Occult Signs and Symbols
GA 101
14 September 1907, Stuttgart
II. The Symbolic Meaning of Noah's Ark and the Gothic Churches
The Symbolism of Certain Animal Forms and Their Relation to the Elements: Snake, Fish, Butterfly, Bee.
Yesterday, we stopped with the indication about Noah's Ark, stating that in the proportions of its height, breadth and length were expressed the proportions of the human body. Now, in order to understand the meaning of this Ark mentioned in the Bible (I Moses 6, 15), we must deepen our knowledge of various things. We must at first make clear to ourselves what it means that a vessel through which man should be rescued has definite dimensions. It will then be necessary to occupy ourselves with that time of man's development in which the actual happenings to which the Noah story refers took place.
When people who understand something of occultism produced some object in the outer world, a quite definite purpose for the soul was always connected with it. Recall the Gothic churches, those characteristic buildings that arose in the beginning of the Middle Ages and spread from Western to Middle Europe. These churches have a definite architectural style, which expresses itself in the arch that consists of two parts joining in a point above. This architectural feature permeates the whole as atmosphere—that peculiar arching consisting of two parts tapering up to a point, the whole reaching upward, the columns with a definite form, etc. It would be quite wrong to assert that such a Gothic cathedral simply came to be out of outer needs, out of a certain longing perhaps, to create a House of God that should express or mean this or that. Something much deeper underlay this. Those who indicated the first ideas for these Gothic buildings were adepts in occultism. They were, to a certain degree, initiates. It was their purpose to see that whoever entered such a House of God was to receive quite definite soul impressions. When one sees these peculiar archings, when one views the inner space in which the columns rise as trees rise in a grove, such a House of God works upon the soul quite differently than does a house, for instance, that is carried by old columns, that has an ordinary Roman or Renaissance cupola. Of course, man does not become conscious of the fact that such forms produce quite definite effects; they occur in the unconscious. He cannot be rationally clear about what is happening in his soul. Many people believe that the materialism of our modern time arises because so many materialistic writings are read. The occultist, however, knows that this is only one of the lesser influences. What the eye sees is of far greater importance, for it has an influence on soul processes that more or less run their course in the unconscious. This is of eminently practical importance, and when spiritual science will one day really take hold of the soul, then will the practical effect become noticeable in public life. I have often called attention to the fact that it was something different from what it is today when one in the Middle Ages walked through the streets. Right and left there were house façades that were built up out of what the soul felt and thought. Every key, every lock, carried the imprint of him who had made it. Try to realize how the individual craftsman felt joy in each piece, how he worked his own soul into it. In every object there was a piece of soul, and when a person moved among such things, soul forces streamed over to him. Now compare this with a city today. Here is a shoe store, a hardware store, a butcher shop, then a tavern, etc. All this is alien to the inner soul processes; it is related only to the outer man. Thus, it generates those soul forces that tend towards materialism. These influences work much more strongly than do the dogmas of materialism. Add to these our horrible art of advertising. Old and young wander through a sea of such abominable products that wake the most evil forces of the soul. So likewise do our modern comic journals. This is not meant to be a fanatical agitation against these things, but only indications about facts. All this pours a stream of forces into the human soul, determining the epoch that leads the person in a certain direction. The spiritual scientist knows how much depends upon the world of forms in which a man lives.
Toward the middle of the Middle Ages there arose along the Rhine that remarkable religious movement called Christian Mysticism. It is linked up with such leading spirits as Master Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, Ruysbroeck, and others. This was a tremendous deepening and intensification of the human feeling life because these preachers did not stand alone but had a faithful audience at that time. The name parson (Pfaff—a derogatory expression for “parson”), in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries did not have the meaning it has today, but was something to be esteemed. Plato used to be called “the great parson”. Because there emanated such a deepening from these great souls, the Rhine was named at that time, “Europe's Great Parson Street”. Do you know where these soul forces were bred that were searching for an inner union with the godly forces of being? They were brought forth in the Gothic cathedrals with their pointed arches, pillars and columns. This had educated these souls. What the human being sees, what is poured into his environment, becomes a force in him. In accordance with it, he forms himself.
Let us put this before our souls schematically against the background of human development. At a given time an architectural style is created, born out of the great ideas of initiates. Human souls take up the force of these forms. Centuries go by. What the soul has absorbed through its contemplation of building forms appears in the mood of his soul. Ardent souls will then come into existence, souls who look up to the heights. Even when the course was not always quite as I have described it, still like effects showed themselves often in human development.
Now let us follow these people some millennia further. Those who absorbed the forces of the forms of these buildings into their souls show the expression of their inner soul configurations in their countenances. The entire human shape forms itself through such impressions. What was built thousands of years ago, appears to us in human countenances thousands of years later. Thus, one recognizes why such arts were practiced. Initiates look out into the far future and see how human beings are meant to become. Hence it is that at a definite time, they form external building styles, outer art forms, on a large scale. So it is that the germ of future human epochs is laid.
When you rightly keep all this in mind, you will understand what occurred at the end of the Atlantean epoch. Air did not exist as it does today; the distribution of air and water was quite different from what it is today. Masses of mist surrounded Atlantis. When you picture to yourself how mist rises, how clouds form, and rain falls, then you have in miniature what happened over enormous expanses of Atlantis during millennia. With the change in the outer living conditions of man, he, too, changed. Formerly then, a country covered with thick mist masses had people living in it who had a kind of clairvoyance. Gradually the rain storms came; gradually the people accustomed themselves to an entirely new way of life, to a new perception, a new awareness. The human bodies had to change. You would be amazed if you were to see pictures of the first Atlantean people. How different they were from people today! Do not believe, however, that this change occurred by itself. Through long periods of time the human souls had to work on these human bodies and bring about effects such as were described by the simple example given of the effects of architectural forms on the feeling life of the soul that later appeared in their countenances.
How was it when the Atlantean epoch passed over into the post-Atlantean epoch? At first, the human soul underwent change and, in accordance with this, the body shaped itself. Let us go into this more deeply! Let us picture an old Atlantean. He still had clairvoyant consciousness and was thus connected with the environment in which he lived, with the mist-filled atmosphere. Because of this atmosphere, things did not show themselves to him with firmly marked contours. Actually, they were rather colour pictures that emerged for him; his perceptions were floods of surging interweaving colours. Into this, outlines gradually appeared. Objects revealed themselves like lanterns in the mist, encircled by rainbow colours, and his spiritual capacities developed accordingly. Had this condition continued, it would have been impossible for man to acquire his present body. Objects had to take on their present contours, the air became free of water. This process went on for thousands of years. Only gradually did things take on distinctness. The human soul had to receive other impressions, new impressions, and form its body correspondingly, for in accordance with what you think and feel is your body formed. What kind of form had the soul to experience when it escaped from the Atlantean watery landscape into the new airy landscape? For the present body to shape itself, the human being had to be surrounded by a form of definite length, breadth, and depth. As a matter of fact, this form was given to him so that the body could form itself thereby. Just as the mood of the mystics modeled itself out of the shape of the cathedral, and as the initiate would be able to indicate which countenances had shaped themselves accordingly, so did the human beings gradually transform themselves since, as a matter of fact, they lived in vessels, under the influence of great initiates, which had been built according to these measurements. Before the time of our present humanity there was a kind of water or sea-life that was lived in vessels, in which humanity gradually accustomed itself to life on land. The life of the Atlanteans was for the most part a life in vessels. Not only were they surrounded by a watery, misty air, but a large part of Atlantis was covered by the sea. This is the deep mystery of Noah's Ark. What is to be found in the original religious documents has an immense depth. A radiance of wisdom and limitless sublimity surrounds these primal records when we immerse ourselves deeply in them.
In Genesis you find the symbol of the snake. In the Roman catacombs you come upon the picture of the fish, which tradition tells us signifies the Christian or the Christ. If someone were to reflect on these symbols, he could, of course, find much that is ingenious, but this would only be speculation. We want to deal only with realities since these things, too, are given us out of the spiritual and astral worlds. If you will follow me for a few moments into the history of man's evolution, you will see what truths are contained in both these symbols.
Let us recall once again that the earth has had as many different embodiments as man. The human form was always present during the different earth incarnations—on Saturn, Sun and Moon. His ego, however, was acquired for the first time on the earth. Now we must turn our attention briefly to the appearance of the earth as it was in its first incarnation, while it was still Saturn. At that time rocks or fields for tilling did not yet exist. The human physical body existed but in a finer state. It was only gradually that it condensed to its present fleshy form.
When you examine the materials around you today, you will find that they exist in various conditions. First, there is the solid, called Earth in occultism; then the fluid, called Water in occultism—not only the water on earth is meant, but all that is fluid. Then all the gaseous matter, called Air in occultism. There is one still finer condition, Fire. Of course, physicists of today do not accept this, but the occultist knows that Fire can be compared with Earth, Water and Air, that Fire is the first etheric condition, that it is finer than Air. Where you find Fire or Warmth, something is present that is still finer than Air. Were we to picture a substance finer than Warmth, we would come to Light. What we, in the occult sense, term Earth, Water, and Air was not yet in existence on Saturn. These bodily states arose on the Sun, Moon, and Earth. The densest condition on Saturn was Warmth or Fire. Man lived within it, his body actually a kind of reflected image. To present this in greater detail would take us too far afield.
Saturn changed into the Sun. Air was added to Fire and was the densest condition on the Sun. When the physical body had reached the airy stage, it was impregnated with the etheric body. There were no other beings but Air beings. As man, one would have been able to penetrate these Air beings because they were just as penetrable as air is today. They could be compared with a Fata Morgana, so light and fleeting were they. To be sure, the air on the Sun was somewhat denser than our present air. The watery condition first arose on the Moon, and all that lived on this Moon was but a condensation of Water. Jelly fish and slimy creatures such as are still to be seen today give us a notion of these water beings. Only physical bodies of this kind were capable of taking up an astral body.
The development gradually proceeded. At the end of the Moon period certain watery parts had densified sufficiently so that a kind of firm ground like turf, slime or spinach was formed. The greatest densification resembled the wood of our present day trees. Then the Moon transformed itself into our present earth; the condition of the solid, the mineral, was added. The outer sheath became firm; accordingly and gradually all beings became denser and firmer. Gradually, man developed into a being of flesh—at first on Saturn a Warmth being, an Air being on the Sun, a Water being on the Moon, and finally, on Earth he became a being of flesh.
Let us now consider the meaning of this development. On Saturn the germinal foundation for the physical body was formed; on the Sun the etheric body was added; on the Moon the astral body. But something additional happened on the Moon. The human being who remained on the Old Moon was then much lower in his development than he is today because the astral body in the Moon period was full of raging passions. Only later, when the ego was added, was the astral body purified. For this a planetary development was necessary. The Moon had again to fall back into the Sun, the bad lunar men had again to unite with the Sun beings. Thus, when the Earth began, the ancient Sun and Moon were again one body. It was the high beings who inhabited the Sun who had to cast out the Moon, and as a result the Moon became a dense mass with all its various impulses. Now all the bad beings who had been expelled with the Moon had to be rescued again, and so the reunion of the Moon with the Sun took place. What would have happened if this reunion had not occurred, if each had gone its own way? Then it would have been impossible for man to appear in his present form, nor would the Sun beings have progressed to what they are today. Had the Old Moon gone its own way alone, and not been enabled through reunion with the Sun to draw on new forces, then the highest being that could ever have been created on the Moon would have resembled a snake. The Sun beings, on the other hand, who were so spiritual that they had no physical body but possessed an etheric body as their lowest member, would have received a physical body whose highest form would have been that of a fish. Naturally, the fish-form would have been only the outer expression for souls who reached a much higher stage of development, just as our present fish group soul is something exalted.
The Moon fell back again into the Sun, and later our earth threw out the present moon, which took with it the worst substances. Thereby it became possible for the beings of our earth to develop themselves beyond the snake stage to that of the human. It was the Sun beings who bestowed upon the beings of our earth the strength to lift themselves above the snake. The material purity of the Sun condition of those high beings expresses itself in the fish form, for this is the highest material form that the old Sun nature could have attained.
The Christos is the Sun Hero who has transplanted all the strength of the Sun upon the Earth. Now you will be able to understand with what deep intuition esoteric Christianity conceived of the fish form, because it signifies the outer symbol of the Sun power, of the forces of the Christ. To be sure, the fish is outwardly an incomplete being but it has not descended so deeply into matter and it is penetrated to a small extent by egotism. The occultist says that the snake is the symbol for the earth as it developed itself out of the Moon. The fish is the symbol for spiritual being as it has developed itself out of the Sun. Our earth, as it stands before us with its solid substances, has its lowest being in the snake. What separated itself as watery substance, as pure water, could manifest itself as fish. To the occultist the fish is something that has been born out of the water.
What is it that, in a similar way, has been born out of air, or out of fire? These are regions that are hard to explain, but at least some indications can be given here.
What were things like on the earth when it had just developed from the Saturn to the Sun stage? Man was then a kind of air being. Death and dying, as understood at present, he did not know because he could transform himself. Let us make it clear to ourselves how man arrived at his present consciousness of death and dying. Man's soul was in the atmosphere of the Sun but it was related to what was there below as body. In our time man's astral body, even when it has slipped out at night, belongs to the physical body, and it was the same on Saturn and Sun except that it never slipped in. At the beginning of the Sun stage the body was below; above was something that as soul belonged to a definite body, that directed this body, that had spiritual consciousness. The body of this soul was subject to other laws of growth and dying off than is the case today. It lost certain parts, but it added new parts. For long stretches of time the soul lived on unchanged while the body changed. To be sure, when the Sun was in a certain condition, man identified himself in a certain way with his body. His body transformed itself into alternate conditions. At first a body of definite form was produced, then this form transformed itself into another, again into another, and then into a fourth. After its last change it came back to its first condition. The human being retained the same consciousness while these forms changed. When the first bodily condition arose again, when the human being came back to the first form, after he had lived through the other three, he then felt himself renewed. This transformation has been preserved for us in the butterfly that develops itself through four forms: egg, larva, pupa, and butterfly. This is the hieroglyph, the sign for the airy condition of the human being on the Sun. In the butterfly today, under our completely changed conditions, this state is, of course, a kind of decadence. The human being evolved beyond this state, but for the occultist the butterfly is the symbol for it. He designates it as the air being, just as he designates the snake as earth being, and the fish as water being. Why the birds are not designated as air beings will be dealt with at some other time.
Now let us go back to the first Saturn condition when the human being was a soul-spiritual being that always had the same body, that knew itself immortal on a lower level and continually changed his body. This condition, too, has been preserved for us in a peculiar being that, when considered as a whole group soul, stands in a certain way higher than man. This is the bee. When you study the whole hive, you have something totally different from the single bee. The whole beehive has a spiritual life that in some ways corresponds to life on Saturn on a lower stage, and that will be reached on Venus on a higher level. The body of the bee, however, has stayed on the old Saturn level. We must indeed distinguish the soul of the whole beehive as no ordinary group soul but a being in itself, and the single bee as having preserved the form that the human body passed through on Saturn. Because the bee is retarded as outer being, it could win a higher spiritual consciousness. Hence the wonderful social composition of the beehive! The bee is the symbol of the spiritual man who does not know mortality. When man was of such spirituality, our planet was in a fiery state. When, as Venus, it will again be quite fiery, man will again be a spiritual being. Thus, in the bee you have the being that is the fire being for the occultist.
It will be interesting to mention here a parallelism about which ordinary science has little to say. What does the man of today have in him of Saturn's warmth? His blood-heat. What at that time was distributed over the whole of Saturn has in a measure freed itself and today forms the warm blood of man and animal. When you investigate the temperature of a beehive, you find it to be about the same temperature as that of human blood. The whole beehive develops a temperature comparable to that of blood because, in accordance with the nature of its being, it goes back to the same source as does the human blood.
So, the occultist designates the bee as born out of warmth. He designates the butterfly as air being and the snake as earth being. Again you see from these considerations how deeply symbols and occult signs are connected with what we know of the evolutionary history of the planets and of man.
Zweiter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Wir blieben gestern bei einem Hinweis auf die Arche Noah stehen, und zwar bemerkten wir, daß in den Maßverhältnissen, die sie in Höhe, Breite und Länge hatte, sich die Maßverhältnisse des menschlichen Leibes ausdrückten. Um nun einzusehen, welche Bedeutung diese Arche der religiösen Urkunde der Bibel hat, müssen wir zwererlei betrachten. Wir müssen uns nicht nur klarmachen, welchen Sinn es hat, daß ein Fahrzeug, durch das der Mensch gerettet werden soll, bestimmte Maße hat, die an die Maße des menschlichen Leibes erinnern, es wird auch notwendig sein, sich in jene Zeit der Menschheitsentwickelung zu vertiefen, in der sich die wirklichen Geschehnisse abspielten, auf die in der Geschichte von Noah hingewiesen wird.
[ 2 ] Immer wenn Menschen, die etwas von Okkultismus verstanden haben, in der äußeren Welt irgendeinen Gegenstand schufen, so hatte das einen ganz bestimmten Zweck, eine ganz bestimmte Bedeutung für die menschlichen Seelen. Erinnern Sie sich einmal an die gotischen Kirchen und Dome, an die ganz speziellen Eigentümlichkeiten dieser Bauwerke, die in der ersten Zeit des Mittelalters entstanden sind und sich vom Westen nach Mitteleuropa hin ausgebreitet haben. Diese Kirchen tragen einen ganz bestimmten Baustil, der sich darin ausdrückt, daß die eigenartige Bogenart, die aus zwei oben in eine Spitze auslaufenden Teilen besteht, sich über das Ganze als Stimmung ergießt, daß das Ganze nach oben strebt, daß die Pfeiler eine bestimmte Gestalt haben und so weiter. Ganz unrecht hätte derjenige, der behaupten wollte, solch ein gotischer Dom sei bloß aus äußeren Bedürfnissen hervorgegangen, etwa aus einer gewissen Sehnsucht, ein Gotteshaus zu schaffen, welches dieses oder jenes ausdrücken oder bedeuten soll. Oh nein! Der Gotik liegt etwas viel Tieferes zugrunde. Diejenigen, die die ersten Ideen angaben für das Entstehen der gotischen Bauten in der Welt, waren Kenner des Okkultismus, sie waren bis zu einem gewissen Grade Eingeweihte. Ganz bestimmte Absichten verbanden die großen Führer der Menschheit mit dem Entstehen solcher Bauten, solcher Baustile. Die Gotik, die gotischen Dome und Kirchen, lösen ganz bestimmte Seeleneindrücke aus bei dem, der sie betritt. Es ist, als trete man in eine Art von Hain in diesem hohen gewölbten Dome mit den aufstrebenden Säulen. Der Aufenthalt dort wirkt ganz anders auf die Seele, als wenn Sie zum Beispiel in ein gewöhnliches Haus gehen oder in ein Bauwerk, das eine Renaissance-Kuppel oder eine Kuppel romanischen Stiles hat. Es gehen ganz bestimmte Wirkungen von den Formen aus. Der gewöhnliche Mensch wird sich dessen nicht bewußt, für ihn lebt dies alles im Unbewußten, in seinem Unterbewußtsein. Verstandesmäßig macht der Mensch sich nicht klar, was in seiner Seele vorgeht, wenn er solche Formen um sich hat. Und was da vorgeht, ist je nach der Beschaffenheit seiner Umgebung sehr verschieden. Viele Menschen glauben, daß der Materialismus unserer modernen Zeit davon herrühre, daß so viele materialistische Schriften gelesen werden. Aber der Okkultist weiß, daß dies nur einen geringen Einfluß hat. Das, was das Auge sieht, ist von weit größerer Wichtigkeit, denn es hat Einfluß auf Vorgänge der Seele, die mehr oder weniger im Unbewußten verlaufen. Das hat eine eminent praktische Bedeutung. Und wenn die Geisteswissenschaft einmal in Wahrheit die Seele ergreifen wird, dann wird diese praktische Wirkung auch im Öffentlichen Leben bemerkbar werden. Ich habe öfters schon darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß es etwas anderes war als heute, wenn man im Mittelalter durch die Straßen ging. Rechts und links, an jeder Häuserfassade trug alles das Gepräge dessen, der es verfertigt hatte. Jeder Gegenstand, alles, was die Menschen umgab, jedes Türschloß, jeder Schlüssel, war aufgebaut aus etwas, worin die Seele des Verfertigers ihre Gefühle verkörperte. Mit Liebe war alles gemacht. Machen Sie sich einmal klar, wie der einzelne Handwerker seine Freude an jedem Stück hatte, wie er seine Seele da hineinarbeitete. In jedem Ding war ein Stück seiner Seele. Und wo in der äußeren Form Seele ist, da strömen auch die Seelenkräfte über auf den, der es sieht und ansieht. Vergleichen Sie das mit einer Stadt von heute. Wo ist heute noch Seele in den Dingen? Da ist ein Schuhwaren-, ein Messergeschäft, ein Metzgerladen, dann ein Bierhaus und so weiter. Nehmen Sie nur unsere Plakatkunst; was für Produkte bringt sie hervor? Eine gräßliche Plakatkunst haben wir! Alt und Jung wandert durch ein Meer solcher scheußlicher Erzeugnisse, die die schlimmsten Kräfte der Seele im Unterbewußtsein auslösen. Die theosophische Erziehungskunst wird darauf aufmerksam machen, daß das, was das Auge sieht, den Menschen tief beeinflußt. Und betrachten Sie gar unsere modernen Witzblätter, was wird da geboten! Das soll keine Kritik sein, sondern nur ein Hinweisen auf Tatsachen. Denn das alles gießt einen Strom von Kräften in die menschliche Seele hinein, die den Menschen hinlenken nach einer gewissen Richtung, die zeitbestimmend sind. Der Geisteswissenschafter weiß, wieviel davon abhängt, ob der Mensch in dieser oder in jener Formenwelt lebt.
[ 3 ] Um die Mitte des Mittelalters entstand längs des Rheines jene merkwürdige religiöse Bewegung, welche man die deutsche Mystik nennt. Eine ungeheure Vertiefung und Verinnerlichung ging von den führenden Geistern der christlichen Mystik aus, von Meister Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, Ruysbroek und anderen, die man «Pfaffen» nannte. Im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert hatte der Name «Pfaffe» noch nicht die Bedeutung wie heute, er war noch etwas Verehrungswürdiges. Man nannte den Rhein damals die «große Pfaffengasse Europas». Und wissen Sie, wo diese große Vertiefung und Verinnerlichung des menschlichen Gemütes, diese frommen Gefühle, die eine innige Vereinigung mit den göttlichen Wesenskräften suchten, erzeugt worden sind? Sie sind heranerzogen worden in den gotischen Domen mit ihren Spitzbogen, Pfeilern und Säulen. Das hat diese Seelen erzogen. So stark wirkt das Gesehene. Was der Mensch sieht, was hineingegossen wird in seine Seele aus seiner Umgebung, das wird in ihm eine Kraft. Danach formt er sich selbst - bis in seine nächste Inkarnation.
[ 4 ] Wir wollen uns das hier einmal schematisch aus der EntwickeJung des Menschen heraus vor die Seele stellen. Ein Baustil wird nicht erfunden, er wird in einer Zeit herausgeboren aus den großen Gedanken der Eingeweihten; sie lassen ihn einfließen in die Welt. Die Bauwerke entstehen, sie wirken auf die Menschen; die menschlichen Seelen nehmen in sich etwas auf von der in diesen Formen lebenden spirituellen Kraft. Das, was die Seele aufgenommen hat durch das Anschauen der Bauformen - zum Beispiel der Gotik -, das tritt hervor in der Stimmung der Seelen: inbrünstige Seelen werden entstehen, die zum Hohen aufblicken. Vor einigen Jahrhunderten haben Menschen das, was in der Gotik lebte, in sich aufgenommen. Und jetzt verfolgen wir diese Menschen einige Jahrhunderte weiter, die in der Seele die Kraft dieser Bauformen aufgenommen haben - sie zeigen nun in ihrer nächsten Inkarnation den Ausdruck dieser inneren Gemütsverfassung in ihrer Physiognomie, in ihren Antlitzen. Die Seelen der Menschen haben die Gesichter gebildet. So erkennt man, warum solche Künste geübt werden. Weit, weit hinaus in ferne Zukunft der Menschheit sehen die Eingeweihten. Deshalb formen sie in einer bestimmten Zeit äußere Kunstformen, äußere Baustile im großen. So wird in die Menschenseele der Keim für zukünftige Menschheitsepochen gelegt.
[ 5 ] Wenn Sie sich das so recht vor Augen halten, dann werden Sie auch begreifen, was sich damals am Ende der atlantischen Zeit abspielte. Versetzen wir uns noch einmal in die Zeit hinein, als das Ende, der Untergang der Atlantis hereinbrach. Es gab ja zu jener Zeit noch keine Luft wie heute, die Luft- und Wasserverteilung war noch eine ganz andere; Nebelmassen umgaben die Atlantis. Die Nebel verdichteten sich zu Wolken, und als strömender Regen ergoß sich die Sintflut über das Land. Ganz allmählich muß man sich den Untergang der Atlantis vorstellen. Das spielte sich nicht in kurzen Zeiträumen ab, es war ein Prozeß, welcher Jahrtausende dauerte. Mit der Änderung der äußeren Lebensverhältnisse veränderte sich auch der Mensch selbst. Vorher nahmen die Menschen wahr durch eine Art von Hellsehen. Und als die Regenströme auftraten, mußten die Menschen sich nach und nach an eine ganz neue Lebensweise gewöhnen, an ein neues Anschauen, eine neue Art von Wahrnehmen. Verändern mußten sich die Körper der Menschen. Sie würden staunen, wenn Sie die atlantischen Menschen einmal aufgezeichnet sehen würden, wie verschieden sie von den heutigen Menschen waren. Aber glauben Sie ja nicht, daß diese Umwandlung von selbst geschah. Der menschliche Leib mit seinen Sinnesorganen hat sich erst nach und nach herausgebildet. Die menschlichen Seelenkräfte mußten durch lange Zeiten hindurch an diesen menschlichen Leibern arbeiten und so wirken, wie ich es vorhin an dem einfachen Beispiel geschildert habe. Erst sieht der Mensch die Bauformen, sie wirken auf sein Gemüt, und das Gemüt wirkt wiederum in einem späteren Leben auf die Physiognomie, auf das Antlitz des Menschen.
[ 6 ] Als die atlantische Zeit überging in die nachatlantische Zeit, formte sich erst die Seele des Menschen um und modelte danach seinen Leib um. Wir wollen uns noch weiter dahinein vertiefen. Stellen wir uns einen recht alten Atlantier vor; er hatte noch hellseherisches Bewußtsein, und das hing zusammen mit der Umgebung, in der er lebte, mit der nebelerfüllten Atmosphäre. Dadurch stellten sich ihm die Dinge nicht in fest umrissenen Grenzen dar. Es waren mehr Farbenbilder, die vor ihm auftauchten, Fluten von Farben, die durcheinanderwogten und die ihm die Seelenzustände der Menschen anzeigten. Statt des Gegenstandes, der ihm nahte, nahm der atlantische Mensch eine Lichtform wahr, eine blaue für Liebe, eine rote für Leidenschaft, Zorn und so weiter. Um ihn herum breiteten sich die Seelenkräfte aller Menschen aus. Wenn dieser Zustand fortgedauert hätte, niemals hätte der Mensch seinen jetzigen Leib erlangen können. Als die Luft frei wurde vom Wasser und die Gegenstände immer klarer und deutlicher hervortraten und ihre jetzigen Begrenzungen bekamen, war die Zeit gekommen, wo die Seele des Menschen neue Eindrücke empfangen mußte. Und nach diesen Eindrücken formte sie ihren Leib. Denn nach dem, was Sie denken und fühlen, formen Sie Ihren Leib. Was mußte nun die Menschenseele erleben, als sie sich aus der atlantischen Wasserlandschaft hinausrettete in die neue Luftlandschaft, damit der Leib seine heutige Form bilden konnte? Die Menschenseele mußte von einer solchen Form umgeben sein, die eine bestimmte Länge, eine bestimmte Breite und eine bestimmte Tiefe hatte, damit sich der Leib danach formte. Diese Form wurde ihm tatsächlich gegeben durch das, was die Bibel die Arche Noah nennt. Wie die Stimmung der Mystik sich aus der Form der gotischen Dome gebildet hat und der Hellseher nachweisen könnte, welche Gesichter sich danach gebildet haben, so bildeten sich die Leiber der Menschen der alten Atlantis nach und nach um, weil tatsächlich die Menschen in Fahrzeugen lebten, die sie unter dem Einflusse von großen Eingeweihten nach den Maßen gebaut hatten, wie die Bibel die Arche Noah beschreibt. Das Leben in der Zeit der alten Atlantis war eine Art von Wasser- oder Seeleben, wo die Menschen zum größten Teile auf Fahrzeugen auf dem Wasser lebten und sich erst allmählich an das Leben auf dem Lande gewöhnten. Denn die alte Atlantis war nicht nur von einer Wassernebelluft umgeben, ein großer Teil der Atlantis war von der See bedeckt. Der Mensch lebte in diesen Fahrzeugen, damit sein Leib so gebaut werden konnte, wie er heute ist. Das ist das tiefe Mysterium der Arche Noah. Wenn man aus der Bibel wiederum die Tiefe ihrer geheimwissenschaftlichen Bedeutung herauszulesen versteht, dann breitet sich über diese Urkunde ein Glanz von Weisheit und unendlicher Erhabenheit aus. Der Mensch lebte auf Fahrzeugen, weil ihm der Eindruck der Abgeschlossenheit in seiner Haut werden mußte. So wirkten die Eingeweihten durch die Jahrtausende auf die Erziehung des Menschen. Was Ihnen in den religiösen Urkunden entgegentritt, ist eben tief herausgeholt aus der okkulten Wirklichkeit.
[ 7 ] Ein anderes Sinnbild finden wir im ersten Kapitel der Bibel, in der Genesis: das Sinnbild der Schlange. Und in den römischen Katakomben tritt uns vielfach das Zeichen des Fisches entgegen. Es ist überliefert, daß dieser Fisch, der immer wiederkehrt als Abbildung, das Christliche oder Christus selber bedeute. Wenn jemand nachdenken wollte über diese Sinnbilder, so könnte er wahrscheinlich viel Geistreiches zutage fördern, aber das wäre nur Spekulation; und wir wollen es nur mit Wirklichkeiten zu tun haben. Auch diese Abbildungen sind aus der geistigen Welt heraus gegeben. Wenn Sie mir ein paar Minuten folgen wollen in der Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit, dann werden Sie sehen, welche Wahrheiten in diesen Symbolen der Schlange und des Fisches enthalten sind.
[ 8 ] Erinnern wir uns noch einmal daran, daß die Erde ebenso verschiedene Verkörperungen durchgemacht hat wie der Mensch. Sie wissen, daß sie einstmals Saturn, Sonne, Mond gewesen ist, bevor sie Erde wurde. Der menschliche Leib war schon vorhanden auf den verschiedenen planetarischen Zuständen, sein Ich aber hat der Mensch erst auf der Erde aufgenommen. Wir wollen uns nun ein wenig anschauen, wie diese Erde aussah, als sie noch in ihrer ersten Verkörperung war, als sie noch Saturn war. So etwas wie Felsen und Ackererde gab es damals noch nicht. Der menschliche physische Körper war zwar vorhanden, aber ganz fein; erst nach und nach hat er sich verdichtet zu der heutigen fleischlichen Gestalt.
[ 9 ] Wenn wir die heutigen Stoffe um uns herum betrachten, so finden wir, daß sie verschiedene Zustände haben, feste, flüssige, gasförmige. Im Okkultismus nennt man alle festen Körper «Erde», unter «Wasser» versteht man alle flüssigen Stoffe und unter «Luft» alles Luftförmige, Gasförmige. Noch feiner als die anderen Zustände ist das «Feuer», die Wärme. Der heutige Physiker wird das ja freilich nicht gelten lassen. Aber der Okkultist weiß, daß das «Feuer» in der Tat etwas ist, was mit Erde, Wasser, Luft sich vergleichen läßt, es ist nur ein noch feinerer Zustand. Wo Sie Wärme empfinden, da ist etwas vorhanden, was noch feiner ist als die Luft. Von dem, was wir im okkulten Sinne als Erde, Wasser und Luft bezeichnen, war auf dem Saturn gar nichts vorhanden. Diese festen, körperhaften Zustände entstanden erst auf der Sonne, dem Mond und der Erde. Der dichteste Zustand auf dem Saturn war Wärme oder «Feuer». Darin lebte der Menschenkörper, und der Ring, der den Saturn umgab - jeder Saturn hat nämlich einen Ring -, das sind eigentlich zurückgeworfene Spiegelbilder, Aussonderungen vom Feuer. Das näher auszuführen, würde uns heute zu sehr von unserem Thema entfernen.
[ 10 ] Gehen wir nun vom Saturn zur Sonne über; da tritt zu dem Feuer die Luft hinzu. Auf der Sonne war der dichteste Zustand Luft. Es war eine Art Luftsonne. Der Mensch war auf der Sonne ein Luftwesen und wurde dazumal imprägniert mit dem Ätherleib. Es gab keine anderen als Luftwesen. Man hätte durch diese Luftmenschen hindurchgehen können, denn sie waren «durchdringlich», wie die Luft ist. Man könnte sie mit einer Fata Morgana vergleichen, so leicht, so flüchtig waren sie. Freilich war die Luft auf der alten Sonne dichter als die heutige. - Auf dem alten Monde entstand zuerst der wäßrige Zustand, und alles, was auf diesem Mond lebte, bildete sich durch eine Verdichtung des Wassers. Quallen und Schleimtiere, wie sie auch heute noch zu sehen sind, geben uns eine Vorstellung von diesen Wasserwesen. So waren damals alle physischen Körper beschaffen, und nur physische Körper dieser Art waren imstande, einen Astralleib in sich aufzunehmen. Die Entwickelung ging nun allmählich weiter. So hängen diese Dinge zusammen, der Mensch und die Erde, denn der Mensch gehört zu seinem Planeten. Und nun betrachten wir den Sinn dieser planetarischen Entwickelung. Auf dem Saturn war erst der Keim, die Anlage zum physischen Leibe vorhanden. Auf der Sonne trat der Ätherleib hinzu, auf dem Monde der Astralleib. Auf dem Monde geschah aber noch etwas anderes. Der alte Mond spaltete sich in zwei Körper, in eine Art verfeinerte alte Sonne und den eigentlichen alten Mond. Der Mensch, der damals auf dem alten Monde blieb, war im Grunde genommen ein viel schlechteres Wesen als der heutige Mensch, er war viel niedriger in seiner Entwickelung, denn der Astralleib war auf dem alten Monde voller wütender Leidenschaften. Erst viel später, als das Ich hinzukam, begann die Läuterung des Astralleibes.
[ 11 ] Dazu war eine weitere Entwickelung notwendig: Der Mond mußte wiederum zusammenfallen mit der Sonne; die beiden Körper, alter Mond und Sonne, mußten wieder ein Körper werden. [Lücken in den Nachschriften.] Die hohen Wesenheiten, die auf der abgetrennten Sonne lebten, hatten sich vom Monde trennen müssen, um in ihrer eigenen Entwickelung weiterkommen zu können. Nun aber mußten diese auf dem Monde zurückgebliebenen Wesen, die sich dort weiter verfestigt hatten, gerettet werden; deshalb mußte sich die Sonne mit dem Monde wieder vereinigen.
[ 12 ] Fragen wir uns nun, was geschehen wäre, wenn Sonne und Mond sich nicht wieder vereinigt hätten, wenn sie sich separat weiterentwickelt hätten. Dann hätte der Mensch niemals seine heutige Gestalt erhalten können. Wäre der alte Mond seinen Weg allein gegangen, hätte er nicht durch seine Wiedervereinigung mit der Sonne neue Kräfte schöpfen können, dann wäre das höchste Wesen, das er je hätte hervorbringen können, etwa wie die heutigen Schlangen gewesen. Die Sonnenwesen dagegen, sie hätten - wenn sie allein geblieben wären - als höchstes die Gestalt des Fisches erreichen können. Die Fischgestalt ist der äußere Ausdruck für Wesen, die viel höher stehen als der Mensch. Die Fischgruppenseele steht tatsächlich auch heute sehr hoch; die äußere Gestalt ist aber etwas ganz anderes als die Seele. Woher ist also jenen Wesen des alten Mondes die Kraft gekommen, sich über die Schlange zu erheben? Von den Wesenheiten der Sonne ist ihnen diese Kraft gekommen. Und die Reinheit des Sonnenzustandes jener hohen Wesen drückt sich materiell in der Fischgestalt aus, denn das ist die höchste materielle Gestalt, die von den Wesenheiten der alten Sonne erlangt werden kann.
[ 13 ] Christus, der Sonnenheld, der die ganze Kraft der Sonne auf die Erde verpflanzt hat, wird ja durch das Zeichen des Fisches symbolisiert. Jetzt werden Sie verstehen, mit welch tiefer Intuition das esoterische Christentum die Bedeutung der Fischgestalt erfaßt hat; sie ist ihm das äußere Sinnbild der Sonnenkraft, der Kraft des Christus. Wohl ist der Fisch äußerlich ein unvollkommenes Wesen, aber er ist nicht so tief hinuntergestiegen in die Materie; wenig nur ist er von Ichsucht durchzogen.
[ 14 ] Für den Okkultisten ist die Schlange das Symbolum der Erde, wie sie sich aus dem alten Monde entwickelt hat, und der Fisch ist das Symbolum des Geistwesens der alten Sonne. Unsere Erde mit ihren festen Substanzen hat in der Schlange ihr tiefstes Wesen symbolisiert, das Erdenwesen. Das, was sich als wäßrige Substanz abgesondert hat, zeigt sich symbolisiert im Fisch. Dem Okkultisten erscheint der Fisch wie etwas, das aus dem Wasser herausgeboren ist. Was ist nun aus der Luft herausgeboren, was aus dem Feuer? Das sind Gebiete, auf denen schwer zu folgen ist. Einige Andeutungen wenigstens sollen hier gegeben werden.
[ 15 ] Wie hat es damals ausgeschaut, als die Erde sich eben aus dem Saturnzustande zu dem Sonnenzustande hinüberentwickelt hatte? Der Mensch war eine Art Luftwesen; Tod und Sterben im heutigen Sinne kannte er nicht. Er wandelte sich um. Machen wir uns einmal in einer schematischen Zeichnung klar, wodurch der Mensch in das heutige Bewußtsein von Tod und Sterben hineingekommen ist. Als die Erde sich vom Saturn- zum Sonnenzustande hinüberentwickelt hatte, lebte die Seele des Menschen noch in der die Sonne umgebenden Atmosphäre, aber sie stand in Beziehung zu dem, was unten als Körper war. Wie heute in der Nacht während des Schlafes der Astralleib des Menschen zum physischen Körper gehört, auch wenn er hinausgeschlüpft ist, so war es auch auf dem alten Saturn und der alten Sonne, nur schlüpfte die Seele dazumal niemals hinein in den physischen Leib. Wohl gehörte zu einem bestimmten Leibe schon eine Seele, die ein geistiges Bewußtsein hatte, aber sie dirigierte den Leib von außen. Sie müssen sich das so vorstellen: Etwas «Äußeres» war die Seele. Dieser Leib war noch nicht dem Gesetze des Todes unterworfen. Die Menschen wußten noch nichts vom Sterben. Anders vollzog sich Wachstum und Absterben, als das heute der Fall ist. Der Leib verlor gewisse Teile, aber es setzten sich neue Teile wieder an. Etwa so wie heute Hunger und Ernährung zusammenhängen, so spielte sich damals dieses Verhältnis des Zerstörens und Wiederansetzens des physischen Leibes ab. Lange Zeiten hindurch lebte die Seele so fort, während der Leib sich verwandelte. Kein Sterben, keinen Tod gab es damals. Allerdings von einem gewissen Zeitpunkte des Sonnenzustandes fing es an, daß die Menschenseele sich zuerst einen bestimmten Leib bildete, das heißt, sie bildete ihn in immer andere, verschiedene Formen um. Zuerst wurde ein Leib von bestimmter Form gebildet, dann verwandelte sie diese Form in eine andere, wieder in eine andere und in eine vierte; und darauf kam sie wieder auf den ersten Zustand zurück. Der Mensch behielt solange dasselbe Bewußtsein. Die Formen wechselten; und wenn die Menschenseele wieder in die erste Form zurückkam, nachdem sie die drei anderen Zustände durchlebt hatte, dann fühlte sie sich neu verkörpert. Erhalten sehen Sie diesen Entwickelungsprozeß beim Schmetterling, der sich in vier Formen verwandelt: Ei, Raupe, Puppe, Schmetterling. Der Schmetterling ist die Hieroglyphe, das Zeichen für den Luftzustand des Menschen auf der alten Sonne. Der heutige Schmetterling, der unter ganz veränderten Verhältnissen lebt, ist freilich eine Dekadenzform dieser Zustände. Der Schmetterling ist ein Symbolum für den Luftzustand, über den der Mensch hinausgeschritten ist. Deshalb wird er im Okkultismus als Luftwesen bezeichnet, wie die Schlange als Erdenwesen und der Fisch als Wasserwesen bezeichnet werden. Weshalb die Vögel nicht als Luftwesen bezeichnet werden, soll später einmal dargestellt werden.
[ 16 ] Nun gehen wir zurück auf den ersten Saturnzustand, wo der Mensch ein geistig-seelisches Wesen war, das überhaupt immer denselben Leib hatte, das sich unsterblich wußte auf niederer Stufe und seinen Leib fortwährend umwandelte. Dieser Zustand ist uns noch erhalten geblieben bei einem Wesen, das in seinem Gemeinschaftsleben ein ganz eigentümliches ist, und das, wenn man es als Gruppenseele betrachtet, in gewisser Beziehung höher steht als der Mensch. Ich meine die Biene. Der ganze Bienenstock muß anders betrachtet werden als die einzelne Biene. Der Bienenstock - nicht die einzelne Biene - hat ein geistiges Wesen, das in gewisser Beziehung übereinstimmt mit dem Wesen des Menschen auf dem einstigen Saturn auf niederer Stufe, das der Mensch auf höherer Stufe wiederum erreichen wird auf der Venus. Der Bienenleib ist auf der alten Saturnstufe stehengeblieben. Wir müssen wohl unterscheiden: Bienenstock und einzelne Biene. Die Seele des Bienenstockes ist keine gewöhnliche Gruppenseele, sondern ein besonderes Wesen für sich. Die einzelne Biene hat in der Form dasjenige bewahrt, was der Menschenleib auf dem Saturn durchgemacht hat. Der Geist des Bienenstockes steht höher als der Geist des einzelnen Menschen, er hat heute schon ein Venus-Bewußtsein. Die Biene ist das Symbolum des Geistesmenschen, der nichts von Sterblichkeit weiß. Die Geistigkeit, die der Mensch hatte, als der Planet sich noch in feurigem Zustande befand [Saturn], wird er auf höherer Stufe wiederum erreichen, wenn der Planet als Venus wieder feurig sein wird. Deshalb wird die Biene im Okkultismus als Wärme- oder Feuerwesen bezeichnet.
[ 17 ] Es ist sehr interessant, einen Parallelismus zu verfolgen, von dem die physische Wissenschaft nicht viel sagen kann. Was hat denn der heutige Mensch vom Saturnzustand noch in sich? Die Wärme! Die Blutwärme. Was damals im ganzen Saturn verteilt war - die Wärme -, das hat sich herausgelöst und bildet heute das warme Blut des Menschen und der Tiere. Wenn Sie die Temperatur eines Bienenstockes untersuchen, so finden Sie ungefähr dieselbe Temperatur, wie sie das menschliche Blut hat. Der ganze Bienenstock entwickelt also eine Temperatur, die der Bluttemperatur des Menschen entspricht, und die auf dieselbe Entwickelungsstufe zurückgeht wie das menschliche Blut. Daher bezeichnet der Okkultist die Biene als aus der Wärme herausgeboren, als Wärmewesen, wie er den Schmetterling bezeichnet als aus Luft geboren, als Luftwesen, den Fisch als Wasserwesen und die Schlange als Erdenwesen.
[ 18 ] Sie sehen auch aus diesen Ausführungen, wie tief das, was okkulte Symbole und Zeichen ausdrücken wollen, zusammenhängt mit der Entwickelungsgeschichte des Planeten und der Menschen.
Second lecture
[ 1 ] We stopped yesterday at a reference to Noah's ark, and we noticed that the proportions of height, width and length expressed the proportions of the human body. In order to understand the significance of this ark in the religious documents of the Bible, we must consider two things. Not only must we realize the meaning of the fact that a vehicle through which man is to be saved has certain dimensions which are reminiscent of the dimensions of the human body, but it will also be necessary to delve into that period of human development in which the real events took place which are referred to in the story of Noah.
[ 2 ] Whenever people who understood something about occultism created some object in the outer world, it had a very specific purpose, a very specific meaning for human souls. Remember the Gothic churches and cathedrals, the very special characteristics of these buildings, which were built in the early Middle Ages and spread from the West to Central Europe. These churches have a very specific architectural style, which is expressed in the fact that the peculiar type of arch, which consists of two parts ending in a point at the top, pours over the whole as a mood, that the whole strives upwards, that the pillars have a certain shape and so on. It would be quite wrong to claim that such a Gothic cathedral arose merely from external needs, for example from a certain longing to create a place of worship that should express or signify this or that. Oh no! Gothic is based on something much deeper. Those who gave the first ideas for the emergence of Gothic buildings in the world were connoisseurs of occultism, they were initiates to a certain degree. The great leaders of mankind associated very specific intentions with the emergence of such buildings, such architectural styles. The Gothic style, the Gothic cathedrals and churches, trigger very specific spiritual impressions in those who enter them. It is as if you step into a kind of grove in this high vaulted cathedral with its soaring columns. Being there has a completely different effect on the soul than, for example, when you enter an ordinary house or a building with a Renaissance dome or a Romanesque-style dome. The forms have very specific effects. The ordinary person is not aware of this, for him it all lives in the unconscious, in his subconscious. Intellectually, man does not realize what is going on in his soul when he has such forms around him. And what goes on there varies greatly depending on the nature of his surroundings. Many people believe that the materialism of our modern age stems from the fact that so many materialistic writings are read. But the occultist knows that this has only a small influence. What the eye sees is of far greater importance, for it has an influence on processes of the soul which take place more or less in the unconscious. This has eminent practical significance. And when spiritual science will one day truly take hold of the soul, then this practical effect will also become noticeable in public life. I have often pointed out that walking through the streets in the Middle Ages was different from walking through the streets today. To the right and left, on every house front, everything bore the mark of the person who had made it. Every object, everything that surrounded people, every door lock, every key, was made of something in which the soul of the maker embodied its feelings. Everything was made with love. Just realize how the individual craftsman took pleasure in each piece, how he worked his soul into it. There was a piece of his soul in every thing. And where there is soul in the outer form, the soul forces also flow over to those who see and look at it. Compare that with a city today. Where is there still soul in things today? There's a shoe store, a knife store, a butcher's store, a beer house and so on. Just take our poster art; what kind of products does it produce? We have terrible poster art! Old and young wander through a sea of such hideous products, which trigger the worst forces of the soul in the subconscious. Theosophical education will point out that what the eye sees deeply influences the human being. And just look at our modern funny papers, what is offered there! This is not meant to be a criticism, but merely a reference to facts. For all this pours a stream of forces into the human soul which steer man in a certain direction, which determine the times. The spiritual scientist knows how much depends on whether man lives in this or that world of forms.
[ 3 ] Around the middle of the Middle Ages, a strange religious movement called German mysticism arose along the Rhine. A tremendous deepening and internalization emanated from the leading spirits of Christian mysticism, from Meister Eckhart, Tauler, Suso, Ruysbroek and others, who were called “priests”. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the name “priest” did not yet have the meaning it has today; it was still something worthy of reverence. Back then, the Rhine was known as the “great Pfaffengasse of Europe”. And do you know where this great deepening and internalization of the human mind, these pious feelings that sought an intimate union with the divine forces of nature, were generated? They were brought up in the Gothic cathedrals with their pointed arches, pillars and columns. That is what educated these souls. So strong is the effect of what is seen. What a person sees, what is poured into his soul from his surroundings, becomes a force in him. He then shapes himself - until his next incarnation.
[ 4 ] We want to present this schematically from the development of the human being in front of the soul. An architectural style is not invented, it is born out of the great thoughts of the initiates; they allow it to flow into the world. The buildings come into being, they have an effect on people; the human souls absorb something of the spiritual power living in these forms. That which the soul has absorbed by looking at the architectural forms - for example the Gothic - emerges in the mood of the souls: fervent souls will arise who look up to the High. A few centuries ago, people absorbed what lived in the Gothic style. And now we follow these people a few centuries further, who have absorbed the power of these architectural forms in their souls - in their next incarnation they now show the expression of this inner state of mind in their physiognomy, in their countenances. The souls of men have formed the faces. Thus one recognizes why such arts are practiced. The initiates see far, far into the distant future of mankind. That is why they form external art forms, external architectural styles on a large scale at a certain time. In this way, the seed for future human epochs is laid in the human soul.
[ 5 ] If you keep this in mind, you will also understand what happened at the end of the Atlantean era. Let's go back to the time when the end, the demise of Atlantis came. At that time there was no air as there is today, the distribution of air and water was completely different; masses of fog surrounded Atlantis. The fog condensed into clouds and the deluge poured over the land as torrential rain. The sinking of Atlantis must be imagined as a very gradual process. This did not take place in short periods of time, it was a process that lasted thousands of years. With the change in external living conditions, man himself also changed. Previously, people perceived things through a kind of clairvoyance. And when the streams of rain appeared, people gradually had to get used to a completely new way of life, a new way of seeing, a new way of perceiving. People's bodies had to change. You would be amazed if you were to see the Atlantean people recorded, how different they were from people today. But don't think that this transformation happened by itself. The human body with its sensory organs only developed gradually. The forces of the human soul had to work on these human bodies for a long time and act in the way I described earlier using a simple example. First man sees the structural forms, they affect his mind, and the mind in turn affects the physiognomy, the countenance of man in a later life.
[ 6 ] As the Atlantean period passed into the post-Atlantean period, the soul of man first reshaped itself and then remodeled his body. Let us delve further into this. Let us imagine a rather old Atlantean; he still had clairvoyant consciousness, and this was connected with the environment in which he lived, with the fog-filled atmosphere. As a result, things did not appear to him in clearly defined boundaries. They were more like color images that appeared before him, floods of colors that swirled together and showed him the states of people's souls. Instead of the object that approached him, the Atlantean man perceived a form of light, a blue one for love, a red one for passion, anger and so on. The soul forces of all people spread out around him. If this state had continued, man could never have attained his present body. When the air was freed from the water and the objects became clearer and clearer and acquired their present boundaries, the time had come when the soul of man had to receive new impressions. And it formed its body according to these impressions. For you form your body according to what you think and feel. What did the human soul have to experience when it rescued itself from the Atlantean water landscape into the new air landscape so that the body could form its present shape? The human soul had to be surrounded by a form of a certain length, a certain width and a certain depth in order for the body to form itself accordingly. This form was actually given to it by what the Bible calls Noah's Ark. Just as the mood of mysticism was formed from the shape of the Gothic cathedrals and the clairvoyant could prove which faces were formed afterwards, so the bodies of the people of ancient Atlantis were gradually transformed because people actually lived in vehicles which they had built under the influence of great initiates according to the dimensions as the Bible describes Noah's Ark. Life in the time of ancient Atlantis was a kind of water or sea life, where people lived for the most part in vehicles on the water and only gradually became accustomed to life on land. For the ancient Atlantis was not only surrounded by a water fog, a large part of the Atlantis was covered by the sea. Man lived in these vehicles so that his body could be built as it is today. This is the deep mystery of Noah's Ark. If one understands the depth of its mysterious scientific meaning from the Bible, then a glow of wisdom and infinite grandeur spreads over this document. Man lived on vehicles, because he had to have the impression of seclusion in his skin. This is how the initiates worked on the education of man through the millennia. What you encounter in the religious documents is taken from the depths of occult reality.
[ 7 ] We find another symbol in the first chapter of the Bible, in Genesis: the symbol of the serpent. And in the Roman catacombs we often encounter the symbol of the fish. It is said that this fish, which recurs again and again as an image, signifies the Christian or Christ himself. If someone wanted to reflect on these symbols, he could probably unearth much that is spiritual, but that would only be speculation; and we only want to deal with realities. These images are also given from the spiritual world. If you will follow me for a few minutes in the history of the development of mankind, you will see what truths are contained in these symbols of the serpent and the fish.
[ 8 ] Let us remember once more that the earth has gone through as many different embodiments as man. You know that it was once Saturn, Sun, Moon before it became Earth. The human body was already present in the various planetary states, but the human being only took on his ego on earth. Let us now look a little at what this earth looked like when it was still in its first embodiment, when it was still Saturn. There was no such thing as rock and soil back then. The human physical body did exist, but it was very fine; only gradually did it condense into today's carnal form.
[ 9 ] When we look at the substances around us today, we find that they have different states, solid, liquid, gaseous. In occultism all solid bodies are called “earth”, “water” is understood to mean all liquid substances, and “air” everything aeriform, gaseous. Even more subtle than the other states is “fire”, or heat. Of course, today's physicists will not accept this. But the occultist knows that “fire” is indeed something that can be compared with earth, water and air, it is just an even finer state. Where you feel warmth, there is something even finer than air. Nothing of what we call earth, water and air in the occult sense was present on Saturn. These solid, corporeal states only came into being on the sun, the moon and the earth. The densest state on Saturn was heat or “fire”. The human body lived in it, and the ring that surrounded Saturn - for every Saturn has a ring - are actually reflected mirror images, separations from the fire. To go into this in more detail today would take us too far away from our topic.
[ 10 ] Let us now move on from Saturn to the sun; there the air is added to the fire. On the sun the densest state was air. It was a kind of airy sun. Man on the sun was an air being and was then impregnated with the etheric body. There were no other than air beings. One could have passed through these air beings, for they were “penetrable”, as the air is. You could compare them to a mirage, they were so light, so fleeting. Admittedly, the air on the old sun was denser than that of today. - On the old moon the watery state arose first, and everything that lived on this moon was formed by a condensation of water. Jellyfish and slime animals, as they can still be seen today, give us an idea of these water creatures. At that time all physical bodies were of this nature, and only physical bodies of this kind were capable of absorbing an astral body. The development now went on gradually. Thus these things are connected, man and the earth, for man belongs to his planet. And now let us consider the meaning of this planetary development. On Saturn there was first the germ, the plant for the physical body. On the sun the etheric body was added, on the moon the astral body. But something else happened on the moon. The old moon split into two bodies, into a kind of refined old sun and the actual old moon. The man who remained on the old moon at that time was basically a much worse being than the man of today, he was much lower in his development, for the astral body on the old moon was full of raging passions. Only much later, when the ego was added, did the purification of the astral body begin.
[ 11 ] Further development was necessary for this: The moon had again to coincide with the sun; the two bodies, old moon and sun, had to become one body again. [The high beings who lived on the separated sun had had to separate from the moon in order to be able to progress in their own development. Now, however, these beings who had remained behind on the moon, who had further solidified there, had to be rescued; therefore the sun had to reunite with the moon.
[ 12 ] Let us now ask ourselves what would have happened if the sun and moon had not reunited, if they had evolved separately. Then man could never have attained his present form. If the old moon had gone its own way, if it had not been able to draw new strength from its reunion with the sun, then the highest being it could ever have produced would have been like today's snakes. The solar beings, on the other hand, if they had remained alone, could have attained the highest form of the fish. The fish form is the outward expression of beings that are much higher than man. The fish group soul is indeed also very high today; but the outer form is something quite different from the soul. So where did those beings of the old moon get the power to rise above the serpent? This power came to them from the beings of the sun. And the purity of the solar state of those high beings expresses itself materially in the form of the fish, for that is the highest material form that can be attained by the beings of the old sun.
[ 13 ] Christ, the solar hero, who transplanted all the power of the sun to the earth, is symbolized by the sign of the fish. Now you will understand with what deep intuition esoteric Christianity has grasped the significance of the fish form; it is for it the outer symbol of the sun's power, the power of Christ. The fish is indeed outwardly an imperfect being, but it has not descended so deeply into matter; it is only slightly permeated by egoism.
[ 14 ] For the occultist, the serpent is the symbol of the earth as it has developed from the old moon, and the fish is the symbol of the spiritual being of the old sun. Our earth with its solid substances has symbolized in the serpent its deepest essence, the earth being. That which has separated itself as a watery substance is symbolized in the fish. To the occultist, the fish appears like something born out of water. What is born out of the air, what out of the fire? These are areas that are difficult to follow. At least a few hints shall be given here.
[ 15 ] What did it look like when the earth had just evolved from the Saturnian state to the solar state? Man was a kind of aerial being; he did not know death and dying in the modern sense. He transformed himself. Let us make clear to ourselves in a schematic drawing how man came into the present consciousness of death and dying. When the earth had evolved from the Saturnian to the solar state, the soul of man still lived in the atmosphere surrounding the sun, but it was related to what was below as a body. Just as today, during sleep at night, the astral body of man belongs to the physical body, even if it has slipped out, so it was on the old Saturn and the old sun, only then the soul never slipped into the physical body. It is true that a soul with a spiritual consciousness already belonged to a certain body, but it directed the body from outside. You have to imagine it like this: Something “external” was the soul. This body was not yet subject to the law of death. People were not yet aware of death. Growth and death took place differently than is the case today. The body lost certain parts, but new parts grew again. Just as hunger and nutrition are connected today, this relationship of destruction and reattachment of the physical body took place at that time. The soul lived on for a long time while the body transformed. There was no dying, no death at that time. However, from a certain point in time in the state of the sun, the human soul began to form a certain body first, that is, it transformed it into ever different, various forms. First a body of a certain form was formed, then it transformed this form into another, again into another and into a fourth; and then it returned to the first state. Man retained the same consciousness for so long. The forms changed; and when the human soul returned to the first form after having lived through the three other states, it felt newly embodied. You can see this process of development in the butterfly, which changes into four forms: Egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly. The butterfly is the hieroglyph, the sign for the aerial state of man on the ancient sun. Today's butterfly, which lives under completely different conditions, is of course a decadent form of these conditions. The butterfly is a symbol of the aerial state beyond which man has progressed. That is why it is called an air creature in occultism, just as the snake is called an earth creature and the fish a water creature. Why birds are not referred to as air beings will be explained later.
[ 16 ] Now let us go back to the first Saturn state, where man was a spiritual-soul being that always had the same body, knew itself to be immortal at a low level and continually transformed its body. This state still remains with a being that has a very peculiar communal life and that, if regarded as a group soul, stands in some respects higher than man. I am referring to the bee. The whole beehive must be considered differently from the individual bee. The beehive - not the individual bee - has a spiritual being that corresponds in some respects to the being of the human being on the former Saturn at a lower level, which the human being will in turn reach at a higher level on Venus. The bee's body has remained at the old Saturn level. We must distinguish between the beehive and the individual bee. The soul of the beehive is no ordinary group soul, but a special being in itself. The individual bee has preserved in form what the human body has gone through on Saturn. The spirit of the beehive is higher than the spirit of the individual human being; it already has a Venus consciousness today. The bee is the symbol of the spiritual man who knows nothing of mortality. The spirituality that man had when the planet was still in a fiery state [Saturn] he will reach again at a higher level when the planet as Venus will be fiery again. That is why the bee is referred to in occultism as a warmth or fire being.
[ 17 ] It is very interesting to observe a parallelism that physical science cannot explain. What does the modern human being still have of the Saturn state? Warmth! Blood warmth. What was once distributed throughout Saturn – warmth – has separated out and today forms the warm blood of humans and animals. If you examine the temperature of a beehive, you will find approximately the same temperature as human blood. The entire beehive develops a temperature that corresponds to the blood temperature of humans and goes back to the same stage of development as human blood. This is why the occultist refers to the bee as born out of warmth, as a warmth being, just as he refers to the butterfly as born out of air, as an air being, the fish as a water being and the snake as an earth being.
[ 18 ] From these explanations, you can also see how deeply what occult symbols and signs want to express is connected with the developmental history of the planet and of humans.