The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] It is up to us today to understand, from a certain perspective, the nature of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities. If we wish to arrive at at least a somewhat limited mental image of the Luciferic-Ahrimanic entity with which the human being on Earth is initially confronted, we must look back at the lunar evolution of our Earth and consider this lunar evolution in connection with the actual evolution of the Earth.

[ 2 ] Don’t we know that the actual development of the Earth came about because the beings of the Spirits of Form acted—as if upon a foundation—upon everything that had preceded it and that, in a sense, could be regarded as the legacy of the Saturn, Sun, and Moon developments? And we also find that these Spirits of Form have brought about such a formation of the Earth that, within the entire context of this Earth formation, the human being was able to receive the “I”; that is, the “I” was able to be added to the three members of human nature—which arose like an inheritance from the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions—permeating these members. We can say: As an influence—taken concretely—as an inward working of their own essence, the Spirits of Form have given the human being the “I.” Insofar as we therefore look up to these Spirits of Form and regard them as the bringers of the “I,” we must at the same time tell ourselves that, in a sense as the serving organs of these Spirits of Form, all that existed was what we now must count as the beings of the next higher hierarchy standing above human beings: the Spirits of Personality, the spirits belonging to the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, and the spirits belonging to the hierarchy of the Angeloi.

[ 3 ] If we set aside for the moment everything mentioned above, we must therefore regard as the creators and rulers of earthly existence the spirits of form and, as it were, their servants: the spirits of personality, the archangel spirits, and the angel spirits. Through this, an earthly existence could be created and governed, which, as a whole, produced humanity with its “I” nature—like a blossom or, one might even say, like the highest fruit of this earthly existence.

[ 4 ] When we look at earthly existence today, we do not actually perceive it in its pure essence as it might have turned out if the spirits of form, together with their implied retinue, had simply created this earthly existence and were governing it. For the Luciferic and Ahrimanic spiritual beings are at work in everything I have just described. Thus we have an earthly existence which, in its ongoing main development, shows us, so to speak, what can be brought forth and governed by the regularly developed Spirits of Form and their servants; and then woven into this, working within it, is everything that depends on the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences.

[ 5 ] If we first make this clear to ourselves, we will be able to say: All earthly existence—human existence on Earth and the existence of the other kingdoms—would be different if only the Spirits of Form and their servants were to create, act, and govern. What we have before us, then, already shows us, in a sense, a clouded, a distorted picture of earthly existence—a picture of earthly existence colored by Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces. We might ask ourselves, in regard to various concrete earthly phenomena: What would have become of this earthly existence if the distortions mentioned—the Luciferic and Ahrimanic distortions—had not occurred; in other words, if it had been the case that only the Spirits of Form, together with their servants, had acted to the corresponding degree?

[ 6 ] It becomes clear to anyone who explores these matters that among the manifold phenomena that can be observed—and in relation to which the question just described might be raised—there is, for example, the one that follows directly from what was said yesterday. Yesterday I spoke of what takes place more in the subconscious of human life than in the development of language. I pointed out a certain regularity in the development of language within the course of human existence on Earth and its evolution. I also mentioned that the characteristic feature of this linguistic development lies in the fact that it is, so to speak, shaped by the human-personal, and that even today, humanity has not yet progressed far enough to view linguistic characters—letters, sounds, and their combinations—as mere symbols of the development of thought. In the development of thought, humanity has, in a sense, achieved something quite different than in the development of language. But precisely this is connected to what can become clear to us when we pose the question: How would the development of language and the development of thought have unfolded in earthly existence if Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences had not been at work? — In other words: How would human beings think, and how would they speak and hear what is spoken, if only the spirits of form and their servants were to create and guide the Earth?

[ 7 ] If this were the case—if no Luciferic or Ahrimanic influence had made itself felt in the Earth’s evolution—there would have been, from the very beginning, a complete harmony between speech and thought in this Earth evolution. We must seek this harmony anew through a certain objectivity. By gradually making language a symbol, the Luciferic-Ahrimanic element will be overcome. Had this not occurred at all, however, a deep harmony between speech and thought would have unfolded within humanity; that is to say, it would have come to pass that human beings would have a perception, a living sense of what lies in the sound of language—in the D, T, Th, and so on—which, of course, they do not have today. For them, speaking goes hand in hand with thinking. You can already see this from the fact that, at least in essence, people across the globe—once they have attained a certain form of thought regarding something—do not differ in their concepts, but they do differ in their words.

[ 8 ] We must face up to this one-sided aspect of thinking, which is not expressed at all in speech; for it is something that has already diverged from speech. This should have appeared in a much more intimate connection with speech had Ahrimanic-Luciferic influences not intervened in earthly existence. Human beings would permeate language with their innermost life feelings; they would, so to speak, stand within the sound, yet at the same time experience the concept, the mental image, within that sound; they would not perceive the two as separate, but would perceive them as one. This is how the Spirits of Form had intended it for human beings. For that soul element—mind you, that soul element which arises in a human being when, on the one hand, he surrenders to what his mental images give him, and on the other hand, to what speech gives him—that is, when he is absorbed in conceptualization and when he is absorbed in speech— this element of the soul—the Spirits of Form had not originally intended this for earthly human beings at all; rather, they had intended for them the unity of speech and thought. They had intended for them to experience speech and thought as one. When we consider our present-day separation of speech and thought, it can be attributed entirely to the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman.

[ 9 ] Today, human beings do not perceive the distinctive character of the M, the G, and so on; rather, these have become something that they connect to their soul in a completely different way than the way they connect their soul to thinking. The spirits of form and their serving beings had intended for human beings a much more self-evident, natural existence than what human beings have subsequently been able to attain on Earth. The spirits of form had intended for human beings a loving inner life—but not in a form of speech from which the essence of thought has been squeezed out, but in a form of speech that carries thought itself, so to speak, on its wings. This is what the Spirits of Form had intended for humanity. And according to the intentions of the Spirits of Form, people on Earth should not have differed according to linguistic characteristics; rather, the Spirits of Form conceived the distinction between nations in such a way that it was to be based solely on natural foundations—on geographical and climatic differences. Human beings were to feel themselves to be a nation by feeling connected to certain forces that, as a matter of course, were at work in the natural foundations of their existence.

[ 10 ] On the other hand, if the intentions of the spirits of form alone had been carried out, it would have been possible for a person—as a member of one nation encountering a member of another nation—to intuitively understand from the outset what a word signifies. Different languages would already have existed. But people would not have differed in their understanding of languages; rather, in their perception of what lies within the individual sound, within the individual letter, a person would indeed have heard the other language, but he would not have heard the essence of the sound or the word; within the word, within the sound, he would have heard the mental image, and the mental image would have come to him on the wings of the word. One does not understand a foreign language for this very reason: because the mental images are not actually contained within the words at all, because the words have been stripped of the mental images.

[ 11 ] Thus, a rift has arisen between speaking and forming mental images. This is why, up to now, human beings have been unable to develop this ability during their evolution on Earth: to encounter another person in such a way that they possess a feeling understanding of even the most foreign of languages. You must not consider languages as they are today in this context. Languages would, of course, have turned out quite differently; they have simply developed in such a way that a speaker from one linguistic region cannot understand speakers from another, because languages did not develop in step with the development of the life of thought. Languages have not developed in such a way that the life of thought would be embedded within them. Therefore, even given the current state of language development, it is impossible to achieve the kind of understanding that was originally intended by the Spirits of Form and that was to be guided by their servants. The Spirits of Form had indeed intended—not, of course, to shape all human beings across the entire Earth according to a single pattern, as if they were cosmic tailors—but rather for human beings to be different; yet they were to be so different that they would still have been able to face one another across the entire Earth with full understanding.

[ 12 ] And the beings from the hierarchy of the Archangels—those beings from the hierarchy of the Archangels who had attained their degree of lunar perfection during the lunar evolution—were chosen to be the rulers of these groups of human beings conceived by the spirits of form. And so that the individual, when standing within such a human group, might also have a guide who mediated between him as a personality and the entire human group, the beings from the hierarchy of the Angeloi—who had developed in step with the lunar evolution—were intended as his guides and chosen to lead him.

[ 13 ] One could therefore say: If it had been up to the intentions of the spirits of form, one would have walked across the Earth and found people scattered across it, but in harmony with the entire configuration—with the Earth’s surroundings, such as the vegetation and the plant world. One would have found them having grown together with the natural world. But that which divides people into languages would not have been drawn into the soul. However, something else would not have come about either: there would not have been a search across the entire globe for a single science, a single form of knowledge. Today there is a deep belief—but a purely Luciferic belief—that there can be a single body of knowledge, which is summarized in a number of dogmas and which must then apply to all of humanity on Earth. This has arisen solely because knowledge, conceptual mental images, has become separated from speech and has thereby been unified.

[ 14 ] If things had turned out as the Spirits of Form had intended, then people, depending on their social groups, would have expressed themselves differently about the things of the world; but people would have understood this intuitively, and would have accepted others who expressed themselves differently about these things than they did themselves; it is precisely in this diversity that one would have found the true life of the Earth.

[ 15 ] All these are things that lay within the intentions of the Spirits of Form, but which have completely vanished from human understanding. For the belief has taken hold in a most striking way that so-called “mental images”—life in concepts—must be “anational,” in contrast to “speech,” which must be “national.” The middle ground was precisely what the Spirits of Form intended: not separation by language and connection across the entire earth through the most superficial, sloppy concepts; rather, the diversity of language alongside the diversity of mental images—that is what the Spirits of Form intended.

[ 16 ] This is also what, in a certain sense, must serve as an ideal for us in the field of Spiritual Science—a true ideal. But there is a deep-seated tendency in human nature today to refuse to acknowledge this ideal. I can give you an example of just how deeply rooted in human nature this reluctance to acknowledge this ideal is.

[ 17 ] As you may recall—though it was a long time ago by today’s standards—we were once affiliated with the so-called “Theosophical Society,” which had, and is said to still have, Mrs. Besant as its president. A number of us had also attended the so-called congresses of this society in the early days. There, speeches were always given by the various representatives—the general secretaries of the individual European sections. The diversity of languages was particularly evident in that everyone spoke in their own language, which naturally meant that most of what was said was not understood at all. But in order to foster mutual understanding, it was customary to deliver at least one short speech in the language of one’s own country. I—as some who were there may recall—always raised the same point on these occasions over the course of several years. I do not know to what extent it was noticed, but for years I consistently brought up the same point, always with—I would say—not an ulterior motive, but an underlying feeling: whether the point would be understood. For I always emphasized: When we come together here from different countries, we do not come together to receive a “central” Theosophy, but rather to lay upon a common altar that which each individual country has to contribute to Theosophy. — I have always emphasized the individual, that which comes from different sources, which simply seeks to be laid upon a common altar. Year after year, as I said, I have emphasized the same thing. The result was simply that some did not understand what I was explaining, even though it was correct, and others took offense at it. Yet this was an expression of the ideal we must have: the ideal that cannot be articulated as though we could create a uniform dogma across the entire earth, but rather one that we must pursue so that the diversity on our earth can flourish through mutual understanding.

[ 18 ] The prejudice—as if there could be only one truth—is so deeply rooted in the human soul that people sense contradictions even when, in a series of lectures, a point is expressed one way at one time and another way at another. But this is precisely what we should cultivate, to show how the presentation of truth demands diversity. This must therefore become an ideal: diversity, not uniformity.

[ 19 ] We will only come to understand what underlies this whole matter if, after having briefly characterized the normally developed spirits of form and their serving members, and what, for example, in regard to the concrete aspects of speech and thought, should have emerged from them for Earth’s evolution—and then contrast this in a very specific way with the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements. If we wish to understand this element, we need not look to Earth’s evolution; for the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements, as they have become, arose through the lunar evolution. We have often emphasized that it was precisely during the lunar evolution that what originated from the lunar evolution came to a standstill and was carried over into Earth’s evolution. Thus, with regard to these Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements, we must not speak of the spirits of form as the creators there; the spirits of form are creators only for beings appropriate to Earth’s evolution. For these Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings, the spirits of movement—who are, so to speak, the creators and rulers of lunar evolution—can be regarded as the creative beings.

[ 20 ] Just as the spirits of form are to the development of the Earth as a human being, so are the spirits of movement to the development of the Moon—and thus to the entire Ahrimanic-Luciferic element. And these spirits of movement were the creators during the Moon’s development through what they created. And what they brought about in conjunction with their serving spirits—the spirits of form of that time, the spirits of personality, and the spirits from the hierarchy of the Archangeloi—was an angelic being regularly formed on the Moon. Just as human beings are to develop their seven members in the course of Earth’s evolution, so were the angels to develop their seven members during the Moon’s evolution.

[ 21 ] Those angels, then, who properly developed their seven members during the lunar evolution entered into the Earth evolution, and they have become spirits whose task is to mediate between the individual human being and the group of people led by a single archangel. And this, in turn, is an archangel who developed his seven members during the lunar evolution. But among these there were some who, so to speak, only reached six or five members—who did not fully develop all seven of their members during the lunar evolution. Consequently, they were not able to become, during Earth’s evolution, angels guiding individual human beings, or archangels guiding groups of human beings. These spiritual beings, who have developed only six or five of their parts, now constitute, as it were, the lowest hierarchy. There are beings above them when we speak of Ahriman and Lucifer. They are to be regarded as the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings closest to us; that is, they are beings who could not enter into Earth’s evolution in the regular way, because Earth’s evolution was governed by the Spirits of Form: yet they had not been able to assist the Spirits of Form, for they stood on the angelic level. Nor could they simply become human beings. They thus stood in the middle, between the regular angels and human beings. So we have the following:

[ 22 ] We can say: If this represents the evolution of the Earth with humanity at the bottom (see diagram), then above us are the Creators, the Spirits of Form, followed by the Spirits of Personality, the spirits from the hierarchy of the Archangels, and the spirits from the hierarchy of the Angels. These beings have thus undergone their evolution through their seven or nine members, respectively, during the lunar evolution; they have no need to enter into what the Spirits of Form create for human beings as earthly embodiment; they enter only into an etheric body—the angels, for example—because they belong to the next hierarchy.

[ 23 ] And in between stand those beings who have not at all acquired the ability to proceed further in these evolutions here, but who, because they have not developed their corresponding seven members, are beings who can say of themselves: We were created by the spirits of movement; we are governed by certain spirits of form, the Archai and the Archangeloi. — But now they were there, and for the task that would actually have fallen to them—to help govern the ongoing development of humanity and also the development of the other kingdoms of earthly nature—they were not capable; they could not participate in that.

[ 24 ] So there were, I would say, two classes—if we disregard the others for the moment—of both archangels and angels. Those who were normally developed were the ones who now joined in the activity that should have unfolded as I have just described it, for example, with regard to language and thought. If only this predisposition of the spirits of movement had been present, then speech and thought would have developed in the harmony I described earlier.

[ 25 ] Now something came into being that sounds trivial when you say it out loud, but it is not so trivial. It is, in fact, an immensely serious, grand, and significant cosmic event. One might say: there were, in the spirit realm—or, to speak in religious terms, in heaven—the normally developed archangels, the normally developed angels, and those who turned out to be an incomplete breed. And it turns out that the normally developed archangels and angels cast these abnormally developed ones—who had developed only five or six of their limbs—down to Earth, from Heaven to Earth, because they were of no use there.

[ 26 ] And so, from the very beginning of Earth’s evolution—I would say—an invisible realm intermingled with the substance of Earth’s evolution: the realm of Lucifer and Ahriman, who had been cast out of that realm from which human beings, animals, plants, and minerals are continually created and governed. They had been cast down because they had not yet reached completion. They were present on Earth. Of course, they could not be seen with earthly senses, but they were there. The regular archangels and angels were, to use a religious expression, in heaven; but on Earth, the ones who had been left behind wandered about. This is what the biblical passage refers to: “And their place was no longer found in heaven.” They had been cast down.

[ 27 ] Now just consider the true facts, so that you do not entertain false mental images about certain things. Human beings lived on Earth at that time, initially at a primitive stage of development, just as you will find described in *The Secret Science*. But immediately below the human beings, all around them, lived beings—let us take, for example, the very lowest Luciferic beings—the angels who had been left behind on the Moon, who, instead of now having to rule, were initially idle. But while human beings were only just beginning to gradually develop their seven members—while they could only hope to develop the seventh member at the end of Earth’s evolution, or the sixth or fifth member at a correspondingly earlier time—these beings had already reached the stage where they had completed their sixth or fifth member; only their seventh had they not yet developed.

[ 28 ] Let’s take things as they are. We know, after all, that we are currently working on the development of what we call the intellect. We are living in the fifth period of the post-Atlantean era. Indeed, the people of the Lemurian era were far from having developed this aspect of their being, which is only now, in the fifth, post-Atlantean period, coming to expression. What particularly distinguishes those beings—who were once cast-down angels—is that, ever since the Lunar Age, they had long possessed what human beings are only now developing; they already possessed what is intended for human beings in a later period of Earth’s evolution. Indeed, it is an undeniable fact that for a long time—even during the post-Lemurian and Atlantean eras—such invisible beings played a major role; they had already highly developed what human beings in the Atlantean era could not even conceive of, and what they are only now beginning to develop: namely, the intellectual element.

[ 29 ] Thus, highly developed intelligences—angelic beings—floated, as it were, invisibly through this Lemurian and Atlantean era as spirits who had remained behind. These were highly developed spirits—extraordinarily so. So we can say, to put it in simple terms: The intention of the hierarchy of the spirits of form has been thwarted. While this hierarchy had said to itself: We will develop humanity step by step and let it be guided by angels, and in the fifth epoch, it is to develop the intellect; it is to develop this intellect in such a way that it will then already be mature—while the intention was to allow the harmony between intellect and language to develop, what would otherwise have come to pass was thwarted by the fact that invisible beings lived right in the midst of humanity.

[ 30 ] Of these invisible beings, let us first consider the Luciferic angelic beings. These Luciferic angelic beings have now done something that can be described as follows: they have, so to speak, over-fertilized individual human beings from an earlier period of Earth’s history; they have entered into them and made them possessed by themselves. These angelic beings had, after all, been cast down to Earth. And so, in ancient times, one encounters such human beings who, had they become what the spirits of form had intended for them, would have been simple, primal human beings. But instead, such angelic beings entered into them. As a result, they became extraordinarily intelligent and wise—the kind of wisdom that humanity was not supposed to attain until the fifth, or even sixth, cultural epoch of Earth’s development, and of which ancient India had no concept. We are now speaking, in fact, of the seven Rishis, or enlightened ones. These were, then, people who were possessed—enlightened by the Luciferic angelic beings. They were, of course, the kind of people to whom the naive individual had to look up as something particularly exalted.

[ 31 ] By repeatedly possessing human beings, even in later times, these entities—whether acting upon individuals or groups of people—these angelic beings of a Luciferic nature instilled in humanity the prejudice regarding the international nature of the conceptual world, the so-called uniform dogma extending across the entire Earth. Wherever people believe in such a uniform dogma, wherever they believe that it is possible to seek salvation not in diversity but in uniformity—that is where the Luciferic spirits are at work. They have torn the world of mental images away from the world of language. In doing so, they have brought about a situation that has made it impossible for mental images to retain their proper place within the spoken word. And so Luciferic uniformity, Luciferic monism, or the striving for Luciferic monism arose across the entire earth. Wherever fanatics appear who believe that what they currently regard as correct must be believed by all people on earth as quickly as possible, there they are possessed by those Luciferic angels. For the issue is not that one is possessed by this delusion of unity, but rather that one strives to understand multiplicity—the harmoniously functioning diversity.

[ 32 ] And now the way was paved for other spirits, after these Luciferic angelic beings first appeared in the form of particularly enlightened individuals, notably within India. These chosen human beings, who in their particularly radiant enlightenment revealed at an early stage what was originally intended for the rest of humanity at a much later time, spread across the Earth the delusion of the uniformity of all thought. And now the way was paved for the others, who belong specifically to the hierarchy of the Archangels—but of those Archangels who, during the lunar evolution, did not attain their full development up to the seventh member, but remained at the sixth member. Since they could not be used as teachers for groups of people distributed according to natural geographical and climatic conditions, they were also cast down and are now living among the people of Earth.

[ 33 ] These Archangeloi, whose dwelling place was now to be found not in heaven but on earth—that is, in the abyss where they wandered—were now sent out, dispatched by their superiors, to the various ethnic groups. And these, in turn, dragged speech down another level. While the Luciferic beings mentioned earlier had severed thinking from speech, these misdeveloped archangels allowed the characteristics of language to sink down yet another level, so that the languages were divided—just as they had been divided on Earth.

[ 34 ] These beings, who are archangels who have fallen behind, are now guiding groups of people on Earth in such a way as to divide humanity, causing people to hate one another and isolate themselves; this group possesses an Ahrimanic nature. They are highly developed beings; but they are simply not called to lead peoples, for the simple reason that, according to the spirits of form, it is the normally developed archangels—who have developed their seven members—who are called to lead peoples. In particular, those who have developed only their six members are now the ones who oppose the actual, regular leaders of peoples. Ahrimanic beings—we have now examined them more closely—are the beings who have brought about a situation in which languages have sunk down another level, to a level where one initially cannot even see which concepts and mental images are contained in language as such. Had only the Luciferic angelic beings come, the delusion of unity would indeed have spread across the earth; but the individual languages would have developed in such a way that, if one were only to overcome the delusion of unity within one’s own mind, one could still perceive in the various languages what lies within them. But once the world of mental images had been torn away from the Luciferic angels, it was then easy for the Ahrimanic archangels to drive language down another level; so that there was then no longer any possibility of developing language in such a way that the sense of immediate mental image would have remained within it.

[ 35 ] You see, here we have the interplay of a trinity. Once you look at our wooden sculpture after it is finished, you will see the trinity expressed in a three-dimensional way. We have the trinity of an ongoing development, but one that is distorted: distorted upward by the delusion of unity in our mental images, and distorted downward by the false delusion of differentiation—which is no longer a delusion at all, but a fact: the fragmentation, the splitting of humanity into so-called nations based on language.

[ 36 ] This is how Earth’s evolution had come about; this is inherent in the course and flow of Earth’s evolution. And because this is inherent in it, what developed over time was, on the one hand, a faith dominated by the delusion of unity, and on the other hand, the division into nations. This is what developed. It had reached its peak when the cosmic being of Christ descended to Earth, in the manner familiar to you, and thus an impulse was incorporated into Earth’s evolution—an impulse that we must now fully bring into the world, which represents the regular continuation of this evolution. However, since Earth’s development has, for some time now, gone astray in two directions, so to speak, this Christ impulse has set itself the task of creating counter-impulses: that is, to give the normally developed angels greater power so that they may counteract the Luciferic angels who follow the delusion of unity. In place of the monistic delusion of the unity of all knowledge has now come what actually lies at the heart of properly understood Christianity: understanding, but not imposing, one’s own views; seeking the truth in the nature of other human beings. Because this is inherent in it, the Christ impulse contains a strengthening of the normally developed angels. Thus it can once again become an ideal for humanity and for every age: to find, wherever it is to be found on Earth, an individually shaped truth—not now from the mere intellect, which Lucifer has already driven entirely into delusion, but from the soul, from the heart, to find what is true; in a sense, to allow every human being to find what is true in their own way.

[ 37 ] These words—that the truth lies within every human soul—are the very essence of Christianity, as I have already explained on other occasions. Underlying this is a strengthening of the angelic nature, so that the angels may achieve victory over those Luciferic angels who seek to spread the delusion of unity—a dogmatism that seeks to make everyone the same—across the entire Earth as a uniform net of uniform intellectuality that does not allow for diversity or a multiplicity of views. — And the power of the normally developed archangels should also be sharpened in the opposite direction, so that they can gradually defeat those spiritual beings who bring about the differentiation of human groups by making these groups fall in love with their own language, thereby leading them into a state of extreme isolation and fanaticism. The normally developed angels and archangels are to be strengthened through the Christ impulse. What is to come about through the Christ impulse is not merely something that exists in people’s thoughts, in their perceptions, or in their feelings; rather, what takes place on Earth extends beyond the visible into the invisible. Christ is not only there for human beings, but also for the angels and the archangels. For Christ belongs to a cosmic being who entered into Earth’s evolution through Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 38 ] So one must say: In the middle of Earth’s evolution, a strengthening occurs everywhere; the Christ impulse intervenes. A strengthening force also takes effect everywhere, even for angels and archangels. Let us focus on this for now (see diagram, violet). This strengthening impulse was powerful, it was mighty, and something had come upon Earth’s evolution that had never before been seen or heard within Earth’s evolution. The principle that existed previously sought to act precisely as a natural principle; it sought to have the spiritual guidance of the world function as a natural principle: the Yahweh, the Jehovah principle. Under that principle, it would naturally have been the case for human beings to have thinking and speaking united. Our thinking has become detached from that; it has become spiritual; our language has become detached from the natural principle; it has become soul-based. And the principle of speech is governed by the soul, by the soul’s passions; thinking, on the other hand, is governed one-sidedly by what the intellectual—that is, the astral—encompasses. But it should not have turned out this way; rather, thinking should have been situated one level lower, humanity should have thought much more naturally, and should have spoken and understood what was spoken at a much higher level. After this had been separated for a while—the same thing happened with other aspects, though I have singled out speech and thinking in particular this time—a much stronger impulse had to come than the Yahweh or Jehovah impulse. That impulse was structured in such a way that it did not yet take into account the Luciferic and Ahrimanic impulses. But these impulses were at work in Earth’s evolution up until the middle of the Greco-Roman period. Then the Christ impulse entered. It had to be stronger and more powerful than the Yahweh impulse that had been present. And this more powerful, this more comprehensive impulse is now not only capable of guiding Earth’s evolution along the path it would have taken had Lucifer and Ahriman not intervened, but also of bringing it back, after Lucifer and Ahriman had intervened, onto its former course until its conclusion. The result of this was that the Christ impulse intervened very strongly. And because people could not understand it at first, it worked in the way I have indicated. Let us take, for example, Constantine or the Maid of Orleans. But through this Mystery, a powerful influence had indeed taken place in Earth’s evolution; and this powerful influence, of course, initially has an immensely significant effect.

[ 39 ] The Earth’s development then continued in such a way that, to use an analogy, one could say: Let’s assume there is snow here (it is drawn); now the locomotive comes and drives into the snow. It will travel up to a certain point, but then the snow will have piled up so high that it will initially be hindered. We must assess the Christ impulse in a similar way. It had a powerful effect, attempting to take hold of the Earth, but Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces were present, and they piled up like the snow in front of the locomotive. For a while, they were overcome. Of course, they will continue to be overcome if enough people can be found who are willing to let themselves be seized by the Christ impulse. But the piling up did occur. And the consequence of this is that, precisely in the age of intellectualism, the delusion of the unity of science has now arisen, and it has emerged with particular force. For we see, in particular, something that was not there at all in the past: anyone familiar with the history of spiritual development knows that, from the 8th and 9th centuries of post-Christian development onward, this delusion—that a unified form of “truth” must be established across the entire earth—has emerged with particular intensity. It manifests itself particularly strongly there. And what is manifesting itself particularly strongly there is, once again, a rebellion by the Luciferic angels. They want to triumph. They want to tempt people into believing, into allowing themselves to be dominated by the delusion that a uniform, identical, dogmatic truth should reign across the entire earth. And time and again, this terrible delusion of dogmatic monism descends upon humanity. This is how the matter is connected.

[ 40 ] And again, not long after that, once the age of intellectualism had fully dawned, came the great struggle, the straining of the Ahrimanic archangels—those beings who brought about the delusion—though this is now a delusion rooted in fact—of nationalism. And essentially, this Ahrimanic principle emerged in the 19th century in much the same way as the Luciferic principle did in the 8th and 9th centuries. And the earthly bearer of this principle was Napoleon. Napoleon is the one from whom that seduction of Europe first originated—the idea that everything hinges on the national principle, that it is also essential to divide people into groups according to nationality. Napoleon worked in the service of Ahriman, and from there stems what lives on into our own day: as if it were essential to group people according to geographical regions that are strictly and nationally closed off.

[ 41 ] And this delusion—which is a delusion based on facts—is what we see spreading today. It is Ahriman at work; it is that which seeks to tempt people to raise the cry that people must separate themselves according to the principle of nationality, with their delusion cloaked in the cry: “For the freedom of nationalities, for the freedom and equality of nationalities.”

[ 42 ] This is what constitutes a deep inner connection with the entire course of cosmic evolution, and what is playing out in such a terrible way in our own time. Of course, those spiritual beings who are called upon to distort Earth’s evolution use ideas and mental images that do not appear to people as something base, but rather as something particularly lofty. Ahriman’s intentions are cloaked in powerful, mighty ideals. Just as the Luciferic spirit has been cloaked and masked by science’s delusion of unity under the phrase that is so easily understood by everyone because it sounds so idealistic: “One truth for all people.” — But in this way, with this delusional slogan, Lucifer creeps into the hearts of people, while Ahriman does so with the slogan: “Nations should separate themselves into distinct territories on Earth as nationalities, and only those groups of people on Earth that constitute self-contained nationalities are to be considered worthy.”

[ 43 ] Just as the first is a seductive call from Lucifer, which, however, appears as an ideal, so the second is a tempting call from Ahriman, which in turn appears as a terribly seductive ideal. Spiritual Science is called upon to see through the seductive and tempting nature of such delusional words and to help ensure that humanity finds its way onto the right path—the path that, after having been laid out with weaker force by the Yahweh or Jehovah impulse, has now entered into Earth’s evolution as the greater impulse: the Christ impulse, which rises above all Luciferic and Ahrimanic delusions in human souls and hearts.