...What the esotericist awaits, which will one day be revealed to him or her, is Jupiter consciousness. It will one day come upon each of you, one person earlier, another later, depending upon ability, upon the degree of inner maturity. However, Jupiter consciousness is already present in its initial seed-form in every human being. This future consciousness is already indicated in a very delicate way, but humans don't know how to interpret it. The esoteric life consists to a large extent in pupils learning to interpret subtle processes in themselves and in their surroundings. The Old Moon consciousness has not yet entirely disappeared, either, but is still present in its last remainder. The two conditions in present-day humans, in which in one case the Old Moon consciousness is still present and in the other case the new Jupiter consciousness is already present, are the feeling of shame and the feeling of fear. In the feeling of shame, where the blood is forced toward the periphery of the body, a final remnant of Moon consciousness still lives. And in the feeling of fear, where the blood streams toward the heart in order to find there a firm center, the Jupiter consciousness is announced. Thus normal day consciousness swings in two directions.
When we feel ashamed about something and our face turns red, we are experiencing something that recalls the Moon existence. Picture humans on Old Moon. They could not yet say 'I' to themselves but rather lived in a dull, dim picture-consciousness entirely embedded in astal forces and beings, with which they felt themselves to be in harmony. Imagine, my sisters and brothers, if one day the feeling were suddenly to dawn on such a Moon-human: "I am an 'I.' I am different from others: I am an independent being and all the other surrounding beings are looking at me." From top to bottom the entire Moon-human would have been glowing with an incredible feeling of shame. Such a being would have sought to disappear, to be annihilated for shame, if it had been able to feel such a premature 'I'-feeling. Thus we, too, my sisters and brothers, when a feeling of shame overtakes us, would prefer to disappear, to shrink under the ground, to dissolve our 'I'-ness. Imagine how the Old Moon beings were embedded in harmony with the forces and beings in their surroundings. If they were approached by a hostile being they did not think about it but knew instinctively how to avoid it. They acted there with a feeling that, if they had been conscious, they could have expressed somewhat in the following way: I know that the order of the world is not arranged so that this wild animal will now tear me apart, but rather the harmony of the world is such that there must be means that will protect me from my enemy.
Thus Old Moon humans felt themselves to be in complete, unmediated harmony with the forces in the universe. And if an 'I'-feeling had awakened in them it would have immediately destroyed this harmony. And as a matter of fact the 'I'-feeling, when it began to permeate human beings on Earth, did increasingly create disharmony with their environment. A clairaudient hears the universe sounding in a mighty harmony, and when he or she comparies it with the sounds that come from individual human beings, the, today there is a disharmony — with one person more, with another less, but there is a disharmony. And your task, in your evolution, is increasingly to dissolve this disharmony into harmony. This disharmony arose through I-ness, but it was instituted with wisdom by the spiritual powers who rule and guide the universe. Had human beings remained in harmony they would never have come to independence. Disharmony was instituted so that they could once again achieve harmony in freedom out of their own power. This self-aware feeling for being an 'I' had to evolve at first at the expense of inner harmony. When the time comes for Jupiter consciousness to light up and human beings again arrive at a harmonious relationship with the forces of the cosmos, then they will preserve their self-aware 'I'-feeling into the new state of consciousness, so that they will be independent and yet also in harmony with the universe.
We have seen that the new Jupiter consciousness is announced in the feeling of fear. However, it is always the case that when a future condition begins to appear before its time, then it is premature and not in the right place. This will become clear to you with an example. If one takes a flower whose species should bloom in August, and brings it to blossom in a hothouse in May, then in August, when it actually should blossom, it will now longer be able to unfold a blossom; its forces will be exhausted and it will no longer fit into the conditions for which it was intended. And also in May it will have to fall into ruin as soon as it is taken out of the hothouse, because it does not belong in the conditions of nature of this time of year. It is exactly the same with the feeling of fear. It is not appropriate today, and even far less in the future. What happens in the feeling of fear? The blood is pressed toward the center of the human being, into the heart, to form there a firm center in order to make the person strong against the external world. The innermost power of the 'I' brings this about. This power of the 'I,' that works in the blood, must increasingly become more conscious and powerful. On Jupiter, humans will guide their blood very consciously toward the center and be able to make themswelves strong. However, what is unnatural and destructive about this today is the feeling of fear that is connected to this flow of blood. In the future that must no longer be allowed to be the case; only the power of the 'I,' without fear, must be at work there.
In the course of human evolution the external world around us will become increasingly hostile. Increasingly you must learn to set your inner power against the world pressing in on you, But in so doing, fear must disappear. And especially for those who are undergoing an esoteric training it is necessary, unavoidably necessary, that they free themselves from all anxiety and feelings of fear. Fear has a certain justification only when it makes us aware that we should make ourselves strong; but all of the unnatural feelings of fear that torture people must disappear completely. What would happen if human beings still had feelings of anxiey and fear, and Jupiter consciousness arrived? Then the external world would be set opposite the human being in a much more hostile and terrible way. A human being who does not cease to fear here will fall into one frightening horror after another there.
Already now this condition is being prepared in the external world. And this will be shown to humans even more clearly in that terrifying age that will descend under the regency of Oriphiel, concerning whom I spoke to you the last time. By then humans must have learned to stand solidly! Our present-day culture is itself creating the terrible monster that will threaten people on Jupiter. Just look at the gigantic machines that human technology constructs today with all its cunning! Human beings are creating in those machines the demons that will rage against them in the future.
Everything that human beings create today in terms of technical apparatus and machines will in the future come to life and oppose them in a terrible and hostile way. All that is created out of a purely utilitarian principle, out of individual or collective egotism, is the enemy of humanity in the future. Today we ask much too much about the utility of what we do. If we really want to foster evolution, then we must not ask about utility but rather we must inquire whether something is beautiful or noble. Eveything that people do today in order to satisfy their artistic needs, out of pure love of beauty, this too will come to life in the future, but it will contribute to the higher development of the human being. But today it is terrible to see how many thousands of people are kept from knowing any other activity than those done for the sake of material utility; they are cut off from all that is beautiful and artistic all their lives. The most wonderful works of art should hang in the poorest elementary schools; that would bring boundless blessings to human evolution. Human beings are themselves building their own future. We can get an idea of what it will be like on Jupiter if we clearly understand that today there is nothing absolutely good and nothing absolutely evil. Today good and evil are mixed in every human being. A good person must always say that he or she has only a little bit more good than evil within, but is not at all wholly good. On Jupiter, however, good and evil will no longer be mixed, but rather human beings will divide themselves into the entirely good and the entirely evil. And all that we cultivate today in terms of the good and the beautiful serves to strengthen the good on Jupiter, and all that happens only from the point of view of egotism and utility strengthens the evil.
So that human beings in the future are a match for the evil powers, they must gain mastery of the most inner power of their 'I'; they must be able consciously to regulate their blood so that it makes them strong in the face of evil, but without any fear. The force that drives the blood inward they must have in hand. But also that other ability, to allow the blood to flow from the heart to the periphery, must not be lost to them. For the Jupiter condition will in a certain way also signify the return to Old Moon consciousness. Human beings will again come into harmony with the great laws of the universe and feel themselves to be one with them. They will once again acquire the ability to flow together with the spiritual powers of the world, but not as they did on the Moon, unconsciously and dimly. Rather on Jupiter they will always retain their clear day-consciousness and self-conscious feeling for self, and yet live in harmony with the powers and the laws of the world. Disharmony will then be dissolved in harmony. And to be able to let themselves flow into the harmony of the universe they must consciously learn to let the inner power of their 'I' radiate out from the heart. Thus they must be able to centralize the inner powers of their blood when an enemy approaches them, and they must also be able to radiate them forth consciously. Only then will they be equal to future conditions.
Those then who strive for inner development must begin already today to get these forces gradually more and more under their control. They do this by learning consciously to inhale and exhale. When humans inhale, then the forces of the 'I' become active, the forces that connect them with the powers of the universe, the forces that radiate outward from the heart. And when human beings exhale, and when they hold their breath, then those forces of the 'I' become active which push toward the middle point, toward the heart, and create for them there a solid center. Thus pupils are learning already today, when they consciously carry out their breathing exercises in this sense, gradually to become master of the forces of their 'I.' However, no one should believe that he or she is allowed independently to undertake such exercises if he or she has not yet received any instructions for them. Everyone will receive them at the proper time. However, even for those who are not yet doing any exercises, it is never too early to familiarize oneself with the meaning of these exercises and to acquire an understanding for them. Later these exercises will be all the more fruitful. Thus, my sisters and brothers, you should always get more understanding even for the subtle processes within yourselves and in the entire universe, and gradually grow into future periods of human evolution.
Source: after-the-fact notes of Anna Weissmann, who was in attendance at an Esoteric Lesson given by Rudolf Steiner in Berlin on January 16, 1908. Esoteric Lessons 1904-1909, pp. 243-248
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