The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Theosophy and Rosicrucianism VIII

[ 1 ] Today I would like to offer you a few additional remarks on the question of reincarnation and karma. And then I would like to move on to a discussion of the evolution of our Earth itself, because it is only through such a consideration that we will come to fully understand the true nature of the human being, as it appears to us in the context of the cosmic order. I would like to conclude this lecture series by examining together how human beings develop when the goal of their striving is the perception of the higher worlds. In order to enter the spiritual worlds, we will therefore have to consider: first, the pre-Christian training; second, the Christian training; and third, the Rosicrucian training.

[ 2 ] Whatever else needs to be said about reincarnation should be saved for a separate chapter, because it is the most difficult concept for beginners to grasp. What we have to discuss here relates first and foremost to the time that lies between two incarnations. This, in and of itself, is a question that shocks the materialistic thinking of our time.

[ 3 ] The one source of knowledge available to the spiritual researcher cannot, of course, be verified by those who do not yet possess spiritual vision: that source is experience. But anyone who applies the training—which we will discuss later—to themselves will be well able to investigate when the majority of people currently living were last here on Earth in their previous incarnations. Then I will discuss the methods that were common in the Chaldean, Pythagorean, and all the mystery schools of the pre-Christian era to enable people to enter the spiritual world.

[ 4 ] All those who can gain insight into the conditions of the spiritual worlds—that is, who are able to trace human beings back to their previous incarnations—will find that the majority of all human souls now living were present in the early period following the birth of Christ, extending into the 8th and 9th centuries. However, these are all average time frames; the period between two incarnations can also be shorter or longer.

[ 5 ] The fact I just mentioned is connected to another that has become particularly prominent in our time. It is the fact that, especially in our own era, there are such unusually radical thinkers who demand equality. This is nothing other than the manifestation—transposed to the material realm—of the demand for equality in the early Christian centuries, which was expressed as: equality before God and equality before secular powers.

[ 6 ] Now, many of those people who, in the early Christian centuries, put forth these demands for equality—and who at that time passed through the gates of death with these unfulfilled demands, thus carrying all these longings for equality before God and the worldly powers in their souls into the spiritual world—have just now reincarnated, and they naturally bring their attitude toward these demands with them once again—though now in a transformed form, in keeping with today’s materialistic worldview. Those who have now reincarnated thus overlook the thoroughly materialistic slant that this demand has taken on in our time. It is not correct to believe, or to claim, that today’s sense of freedom stems from Christianity.

[ 7 ] This transformation of the demand for equality before God and the secular powers into today’s demand for equality in all earthly circumstances can be set on the right course solely by grasping the true context, as made possible for us by the theosophical worldview. But anyone who grasps this true context and at the same time observes what dominates people today—namely, the materialistic worldview—will readily see that the demand for equality, in the form in which it is currently put forward by today’s radical thinkers, is something that quite naturally had to arise at some point. Yet it is equally true that, from now on, people must rise again from materialism to spiritualism. Only then will a restoration of healthy social conditions be possible. There is no other remedy for this than spiritual science itself.

[ 8 ] This question is discussed in more detail in issues 30, 32, and 34 of the journal “Lucifer-Gnosis.” There it is shown how all other means, no matter how highly praised they may be by even the most distinguished sources as solutions to the social question, suffer from amateurism, precisely because people today know nothing of the higher worlds. If today’s social thinkers would only allow themselves to be inspired a little by theosophy, they would find truly effective means to approach this issue. Just as it is true that humanity had to descend from a spiritual past into materialism, so it is true that it must ascend again to the spiritual. It is only from this spiritual worldview that what brings harmony, peace, and love will emerge. Thus, here too, theosophy will once again be practical in the most eminent sense.

[ 9 ] Now I will have to show how the insight into the course of human evolution, gained through clairvoyant observation, leads us back to the events that lie between death and rebirth.

[ 10 ] I have already said that human beings do not appear again and again on this physical Earth for no reason. We have found the reason in the fact that with each new incarnation, human beings encounter entirely new conditions on Earth, and that each new physical life yields ever-new fruits for the future, precisely because the Earth has changed each time—both in cultural terms and with regard to its purely external natural environment. Each time human beings set foot on Earth during a new incarnation, its face has become completely different.

[ 11 ] According to the Chaldean view, the transformation of our Earth is linked to the relationship between the Sun and the other celestial bodies. You can find more detailed information on this in various lecture series. I can only briefly touch on it here.

[ 12 ] If you were to pay attention to what the sky looks like when the sun rises at the beginning of spring, if you were to observe the place where it rises and what other conditions exist in the celestial realm at that time, then you would see that the sun’s relationship to the other celestial bodies is different every spring. The vernal equinox moves further each year, so that in approximately 26,000–25,920 years, this vernal equinox returns to the same point where it was 26,000 years ago—a cycle. But this is only seemingly the case: in reality, the Sun does not describe a circle, but rather a spiral. This vernal equinox was determined based on the constellation that coincides with this point. The Sun thus traces a circle across the sky, marked by the twelve constellations. It moves a little further each year and thus passes through all twelve constellations within 26,000 years.

[ 13 ] Thus, around 800 B.C., the sun first rose in the constellation of Aries; and since the sun’s passage through all the signs of the zodiac takes approximately 26,000 years, it takes one-twelfth of that time—that is, 2,200 years—to pass through one sign. And the change in the face of our Earth is indeed linked to the progression of this vernal equinox. Thus, after such a period of about 2,200 years, the face of the Earth has changed to such an extent that entirely different conditions have arisen; this is therefore also the period during which human beings, on average, proceed to a new incarnation. And this is also the case according to the observations of esoteric science. The ancient peoples always associated the rising of the sun at the vernal equinox with a distinct feeling that can be described as follows: From the constellation of Aries, the sun sends us, for the first time again, the rays that conjure plants forth from the earth. — It seemed to them as if the constellation of Aries were bringing these rays, and for this reason, this constellation was revered. Certain sacred feelings are connected with the naming of these constellations. Aries sends forth the powers of the spring sun; therefore, the peoples of that time saw the lamb as a symbol of these powers of the rebirth of nature and the human soul. Many legends are connected to this, such as the story of Jason, who retrieves the Golden Fleece, which represents something immensely precious for humanity. This veneration of Aries—or rather, the lamb—prevailed for many centuries and was adopted by Christianity. That is why, originally, a lamb was depicted on the crucifix in place of Christ on the cross. And that is why Christ was called “the Lamb of God.”

[ 14 ] If this is the case, then—since the spring sun has risen in the sign of Aries only since the 8th century B.C.—there must have been a different form of worship before that; previously, the spring sun rose from the constellation of Taurus. And indeed, before the 8th century B.C., the bull was worshiped in place of the lamb. This worship forms the basis of the Apis cult in Egypt and the Persian cult of Mithras. About 2,200 years earlier still, the sun passed through the constellation of Gemini, and this symbol, too, played a role in those ancient cultures that preceded them. The ancient Persian religion traces its origins to this cult through Ormuzd and Ahriman.

[ 15 ] Thus we see how ancient peoples associated important concepts with the sun’s passage through the individual constellations. And this, in turn, is connected to the reincarnation of the human being at a specific epoch, after an average of about 2,200 years. However, because it makes a great difference whether a human being is incarnated on this Earth as a man or a woman during such an epoch, the calculation of the individual incarnations becomes somewhat more complicated. The experiences a human being has in an incarnation as a man or as a woman are so different that they must incarnate twice during such an epoch—once as a man and once as a woman—so that over the approximate period of two millennia, two incarnations take place; in reality, therefore, only 1,100 to 1,200 years elapse between two incarnations. That is why it is generally true that a male and a female incarnation alternate. In exceptional cases, however, several incarnations of the same gender may follow one after another—the largest number ever observed was seven—but then the gender changes. These are exceptions, however; as a rule, the genders alternate in successive incarnations.

[ 16 ] So that, then, is what can be said about the time that lies between two incarnations. However, it also depends on many other factors, and not solely on the human being himself. For example, it may happen that a particular individuality is precisely suited to the conditions on Earth at a specific point in time to fulfill a certain task. In this case, the higher powers may well draw that individuality into incarnation before the normal time has elapsed; it is brought down precisely because, by virtue of its entire disposition, it is ideally suited to fulfill a specific mission. This applies in particular to the great leaders of humanity. However, this is balanced out over the course of a person’s entire life, so that a correspondingly longer life in Devachan follows later on.

[ 17 ] The other point worth mentioning is that there is a kind of counterpart to that experience I described as taking place immediately after death, in which a person looks back on their past life as if it were a tableau. This counterpart is a kind of preview of the next life on earth.

[ 18 ] Let us first recall once more how the review of one’s life takes place at the moment of death. As you know, the etheric body has two main functions: first, to stimulate all the life functions of the physical body—that is, to constantly protect the substance of the physical body from decay and to regulate the formation of this substance; and second, the etheric body serves as the seat of memory. When the etheric body leaves the physical body at the moment of death, it is thus relieved of this first main task, and at that very moment the second characteristic comes to the fore particularly strongly: namely, the memory of everything the human being has experienced in their past life. And this is precisely the “picture of life.” At this moment, therefore, the human being consists solely of the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I.”

[ 19 ] When entering a new incarnation, the following occurs: The “I” descends from the spiritual world, bringing with it all the imperishable essences—both etheric and astral—that it has acquired up to that point. First, it naturally draws together into its new astral body all the astral qualities that correspond to its previous development, and only then does it do the same with the etheric qualities. All of this takes place in the first few days after conception, and it is only from the eighteenth to the twentieth day thereafter that the new etheric body works independently on the development of the physical human embryo, whereas previously the mother’s etheric body carries out what will later be the task of the etheric body. It is only between the eighteenth and twentieth day after conception that the individuality—which seeks to incarnate and which, up to that point, has clothed its “I” in a new astral and etheric body—takes possession, so to speak, of the physical body formed by the mother up to that point.

[ 20 ] At the moment just before this taking possession occurs, the human being thus consists of exactly the same essential elements as at the moment of death; in the latter case, it has just shed the physical body at that moment, while in the former case, it has not yet taken on the physical body. From this, it will be easy for you to understand how, at the moment a person enters his new physical body, something analogous to the moment when he sheds it occurs. At this moment, the person then has a kind of preview of his or her coming life, just as at the moment of death he or she had a retrospective view of the life that had passed. However, the person forgets this preview because the constitution of his or her physical body is not yet capable of retaining it in memory.

[ 21 ] At this very moment, a person can see: This is the family situation, this is the national situation, this is the local situation, and this is the situation of fate into which I am about to be born. — And it sometimes happens that when a person, having learned in this moment of foreknowledge that something terrible lies ahead, experiences a shock—a terror at the life that awaits them—the etheric body does not properly unite with the physical body and refuses to enter it. And then the consequences of such a shock—this refusal of the etheric body to properly enter the physical body—manifest in life in the form of idiocy. The clairvoyant can see the etheric body protruding beyond the physical head in such people. And because the etheric body is not properly integrated, the brain lags behind in its development, since the etheric body is not working properly on the brain. Many cases of idiocy today are caused in this way.

[ 22 ] And the fact that the present age in particular gives rise to cases of this kind with remarkable ease is, of course, quite understandable when one considers that the majority of people who have reincarnated today lived out their previous incarnations sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries A.D. Now, by applying a form of physical treatment, one can influence the etheric body in such a way that it gradually slides into the physical body, thereby improving the situation. However, this is possible only for someone who can see through to the spiritual cause of the situation and then intervene in the proper manner.

[ 23 ] From the preceding considerations, we now know that the human being, in his or her entirety, is composed of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. All these components are not merely nested one within the other, but they all interpenetrate and interact with one another. In this way, they all also act upon the physical body and work together with it so that it can develop in the way it is meant to. When you have a human being before you, if you have not yet developed your higher organs of perception, you see only the physical body. But this physical body appears to you as it is only because the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego are integrated into it, and because all of these have contributed in their own way to the formation of that physical body. Yet the physical organs of this human body have not been haphazardly constructed by the three higher members; rather, we can distinguish quite precisely how these three higher members participate in the construction of the physical body. Let us try to form a picture of this.

[ 24 ] First of all, then, this physical body contains what are, in a certain sense, purely physical organs. These are the ones that are based on purely physical laws—that is, the eyes, ears, larynx, and so on. The eye is certainly a living organ and derives its life from the etheric body that permeates and nourishes it; but viewed from a purely physical standpoint, it is a physical apparatus in which the same forces are at work as in inorganic nature—for example, in a crystal. We can therefore examine the functions of the eye according to purely physical laws. These sensory apparatuses must first develop out of the physical body. These are precisely the organs that we recognize, in the narrower sense, as being constructed by physical forces according to physical laws. Then we have a second group of organs: these are the organs of nutrition, growth, and reproduction, which culminate in glandular activity. The etheric body is essentially involved in the formation of these organs. Then, as a third group, we have the nervous system, which is built up in particular by the astral body. Fourth, we have what is specifically the red blood of higher animals and humans: the red, warm blood is built up by the ego.

[ 25 ] So, first of all, we have the actual physical parts—the sense organs—and, later on, the purely mineral skeletal system, which is built up by the physical body itself; second, the glandular system, reproductive organs, and so on, which are built up by the etheric body; third, the nervous system is built up by the astral body; fourth, the circulatory system is built up by the ego. We will understand this much more clearly as we examine the evolution of the Earth itself in greater detail.

[ 26 ] You must realize that the law of reincarnation applies to the entire world, not just to human beings. I am here now and alive; I am the reincarnation of my former state. But this is true not only of myself as a human being, but in a certain sense also of everything else that fills the universe, including, among other things, the planet itself. Just as we ourselves are the reincarnation of former individualities, so too is our Earth, among other things, the reincarnation of a former planetary state.

[ 27 ] It is not possible to trace these incarnations of our Earth infinitely far back or forward; even the best clairvoyant cannot see beyond a certain incarnation in either direction, since even for him there are limits to his knowledge. The clairvoyant can look back as far as three incarnations of our Earth, and likewise can survey the three subsequent ones, so that, including the present state of the Earth, he surveys seven incarnations.

[ 28 ] To some people hearing this for the first time, it may seem somewhat superstitious that the clairvoyant places the Earth, so to speak, right at the center of this development, and one might say that this is strangely arranged. But one can only speak this way based on a superficial assessment; for this is no more peculiar than the fact that I can see equally far in every direction in an open field and find myself at the center of the horizon. After all, in the described sevenfold division of the human being, we also stand with the “I” at the center: physical body, etheric body, astral body, “I,” spiritual self, life spirit, spiritual human. This is based on the same point of view.

[ 29 ] What I have to say about the planetary evolution of our Earth will also surprise some people and seem strange to them.

[ 30 ] Our Earth, then, evolved from an earlier planet. This planet, from which our Earth emerged, is no longer visible in the sky. But a remnant of what once was is the present Moon; it represents a fragment of Earth’s predecessor. So if you were to combine the present Earth and the present Moon—along with all the spiritual beings living on them—you would obtain a rough picture of Earth’s previous incarnation, which the occultist calls the Moon. Now you must bear in mind that such a hypothesis is put forward merely to help you understand the process in a more accessible way; but, like all hypotheses, it is of course not entirely accurate. If someone were to mix today’s Earth and today’s Moon together—as one might, for example, combine two substances in a retort in a chemistry laboratory—the result would in reality be far from the Moon as it was back then. For you must bear in mind that since the moment the Earth and the Moon separated from one another, both celestial bodies have continued to evolve in their own ways. For example, since the beginning of our present-day Earth’s evolution, what we call solid matter—the mineral kingdom—has only now taken shape within this Earth. Minerals, as we understand them today, did not exist before the beginning of our Earth’s evolution.

[ 31 ] When considering the mixing of the Earth and the Moon, one would therefore have to disregard everything that developed subsequently. The ancient lunar mass contained no mineral substance whatsoever. Its consistency had only reached that of a liquid paste. As mentioned, such a hypothesis has been put forward to make the matter somewhat comprehensible to people who have never heard anything about the planetary evolution of our Earth and our entire cosmos. A deeper understanding of this development requires an immense amount more, which, however, cannot be covered in such an introductory series but will be addressed gradually. This development will then be supplemented and illuminated again and again from new perspectives.

[ 32 ] Before the Earth went through this ancient lunar state, it was in a state that occultists refer to as the “Sun.” At that time, our Earth underwent conditions similar to those that still exist on the Sun today. And if we were to make the same assumption here, things would become even more complicated. For if you were to visualize that state, you would have to mix the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun together, and you would then end up with a single celestial body representing the former solar state—but again with the same limitation as mentioned above regarding the Moon. Thus, in the further course of its development, that Sun of the past expelled all the essential elements, forces, and substances of today’s Earth and Moon from itself, and thereby transformed from a planet into a fixed star. Our Earth, too, will one day become a Sun when it has transformed all its beings into beings of light.

[ 33 ] So our Earth was once the Moon, and the Moon was once the Sun. And then humankind can look back on yet another stage of development, which in occultism is referred to as the Saturn stage. Thus, we must distinguish between the previous stages of our Earth’s development: the Saturn, Sun, and Moon stages, as well as the Earth stage; and in the future, the following will follow: the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan stages.

[ 34 ] Now, someone might say: You’re telling us that the Earth used to be Saturn, but Saturn is still in the sky today, isn’t it? — But the Saturn that used to be our Earth has nothing to do with the celestial body that stands in the sky today as Saturn. This is not to say that the beings who are here on Earth today were once on Saturn, which stands up there in the sky. Today’s Saturn has something to do with the Saturn of that time only in the same way that the Moon has been described in relation to the Moon’s earlier state. What appears as today’s Saturn has, since that distant time, undergone its own further development, and the earlier Saturn relates to today’s Saturn much as a baby relates to an old man. Today’s Saturn was once in a state similar to that of the earlier Saturn, just as an old man was once a baby. The same is true of the Sun and the other celestial bodies. And when the spiritual researcher looks at Jupiter today, he finds on Jupiter states and beings such as the Earth will one day possess when it itself has become Jupiter.

[ 35 ] This teaching originates from the earliest initiates, and time and again the initiates have impressed upon their students the importance of this development.

[ 36 ] Now, in those parts where it can be traced back to the earliest times, our language was created by the Initiates. I cannot go into detail about this in an introductory series like this, because it would lead us too far away from the topic. But it was precisely in ancient times, when the initiates still determined the formation of language, that language was something different. Today, for example, people tend to look for a name that may not yet have been taken, but which lacks any deeper meaning. In the past, however, naming was done with deep meaning, arising from inner circumstances. Thus, the intention was to erect a kind of monument as a memorial to the course of Earth’s development through all these time periods and planetary states. A timeline was created, so to speak, so that humanity might always remember these phases of time. But if we are to understand this timeline, we must know something else as well.

[ 37 ] From the sketch above, you can see that this Earth, before its existence as Earth, went through a Saturn, Sun, and Moon phase. However, before the Earth became the Earth as we know it today—that is, during the transition from its lunar existence to its present earthly existence—it was under the strong influence of another celestial body, namely Mars. It was precisely at the beginning of the Earth’s development that this very important influence from Mars, which was of immense significance for the Earth’s further development, took place. Incidentally, on this occasion the Earth received iron from Mars, which had not previously been present in the Earth’s substance. Thus, in its first phase of development, the Earth was influenced by Mars, and in the second half—that is, now—it came under the stronger influence of Mercury. This is why occultism dispenses with the term “Earth” and divides the Earth’s states into two halves: the first, the Mars half, and the second, the Mercury half. Consequently, the previous scheme changes as follows: the Saturn state, the Sun state, the Moon state, the Mars-Mercury state, the Jupiter state, the Venus state, and the Vulcan state.

[ 38 ] This would make the volcanic state the eighth, and it plays the same role in evolution as the octave does in music. Just as the octave represents, so to speak, a repetition of the first note—only in a higher register—so, too, is the volcanic state a repetition of the Saturnian state, only in a higher stage of development. The entire cosmos has developed out of the spiritual, and with the volcanic state, everything has once again unfolded toward the spiritual—only in a higher and more diverse form of development. From a single spiritual essence, an infinite number of spiritual beings have come into being, just as from the seed that the farmer sows in the earth, the same grains develop in manifold variety within the ripe ear of grain in the fall. All that is transitory is merely a parable.

[ 39 ] The ancient initiates incorporated all seven of these names into the monumental symbol I just mentioned—a symbol that serves as a reminder of the Earth’s evolutionary process—and which is given to us in the names of the seven days of the week:

Saturday: Saturday, Samstag
Sunday
Moon Day
Mars Day: Mardi, Mars, Ziu, Dius, Dienstag
Mercury Day: Mercredi, Merkur, Wodan, Wednesday
Jupiter Day: Giovedi, Donar, Thursday
Venus Day: Vendredi, Venus, Freia, Friday

[ 40 ] The names of the days of the week do indeed preserve a monument to the seven stages of our Earth’s evolution. Thus, we find clues to profound spiritual connections in what appear to be everyday occurrences.

[ 41 ] And now you must consider that the entire development of humankind is also most intimately connected with this planetary development. Indeed, the entire development of humankind can only be understood in light of planetary development. Every aspect of the human being is most intimately connected to one of these planetary phases of Earth’s development, insofar as during each of these phases one aspect of the human being was formed. Thus, the physical body was formed during the Saturn era, the etheric body during the Solar era, the astral body during the Lunar phase, and the “I” became integrated into the human being only during the Earth phase. That is why the physical body is also the most fully developed aspect to date, while the etheric body is only in the third stage of development, since it was first formed on the ancient Sun; the astral body is only in the second stage, since it was first formed during the Lunar phase; and the “I” is the baby among the human constituents, for it is only at the beginning of its development during the present Earth phase.

[ 42 ] We can readily find evidence for what has just been said if we take a look at the four aspects of human nature in terms of their development.

[ 43 ] In the early years of the Theosophical Society, much discussion centered on the terms “higher” and “lower” bodies, with the physical body being designated as the lowest; and this was very often associated with the concept of value. And people were all too often inclined to regard the physical body as the least valuable—indeed, to despise it. But that is entirely wrong.

[ 44 ] Take a close look at this marvelous structure of the physical body; you will then readily see that it stands at an immensely high level of perfection, whereas this is by no means the case with the etheric body, for example. When you look at the physical body through the eyes of wisdom, you will see a marvel of construction in every organ of this physical body—in the heart, in the bones, and so on. Just consider for a moment the wise structure of the heart and reflect on the work this relatively small organ performs every day and every hour. Compare this with the still relatively underdeveloped state of the astral body today: how unrefined passions still stir within this astral body every day; how, among other things, human beings still feel a daily longing for pleasures whose gratification positively abuses this marvelous structure of the heart—and yet the heart is capable of paralyzing all these astral damages without breaking apart, indeed often without suffering any harm at all. Today, therefore, the astral body is not yet as highly developed as the physical body; today, the physical body is the most perfect member. In the future, however, the astral body will be so advanced that it will surpass the physical body. The etheric body is less developed today than the physical body, and the astral body ranks only third. And the youngest of the members of the human being is the “I”; it will therefore be the last to reach perfection.

[ 45 ] So everything in the physical body that is truly physical is the very oldest. Our physical body had already undergone a process of development before an etheric body was incorporated into it. And this development, which the physical body underwent solely as a physical body, is the Saturn phase. At that time, the initial constitution of this physical body was merely a physical apparatus. This then developed further, and it was not until the Sun stage that the etheric body was integrated into this physical body. This etheric body, so to speak, filled out this physical body and transformed it in a certain sense. During the Lunar stage, the astral body was integrated, and the I did not appear at all until the beginning of our present Earth stage. Today, the human being stands as a fourfold being. During the Lunar stage, he consisted of a physical, etheric, and astral body; during the Solar stage, of a physical and etheric body; and during the Saturn stage, of the physical body alone. The physical body thus has four stages of development, the etheric body three, the astral body two, and the “I” the first stage. For this reason, the physical body is also the most perfect member, precisely because work on it has continued the longest.

[ 46 ] This shows how the individual aspects of the human being are connected to the evolution of the entire planetary system. And that is why you will also find the term in ancient occult books

for the physical body: the Saturn body
for the etheric body: the Solar body
for the astral body: the Lunar body
for the “I”: the Earth body, as the actual
Earth element of the human being.

[ 47 ] Tomorrow we will examine the structure and the entire life of Saturn, and then move on to the Sun and the Moon. We will then see how human beings have become more and more perfected, up to the present state.