The Rudolf Steiner Archive

13. About Some Supernatural Facts and Beings

[ 1 ] Today we would like to consider a few details from the occult world. Some of what needs to be said today will follow on from the reflection we engaged in here last time; some of it will broaden your perspective in the direction we already took last time—so that you may see more and more how the space around us is animated and permeated by supersensible realities, by supersensible beings. In our last meditation, we saw how the various kingdoms—the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms—contain beings around us that we can call group-I’s. We explained how the animal kingdom is underlaid by group-I’s, how these group-I’s, as self-contained individualities—one might say, as personalities—can be found on the astral plane, and how they, so to speak, circle the Earth. We have seen how the plant I’s are at the center of the Earth and how we did not specify a particular location for the group I’s of the minerals, because they dwell in the higher regions of Devachan. From this alone you have seen that there are constantly beings around us whom we, so to speak, pass through, who penetrate into us, who live in the same space as we do. For example, what constitutes an animal group soul—which belongs to an entire group of animals of the same kind—can pass right through us. For in the astral realm, the law of penetration and permeability prevails, in contrast to our physical world, where the law of impenetrability reigns.

[ 2 ] Now I would like to begin by offering a brief note to expand on what was said back then. You saw at that time that we must think of the root of the plant as its head, which is embedded in the earth; then the stem grows out of it, developing leaf after leaf, and so on. Schematically speaking, we would have to look for the group-Ics of the plants at the center of the Earth. What we see of the plant with our eyes is, of course, the plant’s physical body. This is embedded in what we call the plant’s etheric body. What is the nature of this etheric body of the plant? Everything we know as the etheric body has the characteristic of repetition. Where the etheric body is active as such, the principle of repetition prevails. We see how, in the plant, leaf follows leaf in repetition. Why? Because the power of the etheric body underlies this repetition. This principle of the etheric body also prevails in human beings. We find it, for example, in the spine, where vertebra after vertebra is attached. When the clairvoyant observes the plant in its entirety, he sees the etheric body underlying the entire plant; but at the top, the plant is enveloped as if by a shell of astral clouds, so that we see the plant’s physical body—consisting of roots, leaves, and so on—permeated by the etheric body and, at the top, glowing with a kind of faint light, the astral light. And this astral force, which acts upon the plant, brings about its culmination in the flower and fruit. If only the etheric body were at work, the plant would endlessly unfurl leaf after leaf; through the astral body, this process is brought to a close. The etheric body is, so to speak, tempered by the astral. We can perceive the plant’s “I” clairvoyantly as a sheath extending toward the center of the Earth.

[ 3 ] If you observe the plant from the outside, at first you see only the physical and etheric bodies. What surrounds the plant belongs to the astral atmosphere of the entire Earth. So you can see how the spiritual realm envelops our globe. What you yourselves possess as the effect of the etheric body principle is the sequence of vertebrae in the spinal cord. This sequence is completed by the fact that the spine is surrounded by the powerfully intervening astral. Through the unfolding of the astral body, the vertebrae of the spinal cord are transformed into the bones of the skull. In this way, you would have to trace the interplay of the etheric with the astral everywhere in the world. Underlying this is a mystery—the secret that everything living must be dampened, as it were, killed by the astral. This “killing” in the astral is such that the etheric finds its conclusion. If we have a mental image of it as a force, it is called Azot. Spiritually speaking, Azot signifies that force in the cosmos which prevents the etheric from unfolding with unbridled vigor without ever reaching completion. The fact that living beings are called to consciousness is based on the power of Azot; for without the astral, there would be no consciousness.

[ 4 ] Everything that is spiritual also finds its expression in the physical realm; just as, to the spiritual observer, all physical matter is nothing other than the embodiment of the spiritual, so to speak. We have now, spiritually speaking, seen the interaction of the ever-evolving etheric and the astral, which holds back the etheric; and consciousness is contained within this holding back. You will find the physical expression of this for humans and animals by observing the interaction of the two substances contained in our air: oxygen and nitrogen. Oxygen is, in our air, the embodiment of the etheric, the great Life-Body of the Earth. If you were to breathe only oxygen, you would be consumed by a vehement life; you would, so to speak, be old immediately after birth. Consciousness as such would not be able to develop as it does in humans and animals. Therefore, the developing life—the oxygen principle—must be tempered. It is tempered by the addition of nitrogen, which regulates and limits the effect of oxygen. If you were to inhale only nitrogen, you would die immediately. The interaction of the two creates the balance that moderates life, allowing it to become conscious. The physical embodiment of Azot is the force that finds its expression in nitrogen. In this way, you come to understand the spiritual background of what you continually take in and give out.

[ 5 ] You now have an example of how all life arises through the establishment of a balance between opposing forces. We also see this balance between two forces in the vast universe, in our solar system, for example. And this brings us to a section where we can point out that our solar system is not merely a series of bodies of physical substance, but that all these bodies belonging to our system are, in the physical realm, merely an expression of a spiritual reality. Just as you have a physical body that belongs to a soul, so every planetary body belongs to a soul and a spiritual entity, and the spiritual components of the individual celestial bodies are very different. If one could view our Earth clairvoyantly from the outside, one would not only perceive rocks and so on made of material substance and see animal and human forms wandering among them, but one would see, above all, the group souls of the plants, the animals, and so on. This in itself constitutes a spiritual population of our Earth. The clairvoyant would also see the individual human souls, the Folk-souls, and so on. You must not create a mental image of the spirit of a celestial body as a sphere in space that possesses a spirit and a soul, but rather as an entire spiritual population—forming a unified whole—that inhabits this celestial body. And all these individual spirits, group souls, and so on, in turn, are under a leader, as we might call it, and all of this together corresponds to the entire spirit of our Earth—that which we call the Earth Spirit.

[ 6 ] Our goal is to gain an ever deeper understanding of the details of a planet’s spiritual life. Even from these hints, you will see that a planet’s spiritual life is complex. You must be patient; we are making steady progress.

[ 7 ] Today we will be able to gain a deeper understanding of our planetary system if we remember that our Earth has not always been as it is now. It has gradually evolved into its present form. You know that before it became Earth, it was a different planet. We call the earlier incarnation of our Earth the ancient Moon. This is not our present-day Moon; that is merely a separated part of it. Even earlier, the Earth was what we call the Sun Planet. Again, this does not refer to the present-day Sun. And even earlier, our Earth was Saturn. How, then, does our present-day Sun relate to the ancient Sun, when our Earth was still the Sun?

[ 8 ] The Sun’s position in the cosmos was not yet as it is today, for at that time there was still no Sun separate from the Earth. What you all were back then—that which served as the preparation for your present physical, etheric, and astral bodies—lived within that ancient Sun itself. On Saturn, the first foundation for the physical body had been laid; on the Sun, the foundation for the etheric body; on the Moon, that for the astral body; and on Earth, the “I” is then added. If you hold this together with your present state, you will understand how you lived on the ancient Sun. Your life consisted only of the physical and etheric bodies; your “I” was not yet in the body, nor was your astral body. If you want to create a mental image of life on the ancient Sun, you can get an idea of it by imagining that all of you here would suddenly fall asleep. Then the physical and etheric bodies would remain seated in the chairs, while the astral body and your “I” would hover above you. That was the constant state on the Sun. That is how it was on the ancient Sun. You yourselves—in terms of your “I” and astral body—circled the Sun and ruled and guided from above what was down below. Of course, your physical body was not like it is today. You can get a mental image of what your physical body was like back then by imagining it in the manner of a plant as we know it today; flesh in the modern sense did not yet exist. What you had was a kind of plant life. But it was impossible for this Sun to retain such a form; an Earth with human beings such as you are today could never have come into being.

[ 9 ] During the transition to the Moon, those beings who could endure this solar existence had to separate themselves from the Earth, for this solar existence was a rapid, fast-paced one. And so it came to pass that the Sun, together with those substances that required a fast, hasty existence, separated itself from the Earth. The Sun thus took with it the rapidly developing substances and beings, and the Earth remained behind with those beings that could not keep up with the rapid pace. And among these beings was humankind. The finest beings and substances from the ancient Sun have emerged and become independent. In today’s Sun, in the fiery, gaseous masses, we see the bodies of exalted beings who have long since transcended humanity. Because they have long since reached a stage where they no longer need to live in a physical body, they are now able to endure the existence of the Sun. Thus, the Sun is a form of existence that arose from a planetary existence, and there you have what is called a fixed star in occultism.

[ 10 ] A fixed star is an advanced planet that has shed the elements that could not keep up. Higher beings have established their existence on the fixed star. Every fixed star originated from a planet. Even in the cosmos, advancement—a rising—takes place. Our Earth, too, will undergo the following incarnations: it will become Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. By the time it reaches Venus, our Earth will have already attained a kind of fixed-star existence. Together with the Earth, we transform into higher beings who can then endure this fixed-star existence.

[ 11 ] We have now seen how a fixed star comes into being when a planet sheds its lower substances and entities and elevates the higher substances and entities to a more exalted existence. Now you may ask: If such a fixed star continues to rise, what will become of it? What will become of the Sun with all its exalted entities? — That will take some time yet, for the next stage will be that our Earth will once again unite with this Sun. But then another separation will occur, because our Earth will gradually become a fixed star. Once our Earth has reached the stage of Venus or Vulcan, then what is today the Sun will also have slowly become something else. What becomes of a sun? — A sun becomes what we see today glittering down from the heavens as the zodiac. The higher stage of a sun’s development is that it unfolds into the zodiac. The zodiac consists of the twelve constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. To the materialistic astronomer, they are simply clusters of stars. The seer, however, knows that they are not merely placed in space, but that their constellations correspond to spiritual beings grouped together in this belt across the sky. When beings have completed their existence as suns, they become such a zodiac. This, too, undergoes a kind of evolution.

[ 12 ] Today you know the zodiac—which has a certain relationship to our lives and existence—as a specific spatial arrangement of certain stars; it was not always that way. It evolved from a kind of nebular substance. Imagine the ancient Saturn, which once represented the Earth, and which then became the Sun, the Moon, and finally the Earth as we know it today. It was already surrounded by our zodiac, but back then our zodiac was not differentiated into stars; rather, the mass was like a misty rain. As Saturn evolved into the Sun and the Moon, the mass coalesced and the constellations began to shine.

[ 13 ] Where did this zodiac come from, which once surrounded Saturn and which, when our Sun one day becomes a zodiac, will disappear because it will have fulfilled its purpose? Well, you can surely imagine that Saturn was preceded by other stages of development. An earlier Sun, which shone upon earlier incarnations of our Earth—when it was Saturn—sacrificed itself and became this zodiac. When we look at this zodiac from an occult perspective, we see that it came into being only through a great sacrifice. Substances and beings that preceded our existence sacrificed themselves and formed this zodiac, first as a nebular group and then clustering together to form stars. What has been described to you as the creative beings for our beings, when the Earth was still Saturn, was united with the old zodiac at that time. All those exalted beings who had already passed through a high stage in the past had to work their way down; they poured out the blueprint for the physical body. This is what lies at the heart of the mystery of the world’s becoming: that all beings ascend from beings who receive to beings who produce and create. Becoming creators is the goal of beings.

[ 14 ] In the zodiac, the beings gather once they have ascended from receiving to giving. From the zodiac, matter flowed together to form the first rudimentary structure of the human physical body. In this way, we learn to look deeper and deeper into the cosmos and at what floats through it. And the physical bodies appear to us only as the physical expression of higher spiritual beings. Thus, those higher spiritual beings have streamed forth substance through their will. This is the powerful, magical working whereby the will becomes so strong that it can stream forth substance. Matter rained down from those beings who were called upon to form matter on ancient Saturn, which has been transformed over time into the physical body of today. We call these sublime beings—who had developed to such a high degree that they could cause that cosmic rain to trickle down, which was the first foundation of the physical human body—the Thrones or the Spirits of the Will.

[ 15 ] This is yet another such perspective that we would like to gain. The time will come when what might be called a convergence of all these perspectives will come to pass; you just need to be patient and learn all the details so that, little by little, the grandeur of the cosmos becomes apparent.

[ 16 ] We will now move on from these cosmic realms to another chapter. We return to that point in Earth’s evolution when the Sun separated from our Earth—that is, to a time in the distant past when the Sun and Earth still formed a single body, and the Sun departed with the more highly evolved beings, leaving our Earth behind as a stage suitable for us, who were developing more slowly. The Sun then shone upon the Earth from outside. The beings of the Sun are sublime and powerful beings, but their creative nature differs from that of the Thrones, those spirits of the zodiac. What flows from the Sun to the Earth is light. This, too, is a mighty deed, but it is cosmically lesser than the trickling down of matter itself.

[ 17 ] At first, what we now call the Moon was still united with the Earth. Our Moon came into being when the inferior substances and entities that were still connected to the Earth at that time were cast off. For if the Earth had retained the Moon, our evolution would not have proceeded properly; it would have become too slow. The Earth would have been, so to speak, mummified like statues. Life would have died out. Too much would have been killed, and the Earth would eventually have become a graveyard. That is why the Moon had to leave, and the Earth remained behind and was able to maintain balance. But now the Sun and the Moon act upon the Earth from the outside: they maintain the balance on Earth so that human development can take place. Everything is kept in balance by opposing forces. The “I” could take root in humanity only because the two opposing forces—the Sun and the Moon—act upon the Earth.

[ 18 ] And now recall our initial, elementary description of the human being. The human being consists of a physical body, an etheric body, an astral body, and the “I.” The “I” works on the astral body, transforming it into Manas; on the etheric body, transforming it into Budhi; and on the physical body, transforming it into Atma, or the Spirit-Man. But it would have been impossible for this development to proceed in this way right from the very beginning. The feeling soul, the intellectual soul, and the conscious soul had to intervene here. These members, which lie between the body—the physical, etheric, and astral bodies—and the spirit—Manas, Budhi, Atma—were provisional transformations. Now, at its current stage of spiritual development, the I works into the astral body—the Spirit-Self, Manas. Everything that is happening now is the pure work of Manas, or the Spirit-Self. But this has not been the case for very long; we only began this process during the Atlantean epoch. It had, however, been prepared earlier—albeit unconsciously—through the three intermediate members: the feeling soul, the intellectual soul, and the conscious soul.

[ 19 ] When humankind came from the Moon to Earth, it consisted only of the three bodies: the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, and a bridge had to be built. Humanity could not build this bridge on its own; it needed help. During the Lemurian and Atlantean eras, work on this was already being done unconsciously, just as you are now working on it consciously. First, work was done on the astral body, bringing forth the feeling soul; then on the etheric body, from which the intellectual soul emerged; and finally even on the physical body, from which the conscious soul unfolded—a soul that arose as a result of the physical body being restored to the point where it could project its physical organs outward. With this development, the ancient clairvoyant state of Atlantean consciousness gave way to the present state of consciousness. Thus, in appearance, the soul of consciousness is ultimately kindled.

[ 20 ] But it was not until the ancient Atlantean era that human beings became ready to work on themselves. Who, then, helped them during that time, when human beings sought to evolve from beings possessing a physical, etheric, and astral body into beings possessing a feeling soul, an intellectual soul, and a conscious soul? We will understand who helped when we consider the development of our Earth as it took place through the Sun, the Moon, and so on. As you know, the Earth separated from the Sun and sent the Moon out into space. The Sun had highly exalted beings who were so advanced creatively that they could send light out into space. Now, I have often mentioned that one can not only repeat a grade in school but also in cosmic evolution. Humanity had progressed to the point where it could endure the Earth, and the exalted beings to the point where they could endure the Sun. Now, these beings who inhabit the Sun today had previously lived as human beings, but in the course of this evolution, some beings fell behind; it was impossible for them to complete their assigned tasks, and they could not simply inhabit the Sun. Had they entered it, they would have fared badly; even human beings would not have been able to endure it. These beings, however, stood between the sun gods and human beings. Thus, they had to be given, so to speak, another celestial body on which the conditions were suited to their existence. Indeed, provision was made for these beings even within cosmic evolution. Even before our Sun had ejected the Earth from itself—roughly at the same time—our Jupiter separated from the Sun. Later, after the Sun had already ejected the Earth, our present-day Venus separated from the Sun; and even later, again through separation from the Sun, came our present-day Mercury.

[ 21 ] Thus, planetary stages of existence were created for these beings who had not come along; they now inhabit these planets. At the time when the Moon was still separating from the Earth, a very mysterious process took place in our cosmic evolution—one that is very difficult to explain and is referred to as the “passage of Mars through our Earth.” As I said, it is extraordinarily difficult to explain, for when the Earth was still connected to the Sun, the mass of Mars was contained within it; then the Sun separated from the Earth, and Mars emerged, leaving behind on Earth the substance known as iron. Mars, too, became a stage for such beings who had not come along. These Martian beings are the catalysts for the development of the feeling soul. Had they not exerted their influence on our planet, the feeling soul could not have taken shape. This shows you the significance of those beings we referred to at the beginning—beings that spiritually belong to the physical substances of the solar system and that are in mutual relation to what we possess within ourselves.

[ 22 ] Just as the sensuous soul was stimulated by the Martian beings, so the intellectual soul was stimulated by the Mercurian beings and the conscious soul by the Jovian beings. And back then, when the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness had already been stimulated, the impetus was given to set Manas in motion. For this, too, a stimulus had to be provided first. Once it had been set in motion, humanity could, so to speak, take its own development into its own hands. This occurred in the last third of the Atlantean epoch. The stimulating forces were the beings who were on Venus. This gives you a mental image of the interplay among the various members of our planetary system. We must imagine that human beings had brought with them their physical body, their etheric body, and their astral body. Then three members develop: the feeling soul, the intellectual soul, and the conscious soul—and finally, Manas. The consciousness soul derives its power from Jupiter, the intellect soul from Mercury, the feeling soul from Mars, and the Spirit-Self received its impetus from Venus. Thus, if you wish to trace the forces within yourself, you must look up to the corresponding stars. Human beings are complex beings; they have become so because the forces of the cosmos have converged within them.

[ 23 ] To conclude, let’s illustrate the whole thing with an image. Imagine that someone sees a small solar spectrum on the wall here—a rainbow; that is, the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Imagine that it isn’t projected onto the wall, but simply appears in the sunlight. That’s what you’d look at first. Then, if you investigate how it comes about, you’d see how sunlight enters the room through a crack and that this spectrum—this “phantom”—is produced by various devices, such as a prism or some other light-refracting substance. You cannot remove it, but if you remove the individual parts that lie outside the spectrum, the phantom disappears. Remove the external light—the phantom is gone; remove the prism, the wall with the light—the phantom is gone. It arose as the result of purely external influences.

[ 24 ] When the clairvoyant looks at a person, the situation is the same as it is here with the spectrum. This person is actually nothing in and of himself, for the clairvoyant sees, where the person stands, forces from Venus, from Mercury, and from Mars. Take away the influence of Venus—and the person is gone. Take away the influence of Mercury and Mars—and the person is gone. To the clairvoyant, the person appears as a convergence of world forces. The only thing that remains real in this phantom, as seen by the clairvoyant, is the “I.” That is the true reality—this active “I” that is the cause of everything flowing together, that works to ensure that all such influences are absorbed. Before the clairvoyant’s gaze, all these confluences vanish; the “I” alone is what remains as the sole truth. The “I,” which so few people today regard as reality—that is the only thing that remains. What the physical senses perceive as the human being is, in truth, a phantom whose individual parts are held together by the, as it were, magnetic force of the “I.” Everything in the human being, except for the active “I,” is an optical illusion.

[ 25 ] Now we have gone through a train of thought together. Please transform it into a feeling; only then will it take on its true value. Go through the world with this feeling. Imagine our earthly beings dissolved into ghosts, with only the “I”s working within them. When you feel this, you will sense what the materialistic mind calls “existence” and “reality” dissolving like a mist, and you will see true reality in the spiritual “I.” Only then will you grasp something of what is meant in the Eastern worldview when it is said that reality is Maya. All other talk is mere rhetoric. If one begins right away with the phrase “The world is maya,” that is an absurdity. We should not even utter the word “maya” without first having acquired such a sensation through this kind of contemplation.

[ 26 ] By now, you will have gained a mental image of what the true esoteric training aims to achieve with its lengthy preparations. You see, it is actually quite a bold statement to tell people that existence is a mere illusion. First, such reflections must proceed patiently and calmly so that the soul’s sensibilities may be kindled. We all must first learn to utter the words we need in the proper way. For the most part, our words are uttered by people as nothing more than empty sounds, whereas in fact, when these words were spoken in the cultures where they originated, they were connected to deep, meaningful feelings.

[ 27 ] Such contemplation—which shows us what maya is, which reveals true reality to us within the illusion—is what first instills in our souls what we are meant to draw from theosophy as a feeling. Therefore, it is necessary that you leave not merely with knowledge, but with this tone of feeling, with this hue of feeling that falls upon such a word. In this way, mental images merge with what we take with us into life—what lives in our soul as a feeling, as a sensation.