mation of post-Atlantean man, whose physical
form is solid and comparatively independent of the qualities of the soul.
(The forms of the animal kingdom had solidified during far more remote
Earth periods than those of man.) The laws now governing the shaping of
forms in the kingdom of nature certainly did not prevail in the remote
past.

Toward the middle of the Atlantean evolution a calamity gradually befell
humanity. The Mysteries of the Initiates had to be carefully kept secret
from those who had not purified their astral bodies from sin. Had they
gained insight into that hidden knowledge, into the laws by means of which
higher beings directed the forces of nature, they would have employed
those forces thus placed at their disposal for their own perverted needs
and passions. The danger was all the greater because mankind was coming,
as has been described, into the sphere of lower spiritual beings, who
could not take part in the regular evolution of the earth and were
therefore working against it. These persistently influenced humanity in
such a way as to instil into it interests which were actually directed
against human welfare. But mankind still had the power to employ the
forces of growth and reproduction belonging to animal and human nature in
their own service.

Not only humanity in general, but even some of the Initiates yielded to
temptation from low spiritual beings. They were induced to employ the
supersensible forces mentioned above for a purpose which ran counter to
human evolution. And for this purpose they sought out associates who were
not initiated, and who made use of the secrets of the supersensible forces
of nature for low ends. The result was a great corruption of human nature.
The evil spread further and further; and since the forces of growth and
generation, if torn from their original sphere and used independently,
have a mysterious connection with certain forces working in air and water,
there were thus unchained, through human action, mighty, destructive
natural forces which led to the gradual ruin of the Atlantean territory by
the agency of air and water catastrophes. Atlantean humanity was obliged
to migrate--i. e., that portion of it which did not perish in the storms.

In consequence of these storms the surface of the earth was altered. On
one side, Europe, Asia, and Africa gradually assumed their present shape;
on the other, America appeared. Great migrations took place to these
countri