Awareness - Life - Form
GA 89
31 October 1904
Translated by Steiner Online Library
Planetary Development VI
[ 1 ] Today we want to take a closer look at the development of our Earth. First, let’s briefly summarize what we’ve covered so far.
[ 2 ] Within Earth’s evolution, we are on the fourth stage of consciousness—that is, on the fourth planet. On this planet, clear waking consciousness is developed, gradually through 49 stages. The highest stage on the preceding planet, the Moon, was the most perfect development of a kind of highly evolved dream consciousness. This was a consciousness similar to that which exists today in the most highly evolved animals. Physical human beings—not the soul-spiritual beings, who have followed a different line of development and will only now unite with the physical—were able at that time to think in the manner permitted by the dream consciousness of today’s most highly developed animals. At the beginning of such a development, our very essence itself comes into play for further progress.
[ 3 ] Animals, plants, and minerals had evolved earlier than humans. Whatever had evolved to the point where it could progress at that time entered a sort of embryonic state along with humanity, passing through a Pralaya. On the Moon, the human embryos had reached the stage where they could develop the capacity for a higher dream consciousness. Animals had only reached a dull dream consciousness, plants a lower level, and minerals an even lower level of consciousness. Everything else that was not suited for further development was cast off as dross. In the new Earth evolution, seeds of this kind—of humans, animals, plants, and minerals—were present. Thus, there were seeds not only from the human kingdom but also from the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms, which at that time were very different from what we now know as animals, plants, and minerals. The minerals were more in a state similar to that which now occurs in a metal at a very high temperature.
[ 4 ] What is now taking shape in the Earth’s evolution, stage by stage, is not identical to the animals, plants, and minerals of earlier times. They were already one stage further along than was necessary for the Earth. Only human beings found the conditions on Earth that were appropriate for them. Therefore, the other kingdoms developed, as it were, like overripe fruit; they could no longer take root. These beings are therefore not truly native to this Earth itself, but can only live on the foundation of those beings that are native here; they become parasites. The lunar animals and plants were accustomed to living in a soil of Kama; they were entirely embedded in the psychic realm, and therefore could only find a suitable environment on Earth once Kama was present there. They then became parasitic, like mistletoe, for example, which developed its growth independently on the Moon but could not grow directly on Earth. This force was justified on the Moon, but not on Earth. It became an inhibiting, hindering force, as it impedes the development of other plants. Therefore, Satan is the lord of the parasites; he makes use of forces that are parasitic. In Germanic mythology, it is the god Loki who is hostile toward Baldur, the god of the Earth. Everything that came over from the lunar epoch is represented in Loki. No being of the Earth can harm Baldur—only that which has come from the Moon; therefore, Baldur was struck by mistletoe, which derives its power from the Moon.
[ 5 ] Our animals, which are in the process of developing on Earth, as well as humans, develop a skeletal system on Earth. The animals, however, that had already completed their development on the Moon did not have a skeletal system there; they formed an external skeleton on Earth: a crust or shell, such as that of beetles, tracheates, and so on. These entered Earth’s evolutionary process from the Moon. All beings that truly follow the course of Earth’s evolution form an internal skeleton. This is why Eve is depicted as having been created from a rib. There were now two currents on Earth: first, that which could become animals, plants, and minerals on Earth, and second, alongside this, the embryonic human beings.
[ 6 ] How, then, does human evolution take place? In order to eventually possess within himself everything that enables him to reach the stage of development to which he is destined, man must eliminate everything that would otherwise have developed parasitically. That which is now mineral, plant, and animal had to emerge from within him. He had to form these three kingdoms alongside himself.
[ 7 ] The first phase is the epoch referred to in Theosophical literature as the first round. In the first round, human beings had to form the physical, earthly mineral kingdom from within themselves; in the second round, the plant kingdom; and in the third round, the animal kingdom—because the very substance from which these kingdoms are formed prevents them from achieving what they can attain only by distilling their human nature. It is not until the fourth round that he has freed himself sufficiently from all the other kingdoms so that he has now prepared himself to become a vessel for the Spirit that has hovered around him, waiting for him. Only in the fourth round has he advanced to the point where the Spirit can take possession of this purified body. He increasingly gains the ability to expand. He has left behind him on his path—as his sacrifice—the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms. All higher development must be paid for at the cost of leaving other beings behind.
[ 8 ] During the fourth round, humankind learns to master the mineral kingdom through the senses. It makes use of the inanimate, mineral world; in this, it will continue to make ever greater progress. It does not yet consciously master the life force of the plant kingdom. The Atlanteans mastered it unconsciously, instinctively. The Atlanteans also constructed “their airships” unconsciously. The conscious infusion of spirit into the inorganic world is the task of the second half of the fourth round. Through this, by the end of the fourth round, the mineral kingdom will have been gradually absorbed by humankind. Humankind will have physically transformed all that is physical and mineral through its thought-forms. It is humanity’s task to redeem the mineral kingdom once more, to infuse it with its spirit, and to shape it through its spirit. When humanity has progressed to mastery of the astral realm in the second half of the fourth round, then on the final globe—the archetypal (prototypical) globe of the fourth round—the mineral kingdom will be thoroughly alive.
[ 9 ] In the first half of the fourth round, human beings first acquire the ability to relate their senses to the mineral kingdom; in the second half of the fourth round, they redeem the mineral kingdom. But a part of it remains behind, is excreted, since it is no longer useful to humankind. This forms the so-called eighth sphere, which is no longer useful for human development, but only for higher-order beings. It can later serve as material for them when it is dissolved into cosmic dust and used for the formation of other worlds. It is incorporated into other streams of development; human beings cannot incorporate it into themselves. First comes evolution—everything is developed outward—then involution—it is taken back in again.
[ 10 ] During the fifth round, there will no longer be a mineral kingdom. It will have been redeemed. In the first half of this round, human beings will develop their higher senses, through which they will enter into the same relationship with the plant kingdom as they now have with the mineral kingdom; they will develop plant consciousness. Then human beings will live consciously in the Garden of Eden. There will then be no more heaviness. Everything will have been transformed into the plant kingdom. During the second half of the fifth round, humankind will draw the entire plant kingdom back into itself; it will redeem it to the extent that it can. These kingdoms had, after all, previously been set aside as superfluous and hindering to its development.
[ 11 ] The same process now takes place in the sixth round with the animal kingdom. There, human beings will become fully human. In the seventh round, they will develop within their Atma what they were actually destined for: freed from the realms they have cast aside, they will then develop godlikeness within themselves. Each round is a day of creation. The seventh round is the seventh day of creation, on which man becomes godlike and on which God can rest from His works.
[ 12 ] From the middle of our fourth round onward, another direction of development must also begin. The mineral kingdom expresses the strongest separation. Human beings relate to the increasingly dense matter entirely from the outside. Minerals, plants, and animals have a closer relationship to their environment than humans do. The forces of the mineral kingdom are external; the forces of the crystal live in the universe—it is a part of the whole, without claiming any distinctiveness. Gradually, the claim to distinctiveness grows ever stronger among beings. Human beings are the beings most separated within themselves. For the physical human being, this process reached its peak in the middle of the Lemurian race. There, the vessel for the spirit was created. Now the spirit united with it. And as the spirit develops, human beings begin to reintegrate themselves into the external world through a sense of community. First they had to separate themselves, to set themselves apart; now they form spiritual communities, the brotherhood. What was formerly sympathy and antipathy on the Kama level now becomes a conscious force of attraction. A conscious brotherhood develops. Those who belong to a brotherhood no longer feel themselves to be separate from others; they do not separate themselves from their group but integrate themselves into it with full consciousness. An adept possesses a consciousness that rests within his brotherhood or group. Those beings who have attained a certain level within it are called dhyanic beings, the great creative forces. Brotherhood lodges evolve into dhyanic beings. Dhyanic beings are spiritual beings united as if in a cluster of cells. The brotherhood of adepts will be regarded as a dhyanic being. Here, too, an enrichment in development is taking place. An important point lies in the middle of the fourth round: human spirits begin to unite into a brotherhood to form a dhyanic being.
[ 13 ] Thus, we perceive a great difference between the first and second halves of a cycle. In the first half of a cycle, a human being develops the organs through which he strives outward. In the second half of a round, they draw these organs back into themselves. The first half is intended to prepare them for this reincorporation. The second half of the round will bring salvation to every being, in accordance with the way it lives, at the corresponding level. In esoteric language, a “round” is also called a “cycle.” In every cycle, development proceeds from the Arupic to the Archetypal: this is called an “epicycle” [= globes]. It is only during the second half of a cycle or round, therefore, that a being can accumulate karma, for it is then that it begins to act. Hence, a being’s karmic development will be significant precisely on the plane on which it is evolving.
[ 14 ] Such beings, who guide physical development from higher planes, do exist. Their lowest level of development is in astral matter. Every nation, every race, every tribe has a shared astral substance—the incarnational substance for the national spirit. The national spirit always reaches its stage of development somewhat earlier than the individuals within the nation. The national spirit can begin accumulating karma from the middle of a cycle onward. We contribute to the karma of the people, the race, and so on. This is called collective karma. It is a reality. It arises because those beings who are one level further along also have karma. International endeavors belong to an even more comprehensive spirit that encompasses the entire astral matter of the Earth—the true Earth spirit. The physical Earth is also the physical body for this Earth Spirit, the Planetary Logos, which, when one rises to it, represents the karma of the entire earthly evolution. International endeavors are the first step toward that great unity that will arise on the Arupa plane. The Theosophist lives in the idea of this great inclusion, of concentrating on a single point.