The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Apocalypse and Theosophical Cosmology III

[ 1 ] There is still one question left regarding a relationship, and that is: What is the Earth’s relationship to the other planets? Mars and Mercury can shed some light on this for us; but because erroneous ideas have been formed about it, this is a difficult topic. From the very beginning, the Masters of Wisdom have been reluctant to answer questions.

[ 2 ] A few words from a great master, found in *The Secret Doctrine*: “Do not impart the great wisdom!” And so on. They serve as a clear warning. There are, in fact, reasons why this subject must not be discussed until a person is mature enough to understand it.

[ 3 ] The Earth's relationships with Mars and Mercury.

[ 4 ] Before inhabiting this Earth, humans lived on the Moon. The Moon we see today—the physical Moon—is now only a fragment of it. Before that, they lived on the Sun, and before the Sun, on Saturn. Three planets in succession. The days of the week are named after them. Colorless: Sonnabend—Saturday.

[ 5 ] Now, regarding Earth: a globe undergoing metamorphoses, which it completes in seven times seven cycles.

[ 6 ] The moon is orange, then darker, then green—Earth—colored, then transitions to the next state, which is darker again; such are the successive states.

[ 7 ] So, after the Moon—which had an orange color—had completed its 49 metamorphoses and humanity had evolved as far as was intended for it during the third cycle, all life contracted into a seed-like state so that it could blossom anew on Earth. The Earth had to pass through the Saturn state in seven cycles, then the Sun state, then the Moon state, and is now becoming physical in its fourth cycle; we are now in the most solid form of matter and have the color green; the previous phase was orange.

[ 8 ] The Moon was astral only in the beginning; then it became denser ether. The Earth was first ether, then solid, then astral, and so on.

[ 9 ] We can truly understand our Earth only when we familiarize ourselves with what has taken place on it. The Earth goes through seven stages of development, which are the seven races.

I. The polar root race. Etheric substance. Then denser, not like our air, which
II. Root race, the Hyperboreans. The
III. Race, the Lemurians, a mist of air and fire, not yet dense. Up until the Lemurians, humans were hermaphroditic; from this point on, they became unisexual.
IV. Race, the Atlanteans, who perished in the Flood.
V. The Aryan race, our present race.

[ 10 ] Then the sixth and seventh races, whose names will be mentioned later. From the seventh race, we then move on to the next cycle. Here, in this fourth round, the Earth has reached its full development. In the Lemurian race, humankind has reached its full potential. As human beings, they cannot attain any higher stage.

[ 11 ] He came down from the moon while he was in a state of heightened dream-consciousness.

[ 12 ] The Lemurians are similar to the condition of the lunar beings. The most mature fruit of lunar evolution was the emergence of two sexes. Once it had gone through all the Earth cycles, it became part of the Lemurian era /gap in the transcript).

[ 13 ] The soul of the Lemurians was different from ours today. They also had only two senses: hearing and touch. But it was not the sense of touch as we know it—for touching solid objects—but rather a sense of warmth and cold, a sense of the air. Human beings were like soundboards. The air was denser, the water thinner. The air was like a mass of fog.

[ 14 ] Man lived in a mist of fire. Everything resonated around him; he heard with a kind of acute hearing. He heard the air crackling, just as one hears the rumble of a thunderstorm. Based on this, he was able to organize his life and his activities. Through the sense of touch, he could feel his way to find food. There were no concepts like images, but rather like dreamscapes—though consistently in color; it was an inner surging and weaving. When he perceived red, it was his very life itself, not directed toward external objects, but it had a magnetizing effect; for example, when he felt fear, the images were ugly. People had brought this with them from the Moon. The human beings of the Lemurian race would not have been able to progress any further had it not been for the other impact.

[ 15 ] The capacity for this further training was not present. However, alongside these average human beings, there were already higher beings present. For example, there were beings who had already attained such a high level on the Sun that they no longer needed to go through the lunar phases; these are the solar Pitris. On the Sun, they had already attained this superhuman nature. This nature also manifests itself much more fully and perfectly in their soul life. While the ordinary human being saw only images in their surroundings, these Pitris saw true revelations in those images—a higher kind of image. This was the expression of a highly spiritual being. It was a different kind of knowledge than our knowledge today; it was like intuition. They did not study the laws of nature but perceived nature itself. Such beings had to reveal themselves to humankind.

[ 16 ] Before the Lemurians, humankind would have turned into a statue, into dross—it now needed a new impetus. It would not have been able to develop a life of thought. These leaders were there; they had great power, quite unlike the Masters of today. They could intervene in the process of evolution—just as chemists use substances. They shaped the human body, which had been astralized and brought in from elsewhere. These high leaders were never connected to Earth; these solar beings were able to interact with other planets. The first three races—on Earth—were important, as that was where this could be introduced; and this must have been studied on [other] celestial bodies. The leaders studied it; they brought it from Mars, which was just about to darken. Mars has different inhabitants than Earth. Earth is of a physical nature, but Mars is astral—though solidified—and in this state, it resides in the same deep sphere as our Earth. Mars has two higher planets. This astral one is the same sphere as Earth is now physically. Mars, however, is astral, but the Martians have become immediately physical within the astral state. And this astral shell was brought down from Mars and incorporated into human beings, thereby enabling humans to continue their development.

[ 17 ] A second influence of the highest spirituality came to Earth through correspondence with Venus; from there came the ingredients that humanity still needed. Through studies of the beings of Venus. These Sons of Venus have descended to bring to Earth what they—the Sons of Venus—have studied on other planets.

[ 18 ] A third influence now came into play. The human being, who now possessed the spark of the spirit, had to be guided further. First, he had to pass through fear and striving, through passion, through desires and longings; but now he had to be led to a state of desireless spirituality. Mercury is in the stage of enlightenment; it represents a highly developed astral being—it was from here that the manasic bodies were brought.

[ 19 ] The first race on our Earth originated from the evolution of Mars and Mercury. In fact, we owe our characteristics to the Moon and the Sun, but also to Mars and Mercury.

Saturn phase = Saturday
Moon phase = Monday
Mars impact = Tuesday
Mercury impact = Mercury Day

[ 20 ] So much for the present, but they point to the future. Our Earth will reach the Mercury stage in the next planetary cycle. The Earth is not counted among the days of the week, because it is, in fact, the week itself; it lies in between.

[ 21 ] Human beings already possess within themselves the beginnings of the higher, purest wisdom; in the next Devachan, this will become physical.

[ 22 ] When we observe Jupiter, we learn how human beings become like the beings of Jupiter. There is a kinship with Jupiter. These beings serve as our role models.

[ 23 ] Jupiter = the state of Zeus. Minerva = Pallas Athena, who sprang from Jupiter's head.

[ 24 ] These beings are no longer bound to the Kama-Rupa; rather, they are beings of the highest spirituality.

[ 25 ] Finally, Venus. This planet is positioned in such a way relative to us that its beings influence us only indirectly. These planets also have their own chains. In the case of Venus, the sequence is Kronos—Uranos—Jupiter—Jeudi, Venus—Freitag—Freya—Vendredi.

[ 26 ] The days of the week are written down here; the sages brought them down from heaven. Here we have learned a secret: how the great leaders descended to fertilize us.

[ 27 ] That is why it is said: God Jupiter descended to marry human women.

[ 28 ] Zeus and Dionysus. Mercury in Greek mythology = Mercury, son of Zeus and Maya, a Hellenic nymph. But esoterically connected to Mercury.

[ 29 ] Hellenic nymphs. Ares has offspring; the Dragon-Toothed One has

[ 30 ] German Myth: Wotan = Mercury = Wednesday

[ 31 ] Mercury unites with Erda; she is clairvoyant and can foresee the future. Brunhilde was born of her—of Erda. Brunhilde = “Wish Girl,” passion.

[ 32 ] The enlightened sages therefore set out to remind people of where they stand in time. Time needed names to help them remember. For humans, Thursday will now be a holiday, because humanity is evolving toward becoming Jupiter-like beings.

[ 33 ] Earth, Mercury, and Mars.

[ 34 ] The lower beings were cast aside and relegated to the animal realm in order to promote human evolution, and in the next race, the lower beings were again separated out; thus, the reptiles were cast aside among the Lemurians.

[ 35 ] Among the Atlanteans, mammals were separated from the rest of life. The “savages” of today are degenerate beings.

[ 36 ] Humanity has fallen, but the debt will once again be triggered. Karma arose because humanity had to fall and become physical.

[ 37 ] Such a solar being is embodied in Hermes; the hermaphroditic era. When we were on the Sun, spatially speaking, the Sun was a different Sun; thus, today’s Sun—our Sun—is in a different place. The clairvoyant, however, sees the Sun in the place where it stood back then—its old location, still on the mental plane. The Moon, too, has undergone a shift.

[ 38 ] In the Middle Ages, the Ptolemaic system was still in use. According to astronomical observations, the Earth was at the center, and from an esoteric perspective, this is indeed the case.

[ 39 ] Copernicus described the heavens only in external, physical terms.

[ 40 ] The fifth race begins in the twelfth century.

[ 41 ] Additional details from a typewritten transcription of Camilla Wandrey’s notes:

[ 42 ] The Solarpitris were superhuman beings; they had a fundamentally different constitution—especially in their spiritual life—than humans. These sublime beings took young humanity under their protection. They were capable of experiencing revelations from higher spiritual powers and beings; they perceived the gods; they possessed a knowledge that, through intuition, allowed them to live themselves into the gods; they perceived the divinely active beings directly.

[ 43 ] Humanity needed a new impetus to prevent itself from becoming stagnant; it could not develop a spiritual and emotional life on its own. These powerful Solar Pitris possessed the insight that truly enabled them to connect with other planets. They studied the beings on other planets in order to apply the fruits of their studies for the benefit of humankind. In this way, they observed the development of the beings on Mars. Mars now has the astral state as its deepest level, not the physical one. They studied the bodies of the beings on Mars, and a kind of “bringing down” of the astral bodies of the Martian beings took place. That was the impact. Through this impact from Mars, human beings were able to acquire the passions, the desires, and the sexual nature—Kama-Rupa.

[ 44 ] The second influence—that which, as spirituality, as pure, virginal spirituality, can also underlie the passionate and the desiring—the spiritual-desiring aspect—was made possible for these Solar Pitris to bring to humankind because the same study took place in relation to Venus.

[ 45 ] Then humanity received the third impulse, which came a little later. Humanity now had, on the one hand, the spark of the spirit, and on the other, the passions. It now had to be guided further. It had to be given something so that it would not sink into the depths of the Kama-Rupa brought from Mars.

[ 46 ] The more subtle Kama-Rupa, which serves the life of thought and enables human beings to calm their passions, was brought from Mercury by the Solarpitris. Thus, through the mediation of the Solar Pitris from Mercury, Mars, and Venus, humanity received spiritual enrichment: the two Kama-Rupas and that which is intended to establish a balance between them.

[ 47 ] From Jupiter, the Solar Pitris then brought what we now seek to develop: the spiritual essence of the human being, which is capable of attaining wisdom, Manas. Jupiter gave human beings the opportunity to attain wisdom, while from Venus flow down the virginal heights of the spirit—heights we can only intuit, which remain far beyond our reach, even though we possess within us the predisposition and the capacity to claim this divine inheritance from the Solar Pitris.

[ 48 ] The esoteric week, which we, as true esotericists, should experience again and again in our thoughts and feelings, is an earthly reflection of the Solar Pitris’ influence on humanity.

[ 49 ] We have listed Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon—Day. Then comes Mars Day—Din, Tuesday. Here, Mars is conceived as identical to the first half of Earth’s evolution. Then Mercury. Mercury or Wotan Day, Wednesday—Wotan is the same as Mercury. Then Donar’s Day. Donar is Jupiter. Jupiter Day, Thursday—the Day of the Future—should always be a day of celebration and a holiday for every esotericist and also for anyone who wishes to become one. And finally, the Day of Venus, the Day of Freya. “Venerdi” in Italian, “Vendredi” in French—these names echo the ancient knowledge of humanity’s secret of the future, a memory of which the Day of Venus, Friday, serves as a reminder.