Universe, Earth, Human Being E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

'The mission of our age is not to reproduce an ancient wisdom, but to engender a new one – a wisdom that points not only to the past but that works prophetically into the future.' – Rudolf SteinerBeginning with ancient Egypt, the pyramids and sphinxes – and a comparison of that epoch with our own – Rudolf Steiner surveys a vast spiritual landscape of human development. In symphonic style, he describes the conquest of the physical plane in post-Atlantean civilizations, the relationships between the various cultural epochs, the human being's connections with the kingdoms of nature and the different planetary bodies, and the relationship of animal forms to 'the physiognomy of human passions'. Through this panoramic vision, we discover how the changed conditions of human consciousness call for a new spiritual understanding today.In her Introduction, Marie Steiner relates the special experience of being a member of Rudolf Steiner's audience for this timeless series of lectures: 'Enormous cosmic pictures were unfolded before the spiritual gaze of the listeners; insights were of such depths of ancient wisdom, views of distant futures of human and world development, that deepest devotion flowed through their hearts…' This new edition features a revised translation, introduction, notes and an index.

Leseprobe

UNIVERSE, EARTH, HUMAN BEING

IN THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MODERN CIVILIZATION

Eleven lectures given in Stuttgart between 4 and 16 August 1908

INTRODUCTION BY MARIE STEINER

RUDOLF STEINER

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

CW 105

Rudolf Steiner Press Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2022

Originally published in German under the title Welt, Erde, Mensch, deren Wesen und Entwickelung sowie ihre Spiegelung in dem Zusammenhang zwischen ägyptischem Mythol und gegenwärtiger Kultur (volume 105 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. Based on shorthand notes that were not reviewed or revised by the speaker

Published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

Edited translation revised by Matthew Barton

© Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Rudolf Steiner Verlag 1996

This translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 640 1

Cover by Morgan Creative Typeset by Symbiosys Technologies, Vishakapatnam, India Printed and bound by 4Edge Ltd., Essex

CONTENTS

Publisher’s Note

Introduction, by Marie Steiner

LECTURE 1

STUTTGART, 4 AUGUST 1908

The Egyptian Period and the Present Time

Allusion to deeper links in human development between the Ancient Egyptian and the present cultural era. From Egyptian Pyramid and Sphinx as images of ancient wisdom, via Greek temples and sculptures as divine dwellings and divine images to Romanesque churches and Gothic cathedrals as houses for Christian communities. The Greek ‘polis’ and the Roman citizen. Isis with the child Horus and the Madonna with the Christ child. Christ on the way to the earth. The connection between modern materialism and Egyptian mummification rites.

Pages 1-14

LECTURE 2

STUTTGART, 5 AUGUST 1908

Ancient Wisdom and the New Apocalyptic Wisdom

The polarity of universe and earth as a contrast between the realm of soul and spirit and the physical realm of matter. The significance of the temple sleep in Ancient Egypt for the healing of sickness out of the spirit and out of the wisdom of Isis. Human development since the Lemurian epoch; from fertilization via the environment to sexual reproduction and on up to the acquiring of full ego-consciousness and the appearance of illnesses. The repetition of these developments in knowledge through the post-Atlantean culture. The importance of a spiritual view of the world in relation to future possibilities of healing illnesses spiritually in full consciousness.

Pages 15-27

LECTURE 3

STUTTGART, 6 AUGUST 1908

The Kingdoms of Nature and Spirit Beings

Consideration of supersensible beings at work in and on all natural creatures on earth. The ego as man’s centre. The group souls of animals, plants and minerals as egos working from various higher planes on the bodily members of each individual creature. The earth as a living, sensitive being irradiated by the sun. Future perspectives for the wise human being with regard to the creatures of nature. Angels, archangels and elemental forces in their work as individual, folk and time spirits on the bodily members of the human being.

Pages 28-40

LECTURE 4

STUTTGART, 7 AUGUST 1908

The Outer Manifestations of Spiritual Beings in the Elements and Cosmic Stages of Evolution

The working of angels, archangels and elemental forces in water, air and warmth on earth. Light as garment of the spirits of form. The planetary task of these sun beings. Dwelling-places and fields of action of yet higher spirits. How our solar system was formed. The effect of sun and moon forces on the earth and on developing man. The opening of the senses to the external, and the beginning of human ego-consciousness. The Osiris myth as a picture of human experience.

Pages 41-52

LECTURE 5

STUTTGART, 8 AUGUST 1908

Human Evolution in Relation to Cosmic Evolution

The progress and retardation of higher beings and their collaboration. The creation of the kingdoms of nature from Old Saturn to Old Moon. Animal-men, plant-animals and mineral-plants as precursors of the kingdoms of nature on earth. The role of mistletoe in the Baldur-Loki myth. Changes of consciousness in human evolution. The deeds of sacrifice by Thrones, Kyriotetes, Dynamis and Exusiai as impulses in cosmic evolution. The collaboration of the Elohim, light sun-spirits, with Jehovah, the dark moon spirit, in man’s evolution on earth.

Pages 53-66

LECTURE 6

STUTTGART, 10 AUGUST 1908

The Spirits of Form as Regents of Earthly Existence

The completion of the human form by the middle of the Atlantean epoch. Some human beings fell away from the formative forces and became hardened in animal forms. The intervention of the luciferic spirits in human evolution before bestowal of the ego; the resultant new capabilities and possibilities for error. The delay in the descent and working of the Christ being as a deed to counterbalance this premature activity by Lucifer. Jehovah’s working through external laws. The formation of the different races as a result of premature hardening in certain organic systems of the body.

Pages 67-79

LECTURE 7

STUTTGART, 11 AUGUST 1908

Animal Forms as the Physiognomy of Human Passions

The development of human beings with their pliable bodies in the Lemurian epoch. The gradual rejection of the higher animal forms during evolution. The spiritual recapitulation of this fact of life in Ancient Egypt. The fish form representing the human shape as an echo of the working of sun forces still linked with the earth. The fish symbol as a reminder in the mysteries. The snake form representing the human shape as a reminder of the lowest point in man’s development prior to the departure of the moon. Venus and Mercury beings as teachers of mankind during Atlantis. The figures of Germanic and Greek mythology as reminders of Atlantis.

Pages 80-93

LECTURE 8

STUTTGART, 12 AUGUST 1908

The Human Being’s Connection with the Various Planetary Bodies

The forming of a planet depends on the beings evolving on it. The development of the sun into a fixed star and the material life conditions on earth as a basis for the development of the individual human being. The balance-bringing activity of Christ as a spiritual sun force on the earth. The embodying of wisdom brings harmony to Old Moon. Overcoming the group soul nature and the development of love of an ever-higher kind as the mission of earth existence. The Christ principle as the impulse for reunification of the earth with the sun. The esoteric meaning of the cross. The human being as earth being, sun being and being of the universe. The higher stages of consciousness.

Pages 94-107

LECTURE 9

STUTTGART, 13 AUGUST 1908

Conquest of the Physical Plane in Post-Atlantean Civilizations

The migration of the Atlanteans and their intermingling with the older populations of Europe, Asia and Africa. The differentiated loss of direct experience of spiritual beings and the opening of the senses to the material world taking place in the European and Asiatic peoples. The experience of ‘I’ in Southern Europe and Central Asia. Changes of consciousness during the Ancient Indian, Ancient Persian, Chaldean and Egyptian cultures. The consciousness of ‘I’ in the chosen people of the Old Testament. Jehovah prepares the way for the ‘I am’. Reflected and direct sunlight, Christ light. The marriage of spiritual and physical in Ancient Greece and Rome.

Pages 108-122

LECTURE 10

STUTTGART, 14 AUGUST 1908

Changes in the Human Being’s Relationship with the World of Spirit

The ascent of Lemurian man into the spiritual world after death up to the experience of the Christ-Being and the memory of this in the Egyptian Judgment of the Dead. Gradual mastery of the physical world and achievement of ego-consciousness in earthly life coupled with ever-decreasing experience of spiritual beings after death. Human beings who have remained more spiritual as bearers of higher spiritual beings: Wotan and Buddha as teachers of the Germanic and Asiatic peoples. Incarnation of the Christ-Individuality as Sun Spirit in the human body of Jesus of Nazareth into the very skeleton. Possibility of the raising up once more of the fallen human being from the physical plane into the realm of spiritual light.

Pages 123-136

LECTURE 11

STUTTGART, 16 AUGUST 1908

Relationships between the Cultural Epochs of Post-Atlantean Evolution

The special position of the Greco-Roman era and the hidden relationships of the three subsequent eras to the three preceding ones. Creation of races and castes in the past and the free spiritual differentiation of mankind in the future. The Osiris cult in Ancient Egypt and the central position of the sun in the Copernican view of the universe. The reappearance of the riddle of the Sphinx as an evolutionary problem today. The split between science relating to matter and faith relating to spirit. The development of logical thinking during the descent into the material world. Egyptian wisdom and Arabism in materialistic science. Egyptian wisdom and Christian faith in Rosicrucianism as a reflection of the third post-Atlantean era in the fifth. Modern Christian esotericism in its relationship to Buddhism.

Pages 137-155

Notes

Rudolf Steiner’s Collected Works

Significant Events in the Life of Rudolf Steiner

Index

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

ALTHOUGH dated in certain respects and dealing to some degree with historical conflicts, the bulk of Marie Steiner’s original Introduction to this volume is included here, reflecting with passion and fervour her summation of anthroposophy and the context of the lectures transcribed in this volume.

From 1906 on, Rudolf Steiner began to present entire lecture cycles outside of Berlin. After Paris and Leipzig, a course followed in Stuttgart in August 1906 under the title: ‘Vor dem Tore der Theosophie’ (GA 95, published in English as Founding a Science of the Spirit). The second cycle held in Stuttgart was the present one.

In the original German publication of these lectures, Marie Steiner commented as follows:

Over 300 members of the Theosophical Society responded to this call, and for many of them this cycle of lectures has become the most significant event of their lives. Enormous, cosmic pictures were unfolded before the spiritual gaze of the listeners, insights were into such depths of ancient wisdom, views of distant futures of the development of mankind and the world, human and world development, that deepest devotion must have flowed through listeners’ hearts and a joyful, powerful expectancy of the future could fill their souls, in conscious recognition of the great task that has been given to mankind on this earth.

Those who were able to stay in the circle of our dear Stuttgart friends on those unforgettable days, which were so rich in significant impressions, will recall that time with grateful feelings, which are first and foremost directed to our venerated teacher, but then to the Stuttgart friends who made such a meeting possible for us.

It was also of special value for the members who had come from other branches to gain an insight into the way in which work is done in the Stuttgart branches. Opportunity for this was given by the beautiful esoteric lectures of Miss Toni Völker, who gave intimate insights into the path of the esoteric pupil, and by the interesting lectures of Dr Carl Unger, who approached the theosophical teachings more in a scientific sense. What came to light most of all was the agreement and harmony which in truth prevails between these two seemingly so different orientations; this was especially expressed where the scientific explanations flowed into the path of pupilship. In their entirety, these lectures have shown how pure thought and esotericism can perfectly complement each other.

INTRODUCTION

THIS cycle of lectures now published in book form was given by Rudolf Steiner in 1908. The following words of his might well serve as its motto: ‘The mission of our age is not to reproduce an ancient wisdom, but engender a new wisdom, one that points not only to the past but that works prophetically into the future.’

The previous year, at the memorable congress of the General Theosophical Society in Munich,1 Rudolf Steiner clearly outlined what was needed to revive the theosophical movement, at that time at risk of succumbing to the influence of Oriental ideas which did not meet contemporary needs.

In contrast to the many grievous misunderstandings that had arisen, Rudolf Steiner’s teaching offered something positive for the growth of humanity. On that occasion, too, he first gave artistic expression to his spiritual teaching. The colours of the walls and the pictures of the seals embodied Rosicrucian spiritual aims: the motifs of the columns conveyed our evolutionary future, and this was aided by the performance of The Sacred Drama of Eleusis by Édouard Schuré, which presented the mysteries of Ancient Greece in a living way. Rudolf Steiner connected these with the mythology of northern Germany. He had something new to give which hitherto had not been available to followers of an Anglo-Indian theosophy.

The courage with which Rudolf Steiner trod new paths stirred up spiritual opposition among the leaders of the Theosophical Society, who sought constantly to hamper and fetter him. This opposition forced him to withdraw from the post he had held in the Society. The conditions under which he had undertaken office were these: that he should be free, through a Western esotericism, to allow what shed light on the mystery of Christ to flow into European culture. When certain leading theosophical circles recognized the remarkable spiritual capacities and the knowledge that Rudolf Steiner was able to bring to bear on this problem, means were sought to hamper his activity. They considered that the best way to do this was to proclaim the coming of Christ again in the flesh, in the body of a Hindu boy, and quiet preparations were made for the appearance a few years later of Krishnamurti as a future world teacher.

It was whispered that the appearance of Krishnamurti would compel Rudolf Steiner to divulge Christian secrets concerning which he would ordinarily have been silent. This interfered with his quiet and steady aim in building up the system and organization of his teachings. He considered it his task to instruct humanity in the methods of initiation suited to modern conditions of consciousness. Beside the reverent pursuit of ancient wisdom, it was necessary to waken an understanding of the changed form in which this wisdom was now to be given, and to show how such forms are subject to a continual emergence, maturation and decline, in order that new life may spring ever and again from what is dead. An historical sense had to be aroused in people, not merely a wonder-filled contemplation of ancient revelations. The mysterious connection of the great cosmic laws uniting one age of civilization with another had to be made known. No one had ever described in so powerful and sublime a fashion the primeval wisdom which streamed down to earth from spiritual heights as Rudolf Steiner had done. No one before him had been able to speak in terms appropriate to modern consciousness of the reflection of universal cosmic existence in the human individual—the microcosm.

All this teaching culminated in the central event of human evolution: the descent of the sun spirit into the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Rudolf Steiner showed how the sun forces were thereby able to penetrate and spiritualize the planet, summoning humankind to fit itself for the task before it. By the death on Golgotha an incisive mystic reality was consummated; it was a unique, unrepeatable event, for otherwise it would have taken place in vain.

In order that these truths might be brought to humanity, fact by fact had to be introduced in gently balanced stages. The foundations had already been laid before Krishnamurti was presented. In this cycle, in the year 1908, Rudolf Steiner had already embarked upon the path, describing the consistent sequence of events from civilization to civilization and illuminating the great central event. There are occasions when the time in which a truth is to be proclaimed may be hastened; it may be necessary to confront certain challenges with facts which one would rather have allowed to speak for themselves. This does not mean that something was done which otherwise would not have been done; it had to be done because it was rooted in the deepest necessities of contemporary evolution, both cosmic and human. With complete self-sacrifice, therefore, Rudolf Steiner assumed this responsibility as his life’s task. The Theosophical Society cut itself off from this influx of new wisdom, it rejected what would have infused new life into it, which would have enhanced admiring recognition of an ancient, honoured wisdom with new, historical meaning. If it had instead engaged with what was presented, the Theosophical Society would have been led from the ripened wisdom of India by way of Persia, Chaldea and Egypt, deeply into the mystery of the ‘chosen people’—chosen for a reason that would have become intelligible; and thence it would have been led to the mystery places of Asia Minor and southern Europe. Further, these teachings would have shed light on the soul-life of the expectant peoples of Central and Northern Europe and would have culminated in the event of Golgotha, when the hitherto hidden and veiled mysteries stepped forth on to the scene of world history.

Every individual evolves within the general evolution of humanity, and all must learn to find within themselves their central purpose, which is primarily in spiritual experience. The tragedy of the individual personality lies in its severance from the spiritual world; in its seeking, erring and striving within the approaching night of separation from what is spiritual, through to its tragic fate in the darkness of materialism. Comprehension of such things is necessary if we are to understand ourselves. Into this night of darkness shines a light, the light of Christian esotericism which was kindled in Palestine and passed thence into Europe. It broke with wonderful clarity over the island of Hibernia, where, notwithstanding the repression of the monastic colonies by a Church fettered by Roman imperialism, its radiance endured in secret as a stream of spiritual force.

Through this there arose the spiritual orders of knighthood and the desire for religious communities. German mysticism appeared as a rich blossom of deep religious fervour. In order to keep pace with events, above all with the conquests of science, and in order that faith might stand firm in the darkness of a materialistic age, something further had to emerge. The power of belief had to yield to the certainty of science. This was the task of the Rosicrucian schools. They concerned themselves with the newly evolving forces of consciousness in the coming age. Rosicrucian esotericism, with its earnest striving for the new forces of human knowledge, with the tragic fate and spiritual tests laid upon its followers, was yet able here and there, as Rudolf Steiner has shown us, to raise the veil of its mysteries. New forces of spiritual consciousness were born from it that were able to overcome materialism through powers of cognition.

In the hard struggle to recover the faculty of spiritual perception, once given to humankind and now lost, but needing to be regained through the power of the I, through the death and rebirth of the personality, the I-being of striving humanity grows strong. When we consciously grasp this I-being we can rise and unite ourselves once more with the godhead. The divine I descended—once—to earth so that this might come to pass. The unique character of this event must be recognized as the decisive turning point of the earth’s destiny. Rosicrucian teaching sums it up in the motto ‘In Christo Morimur’: in Christ we die to live above, to live upwards to the spirit. ‘Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus’: through striving towards the Christ we gain true life, we become awake in the spirit out of which we once were born.

The individual personality had to come into being, it had to comprehend itself, to take itself in hand and recognize itself as a centre, be horrified by itself, confront and then overcome itself, to learn to die, that it might realize itself again as a free I-being whose central point is the divine I. This is the path of Western esotericism; we cannot avoid it. Formerly our task was to take in hand the education of the personality, entangled as it was in egoism; our present task is to overcome egoism, to transmute it by liberating the divine-devoted, strong I-nature within us. This we can only do by mastering the forces of our consciousness through knowledge and cognition. We must be willing to recognize the smallest in the greatest. We cannot ignore whole epochs of time with their tremendous significance for human evolution. Power will be given to us if today we seek knowledge of the universe, earth and the human being.

This knowledge is now called anthroposophy. It gives its teaching and declares its creed quite openly; it hides nothing, for it knows the time has come when what was once nurtured in secret must step forth on to the plane of history. In describing the descent of the human being from the divine and our way back to it again, anthroposophy might have felt secure within genuine theosophy, for they are so far one and the same: ‘Ex Deo Nascimur’—out of God we are born, and to the godhead we return when we have received the Christ unto us.

Let us close these observations with words of Rudolf Steiner:

We see a primeval wisdom preserved in the mysteries of past epochs; but our wisdom must be an apocalyptic wisdom, whose seeds we must plant. We have need once again of a principle of initiation in which our original connection with the spiritual world can be re-established.

This is the task of the anthroposophic world movement.

Marie Steiner 1930

LECTURE 1

STUTTGART, 4 AUGUST 1908

The Egyptian Period and the Present Time

THE first lecture of this course will offer, by way of introduction, an outline of the subject before us. We shall not enter fully into this yet, but will first give an outline of things we shall speak of during the next few days. We have a very extensive theme before us: the universe, the earth, and the human being, and I propose to give a brief survey of all the knowledge we can acquire about visible and invisible worlds.

Our feelings are borne into the farthest distance of the cosmos when, in the deepest and most worthy sense, we employ the word ‘universe’. ‘Earth’ indicates the field of action upon which humanity is now placed, upon which we are to work and live, and whose mission we seek to understand. Lastly, the word ‘man’ or ‘human being’—a word we here wish to understand in its esoteric sense—indicates what the mystics of all ages meant when they made use of the expression, ‘O man, know thyself!’2

We also have a subtitle to our subject. Having set ourselves such an important task, this subtitle is in a certain way justified; for when we consider the connection between that wonderful pre-Christian civilization—the Egyptian—and our own, we see how mysterious are the forces permeating human life. Three ages of human endeavour and enquiry, of human evolution, morality, and life, rise before us when we consider Egyptian civilization and that of our own day. When we speak of Egyptian civilization in the esoteric sense we mean the civilization that had its seat in the north-east of Africa, on the banks of the Nile, which lasted for thousands of years and ended in the eighth century before Christ. We know that this civilization was followed by another which we call the Greco-Roman. This was centred on the one hand in the wonderful Greek race, with their highly cultivated sense of beauty, and on the other hand in the powerful state of Rome. We also know that in this age occurred the mighty event in earthly evolution which we recognize as the advent of Christ Jesus. Then followed the epoch in which we are now living.

First the Egyptian epoch with all that belonged to it—and a great deal belonged to it—then the Greco-Roman era with its great fruits—the rise of Christianity—and then our present age. These are the three ages which come before our mind’s eye when we consider the subtitle of these lectures.

One of the things we will study is the interplay of mysterious forces between the age of civilization first mentioned and our own. It is as if in the Egyptian age certain seeds were sown in the breast of gradually developing humanity, seeds which remained hidden during the Greco-Roman age and have reappeared in a particular manner in the present. Much of what buds in our souls today, much of what surrounds us, and of which people speak and dream, has sprung like a seed from ancient Egyptian civilization without people being aware of it.

You are all more or less acquainted with the telegraphic apparatus. You know that wires connecting the different apparatuses extend from one place to another, and without having any deep knowledge of these things you understand that the force which sets the apparatus in motion has something to do with the energy which flows through the wires. You perhaps also know that there is a connection down in the earth, that the ends of the wires are connected with the earth; but this subterranean connection is invisible because it is made by more or less mysterious forces produced by the earth itself. Something similar exists as a deep mystery in the evolution of the human being. In history we see threads being spun which lie within the invisible world. By means of history and of esotericism we can trace what took place in Ancient Egypt. We see how the threads of culture stretch from the Greek age, the Roman, the Christian, down into our own age. All these are guided by a kind of connection that takes place above the earth, but there is also a hidden, a subterranean force which works more or less directly from the Ancient Egyptian age into our own. Many a remarkable secret is revealed to us when we trace these connections and examine them thoroughly.

To begin with I shall indicate briefly the particular realities referred to in the subtitle of our theme. When we look back to Ancient Egypt and observe a few of the mighty records there we are struck by the Pyramids, for example, and also the Sphinx—that wonderful and enigmatic figure. Then we let our glance pass on to Ancient Greece. Here the Greek temple appears with its unique architecture. We can see and admire what we know from history of this wonderful land; we see its sculptures, those great, ideal, and perfect human forms described as gods: Zeus, Demeter, Pallas Athene, Apollo. Then we turn to the ancient kingdom of the Romans. Something remarkable appears when we thus allow our vision to sweep from the ancient Grecian peninsula to the Italian. Before us appear the forms of Ancient Rome, many of which are still preserved; we see figures clothed with the toga, which is indeed more than a mere outer dress. What do we feel with regard to these Roman figures? One might say regarding certain of those figures of the Roman Republic that it is as if the ideal forms of the Greeks had descended from their pedestals and had appeared before us as people of flesh and blood. What we behold is their inner power; we recognize what lies in this inner power when we compare what developed in Ancient Rome with the feeling, the thought, the content of a figure belonging to the Grecian States—that of a Spartan or an Athenian, for example. We feel what this figure contains. People belonging to Sparta or Athens felt that they were first of all Spartans or Athenians. Belonging in a certain way and to a certain degree to a common soul, the Spartan or Athenian felt more what we might call the Greek polis than his own personality; he felt himself more as a Spartan or as an Athenian, than as an individual human citizen; he felt that the power working so strongly in him proceeded more from the common spirit of the people than from his own personal power. The Roman on the contrary appears to us as being centred more directly upon his own personality. Hence in the Roman kingdom there appears something very special, namely an understanding of the rights of the citizen. All that legal scholars nowadays dream about the origin of ‘justice’ prior to this is very different from what in times of better understanding was rightly called ‘Roman Law’.

In Ancient Rome human beings learned to regard themselves as individuals, they stood upon their own two feet, no longer belonging merely to a certain city-state, but Roman citizens; that is to say they felt themselves centred in their own human nature. With this feeling of individuality the time had arrived when what was spiritual in each human being descended to earth. Previously it was perceived as hovering, so to speak, above him in spiritual regions. There is something unique in Roman law and in Roman civilization. Let us consider the circumstance that the Greek felt himself primarily to be a Spartan or an Athenian. What was the spirit of Athens or of Sparta? For us anthroposophists this was no abstraction, but something like a spiritual cloud, which in its turn was the spiritual expression of a spiritual being in which the town of Athens or Sparta was embedded; but this being was not visible upon the physical plane. The Greek looked primarily not to himself, but to something above him, the Roman looked primarily to himself. It was he who first recognized the human being as the highest creature that can take on fleshly form upon the physical plane. The spirit had come completely down into humankind. This was the time when the divine itself could descend into human evolution and incarnate in Jesus Christ.

The manner in which Egyptian civilization extended into the Greco-Roman age was a very wonderful process. When higher realms entrusted Moses, in Egypt, with leading his people to the ‘One God’, we recall that he asked God, ‘What shall I say to my people when they ask who sent me?’ And God answered (and we shall see what deep truth lay hidden in the statement): ‘Say to those to whom I send thee, “I AM” hath sent me unto you.’ Thus ‘I AM’ is the name of an individual God who worked and ruled at that time as the Christ principle in spiritual heights, and who had not yet descended to the physical plane. To whom did this voice belong which could make itself perceptible to the initiate Moses, saying to him, as it were from spiritual worlds, ‘I am the “I AM”’?3 It was the very same being (and this is the secret of the ancient Greek mysteries) who appeared later in the flesh as the Christ: only afterwards was he visible to those around him, while previously he could speak only through initiates from spiritual heights.

Thus we see the deity—the spiritual principle—gradually descending after humanity had been prepared, after it had learnt in the Roman age the importance of embodiment in the flesh and its manifestation on the physical plane. We see how a whole series of the results of civilization develop in an exceedingly profound way from what the human being received as a new gift at that time. We see how the form of the Pyramids and the temple change to that of the Romanesque church—another record of inner human creative work. We see how from the sixth century the Cross with the dead Jesus makes its appearance; and how by degrees out of the stream of Christianity a remarkable figure evolves whose mysteries are very deeply veiled. We need only call up this figure before our eyes in the wonderful form given to it by the painter’s art in the Sistine Madonna, by Raphael.

Everyone knows this wonderful figure of the Virgin in the centre of the picture, carrying the child in her arms, and we have certainly all felt a corresponding emotional thrill when confronted by it. I would ask you, however, to note one thing with regard to it which expresses the spiritual striving of humanity at the stage with which we are dealing—the three civilizations mentioned above. It is not for nothing that the artist has surrounded the Madonna with a cloud from which emerge a great number of similar little children, a crowd of angelic forms.

Let us now allow our feeling to be completely absorbed by this picture of the Madonna. Anyone whose emotion is sufficiently deep for them to be able to do this will feel and perceive that there is something very different here from what an ordinary, mundane intellect will see in the picture. Do these cloud-angels surrounding the Madonna not say something to us? Yes, they say something of the greatest significance if we only consider them deeply enough. When we allow ourselves to sink deeply into this picture, something whispers in our soul, ‘Here before us is a miracle in the best sense of the word.’ We do not think that this child whom the Madonna bears in her arms is born in the ordinary way from the woman. No! These wonderfully delicate angel-forms we see in the clouds seem to be in process of development, and the child in the Madonna’s arms seems to be only a more condensed manifestation of them, like something that had crystallized somewhat more than these fleeting angel-forms, which seems as if brought down from the clouds and held fast in her arms. It is thus this child appears to us, and not as if born from the woman. We are directed to a mysterious connection between the child and the virgin mother. If we call up the picture thus before our souls, another virgin mother appears to our mental vision: the ancient Egyptian Isis, with the child Horus, and we may become aware of a mysterious connection between the Christian Madonna and the Egyptian figure on whose temple were written the words, ‘I AM that which is, and was, and is to come; my veil no mortal can raise.’4

What we have hinted at as a miracle in the picture of the Madonna is also revealed in the Egyptian myth, for it there describes Horus as not having been born through conception, but tells how a beam of light fell from Osiris upon Isis, a kind of miraculous birth took place, and the child Horus appeared. Here again we see how threads connect one thing with another; what we are here able to investigate is without any earthly connection.

Let us now pass on to where our own age begins. Let us think of the Gothic cathedral with its wondrous construction of pointed arches; let us call to mind what took place there in the Middle Ages, in gatherings where true believers met true priests. Think of the effect of this Gothic cathedral with its many-coloured panes of glass through which the sunlight penetrates; consider how many of those who were able to speak of the deeper secrets of the world’s evolution could let resound tones whose outward reflection was the wonderful light split thus into varied colours. Again and again it happened that the priests showed how the common power of the divine being was imparted to humanity in separate rays of power, refracted like the light which streamed in through the coloured windows. The division or refraction of the light was placed before human senses, and in their souls was aroused what spiritually underlay this symbol. In this way the Gothic cathedral pervaded worshippers’ powers of perception and feeling.

Let us now enter more deeply into what is thus inwardly pictured. Let us first consider the Egyptian Pyramid—a most characteristic form of architecture! We must exert ourselves to discover what it has to say to us. By degrees we shall see how in the Pyramid, the secret of the universe, the earth and the human being is expressed; we shall see that it expresses what the Egyptian priest felt in the service of his religion. Later we shall penetrate deeply into all these things; today we will only notice what such a priest felt, and imparted to his people in pictures. The wisdom expressed in the Egyptian form of religion was very profound; it was the direct result of ancient tradition, like a memory, and the Egyptian sage in his meeting with Solon could say with truth: ‘You Greeks remain children all your lives, and in your childish souls is none of the ancient truth!’ Whence came this wisdom to which reference is here made?5