The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture Sixteen

[ 1 ] In a previous lesson, we went back in human evolution to the separation of the sexes. This point in development is the result of a long cosmic preparation. After the night that separated the ancient lunar evolution from the Earth's evolution, the Earth initially appeared to be a mixture of the forces of today's Sun and Moon. They formed a single body, which gradually differentiated and gave birth to the three bodies we know today. The separation into the sexes is the result of the division into the forces of the moon and the earth. The female reproductive forces have remained under the influence of the moon. The moon remains bound to that which regulates reproductive life on Earth in humans and animals. Thus, the knowledge provided by occultism reveals to us the forces at work in the planetary system.

[ 2 ] When the sun was still connected to the Earth and the moon, there were neither plants nor animals nor humans in the true sense of the word. Only the plant kingdom existed, but in a completely different form than today. It has retained a special relationship to the forces of the Sun, corresponding to the relationship of animals to the Moon and humans to the Earth. As long as the Sun was connected to the Moon and Earth, plants directed their flowers toward the center of the planet. When it moved away, they oriented themselves toward it and directed their flowers toward it. We have seen that plants take a position opposite to that of humans in that, like humans, they stand upright, but in the opposite direction, while animals are in the middle between the orientation of humans and that of plants: their spine runs horizontally. As the three heavenly bodies separated, the three kingdoms of nature on earth adopted the behavior we know: the plant kingdom at the time of the separation of the sun, the animal kingdom at the time of the separation of the moon. The original composition of forces contained in embryo everything that subsequently manifested itself in physical form. Imagine a substance that has been heated to a high temperature and then cooled; you will then see how all the elements it contained take shape.

[ 3 ] At the time of the old moon, we also find the forces of the sun concentrated in a certain epoch in a celestial body outside this moon. The moon revolved around this old sun in such a way that it always faced the same side toward it. The moon's rotation around the Earth is a continuation of this movement, as it was once performed around the old sun. These two celestial bodies connected at the beginning and end of this cosmic period in the same way that the Earth, the moon, and the sun connected at the beginning of the Earth period and will reunite at the end. The effectiveness of these two ancient celestial bodies in evolution could never have come to light if they had not remolded their forces after the separation. What the moon developed while it was outside the sun are the forces that later allowed a third body to appear. For during this separation, humans were able to develop within themselves that which would lead them to take on physical form and develop an object consciousness, or waking consciousness, on earth. separation, human beings were able to develop within themselves that which would lead them to take on physical form and develop an object consciousness, or waking consciousness, on Earth.

[ 4 ] The period that preceded this lunar development is called solar development. Up to this point in development, there is exclusively pure solar life. Secret science sees the sun as a fixed star that was formerly a planet, just as it sees the earth as a planet that is destined to become the sun of a world system in the future. During the solar evolution, human beings have only a consciousness similar to dreamless sleep.

[ 5 ] The solar period was preceded by yet another state; the sun itself was not yet a planet. Here, humans knew only a deep trance or deep sleep consciousness. They were not yet the beings of light that they were to become on the old sun. They simply vibrated as a tone in the pure harmony of this Saturn period, which, incidentally, has nothing to do with today's Saturn.

[ 6 ] After our Earth period with its awake physical consciousness, a fifth state will dawn, an imaginative astral consciousness, in the course of a development called the Jupiter development. Then the Venus development will follow, in which what is today unconscious deep sleep will become conscious. Finally, the Vulcan evolution will follow, corresponding to the highest state of consciousness that an initiate can attain.

[ 7 ] But the relationships between the Earth and the planets do not end there. Our present Earth epoch can be divided into two sections. In the first, what causes our blood to be red developed. What is it that gave us this red blood? At the time of the separation that took place between the Earth and the Sun, the world body, consisting of highly fluid substances, was permeated by the equally fluid currents of the planet Mars. Before this passage of Mars, there was no trace of iron on Earth. Iron was the result of this passage. All substances containing iron, such as our blood, are subject to the influence of Mars. Mars colored the substance of the Earth, and its influence made the appearance of red blood possible. For this reason, the first half of Earth's development is called the Mars development.

[ 8 ] Iron was a liquid substance at that time. It was only later that metals became hard. The only metal that has not yet solidified is mercury. When it becomes solid, the human soul will become independent of the physical body and astral imagination will be able to become consciousness. This event is linked to the forces of Mercury, which influence the second Earth period as they condense and solidify. The Earth is both Mars and Mercury. The initiates have incorporated this into language by naming the days of the week after the planets that belong to our evolution: Mars and Mercury have their place between the Moon and Jupiter.

[ 9 ] The interior of the Earth. Physical science only knows the Earth's crust, the mineral layer, which is basically just a thin skin on the surface of the Earth. In reality, the Earth is composed of a series of concentric layers, which we will now describe.

[ 10 ] Firstly, the mineral layer contains the metals whose substance is found in the physical body of everything that lives on the surface. This layer, which forms a skin around the living being that is the Earth, is only a few miles thick.

[ 11 ] Secondly, the second layer can only be understood if one brings oneself to accept the idea of a matter that is the opposite of what we know. It is a negative life, the opposite of life. All life dies here. A plant or animal that was immersed in it would be immediately destroyed, dissolved in the mass. This second semi-liquid envelope surrounding the Earth is in truth a realm of death.

[ 12 ] Thirdly: The third layer is a realm of reversed consciousness. Every suffering appears here as joy, every joy as suffering. Its substance, consisting of vapors, behaves in the same negative way toward our feelings as the second layer does toward life.

[ 13 ] If we remove these three layers in our minds, we find the Earth back in the state it was in before the Moon separated from it. If one can rise to a conscious astral vision through concentration, one sees these two layers in action: the destruction of all life on the second layer, the transformation of feelings on the third layer.

[ 14 ] Fourth: The fourth circle is called Water-Earth, Soul-Earth, Form-Earth. It has a remarkable peculiarity. Imagine a cube that appears inverted in terms of its substance: where this substance was, there would be nothing; the space occupied by the cube would be empty, but around it would be this substance, the substantial form. Hence the name Form Earth. Here, this vortex of forms, instead of being a negative void, is a positive substance.

[ 15 ] Fifth: This layer is called Earth of Growth Forces. It contains the source of earthly life, a substance of budding, abundantly multiplying energies.

[ 16 ] Sixth: The sixth layer is the Fire Earth, a substance consisting of pure will, the element of life, of movement, incessantly permeated by impulses, by passions, a veritable reservoir of willpower. If pressure were exerted on this layer, it would resist and defend itself.

[ 17 ] If one disregards these three new layers in one's mind, one arrives at the state in which the globe was when the sun, moon, and earth together formed one body. The following circles are accessible only to conscious observation, not only of dreamless sleep, but even of deep sleep or trance.

[ 18 ] Seventh: This circle is the mirror of the Earth. Similar to a prism, it breaks down everything that is reflected in it and causes the opposite image to appear. If you look through an emerald, it appears red.

[ 19 ] Eighth: In this circle, everything appears fragmented and reproduced ad infinitum. If you take a plant or a crystal and concentrate on this circle, the plant and crystal appear multiplied to infinity.

[ 20 ] Ninth: This last layer consists of a substance endowed with moral activity, but its morality is opposite to that which must unfold on earth. For its essence, the power associated with it, is separation, discord, and hatred. Here in Dante's hell is Cain, the fratricide. This substance is opposed to everything that is good and beautiful among humans. Humanity's efforts to spread brotherhood on earth diminish the power of this sphere to a corresponding degree. It is the power of love that, to the extent that it becomes spiritualized, will even transform the body of the earth. This ninth layer is the substantial origin of what appears on earth as black magic, that is, magic based on egoism.

[ 21 ] All these layers are connected to each other by rays that connect the center of the earth with its surface. In the outer layer, in the womb of the solid earth, there are a fairly large number of underground chambers that are connected to the sixth layer, the fire earth. This element of the fire earth is closely related to the human will. It is this element that caused the terrible eruptions that brought the Lemurian epoch to an end. The forces that feed the human will went through a crisis at that time, which provoked the unleashing of that fiery power in which the Lemurian continent perished. In the course of evolution, this sixth layer sank more and more toward the center of the earth, and for this reason volcanic eruptions became less numerous. But they still occur under the influence of the human will, which acts magnetically on the earth's layer and disrupts it when it is evil and misguided. Purified of selfishness, the human will can, on the contrary, appease this fire. Materialistic epochs in particular are accompanied and followed by earth catastrophes, earthquakes, and so on. A stronger adherence to progressive development is the only alchemy that could gradually transform the organism and soul of the Earth.

[ 22 ] The following example illustrates the relationship between human will and earth movements: In people who died as a result of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, one can observe completely different characteristics in the course of their subsequent incarnation. They bring with them great spiritual predispositions at birth, because through their death they have come into contact with an element that has shown them the true face of things and the illusory nature of a merely material life.

[ 23 ] A relationship has also been observed between certain births and earthquake and volcanic disasters. In times of disaster, materialistic souls like to incarnate, attracted by volcanic phenomena and the convulsive movements of the malevolent earth soul. And these births, in turn, can bring about new catastrophes. For, conversely, evil souls have an exciting influence on the earth's fire. The development of our planet is closely linked to the development of human powers and civilizations.