The Rudolf Steiner Archive

29. The Concept of Objective Existence and Subjective Perception

[ 1 ] The eye is designed to perceive. Sensation—perception—can only arise once the nervous system begins to develop. The eye is half a living physical apparatus; the other half is permeated by the nervous system. The optic nerve would never perceive anything if the physical aspect were not constructed in a certain way; subject to the same physical laws; like an inanimate apparatus, plus life.

[ 2 ] These two things must therefore be developed in human beings: one mechanism for receiving, and one for transmitting. Out in nature, we have the mineral kingdom, and the mineral kingdom has provided us with the apparatus; from the constituents of that same kingdom, that which enables us to assimilate this kingdom is formed. We also possess everything that exists in the external world; little by little, we must assimilate the entire mineral kingdom.

[ 3 ] In the fourth cycle, we assimilate the mineral kingdom, and by the end of the fourth cycle, we will have consumed and absorbed the entire kingdom. During the first cycle, we excrete the minerals; during the fourth, we absorb them. During the second cycle, the same happens with plants; during the third, the same happens with animals.

[ 4 ] During the seventh stage, the human being is within himself; he has absorbed all the realms. How does this happen? In the nineteenth century—the materialistic century—people began to deny the life force entirely. For example, urea, which was previously thought to be produced only by the organism, was synthesized in the laboratory. The researchers believed that if they could now chemically reproduce what was previously thought to originate from living beings, there would be no difference between the living and the non-living—only a more complex organism. They should have said: There is life even in the mineral realm.

[ 5 ] Human beings are first able to perceive the inorganic world; only later do they come to understand plant and animal life. - The sense, through which the nerve extends, perceives the mineral process from the outside. The nerve will then, however, grasp the life contained within the eye—it will perceive the inflowing prana just as it perceives light today. The eye will have advanced to such an extent that the plant realm will flow in directly. The mineral realm will have ceased to exist. - The mineral has reached its greatest density in the fourth round and will soon disintegrate as cosmic dust. — The stone is therefore the image of perfection within our round—the leaf the next closest shell. The image of the jewel in the center of the lotus flower is the symbol of the tendency of today’s human striving. Buddha sitting in the lotus flower is such a symbol. - Today, human beings perceive the mineral realm so strongly that the seeker even denies everything else. But within them is life—Prana—which now carries everything assimilated with it through Pralaya and possesses what has been processed as a spiritual inner life, as that which has been absorbed within them. - Thus in every cycle, until the human being—absorbing everything—remains only in God.

[ 6 ] During the first round, then, human beings had developed their physical form; the skeletal system took shape in its rudimentary form. In the second round, it came to life, and human beings became plants. They are hollow, with the plant serving as their outline.

[ 7 ] In the fifth round, he will have the core within himself. Human beings, as plant-like beings in the second round, propagate themselves; life begets life. In the first round, unity reigned; in the second, number—the emergence of one from the other. Form—shape—also prevails, because number unites.

[ 8 ] In the third stage, beings begin to live within themselves. Interaction prevails—pleasure and displeasure.

[ 9 ] In the fourth round, something new begins. Until now, the shell was still present everywhere. The mineral kingdom begins to take shape as a core. Only now do we begin to distinguish between the shell and the core. The core can separate and dominate ever-new shells. Birth and death prevail. The core can retain a seed that outlives all the shells, and we experience birth and death.

[ 10 ] In the first three cycles, up to the middle of the fourth, the daughter-being emerges from the mother-being; it breaks free. Everything was there for the duration of the cycle; only with the fourth cycle do birth and death become possible.

[ 11 ] The Supreme is unity; it governs the first cycle. The second is number; it governs the second cycle. The third is interaction; it governs the third cycle. The fourth is birth and death; they govern the fourth cycle.

[ 12 ] The union of the Pitris with the Dhyan Chohans is the core. [...]