The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. About the group Egos of Animals, Plants, and Minerals

[ 1 ] Certain facts that we come to know through the occult science show us how the world becomes something entirely different through theosophy, or the occult science. Let us first speak about the animation of the various kingdoms of nature, the world around us. Theosophy teaches us that human beings consist primarily of four members: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. The other three higher members are developments of these four members.

[ 2 ] When we say that the mineral shares the physical body with all of inanimate nature, that plants also have the etheric body, animals the astral body, and human beings the “I Am,” such an explanation refers to our physical world. In the case of the mineral, even with the most highly developed eye of the seer, we can find only a physical body on the physical plane; in the case of the plant, only the etheric body in addition; in the case of the animal, the astral body as well; and in the case of the human being, the “I Am” within the physical world. When we observe these beings in higher worlds, it is not the case that the plant has only a physical body and an etheric body; rather, this plant appears to us as a quite complex being. When we first examine the plant, we find it underground with its root, and it protrudes from the earth with its stem, sprouting leaf after leaf from the stem. If we look at the astral world above the plant with the eye of the seer, we see an astral glow above the plant that envelops its flower. If we can now also examine the Devachan world, something remarkable becomes apparent. There the plant is enveloped as if in a sheath; this sheath extends all the way to the center of the Earth and has its tip there at the center of the Earth. This, in reality, is the entire plant. When we look at the Earth’s entire vegetation, we see these glimmers of light in the astral realm.

[ 3 ] The plant’s etheric body is a body of force. It has a very specific role in the life of the plant. Its task is to produce leaf after leaf in a kind of repetition. If the plant contained only the etheric body, it would never produce a flower. It would simply develop leaf after leaf. The etheric body is the principle of repetition. We can also observe this in human beings themselves. A human being consists of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I.” Not all parts of the human being are involved in these four members in the same way. There are parts from which the astral body has withdrawn. In some such organs, it no longer intervenes; it has no power there. At the top of the head, it has withdrawn; there, only the etheric body acts through repetition, producing the recurring hairs in the same form. In another area, one can see how the principle of the etheric body transitions into the principle of the astral body. In the vertebrae of the spine, the principle of the etheric body is at work. There, the astral body ultimately intervenes and propels the vertebrae upward toward the cranial cavity.

[ 4 ] The faint glow above the plant is also astral substance, but here it must be permeated by the spiritual power of the sun’s rays. The force that surrounds and borders the plant here is stimulated by the spiritual forces of sunlight and transforms the principle of repetition—that of the leaves and the etheric body—into the flower through the astral principle. Such an intervention by the astral is an inhibition. If we then trace the stem of the plant all the way into the interior of the Earth, we find the plant’s “I” there. No one may object that there is not enough space for all the plant “I’s” at the center of the Earth. In the spiritual realm, the principle of permeability applies. All plant-I’s are gathered together at the center of the Earth. When we view the Earth from this perspective, it appears to us not merely as a sphere in outer space, but as an entity imbued with spirit. Individual plants grow out of the Earth just as nails grow out of our own bodies. It is simply that many plant-I’s are gathered together within the Earth. However, not every plant has its own I; rather, entire groups of plants share a common I.

[ 5 ] The same is true of animals. There, too, entire groups share a collective “I.” Whether one lion is in Africa and another in a menagerie is irrelevant; they are members of the single lion “I.” Let’s imagine our hand sticking through an umbrella. We must tell ourselves: the fingers belong to a single “I.” In the same way, all the lions on Earth belong to a single “I,” and all the tigers on Earth to a single “tiger-I.” All lions, all tigers are members of a collective group “I.”

[ 6 ] First of all, it is interesting to become a little familiar with these animal “I”s. When a person observes the world from a materialistic standpoint, he believes he moves only through material substances. But that is not the case. The animal group souls circulate around the Earth like the trade winds, following the most varied paths. They circle the Earth and pass through the animal’s spinal cord. The most important characteristic of this group “I” is the following: The astral plane contains self-contained entities, though these do not have self-contained bodies. But, for example, there is one self-contained astral entity that belongs to all lions. These entities exist there like a population. The animal group-I’s are much more intelligent than human group-I’s; they are wiser. All the wise mechanisms found in the animal kingdom originate from the animal group-I’s.

[ 7 ] When we see the birds flying south in the fall, when we listen to the beaver working on its dam, we see the effects of the animal group-I. The individual beaver is not intelligent, but the beaver’s group-I is wise. We enter a world of wisdom and intelligence when we come into contact with these self-contained beings on the astral plane. It is actually very beneficial to converse with these beings. They know far more than we do about the wisdom of the world. The plant “I’s” are located at the center of the Earth. When we seek them out, we also come to know the joy and pain of the plant. What the plant sends out onto the Earth’s surface—even though it is green and solid—can still be compared to the milk that comes from an animal. It is indeed as if the entire Earth organism were sending something out from the Earth, just as milk comes from an animal. When we pick a plant, this causes a kind of pleasure in the plant’s soul, similar to what a cow feels when her calf suckles at her udder. When a person puts themselves in the plant’s soul, they learn to share in the knowledge and feel in sympathy with all of nature. When we make ourselves partakers in the knowledge of all of nature, our soul becomes attuned in such a way that it also feels in sympathy with other human beings.

[ 8 ] When the reaper sweeps across the fields with his scythe in the fall, mowing down stalk by stalk and sheaf by sheaf, one comes to realize that something like a breath of sensual delight sweeps across the fields. It is a wonderful observation to realize, as the farmer mows, how something like a breath of sensual delight wafts across the earth. When one pulls plants out by the roots, one causes pain to the plant’s soul. What applies to our physical plane does not always apply to the other worlds. If someone plucks out his gray hairs, it may satisfy his sense of beauty, but it still hurts. In the same way, it hurts the plant when it is pulled up by the roots, even if one might think that is the right thing to do from a physical perspective. We must not believe that, just because we know pain is being caused in nature here or there, we can prevent that pain.

[ 9 ] Thus we have seen how human beings learn, through insight into nature, to empathize with other beings. Even the souls of stones experience joy and sorrow. When we look at a quarry and see the workers blasting away stone by stone, we might believe that when the stones shatter, this causes the rock pain. That is not the case. Whole streams of well-being shatter along with the stones and pour out of the quarry. If one takes a glass of water and dissolves salt in it, the seer sees that as the salt dissolves, whole streams of well-being spread out. When we then cool the water and the salt solidifies again, this causes pain.

[ 10 ] When we light a match or burn something, this causes entire inner currents of pleasure in a spiritual being that is active in this process of combustion. Light that spreads throughout the universe does not spread merely as physical substance; rather, it also spreads streams of bliss. The spiritual beings who live in the light gladly give of that light; that is a feeling of bliss. They feel blissful as life flows through them in the light. In this way, we come to know the entire world inwardly. As we learn to perceive the life around us more and more on a spiritual level, we thereby truly come to know the wondrous mysteries of human development.

[ 11 ] Let us go back to earlier times. At that time, the Earth was at such a high temperature that all metals and all minerals were in a molten state. We can look back on a state in which everything was dissolved by the heat. At that time, human beings, as spiritual beings, were connected to the Earth. How did the Earth become the stage for present-day human beings, in their present form? The substances of the Earth had to solidify and crystallize together. This process has taken place on our Earth. In the future, the Earth will undergo this process in the opposite manner. The Earth and all human beings will become spiritualized. For physical life, spiritualization means “disintegrating into the smallest particles.” When, after long ages, a world body has fulfilled its task, particles of that world body gradually dissolve. The condensation of matter alternates ceaselessly with its dissolution. We can already see from radium that the Earth is beginning to disintegrate, to spiritualize. Beginning with the Earth’s evolution, we have the Earth in a fiery state, followed by its condensation into rocks—the process of agglomeration. The souls of the rocks must endure suffering during this process. Only when the world body once again moves toward spiritualization does the sensation of pleasure and delight arise through this fragmentation.

[ 12 ] The initiate has expressed this in profound words. “All creation groans in labor pains, awaiting the adoption as sons,” says Paul; that is to say: awaiting that moment when everything will once again pass into spiritualization. Thus, esoteric wisdom best teaches us to understand the religious texts once more. We then develop the proper sense of these texts. Today’s materialistic person, who says, “How wonderfully far we have come,” knows nothing of that development. Today, these words of Paul are often interpreted in an infinitely trivial way. But shivers of awe will once again pierce people’s hearts when they view the earth in this way. Not only our earth, but all the individual parts of the cosmos are not merely physical worlds, but are animated and spiritual worlds.

[ 13 ] When a person passes through the gate of death, he must dwell for a time in a purely spiritual world before returning to a new incarnation. Here on the physical Earth, human beings craft their tools, their equipment, and so on. Is the human soul, between death and a new birth, concerned solely with itself? — The soul is by no means idle, nor is it in a world other than our own. The beings who are going through this state are truly all around us, and they are all at work. When a person has died and reappears on the surface of our Earth in a new incarnation, this usually happens in such a way that they find the Earth with a new appearance.

[ 14 ] One need only realize how the Earth is changing its face. Let us just consider that climatic conditions, plants and animals, and cultural conditions are now completely different from what they were in the time of Jesus Christ. Anyone who truly studies history knows how everything on Earth changes. Who, then, changes the face of the Earth outwardly, physically? That which transforms the Earth is accomplished by us ourselves between death and a new birth—albeit under the guidance of higher beings.

[ 15 ] Thus, the seer sees the plants constantly surrounded by the souls of human beings who are preparing the way for a new incarnation. There are higher beings who govern this entire process. But we ourselves are participating in this transformation of the Earth. Human beings are the workers, the transformers, in the very construction of our Earth. Thus, a wondrous life takes shape for us on our Earth when we view it as a whole in its context. In this way, we also recognize that we live among higher beings who are connected to our Earth but who do not descend to the level of physical incarnation.

[ 16 ] Our Earth undergoes incarnations just as individual human beings do. The Earth has gone through earlier incarnations and will go through other incarnations in the future. If we were to mix our present Earth with the present Moon, we would end up with the old Moon. In an even earlier incarnation, the Earth was a solar planet. If we were to mix the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun together today, we would end up with the ancient solar planet. In later times, the Earth will be incarnated as Jupiter, as Venus, and as Vulcan. Spiritual beings are connected to each such existence. The Earth moves from one incarnation to the next. In the process, spiritual beings are always developed to higher levels as such a planet progresses toward further incarnations.

[ 17 ] As the ancient Moon developed, a single celestial body first appeared. Then two celestial bodies came into being. As our Earth developed, a celestial body emerged from the darkness of the cosmos. Then that single celestial body first split into two. Then the Moon split off from the Earth, so that we now have three celestial bodies: the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth. Humanity was also connected to all these physical forms. On Saturn, the foundation for the physical body was laid; on the Sun, the foundation for the etheric body; and on the Moon, the foundation for the astral body. Higher beings stand above human beings. These beings could no longer undergo their more rapid evolution while the Earth was still connected to the Sun and the Moon. Therefore, they had to separate themselves and extract the finest substances, so that the Sun is now inhabited by exalted beings whom we call the divine creators of humankind. They inhabit the Sun. That which flows into the light inhabits the Sun. It experiences that bliss which is felt when the light radiates forth.

[ 18 ] On the Moon, however, there are initially lower beings. There were beings in earlier stages of development who, so to speak, did not have the opportunity to rise to the level of solar existence. They could not endure life on the Sun, for it was reserved for higher beings. Nor could they live on Earth, however, as it was not advanced enough for them. They could not live on either of these celestial bodies. Therefore, the Sun had to split off two other planets on which these beings could live. These are Mercury and Venus. On Mercury dwell beings similar to human beings, but who do not experience death. The life of the Mercury beings proceeds, so to speak, in such a way that such a transition is merely a transformation, just as we change bodies between birth and death. Thus do the souls of the Mercury beings live as they take on and shed their spiritual bodies, yet they do not know death. Similarly, beings that stand between human beings and solar beings also live on Venus. They inhabit Venus and can even exert an influence on Earth. They become active within the human body. We call these beings Luciferic beings. In a certain sense, they have their home on Venus. That is why Venus is also called “Lucifer.”

[ 19 ] When we lift our gaze to the stars, they reveal themselves to us in such a way that we recognize spiritual beings within them. We will only truly know the world when we advance from the physical to the spiritual in every aspect. How differently—and with greater awareness—will we, as human beings, move through the world when we learn to empathize with everything around us! This will make our lives infinitely richer. Through this, we ourselves become co-workers in the spiritual realm. Knowledge only gains its true value when it becomes life—when we learn to live differently, rather than merely knowing something.