The Rudolf Steiner Archive

18. Occultism and Esotericism

[ 1 ] As we know, human beings in their totality are not simple beings, but beings composed of four parts or principles.

[ 2 ] The physical body is the oldest part of our being, the one that came into being first. The etheric body is of a more recent origin, the astral body is even younger, and the youngest of all is the principle that bears the power of the “I.” When we observe the physical body with the eye of the spirit, it must appear to us as if it were constructed with infinite wisdom. (The speaker uses a joint and then the human heart as examples.) This perfectly formed physical heart is exposed to the attacks that the impetuous astral body, driven by passions, directs at it every day. Later, the astral body and finally the “I”—the baby among the human principles—will also attain greater perfection.

[ 3 ] To trace the development of the self, we must consider the development of the Earth, of which humanity is an essence. All beings have undergone various forms of embodiment, even if they cannot be called “incarnations” in the same sense as they are for humans.

[ 4 ] Our Earth emerged from what we call the “old Moon” in occultism. This was the predecessor of our Earth. We can go back even further, and we then find the [previous] stage of our Earth’s evolution embodied in what we call the Sun in occultism: a completely different entity than our present fixed star, the Sun. A fixed star also emerges from an evolutionary process; every fixed star was once a planet. At that time, our Earth was inside [the Sun] and formed a single whole with it.

[ 5 ] Even earlier, the Earth was embodied in the ancient Saturn, which, again, has nothing to do with the planet currently called Saturn. In a certain sense, the latter relates to the ancient Saturn as a ten-year-old child relates to a forty-year-old person, who may well have been ten years old at one time but did not grow out of being that very child. In occultism, we speak of Saturn in this way, just as we always speak in relative terms.

[ 6 ] So we have four states of configuration: the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth states. In a similar way, one can also foresee future states.

[ 7 ] The Saturn state is also called the first planetary chain; the Sun state is the second planetary chain, the Moon state the third, and so on. What is referred to as a planetary chain thus appears to us as a phase in the development of our Earth.

[ 8 ] The first foundation of the human physical body was laid during the Saturn stage. At that time, nothing else existed besides this physical body; the other bodies of the human being did not yet exist. But this physical body cannot really be compared to what we now call that.

[ 9 ] In occultism, we distinguish four states of becoming: the densest state (earth), the liquid state (water), the gaseous state (air), and the state of heat (fire), which science no longer recognizes as matter.

[ 10 ] The ancient Saturn state, however, has no earthly, no watery, and no airy forms, but only fire. Differentiations within the heat-matter were the very first foundations for the human body. This is possible only because, at that time, the higher bodies had not yet descended from the spiritual atmosphere of ancient Saturn into the physical body.

[ 11 ] If a person wants a point of comparison to imagine such an initial body, let them look at another human being. Just as one sees something like a reflection of oneself in another person’s eye, so our very first physical body was not even remotely a likeness of it, but rather a reflection cast into the thermal matter by the higher bodies—Atma, Budhi, and Manas.

[ 12 ] The initial images were now, so to speak, kindled and scattered throughout space. Following a state of pralaya, the ancient solar state emerged from the ancient Saturnian state. Here, the second member of the human being was formed: the etheric body. Through this, we underwent the second stage of development of our physical body at that time—the first stage of the development of the etheric body.

[ 13 ] On the ancient Sun, human beings led a kind of plant-like existence. Now, as with any evolutionary process, there were also beings on the ancient planetary Sun who were not advanced enough in their evolution to receive an etheric body. Thus, a kind of mineral kingdom developed alongside the plant-like existence of the human beings. We can imagine the human forms on the ancient Sun as a mirage in our atmosphere. From the substance of heat, these images manifested themselves in forms of air. Then, following a Pralaya state, we come to the ancient Moon state. Here, the astral body is added to the human being. Matter condenses to such an extent that it enters a watery state. Thus, in truth, we are born in fire, guided through the air, and pass through the water, in which we received the astral body. What we call our “I” is then still contained within the spiritual atmosphere of the Moon.

[ 14 ] To distinguish the state of beings in which the individual self is active from beings that do not possess the capacity to manifest their individuality outwardly, the speaker makes use of the occult terms: “sounding®” and “non-sounding (silent)” beings. Those who have a sound to express their individual suffering and joy possess something more than the soundless or mute animals. The human being in the lunar stage did not yet possess an individual sound, nor a sense of self.

[ 15 ] In the state of the old moon, we now find two other kingdoms that are even further behind in their development: a plant kingdom and a mineral kingdom alongside the human kingdom.

[ 16 ] Now, human beings are beings situated between higher and lower beings. The higher beings, too, undergo a process of development at the same time as human beings and are, in a certain sense, connected to human development. Certain entities, connected to us through the preceding processes, required a faster rate of development than human beings could keep up with. As a result, a significant stage now arose in the development of this incarnation of the Earth: it split into two parts. Alongside the old Moon, a Sun arose—a body that possesses the potential to become a fixed star. But this gave rise to a state of greater solidity within the Moon’s body: a second stage in the Moon’s existence. And with this, all three kingdoms on the old Moon undergo a process of densification. A state arises, not unlike protein—the “protoplasm.” And the protein substance can now be further condensed. The essence of the old moon itself is now composed of a peculiar kind of semi-living matter. There was no actual formation of rock masses; there was only substance like the pith of a tree, the soft wood. And within this state, a plant kingdom of a kind emerged that stood between the present animal and plant kingdoms—a kind of sentient plant that sprouted from the semi-living soil.

[ 17 ] We still find certain beings from the old lunar stage on Earth today: mistletoe, which can only live on the living substance of other beings (trees), not on ordinary soil, which is dead to it. That is why, for the occultist and the clairvoyant, mistletoe is the symbol of beings who were unable to keep pace with the old lunar state, but also of the great perspectives that lie beyond our current stage of development. A great deal of knowledge is often hidden in ancient myths and traditions.

[ 18 ] The Old Moon is called the planet or cosmos of wisdom; the Earth, the planet or cosmos of love. Each planetary chain has its own goal, its own special purpose: Ancient wisdom is developed on the lunar chain, just as it is the Earth’s mission to instill love in all beings.

[ 19 ] Now the development continues: The “I,” the fourth element of the human being, must be added. But a being can only have love if it is not dictated from above, but rather when one “I” stands face to face with another.

[ 20 ] Much was also left behind on the old Moon, and so we still find much that is “loveless” on Earth as well. But let us bear in mind that we, too, have reached only a certain stage in our development of love. The ideal of which we so often speak—of a human being founded on love—this ideal is taken directly from the Earth’s cosmic destiny. Thus, we have recognized in the human being his four bodies or principles. And we have also discovered how three other realms exist alongside his own. And in the Earth period, too, what happened in the Moon period occurs: The Sun separates itself, with its faster evolution, from higher beings.

[ 21 ] The beings who remained on Earth—a spiritual entity that had emerged from the ancient Moon—now possessed the predisposition toward the true “I.” On the Moon, there was an evolution of beings who could not keep pace with human evolution and proceeded at a slower rate. Earth’s evolution thus proceeded at a pace that lies between that of the Sun and the Moon. The separation of the Moon from the Earth corresponds to the Lemurian period. From that point on, humankind began its present-day development.

[ 22 ] As always, some beings once again lagged behind in evolution. But there were also beings whose evolution had to proceed more rapidly than that of humans, even though they were unable to keep pace with the evolution of the Sun. These beings took up residence on the planet Venus, which is closer to the Sun than Earth, and on Mercury, which is even closer to the Sun. The separation of Mars, Jupiter, and so on was due to similar reasons.

[ 23 ] When human beings first appear on Earth, they must go through the entire process again, and the first thing that is formed is a very imperfect physical body. Looking back at the process of evolution, the lower animal forms are humanity’s less-developed brothers. They indicate stages of earlier human development, so that animals are direct descendants of humans, and not the other way around.

[ 24 ] Only higher beings could provide humanity with the impetus to develop higher qualities. Thus, higher beings—inhabitants of Venus (also known as Luciferic entities)—incarnated among us to give humanity the initial impetus to develop the “I”—through love. For the most advanced human beings, even higher beings offered their help: the inhabitants of Mercury, who were the teachers of the mysteries.

[ 25 ] Thus, the development of the individual human being is intertwined with the development of the cosmos out there. In cosmic evolution, we learn to see the structure of human development. The purpose of the cosmic evolution of our Earth is to bring love into harmony with the legacy of the old Moon—wisdom.

[ 26 ] Through the harmony between cosmic evolution and human evolution, we come to understand the great problem of life.