Man, Nature and the Cosmos

GA 91 — 4 September 1905, Berlin

24. The Seven-Membered Human Being

When one learns Theosophy today, one often feels it to be something completely new. Neither a man who has graduated from the theological, nor one who has graduated from the philosophical faculty, will ever have heard of these relations of man to the rest of nature. Yet there is nothing in our present science that contradicts these teachings. Everything that is taught today only gets a hand and foot when it is built on the basis of Theosophy. The future development will be such that Theosophy will spread over all branches of knowledge. It will not take very long, because the development does not always go at the same speed; at the beginning it goes rapidly, slows down, and when it is past the middle, it goes up again rapidly. This can be proved by following things on the astral plan. From Charlemagne to the eighteenth century, there were many discoveries. Nevertheless, in these thousand years the development does not contain more than in the hundred years that have gone on since the end of this development. However, it is now going ten times as fast as in the time of Charlemagne. From this we can infer that it will not be very long before the Theosophical worldview will draw wide circles around it.

One does not find this knowledge any more with those who are determined "ex officio" to it. It was not always so. In the year 83 a man was born who had a great influence on the development of Christianity. In every line of this man we find a theosophical teaching. Now, however, he was the purest churchman. He saw in the church the purest embodiment of Christianity. From this we see that there was a theosophist as the tone-setting church teacher in those days. If you keep the terms fluid, only then you will understand the different theosophies of the world. It is not the way of expression but the meaning that must be emphasized. The doctrine of the sevenfold constitution of man is found in Augustine. He starts from the soul. It was common at that time to divide man into the well-known three members: Body, Soul and Spirit. These three parts presented themselves to the church father approximately like three liquids, which one mixes together and then can no longer distinguish from each other. Thus Augustine gets seven members out. They correspond to the sevenfold division of the theosophists. By also acquiring such views, our own insight becomes deeper and deeper.

From the scheme we see that we need do nothing but study our own Christianity. Augustine had predecessors: Justin the Martyr; then Origen taught especially clearly. He explicitly taught the pre-existence of the soul. A philosophical foundation for Christianity was needed because Arab philosophers were gradually arriving from Spain. These had thorough knowledge in the occidental philosophy, namely of Aristotle. This also forced the Christian teachers of the Middle Ages to study Aristotle and base Christianity on him. Averroes and Maimonides were the names of the Arab philosophers. Under the compulsion of Aristotle, the initial doctrine of the soul came into Christianity.

The Celtic remnants first seized Christianity with power. The purest and most vigorous Christianity until the tenth century was taught in Ireland, England and Scotland. A beautiful monastic life developed there. The missionaries who spread Christianity in Central Europe were all from this area. Why is it in the Celtic monasteries that Christianity takes its beautiful, powerful form? In the ancient Druidic mysteries there were the same teachings. As a secret service, the teachings of the Druids were still present until the age of Queen Elizabeth. What was taught in the Druid Mysteries was the same as what is in Theosophy and Christianity. They basically got their own teaching, only in different words. Only one thing was new, which gave the great impetus to this wise mission. They had been told: We are there for the preparation of a future religion; our religion will give way to a greater one. As with the prophets of the Old Testament, Christianity was expected, foretold in the Druid Mysteries. Now they had what was expected. In Christianity came what had been predicted for millennia. The tragic train comes because the doctrine of the twilight of the gods exists; the old gods must give way to a new religion.

The teacher to whom the Irish and Scottish monks mainly go back is Beda Venerabilis. With him one finds similar things like the teachings of the carbon. In the Middle Ages one has forgotten this so that one does not understand any more what one reads with the great spirits. All this will revive Theosophy.