The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Earth and Its Future

[ 1 ] The fourth main stage of human evolution is being lived out on Earth. This is the state of consciousness in which humankind currently finds itself. However, before reaching this stage, humanity—and with it the entire Earth—first had to repeat, one after another, the Saturn, Sun, and Moon states in three smaller cycles (the so-called “rounds” of theosophical literature). Humanity is now living in the fourth Earth cycle. It has already progressed somewhat beyond the midpoint of this cycle. At this level of consciousness, human beings no longer perceive only dreamlike images that arise in their soul as a response to their surroundings; rather, objects “out there in space” now appear to them. On the Moon—and even during the repetitive stages on Earth—a colored image would arise in their soul, for example, when a corresponding object approached them. The entire consciousness consisted of such images, sounds, and so on, ebbing and flowing within the soul. Only with the emergence of the fourth state of consciousness does color no longer appear merely within the soul, but on an external, spatially defined object; sound is no longer merely an inner resonance of the soul, but an object in space that sounds. For this reason, in esoteric science, this fourth—the earthly—state of consciousness is also called “objective consciousness”. Slowly and gradually, this state emerged in the course of evolution as the physical sense organs gradually developed, thereby making the most diverse sensory qualities of external objects perceptible. And in addition to the senses already developed, others are still present in embryonic form, which will come to fruition in the coming earthly era and will reveal the sensory world in an even greater variety than is already the case today. The preceding text has described the gradual growth of this earthly consciousness, and in the following discussion, this description will be significantly expanded and supplemented.

[ 2 ] The world of color, sound, and so on—which early human beings perceived within themselves—now presents itself to them externally in space during their earthly life. In its place, however, a new world emerges within them: the world of concepts and thoughts. One cannot speak of concepts and thoughts in the context of lunar consciousness. It consists solely of the images described above. Around the middle of Earth’s evolution—though the groundwork is actually laid somewhat earlier—the ability to form concepts and thoughts about objects emerges in human beings. And this ability also forms the foundation for memory and self-consciousness. Only the human being capable of imagination can form a memory of what he or she has perceived; and only the thinking human being is able to distinguish himself or herself from his or her surroundings as an independent, self-conscious being—to come to know himself or herself as an “I.” The first three stages described were thus stages of consciousness; the fourth is not merely consciousness, but self-consciousness. Now, however, the predisposition for even higher states of consciousness is already emerging within the current state of self-consciousness—that is, within the life of thought. Humanity will have to experience these states of consciousness on the next planet into which the Earth will transform from its present form. It is not absurd to say something about these future states of consciousness—and thus also about life on the subsequent planets. For, first of all, the clairvoyant is ahead of his fellow human beings in his development—for certain reasons to be explained elsewhere. Thus, those states of consciousness are already taking shape within him that all of humanity must attain as planetary development progresses. Thus, the clairvoyant consciousness already contains images of humanity’s future stages. Furthermore, three subsequent states of consciousness already exist as latent seeds within all human beings; and clairvoyant research has the means to indicate what may become of these latent seeds.

[ 3 ] However, when it is said here that the clairvoyant is already developing within himself the states of consciousness toward which all of humanity will progress in the future, this must be understood with a qualification. For example, the clairvoyant is today developing within the soul world a form of perception that will manifest in human beings in a physical form in the future. But this future physical state of human beings will be the true reflection of the corresponding present-day soul state of the clairvoyant. The Earth itself will, after all, evolve, and as a result, its future physical inhabitants will take on forms quite different from those that exist today; but these physical forms are being prepared in today’s soul and spiritual realms. For example, what the clairvoyant sees today as a cloud of light and color surrounding the physical human body—the so-called “aura”—will later transform into a physical form; and sensory organs different from those of today will give future human beings the ability to perceive these other forms. The clairvoyant, however, already sees the spiritual prototypes of future sensory beings (such as the aura) with his spiritual senses today. He is capable of a glimpse into the future, the nature of which, however, is very difficult to convey through today’s language and within the framework of current human concepts.

[ 4 ] The ideas of the present state of consciousness are shadowy and pale in comparison to the colorful and resonant objects of the external world. People therefore speak of ideas as something that is “not real.” A “mere thought” is contrasted with a thing or being that is “real” because it is perceived by the senses. But perceptions and thoughts contain within themselves the potential to become real and vivid once again. When people today speak of the idea of “red” without having a red object before them, this idea is, as it were, merely a shadow image of the real “redness.” Later, people will come to not only allow the shadowy idea of “red” to arise in their souls, but when they think of “red,” “red” will truly be before them as well. They will be able to create images, not merely ideas . They will thereby achieve something similar to what already existed in lunar consciousness. But the images will not ebb and flow within them as in a dream; rather, they will evoke them within themselves with full self-awareness, just as they do with today’s ideas. A thought of a color will be the color itself; an idea of a tone will be the tone itself, and so on. In the future, a world of images will arise and subside within the human soul through the person’s own power, whereas during the Lunar stage of existence, such a world of images filled the inner being without any action on the person’s part. And the spatial character of the concrete external world will not disappear. The color that arises simultaneously with the concept of color will not merely be an image in the soul, but will unfold outward in space. And the result of this will be that human beings will be able to perceive beings and things of a higher order than those in their present surroundings. These are beings and things of a finer spiritual and soul nature, such that they do not clothe themselves in the concrete colors perceptible to today’s physical sense organs, but reveal themselves through the finer soul and spiritual colors and tones that the human being of the future will be able to awaken from within his or her own soul.

[ 5 ] Humanity is thus approaching a state in which it will possess a self-conscious image consciousness suitable for such perceptions.^{8The phrase “self-conscious image consciousness” may seem strange, but it probably best expresses the reality of the matter. One could, if one wished, also say: “image-self-consciousness.”} The coming evolution of the Earth will, on the one hand, lead the present life of imagination and thought to ever higher, finer, and more perfect development; on the other hand, however, the self-conscious image-consciousness will also gradually take shape during this time. However, the latter will not come to full life in human beings until they reach the next planet into which the Earth will transform—a planet known in esoteric science as “Jupiter.” Then human beings will be able to interact with beings who remain completely hidden from their present sensory perception. It is understandable that not only will the life of perception become entirely different as a result, but that actions, feelings, and all relationships with the environment will also be completely transformed. Just as human beings today can consciously influence only sensory beings, they will then be able to consciously act upon entirely different forces and powers; and they themselves will receive influences from realms entirely different from those now fully perceptible to them. At this stage, there can no longer be any question of birth and death in the current sense. For “death” occurs only because consciousness depends on an external world with which it communicates through the physical sense organs. If these physical sense organs fail to function, then all connection with the external world ceases. This means, precisely, that the human being “has died.” When the soul has reached the point where it no longer receives influences from the external world through the physical organs, but rather through the images it creates of its own accord, it has also reached the point where it can regulate its interaction with the external world at will—that is, its life is not interrupted without its consent. It has become master of birth and death. All of this will therefore come to pass with the attainment of self-conscious image consciousness on “Jupiter.” This state of the soul is also called “psychic consciousness.”

[ 6 ] The next state of consciousness, which human beings develop on another planet, “Venus,” differs from the previous one in that the soul can now create not merely images, but objects and beings themselves. This occurs in the self-conscious object consciousness or suprapsychic consciousness. Through image consciousness, a human being can perceive something of supersensible beings and things, and can influence them by evoking mental images. But for what he desires of such a supersensible being to happen, for example, that being must set its own powers in motion at his instigation. Human beings are thus masters of images, and through these images they can bring about effects. But they are not yet masters of the forces themselves. When their self-conscious object consciousness is fully developed, they will also be masters of the creative forces of other worlds. They will not only perceive and influence beings, but create them themselves.

[ 7 ] This is the course of the development of consciousness: at first it begins in a dim state; one perceives nothing of other things or beings, but only the inner experiences (images) of one’s own soul; then perception develops. And finally, perceptual consciousness transforms into creative consciousness. Before the Earth state transitions into the Jupiter life, there are—following the fourth Earth cycle—three smaller cycles yet to be undergone. These serve to further perfect Earth consciousness in a manner that will be described in the following essays, when the development of the smaller cycles and their subdivisions on all seven planets is presented. Once, after a period of rest (Pralaya), the Earth has transformed into Jupiter, and humanity has arrived on this planet, the four preceding states—the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth states—must be repeated over the course of four smaller cycles; and only during the fifth Jupiter cycle does humanity reach the stage described above as the actual Jupiter consciousness. In a similar manner, “Venus consciousness” emerges during the sixth Venus cycle.

[ 8 ] A fact that will play a certain role in the following essays will be briefly mentioned here. It concerns the speed at which evolution proceeds on the individual planets. This speed is not the same on all planets. Life initially proceeds at the greatest speed on Saturn; then the speed decreases on the Sun, becomes even slower on the Moon, and moves most slowly on Earth. On Earth itself, it becomes slower and slower until the point at which self-consciousness develops. Then the speed increases again. Today, therefore, humanity has already passed the point of greatest slowness in its evolution. Life has begun to accelerate once more. On Jupiter, the speed of the Moon will be reached again; on Venus, that of the Sun.

[ 9 ] The last planet that can still be counted among the series of earthly transformations—that is, the one that follows Venus—is called “Vulcan” by esoteric science. On this planet, the provisional goal of human evolution is attained. The state of consciousness into which the human being enters there is called “divinity” or spiritual consciousness. The human being will attain it after repeating the six preceding stages in the seventh Vulcan cycle. Not much can be publicly disclosed about life on this planet. In esoteric science, it is said of this planet: “No soul whose thinking is still bound to a physical body should contemplate the Volcano or life on it.” This means that only esoteric students of the higher order—who are permitted to leave their physical bodies and acquire supersensory knowledge outside of them—can learn anything about the Volcano.

[ 10 ] Thus, in the course of human evolution, the seven stages of consciousness are expressed in seven planetary evolutions. Now, at each stage, consciousness must pass through seven subordinate states. These come into being in the smaller cycles already mentioned. (Theosophical writings refer to these seven cycles as “rounds.”) These subordinate states are called “states of life” by the occult science of the West, in contrast to the superordinate “states of consciousness.” Or, as it is also said, each state of consciousness moves through seven “realms.” According to this account, there are thus seven times seven—that is, forty-nine—small cycles or “realms” (referred to as “rounds” in common theosophical terminology) to be distinguished throughout the entire course of human evolution. Furthermore, each small cycle must pass through seven even smaller ones, which are called “states of form” (in theosophical terminology, “globes”). This results in seven times forty-nine different “states of form,” or three hundred forty-three, for the complete cycle of humanity.

[ 11 ] The following remarks, which will deal with this development, are intended to show that the overall picture is not as complicated as it might initially seem when the number three hundred forty-three is mentioned. It will become clear how a person can understand themselves even better once they are familiar with this development.