Becoming younger of humanity

From AnthroWiki

The becoming younger of humanity in the course of human evolution has been discussed several times by Rudolf Steiner. Individual human development is characterised by successive seven-year periods, during which the human being gradually brings higher and higher members of his being to maturity. In the first seven years of life up to the change of teeth, the physical body is formed, in the second seven years the etheric body and so on. In ancient times, the naturally predisposed forces were sufficient to guarantee this gradual development of the members until old age. At the beginning of the ancient Indian culture, the natural development progressed up to the life spirit. This is no longer the case today - not even the sentient soul matures completely through natural forces alone. In ever earlier years of life, man must now actively advance development himself. Therefore, looking at the natural forces of evolution, one can actually speak of a constant becoming younger of mankind, even of a progressive immaturity. At the beginning of the ancient Indian period, the general developmental age of humanity was still 56 years; today it has fallen to just under 27 years.

„This becoming younger of humanity is shown in external symptoms — and one who regards historical development with more sharpened senses can see it — it is shown by the fact that in Greece, let us say, a man had still to be of a definite age before he could take any part in public affairs. Today we see the claim made by great circles of mankind to reduce this age as much as possible, since people think that they already know in the twenties everything that is to be attained. More and more demands will be made in this direction, and unless an insight arises to paralyse them there will be demands that not only in the beginning of his twenties a man is clever enough to take part in any kind of parliamentary business in the world, but the nineteen-year-olds and eighteen-year-olds will believe that they contain in themselves all that a man can compass.

This kind of growing younger is at the same time a challenge to mankind to draw for themselves from the spirit what is no longer given by nature. I called your attention last time to the immense incision in the evolutionary history of mankind which lies in the 15th Century. This is again something of which external history gives no tidings, for external history, as I have often said, is a fable convenue. There must come an entirely new knowledge of the being of man. For only when an entirely new knowledge of man's being is reached, will the impulse really be found which mankind needs if it is to take in hand of its own freewill what nature no longer provides. We dare not believe that, the future of humanity will come through with the thoughts and ideas which the modern age has brought and of which it is so proud. One cannot do enough to make oneself clear how necessary it is to seek for fresh and different impulses for the evolution of humanity.“ (Lit.:GA 180, p. 211f)

Rudolf Steiner gives - among others - detailed descriptions of this becoming younger of humanity in (Lit.:GA 174b, p. 215ff) and (Lit.:GA 196, p. 63ff).

The earthly life of the Christ is closely connected with this becoming younger of mankind. When the Christ passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, he was 33 years old - and that corresponded exactly to the evolutionary age of humanity at that time.

„It is therefore enormously significant that at the end of the first third of this period, which begins in 747 B.C., the Mystery of Golgotha occurs, precisely in this period, and that it is in this period that the Christ Jesus develops exactly up to that individual age, the 33rd year of life, which is the age of humanity at that time. Then death occurs on Golgotha. The Christ Jesus grows towards the age of humanity, and through the Mystery of Golgotha He brings about the possibility of coming to the knowledge of immortality in a way which is not taken from earthly things, which could only come to earth through that fertilisation which occurred for the Earth when the Christ-Spirit united with the Jesus-Personality and this became 33 years old, as old as humanity was when this humanity was threatened with losing all connection with the supersensible world.“ (Lit.:GA 176, p. 19)

In the not so distant future, in the 6th millennium, about the year 5700 (Lit.:GA 196, p. 90), according to other statements only in the 7th millennium (Lit.:GA 204, p. 240), man will no longer even reach sexual maturity through his natural body-bound development. Human beings will then become infertile and will no longer be able to embody themselves in physical bodies. The time of earthly incarnations will then be over. In the 8th millennium the Moon will then also reunite with the Earth (Lit.: GA 204, p. 244, S. 249).

„The present human being remains capable of development until the twenty-seventh year. He then begins, as it were, to emancipate himself completely in his soul-spirit from the physical-spiritual. Emancipation from the physical-fleshly is therefore something that moves in more and more. You see from this that the time will come when human beings will only be capable of development up to their fourteenth year, when the age of sexual maturity will cease to have any significance in human development. That is a period which will quite certainly occur. Geologists may calculate long periods for the development of humanity on Earth, for the development of the physical humanity of Earth; this physical humanity on Earth will not develop any longer than up to the moment when this upper age limit is lowered to the fourteenth, thirteenth year of life. For from this time on physical humanity on Earth will no longer be able to develop. Women will no longer bear children. Then physical humanity on Earth will have come to an end.“ (Lit.:GA 196, p. 59f)

„Now you know that the Moon will one day unite again with the Earth. This point in time, when the Moon will again unite with the Earth, is postponed for thousands of years by astronomers and geologists living in abstraction; but that is only a delusion. In reality, we are not even close to that point in time. You know that humanity as such is getting younger and younger. You know that people are increasingly developing their physical and spiritual development only up to a certain point in time. At the time of Christ's death, when the event of Golgotha took place, people were generally capable of bodily and spiritual development up to the age of thirty-three. Today they are only capable until the twenty-seventh year. And there will come a time in the fourth millennium when people will only be capable of development up to the twenty-first year. Then a time will come in the seventh millennium when people will only be able to develop through their physicality until the fourteenth year. Women will then cease to be fertile; there will be a quite different way of life on earth. It will be the time when the Moon again approaches the Earth, again incorporates itself into the Earth.“ (Lit.:GA 204, p. 240f)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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