The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. Authority and Conviction

[ 1 ] Allegation: The Theosophical Society is said to promote a belief in authority—a belief in great authorities. Those who do not yet possess clairvoyant abilities are said to have to believe others. What is one’s stance, in general, on what the Theosophical Society stands for?

[ 2 ] Humanity has also undergone a long process of development with regard to these matters. The truth, too, is subject to a process of development; humanity has changed its views on it.

[ 3 ] Let us let our gaze wander from the lands of India to the present day. We must realize that even back then, mysticism existed in our regions—albeit very different from that of India. In Europe’s ancient past, people lived here who had a spiritual perception of things, an astral perception of things. What is that?

[ 4 ] Made clear through dreaming: [The dream] symbolically brings the surroundings to life. When a person surrenders to sleep today, the light—the world of our senses—sinks into darkness; [then the] soul is as if in a dark abyss. It continues to live, of course—it is in the astral world—but it cannot perceive anything there because it lacks the senses to do so.

[ 5 ] Although the Germanic peoples also lacked sensory organs, higher beings lent them their own. The human eye of today will become independent. Man sees through his eye; it is not the eye that sees. If man could endow his eye with a “I,” it would become independent. [The] intermediate state between the ability to convey seeing to the “I” and independent seeing would be a descent into darkness. Humanity has passed through this state.

[ 6 ] This was the case with our ancestors: the gods saw through human beings. Now the gods have entrusted astral vision to human beings, in exchange for a state of darkness. This is beautifully depicted in the legend of Baldur, who is cast down into darkness. The myths of the gods reflect astral vision. Initiates have guided this astral vision.

[ 7 ] While our ancestors still possessed this astral vision, our culture spread. Christianity swept over it. — All who inhabited Europe at that time possessed natural vision. There were many echoes of it, especially among the uneducated people; the scholar does not know on what deep foundation they rest.

[ 8 ] Then came the time when this astral vision was completely obscured. (Human beings) developed their intellectual vision, their everyday consciousness.

[ 9 ] If we go further back, we arrive at a time when everything lay open before humanity. Now veiled, it must be brought to light artificially through occult training. In that time, when the ocean did not yet lie between America and Europe, but rather a great continent existed, inhabited by those people with prominent foreheads, underdeveloped intellects, but astral vision—we call this race the fourth; we are the fifth. We call this: seeing in astral light. This has been lost to the fifth root race and can be attained only through yoga or occult training.

[ 10 ] The first way in which humankind artificially developed this: Indian (culture) /[gap in the transcript] came over from Atlantis; there: mist, Niflheim, no rainbow yet. It took tens of thousands of years for the Atlantic Ocean to flood over it. Distribution of water and land. Rain and so on were different in the fifth root race. That Noah saw the first rainbow is a cosmological fact. Within the ancient mass of mist, humans illuminated objects with their own astral light and saw them. Through adaptation to this external world, what we call the intellect arose.

[ 11 ] Those who migrated from east to west (or from west to east) at that time, under the leadership of Manu, established a great empire in Asia.

[ 12 ] People Today:

1. physical body,
2. etheric body, life principle, separated from it
3. sensory body, bearer of the
4. sensory soul, which lies within the sensory body like a sword in its sheath,
5. intellectual soul, where artistic creation—especially among the Greeks—is more highly developed,
6. the soul of consciousness, containing the power of
7. Manas, the “I,”
8. Buddhi, in most people only as a potential,
9. Atma, the core of being, also only as a potential; actually, there are 9, reduced to 7, since 3 and 4 are one, and 6 and 7 are one.

[ 13 ] This (applies) primarily to the people of the fifth root race. Atlanteans: different classification. Gradually, the limbs developed and twisted into shape. Among the Indians, everything was still contained within the etheric body, allowing them to develop their highest powers through the solar plexus in the lower abdomen. In the Near East, the sensory body was particularly well-developed. Among the Egyptians, Jews, Babylonians, and Assyrians, the sensory soul was especially well-developed; among the Greeks and Romans, the intellectual soul; and among us in the fifth root race, the conscious soul—the self-constructed personality. The sixth [root race] will take the Spirit-Self into itself; in a seventh, it will take in the buddhi, and so on.

[ 14 ] First: Even as an embryo, the soul shapes its body. The etheric body is the body that forms the solar plexus. The ancient Indian race therefore sought to achieve its occult training [gap in the transcript] through the cultivation of the lower abdomen, the solar plexus. Through somnambulistic consciousness, control of thoughts is absent. This is the fundamental idea of ancient Indian culture: a vision of the solar plexus brought about through yoga training. Our culture therefore begins with an authority that cannot be controlled. The yogis sat at the feet of the rishis. Today, a mood of doom pervades the race; it stands in the twilight of its culture.

[ 15 ] Second: Near Eastern culture, which developed the emotional body. Human beings feel the impulse to transform the world. Two forces: an ideal one and the [opposing force]—Ormuzd and Ahriman. Now, for the first time, the divine dawns upon [the human soul] in the physical realm. The Indian longed for astral vision; now, among the farming people, it is different. From this arose the cult of light and fire. A god lives in the sun and in fire.

[ 16 ] Third: A culture built upon immediate truth. The soul of feeling was developed, brought order to it, gazes out into the starry expanse, and perceives the gods. The soul was [gap in the transcript] and distinguished [gap in the transcript]; it beheld in the various planets the works of the gods—hence the service to the stars. In Persia, the teachings of the Magi. The sensory body = fine ether, acts as a natural force, develops magical powers. Then language was studied; the art of prophecy; yoga expresses itself in prophecy.

[ 17 ] Fourth: Then culture extends to the external aspects. Among the Greeks: imagination, art, and the art of form, as it imprints the soul (onto the material). Goethe’s delight when he saw what [gap in the notes] And now, for the first time, science also developed in the Greek soul. Thales, 600 B.C.

[ 18 ] But first, something else that has been taking shape in a small segment. In ancient Judaism, what had long been present throughout the cosmos was applied to a single people. This laid the groundwork for the divine to be fully internalized. The wave that emanated from this culture now enriched the culture that was developing independently in the north.

[ 19 ] Fifth Race: The spiritual had lost its form, thus giving rise to the material. They wanted to believe only in realities. Hence the deep rift between science and faith. Science, which is becoming increasingly realistic. Among the ancient Indians, the solar plexus had developed; among the Persians, the magical, and so on; then came the religion of mere faith, which allows science to be limited solely to matter. So today: The personality has found the divine within itself; it must take in the spiritual. We now have the predominance of the conscious soul, of judgment, and of criticism.

[ 20 ] The future lies in the personality once again embracing the spirit. The old culture was built on authority and instruction; today’s is built on brotherhood. The old culture was based on imposed knowledge; today’s is based on free knowledge. From faith, reverence for humanity will develop. If we come to love the individuality of each person, we will regard others—whether they are moving forward more quickly or lagging behind—as brothers, because the same divine spirit lives within them. Not a new authority to replace the old one, but love for the Masters and complete freedom. They do not tell us the “what,” but the “how”—how they did it, and how we, too, should do it. The Master is not a dogmatist, but a counselor. Theosophical teaching is an education in freedom. We recognize God in the evolving human being, in our fellow human beings; and the highest among them is the Master. Theosophy is the freest, the most dogma-free teaching there can be. No coercion, but future guidance in love and freedom, because love is a plant that flourishes in freedom.

[ 21 ] Modern humans consist of:

1. physical body

2. etheric body = life principle (as understood by the Indians), separate from it
3. sensory body within it &
4. sensory soul => one, like a sword in its sheath (among the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians)
5. Intellectual soul (among the Greeks and Romans)
6. Consciousness soul (among us)
7. Manas – the “I”
8. Buddhi
9. Atma