The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Sixth Lecture

[ 1 ] You may be surprised that, in the course of these lectures, we are also devoting some time to examining the outer nature and form of the human being, just as we began to do yesterday. If you wish to delve ever deeper into the insights that true occultism can offer humanity, you cannot avoid getting to know the human being from the perspectives we are now considering. You need only recall how often, in the course of your theosophical striving, the thought has come to your soul that the human being, as he appears to us in the world, is in his outer form a temple of the Deity. And humanity is truly a temple of the Divine in terms of its outer form. We have this temple of the Divine in mind when we, so to speak, consider the building blocks from which we began yesterday and which will occupy us for a short while longer in our lecture series. We shall then see that the insights most important for the human heart and soul will come to us precisely when we are not too complacent and take the trouble to seek out the hidden aspects of the spiritual world even in the human being’s outer form. And so we have considered the human being according to certain twelve members, which we mentioned yesterday.

[ 2 ] These twelve members now appear, as they present themselves to us, to be a complete unity. But in reality they are not a complete unity, and it is important to know that they are not a complete unity. For the moment a person can truly grasp that the outer unity of form in which their body, their outer body, appears to them, is only an apparent one, the moment a person understands that the form of the outer body, as it appears to the eye, or as a human being can know it at all as an earthly human being, is an apparent one, the moment a person sees through the appearance of the outer form, they also recognize the nature of their I, the center of their consciousness.

[ 3 ] We saw yesterday that this “I” withdraws from us every night, and that it can therefore be only an image to the human being; for a reality cannot withdraw from the human being during the night. Thus, in a sense, something is withdrawn from the human being every night by his “I,” which otherwise accompanies him throughout his earthly life; and precisely what is withdrawn from him is given to him by the world order in the outer body, is added to the outer body. This is what causes the human being to regard the outer body as a unity. In truth, it is not a unity. In truth, the building blocks we have come to know are intricately assembled. Here we touch upon one of the most important mysteries, one that is capable of leading us deep into the most primordial mysteries of existence.

[ 4 ] We already touch upon one of these mysteries in the outer world, and it is important that we also take the path from the outside to the inside so that, from this state of consciousness, we may be able to take in the idea without an object. Just as the human being appears to us, he or she in truth consists of three parts, and it is only an illusion to regard these three parts of the human being simply as a single unit. What appeared to us yesterday as a twelve-fold structure is in truth divided into three human beings, and one must learn to understand that the human being actually consists of three human beings.

[ 5 ] Let us present these three people to our soul, one by one. For yesterday, when listing the parts of the human being, we began by first mentioning what we might call uprightness, the upright orientation; then we mentioned what organizes the human being toward the front—or, to put it best, toward speech. So the second: the direction toward the front, toward speech. The third was symmetry.

[ 6 ] You see, when we first consider these three aspects of human nature, we have a part of this human nature as it appears to us externally in space as form, as shape. Now let us examine whether, even through purely external observation, we might find something that leads us away from the concept of symmetry—something in the external form that, upon closer inspection, must strike the human being as truly enigmatic.

[ 7 ] As we know, symmetry means that the human being is formed on both sides. While this symmetry is present in all the organs of the head, it becomes particularly striking when we move our gaze down from the head as we observe the human form. Yesterday we said that we designate uprightness with the term “Aries” and the symbol ♈︎, the orientation toward sound formation with the term “Taurus” and the symbol ♉︎, and symmetry with the term “Gemini” and the symbol ♊︎. These three aspects of the human organism are thus designated. Now, however, we come to something that appears, so to speak, as a continuation of the head and which brings out symmetry—the arrangement on two sides—in a very special way. These are, namely, the arms and the hands.

[ 8 ] I would now ask you to take a look at these arms and hands. They are attached to the head in such a way that we find in the arms and hands a clear reflection—a strikingly clear reflection—of what we recognize in the lower part of the human body as the thighs, and of what we have as the lower legs and feet. If you observe the animal kingdom, you will notice in a striking way the similarity of those organs that have just been mentioned, which in humans are distinct in the arms and legs; and you will be able to think most profoundly about human beings precisely when you also examine more closely and reflect upon this difference between the arms and hands and the legs and feet in human beings compared to those in the animals that are closest to human beings.

[ 9 ] Let’s now take the terms we used yesterday and apply them in the same way we did for the legs and feet; let’s now apply them accordingly to the arms and hands. Then we can say, as we trace the head downward: Attached to this head are limbs which, as you can easily see even with a very superficial consideration, are spiritually connected to the entire world of thought of the head. They are connected to the arms and hands. You will not find it absurd if we use the same terms we found yesterday for the legs and feet at this moment for the arms and hands associated with the head, and if we say: Fourth, we regard as a continuation of the head that which extends symmetrically, first as the upper arms, and we designate them, just as we designated the upper part of the legs, as “Sagittarius”: ♐︎. We do take into account that there is a certain difference with regard to the elbow and the knee, since the kneecap is not formed at the elbow, but we will soon discover the similarity. So we designate what we have as the elbow with the sign and the word with which we designated the knees, namely “Capricorn” and the sign ♑︎. We designate the forearms with the same sign with which we designated the lower legs, namely that of “Aquarius”: ♒︎, and the hands with the same sign with which we designated the feet, with the sign of “Pisces”: ♓︎. Now, by setting these members of human nature apart—the head with its arms—we have a seven-part human being. And that is important. If you consider that this complete, seven-part human being is now nourished by the rest of human nature, insofar as it is contained within the human form, that is, receives its nourishment only by having it channeled upward, then it will no longer seem like such a terribly grotesque idea to you that—take this for now as an idea, as a thought—nourishment is supplied from outside this seven-part human being we have just characterized, in the same way that, for example, nourishment is prepared outside for the plant and the plant merely processes it. It could very well be conceived that nourishment is prepared out in the world, that this sevenfold human being does not first receive it—insofar as he needs it for the sustenance of the brain and so on—from the other human nature, but directly from the world. Then this human being would be directly connected to the external world.

[ 10 ] You see, the occultist must take this sevenfold human being into account if he wishes to rise to a higher consciousness in a proper manner. What has now been stated must, so to speak, first be taken to heart: the possibility of a sevenfold human nature, from which one must mentally set aside the other members of the modern human being.

[ 11 ] And now let us turn our attention to the second human being. We will understand him best if we consider the following thoughts. Consider, for a moment, that the essential organ of the head—as you will readily see—is the brain. But human beings have something else that is very similar to the brain and that differs from the brain in the head by only—I would say—something seemingly minor but very significant. Human beings actually have something like a second brain. This is the spinal brain, the spinal cord, which is enclosed within the spine.

[ 12 ] Consider this idea for a moment. Let us suppose we are dealing with this peculiar spinal cord, which we can actually perceive merely as a rod-shaped, elongated, thin brain—just as, conversely, we can perceive the brain as a spinal cord that has been correspondingly inflated. To help us view the spinal cord properly as a kind of brain, imagine the human being in a position relative to the world similar to that of animals today: imagine his spine not standing upright vertically, but parallel to the Earth’s surface. Then you would have a brain that has simply been stretched out and made rod-shaped. And now consider the human being as he stands before you, parallel to the Earth’s surface, his back horizontal to the world space, so that the spinal cord can indeed be regarded as a kind of brain in this worldly position. Here we encounter something quite remarkable, namely the fact that we also have left and right attachments, which, however, differ greatly from the bilateral arm attachments. But imagine a state in which human symmetry had not yet reached the level it has today, so that the two arms are nearly identical; instead, imagine that one arm had undergone a special development that would make it very different from the other arm. In the present day, it is true that people seek to eliminate right-handedness in the most incomprehensible way and to develop both left- and right-handedness. But imagine if the other arm were to develop into a completely different organ; then you would no longer find it so absurd when attention is drawn to the two other types of attachment that we possess.

[ 13 ] If we view a human being with the spine lying flat on top, horizontally, so that the head is on one side and the feet on the other, then we have two points of attachment, just as with the arms. You can think of the head as one arm and the two legs together as the other arm. At first glance, this seems strange; but if you consider that even in the lower animal kingdoms there are forms that do not differ all that much from what has just been described, then you will no longer find the idea so grotesque.

[ 14 ] This thought must have crossed our minds at some point if we are to understand the whole human being, who is a threefold being. Then we can also speak of having to do with elements that are formed asymmetrically, with unequal twins. If you consider this, you can also say: Here I truly have before me something like the first sevenfold human being.

[ 15 ] Let us begin by attributing these two unequal twins to this person lying horizontally. In the case of the person lying horizontally, we also call the corresponding parts on both sides “twins.” We would therefore have to say: In this case, we refer to the unity and mutual relationship of the head and feet as “twins”: ♊︎.

[ 16 ] Now, however, we must also take our brain into account. We must, in fact, consider what we have just said. We obtain this image of the human being, which we have now placed before our soul, only by turning the human being around. So let us consider what the human being now presents to us, namely the middle body as a self-contained world, which we, however, regard as one in which we have conceived of the human being. So, the human shell, and at the top a kind of brain within it. We regard this as “Cancer”: ♋︎. So that we can say: The entire chest shell now even acquires a very special characteristic through the fact that, in order to create a correct mental image of it, we turn the human being around.

[ 17 ] Now let us consider all those aspects of the human members that are significant within this chest enclosure. We need only follow the members that we examined in sequence yesterday, stopping at the point where it becomes impossible to attribute these things to the breast-human or the middle-human. Undoubtedly, we will have to include the entire inner region that we have designated as “lion nature”: ♌︎, and which is concentrated in the heart. Fourthly, we have pointed out that the human being is actually divided there into two parts: an inner region enclosed by the ribcage, and an inner region enclosed by the abdominal wall. Anatomically, this is also very precisely divided by the diaphragm into an upper and a lower cavity; but we must also count that which lies below the diaphragm as part of the middle human. We designate it by the name “Virgo”: ♍︎.

[ 18 ] And now we come to the point of equilibrium, where a person begins to no longer be completely closed off within, but opens up to the outside world. By using their legs, human beings open themselves up to the outside world; so that we can say: This state of equilibrium is the boundary where the inner world separates from the outer world. So, fifthly, we have the state of equilibrium, which we have designated as “Libra” and assigned this symbol to it: ♎︎.

[ 19 ] Given the way the reproductive organs are connected to the average person, you will naturally find that they must be included in what constitutes the average person, so that we must say, sixth, the reproductive organs, “Scorpio”: ♏︎.

[ 20 ] Now the point is that we need to find the starting point for the second pair of twins. If you consider what the thighs are for the human being—how they are essentially moved in accordance with the unique nature of the middle human being simply by virtue of their connection to the entire musculature of the middle human being—then we must include them as well. Up to the knees, the human being is the middle human; the forces of the middle human extend into the thighs and reach down to the knees. There we also have, on one side toward the head and on the other toward the thighs, the pair of twins, so that we must still regard the thighs as belonging to the twins. We designate them with this symbol ♐︎ and call them “Sagittarius.”

[ 21 ] Now the point is that we need to find the starting point for the second pair of twins. If you consider what the thighs are for the human being—how they are essentially moved in accordance with the unique nature of the middle human being simply by virtue of their connection to the entire musculature of the middle human being—then we must include them as well. Up to the knees, the human being is the middle human; the forces of the middle human extend into the thighs and reach down to the knees. There we also have, on one side toward the head and on the other toward the thighs, the pair of twins, so that we must still regard the thighs as belonging to the twins. We designate them with this symbol ♐︎ and call them “Sagittarius.”

[ 22 ] You can see that the remaining parts do not need to be added to the middle human being, so that we now have a sevenfold human being. This is the second sevenfold human being. If you consider the difference between the first and the second sevenfold human being, you will find that it is an enormous one. When we look at the first sevenfold human being, we see that the most important, the most significant sense organs are located in the head, that is, in the first sevenfold human being. If we add the arms and hands to this first sevenfold human being—as we must—then we have included organs in this sevenfold human being that possess a characteristic which is not apparent to mere external, materialistic observation. For the human organs we call arms and hands would, if a person were to contemplate them meaningfully, reveal to them the sublime and significant aspects of human nature to a very special degree.

[ 23 ] If one were to speak of a natural art that is wonderfully united with all that humanity regards as the temple of God, one could hardly illustrate this natural art more effectively than by focusing specifically on the marvelous structure of the human arms and hands. Consider the corresponding organs in other beings, in animals related to humans. Take, for comparison—let us say, to move far from humans—the front limbs of birds, the wings. The wings are comparable to what I have described in humans as the hands. The bird could not fly without its wings. They are organs of utility for its existence; in the truest sense, they are organs of utility. Human hands, in this sense, are not organs of utility. We can, of course, train them to become organs of utility, but that requires training. We cannot fly or swim with them, and they are even clumsy for climbing, a task at which the forelimbs of the animals most closely related to humans—the apes—are actually very skilled. One might almost say: These hands, if one views the matter solely from the standpoint of utility, are actually quite ill-suited for all external utilitarian activities, highly ill-suited for anything external. — But if we consider what humans have had to accomplish with their hands in the course of Earth’s evolution, we must say that they prove to be something precious when it comes to giving external expression to what the spirit can achieve,

[ 24 ] Consider first the most basic elements. When the hand uses gestures alongside speech, does it not become an expressive organ? Do the various ways in which it is formed not reveal a great deal about a person’s inner character? And consider human culture: imagine that human hands were more suited to utilitarian purposes, such as climbing or swimming, or that they were necessary for locomotion. Imagine that the world were not arranged in such a way that we must first learn to walk; we must first learn it through movements that are, in essence, quite impractical compared to the rest of nature—namely, a pendulum-like movement of both legs. Humans simply do not pay attention to the fact that the movement of human legs is quite impractical and that every animal has adapted its legs to be much more useful in relation to its own physiology. Our hands are also exempt from this condition of existence. So imagine that this were not the case and that it had become easier for humans to use their hands for locomotion. Then you would have to imagine away the entire human, the entire historical culture. And think of all that humans, as artists, have to accomplish through their hands: you would also have to imagine away all art if the hands had become organs of utility.

[ 25 ] This is a mental image that must sink deep into the soul of the occult aspirant: that we have marvelous organs in our hands and arms that are intimately connected with spiritual life as it unfolds on Earth. So when we consider that the human being, in relation to the head—where the sense organs are primarily located—is in contact with the external world through the senses; that through his hands he works with the external world; and that in his head he can prepare what he either interprets for the external world through his hands or passes on as human culture—then you will see what the first sevenfold human being actually is. He is the truly spiritual human being, the human being who, as a human being, is primarily in connection with the external world. When we consider these seven members and how they are internally integrated, we have the Earth process made conscious for the human being in this first sevenfold human being. We see, then, that we must regard this first sevenfold human being primarily as the spiritual nature of the human being, as the spiritual being of the human being, insofar as the human being is an earthly human being.

[ 26 ] Let us now consider the second. The second is something about which we must say that, precisely because the twins are such that they are formed on both sides as highly unequal twins, its connection to the external world has, on the one hand, only with the head, only with what the head does, for it perceives in the head; on the other hand, insofar as the human being is a mobile being who walks and can direct this walking from within. Finally, it is also connected to the external world through the reproductive organs, through which the physical continuation of the human race is ensured. So that we can say: Without this middle human being—that is, if this middle human being did not have these three members, namely what exists as twins on both sides and through the reproductive organs—there would be no connection with the external world. — Because the human being has these three members in his middle organism, he is connected on the one hand with the earthly process, and on the other hand with the further development of the earthly human being, with the succession of generations and the replacement of one sex by the other.

[ 27 ] But when we look at the middle, at what we refer to as Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Libra, we must say: This is there only for the inner human being. — I mean, of course, the physical-inner human being, the physical inner nature of the human being. It sends out its extensions in both directions through the Twins, which govern the middle nature, but otherwise it is entirely occupied with the inner being of the human being, with the inner organization. For the inner being of the human being, it is of the utmost significance that it has a heart; but the outer nature interests it very little, just as little as it is interested in the fact that it has an abdomen.

[ 28 ] So we have three members that are essential to the external nature of the earth, and four other members that serve the inner being of the human being in particular. While the head-human essentially lives in the external world, both through the senses and through the arm and hand mechanisms, here we have a life that takes place primarily within the organism. You see, there are enormous differences between these two human beings: the middle human and the upper seven-fold human, the head-human.

[ 29 ] And now let us consider a third person. To make it easier for us to picture this third person in our minds, let us look at him from the opposite perspective; let us start from the other side and see how, in fact, quite naturally, this third person sets himself apart from the others.

[ 30 ] Let’s start with seven, with the feet. We already know from yesterday that we assign the sign ♓︎ to seven, the feet, and call them “Pisces.” Here, human nature is fully adapted to the external world. This is beyond question for anyone who gives it a little thought. It is essentially the shape of the feet that makes the human being a creature capable of moving about on the earth. Everything else necessary for walking, the human being must first learn. It is natural that the human being must place the broad surface of their feet on the earth, so that the extension of the feet is not directed inward but toward the earth. Since what we call the lower legs is also thoroughly adapted to this nature of the foot—these things necessarily belong together—we can say: As a second element, we must include, sixth, the lower legs, which we designate as “Aquarius” and denote with this symbol: ♒︎.

[ 31 ] We come to the fifth joint, the knees, which can be understood as nothing other than a necessary, mechanical resting position in relation to the thigh. Because human beings must connect their entire middle body with the lower body—with the feet and lower legs—this division must, so to speak, be located in the knees. Imagine how difficult walking would be for you if the legs were not divided in this way. If our legs were made of a single piece, the matter would be even more difficult than it is. If we did not need to walk, we would not be interested in the middle part. But as it is, we need it and therefore also require the knees as a connecting link. We designate it with the symbol ♑︎ and call it “Capricorn”; this is the fifth sign.

[ 32 ] We have already examined the fourth limb, the thighs, and noted that they are part of the human form. They would have to be there even if humans moved in a different way, such as by flying or swimming. Humans would need them, even if they had to take a different form. If humans are to walk on the earth, not only must the feet, lower legs, and knees be adapted to the ground, but the thighs must also be adapted to these limbs. They must be shaped in such a way that they fit the lower three limbs. You can see this by noting that, insofar as the thighs are adapted to the middle organs, they are found in the same way in birds, four-legged animals, and humans. But in humans, they are formed differently than in birds and four-legged animals. They therefore belong to the human being insofar as he has an animal nature. We designate the thighs with the name “Sagittarius” and with the symbol ♐︎.

[ 33 ] Now, of course, everyone will realize that when we consider the human reproductive organs, on the one hand they are formed from within, but on the other hand, in their outward manifestations, they are adapted to the external world. We must discuss these matters properly here and draw attention to relationships that can only be brought to light when viewed with scientific rigor. The reproductive organs are adapted to the external world in that they relate one sex to the other. The male reproductive organ is organized not only from within the human being but also outwardly toward the female reproductive organs. Thus, thirdly, we must speak of the reproductive organs, which we also call “Scorpio” and denote with the symbol ♏︎.

[ 34 ] We now come to what is commonly called the “Libra,” the state of equilibrium in human beings. One need only look at the external form of the balance region to know that this is something that belongs to the human being’s middle nature. But consider that, because the human being has become an upright creature, it was precisely this position of balance that was necessary; that this position of balance had to be developed in such a way that the human being could become an upright creature. You need only compare the specific balance point in a four-legged animal with that of a human being, and you will see that the balance must be different when the upper body is directed upward than when it lies horizontally on the feet and legs. We must therefore, secondly, take into account the specific balance position—that is, what we refer to as the “Libra”: ♎︎.

[ 35 ] We now come to discuss something that is bound to be misunderstood by modern science. For we have just, as it were, considered the sixfold nature of the human being; we have examined the human being from the bottom up and found six members within him. We have considered the other two human beings: the first seven-part human and the second seven-part human, taking as our starting point—so to speak, to have a point of reference—the respective brain. In considering the head, we began with the brain, and this led us to the arms and hands. We then turned our attention to the second brain, that brain which is like an elongated rod, yet is otherwise entirely brain: the spinal cord. I have already pointed out that this spinal cord differs from the ordinary brain in the head—seemingly in a few ways, but in truth in many. For the spinal cord is the instrument for all those movements that a person must perform and that we call the involuntary movements of the organism. All kinds of involuntary movements, everything that is performed involuntarily at all, are controlled by the spinal cord. With the brain, when we use it as a tool, thoughts interpose themselves between perception and movement, whereas everything mental that intervenes in the brain is absent in the spinal cord. There, perception is immediately followed by movement, the human expression. In animals, the spinal cord plays a greater role than in humans, and the brain a lesser one. That is why the majority of animals perform their actions involuntarily. Humans, however, insert thinking—through their overdeveloped brain—between perception and movement, and that is why their actions appear voluntary.

[ 36 ] Now let us picture the third human being in such a way that we can also identify something like a brain within him. You all know that there is another nervous system in the human body, separate from the other two—the brain system and the spinal cord system—namely the ganglion system, called the solar plexus, which extends through the lower part of the body and sends its strands upward, parallel to the spinal cord. This is a nervous system distinct from the others mentioned; that is to say, viewed in relation to the actual brain, it is a special, undeveloped brain. When we ascend past the waist, we find that remarkable ganglion system, the solar plexus, spread out like a brain of the third human being; and in other words, it connects in the middle human being to the special organs we have listed, which we must also regard as a kind of brain, as a third brain: the solar plexus.

[ 37 ] The kidneys and the renal system are essentially connected to this solar plexus—and this is something that conventional science cannot easily clarify. Just as the brain’s physical mass is connected to the nerve tracts, so too are the kidneys connected to the abdominal brain, the solar plexus. In fact, the solar plexus and the kidneys together constitute a special kind of subordinate brain. If we now include this brain in the human abdomen, we can designate it, just like the other abdominal organs, with the term “Virgo”: ♍︎. This is thus the seventh or, in this context, the first link resulting from the connection between the solar plexus and the kidneys; and this gives us that which, at the top, concludes this third seven-fold human being.

[ 38 ] Thus we find that human beings are composed of three distinct aspects. These three aspects interact with one another and work together, and no one can truly understand human nature without realizing that these three aspects are actually at work within the human being. Three sevenfold human natures thus work together within the human being.

[ 39 ] The brain mentioned last is of very little interest to the outside world. It exists solely to sustain human inner nature. All other organs are essentially adapted to the external world, but in a completely different way than the intellectual human being. While the intellectual human being is adapted to the external world in such a way that we must say: He is adapted to the external earthly world primarily through that which is in his head organs, whereby he transforms this earthly world into a human cultural world, we must, on the other hand, say: In all that constitutes the external and also the internal organs of the lowest human being, we are dealing only with something that belongs to the human being himself, that serves the human being himself. — It is only because the human being does not think things through carefully that he fails to discover how enormously different, how fundamentally different these three human beings are within the entirety of human nature.

[ 40 ] Occultism has always referred to what we have just described as one aspect of the Mysterium magnum, the Great Mystery. Here we have before us the outer aspect, that aspect of the Mysterium magnum which, although visible in the external world, is not properly assessed because one does not from the outset distinguish a threefold, sevenfold human being within what appears as a unity.

[ 41 ] Now let us turn to the other side of this mystery. We have spoken of the ego-nature of the human being; we have discussed how this ego-nature of the human being appears as a unity. But we have also seen that this unity is constantly disrupted, that it is always broken by sleep. Now read the relevant chapters in my book *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds*, which has also been translated into your language; there you will find something most remarkable. You will find that when the occult aspirant takes his step out of ordinary consciousness, his consciousness, his ego, is, as it were, divided into three parts, in such a way that the independent parts of his inner being overwhelm him: the thinking soul, the feeling soul, the willing soul. In ordinary life, these three things—thinking, feeling, and willing—are united in the ego-nature, in ego-consciousness. Thus, while thinking, feeling, and willing interact throughout our ordinary, everyday consciousness, they separate as soon as we take a step into higher consciousness. It is significant and must be taken into account by the occult aspirant that, when he transcends his consciousness, he finds himself as if divided into three parts, that his ego-unity is, so to speak, divided into a thinking, feeling, and willing human being.

[ 42 ] There you have the other side of the Mysterium magnum. While the human being, upon taking the real step of transcending consciousness, divides his ego-unity into three parts, the apparent unity of the outer human form divides itself into three sevenfold human beings as soon as we draw closer to the body. Thus, both our inner ego-nature and our outer form are each a unity that can be divided into three human beings. The outer human being divides into the seven-part head-human, the seven-part middle-human, and the seven-part foot-human. The human ego, as soon as it takes its first step into the occult realm, divides into three parts: the thinking, feeling, and willing human beings, who stand opposite one another and become independent. There you have the other side.

[ 43 ] The occult aspirant must hold these two thoughts as soon as he takes the first step toward a higher consciousness. Just as consciousness is divided into three parts, so too, if one proceeds correctly, one can recognize what appears as an outer form as three seven-part human beings. These are two aspects of a multi-part Mysterium magnum. We will discuss the other aspects later. For now, we have touched upon the most elementary, the very first beginnings of the Mysterium magnum, the great mystery. Therefore, as occult aspirants, at a certain stage of development you will encounter the expression, the formula, in one form or another: The great secret is: three are one, and one are three. For the occultist, this formula signifies what I have just described, and in this sense it has its full and proper meaning. Only when external misunderstanding turns it into a materialistic dogma does it alter its meaning. But if we understand it as explained above, it will serve as a symbolic summary of what we have discussed today. Then this formula is the expression of the Mysterium magnum. If one wishes to penetrate into occultism, as has been attempted here in many respects, then one must understand the mysterious, seemingly quite contradictory formula: Three are one, and one are three. In fact, it was said time and again, especially to the medieval occult aspirant: “First observe what is said, so that you may understand the mystery of how the Three can be one and the One can be three.”

The Higher Human

1. Supine position ♈︎
2. Forward position ♉︎
3. Symmetry ♊︎
4. Upper arms ♐︎
5. Elbows ♑︎
6. Forearms ♒︎
7. Hands ♓︎

The Middle Man

1. Head and feet, Gemini ♊︎
2. Chest enclosure ♋︎
3. Inner self, heart ♌︎
4. Destiny determined by the second inner self ♍︎
5. Position of balance ♎︎
6. Reproductive Organs ♏︎
7. Thighs ♐︎

The Lower Man

1. Feet ♓︎
2. Lower legs ♒︎
3. Knees ♑︎
4. Thighs ♐︎
5. Reproductive organs ♏︎
6. Balance ♎︎
7. Kidneys, Solar Plexus ♍︎