2. Spiritual Science as Preparation for a New Etheric Vision

We must go back as far as the Atlantean time if we wish to trace the beginnings of Krita Yuga. Treta Yuga, however, still partly coincides with the time of the Holy Rishis, that is, with the Indian civilization but in part also with the ancient Persian civilization. Dvapara Yuga coincides in turn with later epochs of civilization, that is with the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian-Assyrian times, and a certain degree of ancient, dim clairvoyance still existed in those days. The moment in time in which the portals of the spiritual world began slowly and gradually to close, so that humanity had to limit itself to the physical plane, began with the year 3101 before Christ Jesus walked on earth. Thus we see an age beginning about 3,000 years before the Christ event, an age that has gradually made us into what we are today. When we know that it is during this age that the most important deed in the whole evolution of the earth took place—the deed of Christ—we can then appreciate the full significance of this deed.