The Rudolf Steiner Archive

49. A Look Ahead to the Next Rounds

[ 1 ] Ultimately, all knowledge serves to prepare us for the future. Other beings are guided; the law of crystallization is prescribed for the crystal—it does not need to map it out for itself. The same is true of plants and animals. It is only in the middle of the Lemurian era that human beings begin to set goals for themselves. An effective understanding of the future is possible only if one knows the past. Thus, all human knowledge is destined to hold up the ideal for the future.

[ 2 ] To understand how the previous and current rounds have unfolded, one must realize that the highest kingdom—the mineral kingdom—has reached its highest perfection; therefore, it comes to an end at the conclusion of the fourth round. We must not confuse the mineral kingdom with the physical kingdom. If we could look ahead to the fifth round, we would see that there is no longer a mineral kingdom. This does not rule out the physical kingdom. Let’s imagine intertwined plants, with humans in the midst of them; everything in the lower world will have been transformed into plants. By the end of the fourth round, humans will have reached the highest perfection of their mineral foundation. In the fifth round, they will no longer possess it; they will produce nothing mineral from within themselves.

[ 3 ] It cannot enter this plant life immediately, but must first pass through three preceding stages. Its astral-mental body would not be compatible with this plant body. Therefore, it must prepare itself and pass through the three stages known as globes. Then they fit into the new physical stage. The only thing that has ceased is that which is connected to the mineral kingdom.

[ 4 ] The same applies to birth and death; in the fourth cycle, they come about solely because two different things—higher individuality and the lower nature of human beings /gap in the transcript] When you think of your individuality, it comes from far higher realms, while the body is composed of air, water, and earth. Individuality can express only a part of what it is capable of within the body. It is like a tent that is outlived by the human being. It must constantly change because the human being is more than that. During the fifth cycle, we are dealing with the emergence of ever-new human beings from the others.

[ 5 ] Nothing dies; everything is life, always and forever. What, in a certain sense, arises from the shadow side is that the astral human being will have attained its true organization. Today, he is unorganized, not yet the bearer of the image of God; only the physical body will become the image of God at the end of the fourth round. In the fifth round, the human being will have astral organs of action and sensation. The sensory organs will be the so-called chakras—five in number. They are named according to their shape:

- the six-petaled lotus flower, in the center of the body; in some people it is only hinted at, while in clairvoyants it rotates,
- a little further on is a ten-petaled organ,
- a twelve-petaled one in the heart,
- a sixteen-petaled one at the throat,
- an eighteen-petaled one between the eyebrows.

[ 6 ] The outer body will form based on these organs. This results in something specific. Now the outer body is provided by the external natural world, by the animal kingdom. Now it arises from what flows out of the astral body; it is built up from the astral realm and is therefore a reflection of what lives in the astral nature of the individual in question. Thus, Christian esotericism expressed this by making it clear to the priests that <“Cain” and “Abel”> would be the outward signs in human beings.

[ 7 ] During the sixth round, the plant kingdom will be complete, and only the animal kingdom will exist, having reached its highest point; only sentient life will exist. The entire Earth will be sensation and movement. Whereas in the fifth round the astral body expressed itself as the outer body, in the sixth round thought will express itself, within which the entire animal body moves rhythmically. That which lives in the souls will be expression; thought will be expression—a communicative, resounding world. Hence, Christian esotericism states: In the sixth round, everything is a resounding word.

[ 8 ] Human thought becomes a direct expression. The preceding proclamation of the living Word was the Word made flesh. The reference to this in the fourth round was Christ.

[ 9 ] In the seventh round, the whole inner being of the human being will be turned outward. The human being can only stammer about what lives on the Arupa Plane. Then the “I Am” will flow forth. It is not confined within a body that separates it from the other “I”; all “I”s will be notes in a great symphony. In Christian esotericism, this is called “divinity.” Man must attain this in order to pass over to Mercury, just as he previously came from the Moon. To do this, we must have placed all our powers in the service of our “I” in such a way that we are just as happy to receive as to give. This “Godlikeness” also means resting within oneself. For all previous states are striving; here, one looks back upon all that has been gathered.

[ 10 ] In this likeness to God, there will be no further creation; the Godhead rests, looks back, and rejoices in its works. “Thus were the heavens and the earth completed, along with the whole host of mankind...”

Holy—is absolutely sound, just as
blessed—is completely imbued with the soul.