Caros amigos:
O texto abaixo é da época que Rudolf
Steiner ainda não chamava de Antroposofia o seu movimento (detalhes abaixo).
Existe muita confusão na questão
de sexo e gênero.
Na realidade as pessoas
independentemente de se posicionarem como sendo deste ou daquele gênero – eu
diria, gênero humano, as pessoas são por nascimento do sexo masculino ou
feminino, mesmo que a individualidade não se adapte às circunstâncias de seu
corpo físico.
Desconhecer nossa origem divina dá
nisso. Afinal não temos apenas o corpo físico, mas somos formados de 4 membros:
corpo físico (feminino ou masculino), corpo etérico (corpo de vida, no caso do corpo físico ser
masculino o corpo etérico é feminino e vice-versa)), corpo astral (alma,
masculina e feminina), e o Espírito (EU, sem sexo) que encarna em diferentes
vidas, desenvolvendo um carma solar e um carma lunar.
Não cabe aqui explicar em
detalhes.
Mas à medida que individualidade
tem dificuldade em lidar com o seu corpo físico na Terra, talvez o texto
esotérico abaixo as ajude a conseguir considerar outras abordagens.
Sonia von Homrich, 9 de Novembro
de 2020, São Paulo.
The separation of the sexes occurred only during the Lemurian time.
Therewith the first incarnations were possible, the taking over of a body which
hadn’t already existed. Previously one being derived from another. With the
separation of the sexes during the middle of the Lemurian age, birth and death
arose and therefore the possibility of the effects of karma. The human being
could burden himself with guilt. Everything we know as “human” arose at that
time.
https://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0089/19040609p01.html
Esoteric Cosmology – 3, Rudolf Steiner. Translation: Frank Thomas Smith
This is the third of three lectures given in the Berlin branch of the
Theosophical Society in 1904. Rudolf Steiner was the general secretary of the
German Theosophical Society until he broke with the Theosophists in 1913 and
formed the Anthroposophical Society. At that time Steiner used theosophical
terminology derived from oriental sources. He later abandoned most of these
terms in favor of German. This lecture was published in German by the Rudolf
Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, in 2001. It is based on notes taken by
participants, none of whom was a professional stenographer. This is the first
and only English translation to my knowledge. The first lecture may be found at
Esoteric Cosmology - 1. The second at Esoteric Cosmology - 2. [Tr. – FTS]
A week ago, I tried to explain the manner of thinking, so strange to
western minds, through which the theosophist attains his insights and knowledge
of the cosmos. The sketchy character these lectures necessarily have prevents
me from delving more profoundly into theosophical cosmology. Nevertheless, I
will attempt today to give you at least a picture in descriptive form of the
origin of the world based on Theosophy. I beg those who have scientific bents
to bear in mind that in the course of three short lectures it isn't possible to
go into scientific explanations of what I will say today. These scientific
explanations will be included in a subsequent lecture cycle, in which I will
speak in more detail about this subject. Also, in the second volume of my Theosophy,
which will soon be published, cosmology will be discussed. [see Note 1]
Allow me first of all to mention an important thought, which is
basically very simple, but which must be clear to whoever wishes to understand
evolution in the theosophical sense. When we speak of development, or evolution
in a broad sense, we don't only mean the development of animal or plant life
from a previous form, but we also mean the great transformations within the
universe, and we include the origin of matter, the matter we can today perceive
with our physical senses.
We said last time that in the history of the evolution of our planet
there are seven consecutive stages, and I also briefly described these to you.
You must therefore think of how our earthly planet goes through seven stages,
which we call Rounds, in rhythmical sequence. Everything that exists and lives
on our Earth was also existent before our present Earth come into being; it was
existent in a kind of seed state, just as a whole plant is present in a seed,
sleeps in the seed, so to speak, before it takes on form in the outer world.
Such a slumber stage is called a “Pralaya”. On the other hand, the state in
which everything awakens, gradually emerges and progresses from a beginning to
a high point of perfection, we call “Manvantara”. When the state of perfection
is reached, a Pralaya, a sleeping state, occurs once more, and this is followed
again by a state of waking and growth. Thus the planet goes through this
sequence seven times, reawakening seven times to a new Round.
The time between one Manvantara and the next passes in a state in which
everything living on the earth sleeps, so to speak. But it isn't comparable to
normal human sleep. In normal sleep only the activities of understanding and
sense are interrupted, but you can see the physical body. The sleeping state of
the Earth must be thought of differently. No earthly being is visible during
this sleeping state. This state would be perceptible only to the opened eye of
the so-called Dangma, the highest developed seer. This state is indescribable
in words, for our words are inadequate for this kind of existence. I find no
words in any language for this state. Therefore the developed seer says
something quite different in order to give an idea of this state. He says:
imagine a plant. You see this plant. Now imagine a kind of plaster impression
of the plant, but in such a way that the plant itself is empty space and a
Round is the plaster. Consider that the plaster is spiritual and only
perceptible for certain senses. Whoever can see the plant cannot see the
plaster impression at the same time, that is, the negative of the plant.
Something similar is what the developed seer would perceive of the Earth during
the Pralaya sleep. The Earth is not there. It is the hollow form, swimming in a
great, mighty sea of the highest spiritual beings that is gradually
disappearing and out of which the Being of the Earth itself flows.
Then something begins to originate within this hollow space, something
not yet perceptible to the physical senses; it is only perceptible to the
highly developed seer who can consciously move in the spiritual plane. At the
beginning of the Earth's existence he would see a sphere in space, a purely
spiritual sphere in which only the spiritual is present. Every time before a
new Round begins, our Earth exists in such a spiritual state. When it awakens
from the Pralaya sleep, it does so as such a sphere. The spiritual seer
perceives it in a wonderful reddish glimmer. But that Earth contains everything
that later becomes Earth. The densest bodies are also contained in this sphere.
How can we imagine this? It can be made clear by means of a simple
process. Imagine a glass full of water. The water is fluid. When you cool the
temperature sufficiently, the water becomes ice. You have the same thing in
front of you as previously — ice is nothing other than water, only in another
form. Raise the temperature and the ice reverts to water, with higher
temperatures even to steam. By this example you can imagine how all matter
derives from the spirit through densification. The spiritual sphere — seen only
by the seer's developed eye — densifies gradually after it passes through a
small Pralaya. It can then be seen by a less developed seer's eye. Then follows
a kind of short sleeping state, and now the sphere is visible to the astral
eye, that is, for whoever has developed this sense on the astral plane. Again a
Pralaya state follows, and the sphere appears again as physical solid matter.
Only now can physical eyes see it, physical ears hear it, physical hands grasp
it. That is the fourth stage. Then a short Pralaya comes again. This stage
disappears and again an astral sphere presents itself, but with much more
highly developed beings. An analogous state appears in the sixth Round, also
only visible to the spiritual seer. Thereafter another Pralaya and then a state
only visible to the highest developed seer. Then follows what is invisible even
to the Dangma. A long Pralaya follows and then the whole process begins again.
This happens seven times. In this way the Earth is transformed from the lowest
to the highest level.
Let us now follow the first Round. We can study it best by observing
what exists on our Earth where it is most solid. In the first Round there were
no mineral forms yet, no physical nature energy and no chemical energy. The
Earth had carried out the previous evolution only to create a foundation for
physical existence; it created this foundation in order to prepare a physical
existence in the fourth Round. Our Earth looked like a fiery mass, with such
tremendous temperatures that none of our present substances could have the form
they now have. All substances were jumbled up in that fiery primal porridge —
allow me to use that trivial word — in homogeneous, undifferentiated matter.
Theosophy says: the Earth was in the fiery stage. Common fire is not meant,
however, but fire of a higher, spiritual nature. There were no chemical
elements involved. But what was in the interior of this matter was active. Two
kinds of spiritual beings were active: those we call “Dhyani Chohans” [see Note
2], and those beings who had not yet descended to physical materiality, who had
a partially spiritual body, and who flowed through the fiery matter with
tremendous rapidity. We see here a continuous emergence and disappearance of
irregular forms, also of forms that remind us of those that will exist on Earth
at a much later time.
The emerging and disappearing seems to follow a pattern. Forms arise
which are reminiscent of later crystals and plants — even something that takes
on human form, and then disperses. The humans who would later incarnate lived
in that fire, modeling and preparing their bodies. That is how the Earth's
first Round appears to us. Then followed the transition from this fiery,
flowing Earth to the sleep-state.
The second Round began in the same spiritual way. “Ether” is finer than
our present-day gas, but denser than the Earth was in the previous stage. In
this very fine matter what we call chemical elements formed. You can find this
second stage wonderfully described in religious books, where it is written that
the divine beings ordered everything according to mass, number and weight. What
had earlier been irregular was now organized in chemical elements according to
number. The chemist will understand me, for he knows the regular periodic
system of the elements. The individual substances were not yet related to each
other. Now, however, as matter became differentiated, we see the most wonderful
forms coming into existence which remind us of later forms, only they are not
yet solid: star-like forms, angular forms, tetrahedrons, polyhedrons, round
forms and so on. The forms that will later constitute nature are intimated. As
in the first Round crystal forms were prearranged, the plant forms were
constituted in the second Round. Then all flowed away; the astral and spiritual
natures went through a Pralaya stage again and re-appeared in the third Round.
When we consider the physical state of the third Round, we find matter
in a quite different state. It is not yet differentiated as air and water, but
forms a kind of mist, or steam. It is no longer an ether form, but rather
somewhat as cloud formations are today. And within these mist formations, which
we find described in old sagas — the sagas of Nebelheim (home of mist) and
Niflheim describe this state — we see matter in another form, no longer
organized according to number, but equipped with energy. The esoteric
researcher speaks here of the Law of Selected Relationships. The chemical
substances organize themselves according to the Law of Selected Relationships.
Now, however, in the third Round, energy emerged, which allowed the small to
become larger and expand. The substances could organize themselves from within,
energize themselves. Not only the first plant forms, which we met in the second
Round, appeared, but growth was also possible. The first animal forms appeared,
which we would consider to be extremely grotesque today. Gigantically large,
colossal shapes formed themselves out of the mass of mist. For the occultist
there is something of truth when he looks at the clouds and sees that one cloud
looks like a camel, another like a horse. In the third Round the beings were
mist-like forms, which reproduced by one transforming itself into the other,
one deriving from the other, like the lower cell organisms, which are
reminiscent of this process. These animal bodies, which formed out of the mist,
could now provide the basis for those individualities who came from previous
worlds to find bodies. The human being could now incarnate. He found a body
which allowed him to appear, at first in an imperfect, primitive, groping way.
Failed incarnations were also possible. We could say that during the third
Round beings existed on the Earth who were intermediate beings between man and
animal, in which the human being did not feel completely right, but could
nevertheless incarnate.
Then another Pralaya occurred, and then the fourth Round. That is the
Round to which we belong today. The Earth passed through the spiritual state,
went through the astral and etheric states and finally arrived at the physical
state which we have now reached. During the first Round the foundation for the
mineral kingdom was formed, during the second Round the foundation for the
vegetable kingdom was formed, during the third Round the possibility for animal
forms was established. And now, during the fourth Round, the human being
acquired the ability to take on the form he has today.
Let us consider the state of our physical Earth somewhat more closely.
The state of the Earth in this fourth Round must be described as being much
denser than the states of the previous Rounds. First there was a fiery state,
then a misty one, then one between air and water. Still during the beginning of
the fourth Round we had a kind of gushing matter, similar to protein. Gradually
it all condensed, and what we have today as matter is nothing other than the
condensed, originally gushing matter, exactly as ice is condensed water. At the
beginning of the fourth Round all beings were created so they could live in
this gushing matter. Man had a form similar to the one he has now, but his
consciousness was extremely dim, comparable to that of a dreaming person. He
dreamed his being in a kind of sleeping consciousness; the spirit was still
lacking. Let us consider this state more closely. The human being was possible
in that flowing, gushing state. We call these people of the first race [see
Note 3] dream-men. It is difficult to describe them. Another stage followed
this one, in which matter became denser and separated into a more spiritual and
a more physical materiality, comparable to the North and South Poles.
Now I ask you to consider the difference between the esoteric and the
usual understanding of Darwinism. We have the human being present in the
indicated stage of the earth, as well as the vegetable kingdom. The animal
kingdom was also present, but without sexual reproduction capability, without
warm blood and not yet capable of bringing forth sounds. The human being was
also mute. He could not yet think, not even dim thoughts. The spirit had not
yet entered the bodies. In the following, second race, matter separated into
two poles. The human beings withdrew the matter that was useful to them and
separated out the less useful matter, from which a kind of lateral branch of
the higher animals formed. The lower animals were similar to today's mollusks,
even fish-like forms developed.
The human being developed further and at the third stage discarded the
matter that would not enable him to become the bearer of a higher
consciousness. He gave it up as material for the animals, which now looked like
amphibians with gigantic forms. They are described in fables and myths as
flying dragons and so on. Until then, no being possessed sexual reproductive
capacities. Not until the middle of the third race, the Lemurian epoch, does
this appear, albeit primitively. The scene of this development, Lemuria, was in
Asia in the Indian Ocean.
During the middle of the Lemurian age the great event occurred which
allowed man to become a human being. The human beings who came over from
previous planetary states were not all at the same level of development. Those
who had reached a normal evolution during the previous misty earth cycle were
able to incarnate during the third epoch. Among them, however, there were some
who had already reached a higher stage; they could not incorporate during the
third race at all. During every Round there are humans who develop to a normal
stage and others who are more advanced. These are the masters. They are more
highly developed individuals. In Theosophy they are called solar pitris or sun
pitris. They had reached a higher spirituality, but could no more incarnate in
the bodies of the men of those times than a contemporary person could incarnate
in a plant. They waited for further evolution until the appropriate time had
come, during the fourth race, when their incarnation could take place. Thus a
spiritually highly developed humanity arose. The sagas and myths relate how at
that time personalities existed who rose far above their fellow men.
Individuals such as Prometheus, the Indian Rishis, Fire-Rishis, who were the
leaders of humanity, including Manus, who gave later humanity laws. Only these
solar Pitris could incarnate as adepts.
I already mentioned that at the start of the fourth Round sexuality did
not yet exist. The separation of the sexes occurred only during the Lemurian
time. Therewith the first incarnations were possible, the taking over of a body
which hadn't already existed. Previously one being derived from another. With
the separation of the sexes during the middle of the Lemurian age, birth and
death arose and therefore the possibility of the effects of karma. The human
being could burden himself with guilt. Everything we know as “human” arose at
that time.
The Lemurian continent was destroyed by a fire-like catastrophe, and the
Atlantean continent arose on the floor of what is now the Atlantic Ocean.
During the Atlantean time another important event occurred to which I drew your
attention when I spoke of the Whitsun holiday. I said that, with the exception
of the solar Pitris, all beings lived in a lower spiritual condition. The solar
Pitris could only take on selected bodies. Other bodies would only have allowed
them to live with a dim consciousness. Dull-minded individuals would have
resulted had they used the existent bodies. The Pitris therefore waited until
certain animal-like forms evolved further. On the one hand they sank deeper
into instinctual desires, but on the other hand, by this means the prerequisites
for the later development of the brain were given. Matter was differentiated
into nervous matter and sexual matter. The Pitris who had waited for that later
time incarnated in this inferior matter. Religion indicates this as the
biblical fall from paradise: the incarnation in worsened matter. If that hadn't
happened, they would have remained in a much less conscious state. They would
not have attained the clear thinking we now posses, but would have remained in
a much duller state. They paid for this by allowing their bodies to be
inferior, which however was compensated for by refined brain matter, thereby
allowing them to achieve a higher level of consciousness and spirituality. A
particular result of the evolution of the Atlantean race was the development of
a phenomenal memory.
After Atlantis was destroyed by water, continued evolution resulted in
our contemporary fifth race, during which deductive reasoning was a special
achievement. This enabled the human race to bring art and science to a high level
of development, which previously had not been possible. During the fifth
sub-race of the fourth Round humanity reached a high-point: control by the
spirit, which had incarnated in matter, so that humanity could ascend to higher
and higher stages of evolution.
We have seen how the cosmos evolved in rhythmic stages to the point
where we now stand. In previous Rounds the following developed:
1. the mineral kingdom
2. the vegetable kingdom
3. the animal kingdom
and then —
4. the human being
Theosophical cosmology is a self-contained whole, derived from the
wisdom of the most developed seers. If I had a little more time I would be able
to indicate to you how certain natural scientific facts are conducive to
testifying to the accuracy of this image of the world. Look at Haeckel's famous
phylogenic trees, for example, in which evolution is materialistically
explained. If instead of matter you consider the spiritual stages, as Theosophy
describes them, then you can make the phylogenic trees as Haeckel did — only
the explanation is different.
In order that you do not confuse what I have said with what is described
in many theosophical books as the various astral or physical states, I would
like to bring the following to your attention. Evolution is often described as
if they were concurrent stages. You find spheres placed next to each other, so
that it appears as though life went from one sphere to another. In reality only
one sphere exists, and only its conditions change. It is always the same sphere
which goes through the various metamorphoses: spiritual, astral, physical, and
so on.
We have seen that the introduction to these lectures, which we took from
Goethe's words, is completely justified — that it is after all the human being
who is the goal, the task of the earthly planet. The esotericist knows that
every planet has its specific task. Nothing in the cosmos is coincidental.
The task of physical evolution is that what is created for us humans
achieve its objective. You will not find a human being as he is today on Earth
on any other planet. Beings, yes — but not human beings. The Earth exists in
order that “I”-conscious human beings could be created. Through the first four
Rounds the kingdoms of nature evolved in order that in the fourth man could be
made a self-conscious being, who could reflect himself in his body. He will
rise to higher levels of evolution, something that few can understand
correctly. In the next, the fifth Round, the mineral kingdom will disappear.
All mineral matter will be transformed to vegetable matter. Then the vegetable
kingdom will reach its culmination and in the next Round the animal kingdom
will form the lowest kingdom. During the seventh Round the human being will
achieve his highest level of evolution. He will have become what planetary
evolution intends.
Whoever understands this can have a profounder insight into the
religious documents. There was a time when people believed like children in the
religious documents. Then the Enlightenment came, and nothing is believed any
more. But a time will come when people will learn to understand the images
preserved for us in religious documents, fairy tales and fables. Thus we have
the seven Rounds as the seven days of creation in the Bible. The first three
days of creation have gone by, we are now in the fourth day of creation and the
last three days of creation are yet to come. The first three days of creation
in Genesis represent the past Rounds, and the last three indicate what is to
come in the future. Rightly understood, Moses wanted to say with the
description of the first three days, that we live in the fourth Round; he
describes the fourth day of creation in a quite special way. That is why you
find a double creation in Genesis [see Note 4]. Those who judge the Bible with
their intellect only will never understand it. The human being of the seventh
day of creation has not been created. That man was made of clay is a symbol of
our fourth Round. The double creation tells us in images of what has been
created, the stage in which we now find ourselves, and of the stage at the end
of the seventh Round. When we see the Bible's message in this way, a meaning of
these documents suddenly arises which we could not have previously understood.
Humanity will finally see that there is such a profound meaning there that one
would almost have to become a different person in order to understand it.
It is necessary that in our times the high, spiritual meaning of these
old documents be revealed, and that is the task of the theosophical movement.
It doesn't criticize the materialism of our times because it considers it to be
necessary. But it strives to enable people to again recognize the spiritual
meaning of these documents. We will work on this during the coming winter.
Today's lecture is the last of this cycle. We will, however, still meet here
every Monday at eight o'clock.
Footnotes:
1 The second volume of Theosophy never appeared. Instead, Steiner's An
Outline of Esoteric Science, which includes a detailed description of cosmological
evolution, was published in 1909.
2 Dhyani Chohans: in Christian terminology these are archangels.
3 “Race” in this sense is a theosophical term. Steiner later used the
expression “cultural epoch” and similar ones.
4 Double creation: This may refer to Genesis 1, 26, where God creates
humankind. In Genesis 2, 7, this creation is described again, albeit
differently.
