[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

existed, these propensities could not degenerate. The dream or fantasy conceptions in question lasted
only as long as there was a corresponding external cause. Thus they had a real basis in external things.
They did not lose themselves in bottomless depths. It was, so to speak, nature's own fantasy and
dreaming which were put into the female soul.
The Lemurians did not have dwellings in our sense, except in their latest times. They lived where
nature gave them the opportunity to do so. The caves which they used were only altered and extended
insofar as necessary. Later they built such caves themselves and at that time they developed great skill
for such constructions. One must not imagine, however, that they did not also execute more artful
constructions. But these did not serve as dwellings. In the earliest times they originated in the desire to
give to the things of nature a man-made form. Hills were remodeled in such a way that the form
afforded man joy and pleasure. Stones were put together for the same purpose, or in order to be used
for certain activities. The places where the children were hardened were surrounded with walls of this
kind.
Toward the end of this period, the buildings which served for the cultivation of "divine wisdom and
divine art" became more and more imposing and ornate. These institutions differed in every respect
from what temples were later, for they were educational and scientific institutions at the same time.
He who was found fit was here initiated into the science of the universal laws and into the handling of
them. If the Lemurian was a born magician, this talent was here developed into art and insight. Only
those could be admitted who, through all kinds of discipline, had acquired the ability to overcome
themselves to the greatest extent. For all others what went on in these institutions was the deepest
secret. Here one learned to know and to control the forces of nature through direct contemplation of
them. But the learning was such that in man the forces of nature changed into forces of the will. He
himself could thereby execute what nature accomplishes.
What later mankind accomplished by reflection, by calculation, at that time had the character of an
instinctive activity. But here one must not use the word "instinct" in the same sense in which one is
accustomed to apply it to the animal world. For the activities of Lemurian humanity towered high
above everything the animal world can produce through instinct. They even stood far above what
mankind has since acquired in the way of arts and sciences through memory, reason and imagination.
If one were to use an expression for these institutions which would facilitate an understanding of
them, one could call them "colleges of will power and of the clairvoyant power of the imagination."
From them emerged the men who, in every respect, became rulers of the others. Today it is difficult to
give in words a true conception of all these conditions. For everything on earth has changed since that
time. Nature itself and all human life were different, therefore human labor and the relationship of
man to man differed greatly from what is customary today.
The air was much thicker even than in later Atlantean times, the water much thinner. And what forms
the firm crust of our earth today was not yet as hard as it later became. The world of plants and
animals had developed only as far as the amphibians, the birds, and the lower mammals, and as far as
vegetable growths which resemble our palms and similar trees. However, all forms were different
from what they are today.
What now exists only all in forms was then developed to gigantic sizes. At that time our small ferns
were trees and formed mighty forests. The modern higher mammals did not exist. On the other hand a
great part of humanity was on such a low stage of development that one cannot but designate it as
animal. What has been described here was true only of a small part of mankind, The rest lived their
life in animalism. In their external appearance and in their way of life these animal men were quite
different from the small group. They were not especially different from the lower mammals, which
resembled them in form in certain respects.
A few more words must be said about the significance of the above-mentioned temple localities. What
was cultivated there was not really religion. It was "divine wisdom and art." Man felt that what was
given to him there was a direct gift from the spiritual universal forces. When he received this gift he
considered himself a "servant" of these universal forces. He felt himself "sanctified" from everything
unspiritual.
If one wishes to speak of religion at this stage of the development of mankind, one could call it
"religion of the will." The religious temper and dedication lay in the fact that man guarded the powers
granted to him as a strict, divine "secret," and that he led a life through which he sanctified his power.
Persons who had such powers were regarded by others with great awe and veneration. And this awe
and veneration were not called forth by laws or something similar, but by the immediate power which
these persons exercised.
The uninitiated of course stood under the magical influence of the initiated. It was also natural that the
latter considered themselves to be sanctified personages. For in their temples they participated in
direct contemplation of the active forces of nature. They looked into the creative workshop of nature.
They experienced a communion with the beings which build the world itself. One can call this
communication an association with the gods. What later developed as "initiation," as "mystery,"
emerged from this original manner of communication of men with the gods. In subsequent times this
communication had to become different, since the human imagination, the human spirit, took other
forms.
Of special importance is something which occurred in the course of Lemurian development by virtue
of the fact that the women lived in the manner described above. They thereby developed special
human powers. Their faculty of imagination which was in alliance with nature, became the basis for a
higher development of the life of ideas. They took the forces of nature into themselves, where they
had an after-effect in the soul. Thus the germs of memory were formed. With memory was also born
the capacity to form the first and simplest moral concepts.
The development of the will among the male element at first knew nothing of this. The man followed
instinctively either the impulses of nature or the influences emanating from the initiated.
It was from the manner of life of the women that the first ideas of "good and evil" arose. There one
began to love some of the things which had made a special impression on the imagination, and to
abhor others. While the control which the male element exercised was directed more toward the
external action of the powers of the will, toward the manipulation of the forces of nature, beside it in
the female element there developed an action through the soul, through the inner, personal forces of
man.
The development of mankind can only be correctly understood by the one who takes into
consideration that the first progress in the life of the imagination was made by women. The
development connected with the life of the imagination, with the formation of memory, of customs
which formed the seeds for a life of law, for a kind of morals, came from this side. If man had seen
and exercised the forces of nature, woman became the first interpreter of them. It was a special new
manner of living through reflection which developed here.
This manner had something much more personal than that of the men. One must imagine this manner [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

kajaszek.htw.pl