The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Names of the Days of the Week and the Evolution of Humankind

[ 1 ] The order of the days of the week reflects the evolution of our planetary system. It is important to note that, esoterically speaking, the Earth is to be replaced by the two planets Mars and Mercury. The first half of Earth's development, from the beginning to the middle of the Atlantean epoch (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and half of the 4th race), is esoterically related to Mars, while the second half (half of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th races) is related to Mercury. When the beings who had developed on the Moon emerged from the Pralaya darkness (1st round of the Earth), the following had been developed in humans: 1. The physical body (from Saturn). 2. The etheric double body (from the Sun). 3. The sentient body (from the Moon). Based on everything predisposed by the Moon, the sentient soul, which merges with the sentient body, was now able to develop in the first half of Earth's history (1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounds) without external influence. Human beings were thus predisposed, by virtue of the tendency inherent in the straight line of evolution, to become beings structured according to the following pattern:

[ 2 ] If human beings were to develop further, they would need a new impetus. During the first half of its evolution, forces had to be planted on Earth that were not yet present in the three previous world bodies. The guiding beings of Earth's development drew such forces from Mars during the first half of this development; during the second half, they draw them from Mercury. Through the forces of Mars, the sentient soul (astral body) experiences a renewal. It becomes what is called the intellectual soul in my “Theosophy.” Through the forces brought from Mercury, this intellectual soul is renewed again so that it does not remain at its own stage of evolution, but opens up to the consciousness soul. And within the consciousness soul, the “spirit self” (manas) is born. This will be the principle governing human beings on Jupiter. The same will be true of the life spirit (budhi) on Venus and of atma on Vulcan. If we thus parallel the members of the human being with the planets and their forces, insofar as the latter have a share in the formation of these members, we obtain the following scheme.

[ 3 ] Human beings were not on Mars, but their intellectual soul has such an esoteric relationship with this planet that its forces are drawn down from it. Spatially, this can be imagined as follows: before the Earth itself became ethereal (i.e., physical) in its fourth round, it passed through Mars, which was ethereal at that time. Schematically, one can mentally image it as follows:

[ 4 ] This passage continued even into the physical Earth period; and while it was taking place, the leading beings extracted from Mars the kamic matter necessary for the intellectual soul, and since this has its physical vehicle in warm blood (in the Ares blood of the warrior), the iron of the Earth, which is a component of blood, was inserted at that time.

[ 5 ] Likewise, humans will never truly inhabit Mercury, but since the middle of the Atlantean world, they have been connected to the kama matter (actually kama-manas matter) of Mercury, and from it the guiding beings have endowed the human consciousness soul with powers. As a physical vehicle, mercury (Mercury) came to Earth through this influence of Mercury. After the Earth has developed to a plastic state, Mercury will pass through the Earth spatially. The Earth itself will then be astral, but Mercury will be etheric. Schematically, it is like this:

[ 6 ] The initiates have now determined the entire evolutionary path of the Earth in the order of the days of the week:

1. Saturday = Saturntag: Saturday
2. Sunday
3. Monday
4. Mars Day = mardi = diustag (diu is the German Ares, Mars or god of war)
5. Mercury Day = mercredi = Wotanstag (Wotan is the German Mercury; see Tacitus Germania)
6. Jupiter's day = jeudi = Donarstag (Donar is the German Jupiter) Venus' day = vendredi = Frejatag (Freja is the German Venus)
7. Vulcan's day is not formed because repetition, like octave, is a repetition of the prime.

[ 8 ] Now, in the secret schools, another law of the days of the week is taught, which does not contradict the first, but is entirely compatible with it. It is based on the fact that a day is divided into four parts and each part is assigned a planet. The whole is then based on the sequence of planets in distance from the Earth, namely

[ 8 ] We thus have:

[ 9 ] * Rudolf Steiner must have made a mistake in the section “I. Day”: Venus and Mercury must be rearranged. See also the preceding sketch (facsimile of the manuscript).

[ 10 ] So write the planets for the quarters of the day in the order Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, then start again: Moon, Mercury, etc. Repeat this until you have the Moon in first place again, then the 7 days are complete.

[ 11 ] This division is based on the ratio of 4 (tetragram) to 7. The meaning of this is that in the first part of the day, one of the basic parts is assigned to the planet to which it belongs according to its powers:

[ 12 ] Through such a law, one can see how human beings are built from the macrocosm and thus have the most diverse relationships to the constellations of the bodies of the macrocosm.