The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Ninth Lecture

[ 1 ] When we ask ourselves: How has the human being developed from the most ancient times to the present, and how did the human being come into being since time immemorial? — then we must above all recall what we have said about the essence of the human being. Human beings have seven members: the first, the physical body, is, so to speak, the most subordinate member; higher and finer is the etheric body; even higher and finer is the astral body; and as for the I-body, only the rudiments of it are present. However, it would be wrong to conclude from this that the highest body a human being possesses today could also be called the most perfect, and that the physical body is the most imperfect. In fact, the opposite is true: the physical body is the most perfect aspect of the human being. Later on, of course, the higher aspects will be perfect to a much greater degree, but today, in its own way, the physical body is the most highly developed. It is constructed with indescribable wisdom. I once described to you, as an example, the structure of the femur. Every single bone, with its artfully assembled framework and wise arrangement, is such that no engineer today could solve the problem of achieving the greatest performance with the smallest mass. And the deeper one delves into the marvelous structure of the human form, the more admirable its construction appears to us—for example, the marvelous structure of the brain or the heart. The heart makes no mistakes, but the human astral body commits many errors. The drives and passions of the astral body assail the physical body and overwhelm it. When a person consumes the wrong kind of food, they are once again following the astral body. The physical heart maintains proper blood circulation, but the astral body ceaselessly attacks the heart because its drives crave what harms the heart. Coffee, tea, and alcohol are poisons for the heart; they are often ingested daily, and yet the heart endures. It is built so durably that it withstands all the assaults of the astral body for seventy or eighty years. In the hierarchy of the bodies, therefore, the physical body is the most perfect down to the very finest details.

[ 2 ] The etheric body is less perfect; the astral body is even further behind in its development; and the ego body is the least developed. Why is this? It is because the physical body has undergone the longest process of development. It is the oldest component of the human being. The etheric body is less ancient; the astral body is even younger; and the I-body is the youngest.

[ 3 ] To understand this evolution of the physical bodies, one must know that not only do human beings undergo repeated incarnations, but that the law of reincarnation is a universal law. Thus, it is not only human beings who continually undergo incarnations, but all beings and all planets are subject to this law. Our entire Earth, with everything on it, has undergone previous incarnations, of which we shall initially focus on three in particular.

[ 4 ] Before the Earth became this planet, it was another. In ancient times, our Earth was a planet that esoteric science calls Saturn. The four successive incarnations are: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth. Just as there is a period of Kamaloka and Devachan between two human incarnations, so too is there a period between each pair of Earth’s planetary incarnations during which it is not visible and leads no external life. This period between our planet’s incarnations was called Pralaya, and the period during which it is incarnated was called Manvantara. However, the names Saturn, Sun, and Moon do not refer to the celestial bodies that are called by those names today. What is called the Sun here is not our present-day Sun. Our present-day Sun is a fixed star, and in the course of its incarnations, it has worked its way up from the substance and essence of a planet to the rank of a fixed star; the ancient Sun was a planet. Likewise, what is called the ancient Moon is not today’s Moon; it was the third stage of the Earth’s incarnation, and the same is true of Saturn—it was the first stage of the Earth’s development.

[ 5 ] Humans already existed on the planet Saturn. Saturn did not shine, but with devachanic hearing one could have heard it; it resonated. After it had been there for a while, it gradually disappeared, became invisible for a long time, and then shone forth again as the Sun. The Sun then went through the same process and reemerged as the Moon. Finally, the Earth came into being in the same way.

[ 6 ] However, one should not imagine these four planets—Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, and Earth—as four separate planets; that would be entirely wrong. They are four states of manifestation of one and the same planet. They are true metamorphoses of that one planet, and all beings on it undergo metamorphosis along with it. Human beings have never been on another planet, but the Earth has existed in various states.

[ 7 ] When our Earth was Saturn, there were only the very first seeds of our human kingdom. What is so artfully constructed today as the human body was, on Saturn, merely a rudimentary form—nothing more than the very first rudimentary form. There were no minerals, no plants, no animals. Humanity is the first fruit of our creation. But the Saturnian human was fundamentally different from today’s human. He was, for the most part, a spiritual being. He could not yet have been seen with physical eyes. There were no physical eyes yet either. Only a being with devachanic vision could have perceived this human being. This human form was like a kind of auric egg, and within it was a strange, shell-like structure in the shape of a small pear, like oyster shells joined together, a kind of spiral. Saturn was entirely permeated by such nascent physical formations; they were, as it were, exudations that had condensed out of the spiritual. From these formations—which could only have been regarded as very faint hints of what was to come—the physical body of the human being took shape in the course of evolution. It was a kind of primordial mineral around which an etheric body had not yet formed. Therefore, one can say: Human beings passed through the mineral kingdom. Yet this was not the mineral kingdom we know today; to think so would be entirely incorrect. Apart from this human kingdom, there was no other kingdom at all on Saturn.

[ 8 ] Just as a human being goes through certain stages of life—as a child, a young man, a young woman, a man, a woman, an old man, and an old woman—so too does a planet go through stages of life. Before Saturn revealed the flakes deposited within it, it was an Arupa-Devachan form, then a Rupa-Devachan form, and subsequently an astral form. Thereafter, the flakes gradually disappear, and Saturn retraces these stages back into the darkness of Pralaya. Such a metamorphosis from the spiritual to the physical and back again is called a “round” or a “state of existence” in Theosophical literature. Each round is further divided into seven subdivisions: Arupa, Rupa, Astral, Physical, then again Astral, Rupa, Arupa; these have been incorrectly called “globes”: they are states of form. However, we are not dealing with seven successive spheres; it is always the same planet that transforms, and the beings undergo these transformations along with it. Saturn has undergone seven such rounds or states of existence. In each round, the structure is perfected, so that it is only in the seventh round that it is perfect in its kind. In each round, seven transformations—or states of form—are undergone; consequently, Saturn would have seven times seven, or forty-nine, metamorphoses. Saturn has undergone this process, as have the Sun and the Moon, and the Earth is undergoing the same; and then, in the future, three other planets will follow: Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan.

[ 9 ] There are thus seven planets, each with seven times seven states—which, in esoteric numerology, is written as 777. In this secret code, the seven in the ones place represents the globes, in the tens place the circles, and in the hundreds place the planets. These numbers must be multiplied together. Consequently, our planetary system must undergo 7 times 7 times 7, or 343, transformations.

[ 10 ] In H. P. B.’s The Secret Doctrine, we find a curious passage. Much of the content of The Secret Doctrine was inspired by one of the highest spiritual personalities. But the great Initiates have always expressed themselves very cautiously; they have only hinted at things. Above all, they always let people do some of the work themselves. Thus, this passage is full of riddles; H.P.B. knew this. The Teacher said nothing about successive incarnations; he only said: Learn to solve the riddle of the 777 incarnations. - He wanted people to learn that there are 343. The “Esoteric Doctrine” does indeed contain the problem, but not the solution; that has only recently been found.

[ 11 ] The first embryonic state of humankind thus existed on Saturn, which developed in time immemorial. Saturn then vanished into Pralaya and reemerged from it as the Sun, and along with the Sun, humankind—the ancient inhabitant of the universe—also reemerged from the darkness of Pralaya. But in the meantime, humankind had gained the power to secrete something from within itself, just as a snail secretes its shell. It could secrete shell-like structures as floating forms and retained the finer substances within itself in order to evolve to a higher level. Thus, humankind formed the mineral kingdom from within itself; but these minerals were a kind of living mineral. Humanity then evolved on the Sun in such a way that the etheric body was added, as is the case with today’s plants. Thus, on the Sun, humanity passed through the plant kingdom, and we now have two kingdoms on the Sun: the mineral kingdom and the plant kingdom; the latter was humanity. But these plant forms were quite different from those we have today.

[ 12 ] Those who delve into the deeper relationships view the plant as an inverted human being. It has the root at the bottom, then, moving upward, the stem, leaves, flower, stamens, and pistils; the pistils contain the female reproductive organs, and the stamens the male ones. In naive innocence, the plant stretches its reproductive organs toward the sun, for the sun is the source of reproductive energy. The root is, in truth, the head of the plant, which stretches its reproductive organs out into space and whose head is drawn toward the center of the Earth. Humans are the opposite: their head is at the top and the reproductive organs—which the plant stretches toward the sun—are at the bottom. Animals stand in the middle; their bodies are horizontal. If the plant is turned halfway, it takes on the position of an animal; if it is turned completely, it takes on that of a human.

[ 13 ] Ancient esoteric science expressed this in an ancient symbol—the cross—and stated, as Plato puts it based on the ancient mysteries: The soul of the world is nailed to the cross of the body of the world. - That is to say, the world soul is contained in everything, but it must work its way upward through these three stages; it makes its journey through the cross of the world body.

[ 14 ] On the Sun, human beings were plant-like beings—exactly the opposite of humans today. They lived within the Sun; they were part of the Sun’s body. The Sun was a body of light; it consisted of light ether. Human beings were still plant-like, with their heads turned toward the center of the Sun. When the Sun later emerged, the human plant had to turn around, yet it remained faithful to the Sun.

[ 15 ] In the first cycle, the Sun is merely a repetition of the Saturn era; it is not until the second cycle that humanity’s further development begins. When the Sun had developed as far as it could during the seven cycles, it disappeared into the darkness of Pralaya and did not reemerge until it became the Moon.

[ 16 ] The first lunar cycle was, in turn, merely a repetition of life on Saturn in a slightly different form. The second lunar cycle also brought nothing new; it was a repetition of life on the Sun. It was not until the third lunar cycle that something new was added: Human beings received the astral body in addition to their two earlier bodies. In its outward form, the human being at that time can be compared to today’s animal: It has three bodies. At that time, it had reached the level of the animal kingdom. Humanity rose to the plant kingdom by shedding the mineral kingdom; it now rises to the animal kingdom by shedding the plant kingdom. Thus, two kingdoms now stand alongside it. Then it sheds another smaller part of itself, separates it from itself, and ascends further.

[ 17 ] In this third lunar cycle, an important cosmic process is now taking place: the Sun and the Moon are separating. Two bodies are formed; the Moon splits off from the Sun. At the beginning of the second lunar cycle, the Sun remains unchanged; then a small constriction appears at the bottom of the Sun’s body, it splits off, and in the third lunar cycle, two bodies exist side by side.

[ 18 ] The Sun has retained the nobler parts; from afar, it sends its rays to the Moon and provides it—and all beings upon it—with what they need. This is the Sun’s evolution; it has now become a fixed star and no longer concerns itself with the three realms, but merely gives what it has to give. It harbors higher beings who can now develop after the Sun has separated out the lower parts. In the fourth lunar cycle, all of this is perfected, and in the fifth, the two bodies merge again and then disappear as one into Pralaya.

[ 19 ] The ancient Moon did not yet have a solid crust on which one could walk, as on the rocks of our Earth. The mineral kingdom at that time was much like a living mass of peat or cooked spinach. This living, internally growing mass was interspersed with wood-like structures. From this arose the plant kingdom of that time—plants that were actually plant-animals. They had sensations and would have felt pressure as pain. And human beings in the animal kingdom of that time were not like today’s animals, but stood between human and animal. They were higher in the hierarchy than today’s animals and could act on their instincts in a much more purposeful way. However, they were lower than modern humans, for they could not yet say “I” to themselves. They did not yet possess an “I-body.”

[ 20 ] These three kingdoms lived on the living body of the Moon. It is important to note that these Moon people did not breathe in the same way as humans do today. They did not inhale and exhale air, but rather fire. By inhaling fire, they filled themselves with warmth; when they exhaled, they released the warmth and grew cold. What humans today experience as the internal warmth of the blood was, for the people on the Moon, the warmth of their breath. Many ancient clairvoyant painters symbolized this in the fire-breathing dragon; they knew that in ancient times there had been such lunar beings who breathed fire.

[ 21 ] After passing through 7 times 7 times 7 states, the Moon returned to Pralaya and then reemerged as the Earth. In the first Earth cycle, the entire Saturn existence is repeated; in the second, the Sun existence; and in the third, the Moon existence. During the third cycle, the separation of the Sun and the Moon also recurred.

[ 22 ] During the fourth Earth cycle, the Earth begins to take shape. Now a highly significant cosmic event occurs: As the Earth is forming, it encounters the planet Mars. The two planets interpenetrate each other; the Earth passes through Mars. Mars possessed a substance that the Earth did not have at that time: iron. Mars left this iron behind in the Earth in a vaporous state. Had this not happened, the Earth would have remained solely with what was already present; then human beings would likely have reached only as far as the animal kingdom as it existed at that time; they would have been able to breathe warmth, but would never have been able to have warm blood. Had Mars not imbued the Earth with iron, human beings would not have developed warm blood, for iron is contained in the blood. Thus, esoteric science states: The Earth owes so much to Mars in its development that the first half of its existence is referred to as Mars. Mercury holds an equally important significance for the second half. In ancient times, the Earth entered into a relationship with Mercury and remains connected to it until the end of its evolution. That is why, in Esoteric Science, one speaks not of the Earth, but of Mars and Mercury.

[ 23 ] This stage will be followed in the future by three more stages: Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. These seven Earth stages, as described by esoteric science, have been preserved in the names of the days of the week, although they are quite distorted in the German language:

Saturn Saturday, Samedi Saturday
Sun Sunday Sunday
Moon Monday, Lundi Monday
Mars Mardi, or Ziu - Tuesday Tuesday
Mercury Mercredi, Wednesday Wednesday
Jupiter Jeudi, Tor, Donar - Thursday Thursday
Venus Vendredi, Freya - Friday Friday

[ 24 ] Thus, in the names of the days of the week, you find the esoteric teaching about the Earth’s passage through these various periods: a marvelous chronicle that enables people to keep these truths ever fresh in their minds. Over the next few days, we will see more and more how theosophy restores our understanding of what our forefathers once simply expressed in names, and how the most mundane is connected to the most profound.