Scythianos – the Hidden Master

By Douglas Gabriel
March 30, 2020

The final monograph of our series entitled, Masters and Avatars was incomplete
without addressing one of the most powerful masters of all – Scythianos. The reason he
was left to the end was because so little is known about him. Rudolf Steiner gives us
hints and indications, but the big questions remain and the shroud of mystery still hangs
before the inner sanctuary. During the ensuing years, our research has taken us from the
permafrost of Siberia to the green isles of Ireland, and beyond. We have had to study the
origins of agriculture to find the annual plants that could sustain a constantly migrating
culture. We needed to find the link between animal husbandry and the development of
early sources of human foods. The amazing results of these seemingly disparate avenues
of research eventually led to the Tarim Basin, Mongolia, and Serbia. The ancient
cultures we were tracing indicated that in 10,500 BC, a group of migrants from beyond
the Himalayan Mountains cultivated lands that became paradisical, but now are deserts
and cold wastelands. To think of the Gobi Desert as a vast inland ocean filled with
whales and ocean creatures that are now extinct is hard to believe. Rumors of hundreds
of pyramid libraries under the Gobi sands, or mystical islands that reach up into the
heavenly realms filled by hierarchies of spiritual beings who commune with Holy Rishis
and Atlantean Manus.

There were great Manu beings of the past that were inspired by archangels, but there
will also be Manu teachers in the future who have risen to that high rank of development
from the human domain. Scythianos is one of the Manus of the future and is consider
one of highest human initiates of all time. Scythianos was said to have studied directly
with the ancient Manu who led the fifth migration off of Atlantis to the Central Asian
mystery initiation center in Western China, near the Gobi Desert. The central Sun
mystery initiation center of Manu and the seven Holy Rishis carried the wisdom of
Atlantis to a place often referred to as, The City of Manu.

Rudolf Steiner tells us that Manu and Scythianos both were together in the Northern
mystery stream near Ireland as the islands of Atlantis were sinking. Others before
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Steiner, revealed a great many details about the seven races and subraces of Atlantis and
the numerous migrations from Atlantis to the east and west. These different versions of
migrations, even by Anthroposophists, are quite confusing and Scythianos is the key to
understanding the way the migrations happened and the specific types of cultural
mixing that happened through the long migrations of Scythianos that spread from
today’s Ireland, all the way to Eastern Siberia, Japan, and over the Baring Straights to
the Americas. Then, once the eastern migrations had ended, Scythianos (Scythians)
turned around and headed back to their original homes in the western islands that are
referred to as “The North.” Through many incarnations, Scythianos led these people and
created settlements amongst the existing races and cultures he encountered along the
way.

Scythianos is much like Zarathustra, who also was a student of Manu when they were
together in the “Western islands”, near present-day Ireland. Zarathustra, through many
incarnations as the leader of the ancient Persian people, took the wisdom of Manu and
used it to develop settled agriculture and animal breeding and authored the Gathas.
Zarathustra developed the original strains of perennial and annual plants that brought
us our grains, fruits, and vegetables as well as the domesticated animals that we
commonly eat. Scythianos, on the other hand, was constantly migrating and used hemp
as an annual plant for animal and human needs. Scythianos was involved in the
breeding of horses and dogs, while Zarathustra bred pigs, sheep, goats and other
domesticated animals for food. Both Zarathustra and Manu left a comprehensive oral
and written tradition that later became the Vedas and the Gathas. On the other hand,
there are few, if any written records from Scythianos, or even records concerning his
migrations and cultural influence. Even language analysis does not tell the story of the
Scythians (Slavs-Sacca-Druids-Celts). Some modern research is beginning to
understand that numerous cultures that have been considered independent are, in fact,
from the same source. The indications of Rudolf Steiner are proving to be true as DNA
analysis merges with history and anthropology. The migrations of peoples determined
by “science” agrees in great detail with the insights of Steiner. The details found in
Steiner’s personal secretary’s book, The Evolution of Earth and Man, predicted the
results of DNA research. Even the “Out of Africa” theory coincides with Steiner’s
indications concerning early migrations and the first cultural centers in Africa.

Studying the indications of Rudolf Steiner concerning migrations often give a very high
level, broad view of the vast sweep of time that goes beyond recorded history into pre-
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history. Just as we can read detailed views concerning Atlantis from Theosophists (see
Appendix) and wonder how they have arrived at these details; the same questions can be
asked about Rudolf Steiner’s indications about these ancient times. Both Steiner and
some Theosophists had the ability to see into the past and “read” pre-history, even back
to the beginning of Earth existence and beyond. This may be hard to believe, but it is
often the case that unrelated spiritual scientists arrive at the same conclusions from
their independent research. Comparing the works of Theosophists, who wrote before
Steiner’s time, plus all that is derived from ancient traditions creates a picture of
migration patterns that coincide with modern scientific DNA research. Eventually, the
coincidences in these spiritual scientific writings become quite convincing.

Rudolf Steiner gave a lecture entitled, The Souls of Nations, which comprehensively
describes these ancient times and the great migrations of people. He also gives a
spiritual description of how the “soul of a nation” is connected to hierarchical beings
who rise up to become the leading “Time Spirit” of an age. This cultural development
aligns, to some degree, with prior views of Theosophists and others; but Steiner has
filled in all the details and corrected the mistakes of others. But even after Steiner gave
his indications on these cultural periods and the great Masters, Manus, and Avatars who
led these developments, many Anthroposophists are still confused and cannot even
defend Steiner’s “non-racist” views on historical and cultural development. Anyone who
has truly read and studied Steiner’s views on these topics knows that racism, anti-
Semitism, Aryanism, Ariosophism, and other fundamental, one-sided views are far from
Steiner’s indications. One mission of the Scythians was to meld all cultures together to
create a beautiful mix of every race and people.

Scythianos is, in part, so mysterious because the ancient time periods when he was
seeding cultures across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and especially in the
Northern countries which were home to the Druids, Trottes, Celts, Norse, Germans,
Teutons, and Russ is so very little understood. In fact, modern scholarship is
overturning many of the prior ideas concerning the very cultures that Scythianos
influenced. Throughout this monograph, we will gather information from the newest
research and compare it with Steiner’s own words, and the ideas of his students.
Theosophical writer’s ideas can be found in the Appendix to this article that
demonstrate the contrast between Steiner’s indications and the current opinions of his
time. We have also added the ideas of other Anthroposophists who may or may not
agree totally with Steiner’s indications. This is why it is essential to provide direct quotes
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of authors, without running commentary. The ultimate conclusions concerning

Scythianos and the influence of the Scythians will be left up to the reader.

Why Scythianos?

In our series entitled, Masters and Avatars, we have focused on many of the people who
were gathered underneath the cross on Golgotha. These great souls are part of the
spiritual human drama that reflects the divine cosmic drama. They are the greatest of
initiates, masters, illuminated souls, and spiritual leaders of humanity who seem to be at
the heart of human spiritual evolution as witnesses of the cosmic deed of Christ. Steiner
has given indications of who some of these souls were in past incarnations; these
mysteries reveal the nature of karma and reincarnation. Some of these indications have
already been addressed in prior articles in this series.

Adam - Elijah - John the Baptist - Raphael - Novalis

Eve – Queen of Sheba - Mary Sophia
Able - Solomon - Mary Magdalene
Cain - Hiram Abiff - Lazarus/John - CRC
Noah - Manu - Melchezedek - Titural

Scythianos is said to be one of the highest initiates and is the master of the mysteries of
the human body, the Saturn mysteries of Atlantis. The question naturally arises: Where
was Scythianos during the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Why is the
master of the physical body not a witness of the Mystery of Golgotha, the redemption of
the physical? There are always many questions about this most hidden of masters.

Rudolf Steiner speaks about Scythianos joining together with Zarathustra, Buddha
(from the spiritual world) and Mani in the 4th Century Rosicrucian meeting that laid out
the future spiritual plans for the evolution of humanity. Steiner indicates that these four
were chosen because Scythianos was there representing the physical nature of the
human body, Zarathustra the etheric, Buddha the astral, and Mani the ego nature of the
human being. Together, they work as a united group that helps guide human spiritual
development both from the Earth plane and the spiritual plane. In this case, Scythianos
was essential for the planning of the future but is often missing from the picture for
other momentous spiritual events.
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Take for instance, the marvelous description of Christian Rosenkreutz as the “Wondrous
Child” who drew to himself what became the First College of C.R.C. in the 13th Century.
Gathered around the Wondrous Child were the great cultural leaders of history. There
are numerous versions of who Steiner indicated where the twelve representatives of
human cultural development gathered around the Wondrous Child, and yet no mention
of Scythianos in any version. Some of the great master beings gathered were: the Seven
Holy Rishis, Manu, Zarathustra, Hermes, Socrates, Plato, Augustine, and Joan of Arc –
but no Scythianos.

Where is Scythianos? Why is the great master often missing from these high-level
gatherings? It is true that Steiner has said that Scythianos travels as the seventh master
between the other six – two in the East, two in Europe, and two in the West. This might
explain his absence in some cases, but he is the one who is in contact with the other six
master beings. Why is Scythianos hidden? It can’t only be that his time has yet to come,
since his broad influence in the past is most impressive. This missing information
creates a strong need to study all that is available about Scythianos, and his people, to
build a comprehensive picture of the Hidden Master.

The Unknown Master - Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche

Much like Scythianos, Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche is such a “hidden master” that he is
practically the “unknown master.” This is surprising because Shenrab became a Buddha
before Gautama Buddha, the one we all know about. Shenrab goes back into pre-history,
just like Scythianos, and many believed for a long time that Shenrab was myth, legend,
or confabulation. But now, just like with the research on the Scythians, Shenrab and his
Bonpo Buddhist culture is recognized as the original source of Tibetan Buddhism and
ancient Indian Buddhism. Shenrab also was the leader of his culture throughout many
incarnations. Shenrab was the mythical breeder of “heavenly” horses, the progenitor of
the modern horse. He also cultivated hemp and cannabis for human and animal use.
Many stories place Shenrab in about 10,500 BC, just as the final parts of Atlantis were
sinking. Shenrab is also noted for traveling all over China and sharing his amazing
knowledge of plants, animals, elemental beings, and hierarchical beings that populate
the Earth plane. Horses, dogs, hemp, cannabis, fruit trees, rice and many other critical
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elements of life were developed by Shenrab as the leader of the Bonpo culture of ancient
Northern India.

We would like to share the “unknown” life of Shenrab with you to highlight the way that
even great cultural leaders of the past may be quite unknown to historians and yet
welded tremendous power to lead great tribes of people. There is even a story about
Shenrab traveling to China to meet with the great Manu in Lop Nor, at the Eastern end
of the Tarim Basin. There is little doubt now that the Chinese use of horses, hemp, and
cannabis came from the influence of the Bonpo culture, led by Shenrab.

Shenrab occupies a position very similar to that of Sakyamuni in Buddhism and is the
author of an enormous number of books, either attributed directly to him or believed to
be his word. The biography of Shenrab was revealed in a fourteenth century work of
Loden Nyingpo.

Shenrab spoke and wrote in the Zhang-Zhung language, which is a relative of Old
Tibetan. He predates Gautama Buddha by ten thousand years. It is held that Shenrab
first studied the Bonpo doctrine in Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring, at the end of which he
pledged to the god of compassion that he would guide the peoples of this world to
liberation.

Shenrab was of royal birth but renounced his royal inheritance at the age of thirty-one to
travel the path to enlightenment. He embraced the life of a renunciate and commenced
austerities, spreading the doctrine of Bon; at length, he arrived in the land of Zhang
Zhung near Mount Kailash. He taught The Four Portals, addressing such topics as:
narratives, magic, funeral rites, ransom rituals, monastic rules, philosophical
expositions, and secret tantric teachings.

In Shenrab’s work entitled, The Treasury he illuminated: prognostication, sortilege,

astrology, the psycho-physical universe, the dispersal of adverse entities and energies,
funeral and death rituals, the ten principles for wholesome activity, codified monastic
rules and regulations, the integration of the mandala of highest enlightenment, the
guidelines for seeking a tantric master, and the “Way of Supreme Natural Condition” -
Dzogchen.
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The Bonpo canon comprises more than two hundred volumes, classified in four
categories: the Sutras, the Perfection of Wisdom Teachings, the Tantras, and
Knowledge. Besides these, the Bonpo canon includes material on rituals, arts and crafts,
logic, medicine, poetry and narrative. The “Knowledge” section concerning cosmogony
and cosmology, though in some respects unique to Bonpo, shares a more than passing
resemblance to Tibetan Nyingma doctrines. Just as Manu had given the complete
Indian cosmology in The Laws of Manu, so Shenrab did the same for the Bonpo.

After hearing about the comprehensive culture that was fully developed long before the
ancient Hindu or Tibetan Buddhist cultures, it is easier to see that the work of a great
master like Scythianos could remain hidden, even to this day. It was only a few years ago
that the city of Zhang Zhung was discovered by a Tibetan monk on an expedition to find
Shenrab’s hidden city. The city was found quite intact with many written works that pre-
date Tibetan Buddhism. Shenrab is real, but it took thousands of years to finally prove
it. Perhaps Scythianos will also, one day, be revealed to be all of the things that Rudolf
Steiner has indicated.

Scythianos

Scythianos, as an historical person, cannot be tied down to even a certain millennia or

general area. The Scythians’ origin is as sketchy and mythical as the master beings who
seemed to have lived numerous lifetimes while leading their culture in all aspects of life.
You can judge the stature of these beings by the cultural remains, and Scythians are
accredited with everything from breeding the best horses, inventing the chariot,
cultivating hemp and cannabis, inventing the compound bow, metallurgy, gold-
smithing, hybrid agriculture, etc., etc., etc. Most European and Eastern cultures claim
associations with the Scyths and they are known by dozens of names in various cultures.
No one definitively claims to know the origins of Scythianos or the Scythians.

Scythianos was probably named so because as an initiate, he took the name of his people
- the Scythians. He is thought to have lived near the border between Palestine and
Arabia, and at one time, to have been active in trade between the Red Sea ports and
India. He is mentioned by the historian Socrates, who wrote in the 5th century, giving as
his authority a lost work The Disputation of Archelaus Bishop of Caschar, authored by
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Hegemonius. In this tradition, Scythianos, a Saracen, husband of an Egyptian woman

“introduced the doctrines of Empedocles and Pythagoras into Christianity.”

Another version of Scythianos describes him as an Alexandrian religious teacher who

visited India around 50 AD. He is also mentioned by several Christian writers and anti-
Manichaean polemicists of the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, including Cyril of Jerusalem,
Hippolytus and Epiphanius, and is first mentioned in the fourth-century work, Acta
Archelai, a critical biography of Mani from an orthodox perspective. Hippolytus
considered Scythianos as a predecessor of Mani, and wrote that he brought before Mani,
“the doctrine of the Two Principles” from India.

Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius wrote that Scythianos authored four books:
Mysteries, Treasure, Summaries, and The Gospel of Scythianos. Legend has it that
Scythianos traveled to Jerusalem to debate his doctrines with the Apostles of Jesus
Christ.

The account of Cyril of Jerusalem states that after Scythianos’ death, his pupil
Terebinthus went to Palestine, Babylon, and Judaea where he “became known and
condemned.” He used the name “Buddas”, which could mean he presented himself as a
Buddha and may suggest a link between his philosophy and Buddhism. Terebinthus
brought with him the books of Scythianos, which he presented upon his death to his
lodger, a widow with a slave named Cubricus, who later changed his name to Mani.
Mani is said to have studied the books, which thereby became the source of Manichean
doctrine.

The hidden mystery center of Scythianos has been speculated to be the “mysterious”
Solovietsky Islands, were the Druids guarded the hidden Drotten Mysteries. This
archipelago, with many ancient stone labyrinths, has always been associated with the
high initiate of the Scythians, Scythianos. In was on these islands, that were filled with
the strongest solar powers of the north, that it was necessary to preserve the
clairvoyance of nature in the purest form. After the loss of natural clairvoyance, through
the sinking of Atlantis, a hidden mystery center had to be established to retain the
original clairvoyance of the Atlantean Jupiter and Sun mystery centers.

The Solovietsky Islands are jewels of the White Sea in the very northeast of Europe
between the Kalevala country of Karelia in the west and the Russian region of
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Arkhangelsk (Archangel City) in the east, between the midnight sun and the taiga. A
high mystery site, hidden in open countryside, woven from the strongest light forces
with salt-water and ancient rock has existed on these islands since pre-history. It is
believed that the Greeks have known about this island as Apollo’s land of Hyperborea.
From Solovietsky Island, Apollo traveled each spring to Delphi bringing the Golden
Bough. Apollo was known as the “Sun God from Hyperborea.” Apollo’s followers
accompanied his yearly travel with offerings on ships across the Baltic Sea, the Dnieper,
and the Black Sea.

It is from these remote islands and the lands south, all the way to Lake Onega, that the
teachings of Scythianos strongly emanated. These teachings even created a southern
stream of migration that reached all the way to Italy and the Etruscans. There were few
written teachings from these islands of Scythianos, but there was a strong oral tradition
that was sung, or chanted, to a pseudo-hexameter rhythm accomplished by two singers
doing a call-and-answer recitation of Norse, Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavic mythology.
These teachings eventually became the bards of the Druids, Celts, and Drotten
mysteries.

Scythianos: Past, Present and Future

A dear friend of mine, Virginia Sease, presented a wonderful exposition on Scythianos

that is quite useful to frame Rudolf Steiner’s indications on the subject. Virginia was, for
many years, one of the leaders of the international Anthroposophical Society,
headquartered in Dornach, Switzerland. Her insights can therefore be considered
“Anthroposophically approved”, and thus, quite useful to gain an overview before we go
further with modern theories and research.

From: A Lecture by Virginia Sease in Montreal, Canada, July 14, 2014, notes
by Louis Casgrain and Eric Philips-Oxford

“Six or seven centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha, there existed a culture on
the steppes north of the Black Sea which included the Sarmatian and Scythian
tribes. These were nomadic peoples who lived according to a matriarchal social
structure. They also had some connection with the early Greek colonies, as
reported by the Greek historian Herodotus. The Celts also later made their way
into this same region.
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Herodotus recounts in detail some of the Scythian mythology, such as the story of
Heracles. This great hero goes in search of mares he has lost. As he travels to find
these lost horses, he comes to a range of mountains east of the Dnieper River.
There he meets with a female creature called the Mixoparthenos, whose form is
that of a woman with two serpents for legs, the heads of which curve back
upwards. She is forced to hold these serpents in her hands to keep her balance.
Heracles is forced to mate with this creature in order to regain possession of his
lost mares. From this union three children are born, the youngest of whom is
named Scythos. Scythos is the only one strong enough to bend Heracles’ bow, and
subsequently becomes king and the progenitor of the Scythian people.

The Scythians thrived on the north shore of the Black Sea and acted as a link
between the cultures of Europe and that of the Caucasus. A mystery center was
established there led by Scythos, who received into himself the being of
Scythianos. Although the two remained distinct entities, we can say that Scythos
was inspired by the being of Scythianos, and that the two were thus
interconnected. In a lecture given on November 9, 1914, Rudolf Steiner states
that the culture of the Eastern Slavic peoples evolved under the guidance of one
of the great initiates of the West. This initiate was Scythianos.

During the 3rd post-Atlantean period a remarkable musical element flowed into
human evolution. Rudolf Steiner describes this music as having developed thanks
to the working of Scythianos, who in this way influenced the leaders of the
European peoples. This music, half singing, half recitative, was accompanied by
pipe-like instruments. The last remnants of this lived on in the Greek and Celtic
bards. And indeed, it was this particular music which prepared the human soul
for the development of the logical thinking that was to come.

Scythianos is one of the most hidden but important teachers of humanity who
connects the remote past with the present and the future of mankind. Rudolf
Steiner pointed to a great council which took place in the supersensible world
during the 4th century A.D. This council was called by Mani, the founder of
Manichaeism. Mani gathered Buddha, Zarathustra, and Scythianos around
himself. The purpose of this council was to ensure that the mystery wisdom
connected with Atlantis would continue to thrive and to influence the
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development of humanity. During this council, held in the supersensible world, it

was decided that a new spiritual impulse would be implanted into human
evolution four or five centuries later, during the Middle Ages.

Scythianos worked from the far western region of Europe that originated out of
Atlantis, and his impulse was gradually to spread through Europe all the way into
what would later become Russia and Central Asia. There were two great mystery
streams of humanity, and both started from the far western region of Europe
(Ireland). The first of these was the southern mystery stream that went to the
Central Asian mystery center, whose leader was Manu. This stream made its way
across Europe to Asia and later influenced the ancient Indian culture. The second
was the northern stream, inspired by Scythianos. It also moved eastward into
Europe and as it spread generated several secondary mystery streams, such as the
Nordic mysteries and the central European mysteries.

Scythianos established the Hibernian mysteries for the purpose of preserving the
ancient wisdom of Atlantean times. It was his goal to ensure that the close
connection of human beings with the hierarchies which had existed on Atlantis
not be lost. In time, other mystery centers were founded with the same mission in
northern and central Europe. As human beings became more immersed in
physical reality, Scythianos lifted this center into the etheric world, from which
its influence streamed down into the Hibernian mysteries, thus establishing what
we know as the Celtic mysteries.

European mystery schools owe a great deal to Scythianos’ inspiration. It is said

that Scythianos’ extraordinary capacities allowed him to observe the Mystery of
Golgotha as it was taking place.
Scythianos perceived all these events and imparted them to his pupils. By the 4th
and 5th centuries, these pupils had become the individualities we know as the
Celtic monks of the Irish tradition. Columba, Gallus, Alcuin and others spread the
stream of Celtic Christianity throughout Europe based upon the inspirations of
Scythianos.

During an earlier incarnation, two special pupils had been initiated by Scythianos
into the mysteries of the human being, and the physical human body, Joseph of
Arimathea and Nicodemus. Both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were
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present to help remove Jesus from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea was the one
who offered the grave that received the body of Christ.

Rudolf Steiner mentions how the mystery stream of Scythianos working through
Irish monks reached Russia and how a Grail mood was established there. In this
way, the Slavic peoples took in the impulse carried by Scythianos and Joseph of
Arimathea, and this created within them a predisposition towards an inner Grail
consciousness.

Scythianos works at present by creating a pathway towards Christian

Rosenkreuz, the being who is the leader of humanity from 1413 to 3573. In the
6th epoch, Scythianos will replace Christian Rosenkreuz as the leader of
humanity. He will then carry as his fundamental impulse the mystery of the
Word. That is why Scythianos is connected with the power of recitation and the
music of the word.”

Scythianos and Hyperborea

Another excellent Anthroposophic researcher has condensed what Rudolf Steiner has
said about Scythianos and his influence in cultural development into a short article.
Harrie Salman does a marvelous job giving another overview of the Hidden Master
Scythianos. When Harrie’s contribution is wedded with what Virginia Sease has outlined
in the selection above, you have a well-rounded summary of the overall content that we
wish to highlight in this monograph. Once a nutshell view is presented by these two
authors, we can present both the historical and Anthroposophical content knowing that
the reader has been given a roadmap of where we are going.

* * *
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From: Journeying to Hyperborea, An Exploration of the Spiritual History

and Future of Northern Europe by Harrie Salman

“Scythianos inspired a culture of music and song that spread over Europe, most
probably from the north, so that we may connect it with Hyperborea. This is the
common source of the Celtic bards, the Germanic scalds, and the Greek and
Thracian singers that are associated with Apollo and Orpheus. The Finnish
laulajat and the Russian skaziteli can be added to them. The harmonious music of
this song culture created peace in the soul and it helped build the organs of
thought.

Hyperborea or Thule appears as the name for the islands between Newfoundland
(Canada) and Scandinavia, among them Greenland, Iceland, and Ireland, as well
as islands that sunk into the sea at the end of Atlantis. This was the northern part
of Atlantis, that was not covered by ice. When the ice had melted, new lands
appeared—Scandinavia, Finland and Northern Russia. Already during the Ice Age
there may have been initiation centers here: on Spitsbergen (Svalbard), in
Lapland, around the White Sea (possibly on the islands of Solovietsky in Russia),
and on Nova Zembla. We may therefore include these new lands in the mystery
land of Hyperborea.

In Egypt and the Middle East, initiation led to knowledge of the inner world of
man and the earth; in the North of Europe to knowledge of the outer world
(nature and the cosmos).

The sun oracle of Manu on Atlantis was not far from Ireland. Here, in the last
phase of Atlantis, Manu prepared selected people for the development of thinking
in the post-Atlantean age. From this oracle a network of initiation schools was
created in Europe. The initiation center that remained closest to the traditions of
Atlantis was in Ireland.

Steiner spoke about the Great Hybernian mysteries, Hibernia being the Latin
name for Ireland. The initiation center of the Odilienberg near Strassbourg and
an initiation center in Burgenland in Austria were among its dependencies.
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During the Hybernian mysteries the students of this initiation school were placed
individually in front of two statues in the shape of high pillars, made of different
materials. One statue had a male quality, the other one was a female statue. The
two statues produced contrary feelings in the soul, one related to the experience
of cosmic effects of the sun, the other of moon effects. After receiving teachings
on the outer and the inner world, the student experienced the Guardian of the
Threshold, who showed him his imperfections. Then he was again brought to the
statues, where two priests spoke. Now the candidate for initiation experienced
the first statue as representing human knowledge, the second one as art. After
that, he was shown an image of Christ, and he was told to take Christ’s Word and
Power into his heart and to receive from him science and art.

The initiates of these mysteries taught that the Spirit of the Sun (Christ) was
coming to the earth. When Christ had actually came and was crucified, Irish
initiates witnessed these events simultaneously in a clairvoyant way.

After the decline of Atlantis, those people who were developing the new faculties
of thought travelled to the center of Asia. Others who came from decadent
Atlantean cultures and still had clairvoyant faculties, stayed behind in Europe.
They were the hunters of Old Europe. In later millennia, most of them learned
agriculture from farmers who came from Turkey. Herdsmen coming from
Ukraine and speaking early forms of the modern European languages created a
more advanced social organization in which they ruled as warriors. Among them
were warriors who spoke an early Celtic language. In the first and second
millennia BC, they conquered Central and Western Europe, including Ireland.
They created the Celtic world, in which in the course of time everybody spoke
Celtic, including the hunters, fishermen, and farmers who were living there.

The Druid initiation schools were a new development in the spiritual life of
Northwestern Europe. They were also called the Drotten who were early
Germanic tribes and people living in Northwestern Russia. The Druids (male and
female) were the spiritual leaders of the Celtic world. They were solar initiates
who received the wisdom they needed to lead their communities from their
observations in the shadows of the dolmens and stone circles. There they studied
the spiritual rays of the sun that penetrated through the stones, as well the rays
 15

that were reflected by the earth. Their natural science, especially of healing and of
agriculture, was a lunar science.

The Druid initiation was the quest of the soul for the inner union with the spirit.
In a Celtic myth, the seeking soul was called Ceridwen, while the spirit hidden
behind the sense-world was called Hu. This union with Hu the Mighty that was
possible in the initiation, was however not the complete fulfillment of this quest
of the soul. What was still missing would, according to the Druids, be brought to
the earth by the Spirit of the Sun (Christ) himself. The initiates were waiting for
his coming to the earth, to nature, and to the human soul, so that the soul would
receive ‘the knowledge of eternity and immortality.’

This Druidic quest for the highest spirit was later transformed into the quest for
the Holy Grail, after Joseph of Arimathea had brought the Chalice of the Last
Supper with the holy Grail Blood of Christ to England and Ireland.

King Arthur and his circle of 12 knights had its roots in the Druid and Drotten
mysteries in which 12 persons worked together under the leadership of a 13th
person. The 12 knights represented the 12 signs of the zodiac, Arthur the sun, and
his queen Guinevere the moon.

From Ireland, esoteric Christianity was brought to Scotland and England, and
then to the other Celtic lands on the continent. In the course of the Middle Ages,
most Celts were integrated into the new European nations. Only on the fringes of
the British Isles and of Brittany in France could the Celtic languages survive to
this day. The Celts disappeared as a nation, and their folk spirit took on another
task. The Celtic folk spirit became the inspiring spirit of esoteric Christianity. He
inspired the Grail tradition, the Rosicrucian movement, and other spiritual
streams of European culture.

Steiner revealed that the Celtic folk soul created, in its new function, a spiritual
center from where the spirituality of Europe could radiate. This etheric Grail
castle replaced the earlier etheric center of the Germanic gods and goddesses (the
Aesir) above the sanctuary of the Externsteine in Northern Germany.
 16

Like the population of the Celtic lands, the Scandinavians also are composed of
different ethnic groups. They were united by warriors speaking an early form of
the Germanic languages. The oldest groups were European hunters, who had
come to the North when the climate became warmer after the Ice Age. Other
hunters came from Siberia and still live in the northern parts of Scandinavia and
Finland (the Sami or Lapps). When farmers came to the Baltic Sea from the
south, most hunters living there started to combine hunting with
farming. Between waking and sleeping, many of them could connect with Odin
and their other gods and goddesses. Descendants of this group of farmers-
hunters comprise almost half of the population of southern Scandinavia. They
can also be found along the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, and in
northern Russia.

When migrations from the West travelled to Europe and Asia, many of them
stayed behind in Europe to be educated by the priests of the initiation centers in a
moral sense, and in the development of courage. The leaders of these centers
were called, the Brahmins of Europe. In India, the Brahmins lived among the
general population, but in Europe they lived separately from the other social
groups, in spiritual communities in the hidden initiation centers. From there they
led the development of European culture, through the priests of Old Europe by
giving instructions to the Indo-European warriors who organized the social life
throughout the different parts of Europe. These initiation centers emanated from
a central lodge in Scandinavia, a Drotten lodge. There was a famous initiation
school in the north of Russia whose initiates were called Drotten. In Steiner’s
view, the Celtic Germanic mysteries of the Druids (in Western and Central
Europe) and the mysteries of the Drotten (in Scandinavia and Northern Russia)
were founded by the initiate Sig. Sig or Sigge was an advanced human being
through whom the god Odin (in Germany known as Wotan) could work. In a later
incarnation, he may have lived as Siegfried.

These Drotten initiation centers had colleges of 12 initiates who worked together
in their spiritual research. Part of their training was to intensify their feelings in
experiencing the cycle of nature through the year. In 1904 Rudolf Steiner gave a
description of the initiation in the Druid and Drotten mysteries. In the first part,
the candidate for initiation had to search for the dead body of the god Baldur,
who represented the heavenly human being before his descent into matter. In the
 17

Celtic world this was called the search of the soul for the god Hu. The descent into
matter was felt by experiencing one’s physical, etheric and astral bodies.
Labyrinths, of which many are still present on the coasts of Sweden, Finland, and
Northern Russia, played a role in the initiation.

Fragments of the wisdom of the Drotten mysteries can be found in the

mythological stories that have been written down in Iceland in the 13th century
and collected in the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda. In these stories we read
about the Vanir, the older group of gods, and about
Odin and his family of 12 gods and goddesses, called the Aesir, who were living in
Asgard.

When the Germanic tribes conquered Europe in the Great Migration of Nations,
they received their own Folk Spirit. Odin was no longer their Zeitgeist. Odin was
educated over a long period by the Spirit of Old Greece, who had become the
Spirit of exoteric Christianity and by the Spirit of Old Rome. Both represented the
wisdom of the earlier cultural epoch that ended in 1413, the epoch of the rational
soul. For his new mission, Odin had to make a compromise with the Spirit of a
still earlier epoch, the Spirit of Old Egypt. This led to the rise of materialism in
our epoch that is a reflection of materialistic tendencies in Old Egypt. Between
the 12th and the 16th/17th centuries, Odin prepared himself for his new
mission—to become the leading Spirit of the present epoch of the consciousness
soul.”

Who Were the Scythians?

Herodotus tells us: “The Scythians say that their nation is the youngest of all nations,
and that this came to pass as follows: The first man who ever existed in this region,
which then was desert, was one named Targitaos: and of this Targitaos they say, though
I do not believe it for my part, however they say the parents were Zeus and the daughter
of the river Borysthenes. Targitaos, they report, was produced from some such origin as
this, and of him were begotten three sons, Lipoxais and Arpoxais and the youngest
Colaxais (Skythes). In the reign of Targitaos there came down from heaven certain
things wrought of gold, “a plough, a yoke, a battle-axe, and a cup,” and fell in the
Scythian land: and first the eldest saw and came near them, desiring to take them, but
 18

the gold blazed with fire when he approached it: then when he had gone away from it,
the second approached, and again it did the same thing. These then the gold repelled by
blazing with fire; but when the third and youngest came up to it, the flame was
quenched, and he carried them to his own house. The elder brothers then,
acknowledging the significance of this thing, delivered the whole of the kingly power to
the youngest.

“From Lixopais, they say, are descended those Scythians who are called the race of the
Auchatai; from the middle brother Arpoxais those who are called Catiaroi and
Traspians, and from the youngest of them the “Royal” tribe, who are called Paralatai:
and the whole together are called, they say, Scolotoi, after the name of their king; but the
Hellenes gave them the name of Scythians. Thus it was, that the Scythians say they were
produced; and from the time of their origin, that is to say from the first king Targitaos to
the passing over of Darios against them, they say that there is a period of a thousand
years and no more.

“Now this sacred gold is guarded by the kings with the utmost care, and they visit it
every year with solemn sacrifices of propitiation: moreover if any one goes to sleep while
watching in the open air over this gold during the festival, the Scythians say that he does
not live out the year; and there is given him for this so much land as he shall ride round
himself on his horse in one day. Now as the land was large, Colaxais they say,
established three kingdoms for his sons; and of these he made one larger than the rest,
and in this the gold is kept. But as to the upper parts which lie on the North side of those
who dwell above this land, they say one can neither see nor pass through any further by
reason of feathers which are poured down; for both the earth and the air are full of
feathers, and this is that which shuts off the view.”

It seems that the heavenly gifts that fell from the sky are aligned with the Norse
Mythology of the forging of the Sampo which produced a crossbow, a skiff, a golden cow,
and a plough. These symbols are presumed to be associated in some way with a type of
cast system used in the respective cultures.

Scythian Cast
Axe Warriors
Bowl Priests
Ox Yoke King/Queen
 19

Plow Farmers

The “sages of Europe” - the Saca, Saka or Scythians - were a highly advanced Gaelic or
Celtic tribe once connected to the Western Arya. A group of them were allies of the
Hyksos nobility of Lower Egypt. After the fall of Akhenaton (1400 BC), Scythian-
Hyksos-Atonists made their way Westward to later invade Spain and Ireland. These
conquerors - known in Irish mythology as the Milesians - were responsible for the
destruction of the Druids. One of their elite members was Atonist Princess Meritaten,
daughter of Akhenaton and Nefertiti. She was also known as Scota, a name derived from
Scuti or Scut, by which Scythians were originally known. After the Milesian-Atonist
invasion, Ireland was given the name Scota. Later, the Irish took their princess’s name
to Scotland (“Land of Scota” or “Land of the Scots or Scythians”). The Scythian-Hyksos-
Atonists were possibly the “Israelites” and “Judites” of the Old Testament.”

Regardless of whether the Western Goths were related to or descended from proto-
Scythians or earlier Aryan emigrants, they succeeded in reaching Egypt, India, and
China. Recent archaeological evidence shows that fair-skinned Westerners made homes
along the Indus Valley in Pakistan, in the Indian Kush, and in China’s Cherchen region
and Tarim Basin. Examinations of the hair, clothing and accoutrements of long buried
men and women in these far eastern locations clearly identifies them as Nordic from
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

The Jats (elite Sikhs) of Northern India may be a late offshoot of the Arya, or they may
be the descendants of later Scythian emigrants. This much is confirmed by the Sikh
historians and Sikh people who have always maintained that their race came to India
from the West. Likewise, the Yuezhi of China appear to have a connection to visitors
from the West.

Were the “Aryan” warrior Sikhs of Northern India descended from nomadic Scythians
or from earlier visitors from the Western hemisphere? Their own history claims this to
be the case. Their physique, physiognomy, bearing and general temperament is certainly
akin to that of ancient Vikings and Goths, that is, of Nordics. The very name Sikh may
derive from Sac or Sakh, denoting Scythians.

Herodotus tells us in The History, that: “When any other Scythian dies, his nearest
relations carry him about in a chariot among his friends; who receive and entertain the
 20

whole company, in their turn, setting the same things before the dead man as before the
rest. In this manner all private men are carried about forty days, before they are buried:
and those who have assisted at these funerals, purify themselves thus. When they have
cleansed and washed their heads, they set up three pieces of timber leaning to each
other and laying a good number of woolen bags close together, throw burning stones
into a hollow space left in the midst of the wood and bags.”

“The Scythians put the seeds of this hemp under the bags, upon the burning stones; and
immediately a more agreeable vapor is emitted than from the incense burnt in Greece.
The Company extremely transported with the scent, howl aloud; and this manner of
purification serves instead of washing: For they never bath their bodies in water. But
their wives grinding the wood of cypress, cedar, and incense upon a rough stone, and
infusing the powder in water, compound a thick substance, which they spread over all
the parts of the body and face.”

“In this country a sort of hemp grows, very like to flax; only longer and thicker; and
much more excellent than ours, whether sowed or produced by nature. The Thracians
cloth themselves with garments made of the hemp; so well resembling flax, that a man
must have great experience in those materials to distinguish one from the other: And he
who had never seen this hemp, would think their cloths were wrought out of flax.”

From: The Irish Origins of Civilization, by Michael Tsarion

“The Celtic or, more correctly, Gaelic Scythians of Europe were closely allied with the
Egyptian nobility of the Delta region. Old Irish annals refer to the descendants of
Scythians who lived in Egypt as “Milesians.” The so-called Scythians of Europe were the
people Egyptologists refer to as the “Hyksos” nobility of Egypt. The Hyksos were
identical to the so-called Israelites of the Bible. Some investigators believe the word
Saxon to be a derivation of Saca (or Saka, Sakha, Sakai, Saga, Sage, etc.) denoting
“Scythian.” This word gives us the name Isaac or, Ish Sac, meaning “Man of the Saca.”
According to the Old Testament, Isaac was the son of Abraham who was, along with his
wife Sarah, the first “Israelite” to enter the land of Egypt. The name Isaac indicates that
Abraham and his descendants were Scythians.
 21

The Nordic Sacae arrived later in India and introduced the Vedas, religious poems,
which were at first transmitted orally but which were reduced to written form in Old
Sanskrit by the Brahmans at the comparatively late date of 300 AD.

As Pliny the Elder tells us: “The Sakai were among the most distinguished people of
Scythia, who settled in Armenia, and were called Sacae-Sani”; or Albinus who says: “
The Saxons were descended from the ancient Sacae of Asia.”

The etymology suggests that the Scythians were indeed one and the same as the Hyksos
nobility. Therefore, it follows that the Scythians were the Biblical Israelites.
Additionally, the etymology suggests that the so-called “Anglo-Saxons” were
descendants of the Scythian-Hyksos-Israelites.

Gaelic Scythians traveled to Egypt as the ancient Irish records state. Their city near
Galilee, called Scythopolis, has been excavated by archaeologists. Other settlements
existed in the region, as well as in the Nile Delta area. Therefore, since the Scythians and
so-called “Israelites” (the Hyksos of Egypt) were so intimately connected, it is quite
correct to refer to Saxons of the Western lands as “Israelites.”

Ever since late Antiquity, writers have seen links between the Egyptian records of the
expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt, the biblical tradition of the Exodus, and the Greek
legends of the arrival of Cadmus and Danaus.

The Scythian settlement of Scythopolis was only a stone-throw from Jerusalem. Place
names, such as Galilee, Golan, Samaria, Jordan, Sumeria, Saqqara, Sahara, Gadara,
Arabia, Armenia, Iran, Syria, Mallewi, Amarna, Tyre, and Tarim, etc., saw the roots and
the presence of the Scythians. The Scythians were connected not only to the Hyksos but
Cretans, Mycenaeans, Philistines and Amorites of Mesopotamia.”

Early Scythian Influence in Northeastern Asia

Uighur farmers cultivating the land at the base of the “Flaming Mountains” in the Gobi
Desert uncovered a vast ancient cemetery attributed to the Gushi culture. The first
written reports concerning this clan, drafted about 2000 years BC, described nomadic
light-haired blue-eyed Caucasians speaking an Indo-European language tongue related
 22

to Celtic, Italic, and Anatolic – essentially Scythian. The Gushi tended horses and
grazing animals, farmed the land and were accomplished archers. Other evidence
indicate a human presence in the area for some 10,000 to 40,000 years. Due to a
combination of deep graves, an extremely arid climate, and alkaline soil conditions, the
remarkable preservation of the human remains resulted in the mummification of many
bodies without a need for chemical methods. Numerous artefacts from the tombs
included equestrian equipment and numerous Western Asian crops such as cannabis,
hemp, capers, wheat, barley and grapevines centuries before their first descriptions in
China.

One tomb, contained the skeletal remains of a male of high social status whose
accoutrements included bridles, archery equipment, a harp, and other materials
supporting his identity as a shaman. Near the head and foot of the shaman’s bier lay a
large leather basket and wooden bowl filled with cannabis sativa. The cannabis was
psychoactive and probably cultivated for medicinal or divinatory purposes. These
investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically
active agent and contribute to the medical and archaeological record of this pre-Silk
Road culture.

The First Horses Bred by Scythians

In Yakut countryside, the horse is present in all aspects of the culture. He is sung about,
danced about, eaten raw or cooked, painted, sculpted - his images is everywhere. The
symbiosis of the Sakha (Scythian) people with their horses is one of the most perfect in
existence. This alliance has always been completely integrated into daily life, into the
culture, and even into the pantheon of heroes and of spirits.

The origins of the Yakut horse are believed to be one of the oldest breeds in existence.
The genetic and immunity markers seem to show the breed is linked to the Mongolian
horse. The Yakuts consider the horse to be a brother, having ancestors in common. At
one time, the horse was also a way of communicating with the spirits through
shamanism linked to animal breeding - pastoral shamanism, where the breeder prays to
the spirit ancestors to protect the livestock.
 23

It is likely that the Yakut would not have been able to survive without the aid of the
Sakha people, who provided them with a certain quantity of food during the winter. But
apart from this help, the Yakut horses are left to themselves, quite free, almost in the
state of wild horses. The Sakha maintain this state as much as possible.

Right from the beginning, the horse was completely integrated into the life of his
masters, not only as a mount and pack animal, but also as a major source of meat for
human consumption. The skin and manes of the Yakut are used to decorate clothing,
and the fermented milk of the mares is the main staple. This profound symbiosis is
rarely found elsewhere and is the earmark of Scythian cultures from East to West.

The Druids, the Magi of the West.

From: The Secret Societies of all Ages and Countries by Charles William
Heckethorn

“The secret doctrines of the Druids were much the same as those of the
Gymnosophists and Brahmins of India, the Magi of Persia, the priests of the Isle
of Anglesey Egypt, and of all other priests of antiquity. Like them, they had two
sets of religious doctrines, exoteric and esoteric. Their rites were practiced in
Britain and Gaul, though they were brought to a much greater perfection in the
former country, where the Isle of Anglesey was considered their chief seat. The
word Druid is generally supposed to be derived from “an oak,” which tree was
particularly sacred among them, though its etymology may also be found in the
Gaelic word Druidh, “a wise man” or “magician.”

Their temples, wherein the sacred fire was preserved, were generally situate on
eminences and in dense groves of oaks, and assumed various forms - circular,
because a circle was an emblem of the universe; oval, in allusion to the mundane
egg; serpentine, because a serpent was the symbol of Hu, the Druidic Osiris;
cruciform, because a cross is an emblem of regeneration; or winged, to represent
the motion of the divine spirit. Their only canopy was the sky, and they were
constructed of unhewn stones, their numbers having reference to astronomical
calculations.
 24

Their chief deities are reducible to two, - a male and a female, the great father and
mother, Hu and Ceridwen, distinguished by the same characteristics as belonged
to Osiris and Isis, Bacchus and Ceres, or any other supreme god and goddess
representing the two principles of all being. The grand periods of initiation were
quarterly, and determined by the course of the sun, and his arrival at the
equinoctial and solstitial points. But the time of annual celebration was May-eve,
when fires were kindled on all the cairns and cromlechs throughout the island,
which burned all night to introduce the sports of May Day, whence all the
national sports formerly or still practiced date their origin. Round these fires
choral dances were performed in honor of the sun, who, at this season was
figuratively said to rise from his tomb.

The solemn initiations were performed at midnight, and contained three degrees,
the first or lowest being the Eubates, the second the Bards, and the third the
Druids. The candidate was first placed in the pastos bed, or coffin, where his
symbolical death represented the death of Hu, or the sun; and his restoration in
the third degree symbolized the resurrection of the sun. He had to undergo trials
and tests of courage.

The Druids taught the doctrine of one supreme being, a future state of rewards
and punishments, the immortality of the soul and a metempsychosis. It was a
maxim with them that water was the first principle of all things and existed
before the creation in unsullied purity. They taught that time was only an
intercepted fragment of eternity, and that there was an endless succession of
worlds.

It was well-known in the ancient world that the Druids, the “magi of the North”,
believed in the immortality of the soul, and in reincarnation. Celtic deities
included Gods who often had multiple functions, who actualized nature forces,
promulgated ethics, justice, knowledge, arts, crafts, medicine, speech, harvests,
gave courage for war and battled forces of darkness, and there are Goddesses of
land, rivers, springs and all things good and wholesome.

Druids memorized extremely long poetic sagas that often ended with a three-part
cadence at the end. Many scholars believe that the Hindu Brahmin in the east
and the Celtic Druid in the west were lateral survivals of an ancient Indo-
 25

European priesthood. Druids were especially gifted at poetry, rhetoric,

philosophy, and all verbal skills. Most early sources agree that the Druidic elite
was divided into three parts: the Bards (lyric poets, musicians), Vates (diviners
and seers) and the Druids (priests, philosophers, theologians).

The Indo-European Family was originally thought to have originated during the
Neoloithic period (about 7000 BC). Standard historians believe that migrations
began between 3500 BC and 2500 BC, spreading west to Europe, south to the
Mediterranean, north to Scandinavia, and east to India. The Indo-European
Family is divided into twelve branches. The Celtic Branch is now the smallest
branch. The languages originated in Central Europe and once dominated
Western Europe (around 400 BC). The people migrated across to the British Isles
over 2000 years ago. Later, when the Germanic speaking Anglo Saxons arrived,
the Celtic speakers were pushed into Wales (Welsh), Ireland (Irish Gaelic) and
Scotland (Scottish Gaelic).”

Scandinavian Mysteries - Drottes

The priests of Scandinavia were named Drottes and were instituted by Sigge, a Scythian
prince, who is said afterwards to have assumed the name of Odin. Their number was
twelve, who were both priests and judges.

The places of initiation, as in other mysteries, were in caverns, natural or artificial, and
the candidate had to undergo frightful trials passing through nine caves or passages. He
was instructed to search for the body of Baldur, the Scandinavian Osiris, slain by Loki,
the principle of darkness, and to use his utmost endeavors to raise him to life. Baldur is
like Mithras, the Sun’s personification.

Like radii of the same circle, all these traditions indicate a common center. By following
their path one can reach it. Then, long before the India of the Vedas, before the Iran of
Zoroaster, in the early dawn of the first race, one sees the creator of the Aryan religion,
Scythianos, emerging from the forests of ancient Scythia, crowned with his twin tiara of
conqueror and initiate, and bearing in his hand the mystical fire, the holy fire which will
illumine all races.
 26

Modern Scythians

The modern Scythians were Iranic equestrian tribes who inhabited large areas in the
central Eurasian steppes between the 7th century BC and 4th century AD. Their
territories during the Iron Age were known to classical Greek sources as “Scythia.” Their
historical appearance coincided with the rise of equestrian semi-nomadism from the
Carpathian Mountains of Europe to Mongolia in the Far East during the 1st millennium
BC. The “classical Scythians” known to ancient Greek historians were located in the
northern Black Sea and Caucasus region. However, other Scythian groups encountered
in Near Eastern and Achaemenid sources existed in Central Asia. Moreover, the term
“Scythian” is also used by modern scholars in an archaeological context, i.e. any region
perceived to display attributes of the “Scytho-Siberian” culture.

Foremost in the Scythian pantheon stood Tabiti, who was later replaced by Atar, the
fire-pantheon of Iranian tribes, and Agni, the fire deity of Indo-Aryans. The Scythian
belief was a more elemental stage than the Zoroastrian and Hindu systems.

The Scythians and the Slavs both had a three-world cosmology as well as a pantheon of
seven primary deity: Agni (Svarog), Tabiti (Mokos), Papaios (Perun), Api (Mat Zemlja),
Oitosyros (Hors-Dajbog), Argimpasa (Ziva/Dodola), and Thagimasidas (Veles). The
number seven was sacred to pagan Slavs similar to the way that the Norsemen revered
the number nine. The pre-eminence of this particular number may be connected to the
“land of seven rivers beyond the sea” described in the Book of Veles, a place believed to
be the ancestral motherland of the ancient Slavs.

The Medes had an Ancient Iranian Religion (a form of pre-Zoroastrian Mazdaism or

Mithra worshipping) with a priesthood named as “Magi.” Later and during the reigns of
the last Median kings, the reforms of Zarathustra spread in western Iran. The Medes
were a people of Indo-Iranian (Aryan) origin. By the 6th century BC, the Medes were
able to establish an empire that stretched from Aran (the modern-day Republic of
Azerbaijan) to Central Asia and Balkh, (Afghanistan). The language of the Medes is
almost entirely unknown. It was most likely similar to the Avestan and Scythian
languages.

According to Herodotus there were six Median tribes: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the
Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi. Of the Median tribes, the Magi was a
 27

sort of sacred caste, which ministered to the spiritual needs of the Medes. The Medes
were called anciently, by all people, Aryans.

The fifth tribe were the Budii, found also among the Black Sea Scythians as Budi-ni.
Sakyamuni Buddha was of the tribe Saka (eastern Scythian) also called “sakiya.” The
name was possibly related to Budin, which were a Turkic/Mongolian people.

Indo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Scythians (Sakas), who migrated into parts of
Central Asia and northern South Asia (Sogdiana, Bactria, Arachosia, Gandhara, Sindh,
Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Bihar), from the middle of the 2nd century
BC to the 4th century AD. The first Saka king in India was Maues (1st century BC) who
established Saka power in Gandhara and gradually extended supremacy over north-
western India. Indo-Scythian rule in India ended with the last Western Satrap
Rudrasimha III in 395 CE. The Indo-Aryan and Iranian tribes separated about 2000 BC.

Scythians were governed by Priestess-Queens, usually buried alone in richly furnished

Kurgans (queen graves). Tabiti-Hestia is he only deity shown in Scythian art and was
known as the Great Goddess, whom the Greeks called Artemis, or Hestia or Gaea.
Tabiti-Hestia was the patroness of fire and beasts and is depicted as holding the “Tree of
Life” in one hand and raising the other in welcome. One thing that differentiates the
tombs of royal Scythian queens from that of the kings is the complete lack of brutal
sacrifices.

The moon-sickle used in mythical castrations of god was a Scythian weapon. A long-
handled form therefore came to be called a scythe. Scythian women used such weapons
in battle as well as religious ceremonies and agriculture.

Saka Scythians

According to Herodotus, the Persians gave the name “Saka” to all Scythians. The
Scythians to the far north of Assyria were also called the Saka Suni “Saka or Scythian
sons” by the Persians. The Assyrians of the time of Esarhaddon record campaigning
against a people they called in their records Saka. The Saka were regarded by the
Babylonians as synonymous with the Gimirrai; both names are used synonymously on
the trilingual Behistun inscription, carved in 515 BC on the order of Darius the Great.
 28

The Behistun inscription mentions four divisions of Scythians:

 “Saka beyond the sea” of Sarmatia,

 “Saka with pointy hats/caps”,
 “Haoma-drinking Saka” of Bactria and Sogdiana,
 “Saka beyond Sugda (Sogdiana)” at the Jaxartes.

The rich graves at Tillya Tepe, in Afghanistan, are seen as part of a population affected
by the Saka (Sacae), Indo-Scythians. The Sacae also migrated to parts of Northern India.

Seventeen centuries before Aryanism found a foothold in Europe, Ptolemy placed the
Chomarians (Gomerites) between Media, Bactriana and the Caspian Sea. As for their
cousins, called Comarians, Ptolemy located them “towards the most eastern boundaries
of Sogdiana, not far from the sources of the Jaxartes, and in the country of the Sacae.”

Azerbaijan had early settlements of the Scythians in the 9th century BC. Like the Black
Sea Scythians, the Saka identified gold with the sun, fire, supreme power and eternal
life. The Saka tribes also worshipped the sword and had other sacred artifacts. The Saka
had magical gifts from heaven: a plough and a yoke for farmers; a spear and an arrow
for soldiers; and a sacrificial cup for priests. This suggests a division of the Saka society
into three groups: warriors, priests and farmers. A Saka tsar would plough the first
furrow in spring and would be raised by a shepherd, which showed his connection to the
people.

The Indo-Scythians (Sakas or Shakas) conquered the area of Mathura over Indian kings
around 60 BC. The invasion of India by Scythian tribes from Central Asia, often referred
to as the Indo-Scythian invasion, played a significant part in the history of South Asia as
well as nearby countries. The most famous Shakya was the prince Siddhartha Shakya
(5th century BC) who was the founder of Buddhism and came to be known as Gautama
Buddha.
 29

Slavic (Scythian) Religion

Slavic religion describes the beliefs, myths, and ritual practices of the Slavs before their
Christianization between the 8th and the 13th century. The South Slavs joined the
Eastern Orthodox Christianity by 863 AD. The West Slavs became Roman Catholic in
the 12th century. Popular resistance to Christianity led by pagan priests and shamans
recurred periodically for centuries. Many elements of the Slavic religion were
incorporated into a “Slavic Christianity” with Slavic gods persisting in folk religion until
modern times.

The early Slavic religion was determined by conforming to certain beliefs and practices
rather than by having a certain racial ancestry or being born in a certain place. The
Slavic religion is an outgrowth of Proto-Indo-European beliefs, such as those of Balts,
Thracians, Phrygians and Indo-Iranians.

The three castes of priests, warriors and farmers. According to Maria Gimbutas, Slavic
religion represented an overlapping of Indo-European patriarchal themes and pre-Indo-
European matrifocal themes. These themes focus on a devotion to life-giving forces,
ancestors, and the supreme “God of Generation.”

The Slavs believed in a single heavenly God (“supreme life giver Rod”) begetting all the
lesser deities governing nature who have sprung from his blood. From Rod proceeded a
cosmic duality, representing the root of all the heavenly-masculine and the earthly-
feminine deities.

All the bright male deities were regarded as the hypostases, forms or phases in the year,
of the active, masculine divine force personified by Perun (“Thunder”). The South Slavic
still conduct rain rituals of the couple Perun–Perperuna, Lord and Lady Thunder, which
is shared with the neighboring Albanians, Greeks, Arumanians, Germanic, Lithuanian
and Vedic traditions. The various deities were believed to manifest in certain places,
which were revered as holy; including springs, rivers, groves, rounded tops of hills, and
flat cliffs overlooking rivers. Seasonal rituals were attuned to these deities which had
periods of waxing and waning throughout the year that determined the agrarian and
animal fertility cycles.
 30

The Slavic religion believed the world is a three-tiered “world tree” called Yggdrasil. At
the top there is the heavenly plane, symbolized by birds, the sun and the moon; the
middle plane is that of earthly humanity, symbolized by bees and men; at the bottom of
the structure there is the netherworld, symbolized by snakes and dragon-like beasts.

The Slavs had holy places with no buildings, where the deity was believed to manifest in
nature itself; such locations were characterized by the combined presence of trees and
springs. Usually, common people were not allowed into the presence of the images of
their gods, the sight of which was a privilege of the priests. The priests of the temple led
rituals and festivals and enjoyed a great degree of prestige; they received tributes and
shares from all castes.

In 980 CE, in Kievan Rus, led by the Great Prince Vladimir, there was an attempt to
unify the various beliefs and priestly practices of Slavic religion in order to bind together
the Slavic peoples. Vladimir canonized a number of deities, to whom he erected a temple
on the hills of the capital Kiev to: Perun, Dazhbog, Stribog, and Mokosh. Perun was the
god of thunder, law and war, symbolized by the oak and the mallet like the Germanic
Thor or the Vedic Indra. Veles was the god of horned livestock, of wealth, and of the
underworld. Perun and Veles symbolized an oppositional duality. Mokosh, the only
female deity in Vladimir’s pantheon, is “Moist Mother Earth.”

The common Slavic peoples continued to worship their indigenous deities and hold their
rituals for centuries after Kievan Rus official baptism into Christianity. The high clergy
repeatedly condemned the worship of Rod and the Rozhanitsy (“God and the
Goddesses”, or “Generation and the Generatrixes”). Rod was the “general power of birth
and reproduction” and Rozhanitsy as the “mistresses of individual destiny.” Belief in a
mother goddess as receptacle of life, “Moist Mother Earth”, was preserved in Russian
folk religion up to the 20th century, often disguised as the Virgin Mary of Christianity.

In 988, Vladimir of Kievan Rus rejected Slavic religion and he and his subjects were
officially baptized into the Eastern Orthodox Church, then the state religion of the
Byzantine Empire. Vladimir commanded that the Slavic temple on the Kievan hills be
destroyed and the effigies of the gods be burned. Most all Slavic temples were destroyed
throughout the land at that time.
 31

Christianization was a very slow process among the Slavs, and the official Christian
church adopted a policy of co-optation of pre-Christian elements into Slavic
Christianity. Christian saints were identified with Slavic gods—for instance, the figure of
Perun was overlapped with that of Saint Elias, Veles was identified with Saint Blasius,
and Yarilo became Saint George - and Christian festivals were set at the same dates as
pagan ones.

The Old Believers, who preserved the “ancient piety” derived from indigenous Slavic
religion included a variety of folk religions that have preserved Indo-European and
early Slavic ideas and practices, such as the veneration of fire as a channel to the divine
world, the symbolism of the color red, the search for a “glorious death”, worship of
Mother Earth, and the unified vision of a divine cosmos. Russians’ particular devotion to
the Theotokos, the “Mother of God”, is attributable to this still powerful pre-Christian
substratum of devotion to a great mother goddess.

In the eleventh century, Slavic pagan culture was “still in full working order” among the
West Slavs. By the twelfth century, however, under the pressure of Germanization,
Catholicism was forcefully imposed through the Northern Crusades and temples and
images of Slavic religion were violently destroyed.

There was a thorough synthesis of pagan and Christian elements in Slavic folk religion, a
system often called “double belief” which is seen as having preserved much of pre-
Christian Slavic religion.

The Scythians and Cannabis

The Scythians were expert horsemen and were one of the earliest peoples to master the
art of riding and using horse-drawn covered wagons. This early high mobility is
probably why most scholars credit them with the spread of cannabis use throughout the
ancient world. Indeed, the Scythian people travelled and settled extensively throughout
Europe, the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and Russia, bringing their knowledge of the
spiritual and practical uses for cannabis with them.

Cannabis was an integral part of the Scythian cult of the dead, wherein homage was paid
to the memory of their departed leaders. After the death and burial of their king, the
Scythians would purify themselves by setting up small tepee-like structures which they
 32

would enter to inhale the fumes of hemp seeds thrown onto red-hot stones. It is most
likely the seeds were seeded buds, and that the charred seeds found by archeologists are
what was left over from the burnt buds.

Digging into some ancient ruins near the Altai Mountains on the border between Siberia
and Outer Mongolia, Professor S. I. Rudenko found a trench about 160 feet square and
about 20 feet deep. On the perimeter of the trench were the skeletons of a number of
horses. Inside the trench was the embalmed body of a man and a bronze cauldron filled
with burnt marihuana seeds.

Clearing the site further, Rudenko also found some shirts woven from hemp fiber and
some metal censors designed for inhaling smoke which did not appear to be connected
with any religious rite. To Rudenko, the evidence suggested that inhalation of
smoldering marihuana seeds occurred not only in religious context, but also as an
everyday activity in which Scythian women participated alongside the men.

The newest find is from the remote Altai mountains of Siberia - specifically, from the
archeological dig at Ukok, near where the borders of Russia, China, Mongolia, and
Kazakhstan meet. Russian scientists found the 2,000-year-old mummified remains of a
Scythian queen elegantly laid out in white silk alongside horse harnesses, a mirror,
dishes, and a small ceremonial container of cannabis that was believed to be smoked for
pleasure and used in rituals.

Cannabis was not only used by the Scythians for relaxation and ceremonies for the dead.
These ancient nomads had a class of shaman-magicians called the Enaries. These were
ancient shamans who uttered prophecies in high pitched voices. The Scythians believed
that these people, who had characteristics of both sexes, were somehow also living in
both worlds, and could travel between the two.

Of the groups directly influenced by the Scythian use of cannabis, probably the most
notable would be the red-haired, fair-skinned Thracians. A Greek speaking nomadic
tribe, the history of the Thracians is closely tied to that of the Scythians, so that at times
the two groups would seem inseparable.

Herodotus wrote of the Thracian's ability at working hemp fibers and claimed that their
clothes “were so like linen that none but a very experienced person could tell whether
 33

they were of hemp or flax; one who had never seen hemp would certainly suppose them
to be linen.”

Like the Scythian shamans, the Thracians used cannabis in a similar

manner. Dr Sumach explains in A Treasury of Hashish that:

“The sorcerers of these Thracian tribes were known to have burned female
cannabis flowers (and other psychoactive plants) as a mystical incense to induce
trances. Their special talents were attributed to the “magical heat” produced from
burning the cannabis and other herbs, believing that the plants dissolved in the
flames, then reassembled themselves inside the person who inhaled the vapors.
Some of the ancient shamans were referred as “those who walk in smoke” or
Kapnobatai. The Kapnobatai would be dancers and shamans who used the smoke
of hemp to bring ecstatic trances.”

Origins of Cannabis

Cannabis probably arrived on planet earth about 34 million years ago, an estimate based
upon the seven shared parasites with Cannabis’s “sister group” the Urticaceae (nettle)
family and the lack of any shared parasites with cannabis’s “cousin” the Moraceae
(mulberry/fig) family. There is evidence of cannabis pressed into pottery from 12,000
years ago from Taiwan – at the beginning of the Neolithic era (the age of farming).
Cannabis is the only crop of the Pygmies, and it is posited that the cultivation of
marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization.

Endocannabinoids are a lot older than humans and are found in primates, mammals,
birds, amphibians, fish, sea urchins, molluscs, leeches and the Hydra Vulgaris – a
primitive water creature that never ages. Scientists estimate the first endocannabinoids
are over 600 million years old.

The cannabis species has been found growing wild in the lands south of the Caspian Sea,
near the Irtysch River and in the desert of Kirghiz, beyond Lake Baikal. Certain species
are of a “primeval character” that have been found growing in the Altai mountains and
western Siberia. Other theories proposed a cannabis origin in the rich alluvial soil
 34

surrounding the southern Altai or Tien Shan mountains. All of these sites have been
home to Scythians.

What is known is that it was somewhere in Central Asia that homosapiens first
encountered cannabis. Humans migrated from Africa into Central Asia at least 1.75
million years ago. Given this time frame, it seems conservative to estimate that humans
have continuously used cannabis for 12,000 years. Some would say that cannabis was
the first cultivated plant and has been in use for 50,000 years.

It has been proposed that cannabis was associated with a lost civilization, a Shangri La
or Shambala of Central Asia and was bred for shamanistic purposes. Alternatively,
cannabis may have been domesticated by nomads simultaneously in several locations:
China, India, Persia, Europe and the Americas.

The Altai and Tien Shen mountains flank the Central Asian steppes, a Neolithic ‘nomad
belt’ stretching from the Black Sea to Mongolia. The Scythians, were a Neolithic tribe of
migrants that emerged from this territory at the dawn of history. “Cannabis ruderalis”
seeds have been unearthed from Scythian tombs in the Altai mountains. Herodotus,
around 450 BC documented the Scythians carrying hemp seeds to Europe; the Scythians
also migrated to India and China, where they may have transported cannabis germ
plasm. After cannabis was carried across Eurasia, geographically isolated human
communities began selecting plants for diverse purposes: food, seed, seed oil, fiber, and
medicaments. These isolated areas of cannabis cultivation gave rise to the fantastic
variety of plants we see today.

The Scythians used cannabis and hemp for clothing, food and religious rituals and
introduced it widely across Europe and Asia. Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs, all used the
drug for religious purposes. There is significant evidence that Scythians were the culture
that introduced both cannabis and hemp into Europe and the idea of cannabis as a ritual
drug throughout Middle Eastern cultures and societies.

Scythians were mostly a nomadic culture, they left no cities or dwellings behind. In fact,
most of what is known about them comes from the Greek historian Herodotus, as well
as their burial mounds that are still being found throughout the Eurasian region. They
also kept livestock that moved with them. Those tribes who were less nomadic also
cultivated both hemp and cannabis.
 35

A great deal has been written about the tribes’ use of cannabis for religious purposes.
Sorcerers would burn the female cannabis flowers to induce trances and to create other
“mystical” experiences. Cannabis has also been found at elaborate burial sites,
entombed with the dead to ease their passage into the next world. Herodotus also writes
that the Scythians believed that cannabis held magical powers. Hemp was also thrown
into fires to ward off evil spirits.

Women played an unusual role in Scythian society. Many of them fought alongside the
men, were tattooed, and according to the Greek historian Diodorus, had their right
breasts removed as infants in order to develop strong pectoral muscles and thus
brandish swords with greater strength.

Both sexes were also highly skilled at archery from horseback. The remains of both male
and female shamans have also been found buried with cannabis seeds and artefacts that
contain them. Women also apparently used cannabis to medicate menstrual cramps and
cannabis was also burned in closed tents which were used to “purify” those who spent
time in them. Archaeological excavations have also unearthed cooking vessels with the
residue of hemp and hemp seeds still clinging to the metal surfaces.

As the Scythian culture began to be systematically challenged by the Roman Empire,

their influence, along with the tribes themselves, began to die out. The use of cannabis
continued in other cultures they had come in contact with, starting with the Romans, up
until the beginnings of the 20th Century. In this, the tribe was certainly one of the most
influential groups of people to carry knowledge of the plant – in all its uses - into the
modern day.

Although they were nomadic, the Scythians had a single patriarchal sovereign that the
different chieftains all paid tribute to. This leader had an entourage of wealthy nobles
who acted as his courtiers, and his position was passed on to his son at his death. The
Scythians had no written language, so much of what is known about them has been
derived from the many precious and exquisitely crafted artifacts found in their frozen
tombs in Russia, Kazakhstan, and the Eurasian plains. These precious items included
weapons, jewelry and clothing, and were meant to follow the deceased into the afterlife.
They can be viewed in Russian museums, well preserved from their long stay in the
frozen tombs.
 36

Scyths wore bronze helmets and chain-mail jerkins with round shields made of leather,
wood, or iron, and were often decorated with a central gold ornament in the form of an
animal. They used a double-curved bow with trefoil-shaped arrow heads made of
bronze, iron, or bone. Their swords were often intricately ornamented with heart-
shaped or triangular crosspiece with a sheaths encased in gold worked into embossed
designs and offset with ivory inlay and gems. Their horses were also outfitted in
beautiful and ornate costumes.

Many of the Scythians had full body tattoos with extremely intricate tribal designs,
depicting both real and imaginary beasts as well as events from their mythology.
Scythian women are said to have participated equally in war with men. It has been
recorded that Scythian women had to kill three enemies in battle before marrying, and
that a mastectomy of the right breast was performed on female infants so that their
pectoral muscle wouldn’t weaken and they would be able to brandish a sword better!
The fierce appearance of the Scythian nomads had a terrifying effect on the people
whose lands they invaded. The astonishing victories of the Scythians brought them a
great deal of fame, and much of Western Persia fell under the rule of Scythian chieftains.
It has been recorded that they invaded Syria and Judea around 625 BC, and even
reached the borders of Egypt where peace terms were reached with them.

SELECTIONS FROM THE WORK OF RUDOLF STEINER

In the descriptions above of Scythianos and the Scythians, we find some agreement of
details, as well as many other diverse opinions. Rudolf Steiner writes and speaks about
Atlantis, Lemuria, and Hyperborea more than any other author and shows how the
Scythians fit into ancient migrations. His details comprise a complete cosmology that
explains the timing of the great migrations over the vast periods of time that these ages
encompass. From a variety of perspectives, we are given Steiner’s comprehensive
descriptions that may be hard to accept on the surface when a reader first encounters
them. Comparing the other literature available on these topics, we find that Steiner has
many different opinions on the details concerning Atlantis, Lemuria, and Hyperborea.
But modern research using DNA, archeomythology, anthropology, and history now
confirm many of the details that were exclusively given by Dr. Steiner.
 37

Once we except as a given that Rudolf Steiner and others can actually “look” into the
past and do spiritual research on such ancient topics, we can read the literature and see
what sense we can make of it. We know that the history of our species and our individual
biological history is written into our DNA. When we research the ancient past, we are
also researching the mitochondrial history of your personal cells. The entire history of
your ancestors is written into your DNA through additions of cellular components
necessary to digest new foods found through continuous human migrations. What your
ancestors ate developed the branches of your mitochondrial DNA.

In other words, much of the past is available to anyone who can “read” your own DNA.
The proof is found in your cellular digestion, your organs, and the neurological
pathways developed over time through cultural habits. So then, is it so far-fetched to
believe that some people, especially in the past, had the ability to consciously contact the
“ancestors” and read the events of the past through extrapolating history from cultural
habits, lifestyles, and their own DNA record? Steiner was only one of many people who
claimed to be able to read this information from memory engrams impressed in time
and space. This memory body is called the Akashic Records or the Halls of Wisdom,
among many other names. We now have DNA testing and scientific research that
substantiates much of the content Rudolf Steiner has given in his teachings about
ancient migrations of people taken from the Akashic Records.

We have described in the selections above both the standard scientific (historical)
research concerning the migrations of the Scythians and presented a few nutshell
versions of what Dr. Steiner has to say about these topics, as summarized by some of his
students. But it is always best with Steiner to go back to the exact words he used to
describe these somewhat unusual elements of his cosmology. It is also important to
gather as many references to a topic in Anthroposophy as you can before rushing to
conclusions. Steiner describes ideas from many points of view to broaden a
comprehensive understanding of the topic. One single remark may reframe the entire
topic in a new way. Thus, we have gathered as many selections of Dr. Steiner’s as we
could on these topics to give a full picture of ancient human migrations that developed
our cultural, intellectual, and spiritual history through the influence of Scythianos.
 38

The Hidden Master Scythianos

Rudolf Steiner, The Principle of Spiritual Economy, May 31, 1909, GA

109/111
“Scythianos, a highly developed personality of ancient times, led the occult schools in
Central Asia in one of his subsequent incarnations and later on also became the teacher
of the esoteric schools of Europe.”

Rudolf Steiner, Our Connection with the Elemental World, 11/ 09/1914, GA
158
“The center of initiation which exerts a particular influence upon the inner regions of
the soul in order that it may be properly prepared to receive the illuminating influences
from the Mystery of Golgotha is one of which I have often spoken as being under the
guardianship of the initiate Scythianos.”

Rudolf Steiner, Lecture of November 14, 1909

“There is one stream of human evolution which comes into being through the migration
of certain peoples from ancient Atlantis to more northernly regions, touching territories
which now include Britain, Northern France, and thence extend to modern Scandinavia
and Russia and into Asia as far as India. The Northern stream, certain parts of which
remained behind in Europe, thrust forward into Asia. While new cultures were being
prepared there and were running their course, the population of Europe lived through
the centuries as though waiting for something. Their forces were being held back for
what was to come. The heart of their cultural life was influenced by that great initiate
who took upon himself this area that extends into Siberia and who is called the initiate
Scythianos.”

Rudolf Steiner, East in the Light of the West, August 27, 1909, GA 113
“Those men who came into and beyond Europe from old Atlantis brought with them
great wisdom. In old Atlantis the majority of the people were instinctively clairvoyant;
they could see into the spiritual realms. This clairvoyance could not develop further, it
had perforce to withdraw into particular Western personalities. It was guided there by a
 39

being who once upon a time lived in deepest concealment – withdrawn even behind
those who had already forsaken the world as pupils of a great initiate – the being had
remained behind in order to preserve for later ages what was brought from old Atlantis.
Among the great initiates who had founded mystery places in the West for the
preservation of ancient Atlantean wisdom, a wisdom that entered deeply into all the
secrets of the physical body, was the great Scythianos, as he was called in the Middle
Ages. And anyone who knows the nature of the European mysteries knows that
Scythianos is the name given to one of the greatest initiates of the earth.”

Rudolf Steiner, The Temple Legend, Lecture 4, Berlin, October 7, 1904, GA

93
“This fifth Great Epoch took its start from a handful of men, who had been sifted out
from the previous Great Epoch. They were collected together and prepared in the Gobi
Desert and from there radiated out over the whole of the world. The first of these
leaders, who was the founder of this impulse in the development of mankind, was one of
the so-called Manus - the Manu of the fifth Root Race. This Manu was still one of that
company of leaders who descended to earth at the time of the third Root Race - he was
one of the leaders who underwent development not on the earth only, but who came to
earth with fully developed maturity.

It is only during the fifth Root Race that the development is beginning to take place of
such Manus as are akin to ourselves; who have risen, as it were, from the ranks of
humanity. We have men, therefore, who are already great masters and advanced leaders
of humanity, and we have those who are striving to become such. In the fifth Root Race
we have chelas and masters who have experienced all that can be undergone by human
beings only since the middle of the Lemurian epoch. One of these great masters who are
leaders of the fifth Root Race is predestined to take over the leadership of the sixth Root
Race. The sixth Root Race will be the first great epoch to have as its Manu one who is a
brother to earthly man - Scythianos. The earlier masters, the Manus from other worlds,
are handing over their leadership to a fellow human being.”

Rudolf Steiner, At the Gates of Spiritual Science, Lecture 10, GA 95

“Atlantis perished in a vast water-catastrophe; the whole continent was gradually
flooded, and most of the people migrated eastward towards Europe and Asia. One of the
 40

main groups passed through Ireland and Europe to Asia; everywhere numbers of people
remained behind. The leader was a high Initiate in whom the migrants had complete
faith; through his wisdom he picked out the best of them to accompany him to a distant
part of Asia, where he settled them in the district now known as the Gobi Desert. There a
small colony developed in complete isolation. From there colonizers went out into all
inhabited lands and founded the civilizations of the next Root-race: the Indian, the
Persian, the Egypto-Chaldean-Assryian, the Graeco-Latin. And then the Anglo-Saxon-
Germanic civilization arose.”

Rudolf Steiner, Greek and Germanic Mythology in the Light of

Esotericism, Lecture 2, Berlin, October 14, 1904, GA 92
“In all occult writings you find described the events which then took place. Manu chose
a small band and went with them into the Desert of Gobi or Sebamo. There it was only a
handful that remained true to him, whilst the others were unfaithful and dispersed in all
directions. This important event was shown to the candidates for initiation - that is to
say, they were shown how the Manu had chosen some of the Ur-Semites, but that of
those chosen only a small number followed him, whereas the others ran into destruction
through following the siren-song of external culture.”

Rudolf Steiner, Mystery Knowledge and Centers, December 7-9, 1923, GA

232
“The present-day sense organs were laid down during the time of Old Saturn. The heart,
on the other hand, has only developed during the Earth evolution. The senses, therefore,
have a very ancient past. By comparison the heart is only at the beginning of its
evolution; this is demonstrated by a peculiarity of its anatomical structure; it possesses
striated muscles which are otherwise only found where muscles can be activated
voluntarily. The heart is therefore predisposed to become a voluntary muscle and will
reach perfection (even if not in a physically material form) during the future
evolutionary phase of the Planet Vulcan. It is evident that such “time-secrets of the
physical body’ were known about in Hibernia by the ‘Great Initiate of the Secrets of the
Physical Body’, Scythianos.”
 41

Rudolf Steiner, The Old Sagas of the Gods, Dusseldorf, March 22nd, 1905
“We must distinguish between the Mysteries of Western Europe and of Northern
Europe. In Scandinavia and Russia there were the Mysteries of the Trotten; in the West
and in England the Mysteries of the Druids. Both these Mysteries have now
disappeared.

In the Northern myths they had the experience of the overcoming of the northern Gods
through Christianity. We go back into a dim past to the first sub-race of the fifth root-
race on Northern soil. There were at that time, the initiation of the Trotten in the North,
and of the Druids in the West. In primitive temples, half natural and half constructed,
there was a sacred enclosure. In this two Gods were represented as ruling the world: -
Hu and Zeritwen; - Hu is Osiris and Zeritwen Isis. Man is Horus. There were three
grades of initiation, - first was Soothsayer; second was Bard; third was Druid. A man
who had been initiated into the three grades underwent transformation, so that through
the awakening of his higher faculties he became the God Baldur. The mystic had to say
to himself: “Thou must become the re-animated Baldur who was killed by the God
Loki.” He was then given the consecrated mead, and the consecrated ring. Mead
corresponds with the Indian Soma drink. At his initiation, the Northern initiate was first
instructed as to the evolution of the Earth, the preceding stages of the planet.”

Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. John, Lecture 8, GA 112

“Towards the end of the Atlantean period, the external and internal human conditions
proved to be most favorable in a certain region of the earth’s surface which was in the
vicinity of present Ireland. This region is now covered with water. At that time the
conditions there were especially favorable, and in this region the most highly gifted of
the Atlantean races developed, a race that was especially endowed with the capacity to
rise to an independent human self-consciousness. The leader of this people, which in
Spiritual Science literature is usually designated the ancient Semites, was a great initiate
who sought the most highly developed individuals of this people and migrated with
them to the east through Europe as far as Asia into a region occupied now by the present
Tibet. Thither migrated a relatively small but spiritually very highly developed fraction
of the Atlantean peoples.

Toward the end of the Atlantean period, it so happened that gradually the westerly
portions of Atlantis disappeared and became covered by the sea. Europe in its present
 42

form gradually arose. In Asia, the great Siberian regions were still covered with
extensive bodies of water, but, especially in the south of Asia, there were regions of land
which had already appeared, differently formed, however. Some of the less advanced of
the great mass of people joined with this germinal group which migrated from west to
east. Many went with them a long distance, others not so far. But the peopling of ancient
Europe came about for the most part through the migrations of great hordes of people
out of Atlantis who settled there. Other great groups of people who had been driven
from other parts of Atlantis, even some from ancient Lemuria, had come into Asia at a
still earlier period and now encountered each other during this migration. Thus, peoples
variously endowed and of very different spiritual capacities settled in Europe and Asia.
The small number who were led by that great spiritual individuality, Manu, settled there
in Asia in order to foster the greatest possible spirituality. From there streams of culture
flowed out into the various regions of the earth and among the various peoples.

The first cultural stream flowed down into India, and through the impulse given by the
spiritual mission of that great individuality, Manu, there developed what we may call the
ancient Indian civilization. We are not speaking now of that Indian culture of which we
have only echoes in those wonderful books of the Vedas, nor are we speaking of what
has been handed down to posterity as tradition. Previous to all that can be known of this
external culture, there existed a much more glorious and more ancient culture, that of
the ancient Holy Rishis, those great teachers who in the far distant past gave to mankind
the first post-Atlantean civilization.”

Rudolf Steiner, The Apocalypse of St. John, GA 104

“The Mysteries within the ancient European civilizations in which pupils were taught
how to penetrate into the spiritual world were all pervaded and permeated by a
remarkable characteristic which could be observed more deeply by those who received
initiation in those ancient times. In all these Mysteries it was prophetically indicated
what was to come about in the future, namely, the appearance of Christ Jesus. The
undertone, the attitude of expectation, this mood of prophecy lay in the nature of the
Northern Mysteries.

When we are shown that Siegfried is really the representative of the ancient Nordic
initiation, that on the place where he is vulnerable there lies a leaf, that this place is on
his back, then one who is able to feel such a thing symptomatically feels: ‘That is the
 43

spot on the human being where something different will rest, when such injury as the
initiates of the ancient Northern Mysteries experienced can no longer touch him.’ This
spot the Cross shall cover, there the Cross of Christ Jesus shall rest. It did not yet rest
there in the case of the initiates of the ancient Northern Mysteries. In the old Mysteries
of the German peoples, this is indicated in the legend of Siegfried. Thus, even here is
symptomatically indicated how the ancient initiations of the Druids and Trotten should
be thought of as harmonizing with the Christian Mysteries.”

Rudolf Steiner, The Christ Impulse and the Development of the Ego-
Consciousness, Berlin, March 9, 1910, Lecture 5, GA 116
“When we go back beyond the founding of Christianity, we find two different kinds of
initiation: that of the North, and that of the South, the chief characteristic of which is its
connection with the Egyptian methods of initiation. In the world of the ancients there
were two different methods by which they could penetrate into the spiritual world. In
old Egypt, a candidate for initiation had to descend into the depths of his own soul,
beyond all that plays its part in the ordinary soul-life, as thinking, feeling and willing.
There he found that from which the soul itself came forth: the divine spiritual life of the
world. A descent beneath those regions of the soul which are illuminated and permeated
by the ego (I am), was the essential point in the Egyptian, or indeed, in any southern
initiation.

In the Northern initiation, on the other hand, the object striven for was that man should
come out of himself and expand into the phenomena of the world in a state of ecstasy.
This was especially the case in the Germanic Druidic Mysteries and those of the Trotten.
These two kinds of initiation were combined in one stream, in what we call the Christian
initiation, this represented a higher unity combining the ecstatic initiation of the North
with the mystical contraction of the South.

This gives an indication of a deeper foundation of cosmic Mysteries, permeating all

existence. In reality this is in itself as great and mighty a fact as the fusion of the two
different forms of initiation of ancient times into the one single form of Christian
initiation; it is an example of a great and still more comprehensive law permeating all
human existence, and also interwoven in the existence of all the outer world-
phenomena, in so far as these are known to man. Everywhere we find ourselves
confronted by opposites, by two parts of a duality. The Northern and Southern
 44

initiations offer one example of two opposite sides - polarities, as we might call them -
that confront us in the life of the world. The other, the Christian initiation - in which
these two forms of initiation flow together and as it were celebrate a Spiritual marriage -
is an example of how opposites, dualities of any sort, reunite.”

Rudolf Steiner, The Apocalypse of St. John, Lecture 7, GA 104

“Let as think of the time before the Atlantean flood. We have said that it was in the last
third of the Atlantean epoch - which men experienced on the land now covered by the
Atlantic Ocean - when a small group was formed in the neighborhood of the present
Ireland, which had reached the highest stage of Atlantean civilization, and this group
then migrated to the East, whence all later civilizations have proceeded. Let us keep this
clearly in mind, let us think of this portion of the earth which now forms the ocean west
of Ireland, let us think of a migration of people starting from there and going towards
the East and from it a number of tribes proceeding, which then populate Europe. All
that is contained in the population of Europe originated in this way. The most gifted
portion of the Atlanteans wandered towards central Asia; from there proceeded the
various civilizations up to our own, as we have described. So, we see that our present
civilization originated in a small group of Atlanteans.

Rudolf Steiner, The Temple Legend, Lecture 3, The Mysteries of the Druids
and the Drottes, Berlin, September 30, 1904, GA 93
“The spiritual life of Europe emanated from a mother lodge in Scandinavia, ‘Drottes’
Lodge. Their priests were known as Druids, which means oak. For this reason, the
Germanic peoples were said to receive their instructions beneath oak trees. ‘Drottes’, or
Druids, were ancient Germanic initiates. All that we read in the Edda or can find in the
ancient German sagas refers back to the temples of the ‘Drottes’ or Druids. The author
of these tales was always an initiate.

Baldur was the hope of the gods, who was killed by the god Loki with a branch of
mistletoe. Baldur, the God of Light is killed. This whole story has a deep mystery content
which all who underwent initiation not only had to learn, but also had to experience.

The first deed of initiation was called the search for the body of Baldur. It was supposed
that Baldur was always alive. The search consisted of a complete enlightenment about
 45

the nature of humanity. The human being who has not descended into what today we
call matter, is Baldur. He lives in each one of us. The Druid priest had to search for the
higher self within him. He had to become clear about where this differentiation took
place.

The secret of all initiation is to give birth to the higher human being within oneself.
What the priest accomplishes more quickly, the rest of mankind must undergo in long
stages of development. To become leaders of the rest of mankind, the Druids had to
receive this initiation.

The first step was that one was led before the ‘Throne of Necessity.’ One stood in front of
the abyss: really experienced through one’s own body what lived in the lower kingdoms
of nature. Man is both mineral and plant.

The next step led the human being to all that lived in the animal kingdom. Everything
which existed in the form of passions and desires was beheld in swirling and
interweaving movement. All this had to be observed by the candidate for initiation so
that his eyes would be opened to what lay behind the veil of the senses. Man is not aware
that what swirls around in astral space is hidden behind the physical sheath - the veil of
Maya.

The third step led to a vision of the elemental nature forces. That is a step which man
finds difficult to comprehend without previous preparation. That powerful occult forces
are residing in these nature forces and through them express elemental passions, is
something which makes man aware that there are powers quite outside the scope of
anything he can experience as his own suffering.

The next trial is called the ‘Handing over of the Serpent’ by the hierophant. In creative
thinking, which builds and constructs things of the world, which is productive and
fruitful, the passive kind of thinking is replaced by a thinking permeated by spiritual
force. Into the sheath-thoughts, living active power is poured so that the priest is
enabled, not only to see the world in vision, but to work in it through magic. The danger
is that this power can be abused. He must not only repeat truths but experience them
and decide whether a thing is true or false. That is what is called ‘The Handing over of
the Serpent by the Hierophant’ which denotes the same thing on a spiritual level that the
rudimentary stages in the formation of the spinal cord signify on the physical level.
 46

Then he had to take the oath of silence. A naked sword was presented to him and he was
obliged to swear the most binding oath. This was that he would henceforth keep silence
about his experiences where it concerned people who had not been initiated as he had. It
is quite impossible to reveal the true content of these secrets without preparation. But
the initiate could create sagas so that they became the expression of the eternal. One
who could give utterance to things in this way of course had great power over his fellow
men. The creator of a saga of this kind imprinted something into the human spirit.

The Druid priest spoke out of the higher plane. His words, being the expression of
higher truths, sank into the souls of his hearers. At that time men experienced the truth
through fairy stories.

After the Druid had given his oath on the sword, he had to drink a certain draught from
a human skull. The meaning of this was that he had transcended what was human. That
was the feeling which the Druid priest had to develop concerning his lower bodily
nature. He had to look upon all that lived within his body with the same objective, cool
attitude as he felt towards a containing vessel. Then he was initiated into the higher
secrets and shown the path to higher worlds.

Many people read the Edda and are unaware that it is an account of what really took
place in the ancient ‘Drottes’ mysteries. An immense power lay at the disposal of the
ancient ‘Drottes’ priests, a power over life and death. It is true that everything becomes
corrupt in time. It was once the highest, the holiest of things. At the time when
Christianity was spreading, much had degenerated and there were many black
magicians, so that Christianity came as a redemption.

Unlike our present practice, not one stone was laid upon another in the building of a
Druid temple without the use of exact astronomical measurement. Doorways were built
according to astronomical measurement. The Druid priests were the builders of
humanity. A faint reflection of this is preserved today in the views which the
Freemasons hold.
 47

Rudolf Steiner, The Mission of the Individual Folk-Souls, The Five Post-
Atlantean Civilizations. Greek and Teutonic Mythology Lecture 8 - 7, GA
121
“In the old Atlantean times, human beings were still endowed with a high degree of the
old dim clairvoyance with which they saw into the divine spiritual world. They had an
insight into the hidden workings of that world. Now imagine yourselves for a moment in
old Atlantis before the migrations towards the East had begun. The air was still
permeated with water vapor and misty exhalations. The soul of man was different too.
He could not yet differentiate between the various external sense perceptions; at that
time, he found the spiritual content of the world seemingly diffused around him like a
spiritual aura. Thus, he possessed a certain natural clairvoyance which he had to
overcome. This was achieved by the operation of the forces to whose influence human
beings were subject when migrating from West to East. In the course of these migrations
man underwent many different stages of spiritual development. There were peoples
who, during their migration eastward, at first slept through, as it were, the period of
emergence from the old clairvoyance and had already reached a higher stage of
development when their ego was still in a dim state of consciousness. They went through
various stages of development, but their ‘I’ was still in a dull, dreamlike condition.

The Ancient Indians were the furthest evolved when their ego awoke to full self-
consciousness. They were so far advanced that they possessed a rich inner soul-life
which no longer showed any traces of that elementary stage in soul development which
still persisted for a long period of time in the peoples of Europe. The Indians had already
undergone that elementary stage a long time before. They awoke to self-consciousness
when they were already endowed with spiritual powers and capacities which enabled
them to penetrate deeply into the spiritual worlds. Whence all the activity and positive
influence of the various Angels and Archangels on the human souls had become a
matter of complete indifference to the more advanced members of the Indian people in
their efforts to emerge from their old twilight conditions of clairvoyance.”

Lecture 7
“Since the Atlantean catastrophe, since the beginning of the post-Atlantean evolution,
we are living in an Age when certain Archangels, certain Beings of the Hierarchy of the
Archangeloi, advance to the rank of the Archai or Time Spirits. This is a most interesting
phenomenon, for when we observe how the Folk Spirits, or Archangels in our
terminology, rise to a higher rank, only then do we have a true understanding of cosmic
 48

events. This advance in rank is connected with the fact that in late Atlantis and for some
time after, the distribution of mankind, the distribution of races, has been followed by a
second migration of peoples. If we wish to understand the period when the division of
mankind into the five root races of which we have already spoken took place, we must
look far back into early Atlantean times.

Whilst, therefore, the Earth was already colonized by the nuclei of these peoples, other
peoples were dispatched to those geographical areas of the Earth already colonized.
Thus, we meet with a second migration in later Atlantean times. If we wish to
understand the pattern and extent of the distribution of races in Europe, Africa, and
America at the time of the gradual submergence of Atlantis, and the later great
migrations towards the end of the Atlantean epoch, when a small band first set out
during the post-Atlantean epoch, then we must clearly realize that we are here dealing
with that mighty stream of humanity which pushed forward into Asia, into Indian
territory, and that, as has often been pointed out, the nuclei of future peoples remained
behind at different points and from these nuclei were developed the various peoples of
Asia, Africa and Europe. We are here concerned therefore with an earlier distribution
and a later expansion, with a second wave.

The purpose of this second wave was to dispatch in a West-East direction those folk
communities who were each under the guidance of an Archangel. But these Archangels
who were the spiritual Powers directing these tribes or folk communities were at
different stages of development; in other words, some were nearer than others to the
rank of a Time Spirit or Spirit of the Age. We have to look to the Far East for that
movement of peoples whose Archangel was the first to attain the rank of a Time Spirit.
This was the stream which merged with the original inhabitants of India and formed the
ruling class of that country and so laid the foundations of the first post-Atlantean
civilization after their Archangel had been promoted to be the first Time Spirit or
Archai-being of the post-Atlantean civilization. Now this Time Spirit directed the sacred
culture of ancient India and made it the leading culture of the first post-Atlantean
epoch. Meanwhile the other peoples of Asia who were gradually developing, were for a
long time simply under the direction of Archangels.

The peoples of Europe also who had remained behind during the migration from West
to East had long been under the guidance of Archangels when the Archangel of India
had already risen to the rank of an Archai-being who then worked through intuition
 49

upon those great teachers of India, the Holy Rishis. Through the mediation of this
exalted and important Spirit the Rishis were able to fulfil their high mission in the
manner already described. This Time Spirit worked on for a long time, whilst the people
lying to the North of ancient India were still under the guidance of the Archangel. After
the Time Spirit of India had fulfilled his mission, he was promoted to lead the entire
evolution of post-Atlantean humanity.

In the Old Persian epoch, the Archangel became the Spirit of Personality, the Time
Spirit, from whom the great Zarathustra or Zoroaster, the original Zarathustra, received
his inspiration. This again is an example of an Archangel, a Folk Soul who has risen to
the rank of Time Spirit.

In the Egypto-Chaldean epoch, the Archangel of the Egyptian people and the Archangel
of the Chaldean people, both rose to a higher rank. During this epoch the Archangel of
the Egyptian people rose to the rank of a leading Time Spirit and took over the guidance
and control of that which formerly devolved upon the Chaldean Archangel. The leader in
the Egypto-Chaldean age thus became the third mighty, guiding Time Spirit who had
gradually advanced beyond the rank of the Egyptian Archangel. But this was also the
epoch in which another important development took place, a development which ran
parallel with the Egypto-Chaldean civilization and is related to the development to
which we drew special attention in our last lecture.

We have seen that everything associated with the Semitic tribes assumed a special
significance, and that from amongst the Semitic race Jahve or Jehovah had chosen a
Semitic people to be his chosen people. Since he had chosen a particular race to be his
special people, He needed at first, whilst this race was gradually developing, a kind of
Archangel to act as his vice-regent. In ancient times, therefore, the evolving Semitic
people was guided by an Archangel who was under the continuous inspiration of Jahve
or Jehovah and afterwards this Archangel himself grew to be a Time Spirit.

Apart from the ordinary evolving Time Spirits of the Old Indian, Old Persian and Old
Chaldean peoples therefore, there was yet another Time Spirit who played his own
special part by working within a particular people. This is a Time Spirit who, in a certain
respect, appears in the mission of a Nation Spirit, a Time Spirit whom we must call the
Semitic Nation Spirit. His task was of a very special kind: You will understand this if you
bear in mind that, in reality, this particular people was singled out from the normal
 50

course of evolution for special guidance. Through these special arrangements this
people was entrusted with a mission which was of particular importance for the post-
Atlantean epoch and which was distinguished from the missions of all other peoples.
One can best understand this mission of the Semitic people by comparing it with the
various peoples of the post-Atlantean epoch.”

Rudolf Steiner, Mendelssohn’s ‘Overture of the Hebrides’, Berlin, March

3rd, 1911, GA 127
“During the migrations from Atlantis toward the East, all that the Druid priests, who
remained behind here in the West, were able to give to the people poured itself out over
these individual groups as a harmonizing influence. And what they were able to give still
lived on in the bards. We shall only rightly understand what worked through these
bards, however, if we make clear to ourselves that here the most elemental passions met
together with the ancient powers of sight into the spiritual world, and that those who,
with powerful life forces, sometimes with rage and passion, fought as representatives of
their clan against other clans, perceived at the same time impulses working out of the
spiritual world which directed them in battle.”

Rudolf Steiner, Adept-Schools of the Past, The Mysteries of the Spirit, the
Son and the Father, Dusseldorf, March 7, 1907, GA 97
“The achievements of Atlantis did not die when Atlantis was submerged, for the essence
of everything that existed in the Atlantean School of Adepts was rescued by a small
group of people. Under the guidance of the Manu, this small group journeyed into a
region now known as the Gobi Desert. And this small number of people then prepared
copies of the former culture and teachings, but in a more intellectual form; the earlier
spiritual forces were transformed into thoughts and signs. The various streams of
culture then journeyed out from this center like rays, or beams. First came the pre-Vedic
Indian culture, which transformed for the first time the in-streaming wisdom into
thoughts.

The second culture which went out from this ancient School of Adepts was the old
Persian culture; the third one, the Chaldean-Babylonian culture with its wonderful star-
wisdom, its lofty sacerdotal wisdom. The fourth culture to flourish was the Graeco-Latin
one, with its personal coloring, and finally the fifth culture, which is our present one.
The sixth and seventh lie in the future.
 51

I have now characterized our task in the evolution of humanity: What once existed in the
form of cosmic wisdom, must be transformed into thoughts and brought down to the
physical plane.

When the old Atlantean listened, between the tones sounding round him, he could hear
the “name” of what he recognized as divine: “TAO.” In the Egyptian Mysteries, this
sound was transformed into thoughts, script, and signs - the Tao-sign, the Tao-books.
Everything in the form of knowledge, writing, and thought first came into the world
during the post-Atlantean age. Before that time, nothing could have been written down,
for the understanding for it would not have been there.

We are now living in the middle of the Manas-development. It is the task of our race to
develop intellectual culture, and at the same time to develop egoism in its most extreme
form. Though it sounds grotesque, we may say that never before was there so much
intellectual power in the world, and yet so little capacity of inner vision as at the present
time. Thought is at the greatest distance from the inner essence of things; it is far away
from inner spiritual vision.”

Rudolf Steiner, Egyptian Myths and Mysteries, Lecture 1, September 2,

1908, GA 106
“The regions of Atlantis were destroyed through colossal deluges. Human bodies had
different forms at that time, but the souls that live in us today lived also in the ancient
Atlanteans. Those were our souls. The water-catastrophe caused a movement of the
Atlantean peoples, a great migration from west to east. Toward the end of Atlantis all
was in movement. We wandered from the west toward the east, through Ireland,
Scotland, Holland, France, and Spain. Thus, the peoples moved eastward and populated
Europe, Asia, and the northern parts of Africa.

Almost all of Europe, the northern parts of Africa, and large parts of Asia were already
inhabited at that time. These areas were not peopled from the west only; they had
already been settled earlier, so that this migration found a strange population already
established. We may assume that when quieter times set in, special cultural relations
arose.
 52

There was, in the neighborhood of Ireland, a region where, before the catastrophe that
now lies thousands of years behind us, there lived the most advanced portions of the
entire population of the earth. These portions then migrated, under the special guidance
of great individualities, through Europe to a region of central Asia, and from that point
cultural colonies were sent out to the most diverse places. One such colony of the post-
Atlantean time was sent from this group of people into India, finding a population that
had been seated there from primeval times and had its own culture. Paying due heed to
what was already present, these colonists founded the first post-Atlantean culture. This
was many thousand years ago, and external documents tell us scarcely anything about it.
What appears in these documents is much later. In those great compendiums of
Wisdom called the Vedas, we have only the final echoes of a very early Indian culture
that was directed by super-earthly beings and was founded by the Holy Rishis. It was a
culture of a unique kind, and we today can form only a feeble idea of it because the
Vedas are only a reflection of that primeval holy Indian culture.

After this culture there followed another, the second cultural epoch of the post-
Atlantean time. Out of this the wisdom of Zarathustra flowed and the Persian culture
arose. Long did the Indian culture endure, long also the Persian, reaching a culmination
in Zarathustra.

Then arose, under the influence of colonists who were sent into the land of the Nile, the
culture that is comprised under the four names, Chaldean-Egyptian-Assyrian-
Babylonian. This third post-Atlantean culture arose in Asia Minor and northern Africa,
and reached its summit, on the one side, in the wonderful Chaldean star-lore and, on the
other, in the Egyptian culture.

Then comes a fourth age, developing in the south of Europe, the age of the Greco-
Roman culture, which dawns with the songs of Homer and goes on to produce the Greek
sculptures and the art of poetry that appears in the tragedies of Aeschylus and
Sophocles. Rome also belonged to this period. The epoch begins in the eighth pre-
Christian century, approximately in 747 B. C., and lasts until the fourteenth or fifteenth
century A. D. After that we have the fifth period, in which we ourselves live, and this in
turn will be followed by the sixth and seventh periods.”
 53

Rudolf Steiner, The Migrations of the Races, Berlin, 1904, GA 245

“Descendants of many earlier races have continued to exist among us, and even in the
Fourth Root Race (Atlantean) there was a population which spread out like rays and was
itself mixed with descendants of other races. The peoples of Southern Asia are remains
of the population of ancient Lemuria (Third Root Race), whose descendants are still to
be found in the interior of Australia. Remains of the Fourth Root Race (Atlantean) are to
be found in Western and Northern Asia and in Southern Europe. That is the soil into
which the branches of the Fifth Root Race (Aryan) were implanted.

Thus, we have to do with the product of two streams: the Lemurian-Aryan on the one
side, and the Atlantean-Aryan on the other. But all these civilizations have absorbed into
themselves an even more ancient civilization. In Siberia, Scandinavia, Northern Russia,
and China there are even remains of the Hyperborean civilization (Second Root Race).

This cultural civilizing process spread out radially from a point in Central Asia
somewhere in the neighborhood of the Gobi and Shamo deserts. It was an eminently
priestly culture, preparing a race of high spiritual development to penetrate into the
chaos of the peoples, to send out colonies from which new civilizations were to arise.
This small root-stock had arisen out of the Fifth Subrace (the Primal Semites) of the
Fourth Root Race (Atlantis). We must bear in mind that to these Primal Semites was
allotted the special mission laid down in the law of the Manu.
The aim of the Manu of the Fifth Root Race was to lead men right down to the physical
plane in order that they should be able to understand the physical heart, the physical
brain, lungs, and so on.

Two vistas lay before the Manu of the Fifth Root Race: the civilization that proceeded
from the Lemurians and was still present in Southern Asia, and the remains of
Atlantean civilization in Africa. Thither he sent out his colonies, accompanied by Priest-
Initiates: one to India, the other to Africa. In this first exodus we have two branches:
The Indo-Aryans and the Hamites (in Africa). In India, the immigrant Indo-Aryans who
brought with them the teaching of the God-revealed Word (Veda-Word), received the
doctrine of reincarnation, and in Brahmanism this latter teaching exists in a very
beautiful form. This was the result brought about by the Manu. The principle followed
by the initiates is: the mingling of what is new with what is already there.
 54

The dispatch of a new branch constituted the second migration. We can follow this
when, to begin with, we look toward the East and study the Medes and Persians, and
then the racial stock which made its way through Chaldea and into history in the
journeyings of Abraham. On the other side, the racial stock that went Westward also
came into contact with the remains of Atlantean civilization - actually the fourth
subrace, the Turanian population - which had engaged in agriculture.

A strange mixture was the result. By dint of vigorous effort, this racial stock was grafted
upon the former Turanian people who in earlier times had practiced magic. From here
came the teachings of the Medes and Bactrians. Here labored the first initiates of
Zarathustra, intent upon employing the outer accomplishments of the age of magic in
the service of civilization. The result is an imposing development of agriculture and
vine-cultivation. These activities constituted a revival, in a new form, of the ancient
magical achievements.

Another branch of colonists went to the West and came upon the remains of the
Atlantean Primal Semites - those who had been chosen out in the first place - and these
form what is known as the ancient Semitic stock: Chaldeans, Babylonians, Phoenicians,
and Arabians. They constitute a Neo-Semitic civilization. We find the happenings of
most importance to begin with among the Medes and Persians. These happenings are
recounted in an old story of which there have been many new versions and which we
finally encounter in the figure of Cyrus. One of the kings had a daughter named
Mandane, who married not a Mede but a Persian. The father dreamt that a tree grew
from his daughter’s body. The interpretation of the dream was that the Persian stock
would overshadow the Median. The old story of Cyrus had a deeply esoteric significance.
Cyrus is the representative of the Persians who are an agricultural people, in contrast to
the Medes who are not, and the tree indicates that the agricultural civilization triumphs.
The ancient civilization passes over to agriculture.

We can see from the organization and development of the Persian character how this
process came to its consummation. The goal of the Persians was physical strength,
physical vigor. In this region there were no Lemurians. It was the Atlanteans who had
prepared for the development of personality. Among the Persians, emphasis was laid
above all on personal qualities and virtues. A noteworthy characteristic is that
instruction was given in “telling the truth”. This, as well as gymnastics, was a
 55

compulsory subject for boys. That is a very important point. It is a preparation which led
to personal qualities and virtues reaching their zenith.

We now come to the region where the original Semitic element mingled with the new.
Rishi-Priests migrated there and found decadent Primal Semites and also decadent
Acadians. Thus, the Manu founded a new branch by amalgamating his immigrants with
the decadent Primal Semites - those who during the time of their prime in Atlantean
Civilization had developed the art of arithmetic. The outcome was the wisdom of
Chaldea: astrology, astronomy, astronomical observatories, the calendar, and principles
of measure and weight. The immigrants who amalgamated with the ancient trading
people, the Acadians, were used, in this combination, to create new colonies: the
Phoenicians and the Tyrians.

A further Rishi colony of this kind, together with its adherents, went over to Europe.
Here (in the north) it found the ancient Hyperborean element, and in the south, the
Atlantean. In the distant past the Hyperboreans had already mingled with the
Atlanteans and only very slight traces of them still remained. In the South of Europe
there was practically nothing left of the Hyperborean strain. On the soil of ancient
Greece there now arose the Pelasgian population, who practiced a kind of Nature
worship, reminiscent in many respects of Egyptian culture, only here it was more a cult
of locality than an ancestor cult. There were sacred trees and, sacred caves. Cult was
connected with Nature. The belief prevailed that holiness was connected more with the
place than with the racial stock. We find Zeus of Dodona, for example, and others. The
physical place becomes sacred. That was a new development.

In Italy too, there was again a mingling on the physical plane of ancient Atlantean and
Rishi civilizations. What had developed in the Atlanteans as their attitude to social life
and their attachment to technical civilization made its way through to the social
legislature and technical skill of the Etruscans.

In the north, the mingling of Hyperborean and Rishi civilization produced the new
Celtic Civilization. What had been found there originally was an Atlantean-Hyperborean
element with which little could be done. It was necessary for a new impulse to be given,
and the result was the mixing of the Celtic with the Druidic Culture. The reason why
Druidic Culture had so much spirituality was because it was still able to absorb the
sublime spirituality that surpassed the Atlantean and the Lemurian. Because the Celtic
 56

element had the Hyperborean strain in it, it could not hold its own and petered out in
the subsequent civilizations.

We come now to the third, very complicated migration. Part of it penetrates into what
had been prepared by the first two. Indications of it have been preserved in the lore of
the different peoples - wherever in the traditions, men of great strength are in the
foreground. In this third migration, a group of initiates went to the west and once again
fructified the Primal Semitic element that had already received a similar impulse once
before. For it was a matter of bringing together everything that had originally been
poured into this element, into the great idea of the organization of States. The result of
this third migration is recorded in Genesis, in the Old Testament. A further branch of it
went across to Asia Minor and there gave rise to what is contained in the Trojan
civilization as well as in its settlements, one of which is that of Alba Longa (south of
Rome.) The task of these Initiates was to take in hand the formation of States suitable
for the different peoples.

We have therefore come to know three groups of initiates, the task of the first having
been to create religious culture, the task of the second to create the foundations of
material culture, and the task of the third to build the foundations for the State, to
galvanize passions. This takes place in forms adapted to the different peoples as in Troy
or Alba Longa, or in the theocratic State, Palestine. But in reality, these were only
preparations made among people who were not in any way qualified for the task of
organizing States. This activity is least successful in the very people most qualified
through its civilization to carry the outer form of organization out on to the physical
plane. The Greeks are preeminently an artistic people. The personal in its highest form,
given expression on the physical plane - this is Art. Among the Greeks, the initiate of the
third group is the Hero, the man of strength.

Over in Asia, mixtures had repeatedly taken place, and the Jews, the people who had
received the highest form of the law, were of such a mixed strain that they were already
hypertrophied. On the other hand, in Europe, in Central Italy, the mixing had been less
complicated. We find there a very strong Atlantean element. The Etruscan colony,
working together with Alba Longa, the priestly State, had brought Rome into existence.
Here there was a simple racial stock, containing very much of the Atlantean element.
The two impulses had succeeded in establishing what is called Etruscan-Roman
Civilization, with the priestly element that led inevitably to the institution of the
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Pontifex Maximus. Conditions were simple and could produce the people of the Roman
Republic, the people who developed personal valor purely for its own sake. The Roman
Citizen, the ‘cives’, was the man whole and complete, who felt himself entirely as
personal man.

The Greeks felt themselves above all as men of wisdom, as artists. When they set about
cultivating those things that proceed most definitely from personality - oratory and
rights - they were bound to decline. It is in Rome that civil law, oratory, and eloquence
are brought to the highest stage of perfection. The Greek had foreshadowed how the
perfected personality develops, by portraying it in his gods. In his own person the
Roman presents the personality that is complete in itself as the citizen, the real man.
The works of the Greek sculptors rise again as it were in the Romans and become life.

In Rome, therefore, something was being prepared which the Spiritual Leaders could
use in order to give a further impulse. For this, spiritual life at its highest level was
needed, and it was only to be found where the greatest number of spiritual impulses had
been given, namely in Asia Minor. Spirit had there been grafted on Spirit.

Let us recapitulate:

 The original impulses from the Fifth Subrace of the Atlanteans - the Primal
Semites - given to the First Subrace of the Aryan Root Race.
 The migration into the region of the Euphrates and Tigris.
 The Patriarchal Age (the Age of Heroes).
 The Theocratic State.

This wonderful interplay came to expression in every branch of the spiritual life. The
new impulse could proceed only from a personality who came from afar, not out of the
home country itself. The family out of which an initiate was to issue was selected with
great care by the spiritual guidance of the world. The ancient Rishi culture had made
preparation for and proclaimed in advance the initiate who was to come. This was
recorded in the Sibylline books. Thus, preparation for the messiah of the Fourth Subrace
is made in concealment, removed from Judaism, in Galilee. Judaism had never had a
strong footing in Galilee, had never really penetrated there. The racial character of the
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Galileans was very mixed. He (the Messiah) must have nothing of the Galilean element
in him. He must come from a hidden source. Hence the Apocryphal writings allege that
he was a “mother’s child.” This was Jesus of Nazareth, the Galilean. He was a chela of
the third degree of initiation. It was now a matter of making him into the highest initiate
for all that was to be fulfilled on the physical plane. This was achieved through the whole
personality being taken possession of by another being, the Christ, who represents the
whole Fifth Root Race. The whole Fifth Root Race emerged in the Fourth Subrace. This
is represented symbolically by the descent of the Dove. Only the most sublime imagery
could be used to express the truths which apply here.

The Manu resolved: I will make the Fourth Subrace into a confluence of all earlier
impulses and endow it with the spirit of the whole Fifth Root Race. This can be done by
Christ alone, who is the actual impulse of the Fifth Root Race. The Manu had made the
preparation. Christ entered into what had thus been prepared. The revelation of the real
secret of the Fourth Subrace was to be made. In earlier times it had only been prepared
for. The highest initiates had actually seen it. The others had prepared for it. This was
“the darkness into which came the light.”

When we survey the course of the whole development, we find that the preparation was
made through the fact of personality being evolved gradually in the first three subraces.
Until in the Fourth Subrace (the Greco-Roman) the innermost essence of personality is
laid hold of, and becomes the principle making all men equal before God.

Christ is the inner, divine principle. He must pour Himself into the existing forms,
taking the form of the law from the theocratic State, from Judaism. Judaism could not
accept the new form. It had its own, which was the highest existing form of the law. But
Christ had perforce to accept it, since He was to be made manifest by degrees on the
physical plane. Therefore, He uttered His wisdom through the form of the wisdom of
ancient Judaism. But this wisdom had to be understood. It could be understood where
men had already mastered the explanation of the phenomena of the physical plane,
where they had philosophy. That is why the first Church Fathers derive from the Greeks.
In their philosophy they had developed the possibility of understanding what now
appeared on the physical plane.

When the new Spiritual Will manifested in the personality, they were also able to
understand this personality. The people who had portrayed a Zeus, who in their art of
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sculpture had bodied forth a god, were also able to understand the idea of the incarnated
god. To begin with, this idea could become life through what developed out of the
Roman people. The man who had evolved the personality (the Roman) could make this
idea very life. The Christ is given form in the Jewish people but is comprehended only
through the Greek Gnosis and through the Greek Apostle and the Greek Evangelist
John. But none of this could have led to the spread of Christianity on the physical plane.
It could have led at most to an understanding of it. The Romans who assimilate Greek
culture, destroy Jerusalem, go to Asia, and become Christians.

 The Jews provide form for Christ

 The Greeks understand Christ
 The Romans become Christians

Hence Christianity began to spread only after the destruction of Jerusalem and had a
definitely Roman form. In Rome, the physical framework for the Christians was already
prepared and was the State which had already founded a world empire. The priest who
ruled it was the Pontifex Maximus.

So much for the Fourth Subrace. We have seen that it had been carefully prepared. The
Fifth Subrace was at this time still in the process of developing.

We have come to the culminating point - or the center. The teachers who now follow
have to preserve what has come into being and put it into application again on the
physical plane. It is now a matter of certain initiates elaborating for individuals the
culmination already attained. Thus, the Christian tradition is preserved in the
Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. Christianity is involved in a process of continual
degeneration. New impulses have therefore continually to be given from what is known
as Montsalvat, the Grail. These impulses assume different characters. Again, it is Rishis
who now experience the teaching in a Christian form and want always to protect the
original Christianity from degenerating.

In this way, manifold attempts to bring about regeneration were made. The first attempt
leads back to an initiate who as yet could play no real role in history because on this soil,
previous history is still present. He is, however, named in tradition. He is the “Apostle of
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Germany” - Boniface. From this stems the adaptation of the original form in which
Christianity from Ireland came to Germany, with a mixture of Druidic culture, Irish
influence, the impulse of Dionysius the Areopagite.

A new impulse and a new possibility were created through the Initiate who is given the
name of “Lohengrin.” The conditions under which this initiation took place were very
complicated, as now becomes the case with all initiations, for it was a matter of uniting
the original Christianity which had developed continuously from Dionysius the
Areopagite onward through Scotus Erigena up to Scholasticism and medieval
Mysticism. This stream was still able to have an effect upon the peoples through
preachers and sermons, but it had gradually lost its influence because it led to the very
highest levels of thought. Therefore, fructification must be brought from the original
spiritual element. A peak had been reached but it was at the same time a blind alley, and
in order to work upon the initiate “Lohengrin,” new fructification must come from the
East - this was brought about by the Crusades. The really important outcome of this was
the founding of the Knights Templar, the actual messengers of the Grail. They built a
sanctuary on the site of Solomon’s Temple, and after preparation there, they became
servants of the Holy Grail, were initiated there by the Grail. This happened at the turn of
the 13th and 14th centuries and was prepared in the 11th and 12th centuries.

We have now reached the stage of preparation for the Fifth Subrace, the Germanic-
English. The Templar rites show us that it is a matter of bringing the influence of
Christianity to bear upon a new race. This enables us to understand the creed of the
Knights Templar and their secret cult. They said, “The Christ as presented by the
Western Church means nothing to us. But we proclaim the Christ who walked in
Jerusalem and received initiation through the Baptist. Therefore, our teaching about
Christ comes not from the Church Dignitaries and Church Fathers, but John, the
initiator himself is our teacher.” This was a fundamental tenet. Another was: “We again
espouse belief in the elemental forces that are present in the world. We believe that the
destinies of men are a result of the stellar constellations and that man himself is born
out of these constellations, in conformity with the Laws of Nature.” The civilization of
the Germanic-English race has grown out of two fundamental principles: on the one
side the religious-Protestant element, and on the other side, the scientific attitude to the
physical world.
 61

The Rosicrucians, however, watch over the common stock of what separated into purely
worldly science and materialistic religion. They cultivated in the Fifth Subrace the study
of the concrete facts of evolution, prepared the social legislature, and will be the actual
leaders of the Sixth Subrace.”

Rudolf Steiner, Greek and Germanic Mythology, Berlin, 1904, GA 102

“In the course of our Fifth Root Race, thus, in the time lying between the end of Atlantis
and the beginning of the next, the Sixth Root Race, an advance in human evolution of
the highest importance will be made. The Leaders of mankind, their Manus, will arise in
mankind itself. The Manu of the Fifth Root Race is called the “Leader of the Christ
Initiates” or “the Leader of the Christ Oracle.”

None of the great leaders who brought men forward, who gave them their important
impulses during the earlier Root Races, went through their own evolution entirely on
the earth. They underwent it in part on other planets, and thus they brought from other
worlds the great impulses they had to give to the earth. The Manus of Lemuria and
Atlantis, as well as the Chief Manu of our Fifth Root Race, are supersensible
individualities, who underwent the sublime schooling which enabled them to become
the leaders of mankind, on other planets. But during the Fifth Root Race, highly
developed human individualities have trained themselves so that from the Sixth Root
Race onward, they will be capable of becoming the leaders of mankind. The leader of the
Sixth Root Race, in particular, will be a man as we are, only one of the most advanced,
indeed the most advanced among men. He will be a being who began his development
when incarnation started, approximately in the middle of Lemuria, one who has always
been a man among men, only he was able to advance more rapidly, and one who has
gone through every stage of human evolution. This will be the fundamental
characteristic of the Manus of the Sixth Root Race. Such Beings have to undergo all
kinds of initiation, to be initiated again and again.

The Fifth Root Race from its outset has always had initiates, men who were so initiated
as to enable them to walk their own freely willed path. This was not the case during the
Lemurian period, nor even in Atlantis. Both in Lemuria and Atlantis, those who helped
mankind forward, those who ruled and guided mankind, those who were political
leaders and leaders of great religious communities, were under the influence of higher
beings. They were directly dependent upon higher beings, beings who had gone through
their own development on other planets. It is not until the Fifth Root Race that mankind
 62

is left free. Then we have initiates who have a connection with higher beings, but to
whom such comprehensive guidance is not given. More and more freedom is allowed to
the initiates of the Fifth Root Race in matters of detail. Guidance is given along general
lines, not only to the initiates but to those who are stimulated by them. Impulses are
given to them but yet in such a way that it is out of their own spirituality that they have
to carry things out.”

Rudolf Steiner, Lucifer and Ahriman, Lecture 1, Dornach, November 1,

1919, GA 191
“If we were to go much farther back, to a time more than three thousand years before
the Christian era, we should find that together with the promptings of wisdom there did
come a moral impulse, that the moral principles, the ethics needed by these men of old
were contained in this wisdom. But a specific ethos, a specific moral impulse such as
came with Christianity was not an integral part of Paganism. Why was this? It was
because through the millennia directly preceding Christianity, this Pagan wisdom was
inspired from a place far away in Asia, inspired by a remarkable Being who had been
incarnated in the distant East in the third millennium before Christ - namely, Lucifer.

To the many things we have learned about the evolution of humanity, this knowledge
too must be added: that just as there was the incarnation which culminated in Golgotha,
the incarnation of Christ in the man Jesus of Nazareth, there was an actual incarnation
of Lucifer in far off Asia, in the third millennium B.C. And the source of inspiration for
much ancient culture was what can only be described as an earthly incarnation of
Lucifer in a man of flesh and blood. Even Christianity, even the Mystery of Golgotha as
enacted among men, was understood at first by the only means then available, namely
the old Luciferic wisdom. The one-sidedness of the Gnosis, with all its amazing
profundity, stems from the influence that had spread from this Lucifer-incarnation over
the whole of the ancient world. The significance of the Mystery of Golgotha cannot be
fully grasped without the knowledge that rather less than three thousand years
previously, there had been the incarnation of Lucifer.

In order that the Luciferic inspiration might be lifted away from its one-sidedness, there
came the incarnation of Christ and with it the impulse for the education and
development of European civilization and its American offshoot. It was a preeminently
Luciferic culture that persisted until after the Mystery of Golgotha - a culture inspired by
the incarnation of Lucifer in China in the third millennium BC. Many influences of this
 63

incarnation continued to radiate and were still powerful in the early Christian centuries;
indeed, they are working to this day.

Had there been no Luciferic wisdom, no understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha could
have been acquired through the Gnosis in the early centuries of Christendom.
Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha diminished with the fading of the Luciferic
wisdom.”

Rudolf Steiner, The Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman, Lecture 3, GA 193

“The attitude of soul formerly prevailing in human beings was preserved through the
Mysteries, mainly through the Asiatic Mysteries. But in the fourth millennium B.C. and
until the beginning of the third, humanity in general - when uninfluenced by the
Mystery wisdom - lived an existence pervaded by a more or less dim, twilight
consciousness. In Asia and the then-known world, it may be said that during the fourth
and at the beginning of the third millennium before the Mystery of Golgotha, people’s
life of soul was dim and instinctive. But the Mysteries were there, into which, through
the powerful rites and ceremonies, the spiritual worlds were able to penetrate. And it
was from these centers that human beings received illumination.

At the beginning of the third millennium a momentous event took place. The root cause
of this dim, more instinctive life may be characterized by saying that as beings of spirit
and soul, people were still unable at that time to make use of the human organs of
intellect. These organs were already within them, they had taken shape in their physical
constitution, but the being of spirit and soul could not make use of them. Thus, human
beings could not acquire knowledge through their own thinking, through their own
powers of intellectual discernment. They were dependent upon what was imparted to
them from the Mysteries. And then, about the beginning of the third millennium, a
momentous event took place in the east of Asia.

A child of a distinguished Asiatic family of the time was allowed to grow up in the
precincts of the Mystery ceremonies. Circumstances were such that this child was
actually permitted to take part in the ceremonies, undoubtedly because the priests
conducting the rites in the Mysteries felt it as an inspiration that such a child must be
allowed to participate. And when the being incarnate in that child had reached the age of
about forty - approximately that age - something very remarkable came to light. It
became evident that this man who had been allowed to grow up in the precincts of one
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of the Mystery centers in East Asia, began suddenly, at the age of about forty, to grasp
through the faculty of human intellect itself what had formerly come into the Mysteries
through revelation, and only through revelation. He was as it were the first to make use
of the organs of human intellect, but still in association with the Mysteries.

In this man, Lucifer himself was incarnated - no more and no less than that! It is a
significant, momentous fact that in the third millennium before Christ an incarnation of
Lucifer in the flesh actually took place in the east of Asia. And from this incarnation of
Lucifer in the flesh - for this being became a teacher - there went forth what is described
as the pre-Christian, pagan culture which still survived in the gnosis of the earliest
Christian centuries.

It would be wrong to pass derogatory judgment on this Lucifer culture. For all the
beauty produced by Greek civilization, even the insight that is still alive in ancient Greek
philosophy and in the tragedies of Aeschylus would have been impossible without this
Lucifer incarnation.

The influence of the Lucifer incarnation was still powerful in the south of Europe, in the
north of Africa, and in Asia Minor during the first centuries of Christendom. And when
the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place on earth, it was essentially the luciferic wisdom
through which it could be understood. The gnosis, which set about the task of grasping
the import of the Mystery of Golgotha, was impregnated through and through with
luciferic wisdom. It must therefore be emphasized, firstly, that at the beginning of the
third millennium BC there was a Chinese incarnation of Lucifer; at the beginning of our
own era the incarnation of Christ took place. And to begin with, the significance of the
incarnation of Christ was grasped because the power of the old Lucifer incarnation still
survived. This power did not actually fade from the human faculty of comprehension
until the fourth century AD; and even then, it had its aftermath, its ramifications.

To these two incarnations, the Lucifer incarnation in ancient times and the incarnation
of the Christ which gives the earth its meaning, a third incarnation will be added in a
future not so very far distant. And the events of the present time are already moving in
such a way as to prepare for this incarnation of Ahriman.

Of the incarnation of Lucifer at the beginning of the third millennium BC, we must say:
through Lucifer, human beings have acquired the faculty of using the organs of their
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intellect, of their power of intellectual discernment. It was Lucifer himself, in a human

body, who was the first to grasp through the power of intellect what formerly could be
imparted to humanity only through revelation, namely, the content of the Mysteries.

What is now in preparation and will quite definitely come to pass on earth in a none-
too-distant future is an actual incarnation of Ahriman.

As you know, since the middle of the fifteenth century we have been living in an era in
which it behooves humankind to come more and more into possession of the full power
of consciousness. It is of the very greatest importance that people should approach the
coming incarnation of Ahriman with full consciousness of this event. The incarnation of
Lucifer could be recognized only by the prophetic insight of the priests of the Mysteries.
People were also very unconscious of what the incarnation of Christ and the event of
Golgotha really signified.”

Rudolf Steiner, From the Contents of Esoteric Classes, Stuttgart, 1912, GA

266
“Lucifer brought it about that we moved into our physical and etheric bodies and didn’t
remain floating above them, and this was actually good for us, for this enabled our ego
to attain cognitional power and memory. Memory is Lucifer’s gift. Through him, we
descended into our physical body on being driven out of the paradise of spiritual worlds.
We must now revoke Lucifer’s deed, but we shouldn’t think that it wasn’t necessary.”

Rudolf Steiner, The Ahrimanic Deception, Zurich, October 27, 1919, GA 193
“The answer is supplied for Initiation-wisdom only through a very, very weighty fact,
through an event which took place far over in Asia at the beginning of the third
millennium of the pre-Christian era. Clairvoyant vision finds in looking back that an
incarnation of a super-sensible being in a human being had taken place there, just as in
the Event of Golgotha an incarnation of the super-sensible Christ Being had taken place
in the man Jesus of Nazareth. The incarnation that took place at the beginning of the
third millennium BC is extraordinarily difficult to follow up, even with the science of
seership, of initiation. It gave humanity something of immense brilliance, having an
incisive effect. What it gave to humanity, in fact, was the primeval wisdom.

Viewed externally, one can say that it was a wisdom penetrating deep into reality; cold,
based purely on ideas, permeated little by feeling. The actual inner nature of this
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wisdom can be judged only by going back to that incarnation which took place over in
Asia at the beginning of the third pre-Christian millennium. It is revealed to the
retrospective clairvoyant gaze that this was an actual human incarnation of the Luciferic
Power. And this incarnation of Lucifer in humanity, which in a certain way has been
achieved, was the origin of the widely extended ancient wisdom based on the Third
Post-Atlantean civilization.

There was still an after-effect, even in Grecian times, of the widespread cultural impulse
that was derived from this Asiatic, Luciferic human being. Luciferic wisdom was of the
utmost benefit to man in that epoch of evolution - brilliant in a certain way, graduated
according to the different peoples and races among which it was spread. It was plainly
recognizable throughout the whole of Asia, then in the Egyptian civilization, the
Babylonian civilization and even in the culture of Greece.

All that was possible to the humanity of that time in thought, in the realm of poetry, in
deeds, was in a certain way determined through the entry of this Luciferic impulse into
human civilization.”

Rudolf Steiner’s Indications

It is impossible to summarize Rudolf Steiner’s vast and profound knowledge of

humanity’s development over time. No one connects outer events to inner spiritual
evolution as well as Steiner. His comprehensive knowledge of ancient pre-history is
unparalleled. In his own time, Steiner was far beyond even the Theosophists of his day
and his wisdom and insight about Atlantis and its migrations align with modern DNA
research much better than knowledge given by his contemporaries. Even in the results
of modern research, Steiner’s ideas go beyond what is now known about human
migrations in ancient times. Only Rudolf Steiner gives us indications that continuously
illuminate modern research and point in directions that may sometimes seem odd or
unusual. If Steiner’s ideas continue to be studied and compared with contemporary
discoveries, we will find an endless source of future research.

Any study of Scythianos entails understanding the Manu of Atlantis, because Scythianos
is the Manu of the next great Epoch, the Sixth Subrace. Thus, Scythianos is the person
who shows us what a human initiate must undergo to become a Manu - from an Initiate,
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to the Initiator; from human to Master, the path of the bodhisattva. The life of
Scythianos is the archetypal path of the evolution of the human spirit – the development
of the Spirit Self or Manas through the Consciousness Soul. This higher self speaks a
language that is akin to the universal language of Atlantis, called the TAO. The mission
of Scythianos is to preserve this TAO and continuously evolve and develop this
“language of the spirit” from “eternity to eternity.” Scythianos became the leader of the
new mysteries of the Cosmic Christ, the Christ Oracle, as Steiner calls him. From his
leadership, that influenced cultures from Ireland to Eastern Siberia, we have great
sagas, myths, and hero stories that are still alive today. Even the Mysteries of the Holy
Grail have arisen from the teachings of Scythianos. There are few extant writings of his
teachings, but the great epics of many cultures reflect the development of courage that
was at the heart of Scythianos’ teachings. The ancient clairvoyance of Atlantis was
merged with dozens of cultures as Scythianos led many migrations, over thousands of
years, to spread the wisdom of the Sun Mystery Center of Atlantis and the teachings of
Manu, the “Noah of Atlantis.”

What is often confused in the interpretation of Rudolf Steiner’s migration indications is

that the research needs to separate out the influence of Scythianos and Manu. We hear
in the selections above that Scythianos, Zarathustra and Manu all worked together near
Ireland before Manu set off to the East and ended up, after many people had been left
behind on the migration, in Central Asia, near the Gobi Desert, at the Eastern end of the
Tarim Basin. Manu established a new Sun Mystery Center and disseminated cultural
influences into ancient India, Persia, Egypt/Chaldea, Greece and other areas. Manu’s
work is often conflated with the work of Scythianos who also traveled East and worked
with existing cultures along the way. Scythianos went even further East than Manu and
then turned back and headed West again after influencing tribes that crossed the
Bearing Straight into America.

What is sometimes seen as a “mistake” on Rudolf Steiner’s part, is a misunderstanding

of the influence of Scythianos and the conflating of his and Manu’s efforts. Some
clarifications of Steiner’s indications may help sort out these versions, but in the end,
there is not enough “evidence” to make conclusions and not enough information in
Steiner’s indications to separate the influence of each. In studying the religions, myths,
and history of the areas that we are told Scythianos migrated through, we have found
some contributing information that helps. Some of these ideas have also been arrived at
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independently by other Anthroposophists. We would like to share some of those insights

from their written works.

Other Anthroposophists on Scythianos

Dairy notes from W. J. Stein, published in GA 264

“Rudolf Steiner once related to Friedrich Rittelmeyer that Scythianos ‘wanders among
six other Masters: he mediates between them: two in the East, two in the West, Master
Jesus and Christian Rosenkreutz in the center.”

Sergei O. Prokofieff, Rudolf Steiner and the Masters of Esoteric

Christianity, 2018
“Scythianos’ mission was to prepare the East-Slavic tribes to receive the Christ impulse
in their souls and prepare a new social community of the “Christ people”, guardians of
the mysteries of the physical body/forces of the new clairvoyance/mysteries of the
World Midnight, leader of the Hibernian mysteries, guided the Viking explorers and was
the teacher of Joseph of Arimathea. The Scythians inhabited the south of Russia with
Neapolis (Crimea) as capital.

T. H. Meyers, Clairvoyance and Consciousness, The Tao Impulse in

Evolution, 1991
“Three culture-initiating mystery streams spread out from the sinking Atlantis over the
continents to the east and west which were beginning to assume fixed contours. A
Northern stream spread out eastward and across Ireland, England, Northern France,
Scandinavia and Russia to Central Asia; a Southern stream spreads across Southern
Spain, Greece, Egypt and also towards Asian territory. A third stream spreads West to
America.”

“The Mystery streams spreading eastward (both northerly and southerly) were those of
chief importance in fructifying post-Atlantean cultures developed up till now. In the
Northern Mysteries the candidate for initiation learned to penetrate the veil which
Ahriman had spread over the spirit in nature; in the Southern Mysteries he was led to
penetrate to the secrets of his own soul which had been shrouded from him by Lucifer.”
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“Inasmuch as the ancient clairvoyance lives on in pure, sense-free thinking, which

everyone can achieve nowadays, the task of Scythianos, to preserve this kind of
clairvoyance for ‘future ages’ has been achieved. These ‘future ages’, in which everyone
can find access to the supersensible worlds by means of clairvoyance of thinking, have
already arrived. Whoever is able to think the supersensible in pure concepts before
actually perceiving the supersensible for himself, becomes an independent continuator
of the elements of the one-time mission of Scythianos. As a result of this, the second
element of this initiate’s mission will, from now on, become more and more prominent:
‘to teach about the powers which rule from eternity to eternity’, as Rudolf Steiner
described it on 31.8.1909 in The East in the Light of the West. Scythianos has the task of
teaching a spiritualized zodiacal cosmology and with that he will provide a deepened
cosmological understanding of Christianity.”

“The Hibernian Mysteries were the last of the Great Mysteries through which human
and cosmic secrets could be expressed. These mysteries could not be approached by a
historical or clairvoyance perspective. They have preserved the old wisdom in its purest
form.”

“In the fourth century A. D., four spiritual leaders inaugurated what was later to become
the movement of western Rosicrucian Christian spirituality: Manes, Buddha,
Zarathustra, and Scythianos.”
B. C. J. Lievegoed, Mystery Streams in Europe and the New Mysteries,
1982
“In 1899, at the end of the Kali Yuga, all mystery streams came to an end. The New
Mysteries strive to unite all streams. The East and West mystery streams were united in
869 AD by Parsifal, the grail knight, becoming the King of the Grail.”

Northern Stream:

 its task was to develop the I (ego) for the Consciousness Soul through courage
 mysteries of the earth
 worked out of the earth in human will power
 developed presence of mind, dauntless spirit
 embodied spiritual intuition through the life-giving sun forces
 expert at breeding: horses, cattle, dogs
 70

 Apollonian Mysteries, memories of ancient Hyperborea

 sources of Trotten/Drotten/Druid mysteries
 well-hidden religious communities
 inspired the Celts, Slavs, Turanians, Mongolians, etc.
 strong influence on all Slavic/Scandinavian/Nordic/Germanic people
 mystery center in the White Sea on Solovietsky Islands
 settled near the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Turan Basin
 mystery center at Externsteine was sanctuary of Odin (Wotan)
 the bodhisattva Odin (Buddha) works from below the earth upwards
 created the basis for the development of the consciousness soul
 the asuras are the counterforce to the Northern Stream
 awakened the ego, learned how to develop love
 remained concealed until 1200 AD
 created Grail and Arthurian literature
 created the Kalevala, which is the “epic” of the Consciousness Soul
 courage to face evil asuras and conquer decay and death

Eastern Stream:

 its task is the development of wisdom

 works through Sun forces
 came from the Atlantean Sun Mystery Center
 developed thinking into wisdom
 refined the astral body to receive cosmic wisdom
 development towards the Spirit Self (Manas)
 left migrants along the way throughout Europe
 developed the White Island in the Gobi Desert
 Settled near the eastern end of the Tarim Basin, near Lop Nor Lake
 inspired cultural dissemination to India-Persia-Egypt-Greece-Europe
 works from above downward
 seeks the path to Spirit itself through the Spiritual Soul
 71

Southern Stream:

 its task was to develop the physical body

 Southern Mysteries arise out of the human body
 spread from Egypt to Rome
 creators of materialism
 known as the Dionysian Mysteries
 maintained the memory of ancient Lemuria
 Lucifer captured this stream implanting self-interest and judicial life
 led by Hermes the Thrice Great, who inspired Egyptian culture
 taught the mysteries of material death and resurrection of the body
 taught the mysteries of rescuing the spiritual-physical from matter
 Enoch was also a leader of the Southern Stream
 Rosicrucianism is a renewal of the Egyptian/Hebraic Mysteries
 inspired Ahrimanic materialism
 taught the path of resurrection towards Spirit Man (Atman)
 eventually must connect to the risen body of Christ

Western Stream:

 numerous Mars and Saturn Mystery Center migrations to the Americas

 the source of the original Toltecs
 its task was to find the path to Life Spirit (Budhi)

East-West Stream:

 its task was to bring Christianity from the East to the West
 the original Christian grail stream - from Jerusalem to the West
 the Holy Blood Mysteries travel to Glastonbury via Joseph of Arimathea
 72

Sergei O. Prokofieff, The Spiritual Origins of Eastern Europe and the

Future Mysteries of the Holy Grail, 1993

Scythianos, the Leader of the Northern Stream:

 transferred his Hibernian Mystery Center to the spiritual world nearest the Earth
 most mysteriously hidden teacher
 was on the island of Ireland with Manu and Zarathustra after Atlantis
 his task was to preserve the ancient wisdom and clairvoyance of Atlantis
 to teach about what “rules from eternity to eternity” (from Saturn to Vulcan)
 guardian of the mysteries of “World Midnight” (the Sun at Midnight)
 clairvoyantly witnessed the Mystery of Golgotha from a distance
 understood the cosmic secrets of the physical body (microcosm from the
macrocosm)
 inspired the Celtic mysteries
 initiated Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus in the Southern Mysteries
 known as “the great and honored Bodhisattva of the West”
 develop a spiritual cosmology and implanted it in many cultures
 he is the “human Manu” of the future Sixth Epoch

Northern Stream:

 its task was the permeation of the Sentient Soul with the feeling of the Ego
 led by Scythianos and Zarathustra
 came from the Sun mystery center of Manu on Atlantis
 Zarathustra went on to lead the ancient Persian culture through many
incarnations
 Scythianos seeded cultures from Britain to Eastern Russia
 its mission was the development of the human “conscience”
 transmitted the ancient Atlantean language of TAO
 73

Southern stream:

 led by Manu to the Central Asian mystery center in China

 came from the Sun Mystery Center of Atlantis

Hibernian Mysteries:

 were the last great mysteries, mighty and sublime

 spirituality cut off from the outer world by a veil of silence and secrecy
 synthesis of the spiritual wisdom of the Northern and Southern mystery streams
 founded by Manu with Scythianos
 the “cradle of conscience”
 inspired King Arthur’s knights
 inspired Irish Christianity, all the way to Kiev

East-Slavic people:

 developed the “Grail Mood”

 carried the “impulse of conscience”
 the driving impulse of the “oneness of soul”
 were prepared by Scythianos
 the Christ impulse can stream directly into them
 can feel the presence and breath of Christ
 have developed a new organ for the perception and knowledge of the Christ-
impulse
 accepted Christianity easily and quickly
 sacrificed their further development to save Europe from Tartars and Mongols
 developed compassion (astral), patience (etheric) and willingness for sacrifice
(physical)
 learned about “ego-impulse” through Thor/Donor/Perun (ego courage)
 74

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Dairy notes from W. J. Stein published in modified form in GA 264, p. 246.

 Lievegoed, B. C. J., Mystery Streams in Europe and the New Mysteries,
Anthroposophic Press, NYC, 1982.
 Merry, Eleanor C., The Flaming Door, Floris Books, Edinburgh 1989.
 Meyer, T. H., Clairvoyance and Consciousness, The Tao Impulse in Evolution, Temple
Lodge Press, London, 1991.
 Prokofieff, Sergei O., Rudolf Steiner and the Masters of Esoteric Christianity,
Wynstones Press, Stourbridge, England, 2018.
 Prokofieff, Sergei, O., The Spiritual Origins of Eastern Europe and the Future
Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Temple Lodge, London, 1993.
 Steiner, Rudolf, GA 94, An Esoteric Cosmology, October 28, 1906.
 Steiner, Rudolf, GA 109, January 21, 1909.
 Steiner, Rudolf, GA 109/111, lecture of May 31, 1909.
 Steiner, Rudolf, GA 113, August 31, 1909, The East in Light of the West.
 Steiner, Rudolf, GA 158, November 9, 1914, Our Connection with the Elemental World.
 Steiner, Rudolf, GA 185, November 3, 1918, From Symphony to Reality in Modern
History.
 Steiner, Rudolf, November 14, 1909.
 Steiner, Rudolf, Christ and the Human Soul, lecture of 29.5.1912, CW 155.
 Steiner, Rudolf, East in the Light of the West, Lecture on August 27, 1909, New York,
1986. GA 113.
 Steiner, Rudolf, East in the Light of the West, Lecture on August 27, 1909, New York,
1986. GA 113.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 1.5.1907, CW 104a.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 10.9.1923, CW 228.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 11.4.1909, in CW 109.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 12.6.1910.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 14.11.1914, CW 158
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 14.8.1908, CW 105, and lecture of 12.9.1908, CW 106.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 15.3.1924, CW 353.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 2.12.1922, CW.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 21.12.1916, CW 173.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 23.4.1912., CW 133.
 75

 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 29.7.1906, CW 97.

 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 9.11.1914, CW 158.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lecture of 9.4.1912, CW 158.
 Steiner, Rudolf, Lecture of November 2, 1918.
 Steiner, Rudolf, lectures of 4.8.1908 and 13.8.1908, in CW 105.
 Steiner, Rudolf, Mystery Knowledge and Centers, December 7-9, 1923, Rudolf Steiner
Press, London, 1973. GA 232.
 Steiner, Rudolf, Mystery Centers, lectures of 7, 8 and 9 December 1923, in CW 232.
 Steiner, Rudolf, Origin of the Finnish People, November 9, 1914, GA 158.
 Steiner, Rudolf, The European Mysteries and Their Initiates, Lecture of 6.5.1909, CW
57.
 Steiner, Rudolf, The Mission of Individual Folksouls in Relation to Teutonic Mythology,
lecture of June, 12, 1910, Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1970. GA 121.
 Steiner, Rudolf, The Mission of the Folk Souls, 12.6.1910, CW 121.
 Steiner, Rudolf, The Mysteries of the Druids and Drotten, Lecture of 30.9.1904, in CW
93.
 Steiner, Rudolf, The Nordic Initiation, Lecture of 26.6.1910, CW 119.
 Wachsmuth, Guenther, The Evolution of Mankind, translated by Norman Macbeth,
private printing.
 World History, Rudolf Steiner, lecture of December 27, 1923, CW 233.
 76

APPENDIX

Atlantean Races According to Theosophy

According to Theosophists, the first Atlantean subrace was the result of the last, or
seventh Lemurian subrace. Chankshusha Manu left Lemuria and migrated first to the
south of the Atlantean continent (Kusha) and, from there later migrated further north.
The seven subraces of the Atlantean root race were:

 Rmoahal
 Tlavati (Cro-Magnons)
 Toltec (American Indians)
 Turanian
 Original Semites/Aryans (Phoenicians)
 Akkadians
 Mongolian

These subraces migrated to and colonized Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.
The descendants of the Atlanteans include those of the Mongolian race, the Malayan
race, and the American Indian race as well as some people called the Mediterranean
race.

The Masters of the Ancient Wisdom warned their disciples (the white magicians) to flee
Atlantis in ships while there was still time to get out before the final cataclysm. The final
sudden submergence of Atlantis due to earthquakes occurred in 9,564 BC.

H. P. Blavatsky, the great Theosophist, asserted humanity was in the fifth root race, the
Aryan race, which Theosophists believe to have emerged from the previous fourth root
race (Atlantean root race) beginning about 100,000 years ago in Atlantis. Theosophists
believe the Aryan root race was physically progenerated by the Vaivasvatu Manu, one of
the Masters of the Ancient Wisdom.

A small group of these Aryan migrants from Atlantis split from the main body of
migrants and went south to the shore of an inland sea in what was then a verdant and
 77

lush area where they founded the “City of the Sun.” The main body of migrants
continued onwards to an island called the “White Island” in the middle of what was then
an inland sea in what is now the Gobi desert, where they established the “City of the
Bridge.” The City of the Bridge was constructed directly below the etheric city called
Shamballa, where Theosophists believe the governing deity of Earth, Sanat Kumara,
dwells as “The Lord of the World.”

The subraces of the Aryan Fifth Root Race include the first subrace, the Hindu, which
migrated from the City of the Bridge to India in 60,000 BC; the second subrace, the
Arabian in 40,000 BC; the third subrace, the Persian in 30,000 BC; the fourth subrace,
the Celts to Western and Southern Europe beginning in 20,000 BC (Mycenaean Greeks
and Celts); and the fifth subrace, the Teutonic, to what is now Germany beginning in
20,000 BC (the original Slavs).

A Geographical, Historical and Ethnological Sketch of Atlantis

(1896)

Scott-Elliot, William, The Story of Atlantis

The Rmoahal Race: “The Rmoahal race came into existence between four and five
million years ago, at which period large portions of the great southern continent of
Lemuria still existed, while the continent of Atlantis had not assumed the proportions it
ultimately attained. It was upon a spur of this Lemurian land that the Rmoahal race was
born on the Ashanti coast of to-day. It was a hot, moist country, where huge
antediluvian animals lived in reedy swamps and dank forests. Their height in these early
days was about ten or twelve feet - truly a race of giants - but through the centuries their
stature gradually dwindled, as did that of all the races in turn.

They ultimately migrated to the southern shores of Atlantis, were they were engaged in
constant warfare with the sixth and seventh sub-races of the Lemurians then inhabiting
that country. A large part of the tribe eventually moved north, while the remainder
settled down and intermarried with these Lemurian aborigines. Their descendants
eventually became subject, at least nominally, to the Semite kings.
 78

Some astronomers recognize that a minor glacial epoch occurs about every 30,000
years. But in addition to these, there were two occasions in the history of Atlantis when
the ice-belt desolated not merely the northern regions, but, invading the bulk of the
continent, forced all life to migrate to equatorial lands. The first of these was in process
during the Rmoahal days, about 3,000,000 years ago, while the second took place in the
Toltec ascendency about 850,000 years ago.”

The Tlavatli Race: “The place of origin of the Tlavatli, or 2nd sub-race, was an island
off the west coast of Atlantis. Thence they spread into Atlantis proper, chiefly across the
middle of the continent, gradually however tending northwards towards the stretch of
coast facing the promontory of Greenland. Physically they were a powerful and hardy
race but they were not quite so tall as the Rmoahals whom they drove still further north.
Their chief settlements were in the mountainous districts of the interior, approximately
coterminous with what ultimately became the island of Poseidonis. They peopled the
northern coasts, whilst a mixture of Tlavatli and Toltec races inhabited the western
islands, which subsequently formed part of the American continent.”

The Toltec Race: “The Toltec, or 3rd sub-race, was a magnificent development. It
ruled the whole continent of Atlantis for thousands of years in great material power and
glory. Indeed so dominant and so endowed with vitality was this race that
intermarriages with the following sub-races failed to modify the type, which still
remained essentially Toltec; and hundreds of thousands of years later we find one of
their remote family races ruling magnificently in Mexico and Peru, long ages before
their degenerate descendants were conquered by the fiercer Aztec tribes from the north.
They also were a tall race, averaging about eight feet during the period of their
ascendency, dwindling to the dimensions that are common to-day. The approximate
birthplace of this race lay near the west coast of Atlantis. The pure Toltec race created a
political organization that extended right across the continent, and it was from their
great capital on the eastern coast that the Toltec emperors held their almost world-wide
sway.”

The First Turanian Race: “The Turanian, or 4th sub-race, had their origin on the
eastern side of the continent, south of the mountainous district inhabited by the Tlavatli
people. The Turanians were colonists from the earliest days, and great numbers
migrated to the lands lying to the east of Atlantis. They were never a thoroughly
 79

dominant race on the mother-continent, though some of their tribes and family races
became fairly powerful. The great central regions of the continent lying west and south
of the Tlavatli mountainous district was their special home, for they shared these lands
with the Toltecs.”

The Original Semite Race: “The original Semite, or 5th sub-race, had its origin in
the mountainous country which formed the more southerly of the two northeastern
peninsulas which is now represented by Scotland, Ireland, and some of the surrounding
seas. This least desirable portion of the great continent maintained its independence
against aggressive southern kings, till the time came for it in turn to spread abroad and
colonize. By the time the Semites rose to power, hundreds of thousands of years had
passed and they were a turbulent, discontented race, always at war with their neighbors,
especially with the then growing power of the Akkadians.”

The Akkadian Race: “The birth of the Akkadians, or 6th sub-race, was after the great
catastrophe of 800,000 years ago in the land east of Atlantis, about the middle of the
great peninsula whose southeastern extremity stretched out towards the old continent.
They overran the now diminished continent of Atlantis. They fought with the Semites in
many battles both on land and sea, and very considerable fleets were used on both sides.
Finally, about 100,000 years ago they completely vanquished the Semites, and from that
time onwards an Akkadian dynasty was set up in the old Semite capital, and ruled the
country wisely for several hundred years. They were a great trading, sea-going and
colonizing people, and they established many centers of communication with distant
lands.”

The Mongolian Race: “The Mongolian, or 7th sub-race, seems to be the only one that
had absolutely no touch with the mother-continent. Having its origin on the plains of
Tartary it was directly developed from descendants of the Turanian race, which it
gradually supplanted over the greater part of Asia. This sub-race multiplied exceedingly,
and even at the present day a majority of the earth’s inhabitants technically belong to it,
though many of its divisions are so deeply colored with the blood of earlier races as to be
scarcely distinguishable from them.”
 80

The Mission of Rama

Eduard Schure, The Great Initiates, 1919

“Four or five thousand years before our time, dense forest still covered ancient Scythia,
which extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic Seas. The human who lived in the
forests of ancient Scythia was no longer a cave man. Already he could call himself
master of this land. He had invented flint knives and hatchets, bow and arrow, sling and
bowstring. Finally, he had found two battle companions, two excellent, incomparable,
lifelong friends: the dog and the horse. The domesticated dog, having become the
faithful guardian of his forest home, gave a sense of security to his house. In taming the
horse, man had conquered the land and subjugated the other animals; he had become
the king of space. Mounted on wild horses, these sandy-haired men rode like the
lightning. They killed the bear, the wolf, the aurochs and frightened the panther and the
lion who lived in the forests at that time.

Civilization had begun; the embryonic family, the clan and the tribe existed. Everywhere
the Scythians, sons of the Hyperboreans, erected huge menhirs to their ancestors. When
a leader died, his arms and horse were buried with him so that, it was said, the warrior
could ride across the clouds and chase the dragon of fire in the other world. Hence the
custom of sacrificing the horse, which plays such an important role in the Vedas and
among the Scandinavians. Religion thus began in the worship of ancestors.

The Semites found the one God, the universal Spirit, in the desert, on the mountain
tops, in the immensity of stellar space. The Scythians and the Celts found their gods in
the form of many spirits, in the heart of their forests. There they heard voices; there they
experienced the first thrills of the Unseen, visions of the great Beyond. This is why the
forest -- delightful or dreadful -- has remained dear to the white race. Charmed by the
music of the leaves and the magic of the moon, in the course of the ages, men always
return to it as to a fountain of youth, the temple of the great mother Hertha. There sleep
men’s gods, their loves, their lost Mysteries. From the most remote times, visionary
women prophesied under trees. Each tribe had its great prophetess, like the Voluspa of
the Scandinavians, with her school of Druidesses. Early in life young druids were shown
remarkable knowledge of plants, their marvelous powers, the distilling and preparation
of their juices, as well as the study of stars and their forces.”
 81

Old and New Mysteries

B. C. J. Lievegoed, Toward the 21st Century - Doing the Good, Lecture 1

“Out of Pralaya, between the Old Moon and the newly developing Earth, came first the
warmth world - the Polar time - as Steiner called it. This Polar time was a repetition of
Saturn development. The Elohim, Spirits of Form, were working in this warmth, this
fire, giving the ego organization to the world. The ego organization of man was a part of
the Elohim, which then separated from their own being and gave themselves to the
world so that mankind might develop his individual ego. The beginning of the ego
organization meant differentiations in the warmth sphere.

After this had been worked out, the Hyperborean times began. The Hyperborean times
were the second period of development of the Earth which was more or less a repetition
of the Old Sun period. Our sun and earth were not yet divided but were one. In the
carbonic atmosphere, which was radiating life in this Hyperborean time, the darkness
began to radiate light. In the carbonic atmosphere the first plant forms appeared. Plants
appeared like ice flowers on the glass of our windows - forming and sprouting in the air.
In this same time the etheric body of man was worked on by the same Elohim.

The third period came, the Lemurian time, a repetition of the Old Moon. By the end of
the Hyperborean time, the sun had moved out of its unity with the earth and gave its
light from outside. The planets differentiated and shone from outside onto the world.
This world was half fluid, as Steiner describes it, a half fluid albumen atmosphere. Man,
in the form he had in the first half of the Lemurian time, was not divided by sex. Man
had enormous willing powers. At the end of the first half of Lemurian times, we see the
beginning of the Saurian period, when the dinosaurs and other large animals began to
develop. Man learned to control volcanic forces; in this way he derived enormous
strength. The old folk story giants are remembrances of men in the Lemurian period.

In the second half of Lemurian times, mankind divided into two sexes. The masculine
part of the human race received ever more willing powers. He became a being of action
and reaction. An action from outside gave rise to a reaction of enormous will forces.
Since that time man has developed an ego which also works. However, it is not
completely untrue to say that man is a being of action and reaction.
 82

The female part of the human race had the possibility of turning inward, of a beginning
of consciousness, so that the consciousness force, and the first images of consciousness,
began to develop inside the feminine half of mankind. Language first began. Sounds
were first carried on the breath, and music also began. Women lead the first human
culture — the source of ancient matriarchies. At the end of the Lemurian epoch the
misuse of astral and volcanic forces brought the downfall of Lemurian culture.

Only a few people could survive on the borders of old Lemuria, a region perhaps
localized in South Africa - one of the few parts of the world where remnants of the
Lemurian world still exist. These few people who could pass from the decaying
Lemurian culture to the next stage of development formed the culture of Atlantis. They
were led by the primeval teachers of mankind. These primeval teachers withdrew to the
Moon and sent their leadership from outside, from the Moon sphere.

During the Lemurian period, the forces of the planets worked on the earth, having
points at which they worked into the formation of the etheric forces both of earth and of
man. These planetary forces formed a great spiral.

In the beginning of the Lemurian period there were the rudiments of three continents:
one big continent, the Gondwanaland, and the beginning of continents in the north.
Where the North American continent now stands, the forces of Saturn were working.
This was also the place where the first culture of Lemurian mankind took place.

The second continent was in the region where one might say Europe now is. Human
beings there were inspired by the forces of Jupiter. The approximate region of the south
of Siberia was the area of Mars forces. Sun forces were working in the area which is now
the Gobi desert.

A fifth culture took place in the south, the Venus culture, which is now Malaya. The sixth
culture, the expression of Mercury, worked where Africa now stands. Forces of the
Moon worked in the Arabic Peninsula and in the region of Palestine.

In this big spiral of developing cultures, we see a pattern. Men were not yet divided into
two sexes. In the fifth period, as Venus forces were leading men, and the Lemurian
culture went to the south part of Lemuria, now called Malaya, the primeval Malayan
 83

race was formed by the forces of Venus. Lucifer could take his chance to get into
Lemurian development and bring about a great change in the world - and here the
division of sexes began.

With sexes, Lucifer could get a better hold of man, and from that moment the
development of Lemuria declines. Simultaneously mankind differentiated into races.
The earth was not then so hard; human bodies were much more flexible. They could be
formed by forces coming from outside to the earth.

Having such a picture in our minds we can understand better the beginning of the
Atlantean period, when for the first time we find mysteries as we speak about them now.
The old mysteries began in the Atlantean period. In the transition between Lemuria and
the Atlantean period, only a few people were able to survive. These few people are
described in the Bible as Adam and Eve. The earth at that time was very different from
what it is now. At that time a stream went around the central area. The Ural Mountains
marked the primeval continent. The Greeks remembered the stream as the Ocean - not
our ocean, but a remembrance of old Lemurian times.

A few people from Lemuria went to Atlantis, and the real earth development began. Till
the end of Lemuria, the earth development was a repetition of the Old Saturn, Sun, and
Moon developments. This new development, however, was still wholly guided by the
Hierarchies. Man had to be created in the form of the future, so the great Cherubim
formed the prototypes of the human physical body after the principles of threefold
formation: head, respiratory system, and members. The great images of the human form
stand in the Bible as the image of the lion, middle-man; the image of the bull, the lower
man; and the eagle, image of thinking, the brain, and the sense organs.

During the Atlantean period we find seven sub-cultures. The first people of Atlantis were
called Rmoahals who lived in their breath. The name Rmoahals comes from this rolling
thunder of the breath. The rolling thunder of the roaring lion is still in it.

The second people lived in the south of Atlantis in the region called Gondwanaland. It
included the west of South America and spread over the ocean to South Africa and to
Australia in one big continent at that time. In the southern and western parts of
Gondwanaland, the Rmoahals and the second peoples, the Tlavatlis, lived. The latter
lived out of the forces of the bull.
 84

The third group moved somewhat northwards into the middle of the Atlantean
continent. They were called the Toltecs. The Toltecs took after the eagle forces. In the
Toltec culture the first beginnings of the intellect developed, as Steiner described, and
the Toltecs are known historically. The last remembrances of Toltec culture have been
found in Yucatan. Remains of a very old city were found about 1950.

The Toltecs were, as Steiner describes them, a people of priests and high morality and
they were trying to develop plants by cultivating them, bringing new differentiations.
Till then, plants had been given their form by the Hierarchies. Now men took over and
began to make further differentiations in the plant world. When you try to think of these
Toltecs who went to the west, you must imagine them as the primeval population of the
American continent. They were later exposed to Saturn forces and took into themselves
the Saturn mysteries. They founded the mysteries of the Great Spirit. The Toltecs were a
population of pure, plant oriented, priestly people working with etheric forces.

In the fourth sub-culture, these three groups of peoples should have been taken together
into what we know as the group of the angel. The peoples of the eagle, of the lion, and of
the bull on one side, and on the other of the angel, or of man in his glory, were to form a
whole. The group of the angel was to take the other three groups in together. The
Turanian people had this task of developing those angel-man forces - an equilibrium
between the other three forces.

The Christ was to come in this time of the Turanian people, but at that time the
Ahrimanic forces first got their grip on mankind. Just as in the Lemurian times Lucifer
had his chance, Ahriman took this moment in Atlantean times to penetrate the Turanian
culture.

Instead of becoming the culture of the Sun powers, and of man in equilibrium, as seen
in the image of the angel, this became the culture of the scorpion. The ego was degraded
to a scorpion. When you see in Mexican art all those scorpions, you know they are the
remainders not of the Toltecs, but of the later Turanian people. The Turanians
degenerated, taking hold of sexual forces, which could be handled as magic powers in
the world of the plants - which the Toltecs had so beautifully developed. Turanians took
hold of these plant forces and used them for their own purposes, which meant a
downfall.
 85

The Turanians had to leave Atlantis. The first of the flooding rains came. Atlantis was
drowned. The south of Atlantis was flooded, but the middle of Atlantis still stood -
becoming nothing more than a group of islands between Spain and Central America. A
small group of people went to the west, a greater part went to the east. These latter
settled in the area where they could get hold of the forces of Mars. They regrouped the
Turanian people who were fought, in the Persian period, by the Iranians. This was the
beginning of the catastrophes of Atlantis.

The Atlantean period in the fifth, sixth, and seventh cultures had to take place in a series
of catastrophes which are known as the Ice Ages. The four or five ice eras are the outer
cloak of the Atlantean catastrophes. These ancient, middle, and younger ice ages
represent drownings of parts of Atlantis. Masses of ice came over the continent. Then
the ice melted, but the land was drowned by floods and rains. This was the result of the
Turanians misusing certain forces.

In the fifth culture of Atlantis, the time of the Primary Semitic or Indo-Germanic
culture, the forces of the ego had again to work not from outside, but from within. With
the Toltecs the ego worked from outside. In the third and fifth periods, this same force
had to be ingested and developed from within. In the sixth period, the Accadic, people
took what the Tlavatlis, the people of the bull forces, had developed, and internalized it.
The Primeval Mongols took the forces of the lion and internalized them. This meant the
formation not only of the human stature, but also of human soul forces.

At the end of the Atlantean period, different races had been formed from the planetary
forces working on different parts of the earth. After that, race formation was frozen.
Differentiation became possible only within the races. Later, only mingling and mixing
of races was possible. They were frozen through heredity. Lucifer inaugurated, so to
speak, heredity. In that way he froze the outer formation of races.

In the beginning of the Atlantean times, people brought with them a connection with
one or another of the planetary spheres. People who had survived between Lemuria and
Atlantis in, say, the sphere of Saturn, or of Mars, incarnated with a greater inner
connection to these particular planetary forces. Thus, in the Atlantean periods, the
planetary mysteries were founded. People wanted to be in touch with their planet. So,
the various planetary mysteries were founded in which, in occult form, they could meet
the spirits of these planets. This is the true beginning of the real mysteries.
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Later on, after the submerging of Atlantis under the Atlantic Ocean, those mysteries
could no longer be visited by the spirits of the planets. The priests of the planetary
mysteries had to “remove to the Moon sphere” and read, as in a mirror (for the Moon
sphere is a mirror for the total cosmos), what was happening, and what came out of the
forces of the other planets from the Sun. The other planetary mysteries could only be
read in the mirror of the Moon. Thus, in the late Atlantean period, and in the whole
post-Atlantean periods, all eastern mysteries (all mysteries which went through the
post-Atlantean cultures) were in reality Moon mysteries. That is to say, when the forces
of Mercury were called on, the priests still had to find the mysteries of Mercury in the
light of the Moon sphere.

In the fifth period after the Atlantean catastrophe, the forces of the ego had to be
internalized. The great initiates of the Sun mysteries brought the etheric window of the
Sun sphere to men. It was the task of Michael and others to bring this wisdom, cosmic
wisdom, to man.

These initiates of the Sun mysteries were called the godly Manu - and when I speak
about the godly Manu I do not speak about one person only. There were different kinds
of godly Manus. In the central Sun Mysteries, the godly Manu was the priest. He became
the priest at the moment one of the high Hierarchical beings entered into him and spoke
through his voice and through his movements. They were recognized in the Greek times
as the half-gods. When one thinks of Gilgamesh, who was called, according to the
writings that have been found, one-third man and two-thirds god, that means that only
one third of him, of what he did, was coming out of his own ego. Two thirds of what he
was able to do came through him from the Sun beings.

Of these godly Manus one never knew, “Is this a Manu or not?” This could only be
known by clairvoyance, by seeing the light which was around such a person, and at one
moment he might be a Manu, and at the next a human being. But these Manus led the
best of the people of the Sun Mysteries, in the fifth Atlantean period, over to the east.
They led these people to the east in two streams. One stream went from the north
Atlantic region, where during the fifth period the people lived, to the north of the
Mediterranean region, northwards through the south of Europe, going to the Gobi
desert where Indians at that time were working with holy Sun powers in the etheric
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sphere. There they could bring a small group of people under the influence of the Sun
forces.

I have said the Gobi desert. But when you read the old stories of the Chinese and of the
Mongolian people, they tell of the Gobi desert as a lake, a region with islands and
peninsulas, with a rich vegetation and a most beautiful climate. Three islands stood out.
To these withdrew the old mysteries. These Mongolian stories are a remembrance of
that old time.

On these islands were the highest mysteries of mankind. There these people could be
protected and preserved. They lived there for long periods, to be prepared to go as Sun
people to establish the post-Atlantean cultures. The seven Rishis came from there.
Zarathustra came out of these mysteries; and Hermes. They were sent from there to
found new cultures in the post-Atlantean periods. This was the northern stream.

The northern stream was the main-stream and this was under the direct Sun forces, as
the godly Manu went with them. But you also had the helpers of the Manu, who stayed
on the wayside here and there and worked among the population which afterwards
came to live and develop in these countries. The Accadian period, and the last pre-
Mongolian period, closed the seventh period of Atlantis.

There was a second stream, a southern stream. One went north, the other south. The
southern stream was led by a helper of the Manu. In the Bible he is called Noah. In
anthroposophical circles there are people who say Noah is the Manu. This is not untrue,
because he was one of those highly developed men who could take into himself the
forces of the Sun.

But this southern stream had another task. While the northern stream had to develop
the Sun forces in thinking, the southern stream was more a stream of Moon forces - a
stream in which the Sun was reflected in the Moon.

People of the southern stream gave much importance to heredity. They had in their
mysteries the mystery of heredity. When you read in the Bible about all those hereditary
tables from Adam to Jesus of Nazareth, you find something which is out of the tradition
of the southern stream - the southern stream which tries to keep mankind pure. In the
purity of their bodies they could receive the inspiration of the Sun there. But it was
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reflected through the Moon. So, the mysteries of the southern stream were Sun
Mysteries coming through the Moon. And the mysteries of the northern stream were
direct Sun Mysteries.

In the Bible are places where people of both streams meet. Abraham was one of the
great initiates of the southern stream. He had to meet Melchizedek. Melchizedek was
one of the great messengers of the Sun Manu, the northern stream. Melchizedek
brought wine and bread to Abraham. This was a sign of uniting the northern and the
southern streams. From that moment on, the people of Abraham had both the forces of
the Moon and the reflected Sun working through Abraham and the pure hereditary line,
and, on the other side, the direct forces of the Sun working in the celebration of the wine
and the bread. In this way, we see how the incarnation of Jesus Christ was prepared.
This could only take place where the northern and the southern streams came together.
A small group of people was preserved so that both human stature and rightful thinking
could go together.

One person of the northern stream was incarnated for the first time coming directly out
of the Sun mysteries - a human soul who had not been incarnated before and who in his
later incarnation is Aristotle. We know this out of the lectures of Steiner. When we look
at such a person as Aristotle, we see that he is a person with only a few incarnations
behind him, a person standing directly in the Sun Mysteries.

The northern stream of these central mysteries, these Sun Mysteries, brings to earth and
mankind forces of light, of full thinking, of Sun thinking. We may look at Ephesus and at
the Greek mysteries of Samothrace, and we may look at the other mysteries on the
continent of Greece. They were all more or less Moon Mysteries. At Ephesus we see the
Moon Mysteries of wisdom. They were the mysteries of Diana, the goddess of the Moon
sphere - but bearing also the forces of Mercury. Diana was called the Moon goddess
exoterically. Esoterically she was called the Mercury goddess, the goddess of healing.

Steiner speaks about the past as the world of the godly Manu. In the future, Steiner says,
there will be human Manus. The godly Manus were entered by Sun beings. Future
Manus will radiate sun forces which people have developed themselves. Out of their
hearts they will radiate sun forces; such human Manus will lead mankind on the right
way.
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The old mysteries, more or less - except the few which were direct Sun Mysteries - were
Moon Mysteries. This Moon quality has something to do with the Old Moon, which was
called the planet of wisdom. Thus, all these mysteries have to do with the search for
wisdom. But at the end of Earth evolution, the Earth will be called, if things go right, the
“Planet of Love.” There is a transition from the mysteries of wisdom, which cover the
first part of the earth’s development till about one thousand years before Christ, to the
new mysteries, which shall be mysteries of love. The leaders of these new mysteries of
love will be the human Manus. Out of their own forces, they will have taken so much
light of Christ in their hearts that they can lead mankind to the mysteries of love.

The old mysteries lost their force and purity hundreds and hundreds of years before
Christ. They decayed; they faded away. With the coming of Christ, there was an absolute
end of the old mysteries of wisdom. The new mysteries of love began. These new
mysteries are the mysteries of the will. The new mysteries are the mysteries of doing
deeds of love out of wisdom. But you can only do deeds of love when you have the
wisdom first.

The old mysteries did not stop suddenly; they faded away. There was no new inspiration
in them. They could only preserve the old. By preserving the old they grew Luciferic.
Already in the time of Jesus Christ the old mysteries were no longer visited by the good
gods, but by Luciferic beings. The old mysteries were bound to geographical places
where Hierarchical beings could speak to men through the constellation of nature’s
forces. For instance, the United States, since the beginning of the Lemurian period, was
a place where Saturn forces could work into the shaping of nature and people. Such
forces were known as the mysteries of the Great Spirit.”