The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Let us once again visualize the sequence of stages of the three kingdoms of nature. The mineral kingdom merely takes the form for the particularity. The plant takes the life from the general nature and transfers it to a single being. Thus it seeks in universal nature a perpetual source of life. This is the difference between plant and animal, where life depends on the ancestor. Hence this intimate being of the plant interwoven with universal nature, more chaste life.

Man has already passed through these three realms on three previous spheres. He was realized in the mineral, plant and animal kingdom. The shape was admittedly different. It resembled an automaton in the mineral; human plants looked radiate; human animal forms were egg-shaped. The human being reaches a kind of completion on the three first plans, so to speak. In the order of the kingdoms he could not have perfected himself further - only as an animal. Perfection of animality there can be much greater.

We only have to be clear that as long as an animal remains animal, manas in animality does not work on the physical plan, but on a higher one. Think of an animal: it will differ from man under the condition that its manas does not remain in the animal, but on a higher plan, so that if one wanted to imagine it sensually, one would have to think of the animal as pulled on strings.

The mind lies on the higher plan and acts into the lower. So with lower organs of the human being. A thigh, for example, is so artfully constructed that the thing could not be made more ingenious by the sharpest engineering.

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To train the animal means: manas cannot do anything if the animal has no organ to do it; if the brain cannot be used to count, manas cannot count. If you prepare the brain of the animal, you give Manas opportunity to work from the higher plan down to an animal. Therefore, only occultists and mystics should do it. Otherwise, you can do something that is harmful in the universe.

In the Atlantean race, animals were artificially formed and trained into new species by crossbreeding; to this our animals now owe their higher qualities. Thus we must not be surprised that certain animals rival man in the skill of their ability. A bone can do even more than man. The Moeris lake was created with perfect art. The ancient Egyptians still knew how to drain the Nile waters into an artificial lake that irrigated the land through canals. It was still a kind of higher instinct, manas worked into it from the higher plan.

Man differs from the animal in that Manas works within him, not from above. Manas has descended to the physical plan. That is why an animal can progress further than a man, yet it is qualitatively below man. - What shows me the time is spirit of the clock inventor; he works from another sphere. Thus manas in the higher sense. That can also be called highest at the same time, what man achieves in the three former spheres: Being into which Manas works from outside. The task of earthly development is to transform the body so that Manas can work from within. And now you will also become clear about the difference of the human being standing on the fourth stage of development from the one standing on the third: that that which formerly acted upon him from the outside, bursts forth from within.

Now everything must be properly prepared. Let us think the lunar period completed. Now everything had to be repeated briefly, and for this purpose previous stages were necessary. Only the Lemurian period was so far that Manas could make the transformations. Also the Lemurian race has seven sub-stages. In the fourth, Manas bursts forth from within the human being. Let us imagine the great contrast: the certainty with which Manas works from outside in the animal; fallibility is unthinkable. Therefore, free will is also unthinkable. Only when Manas moves into the inside, fallibility is conceivable.

Now that the spheres are closed and Manas is within, he is, as it were, locked in prison and dependent on meeting his fellow Manases. Fallibility occurs only when Manas shines forth from within. Throughout the evolution of mankind, the possibility of freedom occurred, the ability to choose between good and evil. In the whole early macrocosmic nature there can be no question of freedom. Until that time, animals lived with absolute security. All animals with warm blood and fighting instincts arose only after the middle of the Lemurian period, with sexuality at the same time.

Before there were single beings, directed by Manas; now single beings with freedom of choice arose. Now something new must arise, which harmonizes the beings. The drive cannot now come from Manas, for it has lost its security. A new element appears. This is the element of love. Love has not been necessary before, because before the security of instinct has worked. From the lowest to the highest, what is called love has now arisen. Even the most subordinate form, sexual love, appeared only now, up to the forms of the most spiritual love. As in an atmosphere our whole earthly macrocosm was wrapped up in love at that time. This love in the organic was connected with the development of the warm blood. It is the physical vehicle for love.

Those entities that were powerful, great entities before could not remain; these were the fishes, they withered away. Cold-blooded beings of today are the last remains of great, mighty fishes of the Lemurian time. Only warm-blooded animals feel well now.

And now we see what the earthly development has become since that time. The animal spreads its beingness like a cover over something, which reveals itself from the outside in: "The animal is gone.

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Man reveals himself. Higher development is that he reverses the matter, that he sends the threads of his mana outside. He gives the threads of his being as love. So on the one hand revelation - to the animal, then intermediate realm of egoism, then realm of love.

Exusiai - coming forth of a higher entity into a lower one. Revelation. Light is the physical expression for this shining in; this revelation. Occult light is the revelation of a higher element by a lower being. Love is the surrender of one's higher element through a lower appearing being. In this struggle humanity still stands. Earthly development is the struggle between light and love.

What resides in man himself? A drop of manas, the inner glow itself. Love is the inducement for Manas to push outward. - Two principles.

The manasic entity that works in infinite facets as human souls is called Lucifer. Occult name for that which acts as light on man. The power that lets it flow out, that pushes outward, is Jehovah. The love entity that pushes the manasic entity outward is Jehovah. "God is love." It came in to the world in the middle of the Lemurian period.

What will fully express itself as love when the human way of life is at its goal, will express itself as divine wrath while it is still in an imperfect state.

Manas was outside, the animal body puts itself over it, closes with the human being to go out from the inside. The inside of man only begins to live since the third subrace of the Lemurian root race.

The first form in which manas shines forth is the mental image. As long as there is no [mental image], there is no inner life. The first of a reflection of the outside in the inside is the mental image - twenty million years approximately. The people who are left of them still have no memory and do not retain the received mental image.

In the Atlanteans, Manas shines forth within as memory. In the third race imagination; in the fourth race memory; in the fifth race the thinking power. In the sixth race manas will be not only thinking power, but intuition. The difference between memory retention and combining is something like this: beans lined up side by side [gap in transcript]

Sixth race man will have inner enlightenment, as average man; not just combine. Advanced humans already have the gift of inner truths dawning on them. What to some extent the poet has and to a greater extent the magician. Magician - Imago - Maya - Mahat. But whoever can create such a picture has not yet reached the highest level, but whoever can consciously give it lasting reality. The picture will really be there in the spiritual space. He is a creator, a productive one. - Raphael without hands: When he creates images, he has at the same time created something really existing.

The man of the third race forms ideas.

The human of the fourth race retains ideas.

The man of the fifth race not only retains [ideas], but combines them with each other.

The man of the sixth race already forms images, but they pass away with him.

The man of the seventh race forms images that already remain – evolution, involution.

Within the transition from the outer to the inner manas, what has taken its place? Love surrounds the manasic beings as manas used to surround the kamic beings, and love will be within the next round in the human being as it now surrounds him.

Manas flowed in first; love will flow in next; now it is out. Love, manas, and then the human being. When it is floating behind like this, not yet able to approach the individual beings, it is called the "divine fire. This is also what those beings can reveal themselves as, who are one step above the human being. We find this again in ancient religions. Ten commandments in the burning bush. God, consuming fire. Zoroaster called fire the "divine entity.

The animal has kama within, manas externally. Man has kama-manas within him, that is manas in kama, externally love, that is fire, the divine, if we think of love as an entity.

In the next round, that which appears to man externally will be internally. Within himself will be the fire. The Divine will manifest itself in him as it is now manifesting itself without. And that which is still one stage higher, that is what we call in occultism the Word. If we consider that the fire is a manifestation which acts on others, is, as it were, the mediator, we can imagine that the fire is the calm manifestation. If we mental image that the divine essence first manifests in the fire, we have a manas become fire, that is the divine precept.

If we imagine the still higher making itself known, we have the Word penetrating one step lower, into Kama or the flesh. Word made flesh - the Christ.

First: Man originally: kama.

Second: Manas takes possession of Kama.

Third: Fire will manifest in Manas.

In the further round: the word in fire. When the fire makes itself known in Manas, divine thinking arises. If the fire makes itself known to him, his thought becomes divine. Divine thought was the Ten Commandments - if we characterize in occult way the commandments. The fire has become thought - commandment.

Now, when man is purified and cleansed within this race so that he can receive the fire, in the next round he receives the Word, and that penetrates down to Kama. The thought has become permeable. The word has become kama or flesh, It is exactly the same as for an earlier stage the commandment.

In the fifth round, the total humanity will fulfill the commandments. In the sixth round, the total humanity will be comrade of Christ. But the Word made flesh is Christ.

Now we must imagine that everything that is slowly happening is anticipated in humanity by individual human entities. So that the revelation of the commandments was an anticipation of that which is slowly being fulfilled. So that the Word made flesh is also an anticipation, fulfilled even more slowly.

Fifth round: All mankind will follow the commandments.

Sixth round: total humanity will live with Christ.

What is predisposed in Christianity as the first spark is the great perspective for the sixth round. That is now preparing within our round.

Lemurian 4 + 3 =7 - 2 begins mental image.
Atlantian 7
Aryans 7
Sixth root race 7
Seventh root race 7

From the [fourth] Lemurian subrace emerges the first Atlantean. The four first Atlantean races are repetitions. From the fifth Atlantean race emerges the first Aryan. Five Aryan ones have to prepare. We are the last repeaters. From the sixth Aryan race the sixth root race is formed. From the seventh subrace of the sixth root race comes forth the seventh root race.

What is formed is manas. Namely, during the Lemurian time the mental image, during the Atlantean time the memory, during the Aryan time the thinking power. During the sixth race the intuition, during the seventh race the imagination.

So that when the seventh race has reached its goal, that which lives in man is imagined. Then the physical globe has reached its goal. The physical globe passes over into the astral globe. Manas has brought it to make images that live in the spiritual globe; the whole has become astral; the images will absorb the whole mineral; and man will be able to absorb into himself the mineral kingdom what was formerly segregated.

When the rupa-globe comes, there will no longer be an actual mineral, but plants and animals would have it within them; the images will now be able to absorb into themselves the mineral from the plants.

Arupa globe - there is absorbed by the imagination all that is mineral in the animal. - Now man has digested all that is mineral and enters the pralaya.

The [first] fall into matter is indicated in the fall of man in Paradise; the second occurs before Noah saves man. The first fall is the entrance of mana into the actual human interior. Let us visualize the situation once again. Let us imagine how someone whose manas acts from the outside knows; he feels the knowledge as a revelation, like something poured into him. From within comes to him the mental image - not experienced from without, but enlightened from within, like a brilliant idea to the great discoverer. The fall into matter consists in the fact that man no longer gets enlightenment from the inside, but has to make experiences from the outside. This is related to the whole development. Before, everything was directed inward; now everything occurs from the outside; hence sexuality. Before, the being was stimulated to all activity from within. If the channel closes, the being would die if the stimulation did not come from outside. Therefore, this stimulation from without, which now occurs in all fields, is called the body of desire, Kama rupa.

This is the one [first] fall of mankind, it is described in the Bible as the seduction by the serpent. Until then, there was no being on earth that had a brain. The brain is the organ of mana. In a being that would not have a brain, Manas would have no sense. Therefore, when Manas descended, the spinal cord had to thicken at one end and form a cord. Before that, there was only a kind of spinal cord; in the Lemurian period, it thickened at one end and became the brain. With the fact that man has ascended, from the brainless to the brain man, the whole higher animality has been transformed with it. The fishes themselves have already strongly developed brain, but not yet that peculiar division of the brain, which appears with the amphibians; that is no organ, which could have served the arbitrariness. There was a time /gap in transcript]

That time, for the first time, beings who had manas could be on earth, for they found a brain. These brought a manas that was still trained from the outside; tremendously high. Therefore, these first incarnated beings were of tremendous highness. These were the teachers. Therefore, the first teachers who taught the difference between good and evil were those who had incarnated in amphibians, in the serpent. Really, the first teachers who could say what is good and evil were incarnated at the stage where they became amphibians: Nagas, snakes, that is to be taken literally.

Humans evolved, and during the fifth subrace of Atlantians came the ability to think for themselves. Thinking inside, for this is necessary to learn from the outside. That is why the first human races could receive teachings from beings that were more evolved than themselves. People would not have been able to help themselves if they had not been guided by the serpents. To the supernatural forces these first people are still close, therefore they control the life force. In the fourth subrace of the Atlantians this was gradually lost. The sweeping away of this race is represented in the Flood. Humans lost the art of interbreeding and could not produce new races, so Noah takes the species across in pairs.

What before man got by revelation, he now achieves by his own power of thought. Arts and sciences. By the outside he must enrich his development. This is preserved to us in Cain and Abel. Abel is the one who does not yet accomplish anything with what is given to him by nature. He is the shepherd; he brings living things for sacrifice. Abel was still close to nature, brought something to God for sacrifice, which was not yet far from nature. Cain was a farmer; represents mankind, which already worked the lifeless nature by thinking power. This is the second fall into matter. Before that the manasic entities incarnated in the human flesh. This was a sacrifice: descent of angelic entity into the flesh. The sons of the gods became human beings, men and women.

Humans till the ground, inventing arts and sciences. While the sons of God used to make the sacrifice of climbing into matter, they till. They find that the daughters of men are beautiful. They find pleasure in the earth; incarnate gladly; that was the second fall into matter.

Occult sayings

First: The sons of the gods made the sacrifice of incarnating themselves in humanity.

Second: The sons of the gods found that the daughters of men were beautiful.

Toward the end of the Atlantean race, then, we find man standing on his own feet; before that, men were guided. Those who guided them were Manus. Also the transition still had to be made in this way. They were still transitioned by a dhyan. Only the present root race will be so far at its end that it will bring forth a Manu. That is the great tremendous progress.

Let us consider once again the lines of development which have flowed together in the time of which we have spoken. Development does not go in a straight line, so that when you have a stage, you had only to retrace it, but [gap in transcript]

It someone wants to comprehend the electric clock, if he only traced a mechanical pendulum, so he would not comprehend, but he must El /gap in the transcript]

In the middle of the Lemurian race we have a confluence of various streams. Above all, the psychic of man was already there. Was on other plan. Has gone through seven races and rounds there. What took possession of the body at that time, was after long development on a certain point of maturity. This soul, which took possession at that time, we ask probing questions of. The first and second root races were still soulless. Souls could not take possession because earth was not so mature.

If the soul would have wanted to take possession of the body in the then point of view of maturity, it would be like when very bad piano player /gap in transcript]

It was necessary first for the earth to produce bodies so mature that their degree of maturity corresponded to that of the souls. There we have two streams of development flowing together. Earth develops bodies, and the other stream was the soul development, which took place in other worlds, and now coincides with first stream. We must take into account that development does not proceed so smoothly.

If we take into account the earthly stream. It was only a certain number of bodies so far matured that they could be inhabited by souls at that time, not everything has ge/gap in transcript] sh/gap in transcript] gr/gap in transcript]. Besides, the whole body development was so far that only most advanced souls knew something to do with these bodies. So we have first of all a group of people with advanced souls. This is a special human race: highly evolved Arhats, a small crowd. The souls of these arhats were already beyond the stream of development of that time. That is, they already foresaw what the others could only achieve in longer development. So they could really be leaders of man, because they foresaw. Now the number of the excellent bodies was exhausted by them. The others had to be content with inferior ones. Manas could make do with these tools only in an awkward way. These bodies could develop only so far as the Atlantean; then they had to die out little by little. The Ursemites were the basis for the fifth root race. These had found more mature bodies, and had moved up behind. This is the third group.

First group: particularly advanced arhats.

Second group: who got only dull spirit and died out.

Third group: those who always follow, depending on the readiness of the bodies.

From these are recruited those who are able to go over into the fifth race and form other future races.

The Arhats are highly evolved entities who, where they incarnate, stand higher than a normal human being can. Hence, able to live on higher planes and have higher intercourse. Hence, able to take high orders: Messengers of the gods, kings and leaders were these Arhats. At the most, they were able to draw some to themselves, but on the whole, these people were directed quite unconsciously. This still lasted through the whole Atlantean period. Only the generation, which develops out of the Ursemites, delivers those, who are able to take their fate into the hand. And these were therefore capable of being taught by the messengers of the gods. Hence properly called: Heroes.

So also in myth we have to take the matter literally. Now to a certain extent these people could be initiated, and this is what the myth recorded, and also danger: Tantalus was allowed to eat with the gods. He was human and was allowed to consult in the decisions of the gods. Therefore seduction great. For people who were mortal - could load karma on themselves. What Tantalos brought forth as his own son is the finite. It is the greatest offense that an initiate can commit, to mix finite resolutions with eternal ones. And it is easy to deceive gods, because for them even the finite, which is wrapped in the veil of maya, is eternal. In a sense, it is easy to deceive initiates. Tantalos does it and brings the most terrible upon himself and his descendants. From all this we see that men were incapable of directing themselves until the end of the fourth race; those higher beings still directed them into the fifth.

Even in the beginning of the fifth race they still needed the leader Manu. He separated the most able ones from the rest and directed them to the region Gobi; some hundred families, which were withdrawn from the rest and only educated by instruction of the Manu. He taught the original religious mental images of the fifth race, arts, use of fire, preferably. Then astronomy, alchemy, these fundamental sciences. Above all, strict morality. Earlier, when people were guided, they did not need moral principles; that began now. People should become independent. Therefore it was necessary to educate in freedom; otherwise purpose would not be achieved if forced. And because free, many did not follow. Therefore very sifted, these Ursemites. The few had followed completely freely.

First colony went towards front India: first subrace, Indo-Aryan. Till now people were children under guidance of Arhats; now they gradually begin to be able to use the faculties to work themselves up, to be initiated. These first rishis were the first initiated human beings; the earlier ones were descended gods. Entirely new beings are appearing. Initiates descended from the earth itself, who could become leaders; about fifteen to sixteen million years ago. Since then always incarnated, and these are the entities called masters. Only the sixth root race will have entities descended from humanity itself that will guide people, as Manu. Transition from messengers of the gods to human masters, mahatmas.

And now this Manu is at the head of the theosophical movement, creating preparation for the sixth root race, so that within the theosophical movement happens what happened in the Atlantean time. Master Morya is the first human Manu who will establish the sixth root race, whereas in the past they were messengers of the gods, divine Arhats incarnated in the Lemurian period and gest/abbreviation not resolvable], and they are also called Sons of the Fire Mist because the Earth was in that state at that time.

Third root race perished by fire.

Fourth root race has perished by water.

Fifth root race has perished by immorality.

That is, in the end, egoism will appear in even stronger form, in the form of a furious struggle for existence, with will; whereas until now unconscious, and only those who have learned to be unselfish, will form the sixth race. This will emerge as a more unselfish race with revival of the Christ principle, again emergence [gap in transcript]

Doom by fire

Doom by water

Doom by Will In this foresight of the struggle of all against all, the Theosophical Society wants to lay the nucleus of universal brotherhood. It is not thought out arbitrarily, but out of the world plan.

The Masters have spoken for the first time because it is incumbent upon the Masters to create the material for the sixth race.

The stopping forces are called Mammon, and only in secondary meaning money has been given this name; Mammon is the god of stopping progress.

The Atlanteans were led by initiates. They were not yet human initiates, having only powers available to man, but bringing with them certain higher faculties which man does not develop until the fifth root race, so that these sons of the gods, Arhats, could initiate them - and withdraw more and more. But our race, too, was guided by a Manu who still /gap in transcript] and aimed [gap in transcript].

The ursemitic race - first with combining thinking - has dwelt, fifteen to sixteen million years ago, in what is now Ireland. From the race has chosen the most capable of the Manu [gap in the transcript] and morally best and has moved to the desert Gobi. With the Atlanteans one could not speak of actual religion and religious worship. Atlanteans have mastered life force, but it was not thoughtfully conscious, but more like a suggestion that Atlantean kings exercised on their peoples; not a dream state, but also not such a bright consciousness as today. Sensed that power came from the divine, but did not worship it.

The Manu aimed to bring everything they could achieve into a religious character. Manu was supported by number of lesser messengers of gods. The Atlantean could follow only what he had in front of him. The god he felt. The adept king also met him visibly; he could not understand everything, but he saw him. To this they were to be urged, that they worshipped not only the visible, but also the invisible. "You have to believe also in what you do not see; the highest is an invisible. And a whole monumental teaching plans over those beginnings of the fifth race. Worship that of which you cannot form a picture, for as soon as you form a picture, the unseen escapes you."

And an echo of this primal teaching of Manu is in the Mosaic Law. Everything that filled the new race took on such a religious tinge. The orbits of the heavenly bodies were explained, how the divine laws and powers ruled in them. [As divine wisdom was taught] what we know today as Theosophy.

To the chosen race Manu communicated this. During last atJantic times the people, without thinking of divine, had already known science and arts; first the fire. Now the Manu let say to his people: "You can see indeed what you need for the immediate life now. But you should voluntarily relate what you know and know to the divine; connect it with the divine." Then Manu set up something that could relate these initially worldly pursuits to the divine. The fire was to be lit on the altar as a connecting link on certain days, and thus the sacrifice was born.

So Manu gave a religious character to human activity, human morality was given in the form of commandments. The ursemitic race was endowed by Manu with the religious character. Earlier there was no such thing; instinctively the Atlantean felt the divine; consciously he did not grasp it. In a worldly way Atlanteans have known art and science. Now the Manu has broken with the policy of Atlantean adepts. Not suggestive anymore. Manu put everything freely. They could believe, but also refrain. Consequence of it was that only a part followed the Manu voluntarily, the others devoted themselves to the service of the own benefit. With the small part he withdrew even more inside; with these he undertook the consolidation of his work. The small group are the selfless and pious living within our race; the others, who had not quite followed, serve self-interest.

When Manu had prompted several hundred years of primal religious wisdom and had initiated some, they moved, as it were, as colonizers to the peoples who had remained behind. To them they grafted what they had learned, and depending on it these teachings took other colorings. From this the new sub-races arose.

First: The first train, led by the Rishis, went to India, and there arose the first subrace; it was the most spiritual, for it was closest to the source. Earlier the people had guessed more, now the thought grasped its own origin and what it was in the stars [gap in the transcript]. With this subrace, the Indian, had remained mainly wisdom.

Secondly, in Central Asia a more practical activity arose. Man had to conquer nature first. In the work the task was given, and in standing his man. Agriculture was cultivated and directly human activity - strength. The personal is what is enclosed between death and life. Indians did not need to work so hard, and therefore they could devote more to the care of the spiritual. In Persians: Here also developed the race that did not directly believe in reincarnation. Personally, man should be such that he could be relied upon in all cases of life. Truth to speak one taught the boys. Fire sacrifices were especially in place here. Zarathustra lived about fourteen million years ago. There were seven Zarathustras. History knows only of the last; it was the same one in ever new reincarnations.

Third, colonists moved to the Near East, Egypt but also to Greece and Italy. The legend has preserved souvenirs of the initiates who came over from Asia. Orpheus who came to Greece, Theseus, Kadmos; Moses initiated in Egypt. These are phenomena that took place at about the same time. Human initiates, but worshipped like demigods.

Fourth, a fourth subrace came about in a similar way at the beginning of our reckoning, Since Homer Latin-Greek race, which later adopted Christianity, and here the Christian Church was founded.

Let us take concepts comparatively from the human being itself. When you say something to your sister, you can distinguish three successive stages in this communication. First, a dark feeling that you want to say something, for example something loving; the second is the thought of how you want to communicate this feeling, of which the other person is unaware; third, when you express the thought through the word. So three stages: feeling, thought, word. Feeling is something you live with inside. Thought gives your feeling a form that allows you to express it, and only the word is the actual expression of it. Something is happening within you. You say, when you characterize these three states: I feel, I think, I word.

So what is inside lives from the I outwards: you feel, think, word. Once we have appropriated these three concepts, let us appropriate another concept. A human or animal sees an apple, it bites into the apple because it had desire for apple. What drives us to bite into it, we call Kama – the body of desire. If the animal had no kama, it would pass by. If an animal could express itself, it would say: I desire the apple. If we disregard the animal and look at the apple: it certainly has no desire to be consumed. You can therefore express what is going on in the animal from the animal's point of view by saying: I desire. You cannot say that about the apple. Let us reverse the case. If we think of an apple as the conscious being, looking at the animal and expressing all of its desires, the apple would say to the animal, “It desires.” This is one fact expressed from two points of view: “I desire” – the animal's point of view. “It desires” – the plant's point of view.

Imagine that both entities – the animal and the apple – follow what we have said. If an animal follows, it satisfies itself; if what the apple says, 'It desires', is realized, the apple does not satisfy itself. On the contrary: it gives itself. That which says 'it' and behaves accordingly sacrifices itself; what says 'I' satisfies itself. This is why the esoteric teaching says that man reverses the lower ego into his higher ego when 'I' becomes an 'it', when it takes the point of view not of desire but of sacrifice; not of satisfaction but of devotion. So it is reversed. If we take the three 'I think', 'I feel', 'I speak' and reverse them, we have to start from the last one: 'It speaks', - which enters into man when we repent; 'It thinks', 'It feels'.

Now, Christian esotericism expresses everything that can feel with 'the flesh'. A table and a plant cannot feel, so they are not flesh; humans and animals can. A thing that can feel is called 'flesh'. What is called 'flesh' in the Bible, we must associate with the concept: 'This is a sentient being'. If you now apply exactly the same to the 'it thinks': every being that thinks, the Bible calls an 'angel' - a being that thinks. Every being that writes is precisely the 'Word' or the 'Logos'.

Let us take the important point in time in the middle of the Lemurian race. Something happened there that the Bible expresses in a very specific sentence. It says: “Our Earth period was preceded by a Moon period.” In the Moon period, 'flesh' was a sentient substance; it did not go any further. In the middle of the Lemurian period, it went further, because the substance became thinking; this is what the Bible expresses: 'And the thought became flesh.'

And what will be the next great event? That not only feeling, but the Word will become flesh. This fact, which humanity is heading towards, is that all of humanity will have become Word.

Thought as essence is angel. Therefore, the Bible regards every human being as an angel; then later man will not only become an angel, but Logos, a word. And the forerunner who first determined the goal is the Christ. The first in whom the Word became flesh. The Christ is therefore the revelation of the Word made flesh.

When your sister is sitting in the dark, you cannot see her; light helps you to see her. So you are dealing with light, which illuminates her and which she reflects. If she were to shine by herself, you would always see her. In the middle of the Lemurian period, she would not be a spiritual being, because she would not be able to reflect a spirit. These sentient beings first had to absorb spirit in order to reflect it back. That is why spirit is called 'the light of man'. Man became spiritually visible.

Imagine that your sister, in spite of the light and the form, was not really there, but a finely made wax doll. Everything would look the same. How would you distinguish it? By her feeling, by her calling out to you. Then we come from the external to the internal. The spirit could not be there if it did not originally come from the word. The word must be there so that the light or the spirit may radiate back from the feeling being. In the beginning was the word. That was completely before, lies in the very beginning; then came the middle of the Lemurian time: it turned out that the word is the light of men. The second and third stages are that the word becomes flesh in man. These are the three great stages in which the Divine, revealing Itself to the earthly, opens up as Word, as the light of thought and as the Word made flesh.

If we know how to read the Gospel of John, we have just discussed this. The Gospel of John summarizes the three great epochs in which the Word has revealed Itself: the Word, the Light and the Flesh.

The Old Testament describes the macrocosm, that is, the evolution of the world up to man; and the sanctification of man is described by the microcosmic Gospel of John. Therefore, to explain the parallelism between macrocosm and microcosm, the same words are at the beginning: En arché.

We know three worlds: the physical, the astral and the devachanic. The physical one is known to all people: the world we perceive with the five senses. - Not so the astral, it is the world of all drives, desires, passions and so on. Man must receive guidance in order to know his way around it. If a person gets a glimpse of the astral completely unprepared, he will not find his way around in it. The best comparison is the seal impression: What is sublime in the physical, that forms the recess in the astral and vice versa, what is recess here, is sublime there. Everything is a reflection of reality. The numbers are seen in reverse: 364 here is 463 there. It is much more complicated with the space formations: One sees a sphere as if one had the eye in the center of the sphere. All colors are seen in their opposite, what is red here is green there, yellow here becomes indigo there, black becomes white. The opposite color is always the one whose covering creates white.

Time actually runs backwards. One does not live towards the future, but towards the past. The peoples have expressed in the myths this astral way of looking at things. The myths of Chronos devouring his children can be understood only by those who have astral vision: The children in turn return to the womb of that from which they emerged. Uranos means the mental world, Chronos the astral, and Zeus the physical world. The myths originate from the initiates, who went out from the pre- and postexistence. They form the spirit through legends and fairy tales. What man cannot grasp in one life, he will grasp in the next. Also moral and spiritual conditions appear in the mirror image. What man feels belongs to the astral. And when he observes his own urges, they also appear to him in the mirror image. When a desire moves outward, it appears [there] as when it approached [one]. Like an animal that wants to snatch a thing from him when he takes it away. Thus he sees a whole animal world rushing at him: it is all the desires, cravings, and passions that man exudes.

The dream is a kind of memory of astral experiences; dreams are often nothing but mirror images of one's passions. Curiosity, for example, is always a certain current in the astral. The legend of the midday woman who visits the workers in the field and always quizzes them. Human curiosity expresses itself especially in the fact that man wants to know something about his past and future. The reflection of inquisitiveness is magnificently expressed in [the riddle of] the Cadmean Sphinx. The whole earth development of man lies in the answer: Man walks on four legs, on two legs, on three legs. Man walked on fours as a single-sex being in the Lemurian time. On two he goes in the present, on three he will go in the future. Both feet and the right side with the arm will disappear; instead there will be a highly developed left arm.

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Evolution proceeds in such a way that certain beings evolve upward and have side shoots that come in decadence. In those who lag behind, the astral body is stronger; in those who advance, the mental body.

The reflection of development is retardation: regression. From the [retarding] forces of the astral, development is arrested. Thus, on the astral one must translate everything into its mirror image. This could not be understood in the beginning of the theosophical movement. The Master tried to make it clear to Sinnett, through the plant, which is surrounded by a mass, into which the plant pushes off.

Man, who is the center of our cosmos, has four stages, and they are: his being, his life, his feeling and his self-consciousness. One is right to distinguish these stages, because on earth there are beings that have only one stage, only being: the mineral; beings that have two stages, being and life: the plants; and those that have three stages: Being, life and sensation - the animals. The beings that are above man, the gods, have even higher levels in addition. Man has all these four levels on the physical plan. We get to know through sensual perception his being; when man moves and stirs, his life; when he feels, desire and dislike, his sensation; when he speaks: his self-consciousness. All this is on the physical plan.

For the other beings we perceive only the stages indicated for them. But it does not follow that they do not have the other stages. Only their consciousness is not on the physical plan as in the case of man, but it works down from a higher plan. The clairvoyant notices that the animal has its consciousness on the astral plane, and it is not one animal that has the consciousness, but a whole series has it together. This is called a group soul; it is a communal consciousness on the astral plane. It is the regulator, the regent for the whole animal species. The plants have similarly developed a self-consciousness, but on the lower mental plan. From there, like threads, go down the conduits, and these guide the individual plants. The minerals have their common consciousness on the arupa plane.

It presents itself, if we consider a genus of animals, as if threads were reaching down from the astral plan and directing the individual animals. But it is not that astral plan on which we are in the dream [- monkey is probably there]. But all the animals, which have separated from man before the moon split, have their consciousness on the lunar astral plan. Therefore the animals are in a certain relation to the moon. They change with the rising and waning moon. Our plants partly have their group soul on the sun, because they had separated from man when the sun separated from the earth. So that the sun gives not only light and warmth to the plant, but also the regulating consciousness. Thus everything is connected with the whole cosmos. Our solar system is a collective body that exerts magnetic force among itself. These are magnetic lines of force.

Some institutions of our earth can be explained only in an occult way. We find the living together reasonably regulated in the earlier people; this was implanted in them, they could not do otherwise. Then man became freer; what used to be instinct, he now regulates by reason. With the Iroquois this can still be traced in the formation of language. Still with the Mongols there was an instinctive consciousness of cohesion through eighteen generations; then two streams emerged, which in turn united and formed one tribe.

The Greek felt himself a link in the polis in connection with the others. The Roman felt himself a Roman and then a member of a particular race. It was not until the North Germanic peoples that such a strong emphasis was placed on the personal. The future will develop selflessness in community; people will form groups. The foundation was already laid when, at the time of the Lemurian race, people were gifted with manas. Manas, which rises to Budhi, is the society-creating principle. On our earth there are associations of great internal regularity, for instance, in groups of animals such as bees and ants, which build things up in such a way that the greatest human reason could not do better. The dog cannot grasp, where from that comes with the human being, what eludes his consciousness. It is the same with the man who looks at the bee-state: He does not see the associated BudhiManas principle; this seems reasonable. The Budhi-Manas principle, which descended to the Earth, has formed elsewhere, namely on the planet Venus. With the sons of Venus - Manasaputras - came down peculiarly beautiful group souls, namely those of bees and ants. That is the reason why these states are so special. They are merely the terminal members of higher consciousness, like the fingertips compared to the human brain. Our domestic animals are more individual, but their group souls are far behind those of bees and ants.

The Insightful One speaks so much of Maya and illusion because he thinks that things are opaque unless viewed from higher plans: They are here offshoots.

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In the physical, the etheric, and the astral body dwells the actual I, and together with its sheaths forms the four limbs, the Pythagorean quadrilateral.

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The physical body is the oldest, the etheric body the second, the astral body the youngest. The ego is formed in the present. At the beginning of our earth epoch the physical body was not a chaos, but beautifully and harmoniously built in itself, the human being could not do anything to it; from the outside in it was built by the formers, the creating entities. It was the same with the etheric body and also with the astral body. Only with the fourth stage the ego comes and works independently. It has no influence on the etheric and the physical body, but on the astral body. How? There was a time when man had no influence on the astral body, there were only urges, desires, passions. In the later stage of development he took them in hand and regulated them. As soon as the creative powers do not hold the physical body, it disappears in the general physical, likewise the etheric body [in the general world ether]. The creating gods take back these bodies. It is different with the astral body. What man works into it remains and comes back again. That is his karma. Karma or the astral worked is from man himself. What the I works into the astral body is manas. As much manas is in man as he works into his astral body. The astral body is what man has not yet worked out; manas what he has worked out. An outline, organization he works into it, which later becomes the chakrams. When man has worked through the whole astral body, he is completely filled with manas. Then he can begin to work on his etheric body as well. Likewise from within he works into what is called the budhi. Everything that he has in the astral body, he works with into the etheric body, this is his imprint. What man works into the etheric body remains. It remains with him just like his karma. When he dies, his etheric body does not dissolve in the general world ether, but as much as he has worked into it, so much remains. When he is incarnated again, he comes back into the same etheric body. Such a man is a chela.

The ordinary man goes to Devachan and then, when his time comes, he descends through the astral, where he finds his karmic attainments, into the physical. But the chela, who has made his etheric body alive, does not need to go to Devachan, but only to the next realm, the astral, and returns to the earth in his same etheric body.

In the Mysteries the development of the chela is somewhat accelerated. In the ancient Mysteries the physical body was brought into a kind of resting state, which lasted three days. So that everything that the astral body worked into it would not be disturbed by the physical body, the disciple was put into a lethargic state for three days. Today, on the contrary, the astral body is made so strong that it overcomes what works its way up from the physical body. But this is possible only since the appearance of Christ, by the fact that he appeared on the earth and poured out a lot of magnetic power. This is the mystical fact. Paul received the first initiation in this way on the way to Damascus by direct action of the astral.

Man can also get power and authority over his physical body; every blood globule he will be able to direct; then he works Atma into the physical body. In the same form, in the same physical body - not substance - then the master is reborn. He dies and is reborn in the same way in physiognomy. A point occurs, that is the significant thing, where man retains his physical body. It is only on the seventh planet that man receives the form that remains with him for future times. Mastery is therefore a tremendous responsibility and danger.

Not arbitrarily, but from the knowledge of the world, the initiates have given the names for the days of the week. They wanted the great events to be remembered on each day.

The first thing that developed from man was the physical body. In this first stage it was quite different from what it is today. Today, as it is, it is interspersed with other bodies, with the etheric body and the astral body. Without the others, only [as a physical] body, it first came into being on the planet Saturn. It is not the Saturn of today, but the one of today also has something to do with the one of then, it is a remnant of it. There man has formed like a shell, a snail shell, in fine matter. It was the dull state of consciousness. That is the first stage; each stage has seven rounds and each round goes through seven globes.

The second stage, the development of the etheric body, took place on the sun. The latter was at that time a planet, which did not irradiate beings, who would have been on a secondary planet, but man himself was there and had a constitution, which endured that light and heat. The physical body formed once more and then was penetrated by the etheric body. Now on Saturn, besides man, a kind of mineral was formed; all the forces which were unfit for the building of man formed the mineral kingdom. On the sun the plant kingdom came into being. In order for man to form his etheric body, other etheric parts had to be forced down and thus formed the plant kingdom.

The third stage took place on the moon. The sun itself changed into the moon, separated only later. The moon jumped off and orbited the sun, he behaved as he behaves today to the earth. He had inhabitants only on the one side which was turned to the sun. Then man developed his astral body; the forces which he did not use for his astral formation formed the animal kingdom. So we have the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, and man at the animal stage.

The fourth stage is the earth. When humans completed the lunar stage, the sun and moon reunited and dissolved into the pralaya. Earth evolution began with the sun and moon being one. All the lunar germs reemerged on the earth. [Man had developed the physical, etheric and animal bodies.] The astral body was ready to develop drives and desires as the animals. A new impact had to come, and this was not to be found on the earth itself. Therefore, the leading gods of the earth had to infuse the human body with a force that they took from elsewhere. The manus or leaders had to draw this impact from a world body which was so far ahead that its beings were a little beyond man, had left behind, as it were, what man now needed; that was thus drawn from Mars. So that the Martian forces have been brought down as the new.

Saturn-, sun-, moon- and Mars-development are to be considered together as the first half of the earth-development. If man would have got only Mars development, he would never have got further than to the mere egoism. But he should come to idealism and therefore he had to get a further impact from another world. The warlike Martian man should become an intelligent man. This second impact was fetched from Mercury, and the mind soul was formed. The occultist does not speak of the Earth, but of Mars and Mercury; a child of these forces, to which it owes its development, is our Earth.

From Jupiter comes the consciousness soul, which has as its shell the preceding [soul members]. Now in the womb of the mind and consciousness soul the spirit self will mature. And the shell will pull the spirit-self, when it is matured, to Jupiter, and when there this shell falls off, the innermost core, the actual spirit-self, will come to the planet Venus. The volcano is the last, the eighth planet, of which it is said that no soul bound to a brain can think it.

The succession of the planets was placed in the week by the sages so that man would remember the past and the future daily.

Saturn - Saturday
Sun - Sunday
Moon - Monday
Mars - Mardi
Mercury - Mercredi
Jupiter (Donar) - Thursday
Venus (Freya) - Friday

Remember that your past and future are related to these seven stars

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