Awareness - Life - Form
GA 89
29 October 1904
Translated by Steiner Online Library
Planetary Development V
[ 1 ] The consciousness of the first planet was that of deep trance; it had the broadest horizon, but was also the dullest form of consciousness. Within it, human beings could survey the entire planetary system. This was followed on the second planet by the somewhat brighter, but also more confined, consciousness of dreamless sleep, and on the third planet by the significantly brighter and more focused consciousness of dream sleep. In the consciousness of dreamless sleep, human beings could perceive life; in dream sleep, they could also perceive sensations. The consciousness of the fourth planet is daytime consciousness; it is the most limited of all, yet called upon to perceive the conscious self in others. It is the clearest form of consciousness. The psychic stage of consciousness on the fifth planet will be far brighter than the present one; there, consciousness will extend over the entire astral realm. On the sixth planet comes the hyperpsychic stage of consciousness; in which the lower world of thought will lie clearly before the human being. On the seventh planet, the human being then reaches the spiritual stage of consciousness; in this stage, the higher mental world lies openly before the human being. Each phase of development within such a stage of consciousness is called a “planet” or a planetary development. This classification encompasses the development of consciousness.
[ 2 ] Here is an overview of the evolution of life: Each level of consciousness must pass through seven stages of life—namely, the first, second, and third elemental kingdoms, as well as the mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms. Each phase of the passage through a stage of life is called a “round.” Thus, we have seven rounds on each planet, or a total of 49 metamorphoses of life across the seven planets.
[ 3 ] The Stages of Form: Every life form must pass through seven stages of form, namely the form of:
1. Arupic
2. Rupic
3. Astral
4. Physical
5. Plastic (physically malleable: life governs form)
6. Intellectual (not only mobile, but penetrable by thought)
7. Archetypal (the whole self lies bare before the outer world).
[ 4 ] These stages of development are called globes. Each stage has a specific purpose. Let’s examine these purposes as they relate to human beings.
[ 5 ] Human beings first pass through the seven realms in the seven stages of form while in a deep trance state. The densest stage is the middle one on each planet (see number 25 in the diagram on page ... following page 21).
[ 6 ] We thus have the first elemental kingdom in the arupic, rupic, astral, physical, plastic, intellectual, and archetypal stages; then the second elemental kingdom in the same seven stages, and likewise the third elemental kingdom. Furthermore, we have the mineral kingdom in the same stages. However, these kingdoms existed only as seeds; in reality, only one kingdom existed. Number 49 is the human kingdom in the archetypal stage, as the last globe on the last round: form, life, spiritual consciousness.
[ 7 ] The characteristic physical form is attained in the middle of the 49 stages. Human beings began their development as universal beings. They then became distinct beings. Initially, they separated themselves as individual spheres from a general sphere. These individual human spheres underwent various transformations. From one of the later transformations arose the so-called etheric double body. This stage of the first separation from the universal being is called the “plunging of consciousness into the abyss.” This is reached during the physical stage of the first planet. It is preceded by 24 stages and followed by 24 stages. The middle stage, the 25th, is the densest. The physical structure emerged as a coarse physical sphere. At that time, the Earth resembled our ether or the light matter of “our present-day Earth” and, after the fall of consciousness into the abyss, took the form of a kind of mulberry.
[ 8 ] On the second planet, in a state of deep sleep (dreamless sleep), humankind immersed itself in numbers. The spheres that arose on the first planet operate in a certain regular harmony. What remains from this second state is that the chemical elements are not combined arbitrarily; colors and sound vibrations are ordered according to their wave numbers. Thus, on the second planet, we find an arrangement based on measure, number, and weight.
[ 9 ] In the first stage (Saturn), there was only one realm; in the second stage (Sun), once humanity had immersed itself in numbers, the possibility of a division into two realms arose. First, a realm emerged that continued uninterrupted up to humankind; second, a realm comprising all that was unsuited to developing up to the level of humankind; this was set apart as a distinct second realm (the foundation for the animal and plant kingdoms, for lower forms of life). Law: no higher development can be achieved without something being set apart and left behind at a lower stage. The degree of development is a specific one and is specified in this appendix of the first planet. From this follows the law of life. This is the law of unequal but complete development: no taking without giving. The first obligation of the esotericist is: to give back.
[ 10 ] On the third planet, a third element was added to the number: the law of elective affinity. It consists in the fact that people develop sympathy and antipathy toward one another. This law is found in all kingdoms, for example in chemistry and in the mineral kingdom. This simultaneously created the possibility for a new kingdom to form. The animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the mineral kingdom came into being. The human being as we know him today did not yet exist at that time. He was still a kind of animal then, at the kamic stage. The spirit had not yet entered the body.
[ 11 ] On the fourth planet, in daytime consciousness, there is the additional factor that certain beings develop the ability to be exempt from the law of elective affinity. A comprehensive form of life must emerge. This is birth and death, which did not exist before. This could only come about because beings no longer existed in isolation, but were held together by a supersensory thread of life. The individual incarnations are strung together as if on a thread. The being now becomes manifold in time through birth and death. Previously, human beings were manifold only in space. Reproduction on the third planet (the Moon) occurred through severing and division, and everything lived in sympathy and antipathy toward one another. Everything that reproduces through division is materially immortal. Therefore, the lowest animal life forms—monads (according to Weismann)—are immortal. Death is only possible when fertilization is added to the process of division. Birth and death can only be achieved by continuing to split off beings and by humans developing at the expense of other beings. That is why birth and death are also imposed on all other beings that do not have individual karma. Humans had to push down the kingdoms below them, one by one.
[ 12 ] What is connected with birth and death is a person’s karma. On the next planet, with their heightened consciousness, human beings will no longer merely become aware of the effects of karma, but will be conscious within karma itself. Their inner strength will have grown to such an extent that they will have the will to manifest this karma. They will bear it in their form, in their physiognomy. Then their physiognomy will reveal what lies within the astral and mental bodies. Then the time will come when the good can truly be recognized as good even outwardly, and the evil as truly evil. Such evil will then exist only among those who have trained as black magicians. That is when the great decision takes place—the separation between good and evil. This occurs on the fifth planet. From the fifth planet onward, one can speak only of the evolution of good.
[ 13 ] On the sixth planet, as evolution progresses, everything that is meaningless—that which appears nonsensical and illogical on the lower mental plane—is eliminated. This sixth planet is the planet of the Logos, of the Word, because the Word gives meaning. On the seventh planet, a completely purified state prevails, where the tasks of the preceding planets will have been fulfilled and the fruits thereof reaped—this is the state of godliness.
[ 14 ] Throughout the development of the human body as it passed through all these stages, the spirit was also present the entire time. But at first it hovered above the body; then, in the middle of the Lemurian era, it united with the body. The spirit is meant to gain experience on the lower planes through the body. In esotericism, the human soul is likened to a bee that gathers honey from planetary developments—from the fall into the abyss on the first planet to the attainment of divinity on the seventh planet. Thus, redemptions take place continuously: a process of liberation and redemption of that which has been enchanted by matter. A person begins to gather experiences only from the moment they inhabit the body, but first they are the architect who builds the whole structure in order to inhabit it themselves later on.
[ 15 ] Human beings thus undergo the following development:
[ 16 ] First Planet (Trance Consciousness):
[ 17 ] I. Elemental Realm: Form:
1. Arupic
2. Rupic
3. Astral
4. Physical
5. Plastic
6. Intellectual
7. Archetypal
[ 18 ] Pralaya
[ 19 ] II. Elemental Realm: Form:
[ 20 ] 8. Arupian to 14. Archetypal
[ 21 ] Pralaya
[ 22 ] II. Elemental Realm Form: 15th arupic to 21st archetypal
[ 23 ] Pralaya
[ 24 ] IV. Mineral Kingdom Form: 22nd arupic to 28th archetypal
[ 25 ] Pralaya
[ 26 ] V. Plant Kingdom Form: 29th arupic to 35th archetypal
[ 27 ] Pralaya
[ 28 ] VI. Animal Kingdom Form: 36. arupic to 42. archetypal
[ 29 ] Pralaya
[ 30 ] VII. Human Realm Form: 43. arupic to 49. archetypal
[ 31 ] Greater Pralaya
[ 32 ] Second Planet (Consciousness of Dreamless Sleep):
[ 33 ] I. Elemental Realm
[ 34 ] Everything is the same as on the first planet.
[ 35 ] The 25th level, the middle one, is always the deepest and densest. We are now on the fourth planet, on the 25th level, that is, in the densest state of all. On the seventh planet, in the seventh realm—the human realm—and in the seventh form, the archetypal form, the highest perfection of human development is attained. Human beings then possess the archetypal form, are truly godlike, and have an all-encompassing, spiritual consciousness.