The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture Sixteen

[ 1 ] In a previous lesson, we traced human evolution back to the separation of the sexes. This stage of development is the result of a long period of cosmic preparation. After the night that separated the ancient lunar evolution from the Earth’s evolution, the Earth initially appeared as a mixture of the forces of today’s Sun and today’s Moon. They formed a single body that gradually differentiated and gave rise to the three bodies we know today. The separation into the sexes is the result of the division into lunar and Earth forces. The female reproductive forces have remained under the influence of the Moon. The Moon remains connected to that which governs reproductive life on Earth in humans and animals. Thus, the knowledge provided by occultism reveals to us which active forces are at work in the planetary system.

[ 2 ] When the Sun was still connected to the Earth and the Moon, there were neither plants nor animals nor human beings in the true sense of the word. Only the plant kingdom existed, though in a form quite different from today. It maintained a special relationship with the forces of the Sun, corresponding to the relationship of animals to the Moon and of humans to the Earth. As long as the Sun was connected to the Moon-Earth, the plants directed their blossoms toward the center of the planet. When the Sun moved away, they oriented themselves toward it and turned their blossoms toward it. We have seen that plants adopt a posture opposite to that of humans: although they, like humans, stand upright vertically, they do so in the opposite direction, while animals occupy a middle ground between the orientation of humans and that of plants—their spine runs horizontally. As the three celestial bodies separated, the three kingdoms of nature on Earth adopted the behavior we know: the plant kingdom at the time of the Sun’s separation, the animal kingdom at the time of the Moon’s separation. In the original composition of the forces, everything that subsequently manifested in physical form was contained in embryonic form. Imagine a substance that has been heated to a high degree and then cooled; one then sees how all the elements it contained take on form.

[ 3 ] During the time of the ancient Moon, we also find the solar forces concentrated, during a specific epoch, in a celestial body located outside this Moon. The Moon revolved around this ancient Sun in such a way that it always presented the same side to it. The Moon’s rotation around the Earth is a continuation of this movement, just as it was once performed around the ancient Sun. These two celestial bodies were united at the beginning and end of this cosmic period in the same way that the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun were united at the beginning of the Earth period and will be united again at the end. The influence of these two ancient celestial bodies could never have manifested itself in evolution if they had not recombined their forces after their separation. What the Moon developed while it was outside the Sun are the forces that later made it possible for a third body to appear. For it was during this separation, human beings were able to develop within themselves that which would lead them to take on a physical form and to develop, on Earth, an awareness of objects—that is, waking consciousness.

[ 4 ] The period that preceded this lunar evolution is called the solar evolution. Up to this point in evolution, there is, in fact, nothing but pure solar life. Esoteric science regards the Sun as a fixed star that was once a planet, just as it regards the Earth as a planet destined to become the Sun of a world system in the future. During the solar evolution, human beings possess only a consciousness similar to that of dreamless sleep.

[ 5 ] The solar period was preceded by yet another state; the Sun itself was not yet a planet. Human beings at that time knew only a deep trance-like or deep sleep-like state of consciousness. They were not yet the beings of light that they were to become on the ancient Sun. They simply vibrated as a tone within the pure harmony of this Saturn period—which, incidentally, has nothing to do with today’s Saturn.

[ 6 ] Following our Earth period of waking physical consciousness, a fifth state will dawn: an imaginative astral consciousness, in the course of an evolution known as the Jupiter evolution. This will be followed by the Venus evolution, during which what is today unconscious deep sleep will become conscious. Finally comes the Vulcan phase, which corresponds to the highest state of consciousness an initiate can attain.

[ 7 ] But the relationships between Earth and the planets do not end there. Our current Earth epoch can be divided into two phases. In the first, what causes our blood to be red took shape. What is it that gave us this red blood? At the time of the separation that took place between the Earth and the Sun, the celestial body—consisting of low-viscosity substances—was permeated by the equally fluid currents of the planet Mars. Before this passage of Mars, there was no trace of iron on Earth. Iron was the result of this passage. All substances containing iron, such as our blood, are subject to the influence of Mars. Mars colored the substance of the Earth, and its influence made the appearance of red blood possible. For this reason, the first half of Earth’s development is called the Mars development.

[ 8 ] At that time, iron was a liquid substance. It was only later that metals became hard. The only metal that has not yet solidified is mercury. When it becomes solid, the human soul will have become independent of the physical body, and astral imagination will be able to become consciousness. This process is linked to the forces of Mercury, which influence the second Earth period to the extent that they condense and solidify. The Earth is both Mars and Mercury. The initiates have incorporated this into language by naming the days of the week after the planets associated with our evolution: Mars and Mercury occupy their place between the Moon and Jupiter.

[ 9 ] The Earth's Interior. Physical science is currently familiar only with the Earth's crust, the mineral layer that is essentially just a thin skin on the Earth's surface. In reality, the Earth is composed of a series of concentric layers, which we will now describe.

[ 10 ] First: The mineral layer contains the metals whose substance is found in the physical body of everything that lives on the Earth’s surface. This layer, which forms, as it were, a skin around the living being that is the Earth, is only a few miles thick.

[ 11 ] Second: The second layer can only be understood if one brings oneself to accept the idea of a matter that is the opposite of the one we know. It is a negative life, the opposite of life. All life perishes here. A plant or an animal submerged in it would be instantly destroyed, dissolved into the mass. This second, semi-liquid envelope surrounding the Earth is, in truth, a realm of death.

[ 12 ] Third: The third layer is a realm of inverted consciousness. Here, every suffering appears as joy, and every joy as suffering. Its substance, consisting of vapors, affects our emotions in the same negative way that the second layer affects life.

[ 13 ] If we mentally remove these three layers, we find the Earth once again in the state it was in before the Moon separated from it. If one can, through concentration, rise to a state of conscious astral vision, one sees these two layers in action: the destruction of all life on the second layer, and the transformation of emotions on the third.

[ 14 ] Fourth: The fourth sphere is called Water-Earth, Soul-Earth, Form-Earth. It possesses a remarkable characteristic. Imagine a cube whose substance appeared to be reversed: where this substance used to be, there would be nothing; the space occupied by the cube would be empty, but surrounding it would be this substance, the substantial form. Hence the name Form-Earth. Here, this vortex of forms, rather than being a negative void, is a positive substance.

[ 15 ] Fifth: This layer is called the Earth of Growth Forces. It contains the original source of earthly life, a substance of budding, abundantly multiplying energies.

[ 16 ] Sixth: The sixth layer is Fire-Earth, a substance consisting of pure will, the element of life and movement, constantly permeated by impulses and passions—a veritable reservoir of volitional forces. If pressure were exerted on this layer, it would offer resistance and defend itself.

[ 17 ] If one mentally disregards these three new layers, one arrives at the state in which the globe found itself when the Sun, Moon, and Earth together still formed a single body. The following circles are accessible only to conscious observation not only during dreamless sleep, but even during deep sleep or a trance.

[ 18 ] Seventh: This circle is the mirror of the Earth. Like a prism, it breaks down every object reflected in it and causes its opposite image to appear. When viewed through an emerald, it appears red.

[ 19 ] Eighth: Within this circle, everything appears fragmented and reproduced ad infinitum. If one takes a plant or a crystal and focuses on this circle, the plant and the crystal appear within it multiplied ad infinitum.

[ 20 ] Ninth: This final layer consists of a substance endowed with moral activity, but its morality is the opposite of that which must unfold on Earth. For its essence—the power associated with it—is separation, discord, and hatred. Here in Dante’s Hell is Cain, the fratricide. This substance is the opposite of everything that is good and beautiful among human beings. Humanity’s efforts to spread brotherhood on Earth correspondingly diminish the power of this sphere. It is the power of love that, to the extent that it becomes spiritualized, will even transform the very body of the Earth. This ninth layer is the substantial origin of what appears on Earth as black magic—that is, magic founded on selfishness.

[ 21 ] All of these layers are connected to one another by rays that link the center of the Earth with its surface. In the outer layer, in the bosom of the solid Earth, there are a fairly large number of certain subterranean chambers that are connected to the sixth layer, the Fire-Earth. This element of the Fire-Earth is closely related to the human will. It was this element that produced the terrible eruptions that brought the Lemurian epoch to an end. The forces that nourish the human will were undergoing a crisis at that time, which provoked the unleashing of that fiery power in which the Lemurian continent was engulfed. In the course of evolution, this sixth layer sank ever closer to the Earth’s center, and for this reason, volcanic eruptions became less frequent. But they still occur under the influence of the human will, which acts magnetically upon the Earth’s layer and disrupts it when it is evil and misguided. Purified of selfishness, the human will can, on the contrary, soothe this fire. Materialistic eras, in particular, are accompanied and followed by natural disasters, earthquakes, and so on. A greater adherence to progressive development is the only alchemy that could gradually transform the Earth’s organism and soul.

[ 22 ] The following example illustrates the relationship between human will and geological phenomena: In people who died as a result of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, one can observe entirely different characteristics in the course of their subsequent incarnation. They are born with great spiritual predispositions, for through their death they have come into contact with an element that has revealed to them the true nature of things and the illusory nature of a purely material life.

[ 23 ] A connection has also been observed between certain births and earthquakes and volcanic disasters. In times of disaster, materialistic souls tend to incarnate, drawn by volcanic phenomena as well as by the convulsive movements of the malevolent soul of the Earth. And for their part, these births can bring about new catastrophes. For, conversely, evil souls have a stimulating influence on the Earth’s fire. The evolution of our planet is closely linked to the evolution of human powers and civilizations.