holy teachers of India, the great teachers of the first post-Atlantean
or Indian civilization, which unfolded itself in Southern Asia. When the
Atlantean catastrophe was over, and the physiognomy of the earth had
changed, so that the new conformation of Asia, Europe and Africa had
evolved in the Eastern hemisphere, the civilization led by the ancient
great teachers of India began. This was before the time we have mentioned
as reported in ancient records. The man of to-day is apt to get quite
a wrong idea about these teachers. If, for example, one of the great
Indian teachers were to be confronted with an educated man of the present
day, the latter would gaze upon him with astonishment, and perhaps say,
“Is that a great teacher? I should never have thought it.” For using
the words “clever” or “learned” in the sense in which modern people of
culture do, the holy teachers of ancient India had nothing clever to say.
They were, in the present sense of the words, simple, homely people,
who would have answered even questions of everyday life in the simplest
fashion possible. And there were many periods during which scarcely
anything could be elicited from them but what would seem, to an educated
man of to-day, most insignificant. But on the other hand, there were
certain times when these holy teachers were revealed as something more
than simple, homely men. At these times they were obliged to be together
to the number of seven, because what each individual was able to feel
had to combine harmoniously with the other six teachers, as though in a
consonance of seven sounds. For it was then possible for each one to see
something according to his particular gift and degree of development,
so that from the harmony of the separate parts which each individual
was able to see, there arose what comes down to us from ancient times
as primeval wisdom, that is supposing we know how to decipher the real
occult records. These records are not the revelations of the Vedas,
however much we may admire them. What the Indian holy teachers taught
is of much earlier date than the composition of the Vedas, and it is
only a feeble echo of their wisdom which lies before us in these mighty
works. But when each of these men was in the presence of a superhuman
predecessor of humanity, was gazing clairvoyantly into higher worlds
and listening clairaudiently to what was being taught through that
predecessor, it was as though the sun shone out of their eyes. What
they were then able to say worked with overpowering force on their
environment, so that all who heard them knew that it was not human life
or wisdom that was speaking, but that _gods_, superhuman beings, were
influencing human civilization.
The ancient civilizations had their rise in this sounding through to
mankind of the knowledge of the gods. Only by degrees in post-Atlantean
times was the door, so to speak, closed into the divine spiritual world
which in the Atlantean period had still been wide open for the human
soul. And in the various countries and nations it was felt that man was
thrown ever more and more on his own resources. What is revealed in the
case of a child appears in humanity at large in a different way. The
divine spiritual world is first diffused into the unconscious soul of a
child, and the soul works upon the formation of the body. Then comes the
moment at which the child learns to feel itself an “ego” and this is the
moment to which its memory goes back in later life. This is what makes
it possible to say that the wisest of men may still learn something from
the soul of a child. From this point, however, the individual is left to
himself. The ego-consciousness comes into being, and everything combines
to make it possible for him to remember his experiences.
So, too, in the life of nations there came a time when they began to
feel themselves more shut off from the divine inspiration of their early
forefathers. Just as the child becomes gradually shut off from the
aura that floats about its head in its earliest years, so in the life
of nations did the divine ancestors withdraw themselves more and more,
and mankind was left to its own research and to its own knowledge. When
history speaks in this manner, the fact of the guidance of humanity
is realized. “Menes” was the Egyptian name of him who inaugurated the
first “human” civilization, and it is at the same time hinted that man
thereby became liable to error, for thenceforward he was left to look
for guidance to the instrument of his brain. That man was liable to fall
into error is symbolically indicated by the fixing of the date of the
construction of the labyrinth at the time when humanity was abandoned by
the gods; for the labyrinth is an image of the convolutions of the brain
as the instrument of man’s own thoughts,--windings in which the thinker
is able to lose himself. The Orientals called man as a thinking being
“Manas” and Manu stands for the first great thinker. The Greeks called
the first organizer of the human principle of thought Minos, and with him
is associated the myth of the labyrinth, because it was felt that, since
his time, mankind had gradually passed from the direct guidance of the
gods to a guidance in which the “ego” feels the influence of the higher
spirit-world in a different way.
Besides those predecessors of man, the true supermen, who had completed
their humanity on the Moon and had become angels, there are, however,
other beings who did not perfect their evolution on the Moon. The
beings called dhyanic in Oriental mysticism and angelic in Christian
esotericism, consummated their evolution on the ancient Moon, and when
man began his earthly career were already a stage higher than he was.
But there were other beings who had not finished their evolution on the
ancient Moon, any more than the higher categories of Luciferic beings had
finished theirs. When the earth-state of our planet began, man as we have
described him was not the only being there. He felt also the inspiration
of divinely-spiritual beings; otherwise, like a child, he would have been
unable to progress. Accordingly, besides these childlike human beings,
there must have been also present on the earth, acting through them,
beings who had completed their evolution on the Moon. But between these
and man there were yet other beings who had not finished their evolution
on the Moon,--beings of a higher order than man, because, even as early
as the ancient Moon-period, they might have become angels or dhyanic
beings. At that time, however, they had not come to full maturity. They
were angels in a backward state, yet they far out-distanced man as
regards everything which man called his own. Generally speaking, they are
beings occupying the lowest grade in the ranks of Luciferic spirits. They
hold a middle position between men and angels, and with them begins the
kingdom of Luciferic spirits.
Now it is extremely easy to get an erroneous idea about these spirits.
We might ask why did the divine spirits, the vicegerents of good, allow
them to fall short, and thereby admit the Luciferic principle into
humanity? And it might further be objected on this ground, that surely
the good gods turned everything to good. This question is obvious. And
another misunderstanding which might arise, is expressed in the idea
that these are “evil” spirits. Both ideas are merely misunderstandings:
for these spirits are by no means purely “evil,” although the origin of
evil in human nature is due to them, but they stand midway between man
and superman. In a certain way they are more perfect than men. In all
the qualities which human beings have to acquire for themselves, these
spirits have attained a high standard, and they only differ from man’s
predecessors described above in being able to incarnate in human bodies
whilst man is being evolved on earth. This is because they did not
consummate their humanity on the Moon.
The dhyanic or angelic beings proper, who are the great inspirers
of humanity, and to whom the Egyptian referred as being still their
teachers, did not appear in human bodies, but could only manifest
themselves _through_ human beings. On the other hand, the beings in a
mid-position between men and angels were still able, in very early
times, to incarnate in human bodies. Hence amongst the human race
inhabiting the earth in the Lemurian and Atlantean periods, we find
people whose innermost soul-nature was that of an angel in a backward
state; _i.e._, in the ancient Lemurian and Atlantean periods, there
were not only ordinary people going about the earth, who through their
successive incarnations were to arrive at what corresponds to the ideal
of humanity, but beings who only outwardly appeared like the others. They
had to bear a human body, for the outward form of a human being in the
flesh is dependent on earthly conditions. Especially in the more ancient
times did it happen that beings belonging to the lowest category of
Luciferic individualities were present amongst men. And so at the same
time when the angel-beings were working on human civilization through
man, Lucifer-beings were also incarnated and founding human civilizations
in various places. And when in the old folk-legends it is related that in
some place there lived a great man who was the founder of a civilization,
we are not to understand that a Lucifer-being was incarnated who must
necessarily have been the vehicle of evil, for, on the contrary, human
civilization received countless blessings through those beings.
Now it is known through occult science that in ancient times,
particularly in the Atlantean period, there existed a kind of primitive
human language, a manner of speech which was similar all over the
earth, because “speech” in those days came much more out of the depths
of the soul than it does now. This may be gathered from the following:
In Atlantean times, people felt all outward impressions in such a way
that if the soul wished to express anything _outward_ by a sound, it
was constrained to use a _consonant_. What therefore existed in space
pressed for imitation in a consonant. The blowing of the wind, the murmur
of the waves, the shelter given by a house were felt, and imitated by
man in consonants. On the other hand, the sorrow or joy which was felt
_inwardly_, or even what in another being might be feeling, was imitated
in a _vowel_. From this we can see that the soul became one, in speech,
with outer events or beings. The following instance is taken from the
Akashic Records: A man drew near a hut, which was arched in the ancient
fashion and gave shelter and protection to a family. He noticed this, and
expressed the protective arch by a consonant; and by a vowel he expressed
the fact, which he was able to _feel_, that within the hut the souls in
bodies were comfortable. Thence arose the thought, “Shelter.” “There is
a shelter for me,--shelter for human bodies.” The thought was then poured
forth in consonants and vowels, which could not be otherwise than they
were, because they were a direct impression of experience and had but one
meaning. This was the same all over the earth. It is no dream that there
was once a primitive human root-language. And, in a certain sense, the
initiates of all nations are still able to feel that language. Indeed
there are in all languages certain similar sounds which are nothing else
than the remains of that universal language.
This speech was prompted in human souls by the inspiration of the
superhuman beings, man’s true predecessors, who had perfected their
evolution on the Moon. From this it may be seen that if that evolution
alone had taken place, the entire human race would practically have
remained one great unity, and there would have been uniformity of speech
and thought all over the earth. Individuality and diversity could not
have been developed, nor at the same time could human freedom. In
order that man might become individual, cleavages had to take place in
humanity, and the difference of language in different parts of the world
is due to the work of those teachers in whom a Luciferic spirit was
incarnated. According as a particular angel-being, who had fallen short
in his evolution, was incarnated in a particular race, was he able to
instruct its people in a particular language. Thus the ability to speak
a separate language is, in all races, traceable to the illuminating
presence of these great beings, who were angels in a backward state and
stood far above the people of their immediate environment. For instance,
the beings described as the original heroes of the Greeks and other
nations, and who worked in a human form, were those in whom an angel who
had fallen short was incarnated. Therefore these beings must by no means
be characterized as entirely “evil.” On the contrary, they brought to man
that which predestined him to be a free human being all over the globe,
and they differentiated what otherwise would have constituted a uniform
whole everywhere on earth. This is not only true of languages but of many
other departments of life. Individualization, differentiation,--freedom,
we may say, comes from the beings who fell short in their Moon-evolution.
It is true that we might say that it was the purpose of the wise
government of the cosmos to bring all beings in planetary evolution to
their goal, but if this had been done in a direct way, certain things
would not have been attained. Certain beings were therefore arrested in
their development because they were to have a special mission in the
progress of humanity. Since the beings who had fulfilled their mission
on the Moon would only have been able to educate a uniform human race,
beings who had fallen short on the Moon were set over against them, and
it thereby became possible for these backward ones to turn into good what
had been really a fault on their part.
This opens up the question, why do evil, wickedness, imperfection and
disease exist in the world? This problem should be looked at from
the point of view from which we have just considered the imperfect
angel-beings. Everything which at any time exhibits imperfection or
backwardness will nevertheless be turned into good in the course of
evolution. It is of course unnecessary to mention that such a truth as
this affords no justification for bad actions on man’s part.
Thus we already have an answer to the question, why does a wise
Providence allow certain beings to lag behind and not reach their goal?
This happens just because there will be good reason for it at the time
following upon the formation of such a purpose. For it was when nations
were not yet able to guide and govern themselves that the teachers
of particular periods and individuals arose. And all the different
race-teachers, Cadmus, Cheops, Pelops, Theseus, etc., are, in one
aspect, angel-beings in the depths of their souls. From this it appears
that in this respect also, humanity is really subject to direction and
guidance.
Now at every stage of evolution there are beings who lag behind and do
not attain the possible goal. Let us then look once more at the ancient
Egyptian civilization, which ran its course thousands of years ago in
the Nile valley. Superhuman teachers were manifested to the Egyptians,
who said that these teachers guided mankind like gods. At the same time,
however, other beings were also at work, who had only half or partially
attained the angelic stage. Now we must fully understand that in ancient
Egypt man reached a definite stage of evolution, _i.e._, that the souls
of people of the present day had attained a definite stage in the
Egyptian period. But it is not only man who gains by letting himself be
guided; the beings also who direct and guide him attain thereby something
which furthers their evolution. For instance, an angel is something
_more_ after he has guided humanity for a while, than he was before that
guidance began. His guiding work helps him to progress, and this is true
not only of one who has completed his evolution as an angel, but also of
one who has lagged behind. All beings are able continually to advance;
everything is in a state of perpetual development; but at every stage
beings are left behind. Thus, in accordance with what has just been
said, there can be distinguished in the ancient Egyptian civilization
the divine leaders or angels, the semi-divine leaders who did not quite
attain the angelic stage, and the men. But certain beings in the ranks
of the angels again lag behind, _i.e._, they do not bring all their
powers into expression when guiding humanity, but remain behind as angels
during the ancient Egyptian stage of civilization. Similarly some of the
incomplete angels lag behind. Thus whilst men below were progressing,
certain individuals of the beings above, the dhyanic spirits or angels,
fell behind in their evolution. When the Egypto-Chaldæic civilization
came to an end, and the Graeco-Roman period began, certain guiding
spirits from the former period, who had fallen behind in their evolution,
were present. But they could not use their powers, for other angels or
half-angelic beings had replaced them, and that meant that their own
evolution was at a standstill.
Hence there comes under our notice a category of beings who might have
used their powers during the Egyptian period, but did not at that time
use them fully. In the ensuing Graeco-Roman period they were not able
to use them, because then they were replaced by other guiding spirits,
and all the conditions of that time made their intervention impossible.
But just as the beings who had not reached the angelic stage on the old
Moon were afterwards allotted the task of once more actively interposing
in human evolution during the earth-period, so also the beings who as
guiding spirits in the Egypto-Chaldæic civilization had stopped short in
their development, afterwards received the mission, as beings who had
lagged behind, of again intervening in civilization. Thus we shall be
able to watch a later period of civilization in which beings sent to be
guides are certainly there to direct the normal progress of evolution,
but in which, at the same time, other beings are intervening who were
left behind at an earlier stage, and more particularly those who fell
behind during the ancient Egyptian period. The civilization to which we
are referring is our own. We live at a time when, side by side with the
normal directors of humanity, others are interposing who were left behind
in the ancient Egyptian and Chaldæic period.
Now we have to look upon the evolution of events and beings in such a
way that occurrences in the physical world must be considered only as
effects or manifestations, the true causes of which are to be sought in
the spiritual world. On the one hand our civilization is in the main
marked by an upward movement towards spirituality, and this tendency
of certain people towards spirituality is the manifestation of the
spiritual directors of our contemporary humanity, who have attained
their own normal stage of development. In everything which tends to
lead man up to the great spiritual wisdom-truths transmitted to us by
theosophy, these normal guides of our evolution are manifested. But the
beings out-distanced during the Egypto-Chaldæic civilization are also
affecting the tendencies of our age. They are manifested in much that is
being thought and done at the present time, and will again be manifested
in what lies in the near future. They are revealed in everything which
gives a materialistic stamp to our civilization, and may often be seen
even in aspirations after spiritual things. In our age we are virtually
experiencing a revival of Egyptian civilization. The beings who are to
be looked upon as the invisible directors of what takes place in the
physical world, fall accordingly into two classes. The first includes
those spiritual individualities who have passed through their own normal
course of development up to the present time. Hence they were able to
interpose in the guidance of our civilization, whilst the directors of
the preceding Graeco-Roman period were gradually finishing their task
of guiding civilization during the first thousand years of Christianity.
The second class, who work simultaneously with the first class of beings,
are spiritual individualities who did not complete their evolution
during the Egypto-Chaldæic civilization. They were obliged to remain
inactive during the ensuing Graeco-Roman period, but are now able to
resume their activity because our present age has points of resemblance
to the Egypto-Chaldæic period. It thus comes about that many things
arise in contemporary humanity which look like a revival of ancient
Egyptian forces, but there is also much which is like a materialistic
resuscitation of forces which then worked spiritually. To illustrate
this, we may point to an example of the way in which ancient Egyptian
knowledge has been revived in our days.
Let us think of Kepler. He was quite possessed by the feeling of the
harmony of the cosmos, and this idea was expressed in his important
mathematical laws of the mechanism of the heavens, the so-called laws of
Kepler. These are outwardly very dry and abstruse, but in Kepler they
were the outcome of an understanding of the harmony of the universe. We
may read in Kepler’s writings that in order to discover what he did,
he was obliged to go to the sacred Egyptian mysteries, purloin their
temple-vessels, and by this means bring knowledge into the world, the
importance of which to humanity would only be known in later times.
This utterance of Kepler’s is by no means an empty phrase, but contains
a dim consciousness of a revival of what he had learned in the Egyptian
period, during a former incarnation. We may certainly entertain the
idea that Kepler assimilated the ancient Egyptian wisdom during one of
his previous lives, and that it reappears in his soul in a new form,
adapted to a later age. That a materialistic impulse should enter our
civilization through the Egyptian spirit is quite intelligible, for
Egyptian spirituality was wrapped in a vigorous materialism, which found
expression, for instance, in their embalming the physical bodies of the
dead. This meant that they attached value to the preservation of the
physical body. This has come down to us from the Egyptian period in a
different form, but in one corresponding to our time. The same forces
which had not then run their course, affect our age, but in a different
way. The temper of mind which embalmed dead bodies gave rise to that
which idolizes the merely material. The Egyptian embalmed dead bodies
and thereby preserved what he accounted valuable. He thought that the
development of the soul after death was connected with the preservation
of the physical, material body. The modern anatomist dissects what he
sees, and thinks that in this way he understands the laws of the human
organism. Thus in our modern science there are living the forces of
the ancient Egyptian and Chaldæic world, which then were progressive
forces, but which now represent what has lagged behind, and which must
be recognized for what they are, if a correct estimate is to be formed
of the character of the present time. These forces will injure a man of
the present day if he does not know their real significance. He will take
no harm from them, but will turn them to good account, if he knows their
effect and thereby brings himself into the right relation to them. They
have their value, for without them we should not have the present great
achievements in technique, industries, etc. They are forces belonging to
Luciferic beings of the lowest stage, and the danger lies in the fact
that if they are not recognized aright, the materialistic impulses of
the present time are thought to be the only possible ones, and the other
forces, which lead up to the spiritual world, are not seen. For this
reason any clear diagnosis is certain to discern two currents of thought
in the present age.