The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Planetary Development: Sixth Lecture

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

[ 2 ] 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.

[ 3 ] 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.

[ 4 ] 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.

[ 5 ] 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.

[ 6 ] 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.

[ 7 ] 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.

[ 8 ] 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.

[ 9 ] 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.

[ 10 ] 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.

[ 11 ] 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.

[ 12 ] 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.

[ 13 ] 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.

[ 14 ] 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.