The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Theosophical Cosmology: Third Lecture

[ 1 ] Eight days ago, I attempted to explain the way of thinking so foreign to the West, through which the theosophist arrives at his insights and knowledge of the cosmos. The sketchy nature of these lectures prevents me from discussing theosophical cosmology in detail. However, today I will try to give you at least a narrative picture of the origin of the world as it is understood in theosophy. I ask those who have scientific requirements to bear in mind that it is of course not possible for me to give any scientific-looking justification for what I am going to say today in the brevity of three lectures. Anyone who wants such a scientific justification will find it in a later cycle, where I will speak in more detail on this subject. And a second volume of my “Theosophy,” which will appear soon, will also deal with cosmology.

[ 2 ] First of all, let me assume an important mental image that is basically very simple, but which must be kept in mind by anyone who wants to understand development in the theosophical sense. When we speak of development in the grand scheme of things, we do not mean only the emergence of animal or plant life from another, but we mean the great transformations within this universe, and we also include the emergence of matter, matter in the true sense, which we can perceive today through our physical senses.

[ 3 ] Last time we spoke about the fact that we can distinguish seven successive stages in the evolutionary history of our planet, and I also described these to you, at least in outline. You must therefore imagine that our earthly planet undergoes seven stages, which we call rounds, in a rhythmic sequence, as it were. Everything that exists and lives on our Earth today was also present before our present Earth came into being; but it was present in a kind of embryonic state, just as the whole plant is already present in the seed, sleeping in the seed, so to speak, before it takes shape in the outer world. In Theosophy, we refer to this state of slumber of all human beings as a “Pralaya.” In contrast, the state in which everything awakens to life, gradually emerges and progresses from beginnings to perfection, to a climax, is called a “Manvantara.” When the state of perfection has been reached, a new Pralaya, a state of sleep, follows, and this is followed in turn by a state of waking and growing. Thus, the planet goes through this sequence of states seven times, awakening seven times to a new cycle of life. The time between one Manvantara and the next thus passes in a state in which everything that lives and breathes on our Earth is, as it were, asleep. But this is not a sleep that can be compared to ordinary human sleep. In ordinary human sleep, only the mental and sensory activities of the human being are interrupted, but you can see his physical life. You must form a completely different mental image of the sleeping state of the earth. It is so that nothing can be seen of any being on our earth during this sleeping state. Only to the open eye of the most highly developed seer, the so-called Dangma, would this state of the earth be perceptible. This state is indescribable with our words, because our words are not suited to this kind of being. I cannot find words for this state in any language. Therefore, in order to evoke a mental image of this state, the developed seer says something completely different. He says: Imagine a plant. You see this plant. Now imagine a kind of plaster cast of this plant, but in such a way that everything that is the plant is hollow, empty space, and surrounded by the plaster mass. Now suppose that everything that is plaster is spiritual and only perceptible to certain senses. The one who can see the plant cannot at the same time see the plaster cast, that is, the negative of the plant. This is roughly how the developed seer perceives the earth in the Pralaya sleep. The earth is not there. It is the hollow, the hollow form, it is like a large, mighty sea of highest spiritual beings, blurring on all sides, gradually ceasing, from which the existence of the earth itself flows out, as it were.

[ 4 ] Now something begins to arise within this hollow space, but what arises there is still not perceptible to the sensory eyes; it is only perceptible to a highly developed seer who can consciously move in the realm of the Devachan plane. Those who have this vision would see a sphere in space at the beginning of earthly existence, a purely spiritual sphere on which everything exists only spiritually and which would only be perceptible to the devachanic seer's eye. Every time before a new cycle begins, our Earth is in such a spiritual state. When it awakens from the Pralaya sleep, it awakens to such a sphere. The Devachanic seer sees it in a wonderful reddish glow. Even for the astral seer, the sphere is not visible. But nevertheless, the sphere already contains everything that will later become Earth. Even the densest bodies are already contained in this sphere.

[ 5 ] How do we form a mental image of this? We can clarify this through a simple process. Imagine a vessel filled with water. The water is liquid. If you cool the temperature, the water will freeze into ice. You have the same thing in front of you as before—ice is nothing other than water, only in a different form. If you increase the temperature, the ice turns back into water, and if you heat it further, it even turns into steam. In the same way, you can form the mental image that all materiality arises from the spiritual through condensation. The spiritual sphere – visible only to the developed seer's eye – condenses more and more after passing through a small pralaya. It can then also be seen by a less developed seer's eye. Then comes another kind of brief sleep state, and then the whole sphere appears to us again in a more condensed state, and now this sphere is visible to the astral eye, that is, to those whose senses are open on the astral plane. Another pralaya state occurs, and the sphere reappears, now as physical matter that has become completely dense. Only now can physical eyes see it, physical ears hear it, and physical hands grasp it. This is the fourth state. After that, another short pralaya occurs. The state dissolves again and a new astral sphere appears before us, but with much more highly developed beings. An analogous state occurs in the sixth round, which is again only visible to the devachanic seer. After that, another Pralaya and then a state visible only to the highest seer's eye. Then follows the disappearance even for the Dangma. Now a great Pralaya follows, and then the whole process begins to repeat itself. This happens seven times. Thus, the earth is transformed from the lowest to the highest.

[ 6 ] Let us now follow the first round. We can best study this by realizing what is present on our earth where it is densest. In the first round, there are no mineral forms yet, nor are there any physical forces of nature or chemical forces. The earth has only carried out its development work so far in order to create the basis for physical existence; it has created these foundations in order to prepare for physical existence in the fourth round. Our earth appears here as a fiery mass, of such enormously high temperature that none of our present substances could have the form they now have. All substances are mixed together in this primordial fire – let me use this trivial word – in a uniform, undifferentiated matter. Theosophy says: The Earth is in a state of fire. However, this does not mean ordinary fire, but a fire of a higher, spiritual nature. There are no chemical elements yet. But what is inside this matter is already active. Two kinds of spiritual beings are active within it: those we call “Dhyani Chohans” and those beings who have not yet descended into physical materiality, some of whom have only a spirit body, some of whom are enveloped in astral matter, and who flood through the fire matter with tremendous speed. We see a continuous emergence and disappearance of irregular forms, including forms that are reminiscent of what will later exist on Earth. What continuously emerges and disappears appears like a kind of template. Something bubbles up that reminds us of the shapes of later crystals and plants; even something that already takes on human forms and then disperses again. The people who will later be incarnated lived in this fire, modeling the bodies, preparing them. This is how the state of the first round of the Earth appears to us. Then follows the transition of this fiery, flowing Earth into a state of sleep.

[ 7 ] The second round begins in the same spiritual way. Let us again consider the Earth where it is densest. Now this state has a completely different form than before. Now it has a form that is already known to today's physics; today's physicists call it “ether.” Ether is finer than our present gases, but denser than the Earth was in the earlier round. In this very fine matter, what we call chemical elements are formed. You can find this second stage indicated in a wonderfully beautiful way in all religious books, which say that the divine beings arranged everything according to measure, number, and weight. What was previously disordered now arranged itself into chemical elements, and these arranged themselves according to number. Chemists will understand me, for they know the regular periodic system of elements. Thus, matter came into certain proportions and numerical relationships with each other after it had assumed a certain density, an ethereal form, as matter. At this stage, the individual substances still have nothing to do with each other. They stand opposite each other as strangers. Only now, when matter differentiates, do we see the most wonderful forms taking shape, reminiscent of those that will appear later, but not yet fixed: star-shaped forms, angular forms, tetrahedrons, polyhedrons, round forms, and so on. Here we see the beginnings of the forms that will later appear in the natural world. Just as the crystal forms were prefigured in the first round, so now in the second round the plant kingdom is prefigured. Then the whole thing floods away again; the astral and the devachanic pass through a pralaya state again and then reappear in the third round.

[ 8 ] When we look at the physical state in the third round, we find matter already in a significantly different state. It is not yet ordered according to air and water, but has a kind of misty, vaporous form. No longer in etheric form, but like a kind of water vapor, mist, or cloud formations today, this is how we would have to form a mental image of the Earth at this third stage. And within these mist formations, which we find preserved in ancient legends – the legends of Nebelheim and Niflheim show us this state – matter appears to us in a different form, no longer ordered according to number, but endowed with forces. The occult researcher speaks here of the law of elective affinity. Chemical substances are governed by the law of elective affinity. But now, in the third round, a force appears that causes the small to become larger, to expand. Substances can organize themselves from within, empower themselves. Not only do the beginnings of plant life, which we learned about in the second round, appear, but growth is now possible. The first animal formations appear, which would seem highly grotesque to us today. Huge, colossal forms formed themselves out of this mass of mist. There is something of truth in it for the occultist when he looks up into the clouds and sees that one cloud looks like a camel, another like a horse. In this third round, the beings are nebulous forms that reproduce by one transforming into the other, one emerging from the other, like lower cellular organisms that are a reminder of this. These animal bodies that arose from the mist can now provide the first basis for those individualities that have come over from earlier worlds to find a body. Now human beings can incarnate; they find a shell that allows them to express themselves, albeit at first in an imperfect, primitive, clumsy way. Failed incarnations are also possible. It can be said that during the third round there were beings on earth, intermediate beings between humans and animals, in which humans did not feel entirely comfortable, but in which they were nevertheless able to incarnate.

[ 9 ] Now another Pralaya is coming, and then the fourth round. That is the round to which we ourselves belong today. So the earth first went through the devachanic state, then descended through the astral and etheric states, and finally arrived at the physical state we have now reached. During the first round, the basis for the mineral kingdom was formed; during the second round, the basis for the plant kingdom was formed; during the third round, the possibility arose for animal formations to appear. And now, during the fourth round, humans are gaining the ability to take on the form they have today.

[ 10 ] Let us consider the state of our physical Earth, our present cycle, in more detail. The state of the Earth at this fourth stage must be described as much denser than the states in the earlier cycles. First there was a fiery state, then a misty one, then one between air and water. But now, at the beginning of the fourth round, we have a kind of springing matter, similar to egg white. The whole Earth was in this state at the beginning of the fourth round. Gradually, however, everything became denser, and what we know today on Earth as matter is nothing other than the densified, originally springing matter — just as ice is densified water matter. At the beginning of this fourth round, all beings were constituted in such a way that they could live in this swelling matter. Human beings had a form that was already similar to today's, but they were still in a completely dull state of consciousness, comparable to the state of a dreaming person. They dreamed their existence away in a kind of sleep consciousness; they still lacked the spirit. Let us consider this state a little more closely. Human beings were already possible in this gushing matter. We call the human beings of this first race dream people. It is difficult to describe the human beings of the first race. This state was followed by another in which matter became more dense and separated into a more spiritual and a more physical materiality, like the North Pole and South Pole. But I ask you to take into account the difference between the occult view and the common view of Darwinism. So, in this suggested state of the Earth, we originally have humans, and we have the plant kingdom; the animal kingdom was also present, but in forms where there is no sexual reproduction and no warm blood. These beings were not yet capable of producing sounds from within. Man himself is still mute. And he cannot yet think, he cannot even form mental images. The spirit has not yet entered the body. In the following, the second race, matter separates into two poles. Humans draw out, as it were, the matter that is useful to them and separate out the less useful matter, from which the higher animals develop as a kind of side branch. The lower animal species are already similar to the forms of today's mollusks, and even fish-like forms are already developing.

[ 11 ] Human beings continue to develop higher and higher, and in the third stage of racial formation, they again separate out matter that they cannot make the carrier of a higher consciousness. They give it back as material for the animals, which now look something like amphibians and have gigantic forms. They are described to us in the fables and myths of the peoples as flying dragons and so on. Even now, no being that has developed has sexual reproduction. Only in the middle of the third race, in the middle of the Lemurian period, do the beginnings of this appear. The scene of these events was in Lemuria, in the area of Hinterindia in the Indian Ocean.

[ 12 ] In the middle of the Lemurian epoch, the great event took place that made humans into humans. Among the human beings who came over from earlier planetary states, not all were at the same stage of development. Those who had already achieved normal development during the earlier cycle on the Nebula were able to incarnate during the third race. Among these, however, there were a number who had already attained a higher stage; they were unable to incarnate at all during the third round. In each round, some humans develop to a normal stage and others to a stage that goes beyond it. Masters are those who have progressed beyond the normal level. They are more highly developed individualities. These more highly developed individualities, who have already advanced beyond the normal level, are called solar pitris or sun pitris in theosophy. They have already attained a higher spirituality, but they were just as unable to incarnate in the bodies of the people of that time as today's humans would be unable to incarnate in plants. They waited for further development until the right moment had come and their first real incarnation could take place in the fourth race. Only then could these more highly developed individualities, the Solar Pitris, take possession of the existing forms. A spiritually highly developed humanity arose. Legends and myths tell of personalities who far surpassed their fellow human beings at that time. Individualities such as Prometheus, the rishis of the Indians, fire rishis, who then became the actual leaders of humanity, the Manus, who gave the laws to later humans. Only these Solar Pitris could incarnate as adepts.

[ 13 ] I have told you that at the beginning of the fourth round, sexuality did not yet exist. It was not until the Lemurian period that the separation of the sexes occurred. This also made incarnation possible, the taking possession of a body, which did not exist before. Previously, one being emerged from another. With the separation of the sexes in the middle of the Lemurian period, birth and death occurred, and with them the possibility of karma. Human beings could incur guilt. Everything we know as “human” came into being at that time.

[ 14 ] The continent of Lemuria was destroyed by fire-like catastrophes, and now the Atlantic continent arose on the floor of what is now the Atlantic Ocean. In the Atlantean period, another important event occurred, which I drew your attention to when I spoke about the feast of Pentecost. I said then that, with the exception of the Solar Pitris, all beings lived in a low state of consciousness. Only selected bodies could accommodate the Solar Pitris. The other bodies would have offered these beings only the possibility of living in a state of dull consciousness. If the bodies of that time had been used, soulless human beings would have come into being. The Pitris therefore waited until certain animal forms had developed further. On the one hand, these had sunk deeper into the life of instincts, but on the other hand, this had created the preconditions for the later development of a brain. Matter had differentiated into nerve matter and sexual matter. In this deteriorated matter, those Pitris who had waited until this later state then incarnated. This is what religion has called the Fall of Man: the descent into inferior matter. Had this not happened, they would all have remained in a much less conscious state. They would not have been capable of the clear thinking we have today, but would have remained in a much duller state. They paid for this by allowing the body to deteriorate on the one hand, in order to refine it into brain matter on the other, so that they could attain a higher consciousness. This enabled them to rise to a certain spiritual height even then. A special result of the development of the Atlantean race was the formation of a phenomenal memory.

[ 15 ] After Atlantis sank – through water – our present fifth race developed as a later continuation, which has developed the combining mind as a special achievement, enabling it to bring art and science to the highest level of development, which was not possible before. In the fifth sub-race of the fourth round, humanity reaches a peak: mastery by the spirit, which has descended into matter so that it can now be carried up again to ever higher and higher levels. We have seen how the cosmos has developed in a rhythmic sequence of stages to the point where we stand today. In the earlier rounds, the following were developed:

1. the mineral kingdom,
2. the plant kingdom,
3. the animal kingdom, and then
4. the human being.

[ 16 ] Theosophical cosmology is a self-contained edifice that has sprung from the wisdom of the most highly developed seers. If I had a little more time, I could show you how certain scientific facts urge us to attest to this worldview from a scientific perspective. Let us look, for example, at Haeckel's famous family trees, in which all development is interpreted in purely material terms. But if, instead of matter, instead of crystals, you take the spiritual states as described by theosophy, then you can construct family trees like Haeckel's – only the explanation is different.

[ 17 ] So that you do not confuse what I have said with what is described in some theosophical books as the various astral or physical states, I would like to point out the following: Development is often described as if these were juxtaposed states; you find spheres placed side by side, so that it seems as if life passed from one sphere to another. In reality, however, there is only one sphere, and only its state changes. It is always the same sphere that undergoes the various metamorphoses: spiritual, astral, physical, and so on.

[ 18 ] So we have seen that the starting point we took from Goethe's words is entirely justified, the words that ultimately it is the human being who appears, so to speak, as the goal, as the task of the earthly planet. The occultist knows that every planet has its specific task. Nothing in the entire cosmos is accidental. It is the task of physical development to ensure that what arises for us humans achieves its goal. You would not find a human being like today's human being on any other planet. Beings – yes, but not humans. The Earth is there so that humans could arise as self-conscious beings. Through the first four rounds, the kingdoms of nature have developed in order to make humans, in the fourth round, self-conscious beings who can consciously reflect themselves in their bodies. Now they will continue to ascend to higher states, of which very few can form a correct concept. In the next, fifth round, the mineral kingdom will disappear completely. All mineral matter will be transformed into plant matter. Everything will live in the plant concept – occultistically speaking. Then the plant kingdom will also reach its completion, and in the next round, the animal kingdom will form the lowest kingdom. In the seventh round, humans will have reached the height of their development. There they will be what they are meant to become in their planetary development.

[ 19 ] Those who understand this can in turn gain a deep insight into religious documents. There was a time when people believed in religious documents like children. Then came the Age of Enlightenment, when nothing was believed anymore, and now a time is coming when people will once again learn to understand the images preserved for us in religious documents, fairy tales, and fables. Thus, we have the seven cycles as the seven days of creation in the Bible. The first three days of creation have passed, we are now in the fourth day of creation, and the last three days of creation are yet to come. The first three days of creation in Genesis represent the past cycles, while the last three hint at what is to come in the future. Correctly understood, Moses wants to say with his description of the fourth day of creation that we are living in the fourth round; he also describes the fourth day of creation in particular. That is why you also find a twofold creation in Genesis. Those who measure the Bible only with their intellect can never understand this. The human being of the seventh day of creation has not yet been created. The fact that man is made of clay and mud is a symbol of our fourth round. The twofold creation tells us in pictorial form about what has been created, about the state we are in now, and about the state at the end of the seventh round. When we look at what has been handed down through the Bible in this way, a meaning suddenly emerges from these documents that we could not have guessed before. Now humanity will finally see that there is such a deep meaning in it that one almost has to become a different person to understand it. It is necessary that in the present time the high spiritual meaning of this oldest document be made accessible to people again, and that is the task of the theosophical movement. It does not condemn the materialism of our time, because it considers it to be something necessary. But it works to ensure that people recognize the spiritual meaning of these documents again. Let us continue to work on this in the coming winter. Today's lecture is the last in the series. But our Mondays remain. Every Monday at eight o'clock in the evening, we meet here again.