Inner and Outer Evolution

GA 91 — 5 September 1904, Berlin

12. The Fall into the Material

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.