The Rudolf Steiner Archive

43. The Spiritual Guidance of Humanity III

[ 1 ] Yesterday we tried to gain a sense of what extends into human life from higher worlds, and what we might describe as follows: We feel in it something like a guiding force for both the individual human being and all of humanity. And in order to gain a mental image, a sense of this guidance, we had to turn our spiritual gaze to that epoch of the individual human life in which the human being as such is not yet fully conscious, but works all the more intensely on his outer, physical being: In order to discover the highest in the human being, we had to turn our gaze toward that which is at work before we acquired our present consciousness for the period between birth and death; we had to look into early childhood.

[ 2 ] You will find a curious parallel to what unfolds in the life of the individual when you consider what the ancient Greeks were told by the teachers and leaders of ancient Egypt regarding the guidance and direction of Egyptian spiritual life. It is said—and rightly so—that when the Egyptians were asked by the Greeks who had guided and led them since ancient times, they replied: In ancient, bygone times, the gods ruled and taught among us, and only later did human beings emerge as leaders. - They told the Greeks that the first leader on the physical plane was “Menes,” who was recognized as a human-like leader. This means that the Egyptian people, through their leaders, maintained that in earlier times the gods themselves—as the Greek accounts state—had guided and led the Egyptian people.

[ 3 ] When faced with a statement like this, which echoes to us from ancient times, we must always strive to understand it correctly. What did the Egyptians mean when they said: “The kings were gods to us; the great teachers were gods to us”? — The one who said this to Herodotus himself meant: If one were to go back to the ancient times of the Egyptian people and ask those who felt within themselves something like a higher consciousness, like a wisdom from higher worlds: “Who, in fact, is your teacher?”—they would answer: “If I were to speak of my true teacher, I would not have to point to this or that person and say: ‘This or that person is my teacher,’ but rather: ‘If I want to find my teacher, I must first put myself into a clairvoyant state’—we know from other lectures that this was relatively easy in ancient times—‘and then I will find my true inspirer, my true teacher; he approaches me only when my spiritual eye is open.’ —For in ancient Egypt, such beings descended from the spiritual worlds to humanity without incarnating in a human physical body. In the ancient, bygone days of Egypt, it was the gods themselves who still ruled and taught through physical human beings, and by “gods” the ancient Egyptians meant the beings who had preceded humanity in its development.

[ 4 ] We know that before the Earth became the “Earth,” it went through another planetary stage, which we call the “lunar stage,” and which we have described in various lectures. At that time, human beings were not yet human in the modern sense; but there were other beings on the ancient Moon who did not have the human form we know today—they were differently shaped—yet they were at the same stage of development that human beings have now reached on Earth.

[ 5 ] So we could say: On the ancient planet Moon, which perished and later became the Earth, there lived beings who were the predecessors of humankind. In Christian esotericism, such beings are referred to as angelic beings, angeloi; the higher ones are called archangels, archangeloi—though they were once human beings in an even earlier time. What is called angels or angeloi in Christian esotericism, and “dhyanic beings” in Eastern mysticism, were “human beings” during the Lunar Age of the Earth; during the Earth Age—once they have fully developed—they stand a full level higher than human beings. Only at the end of the Earth’s development will humanity have reached the stage where these beings were at the end of the Lunar Age.

[ 6 ] When our planet’s earthly existence began and human beings appeared on Earth, these beings could not take on an outward human form. For the outward human physical body could not appear until later; it is essentially a product of the Earth, but is suitable only for the beings who are now human.

[ 7 ] Those beings who stood one level higher than human beings could not act in such a way as to incarnate in human bodies; rather, they could participate in the government of the Earth only by enlightening and inspiring the ancient people when they became clairvoyant, and by working through them indirectly.

[ 8 ] The ancient Egyptians, then, still remembered a state in which their leaders were keenly aware of their connection to what are called gods, angels, or Dhyanic beings. What, then, were these beings who did not incarnate as human beings themselves, did not take on a human, physical form, but instead worked into humanity in the manner described here? We said that they were the predecessors of humankind, who had grown beyond the stage of humanity.

[ 9 ] But it would be good now if we were to form a somewhat more precise mental image of the inner nature of these beings. I do not know if you are aware that the term “superhuman” has been greatly misused in recent times; I do not know if the situation here in the North has been the same as in Germany. If one were truly permitted to speak of “supermen,” it would be these beings—who were already human during the Lunar Age, the planetary era preceding that of our Earth—and who have now outgrown humanity, to such an extent that a human body is no longer suitable for their development and nature. They could therefore only appear to clairvoyant people in an etheric body. Thus they appeared, descended, and even ruled on Earth during the post-Atlantean epochs. What, then, was their nature? It is best to describe a little of the soul life of these beings.

[ 10 ] These beings had the strange characteristic—and still have it today—that they do not need to think; one could also say that they are incapable of thinking the way humans do.

[ 11 ] Let’s be clear: How does a person think? More or less by starting from a certain point and saying, “I have understood this or that,” and from that point on, they try to understand various other things. If that were not the way human thinking works, the path of learning would not be so difficult for many things. I can assume that theosophists share a certain mental image on this matter: One cannot learn mathematics overnight, because one must start at a certain point—and proceed slowly. That takes a long time. One cannot grasp the entire process of thinking at a glance; for human thought unfolds over time. It does not arise all at once. One must search, must make an effort to find the thought. Other beings do not possess this human characteristic; rather, with the same speed with which, for example, an animal instantly recognizes when something edible is before it—prompting it to snap at it—so does the thought arise in the soul of such a superhuman being—and is simply there. Instinct and reflective consciousness make no difference with regard to these beings; they are one and the same. Just as animals possess instinct at their own levels, within their own realm, so do these Dhyanic beings or Angeloi possess immediate spiritual thinking and immediate mental images; they possess something like an instinctive inner life of mental images and are thus of a completely different nature than human beings.

[ 12 ] You can therefore easily understand how it is impossible for such beings to use a brain or a physical body like the ones we have. They must use an etheric body, because a human body and a human brain form thoughts only within time, whereas these beings do not form thoughts within time and, as it were, possess all wisdom of their own accord. Wisdom resides within them. They cannot possibly think falsely; they cannot err, because the flow of thought surges into them as an immediate inspiration. Therefore, those personalities who were able to approach these Dhyanic or angelic beings, standing before them, were conscious of this: Here they stand before certain wisdom! Thus, even in ancient Egypt, when a human being—whether a teacher or a king—stood before his spiritual guide, he knew: The command he gives, the truth he speaks, are immediately correct; they cannot be wrong. - This, in turn, was felt by those to whom these truths were passed on—those who, in turn, had received them from those who had been taught through clairvoyance; for the latter were able to speak in such a way that one believed one was receiving, directly from their words, what came down from the spiritual world. In short, it was a direct stream flowing upward toward the higher hierarchies.

[ 13 ] And what I described to you yesterday regarding human childhood—what the child possesses as its own inner spiritual essence, and what is at work within the child—we see at a larger scale at work in the world of humanity as the next world of hierarchies hovering over the entire evolution of humanity, as the next realm of the Angeloi or Dhyanic beings, who stand one level higher than human beings and reach directly into the spiritual spheres, and who work what they bring down into human culture in the same way that the child’s soul works on the development of the human brain. This is how the Egyptians, who described their connection to a divine reality, perceived the openness of the soul of humanity toward the hierarchies. Just as the child’s soul opens its aura to the hierarchies up to the point we hinted at yesterday, so did all of humanity open its world—through the processes of human history—to the hierarchies with which it was connected.

[ 14 ] This connection was most powerful among those teachers whom we refer to as the sacred Rishis of India—the sacred teachers of the first post-Atlantean culture, that earliest Indian culture which spread throughout a certain region of Asia. Once the Atlantean catastrophe had passed, the face of the Earth had changed, and the new configuration of Asia, Europe, and Africa in the Eastern Hemisphere had developed, the culture of the ancient great teachers of India began to exert its influence—even before the time to which we have now alluded based on the legends of the Egyptians themselves. People today generally have a rather mistaken mental image of these great teachers of India. For if, for example, a modern scholar—a person whom we today call a “scholar”—were to encounter one of the great teachers of ancient India, he would look at him strangely and might say: “Is this supposed to be a ‘sage’?” That’s not the mental image I ever had of a sage! — For in terms of what today’s scholar considers clever or intelligent, the ancient holy teachers of India had nothing clever to say. By today’s standards, they were all simple, unassuming people; people who answered even questions of everyday life in the simplest possible way. And there were many, many times when one could not elicit much more from them than this or that word, which would seem quite simple to a modern scholar. But there were also certain times for the holy teachers of India when they presented themselves as something other than mere simple people. At such times, they had to be together in groups of seven, because what each individual among them could perceive had to resonate harmoniously, like an octave of seven notes, so that each, according to his or her particular instrument and stage of development, had the opportunity to perceive this or that. And from the harmony of what each individual perceived arose what resounds as primordial wisdom, if we know how to decipher the true occult documents—those documents that are not, for example, the Vedas or the Vedanta, however much we may admire the Vedas or the Vedanta; but rather, what the holy Rishis taught lies much further back, and what we have before us in the Vedas is only a faint echo of that.

[ 15 ] But when these men stood face to face—each with such an ancestor of humanity—when they looked with clairvoyance and listened with clairaudience to what they saw or heard through this predecessor of humanity, it shone like the sun from their own eyes. And then what they were able to say had such an overwhelming effect on those around them that everyone knew: It is not human life or human wisdom speaking now, but rather the gods—the Dhyanic beings—are speaking into human culture!

[ 16 ] The ancient cultures had their origins in this resonance of what the gods knew and what the gods could do. It was only gradually, during the post-Atlantean era, that the gateway to the divine-spiritual world—which had, after all, been completely open to the human soul during the Atlantean era—closed, so to speak. And in various countries, among various peoples, people sensed how human beings became more and more dependent on themselves—just as a child does. At first, the divine-spiritual world shines through the child’s unconscious soul, which shapes the child; then comes the moment when the human being learns to say “I” to himself, a moment he will later recall in his adult life; but before that lies a period that one does not normally recall in everyday life. Therein lies what we have said: even the wisest person can still learn from the soul of a child.

[ 17 ] But then the individual is left to his own devices, self-awareness emerges, and everything now comes together in such a way that one can recall it. Thus, in the life of peoples, too, the time came when they began to feel increasingly cut off from the divine inspiration of the ancestral fathers. Just as a child becomes separated from the aura that surrounds its head in the early years, so too did the divine forefathers increasingly step back in the life of peoples, and human beings became more and more reliant on their own research and their own knowledge. This is what history also calls “the emergence of humankind” into the leadership of humanity. They called the one who inaugurated the first “human” culture “Menes,” and this name simultaneously implies that, as a result, humans also gained the capacity to err.

[ 18 ] For from then on, he was dependent on the not entirely reliable tool that was his brain. The fact that humans were capable of falling into error is suggested by the fact that, at the time when humans were abandoned by the gods, the labyrinth was created—which, in relation to human thought and the twists and turns of the brain, serves as a metaphor for how humans could henceforth lose themselves in the twists and turns of their own thoughts.

[ 19 ] The people of the East called it “Manas” when human beings brought it to this level of independence. The Greek peoples called it “Minos,” and the legend of the labyrinth is also linked to Minos, because people sensed how they were now gradually transitioning from divine guidance to self-direction.

[ 20 ] But now we must also turn our attention to other beings of the most diverse categories—in addition to those forefathers of humanity, the true superhumans, who had completed their human evolution on the Moon and had now become angels. We must always also consider those who have not completed their evolution on a planet. The beings known in Eastern mysticism as dhyanic beings and in Christian esotericism as angeloi completed and concluded their development on the ancient Moon and, when humanity first appeared on Earth, were already one level higher than human beings.

[ 21 ] But there were other beings who had not completed their human development on the ancient Moon, just as the higher categories of Luciferic beings had not completed their development. Therefore, when the Earth phase of our planet began, it was not only human beings who were present—who, as such, needed the inspiration of the divine spiritual beings, for otherwise they would not have been able to progress, much like a child—but not only were childlike human beings present; there were also beings who had completed their development on the Moon. Between these, however, and the human beings were still beings who had not completed their development on the Moon; beings who—as you can imagine—were of a substantially higher order than human beings, and were of a higher order precisely because they could have become angels or dhyanic beings as early as the ancient Lunar era.

[ 22 ] But they did not reach full maturity at that time; they remained behind among the angels, yet still towered far above human beings in regard to everything that human beings considered their own. These are, in essence, the beings who occupy the lowest level among the hosts of Luciferic beings. The realm of the Luciferic beings begins with these beings, who stand right in the middle between human beings and the angels.

[ 23 ] These beings are, however, extremely easy to misjudge; for there are two questions that a person can easily ask oneself. One is the question asked thoughtlessly: Why did the divine beings, the rulers of good, allow such beings to lag behind, thereby permitting the Luciferic principle to enter humanity? One would think that the good gods direct everything toward the good. This question comes to mind naturally.

[ 24 ] And the other misunderstanding that could arise is this: that one might say, “These entities are simply ‘evil’ entities.” — Both of these are merely misunderstandings. For these beings are by no means merely “evil” beings, even though the origin of evil in human evolution must be sought in them; rather, they stand midway between humans and superhumans, between humans and the dhyanic or angelic beings[. They] rise above humans. In all the abilities that human beings must first acquire, these beings have already attained a high level. And they differ from the ancestors of humanity described earlier in that—because they did not complete their human evolution on the Moon—they are still capable of incarnating in human bodies while humanity develops on Earth. While the actual Dhyanic or angelic beings—who are the great inspirers of humanity and to whom the Egyptians still referred—could not appear in human bodies but could only reveal themselves through human beings, the beings who stand midway between humans and angels, because they have not yet attained their full development, yet have outgrown humanity, are still capable of incarnating in human bodies. Therefore, during the Lemurian and Atlantean eras, we always find among the people on Earth those who carry within themselves, as their innermost soul entity, such a less-developed angelic being.

[ 25 ] This means that during the ancient Lemurian and Atlantean eras of our Earth, there were not only ordinary human beings walking the Earth—who, through their successive incarnations, were meant to attain what we have alluded to in various lectures and also yesterday—but there were also quite remarkable beings among the people of those earlier times. Outwardly, they look just like other people; for the outward appearance of a human being in the flesh depends on earthly conditions.

[ 26 ] But especially in earlier times, there were beings walking among humanity who belonged to the lowest category of Luciferic entities that had incarnated. Alongside the angelic beings who influenced human culture through human beings, such Luciferic entities also incarnated and founded this or that culture here and there. And when legends describe how, here and there, one great person or another lived who founded a great culture, such a being should not be dismissed by saying, “A Luciferic being is incarnated here; that must be something evil!” Rather, in fact, an infinite amount of blessing flows into human culture through these beings.

[ 27 ] I would now like to explain to you the actual difference between those beings who had completed their evolution on the Moon and could only reveal themselves to human beings, and those entities who were able to appear in human bodies and who stood at the lowest level of the Luciferic beings.

[ 28 ] Occultism knows—and it doesn’t matter whether today’s materialistic science denies this or arrives at similar conclusions through hypotheses: In ancient times, particularly during the Atlantean era, there was something like a kind of primordial human language—a form of speech that was similar across the entire Earth—because “speech” in those days sprang much more from the innermost depths of the soul than it does today. You can already infer this from the following. In Atlantean times, people perceived all external impressions in such a way that when the soul wanted to express something external with a sound, it was compelled to produce a consonant—whatever was present in the space around them or urging itself upon the soul was imitated as a consonant. The blowing of the wind, the rushing of the waves, the sense of being sheltered by a house—these were perceived and imitated through consonants. And whatever was experienced inwardly—whether pain or joy, or even what another being might be feeling—was imitated through vowels. From this you can see that, in ancient times, speech was intimately intertwined with external processes or beings.

[ 29 ] I want to describe what is told to us in the Akashic Records. For example, a person approached a hut that arched over a family in the old-fashioned way, providing them with protection and shelter, and observed the hut as it arched spatially over the family. He expressed the hut’s protective arching with a consonant; and the fact that souls in bodies were at ease there—which he could sense—he expressed with a vowel. Thus the word “protection” arose; I have protection, protection over human bodies. - The word was formed from vowels [and consonants] because that is how the human soul perceived it.

[ 30 ] This was true throughout the entire world. It is not a dream that there was a human “proto-language”; rather, such a proto-language did indeed exist. And in a certain sense, the initiated among all peoples can still intuit this proto-language. Indeed, in all languages there are certain phonetic resonances that are nothing other than remnants of this human proto-language.

[ 31 ] This language, which I have just described, is stirred within the human soul by the inspiration of superhuman beings—the true predecessors of humankind—who had completed their development on the Moon. You can now see from this: If only this development had taken place, the entire human race would, in essence, have remained a single, great unity; people across the entire Earth would have spoken and thought in the same way. Individuality and diversity could not have developed—and with them, human freedom as well. For every human being to become an individual, divisions within humanity had to occur.

[ 32 ] The diversity of language—the fact that languages differed in various regions of the earth and that a differentiation arose among them—stems from the teachings of such teachers in whom a Luciferic entity was incarnated. Such entities incarnated, for example, among the Egyptians, the Persian people, and so on. Depending on which of these “behind-the-times” angelic beings incarnated there, they were able to instruct people in this or that language. Thus, the ability to speak a particular language among all peoples can be traced back to the presence of such great enlighteners, who were angelic beings who had remained behind and were far superior to the people in their immediate surroundings.

[ 33 ] What is described, for example, as the original heroes of Greek mythology or other leaders who acted in human form are beings in whom a backward-staged angelic entity had incarnated. We must therefore by no means simply label these beings as “evil.” On the contrary, they have given humanity what made them free beings across the entire globe—what differentiated what would otherwise have formed a uniform whole across the entire Earth. This is true of languages; it is true of many areas of life. Individualization, differentiation, and freedom—we might say—come from these beings who remained behind on the Moon. It was indeed the intention of the wise guidance of the worlds—one might say—to bring all beings in planetary evolution to their goal; but then certain things would not have been achieved. Certain beings are held back in their development because they have a different task in the process. Since the beings who had fully accomplished their task on the Moon would have been able to create only a uniform humanity, they were therefore contrasted with those beings who remained on the Moon, who thereby gained the opportunity to turn what was actually a flaw in them into something good.

[ 34 ] From there, I ask you to gradually work your way up toward a different feeling that can, in a certain sense, provide you with direction when the question arises: Why does evil, the bad, the imperfect, and the pathological exist in the world? - Consider it from the perspective from which you have just viewed the imperfect angelic beings. Everything that at any given time represents something imperfect or underdeveloped is ultimately transformed into something good in the course of evolution, and everything bad in our earthly evolution is, on the whole, nevertheless transformed into something good. - We will see that this is no justification for evil, and that no one can say: “So I will do evil, since it will be turned into good anyway.” These things are not meant for practical application in life, but for understanding life. Therefore, we ourselves must not do evil.

[ 35 ] This also answers the question: Why does the wise world government allow certain beings to remain behind so that they do not reach their goal? This happens precisely because it serves a good purpose in the near future—for example, the fact that certain beings have remained behind on the Moon. For when the peoples were not yet able to govern and guide themselves, the teachers of the ages and of individual human beings lived among them. And all the individual teachers of the peoples—such as Cadmus, Cheops, Pelops, Theseus, and so on—have, in a certain sense, an angelic being at the core of their souls.

[ 36 ] Here we see how humanity is, in fact, subject to guidance and leadership. Indeed, we could even point out how, above the human being who is gradually evolving out of the childhood stage of culture, there are first those superhuman beings who had not reached their angelic stage on the Moon and are able to incarnate in human bodies—and then those beings who can no longer incarnate in humans but can only act through revelation.

[ 37 ] However, at every stage of evolution, there are beings who fall behind and do not reach the goal that is to be attained. And now I would like to ask you to focus your attention on the following: I would like to direct your gaze to the ancient Egyptian culture, which unfolded in the land of the Nile several millennia ago—in such a way that superhuman teachers revealed themselves to the Egyptians, of whom the Egyptians themselves said that they guided humanity like gods; but alongside them were also beings who had only partially or partially attained their angelic rank.

[ 38 ] Such beings then incarnated, for example, as Hermes or Thoth and walked among the Egyptians as human beings. Now you must realize that human beings in ancient Egypt achieved something; that is to say, your own souls achieved something during the Egyptian era. But every individual achieves something in every era.

[ 39 ] It is not only the person being guided who gains something by allowing themselves to be guided; for the guiding, leading beings as well, this guidance means that they advance in their own development. An angel, for example, is greater after having guided human beings for a time than he was before he began this guidance. Through his work in guidance, the angel also progresses—both the one who is a full angel and the one who has only become half an angel. All progress; everything is in a state of constant development. But at every stage, certain beings are left behind. And now, when we look into ancient Egyptian culture, we see that there are, first, the divine guides—the angels; then the semi-divine guides, who did not quite reach the level of angels; and then there are human beings who are developing higher and higher. But certain members of the superhuman beings—the semi-divine guides—are left behind once again; that is to say: they do not lead in such a way as to express all their powers; [they] remain behind as angels or as semi-angels during the ancient Egyptian cultural stage. So while human beings advance below, certain such beings remain behind above under the guidance of the Dhyanic beings or angels—and likewise among the Luciferic beings. Thus, as the Egyptian culture comes to an end and the Greco-Latin culture begins, there are guiding, leading beings from the Egyptian-Chaldean culture who have remained behind. However, they cannot now apply their powers, for they are now being replaced in the guidance of humanity by other angels or semi-angelic beings. This also means, however, that they cannot continue their own development as a result.

[ 40 ] We have now turned our attention to a category of beings who should have exercised their powers during the Egyptian era but did not fully do so at that time—and who were then unable to exercise them during the subsequent Greco-Latin era because they had been replaced by other leading beings. Just as those beings who had not attained their angelic stage on the ancient Moon were later tasked with intervening again during the Earth era, so too have those beings who remained behind as leading beings in the Egyptian-Chaldean culture been tasked with intervening in that culture again later—intervening as beings who had been left behind. We will thus be able to perceive a later cultural epoch in which, although there are entities that came to lead later on and who guide normal development, there are also entities intervening alongside them that had previously been left behind—and specifically those that had been left behind during the ancient Egyptian culture. The cultural period thus indicated is our own. We live in a time when, alongside the normal guides and leaders of humanity, such lagging entities from the ancient Egyptian and Chaldean cultures are still intervening and influencing everything that constitutes our present-day culture. — How do they manifest themselves?

[ 41 ] Everything that has its foundation in the spiritual world has its effects on the physical plane. Our culture will, on the whole, undertake a greater upward movement toward spirituality, and in this human striving upward toward spirituality, the normal guides and leaders of our present humanity reveal themselves. In everything that today seeks to lead humanity upward toward what theosophy has handed down to us from the great spiritual teachings, the normal guides and leaders of our development reveal themselves. But the beings who remained behind during the Egyptian-Chaldean culture intervene in our cultural tendencies; they intervene in everything we think and do, and reveal themselves in the fact that so much materialistic thinking is mixed into our entire culture—thinking that often intrudes even into the highest spiritual realms. For, on a grand scale, it is a revival of Egyptian culture in our time.

[ 42 ] It is not only the usual guides and leaders of evolution who influence our culture, but also those entities that remained behind as leaders during the Egyptian-Chaldean culture. They give our culture its materialistic character. This is why so much is emerging that appears, on a grand scale, like a resurrection of the ancient Egyptian forces—and also like a resurrection of the good, old forces that were right back then, but which now reappear in a caricatured, materialistic form.

[ 43 ] And in this regard, we can point to an example of how ancient Egyptian sensibilities were revived in our time. This occurred when a great mind of our time was deeply imbued with the harmony of the spheres, with the harmony of the cosmic order, and then expressed this in mathematical laws—the so-called Keplerian laws. These may seem quite dry and abstract—but in Kepler’s case, they sprang from a perception of the harmony of the universe. We can hear this directly from Kepler’s own words when he says: “In order to discover what I have discovered, I had to turn to the sacred mysteries of the Egyptians, take their temple vessels, and use them to prepare the sacrifice that led me to what I now entrust to humanity as laws, so that they may be understood only centuries later.”

[ 44 ] Thus, the dark consciousness was a re-proclamation of what had been lived during the Egyptian era.

[ 45 ] The fact that so much of a materialistic interpretation of things has found its way into our time stems from the fact that the lingering spirits of the Egyptian-Chaldean era are influencing our culture. However, something of the Egyptian genius had to find its way into our culture; for the Egyptians had a strong materialism within their spirituality, which found expression, for example, in their embalming of the physical bodies of the dead—that is to say, they placed value on the preservation of the body. This has come down to us from the Egyptian era in a correspondingly different form.

[ 46 ] The same forces that had not yet run their course back then are now intervening in our time in a transformed form. The mindset that embalmed corpses has given rise to the views that today merely worship matter. The Egyptians embalmed their corpses and thereby preserved what was valuable to them. The modern anatomist dissects what he sees and believes he is thereby discerning the laws of the body!

[ 47 ] In our modern science, the outdated forces of the ancient Egyptian and Chaldean worlds still exist—forces that were justified in their time but now represent the past, and which we must recognize! Then they will not harm us, but will allow us to stand firmly with both feet in the world. These forces must find their proper use; they must be present; for otherwise we would not have our great achievements in technology, industry, and so on.

[ 48 ] These are forces belonging to Luciferic beings of the lowest order that are at work here. If one does not recognize them properly, one considers the material realm to be the only possibility—and fails to see the true forces that lead upward into the spiritual realm. For this reason, we have these two currents in our time.

[ 49 ] What would have happened if the highest cosmic guidance had not left behind in ancient Egypt and Chaldea those distinctive beings whom clairvoyants now perceive on the astral plane?

[ 50 ] It is difficult to put into words; but one could express it roughly as follows: The present culture would lack the necessary gravity. Only those forces that sought to draw people into the spiritual realm with full force would be at work, and people would be all too inclined to surrender themselves to these forces. They would become dreamers. Everyone would want nothing more than a life that becomes spiritual as quickly as possible, and the general attitude would be: Why should I keep incarnating over and over again? I can’t gain anything from that. No, I want to fly straight into the spiritual realm with full wings! —That is how fanaticism would take hold. Just as the most beautiful things can become seducers and tempters of humanity when people follow them one-sidedly, so here there would be a great danger that all manner of good aspirations would be turned into fanaticism. Just as it is true that humanity is advanced by its noble impulses, so it is true that the most terrible consequences for humanity can result from the fanatical and enthusiastic advocacy of even the noblest impulses. Only when we strive for the Highest in humility—and not in fanaticism—do we strive for it correctly. So that we may have the necessary grounding on Earth, so that we may have an understanding of the material world and of the things of the physical plane—for this reason, the wise guidance of the universe has left behind those forces that should have completed their development at that time, and which now ensure our focus on physical life, anchor us, and enable us to grow fond of our material culture.

[ 51 ] Thus we see how everything in the universe turns out for the best. But to understand this, we must know what is at work both in the individual and in humanity as a whole. In this way, we have, so to speak, discovered one of the final subdivisions of the spiritual beings who have remained behind. Something very similar to the Luciferic beings exists within our spiritual world. And anyone who has even a slightly enlightened perspective immediately encounters these beings from earlier Earth epochs, who are nothing more than beings who have remained behind.

[ 52 ] With this, I have, so to speak, developed for you the idea of how the universe is propelled forward through the evolution of certain higher beings, and I have shown you how, however, beings must always be held back at certain stages so that development can proceed in the proper manner. This has enabled us to form certain concepts and ideas about “development” in general—about how the contrast between progress and restraint is created by beings who reach their stage of development and those who do not—and how development thereby becomes possible. In this way, one can comprehend the entire universe in its development. However, one must also comprehend what is revealed to the clairvoyant gaze in the spiritual worlds. By opening the spiritual eye and the spiritual ear through various exercises—opening them to the spiritual world—one has merely achieved the ability to see what is there, to perceive the beings, and to know: There are spiritual beings of the astral plane or the Devachan plane. But something else is required to recognize what kind of beings these are.

[ 53 ] We may encounter any entity on the astral plane or the Devachan plane; however, we do not yet know whether it is in a state of progressive development or whether it has fallen behind, whether it is currently holding us back or propelling us forward. Those who merely become clairvoyant enough for their spiritual eyes to open can, in essence, never know what kind of beings they will encounter.

[ 54 ] I say: They can never do it. This “never” refers specifically to our present time. It was not always this way. If we were to go back to the very ancient times of human development, we could not say: Back then, no one could “ever” distinguish between the beings they encountered on the astral or devachanic plane. If an ancient Egyptian became clairvoyant in very ancient times and a being from the astral or devachanic world appeared before him, it had, as it were, what it was written on its forehead. He could not mistake it. In contrast, the possibility of confusion is already very great today. Whereas ancient humanity was closer to the path leading into the realms of the hierarchies, the possibility of error is very great today, and the only protection against it is to strive to acquire such mental images, such ideas, and such clear thinking as has now been indicated, if one wishes to distinguish the laws of evolution. For this clear thinking alone gives us the ability to distinguish between the different kinds of beings we encounter on the astral plane.

[ 55 ] In esoteric terminology, someone who looks into the spiritual world is called a “clairvoyant.” But simply being a clairvoyant is not enough; in that case, he would see but would not be able to distinguish. In addition to being a clairvoyant, he must also be an “initiate.” Initiation brings the ability to distinguish between the various types of beings. Thus, someone can theoretically be clairvoyant regarding the higher worlds without necessarily being an initiate. In ancient times, distinguishing between beings was not particularly important; for when the ancient mystery schools had taught their students clairvoyance, the danger of error was not very great. Now, however, the possibility of error is very great. Therefore, in the guidance of humanity, it was necessary to ensure that the principle of initiation is always added to the principle of esotericism. As a person becomes clairvoyant, they must become capable of distinguishing between the specific types of entities.

[ 56 ] This particular task—striking a balance between the principles of clairvoyance and initiation—once fell to the leadership of humanity. It was necessary for humanity to receive such guidance and direction at some point so that the proper balance between clairvoyance and initiation could be established. This raises the question: When did this have to happen? It became necessary during a time when humanity was undergoing a crisis with regard to its higher knowledge. In the thirteenth century, around the year 1250, we find the era when people felt most cut off from the spiritual world. At that time, the most outstanding minds, who were striving for a certain higher knowledge, said: What our reason, our intellect, and [our knowledge] can discover is limited to the world that surrounds us externally; we cannot reach a spiritual world through our rational human inquiry and cognitive faculties; it must be given to us through revelation! Knowledge and faith are two separate realms! - There is a good reason why this was said during the time when Scholasticism flourished; it was said precisely because, at that time, humanity was most cut off from the spiritual world. Around the year 1250 is the time when people in the Middle Ages had to draw the line between what one can believe and what one can know.

[ 57 ] And then came the time when opportunities to glimpse into the spiritual world arose more and more frequently. The number of people with a natural gift for clairvoyance grew steadily, and their numbers will continue to increase. Around 1250 was the crisis when humanity was most cut off from the spiritual worlds, while it was then to rise again, and today we are already on the path toward the spiritual world once more. At that time, it became necessary to strike a balance between initiation and the principle of clairvoyance. This was the specific task of an impulse that entered into the guidance and direction of humanity as the year 1250 approached. At that time, a new form of leadership had to begin—a new way of guiding people and establishing a balance between initiation and clairvoyance.

[ 58 ] Thus was laid the foundation for the Rosicrucian principle of initiation and clairvoyance, which had its origins in the Middle Ages, when people believed that human beings could not reach the spiritual world at all. For when such individuals—who had already achieved much, much in previous incarnations—reincarnated around the year 1250, their vision was completely clouded for a time. Even fully enlightened individuals felt as if they were cut off from the spiritual world. Thus we see that from that time onward, it became necessary for a new element to emerge in the guidance and leadership of humanity. This was the element of the Rosicrucian principle. It is only through this principle that we can truly understand how what we call the “Christ impulse” can intervene in the guidance and direction of all humanity, as well as of the individual human being, in all their activities. This is possible only through the Rosicrucian principle.

[ 59 ] Everything great will once again be understood as going through, in its early stages, something that human beings themselves go through in early childhood. From the Mystery on Golgotha to the intervention of the Rosicrucian principle, the very earliest stage of childhood was the assimilation of the Christ principle. People therefore absorbed the Christ so unconsciously that later, when they were forced to absorb him consciously, they made all kinds of mistakes and found themselves lost in a labyrinth. Thus we see how the Christ principle took root in the early days and how a new era then had to dawn. We have not yet progressed very far in this new era. But we will see that the new principle takes hold just as it does in all development: that it is first absorbed without human beings being able to do anything about it through their self-consciousness, and that it is then taken over by fully conscious humanity.

[ 60 ] Thus, the development of the Rosicrucians will show how the Christ impulse will take hold of the guidance of humanity in ever-new phases. Tomorrow, it will be our task to place at the center of humanity’s guidance and leadership the understanding of the Christ impulse as it existed before the Mystery of Golgotha, from the earliest times of evolution—and after the Mystery of Golgotha—by deepening the understanding we were previously able to offer through the application of the Rosicrucian principle to what came before and after.