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Awareness - Life - Form
GA 89

31 October 1904, Berlin

Planetary Evolution VI

Today we will consider evolution on our Earth in particular. First, let us briefly sum up what we have been considering so far.

In Earth evolution we are at the fourth level of conscious awareness, that is, on the fourth planet. Bright daytime conscious awareness develops step by step through 49 stages. The highest level on the preceding planet, which was Moon, was the perfection of a highly developed dream-level awareness. This was similar to the awareness we now see in the most highly developed animals. The physical human being—not the human being of soul and spirit, for he was then following another line of evolution and would only unite later with the physical—was then able to think in the kind of way which the dream-level awareness of today’s most highly developed animals permits. At the beginning of such an evolution process, it is our most essential nature which matters for the way we progress.

Animals, plants and minerals developed earlier than the human being. Everything which had then developed in such a way that it could progress further went into a kind of seed state with the human being and through a pralaya. On the Moon, the human seeds were sufficiently far advanced to develop the capacity for a higher dream-level awareness. The animals had only reached a dim dream-like level, plants an even lower one, and the minerals were at a still lower level of awareness. Anything not suitable for further development was cast off as a kind of cinder. In the next stage, Earth evolution, seeds existed for that kind of humans, animals, plants and minerals. This means seeds existed not only from the human world, but also from the animal, plant and mineral worlds, which were very different then from what we know as animals, plants and minerals today. The minerals were more in the kind of state one sees today with metals at exceedingly high temperatures.

The forms evolving step by step in our Earth evolution are not identical with the animals, plants and minerals of earlier times. They were already a stage ahead of what was needed for Earth. Only the human being found the conditions he needed on Earth. The other worlds therefore developed more or less as overripe fruit. They were unable to take root. These entities are therefore not really at home on this Earth itself, but only in the soil provided by entities which are at home here. They became parasites. The Moon animals and plants were used to living in a kama soil, being wholly in the psychic realm, and therefore could only find a soil on Earth when kama existed there. They thus became parasitic, like mistletoe, for example, which developed independent growth on the Moon but was not able to grow directly in the soil here on Earth. It was a power that had its justification on the Moon, but not on Earth. This made it a power which retards and affects the development of other plants. Satan is therefore the lord of parasites; he uses the powers that are parasitic. In Germanic mythology, the god Loki was hostile to Balder, god of the Earth. Everything which had come down from the lunar period was represented by Loki. No one on Earth could harm Balder, only the one who had come from the Moon. Balder was therefore felled by a mistletoe, which had its power from the Moon.

Our animals, which are evolving, and the human being, too, have developed a skeletal system on Earth. The animals which had already completed their evolution on the Moon did not have a skeletal system there. On Earth they have created an exoskeleton for themselves—a crust or shell. Examples are beetles, arachnids and so on. They came into Earth evolution from the Moon. All life forms which truly follow Earth evolution develop an endoskeleton. This is why Eve is said to have been created from a rib. So there were then two streams on Earth, firstly everything that could develop into animals, plants and minerals on Earth, and secondly human beings in their seed stage.

How did the higher development of the human being proceed? To have everything in him that would later enable him to reach the level of development he was destined to reach, the human being needed to eliminate anything that would otherwise have gone into parasitic development. He had to develop those three other worlds next to his own.

The first phase was the period of time which is called the ‘first round’ in the theosophical literature. In the first round the human being had to create the potential for the physical and Earthly mineral world out of himself, in the second round the plant world and in the third round the potential for the animal world, for that of which these worlds evolved would have prevented him from achieving what he has only been able to achieve by distilling his human nature. It was only in the fourth round that he had freed himself sufficiently from all the other worlds, that he was then prepared to be the vessel for the spirit which had floated around him, waiting for him. It was only in the fourth round that he had developed so far that the spirit was able to take possession of this purified body. He was increasingly able to spread himself, leaving behind him along the way, as his offerings, the mineral, plant and animal worlds. All higher development must be paid for by leaving other entities behind.

In the fourth round the human being is learning to govern the mineral world through his senses. He makes use of the nonliving, mineral world and will advance further and further in this. The vital energies of the plant world are not yet in his conscious control. The Atlanteans controlled them unconsciously, instinctively. Atlanteans also created their airships unconsciously. The task for the second half of the fourth round is to pour the spirit consciously into the inorganic world. This means that by the end of the fourth round, the mineral world will have been gradually absorbed by the human being. He will have physically transformed everything physical and mineral with his thought forms. It is his task to redeem the mineral world again, pouring in his mind and spirit and configuring it through his spirit. In the second half of the fourth round the human being will have gone on to control the astral. On the last globe, the archetypal one of the fourth round, the mineral world will be wholly alive.

In the first half of the fourth round human beings finally developed the ability to relate their senses to the mineral world. In the second half of the fourth round they will redeem the mineral world. Part of it will, however, remain behind, being eliminated since it is of no further use to human beings. This creates the 'eighth sphere', which is of no further use to human evolution but only to spirits of a higher kind. Later, when it has dissolved into cosmic dust, it will serve as material for the creation of new worlds. It will be taken up into other evolutionary streams; the human being cannot take it up for himself. First you have evolution, creation for the outside, then involution, when things are taken in again.

In the fifth round the mineral world will have gone. It will have been redeemed. In the first half of that round human beings will develop the higher senses that will enable them to relate to the plant world the way they now do to the mineral world; they will develop 'plant thinking'. The human being would then live in full conscious awareness in the Garden of Eden. Gravity will have gone. Everything will have metamorphosed into plants. In the second half of the fifth round, the human being will draw the whole of the plant world into himself again; he will redeem it in so far as he is able to redeem it. These worlds had of course been separated out at an earlier time to help humanity, being superfluous and an impediment to human evolution.

The same thing will then happen with regard to the animal world in the sixth round. Then the human being will be wholly human. In the seventh round the human being will develop his true intended nature in his atman—free of those other worlds, which he cast out, he will then develop his own godlike nature. Every round is a day of creation [in the biblical sense, transl.]. The seventh round will be the seventh day of creation when man becomes godlike and when God can rest from his labours.

From the middle of our own round, the fourth, evolution will need to take another direction. The mineral world shows the most marked separation. The human being relates to the world of matter, which is growing denser, in a wholly external way. Minerals, plants and animals are more closely related to the surrounding world than he is. The forces in a crystal live in the universe, making no claim to be special or separate. It is part of the whole. The claim to be separate and distinct will grow more powerful in stages. The human being is most separate and by himself, something which happened above all in the middle of the Lemurian race for the human being. A housing was created for the spirit. Then the spirit united with the human being. And with the spirit then working to emerge again, human beings began to integrate into that world again, doing so through community. First they had to establish a separate identity; then they developed communities in the spirit, brotherhood. What had been sympathy and antipathy at the kama level now becomes power of attraction by choice. A deliberately chosen brotherliness develops. Someone belonging to a lodge of brothers no longer knows the separation which others know; he does not separate from his group but integrates into it in full awareness.

The conscious awareness of an adept rests in his brotherhood or group. Spirits who have reached a certain level with this are called dhyanic spirits, the great creative energies. Brotherhood lodges develop into dhyanic spirits. Dhyanic spirits are like collections of cells. The brotherhood lodge of the adepts will be seen as a dhyanic spirit. Evolution again brings enrichment here. An important point lies in the middle of the fourth round: Human spirits begin to come together in a brotherhood, to develop a dhyanic spirit.

We thus feel that there is a vast difference between the first and second halves of a round. In the first half, the human being develops the organs by means of which he reaches out. In the second half he draws those organs into himself again. The first half is meant to prepare him for that withdrawal. In the second half of the round every spirit will find redemption for its own kind of life, at the appropriate level. ‘Round’ is also ‘cycle’ in esoteric terminology. In every cycle, evolution proceeds from the arupic to the archetypal. This is known as an ‘epicycle’ [= globes]. It is thus only in the second half of a cycle or round that an entity can gather karma, for this will be when it begins to be active. The karmic development of an entity will therefore have significance specifically on the plane where it is evolving at the time.

Spirits exist that guide physical evolution from higher planes. Their lowest form of evolution occurs in astral matter. Every nation, every race, every tribe has astral matter in common which is the material in which the spirit of the nation incarnates. The spirit of a nation is always a bit ahead of the individual members of the nation in its development. From the middle of a cycle onwards it is able to gather karma. We help to create the karma of the nation, the race, and so on. This is known as 'collective karma' it is something very real. The result is that spirits which are one level further ahead will also have karma.

International endeavors belong to an even more comprehensive spirit that embraces all the astral material of the Earth. The physical Earth is also the physical body for this spirit of the Earth, the planetary Logos which, if we rise to it, signifies the karma for the whole of Earthly evolution. International endeavors are the first step towards the great unity we shall have on the arupic plane. Theosophists live with the idea of this great all-inclusiveness, this concentration in one point.

Sechster Vortrag

Wir wollen heute die Entwicklung auf unserer Erde im besonderen durchnehmen. Zunächst fassen wir das vorher Durchgenommene noch einmal kurz zusammen.

Innerhalb der irdischen Entwicklung stehen wir auf der vierten Stufe des Bewußtseins, auf dem vierten Planeten also. Auf diesem wird das helle Tagesbewußtsein ausgebildet, und zwar stufenweise durch 49 Stufen. Die höchste Stufe auf dem vorhergehenden Planeten, auf dem Monde, war die vollkommenste Ausbildung einer Art hochentwickelten Traumbewußtseins. Dieses war ein ähnliches Bewußtsein, wie es bei den höchstentwickelten Tieren jetzt ist. Der physische Mensch - nicht der seelisch-geistige, der eine andere Entwicklungslinie gegangen ist und erst Jetzt sich mit dem Physischen vereinigen wird — konnte dazumal in der Art denken, wie es das Traumbewußtsein der heute höchstentwickelten Tiere gestattet. Im Beginne einer solchen Entwicklung kommt für das Weiterschreiten unser hauptsächlichstes Wesen selbst in Betracht.

Tiere, Pflanzen und Mineralien waren früher entwickelt als der Mensch. Was damals so entwickelt war, daß es fortschreiten konnte, ging mit dem Menschen in eine Art Keimzustand über, durch ein Pralaya hindurch. Auf dem Monde waren die Menschenkeime so weit, sich zu der Fähigkeit eines höheren Traumbewußtseins zu entwickeln. Die Tiere waren erst bei einem dumpfen Traumbewußtsein angelangt, die Pflanzen bei einem niedrigeren und die Mineralien bei einem noch niedrigeren Bewußtsein. Alles übrige, was zur Weiterentwicklung nicht geeignet war, wurde als Schlacke abgeworfen. In der neuen Erdenevolution waren Keime von dieser Art von Menschen, Tieren, Pflanzen, Mineralien vorhanden. Also waren Keime da nicht nur aus dem Menschenreich, sondern aus dem Tier-, Pflanzen- und Mineralreich, die damals sehr verschieden waren von dem, was wir jetzt als Tiere, Pflanzen und Mineralien kennen. Die Mineralien waren mehr in einem Zustande, wie er jetzt bei einer sehr hohen Temperatur bei einem Metall eintritt.

Was sich nun in unserer Erdenentwicklung von Stufe zu Stufe gestaltet, ist nicht identisch mit Tieren, Pflanzen und Mineralien der vorhergehenden Zeiten. Sie waren schon eine Stufe weiter, als für die Erde nötig war. Erst der Mensch fand auf der Erde die für ihn entsprechenden Bedingungen. Daher entwickelten sich die anderen Reiche gleichsam als überreife Frucht; sie konnten nicht mehr Wurzel fassen. Diese Wesen sind daher nicht eigentlich heimisch auf dieser Erde selbst, sondern sie können erst auf dem Boden derjenigen Wesenheiten leben, die hier heimisch sind; sie werden Schmarotzer, Parasiten. Die Mondtiere und Mondpflanzen waren gewohnt in einem Boden von Kama zu leben, sie waren ganz in das Psychische hineingelagert, sie konnten daher erst auf der Erde einen Boden finden, als das Kama dort vorhanden war. Sie wurden nun parasitär, wie zum Beispiel die Mistel, die auf dem Monde selbständig ihr Wachstum entwickelte, hier aber nicht unmittelbar auf der Erde wachsen konnte. Diese Kraft war auf dem Monde berechtigt, aber nicht auf der Erde. Sie wurde zu einer hemmenden, aufhaltenden Kraft, da sie die Entwicklung anderer Pflanzen beeinträchtigt. Daher ist Satan der Herr der Parasiten, er bedient sich der Kräfte, die parasitisch sind. In der germanischen Mythologie ist es der Gott Loki, der dem Baldur, dem Gott der Erde feindlich gesinnt ist. Alles, was von der lunarischen Epoche herübergekommen war, ist dargestellt in Loki. Kein Wesen der Erde vermag Baldur zu verletzen, nur dasjenige, das vom Monde gekommen ist; daher wurde Baldur durch eine Mistel getroffen, die vom Monde ihre Kraft hat.

Unsere Tiere, die sich in ihrer Entwicklung auf der Erde befinden, und auch der Mensch, bilden sich auf der Erde ein Knochensystem aus. Die Tiere aber, die auf dem Monde ihre Entwicklung schon zu Ende erreicht haben, die hatten dort kein Knochensystem, sie haben sich auf der Erde ein Außenskelett gebildet: eine Kruste oder eine Schale wie zum Beispiel Käfer, Tracheen und so weiter. Diese kamen vom Monde in die Erdenentwicklung hinein. Alle Wesen, die wirklich mit der Erdenentwicklung gehen, bilden ein Innenskelett. Daher wird Eva als aus der Rippe geschaffen dargestellt. Es befanden sich nun auf der Erde zwei Strömungen: erstens das, was Tiere, Pflanzen und Mineral auf der Erde werden kann und zweitens daneben die keimhaften Menschen.

Wie geschieht nun die Höherentwicklung des Menschen? Der Mensch muß, um später alles in sich zu haben, was ihn fähig macht, die Stufe der Entwicklung überhaupt zu erreichen, die ihm beschieden ist, alles das ausscheiden, was sich sonst parasitär entwickelt hätte. Das, was jetzt Mineral ist, was Pflanze, was Tier ist, mußte aus ihm herausgehen. Er mußte neben sich diese drei Reiche herausgestalten.

Die erste Phase ist die in der theosophischen Literatur erste Runde genannte Zeitepoche. In der ersten Runde mußte der Mensch in der Anlage das physisch-irdische Mineralreich aus sich herausgestalten, in der zweiten Runde das Pflanzenreich und in der dritten Runde das Tierreich in der Anlage, weil das, woraus diese Reiche sich bilden, ihn hindert, das zu erreichen, was er nur mit Destillieren seiner Menschennatur erreichen kann. Erst in der vierten Runde hat er sich so weit befreit von all den anderen Reichen, daß er mittlerweile sich vorbereitet hat, Gefäß des Geistes zu werden, der um ihn geschwebt, auf ihn gewartet hat. Erst in der vierten Runde hat er sich so weit gebracht, daß der Geist von diesem gereinigten Körper Besitz ergreifen kann. Er erlangt immer mehr die Fähigkeit, sich auszubreiten. Er hat hinter sich auf seinem Wege, als sein Opfer, das Mineral-, Pflanzen- und Tierreich zurückgelassen. Alle Höherentwicklung muß erkauft werden auf Kosten des Zurücklassens anderer Wesen.

Während der vierten Runde lernt der Mensch das Mineralreich durch die Sinne beherrschen. Er verwertet die unlebendige, mineralische Welt; darin wird er es immer weiter bringen. Die Lebenskraft des Pflanzenreiches beherrscht er noch nicht bewußt. Die Atlantier beherrschten sie unbewußt, instinktiv. Der Atlantier gestaltete sich auch "seine Luftschiffe unbewußt. Das bewußte Hineingießen des Geistes in die unorganische Welt ist die Aufgabe der zweiten Hälfte der vierten Runde. Dadurch wird bis zum Ende der vierten Runde nach und nach das Mineralreich vom Menschen aufgesaugt worden sein. Alles Physisch-Mineralische wird der Mensch mit seinen Gedankenformen physisch umgestaltet haben. Es ist seine Aufgabe, das Mineralreich wieder zu erlösen, seinen Geist hineinzugießen, es durch seinen Geist zu gestalten. Wenn der Mensch in der zweiten Hälfte der vierten Runde übergegangen sein wird zu einer Beherrschung des Astralischen, dann wird auf dem letzten Globus, dem archetypischen (urbildlichen) der vierten Runde, das Mineralreich durch und durch leben.

In der ersten Hälfte der vierten Runde erwirbt der Mensch erst die Fähigkeit, seine Sinne zu dem Mineralreich in Beziehung zu setzen; in der zweiten Hälfte der vierten Runde erlöst er das Mineralreich. Aber ein Teil desselben bleibt zurück, wird ausgeschieden, da er für den Menschen nicht mehr brauchbar ist. Das bildet die sogenannte achte Sphäre, die für die Menschenentwicklung nicht mehr brauchbar ist, sondern nur für höhergeartete Wesenheiten. Diesen kann sie später als Material dienen, wenn sie zu Weltenstaub aufgelöst und zur Neubildung von anderen Welten verwendet wird. Es wird einbezogen in andere Entwicklungsströme, der Mensch kann es nicht in sich einbeziehen. Erst wird evolviert, alles herausentwickelt, dann involviert, wieder hereingenommen.

Während der fünften Runde wird kein Mineralreich mehr sein. Es ist erlöst. In der ersten Hälfte dieser Runde wird der Mensch seine höheren Sinne ausbilden, mittels derer er zu dem Pflanzenreich in jene Beziehung treten wird wie jetzt zum Mineralreich; er entwickelt den Pflanzengedanken. Dann lebt der Mensch bewußt im Garten Eden. Es gibt dann keine Schwere mehr. Alles hat sich in Pflanzenreich verwandelt. Während der zweiten Hälfte der fünften Runde zieht der Mensch das ganze Pflanzenreich wieder in sich ein; er erlöst es, soweit er es erlösen kann. Diese Reiche waren ja früher zu seinen Gunsten - als zu seiner Entwicklung überflüssig, hinderlich - ausgesondert worden.

Dasselbe tritt nun in der sechsten Runde mit dem Tierreich ein. Da wird der Mensch dann ganz Mensch sein. In der siebten Runde wird er in seinem Atma entwickeln das, wozu er eigentlich veranlagt war: frei von den Reichen, die er herausgeworfen hat, wird er dann Gottähnlichkeit in sich entwickeln. Jede Runde ist ein Schöpfungstag. Die siebte Runde ist der siebte Schöpfungstag, an dem der Mensch gottähnlich wird und an dem Gott ruhen kann von seinen Werken.

Von der Mitte unserer vierten Runde an muß auch eine andere Entwicklungsrichtung einsetzen. Das mineralische Reich drückt die stärkste Sonderung aus. Der Mensch tritt ganz äußerlich zu der dichter werdenden Materie in Beziehung. Mineral, Pflanzen und Tiere stehen in engerem Verhältnis zur Umwelt als er. Die Kräfte des Mineralischen sind äußerliche; die Kräfte des Kristall leben im All, er ist ein Teil des Ganzen, ohne Anspruch auf Sonderheit zu machen. Stufenweise wird der Anspruch auf Sonderheit immer stärker bei den Wesen. Der Mensch ist das am meisten in sich abgesonderte Wesen. Das ist für den physischen Menschen am weitesten geschehen in der Mitte der lemurischen Rasse. Da war das Gehäuse geschaffen für den Geist. Nun vereinigte sich der Geist mit ihm. Und indem sich der Geist herausarbeitet, fängt der Mensch an, sich durch Gemeinsamkeit wieder in die Außenwelt einzugliedern. Erst mußte er sich hinausgliedern, sich sondern; jetzt bildet er die geistigen Gemeinschaften, die Bruderschaft. Was früher Sympathie und Antipathie auf Kama-Ebene war, wird jetzt bewußte Anziehungskraft. Eine bewußte Brüderlichkeit entwickelt sich. Wer einer Bruderloge angehört, kennt nicht mehr die Sonderheit wie andere, er trennt sich nicht von seiner Gruppe, gliedert sich mit vollem Bewußtsein in seine Gruppe ein. Ein Adept hat ein Bewußtsein, welches in seiner Bruderschaft oder Gruppe ruht. Diejenigen Wesenheiten, die eine gewisse Stufe darin erreicht haben, nennt man dhyanische Wesenheiten, die großen schaffenden Kräfte. Bruderlogen entwickeln sich zu dhyanischen Wesenheiten. Dhyanische Wesenheiten sind wie in eine Ansammlung von Zellen zusammengeschlossene geistige Wesenheiten. Die Bruderloge der Adepten wird als ein dhyanisches Wesen angesehen werden. Es geht hier wiederum eine Bereicherung in der Entwicklung vor sich. In der Mitte der vierten Runde liegt ein wichtiger Punkt: Die Menschengeister fangen an, sich zusammenzuschließen zu einer Bruderschaft, zur Ausbildung eines dhyanischen Wesens.

So empfinden wir einen großen Unterschied zwischen der ersten und zweiten Hälfte einer Runde. In der ersten Hälfte einer Runde bildet sich der Mensch die Organe aus, durch die er hinausstrebt. In der zweiten Hälfte einer Runde zieht er diese Organe wieder in sich hinein. Die erste Hälfte soll ihn zu dem Wiedereinbeziehen vorbereiten. Die zweite Hälfte der Runde wird jedem Wesen für die Art, in der es lebt, auf der entsprechenden Stufe die Erlösung bringen. «Runde» wird in der esoterischen Sprache auch «Zyklus» genannt. In jedem Zyklus verläuft die Entwicklung vom Arupischen bis zum Archetypischen: Das nennt man einen «Epizyklus» [= Globen]. Erst während der zweiten Hälfte eines Zyklus oder einer Runde kann also ein Wesen Karma einsammeln, denn dann fängt es an, tätig zu sein. Daher wird die karmische Entwicklung eines Wesens gerade auf dem Plan Bedeutung haben, auf dem es sich entwickelt.

Solche Wesen, die von höheren Plänen aus die physische Entwicklung leiten, sind vorhanden. Deren niederste Entwicklung ist in der Astralmaterie. Jedes Volk, jede Rasse, jeder Stamm hat eine gemeinsame Astralmaterie, die Inkarnationsmaterie für den Volksgeist. Der Volksgeist erreicht immer seine Entwicklung etwas früher als die einzelnen im Volk. Der Volksgeist kann von der Mitte eines Zyklus an Karma ansammeln. Wir bilden mit an dem Karma des Volkes, der Rasse und so weiter. Kollektiv-Karma wird dies genannt. Es ist eine Realität. Es wird dadurch bewirkt, daß diejenigen Wesen, die eine Stufe weiter sind, auch Karma haben. Die internationalen Bestrebungen gehören einem noch umfassenderen Geiste an, der die gesamte Astralmaterie der Erde umfaßt, dem wirklichen Erdgeist. Die physische Erde ist auch der physische Körper für diesen Erdgeist, den planetarischen Logos, der, wenn man sich zu ihm erhebt, das Karma der ganzen irdischen Entwicklung bedeutet. Internationale Bestrebungen sind der erste Ansatz zu jener großen Einheit, die entstehen wird auf dem Arupaplan. Der Theosoph lebt in der Idee dieser großen Einbeziehung, des Konzentrierens auf einen Punkt.

Sixth Lecture

Today we want to examine the development on our Earth in particular. First, let us briefly summarize what we have covered previously.

Within the Earth's development, we are on the fourth stage of consciousness, that is, on the fourth planet. On this planet, clear daytime consciousness is developed in 49 stages. The highest stage on the previous planet, the Moon, was the most perfect development of a kind of highly developed dream consciousness. This was a consciousness similar to that which the most highly developed animals have now. The physical human being — not the soul-spiritual being, which has followed a different line of development and will only now unite with the physical — was once able to think in the way that the dream consciousness of today's most highly developed animals allows. At the beginning of such a development, our main being itself comes into consideration for further progress.

Animals, plants, and minerals were developed earlier than humans. What was so developed at that time that it could progress passed into a kind of embryonic state with humans, through a pralaya. On the Moon, human embryos were ready to develop the capacity for a higher dream consciousness. Animals had only reached a dull dream consciousness, plants a lower consciousness, and minerals an even lower consciousness. Everything else that was not suitable for further development was discarded as dross. In the new Earth evolution, germs of this kind of humans, animals, plants, and minerals were present. So there were germs not only from the human kingdom, but also from the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms, which at that time were very different from what we now know as animals, plants, and minerals. The minerals were more in a state similar to that which now occurs in a metal at a very high temperature.

What is now developing in our Earth's evolution from stage to stage is not identical with the animals, plants, and minerals of previous times. They were already one stage further than was necessary for the Earth. Only humans found the conditions on Earth that were suitable for them. Therefore, the other kingdoms developed as if they were overripe fruit; they could no longer take root. These beings are therefore not actually native to this Earth itself, but can only live on the soil of those beings that are native here; they become parasites. The moon animals and moon plants were accustomed to living in a soil of Kama, they were completely embedded in the psychic realm, and therefore could only find soil on Earth when Kama was present there. They now became parasitic, like mistletoe, for example, which developed independently on the moon but could not grow directly on Earth. This power was justified on the moon, but not on Earth. It became an inhibiting, restraining force, as it impaired the development of other plants. Therefore, Satan is the lord of parasites; he makes use of forces that are parasitic. In Germanic mythology, it is the god Loki who is hostile to Baldur, the god of the Earth. Everything that came over from the lunar epoch is represented in Loki. No being on Earth can harm Baldur, only those who came from the Moon; therefore, Baldur was struck by mistletoe, which derives its power from the Moon.

Our animals, which are in the process of developing on Earth, and also humans, form a skeletal system on Earth. However, the animals that had already completed their development on the moon did not have a skeletal system there; they formed an exoskeleton on Earth: a crust or shell, such as beetles, tracheans, and so on. These came from the moon into Earth's development. All beings that truly go along with Earth's development form an internal skeleton. That is why Eve is depicted as being created from a rib. There were now two currents on Earth: first, that which can become animals, plants, and minerals on Earth, and second, the embryonic humans.

How does the higher development of the human being take place? In order to later have within themselves everything that enables them to reach the stage of development that is destined for them, human beings must eliminate everything that would otherwise have developed parasitically. What is now mineral, plant, and animal had to leave them. They had to develop these three kingdoms alongside themselves.

The first phase is the epoch referred to in theosophical literature as the first round. In the first round, man had to develop the physical-earthly mineral kingdom out of himself, in the second round the plant kingdom, and in the third round the animal kingdom, because what these kingdoms are made of prevents him from achieving what he can only achieve by distilling his human nature. Only in the fourth round did they free themselves sufficiently from all the other kingdoms to prepare themselves to become vessels for the spirit that had been hovering around them, waiting for them. Only in the fourth round has he progressed so far that the spirit can take possession of this purified body. He increasingly gains the ability to expand. He has left behind him on his path, as his sacrifice, the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms. All higher development must be purchased at the expense of leaving other beings behind.

During the fourth round, man learns to master the mineral kingdom through the senses. He exploits the inanimate, mineral world; in this he will continue to advance. He does not yet consciously master the life force of the plant kingdom. The Atlanteans mastered it unconsciously, instinctively. The Atlanteans also unconsciously designed their airships. The conscious pouring of the spirit into the inorganic world is the task of the second half of the fourth round. By the end of the fourth round, the mineral kingdom will gradually have been absorbed by human beings. Human beings will have physically transformed everything physical and mineral with their thought forms. It is their task to redeem the mineral kingdom, to pour their spirit into it, to shape it through their spirit. When, in the second half of the fourth round, human beings have passed on to a mastery of the astral, then on the last globe, the archetypal (primordial) globe of the fourth round, the mineral kingdom will be thoroughly alive.

In the first half of the fourth round, human beings first acquire the ability to relate their senses to the mineral kingdom; in the second half of the fourth round, they redeem the mineral kingdom. But a part of it remains behind, is excreted, because it is no longer useful to humans. This forms the so-called eighth sphere, which is no longer useful for human development, but only for higher beings. This can later serve as material for them when it is dissolved into world dust and used for the new formation of other worlds. It is incorporated into other streams of development; human beings cannot incorporate it into themselves. First everything is evolved, developed outwards, then involved, taken back in.

During the fifth round, there will no longer be a mineral kingdom. It will be redeemed. In the first half of this round, humans will develop their higher senses, through which they will enter into the same relationship with the plant kingdom as they now have with the mineral kingdom; they will develop plant consciousness. Then humans will live consciously in the Garden of Eden. There will be no more heaviness. Everything will have been transformed into the plant kingdom. During the second half of the fifth round, human beings will draw the entire plant kingdom back into themselves; they will redeem it as far as they can. These kingdoms had previously been separated from them for their own good – as superfluous and hindering their development.

The same will now happen in the sixth round with the animal kingdom. Human beings will then be completely human. In the seventh round, he will develop in his Atma what he was actually predisposed to: free from the kingdoms he has cast out, he will then develop godlikeness within himself. Each round is a day of creation. The seventh round is the seventh day of creation, on which man becomes godlike and on which God can rest from his works.

From the middle of our fourth round onwards, a different direction of development must also begin. The mineral kingdom expresses the strongest separation. Human beings relate to the increasingly dense matter in a completely external way. Minerals, plants, and animals have a closer relationship to the environment than they do. The forces of the mineral kingdom are external; the forces of the crystal live in the universe; it is part of the whole, without claiming any special status. Gradually, the claim to special status becomes stronger and stronger in beings. Man is the most isolated being. This happened most extensively for physical man in the middle of the Lemurian race. There the shell was created for the spirit. Now the spirit united with it. And as the spirit works itself out, man begins to reintegrate himself into the outside world through community. First he had to separate himself, to isolate himself; now he forms spiritual communities, the brotherhood. What used to be sympathy and antipathy on the kama level now becomes conscious attraction. A conscious brotherhood develops. Those who belong to a brotherhood no longer know the peculiarity of others; they do not separate themselves from their group, but integrate themselves into their group with full consciousness. An adept has a consciousness that rests in his brotherhood or group. Those beings who have reached a certain level in it are called dhyanic beings, the great creative forces. Brotherhood lodges develop into dhyanic beings. Dhyanic beings are like spiritual beings united in a collection of cells. The brotherhood lodge of the adepts will be regarded as a dhyanic being. Here again, an enrichment in development is taking place. In the middle of the fourth round, there is an important point: Human spirits begin to unite into a brotherhood for the formation of a dhyanic being.

Thus, we perceive a great difference between the first and second halves of a round. In the first half of a round, human beings develop the organs through which they strive outward. In the second half of a round, they draw these organs back into themselves. The first half is intended to prepare them for reintegration. The second half of the round will bring salvation to every being at the appropriate level for the way in which it lives. In esoteric language, “round” is also called “cycle.” In each cycle, development proceeds from the arupic to the archetypal: this is called an “epicycle” [= globes]. Only during the second half of a cycle or round can a being accumulate karma, because that is when it begins to be active. Therefore, the karmic development of a being will be significant precisely on the plane on which it develops.

Such beings, who guide physical development from higher planes, do exist. Their lowest development is in astral matter. Every people, every race, every tribe has a common astral matter, the incarnation matter for the national spirit. The national spirit always reaches its development somewhat earlier than the individuals in the people. The national spirit can accumulate karma from the middle of a cycle. We contribute to the karma of the people, the race, and so on. This is called collective karma. It is a reality. It is brought about by the fact that those beings who are one step further also have karma. International endeavors belong to an even more comprehensive spirit that encompasses the entire astral matter of the Earth, the real Earth spirit. The physical Earth is also the physical body for this Earth spirit, the planetary logos, which, when one rises to it, represents the karma of the entire earthly development. International endeavors are the first step toward that great unity that will arise on the Arupa plane. The theosophist lives in the idea of this great inclusion, of concentrating on one point.