Reading the Pictures of the Apocalypse
GA 104a
10 May 1909, Kristiania
Lecture II-II
Now that we have seen what Theosophy has to say concerning the historical evolution of humanity, we will consider what the Apocalypse can tell us about it.
To understand this we must go beyond our culture back to the Greco-Latin cultural epoch, the fourth in our great post-Atlantean epoch. In spiritual science we calculate it to have begun in the eighth or ninth century of the pre-Christian age. Further back in the past we arrive at the Egypto-Chaldean cultural epoch, then the most ancient Persian age, concerning which the historical research of our day knows only the last faint echoes. Then we go further back to the primal holy age of the ancient Indian culture. In this way we finally arrive back at the time of the great Atlantean culture which is reported to us by all ancient religious writings. Before the great Atlantean water catastrophe, between Europe and America there existed the ancient Atlantean continent. That is where the precursors of humanity lived, those whom we call the Atlanteans.
We want to consider now the spiritual life of the Atlanteans; for, of course, the same souls who are present today lived there, but they were equipped with other soul abilities or states of consciousness that are of interest now to the spiritual researcher.
During the fullest blossoming of the Atlantean culture, we find the modern human being's capacity for perception present only in its first rudiments. The ancient Atlanteans did not see external objects as we do today, with sharply defined contours; they saw them rather surrounded by an aura. When they fell asleep at night, the external picture disappeared for them but they were conscious in the spiritual world. They had a dim form of clairvoyance. But they did not have any of what we today call counting and computation, the power of judgment or logical thinking. They had none of the mental abilities that our present-day culture has created; for example, they did not know about the power hidden in coal. Instead, they had magical abilities with which they could awaken the powers hidden in plant seeds and then put these powers in their service. In this way they possessed clairvoyant and magical powers. Those people in Atlantis best able to make use of their magical powers were the best technicians and engineers. What our present-day scholars and natural scientists represent, we can compare to the people most highly gifted with powers of clairvoyance in Atlantean times.
There were great mystery centers at that time. Our present-day mystery and occult schools work much more secretly than theirs did. The mystery centers of Atlantean times were generally known as both school and church. Piety and wisdom were cultivated at the same time. The leaders of that time can be called the great teachers of the mysteries. They taught in these Atlantean oracles of which there were seven. Students who had become sufficiently mature were initiated into the mastery of magical powers and into a conscious vision of the spiritual world. Unlike our culture, which is limited to the three lower kingdoms, Atlantean wisdom stretched over the physical earth and beyond to spiritual realities. Present-day science limits itself to the three kingdoms that do not go beyond the earth. However, through clairvoyant development, the Atlantean initiate also achieved a vision and experience of higher spiritual beings that work beyond the earth, even up to the region of the stars.
During those times there were mystery centers that were especially concerned with the various planets in our solar system and the spiritual powers standing behind them. For this reason there were Mars, Venus, Sun, Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, and Moon oracles. However, the greatest and loftiest was the ancient sun oracle. The initiates of this sun oracle could survey all the other oracles and watch over them. The great sun initiate of the sun oracle stood at the top; he saw prophetically the water catastrophe of Atlantis. Therefore, he had the task of seeing to it that the culture was guided through and beyond the catastrophe.
Now those human beings who had possessed the best talent for clairvoyance were of no use at all for the post-Atlantean cultures. These new cultures required the selection of people who had nothing left of the ancient magic. Like a sunrise over the great post-Atlantean culture, they developed the individual spiritual capacities of thinking and judgment in their first primitive forms. The simplest people were precisely those best suited for the future.
They were led by the great sun initiate to a colony near present-day Ireland; later they were led to the middle of Asia. Those were the people whose consciousness was already then closest to our present-day consciousness. Furthermore, for the sake of this advanced population copies of etheric bodies of the greatest initiates of the Atlantean oracle were incorporated into those individuals who came from the various oracles with the best aptitude for present-day culture. This was necessary for the future.
It is a law of spiritual economy that what has once been achieved for humankind is not lost. If we were to survey the various oracles we would find everywhere what is achieved through occult training; the etheric body is transformed and organized through and through by the I. The etheric body of ordinary people who have not undergone this transformation dissolves at death into the world ether. However, with the highest initiate something different happens. An etheric body transformed in this way is preserved for the blessing and healing of humankind. The great sun initiate preserved the etheric bodies of the seven great Atlantean initiates as spiritual treasure and took them along to Asia. These were then imprinted into seven of the very best individuals so that they grew up endowed with the etheric bodies of the greatest initiates of ancient Atlantis. Through many generations the great sun initiate exercised his educational skills on the health and spiritual discipline of the people so that he developed, so to speak, the very best human material.
These seven individuals were in external life simple people; they had their I and their astral body for themselves, but in certain states of consciousness their speaking was inspired by higher powers. They were then sent by the great sun initiate down to ancient India, to those still longing to return to the true primal home of humanity and who characterized everything external as maya or illusion. That was the chorus of the seven holy Rishis. What this chorus harmonized together as a spiritual symphony was the primal wisdom of the pre-Vedantic age. We are looking into an age much more ancient than the Vedas. What is written in the Vedas is nothing more than an echo; it reaches us only in broken rays through the wisdom of the holy Rishis.
Now we come to the ancient Persian culture. In place of the seven Indian teachers came the first Zarathustra. He was himself an initiated student of the great sun initiate, who stood behind the Rishis. Because of this he could proclaim the great teaching concerning the spiritual being of the sun, concerning Ahura Mazdao. We see here how the great teachers of humanity guided the evolution of human development in wisdom.
From the beginning the ancient Indians were protected from falling into materialism. Their longing for clairvoyance, for the spiritual, for the feeling of connectedness with God was still too great. The Persians, on the other hand, were farmers and fighters. Therefore, in order not to fall into materialism, they had to receive the teaching concerning the great Ahura Mazdao, the spirit of the sun, the highest being. Zarathustra initiated one of his students in such a way that he brought the student's astral body to a higher stage of development. With another student he developed the etheric body to the highest stage of clairvoyant consciousness so that the student became able to read the Akashic chronicle by means of this etheric body which is, of course, always the vehicle for our memory.
Now, the first of these two students was reborn as Hermes, the great impulse giver for the Egyptian culture; his astral body was especially well developed. When he was reborn as the Egyptian Hermes, he bore within himself the astral body of the great Zarathustra and was therefore able to work with the intentions of Zarathustra.
The other student also became one of the most important personalities of post-Atlantean culture when he was born again as Moses. That is why Moses already as a child had to be brought to the point where his etheric body and I could be wholly influenced by Zarathustra's etheric body. For this reason he had to be placed in a basket deep in the water at a tender age;1In Exodus 2:3 we read: “And when she could hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch; and she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds at the river's brink.” RSV. this is a symbol for his calling. And so he became the great Akashic visionary who could write down the pictures he perceived in the Akashic chronicle. These are the majestic images found in Genesis. In these ways events of the past are led over into the future—behind the scenes of the physical, external development of humankind.
Zarathustra was also able to become the greatest teacher of the fourth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. Living in the Near East in the sixth century before Christ's birth he was known as Zarathos or Nazarathos. He was the teacher of the most important Greek teachers and initiates—Pythagoras, for example, was his student.
These four post-Atlantean cultures were inspired by the great sun oracle of ancient Atlantis, and the culture of the ancient Hebrew nation continued to develop uninterupted on a parallel course—a subgroup of this Hebrew nation always living contemporaneously with one of the named cultural epochs. The ancient Indian culture was initiated in the secrets of the spiritual world and the planetary states; the ancient Hebrew ... [gap in the manuscript.] Then, living contemporaneously with the Persian culture of Zarathustra, the Hebrew ancestors developed a teaching much like that in Persia concerning Ormuzd and Ahriman, a teaching concerning good and evil. The third, the Egypto-Chaldean culture, then followed. The exodus out of Egypt under Moses' leadership took place at the same time. Then the Greco-Latin culture developed during the time of the great Hebrew initiate-prophets, Elijah, Jeremiah, and so forth. Already in primal ancient times these prophets had been given the idea of the great being, Ahura Mazdao, announced to them by Melchizedek. In this way, the same nuances were at work simultaneously in the Hebrew culture as in the other nations through the epochs.
Now, such cultures always had their second blossoming. That of Hermes soon encountered a decline. It had contained deep mysteries for the ancient Egyptian culture but had fallen in the worst way and entered into the most terrible decadence as black magic. The ancient Indian culture had fallen into decadence the least.
So we see how all that had appeared successively was still maintained in the ancient Hebrew nation. In various groups they preserved the feeling and the states of consciousness of various other cultures. These groups could be addressed with the names of the ancient cultures, according to how their states of consciousness had been maintained.
When the writer of the Apocalypse speaks of the “community at Ephesus” he means the representative of the first, the Indian culture; the Persian finds its representative in the “community at Smyrna”; the Egypto-Chaldean in the name of the “community at Pergamon”; and finally, the fourth, the Greco-Latin culture in the “community of Thyatira.” He was able to address the representatives of the four ancient cultural epochs in concurrently existing groups.
Then he looked further into the future and saw our cultural blossoming in the “community at Sardes.” The “community” following ours—for which we are consciously preparing through the theosophical movement—he characterizes with the name “Philadelphia.” After that, humanity will finally reach the “community at Laodicea,” where new impulses can no longer be brought forward. When we work and act in the fifth epoch as conscious representatives of the theosophical spiritual life we are introducing the age of Philadelphia or brotherhood.
The seven spirits of God, the seven stars, are what we find in theosophical teachings concerning the evolution of the earth through the planetary states. These teachings should lead us up to an understanding of the secrets of the stars and their spirits. In this way we enter consciously the community of Philadelphia when we absorb the teachings of spiritual science.
Zweiter Vortrag
Nachdem wir nun gesehen haben, was die Theosophie heute zu sagen hat über die Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit, wollen wir erst das aufsuchen, was uns die Apokalypse davon wiedergibt.
Um dieses zu erkennen, müssen wir über unsere Kultur hinaus zurückgehen bis zur griechisch-lateinischen Kulturepoche, der vierten in unserem großen nachatlantischen Zeitalter. Wir rechnen in der Geisteswissenschaft diese Epoche bis ins 8. oder 9. Jahrhundert der vorchristlichen Zeit zurück. Weiter zurückgehend kommen wir in die ägyptisch-chaldäische Kulturepoche, dann zur urpersischen Zeit, von der die Geschichtsforschung unserer Zeit nur den letzten Nachklang erlebt. Dann gehen wir weiter zur uralt-heiligen indischen Kultur; und so gelangen wir endlich zu der großen atlantischen Kultur, von der uns alle religiösen Urkunden melden. Vor der großen atlantischen Wasserkatastrophe befand sich zwischen Europa und Amerika der alte atlantische Kontinent. Dort wohnten die Menschenvorfahren, die wir die alten Atlantier nennen.
Wir wollen nun zunächst das geistige Leben der Atlantier betrachten; denn dort lebten ja dieselben Seelen, die heute hier sind, aber mit anderen seelischen Fähigkeiten oder Bewußtseinszuständen, und diese interessieren zunächst den Geistesforscher.
Während der Blütezeit der atlantischen Kultur finden wir das heutige Wahrnehmungsvermögen nur in einer ersten Anlage beim Menschen vorhanden. Der alte Atlantier sah die äußeren Gegenstände nicht wie wir heute mit scharfen Konturen, sondern wie mit einer Aura umgeben. Wenn er dann abends einschlief, verschwand für ihn das äußere Bild; aber er war bewußt in der geistigen Welt. Er hatte ein dämmerhaftes Hellsehen. Alles aber, was man heute Rechnen und Zählen nennt, Urteilskraft und logisches Denken, das hatte er noch nicht. Alle die Geistesfähigkeiten, welche die heutige Kultur erbaut haben, hatte er noch nicht; zum Beispiel kannte er noch nicht die in der Kohle ruhende Kraft. Aber dafür hatte er magische Kräfte, durch die er die in den Samenkörnern ruhenden Kräfte wecken und in seinen Dienst stellen konnte. So waren ihm eigen hellseherische und magische Kräfte. Diejenigen waren in der Atlantis die besten Techniker, die ihre magischen Kräfte am besten gebrauchen konnten. Was unsere heutigen Gelehrten und Naturforscher sind, das läßt sich vergleichen mit den am meisten hellseherisch begabten Menschen der damaligen Zeit.
Damals gab es große Mysterienstätten. Unsere heutigen Mysterien- und Geheimschulen arbeiten viel geheimer als jene. Die damaligen waren allgemein bekannt als etwas, was gleichzeitig Schule und Kirche war. Frömmigkeit und Weisheit wurden dort zugleich gepflegt. Diejenigen, die Führer in jener Zeit waren, kann man die großen Lehrer der Mysterien nennen. Sie lehrten in diesen atlantischen Orakelstätten. Es gab deren sieben. Dort wurden die dafür reifen Schüler eingeweiht in die Beherrschung der magischen Kräfte und in das bewußte Hellsehen in der geistigen Welt. Die atlantische Weisheit erstreckte sich durchaus über die physische Erde hinaus auf die geistigen Tatsachen, nicht nur wie in unserer Kultur auf die drei niederen Reiche. Die heutige Wissenschaft setzt sich in diesen eine Grenze, die über die Erde nicht hinausgeht. Durch die hellseherische Entwickelung aber gelangte der atlantische Eingeweihte auch noch zum Schauen und Erleben der hohen geistigen Wesenheiten, die über den Erdkreis hinaus wirken bis zu den Sternen hinauf und deren Umkreise.
So gab es damals Mysterienstätten, die sich besonders mit den verschiedenen Sternen unseres Planetensystems und den dahinterstehenden geistigen Mächten beschäftigten. Daher gab es damals Mars-, Venus-, Sonnen-, Jupiter-, Merkur-, Saturn- und Mondorakel. Das größte und erhabenste war aber das alte Sonnenorakel. Die Eingeweihten dieses Sonnenorakels konnten alle übrigen Orakelstätten übersehen und über sie wachen. An der Spitze stand der große Sonneneingeweihte des Sonnenorakels; der sah voraus die Wasserkatastrophe in der Atlantis. Daher hatte er dafür zu sorgen, daß die Kultur über die Katastrophe hinübergeleitet werde.
Nun waren diejenigen Menschen, die am meisten Veranlagung zum Hellsehen hatten, gar nicht tauglich für die nachatlantische Kultur. Für diese neue Kultur mußten die ausgewählt werden, die nichts mehr hatten von der alten Magie, die aber gleich einer Morgenröte der großen nachatlantischen Kultur in den ersten primitiven Formen das individuelle Geistige, das Denken und Urteilen entwickelten. Die Schlichtesten waren gerade die für die Zukunft Passendsten.
Sie wurden nun von dem großen Sonneneingeweihten in einer Kolonie in der Nähe des heutigen Irland zusammengeführt; von dort wurden sie dann später nach der Mitte von Asien geführt. Das waren also diejenigen, die damals unseren heutigen Bewußtseinszuständen schon am nächsten standen. Und dazu wurden noch für die Vorgeschrittensten herübergeführt die Abbilder der Ätherleiber der größten Eingeweihten der atlantischen Orakel und den für die heutige Kultur Begabtesten aus den verschiedenen Orakeln einverleibt, da dies für die Zukunft notwendig war.
Es gibt ein Gesetz spiritueller Ökonomie, damit das von der Menschheit einmal Erworbene nicht verlorengehe. Wenn wir Umschau hielten in den verschiedenen Orakelstätten, würden wir überall das finden können, was man durch die Geheimschulung erreicht, wenn man vom Ich aus den Ätherleib so umwandelt, daß er durchgebildet, organisiert ist. Sonst löst sich im Tode der Ätherleib des gewöhnlichen Menschen im Weltenäther auf, aber bei den hohen Eingeweihten ist das anders. Ein solcher umgewandelter Ätherleib wird zum Segen und Heil der Menschheit aufbewahrt. Der große Sonneneingeweihte bewahrte die Ätherleiber der sieben großen atlantischen Eingeweihten als spirituelles Gut und nahm sie mit hinüber nach Asien. Diese wurden nun sieben der allerbesten Menschen eingeprägt, so daß sie heranwuchsen, begabt mit den Ätherleibern der größten Eingeweihten der alten Atlantis. Viele Generationen hindurch übte er auch seine Erziehungskunst auf Gesundheit und geistige Zucht aus, so daß er sozusagen das allerbeste Menschenmaterial heranbildete.
Diese sieben Menschen waren im äußeren Leben schlichte Menschen; sie hatten ihr Ich, ihren Astralleib für sich, aber in bestimmten Bewußtseinszuständen sprachen sie wie von höheren Mächten inspiriert. Sie wurden dann von dem großen Sonneneingeweihten nach dem alten Indien hinuntergeschickt zu jenen, die sich noch nach der wahren Urheimat des Menschen zurücksehnten und alles äußere als Maja oder Illusion bezeichneten. Das war der Chor der sieben heiligen Rishis. Das, was diesen Chor wie eine geistige Symphonie zusammenstimmte, war die Urweisheit der vorvedischen Zeit. So sehen wir in eine viel ältere Zeit hinein als die der Veden. Was in den Veden aufgeschrieben worden ist, ist nur ein Nachklang; nur in gebrochenen Strahlen dringt es zu uns durch die Weisheit der heiligen Rishis.
Nun kommen wir zu der urpersischen Kultur; da war an die Stelle der sieben indischen Lehrer der Ur-Zarathustra getreten. Er war selbst der eingeweihte Schüler des großen Sonneneingeweihten, der hinter den Rishis stand. Er konnte dadurch die große Lehre verkünden vom geistigen Wesen der Sonne, von Ahura Mazdao. Und da sehen wir, wie von den großen Lehrern der Menschheit die Entwickelung in Weisheit geleitet wird.
Der Inder war von vornherein davor bewahrt, in Materialismus zu verfallen; bei ihm war die Sehnsucht nach dem Schauen, nach dem Geistigen, nach dem Sichverbundenfühlen mit der Gottheit noch zu groß. Die Perser hingegen waren Ackerbauer und Krieger; sie mußten deshalb, um nicht in Materialismus zu verfallen, die Lehre aufnehmen von dem großen Ahura Mazdao, dem Geist der Sonne, dem höchsten Wesen.
Der große Zarathustra weihte einen seiner Schüler so ein, daß er seinen Astralleib zu hoher Entwickelung brachte; bei einem anderen hingegen entwickelte er den Ätherleib bis zur höchsten Stufe hellseherischen Bewußtseins, so daß er durch diesen Ätherleib, der ja immer Träger des Gedächtnisses ist, in der Akasha-Chronik zu lesen fähig wurde.
Nun wurde der erste der Schüler wiedergeboren als Hermes, der große Anreger der ägyptischen Kultur, ausgebildet insbesondere in bezug auf seinen Astralleib. Der konnte nun, als er wiedergeboren wurde, in sich tragen den Astralleib des großen Zarathustra. Als ägyptischer Hermes trug er also den Astralleib des großen Zarathustra in sich und konnte deshalb im Sinne des Zarathustra wirken.
Auch der andere Schüler, der wiedergeboren wurde, ist eine der wichtigsten Persönlichkeiten der nachatlantischen Kultur, nämlich der Moses. Deshalb mußte der Moses schon als Kind dazu gebracht werden, daß der Ätherleib und das Ich bei diesem Kinde ganz beeinflußt werden konnte von dem Ätherleib des Zarathustra. So mußte er im zarten Kindesalter in einem Kästchen ins Wasser versenkt werden; dies ist ein Symbol für seine Berufung. Und so wurde er der große Akasha-Seher, der die wahrgenommenen Bilder der AkashaChronik aufzeichnen konnte: die großen Bilder der Genesis. Auf diesen Wegen wird hinter den Kulissen der physischen Menschheitsentwickelung Vergangenes zu Künftigem hinübergeleitet.
Zarathustra konnte auch der größte Lehrer der vierten nachatlantischen Kulturperiode werden. Als Zarathas oder Nazarathos, im 6. Jahrhundert vor Christi Geburt in Vorderasien lebend, war er der Lehrer der wichtigsten griechischen Lehrer und Eingeweihten, als Lehrer zum Beispiel des Pythagoras.
Diese vier nachatlantischen Kulturen sind inspiriert worden von dem großen Sonnenorakel der alten Atlantis aus und parallel gehend mit ihnen entfaltet sich die durchgehende Kultur des althebräischen Volkes, von dem gleichzeitig je eine Volksgruppe mit einer dieser genannten Kulturepochen lebt. Die altindische Kultur war eingeweiht in das Geheimnis der geistigen Welten und der planetarischen Zustände; die alten Hebräer... [Lücke in der Nachschrift.] Dann, gleichzeitig lebend mit der persischen Kultur des Zarathustra, entwiickelten die hebräischen Ahnen auch eine solche Lehre, wie sie uns in Persien als diejenige von Ormuzd und Ahriman geschildert wird als Lehre vom Guten und Bösen; dann folgte die dritte, die ägyptisch-chaldäische Kultur; gleichzeitig der Auszug aus Ägypten unter der Führung des Moses; dann die griechisch-lateinische Kultur gleichzeitig mit den großen hebräischen Eingeweihten-Propheten Elias, Jeremias und so weiter. Sie hatten in uralten Zeiten schon erhalten den Begriff des größten Wesens, des Ahura Mazdao, verkündet durch den Melchisedek. So hatten sie in ihrer Kultur gleichzeitig, gleichlaufend mit der der anderen Völker dieselben Nuancen.
Nun hat eine solche Kultur auch immer ihre Nachblüten getrieben. Die des Hermes war sehr bald einem Verfall entgegengegangen. Sie hatte tiefe Geheimnisse für die alte ägyptische Kultur enthüllt; aber in schlimmster Weise war sie verfallen und als schwarze Magie in furchtbarste Dekadenz geraten. Am wenigsten in die Dekadenz gegangen war die altindische Kultur.
So sehen wir, wie alles, was nacheinander aufgetreten ist, sich noch erhalten hat im althebräischen Volke in den verschiedenen Gruppen, die sich bewahrt hatten die Empfindung, die Bewußtseinszustände der verschiedenen Kulturen. Diese Gruppen konnte man ansprechen mit den Namen der alten Kulturen, je nachdem sie sich die Empfindungen derselben bewahrt hatten.
Wenn der Apokalyptiker von der «Gemeinde von Ephesus» spricht, so meint er damit die Vertreter der ersten, der indischen Kultur; die persische findet ihre Vertreter in der «Gemeinde von Smyrna»; die ägyptisch-chaldäische in dem Namen der «Gemeinde von Pergamon»; endlich die vierte, die griechisch-lateinische, in der «Gemeinde von Thyatira». So konnte er in nebeneinander befindlichen Gruppen die Vertreter der vier alten Kulturepochen ansprechen.
Jetzt blickt er weiter in die Zukunft und sieht unsere Kulturblüte in der «Gemeinde von Sardes». Die auf uns folgende «Gemeinde», die wir bewußt vorbereiten durch die theosophische Bewegung, die bezeichnet er mit dem Namen «Philadelphia», nach welcher die Menschen endlich in die «Gemeinde von Laodicea» kommen werden, wo keine neuen Impulse mehr hervorgebracht werden können. Wir leiten die Zeit der Philadelphia oder Brüderlichkeit ein, wenn wir in der fünften Zeit als bewußte Vertreter theosophischen Geisteslebens wirken und handeln.
Die sieben Geister Gottes, die sieben Sterne, das sind die theosophischen Lehren von der Erdenentwickelung durch die planetarischen Zustände, die uns heraufführen sollen zum Verständnis des Geheimnisses der Sterne und ihrer Geister. So gehen wir bewußt ein in die Gemeinde von Philadelphia, wenn wir die Lehren der Geisteswissenschaft aufnehmen.
Second Lecture
Now that we have seen what theosophy has to say today about the history of human development, let us first look at what the Apocalypse tells us about it.
To recognize this, we must go back beyond our culture to the Greek-Latin cultural epoch, the fourth in our great post-Atlantean age. In spiritual science, we date this epoch back to the 8th or 9th century BC. Going further back, we come to the Egyptian-Chaldean cultural epoch, then to the ancient Persian period, of which our modern historical research has only experienced the last echoes. Then we move on to the ancient sacred Indian culture, and thus we finally arrive at the great Atlantean culture, which is mentioned in all religious documents. Before the great Atlantean water catastrophe, the ancient Atlantean continent lay between Europe and America. There lived the ancestors of mankind, whom we call the ancient Atlanteans.
Let us now first consider the spiritual life of the Atlanteans, for the same souls that are here today lived there, but with different spiritual abilities or states of consciousness, and these are of primary interest to the spiritual researcher.
During the heyday of the Atlantean culture, we find that today's powers of perception were only present in humans in a rudimentary form. The ancient Atlanteans did not see external objects as we do today with sharp contours, but as if surrounded by an aura. When they fell asleep in the evening, the external image disappeared for them, but they were consciously in the spiritual world. They had a dim clairvoyance. However, they did not yet possess what we today call arithmetic and counting, judgment, and logical thinking. They did not yet have all the mental abilities that have built today's culture; for example, they did not yet know the power that lies in coal. But they did have magical powers with which they could awaken the powers lying dormant in seeds and put them to work. Thus, he possessed clairvoyant and magical powers. Those in Atlantis were the best technicians, who knew how to use their magical powers to best effect. What our scholars and natural scientists are today can be compared to the most clairvoyantly gifted people of that time.
At that time, there were great mystery centers. Our mystery and secret schools today work much more secretly than those did. Those of that time were generally known as something that was both a school and a church. Piety and wisdom were cultivated there at the same time. Those who were leaders at that time can be called the great teachers of the mysteries. They taught in these Atlantean oracle centers. There were seven of them. There, students who were ready were initiated into the mastery of magical powers and conscious clairvoyance in the spiritual world. Atlantean wisdom extended far beyond the physical earth to spiritual realities, not just to the three lower realms as in our culture. Today's science sets a limit that does not go beyond the earth. Through clairvoyant development, however, the Atlantean initiate also attained the ability to see and experience the high spiritual beings that work beyond the earth's sphere, up to the stars and their orbits.
Thus, there were mystery centers at that time that were particularly concerned with the various stars of our planetary system and the spiritual powers behind them. Therefore, there were oracles of Mars, Venus, the Sun, Jupiter, Mercury, Saturn, and the Moon. But the greatest and most sublime was the ancient oracle of the Sun. The initiates of this sun oracle could overlook all the other oracle sites and watch over them. At the top stood the great sun initiate of the sun oracle, who foresaw the water catastrophe in Atlantis. He therefore had to ensure that the culture was guided through the catastrophe.
Now, those people who were most predisposed to clairvoyance were not at all suited to the post-Atlantean culture. For this new culture, it was necessary to select those who had nothing left of the old magic, but who, like a dawn of the great post-Atlantean culture in its first primitive forms, developed individual spirituality, thinking, and judgment. The simplest were precisely those most suited to the future.
They were now brought together by the great initiate of the Sun in a colony near present-day Ireland; from there they were later led to the center of Asia. These were the ones who were closest to our present state of consciousness at that time. In addition, the images of the etheric bodies of the greatest initiates of the Atlantean oracles and the most gifted individuals from the various oracles for today's culture were brought over and incorporated into the most advanced ones, as this was necessary for the future.
There is a law of spiritual economy so that what humanity has once acquired is not lost. If we looked around the various oracle sites, we would find everywhere what can be achieved through secret schooling when one transforms the etheric body from the ego so that it is fully formed and organized. Otherwise, the etheric body of the ordinary human being dissolves into the world ether at death, but this is not the case with the highly initiated. Such a transformed etheric body is preserved for the blessing and salvation of humanity. The great sun initiate preserved the etheric bodies of the seven great Atlantean initiates as spiritual assets and took them with him to Asia. These were now imprinted on seven of the very best people, so that they grew up endowed with the etheric bodies of the greatest initiates of ancient Atlantis. Through many generations, he also practiced his art of education for health and spiritual discipline, so that he developed, so to speak, the very best human material.
These seven people were simple in their outer lives; they had their own egos, their own astral bodies, but in certain states of consciousness they spoke as if inspired by higher powers. They were then sent by the great sun initiate to ancient India to those who still longed for the true original homeland of humankind and regarded everything external as maya or illusion. This was the choir of the seven holy Rishis. What brought this choir together like a spiritual symphony was the ancient wisdom of the pre-Vedic age. Thus we see into a time much older than that of the Vedas. What has been written down in the Vedas is only an echo; it reaches us only in broken rays through the wisdom of the holy Rishis.
Now we come to the ancient Persian culture, where the seven Indian teachers were replaced by the original Zarathustra. He himself was the initiated disciple of the great sun initiate who stood behind the Rishis. This enabled him to proclaim the great teaching of the spiritual nature of the sun, of Ahura Mazdao. And here we see how the great teachers of humanity guide our development in wisdom.
The Indians were protected from the outset from falling into materialism; their longing to see, to experience the spiritual, to feel connected with the deity was still too great. The Persians, on the other hand, were farmers and warriors; in order not to fall into materialism, they had to accept the teaching of the great Ahura Mazdao, the spirit of the sun, the highest being.
The great Zarathustra initiated one of his disciples in such a way that he brought his astral body to a high level of development; in another, however, he developed the etheric body to the highest level of clairvoyant consciousness, so that through this etheric body, which is always the carrier of memory, he became able to read the Akashic Records.
Now the first of the disciples was reborn as Hermes, the great inspirer of Egyptian culture, trained especially in relation to his astral body. When he was reborn, he was now able to carry within himself the astral body of the great Zarathustra. As the Egyptian Hermes, he therefore carried the astral body of the great Zarathustra within himself and was thus able to work in the spirit of Zarathustra.
The other disciple who was reborn is also one of the most important personalities of post-Atlantean culture, namely Moses. For this reason, Moses had to be brought up as a child in such a way that his etheric body and ego could be completely influenced by the etheric body of Zarathustra. Thus, he had to be placed in a box and sunk into water at a tender age; this is a symbol of his calling. And so he became the great Akashic seer who was able to record the images he perceived in the Akashic Records: the great images of Genesis. In this way, behind the scenes of physical human evolution, the past is transferred to the future.
Zarathustra was also able to become the greatest teacher of the fourth post-Atlantean cultural period. As Zarathas or Nazarathos, living in the 6th century BC in the Near East, he was the teacher of the most important Greek teachers and initiates, for example, the teacher of Pythagoras.
These four post-Atlantean cultures were inspired by the great solar oracle of ancient Atlantis, and parallel to them developed the continuous culture of the ancient Hebrew people, of whom one ethnic group lived in each of these cultural epochs. The ancient Indian culture was initiated into the mystery of the spiritual worlds and planetary conditions; the ancient Hebrews... [Gap in the transcript.] Then, living at the same time as the Persian culture of Zarathustra, the Hebrew ancestors also developed a teaching such as that described to us in Persia as that of Ormuzd and Ahriman as the teaching of good and evil; then followed the third, the Egyptian-Chaldean culture; at the same time, the exodus from Egypt under the leadership of Moses; then the Greek-Latin culture, at the same time as the great Hebrew prophets Elijah, Jeremiah, and so on. In ancient times, they had already received the concept of the greatest being, Ahura Mazdao, proclaimed by Melchizedek. Thus, in their culture, they had the same nuances at the same time as the other peoples.
Now, such a culture always has its after-effects. That of Hermes very soon fell into decay. It had revealed deep secrets to the ancient Egyptian culture, but it had degenerated in the worst possible way and had fallen into the most terrible decadence as black magic. The ancient Indian culture had fallen least into decadence.
Thus we see how everything that has appeared in succession has been preserved in the ancient Hebrew people in the various groups that have preserved the feelings and states of consciousness of the different cultures. These groups could be addressed by the names of the ancient cultures, depending on how well they had preserved the feelings of those cultures.
When the apocalyptic writer speaks of the “church of Ephesus,” he means the representatives of the first, the Indian culture; the Persian culture finds its representatives in the “church of Smyrna”; the Egyptian-Chaldean culture in the name of the “church of Pergamum”; and finally, the fourth, the Greek-Latin culture, in the “church of Thyatira.” In this way, he was able to address the representatives of the four ancient cultural epochs in groups standing side by side.
Now he looks further into the future and sees our cultural flowering in the “church of Sardis.” He designates the “church” that will follow us, which we are consciously preparing through the theosophical movement, with the name “Philadelphia,” after which people will finally come to the “church of Laodicea,” where no new impulses can be generated. We usher in the age of Philadelphia, or brotherhood, when we work and act as conscious representatives of theosophical spiritual life in the fifth age.
The seven spirits of God, the seven stars, are the theosophical teachings about the development of the earth through planetary states, which are meant to lead us to an understanding of the mystery of the stars and their spirits. Thus, we consciously enter the church of Philadelphia when we take up the teachings of spiritual science.