Atlantis

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Rudolf Steiner: Atlantis, pastel on paper (1914)
Pangaea breaks up into Laurasia and Gondwana at the Mesozoic, corresponding to the Lemurian period, at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary about 200 million years (Mya) ago. Laurasia split and finally broke apart with the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean c. 56 Mya

The Atlantean age is the fourth of the seven main ages into which the present physical state of form of the Earth is divided. According to obsolete theosophical tradition, this main age is also called the fourth root race.[1] At that time, according to theosophical view, man lived predominantly on the Atlantic continent or island, called Atlantis (Greek: Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος Atlantìs nēsos "Island of Atlas"), which according to Rudolf Steiner was located in the northern Atlantic Ocean between present-day Europe and America. The term "Atlantis" is considered scientifically outdated today, but it is essential for understanding Steiner's statements. It is possible that his descriptions refer to fragments of the former large continent of Laurasia.

The Atlantean period was preceded by the Lemurian period, in which man first incarnated on Earth, and is followed by the post-Atlantean period, which is divided into seven cultural epochs, the fifth of which is our present modern era.

Climate and location

According to Rudolf Steiner, the Atlantic period on the geological time scale began approximately with the Cenozoic (Lit.:GA 300a, p. 107), the beginning of which is placed at about 66 million years ago[2]. At that time, the climate was completely different from today. At the beginning it was still very warm. Later, about 2.6 million years ago, the most recent Ice Age began with the glaciation of the North Pole. At the South Pole, the Inland glaciation began 38 million years ago. All references to time here are only for comparison with the present state of external research and are to be taken with great caution, as Rudolf Steiner also clearly points out.[3]

The air was saturated with water vapour and filled with fog vapours. About 11,700 years ago, with the subsiding of the Last Glacial Period and the beginning of the Holocene, the Atlantic Era came to an end. It was only at the end of the Atlantean period that the masses of fog began to settle and the sea level rose very rapidly as a result of the rapid warming, so that Atlantis finally sank in a massive flood. Plato still tells of the last remnant of this land, the island of Poseidonis, which is said to have been located westwards from Europe and Africa.

„Our root race, the Aryan[4], is descended from the most highly developed sub-race of the Atlantians, the Ur-Semitic, which last dwelt approximately in the region of present-day Ireland. The island of Poseidonis, mentioned by Plato, can be regarded as the last remnant of the declining Atlantis. Manu, a leading figure of the Atlantians, led the most mature people to the East.“ (Lit.:GA 94, p. 168)

„It was essentially the whole area that is now ocean, the ancient Atlantis, and there dwelt the physical ancestors of the present human race.“ (Lit.:GA 100, p. 125)

„The land was covered with vast masses of water-mist; these masses of water-mist were of different density in the first and in the last Atlantean period, namely they were different in the vicinity of present-day Ireland than in the other regions. The water and mist masses were warm and hot at first. In the southern part of the Atlantis they were still warm, partly hot, like warm, hot masses of smoke; towards the north they were colder.“ (Lit.:GA 101, p. 20)

„Let us look clairvoyantly at the old continent of the Atlantic world, which we must seek where the Atlantic Ocean is now, between Africa and Europe on the one hand and America on the other. This continent was enclosed by a kind of warm current, a current which clairvoyant consciousness shows to have risen, strange as it may sound, from the south, passing through the Baffins Bay towards northern Greenland and embracing it, then flowing over to the east, gradually cooling down, then in the time when Siberia and Rumania were in a state of heat, then, at the time when Siberia and Russia were far from being raised to the surface of the Earth, it flowed down in the region of the Urals, turned round, touched the eastern Carpathians, flowed into the region where the present Sahara is, and finally, at the Bay of Biscay, it went towards the Atlantic Ocean, so that it had a completely closed current area. You will understand that this current can only exist in its very last remnants. This stream is the Gulf Stream, which once flowed round the Atlantic continent.“ (Lit.:GA 121, p. 176f)

„What Germanic mythology calls Niflheim or Nebelheim - cloud home - is the land of the Atlantians. The Earth at that time was indeed warmer and still enveloped in a constant vapour envelope. The Atlantic continent was submerged by a series of torrential cloudbursts, in the course of which the Earth's atmosphere cleared. Only then did blue skies, thunderstorms, rain and rainbows appear. For this reason the Bible says that after Noah's ark landed, the rainbow became the new sign of the covenant between God and man.“ (Lit.:GA 94, p. 24f)

Geological clues

From today's geological point of view, based on plate tectonics, the continent described by Rudolf Steiner as Atlantis is probably best identified with fragments of the former large continent Laurasia, which broke away from the last supercontinent Pangaea about 200 million years ago in the younger Mesozoic. Gondwana, the southern large continent that became independent (again) with the disintegration of Pangaea, is presumably largely identical with Lemuria described by Rudolf Steiner. Antarctica, Australia and the Indian Plate had already detached from this southern continent at that time.

With the opening of the Atlantic Ocean, which began from the south about 150 million years ago, Laurasia gradually split into Eurasia and what is now North America. According to some sources, however, Laurasia still existed in a largely coherent form in the north until about 55 million years ago in the early Palaeogene, which already belongs to the Atlantic period. The South Atlantic had already opened wide at that time. Since the sea level was still much lower at that time, significant land bridges between the fragments, especially in the north, are likely to have existed for a long time later. From a geological point of view, a longer existence and the relatively rapid demise of southern Atlantis, of which Plato's Poseidonis is said to have been the very last remnant, seems particularly problematic. Andreas Delor has outlined an unusual solution to this (Lit.: Delor, 2011-2014).

The Atlantis as a completely new impact in the Earth's development

Only with the Atlantis did something really new begin in the Earth's evolution; all previous epochs were only repetitions of earlier stages of world evolution.

„Now let us take a look at this fourth period, the Atlantean, and what it represents. It was preceded by what I have often called the Lemurian period in Earth evolution, then by what we may call the second and the first period of Earth evolution. But these first three periods of Earth evolution up to the Atlantean period are repetitions: the first of the Saturnian Age, the second of the Solar Age, the third of the Lunar Age. Only the fourth, the Atlantean period, represents something new. The preceding periods are indeed repetitions, repetitions, however, on a higher level, but just repetitions.

The Atlantic period, that is, this fourth period, represents something new. And that which happened during the Atlantean period occurred when the Earth still had essentially different forms from those of later times. A solid Earth crust did not exist in the same sense in the middle of the Atlantic period as it does today. The geological periods that are assumed for these things are illusions. The times in which the earth solidified from its relatively solid-liquid composition still lie in the Atlantean period. And the human race was quite different during the Atlantean period. In the middle of the Atlantean period it did not yet have the solid bone structure of today. Men in their formation at that time actually resembled substantially more or less lower animals, not in their form - in their form they were very nobly formed - but substantially they resembled lower jellyfish-like animals in soft, cartilaginous substance.“ (Lit.:GA 346, p. 168f)

The group I's of the Atlantean people

Until about the last of the Atlantean times, the individual ego had not yet moved into the physical body. The I-consciousness had not yet awakened and the human being was still entirely under the influence of the group-I.

„Only through the gradual pushing in of the ether head were parts of the head condensed, first detached from the parts of the surroundings. Even in the later Atlantis, man was still endowed in a tremendous way with that which has been preserved in a morbid way in the watery head, in a watery brain. In addition, we have to think of a softening of the bones, a complete softening of the upper limbs of the human being. That sounds terrible to the man of today. From this watery substance has hardened what today forms and encloses the human head. This is not even a very unsuitable image, which I sometimes use, the hardening, the crystallisation out of the masses of water, out of a salt solution in a glass; it reflects things quite accurately, this crystallisation of the salt out of the aqueous salt solution. What happened to the head at such a late date happened to the rest of the human being much earlier. The other limbs also gradually formed out of a soft mass. So that we can say: Where then is the human I, the present-day I? Not really in the human being; it is still in the environment. Through the drawing in of the I, we can also say that the upper limbs of the human being harden. Because the I was outside the human being, it was still afflicted with a peculiarity in another respect, which later became different. By moving into the physical body, the I was induced to become an individual I, whereas before it was still a kind of group soul. I want to give you a picture of the facts. Imagine a circle of twelve people sitting somewhere in a circle. Through the development as it is today, every human being has his or her I within him or her. So there are twelve I's sitting around in a circle. But if we look at such a circle of people in the Atlantean time, the physical bodies would also be sitting around, but the I would only be in the etheric body, which is still outside. So in front of each one is his I. But the I has another characteristic, it is not so centralised, it immediately unfolds its forces and unites with the I's of the other people, so that they form a ring, which in turn sends its forces towards its centre. So we have here an etheric circle body which forms a unity within itself, and within it the I's, thus a circle of physical bodies and within it an etheric circle surface which forms a unity, through the fact that the I's are caught up, the individual I is enclosed and through this picture we come to a vivid idea of the group souls.

If we go further and further back, we can hold on to this picture, but we no longer have to imagine such a regular circle of people, but these people can be scattered in the world in the most manifold ways. Let us imagine one man in western France, another in the east of America, and so on, not sitting together, but where the laws of the spiritual world are concerned, the I can nevertheless hang together, even if the people are scattered over the Earth. These people then form this round dance. That which is formed by the flowing together of their I's is not such a geometrically beautiful etheric body, but it is nevertheless a unity. So there was a group of people at that time who were connected by the fact that their I' s formed a unity; and there were essentially four such group I' s. You have to imagine these people again according to the etheric bodies. You must again imagine these people according to the laws of the spiritual world. The group souls of the four groups went into each other; they were not inwardly connected, but they went into each other. These four group souls are called by the names of the four apocalyptic animals: Eagle, Lion, Bull, Man.“ (Lit.:GA 107, p. 74f)

These group souls already existed in Lemurian times. At that time, the female gender had developed from the lion people and the male gender from the bull people.

„At that time a very strange sight would have presented itself to the observer. One would have found a kind of race of which one could have said to oneself with prophetic gift: 'These are physical beings somewhat reminiscent of lions, reflecting the character of the lion, though they looked different from lions today.' They were lion-minded people, aggressive human germs. Then again there was a group of bull-like people, all viewed on the physical plan. You can easily complement the third and fourth races. The third race was already strongly visionary. While the first was martial, while the second cultivated everything connected with the physical plan, with the processing of the physical plan, you would have found a third class of people who were very visionary. As a rule, they had something that was malformed in relation to the other bodies. They would have reminded you of such people who have a great deal of psychic and who believe in visions, but who, because they do not care much for the physical, have something withered, something stunted in comparison with the vigorousness of the other two groups. They would have reminded you of the bird nature. "I want to retain my spirit", that was the tendency of the eagle people. The others had something that was mixed from all parts, so to speak.“ (S. 76f)

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.

References

  1. ↑ The term root race derives from the terminology used at that time by the Theosophical Society and was later no longer used by Rudolf Steiner, as was the term subrace. Steiner repeatedly pointed out that the term "race" is actually no longer justified in the post-Atlantean time, since now it is no longer the physical but the soul-spiritual development that comes to the fore. The division of humanity into races will gradually be completely overcome and is already meaningless for the spiritual development of man.
  2. ↑ cf. the table in Bosse 2002, p. 57
  3. ↑ Abstract concepts of time, detached from things, are not meaningful for the contemplation of nature. Rather, one must rely on the intrinsic time of the system under consideration. For example, the Earth year or the Platonic year can only serve as a reference since the separation of the Sun, Earth and Moon. Intrinsic time is rooted in the essence of a living, developing wholeness and expresses itself through the processes that take place in it periodically in an orderly sequence and thereby constantly metamorphose. All living beings and all living systems, such as our earth, the entire planetary system and the cosmos as a whole, are such wholes and each has its own specific time. There is no absolute time deducted from things. Time measurements can therefore not be related to them, but consist in comparing different proper times with each other.

    „And this brings me to the fact that basically every entity that may be regarded at all as a totality actually carries its time within itself. I can consider a piece [of an] inorganic body for itself, but not a leaf, because it only has a part in the tree. In my observation, therefore, I must take into consideration what is a total system closed in on itself, what is a totality. But every totality that I look at in this way has time in it as something immanent. So that I can't really have much to spare for the abstract time that is still outside every thing and exists [alongside] the time immanent in every thing or process. When I consider the time that is to go from beginning to end, it seems to me just as when someone forms the abstract concept for the individual horse. The individual horses are there in the external spatial reality, but in order to get the concept, I have to attribute something else to it. It is the same with time. The question: Is time in itself variable or not? - has no real content, because every total system has its [own] time in its immanent being, and its [own] course of speed. The course of velocity of the inorganic or of the process of life leads back to this immanent time...

    In geology we describe one period after another, as if it were a reality. It is not. It is only a reality with the whole of the Earth, in the same way that an organism is a reality, where I must not tear out one thing. Instead of relating our processes to coordinate axis systems, it would be more important to relate them to their own inner reality, then we would arrive at totality systems. And then we would have to come back to a kind of monadism.“ (Lit.:GA 324a, p. 144)

    Moreover, developmental epochs do not simply follow each other, but overlap in wide areas. As a rule, the beginning of the following epoch is already indicated in the middle of the preceding one and continues to have an effect until the middle of the next one.

    Cf. also (Lit.: Bosse 2002, p 38ff)

  4. ↑ These views of Steiner were in sharp contrast to the racial doctrine advocated by the Nazis, through which they wanted to glorify the Aryans as the supposed "master race". After Rudolf Steiner had already been fiercely opposed by the first representatives of National Socialism during his lifetime, the Anthroposophical Society was banned by Reinhard Heydrich's decree on 1 November 1935 "as a result of the antagonism between the views of the Anthroposophical Society and the nationalist ideas advocated by National Socialism".
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