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of Form and were able through them to learn how they were being led and guided by the exalted Being
Who held the leadership at the time of separation of sun and Earth. Later, through this exalted Being
an understanding of the Christ unfolded itself in human beings. Such men were initiates. But since the
individuality of man had, as already described above, entered the region of the moon spirits, these
initiates also remained, as a rule, untouched directly by the Spirit of the Sun. He could be shown to
them only by the moon spirits as though in a reflection.
Thus they did not see the Being of the Sun directly, but saw only His splendor. They became the
leaders of the other portion of mankind to whom they could communicate the mysteries they beheld.
They trained disciples to whom they indicated the paths leading to the state resulting in initiation. The
knowledge, previously revealed through Christ, could be attained by human beings only who belonged
in the way described to the order of "sun men." They cultivated their mysterious wisdom and the
functions leading to it in a special place on the earth, which will be called here the Christ or Sun oracle-
oraculum meaning the place where the purposes of spiritual beings are heard.
What is said here about the Christ will only be understood if we keep in mind the fact that
supersensible knowledge perceives in His appearance on earth an event that was foreseen for ages by
wise men as taking place at some future time, wise men who were familiar, long before this event,
with the meaning of Earth evolution. We would be in error were we to presuppose in the case of these
initiates a connection with the Christ that was made possible only through this event. But they could
comprehend prophetically and make their disciples understand that whoever is touched by the power
of the Sun Being sees the Christ approaching the earth.
Other oracles came into being through the members of the Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter humanities; their
initiates directed their vision only up to the beings who could reveal themselves in their ether bodies as
the corresponding higher egos. There thus arose adherents of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars wisdom.
Besides these methods of initiation, there were others for human beings who had acquired too much of
the Luciferic nature to allow as large a portion of their ether body to be separated from the physical
body as was the case with the sun men.
Their astral body retained a greater part of the life body in the physical body, nor could they be
brought, by means of the described state of initiation, to a prophetic revelation of the Christ. On
account of their astral body, which was considerably influenced by the Luciferic principle, they were
compelled to go through more complicated preparations, and then, in a less body-free state than the
others, they were unable to behold the manifestation of the Christ Himself, but only that of other
higher beings. There were certain spiritual beings who at the time of the sun separation had forsaken
the Earth, but who had not yet attained a sufficiently high development to enable them to participate
permanently in the sun evolution. After the separation of sun and Earth they withdrew a portion of the
sun as a dwelling place.
This we know as Venus. The leader of these spiritual beings became the higher ego of the above
described initiates and their adherents. Something similar occurred in regard to the leading spirit of
Mercury for another kind of human being. In this way the Venus and Mercury oracles had their origin.
Certain human individuals who were affected most by the Luciferic influence were able to reach up
only to a certain being who, with his associates, had been the earliest to be expelled from the sun
development. This being has not a special planet in the cosmos, but lives in the environment of the
earth itself, with which he has been again united since his return from the sun.
The human beings to whom this being manifested himself as higher ego may be called members of the
"Vulcan oracle." Their eyes were turned more toward earth phenomena than was the case with the
other initiates. They laid the first foundation for what appeared later on among human beings as
"science" and "art." The Mercury initiates, on the other hand, laid the basis for the knowledge of the
more supersensory things, and to a still higher degree, this was done by the Venus initiates.
The Vulcan, Mercury, and Venus initiates distinguished themselves from the Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars
initiates through the fact that the latter received their mysteries more as a revelation from above, in a
more finished state, whereas the former received their knowledge revealed more in the form of their
own thoughts, of their own ideas. In the middle stood the Christ initiates. They received, together with
the direct revelation, the ability to clothe their mysteries in the form of human concepts. The Saturn,
Jupiter, and Mars initiates had to express themselves by way of symbols; The Christ, Venus, Mercury,
and Vulcan initiates were able to make their communications in the form of definite concepts.
What was attained in this manner by the Atlantean humanity came about in an indirect way through
the initiates. But the rest of humanity also gained special abilities through the Luciferic principle,
because through the lofty cosmic beings certain faculties, which might otherwise have led to disaster,
were transformed into a blessing. One such faculty is speech. It was bestowed upon man through his
solidification within physical matter and through the separation of a part of his ether body from the
physical body. During the time after the moon separation the human being felt himself at first united
to his physical forebears through the group ego.
This common consciousness, however, which united descendants with forefathers, was gradually lost
in the course of generations. The later descendants had then an inner memory reaching back only to a
not very distant ancestor, not any longer to the earlier forebears. Only in a state similar to sleep, in
which the human beings came in touch with the spiritual world, did the picture of this or that ancestor
emerge again in memory. Human beings, in certain instances, then felt themselves at one with this
ancestor whom they believed had reappeared in them. This was an erroneous concept of reincarnation,
which emerged chiefly in the last part of the Atlantean period. The true teaching about reincarnation
could only be learned in the schools of the initiates. These latter perceived how, in the disembodied
state, the human soul passes from one incarnation to another, and they alone could impart the truth
about it to their disciples.
The physical form of man was, in the primeval past that is under discussion here, still widely different
from the present human shape. It was to a high degree still the expression of soul faculties. The human
being consisted of a finer, softer substance than the one he acquired later. What today is solidified was
in the limbs soft, supple, and easily molded. A human being who expressed more intensely his soul
and spiritual nature had a delicate, active and expressive body structure. Another with less spiritual
development had crude, immobile, less easily molded bodily forms. Advancement in soul qualities
contracted the limbs; the figure remained small.
Retardation in soul development and entanglement in the world of the senses expressed itself in
gigantic size. While man was in the period of growth, the body, in accordance with what occurred in
the soul, assumed forms of a certain kind that to the present-day human mind must appear fabulous,
indeed, fantastic. Moral corruption through passions, impulses, and instincts resulted in an enormous
increase in the material substance in man. The present-day human physical form has come into
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