The Michael Mystery
GA 26
XVIII. What is seen on looking back into Man's previous Lives between Death and the new Birth (II)
[ 1 ] In a second period, Man passes from the domain of the Archai into that of the Archangels. With these, however, he is not bound up in such a bodily-spiritual manner as he was with the Archai. With the Archangel Hierarchy his connection is a more spiritual one. It is nevertheless so intimate that one still could not speak at this period of Man's being in any way detached from the spiritual world.
From the Archangel Hierarchy Man receives for his ether-body what, in this body, corresponds to the Form in the physical body, which he owes to the Archai. Even as the physical body is adapted by its form to the Earth, to be the vehicle on Earth for Man's Self-consciousness, so is the ether-body adapted to the conditions of extra-earthly, cosmic forces. In the physical body lives the Earth; in the ether-body lives the Star-world. All that Man bears within him of inner forces, so that, while being upon Earth, he yet frees himself from the Earth in posture, movement and gesture—all this he owes to the creation of the Archangels in his ether-body. As the Earth-forces live, by means of its formation, in the physical body, so in the ether-body there live those forces, which from all sides, from the circumference of the cosmos, stream in towards the Earth. The Earth-forces that live in the physically apparent formation of the body are such as make the form a comparatively fixed and final one. The outlines of the man remain—with some subordinate changes—fixed for this entire earth-life; his aptitudes for movement harden into set habits, and so on. With the ether-body, all is in continual motion, reflecting the changes in the constellations of the Stars during human earth-life. Even with such changes in the heavens as day-and-night, the ether-body adapts its form accordingly; but also in accordance with the particular changes which take place between its own birth and death.
[ 2 ] The adaptation of the ether-body in this manner to the heavenly forces is in no contradiction to what has been spoken of elsewhere as the gradual detachment of the starry heavens from the divine Spirit-Powers. It is true that in very olden times there dwelt in the stars the living will of Gods, the living intelligence of Gods, whereas in later times all this passed over into the ‘Calculable.’ The gods no longer act directly upon Man through what has now become their finished work. Man however gradually comes through his ether-body into a relation of his own with the stars; just as through his physical body he comes into a relation of his own with the gravity of earth.
[ 3 ] What Man collects and fits into himself when he comes down out of the spirit-world to be born upon earth—his ether-body, which gathers into itself the cosmic forces from beyond the earth, was created by the Archangel Hierarchy during this second period.
[ 4 ] A very important thing which Man acquires through this hierarchy, is that he belongs to a group of people upon earth. Men are differentiated over the face of the earth. When one looks back into this second period, one does not find the differentiation of to-day, into races and nations, but a somewhat other and more spiritual one, arising from the fact that upon various parts of the earth the star-influences fall in various constellations. In the relative distribution of land and water, in climate, in vegetation, etc., the starry heavens are living and acting upon earth.
In so far as Man has to adopt himself to these relations—which are heavenly relations upon earth—the necessary adaptations belong to his ether-body, and the formation thus given to it is the creation of the choir of Archangeloi.
[ 5 ] This however is the very time—during the second period—when the Luciferic and Ahrimanic Powers come into Man's life, and in a special way. It is necessary for them to come into it, although at first sight it appears as though Man would thereby be driven down, below the level of his manhood.
[ 6 ] For Man to develop the consciousness of Self in earth-life, he must become much more thoroughly detached from the divine spiritual world which gave him his origin, than can be done by that world of itself. It takes place during the time when the Archangels are at work upon him, because his link with the spiritual world is then no longer such a strong one as it was during the time when the Archai were at work. Lucifer and Ahriman are more of a match for the purely spiritual forces which proceed from the Archangels than for the sturdier forces of the Archai.
[ 7 ] The Luciferic Powers give the ether-form, in all its tendencies, a much stronger inclination towards the star-world than it would have if only those divine spirit-Powers were at work, who were connected with Man from his origin. And by the Ahrimanic Powers the form and configuration of the physical body becomes more deeply entangled with the weight of earth than would be the case if these Powers were unable to exert an influence.
[ 8 ] Hereby the seed is laid in Man of future full Self-consciousness and free will. For though the Ahrimanic Powers detest free will, yet their effect upon Man, by tearing him away from this proper world of divine spirit, is to implant the first seed of free will in him.
[ 9 ] The immediate result, however, is that in this second period all that has been accomplished in Man by the various hierarchies—from the Seraphim to the Archangeloi—is pressed more deeply into the physical and ether-bodies, than could have been done without the influence of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic Powers. But for their influence, the action of the hierarchies would remain more in the astral body and the I.
[ 10 ] Thus the grouping of Mankind which arises on earth is not that more spiritual one for which the Archangels are striving.
[ 11 ] Impressed into the physical body, the spiritual forces are turned into their opposite. Instead of the more spiritual one, comes the differentiation into races and nations.
[ 12 ] Were it not for the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences, men would see themselves and one-another upon earth differentiated from the heavens above. The various groups would live, one with another, in the relation of beings who share in love a spiritual treasure, freely giving and freely taking, each from each. In races and nations is seen the down-drag of earth, manifested in Man's body. In that other spiritual grouping there would have been seen a reflected image of the divine spiritual world.
[ 13 ] Yet along with all this the first dispositions had to be laid in human evolution for the future, full consciousness of Self. This again meant that—mitigated, it is true, but still with a certain distinctness of form—those original, primeval differentiations of mankind were retained, which had existed when in ancient days Man passed over from the Hierarchy of the Exusiai to that of the Archai.
[ 14 ] Man went through this stage of his evolution as through a cosmic school, alive to it all in a state between feeling and seeing. He had not as yet evolved any conscious knowledge that this was all an essential preparation for his own future Self-consciousness; but the ‘feeling vision,’ at that period, of the forces engaged in his evolution was nevertheless important for the engrafting of Self-consciousness in the astral body and the I.
[ 15 ] In respect to Man's Thinking, what happened at that time was that the Luciferic Powers gave him a bent which inclined him still to remain immersed in the old forms of spiritual life, and not to adapt himself to its new forms. For Lucifer's endeavour is always to preserve for Man the earlier forms of life.
[ 16 ] And so it came about in the development of Man's Thinking. Little by little, in his life between death and new birth Man evolved and elaborated the faculty which in primeval times had endowed his inner life with Thoughts. In those primeval times, this faculty had been able to behold the Spiritual in things, though it was very like the way man now takes hold of the world in mere sense-perception. For in those days the Physical wore the Spiritual on its surface. To-day, however, this Thinking faculty conserved from the earlier age can only act like sense-perception. The faculty to rise in the act of thought to the spirit gradually declined and died away. And this became fully manifest when in the age of the Spiritual Soul the spiritual world became veiled for Man in complete obscurity. So then it came about that in the nineteenth century the best of the natural scientists, who could not become mere materialists, said to themselves: ‘Nothing remains for us, but to explore that world alone which admits of being explored by the senses and in terms of measure, number and weight. We have however no right to deny the existence of a spiritual world behind this sensible one.’ They were thus indicating that there may be a world of light, unknown to Man, where he is staring into darkness only.
[ 17 ] As Man's Thought was put out of time and place by Lucifer, so by Ahriman his Will. This latter became endowed with a tendency to a kind of freedom to which it should only have attained later. Freedom of this sort is no real freedom, but only the illusion of it. Mankind lived for a long while in this illusion of freedom. It gave men no possibility of evolving the true spiritual idea of freedom in their minds. They wavered to-and-fro between the various opinions, that Man is free or that he is caught in the meshes of hard and fast necessity. And when with the dawning Age of Consciousness the real freedom came, men failed to understand it, because their understanding had been too long engaged with the illusion of freedom.
[ 18 ] Everything which had implanted itself in Man's inner being during the evolution of his lives between death and new birth in this second stage, was carried on by him as a cosmic memory into the third stage, in which he is still living in this present time. In this stage he holds a relation to the Hierarchy of Angeloi, similar to that which he held in the second to the Archangeloi. Only, the relation to the Angeloi is one which enables him to attain to complete, self-dependent individuality. For the Angeloi—not now the whole choir, but one Angelos for one man—confine themselves to effecting a right connection between his lives between death and new birth and his earth-lives.
[ 19 ] A fact here worthy of notice is that in the second stage of Man's evolution during the lives between death and new birth, the whole hierarchy of Archangeloi are at work for each single man. Later on, the guidance of the various nations and tribes devolves upon this hierarchy; and here, for one nation there is one Archangel, as Spirit of the Nation. In the races of men, the Primeval Powers (the Archai) remain active. Here again, for one race, there is one being at work out of the hierarchy of the Archai, as Spirit of that Race.
[ 20 ] Thus the man of the present age retains within him, during the life also between death and new birth, a cosmic memory of what he has learnt from this life in its previous stages. And even where, in the physical world, spiritual guidance manifests itself in such a form as in races and nationalities, there too this cosmic memory is plainly present.
Leading Thoughts
[ 21 ] In a second period of evolution in the lives between death and new birth, Man passes into the domain of the Archangeloi. During his period the seed of later Self-consciousness is planted in the human soul, the predisposition for it having already been created in the first period, in the shaping of the human Form.
[ 22 ] Man, during the second period, is driven by the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences deeper into the physical world than would have happened without their influence.
[ 23 ] In the third period, Man comes into the domain of the Angeloi, whose influence however is only exerted in the astral body and the I. This period is the present. What took place in the first two periods lives on in human evolution, and explains the fact that in the age of the Spiritual Soul—during the nineteenth century—Man is left staring into the spiritual world as into total darkness.
Zweiter Teil der Betrachtung: Was offenbart sich, wenn man in die vorigen Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt zurückschaut?
[ 1 ] In einer zweiten Periode gelangt der Mensch aus dem Gebiet der Archai in das der Archangeloi. Mit diesen ist er aber nicht so körperlich-geistig verbunden, wie vorher mit den Archai. Seine Verbindung mit der Archangeloi-Hierarchie ist eine mehr geistige. Aber sie ist doch so innig, daß man für diese Zeit von einem Losgelöstsein des Menschen von der göttlich-geistigen Welt noch nicht sprechen kann. Die Erzengel-Hierarchie gibt dem Menschen das für seinen Ätherleib, was in diesem entsprechend ist der Gestalt im physischen Leib, die er den Archai verdankt. Wie der physische Leib durch die Gestalt der Erde angepaßt ist, um auf dieser Träger des Selbstbewußtseins zu sein, so der Ätherleib den außerirdischen kosmischen Kräfteverhältnissen. Im physischen Leib lebt die Erde, und im Ätherleib lebt die Sternenwelt. Was der Mensch an inneren Kräften in sich trägt, um auf der Erde so zu sein, daß er sich zugleich mit Haltung, Bewegung, Gebärde der Erde entreißt, das verdankt er der Schöpfung der Erzengel in seinem Ätherleib. Wie im physischen Leib die Erdenkräfte durch die Gestaltung leben können, so leben im Ätherleib die Kräfte, die aus dem Umkreis des Kosmos von allen Seiten auf die Erde zuströmen. Es sind die in der physisch erscheinenden Gestaltung lebenden Erdkräfte solche, die die Gestalt zu einer verhältnismäßig abgeschlossen-festen machen. Die Umrisse des Menschen bleiben mit untergeordneter Metamorphose für das Erdenleben fest; die Bewegungsfähigkeiten verfestigen sich in Gewohnheiten und so weiter. -Im Ätherleib herrscht fortwährende Beweglichkeit, die ein Spiegelbild ist der sich während des menschlichen Erdenlebens ändernden Sternenkonstellationen. Schon den Veränderungen des Himmels von Tag und Nacht entsprechend, gestaltet sich der Ätherleib; aber auch den Veränderungen, die zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode des Menschen vor sich gehen.
[ 2 ] Anpassung des Ätherleibes an die Himmelskräfte widerspricht nicht der allmählichen Loslösung des Sternen-, himmels von den göttlich-geistigen Mächten, von der in ändern Betrachtungen gesprochen worden ist. Es ist richtig, in ganz alten Zeiten lebte in den Sternen Götterwille und Götterintelligenz. In den späteren Zeiten sind diese in das «Berechenbare» übergegangen. Die Götter wirken nicht mehr durch das, was ihr Werk geworden ist, auf den Menschen. Aber der Mensch gerät allmählich durch seinen Ätherleib in ein eigenes Verhältnis zu den Sternen, wie er durch seinen physischen Leib in ein solches zur Erdenschwere gelangt.
[ 3 ] Was der Mensch sich einfügt, wenn er zur Geburt auf Erden aus der Geistwelt herabsteigt, seinen Ätherleib, der in sich die außerirdischen kosmischen Kräfte aufnimmt, das wird in dieser zweiten Periode durch die Hierarchie der Archangeloi geschaffen.
[ 4 ] Ein Wesentliches, das da der Mensch durch diese Hierarchie bekommt, ist die Zugehörigkeit zu einer Gruppe von Menschen auf Erden. Die Menschen sind über die Erde hin differenziert. Man hat, indem man in diese zweite Periode zurückschaut, nicht die heutige Rassen- und Völkerdifferenzierung vor sich, sondern eine etwas andere, eine mehr geistige. Eine solche, die davon herrührt, daß auf die verschiedenen Orte der Erde die Sternenkräfte in verschiedenen Konstellationen auftreffen. Auf der Erde, in Land- und Wasserverteilung, in Klima, in Pflanzenwuchs und so weiter lebt ja der Sternenhimmel. Insoferne sich der Mensch an diese Verhältnisse, die auf der Erde als Himmelsverhältnisse sind, anpassen muß, gehört diese Anpassung in den Ätherleib, und dessen Gestaltung ist eine Schöpfung des Chores der Archangeloi.
[ 5 ] Nun aber treten gerade während dieser zweiten Periode die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Mächte in einer besonderen Art in das Menschenleben herein. Dieses Hereintreten ist notwendig, trotzdem es zunächst so erscheint, als ob es den Menschen unter seine Wesenheit herabdrücken würde.
[ 6 ] Der Mensch muß, wenn er im Erdenleben Selbstbewußtsein entwickeln soll, von der göttlich-geistigen Welt, aus der er ursprünglich hervorgegangen ist, in einem stärkeren Maße loskommen, als dies durch diese Welt selbst geschehen kann. Es geschieht in der Zeit, da die Erzengel an ihm wirken, weil da die Verbindung mit der Geistwelt nicht mehr eine so feste ist, wie sie während des Wirkens der Archai an ihm war. Den mehr geistigen Kräften, die von den Erzengeln ausgehen, sind Luzifer und Ahriman mehr gewachsen als den stärkeren der Archai.
[ 7 ] Es wird von den luziferischen Mächten die Äthergestaltung mit einer stärkeren Neigung für die Sternenwelt durchsetzt, als sie haben würde, wenn nur die ursprünglich mit dem Menschen verbundenen göttlich-geistigen Mächte wirken würden. Und es wird durch die ahrimanischen Mächte die physische Gestaltung stärker in die Erdenschwere verstrickt, als es geschehen würde, wenn diese Mächte nicht wirken könnten.
[ 8] Dadurch wird in den Menschen der Keim des vollen Selbstbewußtseins und des freien Willens gelegt. Wenn auch die ahrimanischen Mächte den freien Willen hassen: im Menschen bewirken sie, da sie ihn losreißen von seiner göttlichgeistigen Welt, die Keimanlage dieses freien Willens.
[ 9 ] Zunächst aber, in dieser zweiten Periode, wird, was die verschiedenen Hierarchien von den Seraphim bis zu den Erzengeln in dem Menschen bewirkt haben, mehr in den physischen und Ätherleib hineingedrückt, als es ohne luziferischen und ahrimanischen Einfluß geschehen könnte. Ohne diesen Einfluß bliebe die Wirkung der Hierarchien mehr im Astralleib und im Ich.
[ 10 ] Dadurch entsteht nicht jene mehr geistige, von den Erzengeln angestrebte Gruppierung der Menschheit über die Erde hin.
[ 11 ] In seinem Eingedrücktsein in den physischen und Ätherleib werden die geistigen Kräfte in ihr Gegenteil gewandelt. Es entsteht statt der mehr geistigen Differenzierung die nach Rassen und Völkern.
[ 12 ] Ohne den luziferischen und ahrimanischen Einfluß sähen sich die Menschen auf Erden vom Himmel herunter differenziert. Die Gruppen verhielten sich zueinander in ihrem Leben wie Wesen, die Geistiges willig in Liebe einander geben und voneinander nehmen. In Rassen und Völkern erscheint die Erdenschwere durch den Leib des Menschen; in der geistigen Gruppierung wäre ein Spiegelbild der göttlich-geistigen Welt erschienen.
[ 13 ] Mit alle dem mußte die spätere volle Selbstbewußtheit in der menschlichen Entwickelung schon vorher veranlagt werden. Das bedingte wieder, daß zwar gemildert, aber doch in einer gewissen Form die uralte Menschendifferenzierung erhalten blieb, die bestand, als der Mensch einst überging von der Hierarchie der Exusiai an diejenige der Archai.
[ 14 ] Der Mensch hat wie in einer kosmischen Schule dieses Entwickelungsstadium empfindend-anschauend erlebt. Er hat zwar noch nicht ein Wissen davon entwickelt, daß dies eine wesentliche Vorbereitung für seine spätere Selbstbewußtheit sei. Aber das empfindende Anschauen seiner Entwickelungskräfte damals war doch wichtig für die Eingliederung der Selbstbewußtheit in Astralleib und Ich.
[ 15 ] In bezug auf das Denken ist damals dies geschehen, daß der Mensch durch die luziferischen Mächte mit der Neigung ausgestattet wurde, sich in die alten Formen des Geistigen auch weiter zu versenken und sich den neuen Formen nicht anzupassen. Denn Luzifer hat ja stets das Bestreben, für den Menschen die früheren Formen des Lebens zu bewahren.
[ 16 ] Und dadurch bildete sich das Denken des Menschen so aus, daß er allmählich in den Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt diejenige Fähigkeit ausgestaltete, die in uralten Zeiten Gedanken in ihm bildete. Damals konnte diese Fähigkeit das Geistige schauen, trotzdem sie so war wie gegenwärtig die bloße Sinnesauffassung. Denn das Physische trug damals das Geistige an seiner Oberfläche. Jetzt aber kann die von damals bewahrte Denkfähigkeit nurmehr als Sinneswahrnehmung wirken. Allmählich nahm die Fähigkeit, denkend sich zum Geistigen zu erheben, ab. Und voll trat dies erst zutage, als im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele die geistige Welt für den Menschen in gänzliche Dunkelheit gehüllt wurde. Da kam es, daß im neunzehnten Jahrhundert die besten Naturforscher, die nicht Materialisten werden konnten, sagten: uns bleibt nichts übrig, als bloß die Welt zu erforschen, die sich nach Maß, Zahl und Gewicht und durch die Sinne erforschen läßt; aber wir haben kein Recht, eine geistige Welt zu leugnen, die sich hinter dieser sinnlichen verbirgt. Also der Hinweis darauf, daß eine dem Menschen unbekannte helle Welt sein könne, wo er nur in die Finsternis starrt.
[ 17 ] Wie durch Luzifer das Denken im Menschen verschoben wurde, so durch Ahriman der Wille. Der wurde mit einer Tendenz zu einer Art von Freiheit begabt, in die er erst später hätte eintreten sollen. Diese Freiheit ist keine wirkliche, sondern die Illusion der Freiheit. In dieser Freiheits-Illusion lebte die Menschheit lange. Das gab ihr keine Möglichkeit, geistgemäß die Idee der Freiheit zu entwickeln. Man pendelte hin und her zwischen den Meinungen, der Mensch sei frei, oder auch, er sei in eine starre Notwendigkeit eingesponnen. Und als dann mit dem heraufziehenden Bewußtseinszeitalter die wirkliche Freiheit kam, da konnte man sie nicht erkennen, weil man das Erkennen allzu lange in die Illusion der Freiheit eingesponnen hatte.
[ 18 ] Alles, was sich in diesem zweiten Stadium der Entwickelung der Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in das Wesen des Menschen eingesenkt hat, das trug er als kosmische Erinnerung in das dritte Stadium hinein, in dem er noch gegenwärtig lebt. Er steht in diesem Stadium zu der Hierarchie der Angeloi in einem ähnlichen Verhältnis, wie er während des zweiten zu derjenigen der Archangeloi gestanden hat. Nur ist das Verhältnis zu den Angeloi so, daß durch sie die volle selbständige Individualität zustande kommt. Denn die Angeloi — jetzt nicht der Chor, sondern einer für einen Menschen - beschränken sich darauf, das rechte Verhältnis der Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt und der Erdenleben zu bewirken.
[ 19 ] Eine zunächst merkwürdige Tatsache ist diese, daß für den einzelnen Menschen im zweiten Stadium seiner Entwickelung der Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt die ganze Hierarchie der Archangeloi wirkt. Später fällt dieser Hierarchie die Lenkung der Volksstämme zu. Und da ist für ein Volk ein Erzengel als Volksgeist. In den Rassen bleiben die Urkräfte tätig. Und wieder wirkt für eine Rasse ein Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Urkräfte als Rassengeist.
[ 20 ] So enthält der gegenwärtige Mensch auch in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt die kosmische Erinnerung an vorangehende Stadien dieses Erlebens. Und auch da, wo in der physischen Welt Geistgeleitetes in der Art auftritt, wie in Rassen und Völkern, ist diese kosmische Erinnerung deutlich da.
Goetheanum, Jahreswende 1925.
Leitsätze Nr. 150 bis 152
(25. Januar 1925)
(Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Betrachtung, zweiter Teil: Was offenbart sich, wenn man in die wiederholten Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt zurückschaut? )
[ 21 ] 150. In einer zweiten Periode der Entwickelung der Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt tritt der Mensch in den Bereich der Archangeloi. Während derselben wird der Keim zur späteren Selbstbewußtheit in das Seelische gelegt, nachdem er in der Formung der Menschengestalt in der ersten Periode veranlagt worden ist.
[ 22 ] 151. Der Mensch wird während dieser zweiten Periode durch die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Einflüsse tiefer in das Physische gedrängt, als es ohne diese Einflüsse geschehen würde.
[ 23 ] 152. In der dritten Periode gelangt der Mensch in den Bereich der Angeloi, die aber nur in Astralleib und Ich ihren Einfluß geltend machen. Diese Periode ist die gegenwärtige. Was in den beiden ersten Perioden geschehen ist, lebt inderMenschenentwickelung fort und erklärt die Tatsache, daß innerhalb des Zeitalters der Bewußtseinsseele (im neunzehnten Jahrhundert) der Mensch in die geistige Welt wie in eine völlige Finsternis hineinstarrt.
Second part of the contemplation: What is revealed when one looks back into the previous lives between death and new birth?
[ 1 ] In a second period, the human being passes from the realm of the Archai into that of the Archangeloi. However, he is not as physically and spiritually connected to them as he was previously to the Archai. His connection with the Archangeloi hierarchy is more spiritual. But it is so intimate that for this time one cannot yet speak of man being detached from the divine-spiritual world. The archangel hierarchy gives man that for his etheric body which corresponds to the form in the physical body, which he owes to the Archai. Just as the physical body is adapted to the form of the earth in order to be the bearer of self-consciousness on it, so the etheric body is adapted to the extraterrestrial cosmic forces. The earth lives in the physical body, and the starry world lives in the etheric body. What man carries within himself of inner forces in order to be on earth in such a way that he simultaneously snatches himself from the earth with posture, movement and gesture, he owes to the creation of the archangels in his etheric body. Just as the earthly forces can live in the physical body through its creation, so the forces that flow towards the earth from all sides from the cosmos live in the etheric body. The earth forces that live in the physically appearing form are those that make the form a relatively closed and solid one. The outlines of the human being remain fixed with subordinate metamorphosis for life on earth; the faculties of movement solidify into habits and so on. -There is constant mobility in the etheric body, which is a reflection of the changing constellations of the stars during human life on earth. The etheric body is already shaped according to the changes of day and night in the heavens, but also according to the changes that take place between the birth and death of the human being.
[ 2 ] Adaptation of the etheric body to the celestial forces does not contradict the gradual detachment of the starry heavens from the divine-spiritual powers, which has been spoken of in the change considerations. It is true that in very ancient times the will of the gods and the intelligence of the gods lived in the stars. In later times, these have passed over into the "calculable". The gods no longer have an effect on man through what has become their work. But man gradually enters into his own relationship with the stars through his etheric body, just as he enters into such a relationship with earthly gravity through his physical body.
[ 3 ] What man incorporates when he descends from the spirit world to be born on earth, his etheric body, which receives into itself the extra-terrestrial cosmic forces, is created in this second period by the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi.
[ 4 ] An essential thing that the human being receives through this hierarchy is the affiliation to a group of people on earth. People are differentiated across the earth. Looking back into this second period, we do not have before us today's differentiation of races and peoples, but a somewhat different, more spiritual one. One that stems from the fact that the star forces impinge on the various places on earth in different constellations. On the earth, in the distribution of land and water, in the climate, in plant growth and so on, the starry sky lives. In so far as man must adapt to these conditions, which are on earth as celestial conditions, this adaptation belongs to the etheric body, and its formation is a creation of the choir of the Archangeloi.
[ 5 ] But it is precisely during this second period that the Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers enter human life in a special way. This entry is necessary, even though at first it appears as if it would push man below his essence.
[ 6 ] If man is to develop self-consciousness in earthly life, he must detach himself from the divine-spiritual world from which he originally emerged to a greater extent than this can happen through this world itself. It happens at the time when the archangels work on him, because the connection with the spiritual world is no longer as strong as it was during the work of the Archai on him. Lucifer and Ahriman are more equal to the more spiritual forces emanating from the archangels than the stronger ones of the archai.
[ 7 ] It is through the Luciferic powers that the etheric design is imbued with a stronger inclination for the starry world than it would have if only the divine-spiritual powers originally connected with man were at work. And it is through the ahrimanic powers that the physical design becomes more entangled in the earthly gravity than would happen if these powers could not work.
[ 8] Through this the seed of full self-consciousness and free will is laid in man. Even if the ahrimanic powers hate free will: in man they cause the germination of this free will by tearing him away from his divine-spiritual world.
[ 9 ] First, however, in this second period, what the various hierarchies from the seraphim to the archangels have brought about in man is more pressed into the physical and etheric body than could happen without Luciferic and Ahrimanic influence. Without this influence, the effect of the hierarchies would remain more in the astral body and in the ego.
[ 10 ] This does not result in the more spiritual grouping of humanity across the earth that the archangels are striving for.
[ 11 ] In its being pressed into the physical and etheric body, the spiritual forces are transformed into their opposite. Instead of the more spiritual differentiation, that of races and peoples emerges.
[ 12 ] Without the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influence, people on earth would see themselves differentiated from heaven. The groups would behave towards each other in their lives like beings who willingly give and take spiritual things from each other in love. In races and peoples, the gravity of the earth would appear through the human body; in the spiritual grouping, a mirror image of the divine-spiritual world would appear.
[ 13 ] With all this, the later full self-consciousness in human development had to be predisposed beforehand. This again meant that the ancient human differentiation, which existed when man once passed from the hierarchy of the Exusiai to that of the Archai, was preserved in a certain form, albeit in a milder form.
[ 14 ] Man has experienced this stage of development as if in a cosmic school of feeling and perception. He has not yet developed the knowledge that this is an essential preparation for his later self-consciousness. But the sentient observation of his developmental powers at that time was nevertheless important for the integration of self-consciousness into the astral body and ego.
[ 15 ] With regard to thinking, this happened at that time, that man was endowed by the Luciferic powers with the tendency to sink further into the old forms of the spiritual and not to adapt to the new forms. For Lucifer always endeavors to preserve the former forms of life for man.
[ 16 ] And thus man's thinking developed in such a way that in the lives between death and new birth he gradually developed the ability that formed thoughts in him in ancient times. At that time this faculty could see the spiritual, even though it was like the mere sense perception at present. For the physical then carried the spiritual on its surface. Now, however, the ability to think that was preserved at that time can only function as sensory perception. Gradually the ability to rise to the spiritual through thinking diminished. And this only became fully apparent when, in the age of the consciousness soul, the spiritual world was shrouded in complete darkness for man. Then it happened that in the nineteenth century the best naturalists, who could not become materialists, said: nothing remains for us but to investigate only the world which can be investigated by measure, number and weight and through the senses; but we have no right to deny a spiritual world which is hidden behind this sensuous one. Hence the hint that there could be a bright world unknown to man where he only stares into the darkness.
[ 17 ] As Lucifer shifted the thinking in man, so Ahriman shifted the will. It was endowed with a tendency towards a kind of freedom that it should only have entered later. This freedom is not real but the illusion of freedom. Mankind lived in this illusion of freedom for a long time. This gave it no opportunity to develop the idea of freedom in a spiritual way. People oscillated back and forth between the opinions that man was free or that he was spun into a rigid necessity. And when real freedom came with the dawning age of consciousness, it could not be recognized because for too long, cognition had been spun into the illusion of freedom.
[ 18 ] Everything that sank into the being of man in this second stage of the development of life between death and a new birth, he carried as a cosmic memory into the third stage, in which he still lives at present. In this stage he stands in a similar relationship to the Hierarchy of the Angeloi as he stood to that of the Archangeloi during the second. Only the relationship to the Angeloi is such that full independent individuality comes about through them. For the Angeloi - now not the choir, but one for one human being - confine themselves to bringing about the right relationship of life between death and new birth and earthly life.
[ 19 ] An initially curious fact is that for the individual human being in the second stage of his development of the lives between death and new birth the whole hierarchy of the Archangeloi is at work. Later this hierarchy is responsible for the guidance of the tribes. And there is an archangel for a people as the spirit of the people. The elemental forces remain active in the races. And again, for a race, a being from the hierarchy of the elemental forces acts as a racial spirit.
[ 20 ] So the present human being also contains the cosmic memory of previous stages of this experience in the life between death and new birth. And this cosmic memory is also clearly present wherever spirit-led phenomena occur in the physical world, such as in races and peoples.
Goetheanum, turn of the year 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 150 to 152
(January 25, 1925)
(With reference to the previous reflection, second part: What is revealed when one looks back into the repeated lives between death and new birth? )
[ 21 ] 150. In a second period of the development of the lives between death and new birth, man enters the realm of the Archangeloi. During this period the germ of later self-consciousness is laid in the soul, after it has been predisposed in the formation of the human form in the first period.
[ 22 ] 151 During this second period, man is pushed deeper into the physical by the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences than would happen without these influences.
[ 23 ] 152 In the third period the human being enters the realm of the Angeloi, who, however, only exert their influence in the astral body and the ego. This period is the present one. What happened in the first two periods lives on in the development of man and explains the fact that within the age of the consciousness soul (in the nineteenth century) man stares into the spiritual world as into a complete darkness.