The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The primordial beginning of all things, the primordial force itself, is an undifferentiated unity. It is at the same time infinitely large and infinitely small. It is center and periphery and the fullness of infinite life that flows through everything, that connects center and periphery. It is the greatest rest and the greatest activity at the same time. It is the unceasingly acting power, which knows no interruption of the effect. It is light without shadow as well as darkness without light; it is everything as well as nothing. We cannot understand the action of the One, but we can form pictures from the revealed laws of the laws according to which the elemental force expresses itself in the world.

We observe the following: The coarser a substance, the less own power to express itself it contains. The finer a substance, the stronger effects it exerts on the environment. A piece of ice exerts less effect on the environment than the same substance, when refined by heat, as water. The water has like all liquid the aspiration of the effect in the environment. When water is further expanded and refined by higher degrees of heat, it has an even greater effect in the environment as a vapor.

Now we can conclude according to this observation: The finer the substance, the greater is its force in the environment; the substances in finer states are the forces which act in the substances in coarser states, which penetrate into the interstices between the atoms of the remaining substances, stretch the atoms, refine them, draw them closer together, so that the refinement of the substance also causes it to become more continuous than before. In the solid there are no substances really touching each other. All physical atoms are stored in such a way that they oscillate in a free field and do not touch each other in any point. How divisible the solid substances are, we all see in every process, whereby we detach parts from solid substances by mechanical interventions or detach them from solid things. In the same way we cannot detach parts from liquid or gaseous substances. If I take out a part from a quantum of water by scooping it out, the gap is immediately supplemented by influx of the remaining water and fills it. The liquid does not tolerate a separation in the way like the solid, it has also the strength to supplement a gap; the solid cannot do that in the way from own strength. If I take away something solid and bring it to another place, the solid, which surrounds the resulting gap, does not strive to fill the gap. But from the water we know that it has this aspiration. And it is known that all water on earth is in constant motion, by flowing or evaporation on the one hand and by compression on the other. If there is a gap somewhere in the liquid, all liquid in the environment has the ambition to fill this gap. All work with water power is based on this.

We can conclude according to the observations that everything liquid of the earth always strives where gaps arise in the liquid to fill these gaps. Which power the liquid shows thereby, we recognize by the fact that it soaks solid, dissolves, washes away, paths through it.

The same laws as with the liquid we observe with the air-shaped; also that does not tolerate gaps. Gaps in air-shaped substances are immediately filled by the surrounding substances of the environment. The aeriform has even greater force than the liquid. The individual particles of the aeriform are even smaller than the individual particles of the liquid. They are also not as far apart as the particles of the liquid and have greater tension.

The aeriform is permeated by still finer substances, the ether in its various degrees of density; and this ether again has greater forces than the aeriform and has even more of a tendency to fill in all the gaps. It is even more continuous than the aeriform and in even greater tension.

If we penetrate further in this way into the properties of substances, we find: The most solid substances are the least powerful and possess the coarsest composition, and the individual particles are the farthest apart and possess the least tension. The finer the substance, the smaller the individual particles, the closer they are to each other, the greater the tension the substance possesses and the greater the force. The force by which a coarser substance is held in tension, that is the finer substance. In comparison with a coarser substance, a finer substance is the force, and in comparison with a still finer substance, which manifests itself in it as force, the same thing that acts as force in the coarser substance is the substance for the finer force. The finer substance is therefore always the force which gives certain forms to the coarser substance. The coarser substance is built into the finer substance. All the interstices between the atoms of the coarser substance are filled by the finer substances.

Just as the solid substances are filled and permeated by the liquid, so the liquid is permeated by the aeriform, the aeriform by the ethereal, and so on. Thus finer and finer substances penetrate the coarser ones. If we pursue this further, into the ever finer substances, we must one day come to a substance which is the finest, which is quite continuous, so that the individual particles touch each other completely, merge into each other, which is at the same time the finest, but also the most continuous, which possesses the greatest tension and at the same time the greatest force, which carries all others within itself and penetrates all others. And this is the one primordial force and primordial substance, which carries and unites all substances and forces in itself, which keeps everything that is in tension and thereby gives strength and life to everything that exists. It is at the same time the smallest, according to the individual particle, but also the greatest, because all individual parts form a uniform whole, because its substance is continuous. Its reflection

is the physical atom, because there also all forces have penetrated up to the primeval force, because it contains all forces in the germ.

While this primal force and primal substance has caused all substances and forces to come forth from itself, it also lives, on the other hand, in all that is, and it descends to the physical plan, where it is concentrated in the individual atoms. The physical plan is thus saturated by all higher forces just as the elemental force contains all lower forces in itself. The primordial force, which embraces everything, has divided everything else out of itself by condensing the individual particles, by diminishing the tension, by decreasing the continuity, until at last it reached the point on the physical plan where the tension had almost disappeared, where the individual particles were the coarsest, where they were farthest apart, where they had the least force of their own. But that is precisely why the physical plan is the one on which the forces can all, up to the primordial force, be expressed in objective forms. The less own force a substance possesses, the more dependent it is on other forces, the easier other forces can work in it. The physical plane - and especially the mineral kingdom - was the one where the higher forces could work and express themselves most easily, because there they found the least force of their own, the least resistance. The solid substances of the physical plane possess only very little tension. But a stronger tension force expresses itself also in the physical in the magnetism, in the electricity and in the radioactivity. Radioactivity is a greater tension force, which tears apart the physical atoms, refines them and thereby gives them themselves greater tension force, the effort to fill their environment, and therefore the continued radiation of such fine particles takes place that a decrease in the volume of the radioactive body is hardly noticeable. The radioactive body is put into a tension which exceeds the tension of the liquid and the aeriform. Thus, very fine ether currents must cause this tension.

In magnetism we also observe increase of the tension force in such a way that solid iron particles and the like are attracted by the magnet iron in such tension. The tension force of one magnet stimulates the tension force in related substances and thus overcomes gravity. Heaviness is the lack of its own tension force. Air is less heavy than water and the solid because it itself has greater tension. If greater tension force occurs anywhere in the solid, gravity is overcome, as in the attraction of the otherwise heavy iron by the magnet.

Electricity is also the expression of a force in greater tension, of a substance whose individual particles are much closer to each other than the particles even of the aeriform. It is an expression of the tension force and the continuity of a much finer substance, which permeates everything physical. Because this substance has so much greater tension, it has so much more power and is also continuous in such a way that no other connection is needed. The time must come when one can make use of this greater power, which lies in the finer, more continuous substance, in such a way that all solid substances are considered superfluous for its mediation. If we now still conduct electricity through wires, it is because we do not yet know how to influence the finer substance directly, and do not yet know how to evoke the greater force, but only indirectly through other substances in which it is most easily awakened. Keely must have known how to seek out this finer substance and greater force in its own house, so to speak, that is, to get in touch with this force directly, while the others reach it only in a roundabout way and through mediation, and excite it to action. The use of wireless telegraphy is an approach to the real one, without the mediating media of other substances.

In order for man to operate with the finer forces, he must refine himself. He must adapt the coarser forces more and more to the finer ones. By refining the physical body, the human soul could be expressed more and more in it. Through refinement of the soul, the spirit could connect more and more with the soul. This refinement of the substances transforms the substance itself into the power that works in it. The descent of the cosmic evolution was the transformation of the force into more and more dense substances, through decrease of force, decrease of tension and continuity. The ascent of man, who is a seed of the cosmic forces, consists in the transformation of substances into forces, by refinement of substances, by increase of tension, by increase of continuity. As the physical substance is now, it is not continuous; so also the soul of man is not yet continuous, nor is his consciousness.

When man refines his physical substance, he transforms this substance into force; when he refines his soul substance, this is also transformed into force; it approaches more and more the spiritual substance, which acts in it as force. The refinement of the soul substance is brought about by purification and transformation of the passion, the kamic fire in man. The passion must be spiritualized, as the fire is transformed into light by transformation into finer substances. By the still higher substance, the divine spirit, working as a force in the soul, the soul-substance is transformed, raised a step higher; its power of tension is strengthened; it becomes more continuous, and therefore its expressions as forces also become more continuous. The life of the soul runs in larger lines; it becomes more rhythmic, and therefore also the consciousness can run more rhythmically, become more continuous. Because the soul substance has become more similar to the spirit substance, the higher force, which expresses itself as consciousness in the various substances of man, can also pass uninterruptedly from one substance to another, whereas this is not possible as long as there are such great differences between the soul of man and the divine spirit in him that consciousness can only descend from a higher sphere to the lower or, conversely, ascend with interruption and unrhythmically. Thus the refined, transformed substance of one sphere of existence forms the bridge, the bond to the next higher substance. Our whole ascent to higher worlds is given into our hands; we reach it by purification, which transforms substance into force, just as our descent has been effected by transformation of force into substance. The power which we gain for ourselves, through this transformation of substance, then enables us to enter into connection with all the related parts of this power. If we transform our soul-substance into higher power, we are enabled to find access to all soul-forces of the world by means of the attained soul-power. If we transform our lower thoughts into higher thought life, the world thoughts will flow to us. If we transform our life force into a higher, purer, selfless life, we enter into connection with the higher world life. We can do this because all forces and all substances have flowed together in us to build us up. We live and rest in the elemental force and elemental substance and in all the substances and forces that it has given rise to. And in every atom of our physical body there is a confluence of all cosmic forces. And every atom of our physical body is surrounded and flowed through by all cosmic substances. Therefore, there is nothing for man that he cannot even achieve. The means for everything are given to him in the building up of his whole being; the power is sunk into him by the elemental power itself. For the first time this comes to man's consciousness when his ego awakens, after the first contact of the elemental force, with the most powerless solid substance formed out of it. From then on the elemental force could begin to work through the individual human egos into the solid matter. Through the human individualities the outer transformation of the cosmos has then begun. They work around the solid form of the earth through the inspirations of the divine spiritual power in them. In nature around us we are to recognize the laws according to which everything comes into being and develops, and according to these laws man too is to cooperate consciously in the whole. The substances for development he has all in himself in every atom, the power is sunk into him and he is eternally connected with the elemental power; the laws according to which this power is to work in him with his substances bestowed upon him, he recognizes in the realms of nature around him. He is called to rule in these realms of nature; but in order to be able to work in them with all his powers, he must first become the ruler of his powers. After he has arranged everything that is in him and inserted it into the rhythm of the elemental force, he can also help to transform the whole environment and pass it over into ever greater harmony.

The orbit of the earth around the sun is an ellipse. In the same way, all physical life describes an ellipse, with the spiritual starting point of all physical life at one of the foci. The other focus indicates the highest development of the physical. The physical is the opposite pole of the spiritual. Without the spiritual, there would be no physical.

All physical matter emanates from the spiritual. While physical matter is entirely dependent on the spiritual, the soul world, the astral and the human being's astral body, have a certain independence.

In the physical body, we distinguish two poles: one concentrated in the brain, the other in the reproductive forces, one spiritual, the other physical. These two poles are connected in the physical. In the astral body, however, there is a striving for independence. A special center is forming between the physical and the spiritual, which strives to unite the two. The astral body is partly aligned with the spiritual and partly with the physical, and thus it strives for independence. This is how the lemniscate movement arises in the astral body, causing it to flow partly towards the spiritual and partly towards the physical.

So there are initially three centers in the astral body. The center of the physical forms one pole, the center of the spiritual forms the other pole; and the center where the currents cross is in the middle between the two poles. In this current of the astral body lies the striving for the appropriation of the spiritual, while the path described by the physical life expresses the turning away from the spiritual. While we can only recognize the physical life by looking at it from the outside, from the periphery, the astral life flows through us in the form of the lemniscate; it passes by us like a panorama. Space is necessary to recognize the physical, time to recognize the astral, because space itself is mobile and passes by us, through us. That is why all feelings, passions and the like appear there as coming towards us, because they do indeed flow out from us, but in the direction of the loop, the lemniscate, they also flow back into us. That is why everything appears as a mirror image in the astral, because what we have emitted flows back to us.

The more a person spiritualizes, the smaller the lemniscate loop around the physical pole becomes, and the more the loop around the spiritual pole approaches the shape of the circle. The spiritual life is completely self-contained. It is a whole that radiates from the center. There, the center and the circumference are always connected. It is the life in the center itself, which flows from there to the periphery. That is why the line of spiritual life is the circle or also the point. Because the spiritual has both the greatest and the smallest expansion. There is the power in every point to spread over the whole. There the power is equally distributed in all directions, and the spiritual draws the power from itself, from its own center. Therefore, in its unity, spiritual life initially appears to man as sound, because sound is the expression of a self-contained, self-emerging, uniform force that comes to expression in the particular rhythm of a sound.

In the astral world, there is eternal change; there the astral forms pass by like clouds or images. In the spiritual world, spiritual power appears as sound, because sound is not bound by space and time. When a sound is heard, it fills the whole space; it is not bound to a specific place. The beginning of its sounding forms the center of an unlimited expression of power. Every sound fills the whole universe with its vibrations. The reason we do not hear all sounds from a distance is because our ear is not organized finely enough to absorb the finest vibrations. Those who have developed their soul organs to such an extent can hear the sound that arises from the harmony of all life on earth, the sound of the world. We can also recognize the extent to which unity is expressed in sound from the fact that different sounds that resonate at the same time immediately form an overall sound, a chord. In the world of sound, there is the greatest diversity of gradations of power, but also the greatest unity of all powers. That is why sound is what corresponds to the spiritual world. The spiritual man also has many powers, but they all resound together as one power in his individuality. His spiritual powers are like the individual notes of a whole symphony of sounds, but his individuality is the sound from which they all emerge and in which they all fade away.

The world of the physical is the world of what has become; the world of the astral is the world of what is becoming; the world of the spirit is the world of what is emerging ©. The world of what is emerging, of the clay, forms the world of what has become © out of itself as a reflex, in the forms. The world of becoming connects the two worlds ©O. It flows before the soul of man like the images of a panorama.

In art, sculpture represents the world of what has become, the physical. Painting represents the world of what is becoming, the astral world; music represents the world of what is emerging, the spiritual world.

The lemniscate is therefore also the line for the soul life of the human being, because it represents the ego at its point of intersection. Through the ego, all higher forces are introduced into the human being, and the ego itself gathers experiences in the physical world in order to incorporate them again. Thus, higher forces and experiences, which the I has gathered by descending into the physical world, continually pass through the I in the direction of the lemniscate. The point where the lemniscate crosses itself is the point where the physical and spiritual worlds intersect in the I of the human being. When the human being has fully spiritualized, he no longer needs to gain experience in the physical world; then the soul lemniscate passes into the spiritual form of the circle and the outpouring and inflow then transforms into a continuous outpouring of spiritual forces from the center.

The transition of the spiritual into the soul realm signifies the transition from unity into number, into manifestation. In mathematics, this is represented by multiplication. The lemniscate also comes about through the multiplication of a force. The transformation of the circle into the lemniscate represents the transition from unity into multiplication.

When the powers that reveal themselves in the soul reunite in spiritual unity, this corresponds to a division. The circle, which is the image of the spiritual, is also formed by the division of one power by another. Multiplication, transition to number, thus signifies revelation; and division, transition from number to unity, signifies descent into the primal source of the revealed powers.

The intersection of the lemniscate is therefore the sign for multiplication, for revelation; the two foci are the sign for division. The aim is to move from number to unity.

The ellipse, the line of physical life, comes about through the interaction of two forces centered in the two foci of the ellipse. The ellipse describes the straight line that arises from the addition of these two forces. Thus the ellipse arises through the addition of two forces. These two forces, one of which represents the turning away from the spirit and the other the inflow of the spirit, are represented by the sign of addition, the cross.

Now, for the independent development of his life, the human being has been given a part of the spiritual power, the spiritual life, to make his whole individuality possible as a free being in its individual manifestation. This is the own life force in him, which is incorporated into his ego, in contrast to the general life force in the cosmos. He himself possesses a part of the cosmic life force, which is continually renewed from the cosmic source of life. The outflow of the human prana, the life force, and the counterflow of cosmic prana are mathematically expressed in the hyperbola, the two curves that strive towards each other. There the foci are separated, not enclosed.

It arises when one force is subtracted from another, in other words, by subtraction. The symbol for subtraction is the straight line, the diameter of the circle that separates one half from the other.

Thus we find hidden in both the signs of ordinary arithmetic and the geometric figures the greatest secrets of the world, the secrets of life.

is the sign for physical life,

is the geometric figure for it.

is the symbol for the human prana.

is the geometric figure for it.

is the symbol for the astral body with the ego, for the human soul.

is the geometric figure for it.

is the sign for spirit;

is the geometric figure for it.

In physical development, the possibility of a new physical being arises from the coming together of two forces. The emergence of a new physical being is the addition of paternal and maternal forces. The new physical being acquires independence through subtraction – by making a part of the maternal forces its own, by withdrawing them from the maternal organism.

The spiritual essence of a human being, however, arises through the multiplication of the world spirit, in that the world spirit multiplies itself. It flows out of itself and flows back into itself, in that the two currents cross. At the point of intersection, the new spiritual being is formed, the I of the human being.

This self of a human being achieves independence through division, by uniting with the world spirit: or . So the sign for new physical life is this: \(+\), the sign for new spiritual life is this: \(\times\).

The sign for physical life that has become independent is this \(-\); the sign for the completion of the individual mind is this: or .

The symbol for the emerging and independent higher self is this: \(⦻\)

While or represents life, the self, and \(\times\) represents the manifestation of life, the number, the line \(-\) or also represents the individual striving towards the light, the striving towards wisdom; and \(+\) represents in a higher sense the confluence of forces in physical nature, expressing itself as chemical affinity, as heat emission and, in the human and animal kingdom, as love.

On the other hand, there is multiplication in the physical through addition, through the coming together of two forces, and multiplication in the spiritual through multiplication, through the revelation of the one power in its own development and devotion. Addition is the expression of reproduction in the physical realm; multiplication is the expression of reproduction in the spiritual realm. Division is the expression of the development of the individual in the spiritual. Subtraction represents the development of the individual in the physical. In subtraction, the opposite occurs to division. In subtraction, one force separates from another and frees itself. In division, a force gives up its expression and does not return to itself. In subtraction, therefore, there is a division and a reduction of force to form a new unity; in division, there is a strengthening of force by concentrating the whole force in the unity.

While in the physical world the personality is formed by addition and subtraction, \(+\) and \(-\), in the spiritual world individuality develops through multiplication of the one life, the self; and through division, drawing this individual life into the point or circle, \(\times\) and . The whole physical and spiritual being, which thus arises on the one hand from the confluence of the two physical forces through love and the unfolding of the one spiritual force through the self, would thus be represented by this sign:

the cross of the spiritual and the cross of the physical, of unfolding and of confluence. If we connect these [crosses] to form a whole, the following sign emerges:

or, if we only express the interaction:

The evolved spiritual being is represented by the circle, the evolved physical being by the line. Thus the evolved spiritual being in physical embodiment forms the circle with the diameter, the circle and the straight line.

From the [Secret Doctrine] it appears that the ratio of the circle to the diameter, the number x, expresses the relationship between the World Spirit and Creation. Thus, the number x also expresses the relationship of the spiritual individuality of the human being in its perfection to the emergence of the individual incarnations.

But there is something else hidden in this. The diameter of the circle is a straight line. The infinite straight line forms a circle, because we can imagine that a circumference at infinity is so large that the curvature disappears completely.

Since the diameter multiplied by the number x gives the circumference of the circle, the number x indicates by how much the straight line must be curved in order to coincide with the circumference of the circle, or conversely, by how much the curvature of the circle must be reduced in order to coincide with the straight line. Furthermore, the number π shows the way in which the spirit must transform in order to become physical, or conversely, how the physical multiplied by the number π yields the spiritual. The number x is thus the expression of the transformation from the diameter to the circle or, conversely, from the manifestation of the creative power in creation and from the return of the world of forms to spiritual power, from the emergence of personality from individuality and from the return of personality to individuality. It is the number of our incarnation on earth and the number of our incarnation of God in the spiritual world.

In infinity, straight lines and circles are one; so too, one day, Creator and Creation will become one, and the spiritual and physical in man will also become one.

The number \(\pi\) is \(3.1415\) and so on. In The Secret Doctrine, it is said that from the One emerged the Three (\(3\)), the One (\(1\)), the Four (\(4\)), the One (\(1\)), the Five (\(5\)), the two times Seven, the sum total. All other numbers are composed of these numbers. Now these are counted together as fourteen if you count the two ones, or as twelve if you regard the one as non-number and do not count it. The one is the origin of the other numbers, but is not itself actually a number; if you multiply one with itself, it always remains one; it does not increase by multiplication and does not decrease by division; therefore it is eternally equal to itself and the archetype of all unity.

Thus we can understand the number \(\pi\) – \(3.1415\) and so on – in the following way: From unity comes first the trinity , then from unity comes the four ; then the unity again produces the five , the pentagram, and with that the foundation is laid for all development in the number, for all revelation. Division of the \(4\) produces the \(2\) and addition of the \(4\) to itself produces the \(8\). Together with the three, the eight produces the seven, and together with the five, the nine.

In this way, the whole world of numbers is created from the multiplication or addition of the other numbers. From this first revelation, which expresses the relationship of the diameter to the circle – or of the revealed to the origin of revelation \(-\), then everything that is arises.

The first revelation, the first number, is \(3\) because \(3\) is the first number to reflect unity. 2 does not reflect unity, but 3 does.

Likewise, the is a unit and so is the , but anything beyond that in the world of numbers is no longer a unit. All further revelation is a composition of this first unity, for example the 6 , the 7 🔯.

The first revelation, which emerged from the One, represents the higher self of man, Atma, Budhi, Manas, the Three .

The second revelation was that in which these three should work: the physical, etheric and astral bodies and the ego, the connection of the astral body with manas, the four .

From the three and the four arose the seven according to the nature of the forces, but these were expressed in the next revelation as the five, the pentagram.

The first five, the pentagram, is the interaction of the three and the four. The fact that the seven forces in man interact in this way is also represented by the human form: the head at the top, then the outstretched arms and the feet at the bottom. The human being stands in space with outstretched arms. The seven spiritual powers resting in man find expression in space as the pentagram. With the feet he stands in the physical; the lines of the pentagram run from the feet to the head, thus connecting the physical with the spiritual and to the hands. The hands represent the soul, which can turn to the physical and the spiritual. Hence the free movement of the arms and the turning of the hands. With the arms and hands, the person can be active in the physical, and he can lift himself up to the spiritual to receive strength there. Taking from the spiritual world and giving to the physical world is expressed in the arms and hands.

Now the perfection of man can be seen in the number \(10\). In the number \(5\), the pentagram, half of the perfection can be seen. This is also indicated in the twice 5 of the division of the hands and feet, that 5 expresses half of the actual human being. Just as the left foot belongs to the right foot in the whole physical human being, and the left hand belongs to the right hand in the whole spiritual human being — in order to represent something complete — so the completion of the human being expressed in the pentagram still needs a supplement, that is, another five, to bring about the number of completion, \(10\). The pentagram also represents the point in world development at which it has arrived at its lowest point, because, after half of the perfection was attained in \(5\), every further development was a complement of this half and consequently an ascent to perfection.

A force can only ever reveal itself up to half of its strength; further revelation is not possible. Thus, the pentagram represents half of the primal force, which can be seen in the perfect number \(10\), the circle with the diameter. Now the number \(5\) was the expression of \(7\) interacting forces. Likewise, the number 10 is the expression of 14 interacting forces. Man's descent to the lowest point happened in the order of the number 7; he was given 7 forces: Atma, Budhi, Manas, the I, the astral body, etheric body and physical body. He must now ascend this same ladder of powers, beginning with the I, then transforming the astral body with the manas and making it his own, then permeating the etheric body with budhi and making it immortal, and finally permeating the physical body with atma. When he has thus made the ascent with the \(7\) powers given him by the Godhead, and which are expressed in their confluence in the pentagram, and has attained perfection, this perfection, which was attained through \(7\) stages of descent and \(7\) stages of ascent, thus through \(14\) stages, is expressed in the number of perfection, the \(10\), which &

This is the man who has entered into the Godhead. Because the \(5\) is the number of the ultimate revelation, there is no new number beyond the \(5\) that is not composed of the other preceding ones, and among the composite numbers there is none beyond the 10. It is the perfect number, the number of perfection, just as the 5 is the number of revelation. All numbers move between these two, from \(1\) to \(5\) and from \(5\) to \(10\), from \(10\) to \(15\) to \(2 \times 10\) and so on. Thus, the ten numbers represent everything in the cosmos, and the number \(10\) represents the unity of the whole and the number 5 represents the revelation of the whole. The forces expressed in \(5\) are seven; the interaction of and the first two revealed numbers, the powers contained in the \(10\) are \(2 \times 7 = 14\), the \(7\) emanating from God and the \(7\) as appropriated by man.

But if you count the revealed numbers themselves, there are \(3\), \(4\), \(5\) – or together , in between the stepping back into the unit \(3\), \(1\), \(4\), \(1\), \(5\). Thus, in the cosmos, there are \(3 + 4 + 5 = 12\) forces expressed in number; according to spiritual effect, there are \(14\), \(7\) in descent, \(7\) in ascent; according to revelation, there are \(5\), geometrically represented in the pentagram; according to completion, there are \(10\), the circle with the diameter.

The seven forces are expressed in all phenomena

in the world, for example in the seven days of the week, the seven colors, the seven tones.

A beautiful interaction of the seven tones also occurs according to the laws of revelation in the number. The harmony is based on the correct sounding together in the chords: major triad, minor triad and seventh chord. In the triad, we can sound three tones, the prime, the major or minor third and the fifth, i.e. the first, third and fifth tones. Together with the octave, these make four. The octave is the repetition of the prime. In the seventh chord, four different notes sound: the prime, third, fifth and seventh, and the octave as a repetition of the prime. In the triad, three notes and the repetition of the first note create harmony; in the seventh chord, four notes and the repetition of the first note. The triad represents the threefold nature in man – Atma, Budhi, Manas – while the seventh chord represents the unification of the four forces in man. The resolution of the seventh chord into the triad is the transference of the four human forces into the higher three: Atma, Budhi, Manas. Prime and octave are the same in chords, just as the 'I' is the same in man, whether it resounds in the seventh chord of the physical world or in the triad of the spiritual world.

The sum of the revealed numbers is \((3 + 4 + 5) = 12\), corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac through which the sun passes. The number of revelation is \(5\); the number of completion is \(10\), the number of the entire ascent to completion is \(9\), the number of powers sunk into man is \(7\), the number of powers given to him and those he has made his own is together \(14\), the total number of revealed numbers is \((3, 4, 5) = 12\).

This is the number of levels of consciousness that a person passes through: \(7\) until completion as a human, \(5\) beyond human development, \(7\) in the Manvantara, \(5\) in the Pralaya.

After going through all the levels of consciousness of the Manvantara and Pralaya, he has absorbed all the powers of the Logos and emerges as the thirteenth, as the new Logos. These twelve levels of consciousness represent the zodiac through which the sun progresses, and the twelve apostles, from among whom Christ emerged as the thirteenth. The twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve months, the twelve hours of the day and night also represent these twelve levels of consciousness. Everything that has to do with the human spirit follows the number twelve – when Jesus was twelve years old, he taught for the first time in the temple. The development of consciousness in humanity progresses with the sun and passes through a new stage when passing through each sign of the zodiac.

Everything that has to do with the human ego follows the number seven. Man develops in his descent and ascent through seven forces. The principle that took up the ego in man and first served him as a power is Kama, and man received Kama from the moon. In the influence of the moon on man, the number \(7\) dominates. The moon's revolution around the earth takes \(4 \times 7\) days. The influence of the moon is expressed in the \(4 \times 7\) days of the month and in the \(7\) days of the week. Thus we find that mental life is organized according to the influence of the Sun and the zodiac, according to \(12 \times 30\) days = \(360\) days, according to \(12\) months, \(12\) hours of day and night, \(5 \times 12\) minutes in an hour, \(5 \times 12\) seconds in a minute, and so on. We find the life of the ego in Kama, organized according to the influence of the moon and the seven planets in the seven days of the week and the forty-seven days of the month.

The number of the physical and spiritual man in the embodiment is \(5\), the pentagram; thus the \(12\) spiritual powers – the solar powers – and the \(7\) ego powers come together on earth in the pentagram, the number of the Revelation, which finds its completion and fulfillment through the ascent.

The union of the \(7\) powers of the I with the \(5\) again symbolizes the higher \(12\) powers. Just as the \(7\) powers are expressed in the physical in the pentagram, at the middle of the manvantara, so they are expressed in \(5\) stages of consciousness during pralaya. There is nothing in the physical world that is not a reflection of the spiritual world.

The entire spiritual world is spread out around us in the physical. There is the revelation of the spiritual.

We have seen how the pentagram - the five-part expression of all the higher powers in man - forms the final stone of revelation and half of perfection. Man had to add the other half to the seven forces given to him. It was in the physical world that this five-part revelation, the half of perfection, first came to expression. In the physical world, the man-made also had to seek the complement that could make him whole. Before man became physical, and before the world became physically condensed, the revelation had not yet descended to the deepest point, life could still form new beings out of itself, unfold itself. But in the physical world, where the own, separate forms emerged, the creative power itself, the reproductive power, was halved. In the development the forces had been unfolded symmetrically before by the spirally descending life currents again and again - as with the plants the forces arrange themselves symmetrically around the spirally running development line. At last, however, the development reached a point which before had unfolded everything out of itself, unfolded itself, bisected itself - there was the end point of the revelation of the life force. Now it had to complete itself in its two halves - what before worked into each other as the two poles, as force and substance, as positive and negative pole, that stepped apart in the physical world into all positive and negative forces, in the division of the sexes - in the attraction and repulsion of the physical substance, in the elective affinity of the chemical elements, in all opposites, in light and darkness, in the objective confrontation of the forms of the whole physical creation.

So the life - the self - had made a way down, by revealing itself through the number, which came out of the unity: the 3, the 1, the 4, the 1, the 5. But all these numbers A D % were still reflections of the unity for last, by splitting into the two halves of the life force, which came out in all opposites of the world, but came out most in light and darkness. Only when the physical forms emerged, light and darkness came into being. Light and darkness are the opposites conditioned by the formation of the /word illegible] physical world. Thus we find in the physical the opposites of light and darkness, of positive and negative, of male and female and so on. And the reflection of this bisection of the life force expressed in the physical is the separation of the soul forces into good and evil. These, too, are but two poles of the same force; through the bisection of the life-force duality has appeared in the world for the first time as the grossest antithesis of the One; duality was not there before, it is the characteristic of the deepest point of revelation.

Evolution proceeds as the bisected forces unite and merge, complementing each other to become a greater force. In order for new life to continue to emerge, the positive and negative forces, revealed force - spirit - and dormant force - substance -, male and female force had to unite. What thus drives the forces to unification is the force of attraction between the bisected forces, what physically is called /word illegible] Warmth, chemically as changing elective affinity, psychically as love and sympathy.

For further development it was necessary that this union of the bisected forces took place. So it has been first of all the union of the male and the female forces a necessity for the further development.

After man had reached the lowest stage in development, then he had to enter the ascending arc of development. Everything, what he had received half from the Godhead, he had to complete. The first physically forming man was the man, the male form was the intentions of the physical revelation.

Previously, before man became physical, the male and female forces were united in his life force; now this one life force unfolded; the female force remained in the life body itself, the male force united with the physical body. The original man was the Adam Kadmon, who possessed the whole life force; this was bisected in the middle of the Lemurian race, and man and woman were created. The creation of Eve signifies this bisection of man.

Now, as an expression of the descent of life into physical creation, man is at first the more perfect. But he represents only half of the perfection. For the development of this perfection, man must find his complement in physical form and in vitality through woman; and for soul perfection, he must find his complement in his own yet unrevealed higher powers.

The masculine is the symbol of the present, the feminine is symbol of man's past and future. It is that from which man has emerged: the symbol of all possibility of revelation and the symbol of the future not yet revealed. The formed form is the masculine; the forming life is the feminine. During the deepest descent of life, when it sacrificed one half of its power for the shaping out of the mineral world of form, wherein life took a back seat to form, in the time of physical and spiritual materialism, of the greatest condensation, the power of form, the masculine, had to be predominant, to become the ruler of the world.

Therefore, at the same time, the spiritual force in man, the mind, developing with the deepest physical elaboration, came to be most strongly expressed together with Kama,

Now, as by reunion of the bisected life-force the physical progress is conditioned, so by the union of the male intellect with the female higher life-force, Budhi, the progress of mental development is conditioned. That is why the feminine is the symbol of all progress of mankind, of the future, because in it lie dormant the possibilities of development of man. The spirit of man has descended to the physical condensation in order to realize that he is a part of the Divinity, but that he can also reach perfection only in the completion by the Divine. In the bisection of the physical /gap in elaboration]

Question: what is the relation of the heart to the twelve signs of the zodiac and to the twelve stations? Is the heart the sun, connected with the earth - under the influence of the seven planets (four physical heart chambers, three astral) and under the influence of the twelve zodiacal signs? Do atom, heart, earth correspond in terms of outflow and inflow, organization and so on?

If we look at the twelve signs of the zodiac in their sequence and at their relationship to humans, we see that the sign of Aries is next to that of Pisces. Aries is the sign of the head, Pisces the sign of the feet. Christ, who is called the Lamb, appeared in the sign of Aries; only by becoming human could he lead humanity to the sign of Pisces. He was the human ego.

Only after Christ had moved into humanity, the I, and sent its spirit, manas, to the world, could man's kama be established and the main developmental moment of the fifth root race be expressed in its fifth sub-race, the race of the free personality. Our entire fifth root race is the development of kama-mana - the development of the I. With Christ, it moved completely into humanity in the fourth sub-race, but it only fully expressed itself in the fifth sub-race, in the race of the free personality.

Only after the Atma had moved into man in the sign of the Lamb or Aries, in the race of the personality, could man really stand on his own two feet in the sign of Pisces, the race of the free personality. The whole human being was now predisposed. In the first race, the Indian race, man lived in his feeling and in unity (Tao, Brahma and so on) - Atma (physical body). In the second race, the Persian race, he lived in duality (Ormuzd and Ahriman, good and evil and so on) - Atma (physical body) and Budhi (etheric body). In the third race, the Egyptian-Babylonian-Assyrian, the Chaldean, he lived in the Trinity (Isis, Osiris, Horus; Father, Son, Spirit, and so on) - Atma (physical body), Budhi (etheric body), Manas (astral body). In the fourth race (Romans, Greeks, Semites), he lived in the I, the tetrad - physical body, etheric body, astral body and the I. The sign of Aries signifies that there had been a descent that had to lead to an ascent, a turning point in the whole development of humanity, the beginning of a new epoch.

It is the same sign as the angle V formed by the compass – the sign of the I. When the human I becomes free and the human being becomes like the swan – this is also the development of the two-leaved lotus blossom at the top of the head, which is indicated by the two horns of Aries, the sign of the I.

Thus man is intimately related to the zodiac. After he was placed on his feet in the sign of Pisces, he could begin to develop towards freedom, first by fully developing the manas. He had to manasize his astral body. In the following sign, the sign of Aquarius, man will develop Budhi in the normal course of evolution, which then permeates his etheric body. This will be made possible by a renewed influence of the World I from its second power, Budhi. However, this power of Budhi will only be fully realized in the world by the race that descends from the sixth sub-race of the sixth root race.

The sixth sub-race is the race in the sign of Aquarius, John, who proclaims Christ. Just as he proclaimed the appearance of the personal Christ Jesus as John the Baptist, so in the sixth sub-race he proclaims the saturation of humanity with the Christ principle, with Budhi, which then initially comes to completion in the sixth root race.

Man's powers are developed in accordance with the signs of the zodiac and the development of the races. Man could only consciously develop these powers after he had attained self-awareness in our fifth sub-race, the race of the free personality, in the sign of Pisces, the sign of independence, where man was placed into physical existence, completely on his own two feet. Pisces is the sign that man can now move freely in the astral (the water).

Pisces is the sign of Kama-Manas, which makes man independent.

In the normal development of the world, man will also acquire the higher powers. But he who wants to help the world, the disciple, who will place himself at the service of humanity, takes on the later racial development. He consciously develops the forces that would otherwise only emerge later. In order to express these forces more quickly, he must take a certain path that leads him to the forces. Man is himself the microcosm that contains all cosmic forces in his makeup. With the developed forces, which have their center in his ego, he must now acquire the other and missing forces. The I must travel the same path in its organism as the earth does as it moves around the sun. The power of the earth is embodied in the head – it is most strongly expressed there – and the I is there too. The I must find the path that it must take in order to receive ever new life force from the center within it that contains the power of the sun. To do this, the I must first consciously connect with its own Kama force and transform it in the heart center. When this Kama force is purified, the I can connect with the solar plexus, the solar center - or rather receive strength from there. After these three forces are united – the I with the transformed Kama force and the sun force, Budhi, the actual life force – the human being can carry out the cycle of life within himself. By immersing itself in the heart center, the I moves into the vicinity of the sun and from there it finds its way through the twelve signs of the zodiac, which have sunk their forces into the spinal cord. When it reaches the brain, the I pours the powers gained into the world. To understand the cycle of the I, we have to imagine the spine and legs curved so that the feet touch the head - then the individual parts of the human being are in the same arrangement as the twelve signs of the zodiac. Man was initially a dormant spiral from which he has risen and symmetrically unfolded his inner being. The further development of the inner man proceeds along this spiral, the individual parts of which are related to the signs of the zodiac in the corresponding centers in the spinal cord. Through the development of these forces, man attains spiritual independence. In normal development, this would occur when he reaches the sixth sub-race of the sixth root race, when the constellation of Virgo (solar center) passes over into the constellation of Leo (heart center).

But if man himself prepares this transformation of his passion from the heart center in order to receive the power of the sun, then he becomes a lion who can conquer the virgin. That is why Christ was the lion from the tribe of Judah - he was able to bring the purified Kama power and Budhi to the world - just as he will have brought it to perfection in the sixth sub-race of the sixth root race.

Goethe describes this attainment of the power of Budhi in his fairy tale. The youth (man) had first to reach the deepest descent, on this side of the river, first purify Kama, then he could again acquire the beautiful lily on the other side, which now comes to meet him.

Fire originates in the physical world through the friction of two different substances of varying degrees of hardness. The harder substance rubs off fine particles of the less hard substance, and through this action, heat is created first and then fire; the individual particles of the fine substance dissolve and become sparks, a flame; this flame is maintained by the influx of oxygen from the air and by a substance that burns in it. When we see fire arise in this way, it appears to us as something new that has been created by an external effect.

But this is an illusion: Man cannot bring anything into the physical world that is not already there; he can only help to bring to light what is already there. So the whole process that man undertakes when igniting a fire is only a liberation of the fire from its bondage. Fire is always there and everywhere. It is only bound and subdued by its various forms of manifestation. We have only to destroy the form so that the fire can emerge – either as warmth or as a flame. All work in the world in the physical substance creates friction and thus also a certain destruction of the substance, the detachment of substance particles, and this is how heat phenomena arise. Heat phenomena occur with every mechanical effect, with all growth.

The maintenance of fire by oxygen is the same as the maintenance of life in us by the air, as the maintenance of the spirit in us by the spirit out there in the world - kindred spirits seek each other out. Fire is liberated life, it seeks the life-giver, oxygen; it is a liberated spirit that seeks to return to the spirit of the world. We recognize, however, that fire is in everything that exists on earth, in living and non-living things. It is only bound and subdued by the forms. If we free it from the form, it emerges in various phenomena, as heat, as light, as oxidation, as some chemical transformation in the substances. Decay is also a slow combustion process, during which light phenomena can be observed. Decaying substance to shine (will-o'-the-wisps on the moor).

Decay is a slow release of fire from the bonds of form.

We do not recognize fire itself in the living, but we do recognize the effect of fire in the transformation of forms, in growth. It is the inexhaustible life force (prana) of primal life that animates and keeps alive all that is living. It is only in the living that it is so subdued that the balance between the expression of death and of life is maintained. The world of life, the world of forms, is the world in which life and death are in balance. In the spiritual world, which appears to be completely without life, only the expression of form predominates; it is the negative pole of life, which is particularly evident in the mineral world. But the positive pole is hidden behind it.

All mineral matter also contains fire, and this can be released by the mineral substances being separated from each other – a process that takes place before our eyes every day. Especially in the world where life is most tightly bound, it also occurs most powerfully when it is released. This is the natural reaction to the previously constrained state. There it then acts, when it is released, as fire, as the power that can wreak havoc and destruction when it is unleashed. Before that, it slumbered under the bonds of form, and now, when it is freed, it emerges with all its power.

Why did people rightly worship fire? Because it is life itself that becomes visible to the physical eye. This forced people to worship, for it was the life of the deity itself that they recognized, that which gave them all life, kept everything alive, but could also destroy everything. Then Moses also encountered the deity in the fiery bush. In the fire he recognized the living God. In this, Christ, who is the life of the world, is also the fire in the physical, because fire is the strongest expression of life that frees itself from physical bondage.

That is why fire was given to people to work with in the physical world, because fire is the power that overcomes substance. People who learned to overcome solid form were the sons of fire. And servants of the fire, of the life of the world, are all those who know how to cast off the fetters of all that is earthly and rise into the realm of life. Then the power that has slumbered in them from the beginning is also released and strives back to the primal power from which it emerges.

All life, all development is liberation of powers that are radiated from the one life. The one life, which manifests itself in the world in appearance, has become more and more veiled in the world of appearance, but it is always there, it is everywhere. And it is man's task to draw this life out again from everything around him. He has to draw fire out of the mineral world and, with the help of fire, to work the mineral world in such a way that the whole mineral world becomes a perfect expression of this living power. Then life will be redeemed in the mineral world and all life can pass from the mineral world into the life of the world, into the realm of the living, the plant kingdom. Just as a plant is built up through a process of combustion, just as a human being is built up through a process of combustion, so everything will be enlivened by fire as all plants are now. The way in which the plant, animal and human kingdoms are kept alive is also a kind of combustion process. The fact that all life is almost completely consumed by the mineral fire is because the negative effect of life, the shaping itself, the form, predominates there, while the positive effect, life itself, the creative power, recedes. As soon as the formative power becomes stronger than the form, what appears to us as death, dying, an increase of combustion processes, in reality the liberation of life, of the inner fire from the fetter of form, occurs. If the positive pole now retreats completely behind the form, form prevails and the world passes over into the mineral. The mineral is the predominance of the form side of life. The plant kingdom is the balance between form and the life side, as are the animal and human kingdoms.

The dissolution of form is the predominance of life, which frees itself from form. That is why Christ, as the life, was able to overcome form; he was able to live without form, without the physical body.

If we are able to liberate the life within us, which is always there and only recedes behind the form, then we can connect with life. We then grow beyond the form. All further development of man consists in a liberation of the Prana slumbering in him, the fire (Kundalini), the life force (Christ). The fire is maintained by the Janus fabric of the air; so our soul fire is maintained by inhaling divine life. Just as burning signifies a union of the hidden fire with the world fire, so too a process of combustion and thereby a purification takes place in us through the union of the life in us with the life of the world.

To the eye of the seer, life can be recognized as fire, as a flame, as a luminous phenomenon in everything in the world. Every mineral, every plant, every animal, and even the human being, are luminous phenomena for him. The further a person progresses, the brighter it shines, the more the inner fire comes to expression. The whole inner development of the human being transforms him more and more into a radiant light. This is the expression of his inner life.

The strongest life force expresses itself in fire, where it frees itself from the strongest fetters, the physical-mineral.

We must place ourselves at the service of the fire in order to bring about our own inner liberation. The path to freedom is an inner combustion and through this, the liberation of the divine life within us.

One after another, the following develop:

Life – mineral kingdom
Number – plant kingdom
Light – animal kingdom
Warmth – human kingdom.

The mineral kingdom is complete first – then life first emerges as the self, the ego. – Then it emerges in plants and as number, revelation. – Then it emerges in the animal kingdom as light, wisdom. – Then it emerges in the human kingdom itself as warmth; love.

In fire we recognize the expression of the God-power, which sustains and quickens all, which creates all, but also destroys all. Where it expresses itself as fire, there it works as a destructive force. Therefore men also saw in the lightning, which kindles the fire, the sign by which the Godhead manifests its power. That is why the symbol of lightning was given to Jupiter in his hand, and the symbol of a hammer to the god Thor, to show that he proclaims his power to men in thunder and lightning. Where the power of fire does not express its destructive and consuming force, but appears in a subdued form, it is the life-giving power that expresses itself in all that lives, in the plant, animal and human kingdoms, as warmth. It is this warmth that sustains all life and that always gives rise to new life, that reveals life. What grows and thrives, what sprouts and blossoms, is enabled to do so by warmth.

It is the mitigated power of fire, the moderate power of God, which withholds some of its power and gives some of it to call the world of phenomena into existence. In order for man to bring forth something new in his environment - through his work, through art and technology - he must learn to tame the fire in such a way that it becomes warmth, and thus transform the mineral kingdom. While fire itself has a destructive effect, warmth has a revitalizing effect. At first, man learned to control fire and use it to work with the mineral world. But it was a far greater achievement when man harnessed the warmth radiated by fire. The harnessing of warmth and the resulting transformation of the mineral world represented one of the greatest cultural advances. Through fire, man had learned to transform the solid into the liquid, and had thus become a master in the processing of ore. A further advance was that he learned to transform the liquid through heat into the gaseous – water into steam – and to utilize the steam. The entire subsequent cultural epoch was based on this utilization of steam. Another step in human development was that man learned to transform fire into light and to use this light to explore nature in his service. Light is also an expression of fire, but of the tamed power of fire. Yet even greater effects can be produced by light than by heat. While heat only affects the immediate vicinity, light affects the entire space.

The range of the effect is much greater with light than with heat. We know about the existence of long-vanished celestial bodies because their light, which they emitted many years ago when they were still physically present, is visible to us today. Fire contains both light and heat, and man can coax out both and make use of them, just as both show their beneficial effects in the world. We live through warmth and live in light. Nothing living could flourish permanently in the dark. Both light and warmth are necessary for our existence. These are the two poles in which the divine power of fire shows itself as an invigorating power in the world. As warmth, it works within beings, as light, it surrounds them from the outside.

The emotional expression of fire in the human and animal kingdom is passion, Kama. He must learn to transform this passion, which is indeed the power that enables him to become independent, so that it becomes warmth of soul within him. As warmth of soul it becomes invigorating in him, while as passion it has a destructive effect in him. This warmth of soul, however, which manifests itself as love, not only gives him the strength to live independently, but also to have a life-giving effect on the rest of humanity. In love, he radiates his inner being, his inner strength. It is this that connects him with people and also with God, while passion separates him from people and from God. Just as the physical expression of the power of God can be recognized in fire, so love, the life of the Godhead, descends through the warmth of the soul into the physical human being. The power of the Budhi, the Christ power, the power of the second Logos, is absorbed in man himself, while the will, which is first expressed in passion - as in fire in nature - is the power of the first Logos. Thus man lives in his will in the power of the first Logos. But while the first Logos lives on the plane of Nirvana, this will expresses itself in its passion at first as the greatest turning away from the Divine. Through love it turns to the Divine, and thereby the Divine streams towards it from the plane of Budhi. There it is imbued with the Divine warmth which lives on the plane of Budhi with the power of the second Logos. Love is the power that leads man from the lowest point of his estrangement from the Divine up again into the Divine. After man has united with the Deity living on the Budhiplan through love, this love works in him in such a way that the other pole of passion is also expressed: love leads him to knowledge. You radiate from above the light of divine wisdom. Through love, the human being unites with divine love, but this union has the consequence that he is enlightened by God with his light, the light of the knowledge of God's wisdom. This resides on the Devachan plan, it is what emerges from the love of God, which resides on the Budhiplan.

And while man rises through love to the buddhic plane, he rises through knowledge to the devachan plane, the world of the second Logos. First, through love, there must be a complete reversal of man, his passion, which was expressed in the astral, must become love, which is expressed in the Budhi element, then his thinking, which lived on the lower layers of the mental plane, is raised to the realization of the upper parts of the devachan plane.

Only then can he participate in the works of the Godhead and its various aspects. He must learn to acquire love and wisdom in order to understand the will of the deity, which is revealed in life, and the thought of the deity, which is expressed in living forms. First he penetrates into this divine thought, which then appears to him in the devachanic world. It is the wisdom of God that shines forth to meet him. Resting in this divine thought, he first finds the way into the essence of the deity. He is enabled to do so by the power of thought given to him by the third Logos. From this power he is able to penetrate further and understand the world in which the second Logos comes to revelation, in the astral world, where the essence of the second Logos is revealed. The second Logos is the revelation of divine life; this reveals itself to man in the soul, in the astral, just as the wisdom of the third Logos reveals itself to him in the mental. Only through the realization of the wisdom of God and through the assimilation of the revelation of the life in the soul can he now become conscious of the Divine Will, the elemental power of the Divine Life in the physical world. There he unites again with this elemental power, as before this power had united with him.

The power of God descended through life, through the manifestation of life in numbers - by dividing its power into different powers - through the light that was to bring enlightenment to mankind, and through the warmth that was to invigorate it. Finally, it expressed itself as fire in all its power to be recognized by man, and imparted to him a part of its power in passion so that he might gain independence.

— In life was the power of the first Logos.
— In number was the power of the Son, who emerged from the first Logos through revelation, the power of the Word, rhythm, harmony.
— In light was the power of the Spirit, of God-consciousness, which now streamed into the world and had a shaping-creating effect.

The light lured the figures out of the darkness. Then life poured all its power into the world of figures through fire – which became self-heating and passion in the animal and human realm, and led man to independence. Now he could begin the ascent, the return to the Godhead, to the primal source from which he had gone out. But for this, the power of God had to reach out to him again and again to draw him up. Through the first Logos, self-will was given to him in passion; now the second Logos poured into him self-warmth and love. The power of the first Logos, which had been expressed in him as fire and passion, now passed over into the power of the second Logos; and then the power of the third Logos united with him in wisdom, knowledge, and light, and led him together with it through light and knowledge.

Thus man could now live in the power of the third Logos, in thought, in divine wisdom. This divine wisdom must increasingly attract the divine life in him, then he learns to shape his thoughts vividly, then he can bring forth forms on the astral plane, just as he now brings forth thoughts on the mental plane.

A further ascent of man is that he then unites with the divine will and expresses it in the animation and transformation of the physical plan.

Thus, divinity and humanity are closely interwoven and intertwined. When the powers of God descend into man, a force must connect with the power of God in order to then descend again into nature in union with the divinity.

Descent of the One Life in Revelation: the number – ascent from expression to unity

Life – warmth
Number – light
Expression of unity: fire.

Connection of the human with the divine.

The ascent of man and union with the divine and the effect of the divine in man:

While life lives as the highest pole of the Godhead on the physical plane, warmth lives as the lowest expression of the Godpower on the Budhi plane. The number or revelation lives on the astral plane and thus complements the light that lives on the devachan plane. Through this concatenation of life in its expressions of power and in the worlds in which it works, everything around us in the cosmos and in man comes into being. We must understand the laws of life in order to penetrate into them. But it is love that leads us to the knowledge of these laws – for love is the power given to man to enable him to rise to divinity.

In order for humanity to become independent, the Father-power of the Godhead gave them a part of their own will in the inner fire, the passion. So that man could direct and guide this passion so that it would not become a consuming fire, he sent them his son, Christ, who brought love into the world to transform passion into life. But He sent the Spirit, the Paraclete, to lead them through love to knowledge, to light.

Only then, after humanity had been illuminated by the Spirit, could it recognize the life of the Son, could it understand the revelation of the Godhead. And only after it had united with this revealing love could it lead the Son to the Father, to the union with the will-to-live, the creative power. Thus the Godhead works in him as Father, Son and Spirit; but through the light of knowledge he first unites with the Spirit, then through love with the Son and through the will with the Father.

Through Christ, the power of love came into the world, which was to fulfill and purify the ego of man, which first revealed itself in passion, so that he could absorb the power of the spirit and penetrate to knowledge. But through this knowledge he will unite completely with love - and through love with the divine will. Therefore Christ had to lower his spirit upon mankind, as it happened at Pentecost. Since His appearance He has always permeated humanity with His spirit, and this spirit teaches them to find the way to Him and to the Father. In the middle of the Lemurian race, passion first descended into man with its own warmth. In the fourth sub-race of the fifth root race, love descended to purify passion, and from then on this love sent its spirit into humanity.

This descent of the spirit must continue until people, through knowledge, find their way back to love, as love had guided them to knowledge before. When Christ appeared, it was the beginning of the transition from love to knowledge.

Our time is the time when knowledge must pass over into love again. Parzival denotes the completion of the path through love of knowledge. Lohengrin denotes the beginning of the path through knowledge to love. We live in the completion of the path.

And just as Christ Jesus once brought love and, through love, light, so now light brings us love again. Lucifer appears in humanity to lead it back to Christ. And the new Christ will arise when humanity has learned to walk in the light of knowledge. Then Christ will arise. He was born in the fourth sub-race, and will arise in the sixth sub-race.

Then love in humanity will be brought to perfection and humanity will be uplifted to the power of the Father. Regarding the time in which we live, Christ Jesus said: “I will send you the Spirit of truth; he will guide you into all truth, and the truth will set you free. He is the Spirit of Truth who is now working among people and wants to lead them to spiritual freedom by freeing the spirit from the fetters of the physical. He gives the human spirit the strength to recognize, behind the physical world of appearance, the world in which it has its origin, its home. And thanks to this knowledge of the spiritual world, love for the spiritual world is kindled in him, and he unites with the power that works in the world as love, with Christ. And again it is this love that gives him the strength to unite with the life itself from which love emerged, with the divine will.

There the human being finds perfect union with the divine and perfect freedom from everything that fettered him; the completion of his freedom is perfect union with the Godhead.

The line of all development is the spiral. Its loops always follow the same laws. We can regard the spiral as the living representation of the ratio of the diameter to the circle. The first loop of each spiral arises from the fact that a line describes a circle, but not a perfect circle. Before it closes again, it turns away from the end point to describe a circle again and so on in this way. If we imagine this figure stretched out, we have a spiral.

The development of the same can be observed on a paper spiral. Each arc of a spiral is therefore created by curving a straight line, but not entirely back into itself, but by simultaneously lengthening this curved straight line. So each arc of the spiral is in the same ratio to the straight line that curves as the circle is to the diameter, as the number \(\pi\) is.

Now, every circle diameter can be placed on the circle three times with a remainder, so the diameter, by extending and curving three times, can almost close to a circle, but not quite; a gap remains, and indeed corresponding to the number \(\pi\); the gap is what follows after \(3\), namely \(1\), \(4\), \(1\), \(5\) and so on. So, to complete the circle, we need the numbers after the decimal point of the number \(\pi\), i.e. \(1415\) etc. Now, in terms of their values, these are \(1/10\), \(4/100\), \(1/1000\), \(5/1000\) of the original diameter, but since the number x is infinite, there is no number that expresses how much of the diameter can be placed on the circle. We can now imagine a process in which the diameter is bent to the circle so far until it almost closes, and where only the small gap remains open, which contains the numbers \(0,1415\) and so on. The number \(1\) denotes here \(1/10\) of the diameter.

If now the diameter, where it has reached the gap, i.e. after it has been placed on the circumference three times, continues in the same ratio, it describes a line that is in the ratio of the whole diameter to \(1/10\), \(4/100\), \(1/1000\), \(5/10000\) and so on. If at the same time it deviates from the perfect first circle at the point where this line begins, it will continuously form a spiral.

If this is the diameter of the first vibration,

then it describes the following circle; and when it turns into a spiral, the following spiral.

The spiral arises from the deviation of the diameter from the formation of a circle in the ratio of \(1/10\), \(4/100\), \(1/1000\), \(5/10000\) to a length. - If the diameter emerges from a circle, then it can only emerge from the circle in the ratio of the number \(\pi\), namely as often as it is contained in the circle. We can imagine that the circle is movable, like a circle formed by a [illegible] or a band. If you pull the band from one point with one end through the center in the direction of the diameter of the circle, it moves from the circumference in this direction.

A movable semicircle is formed, which becomes smaller and smaller. You could also continue to pull the tape in a circle, then a spiral would form.

Thus every spiral arises through the number \(\pi\), which expresses the ratio of [circumference to diameter] or the infinitely small deviation from the circular line to the straight line. A spiral is therefore the line that arises from the diameter emerging from the circle.

The number \(\pi\) expresses the ratio of the diameter to the circle. According to the numbers of this ratio, it can now also emerge from the circle, since all development arises from the fact that a force expresses itself in this ratio according to the number \(3.1415\).

If a force remained closed in itself, no revelation would be possible. To reveal oneself means to unlock oneself. Every closed force can only unlock itself through this ratio of its diameter to its perimeter. The circumference circumscribes the entire force, while the diameter divides the entire force into two halves. The force that divides the whole into two halves is not fully contained within it; it is related to it in the same way as the number \(\pi\). The effect of the dividing, revealing force thus emerges according to the numbers \(3,1415\).

Since it has retained in the first force the endeavor to close again into a whole, it will again try to describe a circle. But since it has within itself the endeavor to overcome unity, it deviates again from the circular line and thus describes a spiral.

The force of the second spiral line is twisted to the same extent as it moves away from the first force, namely in the ratio of the number \(\pi\). If the first circle is the force \(3.1415\), then the second circle of the force is contained in the first as often as the number \(\pi\), the third in the second again as often as the number \(\pi\). The second spiral line of force can emerge from the first \(3.1415\) times. The third force can emerge from the second \(3.1415\) times, from the third the fourth and so on. - In this ratio, the force on spiral lines decreases. The emergence of force occurs in the ratio of arithmetic numbers up to \(5\). If we multiply a force by the number \(3.1415\), then it becomes the next higher force; the lower force always indicates the diameter of the higher force, the higher force is \(3.1415\)-times the circumference of the lower force. The diameter of the higher force is always the circumference of the lower force. The strength of a force decreases in proportion to the squares of its distance. The reduction in strength can therefore be calculated by raising the distance from the first force to the second power.

The distance from the center of the force indicates the radius of the circle, half the diameter. This must be squared to know how strongly the force in the center acts on the circumference. If the diameter is \(4\), then the radius is \(2\), the square is \(4\) - so the force on the circumference is \(1/4\) of that in the center. If the radius is 100, then the square is 10,000, so the force on the circumference is 1/10,000 of the central force. We can express the forces as a ratio, and the force effects.

If the circumference is \(18\), then the diameter is contained in it \(3.1415\) times, so it is a little [less] than \(6\). Let us assume that it is \(6\) – then the radius would be \(3\), the square would be \(9\) – the force effect in the circumference would be \(1/9\) of the force inside, but a little less than \(1/9\).

Thus, one force after another emerges in the ratio of the number \(\pi\) – but each following force is only \(3.1415\)th the magnitude of the previous one – and each force is in the ratio of the square of the radius, which indicates the distance of the circumference from the center.

All cosmic forces are connected in this way. The descent is a continuous revelation that reveals itself as \(3.1415\) [whereby] the inner diameter of the higher force becomes the circumference of the next one, creating a spiral in which the next loop is always only the \(3.1415\)th part of the previous one. The diameter of the higher force forms the circumference of the lower force. The circumference of the smaller force is therefore the diameter of the larger force. Since the circumference of the total force is the same as the diameter of the larger force, half the circumference of the smaller force is equal to half the diameter of the larger force. Half the circumference of the smaller force therefore indicates the distance of the larger force circumference from the center - consequently, you only need to square half the circumference of a force to find the force effect of a larger force.

If the magnitude of a force is \(10\), then half the magnitude is \(5\) – in this case, the force of the higher force is \(5^2 = 25\).

Conversely, we can calculate the range of the lower force from the range of the higher force. If the range of a force is \(25\), then its radius is \(5\), its diameter is \(10\), and consequently \(10\) is the range of the lowest force that arises from it. So \(10\) is the diameter of the higher force and the circumference of the next force. From \(10\) the diameter now emerges, corresponding to the number \(\pi\), as a little less than \(1/3\) of \(10\) – to form the circumference of the following force. So the force that follows has approximately \(3\).

Thus, by means of the number \(\pi\), one can calculate all the ratios of the forces that arise from each other and their effects. Thus, the cosmic substances and forces interlock and swirl around each other in spiral lines, whereby, on the one hand, a transformation of force occurs in that the diameter emerges from the circle \(3.1415\) times – or, on the other hand, an increase in force occurs in that the circle becomes the diameter of a higher force. Furthermore, on the one hand the radii are raised to a higher power, squared to the force, and – or on the other hand, the square of the force is taken to the root of the radius of the circle that it describes. Range of force

Force effect
squaring the circle?

The diameter is related to the force effect in the same way as the semicircle \(\times 2\) is related to the semicircle squared. If the [radius] is \(x\), then the diameter is \(x \times 2\) and the force is \(x^2\). Therefore, the diameter to the force is in the ratio of \(2 \times x\) to \(x^2\) or the diameter is \(\sqrt{x^2} \times 2\).

\(x^2\) force effect
\(\sqrt{x^2} =\) radius \(= x\)
\(x \times 2 =\) diameter

Thus, \(\sqrt{x^2}\) indicates the radius and \(\sqrt{x^2} \times 2\) indicates the [diameter] of a force whose effect on the circumference is equal to the content of the force shape raised to the power of \(x^2\). The effect decreases from the center to the circumference of the circle in the ratio of \(x^2\) raised to the power of the radius squared.

Since the diameter of a force forms the circumference of the next force arising from it, \(x \times 2\) is also the circumference of the next lesser force.

If a force is equal to \(9\), then the radius is \(3\), the diameter is \(6\), and the resulting force is again equal to \(6\) in magnitude, and the radius is approximately \(1/3 = 2\). If the radius is \(1\), then the force is equal to \(1\), because \(1^2 = 1\). So if the diameter is \(2\), the force is \(1\).

The circle represents the number \(10\). The next number is \(9\), the square of \(3\). So \(3^2 =\) \(9\), almost \(10\), the closest to \(10\). The next approximation to the circle is the square drawn inside the circle. The ratio of the square to the circle is like \(9\) to \(10\) or like \(3 \times 3\) to \(3 \times 3.1415\). The circle is therefore more powerful by \(1/10\), \(4/100\), \(1/000\), \(5/10000\), etc. than the square, which has the same diameter.

(1/3) of the circumference forms the circumference of the next power that emerges from it, so approximately (1/3). The circumference must divide into three approximately to form the next power that emerges. This results in the tripartite division of power, which is indicated by the .

If we now raise the diameter of the force, which is 3 x 3.1415 in the circumference, to the square, the , but also the \(9\).

Just as the \(9\) is the precursor to perfection, so in this sense the square symbolizes \(3 \times 3\), the next step towards perfection, the transition to the \(10\), the circle, because the circle in the square is the \(10\) in the \(9\).

\(3 \times 3 = 9\)
\(3 \times 3,1415 = 10\)

Actually, \(3 x 3\) can be represented as follows:

\(||\) form only one direction – a diameter raised to the square

sun
circle in the temple
spiritual man
in the physical man

or also

The \(3 \times 3\) represents the stages of the ascent to the perfection of man - the three human powers raised to the square; to complete only [three times] the \(0.1415\) is missing. - The spiritual man is the closed circle, the physical man stepping out of the circle square - the spiritual man is the \(10\), the physical man is the \(9\). (Zodiac arranged on the sides of the square gives the \(12\).)

The circle in the square is the spiritual man emerging from the physical as the sun shining out of the temple.

Circle and square have the same diameter; we find the force effect of the circle by halving the diameter and exponentiating it.

The radius squared is the force effect, and thus also the ratio of the force reduction. The force effect is distributed in the physical square according to the square of the radius in the circle. So to find the force effect in the physical, you have to draw another circle around the square and raise the radius of this circle to the square, thus:

The physical force effect is all the less, as the square of the radius in the outer circle is greater than the square of the radius in the inner circle.

The spiral, emerging from itself, deviates from the direction of the circle at every point of its line by \(0.1415\) and so on. Through this continued deviation of a line in each point in the ratio of \(0.1415\) in relation to the circular line, the spiral arises. Or a spiral arises from a straight line when it turns in the reverse ratio of the circular line.

The spiral forms the relationship between straight line and circle; it is the union of a straight direction and a circular line. When a spiral is closed, the force rests entirely within it; when it unrolls, the force emerges. It decreases to the extent that it emerges, in proportion to the square of the distance of the end point of the spiral from the beginning.

Force \(a\) is divided by \(4/4\) up to \(10\)
Force \(b\) is divided by \(1/100\) at \(x\)
Force \(a = b\)
\(= 4 \cdot 100 \cdot 25\)
so \(b 20x\) is as great as \(a\)

A force always acts in the same direction as the hypotenuse of two forces that intersect at right angles.

If we break down a force into two forces, these forces must intersect at right angles.

The square of the force of the hypotenuse a is equal to the sum of the squares of the forces \(b\) and \(c\). The right angle is always the projection of two forces that arise from one force, of two forces that are equal to one force.

Every angle that touches the tip of the periphery, the sides of the diameter and the periphery of a circle is a right angle.

A square is created by constructing two opposite angles in a circle so that they intersect the sides of the diameter and the periphery.

The two catheti circles have the same center. The hypotenuse circle touches the small circle at the center of the large one on the periphery.

Force square – the decline of force from the Mahapara Nirvana plane to the physical plane.

Comet: the life of higher beings in particular, without regeneration.

Parable - detached from the whole and not complementing anything. The forms of new life are

All signs of the zodiac are pieces cut out of the spiral. The same applies to the numbers \(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12\).

The Roman numerals represent only the unit and duality, the cone, the development process in the whole. \(I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, IX, X, XI, XII\).

Only \(I\) and \(X\) are independent signs. All others are composed of these. \(V\) is the \(X\) halved. The \(I\) is the beginning, the primal force. \(V\) is revelation, the deepest descent. \(X\) is completion, where the halved force \(V\) has reunited with the other half: \(X\).

The 7 planets

As long as a person lives in the physical, their consciousness is turned away from the spirit. The spiritual is a focus in an ellipse, the physical is the other.

But the spiritual encompasses the physical. The life of the etheric body with Pranayama overcomes this focus on the physical and turns it towards the spiritual, while the spiritual flows towards it.

The consciousness of the astral body, Kama, finds the connection with the spiritual, and the physical and spiritual merge.

In astral consciousness, the human being stands where these two currents intersect. It is as if he were standing in the middle between two sides of a plane of symmetry. He no longer sees the physical as we see it, but from the other side. But he also does not yet see the spiritual as the spiritual consciousness does, but – also from the other side – as it manifests itself in the soul.

When a person is spiritually conscious, he is at the center of the spirit itself, and his consciousness goes out from this center in all directions. Physical consciousness acts in one direction, soul consciousness acts in two directions. Spiritual consciousness acts in all directions as from the center. Physical consciousness is life on the outside, soul consciousness is life on the inside, and spiritual consciousness is penetration into the center.

In physical consciousness, man stands in relation to the physical world, so that he is a part of it. In the soul, he lives within himself, detached from the world; in the spiritual, he moves back into the world, but into the other side of it. Now he is not only a part of the world, but unites from the center with all parts of the spiritual world. It is as if he lived in the physical on earth, in the soul within himself, in the spiritual in the earth. Physically he perceives things, in his soul he relates to them, spiritually he lives in them. Physically he is separate from things, in his soul he lets them pass through himself \(\infty\), spiritually he moves into things.

All things around him are physically shaped spiritual archetypes that have undergone the reverse process from the spiritual to the physical, through the soul of man. The physical forms owe their diversity to the fact that they are varied in the soul of the person who received them from the spirit, allowed them to pass through him and physically separated them out. The fact that we appear in different forms in different incarnations is because our spiritual archetype passes through the soul and thereby receives the imprint that makes it appear in a different physical form in each incarnation. The archetype is always the same; it is the actual name of the person. The more the soul moves towards the spirit, the more the physical incarnation resembles the spiritual archetype.

The spiritual archetype of the person is connected to the twelve signs of the zodiac and to the sun and the forces that arise from it. The soul in man is related to the moon and the seven planets. These forces modify the spiritual ones. The physical expression of the \(12 + 1\) spiritual and the \(7 + 1\) soul forces is the physical human being, arranged in the pentagram, which thus expresses seven soul and twelve spiritual forces.

The seven soul forces and five sense forces interweave to form the twelve spiritual forces.

1st tablet: the law of manas

♈︎ I am the Lord your God
♉︎ You shall not make for yourself a graven image
♋︎ You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain
♌︎ Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest
♍︎ Honor your father and mother
♓︎ is the law of the lower man
♊︎ is the law of the higher man

The law of the lower man was written on a stone tablet.

The law of the higher man was written in the heart. (Paul)

The Ten Commandments and the eleventh and twelfth, love, by which the law is abolished. The number \(\pi\) ( ♊︎ \(+\) ♌︎ ) is the transformation into the new commandment, spiritual love, by which the law is overcome. \(\pi =\) Christ. The divided power of love \( \)♓︎. The united power of love \(=\) ♊︎.

1st table: The Law of Kama

♎︎ Thou shalt not kill
♏︎ Thou shalt not commit adultery
♐︎ Thou shalt not steal
♑︎ Thou shalt not bear false witness
♒︎ Let not thyself be lustful.

Five Commandments of the mind (higher nature):

I ♈︎ I am the Lord, thy God
Manas ♉︎ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
Atma ♋︎ Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain
Budhi ♌︎ Six days shalt thou labor, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest; ♍︎ Honor thy father and thy mother: (this includes all the others).

Father and mother \(=\) mind and soul \(=\) ♍︎ \(=\) P

The Ten Commandments are the law written on tablets of stone; the commandment that includes all others is the one brought by Christ, the commandment of love. The commandments that govern man in his newly acquired independence are the Ten Commandments of Jehovah, which relate to Kama-Manas. Christ gave the commandment of love, which encompasses and abolishes all others. The law of love is on the periphery and encompasses all the others, containing them within itself.

It first manifests as Kama ♓︎ in the physical, where the sexes are separate. Then, through transformation, it manifests as Budhi, as the unified power of love, ♊︎ (\(\pi\)) spiritual love.

This law is written in the heart of man.

♈︎ I am – expresses itself first in ( Kama, works first in ♍︎ (\(7\)), is purified through I (the hands, karma, action), then works in 8 in the heart, Budhi.

♌︎ Reproduction of the Budhiman, the united power
Reproduction from the number \(\pi\) (spiritual power of love)
♍︎ Reproduction of the Kamic man, the divided power.

The cherub of Ezekiel has a human head on one side and a lion's head on the other (lion = Budhikraft, Christ). The lion is this cherub.

The two cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant hold the wings together; they guard the law, forming a circle around the law with their wings, which Christ later forms.

Christ was born under the sign of the Lamb: I am ♈︎.

Through him, humanity receives the power of God.

This manifests itself first in Kama – outer independence, the sign of Pisces ♓︎.

Then man can progress to inner independence through the power of Budhi. After he has first straightened himself out by the law (♒︎ Aquarius, John - ♈︎ Aries), he is now enabled to free himself through Budhi, to rise above the law.

The diameter becomes the periphery.
Diameter: Law of the Kama man.
Periphery: Law of the Budhi man.

♈︎ the Spirit of God at baptism; represents the stage that was reached when the law could be overcome by the ego \(=\) Christ.

♒︎ is the first Atlantean race; man began to develop his independence there; ascending through the seven Atlantean races and five Aryan ones; in the Atlantean era up to Leo ♌︎.

♌︎ Leo is the [fourth] sign from the top, the spiritual .

Scorpio is the [fourth] sign from the bottom, the .

From Scorpio emerged the kamic evolution of the earth, from Leo the spiritual. Leo comes into full power in the fifth sub-race of the sixth root race. There he leads humanity to spiritual perfection. In the fifth root race, he descends from spiritual existence into the physical. The fifth root race does not pass through the sign of Leo; but in the fifth root race he dwells among humanity.

He descends to bring Budhi among mankind, to transmute Kama into Budhi, ♓︎ into ♊︎. But Budhi must arise out of Kama; it rises out of Kama. The lion, the spiritual , crushed the serpent's (the law, the zodiac, the kamic ) head.

♏︎ The serpent, who is quiescent in the Kamic, stings the lion's heel with her will; she expresses herself in the Kama ♓︎, on which the lion stands and which he transforms into Budhi.

This happens under the sign of Pisces ♓, in the fifth sub-race of the fifth root race. In the fourth sub-race, the Lion crushed the head of the serpent; in the fifth, the serpent stabs the Lion in the heel; this is where Christ is truly betrayed; the fifth is the Judas race. In the sixth sub-race the resurrected Christ is proclaimed; in the fifth sub-race of the sixth root race he rises anew in heaven and on earth; then humanity begins to understand the sign of the lion as the sign of him who descended from heaven in the second and fifth root races to infuse all his power into humanity.

In the fifth sub-race of the sixth root race, Christ is present in heaven and on earth at the same time.

In the sixth sub-race of the sixth root race, he brings the separate currents together completely, and in the seventh sub-race they then stand united side by side as the twins ♊︎ – this is the race of Thomas, who is called the Twin. Only then can Thomas recognize the Lord by the five wounds – this is the sign of the Solar-Pitu, the Christ.

Thomas is humanity, which could not fully recognize Christ until He appeared before it with the five signs, as the fifth in the sixth root race. Then the number \(\pi\) is also complete, because x is the sign for the power of the lion in humanity, which enters humanity in the seventh sub-race of the sixth root race. ♊︎ with ♌︎ = \(\pi\). Then humanity is consciously under the guidance of the Cherub with the lion's head, who brought his power into humanity in the second root race, and in the fifth root race overcame the enemy of humanity – killed the dragon.

The fifth does not pass through ♏︎. There the battle took place between ♌︎ and ♏︎. They both do not appear in the sky, but both on earth.

In the sixth root race, the dragon in the sky and the dragon's seed on earth appear as the evil ones, the lion in the sky and the lion's seed as the good ones. In the second sub-race of the sixth root race, the evil ones come to power. In the fifth sub-race of the sixth root race, the Christ comes to power, and the dragon, the snake, the scorpion is completely overcome and its power raised into the spiritual at the end of the development, in the seventh sub-race of the seventh root race. In the seventh root race, the lion lives with all its power in humanity. There it has descended completely from heaven into humanity.

We know three worlds: the physical, the astral and the devachanic. The physical one is known to all people: the world we perceive with the five senses. - Not so the astral, it is the world of all drives, desires, passions and so on. Man must receive guidance in order to know his way around it. If a person gets a glimpse of the astral completely unprepared, he will not find his way around in it. The best comparison is the seal impression: What is sublime in the physical, that forms the recess in the astral and vice versa, what is recess here, is sublime there. Everything is a reflection of reality. The numbers are seen in reverse: 364 here is 463 there. It is much more complicated with the space formations: One sees a sphere as if one had the eye in the center of the sphere. All colors are seen in their opposite, what is red here is green there, yellow here becomes indigo there, black becomes white. The opposite color is always the one whose covering creates white.

Time actually runs backwards. One does not live towards the future, but towards the past. The peoples have expressed in the myths this astral way of looking at things. The myths of Chronos devouring his children can be understood only by those who have astral vision: The children in turn return to the womb of that from which they emerged. Uranos means the mental world, Chronos the astral, and Zeus the physical world. The myths originate from the initiates, who went out from the pre- and postexistence. They form the spirit through legends and fairy tales. What man cannot grasp in one life, he will grasp in the next. Also moral and spiritual conditions appear in the mirror image. What man feels belongs to the astral. And when he observes his own urges, they also appear to him in the mirror image. When a desire moves outward, it appears [there] as when it approached [one]. Like an animal that wants to snatch a thing from him when he takes it away. Thus he sees a whole animal world rushing at him: it is all the desires, cravings, and passions that man exudes.

The dream is a kind of memory of astral experiences; dreams are often nothing but mirror images of one's passions. Curiosity, for example, is always a certain current in the astral. The legend of the midday woman who visits the workers in the field and always quizzes them. Human curiosity expresses itself especially in the fact that man wants to know something about his past and future. The reflection of inquisitiveness is magnificently expressed in [the riddle of] the Cadmean Sphinx. The whole earth development of man lies in the answer: Man walks on four legs, on two legs, on three legs. Man walked on fours as a single-sex being in the Lemurian time. On two he goes in the present, on three he will go in the future. Both feet and the right side with the arm will disappear; instead there will be a highly developed left arm.

Evolution proceeds in such a way that certain beings evolve upward and have side shoots that come in decadence. In those who lag behind, the astral body is stronger; in those who advance, the mental body.

The reflection of development is retardation: regression. From the [retarding] forces of the astral, development is arrested. Thus, on the astral one must translate everything into its mirror image. This could not be understood in the beginning of the theosophical movement. The Master tried to make it clear to Sinnett, through the plant, which is surrounded by a mass, into which the plant pushes off.

[It is a profound truth:] The gods have been man-like beings in the past, and man will be a god-like being in the future. The gods have gone through an apprenticeship in the past; man is going through it today. What have the gods achieved in their development that preceded the earth? To be able to co-create all that surrounds us. Mineral, plant and animal kingdom are a creation of the gods.

Once there was a state for the gods - devas - in which they learned exactly the same thing that man learns today. Any finished art presupposes that lessons have been learned. [If you study Raphael, you will find that he was preceded by predecessors who gradually tried what he then brought to a supreme level]. In order for harmony to emerge, experiments must first be made, disharmonies must be overcome.

Human beings today are learning to master the mineral kingdom. The further we look back in history, we find that in the beginning man could not master the mineral kingdom. Only gradually did he learn. He ground his grain with two stones until gradually [after much trial and error] he brought about the mill. He learned to transform the forces of the mineral kingdom into art products. Basically, all human activity is a transformation of the mineral forces and substances into art products. There were times when man had not yet laid hands on the mineral kingdom, but had begun to plow the earth. We can look into a future where man will have transformed all minerals into artificial products. In a millennium, not so many discoveries have been made as in the nineteenth century alone. Things will go faster and faster in the future. Wireless telegraphy can already give a foretaste of it. [From here, for example, blowing up the Tuileries.] If man has not become unselfish, he can wreak great havoc.

Man cannot transform the plant and animal kingdoms today, merely the mineral kingdom. In the next round, everything that man has reshaped will rise as a plant. Through the Pralaya, man will gain the germ [of what he is developing today]. Everything he achieves in overcoming the mineral kingdom will come up to him. The Cologne Cathedral, for example, will rise in the fifth round as a plant cathedral. Now man tries to put things together in external form, then they are there. In the same way, the devas used to try to put together what can rise today as a plant.

When I look at an infinitely beautiful rhythm, I have to learn that it is made of lessons. We see the sequence throughout the turn of the year: Nature dies and rises again. This is only possible because the sun is in a regular relationship with the earth. In the solar time, on the second planet, it has learned to make the turn. The solar devas first tried the way in which the rhythm is brought forth. So it is with all activity. It took a long time in the Saturnian time until the quartz crystal was brought forth. And so we have Saturn, Sun and Moon devas which brought forth the three realms and also the cycle of the year. All are effects of long activities and the signs of an activity in the future. Man has been in this work and through it has become as he is. Thus man is connected with the three realms. For what has it happened that the sun and the moon and so on have been brought into certain orbits? For man. For his sake the sun turned around and started its new orbit. At Christmas we have the shortest day. It was an infinitely important point when the sun parted [from the earth]; the earth was left to itself and now had to unfold the power itself, which had otherwise been given to it by the sun. From the feast of Easter the sun is really there, in full power.

Everything that happens in summer is an epoch related to the earlier period in which there was a union [of sun and earth]. And winter is the realm of darkness, which now comes to the earth, so that at Christmas time man can say to himself: Something happens here every year, like when the sun left. Therefore, every year the etheric power coming to the earth is drawn away. Christmas has not only a symbolic, but also a natural meaning. There from the human being a power withdraws, which otherwise comes to him.

A natural consequence is that man adapts his life to this changed life of the earth. When the student is ready, he must pay attention to it. Man must unfold from within the forces that otherwise flow to him from without. He must unfold the spring within himself. This source must be nurtured in the winter time. At the end of winter he must have made himself ripe to receive the outer life again. This is indicated in the festivals.

Christ is the revival of the inner etheric forces and is placed in the time when the earth gives out the least forces. At the time around Easter, he must give life to life. In this festive year man notices one thing: Here a force arises in him, which also flows in on him from outside. There man remembers the time when he was still one with the sun. Man was in the bosom of the gods; then he had split off at the same time with the earth, and must now begin to shine from within.

We see why the great myths of all times gave names of gods to the planets. What the god is spiritually, the planet is physically. Festivals are not something arbitrarily inserted, but read from the heavens. The festival calendar is the cosmology. In the times when people understood the connection between human and celestial life, the priests composed the calendars. This is important for the one who, at a higher level of development, directs his gaze up to the heavenly bodies in order to put himself in harmony with the world forces, and this, in turn, is the basis of astrology. The etheric body will flourish differently if it is a sun child or a winter child. By placing the birth of man on certain dates, the Maharajas can cause etheric forces to act upon him as his karma requires. From the time of birth, one can in turn infer the karma.