The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Theosophy and Rosicrucianism VIII

[ 1 ] Today I would like to offer you a few additional remarks on the subject of reincarnation and karma. And then I would like to move on to a discussion of the evolution of our Earth itself, because it is only through such an examination that we will come to fully understand the true nature of the human being, as it presents itself to us in the context of the cosmic order. I would like to conclude this lecture series by considering together how human beings develop when the goal of their striving is the perception of the higher worlds. In order to penetrate the spiritual worlds, we will therefore have to consider: first, pre-Christian training; second, Christian training; and third, Rosicrucian training.

[ 2 ] What remains to be said about reincarnation should be reserved for a separate chapter, as it is the most difficult concept for beginners to grasp. What we have to discuss here primarily concerns the period of time that lies between two incarnations. This, in and of itself, is a question that shocks the materialistic thinking of our time.

[ 3 ] The one source of knowledge available to the spiritual researcher cannot be verified by those who do not yet possess spiritual vision: that source is experience. But anyone who applies the training we are yet to discuss will be well able to investigate when the majority of people currently living were last here on Earth in their previous incarnation. Then I will have to discuss the methods that were customary in the Chaldean, Pythagorean, and all the mystery schools of the pre-Christian era to enable people to enter the spiritual world.

[ 4 ] Anyone who can glimpse into the conditions of the spiritual worlds—that is, who is able to trace a person back to their previous incarnations—will find that the majority of all human souls now living were present in the early period following the birth of Christ, extending into the 8th and 9th centuries. However, these are all average figures; the time between two incarnations can also be shorter or longer.

[ 5 ] The fact I just mentioned is linked to another that has become particularly prominent in our time. It is the fact that, especially in our present age, there are such unusually radical thinkers who demand equality. This is nothing other than the manifestation, transferred to the material realm, of the demand for equality in the early Christian centuries, which was expressed as: equality before God and equality before the secular powers.

[ 6 ] Now, many of those people who, in the early Christian centuries, put forth these demands for equality and who, at that time, passed through the gate of death with these unfulfilled demands—that is, who carried all these longings for equality before God and the worldly powers in their souls into the spiritual world—have just now reincarnated, and they naturally bring their attitude toward these demands with them once more—though now in a transformed form, corresponding to today’s materialistic worldview. Those who have now reincarnated thus overlook the thoroughly materialistic slant that this demand has taken on in our time. It is not correct to believe, or to claim, that today’s sense of freedom stems from Christianity.

[ 7 ] This transformation of the demand for equality before God and the secular powers into today’s demand for equality in all earthly circumstances can be set on the right course solely by grasping the true context, as made possible for us by the theosophical worldview. But anyone who grasps the true context and at the same time looks at what dominates people today as a materialistic worldview will readily see that the demand for equality, in the form in which it is put forward today by the radical thinkers of our time, is something that quite naturally had to arise at some point. Yet it is equally true that from now on, people must rise again from materialism to spiritualism. Only then will a restoration of social conditions be possible. There is no other remedy for this than Spiritual Science itself.

[ 8 ] This question is discussed in more detail in issues 30, 32, and 34 of the journal *Lucifer-Gnosis*. It is shown there how all other means, no matter how highly praised by even the most distinguished sources for solving the social question, suffer from amateurism, precisely because people today know nothing of the higher worlds. If today’s social thinkers would only allow themselves to be inspired a little by Theosophy, they would find truly effective means to approach this issue. Just as it is true that humanity had to descend from a spiritual past into materialism, so it is true that it must ascend again to the spiritual. It is only from this spiritual worldview that what brings harmony, peace, and love will come. Thus, here too, theosophy will once again be practical in the most eminent sense.

[ 9 ] Now I shall have to show how the insight into the course of human development, gained through clairvoyant observation, leads us back to the events that lie between death and rebirth.

[ 10 ] I have already said that human beings do not appear again and again on this physical Earth for no reason. We have found the reason in the fact that with each new incarnation, they encounter entirely new conditions on Earth, and that each new physical life yields ever-new fruits for the future, precisely because the Earth has changed each time, both in cultural terms and with regard to the purely external natural world. Each time, the face of the Earth has become completely different when humans enter it during a new incarnation.

[ 11 ] According to Chaldean belief, the transformation of our Earth is connected to the relationship between the Sun and the other celestial bodies. You can find more detailed information on this in various lecture series. I can only briefly touch on it here.

[ 12 ] If you were to pay attention to what the sky looks like when the sun rises at the beginning of spring, if you were to observe the place where it rises and what other celestial phenomena are present there, you would see that the sun’s relationship to the other celestial bodies is different every spring. The vernal equinox shifts further each year, so that in approximately 26,000–25,920 years, this vernal equinox returns to the same point where it was 26,000 years ago—a cycle. But this is only seemingly the case: in reality, it is not a circle that the sun describes, but a spiral. This vernal equinox was determined based on the constellation that coincides with this point. The Sun thus traces a circle across the sky, marked by the twelve constellations. It moves a little further each year and thus passes through all twelve constellations within 26,000 years.

[ 13 ] Thus, around 800 B.C., the sun first rose in the constellation of Aries; and since the sun’s passage through all the signs of the zodiac takes approximately 26,000 years, it requires one-twelfth of that time—that is, 2,200 years—to pass through a single sign. And the change in the face of our Earth is indeed connected to the advance of this vernal equinox. Thus, after such a period of about 2,200 years, the face of the Earth has changed to such an extent that entirely different conditions have arisen; this is therefore also the period in which human beings, on average, proceed to a new incarnation. And this is also the case according to the observations of esoteric science. The ancient peoples always associated the rising of the sun at the vernal equinox with a distinct feeling that can be described as follows: From the constellation of Aries, the sun sends us its rays for the first time again, rays that conjure plants forth from the earth. — It is as if the constellation of Aries were bringing these rays, and for this reason, this constellation was held in reverence. Certain sacred feelings are connected with the naming of these constellations. Aries sends forth the powers of the spring sun; hence the peoples of that time saw in the lamb a symbol of these powers of the revival of nature and the human soul. Many legends are connected to this, such as that of Jason, who fetches the Golden Fleece, which signifies something immensely precious for humanity. This veneration of Aries, or rather the lamb, prevailed for many centuries and was adopted by Christianity. That is why, originally, a lamb was depicted on the crucifix in place of Christ on the cross. And that is why Christ was called “the Lamb of God.”

[ 14 ] If this is the case, then—since the spring sun has only risen in the sign of Aries since the 8th century B.C.—there must have been a different form of worship before that; previously, the spring sun rose from the constellation of Taurus. And indeed, before the 8th century B.C., the bull was worshipped in place of the lamb. This worship forms the basis of the Apis cult in Egypt and the Persian Mithraic cult. Some 2,200 years earlier, the sun passed through the constellation of Gemini, and this symbol also played a role in those ancient cultures that preceded them. The ancient Persian religion traces this cult back to Ormuzd and Ahriman.

[ 15 ] Thus we see how ancient peoples associated important mental images with the sun’s passage through the individual constellations. And this, in turn, is connected to the reincarnation of the human being at a specific epoch, after an average of about 2,200 years. However, because it makes a great difference whether the human being is incarnated on this Earth as a man or a woman during such an epoch, the calculation of the individual incarnations becomes somewhat more complicated. The experiences a human has in an incarnation as a man or as a woman are so different that they must incarnate twice during such an epoch, once as a man and once as a woman; so that over the approximate period of two millennia, two incarnations take place, meaning that in reality only 1,100 to 1,200 years lie between two incarnations. That is why it is also correct, on average, that a male and a female incarnation alternate. Exceptionally, however, several incarnations of the same sex may follow one after another—the largest number observed was seven—but then the sex changes. These are exceptions, however; as a rule, the sexes alternate in successive incarnations.

[ 16 ] So that is what can be said about the time that lies between two incarnations. However, it also depends on many other factors, and not solely on the human being himself. For example, a situation may arise in which a particular individuality is precisely suited to the conditions on Earth at a specific point in time to fulfill a certain task. In this case, it may very well be drawn into incarnation by the higher powers before the normal time has elapsed; it is brought down because, by virtue of its entire disposition, it is precisely suited to fulfill a specific mission. This applies in particular to the great leaders of humanity. However, this is balanced out over the course of the human life, so that a correspondingly longer life in Devachan follows later.

[ 17 ] The other thing that needs to be said is that there is a kind of counterpart to that experience I described as taking place immediately after death, in which a person looks back on their past life as if it were a tableau. This counterpart is a kind of preview of the next earthly life.

[ 18 ] Let us first recall how the flashback occurs at the moment of death. You know, of course, that the etheric body has two main tasks: first, to stimulate all the life functions of the physical body—that is, to constantly protect the substance of the physical body from decay and to regulate the building up of this substance; and second, the etheric body serves as the seat of memory. When the etheric body leaves the physical body at the moment of death, it is thus relieved of this first main task, and at that very moment the second characteristic comes to the fore particularly strongly, namely, the memory of everything the human being has experienced in their past life. And this is precisely the life tableau. At this moment, therefore, the human being consists solely of the etheric body, the astral body, and the I.

[ 19 ] When entering a new incarnation, the following occurs: The I descends from the spiritual world, bringing with it all the imperishable essences—both ethereal and astral—that it has acquired up to that point. First, it naturally draws together into its new astral body all the astral qualities corresponding to its previous development, and only then does it do the same with the etheric qualities. All of this takes place in the first few days after conception, and only from the eighteenth to the twentieth day thereafter does the new etheric body work independently on the development of the physical human embryo, whereas previously the mother’s etheric body carries out what is later to be accomplished by the etheric body. It is only during these eighteenth to twentieth days after conception that the individuality—which seeks to incarnate there and has by then clothed its I in a new astral and etheric body—takes possession of the physical body formed up to that point by the mother.

[ 20 ] At the moment just before this taking possession occurs, the human being consists of exactly the same elements as at the moment of death; in the latter case, it has just shed the physical body at that moment, while in the former case, it has not yet taken on the physical body. From this, it will be easy for you to understand how, at the moment when a person enters their new physical body, something analogous to the moment when they shed it occurs. At this moment, the human being then has a kind of preview of his coming life, just as he had a retrospective view of his past life at the moment of death. But the human being forgets this preview because the constitution of his physical body is not yet suited to retaining this preview in memory.

[ 21 ] At this very moment, a person can see: This is the family situation, this is the national situation, this is the local situation, and this is the fate into which I am about to be born. — And sometimes it happens that when a person, having learned in this moment of foreknowledge that something terrible lies ahead, experiences a shock, a terror at the life that awaits them, and that the etheric body then fails to unite properly with the physical body, refusing to enter it. And then the consequences of such a fright—this refusal of the etheric body to properly enter the physical body—manifest in life in the form of idiocy. The spiritual seer can see the etheric body protruding beyond the physical head in such people. And because of this failure of the etheric body to integrate, the brain lags behind in its development, because the etheric body is not working properly on the brain. Many cases of modern-day idiocy are caused in this way.

[ 22 ] And the fact that the present age in particular gives rise to cases of this kind with remarkable ease is quite understandable when one considers that the majority of people reincarnated today lived out their previous incarnations sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries A.D. Now, by applying a certain kind of physical treatment, one can influence the etheric body in such a way that it gradually slides into the physical body, thereby improving the situation. However, this is possible only for a person who can see through to the spiritual cause of the situation and then intervene in the proper manner.

[ 23 ] From the preceding considerations, we now know that the human being, in its entirety, is composed of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. All these components are not merely nested one within the other, but they all interpenetrate and interact with one another. Thus, they all also act upon the physical body and work together with it in such a way that it can develop as it is meant to develop. When you have a human being before you, if you have not yet developed your higher organs of perception, you see only the physical body. But this physical body appears to you as it is only because the etheric body, the astral body, and the ego are integrated into it, and because all of these have contributed in their own way to the formation of that physical body. Yet the physical organs of this human body have not been haphazardly constructed by the three higher members; rather, we can distinguish quite precisely how these three higher members participate in the construction of the physical body. Let us try to form a picture of this.

[ 24 ] First of all, then, we have in this physical body what are, in a certain sense, purely physical organs. These are the ones that are based on purely physical laws—that is, the eyes, ears, larynx, and so on. The eye is certainly a living organ and derives its life from the etheric body that permeates and nourishes it; but viewed from a purely physical standpoint, it is a physical apparatus in which the same forces operate as in inorganic nature, for example in a crystal. We can therefore examine the functions of the eye according to purely physical laws. These sensory apparatuses must first develop out of the physical body. These are precisely those organs that we recognize, in the strict sense, as being built up by physical forces according to physical laws. Then we have a second group of organs: these are the organs of nutrition, growth, and reproduction, which culminate in glandular activity. The etheric body is essentially involved in the formation of these organs. Then we have, as a third group, the nervous system, which is built up in particular by the astral body. Fourth, we have that which is specifically the red blood of higher animals and humans: the red, warm blood is built up by the ego.

[ 25 ] So, first of all, we have the actual physical parts, the sense organs, and later on also the purely mineral skeletal system, which is built up by the physical body itself; secondly: the glandular system, reproductive organs, and so on, which are built up by the etheric body; thirdly: the nervous system is built up by the astral body; fourthly: the blood system is built up by the ego. We will understand this much more clearly when we consider the development of the Earth itself in greater detail.

[ 26 ] You must realize that the law of reincarnation applies to the entire world, not just to human beings. I am here now and alive; I am the reincarnation of my former state. But it is not only I myself as a human being; in a certain sense, this is also true of everything else that fills the universe, including, among other things, the planet itself. Just as we ourselves are the reincarnation of former individualities, so too is our Earth, among other things, the reincarnation of a former planetary state.

[ 27 ] It is not possible to trace these incarnations of our Earth back and forth into infinity; even the best clairvoyant cannot see further back or forward than a certain incarnation, since there are limits to knowledge even for him. The clairvoyant can look back as far as three incarnations of our Earth, and likewise can survey the three subsequent ones, so that, including the present state of the Earth, he surveys seven incarnations.

[ 28 ] To some people hearing this for the first time, it may seem somewhat superstitious that the clairvoyant places the Earth, so to speak, right at the center of this development, and one might say that this is a peculiar arrangement. But one can only speak this way with a superficial assessment; for this is no more peculiar than the fact that I can see equally far in every direction in an open field and find myself at the center of the horizon. After all, in the sevenfold division of the human being described, we also stand with the I at the center: physical body, etheric body, astral body, I, Spirit-Self, Life-Spirit, Spirit-Man. This is based on the same point of view.

[ 29 ] What I have to say about the planetary evolution of our Earth will also surprise some people and seem strange to them.

[ 30 ] Our Earth, then, evolved from an earlier planet. This planet, from which our Earth emerged, is no longer in the sky. But a remnant of what once was is the present Moon; it represents a fragment of Earth’s predecessor. So if you were to combine the present Earth and the present Moon, along with all the spiritual beings living upon them, you would obtain a rough picture of Earth’s previous incarnation, which the occultist calls the Moon. Now you must bear in mind that such a hypothesis is put forward merely to help you understand the process in a more easily comprehensible way, but that, like all hypotheses, it is of course not entirely accurate. If someone were to mix today’s Earth and today’s Moon together, as one might mix two substances in a retort in a chemical laboratory, then in reality the Moon of that time would by no means result. For you must bear in mind that since the moment the Earth and the Moon separated from one another, both celestial bodies have continued to evolve in their own way. For example, since the beginning of our present-day Earth’s development, what we call solid matter—the mineral kingdom—has only now taken shape within this Earth. Minerals in the modern sense did not exist before the beginning of our Earth’s development.

[ 31 ] When considering the mixing of the Earth and the Moon, one must therefore disregard everything that developed subsequently. The ancient lunar mass contained no mineral substance whatsoever. Its consistency had only reached that of a liquid paste. As I said, such a hypothesis is put forward to make the matter somewhat comprehensible to people who have never heard anything about the planetary evolution of our Earth and our entire cosmos. A deeper understanding of this development involves an immense amount more, which, however, cannot be covered in such an introductory series but will be addressed gradually. This development will then be supplemented and illuminated again and again from a new perspective.

[ 32 ] Before the Earth went through this ancient lunar state, it was in a state that occultists refer to as the “Sun.” At that time, our Earth underwent conditions similar to those that still exist on the Sun today. And if we were to make the same assumption here, things would become even more complicated. For if you were to visualize this state, you would have to mix the Earth, Moon, and Sun together, and you would then obtain a single celestial body corresponding to the former solar state, but again with the same limitation as mentioned above regarding the Moon. This Sun of that time, in the further course of its development, thus projected and repelled from itself all the essential parts, forces, and substances of today’s Earth and today’s Moon, and thereby transformed from a planet into a fixed star. Our Earth will also one day become a Sun when it has transformed all its beings into beings of light.

[ 33 ] So our Earth was once the Moon, and the Moon was once the Sun. And then humanity can look back on yet another stage of development, which in occultism is referred to as Saturn. Thus, we must distinguish between the previous stages of our Earth’s development: the Saturn, Sun, and Moon stages, as well as the Earth stage; and in the future, the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan stages will follow.

[ 34 ] Now, someone might say: You’re telling us that the Earth used to be Saturn, but Saturn is still in the sky today, isn’t it? — But the Saturn that used to be our Earth has nothing to do with the celestial body that stands in the sky today as Saturn. This is not to say that the beings who are here on Earth today were once on Saturn, which stands up there in the sky. Today’s Saturn has something to do with the former state of Saturn only in the same way that the Moon has been indicated in relation to the Moon’s former state. What appears as today’s Saturn has, after that ancient time, also undergone its own further development, and the former Saturn relates to today’s Saturn much as a baby relates to an old man. Today’s Saturn was once in a state similar to that of the earlier Saturn, just as the old man was once a baby. The same is true of the Sun and the other celestial bodies. And when the spiritual researcher looks at Jupiter today, he finds on Jupiter states and beings such as the Earth will one day possess when it itself has become Jupiter.

[ 35 ] This teaching originates from the earliest initiates, and time and again the initiates have impressed upon their disciples the importance of this development.

[ 36 ] Now, in those parts where it can be traced back to the earliest times, our language was created by initiates. I cannot explain this in detail in an introductory lecture series like this, because it would lead us too far away from the topic. But it was precisely in ancient times, when the initiates still determined the formation of language, that language was something different. Today, for example, people tend to look for a name that may not yet be taken, but which lacks any deeper meaning. In the past, however, naming was done with a deep meaning arising from inner conditions. Thus, the intention was to erect a kind of monument as a memorial to the course of the Earth’s development through all these time periods and planetary states. A timeline was created, so to speak, so that humanity might always remember the phases of time. But if we are to understand this timeline, we must know something else as well.

[ 37 ] As you can see from the sketch above, this Earth went through a Saturn, Sun, and Moon phase before becoming the Earth we know today. However, before the Earth became the Earth we know today—that is, during the transition from its lunar existence to its present earthly existence—this Earth was under the strong influence of another celestial body, namely Mars. It was precisely at the beginning of our Earth’s development that this very important influence from Mars, which was of immense significance for the Earth’s further development, took place. Incidentally, on this occasion the Earth received iron from Mars, which had not previously been contained in the Earth’s substance. Thus, in its first phase of development, the Earth received an influence from Mars, and in the second half—that is, now—it came under the stronger influence of Mercury. This is why occultism dispenses with the term “Earth,” and why the states of the Earth in occultism are divided into two halves: the first, the Mars half, and the second, the Mercury half. Consequently, the previous scheme changes as follows: the Saturn state, the Sun state, the Moon state, the Mars-Mercury state, the Jupiter state, the Venus state, and the Vulcan state.

[ 38 ] This would make the volcanic state the eighth, and it plays the same role in evolution as the octave does in music. Just as the octave represents, so to speak, a repetition of the first tone, only in a higher register, so too is the volcanic state a repetition of the Saturn state, only in a higher stage of development. The entire cosmos has developed out of the spiritual, and with the volcanic state, everything has unfolded toward the spiritual once again, only in a higher and more diverse form of development. From the one Spirituality, an infinite number of spiritual beings have come into being, just as from the seed that the farmer sows in the earth, the same grains develop in multiplicity in the ripe ear of corn in the fall. All that is transitory is but a parable.

[ 39 ] The ancient initiates incorporated all seven of these names into the monumental symbol I just mentioned—a symbol that serves as a reminder of the Earth’s evolutionary process—and which is reflected in the names of the seven days of the week:

Saturday: Saturday, Samstag
Sunday
Moon Day
Mars Day: Mardi, Mars, Ziu, Dius, Tuesday
Mercury Day: Mercredi, Mercury, Wodan, Wednesday
Jupiter Day: Giovedi, Donar, Thursday
Venus Day: Vendredi, Venus, Freia, Friday

[ 40 ] The names of the days of the week actually preserve a monument to the seven stages of our Earth’s evolution. Thus, we find clues to profound spiritual connections in what appear to be everyday occurrences.

[ 41 ] And now you must consider that the entire development of humankind is also intimately connected with this planetary development. Indeed, the entire development of the human being can only be understood in light of planetary development. Every aspect of the human being is intimately connected with one of these planetary phases of Earth’s development, insofar as during each of these phases one aspect of the human being was formed. Thus, the physical body was formed during the Saturn period, the etheric body during the Sun period, the astral body during the Moon phase, and the I became integrated into the human being only during the Earth phase. That is why the physical body is also the most fully developed aspect to this day, while the etheric body is only in the third stage of development, since it was first formed on the ancient Sun; the astral body is only in the second stage, since it was first formed during the Lunar phase; and the I is the baby among the human members, for it is only at the beginning of its development during the present Earth phase.

[ 42 ] We can readily find evidence for what has just been said if we take a look at the four aspects of the human being and their development.

[ 43 ] In the early years of the Theosophical Society, much discussion centered on the terms “higher” and “lower” bodies, with the physical body being designated as the lowest; and this was very often associated with notions of value. And people were all too often inclined to regard the physical body as the least valuable, even to despise it. But that is entirely wrong.

[ 44 ] Take a close look at this marvelous structure of the physical body; you will readily see that it stands at an incredibly high level of perfection, whereas this is by no means the case with the etheric body, for example. If you look at the physical body with the eyes of wisdom, you will see a marvel of construction in every organ of this physical body—in the heart, in the bones, and so on. Just consider the wise structure of the heart and reflect on the work this relatively small organ performs every day and every hour. Compare this with the still relatively underdeveloped state of the astral body today: how unrefined passions still stir daily within this astral body, how, among other things, the human being still feels a daily longing for pleasures whose satisfaction virtually abuses this marvelous structure of the heart, and yet the heart is capable of paralyzing all these astral damages without breaking in two, indeed often without suffering any harm at all. Today, therefore, the astral body is not yet as developed as the physical body; today, the physical body is the most perfect member. In the future, however, the astral body will be so developed that it will surpass the physical body. The etheric body is less developed today than the physical body, and the astral body ranks only third. And the youngest of the members of the human being is the I; it will therefore be the last to reach perfection.

[ 45 ] So everything in the physical body that is truly physical is the very oldest part. Our physical body had already undergone a process of development before an etheric body was integrated into it. And this development, which the physical body underwent solely as a physical body, is the Saturn phase. At that time, the initial constitution of this physical body was merely a physical apparatus. This then developed further, and it was only on the Sun that the etheric body was integrated into this physical body. This etheric body, so to speak, filled out this physical body and transformed it in a certain sense. During the Lunar phase, the astral body was integrated, and the ego did not appear at all until the beginning of our present Earth phase. Today, the human being stands as a fourfold being. During the Lunar phase, he consisted of a physical, etheric, and astral body; during the Solar phase, of a physical and etheric body; and during the Saturn phase, of the physical body alone. The physical body thus has four stages of development, the etheric body three, the astral body two, and the ego the first. This is why the physical body is the most perfect member, because it is the one on which work has been carried out the longest.

[ 46 ] This shows how the individual aspects of the human being are connected to the evolution of the entire planetary system. And that is why you will also find the term in ancient occult books

for the physical body: the Saturn body
for the etheric body: the Sun body
for the astral body: the Moon body
for the I: the Earth body, as the actual
Earth element of the human being.

[ 47 ] Tomorrow we will examine the structure and the entire life of Saturn, and then move on to the Sun and the Moon. We will then see how human beings have become more and more perfected, up to the present day.