The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture IV

[ 1 ] We have spoken of the consciousness of the various kingdoms of nature. The organs of the human being have an organ consciousness; this consciousness is found in an abnormal form in idiots. It is the astral consciousness, which is also possessed by nocturnal insects, ants, spiders, and so on. We encounter a completely different kind of consciousness in bees. Let us use the example of bees to show how one arrives at such truths and then uses them for orientation in the world.

[ 2 ] Occult training is something quite different from our ordinary schooling; it does not aim, like the latter, to cram a lot of subject matter into the student. In strict occult training, the student is not given any teaching material at all, but rather a pithy sentence with inner power. This was also the case in earlier times. The student had to meditate on the sentence in complete inner stillness. This had the effect of ultimately filling him with light, completely illuminating him from within. Once a person has reached the point of seeing through themselves, they can immerse their consciousness in other beings. To do this, one must grasp the exact point behind the center of the eyes, then lead the consciousness down from there to the heart. Then one can transfer one's consciousness to other things; for example, one can then fathom what lives in an anthill.

[ 3 ] Then one can also perceive life in a beehive. However, this gives rise to a phenomenon that is not otherwise experienced on Earth. In the hustle and bustle of the beehive, one experiences something that transcends our earthly existence, something that does not otherwise exist on Earth. What happens on other planets cannot be imagined. For example, you cannot experience what happens on the sun or on Venus unless you can put yourself in the life and bustle of a bee colony. Bees have not gone through the entire evolutionary process as we have. In their beginnings, they are not linked to the same evolutionary chain as other animals and humans. The consciousness of the beehive, not of the individual bees, is tremendously high. Humans will only attain the wisdom of this consciousness in their Venusian existence. Then they will have the consciousness necessary to build from within themselves with a substance they produce from within themselves. Ants build their anthills from all kinds of materials, but they do not yet build cells. Cell building is something completely different on the higher planes. By transferring consciousness into the beehive, by accepting Venus consciousness, one learns something completely different from what is usual on Earth; one learns something in advance of what will happen in our Venus existence, the absolute retreat of sexuality. Among bees, sexuality is assigned only to the queen. The Kamisch-sexual is almost completely eliminated; the drones are killed. What will actually take place in later humanity has been prefigured here, and work is the highest principle. Only through the impulse of the spirit can one be enabled to put oneself in the place of the bee colony.

[ 4 ] In order to proceed, we now want to develop the true concept of alchemy. Even in the 18th century, articles on alchemy could be read in the German “Reichsanzeiger.” Kortum, the poet of the “Jobsiade,” was one of the most important alchemists of the 18th century. Some articles at that time refer to the so-called primordial matter, which is associated with the philosopher's stone. Kortum, who was deeply involved in the subject, said at the time: “Searching for the philosopher's stone is very difficult, but it is everywhere, because you encounter it every day, know it very well, hold it in your hands every day, but do not know that it is the philosopher's stone.” This is an apt description.

[ 5 ] In nature, everything is arranged with infinite wisdom and infinite economy. All kamic beings—animals and humans—and all pranic beings—plants—are interrelated. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Animals do the same. If this were to continue, the air would soon be completely filled with carbon dioxide. But plants assimilate carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Animals and humans cannot live without plants. Carbon dioxide consists of carbon and oxygen. Plants retain the carbon and exhale the oxygen. Humans, on the other hand, absorb the oxygen and transform it into carbon dioxide through their life processes by combining it with carbon. Plants build their bodies from the retained carbon.

[ 6 ] In earlier times, the earth looked different than it does now. Forests of giant ferns and horsetails also grew in this area. These have disappeared. First, the earth was covered with a layer of peat left over from the plant remains; then the former forests of ferns and horsetails were transformed into the earth's huge coal deposits. The earth's rock was thus gradually formed from the plant and animal kingdoms. When you look at a piece of coal, you can say to yourself that it was once a plant. If you went further back, you could also find the plants from which rock crystals, malachite, and so on were formed. The middle belt of the Alps was formed from ancient plants before coal. A diamond is exactly the same as coal. Nature created diamonds from coal that is even older than the coal we have today. Rock crystals were also formed from plants.

[ 7 ] Limestone is secreted from animals. The Jura, for example, is such a limestone accumulation. It was formerly covered by the sea and was formed by sea animals, from their secreted shells and casings. Thus, the younger limestone mountains were formed from animals, and the primordial rock from plants. The plant kingdom gradually transitions into the rock kingdom. Everything solid on earth has come from plant soil. This mineralization process can be studied in the formation of coal from plants.

[ 8 ] The mineral kingdom, as it is now separated, only exists during the fourth round. After that, the entire mineral kingdom will be spiritualized by humans. They will cultivate it with their spirit. Everything that humans do today, the entire industry, is a reworking of the mineral kingdom. When someone removes a rock to use the stones in building a house, when they build a cathedral, everything is an artificialization of the mineral kingdom. In the fourth round, humans can artificially process the mineral kingdom. With plants, on the other hand, humans cannot do anything at present. Humans will work through the entire mineral kingdom. To a large extent, this is done by means of oscillating electricity, which no longer needs wires. Here, work is carried out down to the level of molecules and atoms. By the end of the fourth round, human beings will have worked through the entire mineral kingdom.

[ 9 ] From the fifth round onwards, humans will do the same with the plant kingdom. They will be able to consciously go through the process that plants are now going through. Just as plants absorb carbon dioxide and build their bodies from carbon, humans in the fifth round will also create their own bodies from the substances in their environment. In the fifth round, sexuality will have ceased. Humans will then have to work on their own bodies, creating them themselves. Humans will then consciously carry out the same process of processing carbon that plants now undergo unconsciously. They will transform matter in the same way that plants today transform air into carbon. This is true alchemy. Coal is the philosopher's stone. The man who pointed this out in the 18th century was referring to the process of transformation that plants now carry out and that will later be carried out by humans.

[ 10 ] If one studies consciousness on the higher planes, as it works in the beehive, one learns how humans themselves will later produce matter. In the future, the human body will also be made of carbon; it will then be like a soft diamond. One will then not inhabit the body from within, but will have it before oneself as an outer body. This is how the planets are built today by the planetary spirits. From a being that needs a body made by others, one transforms oneself into an emanating, revealing being. Man will then be a being with three limbs: the man of the evening, who walks on three, as the sphinx says. The original four organs have differentiated. At first, the hands were also organs of movement. Then they became organs for the spiritual. Later, there will only be three organs: the heart as the Buddha organ, the two-petaled lotus flower in the center of the eye, and the left hand as the organ of movement. Blavatsky's statement [about a second spine] also refers to this future. The pineal gland and the mucous gland organize a second spine, which later unites with the other. The second spine will descend from the front of the head.

[ 11 ] In order to receive such guidance, one must bring consciousness into a being that is higher than we are now in our ordinary earthly course of development.

[ 12 ] All this was taught in the secret schools and, in a certain sense, practiced. One must accustom oneself to thinking in this direction. Then one will develop a feeling within oneself of finding nothing worthless, but rather recognizing the value in everything. There is nothing in all of nature that we could think away without destroying the whole of nature.

[ 13 ] Even the anthill has a much higher consciousness than the present human being. The consciousness of the anthill is located in the upper parts of the mental plane. The consciousness of the bee, on the other hand, is located in the upper parts of the buddhi plane. How did the ant consciousness come into our earth? This happened through beings who are higher than us, who had already gone through the process of creating their own bodies. Males, females, and workers, the three members of the anthill, are the body of a higher spiritual being. The human spirit also gradually comes to divide itself into three parts. Will, feeling, and thinking are separated in the secret student. The brain molecules separate into three groups. The secret student must then consciously connect a certain feeling with an idea. When he sees misery, he must consciously add this feeling in order to feel compassion. At the front of the head is the thinking part, at the top is the feeling part, and at the back of the head is the willing part. The secret student learns to consciously connect these. Later, these three parts separate completely. He must then direct the three parts as an anthill directs the males, females, and workers.

[ 14 ] Now one may ask why higher beings manifest themselves in an anthill. But if formic acid were not produced, the whole earth would be different. The foresight of higher intelligences included anticipating the moment when formic acid had to enter the earth.

[ 15 ] In this way, one can embrace the whole earth with consciousness, so that one knows and recognizes what lives and is there. This was the case with Paracelsus, who then formed his ideas about how things could be used as remedies because he knew how they related to humans and their organs. Digitalis purpurea is indeed related to the heart and can therefore still be used for this purpose with good reason. Nowadays, new remedies are sought through experimentation, by testing their effects on a number of people. In the past, remedies were sought through intuition, because the inner connections were observed. The remedies found in this way always retain their effectiveness, while the others usually reveal disadvantages over time that were overlooked by the experimenter during the initial observation.