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they are now.
That which has remained in the field of the human, has gone through a similar process, but within
these human limits. Many savage tribes must be considered to be the degenerated descendants of
human forms which were once more highly developed. They did not sink to the level of animalism,
but only to that of savagery.
The immortal part of man is the spirit. It has been shown when the spirit entered the body. Before this,
the spirit belonged to other regions. It could only associate itself with the body when the latter had
attained a certain level of development. Only when one understands completely how this association
came about, can one recognize the significance of birth and death, and can understand the nature of
the eternal spirit.
8 - The Hyperborean and the Polarean Epoch
The following passages from the Akasha Chronicle go back to the periods which precede what was
described in the last chapters. In view of the materialistic ideas of our time, the risk we undertake with
these communications is perhaps even greater than that connected with what has been described in the
preceding passages. Today such things are readily met with the accusation of fantasy and baseless
speculation.
When one knows how far from even taking these things seriously someone can be who has been
trained scientifically in the contemporary sense, then only the consciousness that one is reporting
faithfully in accordance with spiritual experience can lead one to write about them. Nothing is said
here which has not been carefully examined with the means provided by the science of the spirit.
The scientist need only be as tolerant toward the science of the spirit as the latter is toward the
scientific way of thinking. [Compare my Welt-und Lebensanschauungen im neunzehnten Jahrhundert
(Conception's of the World and of Life in the Nineteenth Century), where I think I have shown that I
am able to appreciate the materialistic-scientific view.*] For those however who incline toward these
matters of the science of the spirit, I would like to make a special remark concerning the passages
reproduced here. Especially important matters will be discussed in what follows. And all this belongs
to periods which are long past.
The deciphering of the Akasha Chronicle is not exactly easy in this area. The author of this present
book in no way claims that he should be believed blindly. He merely wishes to report what his best
efforts have enabled him to discover. He will welcome any correction based on competent knowledge.
He feels obliged to communicate these events concerning the development of mankind because the
signs of the times urge it. Moreover, a long period of time had to be described in outline here in order
to afford a general view. Further details on much that is only indicated now will follow later.
Only with difficulty can the writings in the Akasha Chronicle be translated into our colloquial
language. They are more easily communicated in the symbolical sign language used in mystery
schools, but as yet the communication of this language is not permitted. Therefore the reader is
requested to bear with much that is dark and difficult to comprehend, and to struggle toward an
understanding, just as the writer has struggled toward a generally understandable manner of
presentation. Many a difficulty in reading will be rewarded when one looks upon the deep mysteries,
the important human enigmas which are indicated. A true self-knowledge of man is, after all, the
result of these "Akasha Records," which for the scientist of the spirit are realities as certain as are
mountain ranges and rivers for the eye of sense. An error of perception is of course possible, here and
there.
It should be noted that in the present section only the development of man is discussed. Parallel to it,
of course, runs that of the other natural realms, of the mineral, the botanical, the animal. The next
sections will deal with these. Then much will be spoken of which will make the discussion concerning
man appear in a clearer light. On the other hand, one cannot speak of the development of the
terrestrial realms in the sense of the science of the spirit, until the gradual progress of man has been
described.
~~
If one traces the development of the earth even further back than was done in the preceding essays,
one comes upon increasingly refined material conditions of our planet. The substances which later
became solid were previously in a fluid, still earlier, in a vaporous and steam-like, and in an even
more remote past, in the most refined (etheric) condition. The decreasing temperature caused the
hardening of substances.
Here we shall go back to the most refined etheric condition of the substances of our earthly dwelling
place. Man first entered upon the earth in this epoch of its development. Before that, he belonged to
other worlds, which will be discussed later. Only the one immediately preceding will be indicated
here. This was a so-called astral or soul world. The beings of this world did not lead an external,
(physical) bodily existence. Neither did man. He had already developed the image consciousness
mentioned in the previous essay. He had feelings and desires. But all this was enclosed in a soul body.
Only to the clairvoyant eye would such a man have been perceptible.
As a matter of fact, all the more highly developed human beings of that time possessed clairvoyance,
although it was quite dull and dreamlike. It was not a self-conscious clairvoyance.
These astral beings are in a certain sense the ancestors of man. What is today called "man" carries the
self-conscious spirit within him. This spirit united with the being which had developed from the astral
ancestor in about the middle of the Lemurian period. This union has already been indicated in the
previous essays. In the description of the course of development of the ancestors of man up to that
period which is to follow here, the matter will be discussed again in greater detail.
The soul or astral ancestors of man were transported to the refined or etheric earth. So to speak, they
sucked the refined substance into themselves like a sponge, to speak coarsely. By thus becoming
penetrated with substance, they developed etheric bodies. These had an elongated elliptical form, in
which the limbs and other organs which were to be formed later were already indicated by delicate
shadings of the substance. All processes in this mass were purely physical-chemical, but they were
regulated and dominated by the soul.
When such a mass of substance had attained a certain size it split into two masses, each of which was
similar to the form from which it had sprung, and in it the same processes took place as in the original
mass of substance.
Each new form was as much endowed with soul as the mother being. This was due to the fact that it
was not a certain number of human souls which entered upon the earthly scene, but rather a kind of
soul tree which could produce innumerable single souls from its common root. As a plant sprouts ever
anew from innumerable seeds, so the soul life appeared in the countless shoots produced by the
continual divisions. It is true that from the beginning there was a narrowly circumscribed number of
kinds of souls, of which fact we shall speak later. But within these kinds the development proceeded
in the manner which we have described. Each kind of soul put forth innumerable off-shoots.
With their entry into terrestrial materiality, an important change had taken place within the souls
themselves. As long as the souls were not connected with anything material, no external material
process could act on them. Any action upon them was purely of the nature of soul, was a clairvoyant
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