The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture XXIV

[ 1 ] We are now in the fifth root race, in the fifth sub-race. This fifth root race is usually called the Aryan race and includes, as its first sub-race, the ancient Indian race, which developed in South Asia. There was an ancient South Asian population there long, long before the Vedas came into being. Everything we have in the Vedas is a faint echo of what was proclaimed as infinitely profound religious wisdom by the ancient rishis. Later, we find the ancient Persian race in the Near East, which received its religious teachings and culture from Zarathustra. The later Zarathustra cultures of Asia are only echoes of this. Then we find as a third sub-race the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian-Assyrian tribes, from which the Semitic-Jewish culture gradually developed. Then, as a fourth sub-race, the Greek-Latin culture emerged in southern Europe, until the rise of the Germanic peoples in northern, central, and western Europe. Two more follow. Seven sub-races together form a root race.

[ 2 ] The previous root race inhabited Atlantis, the part of the earth that was later flooded by the Atlantic Ocean. It includes the following seven sub-races: First, the Rmoahals; second, the Tlavatlis; third, the Toltecs; fourth, the Urturanians; fifth, the Ursemites; sixth, the Akkadians; seventh, the Mongols.

[ 3 ] Going even further back, we come to the continent of Lemuria between Africa, Asia, and Australia. There we enter into times with completely different conditions. Then we go back even further to the second root race, the Hyperborean, and to the first root race, the Polar. So now there are two more sub-races and two root races to follow.

[ 4 ] Going back, we come to a human being made of much finer and ever finer matter. At the beginning of its development, the Earth was fine etheric matter; all beings were also made of such fine etheric matter at that time. At the end of its development, the earth will again be made of such fine etheric matter. Such a state, through which the earth passes, beginning with the finest etheric matter and then condensing and returning to a state of fine physical etheric matter, is called a globe. The physical globe thus develops from a state even finer than that of the finest physical ether. The etheric arises from the astral and returns to the astral.

[ 5 ] All beings are in an astral state on the preceding globe. Today, the astral globe does not float somewhere in space, but the beings that were on it condensed, and the astral globe condensed with them. This globe is the Earth itself. The transition from the astral globe to the physical globe is a transformation of state. Seven successive states also developed on the astral globe. In theosophical literature, it has become customary to call these states races; so there were seven astral races. The astral globe also gradually condensed into astral matter. The astral globe used to be much finer, made of the matter from which our thoughts are woven today. It is therefore called mental matter and the globe is called the mental globe. There on the mental globe were seven successive mental races of humanity with everything that belongs to them. This is preceded by an even finer state of development of even finer matter, the Arupa mental globe: arupa because no forms are yet present, but everything is only hinted at. These are called the four globes, but in reality they are four successive forms of the earth. So we have seven globes:

[ 6 ] Now let us follow the physical Earth until it reaches its end. It will transition back into an etheric Earth, then into an astral Earth. On the former astral Earth, beings are still indeterminate beings that receive their forms through forces that are external. When humans are back on an astral Earth, they will be able to give themselves their own form. On the earlier astral earth, Jehovah and his hosts gave humans their form. But on the plastic-astral earth, humans will give themselves their own form from their inner power, which is why it is called the plastic globe, and the following globes, a rupa and an arupa globe, behave similarly. Human beings must refine themselves completely until they are finally like a germ, like a seed state of everything they have absorbed within themselves. All experiences are then finally concentrated in them as a point of power. The germs that were present on the first globe did not yet contain this. But on the last globe, the germs contain everything they have experienced on the various globes.

[ 7 ] There is no gradual difference between the individual material stages of these globes, but rather a somewhat abrupt transition. Just as when one takes salt, dissolves it in water, and then lets it emerge again, a globe enters a state of sleep (Pralaya) and the following globe emerges from it. Between two states of wakefulness, the globes pass through a short state of sleep. When a person has reached the last, seventh stage, they go through a longer state of sleep. They are enriched and can now go through the path again at a higher stage. To do this, they must first go through a longer pralaya. However, this longer pralaya is not an undifferentiated, uniform state of sleep, but is very differentiated.

[ 8 ] When a person has developed occult abilities to such an extent that they sleep consciously in dreamless sleep, they have developed devachanic consciousness. This enables them to follow what happens between death and the next birth. This consciousness can be further enhanced. Then they become able to observe what happens between the globes. As a third degree of consciousness, one attains the ability to observe what happens between the rounds. This third state thus corresponds to a consciousness between two rounds. Being able to observe between two earthly lives is the first degree of higher consciousness; between two globes is the second, and between two rounds is the third degree. The conscious sleep that enables this is of a completely different nature.

[ 9 ] Between the last round of a planetary state and the first of the next, there are five more states beyond consciousness. The seven rounds and the five states of Pralaya are together called the twelve stages of the world year. Then the whole thing is gone through again, but on a higher level.

[ 10 ] We are now in the fourth round of the Earth, and three others preceded it. Before the seeds of the present human being existed, the human being was already present three times in seed form, once in each round. In each round, we have seven stages of development, which are called globes, and again seven on each globe, which are called races. Seven such rounds together make up a planet. The first cycle began with an Arupa state and condensed into the Earth. Our Earth has already become physical four times. It will become physical three more times. Each such condensation and dissolution belongs to a cycle. Seven such cycles are called a planetary system.

[ 11 ] When the first Earth round began, the entire progeny of what had developed on the Moon planet was present in embryonic form. Between the last Moon round and the first Earth round there was a long Pralaya state. At that time, the Moon people were human ancestors who stood at an intermediate stage between present-day humans and present-day animals, in terms of their lower nature. The present animals are somewhat descended lunar humans, and humans are ascended lunar humans. But the plants on the moon were also different from the present ones. The plant kingdom stood between the present mineral kingdom and the plant kingdom, similar to how a peat bog is now half mineral and half plant-like. The moon was basically a large plant. Its soil consisted of intertwined plants. There were no rocks at that time. This plant-like mineral kingdom only condensed on Earth into the present mineral kingdom. Our present-day quartz, malachite, and so on are condensed from the moon plants; the Dolomite masses originated from original plants. On the moon, therefore, there was a kingdom between today's mineral and plant kingdoms. The moon plants took root there; they needed the soil of the moon. Such plants, which did not find a connection on Earth, became parasitic and still have to grow on plants, for example mistletoe. This grows on plants, just as on the moon all plants grew on a semi-plant basis. Loki, the moon god, kills Baldur with mistletoe, the moon plant. So we find on the moon:

a kingdom between the mineral kingdom and the plant kingdom
a kingdom between the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom
a kingdom between the animal kingdom and the human kingdom.

[ 12 ] These were the seeds that came over to Earth.

[ 13 ] During the first Earth cycle, the human kingdom gradually separated. Humans became more human, animals more animal. The outer bodies of human beings began to become more human during the first earth cycle. During the second cycle, the animal kingdom separated out, during the third the plant kingdom, and during the fourth the mineral kingdom. Then human beings made a new ascent. The first three cycles were repetitions of earlier states and a preparation for receiving the new in the fourth cycle, in the mineral kingdom. Now human beings are processing the mineral kingdom. When they have transformed the mineral kingdom into the product of their activity, a time will come when they will have transformed everything in such a way that not a crumb of the mineral kingdom will remain that humans have not artificially processed. Then the whole can be transformed into pure astral forms.

[ 14 ] This is the redemption of a kingdom. In the fourth round, humans redeem the mineral kingdom when they have transformed it into works of art. Then everything goes through a pralaya, and there is no longer a mineral kingdom, but the whole earth has become a plant. Humans are then raised half a step higher, and everything else with them; for example, Cologne Cathedral will blossom as a plant in the fifth round.

[ 15 ] One does not work in vain when shaping the mineral kingdom. The machine and Cologne Cathedral will later emerge as plant life from what will then be soil. In the atmosphere of the fifth round, we find everything that has been painted today in living cloud formations. We are dealing here with a repetition on a higher level, where all our work in the mineral world around us grows.

[ 16 ] In the fifth round we redeem the plant world, in the sixth the animal world, and in the seventh round the human realm. Then man is ready to enter a new planet. In order for him to evolve upwards, the other realms had to be pushed down somewhat, and he must redeem them later. After the seventh round and a Pralaya, he then moves on to another planet. Seven rounds of seven globes, each with seven races, make a total of 343 states on Earth. The whole purpose of Earth's development is to create waking daytime consciousness in humans, while the whole purpose of the Moon's development was to develop image consciousness in humans. This was preceded by a dreamless sleep state on the Sun, when humans were still sleeping plants. An even earlier state, a deep trance state, existed on Saturn, which still occurs today in certain pathological cases. The individual planets therefore have the purpose of developing successive states of consciousness:

1. Saturn = deep trance consciousness
2. Sun dreamless sleep consciousness
3. Moon = dream sleep or image consciousness
4. Earth = waking or object consciousness
5. Jupiter = psychic or conscious image consciousness
6. Venus = supra-psychic or conscious life consciousness
7. Vulcan = spiritual or self-conscious universal consciousness.

[ 17 ] Just as human relationships are now based on nature, they will later be based on morality. They will be structured according to karmic levels, according to seven degrees of morality (ethical categories of humanity). The formation of castes is a precursor to this later moral structure. Karmic categories should be indicated by this.