Lectures to Priests: The Apocalypse
GA 346
Dornach, 16 September 1924
Lecture XII
Of course today we can remember that it is a favorable karmic situation that we are together again on the day when the first act of consecration of man could be performed here two years ago. We have a rather strange order in the main points in the development of the spiritual life here, as it were. The act of consecration of man two years ago, the burning of the Goetheanum, the laying of the foundation stone of the Anthroposophical society a year later and now after the second year we have gathered together here in order to look at the Apocalypse in accordance with your needs.
As I mentioned at the, beginning, a study of the Apocalypse is very closely connected with what is contained in the act of consecration of man; and therefore every day that we spend on the Apocalypse is really a memorial festival for what we permitted to live amongst us two years ago in order to bring what wanted to reveal itself from the spiritual world into this life as the present, modern cultic ritual.
With respect to the coincidence of events, it will perhaps be appropriate today that we will have a point in the Apocalypse before us which is very difficult to understand, but which really leads into the whole heart of the Apocalypse and which is connected most closely with the mystery of the act of consecration of man, because it is objectively connected with the being of Christ. It is really only possible to speak about this point in connection with the Apocalypse. For the Apocalypse bears the fundamental Christian character on its forehead to such an extent that there is no doubt that we cannot get anything out of what is connected with this Apocalypse in a natural way which deviates from the Christian viewpoint. And you may be assured that what I will have to say about this point which we want to discuss today arises in a very striking way from the views of the Apocalypticer.
We look around us at the turning point of our era and we find ourselves in the fifth post Atlantean period since the beginning of the 15th century, and in this period we have the beginning of a renewed battle which Michael will have to fight in connection with everything which has to happen in the near future, and we look back from there to the fourth post Atlantean period which immediately preceded our present one.
We know that this fourth post Atlantean age began about the year 747 before the Mystery of Golgotha, that the Mystery of Golgotha fell in this fourth post Atlantean age and that it can be placed approximately in the center of this age, if we take the slight displacements which always occur in world evolution into account. Thus we can make a schematic sketch of what is connected with our spiritual development as follows (drawing). So that we can say, the 5th post Atlantean age is here, and it was preceded by the fourth, third, second, first back to the Atlantean catastrophe, which as we know essentially transformed the shape of the earth's surface, and which gave a new face to our earth, as it were.
Now let's take a look at what this fourth Atlantean epoch is. It was preceded by what I have often called the Lemurian epoch in earth evolution, and then by what we can call the second and the first epochs in earth evolution. These first three epochs up to the Atlantean one are repetitions of the Saturn, Sun and Moon periods of evolution, respectively, whereas the fourth, Atlantean epoch is something new. The first three are definitely repetitions; it's true that they are repetitions on a higher level, but they are repetitions nevertheless.
The fourth or Atlantean epoch is something new. What happened during the Atlantean epoch occurred while the earth had forms which were quite different from the later ones. The earth's crust wasn't nearly as solid in the middle of the Atlantean epoch as it is today. The long geological periods of time which were presumably necessary for these events are illusions. The earth solidified from a relatively fluidic condition during the Atlantean epoch. The human race was quite different during the Atlantean period. It didn't have the present solid skeleton yet in the middle of the Atlantean epoch. As far as their material makeup is concerned men were more or less similar to lower animals. This doesn't apply to their form, for their forms were magnificent, but the substances were soft and cartilaginous and similar to those in jelly fish. Thus we can say that all physical conditions on earth have changed since that time and that the radical transformations which were still possible on the physical plane in the middle of the Atlantean epoch no longer occur.
It was even possible for men to make rapid metamorphoses, since the materials in their physical bodies were soft; so that depending on their inner soul life they became larger or smaller with various shapes; for every emotion immediately became imprinted in the physical body. In the middle of the Atlantean epoch, if someone wanted to grab something that was a little distance away, his will worked into his gelatinous organs so that they became quite long; so the way that shorter and longer range physical events and processes occurred was different then than it is today. There was an image of the real spiritual events in all physical processes, transformations and metamorphoses. This is not the case today. When we look outside today we don't perceive the working of the spirit in the course of the seasons or in other events anymore. When these rapid transformations occurred in the ancient Atlantean period men did not doubt that this world contained divine, spiritual things. Although the Atlantean continent was still quite mobile, it was beginning to get a fairly constant shape. It was enclosed by a kind of woven, dense fluid, and yet one can't call it semi-fluidic. It consisted of a viscous material which could support soft bodies and soft, mobile plants which floated or glided in this substance and were not yet attached to the ground. So the physical conditions were quite different.
One can say that sea and land were not as distinct then as they were later, that is, one passed over into the other. The people who saw the conditions at that time could say that the gods were working harder in the bordering ocean, where what was being transformed became more manifest than in the solid, fluidic land. One saw the gods at work all around Atlantis; no one doubted that these gods were at work; one perceived the spiritual and psychical everywhere, even in a physical way. One saw psychical and spiritual things in the physical world.
The peculiar thing about the earlier, Greek part of the fourth post Atlantean epoch was that one could clearly see the gods working in everything which goes on in the air; this became more indistinct in the centuries just before the fifth post Atlantean period. In ancient Atlantis one saw the gods at work in fluidic solids, and in the fourth post Atlantean age one saw them at work in the aeriform fluids in cloud formations, in the formation of twilight conditions, etc.
We don't find any descriptions of these things that are like definitions, for people's consciousness wasn't as clear yet, but they were there, because I'd like to know how an open-minded person can understand those wonderful paintings of clouds up to the early Renaissance where something spiritual is born out of the clouds in any other way than that one feels that there is a divine, spiritual activity in the aery cloud beings or in the aery, watery beings. You see, at that time men were constituted in such a way that they didn't look at the physical part of cloud formation, but they felt that something was being revealed through the clouds. This is a very beautiful feeling but it is very difficult to reconstruct for modern consciousness. When someone from even as late as the 8th and 9th centuries looked at the morning sky and saw how the twilight or the glimmering cloud formations at twilight stood before his soul, he really felt that the aurora or red dawn was alive; and he had the same feeling at dusk. The same applied to other things.
So that we can say that people saw the spirit in a physical way in ancient Atlantis. After Atlantis came the post Atlantean epoch with its seven ages. A repetition of the physical happenings in Atlantis at a soul level really occurred in the fourth post Atlantean age. The mighty upheavals of which I spoke: 333, 666, which are soul shocks in the evolution of mankind, definitely correspond to physical upheavals in the Atlantean epoch. And the seers in the Græco-Roman period definitely felt that when they saw something like soul revelations in fluidic, aeriform things, there was something in their souls which was a repetition of earlier earth conditions that occurred in the physical world. Only a dim awareness of this was present, for all consciousness was dimmer at that time.
As I recently mentioned in Anthroposophical lectures, the teachers at the school of Chartres and in other schools showed that the soul experiences of this Græco-Latin age were a psychical repetition of more condensed physical experiences and events in the Atlantean epoch.
And now we are in the consciousness age. The direct soul experiences in aeriform fluids have disappeared. One could say that the fifth post Atlantean age began through a kind of a catastrophe, and that this was a preparation for the further development of the consciousness soul of humanity. We're still in the chaos of this development of the consciousness soul to some extent with respect to our outer civilization. But the dawn of the Michael age will bring perception into this chaos.
This perception will consist of something like memories or Fata-Morgana mental formations which will arise in men in an entirely spiritual way—no longer in a physical way as in the Atlantean epoch, or in a psychical way as in the Græco-Roman age, but in a completely spiritual way—and this will begin after the appearance of the etheric Christ. Human thoughts will have a visionary character and will be like inner mirages, but they will be completely conscious in the age of the consciousness soul. Just as one sees a mirage in the desert which is brought about by the warm air, so men's thoughts will be carried by warmth and they will help men to understand aeriform-fiery and aeriform-warm things.
We can say that man perceives divine things in solids and fluids during the Atlantean epoch (of course this is more in outer, physical matter), that in the fourth post Atlantean or Græco-Roman age man perceives spiritual things in wonderful aeriform, fluidic formations, and that now in the fifth post Atlantean age men's consciousness souls will become aware of aeriform, fiery things and aeriform, warm things which will appear more and more. This will permit something to arise before men in mighty pictures which the Greeks experienced in a soul way and the inhabitants of Atlantis experienced in a physical way.
Thus a time is approaching in human evolution when visions which have the clarity of thought will arise concerning past times on earth and thereby concerning the origin of man and everything which is connected with this. The appearance of the Darwinistic view which gave man a lowly origin on the basis of mere inferences precedes the inner perception of evolution, the wonderful Imaginations which will arise from the inner warmth which is connected with man's breathing process; they will arise like concrete, significant, colored visionary thoughts. Man will know what he was when he looks into a kind of a reflection of the Græco-Roman age and then behind this into what existed in Atlantis. This perception that is of considerable interest for us because it will begin soon is something where we look right into the Apocalypticer's heart, because it is so close to us. For this kind of perception which is almost upon us is what he indicates in a picture: a woman clothed with the sun, a dragon under her feet, giving birth to a baby boy.
And in fact the eyes of many human beings will be opened by this Imagination during the course of this century. Much understanding will radiate from this picture, and it is one which shines back into the Græco-Roman age where it was prepared at the soul level and brought into the shape in which it will appear in the near future, and where it took on a great variety of forms. There was Isis with the Horus child, and metamorphoses of this as the Christ-bearer with the Christ child, that lived in a wonderfully profound way precisely in the Græco-Roman age. They have been handed down through traditions.
In the near future men will look back at the way in which people saw such things in the clouds, that is, in aeriform-fluidic things during the fourth post Atlantean age. And they will also look back even further to what lived in physical, Atlantean events. It will be as if this picture of a sun-clad woman who gives birth to a little boy and who has a dragon under her feet was like the eyepiece of a spiritual telescope which points to something physical lying far back in the past which occurred between the earth and the planets and the sun sphere; earthly, physical things were connected much more closely with cosmic things at that time.
For you see, we know that when the ancient Saturn period was repeated, many of the events which were peculiar to ancient Saturn evolution occurred again during earth evolution, albeit in a condensed form. During the repetition of ancient Sun evolution in the second period, the sun separated from the earth with all the beings who belong to the sun, whereas it was still connected with the earth during the repetition of Saturn evolution. During the third, Lemurian period of earth evolution the moon separated also, so that the next earthly-reality is a trinity of earth, sun and moon. You will find a description of the way the planets were added to this in Occult Science. You can also find all the events which I described there which are connected with the return of human souls during the Atlantean period. These are earthly events which are seen from an earthly perspective.
Now let's add something else to this. Someone who grasps the world's secrets since the Mystery of Golgotha with initiation science will look upon the Christ as the sun being who was united with the sun before the Mystery of Golgotha. When the priests in the mysteries wanted to connect themselves with the Christ in pre-Christian times they looked up to the sun. Christ has become an earth spirit since the Mystery of Golgotha. We must look for Christ the sun spirit in earthly life and in earthly activities. Those who wanted to see him and commune with him before the Mystery of Golgotha had to raise themselves up to the sun.
However, this sun spirit which we must look upon as a male being when it came down to earth, is described in a brilliant way in the Apocalypticer s vision, through a vision that stands before us in an almost material form; similar events in earlier ages can also be described in this way, and I have often done so. It stands there as a splendid physical vision in the middle of the Atlantean epoch. After this point in time the wise men in the mysteries looked up to the sun, and they saw the Christ developing and becoming mature in the sun until he could go through the Mystery of Golgotha. However, when they looked back to this point in Atlantean evolution they saw a birth taking place outside in the cosmos in the sun.
For the priests who saw the Christ as a male being in the sun after his birth in the middle of the Atlantean period saw a female being in the sun before that. This is the important change that occurred in the middle of the Atlantean period. Before the middle of the Atlantean epoch one saw a cosmic woman in the sun's spiritual aura, the woman who was clothed with the sun. This woman who was clothed with the sun corresponded to what was happening in the heavens above the earth at that time, and as the Apocalypticer rightly describes it, she gives birth to a little boy, who is the same being that went through the Mystery, although it went through other forms beforehand. A kind of a birth which was really just a complicated metamorphosis took place at that time in the Atlantean period. One could see how the female sun gave birth to something that was male—to her son. Now what does this mean for the earth? Of course in the middle of the Atlantean period one felt much differently about something like the sun existence than one did later.
Today one looks upon the sun as if it were a collection of craters and burning masses; the present-day descriptions of this by physicists are really horrible. But at that time one saw something like what I just described: a real sun-woman with a dragon at her feet, giving birth to a little boy. The ones who saw something like this and understood it said: For the heavens this is the birth of Christ, and for us it is the birth of our ego.
Even though this ego only entered man's inner nature much later; since this point in the middle of Atlantis evolution occurred in such a way that although men were not as conscious of their ego in an elemental way as they are today, they became ever more conscious of it because the mysteries drew their attention to it. The sun enkindled the ego in man. And the sun's action continually enkindled the ego from outside through the birth which had happened along the lines of this Imagination, until the fourth post Atlantean age, when the ego entered into man. People felt this and they felt that man really belongs to the sun; this was a feeling which made a deep impression upon the human soul.
Now that we have become such delicate souls with respect to our inner experiences, we have no idea how stormy and wild soul experiences, were in earlier times. The fact that man's ego was given to him from the cosmos made him feel that his nature had changed completely. Before that he had mainly been dependent upon what was in his astral body. What was in his astrality worked into his soul and spirit, so that during this ancient time man had the idea: He's standing here (drawing), the sun is up there, the ego is not there yet, but the astral works down from the sun. Man has his astral body from the sun, the astral body which is not controlled by the ego and which has somewhat refined emotions but nevertheless animalized ones in it. The man who had become an ego and who had previously had nothing but an astral body bubbling through him had become an entirely different human being. However, all of this came from the sun.
Let's place the picture of the sun as it was at the beginning of the Atlantean period before us in a somewhat schematic way. It was permeated by a lively luster, which bubbled through the lower half of the sun being. Something was born out of this above, and one felt that there was an indistinct face here. Man felt that the emotions that seethed in his own astral body and everything that gave him his spiritual and soul nature originated in the lower part of the sun being. In the next stage men saw the sun like this (drawing). Things develop more clearly here, the face becomes more distinct, the figure begins to look something like a woman, who is to bring man control through the ego. The space down here where the animal elements are wriggling becomes ever smaller. Finally, the time comes when the woman is present in the sun and gives birth to a little boy and now has what was previously further up here under her feet, where the ego-bearing woman in the picture on the sun demonstrates how one controls the dragon—the astral world of the previous epoch—which is now under her feet. The battle of Michael and the dragon began in the sun at that time, and in fact this brought it about—one saw this as a physical phenomenon—that everything which was in the sun slowly moved towards the earth and became an ingredient of the earth. It became an earth content which thereby controlled man in his sub-consciousness, whereas the ego entered ever more into his consciousness.
These cosmic, meteorological things that took place during the Atlantean epoch had their counter image in the Græco-Roman age when Isis with the Horus child became the Virgin with her Jesus boy. This will appear in a vision to those who look back in the next age which is almost upon us.
Man will see the sun-clad woman in this picture, who has the dragon under her feet that was thrown down to the earth by Michael, so that it cannot be found in the heavens anymore. This Imagination will appear in the age which will be followed by the one where the dragon is turned loose and where what I described to you yesterday will begin. It's a fact that deepened and extensive perception of past times on earth, man's origins and of the Christ being will soon arise in this Michael age. For Michael will concern himself with what the Apocalypticer points to and which will begin again in the Michaelic age, he will concern himself again with that draconic beast in human nature and in human evolution which he threw down.
Let's imagine what happens here in a vivid way. One will look back into the Atlantean epoch—the Apocalypticer does it in advance: he has the vision of the sun-clad woman who gives birth to the little Jesus boy and who has the dragon at her feet—, but this becomes fainter and fainter the closer we get to the end of Atlantean evolution. New continents rise out of the ocean at the end of Atlantean evolution the continents which now contain the forces through which the post Atlantean epoch entered into its various aberrations. The beast with the seven heads rises up from the sea. Sevenfold land rises up from the sea and pulls men down through the spiritual elements which evaporate from the earth into their emotions.
The Atlantean catastrophe appears to the Apocalypticer in the form of this seven headed beast which rises from the sea, and it will appear in the future when what the Apocalypticer is pointing to will begin again in the Michaelic age. The Apocalypticer is speaking of very real events which concern us a great deal, in connection with the spiritual life of humanity. And the content of this Imagination is connected with the being of Christ.
An age will soon come when men's souls will again see how the spirit lives in earthly things and therefore the spiritual processes in transubstantiation will also be visible to them. Then the earthly reflection of what has happened in heavenly regions will appear in transubstantiation so that what has occurred since the middle of the Atlantean epoch is a small section of everything which is connected with the being of Christ. One will understand how the kind of metamorphosis which takes place in transubstantiation is possible when one will see that the transubstantiation in what is physical and chemical at the moment—which is only a passing episode—is connected with something that is quite different than things which are apparently material.
Thus we can deepen our remembrance of the first act of consecration of man two years ago, this remembrance of the Christ who shone down from the heavens and really descended from the heavens during the Atlantean epoch, who appeared in the clouds in the Græco-Roman age and walked on earth, and who was understood by men in their visions, who is now walking on earth in an etheric form in our age, and is understood by men through visions and Imaginations. The Christ is present in transubstantiation and will be present for human beings more and more. The ways in which the Christ will gradually live in events during earth evolution are connected with the events that I described today. Let's take this in as a kind of festive idea today in memory of the first act of consecration of man which was celebrated in the Goetheanum two years ago.
Zwölfter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Meine lieben Freunde! Wir dürfen ja natürlich heute gedenken, daß es ein günstiger karmischer Fall ist, daß wir während der Zeit wieder beisammen sind, in welcher vor zwei Jahren die erste Menschenweihehandlung hier vollzogen werden konnte. Wir haben ein Merkwürdiges in der Anordnung der Hauptpunkte in der Entwickelung unseres geistigen Lebens hier: Die Menschenweihehandlung dazumal vor zwei Jahren, der Brand des Goetheanums, ein Jahr danach die Grundsteinlegung der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft, und jetzt, nach dem zweiten Jahr, sind wir hier zusammen, um, wie es Ihr Bedürfnis ist, die Apokalypse zu betrachten.
[ 2 ] Die Betrachtung der Apokalypse hängt ja, wie ich von Anfang an erwähnt habe, eng zusammen mit demjenigen, was die Menschenweihehandlung in sich schließt, und daher ist eigentlich jeder Tag, den wir jetzt an die Betrachtung der Apokalypse wenden, schon eine Erinnerungsfeier an das, was wir dazumal vor zwei Jahren unter uns haben leben lassen, um in dieses Leben dasjenige hineinzubringen, was sich aus der geistigen Welt als der gegenwärtige moderne Kultus offenbaren wollte.
[ 3 ] Nun wird es vielleicht mit Bezug auf die Koinzidenz der Ereignisse gerade richtig sein, daß wir heute diesen Punkt der ApokaIypse vor uns haben werden, der dem Verständnis die größten Schwierigkeiten bietet, der aber eigentlich ganz in das Herz der Apokalypse hineinführt und der am allerinnigsten gerade mit dem Mysterium der Menschenweihehandlung deshalb zusammenhängt, weil er ja objektiv mit der Wesenheit des Christus zusammenhängt. Es ist eigentlich nur möglich, über diesen Punkt zu sprechen im Zusammenhang mit der Apokalypse. Denn die Apokalypse trägt so sehr an ihrer Stirne den christlichen Grundcharakter, daß es ganz zweifellos ist, daß wir damit nichts aus der christlichen Betrachtung irgendwie Abirrendes herausbekommen können, wenn wir das betrachten, was mit dieser Apokalypse auf naturgemäße Weise zusammenhängt. Und es darf Ihnen versichert werden, daß dasjenige, was ich in bezug auf diesen Punkt, den wir heute besprechen wollen, werde zu sagen haben, sich auf eine ganz eklatante Weise aus den Gesichten des Apokalyptikers ergibt.
[ 4 ] Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, wir befinden uns seit dem Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts in dem fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum, und innerhalb dessen am Beginn des erneuten Kampfes, den Michael wird zu führen haben innerhalb alles desjenigen, was in der nächsten Zeit zu geschehen hat, und wir blicken zurück von da aus auf den vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum, der dem unsrigen unmittelbar vorangegangen ist.
[ 5 ] Wir wissen ja, daß dieser vierte nachatlantische Zeitraum ungefähr begonnen hat um das Jahr 747 vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha, daß in diesen vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum hineinfiel das Mysterium von Golgatha, das — zwar nicht ganz genau, weil es doch mehr oder weniger in der ersten Hälfte des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraums stattfand, also nicht ganz genau -, das aber doch, wenn man jene Verschiebungen berücksichtigt, die immer in der Weltevolution stattfinden bei den Ereignissen, in die Mitte dieses Zeitraumes hineingestellt werden kann. Wir können also das, was mit unserer geistigen Entwickelung zusammenhängt, schematisch etwa so zeichnen, daß wir sagen (es wird gezeichnet): Der fünfte nachatlantische Zeitraum ist da. Ihm gingen voran der vierte, dritte, zweite, erste und so weiter, dann immer weiter zurück bis zur atlantischen Katastrophe, welche die Gestalt unserer Erdoberfläche ja endgültig wesentlich umgestaltet hat, wie wir wissen, welche sozusagen ein neues Antlitz unserer Erde herbeigeführt hat.
[ 6 ] Nun schauen wir uns einmal diesen vierten Zeitraum, den atlantischen an, was er darstellt. Ihm ging voran dasjenige, was ich öfter genannt habe den lemurischen Zeitraum in der Erdenentwikkelung, dann dasjenige, was wir als den zweiten und als den ersten Zeitraum der Erdenentwickelung bezeichnen können. Allein diese drei ersten Zeiträume der Erdenentwickelung bis zum atlantischen Zeitraum hin sind ja Wiederholungen: der erste des Saturnzeitalters, der zweite des Sonnenzeitalters, der dritte des Mondenzeitalters. Erst der vierte, der atlantische Zeitraum, stellt etwas Neues dar. Die vorhergehenden Zeiträume sind durchaus Wiederholungen, Wiederholungen allerdings auf einer höheren Stufe, aber eben Wiederholungen.
[ 7 ] Der atlantische Zeitraum, also dieser vierte Zeitraum, stellt etwas Neues dar. Und dasjenige, was damals geschehen ist während des atlantischen Zeitraumes, das traf ja ein, als die Erde noch wesentlich andere Formen hatte, als die späteren sind. Eine feste Erdkruste war ja namentlich in der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit nicht in demselben Sinne vorhanden wie heute. Die geologischen Zeiträume, die für diese Dinge angenommen werden, sind ja Illusionen. Die Zeiten, in denen sich die Erde verfestigt hat aus verhältnismäßig fest-flüssiger Beschaffenheit, sie liegen ja noch in der atlantischen Zeit. Und das Menschengeschlecht war während der atlantischen Zeit ein ganz anderes. Es hatte in der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit noch nicht das heutige feste Knochengerüst. Die Menschen in ihrer damaligen Bildung glichen eigentlich substantiell mehr oder weniger niederen Tieren, nicht in ihrer Form - in ihrer Form waren sie sehr edel gebildet -, aber substantiell glichen sie niederen quallenartigen Tieren in weicher, sich verknorpelnder Substanz.
[ 8 ] Wir können also sagen: Alle physischen Verhältnisse auf der Erde sind seit jenen Zeiten anders geworden und zeigen nicht mehr jene radikalen Metamorphosen, jene radikalen Umwandlungen, die in der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit noch möglich waren. Wir hatten dort zum Beispiel in der jeweiligen unmittelbaren Gegenwart die Möglichkeit des Metamorphosierens so, daß der Mensch, der von weicher Materie war, bald größer, bald kleiner, bald so und bald so gestaltet war, je nachdem sein Seeleninneres war. Denn jede Seelenregung prägte sich sogleich im physischen Leibe aus. Wer dazumal in der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit die Sehnsucht hatte, etwas weit weg Liegendes zu ergreifen, dessen Wille wirkte in seine quallenartigen Organe so hinein, daß diese sich weit verlängerten. Es war also das ganze physische Geschehen ein anderes, die physischen Vorgänge in der jeweiligen Gegenwart waren in ihrem ganzen Verlauf andere. Es zeigte sich in allen physischen Vorgängen, in allen Transformationen, Metamorphosen ein Bild des wirklichen geistigen Geschehens.
[ 9 ] Heute ist das ja nicht so. Heute sehen wir hinaus, und in dem, was da draußen geschieht, selbst im Verlauf der Jahreszeiten, gewahrt ja der Mensch das Wirken des Geistes nicht mehr. Bei jenen schnellen Transformationen im alten atlantischen Zeitalter gab es für den Menschen keinen Zweifel, daß in dieser Welt GöttlichGeistiges enthalten war. Wenn auch der atlantische Kontinent damals im wesentlichen schon in seinen Formen blieb, er war etwas außerordentlich Bewegliches, ringsum von webender dichter Flüssigkeit eingeschlossen, er war etwas, man kann nicht sagen Halbflüssiges, aber doch Zähflüssiges, das die noch so weich organisierten Körper tragen konnte, die damals noch nicht auf dem Erdboden befestigten Pflanzen, die durchaus noch in dem substantiell Weichen, Beweglichen mehr oder weniger schwebenden oder gleitenden Pflanzen. Also es waren ganz andere physische Verhältnisse. Man kann sagen: Meer und Land waren noch nicht in der Weise geschieden wie später, sie gingen noch ineinander über. Es war so, daß diejenigen, die damals die Verhältnisse sehen konnten, davon sprachen: In dem unmittelbar angrenzenden Meer, wo mehr und stärker das sich Metamorphosierende sich ausdrückt als auf dem fest-flüssigen Lande, da walten die Götter stärker. Rings um die Atlantis sah man die waltenden Götter. Man hatte keinen Zweifel, daß da diese Götter walteten, man nahm überall das Geistige und das Seelische zugleich mit dem Physischen wahr; und man schaute im Physischen das Seelische und das Geistige.
[ 10 ] Nun kann man es durchaus als die Eigentümlichkeit des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraumes ansehen - gewiß, in den Jahrhunderten, in denen er sich dem neuen fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum näherte, war das nicht mehr so deutlich, aber in den griechischen Zeiten war das ganz deutlich -, daß man in all dem, was in der Luft spielt, durchaus das göttliche Walten schaute. Im FestFlüssigen sah man das göttliche Walten in der alten Atlantis, in dem Flüssig-Luftförmigen der Wolkenbildung, der Dämmerungsbildung und so weiter schaute man das göttliche Walten im vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum. Es war das Bewußtsein der Menschen in diesem vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum noch nicht so deutlich, so daß wir keine definitionsähnlichen Beschreibungen davon finden, aber da war es; denn ich möchte wissen, wie der unbefangene Menschensinn jene wunderbaren Wolkenmalereien auf den Bildern der Frührenaissance anders verstehen kann, als daß gefühlt wurde, wie herausgeboren wird ein Geistiges, wie gefühlt wird im Lüfte-Wolken-Wesen, im luft-wässrigen Wesen das göttlich-geistige Wirken.
[ 11 ] Sehen Sie, der Mensch ist in diesem Zeitalter so gewesen, daß er nicht das Physische der Wolkenbildung ins Auge faßte, sondern dasjenige, was er als das sich durch die Wolken Offenbarende empfand. Die Empfindung ist eine ungemein schöne, aber für das moderne Bewußtsein schwer zu rekonstruierende. Wenn der Mensch - sogar noch des 8., 9. nachchristlichen Jahrhunderts — den Morgenhimmel ansah, wie die Dämmerung, die im Dämmerschein glimmernde Wolkenbildung da vor seiner Seele stand, da fühlte er tatsächlich noch die Aurora, die Morgenröte als ein Lebendiges; und ebenso fühlte er in der Abenddämmerung.
[ 12 ] So daß wir sagen können: In der alten Atlantis sah man das Geistige physisch. Nun folgte auf Atlantis die nachatlantische Zeit mit ihren sieben Zeiträumen. Die Wiederholung des Atlantischen, die Wiederholung dessen, was physisch vorgegangen ist in der Atlantis, ging in diesem vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum seelisch vor sich. Jene mächtigen Erschütterungen, von denen ich gesprochen habe: Den Jahren 333, 666, die seelische Erschütterungen in der Entwickelung der Menschheit sind, entsprechen durchaus physische Erschütterungen in der atlantischen Zeit. Und die Seher des griechisch-lateinischen Zeitalters spürten durchaus, daß, wenn sie so etwas sahen wie die Offenbarungen im Flüssig-Luftförmigen, sich in ihren Seelen etwas zeigte wie eine Wiederholung früherer Erdzustände, die damals im Physischen verliefen. Es war das Bewußtsein dafür schon vorhanden, wenn auch in jenem herabgedämpften Zustande, wie das Bewußtsein damals überhaupt war.
[ 13 ] Aber in all dem, was da lebte in solchen Schulen wie zum Beispiel in der Schule von Chartres, die ich jetzt in den anthroposophischen Vorträgen erwähnte, da lebten durchaus noch solche Darstellungen, die zeigen, wie das seelische Erleben dieses griechisch-lateinischen Zeitraumes eine seelische Wiederholung des dichteren physischen Erlebens und Geschehens in der atlantischen Zeit war.
[ 14 ] Und jetzt stehen wir im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele. Das unmittelbare seelische Erleben im Luftförmig-Flüssigen ist erloschen. Aber, man möchte sagen, wie durch eine Art Katastrophe, mit der der fünfte, der nachatlantische Zeitraum begonnen hat, bereitet sich ja zunächst die weitere Entwickelung der Bewußtseinsseele der Menschheit vor. Wir stecken immer noch ein wenig im Chaos dieser Entwickelung der Bewußtseinsseele in bezug auf die äußere Zivilisation. Aber gerade der Anbruch des Michaelzeitalters soll in dieses Chaos ordnende Anschauung bringen. Diese Anschauung, sie wird darin bestehen, daß, so wie Erinnerungen in den Menschen heraufkommen, ganz geistig - nicht mehr wie in der atlantischen Zeit physisch, in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit seelisch, sondern ganz geistig — Bilder auftauchen werden, etwas wie gedankliche Fata-Morgana-Bildungen, namentlich nach der Erscheinung des ätherischen Christus. In den Gedanken der Menschen werden innerlich eine Art von inneren Fata-Morgana-Bildern auftauchen, die einen visionären Charakter haben, die aber im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele vollständig bewußt sein werden. Und so wie man in der Wüste, durch die Wärme der Luft bewirkt, die Fata Morgana sieht — sie wird ja durch die Wärme der Luft bewirkt -, so wird der menschliche Gedanke getragen werden zum Verständnis desjenigen, was luftförmig-feurig, luftförmig-wärmeartig ist.
[ 15 ] Wir können sagen: In der atlantischen Zeit nimmt der Mensch das Göttliche wahr im Fest-Flüssigen, das heißt mehr in der äußeren physischen Materie, im vierten nachatlantischen, im griechisch-lateinischen Zeitraum, nimmt der Mensch das Geistige wahr in den wunderbaren Gebilden des Flüssig-Luftförmigen, und jetzt - also im fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraum, wo es die Bewußtseinsseele wahrnehmen wird — werden wir erleben, wie immer mehr und mehr im Bewußtsein auftauchen wird dasjenige, was luftförmig-feurig, was luftförmige Wärme ist; das wird vor dem Menschen in gewaltigen geistigen Bildern dasjenige aufsteigen lassen, was die Griechen seelisch erlebt haben und was die Bewohner der Atlantis physisch erlebt haben.
[ 16 ] Ein Zeitraum steht also in der Menschheitsentwickelung bevor, in dem mit der Klarheit der Gedanken Visionen über die Erdenvorzeiten und über die Herkunft des Menschen und alles, was damit zusammenhängt, auftauchen werden. Die darwinistische Anschauung, die ganz und gar aus reinen Schlußfolgerungen heraus den Menschen eine niedere Abkunft gab, geht voran der Entwickelung des inneren Anschauens, der Entwickelung der wunderbaren Imaginationen, die aus der menschlichen Innenwärme, verbunden mit dem Atemprozeß, wie konkrete, kolorierte, inhaltsvolle visionäre Gedanken auftauchen werden. Der Mensch wird wissen, was er war, indem er zuerst wie in einer Spiegelung schauen wird in den griechisch-lateinischen Zeitraum, und dann dahinter, was da war in der Atlantis.
[ 17 ] Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, dieses Schauen, das geht uns eigentlich recht unmittelbar an, weil es in der nächsten Epoche der Menschheit eintreten wird; dieses Schauen ist dasjenige, wo wir, weil es uns so naheliegt, geradezu den Apokalyptiker im Herzen schauen. Denn das Schauen, das unmittelbar bevorsteht, ist das, was er in dem Bilde andeutet: Das Weib, mit der Sonne bekleidet, den Drachen unter ihren Füßen, ein Knäblein gebärend (Apk. 12, 1).
[ 18 ] Durch das, was in diesem Bilde sich ausdrückt, werden in der Tat viele Menschen sehend werden noch im Laufe dieses Jahrhunderts. Von diesem Bild strahlt vieles aus, das den Menschen ein Verständnis bringen wird. Zunächst leuchtet dieses Bild zurück in das griechisch-lateinische Zeitalter, wo auf seelische Art sich vorbereitet hat das Verständnis für die Gestalt des Bildes, wie es in der nächsten Zukunft erscheinen wird. Es hat die mannigfaltigsten Formen angenommen: Isis mit dem Horuskind, die ChristusGebärerin mit dem Christus-Kind; diese Dinge haben wunderbar tief gerade im griechisch-lateinischen Zeitalter gelebt in vielen Metamorphosen, die noch traditionell erhalten sind.
[ 19 ] In der nächsten Zukunft werden die Menschen zurückschauen auf die Art des Schauens, wie die Menschen des vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraumes in den Wolken, das heißt im Luftförmig-Flüssigen dieses Bild gesehen haben. Und weiter wird zurückgeschaut werden auf dasjenige, was in den physischen Vorgängen der Atlantis lebte. Es wird geradezu so sein, wie wenn dieses Bild des sonnebekleideten Weibes, das ein Knäblein gebiert und den Drachen unter seinen Füßen hat, wie durch eine Art geistiges Fernrohr, eine Arı Okular hinwiese auf eine weit zurückliegende Zeit, in der das Irdisch-Physische zusammenhing mit dem Überirdisch-Kosmischen. Es war dazumal ein viel innigerer Kontakt, der sich zwischen Erde und Planetenwelt und Sonnenwelt abspielte.
[ 20 ] Denn sehen Sie, wir wissen ja: In der Zeit, als sich die alte Saturnzeit wiederholte, da war in der Erdenentwickelung viel von der Eigentümlichkeit des alten Saturns, wenn auch in einem verdichteten Zustand. Als der zweite Zeitraum in der Erdenentwikkelung die Wiederholung der alten Sonnenzeit brachte, trennte sich die Sonne von der Erde, die während der Saturnentwickelung noch mit ihr verbunden war, und mit ihr alle Wesen, die zur Sonne gehörten. In der dritten Zeit der Erdenentwickelung, der lemurischen, trennte sich auch der Mond von der Erde, so daß diese Dreiheit: Erde, Sonne und Mond, die nächste irdische Realität ist. Wie die Planeten dazukamen, finden Sie in meinem Buche «Die Geheimwissenschaft» charakterisiert. Aber wir müssen dann hinblicken auch auf alle die Vorgänge, die ich geschildert habe in bezug auf das Wiederzurückkommen der Menschenseelen während der atlantischen Zeit. Das sind Erdenvorgänge, von der Erdenperspektive aus gesehen.
[ 21 ] Wir wollen jetzt noch ein anderes hinzufügen. Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha wurde von denjenigen, die als Initiierte die Weltengeheimnisse erfaßten, der Christus als das Sonnenwesen angesehen, das vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha mit der Sonne verbunden war. Die Mysterienpriester der vorchristlichen Zeit sahen zur Sonne hinauf, wenn sie sich mit dem Christus verbinden wollten. Christus ist seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha Erdengeist geworden. Im Erdenleben, im Erdenwirken haben wir ihn zu suchen: Christus, den Sonnengeist. Die ihn schauen wollten, die mit ihm Gemeinschaft haben wollten vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha, mußten sich zur Sonne erheben.
[ 22 ] Dieser Sonnengeist, den wir in der Art, wie er zur Erde gekommen ist, durchaus zu Recht als ein männliches Wesen ansprechen, der ist in dieser Form - obwohl ähnliche Ereignisse auch für frühere Zeiträume geschildert werden können, wie ich es wiederholt getan habe — glänzend geschildert im Gesichte des Apokalyptikers, in jener tiefen Schauung, jener Vision, die unmittelbar, wie materiell, in der Mitte des atlantischen Zeitraumes in glänzender physischer Erscheinung dasteht. Nach diesem Zeitpunkt sahen die Mysterienweisen, wenn sie hinauf zur Sonne sahen, in der Sonne den Christus sich heranentwickeln und reif werden, bis zu dem Punkte, wo er durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gehen konnte. Sahen sie hin zu jenem Punkt der Entwickelung in der atlantischen Zeit, so sahen sie in dieser atlantischen Zeit eine Geburt sich vollziehen im Kosmos draußen innerhalb der Sonne.
[ 23 ] Die Priester, die in der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit die Geburt des Christus als männliches Wesen in der Sonne sahen, sie sahen vorher in der Sonne ein weibliches Wesen. Das ist der bedeutungsvolle Umschwung, der sich vollzog in der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit, daß man vor der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit innerhalb der geistigen Sonnenaura das kosmische Weib sah, «das Weib, mit der Sonne bekleidet». Dies ist wirklich dasjenige, was dazumal dem Geschehen im Überirdischen, im Himmel entsprach: «das Weib, mit der Sonne bekleidet, das dann ein Knäblein gebiert». Es wird von dem Apokalyptiker richtig bezeichnet als die Geburt eines Knäbleins, das dieselbe Wesenheit ist, die dann durch das Mysterium von Golgatha ging und die früher andere Formen durchgemacht hat. Eine Art Geburt, die allerdings eine komplizierte Art von Metamorphose war, ging damals in der atlantischen Zeit vor sich. Man konnte sehen, wie die Sonne ihr Männliches, ihr Sohnhaftes gebar. Nun, was bedeutet das für die Erde? In der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit empfand man so etwas wie das Sonnendasein natürlich ganz anders als heute. Heute schaut man die Sonne so an, wie wenn sie eine Ansammlung von Kratern und brennenden Massen wäre; es ist das ein greulicher Anblick, den die heutigen Physiker beschreiben. Aber dazumal sah man so etwas, wie ich es jetzt beschrieben habe. Man sah wirklich das mit der Sonne bekleidete Weib, den Drachen unter ihren Füßen, ein Knäblein gebärend. Diejenigen, die so etwas sahen und verstanden, sagten sich: Das ist für den Himmel die Geburt des Christus, das ist für uns die Geburt unseres Ich —- auch wenn dieses Ich erst viel später in das Innere des Menschen einzog.
[ 24 ] Seit diesem Zeitpunkt in der Mitte der Atlantis spielte sich die Entwickelung so ab, daß die Menschen sich ihres Ichs immer bewußter wurden. Allerdings waren sie sich ihres Ichs nicht so bewußt wie wir heute, sondern mehr auf elementare Art, aber sie wurden sich ihres Ichs immer bewußter, indem sie von den Mysterienpriestern darauf aufmerksam gemacht wurden: Die Sonne entzündet im Menschen das Ich. - Und durch diese Geburt, wie sie der Apokalyptiker im Bilde zeigt, entzündete sich fortwährend von außen durch die Sonneneinwirkung das Ich, bis zum vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum, wo im Menschen das Ich eingezogen war. Das fühlte man; man fühlte den Menschen eigentlich als der Sonne angehörig. Das war eine dazumal ganz tief in die menschliche Natur einschneidende Empfindung.
[ 25 ] Heute, wo wir in bezug auf das seelische Erleben solche Zärtlinge geworden sind, können wir gar nicht ermessen, wie wogend und stürmend die Seelenerlebnisse der Menschen in früheren Zeiten waren. Denn gegenüber dieser Tatsache, daß dem Menschen das Ich aus dem Kosmos geschenkt wurde, empfand der Mensch dazumal auf der Erde so, daß alles das, was seine frühere Natur gewesen war, nun eine andere wird. Früher war er ja im wesentlichen auf seinen astralischen Leib angewiesen, auf dasjenige, was im Astralischen lag, und das wirkte in dem Seelisch-Geistigen so, daß der Mensch während dieser alten Zeit die Vorstellung hatte: Hier (siehe Zeichnung auf Tafel 9, links) steht er, da oben ist die Sonne, das Ich ist noch nicht da, aber von der Sonne wirkt herunter das Astralische. Der Mensch trägt von der Sonne den astralischen Leib in sich, den astralischen Leib, der noch nicht durch das Ich beherrscht wird, der innerlich noch zwar verfeinerte, aber tierähnliche Emotionen trägt. — Jetzt ist er ein ganz anderer Mensch geworden, der IchGewordene, der vorher nur von dem astralischen Leib durchsprudelt war. Das alles kam von der Sonne her.
[ 26 ] Nun stellen wir uns einmal vor das Auge - ich will es ganz schematisch zeichnen (Tafel 9, unten links) —, wie das Bild, das Sonnenbild der ältesten atlantischen Zeit, durchdrungen war mit lebendigem Lichtschein, der sich sprudelnd in der unteren Hälfte des Sonnenwesens bewegte. Da heraus wird oben etwas geboren, man fühlte unbestimmt etwas von dem Antlitz hier. Da drunten im Sonnenwesen fühlte der Mensch den Ursprung dessen, was im eigenen astralischen Leib als Emotionen brodelte, aber auch alles dasjenige, was dem Menschen überhaupt sein seelisches und geistiges Wesen gab. Die nächste Phase, wie man die Sonne später gesehen hat, würde diese gewesen sein (siehe Tafel 9, unten Mitte): Deutlich sich herausschöpfend, das Antlitz klarer werdend, die Figur eines Weibes annehmend, noch undeutlich dasjenige, was dem Menschen bringen soll die Beherrschung durch das Ich. Immer kleiner wird der Raum, dasjenige, was sich da unten tierisch windet; endlich kommt die Zeit, wo eben das Weib da ist in der Sonne, das Knäblein gebiert, und unter den Füßen des Weibes nun dasjenige, was früher da war (Zeichnung), also wo das Ichgebärende Weib von der Sonne aus das Bild zeigt, den Drachen zu beherrschen: die astralische Welt der früheren Epoche, die jetzt unter ihren Füßen ist.
[ 27 ] Da begann dazumal in der Sonne der Streit Michaels mit dem Drachen, und der führte dazu — das sah man durchaus in physischer Erscheinung -, daß alles dasjenige, was da in der Sonne war, sich langsam zur Erde hinbewegte und Erden-Ingredienz wurde, Erdeninhalt wurde, dadurch den Menschen nun in seinem Unbewußten beherrschend, während in sein Bewußtsein immer mehr einzog das Ich.
[ 28 ] Das, was da kosmisch vorging im atlantischen Zeitalter, das hatte sein mythologisches Gegenbild im griechisch-lateinischen Zeitalter. Das frühere Bild der Isis mit dem Horuskinde, das dann das Bild der Jungfrau mit dem Jesusknaben wurde, das wird von der Menschheit rückschauend als Vision erlebt werden können im nächsten Zeitalter, das uns unmittelbar bevorsteht. Der Mensch wird in diesem Bilde das sonnenbekleidete Weib sehen, das den Drachen unter den Füßen hat, der von Michael auf die Erde geworfen wurde, so daß er nicht mehr im Himmel zu finden ist. Dieses Bild, das sich dann verwandeln wird, wird erscheinen in dem Zeitalter, wo der Drache los sein wird und wo dasjenige eintritt, was ich Ihnen gestern beschrieben habe. Es ist tatsächlich so, daß der Menschheit ein vertieftes Schauen der Erdenvorzeit, des Menschheitsursprunges und zugleich ein ätherisches Schauen der Christus-Wesenheit bevorsteht, denn im Michaelzeitalter wird dasjenige eintreten, worauf der Apokalyptiker hindeutet, wenn er davon spricht, daß Michael das Drachengetier herabgeworfen hat auf die Erde, wo es in der Menschennatur wirkt. Aber Michael wird sich wiederum kümmern um dasjenige in der Menschennatur, was er da als das Drachengetier herabgeworfen har.
[ 29 ] Stellen wir uns lebhaft vor, meine lieben Freunde, wie das ist. Man wird wieder hinschauen in die atlantische Zeit. Der ApokaIyptiker tut es voraus, er hat die Vision des sonnenbekleideten Weibes, das das Jesusknäblein gebiert und den Drachen unter den Füßen hat. — Dieses Bild wird immer schwächer und schwächer, je mehr die atlantische Entwickelung vorrückt. Und am Ende der atlantischen Entwickelung tritt ein, daß sich aus dem Meere erheben die neuen Kontinente, die Kontinente, welche die Kräfte enthalten, durch die die Menschen der nachatlantischen Zeit in ihre verschiedenen Verirrungen gekommen sind. Aus dem Meere steigt es auf, das Tier mit den sieben Köpfen (Apk. 13, 1) und siebenfaches Land steigt aus dem Meere empor, den Menschen hinunterziehend durch das, was aus seinen Emotionen geistig von der Erde ausdünstet.
[ 30 ] In der Form dieses aus dem Meere heraufsteigenden siebenköpfigen Tieres erscheint ja auch dem Apokalyptiker die atlantische Katastrophe, und es wird wieder erscheinen in der Zukunft, wenn dasjenige, worauf der Apokalyptiker hindeutet, in dem Michaelischen Zeitalter wieder eintritt. Es sind durchaus reale Vorgänge, von denen der Apokalyptiker spricht, die uns sehr angehen in bezug auf das geistige Leben der Menschheit. Und gerade das, was hier in diesem Bilde ist, hängt zusammen mit der Wesenheit des Christus.
[ 31 ] Wir leben einem Zeitalter entgegen, wo in der Tat wiederum gesehen werden wird, wie im Irdischen der Geist lebt, wo also auch die geistigen Vorgänge der Transsubstantiation vor der Menschenseele werden auftreten können. Dann wird gerade in der Transsubstantiation erscheinen der irdische Abglanz desjenigen, was sich in Himmelsregionen so vollzogen hat, daß das, was seit der Mitte der atlantischen Zeit geschehen ist, ein kleiner Ausschnitt dessen ist, und was alles zusammenhängt mit der Wesenheit des Christus. Da wird man verstehen, wie eben eine solche Metamorphose, wie sie in der Transsubstantiation sich vollzieht, möglich ist, wenn man in demjenigen, was heute physisch und chemisch ist, überhaupt nur eine Episode sehen wird und auch die Transsubstantiation auf ganz etwas anderes und nicht nur auf das scheinbar Materielle beziehen wird.
[ 32 ] So dürfen wir schon vertiefen unser Gedenken an die erste Menschenweihehandlung vor zwei Jahren, dieses Gedenken an das wahrhaftig vom Himmel Heruntersteigende, vom Himmel Herunterscheinende der atlantischen Zeit, an das in den Wolken Erscheinende der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit, an den auf Erden wandelnden, von den Menschen in ihren Visionen begriffenen Christus, den in unserem Zeitalter ätherisch auf Erden wandelnden, aber von den Menschen in Imaginationen, in Visionen begriffenen Christus. In der Transsubstantiation ist der Christus anwesend und wird den Menschen immer mehr gegenwärtig sein. In den Vorgängen, die ich heute beschrieben habe, liegen die Wege, in denen der Christus allmählich den Erdenentwickelungsgeschehnissen innewohnend wurde.
[ 33 ] Wollen wir das als eine Art Festesvorstellung heute in uns aufnehmen zum Andenken an die erste Menschenweihehandlung, die vor zwei Jahren im Goetheanum vollzogen worden ist.
Twelfth Lecture
[ 1 ] My dear friends! We may of course remember today that it is a favorable karmic circumstance that we are together again during the time in which the first human consecration ceremony was performed here two years ago. There is something remarkable in the sequence of the main points in the development of our spiritual life here: the human consecration ceremony two years ago, the burning of the Goetheanum, the laying of the foundation stone of the Anthroposophical Society a year later, and now, after the second year, we are here together to contemplate the Apocalypse, as is your need.
[ 2 ] As I mentioned at the beginning, contemplating the Apocalypse is closely connected with what the human consecration ceremony encompasses, and therefore every day we now devote to contemplating the Apocalypse is is already a commemoration of what we allowed to live among us two years ago, in order to bring into this life what wanted to reveal itself from the spiritual world as the present modern cult.
[ 3 ] Now, in view of the coincidence of events, it may be just right that we should have before us today this point of the Apocalypse which presents the greatest difficulties for understanding, but which actually leads right into the heart of the Apocalypse and is most intimately connected with the mystery of the human consecration ceremony, precisely because it is objectively connected with the essence of Christ. It is actually only possible to speak about this point in connection with the Apocalypse. For the Apocalypse bears the Christian character so strongly on its forehead that there is no doubt that we cannot derive anything from Christian contemplation that in any way deviates from it when we consider what is naturally connected with this Apocalypse. And you can be assured that what I have to say on this point, which we want to discuss today, arises in a very striking way from the visions of the apocalyptic writer.
[ 4 ] You see, my dear friends, since the beginning of the 15th century we have been in the fifth post-Atlantean period, and within that period we are at the beginning of the renewed battle that Michael will have to wage within everything that is to happen in the near future, and from there we look back on the fourth post-Atlantean period, which immediately preceded ours.
[ 5 ] We know that this fourth post-Atlantean epoch began around the year 747 before the Mystery of Golgotha, that the Mystery of Golgotha fell within this fourth post-Atlantean epoch, which — not quite exactly, because it took place more or less in the first half of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, so not quite exactly — but which, if one takes into account the shifts that always take place in world evolution in connection with events, can be placed in the middle of this period. We can therefore sketch what is connected with our spiritual development schematically in such a way that we say (it is sketched): The fifth post-Atlantean epoch is here. It was preceded by the fourth, third, second, first, and so on, going back further and further to the Atlantean catastrophe, which, as we know, fundamentally reshaped the surface of our Earth, bringing about, so to speak, a new face for our planet.
[ 6 ] Now let us take a look at this fourth epoch, the Atlantean epoch, and what it represents. It was preceded by what I have often referred to as the Lemurian epoch in the development of the Earth, then by what we can call the second and first epochs of the Earth's development. These first three periods of Earth's development up to the Atlantean period are repetitions: the first of the Saturn age, the second of the Sun age, the third of the Moon age. Only the fourth, the Atlantean period, represents something new. The preceding periods are repetitions, repetitions on a higher level, but repetitions nonetheless.
[ 7 ] The Atlantean period, that is, this fourth period, represents something new. And what happened during the Atlantean period occurred when the Earth still had forms that were significantly different from those that came later. A solid crust was not present in the same sense as it is today, especially in the middle of the Atlantean period. The geological periods that are assumed for these things are illusions. The times when the earth solidified from a relatively solid-liquid state still lie within the Atlantic period. And the human race was completely different during the Atlantic period. In the middle of the Atlantic period, it did not yet have the solid skeleton of today. In their constitution, humans at that time were actually more or less like lower animals, not in their form — in their form they were very nobly formed — but in their constitution they resembled lower jellyfish-like animals with a soft, cartilaginous substance.
[ 8 ] We can therefore say that all physical conditions on Earth have changed since those times and no longer show the radical metamorphoses, the radical transformations that were still possible in the middle of the Atlantean epoch. For example, in the immediate present, we had the possibility of metamorphosis in such a way that human beings, who were made of soft matter, were sometimes larger, sometimes smaller, sometimes shaped in one way and sometimes in another, depending on the inner state of their souls. For every movement of the soul was immediately expressed in the physical body. Anyone who, in the middle of the Atlantean epoch, had the desire to grasp something far away, their will acted on their jellyfish-like organs in such a way that they extended far. So the whole physical process was different; the physical processes in the respective present were different in their entire course. A picture of the real spiritual process was revealed in all physical processes, in all transformations and metamorphoses.
[ 9 ] Today, this is no longer the case. Today, we look out, and in what is happening out there, even in the course of the seasons, human beings no longer perceive the workings of the spirit. During those rapid transformations in the ancient Atlantean age, there was no doubt in the minds of human beings that this world contained divine spirituality. Even though the Atlantean continent remained essentially unchanged in its forms at that time, it was something extraordinarily mobile, surrounded by a weaving, dense fluidity; it was something one cannot say semi-liquid, but viscous, which could carry the still softly organized bodies, the plants that were not yet fixed to the ground at that time, the plants that were still more or less floating or gliding in the substantially soft, mobile substance. So the physical conditions were completely different. One could say that the sea and the land were not yet separated in the way they were later; they still merged into one another. Those who could see the conditions at that time spoke of it this way: in the immediately adjacent sea, where metamorphosis expresses itself more and more strongly than on the solid-liquid land, the gods reign more strongly. All around Atlantis, one could see the reigning gods. There was no doubt that these gods ruled there; everywhere, the spiritual and the soul were perceived together with the physical, and in the physical, one saw the soul and the spirit.
[ 10 ] Now, it can certainly be regarded as a peculiarity of the fourth post-Atlantean period — certainly, in the centuries as it approached the new fifth post-Atlantean period, this was no longer so clear, but in Greek times it was quite clear — that in everything that plays out in the air, was seen as the work of the divine. In the solid-liquid state, the divine was seen in ancient Atlantis; in the liquid-air state of cloud formation, twilight formation, and so on, the divine was seen in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. The consciousness of human beings in this fourth post-Atlantean epoch was not yet so clear so we find no definitional descriptions of it, but it was there; for I would like to know how the unbiased human mind can understand those wonderful cloud paintings in the pictures of the early Renaissance other than by feeling how something spiritual is born, how the divine-spiritual activity is felt in the air-cloud being, in the air-water being.
[ 11 ] You see, people in that age did not focus on the physical aspect of cloud formation, but rather on what they perceived as being revealed through the clouds. This perception is an immensely beautiful one, but difficult for the modern consciousness to reconstruct. When people—even in the 8th and 9th centuries AD—looked at the morning sky, how the twilight, the cloud formation glimmering in the dim light, stood before their souls, they actually still felt the aurora, the dawn, as something alive; and they felt the same way at dusk.
[ 12 ] So we can say that in ancient Atlantis, the spiritual was seen physically. Atlantis was followed by the post-Atlantean period with its seven epochs. The repetition of the Atlantean, the repetition of what had physically taken place in Atlantis, took place spiritually in this fourth post-Atlantean epoch. Those mighty upheavals of which I have spoken: the years 333 and 666, which are spiritual upheavals in the development of humanity, correspond entirely to physical upheavals in the Atlantean epoch. And the seers of the Greco-Latin age sensed that when they saw something like the revelations in the liquid-air form, something appeared in their souls like a repetition of earlier earth conditions that had taken place in the physical world at that time. The awareness of this was already present, albeit in that subdued state in which consciousness generally existed at that time.
[ 13 ] But in all that lived in schools such as the school of Chartres, which I have now mentioned in the anthroposophical lectures, there were still representations that show how the soul experience of this Greek-Latin period was a soul repetition of the denser physical experience and events of the Atlantean period.
[ 14 ] And now we are in the age of the consciousness soul. The immediate spiritual experience in the airy-fluidic has died out. But, one might say, as if through a kind of catastrophe with which the fifth, post-Atlantean period began, the further development of the consciousness soul of humanity is now being prepared. We are still somewhat caught up in the chaos of this development of the consciousness soul in relation to external civilization. But the dawn of the Michael age is intended to bring order to this chaos. This view will consist in the fact that, as memories arise in human beings, images will appear that are entirely spiritual — no longer physical as in the Atlantean period, or soul-based as in the Greco-Latin period, but entirely spiritual — something like mental mirages, especially after the appearance of the etheric Christ. A kind of inner mirage images will appear in people's thoughts, which will have a visionary character, but which will be completely conscious in the age of the consciousness soul. And just as one sees mirages in the desert, caused by the warmth of the air — they are caused by the warmth of the air — so human thought will be carried to an understanding of that which is airy-fiery, airy-warm.
[ 15 ] We can say: In the Atlantean period, human beings perceive the divine in the solid-liquid, that is, more in the outer physical matter; in the fourth post-Atlantean, Greco-Latin period, human beings perceive the spiritual in the wonderful formations of the liquid-airy; and now — that is, in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, where the consciousness soul will perceive it — we will experience how more and more of what is airy-fiery, what is airy warmth, will emerge in consciousness; This will cause what the Greeks experienced spiritually and what the inhabitants of Atlantis experienced physically to rise up before human beings in powerful spiritual images.
[ 16 ] A period is therefore approaching in human development in which, with the clarity of thought, visions will arise about the prehistory of the earth and about the origin of human beings and everything connected with it. The Darwinian view, which, based entirely on pure conclusions, gave humans a lowly origin, precedes the development of inner vision, the development of wonderful imaginations that will emerge from human inner warmth, connected with the breathing process, as concrete, colorful, meaningful visionary thoughts. Human beings will know what they were by first looking, as if in a mirror, into the Greco-Latin period, and then beyond that, into what was there in Atlantis.
[ 17 ] You see, my dear friends, this seeing actually concerns us quite directly, because it will occur in the next epoch of humanity; this looking is where, because it is so close to us, we see the apocalypticist in our hearts. For the looking that is imminent is what he suggests in the image: the woman clothed with the sun, the dragon under her feet, giving birth to a male child (Rev. 12:1).
[ 18 ] Through what is expressed in this image, many people will indeed see in the course of this century. Much radiates from this image that will bring understanding to people. First of all, this image shines back into the Greco-Latin age, where the understanding of the form of the image as it will appear in the near future has been prepared in a spiritual way. It has taken on the most diverse forms: Isis with the child Horus, the Christ-bearer with the Christ-child; these things have lived on in a wonderfully profound way, especially in the Greco-Latin era, in many metamorphoses that are still preserved in tradition.
[ 19 ] In the near future, people will look back on the way the people of the fourth post-Atlantean period saw this image in the clouds, that is, in the airy-fluid. And they will look back further to what lived in the physical processes of Atlantis. It will be as if this image of the woman clothed with the sun, giving birth to a little boy and having the dragon under her feet, were pointing, as if through a kind of spiritual telescope, an Arı eyepiece, to a time long ago when the earthly-physical was connected with the super-earthly-cosmic. At that time, there was a much more intimate contact between the Earth and the planetary world and the solar world.
[ 20 ] For you see, we know that During the time when the old Saturn period was repeated, there was much of the peculiarity of the old Saturn in the Earth's development, albeit in a condensed state. When the second period in the Earth's development brought the repetition of the old Sun period, the Sun separated from the Earth, which was still connected to it during the Saturn development, and with it all beings that belonged to the Sun. In the third period of Earth's development, the Lemurian period, the Moon also separated from the Earth, so that this trinity: Earth, Sun, and Moon, is the next earthly reality. How the planets came to be is described in my book “The Secret Science.” But we must then also look at all the events I have described in relation to the return of human souls during the Atlantean period. These are earthly events, seen from the earthly perspective.
[ 21 ] Let us now add something else. You see, my dear friends, since the Mystery of Golgotha, those who, as initiates, grasped the secrets of the world, have regarded Christ as the sun being who was connected with the sun before the Mystery of Golgotha. The mystery priests of pre-Christian times looked up to the sun when they wanted to connect with Christ. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ has become the Earth Spirit. We must seek him in earthly life, in earthly activity: Christ, the Sun Spirit. Those who wanted to see him, who wanted to commune with him before the Mystery of Golgotha, had to rise up to the sun.
[ 22 ] This Sun Spirit, whom we quite rightly address as a male being in the way he came to earth, is in this form — although similar events can also be described for earlier periods, as I have done repeatedly — brilliantly described in the face of the apocalypticist, in that deep vision, that vision which stands directly, as if materially, in the middle of the Atlantean period in a brilliant physical appearance. After this point in time, when the mystery sages looked up at the sun, they saw Christ developing and maturing in the sun, to the point where he could go through the mystery of Golgotha. When they looked at that point of development in the Atlantean period, they saw a birth taking place in the cosmos outside within the sun.
[ 23 ] The priests who saw the birth of Christ as a male being in the sun in the middle of the Atlantean epoch saw a female being in the sun before that. This is the significant change that took place in the middle of the Atlantean epoch: before the middle of the Atlantean epoch, the cosmic woman was seen within the spiritual aura of the sun, “the woman clothed with the sun.” This is truly what corresponded at that time to the events in the supernatural realm, in heaven: “the woman clothed with the sun, who then gave birth to a male child.” The apocalyptic writer correctly describes this as the birth of a male child, who is the same being who then went through the mystery of Golgotha and who had previously gone through other forms. A kind of birth, which was, however, a complicated kind of metamorphosis, took place at that time in the Atlantean epoch. One could see how the sun gave birth to its male, its son. Now, what does that mean for the earth? In the middle of the Atlantean epoch, people naturally perceived something like the existence of the sun quite differently than they do today. Today, we look at the sun as if it were a collection of craters and burning masses; it is a gruesome sight, as described by today's physicists. But back then, people saw something like what I have just described. They really saw the woman clothed with the sun, the dragon under her feet, giving birth to a little boy. Those who saw and understood this said to themselves: For heaven, this is the birth of Christ; for us, this is the birth of our ego — even if this ego did not enter into the inner being of human beings until much later.
[ 24 ] From that time in the middle of Atlantis, development proceeded in such a way that human beings became increasingly conscious of their I. Of course, they were not as conscious of their I as we are today, but rather in a more elementary way, yet they became increasingly conscious of their I as the mystery priests drew their attention to it: the sun ignites the I in human beings. - And through this birth, as depicted by the apocalyptic writer, the ego was continually ignited from outside by the influence of the sun until the fourth post-Atlantean period, when the ego had entered into human beings. This could be felt; human beings were actually felt to belong to the sun. At that time, this was a feeling that cut deeply into human nature.
[ 25 ] Today, when we have become so tender in our spiritual experiences, we cannot even begin to imagine how turbulent and stormy the spiritual experiences of people in earlier times were. For, faced with the fact that the ego was given to human beings from the cosmos, people on earth at that time felt that everything that had been their former nature was now becoming something else. Previously, they had essentially been dependent on their astral body, on that which lay in the astral realm, and this had such an effect on the soul and spirit that during those ancient times, people had the idea: Here (see drawing on plate 9, left) they stand, up there is the sun, the ego is not yet there, but the astral realm shines down from the sun. Human beings carry the astral body from the sun within themselves, the astral body that is not yet ruled by the I, that still carries emotions that are refined but animal-like. — Now they have become completely different human beings, those who have become I, who were previously only effervescent with the astral body. All of this came from the sun.
[ 26 ] Now let us imagine before our eyes — I will draw it very schematically (plate 9, bottom left) — how the image, the sun image of the earliest Atlantean time, was permeated with living light, bubbling in the lower half of the sun being. From this, something was born above; one felt something vague of the face here. Down there in the sun being, man felt the origin of what bubbled up in his own astral body as emotions, but also everything that gave man his soul and spiritual being in the first place. The next phase, as the sun was later seen, would have been this (see plate 9, bottom center): clearly emerging, the face becoming clearer, taking on the form of a woman, still indistinctly that which is to bring man mastery through the ego. The space becomes smaller and smaller, what is writhing down there like an animal; finally, the time comes when the woman is there in the sun, giving birth to the little boy, and now under the woman's feet is what was there before (drawing), so that the woman giving birth to the ego shows the image from the sun of mastering the dragon: the astral world of the earlier epoch, which is now beneath her feet.
[ 27 ] At that time, Michael's battle with the dragon began in the sun, and this led — as could be seen in physical appearance — to everything that was in the sun slowly moving toward the earth and becoming an ingredient of the earth, becoming earth content, thereby now dominating the human being in his unconscious, while the ego increasingly entered his consciousness.
[ 28 ] What happened cosmically in the Atlantean age had its mythological counterpart in the Greco-Latin age. The earlier image of Isis with the child Horus, which then became the image of the Virgin with the infant Jesus, will be experienced by humanity in retrospect as a vision in the next age, which is immediately before us. In this image, humanity will see the woman clothed with the sun, who has the dragon under her feet, which was thrown down to earth by Michael, so that it can no longer be found in heaven. This image, which will then be transformed, will appear in the age when the dragon will be loose and when what I described to you yesterday will come to pass. It is indeed the case that humanity is about to experience a deeper insight into the prehistory of the earth, the origin of humanity, and at the same time an ethereal insight into the Christ being, for in the Michael age, what the apocalyptic writer refers to when he speaks of Michael casting the dragon beast down to earth, where it works in human nature, will come to pass. But Michael will again take care of that which he has cast down as the dragon beast in human nature.
[ 29 ] Let us vividly imagine, my dear friends, what this will be like. We will look back again to the Atlantean era. The apocalyptic writer does so in advance; he has the vision of the woman clothed with the sun, who gives birth to the baby Jesus and has the dragon under her feet. — This image becomes weaker and weaker as the Atlantean development progresses. And at the end of the Atlantean development, new continents rise from the sea, continents that contain the forces through which the people of the post-Atlantean era have fallen into their various aberrations. The beast with seven heads rises from the sea (Rev. 13:1), and sevenfold land rises from the sea, dragging people down through what spiritually emanates from the earth from their emotions.
[ 30 ] In the form of this seven-headed beast rising from the sea, the apocalyptic writer also sees the Atlantean catastrophe, and it will reappear in the future when what the apocalyptic writer points to re-enters the Michaelic age. The apocalyptic writer speaks of very real events that concern us greatly in relation to the spiritual life of humanity. And precisely what is depicted here in this image is connected with the essence of Christ.
[ 31 ] We are moving toward an age in which we will indeed see once again how the spirit lives in the earthly realm, where the spiritual processes of transubstantiation can also occur before the human soul. Then, precisely in transubstantiation, the earthly reflection of what has taken place in the heavenly regions will appear, so that what has happened since the middle of the Atlantean epoch is a small part of it, and everything is connected with the essence of Christ. Then we will understand how such a metamorphosis as takes place in transubstantiation is possible, when we see what is physical and chemical today as merely an episode and relate transubstantiation to something completely different and not just to the seemingly material.
[ 32 ] Thus we may already deepen our remembrance of the first human consecration ceremony two years ago, this remembrance of the truly descending from heaven, shining down from heaven of the Atlantean era, of the appearing in the clouds of the Greek -Latin era, to the Christ walking on earth, understood by people in their visions, to the Christ walking ethereally on earth in our age, but understood by people in their imaginations and visions. Christ is present in transubstantiation and will become ever more present to people. In the events I have described today lie the paths by which Christ gradually became inherent in the events of earthly development.
[ 33 ] Let us take this in as a kind of festive idea today in remembrance of the first human consecration ceremony, which was performed two years ago at the Goetheanum.