The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] Last time we discussed the development of the human being in the context of the evolution of the cosmos. These things can be viewed from the most diverse points of view. For when we let our intellectually sharpened gaze wander back into the distant past, we see no less rich a diversity of events than in our immediate present; and one must not believe that once one has characterized the events, the development, with a few concepts and ideas, one has then fully grasped the matter, fully presented it. Rather, it is necessary to characterize these times of the remote past from the most diverse points of view, right down to our present. Then one becomes clearer and clearer about it. One must not be misled by apparent contradictions that one might find here and there. These apparent contradictions arise from the fact that one can also look at a thing from the most diverse points of view spiritually. For example, you can walk around a tree and create a picture of the tree from the most diverse sides. Each picture is then true. There could be a hundred of them. Of course, this is only a comparison; but in a certain respect it is quite true that we also look at the times of our earthly existence from the most diverse points of view.

[ 2 ] Today we want to look at our evolution on Earth in connection with the evolution of our species from a different point of view, and we want to pay more attention to the human being himself. We want to describe the processes that present themselves to the clairvoyant eye looking backwards in what is called the “Akashic Records”.

[ 3 ] We have often repeated that our Earth, before it became Earth, went through a series of embodiments. It was preceded by the Saturn era, the Sun era, the Moon era; only then does our actual Earth era begin.

[ 4 ] If we take a brief look back at the time of ancient Saturn, we recall that it was said that of the elements and physical states that are on Earth today, of the elements and physical states that are on Earth today, the solid or earthy, the liquid or watery, the airy and the fiery, only fire, warmth, was present on ancient Saturn. We imagine quite correctly what this first embodiment of the Earth was like when we consider the following: Saturn did not yet have any gases or watery components in it, let alone anything earthy. If you had visited the old Saturn, so to speak – if you could have been a human being then as you are today – you would not have found anything of hard, somehow liquid or other matter when you approached the old Saturn, but a sphere that would have consisted only of heat. You would have entered it as if into an oven. You would have felt it by entering a different temperature zone. So old Saturn consisted only of fire or heat.

[ 5 ] The Sun, which was the second embodiment of our Earth, already showed warmth in such a concentration that we speak of a gaseous or airy state. The state of the Moon then showed a watery state of our substances in its earlier period; and I have already drawn your attention to the fact that part of the substance of the old Moon went out to become the Sun, and when it had gone out, there was a sudden mighty condensation of all lunar beings.

[ 6 ] For us today, the main thing is to realize once again that in each later state of development, the earlier ones must be repeated in a certain way. Thus, when we look back at the evolution of our Earth, at the beginning of its development we have a kind of Saturnian evolution, namely a repetition of the Saturnian state; then we have a kind of solar evolution, a repetition of the solar state; then a kind of lunar evolution, a repetition of the lunar state; and only then does the present incarnation of our Earth's evolution really begin. When our Earth emerged from the state of Pralaya, from the state of twilight, through which it had passed after being a moon, our Earth was also only a fiery orb. I have already described to you how the other planets broke away. We will initially assume that the Earth was a mere fiery orb containing only heat. Within this sphere of warmth, which consisted of fire, man was already present. Just as the first germ of man was present on Saturn, so man is also present again when the state of Saturn is repeated on earth. There were no other kingdoms. Man is the firstborn of the earth's state. No plant, animal or mineral kingdom existed at the beginning of our evolution on earth, so that our earth, too, was basically composed only of human bodies at the beginning of its development.

[ 7 ] Yes, but what is the difference between the old Saturn condition and the present earth condition, which repeats the old Saturn condition? There is a significant difference! It consists in the fact that the human bodies — which now emerge as the fresh plants unfold from the germs — have gone through the three earlier stages of development. They are essentially more diverse and more intricately formed, for all the forces that were active in Saturn are present in this first earthly state. The old Sun and the old Moon are also present. They united at the beginning of the evolution of the Earth and have all become one body again. The forces of Saturn, the Sun and the Moon work together in it. Therefore, this first human being at the beginning of the earth's development is already much, much more complicated than the old Saturn human being. In Saturn, everything was undifferentiated, everything was still a Saturn human being. Now, in the newly formed earth, Saturn, the sun and the moon work together; the earth human being emerged in his first, very complicated disposition.

[ 8 ] At the time when the Earth emerged, so to speak, when it rose out of the darkness of space as a space glowing with warmth, the first human forms themselves lived in this warm space as warmth beings. If you look back with clairvoyant eyes at what was present at that time in the human being, you will first find this first human disposition as if the whole sphere of warmth had many, many currents within it. These currents move towards the surface of the earth – that is, the newly emerged earth – and sink into this surface, forming warmer masses there than the surrounding area. The human being differs from his surroundings only in that he feels that certain spaces are warmer. Now, the easiest way for me to make clear to you what was present in the human being at that time is to show you, among the human organs, what was formed in the first system.

[ 9 ] Imagine a newborn child, with a soft spot on the top of its head. Imagine this opening to be completely open and imagine a flow of warmth entering from the outside. Do not think of this warmth as being in the form of blood, but as a flow of energy. Imagine this energy going down and forming a kind of center where your own heart is now, and spreading out into individual veins, but these are not blood vessels, they are energy channels. There you have the first warmth-producing organ in man. Later, in the course of further development, the human heart with its blood vessels emerged from this warmth-producing organ, and became the blood circulation. And the organ that was present in man for a long time but then disappeared was a luminous warmth organ, which was also present in the first system at that time. Much later in the evolution of the earth did man possess such an organ. At the spot where the head of a child remains soft, so to speak, is indicated the place where a kind of warmth organ went out from man when he could not yet see into his surroundings. When he was still a sea creature, when he could not yet perceive in today's way, when he still swam around in the sea, he had to know above all what the 'temperature conditions' were, whether he was allowed to move in one direction or not. With this lantern-like organ he could perceive whether he was allowed to go there or there. This organ was still present in the third period, the Lemurian time. I have already indicated to you that the saga of the Cyclops, the one-eyed people, goes back to this human eye form. It is not really an eye and if it is described as such, then that is not correct. It is a kind of heat organ and this points the way to where it is allowed to go. So we would have something like a cup-shaped organ that widens downwards to the first formation of the heart, and that was surrounded by a kind of tentacles, so that there was a kind of blossom at the top. That is how this organ was in the beginning.

[ 10 ] Now something occurred in the course of time on earth that is very important: the matter, the substance, differentiated. The uniform warm matter differentiated, so that air matter came into being, while a part of the earlier warm matter remained as warm matter. But you must observe a law in this, and it is necessary that you realize it clearly if you want to observe these parts of man in the course of development: Everywhere where warm matter condenses so that it becomes air, light comes into being at the same time. Warmth is still dark matter, not interspersed with light. But when a part of this warmth condenses into gas or air in such a sphere of the world, then a part of this matter can let the light through. And so it was.

[ 11 ] Now we have the earth in the second state of its development. All other aspects run parallel to this. We now have an Earth that consists partly of warmth, partly of air, and that glows inwardly. And indeed, all this is now also expressed in human development, in human education. That which used to be a mere predisposition as a warmth organ, that actually begins to glow. The human being is like a lantern, he shines. A few decades ago, one might still have been surprised that there are luminous beings. Today, however, there is no longer any need to be surprised; for today, science already knows that deep in the bottom of the sea, where no rays of light penetrate at all, there are beings that shine and that spread their light themselves. This is how man began to shine.

[ 12 ] Now something very peculiar appeared in this human formation: the first facility to utilize the air that was there also developed - little by little it then developed further; the beginning of a breathing process developed. So we see that a kind of breathing process has been added to the previous warming process. It is very important that we realize that with the storage of air in the earth, the breathing process begins, which consists of nothing more than air attaching itself to the warming matter, so that it is permeated by air bubbles. That is the effect of air. But it is still linked to something else; because the effect of light is also there, and this is shown in the fact that the first rudiments of the nervous system, and indeed of the inner nervous system, are forming. Not a physically pronounced nervous system, mind you, but the whole thing is more like lines of force that have been developed to a certain density. You must bear in mind that the whole thing is gaseous and that only very fine currents of air, like lines of force, can be present in it.

[ 13 ] So we now have a human being who, in all his delicacy, is still an ethereal, warm, airy being, and a being in whom the first rudiments of the nervous system are emerging. If you reflect on this a little, you will realize that this is the state of our development on earth, where the sun is still within the earth. Of course the sun is still inside! Imagine how this cosmic body would appear in space if someone were to look at it from outside. All these beings, which we have just described as the first human beings, radiate light individually, and this light becomes the total light that streams out into space. You see that you are really dealing with a sun that shines out into space. If you had been able to examine the state of Saturn, you would have found that you could have approached it without seeing it; only through warmth did it become noticeable. Now, however, you are dealing with a solar body that is warmed on the inside but sends its light out into space.

[ 14 ] Now, little by little, the time I have characterized as the time when the sun went forth comes. All the higher beings that were connected with the sun and gave mankind the abilities we have just discussed, all these entities with the finer substances separated. The sun went forth. It did not shine yet, it did not spread any light yet; it went out of the earth.

[ 15 ] Now we have a world body in this state of development of our earth, which consists of earth and moon, because the present moon was still inside the earth at that time. Now something very strange happens. Because all the finer forces have gone out with the sun, a relatively rapid condensation occurs. What used to be only lines of force now already shows a very dense form. And as the finer substances leave, we see how the gaseous state condenses into water. The whole now consists not only of fire and air, but also of water. The luminosity has gone with the outgoing sun. It has become dark again on earth; the beings have retained only part of the luminosity within themselves.

[ 16 ] This is an interesting state in the evolution of mankind. I have told you that the predisposition for the nervous system arose through the light. This nervous system is a creature of the light. In all your nerves you have nothing but the original radiations of light. Now the light, the sun, goes out into the universe. As a result, the mass condenses very quickly. It does not immediately become the nerve mass that it is today, but it becomes denser than before, it is no longer just a fine ethereal mass. And what is most significant is that it used to shine outwards, but now it becomes inwardly radiant. This means that the human being's first nervous system has the ability to produce inner images of light: visions, clairvoyant consciousness occurs. So the sun goes out of the earth, so to speak, leaving the earth without light. But the beings produce an inner light for themselves. They used to shine light from the outside to each other. Now they lost the ability to shine. The earth was no longer the sun, but inwardly the consciousness space was illuminated, as when you today illuminate your consciousness space in sleep with the whole dream world. Only infinitely more significantly, much more vividly, was this whole consciousness space illuminated at this time.

[ 17 ] And now we come to another important point. Just as light was created with the emergence of air, a counter-image has now emerged with the condensation of air into water. Just as air relates to light, water relates to sound. Of course, sound can pass through air and set air in vibration, making it audible. But sound arose and appeared on Earth as a separate entity alongside the formation of water. And just as the air was permeated by the effect of light, so now all the water into which the air has condensed – we now have the earth consisting of warmth, air and water – is completely vibrated by sound rays. Our Earth is now permeated most in those parts where it has become watery, by the harmonies of the spheres, by sounds that stream from the universe into our Earth in all possible sound harmonies; and the result of these sound effects in the water is a very, very important one. You have to imagine, of course, that this original water, this liquid earth water, contained all the substances that have since been deposited as metals, minerals and so on. It is particularly interesting to focus one's spiritual gaze on these ancient times, to see how the most diverse forms develop out of water, in that clay in water creates shapes. Clay in water creates shapes. It is a truly wonderful time in the evolution of our Earth. Something happened at that time in the evolution of the Earth, on the grandest scale, that is comparable to sprinkling fine dust onto a metal plate and stroking it with a violin bow; the Chladni figures are formed. You know what regular figures are formed. In this way, the most diverse forms and figures were formed by the music flowing in from outer space, and the substances dissolved in the water, which were themselves watery, obeyed the cosmic music and arranged themselves according to the cosmic music. And the most important formation of the dance of substances according to the cosmic music is the egg white, the protoplasm, which is the basis of all living formation. Let the materialists reflect as much as they like on the mechanical combination of albumen from oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and so on. The original protoplasm, albumen, formed out of the cosmic substance, which formed out of the harmonies of the cosmic music. And so the substances in living things are arranged in the sense of cosmic music. And so, around these fine structures, and especially in them, is organized that protein-like substance, that protoplasm, which permeates everything. Along those lines, which I have described to you as lines of warmth, the water coagulated into protein according to the world tone runs and gradually passes into blood formation. In the nerve lines, the coagulated water settles as the formation of protein. And at first the protein formed like a kind of shell, like a cartilaginous glue substance, one might say, so that there is protection against the outside. All this really formed itself after the dance of the substances in accordance with the music of the spheres.

[ 18 ] All this was there before there was a single cell. The cell is not the origin of the organism, but what I have just described to you, the spiritual, is the origin of the organism, first present as a warmth, then more suggested in lines of force, lines, then embedding itself in these lines of force, that which has arisen from the harmony of the spheres through the arrangement of the substances; and relatively late, as the last of the formations, the cell arose. The cell, as the last secretion, had to be born of a living being. It never happened that organisms developed out of cells, but the cell was first formed out of living matter. The anatomical is always only a consequence of the composite.

[ 19 ] All this we had at the beginning of that state when the moon was still in the earth and the sun already outside. But as long as the moon remained inside the earth, an ever-increasing hardening of this protein formation occurred, and it would have finally come to the point that I have described to you as mummification if the coarsest substances and the coarsest beings had not emerged from the earth. The last thing to emerge from the human being during this period were the nerves that go to the sense organs. But the sense organs had not yet been opened. They had been formed from within, but they had not yet been opened. And so the moon goes out with the coarsest substances. The consequence of this stage of development is that the human being can gradually move on to a higher state by opening his senses, by the two bodies, so to speak, that are now outside, mutually balancing each other from the outside. While they were connected with the earth and built up the human being, they now work from the outside, opening his senses and making him the seeing and hearing being that he appears to us today.

[ 20 ] This going out of the moon happens around the middle of the old Lemurian period. There we have a human being whose sense organs have not yet been opened, but who has a powerful clairvoyant gift. I have described it to you: he can fill his consciousness with the most diverse colors and heat phenomena from within, all of which have real value and mean something; but he does not yet perceive the objects in space. This only begins after the moon has left the earth.

[ 21 ] If you consider this brief sketch that I have given you of the ancient development of the earth, you will see that man, as he is today as an earthly being, actually took his starting point from the heart. Of course, the heart was not there as an organ as it is today. That only developed much later; but the predisposition for the heart arose out of the fire. Then, born out of the air, the respiratory system was added, and the nervous system was born out of the light. Then came what integrated itself into the organs as a mass of protoplasm, which first shaped the whole into living matter by the fact that the world tones coagulated the aqueous substances. In the last period of the earth's development, when the earth was still together with the substance of the moon, the condensation to an earthy state occurred; and only shortly before the moon went out, what is now commonly called the mineral kingdom came into being, the earthy emerged from the liquid. After all, egg white is a state between the solid and the liquid in the middle. But the earthy, the solid, only really came into being in the most recent period. How? It came into being through the fact that under the influence of condensation — for everything was, of course, a continuous process of condensation — the elements themselves became more and more material. Think of the beginning of the evolution of the earth. What did the warmth-matter do then? It gave you that for your physical body, which now pulsates in your blood. It was not the same warmth as before. You must not think that when we speak of the first state of warmth on earth, we are speaking of a warmth like that which arises when you light a match. That is mineral fire and mineral warmth. We speak of the fire and warmth that pulsates in your blood; that is living warmth. There is not only the mineral warmth that arises out there in space, but there is a very different, living warmth that you have within you. This was present at the beginning of the earth, and out of it the first human being was formed. But with the continuing condensation, this living warmth has also gradually become inanimate warmth. This was also connected with the condensation process that took place when the sun went out and the moon was connected with the earth. And this warmth, which was the mineral warmth, first occurs as a process of combustion.

[ 22 ] Here we come to an important point, which I would like to emphasize. We can indeed speak of a state of warmth, of a state of fire, at the beginning; but we should not speak of actual combustion. That is not correct. We should speak of nothing other than what we feel pulsating warmly in our own blood today. Warmth, which arises from an external mineral combustion, only occurred after the sun had emerged and the earth was left alone with the moon. And through this combustion, which had not existed before, the substances within the earth's mass were separated out, which in occultism are referred to as “ashes”. When you burn anything, ashes are created. The ashes were deposited during the formation of the earth when the earth was alone with the moon. We have come so far that through the incoming cosmic tone, which forced the materials to dance, the protoplasm masses have integrated themselves. We have beings in which, according to the lines of force, fine protoplasm masses have arranged themselves in the past, similar in external formation to what the formation is in today's protein. We also have denser masses that are there for protection, that surround the respective beings like a kind of gluey shell. What is missing in these beings? The hard bone mass! If I may express myself in a popular way: it is all still a glue-like mass, and what is actually mineral is completely absent in the beings until the time I have now described to you. Now you can imagine how different these beings were. Today, nothing in your physical body is not permeated with mineral substance. The human body as it is today has only developed relatively recently. Today, the human body consists not only of bones, but also of muscles and blood; this mineral mass is incorporated into everything. Imagine the mineral mass not existing, the whole earth with its beings still without mineral mass. Then, through a process of combustion, the mineral ash, ash of the most diverse minerals, is deposited. So, in the human beings, who had actually only reached the glue-like density up to now, ash components were deposited on all sides. And the beings absorb the ash like egg white in the past and integrate it in their own way, absorb the mineral from the thick bone to the liquid blood. You can easily imagine what has been stored there: All that remains as ashes when the body is cremated or decomposes, what really remains as ashes is what was created last, everything about you that does not remain as ashes was there before; these ashes have only been incorporated into it. The person who looks with a seeing eye at this ash, which comes from a decomposing corpse, must say to himself: This is the mineral substance in me that was absorbed last by what was there earlier. The mineral part was the last to be created in the course of the formation of the earth, and the other realms incorporated it, after they had previously consisted only of other substances.

[ 23 ] Now we can still ask ourselves: What caused these ashes to be incorporated? We carry these ashes around with us all the time, but they are distributed and left behind when our body is cremated or decays. So how did the ashes get into these lines that were filled with protein substance?

[ 24 ] We have seen that originally there was fire; from it the heart developed; then the respiratory system developed from the air; light joined in and formed the nervous system; then sound came and, by making the materials dance, formed the living substance. What was it that allowed the mineral element to flow into this substance? That which the ashes force into the human body was now thought, which turns sound and tone into words. Even in Atlantean times, when everything around was shrouded in fog and mist, the spoken word was not the only articulated language. Everything that is articulated language today, and what is expressed in it, formed the dance of the fabrics; the 'sound, the musicality within, formed the fabrics into a living substance. Meaning, the significance of words, pushes the ash formed in the combustion process into this living substance, and to the extent that the bone system gradually became denser towards the end of the Atlantic period, man became more and more imbued with thoughts, with self-awareness. His intellectualism emerged, and he became more and more a self-aware being.

[ 25 ] The things that are in us are created from the outside in: first our disposition, which has received its culminating organ in the heart, then our nervous system with the respiratory system, then the organs that arise from glands in living things. Thus, in the course of the earth's development, the reverse of what happened earlier becomes apparent. Then the bone system, the solid substances, the integration of ash, and the human being becomes a self-aware being. Such is the course of development within our own earthly embodiment. This brings us almost to the end of the Atlantean period.

[ 26 ] If you compare this with what we discussed earlier, you will see: what is first was always that which works last; because that which pushes into matter as a “word” was there first. What gave the human being his I was there first. If you try to understand what has been said today in a light-filled way, you can also very easily find in it the facts for the first sentences in the Gospel of John. In one of the next evenings, we will have to show how our rambling observations in outer space are beautifully reflected in the Gospel of John and also in the first sentences of Genesis. All these things will be regained for us when we contemplate the process of world evolution. But one thing will emerge clearly from this: when we look at the facts, this human development presents itself to us differently than the materialistic imagination imagines, namely that the human being emerged from the coarse material, and that from this the spiritual abilities have developed.

[ 27 ] Now you see that what actually constitutes the mission of earthly development, that in which love is expressed in man, is first laid down in what we have as an organ of warmth. That emerges first. Before the organic, the spiritual is in the form of lines of force; then the organic is integrated under the miracle effect of world music, and only then is the whole thing as if impregnated with mineral substance, with solid matter, through the word or the thought. The densest substance is formed last. When we look at the course of earthly evolution, we see that the human being develops out of the spiritual. Man has his origin and Utstand, as every true world view has always shown, not in matter, but in the spirit; and matter has only been incorporated into the human being after the spiritual forces. This emerges more and more from this consideration.