The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] If you follow the thread of the reflections we have been engaging in here over the past few days, you will find it understandable that not only are the processes on our Earth—and above all in human evolution—guided and directed by the beings and forces of the various hierarchies, but that the beings of these hierarchies themselves undergo a kind of evolution, a kind of development. We spoke of this in the last lectures—how the beings of this or that hierarchy intervene in a guiding capacity, how they work together to organize, for example, the races as spirits of form in both normal and abnormal development.

[ 2 ] Now let us consider this question: Do these spiritual beings we are dealing with also continue to progress in their own evolution? Especially with regard to certain spiritual beings, we can witness during our present epoch of development the spectacle of them, so to speak, advancing one step further in their own evolution, in their own development. Since the Atlantean catastrophe—since post-Atlantean development began—we have been living in an age in which certain archangelic beings, certain entities from the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, are ascending into the hierarchy of the Archai or the Spirits of Time. This is extraordinarily interesting to observe, for when we consider how the national spirits, the Folk-souls—which we refer to as archangels—ascend to a higher rank, only then do we gain a true mental image of how things actually unfold in the greater world. This ascent is connected to the fact that, into that division of humanity—which we must regard as the racial division—a second kind of national, or human, current has been introduced since Atlantean times. For we must look far back—all the way to the earliest Atlantean times—if we are to grasp the period when the division into the five main races we have spoken of took place, and if we are to ask: When did those people who later formed the black or Ethiopian race arrive at that specific point in Africa, and when did those peoples who make up the Malay race arrive in southern Asia? We would have to look back to the early Atlantean times. But later, other currents were sent to follow these earlier ones.

[ 3 ] So while the Earth was already populated by the ancestors of these races, others were sent into the regions of the Earth that were already inhabited. Here we are dealing with a later wave, a wave from the later Atlantean era. If we wish to understand what took place in Europe, Africa, and America in terms of racial distribution as Atlantis gradually crumbled, and what was subsequently sent—and in part was only sent—toward the end of the Atlantean era and into the post-Atlantean development, we must be clear that we are dealing with that mighty human current that extended all the way into Asia, into the Indian subcontinent, and that—as has often been indicated—masses of people remained behind at various points, from whom the various peoples of Asia, Africa, and Europe subsequently emerged. We are thus dealing with an earlier dispersion and a later advance, a second wave. The purpose of this second wave was to send out, from west to east, communities of people each led by an archangel. But these archangels were the guiding spiritual powers of these dispatched tribes, which were more or less developed—in other words, more or less close to attaining the rank of a time spirit. The stream of peoples whose archangel was the very first to ascend to the rank of a time spirit is to be found in the Far East. This was the stream of peoples that merged with the indigenous population of India—the stream that formed the ruling people in India and laid the foundation for the first post-Atlantean culture, after the archangel of this ethnic community had been elevated to the rank of a Time Spirit, the first Time Spirit or Arch& of the post-Atlantean cultural period. Now this Zeitgeist guided the ancient, sacred culture of India and made it the leading culture of the first post-Atlantean period. The other peoples of Asia, who gradually came into being, were for a long time guided solely by archangels.

[ 4 ] Even the peoples of Europe, who had been left behind during the migration from west to east, remained under the guidance of archangels for a long time after the Archangel of India had already risen to the rank of Arch&, who, through his intuitive influence, worked upon the great teachers of India—the holy Rishis—who, having received the guidance of this sublime and significant spirit, were thereby able to fulfill their high mission in the manner already described. This spirit of the age continued to work for a long time while the people situated north of ancient India were still under the guidance of the archangel. After the spirit of the age of India had fulfilled its mission, it was elevated to guide the entire evolution of post-Atlantean humanity.

[ 5 ] In the period we refer to as the primordial Persian era, we then have the spirit of personality, the spirit of the age, which is the intuitive force behind the great Zarathustra or Zoroaster, the Zarathustra of primeval times. This is yet another example of how an archangel—that is, a Folk-soul—rises to the rank of a spirit of the age. This is precisely the spectacle that we are witnessing in our own epoch, as we stated at the beginning of today’s presentation: the archangels are working their way up, through the mission they carry out, to become guiding and governing spirits of the age.

[ 6 ] A later ascent is the one that takes place from the Egyptian people with their archangel on the one hand, and the Chaldean people and their archangel on the other. This is when the event takes place in which the archangel of the Egyptian people rises to the rank of a leading spirit of the age and, so to speak, assumes the guidance and leadership of what was previously the responsibility of the Chaldean archangel, so that the guiding spirit of the Chaldean-Egyptian period becomes the third leading, powerful guiding spirit, having gradually evolved from the rank of the Egyptian archangel. But this is also the time when another significant development takes place: the development that runs parallel to the Egyptian-Chaldean culture, and to which what we had to emphasize in particular in the last lecture relates.

[ 7 ] We have seen that everything associated with the Semitic tribes takes on a special place and a special significance, and that within the Semitic world, Yahweh or Jehovah had singled out precisely this race and chosen it to be his special people. Because he had chosen a single race as his chosen people, as this race gradually matured, he first needed a kind of archangel to serve as his representative before the people, so that in the developing Semitic people, in primeval times, we find an archangel standing under the constant inspiration of Yahweh or Jehovah, who later develops into a time spirit himself. We therefore have—so to speak, in addition to the ordinary, progressive spirits of the age among the ancient Indian, ancient Persian, and ancient Chaldean peoples—a spirit of the age that plays a special role in that it works within a single people. Here we have a spirit of the age that, in a certain sense, appears in the mission of a national spirit; we have a spirit of the age that we must call the Semitic national spirit. It had a very special task. This will become clear to you when you consider that this particular people was, in fact, set apart from normal development and had special guidance—that, so to speak, special arrangements had been made to guide this people. Through these special arrangements, this people had been given a mission that was truly of very special importance and significance for the post-Atlantean era, one that differed from the mission of all other peoples and nationalities. One can best understand this mission of the Semitic people by considering it in conjunction with the various missions that other peoples had in the post-Atlantean era.

[ 8 ] There are two spiritual currents within humanity. One of these spiritual currents—if one wishes to describe it accurately—must be called that which proceeds from pluralism, or, one might also say, from monadology; that is, it sees the origin and source of existence primarily in a multiplicity of entities and forces. You can now look around anywhere in the world; in one way or another, you will see that the peoples of the post-Atlantean era proceeded from multiplicities of the divine. Begin with the triad of ancient Indian thought, which later found its expression in Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. Look at German mythology, and you will find the triad of Odin, Hönir, and Lödur, and so on. Thus, everywhere you will find a trinity, and this trinity structured into a multiplicity. But you see this characteristic not only where, so to speak, myths and teachings about gods occur, but also in philosophies, where it confronts us as monadology. This is the one current which, because it proceeds from multiplicity, can assume the greatest possible diversity. One could say: In the post-Atlantean era, from the far east in India and in a wide arc across Asia all the way to Europe, this service to multiplicity—which, in essence, is expressed in our Spiritual Science worldview by our recognition of a sum of the most diverse beings and the most diverse hierarchies—has attained its most manifold representations and forms.

[ 9 ] This celebration of diversity had to be counterbalanced by a synthetic, unifying movement—a movement that stemmed strictly from the monon, from monism. The true inspirers, the driving forces behind all monotheism and monism, behind all concept of a single, unified deity, are the Semitic peoples. For them, it is in their nature—and, if you recall what was said this morning, it is in their blood—to advocate for the one God, the Monon.

[ 10 ] When a person looks out upon the vast existence of the world, he would not get very far if he always insisted that the world is founded on a single unity, a “monon.” Monism or monotheism, taken on its own, is something that can only represent a final ideal. However, this could never lead to a true understanding of the world, to a thoroughly concrete worldview. Yet in the post-Atlantean era, the current of monotheism also had to find its expression, so that one people was entrusted with providing the impetus, the stimulus, for this monotheism. This task was entrusted to the Semitic people. Therefore, you can see how, with a certain abstract rigor, an abstract relentlessness, so to speak, the monistic principle is represented precisely in this people, and all other peoples, insofar as they synthesize their various divine entities into a unity, have received the impulse for this from this side. The monistic impulse has always come from this side. The other peoples have pluralistic impulses.

[ 11 ] It is extremely important to bear this in mind. Anyone who studies the continuing influence of ancient Hebrew impulses can still see monotheism at work today in the learned rabbi and in learned Rabbinism in its most extreme form. It is the task of this very people to provide the impulse that the world principle can be only a unified one. One could therefore say: All other nations, peoples, and zeitgeists had an analytical task—the task of creating a mental image of the cosmic principle as structured into distinct entities—just as, for example, the ultimate abstraction of the “Monon” in India soon disintegrated into a trinity, and just as the unitary God of Christianity is divided into the three Persons. All other peoples have the task of analyzing the foundation of the world and thereby creating a wealth of content for the individual parts of this foundation, filling themselves with rich imaginative material capable of lovingly embracing phenomena. The Semitic people have the task of setting aside all multiplicity and devoting themselves synthetically to unity; hence the power of speculation, the power of synthetic thinking—for example, in Kabbalah—is the greatest conceivable precisely because it arises from this impulse.

[ 12 ] Whatever could ever be spun out of unity through the synthetic, synthesizing activity of the “I” has been spun out over the course of millennia by the Semitic spirit. This is the great polarity between pluralism and monism, and this is the significance of the Semitic impulse in the world. Monism is not possible without pluralism, nor is pluralism possible without monism. Therefore, we must fully acknowledge the necessity of both.

[ 13 ] The objective language of facts often leads to insights quite different from the sympathies and antipathies that prevail here and there. That is why we must truly understand the individual national spirits. While the leaders of the individual peoples over in Asia and Africa had long since risen to the rank of time spirits or spirits of personality—and in some cases had even already been granted the prospect of transforming from time spirits to the next higher level, that of spirits of form — such as, for example, the spirit of the age that was active in ancient India, which in a certain sense had already risen to the rank of spirits of form — the individual peoples of Europe were still guided for a long time by their respective archangels. It was not until the fourth post-Atlantean period that the Archangel of Hellenism emerged from among the various peoples of Europe—who had been guided by their archangels—to assume a leading position, becoming the dominant time spirit of the Greek era, the fourth guiding epoch of the post-Atlantean period; thus we see the Archangel of Hellenism rise to the rank of an Archo, a Spirit of Personality. That for which this Archangel of Hellenism had prepared himself became evident—once he had become the spirit of the age—to the world in Asia, Africa, and Europe, whose center had indeed become the Greek people. While his Archangel had developed into an Arch&, the active spirit of the age of the Egyptian people, and also that of the Persian people, had risen to a kind of Spirit of Form. What we are now coming to is something extraordinarily interesting in the course of post-Atlantean development. Through all the development that the Archangel of Hellenism had undergone earlier, he was able to pass through, relatively quickly, that which enabled him to assume a very special leading position as a spirit of the age. Consequently, however, something highly significant occurred in the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch.

[ 14 ] We know that at that time the event took place that we refer to as humanity’s reception of the Christ impulse. The Christ impulse was received; the Mystery of Golgotha took place. The impulse that was given there was to spread gradually across the Earth over the course of the following centuries and millennia. This required not only the fact that this event took place, but also certain guiding and leading beings from among the hierarchies. And here something most remarkable and interesting occurred: at a specific moment in time—which roughly coincides with the coming of the Christ impulse to Earth—the spirit of the age of Hellenism, for the sake of our present period, renounced the ascent into the region of the spirits of form that had become possible for it at that time, and became the guiding spirit of the age, one that continues to exert its influence through the ages. It becomes the vicarious, guiding spirit of exoteric Christianity, so that the guiding spirit of Hellenism stands before the Christ impulse as the Ark. This is why Hellenism disintegrates so rapidly during the time in which Christianity develops, because it has, so to speak, relinquished its guiding spirit so that it could become the guide of exoteric Christianity. The spirit of the age of ancient Greek civilization became the missionary, the inspirer—or rather, the intuitive guide—of the spreading exoteric Christianity. Here, then, we have before us the spectacle of the very kind of resignation we have spoken of, in a concrete instance. Because the spirit of the age of ancient Greece had fulfilled its mission so extraordinarily well in the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, it was able to ascend to a higher realm; yet it chose to renounce this and thereby became the guiding spirit of the spreading exoteric Christianity, as which it worked across the various peoples.

[ 15 ] Such a renunciation takes place once more, and this second renunciation is, in turn, of very special interest, especially for those who call themselves students of spiritual knowledge. Essentially, while over in Asia—and extending into Egyptian and Greek civilization—the individual archangels develop into spirits of the age, in Europe we have individual peoples and tribes guided by their respective archangels. Thus, in Europe—whereas elsewhere the corresponding archangels, who were once sent from west to east, had ascended into the ranks of the spirits of the age—we still have an archangel who was active among the Germanic and, above all, the Celtic peoples, among the peoples who, even at the time when Christianity first began, were spread across a large part of Western Europe, all the way into present-day Hungary, through southern Germany, and across the Alps. These peoples had the Celtic national spirit as their archangel. The peoples of the Celtic spirit were also widespread far up into northeastern Europe. They were guided by a significant archangel who, shortly after the Christian impulse had been given to humanity, had renounced becoming an Arch&—a spirit of personality—and who resolved to remain at the level of an archangel and, in the future, to subordinate himself to the most diverse spirits of the age that would arise, for example, within Europe. Consequently, the Celtic peoples also faded away as a unified group, precisely because their archangel had exercised a special resignation and taken on a special mission. This is a characteristic example of how, shall we say, remaining behind in such a case contributes to the initiation of special missions. What, then, became of this archangel of the Celtic peoples once he had renounced becoming a spirit of personality? He became the inspiring spirit of esoteric Christianity, and his inspirations are particularly evident in those teachings and impulses that underlie esoteric Christianity—true esoteric Christianity. In Western Europe lay the mysterious site for those who were initiated into these mysteries, where inspiration came through this guiding spirit, who had originally undergone significant training as an archangel of the Celts, who had renounced ascension and taken on another mission—the mission: to be the inspirer of esoteric Christianity, which was to continue its work through the mysteries of the Holy Grail and through Rosicrucianism. Here you have an example of self-renunciation—of such a being from the hierarchies choosing to remain behind—and here you also have an example through which you can immediately and concretely recognize the significance of such a decision to remain behind. Although this archangel could have ascended to the rank of an arch, he remained at the rank of an archangel and, in return, guided the significant current of esoteric Christianity, which is to continue to work through the most diverse zeitgeists. Whatever influence the spirits of the age may exert, this esoteric Christianity will be a source for everything that can be transformed or metamorphosed under the influence of the various spirits of the age. So here we have yet another example of how such a resignation takes place, while we otherwise witness the great spectacle of national spirits rising to become spirits of the age, especially in our own era.

[ 16 ] Now we have—in the European region—the various Germanic peoples. These various Germanic peoples of Europe, who were originally guided by an archangelic being, were called upon to gradually come under the guidance of a wide variety of archangels, forming national individualities in a wide variety of ways. It is, of course, extremely difficult—difficult only because, in a certain sense, it can easily arouse passion and jealousy—to speak impartially about these matters. Therefore, only subtle hints can be given regarding very specific mysteries of this development. From the collective of those archangels emerged the Arch&, the leading spirit of our fifth cultural epoch of the post-Atlantean era. He emerged after one of the archangels of the Germanic peoples had undergone a certain training over a long, long period of time. The spirit of the age that had been the national spirit of the Greco-Latin epoch became the spirit of the age that, as you know, was later engaged in spreading exoteric Christianity. Later Roman history was also guided by a kind of Zeitgeist that had risen from the archangel of Roman culture and, in its activity, joined forces with the Christian Zeitgeist to work together. These two were the educators of that archangel who led the Germanic peoples, who was one of their leading archangels, and who then rose to become the spirit of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. Many things were necessary, but above all, a strong process of individualization and intermingling of the various ethnic elements in Europe had to take place. This was possible only because, while over in Asia and Africa the archangels had long since ascended to become time spirits, in Europe leadership still lay with the archangels themselves; the individual peoples were guided by their Folk-souls, unconcerned with the time spirits, wholly devoted to the impulses of the national spirits themselves. As the Christian impulse swept across humanity, there was in Europe an interplay of individual national spirits filled with free will, each of which went its own way, and which, in essence, made it difficult for a spirit of the age—one that would guide the individual national spirits—to emerge in the fifth cultural epoch. To make possible, so to speak, the people who inhabit the French territory, Romanic, Celtic, and Frankish ethnic elements intermingled. Through this intermingling, the entire guidance naturally took on a specific form. It passed, so to speak, from the individual guiding archangels—who had been assigned other tasks—to others. — We have already described the mission entrusted to the guiding archangel of the Celts. Similarly, we could describe the missions of the archangels for the other peoples. — Thus, among the peoples that arose through intermingling, other archangels came who assumed their rule as the various elements blended. Indeed, for a long time—even into the Middle Ages—in central and northern Europe, the leading element was essentially the archangels, who were only gradually influenced by the common spirit of the age that preceded the Christ impulse. In many cases, the individual national spirits in Europe became servants of the Christ Spirit of the Age. The archangels of Europe placed themselves in the service of this common Christ Spirit of the Age, while the individual peoples were scarcely in a position to elevate any of the archangels to the rank of a Spirit of the Age. It was not until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—beginning, roughly, in the twelfth century—that the groundwork was laid for the emergence of the leading spirit of the fifth post-Atlantean period, under whose influence we still stand today. It belongs just as much to the great, leading time spirits as those that were the great, leading time spirits during the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian, Proto-Persian, and Indian epochs. But this spirit of our fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch operated in a very peculiar way. For it had to enter into a kind of compromise with one of the ancient spirits that were active before the Christian impulse—namely, the Egyptian spirit, which, as we have heard, has in a certain sense risen to the rank of a spirit of form. Thus it is that our fifth post-Atlantean cultural period, in which we now find ourselves, is actually dominated by a spirit of the age that, in a certain sense, is very, very much subject to the influence and impulses of the spirit of the ancient Egyptian culture—and which is, so to speak, a spirit of form still in its very earliest stages.

[ 17 ] This has given rise to the many fragmentations and rifts of our age. The spirit of our time in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch strives, in a certain sense, to rise to spiritual heights and to elevate the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch to a higher level. But inherent in this is what constitutes a materialistic tendency or inclination, and depending on the extent to which the various archangelic beings and the various Folk-souls are drawn to this materialistic inclination, a more or less materialistic people emerges under the guidance of this spirit of the times of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period—a people that, so to speak, imbues the spirit of the times with a greater nuance toward materialism. An idealistic people, on the other hand, is one that gives the spirit of the age a nuance leaning more toward idealism.

[ 18 ] Now, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, something did indeed increasingly take shape that, in a certain sense, operated alongside the Christian spirit of the age—which is the enduring Greek spirit of the age—so that, in fact, in a remarkable way, what we call the Christian spirit of the age flows into our culture, combined with the actual spirit of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, and the ancient Egyptian culture—whose spirit has risen to a certain level among the spirits of form—exerts its influence once again. But it is precisely because such a trifolium is at work in our entire contemporary culture that it has become possible for the most diverse nuances of cultural and national soul currents to emerge in the fifth epoch. It became possible for the spirit of the age to display the most diverse colors and nuances in its workings. The archangels, who received their commands from the spirit of the age, worked in the most varied ways.

[ 19 ] Those who live in the north will be interested in something we will have to address in more detail in the following reflections; they will be particularly interested in the question: What was the influence of that archangel who was once sent to this region among the Nordic peoples, the Scandinavian peoples, and from whom the various archangelic beings of Europe—namely those of Western, Central, and Northern Europe—received their inspiration? In the outside world, it can only be regarded as folly to point specifically to that spot on the European continent from which the greatest impulses once radiated in all directions—that spot which was the seat of exalted spirits before the Celtic national spirit, as a Celtic archangelic being, had established a new center in the stronghold of the Grail. From that point, which in ancient times was the center from which European spirituality radiated, there also emanated that which the Nordic national archangel initially received as his mission. To the outside world, as I said, it must seem like folly when we designate as the point from which that which influences the most diverse Germanic tribes radiates the region that today lies over central Germany, but is actually situated above the earth. If, for example, you were to draw a circle such that the cities of Dermold and Paderborn would lie within it, you would arrive in the region from which the mission of the most exalted spirits radiated—spirits who extended their mission to Northern and Western Europe. Because that was the great center of inspiration, a legend later arose that Asgard was actually located at this point on the Earth’s surface. But it was there that the great center of inspiration lay in ancient times—the center that later transferred its primary influence to the center of the Holy Grail.

[ 20 ] The peoples of Scandinavia, with their first archangels, were endowed at that time with very different dispositions—dispositions that today are really expressed only in the unique configuration of Norse mythology. Anyone who, in an occult sense, compares Norse mythology with other mythologies that have prevailed across the Earth may know that this Norse mythology represents the original disposition of the archangel who was sent up here to the North—the original disposition that remained in its formative stage, just as we would, so to speak, see it in a child if certain talents, latent genius, and so on, had remained at the childhood stage. In the Archangel who was sent to Scandinavia, we find those predispositions that then emerge in the distinctive configuration of Norse mythology. Hence the great significance of Norse mythology for understanding the true, inner essence of the Scandinavian folk-soul. Hence, too, the great significance that this understanding of mythology holds for the further development of this archangel, who, admittedly, possesses within himself the potential, in a certain sense, to rise to the rank of an archangel. But for this, many things are necessary. It is necessary that those potentials develop in a very specific way—potentials that today have, in a certain sense, receded behind the twilight, shadowy influence of the spirit of the age, which has placed itself in front of the impulses of Christianity. As strangely similar as some aspects of Germanic-Nordic mythology are to the depictions of Greek mythology, it must nevertheless be said that there is no other mythology on Earth which, in its unique structure and distinctive presentation, offers a more significant or clearer picture of the evolution of the worlds than this Norse mythology, so that this picture can be regarded as a preliminary stage of the picture of the development of the worlds produced by Spiritual Science.

[ 21 ] Germanic mythology, in the way it has developed from the archetype of the Archangel, bears the most significant resemblance in its imagery to what is to gradually emerge as the worldview of Spiritual Science for humanity. The question will be how those predispositions—which an archangel once brought into the world—can develop after this archangel has undergone the education of the Christ spirit of the age. These predispositions will be able to become an important link in the guiding spirit of the age if, in the later stages of a people’s development, there is a proper understanding of how to develop what that people’s development contains as a predisposition from an earlier age. With this, we have merely pointed to an important problem, to an important evolution of a European archangel; we have, so to speak, pointed to the extent to which he possesses a predisposition toward a spirit of the age.

[ 22 ] Let us pause for a moment at this point and then continue our discussion by attempting to move from the configuration of the Folk-souls into an esoteric consideration of mythology. This will bring before our minds, as a special chapter, a description of the unique and fascinating characteristics of Germanic mythology in particular—and Nordic mythology, specifically.