{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_54260/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_54260","id":"gutenberg_54260","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54260","summary":null,"tags":["Anthroposophy","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Jesus Christ -- Anthroposophical interpretations","Theosophy"],"text":"The Spiritual Guidance\n                          of Man and of Mankind\n\n                                   BY\n\n                           DR. RUDOLF STEINER\n\n                          EDITED BY H. COLLISON\n\n                   THE AUTHORIZED ENGLISH TRANSLATION\n\n\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1915, BY H. COLLISON\n\n\nThe copyright, the publishing rights, and the editorial responsibility\nfor the translation of the works of Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D., with the\nexception of those already under the editorial supervision of Max Gysi,\nare now vested in Mr. Harry Collison, M.A., Oxon.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nIn the following pages are reproduced the contents of some lectures\ndelivered by me at Copenhagen in June last, in connection with the\nGeneral Meeting of the Scandinavian Theosophical Society. What is here\nset forth was therefore spoken to an audience acquainted with occult\nscience, or theosophy. A similar acquaintance is assumed in this work.\nIt is throughout based on the foundations given in my books, \u201cTheosophy\u201d\nand \u201cAn Outline of Occult Science.\u201d To anyone taking up the present\nwork who is unacquainted with these premises, it must needs appear the\nstrange outpouring of mere fancy, but the above-named books point out the\nscientific basis of everything stated in this one.\n\nI have completely re-written the shorthand report of the lectures;\nnevertheless it has been my intention on publishing them, to preserve the\ncharacter given in oral delivery. This is specially mentioned because\nit is in general my opinion that the form of work intended for reading\nshould be quite different from that used in speaking. I have expressed\nthis principle of mine in all my earlier writings, as far as they were\nintended for the press. If in this instance I have worked out my\nsubject in closer connection with the spoken word, it is because I have\nreasons for letting the work appear at this juncture, and an adaptation\ncompletely in accordance with the above rule would take a great deal of\ntime.\n\n                                                          RUDOLF STEINER.\n\n_Munich, August 20, 1911._\n\n\n\n\nThe Spiritual Guidance of Man and of Mankind\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE I.\n\n\nA man reflecting on his own nature soon becomes conscious that there is\nwithin him a second and more powerful self than the one bounded by his\nthoughts, his feelings and the fully-conscious impulses of his will. He\nbecomes aware that he is subject to that second self, as to a higher\npower. It is true that at first he will feel it to be a lower entity as\ncompared with the one limited by his intelligent and fully-conscious\nsoul, with its inclinations towards the Good and True. And at first he\nwill strive to overcome that lower entity.\n\nBut closer self-examination may reveal something else about the second\nself. If we often, in the course of our lives, make a kind of survey of\nour acts and experiences, we make a singular discovery about ourselves.\nAnd the older we are, the more significant do we think that discovery.\nIf we ask ourselves what we did or said at a particular period of our\nlives, it turns out that we have done very many things which are only\nreally understood in later years. Seven or eight, or perhaps twenty years\nago, we did certain things, and we know quite well that only now, long\nafterwards, is our intelligence ripe enough to understand what we did or\nsaid at that earlier period.\n\nMany people do not make such discoveries about themselves, because they\ndo not lay themselves out to do so. But it is extremely profitable to\nhold such communion frequently with one\u2019s own soul. For directly a man\nbecomes aware that he has done things in former years which he is only\nnow beginning to understand, that formerly his intelligence was not ripe\nenough to understand them,--at a moment such as this, something like the\nfollowing feeling arises in the soul: The man feels himself protected by\na good power, which rules in the depths of his own being; he begins to\nhave more and more confidence in the fact that really, in the highest\nsense of the word, he is not alone in the world, and that everything\nwhich he understands, and is consciously able to do, is after all but a\nsmall part of what he really accomplished in the world.\n\nIf this observation is often made, it is possible to carry out in\npractical life something which is very easy to see theoretically. It is\neasy to see that we should not make much progress in life if we had to\naccomplish everything we have to do, in full consciousness, with our\nintelligence taking note of every circumstance affecting us. In order\nto see this theoretically, we have only to reflect as follows: In what\nsection of his life does a human being perform those acts which are\nreally most important as regards his own existence? When does he act most\nwisely for himself? He does this from about the time of his birth up to\nthat period to which his memory goes back when in later life he surveys\nhis earthly existence. If he recalls what he did three, four or five\nyears ago, and then goes farther and farther back, he comes at last to\na certain point in childhood, beyond which memory cannot go. What lies\nbeyond it may be told by parents or others, but a man\u2019s own recollection\nonly extends to a certain point in the past. That point is the moment\nat which the individual felt himself to be an ego. In the lives of\npeople whose memory is limited to the normal, there must always be such\na point, but previously to it, the human soul has worked in the wisest\npossible manner on the individual, and never afterwards, when man has\ngained consciousness, can he accomplish such vast and magnificent work on\nhimself as he carries out, from subconscious motives, during the first\nyears of childhood.\n\nFor we know that at birth man takes into the physical world what he\nhas brought with him as the result of his former earthly lives. When\nhe is born, his physical brain, for instance, is but a very imperfect\ninstrument. The soul has to work a finer organization into that\ninstrument, in order to make it the agent of everything which the soul\nis capable of performing. In point of fact the human soul, before it is\nfully conscious, works upon the brain so as to make it an instrument for\nexercising all the abilities, aptitudes, qualities, etc., which appertain\nto the soul as the result of its former earthly lives. This work on a\nman\u2019s own body is directed from points of view which are wiser than\nanything which he can subsequently do for himself when in possession of\nfull consciousness.\n\nMoreover, man during this period not only elaborates his brain\nplastically, but has to learn three most important things for his earthly\nexistence. The first is the equilibrium of his own body in space. The\nman of the present day entirely overlooks the meaning of this statement,\nwhich touches upon one of the most essential differences between man and\nanimals. An animal is destined from the outset to develop its equilibrium\nin space in a certain way; one animal is destined to be a climber,\nanother a swimmer, etc. An animal is so organized from the beginning as\nto be able to bear itself rightly in space, and this is the case with\nall animals up to and including the mammals most resembling man. If\nzoologists would ponder this fact, they would lay less emphasis on the\nnumber of similar bones and muscles in man and animals, etc., for this is\nof much less account than the fact that man is not endowed at the outset\nwith the complete equipment for his conditions of equilibrium. He has\nfirst to form them out of the sum total of his being. It is significant\nthat man should have to work upon himself, in order to make, out of a\nbeing that cannot walk at all, one that can walk erect. It is man himself\nwho gives himself his vertical position, or his equilibrium in space.\nHe brings himself into relation with the force of gravitation. It will\nobviously be easy for anyone taking a superficial view of the matter to\nquestion this statement, with apparently good reason. It may be said\nthat man is just as much organized for his erect walk as, for instance,\na climbing animal for climbing. But more accurate observation will show\nthat it is the peculiarity of the animal\u2019s organization that causes\nits position in space. In man it is the soul which brings itself into\nrelation with space and controls the organization.\n\nThe second thing which man teaches himself, and that by means of the\nentity which proceeds from one incarnation to another as the same being,\nis speech. Through speech he comes into relation with his fellow-men.\nThis relation makes him the vehicle of that spiritual life which\ninterpenetrates the world primarily through man. Emphasis has often been\nlaid, with good reason, on the fact that a human being removed, before he\ncould speak, to a desert island, and kept apart from his fellows, would\nnot learn to talk. On the other hand, what we receive by inheritance,\nwhat is implanted in us for use in later years and is subject to the\nprinciples of heredity, does not depend on a man\u2019s dwelling with his\nfellows. For instance, his inherited conditions oblige him to change\nhis teeth in his seventh year. If it were possible for him to grow up\non a desert island, he would still change them then. But he only learns\nto talk, when his soul\u2019s inner being, i.e., that which is carried on\nfrom one life to another, is stimulated. The germ, however, for the\ndevelopment of the larynx must be formed during the period at which man\nhas not yet acquired his ego-consciousness. Before the time to which his\nmemory goes back, he must plant the germ for developing his larynx, in\norder that this may become the organ of speech.\n\nAnd then there is a third thing: It is not so well known that man learns\nthis of himself, from that part of his inner being which he carries on\nfrom one incarnation to another. It is the life within the world of\nthought itself. The elaboration of the brain is undertaken because the\nbrain is the instrument of thought. At the beginning of life, this organ\nis still plastic, because the individual has to form it for himself as\nan instrument of thought, in accordance with the intention of the entity\nwhich is carried on from one life to another. The brain immediately\nafter birth is, as it was bound to be, in accordance with the forces\ninherited from parents and other ancestors. But the individual has to\nexpress in his thought what he is as an individual being, in accordance\nwith his former earthly lives. Therefore he must re-model the inherited\npeculiarities of his brain, after birth, when he has become physically\nindependent of his parents and other ancestors.\n\nWe thus see that man accomplishes momentous things during the first\nyears of his life. He is working on himself in the spirit of the highest\nwisdom. In point of fact, if it were a question of his own cleverness,\nit is possible that he might not accomplish what he does without\nthat cleverness during the first period of his life. Why is all this\naccomplished in those depths of the soul which lie outside consciousness?\nThis happens because the human soul and entire being are, during the\nfirst years of earthly life, in much closer connection with the\nspiritual worlds of the higher hierarchies than is afterwards the case.\nA clairvoyant who has gone through sufficient spiritual development to\nbe able to witness actual spiritual events, sees something exceedingly\nsignificant at the moment when the ego acquires consciousness, _i.e._,\nthe earliest point to which the memory of later years goes back. Whereas\nwhat we call the child\u2019s aura floats round it in its earliest years\nlike a wonderful human and superhuman power, and, being really the\nhigher part of the child, is everywhere continued on into the spiritual\nworld,--at the moment to which memory goes back, this aura sinks more\ninto the inner being of the child. A human being is able to feel himself\na continuous ego as far back as that point of time, because then that\nwhich was previously in close connection with the higher worlds, passed\ninto his ego. Henceforward the consciousness is at every point brought\ninto connection with the external world. This is not the case with a very\nyoung child, to whom things appear only as a surrounding world of dreams.\n\nMan works on himself by means of a wisdom which is not within him. That\nwisdom is mightier and more comprehensive than any conscious wisdom of\nlater years. The higher wisdom becomes obscured in the human soul, which\nin exchange receives consciousness.\n\nThe higher wisdom works from out of the spiritual world deep into the\nbodily part of man, so that man is able by its means to form his brain\nout of spirit. It is rightly said that even the wisest may learn from\na child, for in the child is working the wisdom which does not pass\nlater into consciousness. Through that wisdom man has something like\ntelephonic connection with the spiritual beings in whose world he lives\nbetween death and re-birth. From that world there is something still\nstreaming into the aura of a child, which is, as an individual being,\nimmediately under the guidance of the entire spiritual world to which\nit belongs. Spiritual forces from that world continue to flow into a\nchild. They cease so to flow at the point of time to which memory goes\nback. It is these forces which enable a child to bring itself into a\ndefinite relation to gravitation. They form the larynx, and so mould the\nbrain that it becomes a living instrument for the expression of thought,\nfeeling and will.\n\nWhat is present in childhood to a supreme degree, so that the individual\nis then working out of a self which is still in direct connection with\nhigher worlds, continues to some extent even in later years, although\nthe conditions change in the manner indicated above. If at a later stage\nof life we feel that we did something years before which we are only\nnow able to understand, it is just because we previously let ourselves\nbe guided by higher wisdom, and only after the lapse of years have we\nattained to an understanding of the reasons of our conduct.\n\nFrom all this we can feel that, immediately after birth, we had not\nescaped so very far from the world in which we were before entering\nupon physical existence, and that we can never really escape from it\nwholly. Our share in higher spirituality enters our physical life and\naccompanies us throughout it. We often feel that what is within us is not\nonly a higher self which is gradually being evolved, but is something\nhigher which is there already, and is the motive cause of our so often\ndeveloping beyond ourselves.\n\nAll ideals and artistic creations which man is able to produce, as well\nas all the natural healing forces in his own body, by means of which he\nis continually able to adjust the injuries that befall him in life,--all\nthese powers do not proceed from ordinary intellect, but from those\ndeeper forces which in our earliest years are at work on our equilibrium\nin space, on the formation of our larynx and on the brain. For these\nsame forces are still at work in man in later years. When sickness\nattacks us, it is often said that external forces cannot help us, but\nthat our organism must develop the healing powers latent within it:\nby this is meant that there is a profoundly wise activity present in\nhumanity. Moreover, it is from the same source that proceed these best\nforces whereby knowledge of the spiritual world is attained, _i.e._, true\nclairvoyance.\n\nThe question now suggests itself, why do the higher forces which have\nbeen described work upon human nature only during early childhood?\nOne-half of the answer may be easily given as follows: If those higher\nforces went on working in the same way, man would be always a child.\nHe would not attain the full ego-consciousness. From within his own\nbeing must proceed the motive power which previously worked on him from\nwithout. But there is a more important reason, which explains still more\nabout the mysteries of human life than what has just been said, and that\nis the following:\n\nIt is possible to learn through occult science, that the human body, as\nit exists at its present stage of evolution, must be regarded as having\narrived at its present form under different circumstances. It is known to\nthe occultist that this evolution was effected by means of the working\nof various forces on the sum-total of man\u2019s being; certain forces worked\non the physical body, others on the etheric, others on the astral body.\nHuman nature has arrived at its present form through the action of those\nbeings whom we call the Luciferic and Ahrimanic. By their means it has,\nin a certain way, become worse than it need have been if those forces\nonly had been active within it which proceed from the spiritual rulers\nof the cosmos who desire to evolve man along straight lines. The causes\nof sorrow, disease and even of death are to be sought in the fact that,\nbesides the beings who are evolving man in a straight line forwards,\nthere are also ruling the Luciferic and Ahrimanic spirits, who are\ncontinually crossing the line of straightforward, progressive development.\n\nThere is something in what man brings into existence at birth, which is\nbetter than what he can make out of it in later life. This is so, because\nthe Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces have but little influence over man\nduring early childhood; they are virtually only operative in what man\nmakes out of himself by his conscious life. If he were to retain in full\nforce beyond early childhood that part of his being which is better than\nthe rest, he would be unable to endure its influence, because his whole\nbeing is weakened by the opposite forces of Lucifer and Ahriman. Man\u2019s\norganism in the physical world is so constituted that it is only when\nhe is, so to speak, as soft and pliable as a child, that he can endure\nwithin him those direct forces of the spiritual world which operate\nwithin him during early childhood. He would be shattered, if during\nhis later life there were still directly working in him those forces\nwhich underlie the faculty of equilibrium in space, and the formation\nof the larynx and the brain. Those forces are so tremendous that, if\nthey were to go on working, our organism would pine away under the\ninfluence of their holiness. Man must only have recourse to such forces\nfor the purpose of that kind of activity which brings him into conscious\nconnection with the supersensible world.\n\nBut out of this there arises a thought which is of great significance,\nif rightly understood. It is expressed in the New Testament in the words\n\u201cExcept ye become as little children, ye cannot enter into the Kingdom\nof Heaven.\u201d What then becomes manifest as man\u2019s highest ideal, if what\nhas just been said be rightly received? Surely this,--the drawing ever\nnearer and nearer to what we may call a conscious relation to the forces\nwhich work in man unknown to him during early childhood. Only it must be\nborne in mind that man would collapse under the power of those forces,\nif they were at once to operate in his conscious life. For this reason,\ncareful preparation is necessary for the attainment of those faculties\nwhich induce the perception of supersensible worlds. The object of such\npreparation is to qualify man to bear what he is unable to bear in\nordinary life.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNow the passing of the individual through successive incarnations is of\nimportance for the collective evolution of the human race. The latter has\nadvanced through successive lives in the past, and is still advancing,\nand parallel with it the earth too is moving forwards in its evolution.\nThe time will come when the earth will have reached the end of its\ncareer. Then the earthly planet will fall away as a physical entity from\nthe sum-total of human souls, just as the human body falls away from the\nspirit at death, when, in order to continue living, the soul enters the\nspiritual realm which is adapted for it between death and re-birth. When\nonce this is realized, it must appear as man\u2019s highest ideal to have\nprogressed far enough at earthly death, to be able to reap all possible\nbenefits which may be obtained from earthly life.\n\nNow those forces which prevent man from being able to endure the forces\nworking upon him during early childhood come out of the substance of\nthe earth. When this has fallen away from a human being, the latter,\nif he has attained the aim of his life, must have advanced far enough\nto be able actually to give himself up, with his whole being, to the\npowers which at present are only active in man during childhood. Thus\nthe object of evolution through successive earthly lives is gradually to\nmake the whole individual, including therefore the conscious part, into\nan expression of the powers which are ruling in him under the influence\nof the spiritual world,--though he does not know it,--during the first\nyears of his life. The thought which takes possession of the soul after\nsuch reflections as these, must fill it with humility, but also with a\ndue consciousness of the dignity of man. The thought is this: man is\nnot alone; there is something living within him which is constantly\naffording him proof that he can rise above himself to something which is\nalready growing beyond him, and which will go on growing from one life to\nanother. This thought can assume more and more definite form; and in that\ncase it affords something supremely soothing and elevating, at the same\ntime filling the soul with corresponding humility and modesty. What is it\nthat man has within him in this way? Surely a higher, divine human being,\nby whom he is able to feel himself interpenetrated, saying to himself,\n\u201cHe is my guide within me.\u201d\n\nFrom such a point of view, it is not long before we arrive at the thought\nthat by all the means in our power we should strive to be in harmony with\nthat within our being which is wiser than conscious intelligence. And\nwe shall be referred on from the directly conscious self to an enlarged\nself, in the presence of which all false pride and presumption will be\nextinguished and subdued. This feeling develops into another, which\nopens the way to accurate understanding of the nature of present human\nimperfection; and the consciousness of this leads to the knowledge that\nman may become perfect, if once the larger spirituality ruling within him\nis allowed to bear the same relation to his consciousness which it bore\nto the unconscious life of the soul in early childhood.\n\nIf it often happens that memory does not go back as far as the fourth\nyear of a child\u2019s life, it may nevertheless be said that the influence\nof the higher spirit-sphere, in the above sense, lasts through the first\nthree years. At the end of that span of time a child becomes capable of\nlinking its impressions of the outer world to the ideas of its ego. It is\ntrue that this coherent ego-conception can only be reckoned as existing\nas far back as memory extends. Yet we must say that _virtually_ memory\nextends to the beginning of the fourth year, only it is so weak at the\nbeginning of distinct ego-consciousness as to be imperceptible. It may\ntherefore be granted that those higher powers which dispose of a human\nbeing in the early years of childhood can be operative for three years;\ntherefore man, during the present middle period of the earth, is so\norganized that he can receive these forces for _only_ three years.\n\nSupposing a man now stood before us, and that some cosmic powers could\ncause his ordinary ego to be removed. (For this purpose we must assume\nthat it would be possible to remove from the physical, etheric and astral\nbodies the ordinary ego which has gone through the incarnations with the\nman.) And now suppose that an ego could then be introduced into the three\nbodies which is working in connection with spiritual worlds, what would\nhappen to a person thus treated? At the end of three years his body would\nnecessarily be shattered. Something would occur, through cosmic karma,\nwhich would prevent the spirit-being which would be in connection with\nhigher worlds, from living more than three years in that body.[1] Only\nat the end of all his earthly lives will man have that within him which\nwill enable him to live more than three years with that spirit-being. But\nthen, it is true, man will be able to say to himself, \u201cNot I, but that\nHigher One within me, Who was always there, is now working in me.\u201d Till\nthat time comes, he is not able to say this. The most he can say is that\nhe feels that higher being, but has not yet progressed far enough with\nhis real, actual human ego, to be able to bring the other to full life\nwithin him.\n\nSupposing then that, at some time in the middle earth-period, a human\norganism were to come into the world, and later in life be freed from his\nego by the action of certain cosmic powers, receiving in exchange the ego\nwhich usually only works in man during the first three years of life,\nand which would be in connection with the spiritual worlds in which man\nexists between death and re-birth: how long would such a person be able\nto live in an earthly body? About three years. For at the end of that\ntime, something would arise through cosmic karma, which would destroy the\nhuman organism in question.\n\nWhat is here supposed is, however, a historical fact. The human organism\nwhich stood in the river Jordan at John\u2019s baptism when the ego of Jesus\nof Nazareth left the three bodies, contained, after the baptism, in\ncomplete conscious development, that higher Self of humanity which\nusually works with cosmic wisdom on a child without its knowledge. At the\nsame time, the necessity arose that this Self which was in connection\nwith the higher spirit-world could only live for three years in the\nappropriate human organism. Events had then to take place which brought\nthe earthly life of that being to a close. The outer events in the life\nof Christ Jesus are to be interpreted as absolutely conditioned by the\ninner causes just set forth, and present themselves as the outward\nexpression of those causes.\n\nWe are now able to see the deeper connection existing between that which\nis man\u2019s guide in life, which streams in upon our childhood like the dawn\nand is always working below the surface of our consciousness as the best\npart of us, and that which once upon a time entered the whole of human\nevolution and was able to dwell for three years in a human frame.\n\nWhat then is manifested in that \u201chigher\u201d ego, which is in connection with\nthe spiritual hierarchies, and which in due time entered the body of\nJesus of Nazareth? This entrance being symbolically represented by the\nsign of the Spirit descending in the form of a dove, and by the words,\n\u201cThis is my well-beloved Son, to-day have I begotten him\u201d (for so stood\nthe words originally). If we fix our eyes upon this picture, we are\ncontemplating the highest human ideal. For it means nothing else than\nthat the history of Jesus of Nazareth is a statement of this fact: \u201cThe\nChrist can be discerned in every human being.\u201d And even if there were no\nGospels and no tradition, to tell us that once a Christ lived on earth,\nwe should yet learn through knowledge of human nature that the Christ is\nliving in man.\n\nThe recognition of the forces working in human nature during childhood is\nthe recognition of the Christ in man. The question now arises, does this\nrecognition lead to the further perception of the fact that this Christ\nonce really dwelt on earth in a human body? Without bringing forward\nany documents, this question may be answered in the affirmative. For\ngenuine clairvoyant knowledge of self leads the man of the present day\nto see that powers are to be discovered in the human soul which emanate\nfrom the Christ. These powers are at work during the first three years\nof childhood without any action being taken by the human being. In later\nlife they _may_ be called into action, if the Christ be sought within the\nsoul by inner meditation. Man was not always able, as he is now, to find\nthe Christ within himself. There were times when no inner meditation\ncould lead him to the Christ. This again we learn from clairvoyant\nperception. In the interval between that past time when man could not\nfind the Christ in himself, and the present time when he can find him,\nthere took place Christ\u2019s earthly life. And that life itself is the cause\nof man\u2019s being able to find the Christ in himself in the manner that has\nbeen pointed out. Thus to clairvoyant perception the earthly life of\nChrist is proved without any historical records.\n\nIt is just as if the Christ had said, \u201cI will be such an ideal for you\nhuman beings as, raised to a spiritual level, will show you that which\nis fulfilled in each human body.\u201d In his early childhood man learns from\nthe spirit how to walk physically, _i.e._, he is shown by the spirit his\nway through earthly life. From the spirit he learns to speak, _i.e._,\nto form _truth_; or in other words, he develops the essence of truth\nout of sound during the first three years of his life. And the _life_\ntoo, which man lives on earth as an ego-being, obtains its vital organ\nthrough what is formed in the first three years of childhood. Thus man\nlearns to walk, _i.e._, to find \u201cthe way,\u201d he learns to present \u201ctruth\u201d\nthrough his physical organism, and he learns to bring \u201clife\u201d from the\nspirit into expression in his body. No more significant re-interpretation\nseems possible of the words \u201cExcept ye become as little children, ye\ncannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.\u201d And momentous is that saying\nin which the ego-being of the Christ comes into expression thus, \u201cI am\nthe Way, the Truth and the Life.\u201d Just as, unknown to a child, the higher\nspirit-forces are fashioning its organism to become the bodily expression\nof the way, the truth and the life, so the spirit of man, through being\ninterpenetrated with the Christ, gradually becomes the _conscious_\nvehicle of the way, the truth and the life. He is thereby making himself,\nin the course of his earthly development, into that force which bears\nsway within him as a child, when he is not consciously its vehicle.\n\nThis saying about the way, the truth and the life is capable of opening\nthe doors of eternity. It sounds to man out of the depths of his soul, if\nhis self-knowledge is true and real.\n\nSuch reflections as these open up, in a double sense, the vision of the\nspiritual guidance of the individual and of collective humanity. As human\nbeings we are able, through self-knowledge, to find the Christ within us\nas the guide Whom, since His life on earth, we can always reach, because\nHe is always in man. And further, if we apply to the historical records\nthat we have apprehended without them, we discover their real nature.\nThey express historically something which is revealed of itself in the\ndepths of the soul. They are therefore to be accounted as _guiding_\nhumanity in the same direction as the soul itself is proceeding.\n\nIf we thus understand the suggestion of eternity in the words, \u201cI am\nthe way, the truth and the life,\u201d we cannot feel ourselves justified\nin asking, \u201cWhy does a person who has passed through many incarnations\nalways re-enter life as a child?\u201d For it becomes evident that this\napparent imperfection is an ever-recurring reminder of the Highest that\nis in man. And we cannot be reminded often enough,--at any rate each time\nwe enter earthly life is not too often to be reminded,--of the great fact\nof what man really is with reference to that Being who underlies all\nearthly existence, without being touched by its imperfections.\n\nIt is not well to make many definitions or summaries in occult science\nor theosophy, or indeed in occultism generally. It is better to give\na description, and to try and call forth a feeling of what really\nexists. On this account we are now attempting to induce a feeling of\nwhat distinguishes the first three years of human life, and of the way\nin which this is related to the light that streams from the cross on\nGolgotha. The meaning of this feeling is that an impulse is passing\nthrough human evolution, and that through this impulse the Pauline\nsaying, \u201cNot I--but the Christ in me,\u201d will become a fact. We have only\nto know what man is in reality, in order to be able to proceed from such\nknowledge to insight into the nature of the Christ. When once, however,\nwe have arrived at the Christ-idea through true observation of humanity,\nwe know that we discover the Christ in the best way if we first look for\nHim in ourselves, and if we then return to the Bible records, these are\nfor the first time rightly valued. And no one prizes the Bible more, or\nmore consciously, than one who has found the Christ in this way. It is\npossible to imagine a being, let us say an inhabitant of Mars, descending\nto earth, without ever having heard of the Christ and His work. Much\nthat has taken place on earth would be incomprehensible to the Martian;\nmuch that interests people nowadays would not interest him. But it would\ninterest him to discover the central impulse of earthly evolution,\n_i.e._, the Christ-idea, as it is expressed in human nature itself.\n\nOne who has grasped this, is able for the first time rightly to\nunderstand the Bible, for he finds expressed there in a marvellous way\nwhat he has previously observed in himself, and he says: It is not\nnecessary to have been brought up with any special reverence for the\nGospel; they need only be presented to me, a fully-conscious human\nbeing, to stand revealed in all their greatness, by means of what I have\nlearnt through occult science.\n\nIt is indeed not too much to say that a time will come when it will be\nrecognized by people who have learned through occult science rightly\nto appreciate the contents of the Gospels, that these are guides of\nthe human race in a sense which is more just to those writings than\npeople have hitherto been to them. It is only through knowledge of human\nnature itself that humanity will learn to see what is latent in those\nprofound records. It will then be said: If there is to be found in the\nGospels that which forms an integral part of human nature, it must have\ncome from the people who wrote these documents on earth. Therefore what\ngenuine reflection brings home to us about our own lives,--the more\nso the older we grow--must hold especially good with regard to those\nwriters. We ourselves have done many things which we only understand\nyears afterwards, and in the writers of the Gospels may be seen people\nwho wrote out of the higher self which works in man during childhood,\nso that the Gospels are writings emanating from the wisdom which moulds\nhuman nature. Man through his body is a manifestation of spirit, and the\nGospels are such a manifestation in writing.\n\nOn this assumption the idea of inspiration regains its true and loftier\nmeaning. Just as higher forces are at work on the brain during the first\nthree years of childhood, so there were higher forces from spiritual\nworlds impressed on the souls of the Evangelists, under the influence\nof which they wrote the Gospels. The spiritual guidance of humanity is\nexpressed in such a fact as this. For the human race must surely be\n_guided_, if within it there are people working who write records under\nthe influence of the same powers that are at work on the moulding of man\nin profound wisdom. And just as the individual says or does things which\nhe only understands at a later period of life, so collective humanity\nhas produced in the Evangelists means of revelation which can only be\nunderstood by degrees. The farther humanity progresses, the greater will\nbe the understanding of these records. The individual can feel spiritual\nguidance within himself; and collective humanity can feel it in those of\nits members who work as did the writers of the Gospels.\n\nThe idea thus gained of the guidance of humanity may be extended in many\ndirections. Let us suppose that a man finds disciples,--a few people\nwho follow him. Such an one will soon become aware, through genuine\nself-knowledge, that the very fact of his finding disciples gives him\nthe feeling that what he has to say does not originate with himself.\nThe case is rather this,--that spiritual powers in higher worlds wish\nto communicate with the disciples, and find in the Teacher the fitting\ninstrument for their manifestation.\n\nThe thought will suggest itself to such a man: when I was a child I\nworked on myself by the aid of forces proceeding from the spiritual\nworld, and what I am now able to give, of my best, must also proceed\nfrom higher worlds; I may not look upon it as belonging to my ordinary\nconsciousness. Such a man may in fact say: something demonic, something\nlike a \u201cdaimon\u201d--using the word in the sense of a _good_ spiritual\npower--is working out of a spiritual world through me on my disciples.\n\nSocrates felt something of this kind. Plato tells us that he spoke of\nhis \u201cdaimon\u201d as of the one who led and guided him. Many attempts have\nbeen made to explain this \u201cdaimon\u201d of Socrates, but it can only be\nexplained by supposing that Socrates was able to feel something like\nthat which results from the above reflections. Then we are able to\nunderstand that throughout the three or four centuries during which the\nSocratic principle was active in Greece, a state of feeling permeated\nthe Greek world through Socrates, which prepared the way for another\ngreat event. The feeling that man, as he now is, is not the whole of\nwhat comes through from higher worlds,--this feeling went on working.\nThe best of those in whom it was present were those who afterwards best\nunderstood the words, \u201cNot I, but the Christ in me.\u201d For they could say\nto themselves: Socrates used to speak of a being working as a \u201cdaimon\u201d\nfrom higher worlds; the Christ-ideal makes clear what Socrates meant.\nOnly Socrates could not as yet speak of Christ, because in his time no\none was able to find the Christ-nature _within himself_.\n\nHere again we feel something of the spiritual guidance of the race, for\nnothing can be established in the world without preparation. Why was it\nthat Paul found his best disciples in Greece? Because the ground had been\nprepared there by the teaching of Socrates and the state of feeling that\nhas been described. That is to say, what happens in human evolution may\nbe traced back to events which operated previously, and made people ripe\nfor what was afterwards to be brought to bear upon them. Do we not feel\nhere how far the guiding impulse passing through human evolution extends\nand how at the right moment it places people where they will be best used\nto further evolution? In such facts is manifested the guidance of the\nhuman race in a general way.\n\n[1] The vitality of the human organism is maintained at the transition\nfrom childhood to later life, because the organism is capable of change\nat that period. Later in life, it is no longer susceptible of change, and\non this account cannot continue to exist with that other Self.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE II.\n\n\nIf we turn our attention to what was said by the teachers and leaders\nof ancient Egypt about the direction and guidance of the spiritual\nlife of their country, we may trace a remarkable parallel between what\nis manifested in the individual life of man, and what governs human\nevolution as a whole. It is related that when a Greek once asked an\nEgyptian, who had guided and led his nation from ancient times onwards,\nhe answered, \u201cIn far off times of yore, the gods ruled and taught us, and\nonly afterwards men came to be our leaders.\u201d The Egyptians named Menes to\nthe Greeks, as their first leader on the physical plane to be recognized\nas a _human_ leader. That is to say, the directors of the Egyptian people\nalleged that in earlier times the gods themselves--as Greek records\nsay--guided and led the Egyptian nation. Such an assertion, coming down\nto us from ancient times, must, however, be rightly understood. What did\nthe Egyptians mean when they said, \u201cOur kings and great teachers were\ngods\u201d?\n\nThe man who thus answered the question of the Greek meant that if any\none had gone back into the ancient times of the Egyptian nation, and\nhad asked those people who felt something within them like a higher\nconsciousness, or wisdom from higher worlds, \u201cWho are really your\nteachers?\u201d they would have answered, \u201cIf I wanted to tell you about my\nreal teacher, I should not point to such and such a person and say, \u2018That\nis my teacher,\u2019 but I should first have to put myself into a clairvoyant\nstate, (it is known from occult science that this was comparatively\neasier in ancient times than it is now,) and then I should find my real\ninspirer and teacher, who comes to me only when the eyes of my spirit\nare opened.\u201d For in ancient Egypt, beings who were not incarnated in a\nphysical human body came down amongst men. In those remote ages, it was\nthe gods who still ruled and taught the Egyptians, and by \u201cgods\u201d they\nunderstood beings who had preceded man in evolution.\n\nAccording to occult science, the earth passed through an earlier\nplanetary condition, called the \u201cMoon-state,\u201d before it became \u201cEarth.\u201d\nDuring this condition man was not yet human in the present sense of the\nword; but there were on the old Moon other beings, not possessed of the\npresent human form and differently constituted, who nevertheless were\nthen at the evolutionary stage which man has now attained on earth. We\nmay therefore say, that on the ancient Moon-planet which has perished,\nand out of which the earth afterwards originated, there lived beings who\nwere man\u2019s predecessors. In Christian esoteric language they are called\nAngel-beings (Angeloi) and the beings immediately above them--Archangels\n(Archangeloi). The latter were human at a still earlier period than the\nangels. What are called angels or Angeloi in Christian esotericism, and\nDhyanic beings in Eastern mysticism, were \u201cmen\u201d during the Moon-period.\nNow these beings, during the present earth-period, are a stage farther\nadvanced than man,--those of them, that is to say, who completed their\nevolution on the Moon. Only at the end of the earth\u2019s evolution will man\nhave arrived at the stage which those beings had reached at the end of\nthe Moon-period.\n\nWhen the earth-state of our planet began, and man appeared on earth,\nthese beings were not able to appear in an external human form, for the\nhuman body of flesh and blood is essentially a product of earth, and\nis only adapted to the beings who are now human. The beings, who are a\nstage farther advanced than man, could not be incarnated in human bodies\nwhen the earth was beginning its evolution. They were only able to take\na part in the government of the earth by illuminating and inspiring\npeople in primeval times in the condition to which these attained when\nclairvoyant. Indirectly, then, through these clairvoyant people, the\nangels intervened to guide the destinies of earth.\n\nThus the ancient Egyptians still remembered a condition of things during\nwhich the leading personalities of the nation were clearly conscious of\ntheir connection with what are called gods, angels, or dhyanic beings.\nNow what sort of beings were these, who were not incarnated in a human\nform of flesh and blood, but influenced mankind in the way we have\ndescribed? They were man\u2019s predecessors, who had progressed beyond the\nhuman stage.\n\nThere is in these days much misuse of a word which may in this connection\nbe applied in its true meaning, the word \u201cSuperman.\u201d If we really wish\nto speak of \u201cSupermen,\u201d it is these beings who may rightly be so called,\nwho were human during the Moon-period, the planetary stage preceding\nour earth and who have now outgrown humanity. They were only able to\nappear in an etheric body to clairvoyants. It was thus that they came\ndown to earth from spiritual worlds, and ruled there even as late as\npost-Atlantean times.\n\nThese beings had, and still have, the remarkable quality of not being\nobliged to think; in fact, we might even say that they cannot think at\nall as man does. How then does man think? More or less in this way. He\nstarts from a certain point and says, \u201cI understand this or that,\u201d and\nfrom that point he then tries to understand various other things. If this\nwere not the method of human thought, school-life would not be such a\ndifficult period for many. We cannot learn mathematics in a day, because\nwe have to begin at a certain point, and go slowly forwards. This takes\na long time. We cannot survey a whole world of thought at a glance, for\nhuman thought runs its course in _time_. A system of thought does not\nenter the mind in a flash. We have to make an effort, and have to exert\nourselves, in order to find the sequence of thought. The beings described\nabove are without this human peculiarity. A far-reaching train of thought\ncomes into their minds with the same rapidity with which an animal makes\nup its mind that it will snatch at something which its instinct tells it\nis eatable. Instinct and reflective consciousness are in no wise distinct\nin these beings, they are one and the same thing. Just as animals have\ninstinct at their stage of evolution, in their kingdom, so these dhyanic\nbeings or angels have direct spiritual thought and conceptions. By virtue\nof this instinctive inner life of conception, they are of an essentially\ndifferent nature from human beings.\n\nNow we can easily form an idea of the impossibility of the use by these\nbeings of a brain or physical body such as we have. They have to use an\netheric body, because the human body and brain only allow of thoughts in\n_time_, whereas these beings do not develop their thoughts in _time_,\nbut feel the wisdom that is approaching them blaze forth, as it were,\nspontaneously within them. It is impossible for them to think erroneously\nin the sense in which man does. The process of their thought is a direct\ninspiration. Hence the personalities who were able to come into contact\nwith these superhuman or angelic beings, were conscious that they were in\nthe presence of unerring wisdom. Therefore, even as late as in ancient\nEgyptian times when the man who was the human teacher or king was in\nthe presence of his spiritual guide, he felt thus: the command which he\nis giving, the truth which he is enunciating, is _literally_ right, and\ncannot be wrong. (This was also felt by those to whom the truths were\npassed on.)\n\nThe clairvoyant guides of the human race were able to speak in such a\nmanner that in their words people believed they were receiving exactly\nwhat came down from the spiritual world. In short, there was a direct\ncurrent down from the higher spirit-hierarchies which were directing\nhumanity. Thus what works on the individual in early childhood may\nbe seen working on humanity at large in the form of the next world of\nspirit-hierarchies which hovers over human evolution as a whole. This\nis the next kingdom of the angels or superhuman beings, standing a\nstep higher than man, and extending directly into spiritual spheres.\nThey bring down to earth from those spheres what is worked into human\ncivilization. In the child, it is on the formation of the body that the\nhigher wisdom leaves its impress; in human evolution of past ages, it was\ncivilization that was so matured.\n\nThus the Egyptians, who described themselves as being in connection\nwith divinity, felt that the soul of humanity was open to the action of\nspirit hierarchies. Just as the soul of a child opens its aura to the\nhierarchies up to the time mentioned in the preceding pages, so, through\nits work, did the whole of humanity open its world to the hierarchies\nwith which it was connected.\n\nThis connection was most important in those teachers whom we call the\nholy teachers of India, the great teachers of the first post-Atlantean\nor Indian civilization, which unfolded itself in Southern Asia. When the\nAtlantean catastrophe was over, and the physiognomy of the earth had\nchanged, so that the new conformation of Asia, Europe and Africa had\nevolved in the Eastern hemisphere, the civilization led by the ancient\ngreat teachers of India began. This was before the time we have mentioned\nas reported in ancient records. The man of to-day is apt to get quite\na wrong idea about these teachers. If, for example, one of the great\nIndian teachers were to be confronted with an educated man of the present\nday, the latter would gaze upon him with astonishment, and perhaps say,\n\u201cIs that a great teacher? I should never have thought it.\u201d For using\nthe words \u201cclever\u201d or \u201clearned\u201d in the sense in which modern people of\nculture do, the holy teachers of ancient India had nothing clever to say.\nThey were, in the present sense of the words, simple, homely people,\nwho would have answered even questions of everyday life in the simplest\nfashion possible. And there were many periods during which scarcely\nanything could be elicited from them but what would seem, to an educated\nman of to-day, most insignificant. But on the other hand, there were\ncertain times when these holy teachers were revealed as something more\nthan simple, homely men. At these times they were obliged to be together\nto the number of seven, because what each individual was able to feel\nhad to combine harmoniously with the other six teachers, as though in a\nconsonance of seven sounds. For it was then possible for each one to see\nsomething according to his particular gift and degree of development,\nso that from the harmony of the separate parts which each individual\nwas able to see, there arose what comes down to us from ancient times\nas primeval wisdom, that is supposing we know how to decipher the real\noccult records. These records are not the revelations of the Vedas,\nhowever much we may admire them. What the Indian holy teachers taught\nis of much earlier date than the composition of the Vedas, and it is\nonly a feeble echo of their wisdom which lies before us in these mighty\nworks. But when each of these men was in the presence of a superhuman\npredecessor of humanity, was gazing clairvoyantly into higher worlds\nand listening clairaudiently to what was being taught through that\npredecessor, it was as though the sun shone out of their eyes. What\nthey were then able to say worked with overpowering force on their\nenvironment, so that all who heard them knew that it was not human life\nor wisdom that was speaking, but that _gods_, superhuman beings, were\ninfluencing human civilization.\n\nThe ancient civilizations had their rise in this sounding through to\nmankind of the knowledge of the gods. Only by degrees in post-Atlantean\ntimes was the door, so to speak, closed into the divine spiritual world\nwhich in the Atlantean period had still been wide open for the human\nsoul. And in the various countries and nations it was felt that man was\nthrown ever more and more on his own resources. What is revealed in the\ncase of a child appears in humanity at large in a different way. The\ndivine spiritual world is first diffused into the unconscious soul of a\nchild, and the soul works upon the formation of the body. Then comes the\nmoment at which the child learns to feel itself an \u201cego\u201d and this is the\nmoment to which its memory goes back in later life. This is what makes\nit possible to say that the wisest of men may still learn something from\nthe soul of a child. From this point, however, the individual is left to\nhimself. The ego-consciousness comes into being, and everything combines\nto make it possible for him to remember his experiences.\n\nSo, too, in the life of nations there came a time when they began to\nfeel themselves more shut off from the divine inspiration of their early\nforefathers. Just as the child becomes gradually shut off from the\naura that floats about its head in its earliest years, so in the life\nof nations did the divine ancestors withdraw themselves more and more,\nand mankind was left to its own research and to its own knowledge. When\nhistory speaks in this manner, the fact of the guidance of humanity\nis realized. \u201cMenes\u201d was the Egyptian name of him who inaugurated the\nfirst \u201chuman\u201d civilization, and it is at the same time hinted that man\nthereby became liable to error, for thenceforward he was left to look\nfor guidance to the instrument of his brain. That man was liable to fall\ninto error is symbolically indicated by the fixing of the date of the\nconstruction of the labyrinth at the time when humanity was abandoned by\nthe gods; for the labyrinth is an image of the convolutions of the brain\nas the instrument of man\u2019s own thoughts,--windings in which the thinker\nis able to lose himself. The Orientals called man as a thinking being\n\u201cManas\u201d and Manu stands for the first great thinker. The Greeks called\nthe first organizer of the human principle of thought Minos, and with him\nis associated the myth of the labyrinth, because it was felt that, since\nhis time, mankind had gradually passed from the direct guidance of the\ngods to a guidance in which the \u201cego\u201d feels the influence of the higher\nspirit-world in a different way.\n\nBesides those predecessors of man, the true supermen, who had completed\ntheir humanity on the Moon and had become angels, there are, however,\nother beings who did not perfect their evolution on the Moon. The\nbeings called dhyanic in Oriental mysticism and angelic in Christian\nesotericism, consummated their evolution on the ancient Moon, and when\nman began his earthly career were already a stage higher than he was.\nBut there were other beings who had not finished their evolution on the\nancient Moon, any more than the higher categories of Luciferic beings had\nfinished theirs. When the earth-state of our planet began, man as we have\ndescribed him was not the only being there. He felt also the inspiration\nof divinely-spiritual beings; otherwise, like a child, he would have been\nunable to progress. Accordingly, besides these childlike human beings,\nthere must have been also present on the earth, acting through them,\nbeings who had completed their evolution on the Moon. But between these\nand man there were yet other beings who had not finished their evolution\non the Moon,--beings of a higher order than man, because, even as early\nas the ancient Moon-period, they might have become angels or dhyanic\nbeings. At that time, however, they had not come to full maturity. They\nwere angels in a backward state, yet they far out-distanced man as\nregards everything which man called his own. Generally speaking, they are\nbeings occupying the lowest grade in the ranks of Luciferic spirits. They\nhold a middle position between men and angels, and with them begins the\nkingdom of Luciferic spirits.\n\nNow it is extremely easy to get an erroneous idea about these spirits.\nWe might ask why did the divine spirits, the vicegerents of good, allow\nthem to fall short, and thereby admit the Luciferic principle into\nhumanity? And it might further be objected on this ground, that surely\nthe good gods turned everything to good. This question is obvious. And\nanother misunderstanding which might arise, is expressed in the idea\nthat these are \u201cevil\u201d spirits. Both ideas are merely misunderstandings:\nfor these spirits are by no means purely \u201cevil,\u201d although the origin of\nevil in human nature is due to them, but they stand midway between man\nand superman. In a certain way they are more perfect than men. In all\nthe qualities which human beings have to acquire for themselves, these\nspirits have attained a high standard, and they only differ from man\u2019s\npredecessors described above in being able to incarnate in human bodies\nwhilst man is being evolved on earth. This is because they did not\nconsummate their humanity on the Moon.\n\nThe dhyanic or angelic beings proper, who are the great inspirers\nof humanity, and to whom the Egyptian referred as being still their\nteachers, did not appear in human bodies, but could only manifest\nthemselves _through_ human beings. On the other hand, the beings in a\nmid-position between men and angels were still able, in very early\ntimes, to incarnate in human bodies. Hence amongst the human race\ninhabiting the earth in the Lemurian and Atlantean periods, we find\npeople whose innermost soul-nature was that of an angel in a backward\nstate; _i.e._, in the ancient Lemurian and Atlantean periods, there\nwere not only ordinary people going about the earth, who through their\nsuccessive incarnations were to arrive at what corresponds to the ideal\nof humanity, but beings who only outwardly appeared like the others. They\nhad to bear a human body, for the outward form of a human being in the\nflesh is dependent on earthly conditions. Especially in the more ancient\ntimes did it happen that beings belonging to the lowest category of\nLuciferic individualities were present amongst men. And so at the same\ntime when the angel-beings were working on human civilization through\nman, Lucifer-beings were also incarnated and founding human civilizations\nin various places. And when in the old folk-legends it is related that in\nsome place there lived a great man who was the founder of a civilization,\nwe are not to understand that a Lucifer-being was incarnated who must\nnecessarily have been the vehicle of evil, for, on the contrary, human\ncivilization received countless blessings through those beings.\n\nNow it is known through occult science that in ancient times,\nparticularly in the Atlantean period, there existed a kind of primitive\nhuman language, a manner of speech which was similar all over the\nearth, because \u201cspeech\u201d in those days came much more out of the depths\nof the soul than it does now. This may be gathered from the following:\nIn Atlantean times, people felt all outward impressions in such a way\nthat if the soul wished to express anything _outward_ by a sound, it\nwas constrained to use a _consonant_. What therefore existed in space\npressed for imitation in a consonant. The blowing of the wind, the murmur\nof the waves, the shelter given by a house were felt, and imitated by\nman in consonants. On the other hand, the sorrow or joy which was felt\n_inwardly_, or even what in another being might be feeling, was imitated\nin a _vowel_. From this we can see that the soul became one, in speech,\nwith outer events or beings. The following instance is taken from the\nAkashic Records: A man drew near a hut, which was arched in the ancient\nfashion and gave shelter and protection to a family. He noticed this, and\nexpressed the protective arch by a consonant; and by a vowel he expressed\nthe fact, which he was able to _feel_, that within the hut the souls in\nbodies were comfortable. Thence arose the thought, \u201cShelter.\u201d \u201cThere is\na shelter for me,--shelter for human bodies.\u201d The thought was then poured\nforth in consonants and vowels, which could not be otherwise than they\nwere, because they were a direct impression of experience and had but one\nmeaning. This was the same all over the earth. It is no dream that there\nwas once a primitive human root-language. And, in a certain sense, the\ninitiates of all nations are still able to feel that language. Indeed\nthere are in all languages certain similar sounds which are nothing else\nthan the remains of that universal language.\n\nThis speech was prompted in human souls by the inspiration of the\nsuperhuman beings, man\u2019s true predecessors, who had perfected their\nevolution on the Moon. From this it may be seen that if that evolution\nalone had taken place, the entire human race would practically have\nremained one great unity, and there would have been uniformity of speech\nand thought all over the earth. Individuality and diversity could not\nhave been developed, nor at the same time could human freedom. In\norder that man might become individual, cleavages had to take place in\nhumanity, and the difference of language in different parts of the world\nis due to the work of those teachers in whom a Luciferic spirit was\nincarnated. According as a particular angel-being, who had fallen short\nin his evolution, was incarnated in a particular race, was he able to\ninstruct its people in a particular language. Thus the ability to speak\na separate language is, in all races, traceable to the illuminating\npresence of these great beings, who were angels in a backward state and\nstood far above the people of their immediate environment. For instance,\nthe beings described as the original heroes of the Greeks and other\nnations, and who worked in a human form, were those in whom an angel who\nhad fallen short was incarnated. Therefore these beings must by no means\nbe characterized as entirely \u201cevil.\u201d On the contrary, they brought to man\nthat which predestined him to be a free human being all over the globe,\nand they differentiated what otherwise would have constituted a uniform\nwhole everywhere on earth. This is not only true of languages but of many\nother departments of life. Individualization, differentiation,--freedom,\nwe may say, comes from the beings who fell short in their Moon-evolution.\nIt is true that we might say that it was the purpose of the wise\ngovernment of the cosmos to bring all beings in planetary evolution to\ntheir goal, but if this had been done in a direct way, certain things\nwould not have been attained. Certain beings were therefore arrested in\ntheir development because they were to have a special mission in the\nprogress of humanity. Since the beings who had fulfilled their mission\non the Moon would only have been able to educate a uniform human race,\nbeings who had fallen short on the Moon were set over against them, and\nit thereby became possible for these backward ones to turn into good what\nhad been really a fault on their part.\n\nThis opens up the question, why do evil, wickedness, imperfection and\ndisease exist in the world? This problem should be looked at from\nthe point of view from which we have just considered the imperfect\nangel-beings. Everything which at any time exhibits imperfection or\nbackwardness will nevertheless be turned into good in the course of\nevolution. It is of course unnecessary to mention that such a truth as\nthis affords no justification for bad actions on man\u2019s part.\n\nThus we already have an answer to the question, why does a wise\nProvidence allow certain beings to lag behind and not reach their goal?\nThis happens just because there will be good reason for it at the time\nfollowing upon the formation of such a purpose. For it was when nations\nwere not yet able to guide and govern themselves that the teachers\nof particular periods and individuals arose. And all the different\nrace-teachers, Cadmus, Cheops, Pelops, Theseus, etc., are, in one\naspect, angel-beings in the depths of their souls. From this it appears\nthat in this respect also, humanity is really subject to direction and\nguidance.\n\nNow at every stage of evolution there are beings who lag behind and do\nnot attain the possible goal. Let us then look once more at the ancient\nEgyptian civilization, which ran its course thousands of years ago in\nthe Nile valley. Superhuman teachers were manifested to the Egyptians,\nwho said that these teachers guided mankind like gods. At the same time,\nhowever, other beings were also at work, who had only half or partially\nattained the angelic stage. Now we must fully understand that in ancient\nEgypt man reached a definite stage of evolution, _i.e._, that the souls\nof people of the present day had attained a definite stage in the\nEgyptian period. But it is not only man who gains by letting himself be\nguided; the beings also who direct and guide him attain thereby something\nwhich furthers their evolution. For instance, an angel is something\n_more_ after he has guided humanity for a while, than he was before that\nguidance began. His guiding work helps him to progress, and this is true\nnot only of one who has completed his evolution as an angel, but also of\none who has lagged behind. All beings are able continually to advance;\neverything is in a state of perpetual development; but at every stage\nbeings are left behind. Thus, in accordance with what has just been\nsaid, there can be distinguished in the ancient Egyptian civilization\nthe divine leaders or angels, the semi-divine leaders who did not quite\nattain the angelic stage, and the men. But certain beings in the ranks\nof the angels again lag behind, _i.e._, they do not bring all their\npowers into expression when guiding humanity, but remain behind as angels\nduring the ancient Egyptian stage of civilization. Similarly some of the\nincomplete angels lag behind. Thus whilst men below were progressing,\ncertain individuals of the beings above, the dhyanic spirits or angels,\nfell behind in their evolution. When the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic civilization\ncame to an end, and the Graeco-Roman period began, certain guiding\nspirits from the former period, who had fallen behind in their evolution,\nwere present. But they could not use their powers, for other angels or\nhalf-angelic beings had replaced them, and that meant that their own\nevolution was at a standstill.\n\nHence there comes under our notice a category of beings who might have\nused their powers during the Egyptian period, but did not at that time\nuse them fully. In the ensuing Graeco-Roman period they were not able\nto use them, because then they were replaced by other guiding spirits,\nand all the conditions of that time made their intervention impossible.\nBut just as the beings who had not reached the angelic stage on the old\nMoon were afterwards allotted the task of once more actively interposing\nin human evolution during the earth-period, so also the beings who as\nguiding spirits in the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic civilization had stopped short in\ntheir development, afterwards received the mission, as beings who had\nlagged behind, of again intervening in civilization. Thus we shall be\nable to watch a later period of civilization in which beings sent to be\nguides are certainly there to direct the normal progress of evolution,\nbut in which, at the same time, other beings are intervening who were\nleft behind at an earlier stage, and more particularly those who fell\nbehind during the ancient Egyptian period. The civilization to which we\nare referring is our own. We live at a time when, side by side with the\nnormal directors of humanity, others are interposing who were left behind\nin the ancient Egyptian and Chald\u00e6ic period.\n\nNow we have to look upon the evolution of events and beings in such a\nway that occurrences in the physical world must be considered only as\neffects or manifestations, the true causes of which are to be sought in\nthe spiritual world. On the one hand our civilization is in the main\nmarked by an upward movement towards spirituality, and this tendency\nof certain people towards spirituality is the manifestation of the\nspiritual directors of our contemporary humanity, who have attained\ntheir own normal stage of development. In everything which tends to\nlead man up to the great spiritual wisdom-truths transmitted to us by\ntheosophy, these normal guides of our evolution are manifested. But the\nbeings out-distanced during the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic civilization are also\naffecting the tendencies of our age. They are manifested in much that is\nbeing thought and done at the present time, and will again be manifested\nin what lies in the near future. They are revealed in everything which\ngives a materialistic stamp to our civilization, and may often be seen\neven in aspirations after spiritual things. In our age we are virtually\nexperiencing a revival of Egyptian civilization. The beings who are to\nbe looked upon as the invisible directors of what takes place in the\nphysical world, fall accordingly into two classes. The first includes\nthose spiritual individualities who have passed through their own normal\ncourse of development up to the present time. Hence they were able to\ninterpose in the guidance of our civilization, whilst the directors of\nthe preceding Graeco-Roman period were gradually finishing their task\nof guiding civilization during the first thousand years of Christianity.\nThe second class, who work simultaneously with the first class of beings,\nare spiritual individualities who did not complete their evolution\nduring the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic civilization. They were obliged to remain\ninactive during the ensuing Graeco-Roman period, but are now able to\nresume their activity because our present age has points of resemblance\nto the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic period. It thus comes about that many things\narise in contemporary humanity which look like a revival of ancient\nEgyptian forces, but there is also much which is like a materialistic\nresuscitation of forces which then worked spiritually. To illustrate\nthis, we may point to an example of the way in which ancient Egyptian\nknowledge has been revived in our days.\n\nLet us think of Kepler. He was quite possessed by the feeling of the\nharmony of the cosmos, and this idea was expressed in his important\nmathematical laws of the mechanism of the heavens, the so-called laws of\nKepler. These are outwardly very dry and abstruse, but in Kepler they\nwere the outcome of an understanding of the harmony of the universe. We\nmay read in Kepler\u2019s writings that in order to discover what he did,\nhe was obliged to go to the sacred Egyptian mysteries, purloin their\ntemple-vessels, and by this means bring knowledge into the world, the\nimportance of which to humanity would only be known in later times.\n\nThis utterance of Kepler\u2019s is by no means an empty phrase, but contains\na dim consciousness of a revival of what he had learned in the Egyptian\nperiod, during a former incarnation. We may certainly entertain the\nidea that Kepler assimilated the ancient Egyptian wisdom during one of\nhis previous lives, and that it reappears in his soul in a new form,\nadapted to a later age. That a materialistic impulse should enter our\ncivilization through the Egyptian spirit is quite intelligible, for\nEgyptian spirituality was wrapped in a vigorous materialism, which found\nexpression, for instance, in their embalming the physical bodies of the\ndead. This meant that they attached value to the preservation of the\nphysical body. This has come down to us from the Egyptian period in a\ndifferent form, but in one corresponding to our time. The same forces\nwhich had not then run their course, affect our age, but in a different\nway. The temper of mind which embalmed dead bodies gave rise to that\nwhich idolizes the merely material. The Egyptian embalmed dead bodies\nand thereby preserved what he accounted valuable. He thought that the\ndevelopment of the soul after death was connected with the preservation\nof the physical, material body. The modern anatomist dissects what he\nsees, and thinks that in this way he understands the laws of the human\norganism. Thus in our modern science there are living the forces of\nthe ancient Egyptian and Chald\u00e6ic world, which then were progressive\nforces, but which now represent what has lagged behind, and which must\nbe recognized for what they are, if a correct estimate is to be formed\nof the character of the present time. These forces will injure a man of\nthe present day if he does not know their real significance. He will take\nno harm from them, but will turn them to good account, if he knows their\neffect and thereby brings himself into the right relation to them. They\nhave their value, for without them we should not have the present great\nachievements in technique, industries, etc. They are forces belonging to\nLuciferic beings of the lowest stage, and the danger lies in the fact\nthat if they are not recognized aright, the materialistic impulses of\nthe present time are thought to be the only possible ones, and the other\nforces, which lead up to the spiritual world, are not seen. For this\nreason any clear diagnosis is certain to discern two currents of thought\nin the present age.\n\nNow if a wise Providence had not allowed certain beings in the\nEgypto-Chald\u00e6ic period to fall short in their evolution, our contemporary\ncivilization would have been wanting in necessary weight. In that\ncase only those forces would be operative which would bring man into\nthe spiritual world by main force. People would be only too ready to\nyield themselves up to those forces, and would become dreamers. The\nonly life they would wish to know about would be one which is being\nspiritualized as fast as possible, and their standard of action would\nbe a view of life which showed a certain degree of contempt for what is\nphysical and material. But the present epoch of civilization can only\nfulfill its mission if the forces of the material world are brought\nto the fullest perfection, and if thus by degrees their sphere too is\nwon for spirituality. Just as the fairest things may become corrupters\nand tempters of mankind if pursued in a one-sided way, so if this\none-sidedness took root, there would be great danger that all kinds of\ngood efforts would come into manifestation as fanaticism. True though\nit is that humanity is helped forward by its noble impulses it is also\ntrue that wild and fanatical advocacy of the noblest impulses may bring\nabout the worst of results as far as true evolution is concerned. Only\nwhen people strive after the highest modestly and sensibly, not out of\nwild fanaticism, can anything beneficial to the progress of humanity take\nplace. In order that the work done on earth at the present day may have\nthe necessary weight, and that material beings of the physical plane may\nbe understood, the wisdom which directs the government of the world left\nthose forces behind which would normally have completed their evolution\nduring the Egyptian period; and it is they who are now directing man\u2019s\nattention to physical life.\n\nIt is obvious from the foregoing that evolution takes place under the\ninfluence both of normally progressive beings and of those who lag\nbehind. Clairvoyant vision is able to trace the co-operation of both\nclasses of beings in the supersensible world, and hence is able to\ncomprehend the spiritual events of which the physical facts surrounding\nhumanity are the manifestations.\n\nWe observe that, in order to understand cosmic events, it is not enough\nto have spiritual eyes and ears opened to the spiritual world by some\nkind of exercise. This only means that we _see_ what is there, that we\nare cognizant of spiritual beings and know that they are entities of\nthe soul-world or spirit-sphere. But it is also necessary to recognize\nwhat kinds of beings they are. We may meet some being of the soul or\nspirit world, but we do not necessarily know whether it is progressing\nin its evolution, or whether it belongs to the category of powers that\nhave lagged behind; whether therefore it is pushing evolution onwards,\nor hindering it. Those people who acquire clairvoyant faculties and do\nnot at the same time gain complete understanding of the conditions of\nhuman evolution which we have described may know absolutely nothing\nof the nature of the beings whom they meet. Mere clairvoyance must be\nsupplemented by clear judgment of what is seen in the supersensible\nworld. There is urgent necessity for this especially in our own time, but\nit had not always to be so much considered. If we go back to very ancient\ncivilizations, we find different conditions. If in the most ancient\nEgyptian times a person was clairvoyant, and was confronted with a being\nfrom the supersensible world, the latter had, as it were, written on his\nforehead who he was. The clairvoyant could not mistake him. Now, however,\nthe possibility of misunderstanding is very great. Whereas humanity\nin early times still stood very near the kingdom of the spiritual\nhierarchies and could see what beings it was meeting, it is now very easy\nto be mistaken, and the only protection against being severely injured is\nthe effort to gain ideas and conceptions like those indicated above.\n\nA person who is able to look into the spiritual world is called\nesoterically a \u201cclairvoyant,\u201d but merely to be clairvoyant is not\nenough, for such a man might be able to see well enough but not able to\ndiscriminate. He who has acquired the faculty of distinguishing one from\nanother the beings and events of higher worlds, is called an \u201cInitiate.\u201d\nInitiation brings with it the possibility of distinguishing between\ndifferent kinds of beings. Thus it is possible to be clairvoyant in the\nhigher worlds without being an Initiate. In ancient times distinguishing\nbetween spirits was not specially important, for when the ancient occult\nschools had brought a pupil so far as clairvoyance, there was no great\ndanger of error. Now, however, this danger exists to a high degree.\nTherefore in all esoteric training, care should be taken that initiation\nshould be acquired in condition to clairvoyance. In proportion to the\nextent of his clairvoyance must a man become capable of distinguishing\nbetween the various kinds of supersensible beings and events.\n\nIn modern times the powers guiding humanity are faced by the special task\nof bringing about a balance between the two principles of clairvoyance\nand initiation. Leaders of spiritual training had necessarily to pay\nattention to this at the beginning of the modern era. Therefore the\nesoteric spiritual movement which is adapted to present conditions,\nalways makes a point of maintaining the right proportion between\nclairvoyance and initiation. This became necessary at the time when\nmankind was passing through a crisis with regard to its higher knowledge.\nThat time was the thirteenth century. About the year 1250 was the point\nof time when mankind felt itself most shut out from the spiritual world.\nA clairvoyant looking back upon that period sees the following: The most\neminent minds of that time who were striving after some kind of higher\nknowledge, could only say to themselves, \u201cWhat our reason, our intellect,\nour spiritual knowledge are able to find out is limited to the physical\nworld around us. With all our human endeavor and power of perception,\nwe cannot reach a spiritual world. We only know of it by accepting the\ninformation concerning it which our forefathers bequeathed us.\u201d This was\nthe time when direct view of the higher worlds was obscured. That this\ncan be said of the era in which scholasticism flourished, is not without\nsignificance.\n\nAbout the year 1250 was the time when men were compelled to fix a\nboundary between what they were able to apprehend for themselves,\nand what they had to believe from the impression made upon them by\nthe traditions which had been handed down. What they could find out\nfor themselves then became limited to the physical world of sense.\nAfterwards, however, came the time when there was more and more\npossibility of again winning a view of the spiritual world. But the\nnew clairvoyance was of a different kind from the old, which virtually\nbecame extinct just about the year 1250. In the new form of clairvoyance,\nwestern esotericism was obliged strictly to uphold the principle that\ninitiation must be the guide of spiritual sight and hearing. This was\nthe special task assigned to an esoteric current which then entered the\nstream of European civilization. As the year 1250 drew near there arose a\nnew kind of guidance into the supersensible worlds.\n\nThis guidance was prepared by the spirits then standing behind outer\nhistorical events, who centuries before had provided for the kind of\nesoteric training which would be rendered necessary by the conditions\nprevailing in 1250. If the term \u201cmodern esotericism\u201d be not misused,\nit may be applied to the spiritual work of those very highly evolved\npersonalities. External history knows nothing of them, but what they did\nis apparent in every form of civilization which has developed since the\nthirteenth century.\n\nThe importance of the year 1250 for the spiritual evolution of humanity\nis specially apparent if we look at the result of clairvoyant research\ngiven in the following fact: Even those individualities who had attained\nhigh stages of spiritual development, in previous incarnations, and who\nwere reincarnated about 1250, were compelled for a while to undergo a\ncomplete clouding over of their direct view of the spiritual world.\nQuite enlightened individuals were as though cut off from the spiritual\nworld, and their only knowledge of it was through their remembrance of\nearlier incarnations. Thus we see how necessary it was that from that\ntime onwards a new element should be brought into the spiritual guidance\nof humanity. This element was true modern esotericism. By its means it is\nfor the first time possible rightly to understand how that which we call\nthe \u201cChrist-impulse\u201d may intervene to guide the whole of mankind and the\nindividual also, in all possible eventualities.\n\nBetween the accomplishment of the Mystery of Golgotha and the beginnings\nof modern esotericism, lies the first period of the working of the\nChrist-principle in human souls. During that period, people received\nChrist to a certain degree unconsciously as far as their higher\nspirit-forces were concerned, and this caused them afterwards, when\nthey were obliged to receive them consciously, to make all kinds of\nmistakes, and to lose themselves in a maze instead of understanding\nChrist. In primitive Christian times we may trace the adoption of the\nChrist-principle by the lower soul-forces. Then came a new period, in\nwhich mankind of to-day is still living. Indeed, in a certain respect,\npeople are only now beginning to understand the Christ principle with\nthe higher faculties of their souls. In the further course of this work\nit will be shown that the decline of supersensible knowledge down to the\nthirteenth century, and on the other hand its slow revival since that\ntime, coincide with the interposition of the Christ-impulse in human\nevolution.\n\nWe may therefore take modern esotericism to mean the raising of the\nChrist-impulse to be the motive power in the guidance of souls desiring\nto work their way to a knowledge of higher worlds, in accordance with the\nevolutionary conditions of modern times.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE III.\n\n\nIn accordance with what has been said in the preceding chapters, the\nspiritual guidance of the course of human evolution may be sought for\namong those beings who went through their stage of humanity during the\nprevious embodiment of the Earth-planet, _i.e._, during the ancient Moon\nperiod. This guidance stood contrasted with another which checked, and\nyet in a certain sense furthered, whilst checking the first, and which\nwas carried out by those beings who had not completed their own evolution\nduring the Moon-period. Reference is made in both these cases to those\nguiding beings immediately above man--to those who lead humanity forward,\nand to those who provoke resistance, thereby strengthening and confirming\nthe forces arising through the progressive beings, by bestowing on them\nbalance and individuality. In Christian Esotericism, these two classes of\nsuperhuman beings are called Angels (Angeloi). Above these beings in an\nascending order, stand those of the higher hierarchies, the Archangels,\nthe Archai, etc., who likewise take part in the guidance of humanity.\n\nWithin the ranks of these different beings there are all possible\ngradations in regard to perfection. In the category of the Angels there\nare at the beginning of the present Earth-evolution, some standing\nhigh and others less developed. The former have progressed far beyond\nthe minimum of their Moon-development. Between these and those who had\njust reached this minimum when the Moon-evolution had come to an end,\nand the Earth-evolution had begun, there are all possible gradations.\nConformably with this gradation of rank, the beings in question entered\nduring the Earth-period upon the leadership of human evolution. Thus the\nevolution of the Egyptian civilization was effected under the guidance\nof beings who had become more perfected on the Moon than those who were\nthe leaders of the Graeco-Roman period, and these again were more perfect\nthan those who have the leadership at the present time. In the Egyptian\nas also in the Greek Period, those who later on assumed the direction,\nwere meanwhile developing, and making themselves ready to guide the\ncivilization of later periods.\n\nSince the time of the great Atlantean catastrophe, seven consecutive\nepochs of civilization have to be differentiated; the first is the\nancient Indian epoch, and it is followed by the ancient Persian.[2]\nThe third is the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic, the fourth is the Graeco-Roman,\nand the fifth is our own, which, since about the twelfth century, has\nbeen gradually developing and in which we are still living. And as the\nseparate periods overlap, we see already in our times those early events\npreparing which will lead over into the sixth post-Atlantean epoch. And a\nseventh epoch will succeed the sixth in due course. On closer observation\nwe find the following evidence with regard to the guidance of mankind.\nIt was during the third epoch of civilization, the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic, that\nthe Angels (or lower dhyanic beings according to Oriental mysticism)\nwere to some extent independent leaders of humanity. They were not so\nduring the ancient Persian civilization. For then they were subject to\na higher direction in a much greater degree than in the Egyptian times,\nand had to regulate everything in conformity with the impulses of the\nhierarchies immediately above them. In this way everything was under the\nimmediate guidance of the Angels, but these themselves submitted to the\nrulership of the Archangels. And in the Indian epoch when post-Atlantean\nlife had reached such a height in spiritual matters as has never been\nattained since--a natural height under the direction of great human\nteachers--then the Archangels themselves were subject in a similar sense\nto the guidance of the Archai or Primal Powers. Thus if we trace the\nevolution of humanity from the Indian epoch through the ancient Persian\nand Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic civilization, we may say that certain beings of the\nhigher hierarchies withdrew as it were, ever more and more from the\ndirect guidance of humanity. And in the fourth post-Atlantean period of\ncivilization, _i.e._, the Graeco-Roman epoch, man had become in a certain\nsense quite independent. The guiding superhuman beings were certainly\nintervening to develop humanity, but only in such a way that the reins\nwere tightened as little as possible, and also that the spiritual leaders\nthemselves might profit as much through the deeds of men as men profited\nthrough them. Hence arose that peculiar and quite \u201chuman\u201d civilization in\nthe Graeco-Roman time in which man was made to rely entirely on himself.\nFor all the distinctive characteristics of Art and political life in\nGreek and Roman times are traceable to the fact that man had to live out\nhis own life in his own way.\n\nSo, when we look back to the most ancient times of civilization, we then\nfind evolution guided by beings who had accomplished their evolution\nas far as the human stage, in earlier planetary conditions. But the\nfourth post-Atlantean period of civilization was intended as a time\nwhen man should be put to the test as much as possible, and consequently\nwas the time when the whole spiritual guidance of humanity had to be\nre-organized. We are now living in the fifth post-Atlantean period of\ncivilization. The leading beings of this period belong to the same\nhierarchy as that which ruled the ancient Egyptians and Chald\u00e6ans. In\nfact those beings who then took the lead, have again begun to be active\nin our times, for it has been stated that certain beings remained behind\nduring the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic civilization, and that these are to be found\nmanifested in the materialistic feelings and perceptions of our own\nperiod.\n\nNow the progress made by the beings of each class of Angels or lower\ndhyanic beings--the class which leads mankind forward and the class which\nobstructs--consists in their being able to be leaders among the Egyptians\nand Chald\u00e6ans by means of those qualities which they had acquired in\nprimordial times, and which they had further developed by their work as\nleaders. Thus the progressive Angels are intervening to guide the fifth\npost-Atlantean civilization by means of capacities which they themselves\nhad won during the third or Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic civilization. Through the\nprogress they make they are acquiring for themselves quite special\ncapabilities, for they are qualifying themselves to receive the influx\nof forces emanating from the most important Being in the whole evolution\nof the Earth. The power of the Christ is working in them; for that power\nworks not only on the physical world through Jesus of Nazareth--but also\nin the spiritual worlds upon the superhuman beings. The Christ exists\nnot only for the earth but also for these other beings. The beings who\nguided the old Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic civilization were not at that time under\nthe direction of the Christ, but have only placed themselves under His\nguidance since. And their progress consists in their following Him in the\nhigher worlds, so that they may guide our fifth post-Atlantean period of\ncivilization in accordance with His influence. And the remaining behind\nof those beings of whom it has been said that they operate as obstructive\npowers, is due to their not having put themselves under the leadership of\nthe Christ, and thus they continue to work independently of Him. Hence\nthe following state of things will become more and more evident in human\nevolution: There will be a materialistic movement under the guidance\nof the backward Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic spirits. It will have a materialistic\ncharacter, and the greater part of what in all countries, may be called\ncontemporary materialistic science is under this influence. There\nare, for example, people to-day who say that our earth in its primary\norigin consisted of atoms. Who instils this thought into men\u2019s minds?\nIt is the superhuman angel beings who had remained behind during the\nEgypto-Chald\u00e6ic period. But, side by side with this movement, there\nis another making itself felt, the one which has as its goal that man\nshall eventually find in all that he does, that which may be called the\nChrist-principle.\n\nNow what will those beings teach who attained their goal in the old\nEgypto-Chald\u00e6ic sphere of civilization, and who then learned to know\nthe Christ? They will be able to instill into man other thoughts than\nthat there are only material atoms; for they will be able to teach that,\neven to the minutest particle of the world, the substance is permeated\nwith the Spirit of the Christ. And, strange as it may seem, there will\nbe in the future, chemists and physicists who will not teach chemistry\nand physics as they are now taught under the influence of the backward\nEgypto-Chald\u00e6ic spirits; but who will teach that \u201cMatter is built up\nin the way in which the Christ gradually ordained it.\u201d The Christ will\nbe found working even in the very laws of chemistry and physics. It is\na spiritual chemistry, and spiritual physics that will come in the\nfuture. To-day such a statement appears certainly to many people as\nsomething fanciful or worse than that, but in many cases the sense of the\nfuture is folly to the past. The factors which in this sense enter into\nthe evolution of human civilization are already there for the careful\nobserver; but such an one will know quite well the objections which may,\nwith apparent justice, be urged against such alleged folly from the\nmodern scientific or philosophic point of view.\n\nFrom such hypotheses we are able to understand what advantage the guiding\nsuperhuman beings have compared with man. Humanity learned to know Christ\nin the fourth civilization period of the post-Atlantean times, _i.e._,\nin the Graeco-Roman epoch, for it was in the course of this civilization\nthat the Christ-event found its place in evolution, and it was then\nthat man learned to know the Christ. The guiding superhuman beings,\nhowever, learned to know Him during the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic times, and worked\nthemselves up to Him. Then during the Graeco-Roman civilization they had\nto leave man to his own fate in order that, later on, they might re-enter\nthe sphere of human evolution. And if nowadays theosophy is cultivated,\nthat signifies nothing else than a recognition of the fact that the\nsuperhuman beings who formerly guided humanity are now continuing their\ntask as leaders in such a way as to be under the direct guidance of the\nChrist themselves. Thus it is with other beings also.\n\nIn the ancient Persian epoch, the leadership of humanity was apportioned\nto the Archangels. They put themselves under the direction of the Christ\nearlier than did the beings in the rank next below them. Of Zarathustra\nit can be said that pointing to the sun, he spoke to his followers and\nhis people in some such words as these: \u201cIn the sun there lives the\ngreat Spirit Ahura Mazdao, who will one day come down to the earth.\u201d For\nthe beings out of the region of the Archangels who guided Zarathustra,\npointed to the great sun-leader, who had not at that time come down upon\nthe earth, but had only begun his journey thither in order, later on,\nto enter directly into the earth evolution. And the guiding beings who\ndirected the great teachers of the Indians, also pointed these to the\nChrist of the future; for it is a mistake to think that these teachers\nhad no foreknowledge of the Christ. They said that He was \u201cbeyond their\nsphere\u201d and that they \u201ccould not attain\u201d unto Him.\n\nAs now in our fifth period of civilization, it is the Angels who bring\ndown the Christ into our spiritual evolution, so the sixth period of\ncivilization will be directed by beings who belong to the ranks of the\nArchangels who guided the ancient Persian civilization. And spirits of\nPersonality--the Primal Powers--or Archai--who guided humanity during the\nancient Indian epoch will have to guide humanity in the seventh period\nof civilization. In the Graeco-Roman period, the Christ descended from\nthe heights of the spirit-world and revealed Himself in the physical body\nof Jesus of Nazareth. He then came down as far as the physical world. It\nwill be possible to find Him in the world immediately above ours when\nhumanity shall have become sufficiently ripe. It will not be possible\nin the future to find Him in the physical world, but only in the world\nimmediately above, for human beings will not always remain the same; they\nwill become more mature, and will then find the Christ in the spiritual\nworld, as Paul found Him in his experience before Damascus, which event\nprophetically foreshadowed the future means of finding the Christ. And\nsince in our times the same great teachers who have already guided\nmankind through the Egyptian Civilization are working, so also in the\ntwentieth century it will be these same teachers who will lead men out\nto behold the Christ as Paul beheld Him. They will show mankind how the\nChrist not only works upon the earth, but how He spiritualizes the whole\nsolar system. And those who will be the reincarnated holy teachers of\nIndia in the seventh period of civilization will proclaim the Spirit Who\nwas foreshadowed through the undivided Brahma, to whom however the right\ncontent and meaning could only be given through the Christ, as the great,\nthe immense Spirit, of Whom they formerly said that He hovered above\ntheir sphere. Thus will humanity be led upwards from stage to stage into\nthe spiritual world.\n\nTo speak in this way about the Christ--how He is the leader of the higher\nhierarchies also in the successive worlds, is to teach the science which,\nunder the title of modern esotericism, has endured into our civilization\nsince the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and which, as has been shown,\nhad from that time become necessary. If from this aspect we observe more\nclosely the Being Who lived in Palestine, and Who consummated the Mystery\nof Golgotha, then we find the following:\n\nUp to the present time many ideas concerning the Christ have found\nexpression. There was for instance the idea of certain Christian Gnostics\nin the first centuries, who said that the Christ Who lives in Palestine\nwas not present in any physical body of flesh at all; that He had only an\napparent body--an etheric body which had become physically visible; so\nthat His death on the Cross had been no real death but only an apparent\none, for the very reason that only an etheric body was present. Then we\nfind the various disputes among those who professed Christianity, as for\nexample, the well-known controversy between the Arians and Athenatians,\netc., and the most varied explanations concerning what the Christ really\nwas. And indeed right up to our own times people express and have\nexpressed the most varied ideas concerning the Christ.\n\nNow spiritual science must recognize in Christ not merely an earthly but\nalso a _cosmic_ Being. In a certain sense man is, taken as a whole, a\ncosmic being. He lives a twofold life--one in a physical body from birth\nto death, another in the spiritual worlds between death and a new birth.\nWhen he is incarnated in a physical body, he is living in dependence on\nthe earth, because the physical body is restricted by the forces and\nconditions of existence belonging to the earth. A man, however, does not\nonly take the substances and forces of the earth into himself, but is\njoined to the whole of the earth\u2019s organism. When he has passed through\nthe gate of death, he does not any longer belong to the forces of the\nearth; but it would be incorrect to imagine that he then belongs to no\nforces at all, for he is then connected with the forces of the solar\nsystem and the more distant star-systems. In this way, between death\nand a new birth, he lives in the domain of the cosmic, just as in the\nperiod between birth and death he lived in the domain of the earthly.\nFrom death to a new birth he belongs to the cosmos, as on the earth he\nbelongs to the elements--Air, Water, and Earth. Accordingly, while he\nis passing through a life between death and a new birth, he comes into\nthe region of cosmic influences, for the planets send forth not merely\nthe physical forces of what astronomy teaches, such as gravitation and\nothers, but also spiritual forces, and with these spiritual powers of the\ncosmos man is connected--each person in a special manner according to\nhis own individuality. If he is born in Europe, he lives in a different\nrelation to warmth conditions, etc., than if he had been born, let us\nsay, in Australia. Similarly, during his life between death and a new\nbirth, one person may stand more closely related to the spiritual powers\nof Mars, another to those of Jupiter, others again to those of the whole\nplanetary system in general, and so on. It is also these forces which\nbring man back again to the earth. Thus before he is born he is living in\nconnection with the collective whole of stellar space.\n\nAccording to the way in which a man stands individually related to the\ncosmic system, so are the forces directed which lead him to this or that\nset of parents and to this or that locality. The impetus, the inclination\nto incarnate here or there, in this or that family, in this or that\npeople, at this or that time, depends on how the person was organically\nconnected with the cosmic before birth. In former times, in that\nterritory where the German tongue was spoken, a specially apt expression\nwas used whereby to indicate a person\u2019s entrance into the world through\nbirth. When a person was born, people said that in such and such a place\nhe had \u201cbecome young\u201d (jung-geworden). Therein lies an unconscious\nreference to the fact that man in the time between death and a new birth\ncontinues at first to be subject to the powers which had made him old in\na previous incarnation, but that before birth there come in their place\nsuch forces as again make him \u201cyoung.\u201d Thus Goethe in \u201cFaust\u201d still uses\nthe expression \u201cto become young in Nebelland\u201d--Nebelland being the old\nname for medi\u00e6val Germany.\n\nThe truth underlying the casting of a horoscope is that those who know\nthese things can read the forces which determine a person\u2019s physical\nexistence. A certain horoscope is allotted to a person because, within\nit, those forces find expression which have led him into being. If,\nfor example, in the horoscope, Mars stands over Aries (the Ram) that\nsignifies that certain of the Aries forces are not allowed to pass\nthrough Mars--and are weakened. Thus is a man put into his place within\nphysical existence, and it is in accordance with his horoscope that he\nguides himself before entering upon earthly existence. This subject,\nwhich in our times seems so much a thing of chance should not be\ntouched upon without our attention being called to the fact that nearly\neverything practiced in this connection to-day is simply dilettantism--a\npure superstition--and that for the external world the true science of\nthese matters has been for the most part completely lost. Consequently,\nthe principal things which have been said here are not to be judged\naccording to that which nowadays frequently leads a questionable\nexistence under the name of Astrology.\n\nNow it is the active forces of the stellar world that impel man into\nphysical incarnation; and when clairvoyant consciousness observes a\nperson, it can perceive in his organization how this has resulted from\nthe co-operation of cosmic forces. We may now attempt to illustrate this\nhypothetically, but in a form corresponding entirely with clairvoyant\nobservations: If a person\u2019s physical brain were extracted and its\nconstruction clairvoyantly examined, so that it might be seen how certain\nparts are situated in certain places, and send out appendages, it would\nbe found that the brain of each individual is different. No two people\nhave brains alike. Then let us imagine further that this brain could be\nphotographed in its complete structure so that one would have a kind\nof half-sphere in which every detail was visible, then this would make\na different picture in the case of each person. And if one were to\nphotograph a person\u2019s brain at the moment of birth and then photograph\nalso the heavens lying exactly over the person\u2019s birthplace, then this\nlatter picture would be of exactly the same appearance as that of the\nhuman brain.\n\nAs certain centres were arranged in the latter, so would the stars be\nin the photograph of the heavens. Man has within himself a picture of\nthe heavens, and every man has a different one, according to whether he\nwas born in this place or that, and at this or that time. This is one\nindication that man is born from out of the whole cosmos.\n\nWhen we keep this clearly in view we can rise to the idea of how the\nmacrocosm manifests itself in each separate individual, and then,\nstarting from this point, we can attain a conception of how it showed\nitself in the Christ. But if we were to imagine the Christ _after_ the\nBaptism of John as though the macrocosm had then been living in Him in\nthe same way as in other people, we should be mistaken.\n\nLet us first consider Jesus of Nazareth: His conditions of existence\nwere quite exceptional. At the beginning of our era _two_ boys were born\nand named Jesus. The one came through the Nathan line of the house of\nDavid, and the other through the Solomon line of the same house. These\ntwo children were not born quite at the same time, but nearly so. In\nthe Jesus descended from Solomon, Who is described in the Gospel of St.\nMatthew, there was incarnated the same individuality who had formerly\nlived on the earth as Zarathustra, so that in this Child Jesus there\nappears the reincarnated Zarathustra or Zoroaster. The individuality\nof Zarathustra grew up in this Child until, as St. Matthew says, His\ntwelfth year. In that year, Zarathustra left the body of this Child and\npassed over into that of the other Child Jesus Whom the Gospel of St.\nLuke describes. In consequence of this the latter child became suddenly\nquite different. The parents were astonished when they found Him in\nJerusalem in the temple after the spirit of Zarathustra had entered into\nHim. This is intimated when it is said that the Child after having been\nlost and found again in the temple, so spake that his parents did not\nrecognize Him. They only knew Him--the Child descended from Nathan as\nHe had been before up to this time. But when He began to reason with\nthe doctors in the temple, it was possible for Him to speak as He did\nbecause the spirit of Zarathustra had come into Him. Until the thirtieth\nyear did the spirit of Zarathustra live in the Jesus who was descended\nfrom the Nathan line of the house of David. In this body He ripened to a\nstill higher perfection. The remark must here be added that as regards\nthis personality in which the spirit of Zarathustra _now_ lived, an\nextraordinary feature was, that from the spiritual worlds the Buddha\nrayed forth his impulses into its astral body.\n\nThe oriental tradition is correct which says that the Buddha was born as\na \u201cBodhisatva,\u201d and only during his time on earth, in his twenty-ninth\nyear, rose to the dignity of a Buddha. When the Gautama Buddha was a\nlittle child, the Indian sage Asita came weeping into the royal palace\nof his father, Suddhodana. He wept because, as a seer, he knew that\nthis King\u2019s son would become the Buddha, and because as an old man, he\nfelt that he would no longer be living to see that event take place.\nNow this sage was born again in the time of Jesus of Nazareth. It is he\nwho is brought before us in the Gospel of St. Luke as the priest of the\ntemple who saw the revelation of the Buddha in the Child Jesus descended\nfrom Nathan. And seeing this he was able to say: \u201cLord, now lettest Thou\nThy servant depart in peace for I have seen my Master.\u201d What he had not\nbeen able to see previously in India, he saw through the astral body of\nthe Boy Jesus, Who comes before us in St. Luke\u2019s Gospel, the Bodhisatva\nbecome a Buddha.\n\nAll this was necessary in order that that body might be produced which\nreceived the baptism of St. John in the Jordan. At that moment the\nindividuality of Zarathustra left the threefold body, the physical,\nthe etheric and the astral body of that Jesus Who had grown up in so\ncomplicated a manner, in order that the spirit of Zarathustra might be\nable to dwell in Him. Through two possibilities of development which\nwere given in the two Jesus-Children, the reincarnated Zarathustra had\nto pass, and thus there stood before the Baptist the body of Jesus\nof Nazareth and in it from that time onwards there acted the cosmic\nindividuality of the Christ. Now, as we have shown, in the case of any\nother human being, the cosmic spiritual laws work upon him only in so far\nthat they give him a start in earth-life. Afterwards there appear in\nopposition to these laws, others which arise out of the conditions of the\nearth-evolution. In the case of the Christ Jesus, after the baptism of\nJohn the cosmic-spiritual forces alone remained effective without being\ninfluenced in any way through the laws of the earth evolution.\n\nThus in Palestine during the time that Jesus of Nazareth walked on\nearth as Christ-Jesus,--during the three last years of his life, from\nhis thirtieth to his thirty-third year, the entire Being of the cosmic\nChrist was acting uninterruptedly upon Him, and was working into Him.\nThe Christ stood always under the influence of the entire cosmos--He\nmade no step without this working of the cosmic forces into and in\nHim. That which here took place in Jesus of Nazareth was a continual\nrealization of the horoscope, for at every moment there occurred that\nwhich otherwise happens only at a person\u2019s birth. This could be so only\nbecause the whole body of Jesus descended from Nathan had remained open\nto the influence of the sum total of the forces of the cosmic spiritual\nhierarchies which direct our earth. If thus the whole spirit of the\ncosmos worked into the Christ Jesus, who was it that went, for example,\nto Capernaum or anywhere else? He who went about as a being upon the\nearth appeared quite like any other man. The forces active within Him,\nhowever, were the cosmic forces, coming from the sun and stars; and these\ndirected His body. And it was always in accordance with the collective\nBeing of the whole Universe with whom the earth is in harmony, that all\nwhich the Christ Jesus did took place. It is because of this that in\nthe case of the acts of the Christ Jesus there is so often some slight\nhint given in the Gospels, about the relative grouping of the stars at\nthe time. We read in St. John\u2019s Gospel how the Christ finds His first\ndisciples. There we are told: \u201cIt was about the tenth hour,\u201d because in\nthis fact the spirit of the whole cosmos found expression in conformity\nwith the appointed moment of time. Such intimations are less clear in\nthe other Gospel passages, but he who can truly read the Gospel finds\nthem everywhere. From this point of view also the miracles are to be\njudged. Let us take one passage,--The one that runs thus: \u201cWhen the sun\nwas set, they brought the sick unto Him, and He healed them.\u201d What does\nthat mean? The evangelist is drawing attention to the fact that this\nhealing was connected with the whole position of the constellations, and\nthat at the time in question, the constellations throughout the heavens\nstood in such a way as could only have happened when the sun had set.\nThe meaning of that, at the time, the requisite healing forces could make\nthemselves felt after sun-set, and the Christ Jesus is represented as the\nintermediary Who brought the sick into connection with the forces of the\ncosmos which, just at that time could work curatively. These forces were\nthe same as those which worked as Christ in Jesus. It was through the\npresence of Christ that the healing took place, because in consequence\nof the same, the sick person was exposed to the healing forces of the\nCosmos which could only work as they did when they were in the right\nrelationship to time and space. Thus these forces worked on the sick\nperson through their representative the Christ. But it was only just\nduring the time of Christ on earth that they could so work. It was only\nthen that such a connection existed between the cosmic constellations and\nthe powers of the human organism, that for certain illnesses, healing\ncould intervene when through the instrumentality of the Christ Jesus, the\ncosmic grouping of the same forces was able to work on men. A repetition\nof this relationship in the evolution of the cosmos and the earth is\nas little possible as is a second incarnation of the Christ in a human\nbody. Regarded in this way, the life of the Christ Jesus appears as the\nearthly expression of a definite connection between the cosmos and the\nforces of man. The tarrying of a sick person by the side of Christ means\nthat through the proximity of Christ, this sick person found himself in\nsuch a relation with the macrocosm that the latter could work upon him\ncuratively.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTherewith the points of view have been specified which enable us to\ndiscern how the guidance of humanity has come under the influence of\nthe Christ. The other forces, however, which had remained behind in the\nEgypto-Chald\u00e6ic times worked further side by side with those that are\npermeated by the Christ. This is evident even in the attitude frequently\nadopted to-day towards the Gospels. Literary works appear in which great\npains are taken to show that the Gospels can be understood through an\nastrological interpretation. The greatest opponents of the Gospels\nemploy this astrological interpretation in such a manner that, the way,\nfor example, taken by the Archangel Gabriel from Elizabeth to Mary is\nsupposed to signify nothing more than the progress of the sun from the\nconstellation of Virgo to another. This, in a certain sense, is correct,\nexcept that these thoughts were poured in this manner into our age by the\nbeings who had remained behind during the Egypto-Chald\u00e6ic Period. Under\nsuch an influence people are induced to a make-belief that the Gospels\npresent only allegories in the place of definite cosmic relations. The\ntruth really is, that in the Christ the whole cosmos finds expression\nand therefore one can express the life of the Christ by connecting its\nseparate events with the cosmic relations which work into Earth existence\nunceasingly _through the Christ_. A right understanding of this matter\nwill thus lead to a full recognition of the Christ, as having lived on\nearth, whereas the above mentioned error, if it were true, would mean\nthat the Christ life in the Gospels is expressed by cosmic constellation\nand shows that it was only a matter of constellations being treated\nallegorically, and that there was no real earthly Christ at all.\n\nIf a comparison were to be used, we might think of each human being as\nrepresented by a spherical mirror--which, if it were set up, would give\npictures of all its surroundings. Let us suppose we were to trace with a\npencil the outline of all that is shown from the surroundings. We could\nthen take the mirror and carry the picture about with us wherever we\nwent. Let this be a symbol for the fact that when a person is born, he\nbrings with him a copy of the cosmos in himself, and afterwards carries\nabout with him all through his life the effect of this one picture. The\nmirror might, however, be left untouched by the pencil, so that wherever\nthe person carried it, it would depict the immediate surroundings. It\nthen would always be giving a picture of the collective environment. This\nwould be a symbol of the Christ from the baptism by St. John up to the\nmystery of Golgotha. That which, in the case of any other person, passes\ninto his earthly existence at birth only flowed into the Christ-Jesus\nat every moment. And when the mystery of Golgotha was consummated,\nthat which had been radiating from out the cosmos passed over into the\nspiritual substance of the earth, and has from that time forward been\nunited with the spirit of the earth.\n\nWhen St. Paul became clairvoyant before Damascus, he could recognize\nthat That which had formerly been in the cosmos has passed over into the\nspirit of the earth. Of this every one can be convinced who can bring his\nsoul into such a condition that he can have the same experience as had\nSt. Paul. It is in the twentieth century that those people will first\nappear who will have St. Paul\u2019s experience of the Christ event in a\nspiritual way.\n\nWhereas up to our times this event would be experienced only by such\npersons as had gained clairvoyant powers by means of an esoteric\ntraining, hereafter to look upon the Christ in the spiritual sphere\nsurrounding the earth will be possible for the advanced powers of the\nsoul in the course of the natural evolution of humanity. This--as a\nrepeated experience of the event before Damascus--will be possible for\nsome people from a certain point of time in the twentieth century. The\nnumber of such people will afterwards increase, until in the distant\nfuture, it will be a natural faculty of the human soul.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWith the entrance of Christ into the evolution of the earth an entirely\nnew impulse or direction was given to evolution. External facts of\nhistory also express this. In the early times of post-Atlantean evolution\nmen knew very well that above them there was not merely a physical Mars,\nbut that what they saw as Mars, Jupiter or Saturn was the expression\nfor a spiritual being. In later times this perception was completely\nforgotten. The heavenly bodies became, according to human ideas, mere\nbodies to be estimated according to their physical condition. And in\nthe Middle Ages people saw in connection with the stars only what the\neyes can see--the sphere of Venus, the sphere of the Sun, the sphere\nof Mars, etc., up to the sphere of the fixed stars; and then came the\neighth sphere like a solid blue wall behind. Then Copernicus appeared\nand broke down the idea that only that which is perceptible to the senses\ncan be authoritative. The modern physical scientists may indeed say:\n\u201cIt is madness to declare that the world is Maya, or illusion, and that\nyou must look into a spiritual world in order to see the truth, for in\nspite of all you say true science is that which relies on the senses and\nnotifies what these senses tell.\u201d But when did astronomers rely only on\nthe senses? Surely at the very time when that astronomical science was\ndominant which is attacked by the science of to-day! It was at that time\nwhen Copernicus began to think out what exists in the cosmic space beyond\nthe evidence of the senses, that our modern astronomy as a science began.\nAnd so it is in every domain of science. Everywhere that science, in the\nmost modern sense of the word, has arisen, it has done so in opposition\nto what had been apparent to the senses. When Copernicus declared \u201cwhat\nyou see is Maya--or deception, rely on what you cannot see,\u201d then the\nscience came into being which is recognized as such to-day. It might thus\nbe said to the representative of modern science \u201cyour science itself only\nbecame \u2018science\u2019 when it was no longer willing to depend upon the senses\nonly.\u201d\n\nGiordano Bruno came as philosophical interpreter of the teachings of\nCopernicus. He led the gaze of man out into cosmic space, and announced\nthat what people had called the limitations of space, what they had\nplaced there as the eighth sphere limiting everything in space--was\nin reality _no_ limitation; it was Maya, or illusion; for an infinite\nnumber of worlds had been poured forth into cosmic space. That which was\nformerly considered to be the boundary of space was shown to be only the\nboundary of the sense-world of man, and if we direct our gaze _beyond_\nthe sense-world, we shall no longer see the world only as known to the\nsenses, but we shall also recognize Infinity.\n\nFrom this it is apparent how the course of human evolution has been\nsuch that man started from an originally spiritual view of the cosmos\nand in the course of time lost it. In its place there came a mere\nsense-perception of the world. Then there came into evolution the Christ\nImpulse. Through this, mankind was led to stamp the spiritual view once\nmore upon the materialistic. At that moment when Giordano Bruno burst the\nfetters of the sense illusion, the Christ evolution was so far advanced,\nthat the soul power, which had been kindled by the Christ Impulse, could\nthen be active within him. Therewith an indication is given of the whole\nsignificance of how the life of Christ penetrates all human evolution, an\nevolution only at the beginning of which humanity stands to-day.\n\nTo what then does spiritual science now aspire? It completes the work\nbegun for external science by Giordano Bruno and others in that it says:\nthat which external science is able to perceive is Maya, or illusion.\nJust as formerly one looked to the \u201ceighth sphere\u201d and thought that space\nwas thereby bounded, so contemporary human thought believes that man is\nshut in or enclosed between birth and death. Spiritual science, however,\nexpands man\u2019s vision by directing his attention out and beyond the limits\nof birth and death.\n\nThere is a continuous chain in human evolution which such ideas as\nthese make us recognize. And in the true sense of the words, that\nwhich resulted in the conquest of sense illusion through Copernicus\nand Giordano Bruno, already proceeded from the inspiration due to\nthat spiritual current which is now working in the modern spiritual\nscience of theosophy. What one might call the newer esotericism worked\nin a mysterious manner on Copernicus, Bruno, Kepler and others. Those\ntherefore who now stand, base their thought on foundations laid by\nGiordano Bruno and Copernicus and do not wish to accept theosophy, are\nunfaithful to their own traditions in desiring to hold fast by sense\nillusion. But spiritual science demonstrates that, as Giordano Bruno\nforced a way through the blue firmament of heaven, even so does this\nscience break down the barriers of birth and death for man by showing how\nhe originates from out of the macrocosm, lives in a physical existence,\npasses through death, and re-enters macrocosmic life. And what we see\nin a limited degree in each individual meets us unrestrictedly and in a\nlarger sense in the representative of the spirit of the cosmos--in the\nChrist-Jesus. Once and once only could that impulse be given which the\nChrist gave. Once only could the whole cosmos be thus reflected, for the\nconjunction of the stars which then took place can never be repeated.\nIn order to give an impulse to the earth, this conjunction was obliged\nto work through a human body. As it is true that this same grouping\ncannot occur a second time, so it is equally true that the Christ was\nonly once incarnated. Only if one did not know that the Christ is the\nrepresentative of the whole universe and only if it were impossible to\nwin one\u2019s way to this Christ-Idea, the elements for which are given\nthrough spiritual science--only then would it be possible to maintain\nthat Christ could appear more than once upon the earth.\n\nThus we see how an idea of Christ arises out of the new spiritual science\nor theosophy, which reveals to man in a new form his connection with the\nwhole macrocosm. Certainly, in order to gain a true knowledge of the\nChrist, those inspiring forces are absolutely necessary which are now\nbeing bestowed by those same superhuman beings who formerly guided the\nEgypto-Chald\u00e6ic epoch and who have now put themselves under the Christ.\nThere is need of a new inspiration of this kind, of an inspiration which\nthe great esoteric teachers of the middle ages had prepared from the\nthirteenth century onwards, and which from this time forth must ever come\nmore and more into publicity. When man, according to the meaning of this\nscience, prepares his soul aright for the knowledge of the spirit-world,\nhe can then hear clairaudiently and he can see clairvoyantly what is\nrevealed by the old Chald\u00e6ic and Egyptian angel beings who are now again\nacting as spiritual leaders under the guidance of the Christ. That\nwhich humanity will some time later actually gain thereby could only be\n_prepared_ in the first centuries of Christianity and up to our times.\n\nConsequently we may say that in the future there will live in the\nhearts of men an idea of the Christ incomparable in greatness with\nanything which humanity has so far recognized. That which arose as a\nfirst impulse through the Christ, and has lived as an idea of Him up to\nthe present time--even in the case of the best representatives of the\nChrist-principle--is only a preparation for the true understanding of the\nChrist. It would be strange indeed if, against those who in the West gave\nexpression in such a way as this to the Christ-idea, it were brought as\na reproach that they do not stand on the foundation of western Christian\ntradition, but it is quite possible, for this western tradition does not\nby any means suffice to help us to comprehend the Christ of the near\nfuture.\n\nFrom the hypothesis of eastern esotericism we can see the spiritual\ndirection of humanity gradually flowing into what may be in a real, true\nsense called the guidance, which comes from the Christ-impulse. That\nwhich is appearing as the new esotericism will flow slowly into the\nhearts of men, and the spiritual guidance of men and of humanity will\never more and more be consciously seen in such a light. We realize to\nourselves how at first the Christ-principle flowed into the hearts of\nmen because the Christ had gone about Palestine in the physical body of\nJesus of Nazareth. Later men gradually surrendered themselves entirely\nto a reliance on the world of sense, and could only receive the impulse\nwhich corresponded to their perception. Afterwards that same impulse so\nworked through the inspiration of the new esotericism that such spirits\nas Nicholas Cusamus, Copernicus and Galileo were able to be inspired\nand Copernicus, for instance, was enabled to make this assertion: \u201cThat\nwhich is evident to the senses cannot teach the truth about the solar\nsystem; if we want to find the truth we must investigate behind sense\nappearances.\u201d At that time men, even spirits like Giordano Bruno, were\nnot yet ripe enough to join _consciously_ to the new esoteric stream. The\nspirit of the movement had to work in them _un_consciously. Yet powerful\nand magnificent was the announcement of Giordano Bruno: \u201cWhen a human\nbeing enters into existence by means of birth, then it is something\nmacrocosmic that concentrates itself as a monad; and when a human being\npasses through death the monad spreads itself out again; that which was\nenclosed within the body spreads itself out in the cosmos in order to\ndraw itself together again in other stages of existence, and again to\nspread itself out.\u201d There Bruno gave expression to mighty conceptions\nwhich, even if expressed in stammering tongue, were yet in entire accord\nwith the sense of the new esotericism.\n\nThe spiritual influences which lead humanity need not work in such a way\nthat man is always conscious of them. For example, they put Galileo in\nthe cathedral of Pisa. Thousands had seen the old church lamp there, but\nthey have not seen it as did Galileo. He saw the church lamp swinging;\ncompared the time of its oscillation with the beat of his own pulse;\nfound that the church lamp swung in a regular rhythm resembling his\npulse-beat; and from this discovered the laws of the pendulum in the\nsense of modern physics. Anyone acquainted with contemporary physics\nknows that these would not be possible without Galileo\u2019s principle. In\nthis way the force was then working which is now appearing as spiritual\nscience; Galileo was placed in the cathedral of Pisa before the\noscillating church lamp, and modern physics gained its principles. In\nsuch a mysterious way do the guiding spiritual forces of humanity perform\ntheir work.\n\nWe are now approaching the time when people are to become conscious\nof these guiding powers. We shall always come to a better and better\nunderstanding of what has to happen in the future if we rightly\nunderstand what is working inspirationally as the new esotericism, and\nwhich shows that the same spiritual beings, indicated by the ancient\nEgyptians when the Greeks asked them about their teachers, who then ruled\nas gods, are now again assuming control, through having placed themselves\nunder the leadership of the Christ. Ever more and more will men feel how\nthey can cause to reappear in a brighter lustre, in a nobler style and on\na higher level, that which was pre-Christian. The consciousness necessary\nfor the present time, which must be an intensified consciousness, ought\nto give us a feeling of our high duty and great responsibility in\nreference to the recognition of the spiritual world, and this can only\npenetrate into our soul when we have recognized in the sense indicated,\nwhat is the task of spiritual science.\n\n[2] By \u201cAncient Persian\u201d is not meant \u201cPersian\u201d in the usual historic\nsense, but a pre-historic Asiatic (Iranian) civilization which developed\nin that land over which, later on, the Persian Kingdom extended.\n\nTHE END.","title":"The Spiritual Guidance of Man and of Mankind","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":21938}