what is really taking place in the world.

[ 8 ] We see, then, how racial evolution first begins in the Lemurian era through the influence of the abnormal spirits of form. There, these spirits allow the forces of our Earth to intervene at the place where the human being is to spend his first lifetime, and this is, in a certain way, carried over into later life as well, because the human being has a memory through which he recalls the time actually spent on Earth—abnormally, before the age of twenty-one—even in his later life. Human beings would be entirely different beings if only the normal spirits of form were at work. Through the abnormal spirits of form, human beings are dependent on the point on Earth where they live. The deviation from the laws of the normal spirits of form arose in the manner just described, so that the point on Earth where a human being lives in a particular incarnation became significant.

[ 9 ] We will gain an even clearer understanding of these relationships through the following consideration. Here we can describe, in a certain sense, how the subsoil—the earth’s foundation—radiates its essence upward and permeates the human organism, so that human beings become dependent on this subsoil. In this regard, we can therefore identify specific points on the Earth that are connected to the human being in terms of evolutionary history. We will go into these relationships in greater detail later. For now, I will characterize them in the abstract.

[ 10 ] For example (see figure), there is a point located in the heart of Africa. At this point, all those forces that can influence a person—particularly during early childhood—act as if radiating out from the Earth. Later on, the influence of such forces on a person diminishes; the person is then less exposed to these forces, but they still leave a profound imprint on him through what arises from them. Thus, the point on Earth where a person lives exerts its strongest influence during early childhood and thereby shapes those people who are entirely dependent on these forces throughout their entire lives, so that this point permanently imprints upon them the characteristics of early childhood. This is, roughly speaking, a characteristic of all those people—in terms of their racial character—who, so to speak, receive the determining forces from the Earth centered around this point on the Earth. What we call the black race is essentially determined by these characteristics.

[ 11 ] If you now continue onward toward Asia, you will find a point on the Earth’s surface where the characteristics of later youth are permanently imprinted upon human beings by the forces of the Earth; where the specific qualities of the later youth period are transmitted to human beings from the essence of the Earth, thereby giving them their racial character. The races under consideration here are the yellow and brown races of our time.

[ 12 ] If we then continue from east to west, we find a point that lies between Asia and Europe and that permanently imprints on human beings the latest characteristics—those that arise precisely in the later stage of life following early youth—the point where human beings are not already seized by the forces of the earth in childhood, but rather when youth transitions into later life. In this way, human beings are influenced by the forces emanating from the Earth that shape them, so that when we consider these individual points, we see a line that follows a remarkable course. This line also holds true for our own time. The African point corresponds to those forces of the Earth that imprint the first childhood characteristics on human beings; the Asian point corresponds to those that impart the characteristics of youth; and the characteristics of maturity are imprinted on human beings by the corresponding point in the European region. This is simply a law of nature. Since all human beings pass through the various races in their different reincarnations, there is no actual disadvantage, even though one might argue that Europeans have an advantage over the Black and Yellow races. Although the truth is sometimes veiled here, you will see that, with the help of esoteric science, one does arrive at remarkable insights.

[ 13 ] If we then extend this line further, we move farther west toward the American regions, into those areas where the forces that lie beyond the middle third of life are at work. And there we arrive—please do not misunderstand what has just been said; this applies only to the human being insofar as he is dependent on the physical-organizational forces—the forces that do not constitute his essence as a human being but within which he lives—there we encounter the forces that have a great deal to do with the human being’s passing, with that aspect of the human being that belongs to the final third of life. This lawfully unfolding line certainly exists; it is a truth, a real curve, and expresses the lawfulness in the way our Earth acts upon human beings. This is the course taken by the forces that act upon human beings in a way that determines their race. It is not because the Europeans so desired it that the Native American population became extinct, but because the Native American population had to acquire the forces that led to their extinction. What unfolds on the surface of our Earth with regard to the races—that which is brought about by forces not under the influence of the normal spirits of form—depends on the nature of this line. Where racial characteristics come into play, they operate in this manner. In our time, however, racial character is gradually being overcome.

[ 14 ] This pattern was already clearly established in the very earliest period of Earth’s history. If we were to go back to the ancient Lemurian era, we could find the very first starting points of racial development in the region of present-day Africa and Asia. Later, we see a westward migration of humankind, and as the forces determining racial development move westward, we can observe their eventual extinction among the Native Americans. Humanity had to go westward in order to die out as a race. To revitalize humanity with new youthful vigor, the migration toward the east takes place—the movement that travels from Atlantis across Europe to Asia. Then there is a repetition of the movement toward the West. However, what is repeated now is not the movement of the races, but, as it were, a higher stage of racial development: the development of cultures. In a certain sense, one can see that the development of cultures takes on a character that lies in the sense of a continuation of the racial line. Thus, for example, we can describe the culture—which we have already characterized in this discussion with sufficient admiration—the ancient Indian culture, which appeared as the first post-Atlantean culture, as the epoch corresponding to early childhood, when human beings are still asleep in their appreciation of physical nature, and the revelations of a spiritual world are working into their souls. In fact, the first, Indian culture is a revelation from above, a revelation from spiritual heights, and it was able to influence human beings only because they came under the influence of the Indian earth, under which they had already stood in times long past. Back then, in the distant past, the physical racial character was determined by the earth; now, with repeated presence in the same earthly location, it was more a disposition of the soul that shaped the ancient Indian people. Through the movement from west to east, such a freshness of youth emerged that this process gave rise to the distinctive spiritual configuration that characterizes the original Indian culture. You will see that a very ancient Indian culture—which has not yet been explored, and of which what science today calls “Indian culture” is but a descendant—finds its explanation in this way, namely, in the fact that the Atlantean culture is, in a certain respect, repeated in the ancient Indian culture.

[ 15 ] If we now consider the cultures that have succeeded one another in the post-Atlantean era, we can see that they represent the successive repetition of conditions previously experienced in the physical body, but which have become entirely different through rejuvenation. Thus, in Persian culture, we see one that is, in a certain sense, connected to what we might call a struggle—on the part of the human being who lives primarily in the first human life force, where he is still subject to the influences of the abnormal spirits of form—with the forces that originate from the normal spirits of form. This contrast is embodied in Persian culture in the consciousness and imagery of light and darkness, of Ormuzd and Ahriman.

[ 16 ] The further west we go, the more we see the characteristics of a more mature stage of culture taking shape. Although we must admit that, even to this day, human creations are still dependent to a greater extent on the abnormal forces and entities of the universe, we will nevertheless find it understandable when it is said that people no longer move westward driven exclusively by racial characteristics. We can also understand that, in a certain sense, the course of culture is such that the full youthful vigor of culture—its productive element—fades more and more the farther west it spreads.

[ 17 ] Anyone who looks at things objectively can see from many circumstances that our contemporary culture, too, is governed by these laws. However, people are not inclined to view things objectively. But if you consider the facts—that, in fact, all culture is in a state of flux—you will see that the further west we go, the more unproductive culture becomes. As a culture, it is thus approaching extinction. The farther west one goes, the more only the outer aspects of culture will flourish—those that do not experience renewal through the vitality of youth but, in a certain sense, play out their course into senility. Therefore, people in the West will still be able to achieve great and mighty things for humanity in terms of physical, chemical, and astronomical discoveries—for everything that is independent of the refreshing vitality of youth. But that which requires productive power does, in fact, need a different configuration of the forces acting upon human beings.

[ 18 ] Let us assume that a person grows from childhood to a certain stage; only then does their spiritual nature truly blossom. At first, a person is a physically growing being. What is crammed into a small space within a little child must first expand physically. Then human development is compressed inward. — But this is also true of humanity on a grand scale. We see a peculiar law at work when we trace the characteristic curve. We even find it expressed in the continents. We see that there is first a kind of original starting point for physical human development in Africa, and that then the space in which humanity develops expands outward. We find this in the vast expanses of Asian civilization. There, humanity inhabits large, mighty expanses.

[ 19 ] Let us now turn our attention to the recurrence of racial formation in post-Atlantean cultures. Just as a young person gazes curiously at their surroundings, so too does the human being of ancient Indian culture look out upon the world. This is closely connected to the fresh, youthful forces that expand the human being and organize his growth into the vastness. Then the spiritual must begin, and the physical must contract; there we see that, as culture progresses in Europe, the space over which this humanity is spread is, in a remarkable way, compressed into smaller dimensions. We see that Europe is the smallest continent, and the farther humanity advances westward, the more it strives toward a constriction. It reaches out into the sea in the form of peninsulas and constricts itself more and more as it moves westward.

[ 20 ] All of this is connected to the spiritual course of development. Here you gain a unique insight into the mysteries of spiritual development. But the shift toward the West brings with it a crisis. There is a crisis through which a more unproductive element begins to take effect. Productivity, in a certain sense, wanes in the peninsular regions toward the West. This lack of productivity is evident in what was described earlier—namely, that even culture, so to speak, takes on a rigid, senile, and dying element the farther west it goes. This is something that has always been known in the secret schools. You will now understand why I said that what I am about to share could be somewhat dangerous, because people might take offense. And by no means can everything be said that served to make human beings independent with regard to the higher realms of their being, so that they might perceive what rises from the earth to determine the characteristics of a race, what later determines the character of a culture, and what will again become insignificant in even later times, when human beings return to the spiritual. You will therefore understand that this entire course of human development is connected to the course of spiritual development, which has always been known to those who were more deeply initiated into the mysteries of existence. The truth of what has been said does not depend on whether one is more enthusiastic about one aspect or less enthusiastic about another; it depends on the necessity of development. Anyone who were to speak against this necessity would achieve nothing. To speak against it is to place obstacles in its path. It is therefore only natural that, in a certain sense, people moving into the region further to the west must once again draw renewal from the east, must receive an impulse from the east, while the Central European region must return to its own productivity, as it existed before the formation of the peninsula. That is why in Europe—specifically, I mean, within the region that encompasses our shared territory: Scandinavia and Germany—people must turn their attention to their own spiritual nature, and why, in contrast, it is precisely in the West that one must seek out that part of humanity that is to receive something transmitted from the East. This is deeply rooted in the overall character of humanity on Earth. You see that even in theosophical development this pattern repeats itself. We also encounter it in the fourth post-Atlantean culture, in Roman and Greek civilization. It is a fact that the Romans are, in a certain respect, more advanced than the Greeks, but that they derive their spiritual life from the people they conquered, who live further east.

[ 21 ] The law revealed here will prove itself more and more true the farther west the regions are located. These great truths can, in essence, only be hinted at. They provide us with what corresponds to the inner character of our mission for every part of the Earth’s surface. You see that we must understand what we must do in order to rise to the level of humanity’s shared character. Therein lies the great responsibility one bears when seeking to intervene in the great movement of humanity. Where the great movement of humanity is concerned, no personal sympathy or enthusiasm may play a role. For that is not what matters; what matters is what is determined by the great laws of humanity. One must recognize this from the great laws and not allow oneself to be influenced by bias toward this or that. This, in essence, is the character of Rosicrucianism as a whole. Rosicrucianism means working in the spirit of the development of all humanity. When one recognizes the ground on which one stands—all the way back to the formation of islands and peninsulas—one will feel the emotion that must overcome one when one wishes to work in the spirit of humanity’s development.

[ 22 ] Long ago, human beings were brought down to Earth by the abnormal spirits of form, bound to various points on the Earth’s surface; this laid the foundation for racial development. But now we see the races mixing more and more. We see this intervening in racial development—that is, the development of peoples emerging from it. We see it extending all the way into the development of the individual human being. A great mystery is expressed when one asks, for example: Who was Plato in terms of his outer being, in terms of his incarnation into humanity? He was a human being who had grown into the Solonid lineage, belonged to the Ionian tribe, the Greek people, and the entire Caucasian race. — The realization that Plato was a Solonid, an Ionian, a Greek, and a Caucasian—when understood in its full significance—expresses a profound mystery. It expresses the mystery that shows us how, on the broad foundation of the entire Earth, the normal and abnormal spirits of form—who actually have the greatest interest in making human beings into Earth-human beings—work together. It reveals how, through this interaction, humanity takes on its specific character, and how the other beings—of whom we have already spoken in characterizing the individual peoples—then intervene. Every human being, through his or her own being, participates in the processes through which all the higher beings—these higher spirits—work together to shape the development of the world.

[ 23 ] One cannot understand an individual human being unless one sees how he has come to be in his overall development through the interaction of these entities. It was through the mysterious interplay on our Earth of the spirits of form that have undergone normal development and those that have undergone abnormal development—which once gave rise to the Caucasian race—that the foundation was laid for a Plato to come into being at all. By observing the intervention of both the abnormal and normal archangels down to the angels, we see the path that was necessary to bring forth a Plato who could appear before us as a human being, with a human face, and with very specific qualities of intellect, feeling, and will. Between the race and the individual lies the national character, right in the middle.

[ 24 ] That is why we had to characterize the fundamental conditions of the race in general today. Tomorrow we will consider the emergence of national character from the races, the intervention of other spirits of the hierarchies, and, in particular, their intervention in the work of the spirits of form.