Self-Knowledge and God-Knowledge I

GA 90a — 26 July 1904, Berlin

XLVII. An Overview of Our Development

Today I would like to give an overview of a certain period of our development and in doing so I will have to repeat some things that I have already said in these hours. But we will see it in a larger context and also find some things that we already know illuminated from a new side. In fact, one must realize that one can only recognize the basic fact of world evolution if it is illuminated from the most diverse points of view, and only then can one gradually form an idea of how the context is actually to be imagined.

Today I would like to briefly touch on some questions that are often discussed in theosophical teachings, but which usually remain somewhat obscure because it is not mentioned how the questions in question are related to direct human experience.

Above all, this is the question of the so-called Trinity. It is emphasized over and over again that the idea of the Trinity can be found in all religions and that it is one of the oldest religious teachings. Above all, it is emphasized that, regardless of whether we go to India, Persia or Egypt, to the Germans, Germanic peoples or Celts, we find three aspects of the deity everywhere, endowed with roughly the same characteristics. You can find the Indian trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva again and again.

I would now like to show you how this trinity arose from a human experience, albeit an experience of a very different nature from our usual experiences today. This experience is one of the oldest components of human wisdom, and teachers of the Lemurian era have already taught this doctrine. But if we go back and examine the actual occult traditions, we find that these three aspects of the Godhead also refer to three distinct stages of development of man himself, in addition to everything else. The man of the third root race, the man of the middle of the Lemurian period, was more aware than has come again in a later time, that his innermost self is one and the same with the great divine self.

More than it became knowledge again in a later time, at that time it was an immediate intuitive conviction. It was clear to those who had reached a certain level of development that as man develops, the Godhead itself develops. And so let us consider the three most important stages of human evolution today.

But how could these stages be viewed in the past? In the past, knowledge was gained in a completely different way. Knowledge that is gained by observing things and then forming ideas about them has only existed since the middle of the third root race. Before the middle of the third root race, no one had acquired knowledge in this way, by looking at things, observing them. This knowledge through external observation, experience, only begins in the middle of the Lemurian race. Everything is in a certain state of flux, and so this knowledge begins for the two most exquisite senses, preferably in the middle of the Lemurian race. The other senses, smell and taste, already had sensation before that. But hearing and sight only began in the middle of the Lemurian race. Before that, knowledge arose as if a kind of water gushed up from the earth. It was as if the human being brought across the midpoint of the Lemurian race, showing in particular his previous states himself, his states during the first, second and first half of the third human race. This was a kind of intuitive memory knowledge, and it was the case that man at that time, when he became outwardly seeing, hearing and perceiving, remembered three important conditions.

Firstly, his experiences in the first human race, then his experiences in the second human race and thirdly, the experiences of the first half of the third human race. He named these three states as follows: the state of the first human race corresponded to Brahma, the state of the second human race to Vishnu, and the state of the first half of the third human race to Shiva.

In Brahma, we see the evolution of the God developing in humanity in the state in which man was during the first human race. At that time, man lived in pure ethereal matter. He was luminous like the etheric body. So the body that man had at that time was a mere etheric body. But it was similar to the astral body. When the ancient Indians wanted to visualize this etheric body of the first race, they imagined it under the name Brahma. Brahma was therefore also seen as the god of the ether-illuminating light.

This state was replaced by the so-called air state. The second race lived in this. If you wanted to get an idea of it according to our present concepts, it would be very unclear, because the second human race incarnated in a body that was denser than today's air, but which was still air-shaped. It was something of which one could say that the divine being sends its angels like winds. It was no longer an etheric genus, but a condensed aerial genus. Therefore, when naturalists try to find prehistoric man and are surprised that they no longer find any remains above a certain level, we need not be surprised, since man at that time could not provide stone imprints. That is Vishnu.

The third is Shiva, called the 'Destroyer' on the one hand and on the other the 'Rebuilder'. Adam-Kadmon was the sexless man. He was destroyed by the god Shiva. But another was created in return, hence Shiva is also called the god of rebirth, the god of procreation. Wherever Siva or the deity corresponding to Siva is depicted, he is depicted as the god of procreation.

These are the three aspects of the deity that man took from experience. These are states that he himself has gone through.

Then we speak of the “Sons of the Fire Mist.” The Lemurian continent was destroyed by fire, not by water, like the Atlantic continent. I ask you to keep this in mind, it is not easy to grasp. During the second human race, that is, during the so-called Hyperborean time, people were air beings. They were beings incarnated in air and they were completely in swinging, vibrating motion. They already brought the predisposition for organs with them. However, they had not yet developed. What developed first was the predisposition for the ear. At that time, man was a resounding being. He was as if one could have heard him. This has been preserved in the Vishnu teachings. Vishnu found wisdom in the conch shell. This is an indication that mankind was already predisposed to hearing at that time. During the development of the third race, in the Lemurian period, the ability to see forms and to distinguish objects was formed. The inner life was already present earlier. But what approached us from the outside could not yet be distinguished at that time. The eye could not yet perceive forms. The ability to see spatially was only just being developed. As a result, man grew into the physical world. This development was completed in the middle of the Lemurian period.

Now what is primarily the task of the human race occurs: Manas was to be developed in all directions. One could not speak of Manas at all before. Before that, one could only speak of Mahat. The human being of the Hyperborean time, when he has seen the stars, will have seen them moving according to laws. But that was not one of the abilities of Manas. Manas was not an innate ability in us.

Mahat was there as a grand world tableau. Manas is basically something that has only entered into man since the middle of the Lemurian period. Since that time, human development has been an education of the previously acquired qualities and abilities through the manas that has now entered into man. So manas has to educate the various abilities that were previously developed in man.

During each epoch that now follows, Manas has a very specific task. The first epoch we encounter is that of the middle to the end of the Lemurian period. There Manas educates the outer perception that man had to acquire in the Lemurian race. Then, in addition, man has to connect perceptions with what he sees. But what man does not yet have is memory and the power of thought. Memory and logic do not yet exist. Man can see something and connect an idea with what he has seen, but he is incapable of holding on to this idea by means of memory. However, his imagination is all the more intense. It is tremendously intense and of tremendous vividness, so that it does not pass him by without having left behind a very specific feeling. These feelings are not retained by memory, because the Lemurian man does not yet have such a memory. But he retains it in feeling. Remnants of the Lemurian race can be found in the decadent tribes of Australia. They also have no memory that extends beyond twenty-four hours.

The deep feeling that arises from perception has a very special effect. This second race has an intuitive knowledge of reincarnation. And that comes from the following. There were not very many who incarnated at that time. They had a vivid feeling because they retained a deep feeling for every experience. And this feeling remained incorporated in the causal body, which it took over into the following incarnation.

This is to be recorded as a fact from the second epoch of the Lemurian period. The interaction with the environment was so vivid that man was already aware of an outside world and that he was connected to things. When he came into this world again, he sensed his kinship with things. It was then as with people who have a particularly keen sense of smell and can then say to themselves, I have smelled that before. It was something like that with these Lemurians of the second half of the Lemurian period.

The Lemurian continent formed approximately the ground of southern India and south of India. This continent was destroyed by fire. But there were still tribes left in the neighboring areas. They lived through the entire Atlantean period. In part, they mixed with the Atlanteans. So there were people here with an extremely intense sense of reincarnation.

Let us now note: Lemuria had perished, and we come to the next, to the Atlantean race of men. They had the task of further developing their inner life. What emerged as a new human faculty was memory, which was not yet present in the Lemurians, but was present in the Atlanteans. They had an extremely well-developed memory. Logical thinking did not yet exist at that time. Arithmetic, multiplication tables and so on did not yet exist. They formed an objective picture of, let us say, seventeen or twenty beans, in heaps of such and such a size. The first faculty was therefore imagination. The second was memory.

In the Toltec sub-race, this memory was joined in the middle by the first rudiments of the ability to think. A fairly crude ability to think was now slowly developing. An ability that not only made it possible to memorize, but also to combine. This was still very crude in the Toltecs, and it was still crude in the Turanians. But it reached a certain high level among the Proto-Semites. Therefore, the Jews were called upon to further educate the following race, precisely because they had best cultivated thinking. This combinatorial thinking developed in a schematic way. [...]

The pre-Semitic race provided the basis for our Aryan race. Now I will show what was to be developed in the Aryan race. In the Lemurian race it was the imagination, in the Atlantean race it was memory. Now in the Aryan race it is what is called the faculty of thinking. Every race in the world, every stage, every step of development has a specific task. The earlier principle is always further developed with the help of a later one. What was there earlier is now further developed with Manas. In the fifth root race, Manas now developed further. This thinking ability is the most inward thing we can behold. It therefore has a very personal character. While the Lemurians had an immediate consciousness of reincarnation, the Atlanteans had a very weakened memory of reincarnation in their inner life. He could, if something had been developed, refresh the consciousness of the Lemurian race within himself, and then people remembered events in their past lives. But on the whole, in the Atlanteans, in whom the combinatorial ability developed, the feeling for reincarnation was completely dead. And it was even more natural that within the fifth root race this feeling could not be there. Thinking is an innermost personal matter. The personality of man mainly pursues the life between birth and death. Therefore, in the power that the fifth root race had to develop, there is little that could have led to professing reincarnation. Then the leaders of the fifth root race have in the most diverse ways a very sensible network spanned over the world.

I hardly need to repeat that this root race started from the Gobi Desert, where a number of selected people were placed by the so-called Manu. From the Ursemites, people were sent to the most diverse parts of the world. The first cultural current therefore went out from the Gobi Desert and fertilized India. Here the work was done by the initiates, and I expressly note that initiates are always in possession of wisdom and that there has never been an initiates' lodge in which the knowledge of reincarnation was not present. So the current goes down to India. There a culture is founded, as is generally the case with initiates, by adding a new impetus with full tolerance of what is encountered there.

So the thinking power is instilled in this lively feeling that the Lemurians still have of reincarnation. The marriage of the best that remained from the Lemurian period with the best that the Aryan race had to give. That is the union. Therefore you will also understand why you will find no mention of reincarnation in the ancient scriptures of the Vedas. The knowledge of reincarnation arose through the union of the feeling of the Lemurians with the power of thought of the Aryans. This high wisdom of the original human races, based on direct certainty, had been united here with the pure spiritual life of the people of the fifth root race. This is the original Indian wisdom. A branch of it was sent down to Egypt. That is why there is also a similarity to this cultural layer. This is the first great cultural current to have taken place within the fifth, the Aryan race. It was initiated by the initiates with the admirable purpose of achieving the highest by using what was already there.

Remnants of the Atlantean race were present in all other areas of the Earth, especially around the shores of the Mediterranean and into Asia. Only in our regions, in Germany, did they still live. You have to imagine this with the corresponding aggregate states – something of the Hyperborean type still lived. You must not imagine that this ancient Hyperborean type lived in the blood; that would be too gross. In its entire way of thinking, it lived in such a way that here, too, it was possible to establish a very spiritual way of looking at things. In Europe, therefore, almost exactly the same thing happened with the original Indian teaching: a spiritual teaching was established, which later appeared somewhat diluted in the old Druid culture. Here one could still tie in with the old.

But at the same time, if you compare this old Druid culture with the old Vedic culture, you will see that there is a difference again. What the old Druid culture has is an absolute belief in the immortality of the soul, in the eternity of the soul. But it is not that it is an explicit doctrine of reincarnation, and that will be understandable to you. Just as the remains of the Lemurians were found in the south, so there are, so to speak, here present peoples who, because they were remnants of the Atlanteans, knew little of reincarnation. And from the other side, they came from the Hyperborean race. They were parts of the second race. During the second human race, during the Hyperborean race, there was still no reincarnation. That is why the Druids had such an intensive doctrine of immortality. This was the remnant of the old Hyperborean knowledge.

Now, a fertilization takes place here, and different currents arise. The second current, which pours forth first, sent initiates into colonies everywhere - as in ancient Persia, in the ancient Iranian culture. Then, a culture is created around the Mediterranean that is similar everywhere, by peoples who are remnants of the different races. This is most pronounced in the Iranians, who developed into what is called the Zoroastrian doctrine. It is an absolute doctrine of immortality. For the reasons that have been indicated, it is not based on a doctrine of reincarnation here. And that will explain to you why you cannot find a real doctrine of reincarnation in Persian teaching. The initiated have always used what was there and developed it a little further.

Then came the second cultural current. This found expression in Europe in such a way that the memory of it has remained, especially of the initiates of the second cultural current. They have remained present everywhere in the memory of the various European peoples. These initiates have been preserved here in the north as Wodan, Wili, Loki and so on, in Greece as the gods, as Zeus and so on. The various circles of gods are the initiates who spread this culture throughout the world.

Now comes the third impact of initiates. This resulted primarily in what we see in Egypt, which is Egyptian historical culture. That is the third impact. And what is heroic culture in Greece. All the initiates of the third current have been preserved as heroic names, such as Hercules and so on. They have been preserved in our culture. These are the German heroes, the German initiates - as for example in the saga of Dietrich of Bern, which has very similar traits to the Greek saga of Hercules. This is the culture preserved from the heroic age. This is the third sub-race of the fifth root race. It produced what is called artistic culture in the various fields, both in terms of myth-making and in terms of plastic art in Asia, Greece and here as well.

Now a new race formation begins. Greek culture spreads to Italy. The new race formation begins a few centuries before the birth of Christ, again with the Semitic peoples moving around the shores of the Mediterranean. There are always Semitic influences, as I have described. Now we have the foundation of the Latin race, which is fertilized by Christianity. This develops until the ninth or tenth century. Then everything depends on the Latin race.

Then, more recently, a fertilization takes place through the westward movement of the Arabs. This again comes from dark sources. Mohamed is only a forward post. Behind him stands the great secret lodge.

And now comes the Germanic race in which we currently live. This is the development of the races that spread out across the world in a radiating pattern. The Initiate Colonies have never worked in any other way than with full consideration of what was already present in the areas in question.

This is what I wanted to give as a broad overview of the evolution from the Hyperboreans to our present time. From the question and answer session

During the Hyperborean period, things were prepared that were in the vibrations. People then had different ears, so to speak. Yes, they were distinguished by different vibrations. The similarity of the vibrations constituted the relationship. The Atlanteans had long since begun to develop, while Hyperborean development was still present, so that actual intercourse did indeed take place between the Atlanteans, who lived in Europe, and the air people.