the opposite spiritual being. With the
pre-historic Persians it was a question of keeping alive the sense of this
last-named spiritual-being. Through their inclination toward the physical
sense world they ran the risk of complete amalgamation with the Luciferian
beings. Now Zarathustra, through the guardian of the Sun oracle, had
received an Initiation that enabled him to receive the revelations of the
great Sun-spirits. In particular states of consciousness, brought about by
his training, he was able to see the Regent of the Sun-spirits, who, as
described above, had taken under His protection the human etheric body.

Zarathustra knew that This Spirit directs the course of human evolution,
but that He must first, at a certain time, descend to earth out of cosmic
space. For this purpose it was necessary that He should be able to live in
a human astral body, just as in man. He had worked in the etheric body
since the entrance of the Luciferic nature. It was therefore necessary
that a man should appear who had retransformed the astral body to the same
level that it would have reached in the middle of the Atlantean evolution,
had there been no Luciferian influence. Had Lucifer not appeared, mankind
would certainly have attained this level before, but without personal
independence or the possibility of freedom. Now, however, in spite of
those qualities he should again arise to this height. Zarathustra, endowed
with prophetic vision, could see that in the future it would be possible,
within human evolution for a personality to exist, who would have a
suitable astral body for that purpose. But he also knew that the great
Sun-spirit could not appear on earth before that time, though He could be
perceived by a seer in the spiritual part of the Sun. When as a seer he
turned his attention to the Sun, Zarathustra was able to see This Spirit,
whom he proclaimed to his people. He announced that the Sun-spirit was at
first to be found only in the spiritual world, but that later He would
descend to earth. This was the great Sun-spirit, or Spirit of Light (the
Aura of the Sun, Ahura-mazdao, or Ormuzd). He was revealed to Zarathustra
and his followers as the Spirit who, for the time being, was turning the
light of His countenance on man from the spiritual world, and that it was
He Who might be expected to appear in a human body amongst men in the
future. It was the Christ, before his appearance on earth, whom
Zarathustra proclaimed as the