Cosmic Memory
GA 11
ix. Beginning of the Present Earth—Extrusion of the Sun
[ 1 ] We shall now follow the Akasha Chronicle back into that remote past in which our present earth had its beginning. By “earth” is to be understood that condition of our planet by virtue of which it can support minerals, plants, animals, and men in their form of today. For this condition was preceded by others in which the natural realms just mentioned existed in considerably different forms. That which one now calls earth went through many changes before it could become the carrier of our present mineral, plant, animal, and human worlds. Minerals for instance also existed under the preceding conditions, but they looked quite different from those of today. These past conditions will be discussed further below. Now we shall only call attention to the manner in which the immediately preceding condition changed into the present one.
One can conceive of such a transformation to some extent by comparing it to the passage of a plant through the seed stage. Imagine a plant with root, stalk, leaves, blossom, and fruit. It takes in substances from its environment and secretes others. But everything in it which is substance, form, and process disappears, except for the small seed. Life develops by passing through it, and in the new year it rises again in the same form. Thus everything which existed on our earth in its preceding condition has disappeared, only to arise again in its present condition. What for the preceding condition one might call mineral, plant, animal has passed away, as in the plant, root, stalk, and so forth, pass away. There as well as here, a germinal stage has remained, from which the old form develops anew. The forces which will cause the new form to emerge lie hidden in the seed.
[ 2 ] At the period discussed here we are dealing with a kind of earth germ. This contained within itself the forces which led to the earth of today. These forces were acquired through earlier conditions. This earth germ however must not be imagined as a densely material one, like that of a plant. It was rather of a soul character. It consisted of that delicate, malleable, mobile substance which is called “astral” in occult literature.
In this astral germ of earth there are only human rudiments at first. These are the rudiments of the later human souls. Everything in preceding conditions which was already present as a mineral; plant, or animal nature has been drawn into these human rudiments and become fused with them. Before man enters upon the earth he is a soul, an astral entity. As such he appears on earth. The latter exists in a state of the most highly-refined substantiality, which in occult literature is called the most refined ether. Whence this etheric earth originated will be described in the next essays.
The astral human beings combine with this ether. They impress their nature upon this ether, in order that it can become a likeness of the astral human entity. In this initial condition we are dealing with an ether earth which really consists only of these ether men, which is only a conglomerate of them. Actually the astral body or the soul of man is for the most part still outside the ether body and organizes it from without. To the scientist of the spirit, the earth appears approximately as follows. It is a sphere which in turn is composed of innumerable small ether spheres—the ether men—and is surrounded by an astral envelope just as the present earth is surrounded by an envelope of air. It is in this astral envelope (atmosphere) that the astral men live and whence they act upon their ether likenesses. The astral human souls create organs in their ether likenesses and produce a human ether life in them. Within the whole earth there exists only one condition of matter, the refined living ether. In theosophical books this first humanity is called the first (the Polarean) root race.
[ 3 ] The further development of earth takes place in such that from the one condition of matter there develop two. A denser substantiality is secreted, so to speak, and leaves a thinner one behind. The denser substantiality resembles our present air; the thinner one is that which causes chemical elements to develop from previously undifferentiated substance. Along with these, a remainder of the previous substantiality, the living ether, continues to exist. Only a part of it is transformed into the so-called material conditions. We now are dealing with three substances within the physical earth. While the astral human beings in the envelope of earth previously acted only upon one kind of substantiality, they must now act upon three. They act upon them in the following way: That which has become airlike at first resists their activity. It does not accept everything which is rudimentarily present in the complete astral men. As a consequence, astral humanity must divide itself into two groups. One group works on the air-like substantiality and creates in it a likeness of itself. The other group can do more. It can work on the two other substantialities; it can create a likeness of itself which consists of the living ether and of the other kind of ether which brings the elementary chemical substances into being. This ether will here be called the chemical ether. This second group of astral men has acquired its higher capacity, however, only by separating from itself a part of the astral nature—the first group—and condemning it to a lower kind of labor. Had it retained within itself the forces which accomplish this lower labor, it could not have risen higher itself. here we are dealing with a process which consists in the development of the higher at the expense of something else, which is separated from it.
[ 4 ] Within the physical earth the following picture now presents itself. Two kinds of entities have come into being First, entities which have an airlike body on which the astral being belonging to it is working from the outside. These beings are animal-like. They form a first animal realm on earth. These animals have shapes which, were they to be described here, would strike mankind of today as very peculiar. Their shape—one must keep in mind that this shape is based only on an airlike substance—does not resemble any of the animal forms existing now. At most they have a remote similarity to the shells of certain snails and mussels which exist today. Beside these animal forms the development of physical man progresses. The astral man, who has now ascended higher, produces a physical likeness of himself which consists of the two kinds of matter, of the life ether and of the chemical ether. One thus deals with a man who consists of the astral body and is working himself into an ether body which in turn consists of two kinds of ether: life ether and chemical ether. Through the life ether this physical likeness of man is endowed with the capacity to reproduce itself, to cause beings of its own kind to emerge from it. Through the chemical ether it develops certain forces which are similar to the present forces of chemical attraction and repulsion. Thereby this likeness of man is in a position to attract certain substances from the environment and to combine them with itself, secreting them again later by means of the repelling forces. These substances, of course, can only be taken from the animal realm described above, and from the realm of man. This constitutes a beginning of nutrition. Thus these first likenesses of man were eaters of animals and of men.
Besides these beings, the descendants of the earlier beings, composed merely of life ether, continue to exist, but they become atrophied, since they have to adapt to the new terrestrial conditions. After they have undergone many transformations, the unicellular animal beings develop from them, and also the cells which later make up the more complicated living organisms.
[ 5 ] The following process then takes place. The airlike substantiality divides itself into two, of which one becomes denser, watery, while the other one remains airlike. The chemical ether also divides itself into two conditions of matter; one of them becomes denser and forms that which we shall here call the light ether. It endows the entities which possess it with the gilt of luminosity. On the other hand, a portion of the chemical ether continues to exist as such.
[ 6 ] We are now dealing with a physical earth which is composed of the following kinds of matter: water, air, light ether, chemical ether. and life ether. In order that the astral entities can act on these kinds of matter, another process takes place by which the higher develops at the expense of the lower, which becomes separated from it. Thereby physical entities of the following kind are produced. First, those whose physical body consists of water and air. Now coarse astral entities which have been split off, act on these. Thus a new group of animals of coarser materiality than the earlier ones is produced.
Another new group of physical entities has a body which consists of air and light ether mixed with water. These are plantlike entities, which however are very different in form from the plants of today. Finally, the third new group represents man of that period. His physical body consists of three kinds of ether: the light ether, the chemical ether, and the life ether. If one considers that descendants of the old groups also continue to exist, one can judge what a variety of living beings there already were at that stage of terrestrial existence.
[ 7 ] There now follows an important cosmic event. The sun is extruded. Thereby certain forces simply leave the earth. These forces are composed of a part of what hitherto had existed on earth in the life ether and in the chemical and light ether. These forces, so to speak, were withdrawn from the earth. A radical change thereby took place among groups of terrestrial beings which previously had contained these forces within themselves. They all suffered a transformation. Those which have been called plant beings above, first suffered such a transformation. A part of their light ether forces was taken from them. They could then develop as organisms only when the force of light, which had been withdrawn from them, acted upon them from the outside. Thus the plants came under the influence of the sunlight.
Something similar happened with human bodies. From then onward, their light ether also had to act together with the light ether of the sun in order to be capable of life. But not only those beings themselves which lost the light ether were affected; the others were affected too. For in the world everything interacts. Those animal forms, too, which did not contain light ether themselves had previously been irradiated by their fellow beings on earth and had developed under this irradiation. Now they also came under the immediate influence of the external sun.
The human body in particular developed organs receptive to the sunlight, that is, the first rudiments of human eyes.
[ 8 ] The consequence of the extrusion of the sun was a further material densification of the earth. Solid matter developed from fluid; likewise the light ether separated into another kind of light ether, and into an ether which gives bodies the capacity to increase temperature. With this, the earth became an entity which developed heat within itself. All its beings came under the influence of heat. In the astral element a process similar to the previous ones again had to take place; some beings developed to a higher level at the expense of others. A group of beings split off which were well suited to work on coarse solid substantiality. With this there had developed the firm skeleton of the mineral realm of earth. At first the higher natural realms did not act upon this rigid mineral skeleton. Thus, on the earth there exist a mineral realm which is solid, and a plant realm which has water and air as its densest substantiality. In the latter realm, through the events we have described, the air body had become condensed to a water body. There also existed animals of the most varied forms, some with water and some with air bodies. The human body itself had become subject to a process of densification. It had condensed its most compact corporeality to the point of wateriness. The newly-developed heat ether coursed through this water body. This gave to his body a substantiality which could perhaps be called gas-like. This material condition of the human body is described in works on mystery science as that of the fire mist. Man was embodied in this body of fire mist.
[ 9 ] With this, the examination of the Akasha Chronicle has reached a point shortly before the cosmic catastrophe caused by the extrusion of the moon from the earth.
VIII. Anfang der gegenwärtigen Erde, Austritt der Sonne
[ 1 ] Es soll nunmehr die Akasha-Chronik zurückverfolgt werden bis in die urferne Vergangenheit, in welcher die gegenwärtige Erde ihren Anfang genommen hat. Unter Erde soll dabei verstanden werden derjenige Zustand unseres Planeten, durch welchen dieser der Träger von Mineralien, Pflanzen, Tieren und Menschen in ihrer jetzigen Gestalt ist. Denn diesem Zustande gingen andere voran, in welchen die genannten Naturreiche in wesentlich anderen Gestalten vorhanden waren. Das, was man jetzt Erde nennt, hat viele Wandlungen durchlaufen, ehe es Träger unserer gegenwärtigen Mineral-, Pflanzen-, Tier- und Menschenwelt hat werden können. Auch während solch früherer Zustände waren zum Beispiel Mineralien vorhanden: aber sie haben ganz anders ausgesehen als unsere heutigen. Über diese vergangenen Zustände wird hier noch gesprochen werden. Diesmal soll nur darauf aufmerksam gemacht werden, wie der nächstvorhergegangene Zustand sich in den gegenwärtigen umgewandelt hat. — Man kann solche Umwandlung dadurch ein wenig zur Vorstellung bringen, daß man sie vergleicht mit dem Durchgang eines Pflanzenwesens durch den Keimzustand. Man stelle sich eine Pflanze vor mit Wurzel, Stengel, Blättern, Blüte und Frucht. Sie nimmt Stoffe aus ihrer Umgebung auf und scheidet solche wieder aus. Doch alles, was an ihr Stoff, Gestalt und Vorgang ist, entschwindet, bis auf den kleinen Keim. Durch diesen entwickelt sich das Leben hindurch, um im neuen Jahre in gleicher Form wieder zu erstehen. So ist alles, was im vorhergehenden Zustande auf unserer Erde vorhanden war, geschwunden, um im gegenwärtigen wieder zu erstehen. Was man für den vorhergehenden Zustand Mineral, Pflanze, Tier nennen könnte, ist vergangen, wie bei der Pflanze Wurzel, Stengel und so weiter vergangen sind. Und dort wie hier ist ein Keimzustand geblieben, aus dem sich die alte Form wieder neu bildet. In dem Keim liegen die Kräfte verborgen, welche die neue Form aus sich hervorgehen lassen.
[ 2 ] Man hat es also in dem Zeitpunkt, von dem hier gesprochen werden soll, mit einer Art von Erdenkeim zu tun. Dieser hat in sich die Kräfte enthalten, welche zu der heutigen Erde führten. Diese Kräfte sind durch die früheren Zustände erworben worden. Diesen Erdenkeim hat man sich aber nicht als einen dichtstofflichen wie denjenigen einer Pflanze vorzustellen. Er war vielmehr seelischer Natur. Er bestand aus jenem feinen, bildsamen, beweglichen Stoff, den man in der okkultistischen Literatur den «astralen» nennt. — In diesem Astralkeim der Erde sind zunächst nur menschliche Anlagen. Es sind die Anlagen zu den späteren Menschenseelen. Alles, was sonst schon in früheren Zuständen in mineralischer, pflanzlicher, tierischer Natur vorhanden war, ist in diese menschlichen Anlagen aufgesogen, mit ihnen verschmolzen worden. Bevor also der Mensch die physische Erde betritt, ist er Seele, astralische Wesenheit. Als solche findet er sich auf der physischen Erde ein. Diese ist in einer äußerst feinen Stofflichkeit vorhanden, die man in der okkultistischen Literatur den feinsten Äther nennt. — Woher diese Äthererde stammt, kommt in den nächsten Aufsätzen zur Darstellung. Mit diesem Äther verbinden sich die astralischen Menschenwesen. Sie prägen ihre Wesenheit diesem Äther gleichsam ein, so daß er ein Abbild der astralischen Menschenwesenheit wird. Man hat es also in diesem Anfangszustande mit einer Äthererde zu tun, die eigentlich nur aus diesen Äthermenschen besteht, die nur ein Konglomerat aus ihnen ist. Der Astralleib oder die Seele des Menschen ist eigentlich noch zum größten Teile au)'er dem Ätherleib und organisiert ihn von außen. Für den Geheimforscher nimmt sich diese Erde etwa folgendermaßen aus. Sie ist eine Kugel, die sich wieder aus unzähligen kleinen Ätherkugeln — den Äthermenschen — zusammensetzt, und ist von einer astralen Hülle umgeben, wie die gegenwärtige Erde von einer Lufthülle umgeben ist. In dieser astralen Hülle (Atmosphäre) leben die Astralmenschen und wirken von da aus auf ihre ätherischen Abbilder. Die astralen Menschenseelen schaffen in den Ätherabbildern Organe und bewirken in diesen ein menschliches Ätherleben. Es ist innerhalb der ganzen Erde nur ein Stoffzustand, eben der feine lebendige Äther, vorhanden. In theosophischen Büchern wird diese erste Menschheit die erste (polarische) Wurzelrasse genannt.
[ 3 ] Die Weiterentwickelung der Erde geschieht nun so, daß sich aus dem einen Stoffzustand zwei bilden. Es scheidet sich gleichsam eine dichtere aus und läßt eine dünnere Stofflichkeit zurück. Die dichtere Stofflichkeit ist ähnlich unserer heutigen Luft; die dünnere ist gleich derjenigen, welche bewirkt, daß sich chemische Elemente aus der früheren ungeteilten Stofflichkeit herausbilden. Daneben bleibt ein Rest der früheren Stofflichkeit, des belebten Äthers, bestehen. Nur ein Teil desselben gliedert sich in die beiden genannten Stoffzustände. Man hat es also jetzt mit drei Stoffen innerhalb der physischen Erde zu tun. Während vorher die astralischen Menschenwesen in der Erdenhülle nur auf eine Stofflichkeit wirkten, haben sie jetzt auf drei zu wirken. Und sie wirken darauf in folgender Weise. Was luftartig geworden ist, leistet der Arbeit der Astralmenschen zunächst Widerstand. Es nimmt nicht alles an, was an Anlagen in den vollkommenen Astralmenschen enthalten ist. Die Folge davon ist, daß sich die astralische Menschheit in zwei Gruppen teilen muß. Die eine Gruppe ist eine solche, welche die luftförmige Stofflichkeit bearbeitet und darinnen ein Abbild von sich selbst schafft. Die andere Gruppe vermag mehr. Sie kann die beiden anderen Stofflichkeiten bearbeiten, sie kann von sich ein solches Abbild schaffen, daß dieses aus dem lebendigen Äther und der anderen die chemischen Elementarstoffe bewirkenden Ätherart besteht. Es soll diese Ätherart hier der chemische Äther genannt werden. Diese zweite Gruppe der Astralmenschen hat diese ihre höhere Fähigkeit aber nur dadurch erworben, daß sie einen Teil — die erste Gruppe — der astralischen Wesenheit von sich ausgeschieden und zu niedriger Arbeit verurteilt hat. Hätte sie die Kräfte in sich behalten, welche diese niedere Arbeit bewirkten, so hätte sie selbst nicht höher steigen können. Man hat es hier also mit einem Vorgang zu tun, der darin besteht, daß sich etwas Höheres auf Kosten eines andern entwickelt, das es aus sich ausscheidet.
[ 4 ] Innerhalb der physischen Erde bietet sich jetzt folgendes Bild. Zweierlei Wesenheiten sind entstanden. Erstens solche Wesenheiten, die einen luftförmigen Körper haben, an welchem von dem zu ihm gehörigen Astralwesen von außen gearbeitet wird. Diese Wesen sind tierartig. Sie bilden ein erstes Tierreich auf der Erde. Diese Tiere haben Gestalten, welche ziemlich abenteuerlich den heutigen Menschen vorkämen, wenn sie hier beschrieben würden. Ihre Gestalt — man muß festhalten, daß diese Gestalt nur luftartigen Stoff hat — gleicht keiner der jetzt vorhandenen Tierformen. Höchstens haben sie eine entfernte Ähnlichkeit mit gewissen Schneckenoder Muschelschalen, die heute existieren. Neben diesen Tierformen schreitet die physische Menschenbildung vorwärts. Der nun höher gestiegene astralische Mensch schafft von sich ein physisches Abbild, das aus zwei Stoffarten besteht, aus dem Lebensäther und dem chemischen Äther. Man hat es also zu tun mit einem Menschen, der aus dem Astralleib besteht und der in einen Ätherleib hineinarbeitet, welcher seinerseits wieder aus zwei Ätherarten: Lebensäther und chemischen Äther besteht. Durch den Lebensäther hat dieses physische Menschenabbild die Fähigkeit, sich fortzupflanzen, Wesen seinesgleichen aus sich hervorgehen zu lassen. Durch den chemischen Äther entwickelt es gewisse Kräfte, welche den heutigen chemischen Anziehungs- und Abstoßungskräften ähnlich sind. Dadurch ist dieses Menschenabbild imstande, gewisse Stoffe aus der Umwelt an sich heranzuziehen und mit sich zu vereinigen, um sie später durch die abstoßenden Kräfte wieder auszuscheiden. Natürlich können diese Stoffe nur aus dem beschriebenen Tierreich und aus dem Menschenreiche selbst genommen sein. Man hat es mit dem Anfange einer Ernährung zu tun. Diese ersten Menschenabbilder waren also Tier- und Menschenfresser. — Neben all diesen Wesen bleiben auch noch die Nachkommen der früheren bloßen Lebensätherwesen vorhanden; aber sie verkümmern, da sie sich den neuen Erdverhältnissen anpassen müssen. Aus diesen bilden sich dann später, nach vielen Umwandlungen, die sie durchmachen, die einzelligen Tierwesen und auch die Zellen, welche später die komplizierteren Lebewesen zusammensetzen.
[ 5 ] Der weitere Vorgang ist nun der folgende. Die luftartige Stofflichkeit spaltet sich in zwei, wovon die eine dichter, wäßrig wird, die andere luftartig verbleibt. Aber auch der chemische Äther spaltet sich in zwei Stoffzustände; der eine wird dichter und bildet das, was hier Lichtäther genannt werden soll. Er bewirkt in den Wesenheiten, die ihn in sich haben, die Gabe des Leuchtens. Ein Teil aber des chemischen Äthers bleibt als solcher bestehen. — Nun hat man es mit einer physischen Erde zu tun, die sich aus folgenden Stoffarten zusammensetzt:
[ 6 ] Wasser, Luft, Lichtäther, chemischer Äther und Lebensäther. Damit nun die astralischen Wesenheiten wieder auf diese Stoffarten wirken können, findet wieder ein Vorgang statt, durch den sich Höheres auf Kosten eines Niedrigeren entwickelt, das ausgeschieden wird. Dadurch entstehen physische Wesenheiten der folgenden Art. Erstens solche, deren physischer Leib aus Wasser und Luft besteht. Auf diese wirken nun grobe ausgeschiedene Astralwesenheiten. Damit entsteht eine neue Gruppe von Tieren in gröberer Stofflichkeit als die früheren. — Eine andere neue Gruppe von physischen Wesenheiten hat einen Leib, der aus Luft- und Lichtäther, mit Wasser vermischt, bestehen kann. Diese sind pflanzenähnliche Wesenheiten, die aber wieder an Gestalt sehr verschieden sind von den gegenwärtigen Pflanzen. Die dritte neue Gruppe stellt nun erst den damaligen Menschen dar. Sein physischer Leib besteht aus drei Ätherarten, dem Lichtäther, dem chemischen Äther und dem Lebensäther. Wenn man bedenkt, daß nun auch Nachkömmlinge der alten Gruppen fortbestehen, so kann man ermessen, welche Mannigfaltigkeit von Lebewesen auf der damaligen Stufe des Erdendaseins schon vorhanden war.
[ 7 ] Nun folgt ein wichtiges kosmisches Ereignis. Die Sonne scheidet sich aus. Es gehen damit gewisse Kräfte aus der Erde einfach fort. Diese Kräfte sind zusammengesetzt aus einem Teil dessen, was im Lebensäther, chemischen und Lichtäther bisher auf der Erde vorhanden war. Diese Kräfte wurden damit aus der bisherigen Erde gleichsam herausgezogen. Eine radikale Änderung ging dadurch mit allen Gruppen der Erdenwesen vor sich, die in sich diese Kräfte vorher enthalten hatten. Sie erlitten eine Umbildung. Das, was oben Pflanzenwesen genannt wurde, erlitt zunächst eine solche Umbildung. Ein Teil ihrer Lichtätherkräfte wurde ihnen entzogen. Sie konnten dann sich als Lebewesen nur entfalten, wenn die ihnen entzogene Kraft des Lichtes von außen auf sie wirkte. So kamen die Pflanzen unter die Einwirkung des Sonnenlichtes. — Ein ähnliches trat auch für die Menschenleiber ein. Auch ihr Lichtäther mußte fortan mit dem Sonnenlichtäther zusammenwirken, um lebensfähig zu sein. — Es wurden aber nicht nur diejenigen Wesen betroffen, welche unmittelbar Lichtäther verloren, sondern auch die anderen. Denn in der Welt wirkt alles zusammen. Auch die Tierformen, die nicht selbst Lichtäther enthielten, wurden ja früher von ihren Mitwesen auf der Erde bestrahlt und entwickelten sich unter dieser Bestrahlung. Auch sie kamen jetzt unmittelbar unter die Einwirkung der außen stehenden Sonne. — Der Menschenleib aber im besonderen entwickelte Organe, die für das Sonnenlicht empfänglich waren: die ersten Anlagen der Menschenaugen.
[ 8 ] Für die Erde war die Folge des Heraustretens der Sonne eine weitere stoffliche Verdichtung. Es bildete sich fester Stoff aus dem flüssigen heraus; ebenso schied sich der Lichtäther in eine andere Lichtätherart und in einen Äther, der den Körpern das Vermögen gibt, zu erwärmen. Damit wurde die Erde eine Wesenheit, die Wärme in sich entwickelte. Alle ihre Wesen kamen unter den Einfluß der Wärme. Wieder mußte im Astralischen ein ähnlicher Vorgang stattfinden wie früher; die einen Wesen bildeten sich höher auf Kosten von anderen. Es schied sich ein Teil von Wesen aus, der geeignet war, die derbe, feste Stofflichkeit zu bearbeiten. Und damit war für die Erde das feste Knochengerüst des mineralischen Reiches entstanden. Zunächst waren alle höheren Naturreiche noch nicht auf diese feste mineralische Knochenmasse wirksam. Man hat daher auf der Erde ein Mineralreich, das hart ist, ein Pflanzenreich, das als dichteste Stofflichkeit Wasser und Luft hat. In diesem Reiche hatte sich nämlich durch die geschilderten Vorgänge der Luftleib selbst zu einem Wasserleib verdichtet. Daneben bestanden Tiere in den mannigfaltigsten Formen, solche mit Wasser- und solche mit Luftleibern. Der Menschenleib selbst war einem Verdichtungsprozeß anheimgefallen. Er hatte seine dichteste Leiblichkeit bis zur Wässerigkeit verdichtet. Dieser sein Wasserleib war durchzogen von dem entstandenen Wärmeäther. Das gab seinem Leib eine Stofflichkeit, die man etwa gasartig nennen könnte. Diesen materiellen Zustand des Menschenleibes bezeichnet man in Werken der Geheimwissenschaft als denjenigen des Feuernebels. Der Mensch war in diesem Leibe von Feuernebel verkörpert.
[ 9 ] Damit ist die Betrachtung der Akasha-Chronik bis dicht vor jene kosmische Katastrophe vorgeschritten, welche durch den Austritt des Mondes von der Erde bewirkt worden ist.
VIII. Beginning of the present earth, exit of the sun
[ 1 ] The Akashic Chronicle will now be traced back to the distant past, in which the present Earth had its beginning. Earth is to be understood as that state of our planet through which it is the carrier of minerals, plants, animals and humans in their present form. For this state was preceded by others in which the aforementioned natural kingdoms were present in substantially different forms. What is now called earth has undergone many transformations before it could become the carrier of our present mineral, plant, animal and human world. Minerals, for example, were also present during such earlier states, but they looked quite different from our present ones. These past conditions will be discussed later. This time we shall only draw attention to how the next previous state was transformed into the present one. - One can visualize such a transformation by comparing it to the passage of a plant through the germinal state. Imagine a plant with root, stem, leaves, blossom and fruit. It absorbs substances from its environment and excretes them again. But everything about it that is substance, form and process disappears, apart from the small germ. Life develops through this, in order to arise again in the same form in the new year. Thus everything that was present on our earth in the previous state has disappeared in order to arise again in the present. What could be called mineral, plant, animal in the previous state has passed away, just as the root, stem and so on of the plant have passed away. And there, as here, a germinal state has remained, from which the old form arises anew. Hidden in the germ are the forces that allow the new form to emerge.
[ 2 ] So at the point in time we are talking about here, we are dealing with a kind of earth germ. It contained the forces that led to today's earth. These forces have been acquired through the earlier states. However, this earth germ must not be imagined as a dense material like that of a plant. Rather, it was of a spiritual nature. It consisted of that fine, pictorial, mobile substance which is called the "astral" in occult literature. - In this astral germ of the earth are at first only human dispositions. They are the dispositions for the later human souls. Everything else that was already present in earlier states in mineral, vegetable, animal nature has been absorbed into these human dispositions, has been fused with them. So before man enters the physical earth, he is soul, astral entity. As such he finds himself on the physical earth. This is present in an extremely fine materiality, which is called the fine ether in occult literature. - The origin of this etheric earth will be explained in the following essays. The astral human beings connect with this ether. They imprint their essence on this ether, so to speak, so that it becomes an image of the astral human being. So in this initial state we are dealing with an etheric earth which actually consists only of these etheric human beings, which is only a conglomerate of them. The astral body or the soul of man is actually still for the most part external to the etheric body and organizes it from the outside. For the secret researcher, this earth looks something like this. It is a sphere, which is again composed of innumerable small ether spheres - the ether people - and is surrounded by an astral envelope, just as the present earth is surrounded by an air envelope. The astral people live in this astral envelope (atmosphere) and work from there on their etheric images. The astral human souls create organs in the etheric images and bring about a human etheric life in them. Within the whole earth there is only one material state, the fine living ether. In theosophical books, this first humanity is called the first (polar) root race.
[ 3 ] The further development of the earth now takes place in such a way that two states of matter are formed from one. As it were, a denser one separates and leaves behind a thinner materiality. The denser materiality is similar to our present air; the thinner one is similar to that which causes chemical elements to form out of the former undivided materiality. In addition, a remnant of the former materiality, the animated ether, remains. Only a part of it is divided into the two states of matter mentioned. Thus we are now dealing with three substances within the physical earth. Whereas previously the astral human beings in the earthly shell only worked on one materiality, they now have to work on three. And they work on them in the following way. What has become airy initially resists the work of the astral beings. It does not accept everything that is contained in the perfect astral man. The consequence of this is that astral mankind must divide itself into two groups. The one group is one which works on the aerial materiality and creates in it an image of itself. The other group is capable of more. It can work on the two other materialities, it can create such an image of itself that this consists of the living ether and the other type of ether that brings about the chemical elementary substances. This type of ether will be called the chemical ether here. This second group of astral men, however, has only acquired its higher faculty by excreting from itself a part - the first group - of the astral entity and condemning it to lower work. If it had retained within itself the forces which brought about this lower work, it could not have risen higher itself. We are therefore dealing here with a process that consists of something higher developing at the expense of another, which it eliminates from itself.
[ 4 ] The following picture now presents itself within the physical earth. Two kinds of beings have emerged. Firstly, beings that have an aerial body, which is worked on from the outside by the astral being that belongs to it. These beings are animal-like. They form the first animal kingdom on earth. These animals have forms which would appear quite adventurous to people today if they were described here. Their form - it must be noted that this form has only air-like material - does not resemble any of the animal forms that exist today. At most they bear a distant resemblance to certain snail or mussel shells that exist today. Alongside these animal forms, the physical formation of man is progressing. The astral man, who has now risen higher, creates a physical image of himself which consists of two kinds of matter, the life ether and the chemical ether. So we are dealing with a human being who consists of the astral body and who works into an etheric body, which in turn consists of two types of ether: life ether and chemical ether. Through the life ether this physical human image has the ability to reproduce itself, to allow beings of its own kind to emerge from it. Through the chemical ether it develops certain forces which are similar to today's chemical forces of attraction and repulsion. As a result, this human image is able to attract certain substances from the environment and unite them with itself, only to later expel them again through the repulsive forces. Of course, these substances can only be taken from the described animal kingdom and from the human kingdom itself. We are dealing with the beginnings of nutrition. These first images of man were therefore animal and man eaters. - In addition to all these beings, the descendants of the earlier mere life ether beings also remain; but they wither away as they have to adapt to the new earth conditions. After undergoing many transformations, the unicellular animal beings and also the cells that later compose the more complex living beings are formed from them.
[ 5 ] The further process is now as follows. The air-like matter splits into two, one of which becomes denser and watery, the other remains air-like. But the chemical ether also splits into two states of matter; one becomes denser and forms what will be called light ether here. It brings about the gift of light in the beings who have it within them. A part of the chemical ether, however, remains as such. - Now we are dealing with a physical earth that is composed of the following types of matter:
[ 6 ] Water, air, light ether, chemical ether and life ether. In order for the astral entities to be able to act on these types of matter again, another process takes place through which a higher being develops at the expense of a lower one, which is eliminated. This gives rise to physical entities of the following kinds. Firstly, those whose physical body consists of water and air. Coarse excreted astral entities now act on these. This creates a new group of animals with a coarser materiality than the earlier ones. - Another new group of physical beings has a body that can consist of air and light ether mixed with water. These are plant-like beings, but again they are very different in form from the present plants. The third new group is the human being of that time. His physical body consists of three types of ether, the light ether, the chemical ether and the life ether. If one considers that descendants of the old groups also continue to exist, one can appreciate the diversity of living beings that already existed at that stage of earthly existence.
[ 7 ] Now follows an important cosmic event. The sun separates. This means that certain forces simply disappear from the earth. These forces are composed of part of what was previously present on Earth in the life ether, chemical ether and light ether. These forces were thus pulled out of the previous earth, as it were. A radical change thereby took place with all groups of earth beings who had previously contained these forces within themselves. They underwent a transformation. The plant beings mentioned above initially underwent such a transformation. A part of their light ether powers was withdrawn from them. They were then only able to develop as living beings when the power of light that had been withdrawn from them acted on them from outside. This is how plants came under the influence of sunlight. - The same happened to human bodies. From then on, their light ether also had to interact with the sunlight ether in order to be viable. - However, not only those beings who directly lost light ether were affected, but also the others. For in the world everything works together. Even the animal forms, which did not themselves contain light ether, were previously irradiated by their fellow beings on earth and developed under this irradiation. Now they too came directly under the influence of the external sun. - The human body in particular, however, developed organs that were receptive to sunlight: the first human eyes.
[ 8 ] For the earth, the consequence of the sun's emergence was a further material compression. Solid matter was formed out of the liquid; likewise the light ether separated into another kind of light ether and into an ether that gives bodies the ability to heat. Thus the earth became an entity that developed warmth within itself. All its beings came under the influence of warmth. Again a similar process had to take place in the astral as before; some beings developed higher at the expense of others. A portion of beings separated out which was suited to work on the coarse, solid materiality. And thus the solid skeleton of the mineral kingdom was created for the earth. Initially, all the higher kingdoms of nature were not yet effective on this solid mineral bone mass. Hence we have on earth a mineral kingdom that is hard, a plant kingdom that has water and air as its densest matter. In this kingdom the air body itself had condensed into a water body as a result of the processes described above. In addition, animals existed in the most diverse forms, those with water bodies and those with air bodies. The human body itself had undergone a process of condensation. He had condensed his most dense corporeality to the point of wateriness. This watery body of his was permeated by the heat ether that had arisen. This gave his body a materiality that could be described as gaseous. This material state of the human body is referred to in works of secret science as that of the fire mist. The human being was embodied in this body of fire mist.
[ 9 ] Thus, the consideration of the Akashic Chronicle has advanced close to that cosmic catastrophe which was caused by the egress of the moon from the earth.