The Rudolf Steiner Archive

26. On Planetary Evolution

[ 1 ] First, one must consider the various states of consciousness that human beings have passed through. They are now in a state of clear, daytime consciousness. Before that, they passed through three other states of consciousness. The first state of consciousness was a kind of universal consciousness, of a dull nature—much like that of a stone today, which exists in the universe but broods in a dull state of consciousness. This state can still be induced pathologically even now. In a deep trance, people often begin to draw cosmic systems; but they have no control over their consciousness.

[ 2 ] In the second state of consciousness, that of dreamless sleep, a person can perceive all living things. Every night, a person experiences this state. During this time, they are in a sort of plant-like trance; they carry out their [vegetative] functions quite well. This state of consciousness is that of dream sleep, which is much brighter than the previous one; but even there, a person does not receive sensory impressions as in the waking state. At that time, people did not see things, but an image of the soul arose within them.

[ 3 ] We are now in the fourth state of consciousness. The preceding states of consciousness were linked to other planets just as our waking consciousness is linked to Earth. Human beings are a product of the circumstances in which they live. Esoterically, the first planet is Saturn, the second is the Sun, the third is the Moon, and the fourth is Earth. On Saturn, humanity had already passed through the various stages of form. In the middle of the first round—that is, the first elemental kingdom—Saturn became physical. On Saturn, the first round is of primary importance. The following six rounds on Saturn are of no particular significance for humanity. It was there that other beings from earlier world cycles completed their development. During the seventh round on Saturn, humankind had reached the point where it became physical; but it had a body that was merely oval or spherical in shape. This state was subject neither to birth nor to death. This physical body passed through the entire course of Saturn’s development.

[ 4 ] One could imagine that the entire Saturn is composed of individual human spheres, like a mulberry; Saturn was in the morula stage. The whole entity slept through one Pralaya into another Manvantara, the solar state. There, humanity was in a kind of plant trance. It was not until the second round of the Sun that humanity attained something new. There, its consciousness developed into a kind of human plant-like trance. There, humanity no longer possessed an immortal physical body. The whole was a universal life, a living organism that secreted new human spheres from within itself. The third through seventh cycles on the Sun are of no significance to humankind, but only to other beings. On the Sun, a second kingdom also emerges alongside the human kingdom, namely a special mineral kingdom. The minerals there are still growing; they are even more plant-like. They are still so similar to the human kingdom and not yet as distinct as they are now.

[ 5 ] After a Pralaya, the Lunar Manvantara begins. This is when the pictorial consciousness of dream sleep develops. In the third lunar cycle, this true lunar stage is developed. There, the human being becomes an image-conscious being, outwardly resembling a kind of animal state. In the first cycle on the Moon, he has repeated Saturn; in the second cycle, the Sun. In the third cycle of the Moon, he develops the new, true lunar state. The fourth through seventh cycles are of little significance for him on the Moon. They are in a waning phase on the Moon.

[ 6 ] Now the evolution of the Earth begins. In the first round, there is a repetition of the Saturn state; in the second round, a repetition of the Sun state; and in the third round, a repetition of the Moon state. It is not until the fourth round that the actual Earth state—the state of waking consciousness—begins. In the fourth round, the human being passes through the arupa state of form, then through the astral state, and then through the physical state. By this point, the human being has already passed through the Saturn stage—the mineral kingdom—in the first round on Earth; the Sun stage—the plant kingdom—in the second round; and the Moon stage—the animal kingdom—in the third round. It is only in the fourth round that the true human being emerges.

[ 7 ] The external differences among the four stages are as follows: On Saturn, a silent, dark existence. At that time, one would not have seen anything, not even through clairvoyance. On the Sun, everything begins to shine. There, the spiritual sound begins. This sound of the Sun is transmitted to human beings during the Solar Round—the second round on Earth. In the second round, the human being is a sounding being. Each person received their own tone. Every human being has their own special tone, which they embody in the world. Even now, they still have this tone; they are inwardly resonant.

[ 8 ] On the Moon, he was physically a luminous being. What today is only astral was, back then, physically present in human beings—namely, luminosity. He was a star, a luminous being on the Moon. This state was repeated on Earth during the third cycle. It was not until the fourth cycle that something new was added on Earth.

[ 9 ] After passing through the Arupa state, the Rupa-Mental state, and the astral state, humankind became physical in the fourth round. It was only in the finest physical etheric matter that humankind took shape, in the Polar race, at the beginning of our physical development. The Polar humans were etheric beings. They repeated the Saturn stage once more. At the beginning of the Earth’s physical formation, they were spheres and immortal. An immortal race inhabited the Pole at that time. Then humanity transitioned to the Solar stage. Before that, everything was still dissolved, etheric. Then, during the Hyperborean era, humanity separated itself as an airy being. There, they formed a kind of sphere that resonated internally, vibrated, quivered, and reacted to impact and pressure. Through this, they perceived the changes in the external world. The solar stage of the Hyperborean era came to an end when the finest substances withdrew; only coarser substances remained, which began to glow.

[ 10 ] At the beginning of the Hyperborean era, the physical Sun as we know it today emerged from the Earth. This caused a massive catastrophe on Earth. All life was drawn out.

[ 11 ] Now humankind begins to reproduce as a bisexual species. At the beginning of the Lemurian era—that is, during the Third Root Race—the coarser substances that the Earth no longer needed emerged from the Earth. This is the physical Moon, which was separated from the Earth at that time. Once again, a great catastrophe took place on Earth. Now all [human] beings acquired their own body heat. Until then, all humans had existed in a kind of “light stage.” During the Lemurian period, the stage of body heat was added as the fourth stage.

[ 12 ] On the Sun, humankind was a sounding being; on the Moon, a luminous one; and on Earth, it became a being with its own heat. All animals that possess their own heat only branched off from humankind afterward. It was only through this inner heat that Kama could enter into humankind. Only humans and animals with their own heat possess Kama. Even today, the fish remains a “sleeper,” devoid of passion. From the middle of the Lemurian period onward, human beings themselves became warm from within—kamic, passionate. In earlier times, human maturation was brought about from the outside. Back then, the general warmth—the warmth that surrounded the Earth—incubated human beings. Human beings then absorbed this warmth into themselves.

[ 13 ] This is what the myth of Prometheus suggests. Heat was brought into human beings from heaven. Human beings became beings of fire. Through this, they gained passion; before, they possessed neither passion nor inner warmth. That is why it is said of earlier times: The Spirit of God hovered over the waters—human souls. This was the warmth that brings everything to maturity.

[ 14 ] Humans, on the other hand, are creatures with their own internal heat. These conditions had not existed before. Humans had learned the earlier conditions on previous planets. They learned this new condition on Earth. Now that Earth had acquired its own internal heat, it was left to its own devices.

[ 15 ] But there were great leaders who could give humanity a boost. Such beings studied conditions that went beyond the state of the Earth. These were the Manus, leaders, divine beings. They had to study a planet from which they could learn what the Earth still needed. That planet was Mars. To the clairvoyant, Mars looks as though humans had already lived there. The discarded Kama sheaths can be found on Mars. These Kama sheaths look like a kind of snake skin that has been left behind. It is Kama that is capable of being fertilized by the spirit. Such a stage had to be studied on another planet where the beings had progressed far enough to have left this stage behind.

[ 16 ] The Manus underwent another stage on Mercury: the Kama-Manas stage. This was necessary for Earth. The Kama stage of Mars had to be fertilized by the Manas stage of Mercury. The Saturn, Sun, and Moon stages were repetitions for Earth. The Mars and Mercury stages were newly added. The inflow of Mercury’s forces is represented by Mercury’s caduceus. The caduceus represents the impact of the Monad of the Spirit.

[ 17 ] In his theory of planetary evolution, the clairvoyant does not count Earth itself. He says it is Mars and Mercury combined. Earth still has three cycles to go through. These are important for the subsequent planetary stages. In the fifth round, it enters the plant kingdom. It will then live in a kind of paradise, the Garden of Eden. There, the lowest kingdom will be the plant kingdom. Everything that humanity produces will be a plant there. In this way, humanity prepares what will be on the next planet. This next planet is esoterically called Jupiter. It is the Jupiter that will emerge from the Earth. The sixth round, the animal kingdom, is a preparation for the sixth planet, Venus—so named because of its resemblance to the planet Venus. On the seventh planet, the Volcano, completion follows. No merely physical brain can conceive of the state of the last planet. Only the clairvoyant has the possibility of knowing anything about the Volcano.

[ 18 ] The great sages have recorded this planetary evolution, and anyone can read it in the days of the week. It begins with Saturday: Saturn Day, Sunday, Monday, Mars Day, Mercury Day, Jupiter Day, Venus Day, and then Saturn Day again—Vulcan. Mars Day and Mercury Day together represent the Earth. Mars corresponds to the god Tin, and Mercury to the Germanic Wotan—see Tacitus’s *Germania*. Among all peoples, the days of the week derive their names from occult development. Thursday, Jupiter Day, represents the future; therefore, it is especially sacred to occultists. For the occultist, the next Saturday would always be Vulcan Day, which again coincides with Saturn Day. The periods of time traversed on the planets span many millions of years. On Earth, a repetition takes place of everything that has already existed. Every idea is a repetition; every work of art is a repetition. The outer, bright daytime consciousness is repetitive. On the next planet, a psychic state of consciousness sets in. This differs from the present state in that the human being moves from a state of inner warmth into a luminous state, developing an inner light. There, the human being consciously becomes a luminous being. There, the human being can consciously produce luminous colors. There, the human being can transform light into luminous imagination.

[ 19 ] In the fifth round of the fifth planet, human beings will have become luminous forms, mere radiance. Today, the clairvoyant can produce luminous forms in the astral realm; in doing so, he anticipates the state of the fifth round of the fifth planet. But he must work with earthly forces. [...]

[ 20 ] On the sixth planet, the superpsychic consciousness emerges. This is magical. The created being of light remains. There, the human being possesses a magical consciousness. On the volcano, he will have attained the consciousness of the seventh level; he will be spiritual. One can speak of this only in a symbolic language, but not in ordinary language. From Earth onward, the final stages of preparation for the subsequent planets take place. The deeper core of the human being undergoes this entire development. In the spherical being of Saturn, the human being already existed as a point. A thread runs through all states of consciousness. The human being passes through all stages.

[ 21 ] Ever since the Mars stage—ever since humans have had warm blood and their own body heat—conflict has also arisen. Before that, they were peaceful beings who possessed no passion. Among the lower cold-blooded animal species, there is no conflict—Kessler, a Russian naturalist, has confirmed this. The thread that was already found on Saturn and extends all the way to Vulcan is called the Pitri Being.

[ 22 ] The greatest is expressed in the smallest. When human beings acquired blood, their astral bodies began to take on the form they now possess. They evolved through five races during the Lemurian era, then through seven during the Atlantean era, and again through five during the Aryan era. Within the races, there is a repetition of earlier states. The religious consciousness of the ancient Indian people recognized the One God; this is the seed of all later religions. This was a repetition of the polar stage of Earth’s evolution. In the Persian race, we find a repetition of the Hyperborean stage, and among the Chaldeans and Egyptians, the Trinity—a repetition of the Lemurian era with the influence of Kama in the fourth subrace of the fourth Earth stage. Kama-Manas is added.