[Music] We ventured onto rather unusual ground in our last lecture when we turned our attention to certain beings who definitely exist amongst us. They are spiritual beings who, in a certain way, fall outside the regular course of evolution, and it is this fact that gives them

their significance. We were considering the elemental beings whose existence is naturally viewed by the enlightened mind of today as the utmost superstition, but who will play a significant role in a not very distant future of our spiritual evolution, precisely through the position they

occupy in the cosmos. We have seen how such elemental beings come into existence as a sort of irregularly severed part—let me read it again—we have seen how such elemental beings come into existence as a sort of irregularly severed part of group souls. We need only remember

what was said at the end of the last lecture, and we shall have placed the nature of such elemental creatures before our spiritual eyes. We were considering one of the last formed species of these elemental beings. We pointed to the fact that each animal form, or to put it differently, a totality of

similarly formed animals, is represented by a group soul. We have said that these group souls play the same role in the astral world as our human soul insofar as it is embodied in the physical world. The human ego is really a group ego which has descended from the astral

plane to the physical plane and thus become an individual ego. The animal egos are still normally on the astral plane, and what is here on the physical plane as the separate animal possesses only a physical body, etheric body, and astral body; the ego is in the astral world.

Similarly formed animals, being members of their group ego, we can realize from this fact how birth and death in human life have not the same significance in the life of the animal. For when an individual animal dies, the group soul or group ego remains alive; it is just the same as if

assuming that it were possible, a man lost a hand and was capable of replacing it, his ego would not say, "I have died through the loss of my hand." It would feel that it had renewed a limb. So the group ego of the lions renews a

limb when a lion dies and is replaced by another. Thus we can understand that birth and death have not at all the significance for the animal group souls as they have for the human being of the present cycle of evolution. The group soul of the animals knows

changes, metamorphoses—so to speak, the severing of the members which then extend into the physical world; the loss of these members and their renewal. We have said, however, that there are certain animal forms which go too far in the process of

severing, which are no longer in a position to send back to the astral plane what they bring down to the physical plane. When an animal dies, what falls away must be entirely exhausted in the surrounding world, while the soul and spirit nature of the animal must

stream back into the group soul to be extended afresh and grow to a new individual entity. There are, in fact, certain animal forms which cannot send everything back into the group soul, and these parts which remain over, which are cut loose—torn loose—from the group soul, then lead

An isolated life as elemental beings. Our evolution has gone through the most varied stages, and at each stage such elemental beings have been separated off. So you can well imagine that we have a fairly large number of such elementals around us in what we call the supersensible world.

When, for instance, the enlightened person says that people talk of elemental beings and call themselves lemurs, but that such things do not exist, then you must reply that he does not see these things because he has not troubled to develop the organs of cognition which would enable him to recognize them.

But just ask the bees, or rather the soul of the beehive—they could not lose close—excuse me, they could not close themselves to the existence of sylphs or lemurs; for the elemental beings which are denoted by these names are to be found at quite definite places.

Namely, where there is a certain contact of the animal kingdom with the plant kingdom. This has not a general application, however; they are to be found only at spots where the contact takes place under certain circumstances. When the ox eats grass, there is a contact between the animal kingdom and

the plant kingdom, but that is a commonplace, normal proceeding; it lies in the regular course of evolution. The contact that occurs between the bee and the blossom stands on quite a different page of cosmic evolution. Bees and blossoms are much farther apart in organization,

and they come together in a special way. Moreover, a quite remarkable force is unfolded in their contact. The peculiar auric sheath which always arises when a bee or similar insect sucks at a flower belongs to the interesting observations of the spiritual, supersensible worlds.

If one may use the expression — but we have so few appropriate expressions for these subtle things — the peculiar, unique experience which the little bee has when it sucks at the flower is present not only in the masticators or in the bee's body, but the exchange of taste

between bee and blossom spreads out a sort of tiny, etheric aura. Every time that the bee sucks, there is this aura; and always when something like this arises in the supersensible world, the beings which need it arrive at the spot; they are attracted by it, for there they

find their food. To express it crudely again, I said on another occasion that we should not be concerned with the question 'When's it come?' All the beings of which we have spoken, wherever the opportunity is given for definite beings, then they are always there. If a person

sends out wrong, evil feelings, these live around him and attract beings which are there waiting, just as some physical being waits for food. I once compared this with the fact that there are no flies in a clean room; if there are all sorts of food remains in the room, then

there are flies. So it is with the supersensible beings; one need only provide them with the means of nourishment. The bee which sucks at the blossom spreads a little etheric aura, and then such beings approach, especially when a whole swarm of bees settles on a tree and then moves away

with a sensation of taste in the body, then the whole swarm is ensheathed in this etheric aura, and also entirely interpenetrated by the spiritual beings which one calls sylphs or lemurs in border regions where different kingdoms come in touch with one another.

These beings are present and they really play a role. In fact, they are not only to be found where this fine etheric aura arises; they not only approach to satisfy themselves, but they are hungry, and they bring that hunger to expression by guiding the particular creatures to

the particular places in a certain way. They are little guides. So we see that beings who, we may say, have severed their connection with other worlds to which they were formerly united have taken, in exchange, a strange role. They are beings which can well be used in other worlds; at any rate, when they

are so used, a kind of organization is established. They come under higher beings. It was said at the beginning of today's lecture that, at a by no means very distant time,

it will be fully necessary for humanity to know of these things. In a not very distant future, science will take an extraordinary course. Science will become increasingly materialistic, will confine itself simply to a description of external facts of the physical senses. Science will confine itself to the

crudely material. Although a strange transitional state still prevails today, a time of sheer, undiluted materialism in science lies not very far behind us. This crude materialism is, at the most, still seen as a possibility by people of a purely amateur outlook, though few thinkers trouble to set

something else in its place. We see a whole number of abstract theories appear in which a timid reference is made to the supersensible, the super-bodily. The course of events, however, and the power of external physical facts will utterly overthrow these strange, fantastic theories which are set up by those who are

Dissatisfied today with physical science, one day the learned will find themselves in a peculiar situation as regards these theories. All that they have spun out about all being and the solidity of this or that world, all their speculations will be overthrown.

And men will have nothing more in hand than sheer sense-perceptible facts in the fields of geology, biology, astronomy, and so forth. The theories set up today will be very short-lived. And to the one who is able to look into the special course of science,

an absolute desolation of the purely physical horizon is presented. Then, however, the time will also have come when a fairly great number of representatives of humanity will be ripe to acknowledge the supersensible worlds of which the spiritual science world conception speaks today. Such a phenomenon as that

of the be-life in connection with what can be known of the supersensible worlds offers a wonderful answer to the great riddle of existence. These things are of great importance from yet another side. It will become increasingly indispensable to grasp the nature of the group souls,

and such knowledge will play a great role even in the purely external evolution of humanity. If we go back thousands and thousands of years, we find man himself as a being still belonging to a group soul. Human evolution on our earth is from the group-soul nature to the individual,

soul. Man advances to the gradual descent of his ego-endowed soul into physical conditions, there having the opportunity of becoming individual. We can observe different stages in the evolution of mankind and see how the group soul gradually becomes individual. Let us go back to the time of the first

Third of the Atlantean culture epoch, there the life of man was quite different. In the bodies in which we were incorporated at that time, our souls had quite different experiences. There is one experience which plays a role in man's life today, whether as individual or member of

a social group, that has undergone a great change since that time; namely, the alternation of waking and sleeping. In ancient Atlantean times you would not have experienced the same alternation of waking and sleeping as exists today. What is then the characteristic difference in comparison with present

humanity? When the physical and etheric bodies lie in bed, the astral body with the ego lifts itself out, and what one calls the modern consciousness sinks into an indefinite darkness. In the morning, when the astral body and the ego draw again

into the other members, they make use of the physical organs and consciousness lights up. This condition of daily waking and consciousness, nightly sleeping in unconsciousness, did not exist formally. When it was daytime and man dipped down into his physical body as far as was the case then, he

by no means saw physical beings and objects in definite boundaries as he does today. He saw everything with vague outlines, just as you do when you go along the streets on a foggy evening and see the lamps surrounded with a misty aura. That was the way the human being of that

time saw everything. If that was the day condition, what was the night condition? When the human being passed out of the physical and etheric bodies during the night, no absolute unconsciousness came over him; it was only a different kind of consciousness. At that time, man was still aware of the

Spiritual processes and spiritual beings around him, not clearly and exactly as in true clairvoyance, but with the last relic of ancient clairvoyant sight. Men lived by day in a world of hazy, nebulous outlines; in the night, he lived among spiritual

beings who were around him, as we have the various objects around us today. There was thus no sharp division between day and night, and what is contained in saga and myths is not some folk fantasy, but memories of the experiences which early man had in the supersensible

world in his then state of consciousness. Wotan or Zeus, or other supersensible spiritual divinities who are known to various peoples, are not fabrications of fantasy, as is asserted at the council board of erudition. Such assertions can only be made by

someone who knows nothing of the nature of folk fantasy. It does not in the least occur to early peoples to personify in that way; those were experiences in ancient times. Wotan and Thor were beings with whom man went about as today he does

about with his fellow men, and myths and sagas are memories of the ages of ancient clairvoyance. We must be clear, however, that something else was united with this living into the spiritual, supersensible worlds. In these worlds, man felt himself not as an individual being,

but as a sort of limb of spiritual beings. He belonged to higher spiritual beings as our hands belong to us. The faint feeling of individuality which man possessed at that time he acquired when he dipped down into his physical body and emancipated himself from the dance of the divine, spiritual

Beings. That was the beginning of his feeling of individuality. At that time, man was absolutely clear about his group soul. He felt himself immersed in the group soul when he left his physical body and entered the supersensible consciousness. That was an ancient time when the human being had a vivid

consciousness of belonging to a group soul, a group ego. Let us look at a second stage of human evolution. We will omit intermediate stages, the stage referred to in the history of the patriarchs of the Old Testament. What really underlies this we have

already related. We have given the reason why the patriarchs Adam, Noah, and so on had such a long lifetime. It was because the memory of earlier mankind was quite different from that of contemporary man. The memory of modern man has, in fact, become

individual, too. He remembers what he has experienced since birth. Many actually—excuse me—many actually from a much later point of time. This was not the case in ancient times. At that time, what the father had experienced between birth and death, what had been

experienced by the grandfather, the great-grandfather, were as much an object of memory as a man's own experiences. Strange as it seems to the modern man, there was a time when memory went beyond the individual and back through the whole blood relationship. The external sign for the existence of

such a memory is precisely such names as Noah, Adam, and so on. These names do not denote single individuals between birth and death. Today, a name is given to the one individual whose memory is enclosed between birth and death. Formerly, the giving of a name went as

As far back as memory reached into the generations, as far as the blood flowed through the generations, 'Adam,' in quotes, is merely a name that lasted as long as the memory lasted. One who does not know that the giving of names in former times was

quite different from what it is today will not be able to understand the nature of these things at all. A fundamental consciousness, mediating quite differently, existed in ancient times. Imagine that the ancestor had two children; each of these two, again, in the next generation, again two, and

so forth. In all of them, the memory reached up to the ancestor, and they felt themselves one in the memory which meets up above, so to speak, in a common point. The people of the Old Testament express this by saying—and this applies to each single adherent of

the Old Testament—'I and Father Abraham are one.' Each individual felt himself hidden in the consciousness of the group soul in the Father Abraham. The consciousness with which the Christ has endowed mankind surpasses that. The ego, through its consciousness, is connected directly with the spiritual

world, and this comes to expression in, 'Before Abraham was, was the I, or the I AM.' Here the impulse to stimulate the 'I AM' comes fully into the separate individual. So we see a second stage of the evolution of mankind, the group-soul stage, which finds its

external expression in the blood relationship of the generations. A people which has particularly developed this lays very special value on continually emphasizing, 'As folk, we have a folk group soul in common.' That was particularly the case for the people of the Old Testament and the conservatives among them.

Strongly opposed, therefore the emphasis is on the "I am" of the individual ego. Whoever reads St. John's Gospel can grasp, with spiritual hands so to speak, that that is true. One need only read the story of Jesus' conversation with the woman of Samaria

at the well. Here it is expressly pointed out that Christ Jesus goes to those also who are not related by blood. Read how remarkably it is indicated: "For the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans." One who can experience this gradually,

meditatively, will see how humanity has advanced from the group soul to the individual soul. History has become an entirely external matter, very much a fable. Continue, for it is written from documents. Suppose that something had to be written today from documents, and the most important documents are

lost. Then whatever documents are accidentally available are thrown together, and reports are made. For matters of spiritual reality, one needs no documents; they are inscribed in the Akashic Record, which is a faithful record, and he faces nothing. It is difficult, however, to read in the Akashic Record because the

external documents are even a hindrance to the reader of spiritual scripts. But we can see how the advance from group soul to individual soul has taken place in times lying very near to our own. One who observes history from a spiritual aspect will have to recognize

a most important period of time in the early Middle Ages. Previously, man was still enclosed in various groups, if only externally, to a much greater extent than is dreamt of by modern man. People at the beginning of the Middle Ages still received their significance and value

Even as regards their work, from relationships and other connections, it was a natural consequence for the son to do what the father did. Then came the time of the great inventions and discoveries; the world began to demand more from purely personal proficiency, and man was increasingly torn out of the

old connections. We can see the expression of this throughout the Middle Ages, when cities of the same type were founded over the whole of Europe. We can still distinguish today the cities built on this type from those built on other foundations. In the middle of the Middle Ages, there

was again an advance from the group soul to the individual soul. If we look into the future, we must say: more and more, man emancipates himself from the old group-soul element and individualizes himself. If you could look back to earlier phases of man's evolution,

you would see how those cultures were cast in the same mold, as for instance, Egypt and Rome. This is only to a very slight degree true of today. Humanity has now descended to the point where not only manners and customs are individual, but even opinions and faiths

as well. There are people among us already who look on it as a lofty ideal for everyone to have his own religion. The idea floats before quite a number that a time must come when there are as many religions and truths as persons. This will not be the course of human

evolution. It would take this course if men were to continue to follow the impulse coming today from materialism; that would lead to disharmony, to the splitting of humanity into separate individuals. Mankind, however, will not take this course if such a spiritual movement

As spiritual science is accepted, what will enter then? The great truth, the great law will be realized: that the most individual truths, those that are found in the most inward way, are at the same time those that hold good for all. I have already commented on the fact

that today there is really general agreement upon the truths of mathematics alone. But these are the most trivial of all. No one can say that he finds mathematical truths through external experience; we find them through inwardly realizing them. If one wants to show that

the three angles of a triangle make 180 degrees, then one draws a line through the apex which is parallel to the base and lays the three angles together fan-wise. Then angle A equals D, B equals E, C equals itself, and so the three angles are equal to a straight line,

that is, 180 degrees. Anyone who has once grasped this knows that it must be so once and for all, just as one knows that three times three equals nine after it has once been grasped. I do not think one would expect to discover that

that, by induction, these most trivial of all truths—the arithmetical, geometrical—are found inwardly; and yet people do not dispute about them. They are in absolute agreement about them because mankind is far enough advanced to grasp them. Agreement of opinion prevails only as long as pure

truth is not clouded by passions, sympathy, and antipathy. The time will come, though it is still far distant, when mankind will be increasingly laid hold of by the knowledge of the inner world of truth. Then, in spite of all individualism,

In spite of truth being found by everyone for himself inwardly, harmony will prevail. If mathematical truths were not so simple and obvious, then the passions aroused in acknowledging them would lead to many difficulties; for if covetousness entered in, then

perhaps many housewives would determine that two times two equals five and not four. These things are only so obvious and simple that they can no longer be clouded by sympathy and antipathy. Continually wider regions will be grasped by this form of truth, and more peace

can come to mankind if truth is grasped in this manner. The human being has grown out of the group-soul condition and emancipates himself from it increasingly. If we look at groups instead of souls, we have family connections, connections of tribe,

and nation, and finally connected races. The race corresponds to a group soul. All these group connections of early humanity are what man outgrows, and the more we advance, the more the race conception loses its meaning. We stand today at a transitional point; race will gradually disappear entirely, and

something else will take its place. Those who will again grasp spiritual truth, as it has been described, will be led together of their own free will; those will be the connections of a later age. The human beings of earlier times were born into connections, born into the tribe, the race. Later we

shall live in the connections and associations which men create for themselves, uniting in groups with those of similar ideas while retaining their complete freedom and individuality. To realize this is necessary for a right understanding of something like the Anthroposophical Society. The Anthroposophical Society is intended to

Be a first example of such a voluntary association, although we may be well aware that it has not yet reached very far. The attempt had to be made to create a group in which men find themselves together without the differentiation of the ancient group souls' nature.

And there will be many such associations in the future. Then we shall no longer have to speak of racial connections, but of intellectual, ethical, moral aspects with regard to the associations that are formed. The individuals voluntarily allow their feelings to stream together, and this again causes

the forming of something which goes beyond the merely emancipated man. An emancipated human being possesses his individual soul, which is never lost when it has once been attained; but when men find themselves together in voluntary associations, they group themselves round centers. The feelings streaming in this way to a

center once more give beings the opportunity of working as a kind of group soul, though in quite a different sense from the early group souls. All the earlier group souls were beings who made man unfree; these new beings, however, are compatible with man's complete freedom and individuality. Indeed, in a certain

respect we may say that they support their existence on human harmony. It will lie in the souls of men themselves whether or not they give as many as possible of such higher souls the opportunity of descending to man. The more that men are divided, the fewer

lofty souls will descend into the human sphere. The more that associations are formed where feelings of fellowship are developed with complete freedom, the more lofty beings will descend and the more rapidly the earthly planet will be spiritualized. So we see that if man is to acquire any

The idea of future evolution: he must have a thorough understanding of the character of the group's soul element. For otherwise, if his individual soul keeps itself aloof too long in the earth and does not find the link of companionship, it could come about that it lets the

chance of union go by. It would then itself become a sort of elemental being, and the elemental beings originating from man would be of quite an evil nature, whereas those which have arisen from the earlier kingdoms are very useful for our orderly course of nature. The

human elemental beings who by no means possess this quality. We have seen that such severed beings arise in certain border regions, and they arise also on the boundary made by the transition from the group soul nature to the independent group associations where the connections are

of an aesthetic, moral, intellectual character. Wherever such connections arise, group beings are there. If you could observe certain spots, as for instance springs where underneath there is stone overgrown with moss, thus forming a kind of partition between plant and stone, and then water trickles over it, that too

is essential, then you would see that what are called nymphs or undines are very real in actuality. Again, where metals come in contact with the rest of the earthy realm, there lie whole bundles of the beings we call gnomes. A fourth species are the salamanders,

which form, so to say, the youngest generation in the ranks of elemental beings. They nevertheless exist in large numbers. To a great extent, they owe their existence to a process of separating off from animal group souls. These beings, too, seek opportunities for finding nourishment, and they find it

In particular, where not quite normal relations sometimes exist between the human and the animal kingdoms, those who know something about these things are aware that elemental beings, definitely good beings, develop an intimate relationship of the rider and his steed through the warm connection of certain

men with animal groups. Feelings, thoughts, and impulses arise which provide good nourishment for these elemental beings of a salamander nature that can be particularly observed in the united life of the shepherd and his flock. In the case of herdsmen in general, who live in

close connection with their animals, certain salamander-like elemental beings can find their nourishment in the feelings which develop through this intimacy between man and beast, and they remain where this food is to be found. They are quite shrewd, too, full of a

natural wisdom. Faculties develop in the shepherd through which these elemental beings can whisper to him what they know, and many recipes and prescriptions coming from such sources have originated in this way. A man among such conditions may well be surrounded as if by

Birth and Death in Animal and Man By Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner Press Audio

Introduction to elemental beings as spiritual entities outside regular evolution.

Elemental beings' significance in future spiritual evolution.

Elemental beings as irregularly severed parts of group souls.

Animal forms represented by group souls, analogous to human souls.

Birth and death's different significance for animals and humans.

Certain animal forms unable to fully return to the group soul, leading to elemental beings.

Examples and Locations of Elemental Beings

The existence of elemental beings (sylphs, lemurs) is observable with developed cognition.

Elemental beings are found where the animal and plant kingdoms interact under specific circumstances.

The interaction between bees and blossoms creates a unique etheric aura.

This aura attracts elemental beings, providing them with nourishment.

Similar to flies attracted to food, elemental beings are attracted to negative human emotions.

Sylphs and lemurs are found in areas where different kingdoms intersect.

The Future of Science and the Supersensible

The future necessity for humanity to understand elemental beings.

Science's increasing materialism and focus on physical facts.

The inadequacy of current abstract theories concerning the supersensible.

The future acceptance of supersensible worlds by a significant portion of humanity.

The importance of understanding group souls for human evolution.

Human evolution from group-soul nature to individual soul.

Different stages in human evolution and the gradual individualization of the group soul.

The change in the alternation of waking and sleeping since Atlantean times.

The difference in perception of physical objects between ancient Atlanteans and modern humans.

Ancient humans' awareness of spiritual processes and beings during both day and night.

Myths and sagas as memories of experiences in the supersensible world.

Ancient humans' lack of strong individual identity, feeling as part of spiritual beings.

The long lifespans of patriarchs due to different memory structures.

Ancient memory extended beyond the individual to include ancestral experiences.

The significance of names in ancient times, representing generational memory.

The concept of shared memory and identity within a bloodline.

The shift from group soul consciousness to individual ego consciousness.

The contrast between group soul emphasis (Old Testament) and individual ego emphasis (Christianity).

The transition from group-oriented to individualistic societies in the early Middle Ages.

Increasing individualization in modern society, including beliefs and religions.

The potential for disharmony through extreme individualism.

The example of universally accepted mathematical truths.

The future possibility of harmony despite individualism through inner truth.

The gradual decline of race consciousness and the rise of voluntary associations.

The Anthroposophical Society as an example of a voluntary association.

Future associations based on intellectual, ethical, and moral aspects.

The role of higher souls in supporting human harmony and spiritualization.

The potential for individuals to become elemental beings if they fail to connect with others.

Types of Elemental Beings and Their Habitats

Elemental beings arise in border regions between different kingdoms.

Nymphs and undines are found near springs and moss-covered stones.

Gnomes are found where metals contact the earth.

Salamanders originate from animal group souls and are found where humans and animals interact closely.

Salamanders find nourishment in the feelings between shepherds and their flocks.

The symbolism in mythology as projections of higher beings into the physical world.

The connection between Atlantean gods (Zeus, Wotan) and symbolism in mythology.

The explanation of symbolism in mythology through projections of higher beings.