Self-Knowledge and God-Knowledge I

GA 90a — 2 February 1904, Berlin

XIV. The Second Logos

[I am speaking to you today] to show how one can understand the difficult subject of the rounds according to [the book] “Ancient Wisdom” by Annie Besant.

First of all, I want to warn against speaking too abstractly about the Logos. It is so tempting to speak in general terms of first, second, third Logos. Especially beginners are very keen to talk about “Logos” right away and want to discuss the whole world with arguments about what the first, second, third Logos have for a task. That is not what we want to do.

We want to make clear to ourselves what task the individual beings have within the development of the world [as a whole], whereby they become a certain link in the Logos. For it is self-evident that we must be clear about the fact that when, for example, one evolutionary epoch develops into another - for example, the lunar one develops into the terrestrial one - [that] therefore [ for example, everything that took place during the lunar evolution goes through a pralaya and reappears, and that everything goes into an inverse pralaya. What happened earlier goes back into the Logos and becomes a void. It thus rests, as it were, in the Logos, not sleeping, but ready to receive a new task.

Now, the best way to clarify this is to ask ourselves: what will become of everything that is gradually forming during the various rounds and races of our present terrestrial development, for example? What will become of all this? When earthly evolution is over, the sum of all these beings, the sum of these entities, will be a coherent mass of new seeds, which will develop further in the next epoch. They return once more to the Logos. All that develops during our earthly epoch, what remains, what passes through a pralaya, will be a second logos for the next epoch. The result of a passing epoch is a second logos for the next epoch.

I ask you to consider that it is better to ask yourself: What will the second logos be like? Instead of simply saying: first, second, third logos. You stay with the concrete and realize that everything that comes from one epoch into the other is the second logos for the next epoch.

And now we divide the whole evolution during our earthly development into two parts. We are dealing with seven rounds. First, we take the first three and the first half of the fourth round. That is half. Just up to this point, when only half of the fourth round has elapsed, everything that has connected with the second Logos as the third Logos has developed and been expressed. The third logos is something that [gap in transcript]. Logos [is] not used in general yet, is something that has been added recently.

Take plant seeds, put into [the] earth. The seeds you sow are the second logos. The bed, the stuff from which the new forms arise, that is the third logos. The third Logos is used to swell up forms during the first half of the round development. This is what Annie Besant calls the development of form, the involution. [It is] what I would call world dust, if you would call it the substantial bed. [The second with the third Logos build the forms, from the outside in.]

The human being is built up from the outside. The Pitris - second Logos - have come over. They have fertilized the third Logos. From the fertilization of the third Logos by the second Logos arises the animal foundation of the human being. [That is] until the middle of the fourth round the Lemurian/Lunar race.

And now the second fertilization occurs from what has been created so far. From the second and third logos, the first logos now connects directly, creating the further second part. This is how the second half of the fourth round and the three following rounds come about.

So we have to imagine: [the] second logos is what comes from outside, [it] structures itself [with the help of the third logos] into form, swells. All the shells are built.

And now [the] fertilization comes from the first Logos. It radiates from within. That is the fertilization of the first Logos. That is what can be seen in the aura.

Up to the fourth round, the aura is cloud-like [from the outside], up to the Lemurian race. In the middle of the Lemurian race, the radiating image of the aura begins. And this is the inflow of the first Logos. And this is what Annie Besant calls the development of life or evolution. Life or evolution begins from within. [Third Logos: Evolution of Life.]

[The] man of the Lemurian race formed [a] physical shell, [an] astral shell [and a] Kama-Manas. All of this has built itself up. Now a black dot is emerging. In the middle, above the head, indicating, as it were, the place from which the inflow of the first Logos radiates.

Each evolutionary epoch has a very specific intention of the Logos to carry out. Our current round - terrestrial epoch - has intended man from the outset and has to bring man to completion. The present [round] has the specific task of predisposing man from the outset and bringing him to development.

For this purpose, there is always a twofold fertilization. The first consists in [that] the result of the previous epoch fertilizes itself. That which emerges from the fertilization are the facts of the first half of evolution. Then [the] second fertilization [by the] first logos occurs. These are the facts of the second half of evolution. One half goes from the outside in and forms the form. The other goes from the inside out and forms life.

I call [the] third logos cosmic dust because everything that is cast off from the other worlds is absorbed into it. In order for [plant] seeds to grow and flourish, matter must first be drawn to them. The [plant] seed must be sunk into [the] soil that has been prepared for it, so that it can draw out the strength it needs. It is the same with [the] third Logos. It consists of substance filled with [source] power. The kamic entities attract the substance and form a cosmos.

The eighth sphere releases the material and is absorbed into the new development when a new cosmos is created. [The eighth sphere, the corpse of each cosmos, provides the material for the future.] Each world body turns light purple at the end of its development and disappears. All seeds are contained in it and / gap in the transcript]

You have to free yourself from the idea of space. It does not reflect everything.

From the third round onwards, no new forms are formed. Externally, people have reached the most perfect form. The next thing people will achieve is to make the other covers more perfect from within.

Now the effect on the astral body has already begun. The fourth round will be complete, the fifth will come, and then more and more will be done to the astral body. And on the fifth sphere/round the astral body will be like this.

[From the middle of the fourth round, the forms are complete; now the influence on the astral body begins from within.] He will have wheels in his astral body. The chakras move, as they already do in those who can see spiritually. The chakras rotate.

During the sixth round, the mental body is formed. Not only the chakras move, but the mental body also shines more and more radiantly from within. Now it is the radiant mental body. This is complete on the sixth sphere.

In the seventh round, the causal body develops to its greatest perfection. [It transcends the boundary of the astral body until, at the end, there is nothing but the causal body.] Namely, the rays become more effective causal bodies.

the [gap in the transcript]

At the end of the seventh round, there is nothing but the causal body.

The uppermost layer is formed in the fourth round. In the uppermost brain, the tool is given for independent activity. Until then, the third logos works from the outside. From the brain, the forces can then flow out and set the chakras in motion again.

We call that which comes from the previous development Prakriti, that which comes from the second half, Mahat, and that which comes from the third, Purusha.

The body is Mahat, soul is Prakriti, spirit is Purusha. [In the seed, Mahat and Purusha have disappeared; Prakriti is carried forward.

The body is prepared by the spirit within it. The body would not make mistakes if it were not tempted by the spirit. There is no physical sin. All sin is of a spiritual nature. Only a person who has given up on controlling Kama can be cruel. Only from the middle of the Lemurian race onwards is there a “good and evil”, not before. Mind and body are two perfect parts. In the middle of the two lies Kama, the soul, it is the carrier of imperfection.

[The body is the mind from the outside, Mahat. The soul is Prakriti.]

There is nothing as perfect as your lungs, your stomach, your heart. If the mental faculties were as perfect [as the organs], you would have attained [the] mental perfection. The physical does not err, the mineral does not err at all. It cannot err.