age
from the Atlantean period. Just as the Atlanteans had entered the
spiritual world during sleep, their descendants had experience of it in
abnormal states, intermediate between sleeping and waking. Then there
arose in these people the images of the ancient times of their
forefathers. They believed themselves to be reincarnations of people who
had lived in those times. Teachings about reincarnation, which were at
variance with the true ideas of the Initiates, were widely spread over the
earth.

As a result of the long-continued migrations which had taken place from
west to east since the beginning of the Atlantean catastrophe, a group of
people settled in western Asia whose posterity is known to history as the
Persian race and the tribes related thereto. Here we look back to a much
earlier period than the historical times of these peoples. Next after the
Indian period, we have first to do with the very early ancestors of the
later Persians, among whom arose the second great civilization of
post-Atlantean evolution. The peoples of this second era had a different
mission from that of the Indians. Their longings and inclinations were not
fixed on the supersensible world alone; they were also directed toward the
physical sense-world, and the earth became dear to them. They valued what
man is able to acquire on it, and what he is able to win by means of its
forces. Their achievements as a warlike people, and the methods which they
discovered of acquiring the earth's treasures, are connected with this
peculiarity of their nature. There was no danger of their turning their
backs upon the "illusion" of the physical senses in their yearning after
the supersensible, but rather of their entirely severing the connection of
their souls with the supersensible world, through their appreciation for
the physical world.

The oracle-sanctuaries, which had been transferred hither from the ancient
Atlantean territory, also reflected, in their own way, the general
character of the people. In them forces were present which it had formerly
been possible to acquire through experiences in the supersensible world,
and which could still be controlled in certain lower forms; these forces
were used in the sanctuaries to direct the phenomena of nature in such a
way as to make them subservient to man's personal interests. This ancient
people still had a great mastery over those forces of nature which
subsequently withdrew from the influence of the