Theosophy of the Rosicrucian
GA 99
2 June 1907, Munich
Translated by Mabel Cotterell and Dorothy S. Osmond
IX. Planetary Evolution I
We shall most easily understand the progress of humanity through the three incarnations, Saturn, Sun, and Moon, preceding the Earth, if we add a further survey of man in sleep, in dream.
When man is asleep the seer beholds the astral body with the ego enveloped in it as though floating over the physical body. The astral body is then outside the physical and etheric bodies, but remains connected with them. It sends threads, as it were, or rather currents into the universal cosmic body, and seems partly embedded in it. Thus in the sleeping man we have the physical, the etheric and the astral body, but this last sends out tentacles towards the great astral universe.
If we picture this condition as an enduring one, if here on the physical plane there were only human beings who had the physical body interpenetrated with the etheric body, while above hovered over them an astral soul with the ego, then we should have the condition in which mankind existed on the Moon. Except that on the Moon the astral body was not strongly separated from the physical body; it sank down into the physical body just as strongly as it expanded into the cosmos.
But if you picture a state of sleep where no dream ever comes then you have the condition in which humanity existed on the Sun. And if you now imagine that the human being has died, that even his etheric body is outside him, united to the astral body and ego, but yet that the link is not quite dissolved, so that what is outside, embedded in the whole surrounding cosmos, sends down its rays and works upon the physical substance—you then have the condition in which mankind existed on Saturn.
Below on the cosmic globe of Saturn there was only what we have in our purely physical body; it was surrounded, so to speak, by an etheric astral atmosphere, in which the egos were embedded.
Human beings were already actually in existence on Saturn but in a dull, dull consciousness. These souls had the task of maintaining in an active and mobile state something that belonged to them down below. They worked from above on their physical body, like a snail fashioning its shell; they acted from outside, just like an instrument, on the bodily organs. We will describe the appearance of that on which the souls above were working; we must give some little description of this physical Saturn, of Saturn in general.
I have already said that the part of the physical body elaborated then was the foundation of the sense organs. The souls outside worked upon the Saturn surface, upon what lived in man as rudiments of the senses. They were actually in the cosmic space surrounding Saturn below were their workshops, there they worked out the types for eyes and ears and for the other sense organs.
Now what was the fundamental quality of this Saturn-mass? It is hard to characterise, for we have scarcely a word in our language which is suitable; our words are quite materialistic, they are only adapted to the physical plane. There is one word however, that can express the delicate work that was carried out there. One can denote it with the expression: Reflection. The Saturn globe in all its parts had the quality of reflecting everything, such as light, tone, perfume, taste, that reached it from without; all was thrown back again; one perceived it in cosmic space as a reflection in the mirror of Saturn. One can only compare it with the effect of looking into the eye of our neighbour, when our own picture looks out from it towards us.
Thus all the human souls were aware of themselves, but not only as a picture in colour they perceived themselves in taste, in scent, in a definite feeling of warmth. Saturn was thus a reflecting planet. The human beings living in the atmosphere threw their essence and being into it and out of the pictures that then arose, the rudiments of the sense organs began to take form, for they were pictures that worked creatively.
Imagine yourself standing before a mirror from which your own figure confronts you, and that this figure begins to create, is not a dead form as in our modern lifeless mirror. There you have the creative activity of Saturn, there you have the kind of way the human beings lived on Saturn and accomplished their work.
This took place below on the Saturn globe; up above, the souls were in the deep trance consciousness of which I spoke yesterday. They knew nothing of this mirroring, they only occasioned it. In this dull trance consciousness they had within them the entire cosmic All, and thus the whole cosmic All was mirrored from their being. They themselves, however, were embedded in a basic substance of a spiritual nature, they were not independent but were only a part of the spirituality surrounding Saturn. They could not therefore have a spiritual perception, higher spirits perceived by means of them, they were the organs of perception for other spirits.
A whole number of higher spirits were in the surroundings of Saturn; all those whom Christian esotericism has called Divine Messengers, Angels, Archangels, Primal Forces, Powers of Revelation. All these were contained in the Saturn atmosphere. Just as the hand belongs to the organism so did the souls belong to these Beings, and just as little as the hand has an independent consciousness, so little had they at that time a consciousness of their own. They worked out of the consciousness of higher Beings, the consciousness of a higher world; they thus fashioned the forms of their sense organs, which then became creative, and they also moulded the Saturn substance. You must not think of this substance of Saturn as being as dense as the present human flesh. The densest condition that it could attain at all was not as dense as our present physical air. Saturn became physical, but only reached the density of fire, of warmth, the warmth in which our modern Physics no longer admits any matter to exist. Warmth, however, for the occultist is a finer substance than gas it has the characteristic of continuous expansion. And since Saturn consisted of this substance it had the power of spreading from within outwards, of raying out everything, of reflecting. Such a body radiates everything; it has no need to keep it all within itself.
Saturn was not a uniform substance but of such a composition that one could have perceived a differentiation, a configuration. Later the organs became rounded into cell-like balls, only that cells are small and those were large—as if you took a mulberry or blackberry. You could not as yet have seen on Saturn, for the reflecting process threw all light that came from outside back again. Within this Saturn mass all was dark, only towards the end of its evolution was it somewhat illumined. A number of beings were present in the surrounding atmosphere of Saturn; not only you yourselves were active on your sense organs. For the soul of man was not yet so far developed as to be able to work alone, you worked in conjunction with other spiritual beings, under their guidance, so to speak.
Certain beings worked on Saturn as independently as modern man; they stood then at the human level. They could not be formed like modern man, for warmth was the only substance of Saturn. In respect of their intelligence, their ego-consciousness, however, they stood at the level of present man though they could form no physical body, no brain. Let us observe them somewhat closer. The present-day human being consists of four members: Physical body, Etheric body, Astral body and the Ego, and, prefigured in the ego, Spirit-Self, Life-Spirit and Spirit-Man (Manas, Budhi, Atma). The lowest, although of its kind the most perfect member on the Earth planet, is the physical body.
The next higher is the etheric body, then the astral body and the ego. Now there are also beings who have no physical body, whose lowest member is the etheric body. They have no need of the physical body in order to occupy themselves in our sense world; in compensation they have a member which is higher than our seventh.
Others have the astral body as their lowest member and in compensation a ninth, and again others who have our ego as lowest member, have in compensation a tenth member. When we consider the beings who have the ego as lowest member we must say that they consist of:
- Ego
- Spirit-Self
- Life-Spirit
- Spirit-Man.
Then come the eighth, ninth and tenth members, that which Christian esotericism calls the Divine Trinity:
- Holy Spirit
- Son or Word
- Father.
In theosophical literature one is accustomed to call these the three Logoi.
These beings, whose lowest member is the ego, are those who come into special consideration for us in the Saturn evolution. They were at the stage where humanity stands today. They could exercise their ego under the quite different conditions that I have described. They were the human beings of Saturn and the ancestors of our present humanity.
They irradiated the surface of Saturn with their ego-hood, their external nature, they were the implanters of ego-hood in the physical corporeality that was forming on the surface of Saturn.
Thus they made it their care that the physical body was prepared in such a way that it could later become the bearer of the ego. Only such a physical body as you have today, with feet, hands and head and the sense organs incorporated in it could be ego-bearer on the fourth stage, the Earth. To this end the nucleus of it had to be already implanted on Saturn. One also calls these ego-beings of Saturn, Spirits of Egoism. *[Later called by Dr. Steiner, Spirits of Personality.]
Egoism has a two-fold character; it is excellent and desirable or obnoxious and evil. If at that time on Saturn and on the succeeding planets the essential nature of egoism had not been again and again implanted, man would never have become an independent being who can say “I” to himself. Into your bodily nature there has been instilled ever since Saturn the sum of forces which stamps you as an independent being, cutting you off from all other beings. To this end had the Spirits of Egoism, the Asuras, to work.
Among them are to be found two kinds, apart from slight deviations. The one kind has elaborated egoism in a noble, self-reliant way, and has risen higher and higher in the perfection of the sense of freedom: that is the rightful independence of egoism. These spirits have guided mankind through all the successive planets; they have become the educators of men towards independence.
Now on each planet there are also Spirits who have remained behind in evolution, they have remained stationary and not wished to progress. You will recognise a law from this: If the most outstanding fall and commit the “great sin” of not advancing with evolution, then they become the very worst of all.
The noble sense of liberty has been reversed into wickedness, into its opposite. Those are the Spirits of Temptation, and they must be taken gravely into account; they lead to the evil side of egoism, even today they are still in our environment, these evil Spirits of Saturn. All that is bad draws its power from these Spirits.
When each planet has completed its evolution and becomes spiritual again, it is, so to speak, no longer in existence. It passes over into a condition of sleep in order to come forth once more. So too was it with Saturn. Its next incarnation is the Sun, a Sun which you would obtain if you were to mix together as in a cauldron all that is on the sun, the moon and the earth, together with all the terrestrial and spiritual beings. The Sun evolution is distinguished by the fact that the etheric body drew into the prepared physical body below. The Sun has a denser substantiality than Saturn, it is to be compared with the density of the present air. The human physical substance, your own body which you formed for yourselves, is to be seen on the Sun interpenetrated by the etheric body. You yourselves belonged to a body of air, as on Saturn to a body of warmth. Your etheric body was already down below, but your astral body with your ego was enveloped in the great general astral body of the Sun. And there you worked down into the physical and etheric bodies, just as today in sleep when your astral body is outside it works upon the physical and the etheric body. At that time you were elaborating the first rudiments of all that today are organs of growth, metabolism and reproduction. You were transforming the elements of the sense organs from Saturn, some of which maintained their character, while others were transformed into glands and organs of growth.
All organs of growth and organs of reproduction are sense organs taken hold of by the etheric body and transformed. When you compare the body of the Sun with Saturn you find a certain difference. Saturn was stiff like a reflecting surface, it rayed back everything that it received of taste, smell and all sense-perceptions. This was not so in the Sun. Whereas Saturn rayed back everything direct, without taking possession of it, the Sun permeated itself with it, and then rayed it back; being able to do so by virtue of having an etheric body. Its body, penetrated by an etheric body, did as the plant does today with the sunlight. The plant takes up the sunlight, permeates itself with it and then gives it back again. If it is put in some dark place, it loses its colour and languishes. There would be no green colouring matter without light. So it was with your own body on the Sun, it permeated itself with light and with other ingredients too, and as the plant sends back the light after having drawn strength from it, so did the Sun once upon a time ray back the light after having worked it over inwardly. But it not only permeated itself with the light, but with taste, scent, warmth, everything, and radiated it out again.
Hence your own body too was at the stage of the plant on the Sun. It had not the appearance of a plant in the modern sense, for this has only been formed on the Earth. What you bear within you as glands, organs of growth and reproduction, were upon the Sun as mountains and rocks are upon the Earth today. You worked upon them as one nowadays tends and cultivates a little garden. The Sun radiated back the ingredients of cosmic space, it shone in the loveliest colours, a wonderful tone rang forth, an exquisite aroma streamed out from it. The ancient Sun was a wonderful being in cosmic space. Thus at that time on the Sun men worked at their own substance like certain creatures, corals for instance, work from outside on their structure. This took place under the guidance of higher beings, for there were higher beings in the Sun's atmosphere.
We must concern ourselves with one special category who then stood at the level reached by men today. On Saturn we have the Spirits of Egoism who implanted the sense of freedom and self-reliance and stood at the human level. On the Sun it was other beings, who had as lowest member, not the ego but the astral body. They possessed astral body, ego, Spirit Self, Life Spirit and Spirit Man and the eighth member, named in Christian Esotericism “Holy Spirit,” and finally the ninth member, the Son, “the Word” in the sense of St. John's Gospel. They had not as yet the tenth member and instead of this they had a lower member, the astral body. These were the Spirits who were active on the Sun, they guided all astral activity. They differ from modern man inasmuch as man breathes air, since air is in the earthly environment; these Spirits, however, breathed warmth or fire.
The Sun was itself a kind of being of air, surrounded by that substance which had previously formed Saturn-fire, warmth. The part that had densified had formed the gaseous Sun, and what had not densified was a surging sea of fire. These beings could live on the Sun and inhale and exhale warmth, fire; they were therefore called the Spirits of Fire. They stood at the human level on the Sun and they worked in the service of humanity. One calls them Sun Spirits or Fire Spirits. Man at that time was at the stage of sleep-consciousness, the Sun-Fire Spirits had already the ego consciousness. Since then they too have developed further and ascended to higher degrees of consciousness. One calls them in Christian Esotericism Archangels. And the highest evolved Spirit Who was on the Sun as Fire Spirit, Who today is still active upon the Earth, with very highly evolved consciousness, this Sun or Fire Spirit is the Christ. In the same way the most evolved Saturn Spirit is the Father God.
Christian Esotericism knows that there was incarnated in the body of flesh and blood of Christ-Jesus precisely such a Sun-Fire Spirit, and indeed the highest, the Regent of the Sun Spirits. That He might come on to the Earth He had to make use of a physical body, He had to live under the same earthly conditions as man, in order to be able to manifest here.
Thus on the Sun we are concerned with a Sun-body, as it were, a body of the Sun planet with Ego-Spirits, who are Fire Spirits, and with a Regent of the Sun, the most highly evolved, the Christ. While the Earth was the Sun, this Spirit was the central Spirit of the Sun; when the Earth was Moon, He was more highly developed, but He remained with the Moon; when the Earth was Earth, He was very highly developed and remained with the Earth. He forms thus the highest planetary Spirit of the Earth. The Earth today is His Body as at that time the Sun was. Therefore you must take St. John's words literally, “Whoever eats my bread, treads me under foot.” For the Earth is the Body of Christ. And when men who eat bread, taken from the body of the earth, walk upon the earth, then they tread under foot the Body of Christ. Take these words quite literally, as all religious documents must be taken. Only one must first know the true meaning of the letters and then seek for the spirit.
One thing more. Not all beings within this Sun-mass came to the stage of evolution of which I have spoken to you. Many stayed behind at the stage of the Saturn existence. They could not receive into themselves what streamed in from cosmic space and send it back after receiving it; they had to send it back direct, they could not permeate themselves with it. These beings therefore appeared on the Sun as a kind of dark intermixture, as something that could not send out its own light. Since they were enclosed in the Sun-mass surrounded by a mass sending out its own light, they worked as dark places. We must therefore distinguish between those places in the Sun which radiated out into cosmic space what they had received, and those which could radiate out nothing. Thus they worked as dark wedges within the Sun-mass, they had learnt nothing in addition to what they had on Saturn. Just as in the human body you do not find glands and organs of growth everywhere, but the body is interspersed with dead parts which have been incorporated, so was the Sun interspersed with these dark wedges.
Our present sun is the descendant of the Earth-Sun-body; it has cast out the moon and the earth and has retained the most advanced part. What was present in the former Sun-body as relics of Saturn are still to be found in the present sun, as the so-called sunspots. They are the last vestiges of Saturn, which remain in the shining sun-mass as dark portions. Our occult wisdom discloses the hidden spiritual sources of physical facts. Physical science substantiates the physical causes of the sunspots through its astronomy and astrophysics; the spiritual causes, however, lie in that residue remaining from Saturn.
We now ask what kingdoms were there on Saturn? Only one kingdom, the last traces of which are contained in the present mineral. When we speak of man's passing through the mineral kingdom, we must not think of the present mineral. The last descendants of the Saturn mineral must far rather be seen in your eyes, ears and other sense organs. Those are the most physical, the most mineral parts of you. The apparatus of the eye is like a physical instrument and even continues unchanged for some time after death.
The single Saturn kingdom progressed on the Sun to a kind of plant existence. Man's own body confronts us there growing like a plant. What was left behind as Saturn kingdom was a kind of mineral kingdom of the Sun, which had the form of stunted sense organs which could not reach their goal. But all these beings on the Sun, these developing human bodies, had as yet no nervous system within them. That was incorporated for the first time on the Moon by the astral body. Plants too have no nervous system. It is an error of physical science when it ascribes one to them.
But the astral bodies, especially those that proceeded from the Fire Spirits, sent a kind of stream into the substance that was down below as physical and etheric bodies. These light streams divided in tree-like forms. Their last traces are to be found in densified form as the organ we call the Solar Plexus. This goes back to the ancient in-streaming on the Sun, densified to substance and hence the name Solar-plexus.
You must picture the bodies which you had on the Sun as if currents from above streamed into you, currents interlaced as a branching tree. Thus the Sun is represented in the numberless interlacings which are your solar-plexus. These branches were represented in German mythology as the World Ash, which, however, means very much besides.
Then the Sun passed into a sleep-condition and was transformed into what in occult science we call the Moon. In this we have to do with yet a third incarnation of the Earth, which will again introduce to us a directing Central Spirit.
As the highest Regent of Saturn, the Ego Spirit appears to us as the Father God, the highest God of the Sun, the Sun-God, as Christ, so will the Regent of the Moon-stage of the Earth appear to us as the Holy Spirit with His Hosts, which in Christian esotericism are called the Messengers of the Godhead, the Angels.
We have completed two Days of Creation, which in the esoteric language are called:
- Dies Saturni
- Dies Solis
To them we must add: Dies Lunae (the Moon-Day).
The existence of a directing Godhead of Saturn, Sun and Moon has always been known.
The words Dies = Day and Deus = God have the same origin, so that Dies may be translated either Day or Godhead. One can just as well say for Dies Solis Sun-Day or Sun-God and mean by both the Christ Spirit.
Neunter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Wir werden uns über den Gang der Menschheit durch die drei Verkörperungen hindurch, die vor der Erde stattgefunden haben, Saturn, Sonne und Mond, am leichtesten verständigen, wenn wir zur Ergänzung den Menschen noch einmal im Schlaf, im Traum betrachten. Wenn der Mensch schläft, sehen wir als Scher den Astralleib und das in demselben eingeschlossene Ich wie schwebend über dem physischen Leibe. Dieser Astralleib ist dann außerhalb des physischen und Ätherleibes, aber bleibt mit ihnen verbunden. Er sendet gleichsam Fäden, besser gesagt Strömungen in den allgemeinen Leib des Kosmos und ist gleichsam in denselben hineingesenkt. So daß wir beim schlafenden Menschen den physischen, den ätherischen und den astralischen Leib haben, aber dieser letztere streckt Fühlfäden aus nach der großen astralischen Körperlichkeit.
[ 2 ] Wenn wir uns diesen Zustand dauernd denken, wenn hier auf dem physischen Plan nur Menschen wären, welche den physischen Leib mit dem Ätherleib durchsetzt hätten und oben darüber schwebend eine astralische Seele mit dem Ich, dann würden wir den Zustand haben, in dem die Menschheit auf dem Monde war. Nur daß auf dem Mond dieser astralische Leib nicht stark getrennt war von dem physischen Leib, sondern ebenso stark, wie er sich hinausstreckte in den Kosmos, ebenso stark senkte er sich hinein in den physischen Leib. Wenn Sie sich aber den Zustand denken ganz so, wie er heute im Schlafe ist, doch so, daß nicht einmal ein Träumen möglich ist, dann haben Sie den Zustand, in dem die Menschheit auf der Sonne war. Und wenn Sie sich jetzt vorstellen, daß der Mensch gestorben ist, daß auch sein Ätherkörper, verbunden mit dem Astralleib und dem Ich, heraus ist, aber so, daß die Verbindung doch nicht ganz gelöst ist, daß das, was heraus ist, was eingebettet ist in die umliegende kosmische Masse, seine Strahlen hinuntersendet und arbeitet an der physischen Leiblichkeit, dann haben Sie den Zustand, den die Menschheit auf dem Saturn hatte. Unten auf der Weltkugel des Saturn war nur das enthalten, was in unserer rein physischen Leiblichkeit ist; umgeben war sie gleichsam von einer ätherischastralischen Atmosphäre, in welcher eingebettet waren die Iche.
[ 3 ] Die Menschen waren tatsächlich schon vorhanden auf dem Saturn, aber in einem dumpfen, dumpfen Bewußtsein. Diese Seelen hatten die Aufgabe, regsam und in Tätigkeit zu erhalten etwas, was drunten zu ihnen gehörte. Sie arbeiteten von oben an ihrem physischen Leibe. Wie eine Schnecke, die sich ihr Gehäuse bearbeitet, ebenso schaffen sie von außen, wie ein Instrument, an den leiblichen Organen. Wir wollen beschreiben, wie dasjenige aussah, an dem die Seelen oben arbeiteten. Wir haben diesen physischen Saturn, diesen Saturn überhaupt, ein wenig zu beschreiben.
[ 4 ] Ich habe schon gesagt, das, was an der physischen Leiblichkeit dort ausgebildet wurde, waren die Anlagen der Sinnesorgane. Was als Sinnesanlage im Menschen lebte, bearbeiteten die Seelen äußerlich auf der Saturn-Oberfläche. Sie waren wirklich in dem den Saturn umgebenden Weltenraum, unten war ihre Werkstätte. Da arbeiteten sie die Typen für Augen und Ohren und für die anderen Sinnesorgane aus.
[ 5 ] Was war nun die Grundeigenschaft dieser Saturnmasse? Sie ist schwer zu bezeichnen, weil wir in unserer Sprache kaum ein Wort haben, das dazu paßt, denn unsere Worte sind ja auch ganz materialisiert; sie passen nur für den physischen Plan. Es gibt aber ein Wort, das diese feine Arbeit, die da geleistet wurde, ausdrücken kann. Man kann es bezeichnen mit dem Ausdruck: sich spiegeln. Die Saturnmasse hatte die Eigenschaft, in allen ihren Teilen das, was von außen als Licht, als Ton, als Geruch, als Geschmack herankam, zu spiegeln. Alles wurde wieder zurückgeworfen, man nahm es im Weltenraum gleichsam wahr als ein Sich-Spiegeln im Spiegel des Saturn. Man kann es nur damit vergleichen, wenn man seinem Nebenmenschen ins Auge blickt und das eigene Bildchen uns daraus entgegenschaut. So nahmen sich alle Seelen der Menschen wahr, aber nicht nur als Bild in Farben, sondern sie schmeckten sich, sie rochen sich, sie nahmen sich in einem bestimmten Wärmegefühl wahr. So war der Saturn ein spiegelnder Planet. Die in der Atmosphäre lebenden Menschen warfen ihre Wesenheiten hinein, und aus diesen Bildern, die da entstanden, bildeten sich die Anlagen zu den Sinnesorganen, denn es waren Bilder, die schöpferisch wirkten. Man denke sich vor einem Spiegel stehend, aus dem das eigene Bild einem entgegentritt, und dieses Bild beginne zu schaffen, sei nicht ein totes Bild wie beim heutigen leblosen Spiegel: da hat man die schöpferische Tätigkeit des Saturn, da hat man die Art und Weise, wie die Menschen selbst auf dem Saturn lebten und ihre Arbeit verrichteten.
[ 6 ] Das spielte sich unten auf der Kugel des Saturn ab. Oben die Seelen hatten das tiefe Trancebewußtsein, von dem ich gestern gesprochen habe. Sie wußten nichts von dieser Spiegelung, sie haben es nur getan. In diesem dumpfen Trancebewußtsein hatten sie das ganze kosmische All in sich, und so hat sich aus ihrem Wesen heraus das ganze kosmische All gespiegelt. Sie selbst aber waren eingebettet in eine Grundsubstanz geistiger Art. Sie waren nicht selbständig, sondern nur ein Glied der den Saturn umgebenden Geistigkeit. Daher konnten sie nicht geistig wahrnehmen. Höhere Geister nahmen wahr mit ihrer Hilfe. Sie waren die Organe der Geister, die damals wahrnahmen.
[ 7 ] Den Saturn umgab eine ganze Anzahl höherer Geister. Alles, was die christliche Esoterik Boten der Gottheit, Engel, Erzengel, Urkräfte, offenbarende Mächte genannt hat, alles das war enthalten in dieser Saturnatmosphäre. So wie dieHand zum Organismus gehört, so gehörten die Seelen zu diesen Wesenheiten, und so wenig wie die Hand ein selbständiges Bewußtsein hat, so wenig hatten sie damals ein eigenes Bewußtsein. Sie arbeiteten aus dem Bewußtsein höherer Geister, aus dem höheren Weltenbewußtsein heraus und gestalteten so die Bilder ihrer Sinnesorgane, die dann schöpferisch wurden, und sie gestalteten auch die Saturnmasse. Diese Saturnmasse dürfen Sie sich nicht so dicht vorstellen wie die heutige menschliche Fleischmasse. Der dichteste Zustand des Saturn, den er überhaupt erlangen konnte, war nicht einmal so dicht wie unsere heutige physische Luft. Der Saturn ist auch physisch geworden, hat es aber nur bis zur Dichtigkeit gebracht, die man die Dichte des Feuers, der Wärme nennt, der Wärme, in der die heutige Physik gar keinen Stoff mehr sieht. Die Wärme ist aber für den Okkultisten ein feinerer Stoff als die Gase; er hat die Eigenschaft, sich immer weiter auszudehnen. Und weil der Saturn aus diesem Stoff bestand, hatte er die Gabe, sich von innen auszudehnen, alles auszustrahlen, zu spiegeln. Ein solcher Körper strahlt alles aus; er hat nicht das Bedürfnis, alles in sich zu behalten.
[ 8 ] Der Saturn war nicht etwa eine gleichförmige Masse, sondern so, daß man darin eine Differenzierung, eine Konfiguration hätte wahrnehmen können. Später rundeten sich die Organe sogar in zellenförmige Kugeln, nur daß Zellen klein sind; damals aber waren es große Kugeln, wie wenn Sie eine Maulbeere oder Brombeere nehmen. Sehen hätten Sie noch nicht können auf dem Saturn, denn jede Spiegelung warf alles, was ihr an Licht zukam, nach außen zurück. Innerhalb dieser Saturnmasse war alles finster. Nur gegen Ende seiner Entwickelung leuchtete der Saturn etwas auf. In der Umgebung der Atmosphäre dieser Saturnmasse gab es eine Anzahl von Wesen. Nicht nur Sie selbst bereiteten Ihre Sinnesorgane vor, denn des Menschen Seele war noch nicht so weit entwickelt, daß sie hätte allein arbeiten können. Sie arbeitete mit anderen geistigen Wesenheiten zusammen, trivial ausgedrückt, unter deren Leitung.
[ 9 ] So selbständig, wie der heutige Mensch arbeitet, so arbeiteten auf dem Saturn gewisse Wesenheiten, die dazumal auf der Menschenstufe standen. Sie konnten nicht so gestaltet sein wie der heutige Mensch, da Wärme die einzige Substanz des Saturn war. Sie standen aber in bezug auf ihre Intelligenz, auf ihr Ichbewußtsein, auf der Stufe des heutigen Menschen; doch konnten sie sich keinen physischen Leib, kein Gehirn bilden. Betrachten wir sie etwas näher. Der heutige Mensch besteht aus einer Vierheit: physischer Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib und das Ich, und im Ich vorgebildet Geistselbst, Lebensgeist und Geistesmensch — Manas, Buddhi, Atma. Das niederste, wenn auch in seiner Art vollkommenste Glied auf dem Erdenplaneten ist die physische Körperlichkeit, das nächsthöhere der Ätherleib, dann der Astralleib und das Ich. Es gibt nun auch Wesenheiten, die keinen physischen Leib haben, deren niederstes Glied der Ätherleib ist. Sie haben den physischen Leib nicht nötig, um sich in unserer sinnlichen Welt zu betätigen; dafür haben sie ein Glied, das höher ist als unser siebentes. Andere Wesenheiten haben als niederstes Glied den Astralleib und dafür ein neuntes, und wieder andere, die als niederstes Glied das Ich haben, die haben dafür noch ein zehntes Glied. Wenn wir die Wesenheiten ansehen, die das Ich als unterstes Glied haben, müssen wir sagen, sie bestehen aus dem Ich, Geistselbst, Lebensgeist, Geistesmensch. Dann kommt das achte, neunte und zehnte Glied, das, was die christliche Esoterik die göttliche Dreieinigkeit nennt: Heiliger Geist, Sohn oder Wort, Vater. In der theosophischen Literatur ist man gewohnt, sie die drei Logoi zu nennen.
[ 10 ] Diese Wesenheiten, deren unterstes Glied das Ich ist, waren gerade diejenigen, welche bei der Saturnentwickelung besonders für uns in Betracht kommen. Sie waren auf der Stufe, auf der heute die Menschen stehen. Sie konnten ihr Ich betätigen unter den ganz anderen Verhältnissen, die ich geschildert habe. Das waren die Vorfahren unserer heutigen Menschheit, die Menschen des Saturn. Sie bestrahlten die Oberfläche des Saturn mit ihrer Ichheit, ihrer äußersten Wesenheit. Sie waren die Einpflanzer der Ichheit in die physische Körperlichkeit, die sich auf der Saturnoberfläche bildete. So sorgten sie dafür, daß der physische Leib so vorbereitet wurde, daß er später der Träger des Ich werden konnte. Nur ein solcher physischer Leib, wie Sie ihn heute haben, mit Füßen, Händen und Kopf und den eingegliederten Sinnesorganen, konnte Ichträger werden auf der vierten Stufe, der Erde. Dazu mußte ihm der Keim auf dem Saturn eingepflanzt werden. Diese Ichwesen des Saturn nennt man auch die Geister des Egoismus.
[ 11 ] Egoismus ist etwas, was zwei Seiten hat, eine vortreffliche und eine verwerfliche. Wenn damals auf dem Saturn und auf den folgenden Planeten nicht immer wieder und wieder die Wesenheit des Egoismus eingepflanzt worden wäre, dann wäre der Mensch nie ein selbständiges Wesen geworden, das «Ich» zu sich sagen kann. In Ihrer Leiblichkeit ist schon von dem Saturn her die Summe der Kraft eingeimpft, die Sie stempelt zu einer selbständigen Wesenheit, die Sie abgliedert von allen anderen Wesenheiten. Dazu mußten die Geister des Egoismus, die Asuras, wirken. Es gibt unter ihnen zwei Arten, abgesehen von kleinen Schattierungen. Die eine Art ist die, die den Egoismus in der edlen, selbständigen Weise ausgebildet hat, die immer höher und höher gestiegen ist in der Ausbildung des Freiheitssinnes: das ist die vortreffliche Selbständigkeit des Egoismus. Diese Geister haben durch alle folgenden Planeten die Menschheit geleitet. Sie sind die Erzieher der Menschen zur Selbständigkeit geworden.
[ 12 ] Nun gibt es auf jedem Planeten auch solche Geister, die in der Entwickelung zurückgeblieben sind. Sie sind stationär geblieben, sie wollten nicht weiter. Daraus werden Sie ein Gesetz erkennen: Wenn das Vortrefflichste fällt, wenn es die «große Sünde» begeht, nicht mitzugehen mit der Entwickelung, dann wird es gerade das Schlechteste. Der edle Freiheitssinn ist in der Verwerflichkeit verkehrt worden in sein Gegenteil. Das sind die schwer in Betracht kommenden Geister der Versuchung; sie verleiten zu dem verwerflichen Egoismus. Auch heute sind sie noch in unserer Umgebung, diese schlimmen Geister des Saturn. Alles, was schlimm ist, hat seine Kraft von diesen Geistern.
[ 13 ] Jeder Planet, wenn er seine Entwickelung vollendet hat, wird wieder geistig; er ist sozusagen nicht mehr vorhanden und geht über in einen Schlafzustand, um wieder daraus hervorzugehen. So auch der Saturn. Seine nächste Verkörperung ist die Sonne, jene Sonne, die Sie erhalten würden, wenn Sie alles das, was auf der Sonne, dem Mond und der Erde ist, mitsamt allen irdischen und geistigen Wesenheiten, zusammenmischen würden wie in einem Kessel. Die Sonnenentwickelung ist dadurch ausgezeichnet, daß der Ätherkörper einzog in den unten vorbereiteten physischen Menschenkörper. Die Sonne hat schon eine dichtere Körperlichkeit als der Saturn; sie ist zu vergleichen mit der Dichte der heutigen Luft. Die menschliche physische Körperlichkeit, der eigene Leib, den Sie sich formten, den sehen Sie auf der Sonne vom Ätherleib durchsetzt. Sie selbst gehörten zu einem Luftleib, wie auf dem Saturn zu einem Wärmeleib. Ihr Ätherleib war schon unten, aber in der Atmosphäre der Sonne war Ihr Astralleib mit Ihrem Ich eingegliedert in dem großen allgemeinen Astralleib der Sonne, und da wirkten Sie hinunter in den physischen und Ätherleib, ähnlich wie heute im Schlaf, wenn Ihr Astralleib draußen ist und an dem physischen und Ätherleibe arbeitet. Sie arbeiteten dazumal die ersten Anlagen aus zu all dem, was heute Wachstums- und Verdauungs- und Fortpflanzungsorgane sind. Sie gestalteten die Anlagen der Sinnesorgane vom Saturn um; einige behielten ihren Charakter bei, andere wurden umgestaltet zu Drüsen und Wachstumsorganen. Alle Wachstums- und alle Fortpflanzungsorgane sind umgestaltete, vom Ätherleib ergriffene Sinnesorgane.
[ 14 ] Wenn Sie den Körper der Sonne vergleichen mit dem Saturn, so finden Sie einen gewissen Unterschied. Der Saturn war noch wie eine spiegelnde Oberfläche; er strahlte zurück alles, was er empfing an Geschmack, Geruch, alle Sinneswahrnehmungen. Nicht so war es bei der Sonne. Während der Saturn alles direkt zurückstrahlte, ohne sich dessen zu bemächtigen, durchdrang die Sonne sich damit und strahlte es erst dann zurück. Das kam daher, weil sie einen Ätherleib hatte. Ihr Leib, der vom Ätherleib durchsetzt war, machte es so, wie es heute die Pflanze mit dem Sonnenlicht macht: sie nimmt das Sonnenlicht auf, sie durchdringt sich damit und gibt es dann zurück. Stellt man sie an irgendeinen dunklen Ort, dann verliert sie die Farbe und wird welk. Ohne Licht wäre kein grüner Farbstoff. So war es mit Ihrem eigenen Leibe auf der Sonne: er durchdrang sich mit Licht, aber auch mit anderen Ingredienzien, und so wie die Pflanze zurückschickt das Licht, nachdem sie sich daran gekräftigt hat, so strahlte einstmals die Sonne das Licht zurück, nachdem sie es in sich verarbeitet hatte. Aber nicht nur mit dem Licht, sondern auch mit Geschmack, Geruch, Wärme, mit allem durchdrang sie sich und strahlte es wieder heraus.
[ 15 ] Daher war auch Ihr eigener Leib auf der Sonne in dem Zustand der Pflanzenheit. Er schaute nicht so aus wie eine Pflanze im heutigen Sinne, denn diese hat sich erst auf der Erde gebildet. Das, was Sie heute im Innern tragen, die Drüsen, die Organe, die man Wachstums- und Fortpflanzungsorgane nennt, die waren auf der Sonne, wie heute Berge und Felsen auf der Erde sind. Daran arbeiteten Sie, wie man heute ein Gärtchen pflegt und bearbeitet. Die Sonne strahlte die Ingredienzien des Weltenraumes zurück. Sie glänzte in den herrlichsten Farben. Ein wunderbares Tönen ging hinaus, ein köstliches Aroma strömte aus von ihr. Die alte Sonne war ein wunderbares Wesen im Weltenraum. So arbeiteten die Menschen dazumal auf der Sonne an ihrer eigenen Körperlichkeit, wie gewisse Wesen, zum Beispiel Korallen, von außen an ihrem Bau arbeiten. Das geschah unter der Leitung höherer Wesen, denn es gab höhere Wesenheiten in der Atmosphäre der Sonne.
[ 16 ] Mit einer Kategorie derselben müssen wir uns besonders befassen, die damals auf der Stufe stand wie die Menschen heute. Auf dem Saturn haben wir die Geister des Egoismus, die den Freiheits- und den Selbständigkeitssinn einpflanzten und auf der Menschenstufe standen. Auf der Sonne waren es andere Wesenheiten, die nicht das Ich, sondern den Astralleib als unterstes Glied hatten. Sie bestanden aus Astralleib, Ich, Geistselbst, Lebensgeist und Geistesmensch und dem achten Glied, dem, was die christliche Esoterik Heiliger Geist nennt, und endlich als neuntem Gliede dem Sohne, dem «Wort» im Sinne des Johannes-Evangeliums. Das zehnte Glied hatten sie noch nicht; dafür hatten sie unten angesetzt den Astralleib. Das waren die Geister, die sich auf der Sonne betätigten; sie leiteten alle astrale Arbeit. Sie unterscheiden sich von dem heutigen Menschen dadurch, daß der Mensch Luft atmet, weil Luft in der Umgebung der Erde ist, jene Geister aber Wärme oder Feuer.
[ 17 ] Die Sonne war selbst eine Art von Luftmasse. Das, was sie umgab, war jene Stofflichkeit, die früher den Saturn selbst gebildet hatte: das Feuer, die Wärme. Der Teil, der sich verdichtet hatte, hatte die gasförmige Sonne gebildet, und was sich nicht verdichten konnte, war ein wogendes Feuermeer. Diese Wesenheiten konnten also auf der Sonne so leben, daß sie Wärme, Feuer ein- und ausatmeten. Daher nennt man diese Geister die Feuergeister. Sie standen auf der Sonne auf der Stufe der Menschheit, und sie arbeiteten in dem Dienst der Menschheit. Sonnen- oder Feuergeister nennt man diese Wesenheiten. Der Mensch war damals auf der Stufe des Schlafbewußtseins. Diese Sonnen-Feuergeister hatten schon das Ich-Bewußtsein. Sie haben sich seither auch weiterentwickelt und höhere Bewußtseinsstufen erstiegen. Man nennt sie in der christlichen Esoterik Erzengel. Und der am höchsten entwickelte Geist, der auf der Sonne war als Feuergeist, der sich heute noch auf der Erde betätigt, mit höchstentwickeltem Bewußtsein, dieser Sonnenoder Feuergeist, das ist der Christus, ebenso wie der höchstentwickelte Saturngeist der Vatergott ist. Für die christliche Esoterik war daher in dem fleischlichen Leibe des Christus Jesus ein solcher Sonnen-Feuergeist verkörpert, und zwar der höchste, der Regent der Sonnengeister. Damit er auf die Erde kommen konnte, mußte er einen physischen Leib benutzen. Er mußte unter denselben irdischen Bedingungen stehen wie der Mensch, um sich hier betätigen zu können.
[ 18 ] So haben wir es zu tun auf der Sonne mit einem Sonnenleib, gleichsam mit einem Leibe des Sonnenplaneten, mit Ich-Geistern, die Feuergeister sind, und mit einem Regenten dieser Sonne, dem höchstentwickelten Sonnengeist, dem Christus. Während die Erde Sonne war, war dieser Geist der Zentralgeist der Sonne. Als die Erde Mond war, war er höherentwickelt, aber er verblieb bei dem Mond. Als die Erde Erde ward, war er höchstentwickelt und verblieb bei der Erde, nachdem er sich mit ihr nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha vereinigt hatte. Er bildet so den höchsten planetarischen Geist der Erde. Die Erde ist sein Leib heute, wie dazumal die Sonne sein Leib war. Daher müssen Sie das Johannes-Wort wörtlich nehmen: «Wer mein Brot isset, der tritt mich mit Füßen.» Denn die Erde ist der Leib Christi, und wenn die Menschen, die das Brot essen, das dem Leibe der Erde entnommen ist, auf der Erde gehen, so treten sie mit Füßen den Leib des Christus. Nehmen Sie dieses Wort ganz wörtlich, wie überhaupt alle religiösen Urkunden wörtlich genommen werden müssen. Nur muß man erst den Buchstaben in seiner wahren Bedeutung kennen und dann den Geist suchen.
[ 19 ] Nun noch eins: Innerhalb dieser Sonnenmasse kamen nicht alle Wesen zu der Entwickelungsstufe, von der ich Ihnen gesprochen habe. Manche blieben zurück auf der Stufe des Saturndaseins. Sie konnten das, was in den Weltenraum hineinstrahlte, nicht in sich aufnehmen und nach der Aufnahme zurückschicken. Sie mußten es direkt zurückschicken, sie konnten sich nicht damit durchdringen. Diese Wesenheiten erschienen deshalb auf der Sonne als eine Art von dunklen Eingliederungen, als etwas, was nicht Eigenlicht aussenden konnte. Und weil sie in der Sonnenmasse eingeschlossen waren, umgeben von einer Eigenlicht aussendenden Masse, wirkten sie wie dunkle Stellen. Wir müssen daher unterscheiden solche Sonnenstellen, die das, was sie empfangen hatten, in den Weltenraum hinausstrahlten, und solche, die nichts hinausstrahlen konnten. So wirkten sie wie dunkle Einschiebsel innerhalb der Sonnenmasse; sie hatten auf dem Saturn nichts hinzugelernt. Ebenso, wie Sie im menschlichen Leibe auch nicht überall Drüsen und Wachstumsorgane finden, sondern er durchsetzt ist von Totem, Eingegliedertem, ebenso war die Sonne durchsetzt von diesen dunklen Einschiebseln.
[ 20 ] Unsere heutige Sonne ist der Nachkomme der alten Erdensonnenmasse. Sie hat herausgeworfen den Mond und die Erde und hat das Vortrefflichste zurückbehalten. Dasjenige, was in der damaligen Sonnenmasse vorhanden war als Reste vom Saturn, hat seine Rudimente in der heutigen Sonne in den sogenannten Sonnenflecken. Sie sind die letzten Rudimente des Saturn, die als dunkle Einschiebsel in der leuchtenden Sonnenmasse verblieben. Unsere okkulte Weisheit deckt die verborgenen geistigen Quellen der physischen Tatsachen auf. Die physische Wissenschaft konstatiert die physischen Ursachen der Sonnenflecken durch ihre Astronomie und Astrophysik; die geistigen Ursachen aber liegen in jenen zurückgebliebenen Rückständen des Saturn.
[ 21 ] Wir fragen uns jetzt: Welche Reiche hat es gegeben auf dem Saturn? Nur ein Reich, dessen letzte Rudimente in dem jetzigen Mineral erhalten sind. Wenn wir von dem Durchgang des Menschen durch das Mineralreich sprechen, dürfen wir nicht an das heutige Mineral denken. Sie müssen vielmehr die letzten Nachkommen des Saturnminerals in Ihren Augen, Ohren und Ihren anderen Sinnesorganen sehen. Das ist das Physischste, das Mineralischste an Ihnen. Der Apparat des Auges ist wie ein physikalisches Instrument und bleibt auch eine Zeitlang nach dem Tode unverändert.
[ 22 ] Das eine Reich des Saturn rückt auf der Sonne zu einer Art von Pflanzendasein auf. Der eigene Leib der Menschen wächst uns da entgegen wie eine Pflanze. Was als Saturnreich zurückgeblieben war, war eine Art Mineralreich der Sonne. Das hatte die Gestalt von verkümmerten Sinnesorganen, die ihren Zweck nicht erreichen konnten. Aber alle diese Wesenheiten auf der Sonne, die werdende Menschenleiber waren, hatten noch nicht in sich ein Nervensystem; das wurde erst auf dem Monde eingegliedert vom astralischen Leibe. Auch die Pflanzen haben kein Nervensystem und daher keine Empfindung. Es ist ein Mißverständnis, wenn man ihnen Empfindung zuschreibt.
[ 23 ] Aber diese Astralleiber, namentlich diejenigen, die von den Feuergeistern ausgingen, sandten eine Art von Strömung hinein in die Körperlichkeit, die da unten war als physische und ätherische Leiber. Diese Lichtströmungen verteilten sich baumartig. Die letzten Rudimente dieser Einströmungen auf der Sonne, die sich später verdickten und äußerliche Form erhalten haben, sind das Organ, das man das Sonnengeflecht nennt. Es ist der letzte verdichtete Nachklang alter, zur Substantialität verdichteter Einstrahlungen auf der Sonne. Daher der Name Plexus solaris, Sonnengeflecht. Sie müssen sich die Leiber, die Sie auf der Sonne gehabt haben, so vorstellen, wie wenn von oben Strahlen in sie hineindringen würden, die sich baumförmig verflechten. So stellt sich die Sonne dar in den zahlreichen Verästelungen, die in Ihrem Sonnengeflecht sind. Diese Verästelungen werden in der germanischen Mythologie in der Weltenesche dargestellt, die freilich auch noch manches andere bedeutet.
[ 24 ] Dann ging die Sonne in den Schlafzustand über und wandelte sich in das, was wir im okkulten Sinne den Mond nennen. Wir haben es darin mit einer dritten Verkörperung der Erde zu tun, die uns wiederum einen regierenden Zentralgeist darstellen wird. Wie uns der höchste Regent des Saturn, der Ich-Geist, als Vatergott erscheint, der höchste Regent, der höchste Gott der Sonne, der Sonnengott, als Christus, so wird uns der Regent der Mondengestalt der Erde als Heiliger Geist mit seinen Scharen erscheinen, die in der christlichen Esoterik die Boten der Gottheit, die Engel, genannt werden.
[ 25 ] So haben wir zwei Schöpfungstage absolviert, die man in der esoterischen Sprache Dies Saturni und Dies Solis nennt. Dazu kommt: Dies Lunae, der Mond-Tag. Immer hat man das Bewußtsein gehabt, daß man es mit einer leitenden Gottheit des Saturn, der Sonne und des Mondes zu tun gehabt hat.
[ 25 ] Das Wort «Dies» = Tag und «Deus» = Gott hat denselben Ursprung, so daß ebensogut «Dies» mit «Tag» wie mit «Gottheit» übersetzt werden kann. Man kann also ebensogut sagen für «Dies Solis» Sonnentag wie Sonnengott und meint damit zu gleicher Zeit ChristusGeist.
Ninth Lecture
[ 1 ] We shall most easily be able to understand humanity's path through the three embodiments that took place before the earth: Saturn, Sun and Moon, if we consider the human being once more in sleep, in a dream. When a person is sleeping, we see the astral body and the ego enclosed in it as a shroud floating above the physical body. This astral body is then outside the physical and etheric bodies, but remains connected to them. It sends, as it were, threads, or currents, into the general body of the cosmos and is, as it were, immersed in it. So that in a sleeping person we have the physical, the etheric and the astral body, but the latter extends feeling threads out into the great astral physicality.
[ 2 ] If we imagine this state as permanent, if here on the physical plane there were only people who had interwoven the physical body with the etheric body and, floating above it, an astral soul with the ego, then we would have the state in which humanity was on the moon. Only that on the moon this astral body was not strongly separated from the physical body, but just as much as it stretched out into the cosmos, just as much it descended into the physical body. But if you imagine the state of being asleep today, but in such a way that not even dreaming is possible, then you have the state in which humanity was on the sun. And if you now imagine that the person has died, that his etheric body, connected with the astral body and the ego, has also gone out, but in such a way that the connection is not completely severed, that what has gone out, what is embedded in the surrounding cosmic mass, sends its rays down and works on the physical body, then you have the state that humanity had on Saturn. Down on the globe of Saturn, only what is in our purely physical body was contained; it was surrounded, as it were, by an etheric-astral atmosphere in which the I was embedded.
[ 3 ] People were actually already present on Saturn, but in a dull, dull consciousness. These souls had the task of keeping something that belonged to them down below active and in motion. They worked on their physical body from above. Like a snail that works on its shell, they also work on the bodily organs from the outside, like an instrument. We will describe what the souls were working on above. We have to describe this physical Saturn, this Saturn in general, a little.
[ 4 ] I have already said that what was formed on the physical body were the sensory organs. What lived as sensory organs in the human being was worked on externally by the souls on the surface of Saturn. They were really in the surrounding space of Saturn, their workshop was down there. There they worked out the types for eyes and ears and for the other sense organs.
[ 5 ] What was the basic property of this Saturn mass? It is difficult to describe because we have hardly a word in our language that fits, for our words are indeed quite materialized; they only apply to the physical plane. But there is a word that can express this fine work that was done there. It can be described by the expression: to mirror. The mass of Saturn had the property of reflecting in all its parts what came from outside as light, sound, smell, and taste. Everything was reflected back, and it was perceived in space as a reflection in the mirror of Saturn. It can only be compared to looking into the eye of one's fellow human being and seeing our own image reflected back at us. All human souls perceived themselves in this way, but not only as a colorful image. They also tasted and smelled themselves and perceived themselves in a certain feeling of warmth. Thus Saturn was a reflective planet. The people living in the atmosphere threw their beings into it, and from these images that emerged, the structures for the sensory organs were formed, because they were images that had a creative effect. Imagine standing in front of a mirror, looking at your own image, and this image begins to create, not a dead image as with today's lifeless mirror: there you have the creative activity of Saturn, there you have the way people themselves lived and worked on Saturn.
[6] This took place down on the sphere of Saturn. Above, the souls had the deep trance consciousness of which I spoke yesterday. They knew nothing of this reflection, they just did it. In this dull trance consciousness they had the whole cosmic universe within them, and so the whole cosmic universe was reflected out of their being. But they themselves were embedded in a basic substance of a spiritual nature. They were not independent, but only one link of the spirituality surrounding Saturn. Therefore they could not perceive spiritually. Higher spirits perceived with their help. They were the organs of the spirits that perceived at that time.
[ 7 ] A whole number of higher spirits surrounded Saturn. All that Christian esotericism has called the messengers of the Godhead, angels, archangels, elemental forces, revelatory powers, all that was contained in this Saturn atmosphere. Just as the hand belongs to the organism, so the souls belonged to these beings, and just as the hand has no independent consciousness, so they had no consciousness of their own in those days. They worked out of the consciousness of higher spirits, out of the higher world consciousness, and thus shaped the images of their sense organs, which then became creative, and they also shaped the mass of Saturn. You must not imagine this Saturn mass as being as dense as the human flesh mass of today. The densest state of Saturn, which it could ever attain, was not even as dense as our present-day physical air. Saturn also became physical, but it only attained the density that is called the density of fire, of warmth, of warmth in which present-day physics no longer sees any substance. But for the occultist, warmth is a more subtle substance than gases; it has the property of always expanding further. And because Saturn was made of this substance, it had the gift of expanding from within, of radiating everything, of mirroring everything. Such a body radiates everything; it has no need to keep everything within itself.
[8] Saturn was not a uniform mass, but rather such that one could have perceived a differentiation, a configuration in it. Later, the organs even rounded into cell-shaped spheres, only that cells are small; but in those days they were large spheres, like a mulberry or blackberry. You would not have been able to see on Saturn, because every reflection threw everything that came to it in the way of light back outwards. Within this mass of Saturn everything was dark. Only towards the end of its development did Saturn light up a little. In the vicinity of the atmosphere of this mass of Saturn there were a number of beings. You did not prepare your sense organs by yourself, for the human soul was not yet sufficiently developed to be able to work alone. It worked together with other spiritual entities, to put it in trivial terms, under their leadership.
[ 9 ] Certain entities worked as independently as today's humans did on Saturn, which at that time were at the human level. They could not be shaped like today's humans because heat was the only substance on Saturn. But in terms of their intelligence and self-awareness, they were on the same level as modern humans; however, they could not form a physical body or a brain. Let us take a closer look at them. Today's human being consists of a tetrad: physical body, etheric body, astral body and the I, and in the I, the spirit self, life spirit and spiritual man are prefigured — manas, buddhi, atma. The lowest link on the earthly plane, even if it is the most perfect in its kind, is physical corporeality; the next highest is the etheric body, then the astral body and the ego. There are also beings that have no physical body, whose lowest link is the etheric body. They do not need the physical body to operate in our material world; for that they have a higher limb than our seventh. Other entities have the astral body as their lowest limb and a ninth for it, and still others, who have the I as their lowest limb, have a tenth limb for it. When we look at the entities that have the I as their lowest link, we have to say that they consist of the I, spirit self, life spirit, spiritual man. Then comes the eighth, ninth and tenth link, which Christian esotericism calls the divine Trinity: Holy Spirit, Son or Word, Father. In theosophical literature, they are usually called the three Logoi.
[ 10 ] These entities, of which the I is the lowest link, were precisely those that are of particular interest to us in the evolution of Saturn. They were at the stage at which human beings stand today. They were able to exercise their I under the very different conditions that I have described. These were the ancestors of our present-day humanity, the people of Saturn. They irradiated the surface of Saturn with their I-ness, their outermost being. They were the implanters of I-ness into the physical body that was forming on the surface of Saturn. In this way they ensured that the physical body was prepared in such a way that it could later become the carrier of the I. Only a physical body like the one you have today, with feet, hands and head and the integrated sense organs, could become a carrier of the I on the fourth stage, the earth. For this, the germ had to be implanted on Saturn. These I-beings of Saturn are also called the spirits of egoism.
[ 11 ] Egoism is something that has two sides, one admirable and one reprehensible. If the entity of egoism had not been implanted again and again on Saturn and the following planets, man would never have become an independent being, able to say “I” to himself. The sum of the power of Saturn is already inherent in your physical being, which marks you out as an independent entity, differentiating you from all other entities. To achieve this, the spirits of egoism, the Asuras, had to work. There are two types of them, apart from small shades. One kind is that which has developed egoism in the noble, independent way, which has risen higher and higher in the development of the sense of freedom: this is the noble independence of egoism. These spirits have guided humanity through all the following planets. They have become the educators of men for independence.
[ 12 ] Now on every planet there are also spirits that have remained behind in their development. They have remained stationary, they did not want to go further. From this you will recognize a law: when the most excellent falls, when it commits the “great sin” of not going along with development, then it becomes precisely the worst. The noble sense of freedom has been perverted into its opposite in reprobation. These are the spirits of temptation that are difficult to consider; they tempt one to reprehensible egoism. Even today they are still in our environment, these evil spirits of Saturn. Everything that is evil draws its power from these spirits.
[ 13 ] Every planet, when it has completed its evolution, becomes spiritual again; it no longer exists, so to speak, and enters into a state of sleep, only to emerge from it again. So does Saturn. His next embodiment is the Sun, the Sun you would receive if you mixed together everything that is on the Sun, the Moon and the Earth, together with all earthly and spiritual beings, as if in a cauldron. The development of the Sun is distinguished by the fact that the etheric body has entered the physical human body prepared below. The sun already has a denser physicality than Saturn; it can be compared to the density of today's air. The human physical body, your own body that you formed, you see on the sun interspersed with the ether body. You yourself belonged to an air body, as on Saturn to a warmth body. Your etheric body was already down there, but in the atmosphere of the sun your astral body with your ego was integrated into the great general astral body of the sun, and there you worked down into the physical and etheric bodies, similar to what happens today in sleep, when your astral body is outside and works on the physical and etheric bodies. At that time, they worked out the first systems for all that are today the organs of growth, digestion and reproduction. They transformed the sensory organs from Saturn; some retained their character, others were transformed into glands and growth organs. All growth and reproduction organs are transformed sensory organs that have been taken over by the etheric body.
[ 14 ] If you compare the body of the Sun with that of Saturn, you will find a certain difference. Saturn was still like a reflective surface; it reflected back everything it received in taste, smell, and all sensory perceptions. It was not so with the sun. While Saturn reflected everything directly back, without taking possession of it, the sun permeated itself with it and only then reflected it. This was because it had an etheric body. Its body, permeated by the etheric body, did what plants do with sunlight today: it absorbs sunlight, permeates itself with it and then gives it back. If you put it in any dark place, it loses its color and wilts. Without light, there would be no green pigment. So it was with your own body on the sun: it imbued itself with light, but also with other ingredients, and just as the plant sends the light back after it has been strengthened by it, so once the sun radiated the light back after it had processed it within itself. But not only with light, but also with taste, smell, warmth, with everything, it permeated itself and radiated it out again.
[ 15 ] Therefore, your own body on the sun was also in a state of plant-like existence. It did not look like a plant in the modern sense, because that only developed on Earth. What you carry inside today, the glands, the organs that we call growth and reproduction organs, were on the sun as mountains and rocks are on the earth today. You worked on them as one tends and cultivates a garden today. The sun radiated back the ingredients of space. It shone in the most glorious colors. A wonderful tint went out, a delicious aroma streamed from her. The old sun was a wonderful being in space. Thus the people of that time worked on their own physicality on the sun, like certain creatures, for example corals, work on their construction from the outside. This happened under the guidance of higher beings, because there were higher beings in the atmosphere of the sun.
[ 16 ] We must concern ourselves particularly with one category of these, which was at the same stage as human beings today. On Saturn we have the Spirits of Egoism, which implanted the sense of freedom and independence and were at the human stage. On the Sun, there were other entities that did not have the I but the astral body as the lowest link. They consisted of the astral body, I, spirit self, life spirit and spirit man and the eighth link, what Christian esotericism calls the Holy Spirit, and finally, as the ninth link, the Son, the “Word” in the sense of the Gospel of John. They did not yet have the tenth link; instead, they had started at the bottom with the astral body. These were the spirits that were active on the sun; they directed all astral work. They differ from present-day humans in that humans breathe air because air is in the environment of the earth, but those spirits breathe warmth or fire.
[ 17 ] The sun itself was a kind of air mass. What surrounded it was the materiality that had once formed Saturn itself: fire, warmth. The part that had condensed had formed the gaseous sun, and what could not condense was a surging sea of fire. These beings could therefore live on the sun in such a way that they inhaled and exhaled warmth and fire. That is why these spirits are called fire spirits. They stood on the sun at the level of humanity, and they worked in the service of humanity. These entities are called sun or fire spirits. Man at that time was at the level of sleep consciousness. These sun or fire spirits already had I-consciousness. Since then they have also developed further and ascended to higher levels of consciousness. In Christian esotericism they are called archangels. And the most highly developed spirit that was on the sun as a fire spirit, and is still active on earth today with the most highly developed consciousness, this sun or fire spirit is the Christ, just as the most highly developed Saturn spirit is God the Father. For Christian esotericism, therefore, such a sun-fire spirit was embodied in the carnal body of Christ Jesus, and indeed the highest, the ruler of the sun spirits. In order for him to come to earth, he had to use a physical body. He had to be under the same earthly conditions as man in order to be able to work here.
[ 18 ] In the same way, on the sun we have to do with a solar body, with a body of the sun planet, as it were, with I-spirits, which are fire spirits, and with a regent of this sun, the most highly developed sun spirit, the Christ. When the Earth was a sun, this spirit was the central spirit of the sun. When the Earth was a moon, it was more highly developed, but it remained with the moon. When the Earth became an Earth, it was most highly developed and remained with the Earth, after it had united with it according to the Mystery of Golgotha. It thus forms the highest planetary spirit of the Earth. The Earth is its body today, as the sun was its body in the past. Therefore, you must take the word of John literally: “He who eats my bread tramples me underfoot.” For the earth is the body of Christ, and when people who eat the bread taken from the body of the earth walk on the earth, they trample the body of Christ underfoot. Take this word quite literally, as all religious documents must be taken literally. But first you have to know the letter in its true meaning and then seek the spirit.
[ 19 ] Now one more thing: Not all beings within this solar mass reached the stage of development I have spoken to you about. Some remained at the level of Saturn existence. They could not absorb into themselves that which radiated into space and send it back after absorption. They had to send it back directly, they could not permeate themselves with it. These entities therefore appeared on the sun as a kind of dark inclusions, as something that could not emit its own light. And because they were trapped in the mass of the sun, surrounded by a mass emitting its own light, they appeared as dark spots. We must therefore distinguish between those solar spots that radiated what they had received into space, and those that could not radiate anything out. They appeared as dark inclusions within the solar mass; they had learned nothing on Saturn. Just as you do not find glands and growth organs everywhere in the human body, but it is interspersed with dead tissue and incorporated tissue, so the sun was interspersed with these dark inclusions.
[ 20 ] Our present Sun is the descendant of the ancient terrestrial solar mass. It threw out the Moon and the Earth and retained the best. That which was present in the solar mass at that time as remnants of Saturn has its rudiments in the present Sun in the so-called sunspots. They are the last vestiges of Saturn, remaining as dark inclusions in the luminous solar mass. Our occult wisdom reveals the hidden spiritual sources of physical facts. Physical science establishes the physical causes of sunspots through its astronomy and astrophysics; but the spiritual causes lie in those remaining residues of Saturn.
[ 21 ] We now ask ourselves: what realms existed on Saturn? Only one realm, the last vestiges of which are preserved in the present mineral. When we speak of the passage of man through the mineral kingdom, we must not think of today's mineral. Rather, you must see the last descendants of the Saturn mineral in your eyes, ears and other sensory organs. That is the most physical, the most mineral part of you. The apparatus of the eye is like a physical instrument and remains unchanged for some time after death.
[ 22 ] The one realm of Saturn advances on the Sun to a kind of plant existence. The human body itself grows towards us like a plant. What was left behind as the realm of Saturn was a kind of mineral realm of the Sun. This took the form of atrophied sensory organs that could not fulfill their purpose. But all these entities on the sun that were developing human bodies did not yet have a nervous system within them; this was only incorporated on the moon from the astral body. Plants also have no nervous system and therefore no sensation. It is a misunderstanding to ascribe sensation to them.
[ 23 ] But these astral bodies, especially those that emanated from the fire spirits, sent a kind of current into the physicality that was down there as physical and etheric bodies. These light currents spread out in a tree-like pattern. The last vestiges of these inflows on the sun, which later thickened and took on an external form, are the organs we call the solar plexus. They are the last condensed echo on the sun of ancient irradiations condensed into substantiality. Hence the name plexus solaris, solar plexus. You have to imagine the bodies you had on the sun as if rays were penetrating them from above, intertwining in a tree-like pattern. This is how the sun presents itself in the numerous ramifications that are in your solar plexus. These ramifications are represented in Germanic mythology in the world ash tree, which of course also means many other things.
[ 24 ] Then the sun went to sleep and transformed into what we call the moon in the occult sense. We are dealing here with a third embodiment of the earth, which in turn will present us with a ruling central spirit. Just as the highest ruler of Saturn, the I-Spirit, appears to us as Father God, the highest ruler, the highest God of the Sun, the Sun God, as Christ, so the ruler of the moon form of the Earth will appear to us as the Holy Spirit with his hosts, who in Christian esotericism are called the messengers of the Godhead, the angels.
[ 25 ] Thus we have completed two days of Creation, which in the esoteric language are called Dies Saturni and Dies Soli. In addition to these there is Dies Lunae, the Moon-day. It has always been realized that one was dealing with a guiding Deity of Saturn, the Sun and the Moon.
[ 25 ] The word “dies” = day and “deus” = God has the same origin, so that “dies” can be translated as well as “day” as “deity”. So you can just as well say “dies solis” = solar day as solar god and mean at the same time Christ-spirit.