Rosicrucian Esotericism
GA 109
9 June 1909, Budapest
7. Evolutionary Stages of our Earth before the Lemurian Epoch
The lecture yesterday brought our study of the evolution of our planet to the stage known as Old Moon. We heard that the first embodiment of our planet was that of Old Saturn, the second that of Old Sun and the third that of Old Moon. We came to the point in yesterday's lecture where it was made clear that if everything had progressed exactly as hitherto, man would not have been able to keep pace with the tempo of the cosmic evolution of other beings. Hence a kind of severance took place at a certain point during the Old Moon embodiment. The Sun, progressing as it was within the cosmic expanse, separated from the planetary body together with the finest substances and higher beings. The less progressed part of the planetary body, namely, Old Moon itself, still containing all that constitutes our present earth and present moon, remained as a kind of cloud-body. Certain conditions brought about a densification or hardening on Old Moon and the same happened to the beings inhabiting it.
When the Sun had separated, its forces worked upon Old Moon from outside. The subsequent human-animal-plant kingdom that came into existence on Old Moon now received the forces of the Sun from outside. After the separation, the three kingdoms on Old Moon came into existence. As yet there was no mineral kingdom but what took shape, after the hardening process, as the lowest kingdom was a kind of mineral-plant kingdom—mineral substance that was plantlike in character, or, if you prefer, plant substance that was mineral in character. This formed the ground of Old Moon; it was a kind of semi-solid, semi-fluid foundation. On the earth today we walk about on a mineral ground, on Old Moon it was semi-solid, semi-fluid ground, a kind of plant-mineral soil. Think of a mass of spongy, plantlike substance on which human beings walked. This was the character of the lowest kingdom on Old Moon, a kingdom that was at the same time half-living. The ground of our earth today has become comparatively static; volcanic activity is the only reminder of a certain inner life. On Old Moon there were no such conditions. We may perhaps speak later on about what an occultist has to say on the subject of earthquakes and volcanic activity. Just as organs in a plant grow and subsequently die, so did this half-living substance on Old Moon. The Old Moon was like a great organism, living and mobile, on which the beings living might have felt like parasites of today. These Old Moon plants were composed of mineral substance, had life in them and were mobile; they were plant-mineral in character. Nothing would have been found resembling our rocks of today; instead, there were horny or woody formations. In the environment of Old Moon, like a kind of atmosphere, were a few cloud-masses composed of a half-watery, half-living substance in which the beings of the next kingdom, half animal, half plant in character, were embedded. If you were to crush a tree, causing something akin to the feeling experienced by an animal, that would be remotely comparable with what was experienced by this animal-plant kingdom, which could not exist as such on the earth today.
As has often been said, not only are there pupils in school who make no progress but in the whole process of evolution there are always beings who remain at a standstill and who, together with the forms that belong to them and express what they are, become retarded. Thus, on the earth itself there were still certain moon beings who were not sufficiently advanced to keep abreast of evolution on the earth. These beings were obliged to create in their outer expressions the condition that had been essential to their life on Old Moon. As you know, plants on Old Moon were not rooted in mineral soil as they are today but in the half-living ground of the planet. Mistletoe, for example, is a descendant, a straggler, of an Old Moon form; it is obliged to take root in plant-soil. In folk myths there are many indications of this, for example, in the legend of Baldur and Loki. The latter is a being belonging to Old Moon, whereas Baldur is a being inwardly connected with earth and sun evolution. To interpret a legend or myth it is necessary to know in which sphere of occult investigation the connections can be discovered. External science could be so enriched by the fruits of clairvoyance that it would recognize in a legend much more than folk fantasy. Spiritual science must teach one to investigate with the whole soul instead of with the intellect only.
There was still a third kingdom on Old Moon, between the animal and human kingdoms; it was the animal-human kingdom. The forms of those animal-men were quite different from what is pictured by materialistic science today. They were animal-men although certain important members of their constitution were not yet actually within them. While he is asleep today, man's physical and etheric bodies remain in the bed and his astral body is outside. Fundamentally speaking, during sleep he is therefore in the physical world with only the lesser half of his constitution. Man's physical and etheric bodies belong to an earlier, cosmic stage of consciousness. Clairvoyant vision reveals this condition to have been permanent on Old Moon. The astral body then was never entirely within the physical and etheric bodies but was nevertheless connected more fundamentally and definitely with the human being than is the case during sleep today. The head of the man of Old Moon was not self-enclosed as is the case today. A residue of what the organs in the head were at that time is the place at the top of a baby's head that stays soft and open for a long time. On Old Moon the head of the human being was still open. Were you to draw a line vertically downward from this soft area, you would meet the pineal gland. Today it is stunted and withered but it was an important organ during the Old Moon embodiment. It was a kind of sense organ that connected man's physical and etheric bodies with his astral body. Through this organ, which was a delicate, luminous body, man's astral body radiated into the other bodies. His consciousness was neither that of sleep nor of waking life. He did not perceive outer objects. His consciousness might be compared with that of the dream to-day. The pineal gland at that time was a kind of warmth organ, emitting powerful, luminous rays of warmth. When on Old Moon man was moving about, the function of this organ was to show him the direction he must take. Man's perception on Old Moon consisted in something like a dream picture rising up within him. There was as yet no seeing or perceiving objects but man felt an inner up-and-down surge of living pictures of which the dream pictures of today are only a feeble shadow. Everything a man set out to do on Old Moon, how he searched for his food and so forth, was always activated by these pictures that were connected with the outer world. He could allow himself to be directed and led by them. When he was looking for food he was guided by certain pictures that rose up before him, and he was warned of danger also by them. The astral body extended far beyond the physical and the etheric bodies; the form of the physical body alone could be called human.
On Old Moon man's inner warmth was not yet constant. Today, on the earth, this has been achieved. On Old Moon man absorbed warmth from the warmth around him and emitted it again, just as he inhales and exhales air today. The process became visible in his organ of warmth. It gleamed and was luminous when he was absorbing warmth and darkened when he was exhaling it. If you could have seen what was happening, the process would have suggested the image of a fire-breathing dragon. All these happenings have a deep significance. Figures such as the Archangel Michael with the fire-breathing dragon under his feet, or St. George. fighting with the dragon, are pictures reminiscent of those conditions. The fire breather of Old Moon, the ancient Dragon, is a figure that once actually existed. It portrays a stage that would have to be surmounted.
This is the explanation of such matters that is derived from occult knowledge. Later on, when spiritual science is more widely known, there will be a different view of truths that have been preserved in imagery and pictures of this kind. This animal-man form was quite different from that of man today because the astral body did not sink into the physical body as deeply as it did later on the earth. Man is the figure he is today because the astral body eventually sank right down into him. It could be said that what did not, during the Old Moon period of evolution, allow itself to descend into the depths of the physical world, now resolved to do so during the earth period. But if this process in the cosmos had taken place at an earlier time, man would have remained at a much lower evolutionary stage. During the period of earth evolution, he succeeded, with the help of the spirit, in acquiring for himself the noble, godlike form that is now his. If the possibility of developing this stature had already existed on Old Moon, the descent of the astral body would have taken place prematurely. The divine Guides have always chosen the right moment. The essential achievement of Old Moon evolution was that time was left for the evolution of the physical body, and on the earth man was to be permeated by the astral body after having evolved physically on Old Moon at a lower stage. Then again there took place a certain recession of the Moon into the Sun, which had previously separated; the Old Moon globe was again absorbed by the Sun and everything passed into a cosmic sleep, a pralaya. This began at the time when the Moon returned again into the Sun.
Hence the evolution of Old Moon proceeded by the following stages: firstly, a kind of preparation; secondly, separation into Sun and Moon; thirdly, formation of three kingdoms on Old Moon; fourthly, return into the Sun; fifthly, ebb; sixthly, the cosmic sleep.
The fourth metamorphosis of our earth, our own planet earth itself, then came forth from the cosmic sleep. This first configuration of the earth was, of course, quite different from its configuration today. When the earth emerged from the cosmic night, from the darkness of twilight, it was gigantic in size, for again sun and moon were contained within it; the separations took place later on. So enormous was the size of the earth that it reached as far as the Saturn of today. Differentiation in the solar system did not take place until a much later time. As far as is possible in terms of philosophical thinking, the Kant-Laplace theory is an entirely intelligible exposition of this first form of our earth. It speaks of a kind of archetypal nebula in which everything was dissolved and out of which the whole solar system came forth. Through the rotation of this nebula, rings took shape; they densified and then, still as the result of rotation, the planets were formed. In schools this process is often illustrated by means of an experiment. A globule of oil in liquid of equal density is made to rotate by a simple mechanical device. It can then be observed that this globule flattens, that drops separate from it and form themselves again into globules that circle round the central globule. In this way one can see in miniature a kind of planetary system coming into being through rotation. This has an immensely suggestive effect. Why should we not picture the process in this ways This experiment shows how a planetary system comes into existence through rotation; it is there before our very eyes.
But one thing is forgotten. One of us, or the teacher, actually causes the rotation! Nothing is really explained by this external illustration. No cosmic system comes into existence out of nothingness. It does not arise of itself from the nebula, but it comes into existence because many spiritual beings have been working on it and at a certain point in their evolution have drawn out the finest substances from the chaotic root substance and cast out the coarser substances, namely, the moon.
During the first period after pralaya, the earth, in which all the substances and beings were again united, recapitulated the Saturn condition. At the beginning of this phase of evolution the earth was not a globe of gas as has often been falsely assumed, but a globe of warmth. For it (the earth) was re-capitulating the condition of the Saturn embodiment and extended to the sphere of the present Saturn. At a certain stage the spiritual beings involved take their substances with them. Spirit is the foundation of everything, both when the Sun separates and during the evolution of Old Moon. No external factor was responsible here; it was an inner necessity for one section of the beings. The higher beings separate what they need from the chaotic substance. Everywhere it is the spirit that directs the external reality. When the earth first came into existence everything was contained in it; the spiritual beings indwelling it were at different stages of their evolution. We shall bear this in mind during the following studies.
Thus after pralaya the earth first of all recapitulated the Saturn condition; it was a condition of warmth. Then this gigantic globe of warmth condensed to the gaseous state and only when a definite point had been reached was it possible for the globe to form the fluid element and recapitulate the Old Moon condition. At this point on the earth there was a repetition of what had previously happened on Old Moon: the sun separated from the earth and earth-plus-moon became one independent body, containing the substances and beings of earth and moon, as they are still present today. Thus for a time earth and moon, and sun were one united whole. The earth-plus-moon was ejected because man could no longer keep pace with the tempo of the sun. Had the sun remained in the earth man would have been old practically at birth. The beings of the cosmos are at entirely different stages of evolution. It will only be possible to indicate the most important features of this evolution during the fourth period, that of the earth. Even the more mature beings belonged to grades at every possible level. There were some who could neither profit by the rapid tempo of the sun nor by the slow tempo of the earth. These beings departed already before the separation, when sun, earth and moon were still united. They created special arenas for their activity and these were the domains suitable for their rulership. It was thus that the outer planets, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, were formed.
During the recapitulation of the Saturn embodiment, Uranus, Vulcan and Saturn separated from the earth. During the recapitulation of the sun embodiment, Jupiter and Mars separated. After the sun had left the earth, Mercury and Venus separated from it. After the separation of the sun, the earth cast out the moon. The dispersal of Old Moon was brought about by the forces of the progressed beings who drew out the solar body, while the normal and retarded beings produced the moon circling around it. In all the mysteries these happenings were called the strife in heaven. The detached planetoids are the ruins of that battlefield. It is here that the primal secret of the origin of evil must be sought.
The planetary spirits involved could not have waited until the sun separated from the earth because they would not have found the right soil for their activity; evolution at this time was turning into different channels. The planetary conditions of space and movement are all the expression and effect of the activity of their beings; these conditions indicate the evolutionary rank of the spiritual beings inhabiting the planets. Beings who had believed that they, too, could accompany the sun because this had formerly been possible but who could not now do so, separated from the sun, but only after it had itself separated from the earth. These beings separated from the sun after this event and are at a far higher stage of evolution than men. Venus and Mercury are the two bodies that, having separated from the sun after the latter's separation from the earth, formed the inner planets of our solar system.
After the severance from the sun a difficult, sombre period now began for the earth, in a certain respect its darkest, hardest era. While still united with the moon, the earth drew into itself all the forces that were retarding evolution. To obstruct life is characteristic of the forces principally active in the moon. During this period, these obstructive forces were working far too strongly in the earth. If the earth had remained connected with them, life would not have taken its course in the right tempo. Man would have hardened to the stage of mummification. The earth would have become a veritable cemetery, one vast graveyard containing statues of mummified human bodies. No procreation would have been possible. When the sun had left the earth, fearful desolation and hardening of all life took place. So already at that time there were periods when the human physical body was abandoned by its spiritual members, just as today the physical body is abandoned by its spiritual members at death.
In that past era, withdrawal and emergence of the being of spirit and soul from the physical already took place and a new search for the physical body began, as happens today when incarnations are to take place. But more and more frequently it happened that when the being of soul and spirit desired, while the moon was still united with the earth, to find a human body again, none was to be found, because bodies were no longer fit to receive the being of spirit and soul. Just imagine that great masses of human beings were to have died today and because of the character of the physical substance these bodies had become so decadent that the souls would have said: We cannot make use of these bodies, they are too decadent for us, they offer no possibility of further evolution. Suppose that because of an extensive spread of alcoholism, for example, successive generations had gradually become so degenerate that the bodies were simply useless for the descending souls. This is more or less a picture of the state of the earth at that time, before the exit of the moon. Everything that should have been habitable down below was often hardened, crusted, withered, mummified. There was actually a period when souls were seeking in vain for bodies for their own evolution on earth. The consequence was that certain beings simply could not at that time have returned to the physical plane as men. They could not have incarnated again on the earth. These beings then went to other cosmic bodies that had separated from the sun, namely, to Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. There was a time when the majority of these beings who should normally have incarnated on the earth according to their nature and their stage of evolution, placed themselves under the protection of the beings of Mars, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn, having ascended to and populated these cosmic bodies. Only the strongest souls found it possible to cope with the stubborn bodies and keep them flexible. Please understand me well. It was only the best soul material that then came again to the earth, because its power to master the stubborn bodies was the greatest. But under such conditions evolution could not have progressed.
The beings of the highest rank belonging to our solar system now adopted a new procedure. The most impermeable substances were extracted and separated from the earth; the severance of the moon was brought about. The result of this was that the forces that had remained behind were no longer frustrated in their evolution. But it was not until later that this moon became what it is today. The time had now come when the physical and etheric evolution of man could find the tempo befitting its stage. The forces both of the sun and the moon now worked upon the earth from outside, maintaining the balance. Gradually, while the moon was emerging, a kind of softening, an amelioration of the bodies of men, again took place. The period just described is called in occultism the Lemurian epoch, the epoch of the separation of the moon during the physical embodiment of the earth. The epoch when the sun left the earth is called the Hyperborean age, and the epoch when the sun, moon and earth were still united is called the Polarian age.
During the whole period when the sun was separated from the earth and the moon produced a hardening process on the earth to begin with and then left the earth during the whole of that period, sublime beings were influencing the differentiation. Their most important servants were the Spirits of Form, called the Exusiai in Christian esotericism, also Spirits of Revelation, Powers.
On Saturn it was the Thrones, the Spirits of Will who made the sacrifice of pouring out from their own substance the material for man's physical body. On Old Sun it was the Dominions or Spirits of Wisdom who provided the substance for the etheric body, and on Old Moon it was the Spirits of Movement or Mights who made possible the formation of the astral body. On the earth the Spirits of Form or Powers instill the ego, bringing it about that in this phase of evolution the ego enters gradually into what had come into existence, namely, man's physical body, etheric body and astral body. This is the work of the Spirits of Form. In order that an ego-man could come into existence at all as the expression of ego consciousness, and that this coordination of the physical, etheric and astral bodies could take place, everything that has now been described was essential. The separation of sun and moon from the earth was necessary; it was also necessary for man to undergo a process of hardening followed by a certain softening. This could take place because the wise beings who guided and directed these happenings undertook it all as probationary measures for the good of evolution. A great deal in the evolutionary process of the earth is still done today by the sublime beings concerned, as probationary measures.
What, then, is the anthroposophical movement? It came into the world because the lofty beings we call the Masters, who live in human physical bodies but have reached the far higher stage of evolution than the average man of today, poured out a certain amount of wisdom from the last third of the nineteenth century onwards. The living influx of this wisdom from higher realms into our culture is the actual basis of our anthroposophical movement. Do not imagine that there was no possibility of the attempted influx of wisdom falling upon deaf ears in humanity. Even if there had been deaf ears, the Masters would have said that an attempt must be made later on, when human beings would be ready to receive the wisdom. In occultism this is known as the test of maturity in men. The fact that wisdom pours into humanity from higher beings such as these is not in itself sufficient; what matters is how it is received; the success of the test depends upon that. Such tests have already been made several times but have not always succeeded. It was often within narrow limits that humanity proved to be ripe for the tests; receptive souls and hearts were not always to be found. When the ego of humanity was to be instilled, the test consisted in gradual attempts to permate what had formerly been astral body only, with the ego. Then it turned out that the astral body, permeated by the ego, was incapable of penetrating the physical body. Adjustment was therefore necessary and this was made possible by the separation of the moon. It was in the middle of the Lemurian epoch that the entry of the ego, the Christ principle, was first achieved.
But the following was connected with this. During and after the separation of the moon, the earth was depopulated. We have heard that the bodies had become so contaminated that they could no longer provide habitations for the souls. Cosmic happenings such as these have been preserved in legend and saga, but occult investigation reveals their true origin and teaches us that while the separation of the moon was taking place, when the earth was depopulated, many souls were searching for suitable embodiment in cosmic space; they departed from the earth and assumed bodies on other planets. But when the moon had finally left, it became apparent that the earth was capable again of providing suitable bodies. Now, the souls, who during the latest Lemurian epoch and thereafter in the Atlantean period had gone to the planets, presented them-selves again on the earth and incarnated in the bodies there. Groups of human beings now formed on the earth. Some provided bodies for souls coming from Jupiter incarnations, or from Mars, Venus or Saturn. These souls now found bodies that were appropriate for them. This grouping of souls gave rise to the birth of races. Hence there is a certain connection between the races and cosmic bodies and thus it was possible to speak of Saturn men, Jupiter men and so on. What can be called the concept of race had now, for the first time, its justification.
On Old Moon, and also on the earth while it was still united with the moon, there were human beings at different stages of evolution. This can be perceived right on into the Lemurian epoch, when owing to the exodus of the moon, differentiation took place in humanity. Thereafter the concept of race arose and from then on began to have a certain meaning, a certain significance. Race is something that comes into being and subsequently passes away again. The epoch of the formation of the races is that embraced by Lemuria and Atlantis. Today only stragglers of the races are present.
Die Entwickelungsstadien unserer Erde bis zur lemurischen Epoche
Gestern sind wir in unserer Betrachtung der Entwickelung unseres Planeten bis zur Mondenmetamorphose der Erde gekommen. Wir haben gesehen, daß sie ihre erste Verkörperung als der uralte Saturn durchgemacht hat, dann als Sonne und nun als Mond wieder erschienen ist. Wir sind nun gestern bis an den Punkt gekommen, wo wir gesehen haben, daß, wenn alles in gleicher Weise wie bisher fortgegangen wäre, dann der Mensch nicht imstande gewesen wäre, in derselben Weise Schritt halten zu können mit dem Tempo der kosmischen Entwickelung der andern Wesen. Darum mußte während der Mondenzeit des Planeten eine Art Abspaltung an einem bestimmten Punkte dieser Mondenerde geschehen. Es fand eine Art Heraustreten der im kosmischen Ganzen vorrückenden Sonne mit den feinsten Substanzen und Wesenheiten statt. Und das weniger Fortgeschrittene, der eigentliche alte Mond, der noch enthielt alles das, was unsere heutige Erde und der heutige Mond sind, der blieb als eine Art Nebelkörper zurück. Dadurch fand unter besonderen Bedingungen eine Verdichtung, eine Art Verhärtung auf dem alten Monde statt und gleichzeitig eine ebensolche der leiblichen Wesenheiten, die ihn bewohnten.
Als die Sonne fort war, wirkten dann ihre Kräfte von außen auf den alten Mond ein. Das, wovon gesagt ist, daß es später als ein menschliches, tierisches und pflanzliches Reich entstanden ist, war nun aus der Sonne herausgetreten mit dem alten Monde und ließ sich von der Sonne bescheinen, nahm deren Kräfte von außen auf. Nach der Abspaltung gestalteten sich die drei Reiche auf dem Monde so wie folgt: Ein mineralisches Reich gab es noch nicht, aber das, was sich herausbildete nach der Verhärtung als unterstes Reich, war eine Art von mineralisch-pflanzlichem Reich; Mineralisches, das pflanzlichen Charakter hatte, oder, wenn Sie wollen: Pflanzliches, das mineralischen Charakter hat. Und das bildete den Boden des Mondes, sozusagen eine festflüssige Grundlage. So wie Sie heute auf der Erde auf Mineralischem herumtreten, so bestand dort der Boden aus einer festflüssigen Grundlage, die eine Art Pflanzenmineral war. Denken Sie sich eine Masse wie Kochsalat, eine pflanzliche Substanz, auf der man herumtritt: so war das niederste Reich des Mondes, das zugleich, man könnte sagen, halblebendig war. Unser Erdboden ist heute verhältnismäßig zur Ruhe gekommen, nur wenn vulkanische Tätigkeit sich zeigt, gemahnt dies uns noch an ein gewisses inneres Leben unserer Erde. Das war auf dem Monde noch nicht so. Was der Okkultist über Erdbeben und Vulkantätigkeit zu sagen hat, davon können wir vielleicht später noch sprechen. Wie Organe in einer Pflanze wachsen und nachher wieder absterben, so äußerte sich dieses Halblebendige auf dem Monde. Wie ein lebendiger, beweglicher, großer Organismus, so war dieser alte Mond, auf dem die auf ihm herumlebenden Wesen sich ähnlich fühlen konnten wie Parasiten etwa in der heutigen Zeit. Diese Mondpflanzen waren von mineralischer Substanz, hatten etwas Leben und waren beweglich, also ein Pflanzenmineral. Was heute unsere Felsen sind, würden wir dort auch gefunden haben, aber es waren horn- oder holzartige Verhärtungen, das heißt von ähnlicher Substanz. Im Umkreise des Mondes, wie eine Art Atmosphäre, waren weniger dichte Nebelmassen, weniger dichter, halb wässeriger, halb lebendiger Substanz, darinnen die Wesen des nächsten Reiches - halb tierischer, halb pflanzlicher Natur — eingebettet waren. Wenn Sie einen Baum quetschen könnten und er würde dabei etwas wie einen Anklang an eine tierische Empfindung haben, dann hätten Sie etwas diesem tierisch-pflanzlichen Reich Ähnliches. Dieses könnte heute als solches nicht mehr innerhalb unserer Erde leben.
Wie schon öfter erwähnt, bleiben nicht nur in der Schule die Schüler sitzen, sondern es gibt auch in der [kosmischen] Evolution immer Wesenheiten, die sitzenbleiben, und die mit ihnen zusammenhängenden Gestalten, die den Ausdruck dieser Wesenheiten bilden, bleiben dann auch zurück, sie werden erhalten. So gab es gewisse Mondenwesenheiten dann noch auf der Erde, die sozusagen noch nicht so weit waren, daß sie die Erdenentwickelung mitmachen konnten. Diese mußten sich dann in ihrem äußeren Ausdruck das schaffen, was ihre Lebensbedingung gewesen war auf dem Monde. Sie wissen, die Pflanzen auf dem Monde, sie wurzelten nicht wie heute in einem mineralischen Boden, sondern in dem halblebendigen Mondboden. Die Mistel ist zum Beispiel ein Nachkomme, ein Nachzügler einer alten Mondform; sie muß wurzeln auf pflanzlichem Boden. In den Mythen der Völker können Sie manches ausgedrückt finden, das darauf Bezug nimmt, zum Beispiel die Sage von Baldur und Loki, der eine Wesenheit vom Monde her ist, während Baldur eine Wesenheit ist, die innig zusammenhängt mit der Erden- und Sonnenentwickelung. Wenn man eine Sage interpretieren will, dann muß man wissen, aus welchem Gebiet der okkulten Forschung heraus die Zusammenhänge gefunden werden. Durch das, was der Hellseher bringt, kann eine äußere Wissenschaft so befruchtet werden, daß sie in der Sage wieder mehr zu erkennen vermag als bloße Volksphantasie. Mit der ganzen Seele zu forschen, statt nur mit dem Verstande, das muß Geisteswissenschaft lehren.
Dann haben wir noch ein drittes Reich auf dem Monde, das ein Zwischenreich ist zwischen Tier- und Menschenreich: das Tiermenschenteich. Allerdings würden Sie ganz anders gestaltete Wesenheiten in jenen Tiermenschen finden, als die heutige materialistische Wissenschaft sie sich vorstellt. Sie sind nur deshalb Tiermenschen, weil sie wichtige Glieder ihres Wesens noch nicht in sich, innerhalb ihrer eigenen Wesenheit hatten. Heute hat der schlafende Mensch seinen physischen und Ätherleib hier unten im Bette liegen und den Astralleib außerhalb. Er ist also im Grunde genommen in der physischen Welt nur mit der Hälfte seines Wesens drinnen und nicht der wichtigeren; er gehört mit physischem und Ätherleib gleichsam einem früheren, kosmischen Bewußtseinsstadium an. Auf dem Monde sieht der hellseherische Blick diesen Zustand aalseinen dauernden walten. Der astralische Leib war da noch zu keiner Zeit im physischen und Ätherleib ganz drinnen, nur war er auf dem Monde gründlicher und deutlicher mit dem Menschen verbunden, als er es heute im Schlafe ist. Der Kopf beim Mondenmenschen war noch nicht so abgeschlossen für sich wie heute. Ein Überbleibsel davon, wie damals die Organe da oben im Kopfe waren, ist noch die Stelle oben am Kopfe des Säuglings, die lange sehr weich und offen bleibt. Der Kopf des Menschen war damals nach oben hin vollständig offen, und das Organ, auf das Sie treffen, wenn Sie senkrecht unter dieser weichen Stelle eine Linie ziehen, die Zirbeldrüse, die heute allerdings vertrocknet und verkümmert ist, das war während der Mondenentwickelung ein sehr wichtiges Organ. Es war eine Art Sinnesorgan, das die Verbindung des menschlichen physischen und Ätherleibes mit dem Astralleibe des Menschen vermittelte. Der menschliche Astralleib sandte durch dieses Organ, das wie ein feiner, leuchtender Körper war, seine wichtigsten Strahlenkräfte in die andern Leiber hinein. Es war das Bewußtsein des Menschen nicht Schlaf- und nicht Wachbewußtsein. Äußere Dinge nahm der Mensch nicht wahr. Sein Bewußtsein wäre so etwa mit dem heutigen Traum zu vergleichen gewesen. Diese Zirbeldrüse war damals eine Art Wärmeorgan, sie sandte mächtige, leuchtende Wärmestrahlen aus. Wenn auf dem alten Monde der Mensch sich in der Außenwelt bewegte, so diente dieses Organ dazu, ihm die Richtung, die er zu nehmen hatte, zu weisen. Seine Wahrnehmung auf dem Monde war so, daß der Mensch aufsteigen gefühlt hat etwas wie ein lebendiges Traumbild. Ein gegenständliches Sehen oder Wahrnehmen gab es noch nicht, aber ein innerliches Aufundabwogen von lebendigen Bildern. Die heutigen Traumbilder sind nur schwache Schatten davon. Alles, was der Mensch auf dem Monde unternahm, wie er seine Nahrung suchte und so weiter, alles geschah durch diese Bilder. Diese Mondbilder standen in einem Zusammenhang mit der Außenwelt. Von ihnen konnte er sich dirigieren und leiten lassen. Wenn er seine Nahrung suchte, wurde er dadurch geleitet, daß gewisse Bilder vor ihm aufstiegen; Schädliches wurde ihm durch ganz bestimmte Bilder angezeigt. Und der Astralleib ragte weit hinaus über den physischen und Ätherleib, nur der physische Leib hatte eine Form, die wir als menschliche bezeichnen können.
Auf dem Monde hatte der Mensch auch noch nicht eine gewisse Konstanz seiner innern Wärme. Heute hat er das, er hat es sich auf der Erde erworben. Auf dem alten Monde nahm der Mensch Wärme von der ihn umgebenden Wärme auf und strömte sie wieder aus, wie er heute die Luft aus- und einatmet. Und das machte sich sichtbar an seinem Wärmeorgan. Das leuchtete auf, erglänzte, wenn er Wärme aufnahm, und wenn er Wärme ausströmte, verdunkelte sich dieses. Hätten Sie das sehen können, so hätte es so ausgesehen wie der Feuerdrache, den Sie heute als eine Nachbildung davon sehen. Das alles hat eine tiefe Bedeutung. Wenn Sie Gestalten sehen, wie den Erzengel Michael, der den Feuerdrachen unter die Füße tritt, oder den Sankt Georg im Kampf mit dem Drachen, so führen solche Vorstellungen auf jene Zustände zurück. Das ist eine Gestalt, die es einmal gegeben hat: jener Feueratmer des alten Mondes, der alte Drache - eine Stufe, die überwunden werden mußte.
Das ist die aus der okkulten Erkenntnis heraus geschöpfte Erklärung solcher Dinge. Wenn später einmal die Geisteswissenschaft mehr verbreitet sein wird, dann wird man auch solche Dinge, wie sie in solchen Bildern und Vorstellungen erhalten geblieben sind, wieder anders ansehen. Diese Tiermenschengestalt, sie war freilich ganz anders als die der heutigen Menschen, weil der Astralleib noch nicht so tief untertauchte in den menschlichen physischen Leib wie später auf der Erde. Der Mensch ist das Gebilde von heute dadurch, daß der Astralleib ganz in ihn untertauchte. Man könnte sagen, weil das, was während der Mondenentwickelung noch nicht sich darauf einließ, so in die Tiefen der physischen Welt herabzusteigen, sich nun während der Erdenentwickelung dazu entschloß. Wäre aber dieser Vorgang im Kosmos früher vor sich gegangen, dann wäre der Mensch auf einer viel niedrigeren Stufe stehengeblieben. Während der Erdenentwickelung hat er vom Geiste heraus sich zu dieser edlen Gestalt, die gottähnlich ist, durchgerungen. Wäre auf dem Monde schon die Möglichkeit der Menschengestaltung gewesen, so wäre dieses Hinuntersteigen für den Astralleib zu früh gewesen. Die göttlichen Lenker haben stets den richtigen Augenblick gewählt. Denn das ist das Wesentliche der Mondenentwickelung: Es wurde dem physischen Leibe noch sozusagen Zeit gelassen zu seiner Entwickelung, und für die Erde wurde aufgespart, daß der Mensch vom Astralleib durchzogen wurde, nachdem er sich auf dem Monde auf einer unteren Stufe physisch entwickelt hatte. Dann ereignete sich wieder ein gewisses Zurückgehen des Mondes in die vorher abgespaltene Sonne; aufgesogen wurde die alte Mondkugel wieder von der Sonne, und alles ging wiederum in einen Weltenschlaf über, durch ein Pralaya hindurch. Das beginnt in demselben Moment, wo der Mond in die Sonne zurückkehrt.
Die alte Mondenentwickelung ging also folgendermaßen vor sich: Erstens eine Art Vorbereitung, zweitens Trennung in Sonne und Mond, drittens Bildung der drei Reiche auf dem Monde, viertens Zurückkehren in die Sonne, fünftens ein Abfluten, sechstens der Weltenschlaf.
Aus diesem Weltenschlaf tritt dann die vierte Metamorphose unserer Erde zutage: unser Planet, die Erde selbst. Diese erste Gestalt der Erde ist allerdings ganz verschieden von dem, was unsere Erde jetzt als Gestalt zeigt. Als sie zuerst aufleuchtete, diese Erde, aus der kosmischen Nacht, dem Dämmerdunkel, da war sie groß, ungeheuer groß, denn sie hatte ja wieder in sich die Sonne und den Mond; alle Abspaltung geschah erst später. Sie war so groß, daß sie bis zum heutigen Saturn reichte. Die Differenzierung unseres Systems geschah erst später. Die Kant-Laplacesche Theorie gibt, soweit es dem physikalischen Denken möglich ist, dieses erste Hervorgehen unserer Erde in ganz verständlicher Weise. Sie spricht von einem Nebel, einer Art Urnebel, in dem alles aufgelöst ist, und aus dem daher das ganze Sonnensystem hervorgeht. Durch die Rotation dieses Nebels haben sich Ringe gebildet, diese Ringe verdichten sich, und durch die Rotation bilden sich dann die Planeten. In der Schule wird das an einem Experiment häufig dargestellt: man bringt eine Ölkugel in einer gleich schweren Flüssigkeit mittels einer einfachen mechanischen Vorrichtung zum Rotieren. Man kann alsdann beobachten, wie sich diese Kugel abplattet, wie sich von ihr Tropfen losreißen, die sich wiederum zu Kugeln formen und die Hauptkugel umkreisen, und auf diese Weise sieht man im Kleinen eine Art Planetensystem durch das Rotieten entstehen. Das wirkt ungeheuer suggestiv. Warum sollte man sich das nicht in der Welt ebenso vorstellen? Man sieht es ja hier förmlich, wie durch die Rotation ein Planetensystem entsteht, man hat es ja vor sich! Man vergißt dabei nur eines - sich selbst oder den Herrn Lehrer, der die Drehung vornimmt. Mit dieser äußeren Tatsache ist nichts erklärt. So etwas wie dieses Weltensystem entsteht nicht aus dem Nichts, entsteht nicht aus dem Nebel von selbst, sondern weil viele geistige Wesenheiten daran gearbeitet haben und an einem bestimmten Punkte ihrer Entwickelung aus der chaotischen Substanz die feinsten Substanzen herauszogen und die gröberen, den Mond, hinausschleuderten.
In der ersten Zeit nach dem Pralaya wiederholte die Erde, die nun wieder alle die Substanzen und Wesenheiten in sich vereinigt hatte, den Saturnzustand. Sie war im Anfang dieser Entwickelung keine Gaskugel, wie vielfach falsch angenommen wird, sondern eine Wärmekugel. Denn sie wiederholte eben den Saturnzustand und reichte so weit wie bis zum heutigen Saturn. Die geistigen Wesenheiten sind es, die sich auf einer gewissen Stufe ihre Substanzen mitnehmen. Allem liegt eben der Geist zugrunde, sowohl bei der Trennung der Sonne wie bei der alten Mondenentwickelung. Nichts Äußeres war daran schuld, sondern innere Notwendigkeit war es für einen Teil der Wesenheiten. Die höheren Wesenheiten sondern aus der chaotischen Substanz das heraus, was sie brauchen. Der Geist ist es überall, der das Äußere lenkt. Als die Erde zuerst aufleuchtete, war alles in ihr darinnen; da waren diese Wesenheiten auf verschiedenen Stufen ihrer Entwickelung darinnen. Wir werden das bei den nun folgenden Betrachtungen ins Auge fassen.
Die Erde wiederholte also jetzt zuerst, nach dem Pralaya, den Saturnzustand; das ist ein Wärmezustand. Dann verdichtete sich diese riesige, mächtige Kugel, so daß sie gasig wurde, und erst an einem bestimmten Punkt war es für sie möglich, das Flüssige zu bilden, den Mondzustand zu wiederholen. In diesem Moment wiederholte sich dann auch das, was früher auf dem Monde geschehen war: die Sonne sonderte sich auch von unserer Erde ab, und die Erde plus Mond wurde ein selbständiger Körper mit den Substanzen und Wesenheiten von Erde und Mond, wie sie auch heute vorhanden sind. Es waren also eine Zeitlang Erde plus Mond und Sonne miteinander verbunden. Dann wurde ausgeschieden die Erde plus Mond, denn der Mensch konnte ferner das Tempo der Sonnenwesen nicht mitmachen. Wäre die Sonne in der Erde geblieben, so wäre er, kaum geboren, auch schonalt gewesen. Die Wesenheiten des Weltenalls stehen auf ganz verschiedenen Stufen der Entwickelung. Wir werden nur die Hauptsachen davon für unsere vierte Periode, die Erdenzeit, angeben können. Es gibt alle möglichen Grade, auch bei den reiferen Wesenheiten. Es gab solche, die das rasche Sonnentempo und auch wieder das langsame Tempo der Erde nicht brauchen konnten. Diese nun sonderten sich schon ab vor der Trennung, als Sonne, Erde und Mond noch beisammen waren, und bildeten besondere Schauplätze für ihr Wirken, hatten dort die ihnen gemäßen Herrschaftsgebiete. Dadurch eben bildeten sich die äußeren Planeten Saturn, Jupiter und Mars.
Während der Wiederholung des Saturnzustandes lösen sich von der Erde ab Uranus, Vulkan und Saturn. Während der Wiederholung des Sonnenzustandes lösen sich ab Jupiter und Mars. Nachdem die Sonne sich von der Erde getrennt hat, spaltete sie von sich ab Merkur und Venus, nach der Sonnentrennung spaltete die Erde ab den Mond. Das Auseinanderzerren des alten Mondes geschah durch die Kräfte der fortgeschrittenen Mächte, welche den Sonnenkörper herauszogen, während die normalen und zurückgebliebenen den ihn umkreisenden Mond bildeten. In allen Mysterien nennt man dies den Streit am Himmel. Die versprengten Planetoiden sind die Trümmer jenes Schlachtfeldes, in welchem auch das Urgeheimnis über die Entstehung des Bösen gesucht werden muß.
Jene Planetengeister haben sozusagen nicht warten können, bis die Sonne sich von der Erde abspaltete, sie hätten sonst nicht den richtigen Boden für ihre Arbeit gefunden, als die Entwickelung in jenem Zeitpunkt in andere Bahnen einlenkte. Denn die Raum- und Bewegungsverhältnisse der Planeten sind alle der Ausdruck und die Wirkung der Tätigkeit ihrer Wesenheiten; sie bekunden den Entwickelungsstandpunkt der geistigen Wesen, welche die Planeten bewohnen. Wesenheiten nun, die jetzt geglaubt hatten, auch mit der Sonne mitkommen zu können, weil sie es früher gekonnt hatten, und die nun doch nicht mitkamen, die sonderten sich von dieser ab erst nach der Trennung der Sonne von der Erde. Sie schieden erst nachträglich aus, diese Wesenheiten, die immerhin noch weit über den Menschen hinausragten. Sie brauchten einen andern Schauplatz ihrer Tätigkeit. Venus und Merkur, diese beiden, die erst während der Abtrennung unserer Erde von der Sonne sich von dieser sonderten, sie bildeten die inneren Planeten unseres Sonnensystems.
Für die Erde begann nun, nach ihrer Abtrennung von der Sonne, eine schwere, dunkle Zeit, in einer gewissen Beziehung die finsterste, härteste Zeit für die Erde. Sie war ja noch mit dem Monde verbunden und nahm also in sich alle die Kräfte mit, welche die Entwickelung verzögerten. Das Leben zu hemmen im eminentesten Sinne, das gehört zu den Kräften, die hauptsächlich im Monde wirken. Diese hemmenden Kräfte waren nun in dieser Zeit viel zu stark wirksam in der Erde. Wären sie mit ihr verbunden geblieben, dann wäre das Leben auch nicht in dem richtigen Tempo verlaufen. Der Mensch hätte sich verhärtet bis zur Mumifizierung; ein realer Kirchhof wäre die Erde geworden, ein großer Friedhof, auf welchem Statuen von mumifizierten Menschenleibern sich befunden hätten. Keine Fortpflanzung hätte mehr stattfinden können. Als die Sonne fort war aus der Erde, geschah eine ungeheure Verödung und Verhärtung alles Lebens auf der Erde. Es gab also schon damals Zeiten, wo der physische Leib von dem geistigen Teil verlassen wurde, wie heute der physische Leib von seinem geistigen Teil beim Tode verlassen wird. Es gab damals schon ein Sich-Zurückziehen des Geistig-Seelischen, sein Herausgehen aus dem Physischen und sein Wiederaufsuchen dieses Physischen, wie es heute bei den Inkarnationen der Fall ist. Aber immer häufiger kam es vor, daß, wenn das Seelisch-Geistige wieder einen Menschenleib finden wollte, während der Mond noch mit der Erde verbunden war, es einfach keinen fand, weil der Leib nicht mehr geeignet war, das Geistig-Seelische in sich aufzunehmen. Denken Sie sich, die Menschen würden heute in großen Massen sterben, und es würden durch Eigenschaften des physischen Leibes diese Leiber so in die Dekadenz kommen, daß die Seelen sich sagen würden: Wir können diese Leiber nicht brauchen. Sie sind zu schlecht für uns, wir finden in ihnen keine Gelegenheit zur Weiterentwickelung. - Durch ein besonderes Überhandnehmen des Alkoholismus zum Beispiel würde die Nachkommenschaft allmählich so schlecht, daß die Leiber einfach unbrauchbar für die herabsteigenden Seelen wären, So können Sie sich etwa den damaligen Zustand auf der Erde vor dem Mondenaustritt denken. Verhärtet, verrindet, vertrocknet, mumifiziert war oft alles das, was da unten hätte sollen bewohnt werden. Es gab wirklich eine Zeit, wo die Seelen sich vergeblich nach Leibern für die eigene Erdenentwickelung umschauten. Die Folge davon war, daß gewisse geistig-seelische Wesenheiten zu jener Zeit einfach nicht als Menschen auf den physischen Plan wiederkehren konnten. Sie konnten sich auf der Erde nicht wiederverkörpern. Und diese Wesenheiten, sie gingen nun zu andern Weltenkörpern, zu denen, die sich von der Sonne abgespalten hatten, zu Venus, zu Jupiter, Saturn und Mars. Und es gab eine Zeit, wo ein größerer Teil dieser Wesen, die normalerweise auf der Erde sich hätten verkörpern sollen, je nachdem sie geartet und je nach der Entwickelungsstufe, auf der sie standen, sich unter den Schutz des Mars, des Jupiter, der Venus- oder Saturnwesenheiten begaben, zu diesen Weltenkörpern hinaufstiegen und sie bevölkerten. Und unsere Erde verödete dadurch eine Zeitlang. Nur die allerstärksten Seelen fanden die Möglichkeit, die widerspenstigen Leiber zu besiegen, sie sozusagen weich zu erhalten. Verstehen wir uns recht: nur das allerbeste Seelenmaterial war es, das auf die Erde da wiederkam, weil es die größte Macht hatte, die widerspenstigen Leiber zu besiegen. Die Entwickelung konnte aber dabei nicht vorwärtsgehen.
Die höchsten Wesenheiten, die zu unserem Sonnensystem gehörten, sie trafen nun eine neue Vorrichtung. Es wurden von den verhärtenden Kräften die dichtesten Substanzen aus der Erde herausgeholt und abgespalten: es geschah die Abtrennung des Mondes. Dadurch wurden die zurückbleibenden Kräfte nicht mehr in ihrer Entwickelung gestört. Dieser Mond wurde aber erst später, wie er heute ist. Für die physische, ätherische Menschenentwickelung war nun die Zeit gekommen, wo sie das richtige Tempo finden konnte, das ihrer Stufe entsprach. Nun wirkten die Sonnen- und die Mondenkräfte von außen auf die Erde gemeinsam und hielten sich die Waage, das Gleichgewicht. Nach und nach, während der Mond sich hinausbegab, fand nun wieder eine Art von Verweichung, von Verbesserung der Menschenleiber statt. Diese Zeit, die wir eben beschrieben haben, nennt man im Okkultismus die lemurische Zeit, die Zeit der Mondentrennung in der physischen Erdenperiode. Die Zeit, da die Sonne hinausgeht aus der Erde, nennt man die hyperboräische Zeit, und jene, wo Sonne, Mond und Erde noch zusammen waren, die polarische Zeit.
In der ganzen Zeit nun, als die Sonne von der Erde getrennt war und der Mond zuerst verhärtend auf die Erde wirkte und dann die Erde verließ, in jener ganzen Zeit wirkten hohe Wesenheiten auf diese Differenzierung ein. Und ihre bedeutsamsten Diener waren die Geister der Form, in der christlichen Esoterik Exusiai genannt, auch Geister der Offenbarung, Gewalten.
Auf dem Saturn waren es die Throne, Geister des Willens, die sich opferten und den Stoff für den physischen Leib des Menschen aus ihrer eigenen Substanz träufelten. Auf der Sonne sind es die Herrschaften oder Geister der Weisheit, welche die Substanz für die Ätherkörper hergeben, auf dem Monde die Geister der Bewegung oder die Mächte, welche die Bildung des astralischen Leibes ermöglichen. Auf der Erde nun sind es die Geister der Form oder die Gewalten, welche das Ich eingießen und so bewirken, daß in dieser Entwickelungsphase nach und nach, ganz allmählich, dieses Ich in das, was nun wieder entstanden war, den physischen Leib, den Äther- und Astralleib sich einfügte. Das ist die Arbeit der Geister der Form. Daß ein Ich-Mensch überhaupt entstehen konnte, der Ausdruck eines Ich-Bewußtseins, daß eine solche Gliederung der drei andern Leiber - physischer Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib - sich bilden konnte, dazu war all das, was wir beschrieben haben, notwendig. Dazu war notwendig das Heraustreten von Sonne und Mond aus der Erde, es war notwendig, daß der Mensch eine solche Verhärtung erfuhr und wieder eine Milderung derselben. All das konnte geschehen dadurch, daß jene weisheitsvollen Wesenheiten, die das alles leiteten, erst probeweise das alles unternahmen zum Heile der Evolution. Es geschieht vieles in der Erdenentwickelung probeweise von den hohen Wesenheiten aus, die hinter der Evolution stehen, auch heute noch. Was ist denn die theosophische Bewegung? Sie ist dadurch in die Welt gekommen, daß durch die hohen Wesenheiten, die wir die Meister nennen, und die in einem physischen Menschenleibe leben, aber auf einer viel höheren Entwickelungsstufe stehen als der Mensch von heute, ausströmte vom letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts an eine gewisse Summe von Weisheit. Das lebendige Hereinströmen dieser Weisheit aus höheren Regionen in unsere Kultur, das ist die reale Grundlage unserer theosophischen Bewegung. Glauben Sie nicht, daß es nicht möglich wäre, daß die Einströmung, die versucht wird, ein taubes Ohr bei der Menschheit fände. Dann würden sich die Meister sagen: Es muß ein späterer Versuch gemacht werden, wenn die Menschheit reif dazu ist. Man nennt das im Okkultismus: die Probe auf die Reife der Menschheit. Es ist nicht genug damit, daß von solchen höheren Individualitäten Weisheit einströmt in unsere Menschheit, sondern wie ihr entgegengekommen wird, davon hängt das Gelingen der Probe ab. Es sind oft schon solche Proben unternommen worden, aber nicht immer geglückt. Die Menschheit erwies sich oft nur innerhalb enger Grenzen als reif dazu; nicht immer fanden sich geneigte Seelen und Herzen. So wie hier zum Zwecke der theosophischen Bewegung, so geschieht es auch im großen Weltenall. Als das Ich der Menschheit eingeströmt werden sollte, bestand die Probe darin, daß man nach und nach versuchte, das, was früher nur astralischer Leib war, vom Ich aus zu durchdringen. Und da stellte es sich dann heraus, daß der astralische Leib, der durchdrungen war mit dem Ich, nicht vermochte in den physischen Leib einzudringen. Man mußte eine Anpassung vollziehen, und dies geschah dadurch, daß man den Mond hinausführte. Erst in der Mitte der lemurischen Zeit vollzog sich der Einschlag des Ich, des Christus-Prinzips.
Damit aber hing das Folgende zusammen: Während der Mondloslösung war die Erde verödet. Wir haben gehört, daß die Leiber so schlecht geworden waren, daß sie den Seelen keine Unterkunft mehr sein konnten. In der Sage sind solche kosmischen Vorgänge erhalten geblieben, aber die okkulte Forschung, die zeigt ihren wahren Ursprung und lehrt uns, daß, während der Abtrennung des Mondes, als die Erde verödet war, viele Seelen in dem kosmischen Raum nach geeigneter Verkörperung suchten und dann fortgingen von der Erde und auf andern Planeten sich verkörperten. Jetzt aber, nachdem der Mond fort war, zeigte es sich, daß die Erde wieder fähig war, geeignete Leiber abzugeben. Und jetzt stellten sich auch die Seelen auf der Erde wieder ein, die auf die andern Planeten schon in der letzten Zeit der Lemuria gegangen waren, und darnach in der atlantischen Entwickelung, und sie verkörperten sich wieder in diesen Leibern auf der Erde. Es bildeten sich nun auf der Erde Menschengruppen heraus: solche, die Leiber hatten für Seelen, die von Jupiterverkörperungen herkamen; für jene, die von Mars, Venus oder Saturn kamen und nun das zu ihnen Passende fanden. Diese Gruppierung der Seelen gab die Veranlassung zu der Entstehung der Menschenrassen. Dadurch sind die Rassen in einem gewissen Zusammenhang mit den Weltenkörpern. So konnte man also von Saturnmenschen, Jupitermenschen und so weiter sprechen, und nun hatte auch das erst Berechtigung, was man den Rassenbegriff nennen kann.
Auf dem Monde, und auch auf der Erde zu ihrer Mondenzeit, gab es Menschen verschiedener Entwickelungsstufen. Wir können das verfolgen bis in das lemurische Zeitalter, wo durch den Austritt des Mondes die Menschheit sich differenziert; darnach taucht der Rassenbegriff auf und beginnt von jetzt ab einen gewissen Sinn, eine gewisse Bedeutung zu haben. Die Rasse ist etwas, was entstanden ist und wieder vergeht. Das Zeitalter, in dem die Rassen sich gebildet haben, ist das lemurische und atlantische Zeitalter. Heute haben wir nur die Nachzügler der Rassen.
The Stages of Development of our Earth up to the Lemurian Epoch
Yesterday, we came to the moon's metamorphosis in our consideration of the development of our planet. We saw that it underwent its first incarnation as ancient Saturn, then as the sun, and has now reappeared as the moon. Yesterday we reached the point where we saw that if everything had continued in the same way as before, human beings would not have been able to keep pace with the speed of the cosmic development of other beings. For this reason, during the lunar period of the planet, a kind of separation had to take place at a certain point on this lunar Earth. A kind of withdrawal took place of the sun, which was advancing in the cosmic whole with the finest substances and beings. And the less advanced, the actual old moon, which still contained everything that our present earth and moon are, remained behind as a kind of nebula. As a result, under special conditions, a condensation, a kind of hardening, took place on the old moon and, at the same time, an equal hardening of the physical beings that inhabited it.
When the sun was gone, its forces acted on the old moon from outside. That which is said to have later emerged as the human, animal, and plant kingdoms had now stepped out of the sun with the old moon and allowed itself to be illuminated by the sun, absorbing its forces from outside. After the separation, the three kingdoms on the moon took shape as follows: There was not yet a mineral kingdom, but what emerged after hardening as the lowest kingdom was a kind of mineral-vegetable kingdom; mineral matter that had a vegetable character, or, if you will, vegetable matter that had a mineral character. And this formed the soil of the moon, a solid-liquid foundation, so to speak. Just as you walk on minerals on Earth today, the ground there consisted of a solid-liquid foundation that was a kind of plant mineral. Imagine a mass like cooked lettuce, a plant substance that you walk on: that was the lowest realm of the moon, which was at the same time, one might say, semi-living. Our earth's surface has now settled down relatively, and only when volcanic activity occurs does this remind us of a certain inner life of our earth. This was not yet the case on the moon. We may perhaps speak later about what occultists have to say about earthquakes and volcanic activity. Just as organs grow in a plant and then die off again, so this semi-living substance manifested itself on the moon. This ancient moon was like a living, mobile, large organism, on which the beings living around it felt similar to parasites in our time. These moon plants were of mineral substance, had some life and were mobile, i.e., they were plant minerals. What are our rocks today, we would also have found there, but they were horn- or wood-like hardenings, that is, of a similar substance. Surrounding the moon, like a kind of atmosphere, were less dense masses of fog, less dense, half-watery, half-living substance, in which the beings of the next kingdom—half animal, half plant—were embedded. If you could squeeze a tree and it would have something like an animal sensation, then you would have something similar to this animal-plant realm. This could no longer exist as such within our Earth today.
As has often been mentioned, it is not only in school that pupils are left behind, but in [cosmic] evolution there are also beings who remain behind, and the forms associated with them, which are the expression of these beings, also remain behind and are preserved. Thus, there were certain lunar beings still on Earth who were not yet ready to participate in Earth's development. These beings then had to create in their outer expression what had been their living conditions on the moon. As you know, the plants on the moon did not root in mineral soil as they do today, but in the semi-living moon soil. Mistletoe, for example, is a descendant, a latecomer of an ancient lunar form; it must root in plant soil. In the myths of the peoples, you can find many things that refer to this, for example, the legend of Baldur and Loki, who is a being from the moon, while Baldur is a being who is closely connected with the development of the earth and the sun. If you want to interpret a legend, you have to know from which area of occult research the connections are found. Through what the clairvoyant brings, an external science can be enriched so that it can recognize more in the legend than mere folk fantasy. Spiritual science must teach us to research with our whole soul instead of just with our intellect.
Then we have a third realm on the moon, which is an intermediate realm between the animal and human realms: the animal-human realm. However, you would find beings in those animal-humans that are very different from what today's materialistic science imagines. They are only animal-humans because they do not yet have important parts of their being within themselves, within their own essence. Today, the sleeping human being has his physical and etheric bodies lying here below in bed and his astral body outside. So, basically, he is only half of his being in the physical world, and not the more important half; with his physical and etheric bodies, he belongs, as it were, to an earlier, cosmic stage of consciousness. On the moon, clairvoyant vision sees this state prevailing permanently. The astral body was never completely within the physical and etheric bodies, but on the moon it was more thoroughly and clearly connected with the human being than it is today during sleep. The head of the moon human was not yet as closed off as it is today. A remnant of how the organs were located up in the head at that time is still visible in the spot at the top of the infant's head, which remains very soft and open for a long time. At that time, the human head was completely open at the top, and the organ you encounter when you draw a line vertically below this soft spot, the pineal gland, which today is dry and atrophied, was a very important organ during the lunar evolution. It was a kind of sensory organ that connected the human physical and etheric bodies with the human astral body. The human astral body sent its most important ray forces into the other bodies through this organ, which was like a fine, luminous body. It was the consciousness of the human being, neither sleep consciousness nor waking consciousness. Human beings did not perceive external things. Their consciousness would have been comparable to what we experience in dreams today. At that time, the pineal gland was a kind of heat organ that emitted powerful, luminous rays of heat. When human beings moved around in the external world on the old moon, this organ served to show them the direction they had to take. Their perception on the moon was such that humans felt they were ascending something like a living dream image. There was no concrete seeing or perceiving yet, but an inner weighing up and down of living images. Today's dream images are only faint shadows of this. Everything humans did on the moon, such as searching for food and so on, was done through these images. These moon images were connected with the outer world. He could be directed and guided by them. When he sought his food, he was guided by certain images that arose before him; harmful things were indicated to him by very specific images. And the astral body extended far beyond the physical and etheric bodies; only the physical body had a form that we can describe as human.
On the moon, human beings did not yet have a certain constancy of internal warmth. Today they do; they have acquired it on earth. On the old moon, human beings absorbed warmth from the heat surrounding them and emitted it again, just as they breathe air in and out today. This was visible in their heat organ. It glowed and shone when they absorbed heat, and when they emitted heat, it darkened. If you could have seen this, it would have looked like the fire dragon you see today as a replica of it. All of this has a deep meaning. When you see figures such as the archangel Michael trampling the fire dragon underfoot, or Saint George fighting the dragon, such images lead back to those conditions. This is a figure that once existed: the fire-breather of the old moon, the old dragon—a stage that had to be overcome.
This is the explanation of such things derived from occult knowledge. When spiritual science becomes more widespread in the future, people will look at such things, as they have been preserved in these images and ideas, in a different light. This animal-human form was, of course, quite different from that of today's human beings, because the astral body had not yet submerged so deeply into the human physical body as it did later on Earth. Human beings are what they are today because the astral body has completely submerged into them. One could say that what did not allow itself to descend into the depths of the physical world during the lunar evolution decided to do so during the Earth evolution. But if this process had taken place earlier in the cosmos, human beings would have remained at a much lower level. During the Earth's evolution, he has struggled out of the spirit to this noble form, which is godlike. If the possibility of human formation had already existed on the Moon, this descent would have been too early for the astral body. The divine guides always chose the right moment. For this is the essence of lunar evolution: the physical body was given time, so to speak, to develop, and it was reserved for the Earth that human beings would be permeated by the astral body after they had developed physically on the Moon at a lower stage. Then the moon receded again into the sun from which it had previously separated; the old moon sphere was absorbed again by the sun, and everything passed into a world sleep, through a pralaya. This begins at the same moment when the moon returns to the sun.
The old lunar development thus proceeded as follows: first, a kind of preparation; second, separation into sun and moon; third, formation of the three realms on the moon; fourth, return to the sun; fifth, a flooding away; sixth, the world sleep.
From this world sleep, the fourth metamorphosis of our Earth then emerges: our planet, the Earth itself. However, this first form of the Earth is completely different from what our Earth now shows us. When it first appeared, this Earth, out of the cosmic night, the twilight darkness, it was large, enormously large, for it contained within itself the sun and the moon; all separation occurred later. It was so large that it reached as far as Saturn today. The differentiation of our system occurred later. The Kant-Laplace theory, as far as physical thinking allows, explains this first emergence of our Earth in a completely understandable way. It speaks of a nebula, a kind of primordial cloud in which everything is dissolved and from which the entire solar system emerges. The rotation of this nebula formed rings, which condensed and, through rotation, formed the planets. This is often demonstrated in school with an experiment: a ball of oil is made to rotate in a liquid of equal weight using a simple mechanical device. One can then observe how this ball flattens, how drops break away from it, which in turn form balls and orbit the main ball, and in this way one sees a kind of planetary system emerging on a small scale through rotation. This is incredibly evocative. Why shouldn't we imagine the same thing in the world? You can literally see how a planetary system is created by rotation; it's right there in front of you! But you forget one thing—yourself or the teacher who is making the rotation. This external fact explains nothing. Something like this world system does not arise out of nothing, does not arise spontaneously out of the nebula, but because many spiritual beings worked on it and, at a certain point in their development, extracted the finest substances from the chaotic substance and ejected the coarser ones, the moon.
In the first period after the Pralaya, the Earth, which had now reunited all the substances and beings within itself, repeated the Saturn state. At the beginning of this development, it was not a ball of gas, as is often mistakenly assumed, but a ball of heat. For it repeated the Saturn state and extended as far as the present Saturn. It is the spiritual beings who, at a certain stage, take their substances with them. Everything is based on spirit, both in the separation of the sun and in the ancient development of the moon. Nothing external was to blame for this; it was an inner necessity for some of the beings. The higher beings separate from the chaotic substance what they need. It is spirit everywhere that directs the outer. When the Earth first shone forth, everything was within it; these beings were within it at various stages of their development. We will consider this in the following reflections.
So, after the Pralaya, the Earth first repeated the Saturn state; this is a state of heat. Then this huge, powerful sphere condensed so that it became gaseous, and only at a certain point was it possible for it to form the liquid state, to repeat the Moon state. At that moment, what had happened earlier on the moon was repeated: the sun also separated from our earth, and the earth plus the moon became an independent body with the substances and entities of the earth and moon as they exist today. For a time, therefore, the earth plus the moon and the sun were connected. Then the earth plus the moon were separated, because human beings could not keep up with the pace of the sun beings. If the sun had remained in the Earth, human beings would have been old as soon as they were born. The beings of the universe are at very different stages of development. We will only be able to mention the main points for our fourth period, the Earth time. There are all kinds of degrees, even among the more mature beings. There were those who could not cope with the rapid speed of the sun and then again with the slow speed of the Earth. These separated before the separation, when the sun, Earth, and moon were still together, and formed special places for their activity, where they had their appropriate domains. This is how the outer planets Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars were formed.
During the repetition of the Saturn state, Uranus, Vulcan, and Saturn separate from the Earth. During the repetition of the Sun state, Jupiter and Mars separate. After the Sun separated from the Earth, it split off Mercury and Venus, and after the separation of the Sun, the Earth split off the Moon. The tearing apart of the old moon was caused by the forces of the advanced powers, which pulled out the sun's body, while the normal and backward ones formed the moon orbiting it. In all mysteries, this is called the battle in heaven. The scattered planetoids are the debris of that battlefield, where the primordial mystery of the origin of evil must also be sought.
Those planetary spirits could not wait, so to speak, until the sun separated from the earth, for otherwise they would not have found the right ground for their work when development took a different course at that time. For the spatial and movement relationships of the planets are all the expression and effect of the activity of their beings; they reveal the stage of development of the spiritual beings that inhabit the planets. Beings who had believed that they could come with the sun because they had been able to do so in the past, but who were unable to do so, separated from it only after the sun had separated from the earth. These beings, who were still far above human beings, departed only afterwards. They needed another arena for their activity. Venus and Mercury, these two, which separated from the sun only during the separation of our earth from the sun, formed the inner planets of our solar system.
For the earth, after its separation from the sun, a difficult, dark time began, in a certain sense the darkest, hardest time for the earth. It was still connected to the moon and thus absorbed all the forces that delayed development. Inhibiting life in the most eminent sense is one of the forces that mainly operate in the moon. These inhibiting forces were now much too strong in the Earth at that time. If they had remained connected to it, life would not have progressed at the right pace. Human beings would have hardened to the point of mummification; the Earth would have become a real graveyard, a large cemetery with statues of mummified human bodies. Procreation would no longer have been possible. When the Sun left the Earth, there was a tremendous desolation and hardening of all life on Earth. So even then there were times when the physical body was abandoned by the spiritual part, just as today the physical body is abandoned by its spiritual part at death. Even then there was a withdrawal of the spiritual-soul, its departure from the physical and its return to the physical, as is the case today with incarnations. But it happened more and more frequently that when the spiritual-soul wanted to find a human body again while the moon was still connected to the earth, it simply could not find one because the body was no longer suitable for receiving the spiritual-soul. Imagine that people were dying in large numbers today and that the characteristics of the physical body were causing these bodies to become so decadent that the souls would say to themselves: We cannot use these bodies. They are too bad for us; we find no opportunity for further development in them. Through a particular prevalence of alcoholism, for example, the offspring would gradually become so bad that the bodies would simply be useless for the descending souls. This is how you can imagine the state of the Earth before the Moon left it. Hardened, calloused, dried up, mummified—that was often all that remained of what should have been inhabited down there. There really was a time when souls searched in vain for bodies for their own earthly development. The result was that certain spiritual-soul entities at that time simply could not return to the physical plane as human beings. They could not reincarnate on Earth. And these entities went to other world bodies, to those that had split off from the Sun, to Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. And there was a time when a large part of these beings, who should normally have incarnated on Earth, depending on their nature and stage of development, placed themselves under the protection of the beings of Mars, Jupiter, Venus, or Saturn, ascended to these world bodies, and populated them. And our Earth became desolate for a time as a result. Only the strongest souls found a way to overcome the rebellious bodies, to soften them, so to speak. Let us understand each other correctly: only the very best soul material returned to Earth because it had the greatest power to overcome the rebellious bodies. However, evolution could not progress in this way.
The highest beings belonging to our solar system now devised a new plan. The densest substances were extracted from the earth by the hardening forces and separated: the moon was separated. As a result, the remaining forces were no longer disturbed in their development. However, this moon only became what it is today at a later stage. The time had now come for physical, etheric human development to find the right pace that corresponded to its stage. Now the forces of the sun and moon worked together on the earth from outside and kept themselves in balance. Gradually, as the moon moved away, a kind of softening, an improvement of the human body took place. This period we have just described is called the Lemurian period in occultism, the period of the separation of the moon in the physical earth period. The period when the sun leaves the earth is called the Hyperborean period, and the period when the sun, moon, and earth were still together is called the Polar period.
Throughout the entire period when the sun was separated from the earth and the moon first had a hardening effect on the earth and then left it, high beings worked on this differentiation. Their most important servants were the spirits of form, called Exusiai in Christian esotericism, also spirits of revelation, powers.
On Saturn, it was the Thrones, spirits of the will, who sacrificed themselves and dripped the substance for the physical body of human beings from their own substance. On the Sun, it is the Dominions or spirits of wisdom who give the substance for the etheric bodies, and on the Moon, it is the spirits of movement or the powers that enable the formation of the astral body. On Earth, it is the spirits of form or the powers that pour in the I and thus cause this I to gradually, very gradually, in this phase of development, to fit itself into what had now been re-created, the physical body, the etheric and astral bodies. This is the work of the spirits of form. Everything we have described was necessary for an I-human being to arise at all, as the expression of an I-consciousness, and for such a division of the three other bodies—the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body—to form. It was necessary for the sun and moon to emerge from the earth, and it was necessary for human beings to experience a hardening and then a softening of this hardening. All this could happen because those wise beings who guided everything first undertook all this on a trial basis for the sake of evolution. Much happens in the evolution of the earth on a trial basis by the high beings who stand behind evolution, even today. What is the Theosophical Movement? It came into the world through the high beings whom we call the Masters, who live in physical human bodies but are at a much higher stage of development than human beings today. From the last third of the 19th century onwards, a certain amount of wisdom flowed out from them. The living inflow of this wisdom from higher regions into our culture is the real foundation of our theosophical movement. Do not believe that it is not possible that the inflow that is being attempted would fall on deaf ears among humanity. Then the Masters would say: A later attempt must be made when humanity is ready for it. In occultism, this is called the test of humanity's maturity. It is not enough for wisdom to flow into humanity from such higher individualities; the success of the test depends on how it is received. Such tests have often been undertaken, but they have not always been successful. Humanity has often proved itself ready for this only within narrow limits; not always have willing souls and hearts been found. Just as here for the purpose of the theosophical movement, so it is in the great universe. When the I was to be poured into humanity, the test consisted in gradually attempting to penetrate what was previously only the astral body from the I. And then it turned out that the astral body, which was permeated with the I, was unable to penetrate the physical body. An adjustment had to be made, and this was done by removing the moon. It was not until the middle of the Lemurian period that the impact of the I, the Christ principle, took place.
But the following was connected with this: during the separation of the moon, the earth was desolate. We have heard that the bodies had become so bad that they could no longer be a dwelling place for the souls. Such cosmic processes have been preserved in legend, but occult research shows their true origin and teaches us that during the separation of the moon, when the earth was desolate, many souls sought suitable embodiment in cosmic space and then left the earth and embodied themselves on other planets. Now, however, after the moon had departed, it became apparent that the earth was once again capable of providing suitable bodies. And now the souls that had gone to other planets in the last period of Lemuria and then in the Atlantean evolution returned to the earth and reincarnated in these bodies on earth. Groups of human beings now formed on Earth: those who had bodies for souls that came from Jupiter incarnations; those who came from Mars, Venus, or Saturn and now found what suited them. This grouping of souls gave rise to the emergence of the human races. This means that the races are connected in a certain way to the world bodies. So, we could talk about Saturn people, Jupiter people, and so on, and now we could use the term “race” in a way that made sense.
On the moon, and also on the earth during its lunar period, there were people at different stages of development. We can trace this back to the Lemurian epoch, when humanity differentiated itself through the departure of the moon; after that, the concept of race emerged and began to have a certain meaning from then on. Race is something that has come into being and will pass away again. The age in which the races formed is the Lemurian and Atlantean age. Today we have only the stragglers of the races.