The Second Man In Us (1977) by Maria Roschl-Lehrs tells us, “First of all there is the great cycle of transformations along each individual’s path of development, the transition from a purely spiritual existence to physical life on earth. The earth and the universe work together here also, when a human ego, ready for its task on earth, takes possession of the physical body prepared for it. Its body of light and warmth approaches union at birth with the physical body that is already pulsating with life and has been prepared for it on earth through the workings of destiny as the seed, the bud for its impending earthly activity.”

This body of light and warmth is in particular the vehicle of a person’s individuality. It has its being in the world of the spirit, and in its spiritual state it existed in tune with entirely different laws. The transformations are enormous, which this spiritual being undergoes when it leaves the world of spirit to inhabit the world of matter. If we are to kindle true spiritual life on earth, if the light that unceasingly incarnates from the spiritual into the earthly world is to win the victory and prevail, then we must gradually extend our consciousness to that world which is the home of the spiritual second man in us.

We have already seen that the present epoch, as the first phase of the Light-Age, stands out in human history. In it we are gradually beginning to perceive the forces coming out of our home of light. The second man in us is entering our consciousness more and more. If we understand him, we can experience this human metamorphosis, or at least we can divine some gentle intimations of it. If human development is to continue in the right way, the oil must be lit in the earthly lamp in order to shed light and warmth on the deeds of men. The lamp must not be left standing empty and dark, while the oil wastes itself in flames elsewhere.

That is what we are struggling for. We must learn in full consciousness to unfold thoughts that are spiritually true, which are more and more able to build a bridge between the second man in us and our ordinary earth-conscious selves. Then these living thoughts will begin to kindle our soul-experience, and the great human task of our time, the metamorphosis of consciousness, will be carried through. Today we live in a time when human beings will say that it seems to them as if they saw something in physical men like a second man; yet, the prophets of our age warn us that if materialistic consciousness goes so far as to declare that a spiritual science is un-Christian or occult nonsense and attempts to thwart this consciousness of the spiritual world then people will not comprehend these capacities of clairvoyance or astral bodies. Again and again we are told that we must not miss this opportunity we have to rise up to Christ Consciousness to understanding the “second man” within us all.

On the subject of evolution, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin says in The Phenomenon Of Man (1955), “If progress is a myth, that is to say, if faced by the work involved we can say, ‘What’s the good of it all?’ With that, the whole of evolution will come to a halt, because we are evolution. Either nature is closed to our demands for futurity, in which case thought, the fruit of millions of years of effort, is stifled, still-born in a self-abortive and absurd universe. Or else an opening exists—that of the super-soul above our souls. In that case, the way out, if we are to agree to embark on it, must open out freely onto limitless psychic spaces in a universe to which we can unhesitatingly entrust ourselves.”

Chardin continues to explain that between the extremes of optimism and pessimism, the natural process of life does not endorse a middle path. It is all or nothing when it comes to evolution. Evolution is, in some respects, involuntary because life is always moving toward evolving itself even if it does not appear to the human mind in such a way. Even seeming setbacks are steps toward evolving into a better life-form. “In the last analysis, the best guarantee that a thing should happen is that it appears to us as vitally necessary… Life…having once been lifted to its stage of thought, cannot go on at all without requiring to ascend ever higher…This is enough for us to be assured of two points of which our action has immediate need. The first is that there is for us, in the future, under some form or another, at least collective, not only survival but also super-life.”

In conclusion we have learned that the evolution of the cosmos, earth, and man are undergoing transformations and the appearance of Christ in the history of humanity is part of that evolution. With consciousness of spiritual realities we come to a better understanding of nature in her spiritual aspect, but also Jesus Christ. In grace and freedom we human beings can now meet our destiny. The power of the Christ is with us all and we need only look into the clouds above and to our hearts within to see Him as the ascending line of evolution through the spiritual hierarchies. We are already living in the reversed direction of normal evolution for humanity as our ether body is slowly passing out of the physical body. Stride forward with confidence as we develop a being who is capable of living in full consciousness on both this side of life as well as the other side of the threshold, the spiritual world, as Christ did. With the Archangel Michael leading nations forward and Christ uniting us within both our cosmic and earthly consciousness we can now enter the Kingdom of God to create the City of Love within our own self aware beingness now.