Notes from Mathilde Scholl 1904–1906

GA 91 — 24 September 1906

30. About the Zodiac and Man

If we look at the twelve signs of the zodiac in their sequence and at their relationship to humans, we see that the sign of Aries is next to that of Pisces. Aries is the sign of the head, Pisces the sign of the feet. Christ, who is called the Lamb, appeared in the sign of Aries; only by becoming human could he lead humanity to the sign of Pisces. He was the human ego.

Only after Christ had moved into humanity, the I, and sent its spirit, manas, to the world, could man's kama be established and the main developmental moment of the fifth root race be expressed in its fifth sub-race, the race of the free personality. Our entire fifth root race is the development of kama-mana - the development of the I. With Christ, it moved completely into humanity in the fourth sub-race, but it only fully expressed itself in the fifth sub-race, in the race of the free personality.

Only after the Atma had moved into man in the sign of the Lamb or Aries, in the race of the personality, could man really stand on his own two feet in the sign of Pisces, the race of the free personality. The whole human being was now predisposed. In the first race, the Indian race, man lived in his feeling and in unity (Tao, Brahma and so on) - Atma (physical body). In the second race, the Persian race, he lived in duality (Ormuzd and Ahriman, good and evil and so on) - Atma (physical body) and Budhi (etheric body). In the third race, the Egyptian-Babylonian-Assyrian, the Chaldean, he lived in the Trinity (Isis, Osiris, Horus; Father, Son, Spirit, and so on) - Atma (physical body), Budhi (etheric body), Manas (astral body). In the fourth race (Romans, Greeks, Semites), he lived in the I, the tetrad - physical body, etheric body, astral body and the I. The sign of Aries signifies that there had been a descent that had to lead to an ascent, a turning point in the whole development of humanity, the beginning of a new epoch.

It is the same sign as the angle V formed by the compass – the sign of the I. When the human I becomes free and the human being becomes like the swan – this is also the development of the two-leaved lotus blossom at the top of the head, which is indicated by the two horns of Aries, the sign of the I.

Thus man is intimately related to the zodiac. After he was placed on his feet in the sign of Pisces, he could begin to develop towards freedom, first by fully developing the manas. He had to manasize his astral body. In the following sign, the sign of Aquarius, man will develop Budhi in the normal course of evolution, which then permeates his etheric body. This will be made possible by a renewed influence of the World I from its second power, Budhi. However, this power of Budhi will only be fully realized in the world by the race that descends from the sixth sub-race of the sixth root race.

The sixth sub-race is the race in the sign of Aquarius, John, who proclaims Christ. Just as he proclaimed the appearance of the personal Christ Jesus as John the Baptist, so in the sixth sub-race he proclaims the saturation of humanity with the Christ principle, with Budhi, which then initially comes to completion in the sixth root race.

Man's powers are developed in accordance with the signs of the zodiac and the development of the races. Man could only consciously develop these powers after he had attained self-awareness in our fifth sub-race, the race of the free personality, in the sign of Pisces, the sign of independence, where man was placed into physical existence, completely on his own two feet. Pisces is the sign that man can now move freely in the astral (the water).

Pisces is the sign of Kama-Manas, which makes man independent.

In the normal development of the world, man will also acquire the higher powers. But he who wants to help the world, the disciple, who will place himself at the service of humanity, takes on the later racial development. He consciously develops the forces that would otherwise only emerge later. In order to express these forces more quickly, he must take a certain path that leads him to the forces. Man is himself the microcosm that contains all cosmic forces in his makeup. With the developed forces, which have their center in his ego, he must now acquire the other and missing forces. The I must travel the same path in its organism as the earth does as it moves around the sun. The power of the earth is embodied in the head – it is most strongly expressed there – and the I is there too. The I must find the path that it must take in order to receive ever new life force from the center within it that contains the power of the sun. To do this, the I must first consciously connect with its own Kama force and transform it in the heart center. When this Kama force is purified, the I can connect with the solar plexus, the solar center - or rather receive strength from there. After these three forces are united – the I with the transformed Kama force and the sun force, Budhi, the actual life force – the human being can carry out the cycle of life within himself. By immersing itself in the heart center, the I moves into the vicinity of the sun and from there it finds its way through the twelve signs of the zodiac, which have sunk their forces into the spinal cord. When it reaches the brain, the I pours the powers gained into the world. To understand the cycle of the I, we have to imagine the spine and legs curved so that the feet touch the head - then the individual parts of the human being are in the same arrangement as the twelve signs of the zodiac. Man was initially a dormant spiral from which he has risen and symmetrically unfolded his inner being. The further development of the inner man proceeds along this spiral, the individual parts of which are related to the signs of the zodiac in the corresponding centers in the spinal cord. Through the development of these forces, man attains spiritual independence. In normal development, this would occur when he reaches the sixth sub-race of the sixth root race, when the constellation of Virgo (solar center) passes over into the constellation of Leo (heart center).

But if man himself prepares this transformation of his passion from the heart center in order to receive the power of the sun, then he becomes a lion who can conquer the virgin. That is why Christ was the lion from the tribe of Judah - he was able to bring the purified Kama power and Budhi to the world - just as he will have brought it to perfection in the sixth sub-race of the sixth root race.

Goethe describes this attainment of the power of Budhi in his fairy tale. The youth (man) had first to reach the deepest descent, on this side of the river, first purify Kama, then he could again acquire the beautiful lily on the other side, which now comes to meet him.