The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Planetary Development: First Lecture

[ 1 ] We must consider that the microcosm stands in a certain relationship to the macrocosm. As human beings currently appear to us, they are a kind of dual being, consisting of body and soul on the outside, and since the middle of the Lemurian epoch, they have been developing spirit on the inside. The soul and body are shells for the spirit, which is in the process of development. Gradually, human beings will become more and more spiritual. The soul acts as a mediator between the physical and the spiritual. Without the help of the current spiritual human beings, multitudes of sublime beings have built this physical and spiritual organism. It is constructed in a wise manner. The most perfect photographic apparatus would be child's play compared to the wisdom of the eye, or the construction of a piano compared to the wisdom of the ear. The skeletal system is arranged in the most wise way. Each bone is made up of countless small beams that support each other. Such wisdom is much deeper than all the wisdom that man has achieved in his external work. How does man appear to us in his duality? According to his outer shell, as a perfect structure; according to his spirit, as the beginning of a gradual development.

[ 2 ] Two groups of sublime world builders work on man. They gradually take turns in their work. The basic characteristic of these two groups is wisdom. The one group of wise world builders actually relinquished their office in the middle of the Lemurian period, when man began to develop his spirit, to those who now help man to guide his spirit through incarnations. These wise world builders, who built man as a microcosm, have also developed themselves, for everything is in development. They learned their task on the [old] Moon and passed through the highest degree of development that was possible to attain on the Moon, and were therefore able to undertake the construction of the body on Earth. During the middle of the Lemurian epoch, the next higher quality developed in them: love. Their manas was perfect on the Moon; now they rose to budhi. Love is the outer, macrocosmic form of budhi. They had learned everything there was to learn on the moon, and were therefore suited to constructing the wonderful edifices of the microcosm. In the middle of the Lemurian epoch they developed their budhi, as they had previously developed their manas on the moon. From that time on, the human race is no longer built from outside through wisdom, but is guided further through love. Refinement through love is the new task that the macrocosmic beings have taken on. However, higher development can only be achieved if other beings remain behind. A group of beings had remained behind in their development on the Moon. They entered the phase of Earth's development in a latent state and could only now develop further in their individual manas. They were only able to emerge very gradually. These beings are those who, as wise beings, are esoterically called the Luciferic principle. These beings are now intervening more and more. As the leader of the human intellect, Lucifer now intervenes, while the other group are the leaders of love.

[ 3 ] Let us imagine the next stage of planetary development, Jupiter. Everything mineral will then have disappeared, will have been absorbed. Wisdom will have been completely transformed into love. The result will be — because the macrocosm is love — that the astral body can then reach its highest development. The plant kingdom will then be the lowest, and human beings will have such a soft astral body that the astral will be formative, will be natural law. Karma will then be over and love will have real existence. The result will be that everything that man feels will also be immediately expressed in the plastic world. Man will be an imprint of his karmic account. One will then recognize what karma he brings with him. Love will have immediate existence, just as natural law does now. So on this fifth stage, Budhi comes to expression.

[ 4 ] On the sixth stage, the macrocosmic Atma will be expressed. The divine Self will be immediately present, expressing itself in manasic matter ... [gap in the notes].

[ 5 ] Today, the word is only physically possible in the spoken word. In the sixth stage, the word will flood directly through the world; it will be a sounding being. Then man will have become sound. This is also what the author of the Gospel of John understands by Logos. And just as for everything that is to be in the future, something develops in advance to take the lead, so now in Christ the word has become flesh. In the sixth stage, however, humanity will be the word become sound.

[ 6 ] If we want to understand the position of the spiritual principle of evolution, we must note a significant event in the time of the Atlantean root race. Those who were [wise] spiritual beings in the beginning now appeared as rebels, as insurgents who now wanted to gain their independence. Suras now became Asuras; until that time, they had been latent on Earth. These are the forces that represent the intellectual and spiritual side of humanity in the present epoch.

[ 7 ] There are two documents of this, one in the Vatican, and a copy of it is held by the most initiated Christian in the West: the Count of St. Germain.

[ 8 ] This nature of Lucifer is the one that Christianity also represented in the first centuries. Only gradually did Lucifer transform into a kind of enemy in the Christian tradition. Originally, he had a position that was friendly to humans.

[ 9 ] Evolution therefore consists in the fact that the currents in the universe do not develop at the same speed. Some must precede, others must seek to catch up later. This lagging behind of evolutionary currents gives rise to conflicting interests in the world. This is an important occult law. Theosophical writings have depicted certain evolutions as descending and ascending. We have seven planets, each with seven rounds of seven form states, making a total of 343 states. Halfway through, these correspond approximately to the middle of the Atlantean epoch. The ascent thus begins with the intervention of the Luciferic principle. During the descent, development is in a state of delay, while during the ascent it becomes faster and faster. However, this accelerated development is not directed according to the entire physical plan, but according to the individual beings. In the beginning, the Lords of Wisdom were in an ascending state of development. The middle of the Atlantean development was a high point for them. In terms of love, they are in their infancy; they are carving love into the macrocosm, but they are in a descending line and in delay. The Lords of the Luciferic principle are in their ascending development, which is why intellectuality is increasing very rapidly, while refinement through love is progressing very slowly. Example: The piano builder who builds a piano with the greatest love is out of place in the concert hall; the perfect piano virtuoso must come to the concert hall. If the former were to want to hammer away in the concert hall with the same love, disharmony would arise.

[ 10 ] Thus, two currents must always intertwine. The interaction of two currents that are perfect in themselves gives rise to relative evil. Jesus says: Why do you call me good? No one is good except the Father. Nothing in the world is good except the original principle, the Father. Thus, the atma-buddhic divine qualities develop macrocosmically in the multitudes of world rulers.