Esoteric Evolution - 20

The Consequences of the Separation of the Sexes

Physical body, etheric body, astral body

The androgyny of the etheric body

The split in Lemuria

The consequences of the split in the etheric body

Man has woman in him; woman has man in her

Female and male soul qualities

Animus and anima

Male and female incarnations

Building the physical body further

The big consequences of the separation of the sexes

Initially unconscious procreation

Sources

The eras of development of the Earth:

Previous chapters describe how in very early times of humanity, halfway through Lemuria, androgyny, which was characteristic for the precursor of the human being, slowly changed into single sexuality. That event brought tremendous changes with it, changes that affect us even today. Not only did out of this original human being, in the course of progressing evolution, female and male human beings develop as we know them today. But the transition to single sexuality also had big consequences for the further development of physical bodies and the soul and spirit growing in them.

This chapter describes some of those consequences. To explain these, we first have to go into the composition of the human being.

In their corporeality, human beings have a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. In combination with the I, they form the bodily and soul sheaths of the human spirit, the Individuality. The three bodies interpenetrate, influence each other and are most closely connected with each other.

The physical body shows our external form - that which is concretely material in us, such as the physical form of the body, the skin, the bones, the organs, etc. The etheric body, also called the life body, lives in the physical body. It permeates the physical body with life, also called life force, gives it form, and develops it.

Through the etheric body divine creative beings repair damage to the body, heal it, and maintain it physically. For our subject it is important to know that the etheric body, with its life forces and vitality, not only determines the sex, but it is also the bearer of forces of procreation and therefore of sexuality.

The astral body, which lives both in the physical and the etheric body, is the basis of our soul. Out of the astral body developed in the course of evolution first primary soul forces such as passions, desires, impulses. Later followed the soul forces of thinking, feeling, and the will, and with these the capacity to act out of ourselves.

Originally, before the split into two sexes, the becoming human being was androgynous. This was caused not by the physical body, but by the etheric body. The etheric body, the bearer of the forces of procreation, is naturally androgynous. That was formerly the case and is so to this day. The etheric body contains both the male fertilizing and the female to-be-fertilized forces of procreation.

Until about the middle of Lemuria, these forces lived in an undifferentiated, mixed form in the etheric body. Hence, out of that condition of the etheric body, the androgynous human being came forth who fertilized itself and thus procreated. The androgyny of the human being of those early times was possible because the etheric body could still form itself fully in the soft, not yet hardened physical body.

Halfway through Lemuria this condition changed. The very first beginning of the split into two sexes announced itself. As was mentioned before, it was Yahweh-Elohim who, as the creative leader of the development of humanity, fulfilled an essential role in this.

With the future human being in view, says Rudolf Seiner, in the middle of Lemuria, Yahweh-Elohim brought about a split in the etheric body and later a more profound separation between the fertilizing and to-be-fertilized forces of procreation. As a result, two different groups gradually developed within the etheric body. Rudolf Steiner described the one group as having "spiritual-soul germinating force," connected with the fertilized element; and the other group as having "etheric-experiencing germinating force," connected with the fertilizing element.

With the progressing separation between the two groups the strength of androgyny declined. In the course of a long period, it eventually came to an end and, with it, the possibility of self-fertilization. This created a completely new situation.

From then on, through the now separate groups of procreating forces in the etheric body, the creative spiritual beings were only able to bring forth either a female or a male physical body. For the first they made use of the "spiritual-soul germinating force" and with it built the female sexual organs. For the other the "etheric-experiencing germinating force" was the basis, on which male sexuality was built. Thus the basis was laid for the female body and the male body, for woman and man. The split into two sexes had become a fact.

What is happening here? In both cases, both for female and male sexuality, to determine the sex and for procreation, only one part, namely half of the etheric body was used. In the woman this part led to the formation of the female sexual organs. In the man it led to the male sexual organs.

But what happened, in both man and woman, with the other, the unused part of their etheric body? The part that was not used was held back and partly used for something else. This meant that there where the etheric-experiencing germinating force led to male sexual organs, the other part - the female part with the spiritual-soul germinating force - disappeared into the background and did not make its appearance.

In reverse, for the formation of the female sex, the male etheric-experiencing germinating force was held back. In both cases, therefore, the unused etheric forces of procreation moved inside. There they were preserved. In woman the male etheric forces were preserved, in man the female etheric forces.

Therefore, we may say: in man the male pole of the etheric body is directed outward and his female pole inward. In woman the female pole manifests outward and her male pole inward. Or more briefly said, the etheric body of woman is male, and the etheric body of man is female.

Thus, we see that both sexes, in spite of the split of the sexes, inwardly bear the other sex in them as a counter pole, down into our time. Woman has the male element in her and man the female element. Or, woman has man in her and man has woman in him.

This situation makes it possible that human beings can at some point, when the split of the sexes has generated its intended result, become androgynous again, male-female in one. But that will be in a totally different form that is not to be compared with the situation during Lemuria.

The separation of the sexes and all it brought about at the etheric and physical levels, also had radical consequences for the soul development of human beings. Because after the split the physical body became either female or male, this also worked through into the connection with the astral body, which meant that this situation in the course of evolution also influenced the realm of the soul. This happened especially in the post-Atlantean era.

Woman thus developed female soul qualities based on her female sexuality. And her male soul qualities were, just like in the etheric realm, held back and did not become visible. This means that at first, they remained unconscious. In a similar way, through his male sexuality, man developed male soul qualities in the course of time; his female soul aspects were held back and also remained initially unconscious.

Here again, in the realm of the soul, man also has a hidden female side in him, and woman a male side.

Margot Homan - Anima / Animus

It is interesting that the well-known Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) recognized this aspect of soul life and described it in his theory of archetypes. The unconscious male side of woman he called animus, the unconscious female side of man anima.

Carl Gustav Jung

Just as Rudolf Steiner, Jung said that woman and man, in order to become balanced personalities and create self-awareness, have the task to bring also both unconscious parts of their souls, animus and anima, to development in themselves.

The split into two sexes and everything connected with it - this unimaginably lofty creative work of Yahweh-Elohim - also resulted in female and male incarnations that alternate. One time, our spiritual being, our individuality appears in a male body, and we are in an outer sense, man. Another time it appears in a female body and we become a woman. In both incarnations we have totally different experiences.

As a woman we experience life, other people, the world, totally differently than as a man, and we also behave very differently. And in reverse, the same is true. Indeed, that is the intention and it is consciously arranged in that way by the creative gods. In that way we always develop our soul and spirit from a different angle, so that they become more encompassing and more conscious.

We return to the creative work of Yahweh-Elohim during Lemuria. Another consequence of the split into two sexes was that also for the procreation of descendants only half of the forces of procreation were used on both sides. After all, because of the split into two sexes, from then on, the other half came from the other sex. This meant that on both sides' half of the forces of the etheric body were not used for procreation, for creating new life. Part of these now available etheric procreation forces were now used by Yahweh-Elohim to perfect the physical body further for the benefit of the inworking spirit, the spiritual Self.

Up to that point, in Lemuria what we call "spirit", the capacity to think, become conscious, did not yet exist in developing human beings. The physical organ needed for this was lacking. Of course, consciousness did work in them, but that was the high consciousness of the spiritual beings who built their body and soul, and who guided their life and deeds. Becoming human beings did not yet have their own consciousness.

What now happened was that Yahweh-Elohim used the etheric forces of procreation that became available on both sides to build a whole new organ. That new organ is the nervous system with the brain. The brain is the physical organ with which human beings can think. It is therefore extremely important for the further development of consciousness, particularly for self-awareness or I-consciousness.

Summarizing the above we may say that there exists a profound connection between the separation of the sexes, the existence of men and women, the creative etheric procreation forces, and the ability of the human being to think and become self-aware by means of their own physical organ, the brain. Without all these evolutionary developments that would not have been possible. Thinking became possible because Yahweh-Elohim took etheric forces away from procreation and used them for further development of the physical body, the soul, and spirit.

With the separation into two sexes procreation forces became part of sexuality, the attraction and collaboration of the female and male sexes from outside. Rudolf Steiner relates that during Lemuria the sexual organs still had an etheric, plant-like nature, because there existed not yet any physical, tangible matter - no flesh and blood. The etheric reigned throughout. This plant-like nature of the forces of procreation is referred to in the Bible in Genesis 3, where it is described that Adam and Eve, after they had eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, covered themselves with fig leaves.

Jofra and the zodiac: twins

In those very early times, astral passion and desire, which later were to determine sexuality, did not play any role. The sexes were attracted to each other by harmonious love that came from the Elohim. This love consisted of pure, mutual attraction guided by spiritual beings. Because procreation still happened primarily in the realm of the etheric, without participation of the astral body, it occurred unconsciously. As long as the paradisal condition lasted and astral desire played no role, people were only aware of fertilization in dreams.

This continued to the middle of Atlantis. In Atlantis, as a consequence of what is called the "fall into sin," the sexual organs were more and more seized by the forces of the astral body. This caused the beginning of desire and passion connected with sensual love, stimulated by seeing and longing for the other sex.

At that time, during Atlantis, the I - the gift that human beings had received from Yahweh-Elohim during Lemuria - had already descended much more deeply into the astral body, which was influenced by Lucifer. As a result, selfish desires rose up in human beings. These caused the etheric, plant-like organs of procreation gradually to become transformed into physical organs of flesh.

The sexual organs were the last organs that formed themselves in dense flesh, the physical body consisting of flesh and blood. Because of this, the originally pure, supersensory love between the sexes disappeared into the background.

In the next chapter we will see what role the seduction by the serpent in Paradise and the event that is described as the "fall into sin" played, and continues to play, in the process of the evolution of the human being.

7. Seventh era

2. Hyperborea

6. Sixth era

5. Post-Atlantean era

4. Atlantis

Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic Memory, GA 11.

Rudolf Steiner, Spiritual-Scientific Enquiries into the Nature of the Human Being, GA 107.

Rudolf Steiner, Occult Signs and Symbols, GA 101.

See for English editions www.rsarchive.org.

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Translated by Philip Mees