Theosophy and Rosicrucianism
GA 100
23 June 1907, Kassel
Translator Unknown
VIII. Supplementary Thoughts on the Law Of Reincarnation and Karma. The Development of Speech and the Planetary Evolution.
Let me add a few supplementary explanations to the problem of reincarnation and karma, and then pass on to the discussion of the development of our earth, for only the consideration of these facts enables us to understand man's true nature as it appears to us in relation to the cosmic conditions. I shall conclude this course of lectures by leading you on to the contemplation of man's development, when he endeavours to attain vision and knowledge of the higher worlds.
In order to penetrate into the spiritual worlds we must first consider the pre-Christian training, secondly the Christian training, and thirdly the Rosicrucian training.
Further explanations connected with the problem of reincarnation should really be reserved for a separate chapter, because for beginners they are difficult to understand. What we shall discuss now refers to the time which lies between two incarnations. In itself it is a problem which shocks modern materialistic thought.
Immediate spiritual experience, which is one of the sources of knowledge at the disposal of the spiritual investigator, cannot be attained by those who lack spiritual vision. But those who apply the training which will be spoken of later on, will be well able to find out in what epoch the majority of men now living on earth passed through their last earthly incarnation. I shall then discuss what means were used in the Chaldean and Pythagorean schools and in every other occult school of pre-Christian times, to enable man to enter the spiritual world.
All those who have insight into the conditions which exist in the spiritual world, all those who are able to trace human development back into the preceding incarnations, will discover that the majority of souls now living had their preceding incarnation in the first centuries after Christ's birth, up to the 8th and 9th century. But these are average conditions, for the time between two incarnations may also be of shorter or of longer duration.
Another fact is connected with the one mentioned, a fact which must now be strongly emphasized: Namely, there are certain uncommonly radical thinkers of the present, who claim equality for all men. This is nothing but the materialistic aspect of a claim for equality which was advanced during the first Christian centuries—equality in the face of God, and equality in the face of the temporal powers.
Many of the people who advanced this claim for equality during the early centuries of Christianity and who then passed through the portal of death with unfulfilled claims, many of these people whose souls took with them into the spiritual world this longing for equality in the face of God and of the temporal powers, are born again at the present time, and they of course bring with them a particular attitude in regard to these claims, but in a transformed shape which is in keeping with the modern materialistic world-conception. But these men who return to the earth overlook the materialistic influence which the modern age exercises upon their claims. It is not right to believe or to declare that the modern idea of freedom comes from Christianity.
The transformation of the old claim of equality in the face of God and of the temporal powers into the modern claim for equality under all earthly conditions, can only be viewed in the right way if we survey the true connections revealed by the spiritual-scientific world-conception. Those who survey these true connections and at the same time consider the modern materialistic world-conception; realise without further ado that the claim for equality advanced by modern radical thinkers is something which necessarily had to arise independently and of its own accord. On the other hand, however, it is a fact that the human beings must from now onwards rise again from materialism to spiritualism. This alone can heal social conditions. There is no other remedy than spiritual science itself.
This problem is discussed more fully in numbers 30, 32 and 34 of the magazine “Lucifer-Gnosis” 1See Geisteswissenschaft über die soziale Frage; published by Phil. Anthrop. Verlag. Dornach, Switzerland all the other remedies, even those advanced from high quarters, suffer from the blemish of amateurishness, for modern men know nothing whatever of the higher worlds. If modern social thinkers were to submit to some extent to the inspirations of spiritual science, they would really discover ways and means of approaching these problems.
Even as it is true that humanity had to descend from a spiritual past, into materialism, so it is also true that it must rise again to spirituality. A spiritual world-conception alone can produce something that gives rise to harmony, peace and love. Even in this sphere, spiritual science can be of practical help in the highest possible way.
Now I will show you how a conception of the human course of development gained through spiritual-scientific observations can lead us back to the events that lie between death and re-birth.
I have already explained to you that it is not in vain that the human being returns to the earth many times and we have seen that the reason for this lies in the fact that with every new incarnation the human being finds, entirely new conditions upon the earth. With every new incarnation he gathers new fruits for the future, for the earth has each time undergone a complete transformation, both in regard to human civilisation and the external aspect of Nature. Every time the human being enters the earthly sphere through a new incarnation, he finds the face of the earth completely changed.
According to the Chaldean conception, the transformation of the earth depends upon the sun's relationship to the other stars. You may find more detailed explanations on this in many of my lectures; now I can only refer to it quite briefly.
If you observe the astronomical aspect when the sun rises the vernal point, if you observe this vernal point and the other conditions in the world of the stars, you will find that the sun's position in regard to the other stars changes every spring. The vernal point advances year by year, so that in about 26,000 years (25,920) this point returns to where it was 26,000 years ago. This closes a cycle. But the circle thus described is only an apparent one, for in reality the sun describes a spiral. The vernal point was fixed in accordance with the constellation with which it coincided and the sun accordingly describes a circle in the sky and this circle is designated as the Zodiac with its twelve signs. Every year the sun advances a little, and within 26,000 years tho sun has passed through all the signs of the Zodiac.
About 747 B.C. the sun rose in the sign of Aries; and since the sun's passage through all the Zodiac signs takes up about 25,920 years, one twelfth of the time, i. e., 2160 years is needed in order to pass from one sign to the other. The change in the face of our earth is really dependent upon the fact that the vernal point advances. After an epoch of about 2,200 years the face of the earth has therefore changed to such extent that entirely new conditions have arisen; and on the average, the human being advances to a new incarnation within this space of time.
The observations of occult science show that this is indeed the case. Ancient peoples always connected a definite feeling with the rising of the sun in the vernal point of Aries, and this feeling may be described as follows: “From the sign of Aries the sun again sends down to us for the first time this year the rays which conjure up the plants from the earth.” They thought that the sign of Aries sent them these rays and and so they particularly venerated this sign. Sacred feelings of a definite kind were connected with the naming of the Zodiac signs. Aries sends down the forces of the vernal sun, and in the Lamb the peoples of those times therefore saw a symbol for the regenerating forces in Nature and in the human being. Many legends are connected with it; for instance, the legend of Jason going in quest of the Golden Fleece, which symbolizes something immensely prized by men. This veneration for the Ram or the Lamb held sway for many centuries and it was taken over by Christianity. That is why a lamb could originally be seen on the Cross, instead of Christ. And that is why Christ was called the Lamb of God.
If that is so, and if the sun rose in the sign of Aries from the 8th century B.C. onwards; another form of worship must have existed before that time; when the sun's vernal point lay in the sign of Taurus. In fact before the 8th century B.C. the bull was venerated instead of the lamb. This veneration lies at the foundation of the temple-cult of Apis in ancient Egypt, and of the Persian Mithras-cult. 2,200 years earlier, the sun rose in the sign of Gemini, and this sign too played a part in the ancient cultures of those times. The ancient Persian religion, with its Ormuzd and Ahriman cult may be traced back to this.
Thus we see that the ancient peoples had very significant conceptions in connection with the sun's passage through the single signs of the Zodiac. This again is connected with the fact that man reincarnates after a definite space of time; on the average, when 2,200 years have gone by since his last incarnation. Within this epoch, it makes a great difference whether he incarnates upon the earth as a man or as a woman, and so the calculation of the time during which the single. incarnations take place is very complicated. A human being's experiences during an incarnation as a man or as a woman differ so much, that he must incarnate twice during this epoch of 2,200 years, once as a man, and once as a woman, so that two incarnations succeed one another during the average period of one thousand years. Therefore 1,100 to 1,200 years only lie between two incarnations. Generally speaking, it is therefore right that a male and a female incarnation should alternate, but in exceptional cases there may be several succeeding incarnations of the same sex (the greatest number which could be observed was seven), but then the sex changes. These are exceptions, for as a rule the sexes alternate in the successive incarnations.
This can be said of the time which lies between two incarnations. But its duration depends upon many other things besides. For instance, a certain individuality may be particularly suited to a definite epoch, in order to fulfil a certain task. In such a case, the higher powers may draw this individuality into an incarnation before the expiration of the normal period. They draw him down, because his whole constitution enables him to fulfil a definite mission. This is particularly the case with the great leaders of humanity. But in the whole of human life the balance is re-established late on, for such an individuality will have to live through a correspondingly longer time in Devachan.
Another thing which must be said is that there is a kind of counterpart to the experience already described to you, which takes place immediately after death, when man looks back upon his past life as on a picture. This counterpart consists in a kind of prophetic vision of the following life on earth.
Let us bear in mind once more how the retrospective vision arises at the moment of death. You know that the etheric body has the two principal tasks of stimulating the vital functions of the physical body, that is to say, of constantly protecting the physical substance against decay and of regulating the structure of this substance; but the etheric body is also the seat of memory. When the etheric body abandons the physical body at the moment of death, it is relieved of its first task, and then its second quality comes to the foreground, that is to say, the memory of everything which the human being experienced during his past life. This forms the retrospective picture of human life. At the moment man's being only consists of the etheric body, the astral body and the Ego.
When man enters a new incarnation the following arises: the Ego descends from the spiritual world with all the imperishable extracts which it has acquired, both those pertaining to the etheric and to the astral body. For the building-up of a new astral body, the Ego must attract all those astral qualities corresponding to the development, through which it has passed so far, and afterwards it must similarly attract the etheric qualities. All this, takes place during the first days after conception, and the new etheric body begins to work independently and to develop the physical germ of the human being only after the 18th or 20th day, whereas before that time the mother's etheric body fulfilled that which must then be done by the new etheric body. From the 18-20-th day after conception, the individuality about to incarnate, which has enveloped its Ego with a new astral and etheric body, begins to take possession of the physical body, which has up to that time been formed by the mother.
When the human being thus takes possessionof the physical body, he consists of exactly the same members as during the moment of death; in the latter case he had just discarded the physical body, and in the former, he has not yet taken it up. This will easily enable you to understand that when the human being enters his new physical body, something arises which is analogous to his experience on discarding this body at the moment of death. When he enters his new physical body, the human being has a kind of fore-vision of his coming life, even as at the moment of death he has a retrospection of his past life. But he forgets this fore-vision, because the constitution of his physical body does net yet allow him to retain it in his memory.
At this moment the human being realises: “These are the family-conditions into which I am born, these are the geographical and local conditions and my destiny ...” And at that moment it may sometimes occur that when the human being thus foresees a sad or a terrible experience which lies in store for him, he receives a shock and is afraid of the life which awaits him, so that his etheric body does not properly unite with the physical body, it does not wish to enter it. Idiocy is the result of such a fright of the etheric body's reluctance to enter properly into the physical body. A clairvoyant may perceive the etheric body of such people protruding above the physical head and because the etheric body is not properly structured into the physical head, the brain remains behind in its development, for the etheric body does not work upon it as it should. Many cases of idiocy to-day are dependent upon this.
If we bear in mind that the majority of men who are reincarnated to-day passed through their preceding incarnation dating the 9th to the 11th century A.D., we can easily understand that the modern age in particular produces such cases of idiocy. By applying a kind of physical treatment the etheric body may be influenced so that it gradually penetrates into the physical body, and this may improve the condition. Such a treatment, however, can only be applied by a person who is able to see the spiritual cause of the existing facts, so that he can deal with the case properly.
We know from the preceding explanations that man's whole being consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body and Ego. These members do not simply fit together, but they interpenetrate and they all influence one another. Thus they all influence tho physical body and cooperate in, working upon it in such a way that it can develop properly. When you face a human being and your higher organs of perception are undeveloped, you can only, see his physical body. But the physical body appears to you as it does, only because the etheric body, the astral body and the Ego permeate it, and because they all cooperated in developing this physical body. The physical organs of the human body were not built up chaotically by the three higher members, for we can clearly perceive how the higher members worked upon the structure of the physical body. Let us try to form a picture of this.
In the physical body we have first of all that which constitutes in a certain connection the purely physical organs. These organs are based upon purely physical laws—namely, the eyes, the ears, the larynx, etc. The eye is, to be sure, a living organ and it obtains its life from the etheric body which permeates and nourishes it, but seen from a purely physical standpoint it is a complicated apparatus, ruled by the same forces which are also active in inorganic Nature, for instance, in the crystal. We may therefore look upon the activity of the eye in accordance with purely physical laws.
These sensory apparatuses must first extricate themselves from the physical body. They are organs which we first learn to know more strictly as organs which are built up by the physical forces and according to physical laws.
We then have a second group of organs; the organs of nutrition, growth and procreation, culminating in the activity of the glands. The etheric body is chiefly involved in the development of these organs.
As a third group we have the nervous system, which is built up essentially by the astral body. And in the fourth place we have that which constitutes the red blood in animals and in man: the red blood, the warm blood, is built up by the Ego.
We thus have firstly the purely physical parts, the sensory organs—later on, also the purely mineral osseous system which is built up by the physical body itself.
Secondly, the glandular system, the organs of procreation and so forth, which are built up by the etheric body.
Thirdly, the nervous system, which is built up by the astral body.
Fourthly, the blood system which is, built up by the Ego.
When we consider the development of the earth, we shall understand this better.
You should realise that the law of reincarnation must be applied to the whole world, not only to the human being. I now live upon the earth, I am the reincarnation of my preceding state, but this is not only the case with me, as human being, but in a certain way with everything which fills the world's spaces,—among other things, with the planets. Even as- we are the reincarnation of former individualities, so the earth is, among other things, the reincarnation of an earlier planetary condition.
The reincarnations of our earth are not unlimited in number, either in regard to the past or to the future; even the best clairvoyant cannot look back further than a definite state of being in regard to our earth, for even his knowledge is subjected to limitations. The clairvoyant can look back as far as three incarnations of our earth, and similarly he can survey three incarnations which will follow the present one. Including, the present state of the earth he thus surveys seven incarnations.
It may perhaps sound superstitious to people who hear this for the first time that the clairvoyant sets the earth so to speak in the centre of this course of development, and one might say: This is a very strange coincidence! But only a superficial judgment induces one to speak like that, for it is not more strange than the fact that when I stand in an open field, I can look out everywhere at an equal distance, for I stand in the middle of the horizon. And through the Ego, I also stand in the centre of the sevenfold human being: physical body, etheric body, astral body, Ego, Spirit-Self, Life Spirit, Spirit-Man. This is based upon the same standpoint.
Even my explanations regarding the planetary development of our earth may surprise many people and seem strange to them.
Our earth developed out of a former planet. This planet from which our earth arose can no longer be seen in the sky. But a fragment of that which once existed may be seen in the present Moon; the Moon is a fragment of the earth's predecessor. If you were to mix the present earth and the present moon and all the spiritual beings living upon them, you would more or less obtain an image of the earth's preceding incarnation, which the occultist designates as Moon. But you should bear in mind that this hypothesis is only advanced in order to make the process more comprehensible to you, yet like all hypotheses it is of course not quite correct. If we were to mix the present earth and the present moon, in the same way in which we mix two substances in a chemical laboratory, we would not by a long way obtain the ancient Moon . For we must consider that when earth and moon separated, these two celestial bodies each continued, their own development. The solid substance, for instance, which we call the mineral kingdom has only been formed since the present development of the earth. Before this development of the earth, there were no minerals in the present meaning.
From this imaginary mixture of earth and moon we must therefore eliminate everything which developed afterwards. The mass of the ancient Moon did not consist of anything resembling the present mineral. Its consistency had not gone beyond a liquid or viscous condition. As stated, the above hypothesis has only been advanced in order to render things more comprehensible to people who have never heard anything of the planetary development of our earth and of the whole cosmos. For a deeper understanding of this course of development, far more is needed, but this cannot be explained in an introductory course such as the present one for such things can only be unfolded little by little. This course of development will then repeatedly be completed and illumined from ever new standpoints.2Compare the Akasha Chronicle. Also Microcosm and Macrocosm. The Great and the Small World, Soul Problems, Life Problems and Spiritual Problems.
Before the earth passed through this ancient Moon condition, it lived in a state of existence which occultists designate as the Sun. The earth passed through conditions resembling those which still exist upon the present sun. But if we now wish to apply the same hypothesis as before things become, more complicated. If you wish to have an idea of this condition, you must mix the earth the moon and the sun, thus obtaining one celestial body, the former Sun. (Here again, the same restrictions must be borne in mind as in the case of the ancient Moon). In the further course of its development, the ancient Sun put out, cast out from itself all the essential parts, forces and substances of the present earth, and moon, and thus it changed from a planet into a fixed star. Also our earth will one day become a sun, when it shall have transformed all its beings into Beings of Light ...
Before its present condition, the earth was therefore the ancient Moon-planet, and this was preceded by the ancient Sun. We may then look back upon a still earlier state of development, which occultists designate as Saturn. We can therefore distinguish the following states of development, which preceded our earth: Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth, and these will be followed by the Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan states.
Someone might say: You tell us that the earth was once Saturn, but Saturn still shines in the sky even to-day. But the Saturn which once constituted our earth has nothing in common with the star now shining down as Saturn. I do not mean to say that the beings who live upon the earth, once lived upon the Saturn which now shines in the sky. The present Saturn is connected with the former Saturn condition only as explained in the case of the present Moon and the ancient moon condition. Since those remote times, the Saturn which we now see, has passed through its own development, and the ancient Saturn is related to the present one in the same way in which a baby is related to an old man. The present Saturn was once in a condition resembling the ancient Saturn, even as an old man was once an infant.
When the spiritual investigator looks up to Jupiter, he finds upon Jupiter conditions and beings which the earth will one day have, when it shall have become Jupiter.
This teaching has been handed down by the most ancient initiates, and initiates have explained this course of development over and over again to their pupils.
Certain parts of our language which may be traced back to the remotest past, were formed by initiates. In an introductory course I cannot explain this fully, because this would lead us to far away from our main subject. But in ancient times, when the formation of speech was still still dependent upon initiates, language was quite different from what it is now. To-day, for instance, when naming something, we choose a name because it is uncommon, but it has no deeper significance. In olden times, however, there was a deep significance in names, and the choice of a name depended upon inner conditions. Thus one wished to erect a kind of monument, as a remembrance of the earth's course of development through the ages, and through its planetary conditions. A kind of time-table was formed, so that man might always remember these phases. But if we wish to understand this table,we must first consider certain other things.
The above outline shows you that before its present earth-condition the earth passed through a Saturn, Sun and Moon condition. Before the earth became the present earth, that is to say, during the transition from the moon state of existence
to the present earth existence; the earth stood under the strong influence of another celestial body, namely under the influence of Mars.
The important influence of Mars, which is of tremendous significance for the further development of our earth, was exercised just at the beginning of the development of our earth. Parenthetically let it be said that the earth then obtained from Mars the iron subatances which were not contained in the earthly substance.
During the first stage of its development, the earth was therefore influenced by Mars, and during the second half, that is to say, now, it became subjected to the stronger influence of Mercury. This explains why occultism drops the designation “earth” and subdivides the conditions of the earth into two halves, the Mars part and the Mercury part. This changes the above diagram as follows: Saturn condition, Sun condition, Moon condition, Mars and Mercury condition, Jupiter condition Venus condition and Vulcan condition.
The Vulcan condition would therefore be the eighth in the series; within this course of development it plays the same part as the octave in music. Even as the octave repeats, as it were, the first tone, but on a higher scale, so the Vulcan condition is a repetition of the Saturn condition, but upon a higher stage of development. The whole cosmos developed out of the spirit, and in the Vulcan stage everything will once more return to the spirit, but upon a higher and more manifold stage of development. Innumerable spirit-men developed out of a uniform spirituality, even as out of the seed which the sower planted in the earth, grains resembling this seed reach a manifold development in the ear of corn which ripens in the autumn. Everything perishable is but a symbol.
The ancient initiates made these seven names flow into that monumental table mentioned above, in memory of the earth's course of development, and this is given to us in the names of the seven days of the week:
The day of Saturn = Saturday
The day of the Sun = Sunday
The day of the Moon = Monday
The day of Mars = Mardi (Mars = Ziu, Dius = Tuesday)
The day of Mercury = Mercredi (Mercury = Wodan = Wednesday)
The day of Jupiter = Giovedì (Thor = Thursday)
The day of Venus = Vedredi (Venus = Freya = Friday)
A monument has indeed been preserved in the names of the days of the week, a monument which reminds us of the seven stages of development of our earth. Apparently common things in life may thus show us deep spiritual connections.
You must now bear in mind that even the whole development of humanity is intimately connected with this planetary evolution. Indeed the whole human development can only be understood in the light of the planetary evolution.
Each member of the human being is intimately connected with one of these planetary stages of evolution of the earth, in so far as the foundation of each of the members of the human being was laid during one of these phases.
The physical body was thus prepared during the Saturn age, the etheric body during the Sun epoch, the astral body during the Moon phase, and the Ego entered the human being only during the Earth phase. The physical body is consequently the most perfectly developed member, whereas the etheric body is only in the third stage of its development, for it was prepared upon the ancient. Sun; the astral body in the second stage, for it was prepared upon the ancient Moon, and the Ego is the baby among the members of the human being, for its development only began with the present earth condition.
An indication for what has just been said may be found by considering the four members of man from the aspect of their development.
During the infancy of the Theosophical Society the expressions “higher” and “lower” members were much in use; the physical body was designated as the lowest member and this was frequently connected with ideas of value. All too frequently people were inclined to look upon the physical body as the least valuable of all and they even despised it. But this is, quite wrong.
If you look more closely upon the wonderful structure of the physical body, you will find without further ado that it stands upon a tremendously high stage of perfection, whereas this is, for instance, not the case at all with the etheric body. If you look upon the physical body through the eyes of wisdom, you will find a wonderful structure in every one of its organs—in the heart, in the bones, etc. Observe the wise structure of the heart and consider the work done daily and hourly by this comparatively small organ. Compare this with the present comparatively still deficient development of the astral body: the unpurified passions which live in it every day, man's longing for pleasures which literally ill-treat the structure of the heart—nevertheless the heart is able to paralyze these harmful astral influences without breaking; and frequently without undergoing any damage.
To-day the astral body is not so developed as the physical body; at present the physical body is the most perfect member. But in the future the astral body will reach a stage in which it will surpass the physical body. Also the etheric body is less developed than the physical body and the astral body stands in the third place. The Ego is the youngest of the members, constituting the human being, and it will consequently be the last to reach perfection.
Everything in the physical body constituting its essentially physical part is therefore oldest of all. Our physical body passed through a development before the etheric body was incorporated with it. And this development through which the physical body passed purely as physical body is the Saturn phase. There, the first foundation of the physical body was merely a physical apparatus.
The course of development proceeded and upon the Sun the etheric body was incorporated with the physical body, The etheric body filled, as it were, the physical body, in a certain way transforming it. During the Moon state of existence the astral body was added, and the Ego was only added during our present Earth condition. To-day man is a fourfold being. During the Moon epoch he consisted of physical, etheric and astral body; during the Sun epoch he consisted of physical and etheric body, and during the Saturn epoch only of the physical body, The physical body therefore has four,the etheric body three, the astral body two and the Ego one phase of development. The physical body is the most perfect member, because it has been elaborated more than the others.
Thus you see how the single members of the human being are connected with the development of the whole planetary system. In occult books you will therefore find the following designations:
Saturn body for the physical body,
Sun body for the etheric body,
Moon body for the astral body,
and Earth body for the Ego, which is the real earthly member of man
To-morrow we shall study the development and the whole life upon Saturn, and then we shall pass on to the Sun and to the Moon. This will show you how the human beings perfected themselves more and more until they reached the present state.
Achter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Heute will ich Ihnen noch einige Ergänzungen geben zur Frage der Wiederverkörperung und des Karma. Und dann möchte ich zu der Besprechung der Entwickelung unserer Erde selbst übergehen, weil wir erst durch eine solche Betrachtung genau begreifen werden die wahre Natur des Menschen, so wie diese uns entgegentritt im Zusammenhang mit den Weltenverhältnissen. Zum Abschluß bringen will ich diesen Vortragszyklus dadurch, daß wir zusammen betrachten, wie der Mensch sich entwickelt, wenn das Ziel seines Strebens die Anschauung der höheren Welten ist. Um in die geistigen Welten einzudringen, werden wir also zu betrachten haben: erstens die vorchristliche Schulung, zweitens die christliche Schulung, drittens die Rosenkreuzerschulung.
[ 2 ] Was noch zu sagen ist über die Wiederverkörperung, sollte für ein besonderes Kapitel aufgespart werden, weil es für Anfänger am schwierigsten zu begreifen ist. Was wir zu besprechen haben, bezieht sich zunächst auf die Zeit, die zwischen zwei Verkörperungen liegt. Es ist ja das schon an und für sich eine Frage, die das materialistische Denken unserer Zeit schockiert.
[ 3 ] Die eine Wissensquelle, die dem Geistesforscher zu Gebote steht, kann ja derjenige, der noch nicht das geistige Schauen hat, nicht nachprüfen: das ist das Erlebnis. Wer aber die Schulung, die wir noch zu besprechen haben werden, auf sich anwendet, ist wohl imstande zu erforschen, wann die Mehrzahl der gegenwärtig lebenden Menschen zuletzt in ihrer vorigen Verkörperung hier auf der Erde war. Dann werde ich noch die Mittel zu besprechen haben, welche in der chaldäischen, in der pythagoreischen und in allen Geheimschulen der vorchristlichen Zeit üblich waren, um den Menschen den Eintritt in die geistige Welt zu ermöglichen.
[ 4 ] Alle, die hineinschauen können in die Verhältnisse der geistigen Welten, die also den Menschen zurückzuverfolgen vermögen in seine vorherigen Verkörperungen, werden die Mehrzahl aller jetzt lebenden Menschenseelen in der ersten Zeit nach Christi Geburt bis in das 8. und 9. Jahrhundert entdecken. Das sind aber alles Durchschnittsverhältnisse; ebenso kann die Zeit zwischen zwei Verkörperungen auch kürzer oder länger dauern.
[ 5 ] Mit der Tatsache, die ich eben erwähnt habe, hängt eine andere zusammen, die in unserer Zeit besonders stark hervorgetreten ist. Es ist die Tatsache, daß gerade in unserer Gegenwart so ungewöhnlich radikale Denker leben, welche die Gleichheit fordern. Es ist dies nichts anderes als die auf das materielle Gebiet übertragene Ausprägung der Gleichheitsforderung in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten, die da hieß: Gleichheit vor Gott und Gleichheit vor den weltlichen Mächten.
[ 6 ] Nun sind viele von denjenigen Menschen, die in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten diese Gleichheitsforderungen aufgestellt haben und die damals mit diesen nichterfüllten Forderungen durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, die also alle diese Sehnsuchten nach Gleichheit vor Gott und den weltlichen Mächten in ihrer Seele mitgenommen haben in die geistige Welt, gerade jetzt wiederverkörpert, und sie bringen ganz selbstverständlich ihre Einstellung zu diesen Forderungen - nun aber in metamorphosierter Form, der heutigen materialistischen Weltanschauung entsprechend — wieder mit. Die jetzt Wiederverkörperten übersehen also den ganz materialistischen Einschlag, den diese Forderung in unserer Zeit erhalten hat. Es ist nicht richtig, wenn man glaubt, oder behaupten würde, der heutige Freiheitssinn stamme vom Christentum her.
[ 7 ] Diese Umsetzung der Forderung einer Gleichheit vor Gott und den weltlichen Mächten in die heutige Forderung der Gleichheit in allen irdischen Verhältnissen kann einzig und allein in das richtige Fahrwasser gebracht werden durch das Überschauen des wahren Zusammenhangs, wie er uns durch die theosophische Weltanschauung ermöglicht wird. Wer aber den wahren Zusammenhang überschaut und zugleich hinsieht auf das, was als materialistische Weltanschauung heute die Menschen beherrscht, der sieht ohne weiteres ein, daß die Gleichheitsforderung in der Form, wie sie heute von den radikalen Denkern der Gegenwart aufgestellt wird, etwas ist, was ganz naturgemäß einmal auftreten mußte. Aber ebenso wahr ist es, daß sich die Menschen von nun an wieder erheben müssen aus dem Materialismus zum Spiritualismus. Nur dann wird erst wieder eine Gesundung der sozialen Verhältnisse eintreten können. Es gibt kein anderes Heilmittel dafür, als eben die Geisteswissenschaft selbst.
[ 8 ] In Heft 30, 32, 34 der Zeitschrift «Lucifer-Gnosis» ist diese Frage genauer besprochen. Es wird da gezeigt, wie alle andern Mittel, die von noch so hochstehender Seite zur Lösung der sozialen Frage angepriesen werden, leiden unter dem Dilettantismus, weil eben die heutigen Menschen nichts wissen von den höheren Welten. Würden die heutigen sozialen Denker sich nur ein wenig inspirieren lassen von der Theosophie, dann würden sie erst wirklich wirksame Mittel finden, dieser Frage näherzutreten, Ebenso wahr, wie daß die Menschheit heruntersteigen mußte aus einer spirituellen Vergangenheit in den Materialismus, so wahr ist es, daß sie wieder hinaufsteigen muß zum Spirituellen. Erst aus dieser spirituellen Weltanschauung wird dasjenige kommen, was Harmonie, Frieden und Liebe gibt. So wird auch hier wieder die Theosophie im eminentesten Sinne praktisch sein.
[ 10 ] Nun werde ich zu zeigen haben, wie die mit Hilfe der hellseherischen Beobachtung gewonnene Anschauung über den Entwickelungsgang der Menschheit uns zurückführt zu den Ereignissen, die zwischen Tod und Wiedergeburt liegen.
[ 11 ] Ich habe schon gesagt, daß der Mensch nicht umsonst immer wieder und wieder auf dieser physischen Erde erscheint. Wir haben ja den Grund darin gefunden, daß er bei jeder neuen Inkarnation ganz neue Verhältnisse auf der Erde antrifft, und daß aus jedem neuen physischen Leben immer neue Früchte für die Zukunft gezogen werden, weil sich eben die Erde sowohl in kultureller Beziehung wie auch in bezug auf die rein äußere Natur jedesmal verändert hat. Jedesmal ist das Antlitz der Erde vollkommen anders geworden, wenn sie der Mensch bei einer neuen Inkarnation betritt.
[ 12 ] Nun hängt die Umwandlung unserer Erde nach chaldäischer Anschauung zusammen mit dem Verhältnis der Sonne zu den andern Gestirnen. Genaueres darüber finden Sie in manchen Vortragszyklen. Ich kann jetzt nur kurz darauf hinweisen.
[ 13 ] Wenn Sie achtgeben würden, wie es am Himmel aussieht, wenn die Sonne im Frühlingsanfang aufgeht, wenn Sie beobachten würden den Ort, an dem sie aufgeht, was sonst dort für Verhältnisse noch sind in der Gestirnenwelt, dann würden Sie sehen, daß diese Beziehung der Sonne zu den andern Gestirnen in jedem Frühjahr anders ist. Der Frühlingspunkt rückt jährlich weiter, so daß in zirka 26000 — 25920 Jahren dieser Frühlingspunkt an demselben Punkt wieder ankommt, wo er vor 26000 Jahren war - ein Kreislauf. Das ist aber nur scheinbar der Fall: in Wirklichkeit ist es kein Kreis, der da von der Sonne beschrieben wird, sondern eine Spirale. Man bestimmte nun diesen Frühlingspunkt nach dem Sternbild, welches mit diesem Punkt zusammentrifft. Die Sonne beschreibt also einen Kreis um den Himmel, der durch die zwölf Sternbilder bezeichnet wird. Sie rückt jedes Jahr ein Stückchen weiter und geht so durch alle zwölf Sternbilder hindurch innerhalb von 26000 Jahren.
[ 14 ] So ging die Sonne etwa 800 vor Christus zuerst auf im Sternbilde des Widders; und da der Durchgang der Sonne durch alle Tierkreiszeichen zirka 26000 Jahre braucht, hat sie zum Durchlaufen eines Zeichens den zwölften Teil, also 2200 Jahre nötig. Und mit dem Vorrücken dieses Frühjahrspunktes hängt wirklich die Veränderung im Antlitz unserer Erde zusammen. Also nach einem solchen Zeitraume von etwa 2200 Jahren hat sich das Antlitz der Erde so weit verändert, daß ganz andere Verhältnisse eingetreten sind; deshalb ist dies auch der Zeitraum, in dem der Mensch durchschnittlich zu einer neuen Verkörperung schreitet. Und so verhält es sich auch nach den Beobachtungen der Geheimwissenschaft. Die alten Völker haben mit dem Aufgehen der Sonne im Frühlingspunkt des Widders immer ein deutliches Gefühl verbunden, das sich so umschreiben läßt: Da sendet uns aus dem Sternbild des Widders heraus die Sonne zum ersten Male wieder die Strahlen, welche die Pflanzen aus der Erde hervorzaubern. — Es ist ihnen, als ob das Sternbild des Widders diese Strahlen brächte, und deshalb wurde diesem Sternbild Verehrung entgegengebracht. Gewisse heilige Gefühle hängen zusammen mit der Namengebung dieser Sternbilder. Der Widder sendet Kräfte der Frühlingssonne; daher sahen dieVölker der damaligen Zeit im Lamme ein Symbol für diese Kräfte der Wiederbelebung der Natur und Menschenseele. Daran knüpfen sich manche Sagen, so zum Beispiel die von Jason, der das Goldene Vlies holt, das etwas ungeheuer Kostbares für die Menschheit bedeutet. Diese Verehrung des Widders, beziehungsweise des Lammes, beherrscht viele Jahrhunderte und wird vom Christentum übernommen. Deshalb war ursprünglich beim Kruzifix an Stelle des Christus am Kreuz ein Lamm zu sehen. Und deshalb nannte man Christus «das Lamm Gottes».
[ 15 ] Wenn dem so ist, so müßte also, da erst seit dem 8. Jahrhundert vor Christo die Frühjahrssonne im Zeichen des Widders aufgegangen ist, vorher eine andere Verehrung dagewesen sein; vorher hat die Frühlingssonne ihren Aufgangspunkt vom Sternbild des Stieres genommen. Und tatsächlich wurde vor dem 8. Jahrhundert vor Christi Geburt an Stelle des Lammes der Stier verehrt. Diese Verehrung liegt dem Tempeldienst des Apis in Ägypten zugrunde und dem persischen Mithrasdienst. Noch etwa 2200 Jahre früher ging die Sonne durch das Sternbild der Zwillinge, und auch dies Symbol hat eine Rolle gespielt in jenen uralten Kulturen, die vorangingen. Die uralte persische Religion geht in Ormuzd und Ahriman auf diesen Kult zurück.
[ 16 ] So sehen wir, wie die alten Völker wichtige Vorstellungen mit diesem Durchgang der Sonne durch die einzelnen Sternbilder verknüpft haben. Und dies hängt dann auch wieder zusammen mit der Wiederverkörperung des Menschen zu einer bestimmten Zeitepoche, nach Ablauf von durchschnittlich etwa 2200 Jahren. Weil es aber einen großen Unterschied macht, ob der Mensch auf dieser Erde in einer solchen Epoche als Mann oder Frau verkörpert wird, so wird die Berechnung der einzelnen Inkarnationen etwas komplizierter. Die Erlebnisse, die der Mensch in einer Verkörperung als Mann oder als Frau hat, sind so verschieden, daß er sich zweimal während einer solchen Epoche verkörpern muß, einmal als Mann und einmal als Frau; so daß also auf den ungefähren Zeitraum von zwei Jahrtausenden zwei Verkörperungen erfolgen, in Wirklichkeit also nur 1100 bis 1200 Jahre zwischen zwei Verkörperungen liegen. Deshalb ist es auch im Durchschnitt richtig, daß eine männliche und eine weibliche Inkarnation abwechseln. Ausnahmsweise aber können auch einmal hintereinander mehrere Inkarnationen im selben Geschlechte folgen - die größte Zahl, die beobachtet worden ist, war sieben -; dann aber wechselt das Geschlecht. Das sind jedoch Ausnahmen; in der Regel wechseln die Geschlechter in den aufeinanderfolgenden Inkarnationen ab.
[ 17 ] Das ist es also, was über die Zeit, die zwischen zwei Verkörperungen liegt, zu sagen wäre. Sie ist aber außerdem noch von manchem andern abhängig, und nicht allein vom Menschen selber. So kann zum Beispiel der Fall eintreten, daß eine bestimmte Individualität gerade für die Verhältnisse auf der Erde in einem besonderen Zeitpunkt paßt, um eine bestimmte Aufgabe zu erfüllen. In diesem Falle kann sie sehr wohl von den höheren Mächten in die Verkörperung hineingezogen werden, ehe die normale Zeit um ist; sie wird heruntergeholt, weil sie eben ihrer ganzen Veranlagung nach gerade geeignet ist, eine bestimmte Mission zu erfüllen. Namentlich gehören hierher die großen Führer der Menschheit. Nur gleicht sich das aus im ganzen Verlaufe des Menschenlebens, so daß dann später ein um so längeres Leben im Devachan folgt.
[ 18 ] Das andere, was noch zu sagen wäre, ist, daß es eine Art Gegenstück gibt zu jenem Erlebnis, von dem ich gesagt habe, es fände unmittelbar nach dem Tode statt, wo der Mensch auf sein verflossenes Leben wie auf ein Tableau zurückschaut. Dies Gegenstück ist eine Art Vorschau auf das folgende Erdenleben.
[ 19 ] Vergegenwärtigen wir uns erst noch einmal, wie im Augenblick des Todes die Rückschau zustande kommt. Sie wissen ja, daß der Ätherleib die beiden Hauptaufgaben hat, einmal alle Lebensfunktionen des physischen Körpers anzuregen, das heißt, die Substanz des physischen Körpers dauernd vor dem Zerfall zu schützen und den Aufbau dieser Substanz zu regeln; dann aber bildet der Ätherleib den Sitz des Gedächtnisses. Wenn nun der Ätherleib im Augenblick des Todes den physischen Leib verläßt, ist er somit dieser ersten Hauptaufgabe enthoben, und in demselben Augenblick tritt die zweite Eigenschaft besonders stark hervor, nämlich das Gedächtnis an alles, was der Mensch in seinem verflossenen Leben erfahren hatte. Und das ist eben das Lebenstableau. In diesem Augenblick besteht also die Wesenheit des Menschen nur aus Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich.
[ 20 ] Beim Eintritt in eine neue Verkörperung ist es nun so: Das Ich steigt aus der geistigen Welt herab, mit allen bis dahin erworbenen unvergänglichen Extrakten sowohl des Ätherischen als des Astralen. Zunächst zieht es naturgemäß alle astralen Qualitäten zu seinem neuen Astralleibe zusammen, die seiner bisherigen Entwickelung entsprechen, und dann erst in derselben Weise die ätherischen Qualitäten. Alles das spielt sich ab in den ersten Tagen nach der Empfängnis, und erst vom achtzehnten bis zwanzigsten Tag darnach arbeitet der neue Ätherleib selbständig an der Entwickelung des physischen Menschenkeimes, während vorher der Ätherleib der Mutter das vollzieht, was später vom Ätherleib zu besorgen ist. Erst mit diesem achtzehnten bis zwanzigsten Tag nach der Empfängnis nimmt sozusagen die Individualität, die sich da verkörpern will und die bis dahin ihr Ich mit einem neuen Astralleib und Ätherleib umkleidet hat, Besitz von dem bis dahin von der Mutter gebildeten physischen Leibe.
[ 21 ] In dem Augenblick, ehe diese Besitzergreifung erfolgt, besteht also die menschliche Wesenheit genau aus denselben Wesensgliedern wie in dem Augenblick des Todes; im letzteren Falle hat sie gerade den physischen Leib in jenem Augenblick abgeworfen, im ersteren Falle den physischen Leib noch nicht aufgenommen. Daraus wird Ihnen leicht verständlich sein, wie im Moment, da der Mensch seinen neuen physischen Leib betritt, etwas Analoges zu dem Moment auftritt, wo er diesen ablegt. In diesem Augenblick hat der Mensch dann eine Art Vorschau über sein kommendes Leben, so wie er im Augenblick des Todes eine Rückschau auf das verflossene Leben hatte. Diese Vorschau aber vergißt der Mensch, weil die Konstitution seines physischen Leibes noch nicht geeignet ist, diese Vorschau gedächtnismäßig zu behalten.
[ 22 ] In diesem Augenblicke nun kann der Mensch sehen: So sind die Familien-, so sind die Landes-, so die Orts- und die Schicksalsverhältnisse, in die ich da hineingeboren werde. — Und da kommt zuweilen die Tatsache vor, daß der Mensch, wenn er in diesem Moment der Vorschau erfahren hat, daß ihm Schlimmes bevorsteht, einen Schock bekommt, einen Schreck über das ihm bevorstehende Leben, und daß sich dann der Ätherleib nicht ordentlich vereinigt mit dem physischen Leib, nicht in ihn hinein will. Und dann treten im Leben die Folgen eines solchen Schreckens — dieses Nichtwollen des Ätherleibes, ordentlich in das Physische hineinzugehen — einem entgegen in der Form von Idiotie. Der geistig Schauende kann bei solchen Menschen den Ätherleib hinausragen sehen über den physischen Kopf. Und durch dieses Nichteingegliedertsein des Ätherleibes bleibt das Gehirn in seiner Entwickelung zurück, weil der Ätherleib nicht ordnungsgemäß am Gehirn arbeitet. Viele Fälle der heutigen Idiotie sind derartig veranlaßte Fälle.
[ 23 ] Und daß gerade die heutige Zeit ganz besonders leicht Fälle dieser Art zeitigt, ist ja sehr begreiflich, wenn man bedenkt, daß die Mehrzahl der heute wiederverkörperten Menschen ihre vorige Inkarnation durchgemacht haben etwa im 9. bis 11. Jahrhundert nach Christo. Man kann nun, wenn man eine Art physischer Behandlung anwendet, den Ätherleib so beeinflussen, daß er sich nach und nach in den physischen Leib hineinschiebt, und man kann dadurch die Verhältnisse bessern. Das ist aber nur einem Menschen möglich, der den Tatbestand in seiner geistigen Ursache durchschauen und in der richtigen Weise dann eingreifen kann.
[ 24 ] Aus den vorangegangenen Betrachtungen wissen wir nun, daß der Mensch seiner Gesamtheit nach zusammengesetzt ist aus dem physischen Leibe, aus dem Ätherleibe, dem Astralleibe und dem Ich. Alle diese Glieder sind nicht bloß so ineinandergeschachtelt, sondern sie durchdringen sich alle und wirken aufeinander ein. So wirken alle auch auf den physischen Leib und arbeiten an diesem so mit, daß er sich in einer solchen Weise entwickeln kann, wie er sich zu entwickeln hat. Wenn Sie einen Menschen vor sich haben, so sehen Sie, wenn Sie eben noch nicht Ihre höheren Wahrnehmungsorgane ausgebildet haben, nur den physischen Leib. Aber dieser physische Leib erscheint Ihnen nur deshalb so, wie er ist, weil eben in ihn hineingegliedert sind Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich, und weil diese alle in ihrer Weise mitgearbeitet haben an der Ausbildung jenes physischen Leibes. Doch sind die physischen Organe dieses Menschenleibes nicht chaotisch von den drei höheren Gliedern aufgebaut worden, sondern wir können ganz genau unterscheiden, wie sich diese drei höheren Glieder an diesem Aufbau des physischen Leibes beteiligen. Versuchen wir uns ein Bild davon zu machen.
[ 25 ] Zunächst haben wir also an diesem physischen Leibe das, was in gewisser Beziehung rein physikalische Organe sind. Das sind diejenigen, welche zu ihrer Grundlage rein physikalische Gesetze haben, also Augen, Ohren, Kehlkopf und so weiter. Das Auge ist ja gewiß ein lebendiges Organ und erhält sein Leben von dem es durchdringenden und ernährenden Ätherleibe; aber vom rein physikalischen Standpunkte aus betrachtet ist es ein physikalischer Apparat, in dem dieselben Kräfte walten wie in der unorganischen Natur, zum Beispiel im Kristall. Wir können also die Wirkungen des Auges nach rein physikalischen Gesetzen betrachten. Diese Sinnesapparate müssen sich zunächst einmal herausarbeiten aus dem physischen Leibe. Es sind eben jene Organe, die wir im engeren Sinne als aufgebaut von physischen Kräften nach physikalischen Gesetzen erkennen. Dann haben wir eine zweite Gruppe von Organen: das sind die Ernährungs-, Wachstumsund Fortpflanzungsorgane, welche in der Drüsentätigkeit gipfeln. An der Bildung dieser Organe ist im wesentlichen der ÄÄtherleib beteiligt. Dann haben wir als dritte Gruppe das Nervensystem, das im besonderen aufgebaut wird durch den Astralleib. Viertens haben wir dasjenige, was im besonderen das rote Blut der höheren Tiere und des Menschen ist: das rote, warme Blut wird vom Ich aufgebaut.
[ 26 ] So haben wir also erstens: die eigentlich physikalischen Teile, die Sinnesorgane, allerdings später auch das rein mineralische Knochensystem, das aufgebaut wird vom physischen Leibe selber; zweitens: das Drüsensystem, Fortpflanzungsorgane und so weiter, das wird aufgebaut vom Ätherleib; drittens: das Nervensystem wird aufgebaut vom Astralleib; viertens: das Blutsystem wird aufgebaut vom Ich. Wir werden das noch viel genauer verstehen, wenn wir noch mehr die Entwickelung der Erde selbst betrachten.
[ 27 ] Sie müssen sich klar sein, daß das Gesetz von der Wiederverkörperung auf die ganze Welt anwendbar ist und nicht nur auf den Menschen. Ich bin jetzt da und lebe; ich bin die Wiederverkörperung meines früheren Zustandes. Aber nicht nur ich selbst als menschliches Wesen, sondern in gewisser Weise ist es auch so mit allem andern, was den Weltenraum erfüllt, und so unter anderem mit dem Planeten selbst. Ebenso wie wir selbst die Wiederverkörperung früherer Individualitäten sind, so ist auch unter anderem unsere Erde die Wiederverkörperung eines früheren planetarischen Zustandes.
[ 28 ] Man kann nun nicht bis ins Unendliche nach vor- und rückwärts diese Wiederverkörperungen unserer Erde verfolgen; weiter als bis zu einer gewissen Verkörperung nach vor- und rückwärts kann selbst der beste Hellseher nicht schauen, da ja auch für ihn noch Grenzen der Erkenntnis bestehen. Es kann der Hellseher bis auf drei Verkörperungen unserer Erde zurückschauen, und ebenso kann er auch noch die drei nachfolgenden überschauen, so daß er, den heutigen Erdenzustand miteingerechnet, sieben Verkörperungen überschaut.
[ 29 ] Manchen Menschen, die das zum erstenmal hören, kommt es vielleicht etwas abergläubisch vor, daß der geistig Schauende sozusagen gerade in die Mitte dieser Entwickelung die Erde setzt, und man könnte sagen, das wäre absonderlich eingerichtet. Aber so kann man nur bei oberflächlicher Beurteilung sprechen; denn es ist dies ebensowenig absonderlich, als daß ich auf freiem Felde überallhin gleich weit sehe und ich mich selbst im Mittelpunkt des Horizontes befinde. Wir stehen ja auch in der angegebenen Siebenteilung des Menschen mit dem Ich in der Mitte drin: physischer Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib, Ich, Geistselbst, Lebensgeist, Geistesmensch. Das beruht ja auf demselben Gesichtspunkte.
[ 30 ] Auch dasjenige, was ich über die planetarische Entwickelung unserer Erde zu sagen habe, wird manchen wundern und ihm merkwürdig vorkommen.
[ 31 ] Unsere Erde hat sich also aus einem früheren Planeten entwickelt. Dieser Planet, aus dem unsere Erde hervorgekommen ist, steht nicht mehr am Himmel. Aber ein Stück noch von dem, was einstmals war, ist der jetzige Mond; er stellt dar ein Stück von dem Vorgänger unserer Erde. Wenn Sie also die heutige Erde und den heutigen Mond und alles, was an geistigen Wesenheiten auf ihnen lebt, miteinander mischen würden, dann erhielten Sie ungefähr ein Bild der vorhergehenden Verkörperung der Erde, die der Okkultist Mond nennt. Nun müssen Sie bedenken, daß eine derartige Hypothese lediglich aufgestellt wird, um Ihnen den Vorgang in einer leichter verständlichen Weise begreiflich zu machen, daß sie aber, wie alle Hypothesen, selbstverständlich nicht ganz stimmt. Wenn jemand die heutige Erde und den heutigen Mond zusammenrühren würde, wie man etwa in einer Retorte im chemischen Laboratorium zwei Substanzen vermengt, dann würde in Wirklichkeit noch lange nicht der damalige Mond entstehen. Denn Sie müssen dabei wohl bedenken, daß seit dem Moment, wo sich Erde und Mond voneinander getrennt haben, sich beide Weltenkörper, jeder in seiner Art, seit dieser Zeit weiterentwickelt haben. So hat sich zum Beispiel in diesem Erdenkörper seit Beginn dieser unserer heutigen Erdenentwickelung erst das herausgeformt, was wir die feste Substanz, das Mineralreich nennen. Mineral im heutigen Sinn gab es vor Beginn unserer Erdenentwickelung nicht.
[ 32 ] Bei dem Zusammenrühren von Erde und Mond müßte man sich also zugleich alles das wegdenken, was sich in der Folgezeit so entwickelt hat. Die alte Mondmasse hatte noch nichts in sich von mineralischer Substanz. Sie hatte es in ihrer Konsistenz nur bis zum Flüssig-Breiartigen gebracht. Eine solche Hypothese ist, wie gesagt, deshalb aufgestellt, um Menschen, die noch nie etwas von der planetarischen Entwickelung unserer Erde und unseres gesamten Kosmos gehört haben, die Sache einigermaßen begreiflich zu machen. Zu einem tieferen Verständnis dieser Entwickelung gehört noch ungeheuer viel mehr, das aber in einem solchen Einführungszyklus nicht berührt werden kann, das nach und nach durchgenommen wird. Es wird dann immer und immer wieder diese Entwickelung von einem neuen Gesichtspunkt aus vervollständigt und beleuchtet werden.
[ 33 ] Ehe die Erde nun diesen alten Mondenzustand durchgemacht hat, war sie in einem solchen, den der Okkultist als «Sonne» bezeichnet. Da hat unsere Erde ähnliche Zustände durchgemacht, wie sie heute noch auf der Sonne vorhanden sind. Und wenn wir da dieselbe Annahme machen wollten, dann würde es noch etwas komplizierter. Wenn Sie nämlich den Zustand sich veranschaulichen wollten, dann müßten Sie Erde, Mond und Sonne verrühren, und dann würden Sie damit einen einzigen Weltenkörper bekommen als den vormaligen Sonnenzustand, aber auch wieder mit derselben Einschränkung wie oben beim Monde. Diese damalige Sonne hat also im weiteren Verlaufe ihrer Entwickelung alle Wesensteile, Kräfte und Substanzen der heutigen Erde und des heutigen Mondes aus sich herausgesetzt, abgestoßen, und ist damit aus einem Planeten ein Fixstern geworden. Unsere Erde wird auch einmal Sonne, wenn sie alle ihreWesen zu Lichtwesen gemacht haben wird.
[ 34 ] Unsere Erde war also vorher Mond, und der war vorher Sonne. Und dann kann der Mensch noch auf einen weiteren Entwickelungszustand zurückblicken, der im Okkultismus mit Saturn bezeichnet wird. So daß wir von den vorhergehenden Entwickelungszuständen unserer Erde zu unterscheiden haben: Saturn-, Sonnen-, Mondenzustand, sowie Erdenzustand, und in Zukunft werden folgen: Jupiter-, Venus-, Vulkanzustand.
[ 35 ] Nun könnte ja jemand sagen: Du erzählst uns da, daß die Erde früher einmal Saturn gewesen sei, und es steht doch noch heute der Saturn am Himmel? — Aber der Saturn, der früher unsere Erde war, der hat nichts zu tun mit dem Weltenkörper, der heute als Saturn am Himmel steht. Es soll damit nicht etwa gesagt sein, daß die Wesen, die heute hier auf der Erde sind, früher einmal auf dem Saturn gewesen wären, der da oben am Himmel steht. Der heutige Saturn hat nur insofern etwas zu tun mit dem damaligen Saturnzustand, wie das beim Mond vom Mondenzustand angedeutet worden ist. Was sich da als heutiger Saturn zeigt, das hat nach dieser urfernen Zeit auch wieder seine Weiterentwickelung durchgemacht, und der frühere Saturn verhält sich zu dem heutigen Saturn etwa wie das Baby zum Greis. Der Saturn von heute war auch einmal in einem solchen Zustand wie der frühere Saturn, genau wie der Greis ja auch einmal ein Baby war. Ebenso ist es mit der Sonne und den andern Weltenkörpern. Und wenn heute der Geistesforscher nach dem Jupiter blickt, findet er auf dem Jupiter Zustände und Wesenheiten, wie sie die Erde einst haben wird, wenn sie einmal selbst Jupiter geworden sein wird.
[ 36 ] Diese Lehre rührt her von den ältesten Eingeweihten, und immer wieder haben die Eingeweihten ihren Schülern diese Entwickelung eingeschärft.
[ 37 ] Nun ist ja unsere Sprache in denjenigen Teilen, in denen sie auf die ältesten Zeiten zurückgeführt werden kann, von Eingeweihten geschaffen. Ich kann das in einem solchen Einführungszyklus nicht ausführlich darlegen, weil uns das zu weit vom Thema ableiten würde. Aber es war eben in alten Zeiten, als die Eingeweihten noch die Sprachbildung bestimmten, die Sprache etwas anderes. Heute zum Beispiel sucht man wohl einen Namen, der vielleicht noch nicht vergeben ist, der aber ohne irgendwelche tiefere Bedeutung ist. Früher dagegen geschah die Namengebung mit einer tiefen Bedeutung aus den inneren Verhältnissen heraus. So wollte man denn eine Art Denkmal aufbauen als Erinnerung an den Entwickelungsgang der Erde durch alle diese Zeiträume und planetarischen Zustände hindurch. Man hat sozusagen eine Zeittafel geschaffen, so daß sich die Menschheit immer erinnern soll an die Zeitphasen. Wenn wir aber diese Tafel verstehen sollen, dann müssen wir noch etwas anderes wissen.
[ 38 ] Aus der obigen Skizze ersehen Sie, daß diese Erde vor ihrem Erdendasein ein Saturn-, Sonnen- und Mondendasein durchlaufen hat. Bevor aber die Erde die jetzige Erde geworden ist, das heißt also beim Übergang vom Mondendasein zum heutigen Erdendasein, da stand diese Erde unter dem starken Einfluß eines andern Weltenkörpers, nämlich unter dem Einfluß des Mars. Gerade zu Beginn unserer Erdenentwickelung fand diese sehr wichtige und für die Weiterentwickelung der Erde ungeheuer bedeutungsvolle Beeinflussung von seiten des Mars statt. Nebenbei bemerkt, hat die Erde bei dieser Gelegenheit vom Mars das Eisen erhalten, das vorher nicht in der Substanz der Erde enthalten war. So hat die Erde in ihrer ersten Entwickelung vom Mars einen Einfluß erhalten, und in der zweiten Hälfte, also jetzt, da kam sie unter den stärkeren Einfluß von Merkur. Daher kommt es, daß der Okkultismus die Bezeichnung «Erde» fallen läßt, und daß man die Zustände der Erde im Okkultismus in zwei Hälften einteilt: in die erste, die Marshälfte, und in die zweite, die Merkurhälfte. Dadurch verändert sich das vorige Schema folgendermaßen: Saturnzustand, Sonnenzustand, Mondenzustand, Mars-Merkurzustand, Jupiterzustand, Venuszustand und Vulkanzustand.
[ 39 ] Damit wäre der Vulkanzustand der achte, und er spielt in der Entwickelung dieselbe Rolle, wie die Oktave in der Musik. Wie die Oktave sozusagen eine Wiederholung des ersten Tones, nur eben in höherer Lage, darstellt, so auch ist der Vulkanzustand eine Wiederholung des Saturnzustandes, nur in höherer Entfaltung. Der ganze Kosmos hat sich aus dem Geistigen heraus entwickelt, und mit dem Vulkanzustand hat sich wieder alles zum Geist hin entfaltet, nur in höherer und vielfältigerer Entwickelung. Aus der einen Geistigkeit sind unendlich viele Geistmenschen geworden, wie aus dem Samenkorn, das der Landmann in die Erde senkt, im Herbst in der reifen Ähre sich dieselben Körner in Vielfältigkeit entwickeln. Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis.
[ 40 ] Alle diese sieben Namen haben die alten Eingeweihten zur Erinnerung an den Entwickelungsgang der Erde einfließen lassen in das monumentale Wahrzeichen, von dem ich eben gesprochen habe, und das uns gegeben ist in den Namen der sieben Wochentage:
Saturntag: Saturday, Samstag
Sonntag
Mondtag
Marstag: Mardi, Mars, Ziu, Dius, Dienstag
Merkurtag: Mercredi, Merkur, Wodan, Wednesday
Jupitertag: Giovedi, Donar, Donnerstag
Venustag: Vendredi, Venus, Freia, Freitag
[ 41 ] Es ist tatsächlich in den Namen der Wochentage ein Monument erhalten für die sieben Stadien unserer Erdenentwickelung. So finden wir in den scheinbaren Alltäglichkeiten Hinweise auf tiefe geistige Zusammenhänge.
[ 42 ] Und nun müssen Sie einmal bedenken, daß auch die ganze Menschenentwickelung innigst mit dieser planetarischen zusammenhängt. Ja, die ganze Entwickelung des Menschen ist nur auf Grund der planetarischen zu verstehen. Ein jedes Glied der menschlichen Wesenheit ist innigst verbunden mit einer von diesen planetarischen Entwickelungsphasen der Erde, insofern als während einer jeden dieser Phasen eines der Glieder der menschlichen Wesenheit veranlagt worden ist. So ist der physische Körper veranlagt worden während der Saturnzeit, der Ätherleib während der Sonnenzeit, der Astralleib während der Mondphase, und das Ich hat sich der menschlichen Wesenheit eingegliedert erst während der Erdenphase. Deshalb ist dieser physische Körper auch das bis heute am vollkommensten ausgebildete Glied, während der Ätherleib erst in der dritten Etappe der Entwickelung steht, da er erst auf der alten Sonne veranlagt worden ist, der Astralleib erst in der zweiten Etappe, da er erst während des Mondenzustandes veranlagt worden ist, und das Ich ist das Baby unter den menschlichen Wesensgliedern, denn es ist erst im Beginne seiner Entwickelung während des heutigen Erdenzustandes.
[ 43 ] Einen Fingerzeig für das eben Gesagte gibt es ohne weiteres, wenn wir uns einmal die vier Glieder der menschlichen Wesenheit auf: ihre Entwickelung hin anschauen.
[ 44 ] In den Kinderjahren der Theosophischen Gesellschaft wurde viel gearbeitet mit der Bezeichnung «höhere» und «niedere» Glieder, wobei der physische Leib als das niedrigste Glied bezeichnet wurde; und damit verband sich sehr oft der Begriff der Wertigkeit. Und man war nur allzuoft geneigt, den physischen Leib auch als den minderwertigsten anzusehen, ja, ihn zu verachten. Aber das ist durchaus falsch.
[ 45 ] Betrachten Sie einmal genau diesen Wunderbau des physischen Leibes; dann ergibt sich Ihnen ohne weiteres, daß er auf einer ungeheuer hohen Stufe der Vollkommenheit steht, während das zum Beispiel beim Ätherleib durchaus nicht der Fall ist. Wenn Sie den physischen Leib anschauen mit den Augen der Weisheit, dann sehen Sie in jedem Organ dieses physischen Körpers einen Wunderbau, im Herzen, in den Knochen und so weiter. Betrachten Sie nur einmal den weisheitsvollen Bau des Herzens und bedenken Sie, was dies verhältnismäßig doch kleine Organ täglich und stündlich an Arbeit leistet. Halten Sie dem gegenüber die heute noch verhältnismäßig mangelhafte Ausbildung des Astralleibes: wie in diesem Astralleib noch täglich unveredelte Leidenschaften sich regen, wie der Mensch unter anderem noch täglich Sehnsucht nach Genüssen in sich verspürt, deren Befriedigung diesen Wunderbau des Herzens geradezu malträtiert, und doch ist das Herz imstande, alle diese astralen Schädigungen zu paralysieren, ohne entzwei zu gehen, ja oft ohne überhaupt Schaden zu nehmen. Heute also ist der Astralleib noch nicht so weit entwickelt wie der physische Leib; heute ist der physische Leib das vollkommenste Glied. In der Zukunft allerdings wird der Astralleib so weit sein, daß er den physischen Leib überragt. Weniger weit als der physische Leib ist heute der Ätherleib entwickelt, und erst an dritter Stelle steht der Astralleib. Und das jüngste unter den Gliedern der menschlichen Wesenheit ist das Ich; es wird deshalb erst am spätesten seine Vollkommenheit erreichen.
[ 46 ] Also alles, was Sie im physischen Leibe als das eigentlich Physische haben, ist das Allerälteste. Unser physischer Leib hat schon eine Entwickelung durchgemacht, bevor ein Ätherleib eingegliedert wurde. Und diese Entwickelung, die der physische Leib nur als physischer Leib durchgemacht hat, das ist die Saturnphase. Da war diese erste Veranlagung dieses physischen Leibes eben nur physikalischer Apparat. Das hat sich dann weiter entwickelt, und erst auf der Sonne ist der Ätherleib in diesen physischen Leib hineingegliedert worden. Dieser Ätherleib hat sozusagen diesen physischen Leib ausgefüllt und ihn in gewisser Beziehung umgewandelt. Während des Mondenzustandes gliedert sich hinzu der Astralleib, und das Ich ist überhaupt erst zu Beginn unseres heutigen Erdenzustandes hinzugekommen. Heute steht der Mensch als viergliedrige Wesenheit da. Während der Mondenzeit bestand er aus physischem, Äther- und Astralleib, während der Sonnenzeit aus physischem und Ätherleib, während der Saturnzeit aus physischem Leib allein. Der physische Leib hat also vier, der Ätherleib drei, der Astralleib zwei und das Ich die erste Entwickelungsphase. Deshalb ist aber auch der physische Leib das vollkommenste Glied, weil eben an ihm am längsten gearbeitet worden ist.
[ 47 ] So sehen Sie, wie die einzelnen Glieder der menschlichen Wesenheit zusammenhängen mit der Entwickelung des gesamten planetarischen Systems. Und deshalb werden Sie auch in alten okkulten Büchern die Bezeichnung finden
für physischen Leib: Saturnleib
für Ätherleib: Sonnenleib
für Astralleib: Mondenleib
für das Ich: Erdenleib, als das eigentliche
Erdenglied des Menschen.
[ 48 ] Morgen werden wir die Gestaltung und das ganze Leben des Saturn verfolgen, und werden dann übergehen zur Sonne und zum Mond. Wir werden dann sehen, wie sich die Menschen immer mehr und mehr vervollkommnen, bis zum heutigen Zustand.
Eighth Lecture
[ 1 ] Today I want to give you some additional information on the question of reincarnation and karma. And then I would like to move on to the development of our earth itself, because only through such a consideration will we fully understand the true nature of man as it presents itself to us in the context of world conditions. I will conclude this lecture cycle by showing how man develops when the goal of his striving is the contemplation of the higher worlds. In order to penetrate into the spiritual worlds, we will therefore have to consider: first, pre-Christian schooling; second, Christian schooling; third, Rosicrucian schooling.
[ 2 ] What still needs to be said about reincarnation should be saved for a special chapter because it is most difficult for beginners to understand. What we have to discuss initially relates to the time that lies between two embodiments. It is already in and of itself a question that shocks the materialistic thinking of our time.
[ 3 ] The one source of knowledge available to the spiritual researcher cannot be verified by someone who does not yet have spiritual vision: that is the experience. But anyone who applies the training that we will discuss later is able to find out when most people currently living were last on earth in their previous incarnation. Then I will still have to discuss the means that were common in the Chaldean, Pythagorean and all secret schools of the pre-Christian era to enable people to enter the spiritual world.
[ 4 ] All those who can see into the conditions of the spiritual worlds, who are thus able to trace people back to their previous embodiments, will discover the majority of all human souls living now in the first period after the birth of Christ, up to the 8th and 9th centuries. But these are all average conditions; the time between two embodiments can also be shorter or longer.
[ 5 ] Another fact is connected with the one I have just mentioned, which has become particularly evident in our time. It is the fact that, especially in our present time, there are such unusually radical thinkers demanding equality. This is nothing more than the expression of the demand for equality in the first Christian centuries, transferred to the material realm, which was called: equality before God and equality before the worldly powers.
[ 6 ] Now many of those people who formulated these demands for equality in the early centuries of Christianity and who at that time passed through the gate of death with these unfulfilled demands, who thus all took these longings for equality before God and the worldly powers in their souls into the spiritual world, have now been re-embodied, and they bring with them, quite naturally, their attitude to these demands – but now in a metamorphosed form, corresponding to today's materialistic world view. Those who are now re-embodied overlook the completely materialistic slant that this demand has acquired in our time. It is not right to believe or claim that today's sense of freedom comes from Christianity.
[ 7 ] This realization of the demand for equality before God and the secular powers into today's demand for equality in all earthly circumstances can only be brought into the right channel by understanding the true context, as made possible by the theosophical world view. But anyone who has a grasp of the true connection and at the same time looks at what dominates people today as a materialistic world view will readily see that the demand for equality in the form in which it is being advanced today by the radical thinkers of the present is something that was bound to arise at some point in the natural course of events. But it is equally true that from now on people must rise again from materialism to spiritualism. Only then will it be possible to restore the social order to health. There is no other remedy for this than precisely spiritual science itself.
[ 8 ] This question is discussed in more detail in issues 30, 32 and 34 of the magazine Lucifer-Gnosis. It is shown there how all the other means, no matter how highly they are praised, suffer from amateurism because today's people know nothing of the higher worlds. If today's social thinkers would allow themselves to be inspired by Theosophy, they would find truly effective means to approach this question. Just as it is true that humanity had to descend from a spiritual past into materialism, it is just as true that it must ascend again to the spiritual. It is only from this spiritual world view that that which gives harmony, peace and love will come. So here too, Theosophy will be eminently practical.
[ 10 ] Now I will show how the view of the course of human development gained through clairvoyant observation leads us back to the events that occur between death and rebirth.
[ 11 ] I have already said that man does not appear on this physical earth again and again for nothing. We have already found the reason for this in the fact that he encounters completely new conditions on earth with each new incarnation, and that from each new physical life new fruits are always drawn for the future, because the earth has changed each time, both in cultural terms and in terms of purely external nature. Each time the face of the earth has become completely different when man enters a new incarnation.
[ 12 ] Now, according to the Chaldean view, the transformation of our Earth is connected with the relationship of the Sun to the other stars. You can find more details about this in some of the lecture cycles. I can only refer to it briefly here.
[ 13 ] If you were to pay attention to what the sky looks like when the sun rises at the beginning of spring, if you were to observe where it rises, what other constellations are there, then you would see that the sun's relationship to the other stars is different every spring. The vernal point moves forward every year, so that in about 26,000–25,920 years this vernal point will arrive again at the same point where it was 26,000 years ago – a cycle. But this is only seemingly the case: in reality it is not a circle that is described by the sun, but a spiral. The point at which the sun passes through the ecliptic was determined by the constellation that coincided with this point. The sun thus describes a circle around the sky, which is marked by the twelve constellations. It moves a little further each year and thus passes through all twelve constellations within 26,000 years.
[ 14 ] Thus, around 800 BC, the sun first rose in the constellation of Aries; and since the sun takes about 26,000 years to pass through all the signs of the zodiac, it takes the sun one twelfth of that time, or 2,000 years, to pass through one sign. And the change in the face of our Earth is really connected with the advance of this point of spring. Thus after such a period of about 2200 years the face of the Earth has changed so much that quite different conditions have arisen; therefore this is also the period of time in which man on average proceeds to a new embodiment. And so it is also according to the observations of occult science. The old nations have always associated a distinct feeling with the rising of the sun at the vernal equinox of Aries, which can be paraphrased as follows: “From the constellation of Aries, the sun sends us the rays again for the first time, which conjure up the plants from the earth.” It seems to them as if the constellation of Aries brings these rays, and therefore this constellation has been revered. Certain sacred feelings are associated with the naming of these constellations. Aries sends the forces of the spring sun; therefore, the peoples of ancient times saw in the lamb a symbol of these forces of revival of nature and the human soul. Many legends are associated with this, for example that of Jason, who fetches the Golden Fleece, which means something tremendously precious for humanity. This worship of Aries, or the Lamb, dominated for many centuries and was adopted by Christianity. That is why originally, instead of Christ on the cross, a lamb could be seen on crucifixes. And that is why Christ was called “the Lamb of God”.
[ 15 ] If this is the case, then since only since the 8th century BC has the spring sun risen under the sign of Aries, there must have been a different form of worship before that time; before that, the spring sun rose in the constellation of Taurus. And indeed, before the 8th century BC, the bull was worshipped in place of the lamb. This worship underlies the temple service of Apis in Egypt and the Persian service of Mithras. Some 2200 years earlier, the sun passed through the constellation of Gemini, and this symbol also played a role in those ancient cultures that preceded it. The ancient Persian religion goes back to this cult in Ormuzd and Ahriman.
[ 16 ] Thus we see how the ancient peoples linked important ideas with this passage of the sun through the individual constellations. And this is also connected with the reincarnation of the human being at a certain epoch of time, after an average of about 2200 years. But because it makes a big difference whether a person is embodied on this earth as a man or a woman in such an epoch, the calculation of the individual incarnations becomes somewhat more complicated. The experiences that a person has in an incarnation as a man or as a woman are so different that he has to incarnate twice during such an epoch, once as a man and once as a woman; so that two incarnations take place over the approximate period of two millennia, so in reality there are only 1100 to 1200 years between two incarnations. Therefore, on average, it is correct that a male and a female incarnation alternate. Exceptionally, however, several incarnations in the same gender may follow one another – the largest number observed was seven – but then the gender changes. However, these are exceptions; as a rule, the genders alternate in successive incarnations.
[ 17 ] So much for what can be said about the time that lies between two embodiments. But it also depends on many other things, and not only on the person themselves. For example, it may be the case that a particular individuality is suited to fulfill a certain task at a particular point in time for the conditions on earth. In this case, it may well be drawn into embodiment by the higher powers before the normal time is up; it is brought down because it is precisely suited, given its entire predisposition, to fulfill a particular mission. The great leaders of mankind belong here in particular. This evens out in the course of a human life, so that a longer life in Devachan follows later.
[ 18 ] The other thing that should be mentioned is that there is a kind of counterpart to that experience which I have said takes place immediately after death, where man looks back on his past life as if on a tableau. This counterpart is a kind of preview of the following life on earth.
[ 19 ] First, let us recall how the retrospective comes about at the moment of death. You know that the etheric body has two main tasks: first, to stimulate all the vital functions of the physical body, that is, to protect the substance of the physical body from decay and to regulate the structure of this substance; but then the etheric body is the seat of memory. When the etheric body leaves the physical body at the moment of death, it is thus relieved of this first main task, and at the same moment the second property comes to the fore particularly strongly, namely, the memory of everything that the person had experienced in his past life. And that is precisely the life tableau. At that moment, therefore, the human being consists only of an etheric body, an astral body and the ego.
[ 20 ] When entering a new embodiment, it is now as follows: The I descends from the spiritual world with all the imperishable essences of the etheric and astral bodies acquired up to that time. First of all, it naturally draws together all the astral qualities corresponding to its previous development into its new astral body, and only then the etheric qualities in the same way. All this takes place in the first few days after conception, and it is only from the eighteenth to the twentieth day thereafter that the new etheric body works independently on the development of the physical human germ, while before that the etheric body of the mother carries out what is later to be done by the etheric body. It is only with this eighteenth to twentieth day after conception that the individuality, so to speak, which wants to embody itself and which until then has clothed its ego with a new astral body and etheric body, takes possession of the physical body formed by the mother until then.
[ 21 ] In the moment before this occupation takes place, the human being consists of exactly the same elements as in the moment of death; in the latter case, it has just shed the physical body at that moment, in the former case, it has not yet taken up the physical body. From this it will be easy for you to understand how, at the moment when a person enters his new physical body, something analogous occurs to the moment when he discards it. At that moment, the person then has a kind of preview of his coming life, just as at the moment of death he had a review of the past life. But man forgets this preview because the constitution of his physical body is not yet suited to retain this preview by memory.
[ 22 ] In this moment, man can see: These are the family circumstances, these are the national circumstances, these are the local circumstances and these are the fateful circumstances into which I am born. And sometimes it happens that when a person has learned at this moment of foresight that something bad is in store for him, he is shocked, frightened by the life that lies ahead of him, and then the etheric body does not properly unite with the physical body, does not want to enter it. And then in life the consequences of such a fright — this unwillingness of the etheric body to properly enter into the physical — one encounters in the form of idiocy. The spiritually discerning person can see the etheric body of such people protruding above the physical head. And because the etheric body is not properly integrated, the brain lags behind in its development because the etheric body is not working properly on the brain. Many cases of idiocy today are caused in this way.
[ 23 ] And it is very understandable that the present time is particularly prone to cases of this kind, considering that the majority of people who are re-embodied today went through their previous incarnation around the 9th to 11th century AD. By applying a kind of physical treatment, one can influence the etheric body in such a way that it gradually moves into the physical body, and one can thereby improve the conditions. But this is only possible for a person who can see through the facts of the case in their spiritual cause and then intervene in the right way.
[ 24 ] From the preceding considerations, we now know that the human being as a whole is composed of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the I. All these members are not merely nested within one another, but they all interpenetrate and interact. Thus, they all work on the physical body and collaborate with it in such a way that it can develop in the way it has to develop. If you have a person in front of you, you see only the physical body if you have not yet developed your higher organs of perception. But this physical body appears to you as it does only because the etheric body, the astral body and the I are incorporated in it, and because all of these have in their own way contributed to the formation of that physical body. Yet the physical organs of this human body have not been built up in a chaotic manner by the three higher members; rather, we can distinguish quite precisely how these three higher members participate in the building of the physical body. Let us try to visualize this.
[ 25 ] First of all, we have what are, in a sense, purely physical organs in this physical body. These are the ones that have purely physical laws as their basis, that is, eyes, ears, larynx and so on. The eye is certainly a living organ and receives its life from the etheric body that permeates and nourishes it; but from a purely physical point of view, it is a physical apparatus in which the same forces prevail as in inorganic nature, for example in crystals. We can therefore observe the effects of the eye according to purely physical laws. These sense organs must first work their way out of the physical body. They are precisely those organs that we recognize in the narrower sense as being built of physical forces according to physical laws. Then we have a second group of organs: these are the organs of nutrition, growth and reproduction, which culminate in glandular activity. The etheric body is essentially involved in the formation of these organs. Then, as a third group, we have the nervous system, which is particularly built up by the astral body. Fourthly, we have what is specifically the red blood of higher animals and humans: the red, warm blood is built by the I.
[ 26 ] So, first of all, we have the actual physical parts, the sense organs, although later we also have the purely mineral bone system, which is built by the physical body itself ; secondly, the glandular system, reproductive organs and so on, these are built up by the etheric body; thirdly, the nervous system is built up by the astral body; fourthly, the blood system is built up by the ego. We will understand this much more precisely if we look more at the development of the earth itself.
[ 27 ] You must realize that the law of reincarnation applies to the whole world and not just to human beings. I am here now, alive; I am the re-embodiment of my former state. But not only I myself as a human being, but in a certain way it is the same with everything else that fills the universe, and so, among other things, with the planet itself. Just as we ourselves are the re-embodiment of former individualities, so also, among other things, our earth is the re-embodiment of a former planetary state.
[ 28 ] One cannot follow these re-embodiments of our Earth backwards and forwards to infinity; even the best clairvoyant cannot see further than a certain re-embodiment backwards or forwards, since there are limits to even his knowledge. The clairvoyant can look back over three previous embodiments of our Earth, and can also see as far as the three that follow, so that, counting the present state of the Earth, he can see seven embodiments.
[ 29 ] Some people who hear this for the first time may find it somewhat superstitious that the spiritual seer places the earth, so to speak, right in the middle of this development, and one could say that this would be a strange arrangement. But this can only be said on the basis of superficial judgment, for it is no more strange than the fact that in an open field I can see everywhere equally far and that I find myself in the center of the horizon. We also stand in the indicated seven-part division of the human being with the I in the middle: physical body, etheric body, astral body, I, spirit self, life spirit, spiritual man. This is based on the same point of view.
[ 30 ] What I have to say about the planetary development of our earth will also surprise some and seem strange to them.
[ 31 ] Our Earth has therefore developed from an earlier planet. This planet, from which our Earth emerged, is no longer in the sky. But a piece of what once was is the present Moon; it represents a piece of the predecessor of our Earth. So if you were to mix together the present Earth and the present Moon and all the spiritual beings living on them, you would get a rough idea of the previous embodiment of the Earth, which the occultist calls the Moon. Now you must bear in mind that such a hypothesis is put forward merely to make the process easier for you to understand, but that, like all hypotheses, it is of course not entirely correct. If someone were to mix the present Earth and the present Moon together, as one might mix two substances in a retort in a chemical laboratory, the result would be very far from resembling the Moon of long ago. For you must bear in mind that since the moment when the Earth and the Moon separated from each other, both worlds, each in its own way, have continued to develop. For example, since the beginning of our present-day evolution on Earth, only what we call the solid substance, the mineral kingdom, has been formed in this earthly body. Minerals in the modern sense did not exist before the beginning of our evolution on Earth.
[ 32 ] When the Earth and Moon were mixed together, we would have to imagine that everything that developed in the period that followed was absent. The old Moon had no mineral substance in it. Its consistency was only that of a liquid porridge. As already mentioned, such a hypothesis has been put forward to make the matter somewhat understandable to people who have never heard of the planetary development of our Earth and our entire cosmos. A great deal more is needed for a deeper understanding of this development, but it cannot be touched upon in such an introductory cycle, which is covered bit by bit. This development will then be completed and illuminated over and over again from a new point of view.
[ 33 ] Before the earth went through this old moon state, it was in one that the occultist describes as “sun”. There our Earth went through conditions similar to those still present on the Sun today. And if we wanted to make the same assumption here, then it would become even more complicated. If you wanted to visualize the state, then you would have to mix the Earth, Moon and Sun, and then you would get a single world body as the former state of the Sun, but again with the same limitation as above for the Moon. So, in the further course of its development, this former sun has set all the parts of being, forces and substances of today's earth and moon out of itself, repelled them, and has thus become a fixed star out of a planet. Our earth will also become a sun one day when it has transformed all its beings into beings of light.
[ 34 ] Our Earth was therefore previously a moon, and that was previously a sun. And then man can look back on yet another state of development, which in occultism is referred to as Saturn. So we have to distinguish from the previous developmental states of our Earth: Saturn, Sun, Moon, as well as Earth, and in the future will follow: Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan states.
[ 35 ] Now someone might say: You are telling us that the Earth used to be Saturn, but Saturn is still in the sky today? — But Saturn, which used to be our Earth, has nothing to do with the planetary body that is now in the sky as Saturn. It is not to be said that the beings that are here on Earth today were once on Saturn, which is up in the sky. Today's Saturn has only something to do with the former state of Saturn, as has been indicated by the moon's state in the case of the moon. What appears as present-day Saturn has also undergone further development after this very distant time, and the earlier Saturn is to the present-day Saturn as a baby is to an old man. Present-day Saturn was also once in a state like the earlier Saturn, just as the old man was once a baby. It is the same with the sun and the other celestial bodies. And if today the spiritual researcher looks at Jupiter, he finds conditions and entities on Jupiter that the Earth will once have when it too has become Jupiter.
[ 36 ] This teaching comes from the most ancient initiates, and again and again the initiates have impressed this development on their disciples.
[ 37 ] Now our language, in those parts where it can be traced back to the most ancient times, was created by initiates. I cannot explain this in detail in such an introductory cycle, because it would lead us too far from the subject. But in ancient times, when the initiates still determined the formation of language, language was something different. Today, for example, people are likely to choose a name that may not yet have been taken but has no deeper meaning. In the past, on the other hand, names were given with a deep meaning based on the inner circumstances. Thus, a kind of monument was to be built as a reminder of the development of the earth through all these periods and planetary conditions. One has created, so to speak, a timeline so that humanity should always remember the phases of time. But if we are to understand this table, then we need to know something else.
[ 38 ] From the above sketch you can see that this Earth went through a Saturn, Sun and Moon existence before its Earth existence. But before the Earth became the present Earth, that is to say, during the transition from its existence as a moon to its present existence as an Earth, it was under the strong influence of another world body, namely, under the influence of Mars. This very important and extremely significant influence from Mars on the further development of the Earth occurred right at the beginning of our evolution. Incidentally, on this occasion the Earth received iron from Mars, which was not previously contained in the substance of the Earth. Thus, in its first development, the Earth received an influence from Mars, and in the second half, that is, now, it came under the stronger influence of Mercury. This is why occultism drops the term “Earth” and why the conditions on Earth are divided into two halves in occultism: the first, the Martian half, and the second, the Mercury half. This changes the previous scheme as follows: Saturn state, Sun state, Moon state, Mars-Mercury state, Jupiter state, Venus state and Vulcan state.
[ 39 ] Thus, the Vulcan state would be the eighth, and it plays the same role in development as the octave in music. Just as the octave is, so to speak, a repetition of the first note, only in a higher position, so the volcanic state is a repetition of the Saturn state, only in a higher development. The whole cosmos has developed out of the spiritual, and with the volcanic state, everything has again developed towards the spirit, only in a higher and more diverse development. From the one spirituality, an infinite number of spiritual beings have emerged, just as the same grains develop into a multitude of seeds when the farmer plants a seed in the earth and in autumn the ripe ear of corn appears. All that is mortal is but a parable.
[ 40 ] All these seven names have been incorporated by the ancient initiates into the monumental symbol of which I have just spoken, in memory of the earth's evolutionary process, and which is given to us in the names of the seven days of the week:
Saturday: Saturday, Samstag
Sunday
Moon Day
Mars Day: Mardi, Mars, Ziu, Dius, Tuesday
Mercury Day: Mercredi, Merkur, Wodan, Wednesday
Jupiter Day: Giovedi, Donar, Thursday
Venus Day: Vendredi, Venus, Freia, Friday
[ 41 ] In the names of the days of the week, we actually find a monument to the seven stages of our evolution on Earth. Thus, in the apparent ordinariness of everyday life, we find clues to deep spiritual connections.
[ 42 ] And now you must also consider that the entire evolution of man is intimately connected with this planetary one. Indeed, the entire evolution of the human being can only be understood on the basis of the planetary evolution. Each link of the human being is intimately connected with one of these planetary phases of the earth's development, insofar as one of the links of the human being has been formed during each of these phases. The physical body was formed during the Saturnian period, the etheric body during the solar period, the astral body during the lunar period, and the I has only been incorporated into the human being during the terrestrial period. That is why the physical body is the most fully developed link to this day, while the ether body is only in the third stage of development, having been laid down on the old sun; the astral body is only in the second stage, since it was only laid down during the moon state, and the I is the baby among the human beings, because it is only at the beginning of its development during today's earthly state.
[ 43 ] A pointer for what has just been said is readily available if we look at the four limbs of the human being: their development.
[ 44 ] In the early years of the Theosophical Society, much work was done with the terms “higher” and “lower” members, whereby the physical body was designated as the lowest link; and very often the concept of value was associated with this. And all too often people were inclined to regard the physical body as the most inferior, even to despise it. But that is completely wrong.
[ 45 ] Take a close look at this miracle of the physical body; then it will be readily apparent to you that it stands at an enormously high level of perfection, whereas, for example, this is not at all the case with the etheric body. When you look at the physical body with the eyes of wisdom, you see a miracle in every organ of this physical body, in the heart, in the bones and so on. Just look at the wise construction of the heart and consider what this relatively small organ does every day and every hour. In contrast to this, consider the still relatively inadequate training of the astral body: how unrefined passions still stir daily in this astral body, how, among other things, a person still feels a daily longing for pleasures whose satisfaction almost maltreats this miracle of the heart, and yet the heart is able to paralyze all this astral damage without breaking, and often without even being damaged. Today, therefore, the astral body is not yet as highly developed as the physical body; today the physical body is the most perfect link. In the future, however, the astral body will be so far advanced that it will surpass the physical body. The etheric body is less developed than the physical body today, and the astral body is in third place. And the youngest among the members of the human being is the ego; therefore it will be the last to reach perfection.
[ 46 ] So everything that you have in the physical body as the actual physical is the oldest of all. Our physical body has already undergone a development before an ether body was incorporated. And this development, which the physical body has only undergone as a physical body, that is the Saturn phase. At that time, the first predisposition of this physical body was only a physical apparatus. This then developed further, and it was only on the sun that the ether body was incorporated into this physical body. This ether body, so to speak, filled this physical body and transformed it to a certain extent. During the lunar phase, the astral body is added, and the ego was only added at the beginning of our present earthly state. Today, the human being exists as a four-part entity. During the lunar phase, he consisted of a physical, etheric and astral body; during the solar phase, of a physical and etheric body; and during the Saturn phase, of a physical body alone. Thus the physical body has four, the etheric body three, the astral body two, and the ego the first phase of development. But that is why the physical body is the most perfect link, because it is the one on which work has been longest in duration.
[ 47 ] So you see how the individual members of the human being are connected with the development of the entire planetary system. And that is why you will also find in old occult books the term
for the physical body: Saturn body
for the etheric body: sun body
for the astral body: moon body
for the I: earth body, as the actual
earth link of the human being.
[ 48 ] Tomorrow we will follow the formation and the whole life of Saturn, and will then move on to the sun and the moon. We will then see how human beings become more and more perfect, up to their present state.