XIV. A Christmas Contemplation: the Mystery of the Logos

Now Man is not in a position to keep so far aloof from the earth as do the creatures of the animal world. To say this is to touch upon the mystery both of mankind and of animal-kind. These mysteries are reflected in the animal-worship of the ancient peoples, more especially of the Egyptians. They saw in the animals beings who are guests upon earth, in whom may be visibly beheld the being and doing of that other, spiritual world which borders on the earthly one. And in the combination of the human with the animal form, as represented in their images, they brought presently before them the figures of those intermediate beings of the elemental world, who are on the road to humanity in the course of the world's evolution, but who never enter the earth-region, so that they may not become men. These intermediate elemental beings actually exist. The Egyptians were only reproducing what they saw, when they made images of them. Such beings however have not the full Self-consciousness of Man.