The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Origin of the Earth

[ 1 ] Just as each individual human being must pass through various stages from the moment of birth—progressing from infancy through childhood and so on until reaching the age of a mature man or woman—so it is with humanity as a whole. It has developed through other stages to reach its present state. Through the medium of clairvoyance, one can trace three main stages of this human development that were traversed before the formation of the Earth and before this celestial body became the stage for that development. We are therefore currently dealing with the fourth stage in the great cosmic life of humanity. For the time being, the relevant facts will be presented here. The inner rationale will become clear in the course of the exposition, to the extent that such a rationale is possible in the language of everyday speech—without resorting to the terminology of esoteric science.

[ 2 ] Human beings existed before the Earth came into being. However, one must not imagine—as has already been hinted at—that they had lived on other planets beforehand and migrated to Earth at a certain point in time. Rather, the Earth itself has evolved alongside human beings. Just like humanity, it underwent three main stages of development before becoming what we now call “Earth.” For the time being—as has already been suggested—one must completely free oneself from the meanings that modern science associates with the names “Saturn,” “Sun,” and “Moon” — if one wishes to view the esoteric scholar’s explanations in this field in their proper light. For the time being, one should attach no other meaning to these names than that which is directly given to them in the following communications.

[ 3 ] Before the celestial body on which human life unfolds became the “Earth,” it had three other forms, which are referred to as Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon. One can therefore speak of four planets on which the four main stages of human development take place. The fact is that before the Earth became “Earth,” it was the Moon; before that, the Sun; and before that, Saturn. As will become clear from the following information, one is justified in assuming three further main stages that the Earth—or rather, the celestial body that has developed into the present-day Earth—will still undergo. In esoteric science, these have been given the names Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. Accordingly, the celestial body to which human destiny is linked has thus passed through three stages in the past, is now in its fourth, and will have to pass through three more until all the potential inherent in human beings has been developed, until humanity has reached the pinnacle of its perfection.

[ 4 ] Now one must imagine that the development of the human being and his physical body does not proceed as gradually as, for example, an individual’s passage through infancy, childhood, and so on, where one state transitions into the next more or less imperceptibly. Rather, there are certain interruptions. The Saturn state does not transition directly into the Solar stage. Between the Saturn and Solar stages—and likewise between the subsequent forms of the human world body—there are intermediate states that could be compared to the night between two days, or to the sleep-like state in which a plant seed lies before it develops once more into a full-grown plant. — Drawing on Eastern descriptions of this phenomenon, modern Theosophy refers to a stage of development in which life is outwardly unfolded as “Manvantara,” and the intervening state of rest as “Pralaya.” In the context of European esoteric science, the term “open cycle” can be used for the former state, while “hidden or closed cycle” can be used for the latter. However, other terms are also commonly used. Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, and so on are “open cycles,” while the periods of rest between them are “closed cycles.”

[ 5 ] It would be entirely incorrect to think that all life ceases during periods of rest, even though this notion is encountered in many theosophical circles today. Just as a person does not cease to live while asleep, so too does the life of the person and their physical body not cease during a “closed cycle” (Pralaya). It is simply that the states of life during these periods of rest cannot be perceived by the senses that develop during the “open cycles,” just as a person does not perceive what is happening around them while asleep. Why the term “cycle” is used to describe these stages of development will become sufficiently clear from the following explanations. The immense periods of time required for these “cycles” can only be discussed later.

[ 6 ] A thread running through the progression of the cycles can be found if one provisionally traces the development of human consciousness through them. Everything else can be appropriately linked to this consideration of consciousness. — The consciousness that human beings develop during their earthly journey is to be called—in accordance with European esoteric science—“clear daytime consciousness.” It consists in human beings perceiving the things and beings of the world through their present senses and forming concepts and ideas about these things and beings with the help of their intellect and reason. Human beings then act in the sensory world in accordance with these perceptions, concepts, and ideas. Human beings did not develop this consciousness until the fourth main stage of their evolution; it did not yet exist on Saturn, the Sun, or the Moon. At that time, they lived in other states of consciousness. Accordingly, the three preceding stages of development can be described as the unfolding of lower states of consciousness.

[ 7 ] The lowest state of consciousness was experienced during the Saturn evolution; a higher state is the Solar state, followed by the Lunar state, and finally Earth consciousness.

[ 8 ] These earlier states of consciousness differ from the earthly one mainly in two respects: the degree of brightness and the scope of human perception. — The Saturn consciousness has the lowest degree of brightness. It is completely dull. It is difficult to convey a precise idea of this dullness, because even the dullness of sleep is still one degree brighter than this state of consciousness. In abnormal, so-called deep trance states, modern humans can still fall back into this state of consciousness. And even those who are clairvoyant in the sense of esoteric science can form an accurate conception of it. However, such a person does not actually live in this state of consciousness. Rather, he rises to a far higher one, which is nevertheless similar to this original state in certain respects. For the ordinary human being of the present Earth stage, this state—which he once experienced—has been obliterated by “bright daytime consciousness.” The “medium,” however, who falls into a deep trance, is transported back to that same state, so that he or she perceives things as all human beings once did during the “Saturn era.” And such a medium can then, either during the trance or after awakening, recount experiences similar to those of the Saturn era. One must, however, say only that they are “similar,” not “identical,” for the events that took place on Saturn are past once and for all; only those that bear a certain resemblance to them still occur today in the human environment. And only a “Saturn consciousness” can perceive the latter. — The clairvoyant in the sense described above now attains such a Saturn consciousness, just like the medium described; but he also retains his “clear daytime consciousness,” which human beings on Saturn did not yet possess, and which the medium loses during the trance state. Such a clairvoyant is therefore not actually in Saturn consciousness itself; but he can form a conception of it. — While this Saturn consciousness is inferior to present-day human consciousness by several degrees in terms of brightness, it is superior to it in the scope of what it can perceive. For in its dimness, it can not only perceive everything that takes place on its own celestial body down to the smallest detail, but it can also observe the things and beings on other celestial bodies that are connected to its own—Saturn. And it can also exert a certain influence on these things and beings. (It hardly needs to be said that this observation of other celestial bodies is quite different from that which modern humans can carry out through scientific astronomy. This astronomical observation is based on “bright daytime consciousness” and therefore perceives other celestial bodies from the outside. Saturn consciousness, on the other hand, is direct perception, a shared experience of what is taking place on other celestial bodies. It is not entirely, but nevertheless somewhat accurate, to say that a Saturnian inhabitant experiences the events and realities of other celestial bodies—and of his own—just as modern humans experience their own heart and heartbeat, or similar phenomena, within their own bodies.) This Saturn consciousness develops slowly. As the first major stage of human development, it passes through a series of subordinate stages, which in European esoteric science are called “minor cycles.” In Theosophical literature, it has become customary to refer to these “small cycles” as “rounds” and their further subdivisions—even smaller cycles—“globes.” These subordinate cycles will be discussed in the following remarks. Here, for the sake of clarity, we shall first trace the main stages of development. Furthermore, we shall initially focus solely on human beings, although their evolution proceeds simultaneously with that of subordinate and superior entities and things. We shall then appropriately connect the progress of human beings with developments pertaining to other entities.

[ 9 ] When the unfolding of Saturn consciousness was complete, one of the long periods of dormancy (a Pralaya) mentioned above began. Following this, what is called the “Sun” in esoteric science developed out of the human world body. And on the Sun, human beings also emerged once more from their slumber. Within them lay the potential of the previously developed Saturn consciousness. At first, they brought this potential to life once again. One might say that on the Sun, humanity repeated the Saturn state before ascending to a higher one. However, this is not a simple repetition, but rather one in a different form. Yet the transformations of form will be discussed later when addressing the smaller cycles. There, the differences in the individual “repetitions” will also become apparent. For now, only the development of consciousness is to be described. — Following the repetition of the Saturn state, the human “Solar consciousness” emerges. This is one degree brighter than the previous one, but it has also lost some of the breadth of its perspective. In his present state of life, during deep, dreamless sleep, the human being experiences a state of consciousness similar to the one he once had on the Sun. However, one who is not a clairvoyant or a medium cannot perceive the things and beings that corresponded to the solar consciousness. As with the trance of a medium attuned to this state and the higher consciousness of the true clairvoyant, the situation here is again the same as that discussed in relation to Saturn consciousness. — The scope of solar consciousness extends only to the Sun and the celestial bodies most closely associated with it. Only these and the events occurring there can be experienced by the inhabitant of the Sun, just as—to use the above analogy once more—the present-day human being experiences his own heartbeat. The inhabitant of Saturn has thus participated in the life even of those celestial bodies that did not belong directly to Saturn’s immediate sphere.

[ 10 ] Once the solar stage has passed through the corresponding subordinate cycles, it, too, enters a period of rest. From this, the human world body awakens to its “lunar existence.” Once again, before ascending to a higher level, the human being passes through the Saturn and Sun stages in two smaller cycles. Then he enters his Lunar consciousness. It is now easier to form a conception of this, because there is a certain similarity between this stage of consciousness and sleep permeated by dreams. It must be explicitly stated, however, that even here we may speak only of a similarity, not of an identity. For although lunar consciousness unfolds in images, as in a dream, these images correspond in a similar way to the things and events in a person’s surroundings as do the perceptions of present “clear daytime consciousness.” It is just that everything in this correspondence is still vague, still pictorial. One can illustrate the matter roughly as follows. Suppose a lunar being were to approach an object, say, a lump of salt. (Of course, “salt” as we know it today did not yet exist back then, but in order to make oneself understood, one must remain within the realm of images and comparisons.) This lunar being—the predecessor of modern humans—does not perceive an object extending in space with a specific color and shape outside itself; rather, approaching this object causes a certain image—much like a dream image—to arise, as it were, within the being. This image has a certain hue, which depends on the nature of the object. If the object is agreeable to the being and beneficial to its life, the hue is bright, with shades of yellow or even green; if the object is disagreeable or harmful to the being, a blood-red hue appears. The clairvoyant sees in this way even today, only he is fully conscious during this vision, whereas the lunar inhabitant had only a dreamlike, twilight consciousness. The images that “shone forth within” these inhabitants had a precisely defined relationship to their surroundings. There was nothing arbitrary about them. Therefore, one could orient oneself by them; under the influence of these images, one acted just as one acts today under the influence of sensory perceptions. — The development of this dreamlike consciousness—the third main stage—was the task of the “lunar cycle.” Once the “Moon” had passed through the corresponding “minor cycles,” a period of rest (Pralaya) set in once more. And after this, the “Earth” dawned out of the darkness.