,the ,spiritual ,guidance of ,man and of ,mankind ,,by ,,dr4 ,,rudolf ,,steiner ,,edited ,,by ,h4 ,,collison ,,the ,,authorized ,,english ,,translation ,,copyright1 #aiae1 ,,by ,h4 ,,collison ,the copyright1 the publishing rights1 and the editorial responsibility for the translation of the works of ,rudolf ,steiner1 ,ph4,d41 with the exception of those already under the editorial supervision of ,max ,gysi1 are now vested in ,mr4 ,harry ,collison1 ,m4,a41 ,oxon4 ,,preface ,in the following pages are reproduced the contents of some lectures delivered by me at ,copenhagen in ,june last1 in connection with the ,general ,meeting of the ,scandinavian ,theosophical ,society4 ,what is here set forth was therefore spoken to an audience acquainted with occult science1 or theosophy4 ,a similar acquaintance is assumed in this work4 ,it is throughout based on the foundations given in my books1 8,theosophy0 and 8,an ,outline of ,occult ,science40 ,to anyone taking up the present work who is unacquainted with these premises1 it must needs appear the strange outpouring of mere fancy1 but the above-named books point out the scientific basis of everything stated in this one4 ,i have completely re-written the shorthand report of the lectures2 nevertheless it has been my intention on publishing them1 to preserve the character given in oral delivery4 ,this is specially mentioned because it is in general my opinion that the form of work intended for reading should be quite different from that used in speaking4 ,i have expressed this principle of mine in all my earlier writings1 as far as they were intended for the press4 ,if in this instance ,i have worked out my subject in closer connection with the spoken word1 it is because ,i have reasons for letting the work appear at this juncture1 and an adaptation completely in accordance with the above rule would take a great deal of time4 ,,rudolf ,,steiner4 ,munich1 ,august #bj1 #aiaa4 ,the ,spiritual ,guidance of ,man and of ,mankind ,,lecture ,i4 ,a man reflecting on his own nature soon becomes conscious that there is within him a second and more powerful self than the one bounded by his thoughts1 his feelings and the fully-conscious impulses of his will4 ,he becomes aware that he is subject to that second self1 as to a higher power4 ,it is true that at first he will feel it to be a lower entity as compared with the one limited by his intelligent and fully-conscious soul1 with its inclinations towards the ,good and ,true4 ,and at first he will strive to overcome that lower entity4 ,but closer self-examination may reveal something else about the second self4 ,if we often1 in the course of our lives1 make a kind of survey of our acts and experiences1 we make a singular discovery about ourselves4 ,and the older we are1 the more significant do we think that discovery4 ,if we ask ourselves what we did or said at a particular period of our lives1 it turns out that we have done very many things which are only really understood in later years4 ,seven or eight1 or perhaps twenty years ago1 we did certain things1 and we know quite well that only now1 long afterwards1 is our intelligence ripe enough to understand what we did or said at that earlier period4 ,many people do not make such discoveries about themselves1 because they do not lay themselves out to do so4 ,but it is extremely profitable to hold such communion frequently with one's own soul4 ,for directly a man becomes aware that he has done things in former years which he is only now beginning to understand1 that formerly his intelligence was not ripe enough to understand them1--at a moment such as this1 something like the following feeling arises in the soul3 ,the man feels himself protected by a good power1 which rules in the depths of his own being2 he begins to have more and more confidence in the fact that really1 in the highest sense of the word1 he is not alone in the world1 and that everything which he understands1 and is consciously able to do1 is after all but a small part of what he really accomplished in the world4 ,if this observation is often made1 it is possible to carry out in practical life something which is very easy to see theoretically4 ,it is easy to see that we should not make much progress in life if we had to accomplish everything we have to do1 in full consciousness1 with our intelligence taking note of every circumstance affecting us4 ,in order to see this theoretically1 we have only to reflect as follows3 ,in what section of his life does a human being perform those acts which are really most important as regards his own existence8 ,when does he act most wisely for himself8 ,he does this from about the time of his birth up to that period to which his memory goes back when in later life he surveys his earthly existence4 ,if he recalls what he did three1 four or five years ago1 and then goes farther and farther back1 he comes at last to a certain point in childhood1 beyond which memory cannot go4 ,what lies beyond it may be told by parents or others1 but a man's own recollection only extends to a certain point in the past4 ,that point is the moment at which the individual felt himself to be an ego4 ,in the lives of people whose memory is limited to the normal1 there must always be such a point1 but previously to it1 the human soul has worked in the wisest possible manner on the individual1 and never afterwards1 when man has gained consciousness1 can he accomplish such vast and magnificent work on himself as he carries out1 from subconscious motives1 during the first years of childhood4 ,for we know that at birth man takes into the physical world what he has brought with him as the result of his former earthly lives4 ,when he is born1 his physical brain1 for instance1 is but a very imperfect instrument4 ,the soul has to work a finer organization into that instrument1 in order to make it the agent of everything which the soul is capable of performing4 ,in point of fact the human soul1 before it is fully conscious1 works upon the brain so as to make it an instrument for exercising all the abilities1 aptitudes1 qualities1 etc41 which appertain to the soul as the result of its former earthly lives4 ,this work on a man's own body is directed from points of view which are wiser than anything which he can subsequently do for himself when in possession of full consciousness4 ,moreover1 man during this period not only elaborates his brain plastically1 but has to learn three most important things for his earthly existence4 ,the first is the equilibrium of his own body in space4 ,the man of the present day entirely overlooks the meaning of this statement1 which touches upon one of the most essential differences between man and animals4 ,an animal is destined from the outset to develop its equilibrium in space in a certain way2 one animal is destined to be a climber1 another a swimmer1 etc4 ,an animal is so organized from the beginning as to be able to bear itself rightly in space1 and this is the case with all animals up to and including the mammals most resembling man4 ,if zoologists would ponder this fact1 they would lay less emphasis on the number of similar bones and muscles in man and animals1 etc41 for this is of much less account than the fact that man is not endowed at the outset with the complete equipment for his conditions of equilibrium4 ,he has first to form them out of the sum total of his being4 ,it is significant that man should have to work upon himself1 in order to make1 out of a being that cannot walk at all1 one that can walk erect4 ,it is man himself who gives himself his vertical position1 or his equilibrium in space4 ,he brings himself into relation with the force of gravitation4 ,it will obviously be easy for anyone taking a superficial view of the matter to question this statement1 with apparently good reason4 ,it may be said that man is just as much organized for his erect walk as1 for instance1 a climbing animal for climbing4 ,but more accurate observation will show that it is the peculiarity of the animal's organization that causes its position in space4 ,in man it is the soul which brings itself into relation with space and controls the organization4 ,the second thing which man teaches himself1 and that by means of the entity which proceeds from one incarnation to another as the same being1 is speech4 ,through speech he comes into relation with his fellow-men4 ,this relation makes him the vehicle of that spiritual life which interpenetrates the world primarily through man4 ,emphasis has often been laid1 with good reason1 on the fact that a human being removed1 before he could speak1 to a desert island1 and kept apart from his fellows1 would not learn to talk4 ,on the other hand1 what we receive by inheritance1 what is implanted in us for use in later years and is subject to the principles of heredity1 does not depend on a man's dwelling with his fellows4 ,for instance1 his inherited conditions oblige him to change his teeth in his seventh year4 ,if it were possible for him to grow up on a desert island1 he would still change them then4 ,but he only learns to talk1 when his soul's inner being1 i4e41 that which is carried on from one life to another1 is stimulated4 ,the germ1 however1 for the development of the larynx must be formed during the period at which man has not yet acquired his ego-consciousness4 ,before the time to which his memory goes back1 he must plant the germ for developing his larynx1 in order that this may become the organ of speech4 ,and then there is a third thing3 ,it is not so well known that man learns this of himself1 from that part of his inner being which he carries on from one incarnation to another4 ,it is the life within the world of thought itself4 ,the elaboration of the brain is undertaken because the brain is the instrument of thought4 ,at the beginning of life1 this organ is still plastic1 because the individual has to form it for himself as an instrument of thought1 in accordance with the intention of the entity which is carried on from one life to another4 ,the brain immediately after birth is1 as it was bound to be1 in accordance with the forces inherited from parents and other ancestors4 ,but the individual has to express in his thought what he is as an individual being1 in accordance with his former earthly lives4 ,therefore he must re-model the inherited peculiarities of his brain1 after birth1 when he has become physically independent of his parents and other ancestors4 ,we thus see that man accomplishes momentous things during the first years of his life4 ,he is working on himself in the spirit of the highest wisdom4 ,in point of fact1 if it were a question of his own cleverness1 it is possible that he might not accomplish what he does without that cleverness during the first period of his life4 ,why is all this accomplished in those depths of the soul which lie outside consciousness8 ,this happens because the human soul and entire being are1 during the first years of earthly life1 in much closer connection with the spiritual worlds of the higher hierarchies than is afterwards the case4 ,a clairvoyant who has gone through sufficient spiritual development to be able to witness actual spiritual events1 sees something exceedingly significant at the moment when the ego acquires consciousness1 i4e41 the earliest point to which the memory of later years goes back4 ,whereas what we call the child's aura floats round it in its earliest years like a wonderful human and superhuman power1 and1 being really the higher part of the child1 is everywhere continued on into the spiritual world1--at the moment to which memory goes back1 this aura sinks more into the inner being of the child4 ,a human being is able to feel himself a continuous ego as far back as that point of time1 because then that which was previously in close connection with the higher worlds1 passed into his ego4 ,henceforward the consciousness is at every point brought into connection with the external world4 ,this is not the case with a very young child1 to whom things appear only as a surrounding world of dreams4 ,man works on himself by means of a wisdom which is not within him4 ,that wisdom is mightier and more comprehensive than any conscious wisdom of later years4 ,the higher wisdom becomes obscured in the human soul1 which in exchange receives consciousness4 ,the higher wisdom works from out of the spiritual world deep into the bodily part of man1 so that man is able by its means to form his brain out of spirit4 ,it is rightly said that even the wisest may learn from a child1 for in the child is working the wisdom which does not pass later into consciousness4 ,through that wisdom man has something like telephonic connection with the spiritual beings in whose world he lives between death and re-birth4 ,from that world there is something still streaming into the aura of a child1 which is1 as an individual being1 immediately under the guidance of the entire spiritual world to which it belongs4 ,spiritual forces from that world continue to flow into a child4 ,they cease so to flow at the point of time to which memory goes back4 ,it is these forces which enable a child to bring itself into a definite relation to gravitation4 ,they form the larynx1 and so mould the brain that it becomes a living instrument for the expression of thought1 feeling and will4 ,what is present in childhood to a supreme degree1 so that the individual is then working out of a self which is still in direct connection with higher worlds1 continues to some extent even in later years1 although the conditions change in the manner indicated above4 ,if at a later stage of life we feel that we did something years before which we are only now able to understand1 it is just because we previously let ourselves be guided by higher wisdom1 and only after the lapse of years have we attained to an understanding of the reasons of our conduct4 ,from all this we can feel that1 immediately after birth1 we had not escaped so very far from the world in which we were before entering upon physical existence1 and that we can never really escape from it wholly4 ,our share in higher spirituality enters our physical life and accompanies us throughout it4 ,we often feel that what is within us is not only a higher self which is gradually being evolved1 but is something higher which is there already1 and is the motive cause of our so often developing beyond ourselves4 ,all ideals and artistic creations which man is able to produce1 as well as all the natural healing forces in his own body1 by means of which he is continually able to adjust the injuries that befall him in life1--all these powers do not proceed from ordinary intellect1 but from those deeper forces which in our earliest years are at work on our equilibrium in space1 on the formation of our larynx and on the brain4 ,for these same forces are still at work in man in later years4 ,when sickness attacks us1 it is often said that external forces cannot help us1 but that our organism must develop the healing powers latent within it3 by this is meant that there is a profoundly wise activity present in humanity4 ,moreover1 it is from the same source that proceed these best forces whereby knowledge of the spiritual world is attained1 i4e41 true clairvoyance4 ,the question now suggests itself1 why do the higher forces which have been described work upon human nature only during early childhood8 ,one-half of the answer may be easily given as follows3 ,if those higher forces went on working in the same way1 man would be always a child4 ,he would not attain the full ego-consciousness4 ,from within his own being must proceed the motive power which previously worked on him from without4 ,but there is a more important reason1 which explains still more about the mysteries of human life than what has just been said1 and that is the following3 ,it is possible to learn through occult science1 that the human body1 as it exists at its present stage of evolution1 must be regarded as having arrived at its present form under different circumstances4 ,it is known to the occultist that this evolution was effected by means of the working of various forces on the sum-total of man's being2 certain forces worked on the physical body1 others on the etheric1 others on the astral body4 ,human nature has arrived at its present form through the action of those beings whom we call the ,luciferic and ,ahrimanic4 ,by their means it has1 in a certain way1 become worse than it need have been if those forces only had been active within it which proceed from the spiritual rulers of the cosmos who desire to evolve man along straight lines4 ,the causes of sorrow1 disease and even of death are to be sought in the fact that1 besides the beings who are evolving man in a straight line forwards1 there are also ruling the ,luciferic and ,ahrimanic spirits1 who are continually crossing the line of straightforward1 progressive development4 ,there is something in what man brings into existence at birth1 which is better than what he can make out of it in later life4 ,this is so1 because the ,luciferic and ,ahrimanic forces have but little influence over man during early childhood2 they are virtually only operative in what man makes out of himself by his conscious life4 ,if he were to retain in full force beyond early childhood that part of his being which is better than the rest1 he would be unable to endure its influence1 because his whole being is weakened by the opposite forces of ,lucifer and ,ahriman4 ,man's organism in the physical world is so constituted that it is only when he is1 so to speak1 as soft and pliable as a child1 that he can endure within him those direct forces of the spiritual world which operate within him during early childhood4 ,he would be shattered1 if during his later life there were still directly working in him those forces which underlie the faculty of equilibrium in space1 and the formation of the larynx and the brain4 ,those forces are so tremendous that1 if they were to go on working1 our organism would pine away under the influence of their holiness4 ,man must only have recourse to such forces for the purpose of that kind of activity which brings him into conscious connection with the supersensible world4 ,but out of this there arises a thought which is of great significance1 if rightly understood4 ,it is expressed in the ,new ,testament in the words 8,except ye become as little children1 ye cannot enter into the ,kingdom of ,heaven40 ,what then becomes manifest as man's highest ideal1 if what has just been said be rightly received8 ,surely this1--the drawing ever nearer and nearer to what we may call a conscious relation to the forces which work in man unknown to him during early childhood4 ,only it must be borne in mind that man would collapse under the power of those forces1 if they were at once to operate in his conscious life4 ,for this reason1 careful preparation is necessary for the attainment of those faculties which induce the perception of supersensible worlds4 ,the object of such preparation is to qualify man to bear what he is unable to bear in ordinary life4 99 99 99 99 99 ,now the passing of the individual through successive incarnations is of importance for the collective evolution of the human race4 ,the latter has advanced through successive lives in the past1 and is still advancing1 and parallel with it the earth too is moving forwards in its evolution4 ,the time will come when the earth will have reached the end of its career4 ,then the earthly planet will fall away as a physical entity from the sum-total of human souls1 just as the human body falls away from the spirit at death1 when1 in order to continue living1 the soul enters the spiritual realm which is adapted for it between death and re-birth4 ,when once this is realized1 it must appear as man's highest ideal to have progressed far enough at earthly death1 to be able to reap all possible benefits which may be obtained from earthly life4 ,now those forces which prevent man from being able to endure the forces working upon him during early childhood come out of the substance of the earth4 ,when this has fallen away from a human being1 the latter1 if he has attained the aim of his life1 must have advanced far enough to be able actually to give himself up1 with his whole being1 to the powers which at present are only active in man during childhood4 ,thus the object of evolution through successive earthly lives is gradually to make the whole individual1 including therefore the conscious part1 into an expression of the powers which are ruling in him under the influence of the spiritual world1--though he does not know it1--during the first years of his life4 ,the thought which takes possession of the soul after such reflections as these1 must fill it with humility1 but also with a due consciousness of the dignity of man4 ,the thought is this3 man is not alone2 there is something living within him which is constantly affording him proof that he can rise above himself to something which is already growing beyond him1 and which will go on growing from one life to another4 ,this thought can assume more and more definite form2 and in that case it affords something supremely soothing and elevating1 at the same time filling the soul with corresponding humility and modesty4 ,what is it that man has within him in this way8 ,surely a higher1 divine human being1 by whom he is able to feel himself interpenetrated1 saying to himself1 8,he is my guide within me40 ,from such a point of view1 it is not long before we arrive at the thought that by all the means in our power we should strive to be in harmony with that within our being which is wiser than conscious intelligence4 ,and we shall be referred on from the directly conscious self to an enlarged self1 in the presence of which all false pride and presumption will be extinguished and subdued4 ,this feeling develops into another1 which opens the way to accurate understanding of the nature of present human imperfection2 and the consciousness of this leads to the knowledge that man may become perfect1 if once the larger spirituality ruling within him is allowed to bear the same relation to his consciousness which it bore to the unconscious life of the soul in early childhood4 ,if it often happens that memory does not go back as far as the fourth year of a child's life1 it may nevertheless be said that the influence of the higher spirit-sphere1 in the above sense1 lasts through the first three years4 ,at the end of that span of time a child becomes capable of linking its impressions of the outer world to the ideas of its ego4 ,it is true that this coherent ego-conception can only be reckoned as existing as far back as memory extends4 ,yet we must say that virtually memory extends to the beginning of the fourth year1 only it is so weak at the beginning of distinct ego-consciousness as to be imperceptible4 ,it may therefore be granted that those higher powers which dispose of a human being in the early years of childhood can be operative for three years2 therefore man1 during the present middle period of the earth1 is so organized that he can receive these forces for only three years4 ,supposing a man now stood before us1 and that some cosmic powers could cause his ordinary ego to be removed4 7,for this purpose we must assume that it would be possible to remove from the physical1 etheric and astral bodies the ordinary ego which has gone through the incarnations with the man47 ,and now suppose that an ego could then be introduced into the three bodies which is working in connection with spiritual worlds1 what would happen to a person thus treated8 ,at the end of three years his body would necessarily be shattered4 ,something would occur1 through cosmic karma1 which would prevent the spirit-being which would be in connection with higher worlds1 from living more than three years in that body4#a ,only at the end of all his earthly lives will man have that within him which will enable him to live more than three years with that spirit-being4 ,but then1 it is true1 man will be able to say to himself1 8,not ,i1 but that ,higher ,one within me1 ,who was always there1 is now working in me40 ,till that time comes1 he is not able to say this4 ,the most he can say is that he feels that higher being1 but has not yet progressed far enough with his real1 actual human ego1 to be able to bring the other to full life within him4 ,supposing then that1 at some time in the middle earth-period1 a human organism were to come into the world1 and later in life be freed from his ego by the action of certain cosmic powers1 receiving in exchange the ego which usually only works in man during the first three years of life1 and which would be in connection with the spiritual worlds in which man exists between death and re-birth3 how long would such a person be able to live in an earthly body8 ,about three years4 ,for at the end of that time1 something would arise through cosmic karma1 which would destroy the human organism in question4 ,what is here supposed is1 however1 a historical fact4 ,the human organism which stood in the river ,jordan at ,john's baptism when the ego of ,jesus of ,nazareth left the three bodies1 contained1 after the baptism1 in complete conscious development1 that higher ,self of humanity which usually works with cosmic wisdom on a child without its knowledge4 ,at the same time1 the necessity arose that this ,self which was in connection with the higher spirit-world could only live for three years in the appropriate human organism4 ,events had then to take place which brought the earthly life of that being to a close4 ,the outer events in the life of ,christ ,jesus are to be interpreted as absolutely conditioned by the inner causes just set forth1 and present themselves as the outward expression of those causes4 ,we are now able to see the deeper connection existing between that which is man's guide in life1 which streams in upon our childhood like the dawn and is always working below the surface of our consciousness as the best part of us1 and that which once upon a time entered the whole of human evolution and was able to dwell for three years in a human frame4 ,what then is manifested in that 8higher0 ego1 which is in connection with the spiritual hierarchies1 and which in due time entered the body of ,jesus of ,nazareth8 ,this entrance being symbolically represented by the sign of the ,spirit descending in the form of a dove1 and by the words1 8,this is my well-beloved ,son1 to-day have ,i begotten him0 7for so stood the words originally74 ,if we fix our eyes upon this picture1 we are contemplating the highest human ideal4 ,for it means nothing else than that the history of ,jesus of ,nazareth is a statement of this fact3 8,the ,christ can be discerned in every human being40 ,and even if there were no ,gospels and no tradition1 to tell us that once a ,christ lived on earth1 we should yet learn through knowledge of human nature that the ,christ is living in man4 ,the recognition of the forces working in human nature during childhood is the recognition of the ,christ in man4 ,the question now arises1 does this recognition lead to the further perception of the fact that this ,christ once really dwelt on earth in a human body8 ,without bringing forward any documents1 this question may be answered in the affirmative4 ,for genuine clairvoyant knowledge of self leads the man of the present day to see that powers are to be discovered in the human soul which emanate from the ,christ4 ,these powers are at work during the first three years of childhood without any action being taken by the human being4 ,in later life they may be called into action1 if the ,christ be sought within the soul by inner meditation4 ,man was not always able1 as he is now1 to find the ,christ within himself4 ,there were times when no inner meditation could lead him to the ,christ4 ,this again we learn from clairvoyant perception4 ,in the interval between that past time when man could not find the ,christ in himself1 and the present time when he can find him1 there took place ,christ's earthly life4 ,and that life itself is the cause of man's being able to find the ,christ in himself in the manner that has been pointed out4 ,thus to clairvoyant perception the earthly life of ,christ is proved without any historical records4 ,it is just as if the ,christ had said1 8,i will be such an ideal for you human beings as1 raised to a spiritual level1 will show you that which is fulfilled in each human body40 ,in his early childhood man learns from the spirit how to walk physically1 i4e41 he is shown by the spirit his way through earthly life4 ,from the spirit he learns to speak1 i4e41 to form truth2 or in other words1 he develops the essence of truth out of sound during the first three years of his life4 ,and the life too1 which man lives on earth as an ego-being1 obtains its vital organ through what is formed in the first three years of childhood4 ,thus man learns to walk1 i4e41 to find 8the way10 he learns to present 8truth0 through his physical organism1 and he learns to bring 8life0 from the spirit into expression in his body4 ,no more significant re-interpretation seems possible of the words 8,except ye become as little children1 ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven40 ,and momentous is that saying in which the ego-being of the ,christ comes into expression thus1 8,i am the ,way1 the ,truth and the ,life40 ,just as1 unknown to a child1 the higher spirit-forces are fashioning its organism to become the bodily expression of the way1 the truth and the life1 so the spirit of man1 through being interpenetrated with the ,christ1 gradually becomes the conscious vehicle of the way1 the truth and the life4 ,he is thereby making himself1 in the course of his earthly development1 into that force which bears sway within him as a child1 when he is not consciously its vehicle4 ,this saying about the way1 the truth and the life is capable of opening the doors of eternity4 ,it sounds to man out of the depths of his soul1 if his self-knowledge is true and real4 ,such reflections as these open up1 in a double sense1 the vision of the spiritual guidance of the individual and of collective humanity4 ,as human beings we are able1 through self-knowledge1 to find the ,christ within us as the guide ,whom1 since ,his life on earth1 we can always reach1 because ,he is always in man4 ,and further1 if we apply to the historical records that we have apprehended without them1 we discover their real nature4 ,they express historically something which is revealed of itself in the depths of the soul4 ,they are therefore to be accounted as guiding humanity in the same direction as the soul itself is proceeding4 ,if we thus understand the suggestion of eternity in the words1 8,i am the way1 the truth and the life10 we cannot feel ourselves justified in asking1 8,why does a person who has passed through many incarnations always re-enter life as a child80 ,for it becomes evident that this apparent imperfection is an ever-recurring reminder of the ,highest that is in man4 ,and we cannot be reminded often enough1--at any rate each time we enter earthly life is not too often to be reminded1--of the great fact of what man really is with reference to that ,being who underlies all earthly existence1 without being touched by its imperfections4 ,it is not well to make many definitions or summaries in occult science or theosophy1 or indeed in occultism generally4 ,it is better to give a description1 and to try and call forth a feeling of what really exists4 ,on this account we are now attempting to induce a feeling of what distinguishes the first three years of human life1 and of the way in which this is related to the light that streams from the cross on ,golgotha4 ,the meaning of this feeling is that an impulse is passing through human evolution1 and that through this impulse the ,pauline saying1 8,not ,i--but the ,christ in me10 will become a fact4 ,we have only to know what man is in reality1 in order to be able to proceed from such knowledge to insight into the nature of the ,christ4 ,when once1 however1 we have arrived at the ,christ-idea through true observation of humanity1 we know that we discover the ,christ in the best way if we first look for ,him in ourselves1 and if we then return to the ,bible records1 these are for the first time rightly valued4 ,and no one prizes the ,bible more1 or more consciously1 than one who has found the ,christ in this way4 ,it is possible to imagine a being1 let us say an inhabitant of ,mars1 descending to earth1 without ever having heard of the ,christ and ,his work4 ,much that has taken place on earth would be incomprehensible to the ,martian2 much that interests people nowadays would not interest him4 ,but it would interest him to discover the central impulse of earthly evolution1 i4e41 the ,christ-idea1 as it is expressed in human nature itself4 ,one who has grasped this1 is able for the first time rightly to understand the ,bible1 for he finds expressed there in a marvellous way what he has previously observed in himself1 and he says3 ,it is not necessary to have been brought up with any special reverence for the ,gospel2 they need only be presented to me1 a fully-conscious human being1 to stand revealed in all their greatness1 by means of what ,i have learnt through occult science4 ,it is indeed not too much to say that a time will come when it will be recognized by people who have learned through occult science rightly to appreciate the contents of the ,gospels1 that these are guides of the human race in a sense which is more just to those writings than people have hitherto been to them4 ,it is only through knowledge of human nature itself that humanity will learn to see what is latent in those profound records4 ,it will then be said3 ,if there is to be found in the ,gospels that which forms an integral part of human nature1 it must have come from the people who wrote these documents on earth4 ,therefore what genuine reflection brings home to us about our own lives1--the more so the older we grow--must hold especially good with regard to those writers4 ,we ourselves have done many things which we only understand years afterwards1 and in the writers of the ,gospels may be seen people who wrote out of the higher self which works in man during childhood1 so that the ,gospels are writings emanating from the wisdom which moulds human nature4 ,man through his body is a manifestation of spirit1 and the ,gospels are such a manifestation in writing4 ,on this assumption the idea of inspiration regains its true and loftier meaning4 ,just as higher forces are at work on the brain during the first three years of childhood1 so there were higher forces from spiritual worlds impressed on the souls of the ,evangelists1 under the influence of which they wrote the ,gospels4 ,the spiritual guidance of humanity is expressed in such a fact as this4 ,for the human race must surely be guided1 if within it there are people working who write records under the influence of the same powers that are at work on the moulding of man in profound wisdom4 ,and just as the individual says or does things which he only understands at a later period of life1 so collective humanity has produced in the ,evangelists means of revelation which can only be understood by degrees4 ,the farther humanity progresses1 the greater will be the understanding of these records4 ,the individual can feel spiritual guidance within himself2 and collective humanity can feel it in those of its members who work as did the writers of the ,gospels4 ,the idea thus gained of the guidance of humanity may be extended in many directions4 ,let us suppose that a man finds disciples1--a few people who follow him4 ,such an one will soon become aware1 through genuine self-knowledge1 that the very fact of his finding disciples gives him the feeling that what he has to say does not originate with himself4 ,the case is rather this1--that spiritual powers in higher worlds wish to communicate with the disciples1 and find in the ,teacher the fitting instrument for their manifestation4 ,the thought will suggest itself to such a man3 when ,i was a child ,i worked on myself by the aid of forces proceeding from the spiritual world1 and what ,i am now able to give1 of my best1 must also proceed from higher worlds2 ,i may not look upon it as belonging to my ordinary consciousness4 ,such a man may in fact say3 something demonic1 something like a 8daimon0--using the word in the sense of a good spiritual power--is working out of a spiritual world through me on my disciples4 ,socrates felt something of this kind4 ,plato tells us that he spoke of his 8daimon0 as of the one who led and guided him4 ,many attempts have been made to explain this 8daimon0 of ,socrates1 but it can only be explained by supposing that ,socrates was able to feel something like that which results from the above reflections4 ,then we are able to understand that throughout the three or four centuries during which the ,socratic principle was active in ,greece1 a state of feeling permeated the ,greek world through ,socrates1 which prepared the way for another great event4 ,the feeling that man1 as he now is1 is not the whole of what comes through from higher worlds1--this feeling went on working4 ,the best of those in whom it was present were those who afterwards best understood the words1 8,not ,i1 but the ,christ in me40 ,for they could say to themselves3 ,socrates used to speak of a being working as a 8daimon0 from higher worlds2 the ,christ-ideal makes clear what ,socrates meant4 ,only ,socrates could not as yet speak of ,christ1 because in his time no one was able to find the ,christ-nature within himself4 ,here again we feel something of the spiritual guidance of the race1 for nothing can be established in the world without preparation4 ,why was it that ,paul found his best disciples in ,greece8 ,because the ground had been prepared there by the teaching of ,socrates and the state of feeling that has been described4 ,that is to say1 what happens in human evolution may be traced back to events which operated previously1 and made people ripe for what was afterwards to be brought to bear upon them4 ,do we not feel here how far the guiding impulse passing through human evolution extends and how at the right moment it places people where they will be best used to further evolution8 ,in such facts is manifested the guidance of the human race in a general way4 #a ,the vitality of the human organism is maintained at the transition from childhood to later life1 because the organism is capable of change at that period4 ,later in life1 it is no longer susceptible of change1 and on this account cannot continue to exist with that other ,self4 ,,lecture ,,ii4 ,if we turn our attention to what was said by the teachers and leaders of ancient ,egypt about the direction and guidance of the spiritual life of their country1 we may trace a remarkable parallel between what is manifested in the individual life of man1 and what governs human evolution as a whole4 ,it is related that when a ,greek once asked an ,egyptian1 who had guided and led his nation from ancient times onwards1 he answered1 8,in far off times of yore1 the gods ruled and taught us1 and only afterwards men came to be our leaders40 ,the ,egyptians named ,menes to the ,greeks1 as their first leader on the physical plane to be recognized as a human leader4 ,that is to say1 the directors of the ,egyptian people alleged that in earlier times the gods themselves--as ,greek records say--guided and led the ,egyptian nation4 ,such an assertion1 coming down to us from ancient times1 must1 however1 be rightly understood4 ,what did the ,egyptians mean when they said1 8,our kings and great teachers were gods08 ,the man who thus answered the question of the ,greek meant that if any one had gone back into the ancient times of the ,egyptian nation1 and had asked those people who felt something within them like a higher consciousness1 or wisdom from higher worlds1 8,who are really your teachers80 they would have answered1 8,if ,i wanted to tell you about my real teacher1 ,i should not point to such and such a person and say1 #8,that is my teacher1' but ,i should first have to put myself into a clairvoyant state1 7it is known from occult science that this was comparatively easier in ancient times than it is now17 and then ,i should find my real inspirer and teacher1 who comes to me only when the eyes of my spirit are opened40 ,for in ancient ,egypt1 beings who were not incarnated in a physical human body came down amongst men4 ,in those remote ages1 it was the gods who still ruled and taught the ,egyptians1 and by 8gods0 they understood beings who had preceded man in evolution4 ,according to occult science1 the earth passed through an earlier planetary condition1 called the 8,moon-state10 before it became 8,earth40 ,during this condition man was not yet human in the present sense of the word2 but there were on the old ,moon other beings1 not possessed of the present human form and differently constituted1 who nevertheless were then at the evolutionary stage which man has now attained on earth4 ,we may therefore say1 that on the ancient ,moon-planet which has perished1 and out of which the earth afterwards originated1 there lived beings who were man's predecessors4 ,in ,christian esoteric language they are called ,angel-beings 7,angeloi7 and the beings immediately above them--,archangels 7,archangeloi74 ,the latter were human at a still earlier period than the angels4 ,what are called angels or ,angeloi in ,christian esotericism1 and ,dhyanic beings in ,eastern mysticism1 were 8men0 during the ,moon-period4 ,now these beings1 during the present earth-period1 are a stage farther advanced than man1--those of them1 that is to say1 who completed their evolution on the ,moon4 ,only at the end of the earth's evolution will man have arrived at the stage which those beings had reached at the end of the ,moon-period4 ,when the earth-state of our planet began1 and man appeared on earth1 these beings were not able to appear in an external human form1 for the human body of flesh and blood is essentially a product of earth1 and is only adapted to the beings who are now human4 ,the beings1 who are a stage farther advanced than man1 could not be incarnated in human bodies when the earth was beginning its evolution4 ,they were only able to take a part in the government of the earth by illuminating and inspiring people in primeval times in the condition to which these attained when clairvoyant4 ,indirectly1 then1 through these clairvoyant people1 the angels intervened to guide the destinies of earth4 ,thus the ancient ,egyptians still remembered a condition of things during which the leading personalities of the nation were clearly conscious of their connection with what are called gods1 angels1 or dhyanic beings4 ,now what sort of beings were these1 who were not incarnated in a human form of flesh and blood1 but influenced mankind in the way we have described8 ,they were man's predecessors1 who had progressed beyond the human stage4 ,there is in these days much misuse of a word which may in this connection be applied in its true meaning1 the word 8,superman40 ,if we really wish to speak of 8,supermen10 it is these beings who may rightly be so called1 who were human during the ,moon-period1 the planetary stage preceding our earth and who have now outgrown humanity4 ,they were only able to appear in an etheric body to clairvoyants4 ,it was thus that they came down to earth from spiritual worlds1 and ruled there even as late as post-,atlantean times4 ,these beings had1 and still have1 the remarkable quality of not being obliged to think2 in fact1 we might even say that they cannot think at all as man does4 ,how then does man think8 ,more or less in this way4 ,he starts from a certain point and says1 8,i understand this or that10 and from that point he then tries to understand various other things4 ,if this were not the method of human thought1 school-life would not be such a difficult period for many4 ,we cannot learn mathematics in a day1 because we have to begin at a certain point1 and go slowly forwards4 ,this takes a long time4 ,we cannot survey a whole world of thought at a glance1 for human thought runs its course in time4 ,a system of thought does not enter the mind in a flash4 ,we have to make an effort1 and have to exert ourselves1 in order to find the sequence of thought4 ,the beings described above are without this human peculiarity4 ,a far-reaching train of thought comes into their minds with the same rapidity with which an animal makes up its mind that it will snatch at something which its instinct tells it is eatable4 ,instinct and reflective consciousness are in no wise distinct in these beings1 they are one and the same thing4 ,just as animals have instinct at their stage of evolution1 in their kingdom1 so these dhyanic beings or angels have direct spiritual thought and conceptions4 ,by virtue of this instinctive inner life of conception1 they are of an essentially different nature from human beings4 ,now we can easily form an idea of the impossibility of the use by these beings of a brain or physical body such as we have4 ,they have to use an etheric body1 because the human body and brain only allow of thoughts in time1 whereas these beings do not develop their thoughts in time1 but feel the wisdom that is approaching them blaze forth1 as it were1 spontaneously within them4 ,it is impossible for them to think erroneously in the sense in which man does4 ,the process of their thought is a direct inspiration4 ,hence the personalities who were able to come into contact with these superhuman or angelic beings1 were conscious that they were in the presence of unerring wisdom4 ,therefore1 even as late as in ancient ,egyptian times when the man who was the human teacher or king was in the presence of his spiritual guide1 he felt thus3 the command which he is giving1 the truth which he is enunciating1 is literally right1 and cannot be wrong4 7,this was also felt by those to whom the truths were passed on47 ,the clairvoyant guides of the human race were able to speak in such a manner that in their words people believed they were receiving exactly what came down from the spiritual world4 ,in short1 there was a direct current down from the higher spirit-hierarchies which were directing humanity4 ,thus what works on the individual in early childhood may be seen working on humanity at large in the form of the next world of spirit-hierarchies which hovers over human evolution as a whole4 ,this is the next kingdom of the angels or superhuman beings1 standing a step higher than man1 and extending directly into spiritual spheres4 ,they bring down to earth from those spheres what is worked into human civilization4 ,in the child1 it is on the formation of the body that the higher wisdom leaves its impress2 in human evolution of past ages1 it was civilization that was so matured4 ,thus the ,egyptians1 who described themselves as being in connection with divinity1 felt that the soul of humanity was open to the action of spirit hierarchies4 ,just as the soul of a child opens its aura to the hierarchies up to the time mentioned in the preceding pages1 so1 through its work1 did the whole of humanity open its world to the hierarchies with which it was connected4 ,this connection was most important in those teachers whom we call the holy teachers of ,india1 the great teachers of the first post-,atlantean or ,indian civilization1 which unfolded itself in ,southern ,asia4 ,when the ,atlantean catastrophe was over1 and the physiognomy of the earth had changed1 so that the new conformation of ,asia1 ,europe and ,africa had evolved in the ,eastern hemisphere1 the civilization led by the ancient great teachers of ,india began4 ,this was before the time we have mentioned as reported in ancient records4 ,the man of to-day is apt to get quite a wrong idea about these teachers4 ,if1 for example1 one of the great ,indian teachers were to be confronted with an educated man of the present day1 the latter would gaze upon him with astonishment1 and perhaps say1 8,is that a great teacher8 ,i should never have thought it40 ,for using the words 8clever0 or 8learned0 in the sense in which modern people of culture do1 the holy teachers of ancient ,india had nothing clever to say4 ,they were1 in the present sense of the words1 simple1 homely people1 who would have answered even questions of everyday life in the simplest fashion possible4 ,and there were many periods during which scarcely anything could be elicited from them but what would seem1 to an educated man of to-day1 most insignificant4 ,but on the other hand1 there were certain times when these holy teachers were revealed as something more than simple1 homely men4 ,at these times they were obliged to be together to the number of seven1 because what each individual was able to feel had to combine harmoniously with the other six teachers1 as though in a consonance of seven sounds4 ,for it was then possible for each one to see something according to his particular gift and degree of development1 so that from the harmony of the separate parts which each individual was able to see1 there arose what comes down to us from ancient times as primeval wisdom1 that is supposing we know how to decipher the real occult records4 ,these records are not the revelations of the ,vedas1 however much we may admire them4 ,what the ,indian holy teachers taught is of much earlier date than the composition of the ,vedas1 and it is only a feeble echo of their wisdom which lies before us in these mighty works4 ,but when each of these men was in the presence of a superhuman predecessor of humanity1 was gazing clairvoyantly into higher worlds and listening clairaudiently to what was being taught through that predecessor1 it was as though the sun shone out of their eyes4 ,what they were then able to say worked with overpowering force on their environment1 so that all who heard them knew that it was not human life or wisdom that was speaking1 but that gods1 superhuman beings1 were influencing human civilization4 ,the ancient civilizations had their rise in this sounding through to mankind of the knowledge of the gods4 ,only by degrees in post-,atlantean times was the door1 so to speak1 closed into the divine spiritual world which in the ,atlantean period had still been wide open for the human soul4 ,and in the various countries and nations it was felt that man was thrown ever more and more on his own resources4 ,what is revealed in the case of a child appears in humanity at large in a different way4 ,the divine spiritual world is first diffused into the unconscious soul of a child1 and the soul works upon the formation of the body4 ,then comes the moment at which the child learns to feel itself an 8ego0 and this is the moment to which its memory goes back in later life4 ,this is what makes it possible to say that the wisest of men may still learn something from the soul of a child4 ,from this point1 however1 the individual is left to himself4 ,the ego-consciousness comes into being1 and everything combines to make it possible for him to remember his experiences4 ,so1 too1 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 forefathers4 ,just as the child becomes gradually shut off from the aura that floats about its head in its earliest years1 so in the life of nations did the divine ancestors withdraw themselves more and more1 and mankind was left to its own research and to its own knowledge4 ,when history speaks in this manner1 the fact of the guidance of humanity is realized4 8,menes0 was the ,egyptian name of him who inaugurated the first 8human0 civilization1 and it is at the same time hinted that man thereby became liable to error1 for thenceforward he was left to look for guidance to the instrument of his brain4 ,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 gods2 for the labyrinth is an image of the convolutions of the brain as the instrument of man's own thoughts1--windings in which the thinker is able to lose himself4 ,the ,orientals called man as a thinking being 8,manas0 and ,manu stands for the first great thinker4 ,the ,greeks called the first organizer of the human principle of thought ,minos1 and with him is associated the myth of the labyrinth1 because it was felt that1 since his time1 mankind had gradually passed from the direct guidance of the gods to a guidance in which the 8ego0 feels the influence of the higher spirit-world in a different way4 ,besides those predecessors of man1 the true supermen1 who had completed their humanity on the ,moon and had become angels1 there are1 however1 other beings who did not perfect their evolution on the ,moon4 ,the beings called dhyanic in ,oriental mysticism and angelic in ,christian esotericism1 consummated their evolution on the ancient ,moon1 and when man began his earthly career were already a stage higher than he was4 ,but there were other beings who had not finished their evolution on the ancient ,moon1 any more than the higher categories of ,luciferic beings had finished theirs4 ,when the earth-state of our planet began1 man as we have described him was not the only being there4 ,he felt also the inspiration of divinely-spiritual beings2 otherwise1 like a child1 he would have been unable to progress4 ,accordingly1 besides these childlike human beings1 there must have been also present on the earth1 acting through them1 beings who had completed their evolution on the ,moon4 ,but between these and man there were yet other beings who had not finished their evolution on the ,moon1--beings of a higher order than man1 because1 even as early as the ancient ,moon-period1 they might have become angels or dhyanic beings4 ,at that time1 however1 they had not come to full maturity4 ,they were angels in a backward state1 yet they far out-distanced man as regards everything which man called his own4 ,generally speaking1 they are beings occupying the lowest grade in the ranks of ,luciferic spirits4 ,they hold a middle position between men and angels1 and with them begins the kingdom of ,luciferic spirits4 ,now it is extremely easy to get an erroneous idea about these spirits4 ,we might ask why did the divine spirits1 the vicegerents of good1 allow them to fall short1 and thereby admit the ,luciferic principle into humanity8 ,and it might further be objected on this ground1 that surely the good gods turned everything to good4 ,this question is obvious4 ,and another misunderstanding which might arise1 is expressed in the idea that these are 8evil0 spirits4 ,both ideas are merely misunderstandings3 for these spirits are by no means purely 8evil10 although the origin of evil in human nature is due to them1 but they stand midway between man and superman4 ,in a certain way they are more perfect than men4 ,in all the qualities which human beings have to acquire for themselves1 these spirits have attained a high standard1 and they only differ from man's predecessors described above in being able to incarnate in human bodies whilst man is being evolved on earth4 ,this is because they did not consummate their humanity on the ,moon4 ,the dhyanic or angelic beings proper1 who are the great inspirers of humanity1 and to whom the ,egyptian referred as being still their teachers1 did not appear in human bodies1 but could only manifest themselves through human beings4 ,on the other hand1 the beings in a mid-position between men and angels were still able1 in very early times1 to incarnate in human bodies4 ,hence amongst the human race inhabiting the earth in the ,lemurian and ,atlantean periods1 we find people whose innermost soul-nature was that of an angel in a backward state2 i4e41 in the ancient ,lemurian and ,atlantean periods1 there were not only ordinary people going about the earth1 who through their successive incarnations were to arrive at what corresponds to the ideal of humanity1 but beings who only outwardly appeared like the others4 ,they had to bear a human body1 for the outward form of a human being in the flesh is dependent on earthly conditions4 ,especially in the more ancient times did it happen that beings belonging to the lowest category of ,luciferic individualities were present amongst men4 ,and so at the same time when the angel-beings were working on human civilization through man1 ,lucifer-beings were also incarnated and founding human civilizations in various places4 ,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 civilization1 we are not to understand that a ,lucifer-being was incarnated who must necessarily have been the vehicle of evil1 for1 on the contrary1 human civilization received countless blessings through those beings4 ,now it is known through occult science that in ancient times1 particularly in the ,atlantean period1 there existed a kind of primitive human language1 a manner of speech which was similar all over the earth1 because 8speech0 in those days came much more out of the depths of the soul than it does now4 ,this may be gathered from the following3 ,in ,atlantean times1 people felt all outward impressions in such a way that if the soul wished to express anything outward by a sound1 it was constrained to use a consonant4 ,what therefore existed in space pressed for imitation in a consonant4 ,the blowing of the wind1 the murmur of the waves1 the shelter given by a house were felt1 and imitated by man in consonants4 ,on the other hand1 the sorrow or joy which was felt inwardly1 or even what in another being might be feeling1 was imitated in a vowel4 ,from this we can see that the soul became one1 in speech1 with outer events or beings4 ,the following instance is taken from the ,akashic ,records3 ,a man drew near a hut1 which was arched in the ancient fashion and gave shelter and protection to a family4 ,he noticed this1 and expressed the protective arch by a consonant2 and by a vowel he expressed the fact1 which he was able to feel1 that within the hut the souls in bodies were comfortable4 ,thence arose the thought1 8,shelter40 8,there is a shelter for me1--shelter for human bodies40 ,the thought was then poured forth in consonants and vowels1 which could not be otherwise than they were1 because they were a direct impression of experience and had but one meaning4 ,this was the same all over the earth4 ,it is no dream that there was once a primitive human root-language4 ,and1 in a certain sense1 the initiates of all nations are still able to feel that language4 ,indeed there are in all languages certain similar sounds which are nothing else than the remains of that universal language4 ,this speech was prompted in human souls by the inspiration of the superhuman beings1 man's true predecessors1 who had perfected their evolution on the ,moon4 ,from this it may be seen that if that evolution alone had taken place1 the entire human race would practically have remained one great unity1 and there would have been uniformity of speech and thought all over the earth4 ,individuality and diversity could not have been developed1 nor at the same time could human freedom4 ,in order that man might become individual1 cleavages had to take place in humanity1 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 incarnated4 ,according as a particular angel-being1 who had fallen short in his evolution1 was incarnated in a particular race1 was he able to instruct its people in a particular language4 ,thus the ability to speak a separate language is1 in all races1 traceable to the illuminating presence of these great beings1 who were angels in a backward state and stood far above the people of their immediate environment4 ,for instance1 the beings described as the original heroes of the ,greeks and other nations1 and who worked in a human form1 were those in whom an angel who had fallen short was incarnated4 ,therefore these beings must by no means be characterized as entirely 8evil40 ,on the contrary1 they brought to man that which predestined him to be a free human being all over the globe1 and they differentiated what otherwise would have constituted a uniform whole everywhere on earth4 ,this is not only true of languages but of many other departments of life4 ,individualization1 differentiation1--freedom1 we may say1 comes from the beings who fell short in their ,moon-evolution4 ,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 goal1 but if this had been done in a direct way1 certain things would not have been attained4 ,certain beings were therefore arrested in their development because they were to have a special mission in the progress of humanity4 ,since the beings who had fulfilled their mission on the ,moon would only have been able to educate a uniform human race1 beings who had fallen short on the ,moon were set over against them1 and it thereby became possible for these backward ones to turn into good what had been really a fault on their part4 ,this opens up the question1 why do evil1 wickedness1 imperfection and disease exist in the world8 ,this problem should be looked at from the point of view from which we have just considered the imperfect angel-beings4 ,everything which at any time exhibits imperfection or backwardness will nevertheless be turned into good in the course of evolution4 ,it is of course unnecessary to mention that such a truth as this affords no justification for bad actions on man's part4 ,thus we already have an answer to the question1 why does a wise ,providence allow certain beings to lag behind and not reach their goal8 ,this happens just because there will be good reason for it at the time following upon the formation of such a purpose4 ,for it was when nations were not yet able to guide and govern themselves that the teachers of particular periods and individuals arose4 ,and all the different race-teachers1 ,cadmus1 ,cheops1 ,pelops1 ,theseus1 etc41 are1 in one aspect1 angel-beings in the depths of their souls4 ,from this it appears that in this respect also1 humanity is really subject to direction and guidance4 ,now at every stage of evolution there are beings who lag behind and do not attain the possible goal4 ,let us then look once more at the ancient ,egyptian civilization1 which ran its course thousands of years ago in the ,nile valley4 ,superhuman teachers were manifested to the ,egyptians1 who said that these teachers guided mankind like gods4 ,at the same time1 however1 other beings were also at work1 who had only half or partially attained the angelic stage4 ,now we must fully understand that in ancient ,egypt man reached a definite stage of evolution1 i4e41 that the souls of people of the present day had attained a definite stage in the ,egyptian period4 ,but it is not only man who gains by letting himself be guided2 the beings also who direct and guide him attain thereby something which furthers their evolution4 ,for instance1 an angel is something more after he has guided humanity for a while1 than he was before that guidance began4 ,his guiding work helps him to progress1 and this is true not only of one who has completed his evolution as an angel1 but also of one who has lagged behind4 ,all beings are able continually to advance2 everything is in a state of perpetual development2 but at every stage beings are left behind4 ,thus1 in accordance with what has just been said1 there can be distinguished in the ancient ,egyptian civilization the divine leaders or angels1 the semi-divine leaders who did not quite attain the angelic stage1 and the men4 ,but certain beings in the ranks of the angels again lag behind1 i4e41 they do not bring all their powers into expression when guiding humanity1 but remain behind as angels during the ancient ,egyptian stage of civilization4 ,similarly some of the incomplete angels lag behind4 ,thus whilst men below were progressing1 certain individuals of the beings above1 the dhyanic spirits or angels1 fell behind in their evolution4 ,when the ,egypto-,chaldic civilization came to an end1 and the ,graeco-,roman period began1 certain guiding spirits from the former period1 who had fallen behind in their evolution1 were present4 ,but they could not use their powers1 for other angels or half-angelic beings had replaced them1 and that meant that their own evolution was at a standstill4 ,hence there comes under our notice a category of beings who might have used their powers during the ,egyptian period1 but did not at that time use them fully4 ,in the ensuing ,graeco-,roman period they were not able to use them1 because then they were replaced by other guiding spirits1 and all the conditions of that time made their intervention impossible4 ,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-period1 so also the beings who as guiding spirits in the ,egypto-,chaldic civilization had stopped short in their development1 afterwards received the mission1 as beings who had lagged behind1 of again intervening in civilization4 ,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 evolution1 but in which1 at the same time1 other beings are intervening who were left behind at an earlier stage1 and more particularly those who fell behind during the ancient ,egyptian period4 ,the civilization to which we are referring is our own4 ,we live at a time when1 side by side with the normal directors of humanity1 others are interposing who were left behind in the ancient ,egyptian and ,chaldic period4 ,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 manifestations1 the true causes of which are to be sought in the spiritual world4 ,on the one hand our civilization is in the main marked by an upward movement towards spirituality1 and this tendency of certain people towards spirituality is the manifestation of the spiritual directors of our contemporary humanity1 who have attained their own normal stage of development4 ,in everything which tends to lead man up to the great spiritual wisdom-truths transmitted to us by theosophy1 these normal guides of our evolution are manifested4 ,but the beings out-distanced during the ,egypto-,chaldic civilization are also affecting the tendencies of our age4 ,they are manifested in much that is being thought and done at the present time1 and will again be manifested in what lies in the near future4 ,they are revealed in everything which gives a materialistic stamp to our civilization1 and may often be seen even in aspirations after spiritual things4 ,in our age we are virtually experiencing a revival of ,egyptian civilization4 ,the beings who are to be looked upon as the invisible directors of what takes place in the physical world1 fall accordingly into two classes4 ,the first includes those spiritual individualities who have passed through their own normal course of development up to the present time4 ,hence they were able to interpose in the guidance of our civilization1 whilst the directors of the preceding ,graeco-,roman period were gradually finishing their task of guiding civilization during the first thousand years of ,christianity4 ,the second class1 who work simultaneously with the first class of beings1 are spiritual individualities who did not complete their evolution during the ,egypto-,chaldic civilization4 ,they were obliged to remain inactive during the ensuing ,graeco-,roman period1 but are now able to resume their activity because our present age has points of resemblance to the ,egypto-,chaldic period4 ,it thus comes about that many things arise in contemporary humanity which look like a revival of ancient ,egyptian forces1 but there is also much which is like a materialistic resuscitation of forces which then worked spiritually4 ,to illustrate this1 we may point to an example of the way in which ancient ,egyptian knowledge has been revived in our days4 ,let us think of ,kepler4 ,he was quite possessed by the feeling of the harmony of the cosmos1 and this idea was expressed in his important mathematical laws of the mechanism of the heavens1 the so-called laws of ,kepler4 ,these are outwardly very dry and abstruse1 but in ,kepler they were the outcome of an understanding of the harmony of the universe4 ,we may read in ,kepler's writings that in order to discover what he did1 he was obliged to go to the sacred ,egyptian mysteries1 purloin their temple-vessels1 and by this means bring knowledge into the world1 the importance of which to humanity would only be known in later times4 ,this utterance of ,kepler's is by no means an empty phrase1 but contains a dim consciousness of a revival of what he had learned in the ,egyptian period1 during a former incarnation4 ,we may certainly entertain the idea that ,kepler assimilated the ancient ,egyptian wisdom during one of his previous lives1 and that it reappears in his soul in a new form1 adapted to a later age4 ,that a materialistic impulse should enter our civilization through the ,egyptian spirit is quite intelligible1 for ,egyptian spirituality was wrapped in a vigorous materialism1 which found expression1 for instance1 in their embalming the physical bodies of the dead4 ,this meant that they attached value to the preservation of the physical body4 ,this has come down to us from the ,egyptian period in a different form1 but in one corresponding to our time4 ,the same forces which had not then run their course1 affect our age1 but in a different way4 ,the temper of mind which embalmed dead bodies gave rise to that which idolizes the merely material4 ,the ,egyptian embalmed dead bodies and thereby preserved what he accounted valuable4 ,he thought that the development of the soul after death was connected with the preservation of the physical1 material body4 ,the modern anatomist dissects what he sees1 and thinks that in this way he understands the laws of the human organism4 ,thus in our modern science there are living the forces of the ancient ,egyptian and ,chaldic world1 which then were progressive forces1 but which now represent what has lagged behind1 and which must be recognized for what they are1 if a correct estimate is to be formed of the character of the present time4 ,these forces will injure a man of the present day if he does not know their real significance4 ,he will take no harm from them1 but will turn them to good account1 if he knows their effect and thereby brings himself into the right relation to them4 ,they have their value1 for without them we should not have the present great achievements in technique1 industries1 etc4 ,they are forces belonging to ,luciferic beings of the lowest stage1 and the danger lies in the fact that if they are not recognized aright1 the materialistic impulses of the present time are thought to be the only possible ones1 and the other forces1 which lead up to the spiritual world1 are not seen4 ,for this reason any clear diagnosis is certain to discern two currents of thought in the present age4 ,now if a wise ,providence had not allowed certain beings in the ,egypto-,chaldic period to fall short in their evolution1 our contemporary civilization would have been wanting in necessary weight4 ,in that case only those forces would be operative which would bring man into the spiritual world by main force4 ,people would be only too ready to yield themselves up to those forces1 and would become dreamers4 ,the only life they would wish to know about would be one which is being spiritualized as fast as possible1 and their standard of action would be a view of life which showed a certain degree of contempt for what is physical and material4 ,but the present epoch of civilization can only fulfill its mission if the forces of the material world are brought to the fullest perfection1 and if thus by degrees their sphere too is won for spirituality4 ,just as the fairest things may become corrupters and tempters of mankind if pursued in a one-sided way1 so if this one-sidedness took root1 there would be great danger that all kinds of good efforts would come into manifestation as fanaticism4 ,true though it is that humanity is helped forward by its noble impulses it is also true that wild and fanatical advocacy of the noblest impulses may bring about the worst of results as far as true evolution is concerned4 ,only when people strive after the highest modestly and sensibly1 not out of wild fanaticism1 can anything beneficial to the progress of humanity take place4 ,in order that the work done on earth at the present day may have the necessary weight1 and that material beings of the physical plane may be understood1 the wisdom which directs the government of the world left those forces behind which would normally have completed their evolution during the ,egyptian period2 and it is they who are now directing man's attention to physical life4 ,it is obvious from the foregoing that evolution takes place under the influence both of normally progressive beings and of those who lag behind4 ,clairvoyant vision is able to trace the co-operation of both classes of beings in the supersensible world1 and hence is able to comprehend the spiritual events of which the physical facts surrounding humanity are the manifestations4 ,we observe that1 in order to understand cosmic events1 it is not enough to have spiritual eyes and ears opened to the spiritual world by some kind of exercise4 ,this only means that we see what is there1 that we are cognizant of spiritual beings and know that they are entities of the soul-world or spirit-sphere4 ,but it is also necessary to recognize what kinds of beings they are4 ,we may meet some being of the soul or spirit world1 but we do not necessarily know whether it is progressing in its evolution1 or whether it belongs to the category of powers that have lagged behind2 whether therefore it is pushing evolution onwards1 or hindering it4 ,those people who acquire clairvoyant faculties and do not at the same time gain complete understanding of the conditions of human evolution which we have described may know absolutely nothing of the nature of the beings whom they meet4 ,mere clairvoyance must be supplemented by clear judgment of what is seen in the supersensible world4 ,there is urgent necessity for this especially in our own time1 but it had not always to be so much considered4 ,if we go back to very ancient civilizations1 we find different conditions4 ,if in the most ancient ,egyptian times a person was clairvoyant1 and was confronted with a being from the supersensible world1 the latter had1 as it were1 written on his forehead who he was4 ,the clairvoyant could not mistake him4 ,now1 however1 the possibility of misunderstanding is very great4 ,whereas humanity in early times still stood very near the kingdom of the spiritual hierarchies and could see what beings it was meeting1 it is now very easy to be mistaken1 and the only protection against being severely injured is the effort to gain ideas and conceptions like those indicated above4 ,a person who is able to look into the spiritual world is called esoterically a 8clairvoyant10 but merely to be clairvoyant is not enough1 for such a man might be able to see well enough but not able to discriminate4 ,he who has acquired the faculty of distinguishing one from another the beings and events of higher worlds1 is called an 8,initiate40 ,initiation brings with it the possibility of distinguishing between different kinds of beings4 ,thus it is possible to be clairvoyant in the higher worlds without being an ,initiate4 ,in ancient times distinguishing between spirits was not specially important1 for when the ancient occult schools had brought a pupil so far as clairvoyance1 there was no great danger of error4 ,now1 however1 this danger exists to a high degree4 ,therefore in all esoteric training1 care should be taken that initiation should be acquired in condition to clairvoyance4 ,in proportion to the extent of his clairvoyance must a man become capable of distinguishing between the various kinds of supersensible beings and events4 ,in modern times the powers guiding humanity are faced by the special task of bringing about a balance between the two principles of clairvoyance and initiation4 ,leaders of spiritual training had necessarily to pay attention to this at the beginning of the modern era4 ,therefore the esoteric spiritual movement which is adapted to present conditions1 always makes a point of maintaining the right proportion between clairvoyance and initiation4 ,this became necessary at the time when mankind was passing through a crisis with regard to its higher knowledge4 ,that time was the thirteenth century4 ,about the year #abej was the point of time when mankind felt itself most shut out from the spiritual world4 ,a clairvoyant looking back upon that period sees the following3 ,the most eminent minds of that time who were striving after some kind of higher knowledge1 could only say to themselves1 8,what our reason1 our intellect1 our spiritual knowledge are able to find out is limited to the physical world around us4 ,with all our human endeavor and power of perception1 we cannot reach a spiritual world4 ,we only know of it by accepting the information concerning it which our forefathers bequeathed us40 ,this was the time when direct view of the higher worlds was obscured4 ,that this can be said of the era in which scholasticism flourished1 is not without significance4 ,about the year #abej was the time when men were compelled to fix a boundary between what they were able to apprehend for themselves1 and what they had to believe from the impression made upon them by the traditions which had been handed down4 ,what they could find out for themselves then became limited to the physical world of sense4 ,afterwards1 however1 came the time when there was more and more possibility of again winning a view of the spiritual world4 ,but the new clairvoyance was of a different kind from the old1 which virtually became extinct just about the year #abej4 ,in the new form of clairvoyance1 western esotericism was obliged strictly to uphold the principle that initiation must be the guide of spiritual sight and hearing4 ,this was the special task assigned to an esoteric current which then entered the stream of ,european civilization4 ,as the year #abej drew near there arose a new kind of guidance into the supersensible worlds4 ,this guidance was prepared by the spirits then standing behind outer historical events1 who centuries before had provided for the kind of esoteric training which would be rendered necessary by the conditions prevailing in #abej4 ,if the term 8modern esotericism0 be not misused1 it may be applied to the spiritual work of those very highly evolved personalities4 ,external history knows nothing of them1 but what they did is apparent in every form of civilization which has developed since the thirteenth century4 ,the importance of the year #abej for the spiritual evolution of humanity is specially apparent if we look at the result of clairvoyant research given in the following fact3 ,even those individualities who had attained high stages of spiritual development1 in previous incarnations1 and who were reincarnated about #abej1 were compelled for a while to undergo a complete clouding over of their direct view of the spiritual world4 ,quite enlightened individuals were as though cut off from the spiritual world1 and their only knowledge of it was through their remembrance of earlier incarnations4 ,thus we see how necessary it was that from that time onwards a new element should be brought into the spiritual guidance of humanity4 ,this element was true modern esotericism4 ,by its means it is for the first time possible rightly to understand how that which we call the 8,christ-impulse0 may intervene to guide the whole of mankind and the individual also1 in all possible eventualities4 ,between the accomplishment of the ,mystery of ,golgotha and the beginnings of modern esotericism1 lies the first period of the working of the ,christ-principle in human souls4 ,during that period1 people received ,christ to a certain degree unconsciously as far as their higher spirit-forces were concerned1 and this caused them afterwards1 when they were obliged to receive them consciously1 to make all kinds of mistakes1 and to lose themselves in a maze instead of understanding ,christ4 ,in primitive ,christian times we may trace the adoption of the ,christ-principle by the lower soul-forces4 ,then came a new period1 in which mankind of to-day is still living4 ,indeed1 in a certain respect1 people are only now beginning to understand the ,christ principle with the higher faculties of their souls4 ,in the further course of this work it will be shown that the decline of supersensible knowledge down to the thirteenth century1 and on the other hand its slow revival since that time1 coincide with the interposition of the ,christ-impulse in human evolution4 ,we may therefore take modern esotericism to mean the raising of the ,christ-impulse to be the motive power in the guidance of souls desiring to work their way to a knowledge of higher worlds1 in accordance with the evolutionary conditions of modern times4 ,,lecture ,,iii4 ,in accordance with what has been said in the preceding chapters1 the spiritual guidance of the course of human evolution may be sought for among those beings who went through their stage of humanity during the previous embodiment of the ,earth-planet1 i4e41 during the ancient ,moon period4 ,this guidance stood contrasted with another which checked1 and yet in a certain sense furthered1 whilst checking the first1 and which was carried out by those beings who had not completed their own evolution during the ,moon-period4 ,reference is made in both these cases to those guiding beings immediately above man--to those who lead humanity forward1 and to those who provoke resistance1 thereby strengthening and confirming the forces arising through the progressive beings1 by bestowing on them balance and individuality4 ,in ,christian ,esotericism1 these two classes of superhuman beings are called ,angels 7,angeloi74 ,above these beings in an ascending order1 stand those of the higher hierarchies1 the ,archangels1 the ,archai1 etc41 who likewise take part in the guidance of humanity4 ,within the ranks of these different beings there are all possible gradations in regard to perfection4 ,in the category of the ,angels there are at the beginning of the present ,earth-evolution1 some standing high and others less developed4 ,the former have progressed far beyond the minimum of their ,moon-development4 ,between these and those who had just reached this minimum when the ,moon-evolution had come to an end1 and the ,earth-evolution had begun1 there are all possible gradations4 ,conformably with this gradation of rank1 the beings in question entered during the ,earth-period upon the leadership of human evolution4 ,thus the evolution of the ,egyptian civilization was effected under the guidance of beings who had become more perfected on the ,moon than those who were the leaders of the ,graeco-,roman period1 and these again were more perfect than those who have the leadership at the present time4 ,in the ,egyptian as also in the ,greek ,period1 those who later on assumed the direction1 were meanwhile developing1 and making themselves ready to guide the civilization of later periods4 ,since the time of the great ,atlantean catastrophe1 seven consecutive epochs of civilization have to be differentiated2 the first is the ancient ,indian epoch1 and it is followed by the ancient ,persian4#b ,the third is the ,egypto-,chaldic1 the fourth is the ,graeco-,roman1 and the fifth is our own1 which1 since about the twelfth century1 has been gradually developing and in which we are still living4 ,and as the separate periods overlap1 we see already in our times those early events preparing which will lead over into the sixth post-,atlantean epoch4 ,and a seventh epoch will succeed the sixth in due course4 ,on closer observation we find the following evidence with regard to the guidance of mankind4 ,it was during the third epoch of civilization1 the ,egypto-,chaldic1 that the ,angels 7or lower dhyanic beings according to ,oriental mysticism7 were to some extent independent leaders of humanity4 ,they were not so during the ancient ,persian civilization4 ,for then they were subject to a higher direction in a much greater degree than in the ,egyptian times1 and had to regulate everything in conformity with the impulses of the hierarchies immediately above them4 ,in this way everything was under the immediate guidance of the ,angels1 but these themselves submitted to the rulership of the ,archangels4 ,and in the ,indian epoch when post-,atlantean life had reached such a height in spiritual matters as has never been attained since--a natural height under the direction of great human teachers--then the ,archangels themselves were subject in a similar sense to the guidance of the ,archai or ,primal ,powers4 ,thus if we trace the evolution of humanity from the ,indian epoch through the ancient ,persian and ,egypto-,chaldic civilization1 we may say that certain beings of the higher hierarchies withdrew as it were1 ever more and more from the direct guidance of humanity4 ,and in the fourth post-,atlantean period of civilization1 i4e41 the ,graeco-,roman epoch1 man had become in a certain sense quite independent4 ,the guiding superhuman beings were certainly intervening to develop humanity1 but only in such a way that the reins were tightened as little as possible1 and also that the spiritual leaders themselves might profit as much through the deeds of men as men profited through them4 ,hence arose that peculiar and quite 8human0 civilization in the ,graeco-,roman time in which man was made to rely entirely on himself4 ,for all the distinctive characteristics of ,art and political life in ,greek and ,roman times are traceable to the fact that man had to live out his own life in his own way4 ,so1 when we look back to the most ancient times of civilization1 we then find evolution guided by beings who had accomplished their evolution as far as the human stage1 in earlier planetary conditions4 ,but the fourth post-,atlantean period of civilization was intended as a time when man should be put to the test as much as possible1 and consequently was the time when the whole spiritual guidance of humanity had to be re-organized4 ,we are now living in the fifth post-,atlantean period of civilization4 ,the leading beings of this period belong to the same hierarchy as that which ruled the ancient ,egyptians and ,chaldans4 ,in fact those beings who then took the lead1 have again begun to be active in our times1 for it has been stated that certain beings remained behind during the ,egypto-,chaldic civilization1 and that these are to be found manifested in the materialistic feelings and perceptions of our own period4 ,now the progress made by the beings of each class of ,angels or lower dhyanic beings--the class which leads mankind forward and the class which obstructs--consists in their being able to be leaders among the ,egyptians and ,chaldans by means of those qualities which they had acquired in primordial times1 and which they had further developed by their work as leaders4 ,thus the progressive ,angels are intervening to guide the fifth post-,atlantean civilization by means of capacities which they themselves had won during the third or ,egypto-,chaldic civilization4 ,through the progress they make they are acquiring for themselves quite special capabilities1 for they are qualifying themselves to receive the influx of forces emanating from the most important ,being in the whole evolution of the ,earth4 ,the power of the ,christ is working in them2 for that power works not only on the physical world through ,jesus of ,nazareth--but also in the spiritual worlds upon the superhuman beings4 ,the ,christ exists not only for the earth but also for these other beings4 ,the beings who guided the old ,egypto-,chaldic civilization were not at that time under the direction of the ,christ1 but have only placed themselves under ,his guidance since4 ,and their progress consists in their following ,him in the higher worlds1 so that they may guide our fifth post-,atlantean period of civilization in accordance with ,his influence4 ,and the remaining behind of those beings of whom it has been said that they operate as obstructive powers1 is due to their not having put themselves under the leadership of the ,christ1 and thus they continue to work independently of ,him4 ,hence the following state of things will become more and more evident in human evolution3 ,there will be a materialistic movement under the guidance of the backward ,egypto-,chaldic spirits4 ,it will have a materialistic character1 and the greater part of what in all countries1 may be called contemporary materialistic science is under this influence4 ,there are1 for example1 people to-day who say that our earth in its primary origin consisted of atoms4 ,who instils this thought into men's minds8 ,it is the superhuman angel beings who had remained behind during the ,egypto-,chaldic period4 ,but1 side by side with this movement1 there is another making itself felt1 the one which has as its goal that man shall eventually find in all that he does1 that which may be called the ,christ-principle4 ,now what will those beings teach who attained their goal in the old ,egypto-,chaldic sphere of civilization1 and who then learned to know the ,christ8 ,they will be able to instill into man other thoughts than that there are only material atoms2 for they will be able to teach that1 even to the minutest particle of the world1 the substance is permeated with the ,spirit of the ,christ4 ,and1 strange as it may seem1 there will be in the future1 chemists and physicists who will not teach chemistry and physics as they are now taught under the influence of the backward ,egypto-,chaldic spirits2 but who will teach that 8,matter is built up in the way in which the ,christ gradually ordained it40 ,the ,christ will be found working even in the very laws of chemistry and physics4 ,it is a spiritual chemistry1 and spiritual physics that will come in the future4 ,to-day such a statement appears certainly to many people as something fanciful or worse than that1 but in many cases the sense of the future is folly to the past4 ,the factors which in this sense enter into the evolution of human civilization are already there for the careful observer2 but such an one will know quite well the objections which may1 with apparent justice1 be urged against such alleged folly from the modern scientific or philosophic point of view4 ,from such hypotheses we are able to understand what advantage the guiding superhuman beings have compared with man4 ,humanity learned to know ,christ in the fourth civilization period of the post-,atlantean times1 i4e41 in the ,graeco-,roman epoch1 for it was in the course of this civilization that the ,christ-event found its place in evolution1 and it was then that man learned to know the ,christ4 ,the guiding superhuman beings1 however1 learned to know ,him during the ,egypto-,chaldic times1 and worked themselves up to ,him4 ,then during the ,graeco-,roman civilization they had to leave man to his own fate in order that1 later on1 they might re-enter the sphere of human evolution4 ,and if nowadays theosophy is cultivated1 that signifies nothing else than a recognition of the fact that the superhuman beings who formerly guided humanity are now continuing their task as leaders in such a way as to be under the direct guidance of the ,christ themselves4 ,thus it is with other beings also4 ,in the ancient ,persian epoch1 the leadership of humanity was apportioned to the ,archangels4 ,they put themselves under the direction of the ,christ earlier than did the beings in the rank next below them4 ,of ,zarathustra it can be said that pointing to the sun1 he spoke to his followers and his people in some such words as these3 8,in the sun there lives the great ,spirit ,ahura ,mazdao1 who will one day come down to the earth40 ,for the beings out of the region of the ,archangels who guided ,zarathustra1 pointed to the great sun-leader1 who had not at that time come down upon the earth1 but had only begun his journey thither in order1 later on1 to enter directly into the earth evolution4 ,and the guiding beings who directed the great teachers of the ,indians1 also pointed these to the ,christ of the future2 for it is a mistake to think that these teachers had no foreknowledge of the ,christ4 ,they said that ,he was 8beyond their sphere0 and that they 8could not attain0 unto ,him4 ,as now in our fifth period of civilization1 it is the ,angels who bring down the ,christ into our spiritual evolution1 so the sixth period of civilization will be directed by beings who belong to the ranks of the ,archangels who guided the ancient ,persian civilization4 ,and spirits of ,personality--the ,primal ,powers--or ,archai--who guided humanity during the ancient ,indian epoch will have to guide humanity in the seventh period of civilization4 ,in the ,graeco-,roman period1 the ,christ descended from the heights of the spirit-world and revealed ,himself in the physical body of ,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,he then came down as far as the physical world4 ,it will be possible to find ,him in the world immediately above ours when humanity shall have become sufficiently ripe4 ,it will not be possible in the future to find ,him in the physical world1 but only in the world immediately above1 for human beings will not always remain the same2 they will become more mature1 and will then find the ,christ in the spiritual world1 as ,paul found ,him in his experience before ,damascus1 which event prophetically foreshadowed the future means of finding the ,christ4 ,and since in our times the same great teachers who have already guided mankind through the ,egyptian ,civilization are working1 so also in the twentieth century it will be these same teachers who will lead men out to behold the ,christ as ,paul beheld ,him4 ,they will show mankind how the ,christ not only works upon the earth1 but how ,he spiritualizes the whole solar system4 ,and those who will be the reincarnated holy teachers of ,india in the seventh period of civilization will proclaim the ,spirit ,who was foreshadowed through the undivided ,brahma1 to whom however the right content and meaning could only be given through the ,christ1 as the great1 the immense ,spirit1 of ,whom they formerly said that ,he hovered above their sphere4 ,thus will humanity be led upwards from stage to stage into the spiritual world4 ,to speak in this way about the ,christ--how ,he is the leader of the higher hierarchies also in the successive worlds1 is to teach the science which1 under the title of modern esotericism1 has endured into our civilization since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries1 and which1 as has been shown1 had from that time become necessary4 ,if from this aspect we observe more closely the ,being ,who lived in ,palestine1 and ,who consummated the ,mystery of ,golgotha1 then we find the following3 ,up to the present time many ideas concerning the ,christ have found expression4 ,there was for instance the idea of certain ,christian ,gnostics in the first centuries1 who said that the ,christ ,who lives in ,palestine was not present in any physical body of flesh at all2 that ,he had only an apparent body--an etheric body which had become physically visible2 so that ,his death on the ,cross had been no real death but only an apparent one1 for the very reason that only an etheric body was present4 ,then we find the various disputes among those who professed ,christianity1 as for example1 the well-known controversy between the ,arians and ,athenatians1 etc41 and the most varied explanations concerning what the ,christ really was4 ,and indeed right up to our own times people express and have expressed the most varied ideas concerning the ,christ4 ,now spiritual science must recognize in ,christ not merely an earthly but also a cosmic ,being4 ,in a certain sense man is1 taken as a whole1 a cosmic being4 ,he lives a twofold life--one in a physical body from birth to death1 another in the spiritual worlds between death and a new birth4 ,when he is incarnated in a physical body1 he is living in dependence on the earth1 because the physical body is restricted by the forces and conditions of existence belonging to the earth4 ,a man1 however1 does not only take the substances and forces of the earth into himself1 but is joined to the whole of the earth's organism4 ,when he has passed through the gate of death1 he does not any longer belong to the forces of the earth2 but it would be incorrect to imagine that he then belongs to no forces at all1 for he is then connected with the forces of the solar system and the more distant star-systems4 ,in this way1 between death and a new birth1 he lives in the domain of the cosmic1 just as in the period between birth and death he lived in the domain of the earthly4 ,from death to a new birth he belongs to the cosmos1 as on the earth he belongs to the elements--,air1 ,water1 and ,earth4 ,accordingly1 while he is passing through a life between death and a new birth1 he comes into the region of cosmic influences1 for the planets send forth not merely the physical forces of what astronomy teaches1 such as gravitation and others1 but also spiritual forces1 and with these spiritual powers of the cosmos man is connected--each person in a special manner according to his own individuality4 ,if he is born in ,europe1 he lives in a different relation to warmth conditions1 etc41 than if he had been born1 let us say1 in ,australia4 ,similarly1 during his life between death and a new birth1 one person may stand more closely related to the spiritual powers of ,mars1 another to those of ,jupiter1 others again to those of the whole planetary system in general1 and so on4 ,it is also these forces which bring man back again to the earth4 ,thus before he is born he is living in connection with the collective whole of stellar space4 ,according to the way in which a man stands individually related to the cosmic system1 so are the forces directed which lead him to this or that set of parents and to this or that locality4 ,the impetus1 the inclination to incarnate here or there1 in this or that family1 in this or that people1 at this or that time1 depends on how the person was organically connected with the cosmic before birth4 ,in former times1 in that territory where the ,german tongue was spoken1 a specially apt expression was used whereby to indicate a person's entrance into the world through birth4 ,when a person was born1 people said that in such and such a place he had 8become young0 7jung-geworden74 ,therein lies an unconscious reference to the fact that man in the time between death and a new birth continues at first to be subject to the powers which had made him old in a previous incarnation1 but that before birth there come in their place such forces as again make him 8young40 ,thus ,goethe in 8,faust0 still uses the expression 8to become young in ,nebelland0--,nebelland being the old name for medival ,germany4 ,the truth underlying the casting of a horoscope is that those who know these things can read the forces which determine a person's physical existence4 ,a certain horoscope is allotted to a person because1 within it1 those forces find expression which have led him into being4 ,if1 for example1 in the horoscope1 ,mars stands over ,aries 7the ,ram7 that signifies that certain of the ,aries forces are not allowed to pass through ,mars--and are weakened4 ,thus is a man put into his place within physical existence1 and it is in accordance with his horoscope that he guides himself before entering upon earthly existence4 ,this subject1 which in our times seems so much a thing of chance should not be touched upon without our attention being called to the fact that nearly everything practiced in this connection to-day is simply dilettantism--a pure superstition--and that for the external world the true science of these matters has been for the most part completely lost4 ,consequently1 the principal things which have been said here are not to be judged according to that which nowadays frequently leads a questionable existence under the name of ,astrology4 ,now it is the active forces of the stellar world that impel man into physical incarnation2 and when clairvoyant consciousness observes a person1 it can perceive in his organization how this has resulted from the co-operation of cosmic forces4 ,we may now attempt to illustrate this hypothetically1 but in a form corresponding entirely with clairvoyant observations3 ,if a person's physical brain were extracted and its construction clairvoyantly examined1 so that it might be seen how certain parts are situated in certain places1 and send out appendages1 it would be found that the brain of each individual is different4 ,no two people have brains alike4 ,then let us imagine further that this brain could be photographed in its complete structure so that one would have a kind of half-sphere in which every detail was visible1 then this would make a different picture in the case of each person4 ,and if one were to photograph a person's brain at the moment of birth and then photograph also the heavens lying exactly over the person's birthplace1 then this latter picture would be of exactly the same appearance as that of the human brain4 ,as certain centres were arranged in the latter1 so would the stars be in the photograph of the heavens4 ,man has within himself a picture of the heavens1 and every man has a different one1 according to whether he was born in this place or that1 and at this or that time4 ,this is one indication that man is born from out of the whole cosmos4 ,when we keep this clearly in view we can rise to the idea of how the macrocosm manifests itself in each separate individual1 and then1 starting from this point1 we can attain a conception of how it showed itself in the ,christ4 ,but if we were to imagine the ,christ after the ,baptism of ,john as though the macrocosm had then been living in ,him in the same way as in other people1 we should be mistaken4 ,let us first consider ,jesus of ,nazareth3 ,his conditions of existence were quite exceptional4 ,at the beginning of our era two boys were born and named ,jesus4 ,the one came through the ,nathan line of the house of ,david1 and the other through the ,solomon line of the same house4 ,these two children were not born quite at the same time1 but nearly so4 ,in the ,jesus descended from ,solomon1 ,who is described in the ,gospel of ,st4 ,matthew1 there was incarnated the same individuality who had formerly lived on the earth as ,zarathustra1 so that in this ,child ,jesus there appears the reincarnated ,zarathustra or ,zoroaster4 ,the individuality of ,zarathustra grew up in this ,child until1 as ,st4 ,matthew says1 ,his twelfth year4 ,in that year1 ,zarathustra left the body of this ,child and passed over into that of the other ,child ,jesus ,whom the ,gospel of ,st4 ,luke describes4 ,in consequence of this the latter child became suddenly quite different4 ,the parents were astonished when they found ,him in ,jerusalem in the temple after the spirit of ,zarathustra had entered into ,him4 ,this is intimated when it is said that the ,child after having been lost and found again in the temple1 so spake that his parents did not recognize ,him4 ,they only knew ,him--the ,child descended from ,nathan as ,he had been before up to this time4 ,but when ,he began to reason with the doctors in the temple1 it was possible for ,him to speak as ,he did because the spirit of ,zarathustra had come into ,him4 ,until the thirtieth year did the spirit of ,zarathustra live in the ,jesus who was descended from the ,nathan line of the house of ,david4 ,in this body ,he ripened to a still higher perfection4 ,the remark must here be added that as regards this personality in which the spirit of ,zarathustra now lived1 an extraordinary feature was1 that from the spiritual worlds the ,buddha rayed forth his impulses into its astral body4 ,the oriental tradition is correct which says that the ,buddha was born as a 8,bodhisatva10 and only during his time on earth1 in his twenty-ninth year1 rose to the dignity of a ,buddha4 ,when the ,gautama ,buddha was a little child1 the ,indian sage ,asita came weeping into the royal palace of his father1 ,suddhodana4 ,he wept because1 as a seer1 he knew that this ,king's son would become the ,buddha1 and because as an old man1 he felt that he would no longer be living to see that event take place4 ,now this sage was born again in the time of ,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,it is he who is brought before us in the ,gospel of ,st4 ,luke as the priest of the temple who saw the revelation of the ,buddha in the ,child ,jesus descended from ,nathan4 ,and seeing this he was able to say3 8,lord1 now lettest ,thou ,thy servant depart in peace for ,i have seen my ,master40 ,what he had not been able to see previously in ,india1 he saw through the astral body of the ,boy ,jesus1 ,who comes before us in ,st4 ,luke's ,gospel1 the ,bodhisatva become a ,buddha4 ,all this was necessary in order that that body might be produced which received the baptism of ,st4 ,john in the ,jordan4 ,at that moment the individuality of ,zarathustra left the threefold body1 the physical1 the etheric and the astral body of that ,jesus ,who had grown up in so complicated a manner1 in order that the spirit of ,zarathustra might be able to dwell in ,him4 ,through two possibilities of development which were given in the two ,jesus-,children1 the reincarnated ,zarathustra had to pass1 and thus there stood before the ,baptist the body of ,jesus of ,nazareth and in it from that time onwards there acted the cosmic individuality of the ,christ4 ,now1 as we have shown1 in the case of any other human being1 the cosmic spiritual laws work upon him only in so far that they give him a start in earth-life4 ,afterwards there appear in opposition to these laws1 others which arise out of the conditions of the earth-evolution4 ,in the case of the ,christ ,jesus1 after the baptism of ,john the cosmic-spiritual forces alone remained effective without being influenced in any way through the laws of the earth evolution4 ,thus in ,palestine during the time that ,jesus of ,nazareth walked on earth as ,christ-,jesus1--during the three last years of his life1 from his thirtieth to his thirty-third year1 the entire ,being of the cosmic ,christ was acting uninterruptedly upon ,him1 and was working into ,him4 ,the ,christ stood always under the influence of the entire cosmos--,he made no step without this working of the cosmic forces into and in ,him4 ,that which here took place in ,jesus of ,nazareth was a continual realization of the horoscope1 for at every moment there occurred that which otherwise happens only at a person's birth4 ,this could be so only because the whole body of ,jesus descended from ,nathan had remained open to the influence of the sum total of the forces of the cosmic spiritual hierarchies which direct our earth4 ,if thus the whole spirit of the cosmos worked into the ,christ ,jesus1 who was it that went1 for example1 to ,capernaum or anywhere else8 ,he who went about as a being upon the earth appeared quite like any other man4 ,the forces active within ,him1 however1 were the cosmic forces1 coming from the sun and stars2 and these directed ,his body4 ,and it was always in accordance with the collective ,being of the whole ,universe with whom the earth is in harmony1 that all which the ,christ ,jesus did took place4 ,it is because of this that in the case of the acts of the ,christ ,jesus there is so often some slight hint given in the ,gospels1 about the relative grouping of the stars at the time4 ,we read in ,st4 ,john's ,gospel how the ,christ finds ,his first disciples4 ,there we are told3 8,it was about the tenth hour10 because in this fact the spirit of the whole cosmos found expression in conformity with the appointed moment of time4 ,such intimations are less clear in the other ,gospel passages1 but he who can truly read the ,gospel finds them everywhere4 ,from this point of view also the miracles are to be judged4 ,let us take one passage1--,the one that runs thus3 8,when the sun was set1 they brought the sick unto ,him1 and ,he healed them40 ,what does that mean8 ,the evangelist is drawing attention to the fact that this healing was connected with the whole position of the constellations1 and that at the time in question1 the constellations throughout the heavens stood in such a way as could only have happened when the sun had set4 ,the meaning of that1 at the time1 the requisite healing forces could make themselves felt after sun-set1 and the ,christ ,jesus is represented as the intermediary ,who brought the sick into connection with the forces of the cosmos which1 just at that time could work curatively4 ,these forces were the same as those which worked as ,christ in ,jesus4 ,it was through the presence of ,christ that the healing took place1 because in consequence of the same1 the sick person was exposed to the healing forces of the ,cosmos which could only work as they did when they were in the right relationship to time and space4 ,thus these forces worked on the sick person through their representative the ,christ4 ,but it was only just during the time of ,christ on earth that they could so work4 ,it was only then that such a connection existed between the cosmic constellations and the powers of the human organism1 that for certain illnesses1 healing could intervene when through the instrumentality of the ,christ ,jesus1 the cosmic grouping of the same forces was able to work on men4 ,a repetition of this relationship in the evolution of the cosmos and the earth is as little possible as is a second incarnation of the ,christ in a human body4 ,regarded in this way1 the life of the ,christ ,jesus appears as the earthly expression of a definite connection between the cosmos and the forces of man4 ,the tarrying of a sick person by the side of ,christ means that through the proximity of ,christ1 this sick person found himself in such a relation with the macrocosm that the latter could work upon him curatively4 99 99 99 99 99 ,therewith the points of view have been specified which enable us to discern how the guidance of humanity has come under the influence of the ,christ4 ,the other forces1 however1 which had remained behind in the ,egypto-,chaldic times worked further side by side with those that are permeated by the ,christ4 ,this is evident even in the attitude frequently adopted to-day towards the ,gospels4 ,literary works appear in which great pains are taken to show that the ,gospels can be understood through an astrological interpretation4 ,the greatest opponents of the ,gospels employ this astrological interpretation in such a manner that1 the way1 for example1 taken by the ,archangel ,gabriel from ,elizabeth to ,mary is supposed to signify nothing more than the progress of the sun from the constellation of ,virgo to another4 ,this1 in a certain sense1 is correct1 except that these thoughts were poured in this manner into our age by the beings who had remained behind during the ,egypto-,chaldic ,period4 ,under such an influence people are induced to a make-belief that the ,gospels present only allegories in the place of definite cosmic relations4 ,the truth really is1 that in the ,christ the whole cosmos finds expression and therefore one can express the life of the ,christ by connecting its separate events with the cosmic relations which work into ,earth existence unceasingly through the ,christ4 ,a right understanding of this matter will thus lead to a full recognition of the ,christ1 as having lived on earth1 whereas the above mentioned error1 if it were true1 would mean that the ,christ life in the ,gospels is expressed by cosmic constellation and shows that it was only a matter of constellations being treated allegorically1 and that there was no real earthly ,christ at all4 ,if a comparison were to be used1 we might think of each human being as represented by a spherical mirror--which1 if it were set up1 would give pictures of all its surroundings4 ,let us suppose we were to trace with a pencil the outline of all that is shown from the surroundings4 ,we could then take the mirror and carry the picture about with us wherever we went4 ,let this be a symbol for the fact that when a person is born1 he brings with him a copy of the cosmos in himself1 and afterwards carries about with him all through his life the effect of this one picture4 ,the mirror might1 however1 be left untouched by the pencil1 so that wherever the person carried it1 it would depict the immediate surroundings4 ,it then would always be giving a picture of the collective environment4 ,this would be a symbol of the ,christ from the baptism by ,st4 ,john up to the mystery of ,golgotha4 ,that which1 in the case of any other person1 passes into his earthly existence at birth only flowed into the ,christ-,jesus at every moment4 ,and when the mystery of ,golgotha was consummated1 that which had been radiating from out the cosmos passed over into the spiritual substance of the earth1 and has from that time forward been united with the spirit of the earth4 ,when ,st4 ,paul became clairvoyant before ,damascus1 he could recognize that ,that which had formerly been in the cosmos has passed over into the spirit of the earth4 ,of this every one can be convinced who can bring his soul into such a condition that he can have the same experience as had ,st4 ,paul4 ,it is in the twentieth century that those people will first appear who will have ,st4 ,paul's experience of the ,christ event in a spiritual way4 ,whereas up to our times this event would be experienced only by such persons as had gained clairvoyant powers by means of an esoteric training1 hereafter to look upon the ,christ in the spiritual sphere surrounding the earth will be possible for the advanced powers of the soul in the course of the natural evolution of humanity4 ,this--as a repeated experience of the event before ,damascus--will be possible for some people from a certain point of time in the twentieth century4 ,the number of such people will afterwards increase1 until in the distant future1 it will be a natural faculty of the human soul4 99 99 99 99 99 ,with the entrance of ,christ into the evolution of the earth an entirely new impulse or direction was given to evolution4 ,external facts of history also express this4 ,in the early times of post-,atlantean evolution men knew very well that above them there was not merely a physical ,mars1 but that what they saw as ,mars1 ,jupiter or ,saturn was the expression for a spiritual being4 ,in later times this perception was completely forgotten4 ,the heavenly bodies became1 according to human ideas1 mere bodies to be estimated according to their physical condition4 ,and in the ,middle ,ages people saw in connection with the stars only what the eyes can see--the sphere of ,venus1 the sphere of the ,sun1 the sphere of ,mars1 etc41 up to the sphere of the fixed stars2 and then came the eighth sphere like a solid blue wall behind4 ,then ,copernicus appeared and broke down the idea that only that which is perceptible to the senses can be authoritative4 ,the modern physical scientists may indeed say3 8,it is madness to declare that the world is ,maya1 or illusion1 and that you must look into a spiritual world in order to see the truth1 for in spite of all you say true science is that which relies on the senses and notifies what these senses tell40 ,but when did astronomers rely only on the senses8 ,surely at the very time when that astronomical science was dominant which is attacked by the science of to-day6 ,it was at that time when ,copernicus began to think out what exists in the cosmic space beyond the evidence of the senses1 that our modern astronomy as a science began4 ,and so it is in every domain of science4 ,everywhere that science1 in the most modern sense of the word1 has arisen1 it has done so in opposition to what had been apparent to the senses4 ,when ,copernicus declared 8what you see is ,maya--or deception1 rely on what you cannot see10 then the science came into being which is recognized as such to-day4 ,it might thus be said to the representative of modern science 8your science itself only became #8science' when it was no longer willing to depend upon the senses only40 ,giordano ,bruno came as philosophical interpreter of the teachings of ,copernicus4 ,he led the gaze of man out into cosmic space1 and announced that what people had called the limitations of space1 what they had placed there as the eighth sphere limiting everything in space--was in reality no limitation2 it was ,maya1 or illusion2 for an infinite number of worlds had been poured forth into cosmic space4 ,that which was formerly considered to be the boundary of space was shown to be only the boundary of the sense-world of man1 and if we direct our gaze beyond the sense-world1 we shall no longer see the world only as known to the senses1 but we shall also recognize ,infinity4 ,from this it is apparent how the course of human evolution has been such that man started from an originally spiritual view of the cosmos and in the course of time lost it4 ,in its place there came a mere sense-perception of the world4 ,then there came into evolution the ,christ ,impulse4 ,through this1 mankind was led to stamp the spiritual view once more upon the materialistic4 ,at that moment when ,giordano ,bruno burst the fetters of the sense illusion1 the ,christ evolution was so far advanced1 that the soul power1 which had been kindled by the ,christ ,impulse1 could then be active within him4 ,therewith an indication is given of the whole significance of how the life of ,christ penetrates all human evolution1 an evolution only at the beginning of which humanity stands to-day4 ,to what then does spiritual science now aspire8 ,it completes the work begun for external science by ,giordano ,bruno and others in that it says3 that which external science is able to perceive is ,maya1 or illusion4 ,just as formerly one looked to the 8eighth sphere0 and thought that space was thereby bounded1 so contemporary human thought believes that man is shut in or enclosed between birth and death4 ,spiritual science1 however1 expands man's vision by directing his attention out and beyond the limits of birth and death4 ,there is a continuous chain in human evolution which such ideas as these make us recognize4 ,and in the true sense of the words1 that which resulted in the conquest of sense illusion through ,copernicus and ,giordano ,bruno1 already proceeded from the inspiration due to that spiritual current which is now working in the modern spiritual science of theosophy4 ,what one might call the newer esotericism worked in a mysterious manner on ,copernicus1 ,bruno1 ,kepler and others4 ,those therefore who now stand1 base their thought on foundations laid by ,giordano ,bruno and ,copernicus and do not wish to accept theosophy1 are unfaithful to their own traditions in desiring to hold fast by sense illusion4 ,but spiritual science demonstrates that1 as ,giordano ,bruno forced a way through the blue firmament of heaven1 even so does this science break down the barriers of birth and death for man by showing how he originates from out of the macrocosm1 lives in a physical existence1 passes through death1 and re-enters macrocosmic life4 ,and what we see in a limited degree in each individual meets us unrestrictedly and in a larger sense in the representative of the spirit of the cosmos--in the ,christ-,jesus4 ,once and once only could that impulse be given which the ,christ gave4 ,once only could the whole cosmos be thus reflected1 for the conjunction of the stars which then took place can never be repeated4 ,in order to give an impulse to the earth1 this conjunction was obliged to work through a human body4 ,as it is true that this same grouping cannot occur a second time1 so it is equally true that the ,christ was only once incarnated4 ,only if one did not know that the ,christ is the representative of the whole universe and only if it were impossible to win one's way to this ,christ-,idea1 the elements for which are given through spiritual science--only then would it be possible to maintain that ,christ could appear more than once upon the earth4 ,thus we see how an idea of ,christ arises out of the new spiritual science or theosophy1 which reveals to man in a new form his connection with the whole macrocosm4 ,certainly1 in order to gain a true knowledge of the ,christ1 those inspiring forces are absolutely necessary which are now being bestowed by those same superhuman beings who formerly guided the ,egypto-,chaldic epoch and who have now put themselves under the ,christ4 ,there is need of a new inspiration of this kind1 of an inspiration which the great esoteric teachers of the middle ages had prepared from the thirteenth century onwards1 and which from this time forth must ever come more and more into publicity4 ,when man1 according to the meaning of this science1 prepares his soul aright for the knowledge of the spirit-world1 he can then hear clairaudiently and he can see clairvoyantly what is revealed by the old ,chaldic and ,egyptian angel beings who are now again acting as spiritual leaders under the guidance of the ,christ4 ,that which humanity will some time later actually gain thereby could only be prepared in the first centuries of ,christianity and up to our times4 ,consequently we may say that in the future there will live in the hearts of men an idea of the ,christ incomparable in greatness with anything which humanity has so far recognized4 ,that which arose as a first impulse through the ,christ1 and has lived as an idea of ,him up to the present time--even in the case of the best representatives of the ,christ-principle--is only a preparation for the true understanding of the ,christ4 ,it would be strange indeed if1 against those who in the ,west gave expression in such a way as this to the ,christ-idea1 it were brought as a reproach that they do not stand on the foundation of western ,christian tradition1 but it is quite possible1 for this western tradition does not by any means suffice to help us to comprehend the ,christ of the near future4 ,from the hypothesis of eastern esotericism we can see the spiritual direction of humanity gradually flowing into what may be in a real1 true sense called the guidance1 which comes from the ,christ-impulse4 ,that which is appearing as the new esotericism will flow slowly into the hearts of men1 and the spiritual guidance of men and of humanity will ever more and more be consciously seen in such a light4 ,we realize to ourselves how at first the ,christ-principle flowed into the hearts of men because the ,christ had gone about ,palestine in the physical body of ,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,later men gradually surrendered themselves entirely to a reliance on the world of sense1 and could only receive the impulse which corresponded to their perception4 ,afterwards that same impulse so worked through the inspiration of the new esotericism that such spirits as ,nicholas ,cusamus1 ,copernicus and ,galileo were able to be inspired and ,copernicus1 for instance1 was enabled to make this assertion3 8,that which is evident to the senses cannot teach the truth about the solar system2 if we want to find the truth we must investigate behind sense appearances40 ,at that time men1 even spirits like ,giordano ,bruno1 were not yet ripe enough to join consciously to the new esoteric stream4 ,the spirit of the movement had to work in them unconsciously4 ,yet powerful and magnificent was the announcement of ,giordano ,bruno3 8,when a human being enters into existence by means of birth1 then it is something macrocosmic that concentrates itself as a monad2 and when a human being passes through death the monad spreads itself out again2 that which was enclosed within the body spreads itself out in the cosmos in order to draw itself together again in other stages of existence1 and again to spread itself out40 ,there ,bruno gave expression to mighty conceptions which1 even if expressed in stammering tongue1 were yet in entire accord with the sense of the new esotericism4 ,the spiritual influences which lead humanity need not work in such a way that man is always conscious of them4 ,for example1 they put ,galileo in the cathedral of ,pisa4 ,thousands had seen the old church lamp there1 but they have not seen it as did ,galileo4 ,he saw the church lamp swinging2 compared the time of its oscillation with the beat of his own pulse2 found that the church lamp swung in a regular rhythm resembling his pulse-beat2 and from this discovered the laws of the pendulum in the sense of modern physics4 ,anyone acquainted with contemporary physics knows that these would not be possible without ,galileo's principle4 ,in this way the force was then working which is now appearing as spiritual science2 ,galileo was placed in the cathedral of ,pisa before the oscillating church lamp1 and modern physics gained its principles4 ,in such a mysterious way do the guiding spiritual forces of humanity perform their work4 ,we are now approaching the time when people are to become conscious of these guiding powers4 ,we shall always come to a better and better understanding of what has to happen in the future if we rightly understand what is working inspirationally as the new esotericism1 and which shows that the same spiritual beings1 indicated by the ancient ,egyptians when the ,greeks asked them about their teachers1 who then ruled as gods1 are now again assuming control1 through having placed themselves under the leadership of the ,christ4 ,ever more and more will men feel how they can cause to reappear in a brighter lustre1 in a nobler style and on a higher level1 that which was pre-,christian4 ,the consciousness necessary for the present time1 which must be an intensified consciousness1 ought to give us a feeling of our high duty and great responsibility in reference to the recognition of the spiritual world1 and this can only penetrate into our soul when we have recognized in the sense indicated1 what is the task of spiritual science4 #b ,by 8,ancient ,persian0 is not meant 8,persian0 in the usual historic sense1 but a pre-historic ,asiatic 7,iranian7 civilization which developed in that land over which1 later on1 the ,persian ,kingdom extended4 ,,the ,,end4