Table of Contents
In Chapter III of Atlantis and Lemuria, Rudolf Steiner describes how the fourth, or Atlantean, root race gave way to the fifth, which he calls the Âryan and to which he says civilised people of today belong. He wrote the text in German in 1904, and the English version by Max Gysi appeared in 1911. In his view the change came slowly, over enormous spans of time, and its core was the birth of the power of thought.
Guided From Without
Steiner says the Atlanteans did not yet act on thoughts of their own.
Not their own thoughts, but those which flowed in upon them from Beings of a higher kind, influenced their will, which was thus guided, in a sense, from without.
Rudolf Steiner, Atlantis and Lemuria, trans. Max Gysi, 1911, ch. III
Above the mass of the people stood leaders whose wisdom and powers no earthly schooling could give. Beings of high rank who did not belong to the earth passed these gifts to them. The people honoured them as “Divine Messengers” and took their orders, and from them learned sciences, arts and how to make tools.
Temples of Mysteries
These leaders met the gods in hidden places of initiation.
"Temples of Mysteries" was the name given to these places of initiation, and it was from their midst that mankind was governed.
Rudolf Steiner, Atlantis and Lemuria, trans. Max Gysi, 1911, ch. III
The people could not follow what went on there. The gods and their messengers used no earthly language, and the gods did not take earthly forms.
Steiner describes how the higher spirits showed themselves.
"In fiery clouds" did they, the higher spirits, appear to their messengers, in order to instruct them how men were to be guided.
Rudolf Steiner, Atlantis and Lemuria, trans. Max Gysi, 1911, ch. III
The Manu and the Journey to Central Asia
Steiner names the chief leader with the term Theosophical writers use, the Manu (see also Vaivasvata Manu). Thought had first begun to stir in the fifth Atlantean sub-race, which he calls the Original Semites, and the Manu picked the fittest people from that group. In his account the sixth and seventh sub-races were already in decline. The Manu took the chosen ones to a place in Central Asia, away from the influence of everyone left behind. Only a few were ready for the change, so in the end he went on with a small band, while the rest blended back into the general population.
Steiner gives the new rule the Manu taught them.
Fulfil the commands of the God whom ye see not, and obey Him of whom ye can make to yourselves no image.
Rudolf Steiner, Atlantis and Lemuria, trans. Max Gysi, 1911, ch. III
He hears an echo of this in the commandment against graven images in Exodus 20:3 to 4. The aim was for people to understand, through their own thinking, the divine powers they had once obeyed without knowing why. Other messengers helped the Manu, teaching astronomy and meteorology as signs of divine order and giving every part of life a religious character.
Thought and Its Two Paths
The new power of thought also brought skills with no link to the Manu’s purpose, such as the use of fire in work. People were free to use such knowledge for themselves or to serve a higher world, and this choice, Steiner says, marks the whole fifth root race.
He sees two lasting traits in it.
One of these distinguishes those who are animated by higher ideals, and who consider themselves as children of a divine universal power; the other appears in those who make everything subservient only to personal interests, to selfish ends.
Rudolf Steiner, Atlantis and Lemuria, trans. Max Gysi, 1911, ch. III
When the band was strong enough, its members went out to the peoples left over from earlier races. The new spirit mixed with old ways in each place, and so many new cultures and civilisations arose.
Human Initiates
The ablest of the group were slowly taught the Manu’s wisdom so they could teach others. A new kind of initiate arose in this way: people who had grown their minds the same way as everyone else, unlike the old divine messengers. These human initiates, the holy teachers, became the leaders of the fifth root race, and Steiner counts the priest-kings of myth among them. The higher messengers slowly withdrew from the earth, though they still helped. Steiner says this had to happen so that people could come to use their minds freely.
What Comes Next
Steiner says the whole fifth root race is a slow road toward that freedom. At its end, after the sixth and seventh sub-races, enough people will be ready that the greatest initiate can show himself openly. That human initiate will then take over the leadership, as the Manu did at the close of the fourth root race.
Steiner later preferred the word “epochs”, since he no longer found “race” fitting for modern humanity. For how others framed these stages, see Helena Blavatsky’s root races and the fourth root race. The next chapter of Steiner’s book is The Lemurian Era.
