The Rudolf Steiner Archive

3. The Origin of the World and Mankind

[ 1 ] If we wish to consider the origin of the world and of humankind from a theosophical standpoint, we must distinguish between three aspects. Human beings are distinguished by their physical, soul, and spiritual natures. The spirit is the most imperishable, but also that which appears very first in our earthly existence—that which is the oldest and has the longest future, that which existed before the soul’s existence and will remain even when no soul exists anymore—the truly universal aspect of the human being.

[ 2 ] As a spirit, the human being can take on a wide variety of forms on the various celestial bodies. This spirit originated from states that we cannot take into account today.

[ 3 ] When we go back, we always arrive at new stages of existence, but never at a true beginning. Let us consider the states we call our states of consciousness.

[ 4 ] Today we live in a state of bright, clear daytime consciousness. This consciousness, which people today call “normal consciousness,” has emerged from three earlier states of consciousness.

[ 5 ] The first state of consciousness is a dull one, which could be compared to the dull consciousness possessed today by a lifeless mineral. This deep trance state can be induced artificially, in which a person sinks deep into it and knows nothing at all, no longer aware of their surroundings. Then they begin to speak of vast cosmic systems and to draw them—systems of which they know nothing at all while awake. This is what human beings went through long ago: the deep trance or mineral state.

[ 6 ] This is followed by another deep sleep, without dreams. In this state, the clairvoyant also gains a form of consciousness: the consciousness of continuity. Then he perceives the spiritual world around him. In the very distant past, humankind experienced this dawning consciousness.

[ 7 ] The third state of consciousness is the dream state; it is filled with images; it is already a relatively high state of consciousness, and it preceded our present one. It can be compared to our current dream sleep. In our dreams, we perceive things from the external world, but not with our waking senses; rather, symbolically, as it were. Images arise within us, triggered by things in the external world. For example, while sleeping, we might brush against a sharp corner and dream that someone is stabbing us in the hand with a sharp instrument. It is a visual consciousness, an atavism. — This state was once a stage that human beings went through.

[ 8 ] Next comes the bright, clear consciousness of the waking day—the state in which human beings find themselves today. In the course of further development, three additional states follow, which are already being cultivated today in esoteric schools by practicing clairvoyants: psychic consciousness; a subsequent hyperpsychic state—continuity consciousness; and finally, the seventh state: spiritual consciousness, and with it, a view of the entire world system.

[ 9 ] Human beings thus pass through seven states of consciousness; this is the spiritual evolution, the stages through which the soul passes. Each such stage unfolds in a very specific, self-contained manner; theosophists refer to each of these states of consciousness as a “manvantara.” Between each stage lies a great interval of rest, called Pralaya; the state itself is called Manvantara.

[ 10 ] The Theosophist designates the seven planets on which human beings pass through various states with names that should not be confused with the names of today’s planets. Astronomers have taken the names of today’s planets from Theosophy, since Theosophy is much older than astronomy.

[ 11 ] The first planet on which the soul evolved was Saturn, the second was the Sun, the third was the Moon, and the fourth was Earth. These four planets correspond to the four states of human consciousness. On Saturn, the soul was in a state of deep trance; on the Sun, in a state of deep, dreamless sleep; on the Moon, in a state of dream sleep. According to theosophy, earthly existence consists of two parts, each designated by a different name; the parts of earthly existence form a chain, the first half of which is called Mars, and the second half, Mercury.

[ 12 ] The next planet on which humankind will exist in a state of psychic consciousness is Jupiter; the next is Venus; the last of the seven planets has not yet been named. The ancient sages recorded this sequence of the seven planets in the seven days of the week for anyone who can read it. The names of the seven days of the week are symbolic expressions of the seven states of the human soul. The first day of the week used to be Saturday—Saturn’s day—among the ancients and is still so today among the Semitic peoples; the second: Sunday, named after the second planet, the Sun; the third: Monday, named after the Moon. The Earth is composed of Mars and Mercury: Mars Day, or Tuesday; and Wednesday: Mercury Day—the German name for Mercury [is Wotan, hence] Wotan Day; in English: Wednesday; in French: Mercredi. Next comes Jupiter Day, Jeudi; in German, named after the god Donnar, Thursday; and finally: Friday, Venus Day, Vendredi, named after the German name for Venus: Freya.

[ 13 ] Now the soul becomes embodied. On the Moon, it was in a state of image-consciousness, which is similar to today’s dream-consciousness; yet the dream does not reach the level of the most highly developed image-consciousness. This consciousness had already once taken on a physical form at a certain stage of animality—not that of today’s animals, but not yet human either, an intermediate stage that, for example, still lacked the forebrain. Then all that was physical disappeared and was reconstituted after a pralaya, and now we come to the state that developed on our Earth. Now we have a spiritual human being who is capable of developing images from within his own consciousness. In every new state, the earlier states must first be briefly repeated; this is called cycles. On Earth, therefore, the states of Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon must be repeated; then the human being begins to ascend to the present state of consciousness. But he cannot do this immediately.

[ 14 ] We do not find the Earth at that time as we do today, with its solid crust, but rather in a very fine form of matter. According to theosophical doctrine, there are four ethers above the liquid and gaseous states that become increasingly refined: the first, which follows the gaseous state, is the ether of heat; [then] the ether of light, the chemical ether, and finally, the most refined of all, the ether of life. Each denser state arises when a less dense one condenses.

[ 15 ] When the soul first set foot on Earth, it was in the thinnest form of matter. This material substance is a very fine, malleable, and pliable matter. Now the soul arrives with its already acquired ability to form images. From this fine matter, the human being forms shapes that are still quite different from its present-day etheric body. These are representations of soul life—experiences the soul has had up to that point. The soul can fully master this finest substance.

[ 16 ] There is now only this one being on Earth; there are still no minerals, no plants, and no animals. Man is the firstborn on Earth. The entire Earth, as it is today, is merely a conglomeration of these human beings. [At that time] there were only uniform beings; the Earth was composed of them much like a blackberry—they were merely souls formed of the finest matter. They needed no food; there was no reproduction; they multiplied by division. They were spheres that grew to a certain limit and then divided into two; these [parts] grew again, divided, and so on.

[ 17 ] In those ancient times, the Earth was still a very different body; it was united with the Sun and the Moon. These three formed a single body; it was only later that a separation took place. First came a great upheaval, a major cosmic event that also signified a great upheaval for humankind. The finest, creative force withdrew from the Earth and formed the Sun. With this separation, reproduction through division became impossible. From then on, one being is formed within another, only to be expelled. The substances gradually condensed, causing them to separate from the mass. Through this condensation, the matter was produced from which beings lower than humans are formed; certain animal species were cast out. Since the nobler matter had withdrawn into the Sun, it was no longer possible for souls to form bodies for themselves. Beings lower than humans came into being; the matter had become coarser. Humans either had to wither away or could develop further only at the expense of others; they had to expel the coarser matter—the animals—which were forced down into a lower existence; these were stunted, decadent humans. From this point on, only coarser matter was available. Everything is now becoming increasingly dense, and everything is becoming increasingly segmented; however, imprints from this time are still impossible, since everything was still very fine, soft matter.

[ 18 ] Later on, the plant kingdom also emerged in this way. Of course, new animal forms were still emerging at the same time, so that we now have on Earth a human kingdom, an animal kingdom, and a plant kingdom—all of which, however, were quite different in nature from the kingdoms we know today.

[ 19 ] Now the Earth is cooling more and more; increasingly solid, dense particles are entering the fine matter, and the Earth is, as it were, acquiring a solid skeletal framework; the mineral kingdom is forming, which is now gradually giving the Earth a solid crust. During this time, the Moon also separates from the Earth.

[ 20 ] With the moon’s separation, another great catastrophe befell the Earth and all beings living on it, as the thermal conditions changed completely. Until then, humans were cold-blooded beings—that is, they adapted to their environment through their own body heat, just as fish, amphibians, and so on still do today. Beings now begin to generate their own heat; organs develop, they take on new forms, and they become warm-blooded. The Earth is [at this point] in the era of Lemurian development. The first warm-blooded beings appear. Alongside this, great and momentous changes are taking place. Animals, plants, and minerals are changing; granite and the oldest rocks are forming. The previous forms of plants and animals must become extinct; everything takes on new forms, and all kingdoms are changing; only now are the human, animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms emerging. - Human beings are still very unlike modern humans; they have a fantastical form, still consisting of very soft matter that they could alter as needed—for example, making their hands longer or wider. They are not yet capable of thinking or calculating; they have no language or memory, but they possess an extraordinarily developed will.

[ 21 ] The body gradually becomes denser and harder, thereby separating the soul from the outside world; it is confined to an inner space. — Sensory perceptions, and with them the senses, develop; they cause the image-consciousness to gradually transform into today’s waking consciousness. The ability to see colors already existed. Now, human beings imbue what they see with color; visual consciousness becomes consciousness of truth; because it is still at a very low level, it still has the power, through the strongly developed will, to shape images into reality.

[ 22 ] It is very significant that humankind had not yet developed into male and female sexes; it was still a hermaphroditic being. The Bible describes this account of the creation of the earth and humankind in detail. God’s seven days of work represent the seven states. The correct translation of the Bible states the following about humankind: God created humankind male and female—not “a little man” and “a little woman,” as Luther erroneously translated. Only then did the sexes separate; not in the sense that beings of a different nature were formed, but rather that some people developed more toward the male side, and others more toward the female side.

[ 23 ] This marked the attainment of a significant stage in human development. As a result, humans lost the ability to direct outward a specific, productive force that they had previously possessed. The force that they had previously used solely for procreation was, as it were, halved; and the half that had been freed up was now used to develop the organs capable of fostering the higher powers within the human being. — Now the spirit penetrates the soul, and organs must be created to receive it. With the emergence of sexual differentiation, human beings acquired the senses through which the spirit—which until then had been able to act upon them only from the outside—could now enter them. Human beings now became aware of their spirit. Human beings could not yet speak; nor did they yet have memory, but they were already developing certain artistic skills. Their imagination was still steeped in the old pictorial consciousness. They had the ability to create grand, architectural forms that are completely incomprehensible to us today (arising from a consciousness similar to that by which beavers or ants construct their structures today). This was toward the end of the Lemurian epoch.

[ 24 ] Lemuria was a continent of which hardly any traces remain today, now covered by the Indian Ocean; some of the islands in the Indian Ocean constitute what remains of Lemuria. Remnants from a more recent era are still preserved on Easter Island—immense, gigantic structures that are now incomprehensible and impossible to replicate with today’s rational mind. Canal systems, such as Lake Moeris, which cannot be created or replicated today, were built out of a tremendous intuition, born of a completely different mental image.

[ 25 ] Lemuria was destroyed by volcanic eruptions; and there is no trace of it left because the matter was still far too thin and soft; the human physical form was still not solid; it could be altered as needed; the will still determined the form. A portion—the most highly developed portion—of these humans was rescued during the downfall of Lemuria and brought to Atlantis, a newly forming continent that is now mostly covered by the Atlantic Ocean.

[ 26 ] Now language and memory began to develop; the two necessarily had to develop together, since one is not really possible without the other. However, the logical mind had not yet developed

[ 27 ] did not yet exist, nor could people yet count or do arithmetic. — The Atlanteans are now going through the following stages of development: The seven races emerged one after another:

1. Rmoahals
2. Tlavatli
3. Tolteken
4. Turanians
5. Ursemites
6. Akkadians
7. Mongols

[ 28 ] The first four races still had very little memory, and as a result, other powers were still active within them: They were able to control the life force in a very special way.

[ 29 ] Today we derive the power that drives our machines and so on from coal; it is a fossilized, lifeless power. The Atlanteans were still able to use the living power, the germinative force. From accumulated fruits, they used the power of the seed to propel their ship-like vehicles through the air. This was the case with the Toltec race.

[ 30 ] Counting began in the fifth race, among the Proto-Semites, when logical reasoning came to the fore. The actual Atlantean civilization was destroyed by a flood, and almost nothing of it has survived. Plato’s Poseidonis is the last remnant of it. Memories of this Atlantean flood can be found among all peoples of the earth in the many flood myths. Then, from the Atlantean population, our present-day population emerged, which we call the Aryan race; it, too, has seven subraces and begins with the ancient Indian people, who were highly developed spiritually; second: Persians; third: Semites, the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians; fourth: later Greeks and Romans; fifth: Germanic peoples, Anglo-Saxon peoples.