Future of humanity

Focus of this page is on the second half of the Current fifth cultural age and the turning point humanity achieved in the year 2000, so current times and and the next millenium until the year 3000, in other words before the next Sixth cultural age.

Schema FMC00.534 below illustrates why the next 5-600 years are absolutely key, as mentioned explicitly by Rudolf Steiner. It sketches a culmination of the current trends by 2500-2600, followed by the exhalation phase of 1000 years transitioning to the next Sixth cultural age. In the previous cultural age, the 4th century was such a turning point, followed by the 'dark middle ages' until a new start around 1400. These next 5-600 years will have both the remainder of the current Michael age, and the Future Oriphiel age.

The goal of this page is to list various evolutionary trends that are on the various other pages, so as to be able to integrate them and contemplate and discuss them together.

Aspects

Key message

Most probably already in current times, and surely in the future, souls incarnated on Earth will not be able to develop by themselves due to the rise of materialism and various other factors. Therefore this will happen through the help of other discarnate souls, during sleep when astral body and I are in the spiritual world. The 'terrain' of operations of spiritual science is not just playing on Earth: the bridge between incarnated and discarnate souls becomes essential.
- "in relatively short time, much closer than we think, materialism and soul-less-ness will become so great that ... in about one hundred years souls will only be able to remain in the body for a maximum of 30 years before Ahriman and Lucifer take possession of the body. We are then - instead of Lucifer and Ahriman - to animate these bodies from the spiritual world" (1913-05-XX-GA265A)
- "you are called, when you have passed through the gate of death, to radiate the esoteric knowledge and truths that you have absorbed, to send them down to Earth from the spiritual worlds in order to empower the souls of people who are walking around down here like automatons. Think in humility and responsibility about how karma has led you, that you are called to do this!" (1913-12-08-GA265A)

This provides a top level overview page concerning the future of humanity, linking to various other topic pages regarding the future, but limited to the current physical Earth stage of evolution and the current Mineral Condition of Life (CoL, or round) and physical Condition of Form (CoF, or globe). Relevant pages about current and future ages and epochs:
- Current fifth cultural age incl.
- followed by Sixth cultural age, Seventh cultural age and Reunion of Moon and finally War of all against all
- then Sixth epoch, Reunion of Sun, and Seventh epoch
the millenia as turning points where the (combined) Luciferic (and/or) Ahrimanic impact is at its maximum (1914-03-30-GA265A)

Inspirational quotes

1912-09-04-GA265A

p 141

We are in the times of very important struggles and decision-making, and it is by no means certain whether the Earth will remain the workshop of the gods or not.

1913-11-19-GA265A p 198

The rest of the Earth development belongs to Ahriman. It was left by the Gods to Ahriman, and it is this that will should hit our souls like a bomb.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.534: is a schema intended to support study of the fourth and fifth cultural ages and gain insights of the patterns underlying evolutionary development of humanity, see also Schema FMC00.059 on History. This schema has:

a) a lower section with key dates and phases described in Rudolf Steiner's lectures, and focus on i) the period of the 4th century (see also 325) and the Transition between 4th and 14th century (including aspects such as Central European cultural basin but also 869, the Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams, Academy of Gondishapur, and more); and ii) the period 1840 and it's relation to the new start in the age of the consciousness soul (see 1840 and 1879)
b) an upper section showing the inhale-exhale cycle of cosmic breathing and the two halves of an evolutionary cycle related to this. In this case focus is on a cultural age corresponding to an archai time spirit, whereby certain centuries or periods represent crucial transitions on the timeline of the development of mankind. History and evolution does not progress linearly but with jumps or step changes represented by the spiral symbol. This is linked to the activity of spiritual activities (above) and their emanation that can be observed (below).
- For example: the year 333 is described (in 1918-10-16-GA182) as the time the intellectual soul was coming to its prime, up to then it was developing on the ascending arc, then began the arc of descent.

The Discussion Note The two halves of an evolutionary cycle#Note 1 - First and second half of a cultural age provides a narrative to the schema with explanations and relevant lecture excerpts and references, to explain the point the schema conveys, and how it helps to understand the 'jump' in Schema FMC00.535.

See also related Schema FMC00.052 and Schema FMC00.052A.

For purposes of personal study, this scaled down image on the site can be saved as high resolution JPG file and printed on A3 format for readability, so one can add personal annotations.

is a schema intended to support study of the fourth and fifth cultural ages and gain insights of the patterns underlying evolutionary development of humanity, see also Schema FMC00.059 on History. This schema has: *a) a lower section with key dates and phases described in Rudolf Steiner's lectures, and focus on i) the period of the 4th century (see also 325) and the Transition between 4th and 14th century (including aspects such as Central European cultural basin but also 869, the Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams, Academy of Gondishapur, and more); and ii) the period 1840 and it's relation to the new start in the age of the consciousness soul (see 1840 and 1879) *b) an upper section showing the inhale-exhale cycle of cosmic breathing and the two halves of an evolutionary cycle related to this. In this case focus is on a cultural age corresponding to an archai time spirit, whereby certain centuries or periods represent crucial transitions on the timeline of the development of mankind. History and evolution does not progress linearly but with jumps or step changes represented by the spiral symbol. This is linked to the activity of spiritual activities (above) and their emanation that can be observed (below). **For example: the year 333 is described (in 1918-10-16-GA182) as the time the intellectual soul was coming to its prime, up to then it was developing on the ascending arc, then began the arc of descent. The Discussion Note The two halves of an evolutionary cycle#Note 1 - First and second half of a cultural age provides a narrative to the schema with explanations and relevant lecture excerpts and references, to explain the point the schema conveys, and how it helps to understand the 'jump' in Schema FMC00.535. See also related Schema FMC00.052 and Schema FMC00.052A. For purposes of personal study, this scaled down image on the site can be saved as high resolution JPG file and printed on A3 format for readability, so one can add personal annotations.

Schema FMC00.052 shows the dephased Christ solar impulse in red (dephased versus the cultural ages and timing of the regular hierarchies, called lunar/stellar astronomy). See Schema FMC00.052A for the original BBD (blackboard drawings). The timebar shows an interesting correlation between these impulses and two key periods for humanity: the first the next future Oriphiel age which will be a hardship test for humanity, and then the period in the next sixth cultural age where we have the Michael age and the impulse of the Maitreya Buddha .. a key period for the cohort of human beings that will provide the foundation for the next great Sixth epoch.

These two key periods are put in perspective to show - in yellow bars - the fact that "the fifth and sixth cultural ages are decisive" (1910-GA013), as "only a third of the population reaches the developmental goal at the end of the fifth epoch" (1904-10-24-GA090A).

To overlay schemas with a similar time-chart layout as below, see also:

Schema FMC00.013 on Current Postatlantean epoch which uses the same layout
Schema FMC00.167 on Transition between 4th and 14th century

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Schema FMC00.534A: adds some quotes to Schema FMC00.534 about the next millennium with the future age of archangel Oriphiel (between approx. 2235 and 2590), and the very dark period that humanity will face in the transition phase before the Sixth cultural age in the period of approx. 3000 to 3500.

adds some quotes to Schema FMC00.534 about the next millennium with the future age of archangel Oriphiel (between approx. 2235 and 2590), and the very dark period that humanity will face in the transition phase before the Sixth cultural age in the period of approx. 3000 to 3500.

Schema FMC00.469 symbolically represents the relationship of the Jehovah influence on mankind, and a positioning of this first seeding of the I-consciousness in Man as part of the Development of the I from the Lemurian epoch onwards.

This preceedes the further individuation of the Human 'I' and hence should be looked at together with Schema FMC00.377 or Schema FMC00.377A that show the consecutive preparations including the Three pre-MoG interventions of Christ (Schema FMC00.246), as well as the Krishna impulse, the Wotan Impulse, and the workings of The being of Elijah.

Note: the schema below was made on the basis of an original drawing from someone attending the lecture, and distilled from the three copies available on the original manuscripts and typoscripts from the lecture. Therefore it is different than the illustrations in (copies of the various editions of the) official Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe (GA).

Lecture coverage and references

1913-05-XX-GA265A

Notes by Alice Kinkel (p 176 in DE volume)

with qualifier on these notes as published in the GA : "strictly confidential"

In a very serious speech, Dr. Steiner then said that he had to tell us in the name of the spirit of the age that materialism will become so great in the near future that soul-less-ness, perhaps in a relatively short time, much closer than we think, will become so great that in about one hundred years the souls can remain in the body for a maximum of 30 years and then Ahriman and Lucifer will take possession of the body. We are then - instead of Lucifer and Ahriman - to animate these bodies from the spiritual world.

1913-11-19-GA265A

Notes A (probably by Elisabeth Vreede) (p195-199)

When we are in our sacred space, we have to practise self-reflection. And we have to feel very strongly the karma that has brought us to the gate of this temple.
The human soul moves through the different ages and takes something from each one. From era to era, the life of the soul changes, even if people do not realize it.
If we did not experience our own body, we would not be able to know immediately whether we are walking or standing still; we would have to perceive from the trees or telegraph poles whether we are walking or not. On a train, it can sometimes happen that you really don't know. Today's astronomy is based on this point of view; it must perceive from the changes in position of the stars and so on that the Earth is moving and that the whole solar system is moving. In ancient times it was quite different. In ancient times, for example, people still lived the life of the Earth with their souls; this is how they knew how the Earth moved through space, and if they had recorded it, they would have drawn it like this - which later became the Mercury Rod.
This ability disappeared in later times. It was a liberation of Man from the macrocosm so that he could no longer feel this movement.
It was the good gods who detached Man from the macrocosm because, as a result of the temptation of paradise, Man was connected to the creation of Lucifer and Ahriman. That is why Yahweh said to Lucifer after the Fall: "You wanted to give Man freedom within himself so that he would become like the gods, discerning good from evil, but now he should also become free from my creation so that he will later follow it in freedom and accept it."
As a result, Man has become lonely on Earth in his soul. And when we feel complete in our occult movement and are overcome by a great feeling of loneliness in our meditation, then this is a good sign of progress. Only through this feeling of solitude can the higher worlds reach us.
In the present, Man is so far gone that he no longer has an eye for what is immediately around him.
...
A "cattle culture" [in DE: "rindenkultur"] is developing everywhere, which we must admire greatly, but which we must immediately recognize as such. We have to cultivate the "market culture" alongside the "cattle culture". This external culture is particularly flourishing in America. There, for example, the "scientific operating system" has developed.
This is of the same kind as, for example, "scientific pedagogy", which also originated in America and is known as the "ultimate wisdom" is also starting to spread here. Large numbers of children are being observed to find out how long they can focus their attention and so on; then "fatigue coefficients" are established and the like. The activities of workers were also studied in this way, for example when laying bricks; it was investigated how people could be used in such a way that without having to develop a thought - the stones can be transported up and laid in the fastest possible way.
Man is being turned into a machine. This will get worse and worse in the future.
Everything will be mechanized; there will be no more handwriting, but children will immediately learn to write on typewriters. The mechanization of life will dominate the future.
This began with the discovery of the steam engine, and in the future people will look back on this discovery - or invention - as a victory for Ahriman, just as we look back on the fall of Man as a victory for Lucifer. For when the steam engine was discovered at the end of the eighteenth century, the gods handed over the material development of the Earth to Ahriman.
The rest of the Earth's development, with its machines and the mechanization of life, belongs to Ahriman. The gods have left it to him. This is what should hit our souls like a bomb. [in DE: "Das ist das, was wie eine Bombe in unsere Seelen einschlagen soll"]
Nevertheless, we should not want to take the weight of these things away from the shell that is being pressed down, but we should place the weight of spiritual life on the other shell through our development. The Mystery of Golgotha was precisely that which was the focus of Earthly development, and we have to ensure that the balance is restored.
The terrible consequences of such things as the "scientific operating system" (Taylor system) will soon come to pass.
The result will be that human souls, when they have lived in the body for thirty or thirty-three years, will no longer be able to find their way on Earth; they will experience themselves dead and arid in their souls.
Then it will be up to those of us who will have matured and who will then live in the spiritual world between death and a new birth, to warm and sunbathe the souls from there so that they will feel: First I was dead inside myself, but now something is beginning to live in me like an inspiration from higher worlds, something that makes me fully alive and warm again; now spiritual life is beginning to come into me again!

This is what needs to be said as a result of a conversation with the guiding spirit of our development. And if one should ask: How can I know that what has been said here is really the result of such a conversation? - then only the answer can be given: What has been said today must be said, and it will have done its job when it hits your hearts like a bomb.

Notes B (author unknown) extract

...
Our entire culture would not be possible if Man had not achieved this independence. For Man would also be bound to the great macrocosmic conditions: tiredness in the evening; the farmer's life with nature. Progress must be recognized, for example, the ingenuity used to build a (machine), even if this machine has no good purpose. Machine culture.
The Earth is given over to the rule of Ahriman in order to mechanize it. This is what the archangeloi teach. As a counterbalance, they teach people to develop spirituality, wisdom, virtue and moral strength (wisdom, beauty, strength). From America, the land of cattle culture, now comes a business science. Man becomes a machine (Taylor system).
...
Souls will no longer be able to cope with themselves from their thirtieth year onwards.

Our work and task is to help them. This is the right thing to strive for if we are not striving for ourselves, but for the service of others. These proclamations should hit our souls like bombs.

1913-12-08-GA265A

Notes A (probably by Elisabeth Vreede)

About the desolation of the world and people. Desolation of art, science, industry, commerce and so on. Everything will become old.
In the future, people will be there as if without an I; they will move and do their work like automatons.
Eduard von Hartmann's pessimism: blowing up the Earth is the best thing to do. In a way, his pessimism seems justified in the face of such a bleak future.
Although we feel the deepest sadness about it, we can still be grateful to our karma for what we receive here, because in the future - as if floating above it - we will then be able to give these automaton-like people something to guide them, something like a substitute for the missing I.

So says the master who was asked about this.

Notes B (by Alice Kinkel) - p 202-205

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quote A - in DE

Gezeigt hat der Meister der Weisheit, als er angefleht wurde; da Bild der Zukunft der Menschheit: einer schauervolles Bild - Menschen, die da unten herumlaufen wie Automaten, die ihr Ich wie verloren haben, die tief betäubt sind von dieser materialistischen Kultur, die nur Greisenkräfte enthält. Mit ihrem dreissigsten Jahre, wenn ihre Jugendkraäfte verbraucht sind, werden diese Menschen sein wie Automaten.
...
Ein zweites Gesicht hat der Meister gezeigt; das erste: ein trauriges Gesicht, dementsprechend, wie es mit der Menschheit steht; das zweite aber ein heiliges, inneres Ergötzen, da durch den Christus-impuls Frühlingskräfte, sprossende, spriessende, hinausgesendet werden können in die Welt.

quote A - machine translation

The Master of Wisdom showed, when he was implored, a terrible picture of the future of humanity: people walking around down there like automatons, who as if lost their I, who are deeply numbed by this materialistic culture, which contains only forces of old age. By their thirtieth year, when their youthful strength is spent, these people will be like automatons.
...
The Master showed us two images: the first, the above saddening images, corresponding to the state of humanity; but the second, a holy, inner delight, because through the Christ-impulse, springing, sprouting, forces of spring can be sent out into the world.

quote B - longer extract (machine translation)

...
[dying Earth - and the Christ Impulse]
If we look at our Earth, we can see that it is in a state of decay. We know that human life has an ascending part - up to about the age of thirty - and a descending part. It is the same with the Earth. The ascending half is to be reckoned until about the middle of the Atlantean period. From then on would be the time of its dying off, its becoming dry; but through certain interactions this time was delayed until the time of the Mystery of Golgotha; for through the Mystery of Golgotha the new, the rejuvenating youthful forces were again given to the Earth. Science also tells us that the Earth is a dying thing, a decaying thing on which we walk. Physicists are already speaking today of the heat death of our Earth, of dissolution, of decay. (The geology of Eduard Sueß is cited and discussed).
What does occultism, which dissects the Christ impulse, as we do in view of our three altars and our three candlesticks here, have to say about this?
If we go back to the ancient places of mystery and wisdom, to which our union is to be linked, we need not go back far at all, only as far as the teachings of Zarathustra, where the best feelings and sensations were devoted to the worship of fire.
What lives in this fire, in this sacrificial flame?
Anyone who has followed our explanations in our intimate associations in recent times will not be surprised when it is said: Ahriman lives in this fire or has to do with this Fire.
What does the physicist describe when he speaks of the heat death of the Earth or when he describes his other investigations?
He is describing the deeds of Ahriman.
For the Zarathustrian, however, this fire was something else. It was the connection with the good powers that he sought and cultivated in the worship of fire, the powers that save over there, that give the strength for the soul not to be burned.
This Earth will indeed suffer the death of heat and burn up and be destroyed into the universe, but the souls that are connected with the good powers will have the strength to to save from perdition what comes from the rejuvenating impulse of the Mystery of Golgotha and to carry it over into future Earth developments, what will one day shine as Future Future Jupiter's sun over the future Earth.
Everything that comes from ordinary science today is old-fashioned and arid, and it opens up a desolate wasteland to the human heart and soul; for when the physicist draws his conclusions to the end, he arrives at heat death. And what consolation does he then give mankind? Only that it is still quite a long time until then! The prospect is bleak and desolate for the human soul. There is only one way, only one way that leads to new life. The Earth has become old and arid; it is doomed to destruction; it is a corpse that is withering away. But a divine being has descended from divine-spiritual heights - the Christ being - and has brought the impulse of spring, the new life, to the Earth.
Whoever connects with the Christ-Jesus will find the way out of this Earth to new life. Everything must be created anew on this Earth through the Christ being. People will no longer be able to work through the old impulses of wisdom, beauty and virtue or strength; new impulses must come through the Christ. The old impulses will fail. And an architecture will arise that offers only the ridiculous; a painting, a poetry, a medicine will arise that no longer has any real effect. People will indeed rejoice when all kinds of airplanes cross the air, but every such airplane contributes to the death of the Earth.
What are our machines, what is our technology? We use metals for it, which we tear from the Earth and remove from their divine function. Every machine is like a piece of flesh torn from the body of the Earth, every machine contributes to its death.
If a number of souls can be found - and such souls must be found - who want to receive the Christ impulse as it is represented and set forth here as true spirituality or spiritual science: Then that which saves, that which carries the Earth over to Future Future Jupiter, will be able to emanate from these souls. A new science, a new philosophy, a new art, a new painting, a new technique, a new medicine, a new commercial life must come into being. And the Christ will be the great teacher for all branches of human life.
[image of future of Mankind]
When the Master of Wisdom was implored, he showed the picture of the future of mankind: a shuddering picture.
People who walk around down there like automatons, who have lost their I, who are deeply anaesthetized by this materialistic culture that contains only the powers of old age. In their thirties, when their youthful powers are spent, these people will be like automatons.
In the past, Earthly destinies were controlled by divine beings from outside and the inherited divine powers were then there to take humanity further. Now Man himself is to be a co-advisor to the gods (about the fate of the Earth) and radiate powers of his own accord through the Christ impulse.
And the Master of Wisdom has confirmed that you are called, when you have passed through the gate of death, to radiate the esoteric knowledge and truths that you have absorbed, to send them down to Earth from the spiritual worlds in order to empower the souls of people who are walking around down here like automatons.
Think in humility and responsibility about how karma has led you, that you are called to do this!
What does this breathing out of human deeds into the universe mean? The word "God", "ergötzen", has the same root. Central Europe has a word called "ergötzen". God used to approach people by day from outside; "ergotten" was the name given to this, a sacred delight.
The Master has shown a second image.
The first: a sad image, corresponding to the state of humanity.
The second, however, a holy, inner joy, since through the Christ impulse spring forces, sprouting, sprouting, can be sent out into the world.
Many words that have become trivial can become meaningful again through true occultism.

Discussion

Note 1 - Narrative on the future of humanity in the next 500-600 years

WIP draft outline - under development

Introduction

This will provide a narrative commentary to integrate various evolutionary patterns to be taken together, such as:

humanity is getting younger, re https://anthroposophy.eu/Humanity_is_getting_younger#Illustrations
loosening of etheric from physical body, see references on https://anthroposophy.eu/Christ_in_the_etheric
I-less human beings (second quote on https://anthroposophy.eu/I-less_human_beings#Inspirational_quotes)
outlook for the future: Mineral plant like spiders .. something that has now become much more clear and concrete in the developments between 1970 and 2020, from personal computer and internet to world wide web with smartphones, social media, and artificial intelligence [1]
from Contemporary worldview war (the below is just a selection)
- the increase of ahrimanic materialism for the next five centuries (1917-11-18-GA178)
  - the inevitable rise of the materialistic worldview (see second quote 1917-11-29-GA182 below)
  - and the future rise of epidemics, especially nervous diseases but also suicides (Spectrum of death#1913-11-17-GA266)
- the rise of the asuric influences of the asuras or rakshasas, that a.o. have an influence in sexual perversions and black magic
- small 'secret' societies or brotherhoods that drive towards other agendas for the masses (oa 1920-02-21-GA196)
  - anaesthetization or stifling of the consciousness soul (1917-01-15-GA174, 1920-02-08-GA196)
  - western brotherhoods: chaining materialistic souls to use them as an army of discarnate souls (1917-11-18-GA178, 1917-11-25-GA178, described further in 1917-11-29-GA182)
    - the influence of the dead is used as a way to influence earthly matters and build power, without the masses even being conscious of this
    - hence there are strong agendas to push for materialism as very materialistic souls remain 'chained to the earth' and can be used for egoistic purposes
    - the ultimate goal of Western brotherhoods is to put another being in the place of the Christ, and divert from the Christ Impulse
as well as:
- the sixteen paths of perdition
- the Sorat impulse linked to 1998
conflicts
- WWIII: Future Oriphiel age#1933-01-15-BD .28Beinsa Douno.29
- between the West and the East (China), see more links on Nostradamus#2.1 - War between the West and Asia and World catastrophe

.

The contents of 1913-11-19-GA265A and 1913-12-08-GA265A puts this in a specific contextual frame:

As a pre-read, we propose 1917-11-18-GA178 and 1917-11-29-GA182 on Contemporary worldview war that discussed the rise of ahrimanic materialism for the next five centuries.
In 2025, one can witness the dramatic 'coup' on humanity that took place the last 25 years (see [1]) and it is clear that the development of artificial intelligence, robotics, media entertainment, etc is increasing at a fierce rate and will have a tremendous further impact in the next decades and century.

Then, 1913-11-19-GA265A and 1913-12-08-GA265A sketch this picture of a majority of humanity functioning as automatons. One can imagine them guided and entertained by smartphones and implants and artificial intelligence software. Today already this is the case with GPS navigation, social media (facebook, youtube, instagram, tiktok and the like), entertainment (Netflix, Spotify, and the like), games, newsfeeds, etc.
As a balancing counterimage, the increase of the Christ impulse is sketched, see oa Christ in the etheric.
Last, a very important clue is given: how can there be hope for souls if they are so absorbed in this materialistic world during the day by age 30 that they seem lost, lost in terms of necessary development of the Human 'I' and their intellectual and consciousness soul in the stages of life between ages 28 - 35 - 42? The answer: the spiritual influx will come through the Influence of deceased souls during sleep. One can imagine a fructification taking place in this way when the astral body and I of the sleeping incarnate souls are out of their body whilst asleep. A fructification that will trigger the inner path and process of self-initiation, that may/will educate about the spiritual as well (imagine dreams, or even lucid dreaming, and Out of Body Experiences (OBE)).

Comments

Various additonal notes (or lateral related thoughts), for further elaboration:

1/ With this, one is reminded of what is represented with Schema FMC00.469 (see above) about the Jehovah impulse (note: Rudolf Steiner highlighed this Schema and stressed it was worthwhile to meditate upon it deeply). In early times (Lemurian epoch), and for long periods of time, the force of love was implanted in humanity, but indirectly during sleep.

The described pattern is now that a similar role will be there for the souls of the Michaelic stream, to work as disincarnate souls onto the souls incarnated into this materialistic world on Earth.

2/ There are related quotes of relevance that describe the work done by disincarnate souls that affect souls before they incarnate, and the Influence of deceased souls affecting spiritual work on Earth, see further on Communicating over spiritual science. Two example quotes are given below:

1921-01-22-GA203

explains that human beings now receive spiritual instructions during death and a new birth, in the process of their descent between the Midnight Hour and incarnation. Man today experiences something akin to the old Mystery instruction, before he descends from the spiritual world into his physical body.

For the full quote, see: Planets hosting beings at various stages of evolution#1921-01-22-GA203

1915-06-15-GA159

from: Communicating over spiritual science#1915-06-15-GA159

Within the womb, as it were, of the ancient Indian epoch, that of ancient Persia was prepared; within the ancient Persian culture, that of the Egypto-Chaldean epoch was prepared, and so on. Our fifth post-Atlantean age must prepare the coming sixth cultural age.
...
We may picture to ourselves that by uniting in brotherliness in working groups, something hovers invisibly over our work, something that is like the child of the forces of the spirit self - the spirit self that is nurtured by the beings of the higher hierarchies in order that it may stream down into our souls when they are again on Earth in the sixth cultural age.
...
But we must look still more deeply into the course of human evolution if we are fully to understand the real tasks of our associations and groups.

In the first Postatlantean cultural age, too, in communities that in those days were connected with the mysteries, men cultivated what subsequently prevailed in the second epoch. In the associations peculiar to the first, the ancient Indian epoch, men were concerned with the cultivation of the astral body, which was to be the specific outer task of the second epoch.

It would lead much too far today to describe what, in contrast to the external culture of the time, was developed in these associations peculiar to ancient India in order to prepare for the second, ancient Persian epoch. But this may be said that when those men of the ancient Indian age came together in order to prepare what was necessary for the second age, they felt: We have not yet attained, nor have we in us, what we shall have when our souls are incarnated in the next age. It still hovers above us. It was in truth so. In the first cultural age, what was to descend from the heavens to the earth in the second age still hovered over the souls of men. The work achieved on Earth by men in intimate assemblies connected with the mysteries was of such a nature that forces flowed upwards to the spirits of the higher hierarchies, enabling them to nourish and cultivate what was to stream down into the souls of men as substance and content of the astral body in the second ancient Persian age. The forces that descended at a later stage of maturity into the souls incarnated in the bodies of ancient Persian civilizations were like little children in the first cultural age. Forces streaming upwards from the work of men below in preparation for the next age were received and nurtured by the spiritual world above. So it must be in every cultural age.

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3/ Then connecting to all the above, the following cryptic but important quote from

1924-08-08-GA237, see Q00.006 - spiritual events at various points in life#1924-08-08-GA237

This shall now rest in your souls. Those who out of these great decisions feel in themselves the impulse to come to the anthroposophical life today, will be called again at the end of the 20th century, when at the culminating point the greatest possible expansion of the anthroposophical movement will be attained. But it will only happen if these things can really live in us, — if there can live in us the perception of what penetrates cosmically, spiritually, into the earthly physical domain. It will only be so if there penetrates even into the earthly Intelligence, into the perceptions of men, the knowledge of the significance of Michael. This impulse must be the very soul of our anthroposophical striving. The soul itself must have the will to stand fully in the midst of the anthroposophical movement. Thus we shall find it possible, my dear friends, for a certain time to come, to carry in our souls thoughts of a great and far-reaching nature. But we shall not only preserve them, we shall make them living in our souls. And through these thoughts our souls will grow and develop anthroposophically, so that the soul will become what it was intended to become through its own unconscious impulse to come to anthroposophy. I say again: So that the soul may be taken hold of by the mission of anthroposophy. I have spoken these earnest words to you in this last hour, so that you may let them work in you quietly and in silence for a time: that the soul shall really be taken hold of by the mission of anthroposophy.

This may happen through a sequence of events in life, that 'wake' someone up. Special states of consciousness, changes in sleep and special dreams (dream education), being guided to as if by invisible influences and coincidences, etc.

Note 2 - Commentary on 1913-11-19-GA265A and 1913-12-08-GA265A