The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. The Three Logoi and Humanity: The Seven Levels of Consciousness

[ 1 ] Today we want to begin with the question: Do only the beings on the physical plane that are closest to humans possess consciousness? Or how does human consciousness relate to other beings on the physical plane—to the consciousness of animals, plants, and so-called inanimate rock? Can we also speak of a consciousness in the other kingdoms of nature?

[ 2 ] Imagine a tiny creature that could see only a small part of a human being—for example, a finger moving. [That is all this little creature would see; but it cannot] form any concept of what underlies this movement. This little creature would also have no idea of the human soul and would only see and describe the manifestations of human power. But the same could also be true for humans when it comes to other beings. The materialist sees things, but he does not speak of the actual soul of the Earth. Could it not be just as with the little creature that wanders around a human being, seeing and describing only the details? The little creature itself has no awareness of the soul and therefore cannot speak of the human soul at all. Just as that little creature lacks a soul, so too does the materialist; that is why he does not recognize the soul of the Earth.

[ 3 ] The soul of the Earth is superior to the human soul. All beings on the physical plane possess consciousness. But human consciousness differs from that of other beings in that it lives here on the physical plane with its consciousness.

[ 4 ] But during sleep, human consciousness also exists on other planes. In so-called dreamless sleep, it resides on the Devachan plane, where plant consciousness is always at home. The animal’s consciousness lies on the astral plane, midway between that of humans and plants. The human is the being whose consciousness is on the physical plane.

[ 5 ] Animals have consciousness on the astral plane. Plants have consciousness on the Devachan plane. Consciousness on the astral and Devachan planes differs significantly from consciousness on the physical plane. For consciousness on the physical plane can receive perceptions and thoughts only through the physical organs. Consciousness on the Devachan and astral planes perceives only through images and imaginations, as was the case with the people of antiquity.

[ 6 ] The conscious astral being has yet another distinctive feature: It is not separated from other beings in the same sense as the being that possesses consciousness on the physical plane, but rather lives behind and within the other beings. For the being that possesses consciousness on the physical plane, it is necessary that everything be conveyed to it through the senses. If its consciousness of an object were astral, the eye would not convey the objects; one would perceive nothing at all of an object. Instead, an image would arise, from whose colors and configuration one could deduce whether the object is pleasant or unpleasant. The images that once arose from objects and hovered in the soul are now completely obscured in modern people, for physical consciousness is superimposed directly over the objects. This is how sensory consciousness arises.

[ 7 ] Consciousness on the physical plane is a strictly defined sphere, something solid that other beings cannot enter. Consciousness on the astral plane is a cloud-like formation, something spiritual. Just as a liquid, such as water, differs from a solid, so on the astral plane there is a convergence of various forms of consciousness.

[ 8 ] Human beings have shaped their own physical bodies. Before that, there was an ancient, animal kingdom. If one were to see these beings, they would appear to modern humans as caricatures. The original astral body was able to transform those animals, refine them, and develop them into human beings. This early human initially possessed an astral consciousness. It was this that first shaped and formed the physical body.

[ 9 ] What was the purpose of this next stage of evolution in the physical realm? Without passing through the physical realm, that earthly being with its dull consciousness would never have learned to say “I” to itself. The God who dwells within human beings today—the divine seed—could not have entered that astral body in any other way than by condensing it into the physical human body. Previously, the Spirit of God was still entirely outside the astral body; the “I” was the Spirit of the Deity. Astral consciousness was like water: “The Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” The “I”-spirit hovered over the primordial waters of consciousness, over the astral bodies.

[ 10 ] In the occult sense, the kingdoms of nature differ in the way the outer physical body relates to consciousness. Human beings have brought consciousness down to the physical plane, animals to the astral plane, and plants to the Devachan plane.

[ 11 ] The plant becomes an animal when it has brought its consciousness down to the astral plane; the animal becomes a human being when it brings its consciousness down to the physical plane. The consciousness of the rock is located on the higher regions of the Devachan plane, specifically on the fourth level. The Akashic Records are also situated there, at the boundary. Beyond lies the realm of silence, a form of existence entirely different in nature from the Arupa realm of Devachan. The consciousness of the entire mineral world resides in this realm. In order to engage with occult truths in more than just a superficial way, it is necessary to gain a sense of what the mineral actually is. The mineral differs fundamentally from all other beings that surround human beings. And one cannot arrive at a deeper understanding of the mineral world through mere manasic perception.

[ 12 ] One must develop a moral relationship with the mineral world. To this end, the Rosicrucian schools drew people’s attention to the chastity of the mineral world. Through its chastity, the mineral world serves as a model for humankind. Humankind is still overwhelmed by desires and passions.

[ 13 ] But imagine a human being so purified that his inner nature is as chaste, as unassuming, and as self-contained as that of a mineral. One cannot say that the mineral kingdom is on a lower level than the human being. Here on the physical plane, human beings are familiar only with the outer shell of the mineral kingdom, which relates to the true mineral just as the human skin relates to the human being itself. The mineral is a human being who lives only on the higher levels of the Devachanic plane.

[ 14 ] One cannot deny that physical beings possess consciousness; however, one must attribute various forms of consciousness to them: There is a form of consciousness,

— which manifests itself three levels deeper in its forms: today, minerals,
— a consciousness that manifests itself two levels lower in its forms: today, plants,
— a consciousness that manifests itself one level lower in its forms: today, animals,
— a consciousness that manifests itself at the same level as the being [: today, humans].

[ 15 ] This is the descending line of evolution. In ancient times, humankind once stood at the stage where it was at the level of today’s minerals. Back then, it had to be guided by other beings. The purpose of human development is to emancipate itself from all such beings on the higher planes and to become such a being on the higher planes itself.

[ 16 ] The first stage of consciousness that humans have gone through can be called “deepest trance consciousness.” The second stage of consciousness that humans have gone through can still be found in plants: “deep sleep consciousness.” The third stage of consciousness that humans have passed through is “dream-filled sleep consciousness.” This “dream-filled sleep consciousness” is still found today in the animal kingdom, but actually only among animals that have not developed warm blood. Animals that evolved later already possess a somewhat different consciousness; for example, apes have a consciousness similar to that of humans. From the consciousness of dream-filled sleep—from the images of this consciousness—a higher animal kingdom develops. The fourth stage of consciousness, which humans have reached today, is “object consciousness.”

[ 17 ] Today, humans have hardly any connection left to the first stage of consciousness. But they experience the second stage—deep sleep consciousness—during the night; it is an atavistic remnant from the time when they were entirely in a state of sleep consciousness. The third stage of consciousness has remained as an atavistic remnant in the chaotic world of dreams. The fourth stage, normal consciousness, is today’s everyday consciousness. The further course of human development consists in evolving toward an even higher level of consciousness. The fifth stage, which every human being will reach in the future, is the one in which astral consciousness rejoins object consciousness, where human beings will move fully consciously among the images.

[ 18 ] A being with only astral consciousness cannot see the human form, but it can perceive what is going on inside a person—every pain, every suffering, and so on; it perceives all of this, expressed in colors and forms. If object consciousness were to develop in this being, the images would gradually take on fixed boundaries and superimpose themselves upon an object; the object would emerge, and everything that previously appeared as pleasure and pain would disappear.

[ 19 ] Then [beyond mere astral consciousness] there would be an even higher level, [in which something would be added that goes beyond all that] which takes place within a person in terms of pleasure and suffering. The medium must extinguish their waking consciousness and thereby loses the security of control. The clairvoyant, however, does not suppress physical consciousness; he retains his physical mind and all his physical abilities, and in addition develops visual perception. Thus, the fifth stage is [in this sense] “conscious consciousness”; in reality, it encompasses roughly that part of the world that extends to the boundary of the Devachan world.

[ 20 ] The sixth stage is the state in which sleep consciousness becomes a conscious state and produces sounds rather than images. This consciousness occurs at the higher level of clairvoyance; it is the “otherworldly sound consciousness.” The reality of this is the Pythagorean music of the spheres. This otherworldly auditory consciousness arises when sleep becomes not only dreamless but consciously expressed in sounds. It corresponds to the awakening of the inner word. This is not a symbol but true, genuine inner reality—the moment when things express what they are. Human beings live on the physical plane because they have the power to express their very essence through the “I.” But at this stage of clairvoyance, all beings tell him their names. The entire world takes on the character of a flowing tone, and every being in the world of the flowing tone is a note that differs from all other beings.

[ 21 ] All one can say about the even higher seventh state of consciousness is that it exists. To understand this, a region of the soul must be separable from physical consciousness.

[ 22 ] Humans pass through these seven states of consciousness in the course of their evolution and are now at the midpoint of this development, in the fourth state. If we were at the fifth, we would still be in the middle; if we were at a previous stage of consciousness, one of the later stages would have disappeared, and another would have emerged in its place. So there are always seven stages that can be observed.

[ 23 ] In the past, human beings went through a completely different stage of life. Every state of consciousness must pass through seven stages of life, and every stage of life must pass through seven stages of form. Thus, seven stages of form always constitute one stage of life, and seven stages of life together comprise the entire development of a planet.

[ 24 ] In the first state of life, consciousness is three levels higher. In the second state of life, consciousness is two levels higher. In the third state of life, consciousness is one level higher.

[ 25 ] The seven stages of life are called the “seven kingdoms.” These are the three elemental kingdoms: the mineral, animal, and plant kingdoms. The three elemental kingdoms precede the current state of life; human beings had to pass through them before they could emerge from the mineral kingdom into the fourth state of life, in which they now find themselves.

[ 26 ] Passing through such a state of life has hitherto been called a “cycle,” which includes seven metamorphoses of form. Thus, in every state of consciousness, a human being passes through seven states of life, and in every state of life, seven states of form. In total, seven times seven times seven metamorphoses of form. This is how it is written in occultism: 343. A great deal depends on the ability to interpret this number: 7 × 7 × 7 = 343. All states of form constitute what is understood as the third Logos. The forty-nine life states constitute the second Logos. The seven states of consciousness constitute the first Logos.