The Spiritual Hierarchies
GA 110
Düsseldorf, April 14, 1909
Lecture V
[ 1 ] We have had the activity of higher spiritual Beings within our Cosmos, brought before our souls by means of two examples, that on ancient Saturn and that on the ancient Sun, which is the reincarnation, or the production of Saturn. It will now be necessary to explore the spiritual realm itself in which these higher spiritual Beings are, and consider their action and influence from still another point of view. During the first half of these lectures some things will have to be said which many of you have already heard. But even apart from the fact that there are many listeners here who have not yet heard some of the things which may be called introductory, it is necessary to repeat them, because we have to rise in these lectures to very high regions of spiritual life.
[ 2 ] From what has been said you will have seen that spiritual Beings of the most different kinds have to be active within a cosmic system which is in process of development. What in reality, is this ancient Saturn? Let us make a precise image of it. Of course ancient Saturn has nothing to do with the Saturn of the present day. You can easily imagine that in ancient Saturn were already included the germs of all that belongs to-day to the whole of our solar system; our Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and so on, all these bodies were within ancient Saturn and have evolved out of it. Imagine to yourselves a globe, or heavenly body which would have the sun as its central point and would reach so far outwards that the Saturn of to-day was contained in it, this globe, larger than our present solar system, would give you a correct idea of ancient Saturn. Our whole solar system came forth, out of ancient Saturn. One might even compare it — not exactly but approximately — with the general Kant-Laplace universal primeval mist, out of which, according to the opinion of many modern people, our solar system has formed itself. But the comparison is not quite accurate, for the majority imagine that a sort of gas was the starting point of our solar system, whereas we have seen that it was a body of warmth, not of gas. Ancient Saturn was a giant body of warmth.
[ 3 ] And so we heard yesterday, that when that ancient Saturn had transformed itself into the later Sun, the Cherubim began to be active from the surrounding circumference of the Universe. You have now to realise that those Cherubim, who were active, in the periphery of the Sun, were also already present in the periphery of ancient Saturn. Only they were not as yet called on to play their part — to put it trivially, they had not yet reached the stage when they could undertake something important, but they were present in the environment of Saturn. Still other Beings were around ancient Saturn, Beings of a degree still higher and still more sublime than the Cherubim, namely, the Seraphim, (Spirits of Love). The Thrones also came from the same region. But the Thrones, who are one grade lower than the Cherubim, let their substance flow downwards to form the warmth-substance of Saturn, as we have already shown. Thus we can imagine Saturn as a giant globe of warmth, surrounded by circles of spiritual Beings who are of a supremely high, sublime nature. Christian Esotericism calls them Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim. They are the Dhyanic Beings of the Eastern Teaching.
[ 4 ] Whence do these circles of sublime Beings come? Everything in the world, everything in the Universe has evolved. And if we want to form an idea of the place whence come the Cherubim, the Seraphim and the Thrones, we shall do well to turn our thought into our own solar system and to ask ourselves: What will some day become of our solar system? We wish now to give you a short sketch of the development of our solar system.
We know that it has come forth out of ancient Saturn, Saturn transformed itself into the ancient Sun, which again changed into the ancient Moon. In the time when the ancient Sun was Moon, a particular development began. This Moon for the time went forth out of the Sun. In the ancient Moon we have the first heavenly body, which is outside and separate from the Sun. The Sun was able to evolve higher, because it cast from it the coarser substances. The whole system then developed towards our present earth. Our earth came into being because, along with all the remaining Moon and Earth, it divided from the Sun the coarser substances and beings belonging to it. But evolution goes further. The beings who have now to dwell upon the Earth, separated from the Sun, and who have been thrown out of the Sun, although excluded from it are developing ever higher and higher. They have to pass through yet another condition, that of Jupiter. But through all this, they are gradually maturing towards re-union with the Sun. And when the condition of the Venus-development will have come, all the beings who now live and move upon our earth will be re-absorbed into the Sun, and the Sun itself will have reached a higher stage of development, just because it will have again redeemed all the beings it had formerly excluded. Then will come the Vulcan development, the highest state in the development of our system. These are the seven stages of evolution of our system: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. In the Vulcan development, all those Beings who have evolved out of the small beginnings of the Saturn existence, will be spiritualised in the highest degree, they will have grown not only as far as the Sun, but even higher than the Sun. Vulcan is more than Sun, and with this it has reached the maturity of sacrifice, the maturity necessary to self disintegration.
[ 5 ] The course of evolution is this: a Sun, which from the beginning is included in such a system, has at first to throw off its planets, being too weak to develop further without excluding them. It grows strong, absorbs its planets again, and grows into a Vulcan. Then the whole is dissolved, and from the Vulcan globe is formed a hollow globe which is something like the circles of Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim, etc. The Sun will thus dissolve in space, sacrifice itself, send forth its Being into the Universe, and through this will itself become a circle of Beings like the Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim, which will then advance towards new creation.
[ 6 ] Why are the Thrones enabled. to give out of their substance what Saturn needs? Because they have prepared themselves in an earlier system, through seven conditions like those our solar system is now going through. Before a system of Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim can be evolved, it must have been a solar system at an earlier stage; which means, that when the Sun has got so far as to be reunited with its planets, it becomes itself a circle — a Zodiacal circle. That which we have come to know in the Zodiac, those great, sublime Beings, are the results that have come over to us from an earlier solar system. That which has formerly evolved within a solar system can now send down its influence out of universal space, and produce a new solar system, created out of itself. The Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are for us the highest Hierarchy among divine Beings, because they have already passed through their solar system evolution and have risen to mighty cosmic deeds of sacrifice.
[ 7 ] Hence it is that these Beings have come into the actual direct vicinity of the highest Godhead of which we can speak at all: the Trinity, the three-fold Divinity. Beyond the Seraphim we have to see that highest Divinity of which we find mention by almost all nations as the threefold Divinity — as Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, as Father, Word, and Holy Ghost. From out [of] this highest Godhead, this most exalted Trinity, stream forth the plans for a new cosmic system. Glancing back at ancient Saturn we say to ourselves: before any of this ancient Saturn came into Being, the plan of it had grown within the divine threefold Unity. But the threefold Unity has need of Beings to execute its plan. These Beings must first prepare themselves for the task. The Beings who, are so to speak, nearest God Himself, who, as is beautifully expressed in Christian Western Esotericism, ‘bask in the light of God's countenance,’ are the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. These take up the plans of a new cosmic system streaming from the divine threefold Unity. This is naturally expressed more figuratively than it really is, for we have to express in human words such sublime activities, for which, in truth, this human language has not been created. No human words exist to express such sublime activity as that, for instance, when the Seraphim, in the beginning of our solar system received the highest plans of the divine Threefold Unity containing the evolution which our solar system has to pass through, namely Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. Seraphim is a name which for those who understand it in its true sense, even in that of ancient Hebrew Esotericism, has always signified that the task of the Seraphim was to receive from the Trinity the highest ideas and aims for a system of worlds. The Cherubim, the next lower rank of the Hierarchies, had the task of building up in wisdom the aims and ideas which they received from the higher gods. Thus the Cherubim are spirits of highest wisdom, who understood how to transpose into workable plans, the inspirations given to them by the Seraphim. And the Thrones, the third grade of the Hierarchies, counting from above, had the task — naturally very figuratively expressed. — of putting things into action, so that what had been thought out in Wisdom — these lofty cosmic thoughts which the Seraphim had received from the Gods, and which the Cherubim had pondered over, should be transformed into active reality.
[ 8 ] We actually see, if we do but try to see with the soul, how the first realisation of the divine plan occurs with the down-flow of the fire-substance of the Thrones. Thus the Thrones appear to us as those Beings who have the power to transform into a primary reality that which has been first thought out by the Cherubim. This takes place because the Thrones allowed their own substance to flow from them, the substance of the primeval original world-fire, into the space, which had been chosen for the new world-system. If we speak very figuratively we can express it thus: An old solar system disappeared and died away. Within that ancient solar system the ranks of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones had evolved to the highest perfection. They then sought out, according to the inspiration received by them from the highest Threefold Unity, a Sphere within Universal space and said: ‘We will begin here.’ When the Seraphim took up the aims of the new world-system, the Cherubim worked out these aims, and the Thrones poured out of their own Being the primeval fire into that space. Thus we grasp the beginnings of our world-system.
[ 9 ] Other Beings, however, were also present in a certain way, in the former solar system, of which ours is the successor. But these Beings did not rise so high as the Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; they stopped on lower Stages, they had come over in a condition when they still had to pass through a certain development, before they could be creatively active, before they could offer sacrifice. These Beings are those of the Second threefold Hierarchy. The First threefold Hierarchy we have just been considering. The Beings of the Second threefold Hierarchy are: the Kyriotetes or Dominions or Spirits of Wisdom; then the so-called Mights, Dynamis (or, as Dionysius, the Areopagite, and after him the Teachers of the West call them, Virtutes, Virtues), or Spirits of Motion, and the Spirits of Form, who are also called by the Teachers of the West — Potentates, which mean Powers.
[ 10 ] We must now ask ourselves: When we glance back at ancient Saturn and see the first threefold Hierarchy surrounding it, where then are the Beings of that second threefold Hierarchy? Where can we search for the Dominions, Mights, and Potentates? We must look for them inside ancient Saturn. If the Thrones have reached, so to speak, to its boundary, we must look for the Dominions, Mights and Potentates, or the Spirits of Wisdom, Motion and Form, inside Saturn. Inside ancient Saturn, within the mass of it, again three ranks of Beings are active, — the Dominions, Mights and Potentates. They are spiritual Beings operating inside the Saturn substance.
[ 11 ] Now we must for once come to an understanding with the extraordinary fantastic modern theory of the origin of the world, and turn our minds again to the Kant-Laplace theory. It has put a mass of fog as a starting point for our solar system, and then has imagined that the whole of this giant mass of gas has begun to revolve. It finds it extraordinarily simple that with the rotation the outer planets gradually split off. At first there are rings. These then contract. The Sun remains in the middle, and the others rotate around it. They picture it quite mechanically. A very nice experiment is shown in the schools to make the thing clearer. It is shown how a solar system is formed in a small way, by taking a vessel full of water, throwing in a large drop of oil, then cutting a piece of paper, representing the equator, and putting a pin into it from above. Then the drop of oil is set into rotation. Small drops of oil split asunder and circle round, and the demonstrator shows it to pupils — sometimes quite old pupils — saying: ‘Now, you have here in small the formation of a world system.’ And the whole thing is made most illuminating. For what can illuminate one more than when one sees with one's own eyes how such a solar system is formed. Why should one not see that there was once upon a time a gigantic cosmic fog which in its rotation loosened the Planets around it, like those little drops, and made the miniature Mercury and Saturn loosen themselves from the large drop of oil. One must marvel at such a naive proceeding. For the man who tries to make the Kant-Laplace System so clear forgets one thing — sometimes it is very good to forget, only in this case it wont do — he forgets himself, he forgets he stood by and made the thing rotate. This is incredibly naive, but the simple-mindedness of modern, materialistic mythology is very great, greater than that of any other mythology. This will be realised in future times. There is someone who starts the whole thing, who makes it rotate. It is necessary if one can think at all, if one has not been forsaken by all the good Spirits of Logic, it is necessary to presume that spiritual powers are occupied out there with the rotation of the universal globes. Apart from the error in placing a primeval gas instead of a primeval fire at the outset, one cannot assume that that mass of gas began to whirl round of itself. One must ask: Where are the forces and powers which put movement into that mass which for us is of primeval fire, so that something begins to happen inside it? We have just enumerated them.
Spiritual forces work from without and from within our system. Those Beings who surround it, and who acquired their faculties in earlier systems, work from outside. Inside are Beings of less maturity, who differentiate the internal mass, who bring about what we had in our minds when we spoke of the shapes of warmth formed inside Saturn. They are Beings of highest intelligence who regulate all that happens there.
[ 12 ] What then is the task of the first Beings of the second threefold Hierarchy? The Spirits of Wisdom or Dominions, or Kyriotetes take that which the Thrones or Spirits of Will bring down out of Universal space, and regulate it so that a harmonious co-relation can come about between the single globe which is originating — between Saturn and the whole Universe. In the interior of Saturn everything has to be so regulated that it corresponds with what is outside. What the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, bring down to Saturn from the hand of God, must be so appointed that within Saturn these commands can be carried out, and these impulses become realities. The Spirits of Wisdom or Kyriotetes receive from the circumference of Saturn that which comes down through the mediation of the highest Hierarchy, so that they may transform it and make it harmonise with what is in the interior of Saturn.
[ 13 ] What is received by the Spirits of Wisdom, is further worked on and elaborated by Mights or the Spirits of Motion. And while the former inside Saturn hold, as it were, the highest command, the latter undertake the carrying out of these directions. Then the Powers or Spirits of Form — later we shall explain this more in detail, now we are characterising it only in a general way — provide that what is being formed according to the intentions of the Universe, should have duration, so long as it is needed, that it should not be destroyed again at once. These Powers or Spirits of Form are the maintainers — the supporters.
Thus the Dominions or Spirits of Wisdom are the directors inside Saturn; the Mights or Spirits of Motion are those who execute their directions; and the Powers or Spirits of Form are the supporters, the upholders of that which the Mights have built.
[ 14 ] Today, we shall omit how the third threefold Hierarchy works, (we have spoken of them before) the Spirits of Personality, the Archangels or Fire Spirits and the Angels. We shall turn our attention to-day, with our newly acquired knowledge, to the transition from ancient Saturn to ancient Sun. The most essential proceedings were explained at the last lecture. What happens when ancient Saturn becomes Sun, is that the primeval fire changes into a condition of gas or air, so that the ancient Sun consists of what is called the residue of the primeval fire. The primeval fire is intermingled with, and forms the basis of, what has thickened into gas or smoke. Thus two substances are to be found there: primeval fire and a part of that fire which has condensed to gas or smoke — call it what you will. This is the essential characteristic of the old Sun. We shall see that our Sun has grown into something different, through transitory conditions up to the present day; it has developed into something different, although there are people who imagine that the interior of our Sun to-day is also merely a sort of gas.
[ 15 ] If you enter into all the various theories at which our materialistic natural science arrives, you will, if you think, certainly be astounded. There is, for instance, a popular little book, which is much bought because of its cheapness, which claims that our present Sun has in its centre nothing solid, but only gas. Only, this gas — one could not believe it really, but it stands there in a little popular writing — this gas is as thick as honey or tar. The man who soars to such ideas that gas under conditions of pressure can become like honey or tar, I will willingly allow to wander about in such a sluggish land where the air is of the consistency of honey, but I would not wish him to have to move in an air that is a thick as tar! Materialistic theories have such excrescences as these.
[ 16 ] We are not speaking now of our present Sun, but of that ancient Sun which really consists of primeval fire and of what is called fire-mist or fire-air. You find this expression used in Faust, for Goethe knew it well, and you find the expression fire-mist also used in theosophical literature. We must think of the ancient sun as of a mixture of these two substances. This did not, however, happen of itself. Universal bodies do not condense of themselves; spiritual Beings have to bring about this process of condensation.
Which are the Spiritual Beings who carried over the condensation of the substance of ancient Saturn to the ancient Sun? These Beings whom we call the Dominions, or Spirit of Wisdom. It is they who now press inwards from outside and who originally pressed together the mighty mass of Saturn so that it grew smaller. The Dominions brought pressure to bear upon it, until the ancient Sun became the size of a globe, the mass of which, if you place the Sun in its centre, you must imagine as reaching out to Jupiter. Thus Saturn was a gigantic world-globe, which having our Sun in its centre would have reached as far as to the present Saturn, an enormous globe, as large as our present solar system. The Sun of which we have just spoken was a world-globe which stretched a far as the Jupiter of to-day. This point marks the boundary of the ancient Sun-world. You will do well if you picture those outer planets as boundary marks for the limits of the ancient Worlds. [ 17 ] You see that we are gradually approaching the theory of the planets, being led thereto through the activity of the hierarchies,
Let us go further. We know that the next condition is again one of condensation. The third condition of our World system is that of the Ancient Moon. Those of you who have given attention to the communications from the Akashic Record know that the ancient Moon had come into being because the Sun substance had condensed still more, as far as to the condition of water. The Moon contained no solid earth as yet, but was composed of fire, air and water. It had so coordinated the watery element. Gas or air was condensed in it to the element of water. Who effected this? That Hierarchy of spiritual Beings brought this about, whom we call Mights, Virtutes, or Spirits of Motion. Thus it happened through the Virtutes, that the mass of the ancient Moon contracted to the limits of the orbit of the present Mars. Mars is thus the boundary showing the size of the Moon. If you imagine a globe with the present Sun for its centre, and for its limit the orbit of the present Mars, you have the size of the ancient Moon. [ 18 ] We have reached the point when we must remember that when the ancient Moon was formed out of Saturn and Sun, something quite new took place. A part of the dense substance was now thrown out, and two globes came into being. One of the two took up the finer substances and Beings and became a finer Sun, the second became a denser Moon. This third condition of our planetary system developed in such a way that, for a time, it remained one single planet; then it threw off a planet from itself, which remained in its vicinity. At first, so long as it formed one single body, the Moon extended to the orbit of the present Mars; then the Sun contracted, and was encircled by another body; approximately in the place where the present Mars has its orbit, was more or less the periphery of the original single body.
[ 19 ] Through what did this division take place? Through what influence did a single globe split in two? It happened in the time of the domination of the Spirits of Motion, Mights, or Dynamis. For those who have already followed me in this domain, it is not new to hear that [in] the Cosmos things happen very much in the way they happen in ordinary human life. Where beings are evolving there are some who advance and others who remain behind, as many a father knows, who complains that his son in college lags behind whilst others are making good progress. We are concerned, therefore, with a difference in the ‘tempo’ of development. It is the same in the Cosmos. And through certain causes, which we shall learn later, now that the Mights or Virtutes have entered on their Mission, something came into play which is called in all Esotericism, and in all Mysteries, the ‘fight in Heaven.’ This ‘fight in Heaven’ forms an essential, and integral part of all Mysteries; it contains also the primeval Mystery regarding the origin of Evil. At a certain point of the Moon evolution the Mights or Virtutes had reached very different degrees of maturity. Some of them aspired to rise spiritually as high as possible; others again had remained behind, or at least had progressed normally in their development. Some of the Mights on the ancient Moon had progressed much further than their companions. The result of this was that these two classes of Mights divided. The more advanced ones drew out with the body of the Sun, and the others formed the Moon revolving around it.
We have now given a sketchy description of the fight in Heaven, the rending asunder of the ancient Moon, so that the planet accompanying the ancient Moon comes under the domination of those spirits of Motion or Might or Virtutes which had remained behind, and the ancient Sun under the domination of the advanced Virtutes.
[ 20 ] Something of this fight in Heaven still sounds in the first sentences of the divine Gita, where symbolically at the beginning of the battle can still be heard echoes of that mighty fight of the heavens. O, it was a mighty field of battle! From the time when the Dominions or Kyriotetes brought about the formation of the ancient Sun, up to the time of that of the ancient Moon, when the Mights or Dynamis took up their mission, all was a mighty field of battle; a gigantic fight reigned in Heaven. The Dominions had contracted the whole mass of our solar systems to the boundary of Jupiter, then the Virtutes or Mights contracted it to the boundary of the Mars of to-day. Between these two planetary frontiers in the heavens lies the great battlefield of the fight of Heaven. Look at that heavenly battlefield! Only in the nineteenth century has the physical eye discovered again, so to speak, the devastations produced by the Fight in Heaven. You have a host of small Planetoids scattered in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. These are the wreckage of the battlefield of the fight in Heaven which was fought between the two points of Cosmic time when our Solar System was contracted first as far as Jupiter, then to Mars. And when our Astronomers direct their telescopes towards the heavenly spaces and still discover other planetoids, these are still the wreckage of that great battlefield, of that fight in Heaven between the advanced Virtutes and those who were less advanced, and which also brought about the severing of the Moon from the Sun.
[ 21 ] Thus, we see, when we consider the actions of the divine spiritual beings, how external things appear to us as the expression, the outward physiognomy of those divine spiritual beings.
Fünfter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Wir haben das Wirken höherer geistiger Wesenheiten innerhalb unseres Kosmos an zwei Beispielen uns vor die Seele geführt, an dem Beispiel des alten Saturn und an der aus ihm als seine Wiederverkörperung hervorgehenden Sonne. Es wird nunmehr notwendig sein, daß wir zunächst heute in das geistige Reich selber eindringen, in dem diese höheren geistigen Wesenheiten sind, und uns noch von einer anderen Seite ihre Wirkungsweise vor Augen führen. Es wird im Laufe der ersten Hälfte der Vorträge manches gesagt werden müssen, was ein großer Teil von Ihnen, meine lieben Freunde, schon da oder dort gehört hat. Aber abgesehen davon, daß wiederum viele Zuhörer da sind, die von dem, was Voraussetzung ist, mancherlei noch nicht gehört haben, so ist es doch auch notwendig, gerade weil wir in diesem Vortragszyklus hoch hinaufsteigen müssen in die Regionen des Geisteslebens, manches wieder zu erwähnen, was schon einmal eine solche Voraussetzung ist.
[ 2 ] Aus dem bisher Gesagten werden Sie erkannt haben, daß innerhalb eines sich entwickelnden Weltsystems in der mannigfaltigsten Art geistige Wesenheiten tätig sind. Was ist eigentlich im Grunde genommen dieser alte Saturn? Machen wir uns davon einmal eine genaue Vorstellung. Natürlich hat der alte Saturn zunächst nichts zu tun mit dem gegenwärtigen Saturn. Sie können sich vielmehr vorstellen, daß in dem alten Saturn alles schon im Keime darinnen war, was heute unserem ganzen Sonnensystem angehört: unsere Sonne, unser Mond, unser Merkur, unsere Venus, unser Mars, unser Jupiter, alle diese Weltenkörper waren im alten Saturn drinnen und haben sich aus ihm herausgebildet. Denken Sie sich also einen Weltenkörper, der heute die Sonne zu seinem Mittelpunkt hätte und hinausreichen würde so, daß der heutige Saturn noch drinnen wäre, dann würden Sie diesen, unser heutiges Sonnensystem an Größe übertreffenden alten Saturn erst richtig in der Vorstellung haben. Also, aus diesem alten Saturn ist sozusagen unser ganzes Sonnensystem hervorgegangen. Man könnte ihn sogar vergleichen, zwar nicht vollständig, doch annähernd, mit dem gesamten Kant-Laplaceschen Welten-Urnebel, woraus nach der Ansicht vieler moderner Menschen unser Sonnensystem sich herausgebildet hat. Doch stimmt der Vergleich nicht vollständig, da die meisten sich eine Art von Gas als Ausgangspunkt unseres Sonnensystems denken, während wir gesehen haben, daß es nicht ein Gas-, sondern ein Wärmeleib war. Ein Riesenwärmeleib, das ist der alte Saturn.
[ 3 ] Und nun haben wir gestern gesagt: Da, wo dieser alte Saturn sich schon umgewandelt hat in die spätere Sonne, wirken aus dem Umfange, aus dem Universum herein die Cherubim. Nun haben Sie sich vorzustellen, daß diese Cherubim, die da im Umkreis der alten Sonne wirken, auch schon vorhanden waren im Umkreis des alten Saturn. Nur waren sie sozusagen noch nicht aufgerufen zu ihrer Wirksamkeit; sie waren, wenn es trivial gesagt werden darf, noch nicht daran gekommen, etwas Erhebliches zu tun, aber vorhanden waren sie schon im Umkreis des alten Saturn. Und auch noch andere Wesenheiten waren im Umkreis des alten Saturn vorhanden, eine Klasse noch erhabenerer Wesenheiten als die Cherubim: Das sind die Seraphim. Und aus derselben Region her kommen ja auch die Throne. Nur fließt sozusagen die Substanz der Throne, die einen Grad niedriger sind als die Cherubim, herunter und bildet die Wärmesubstanz des Saturn, wie wir das ausgeführt haben. So also können wir uns vorstellen diesen Saturn als Riesen-Wärmekugel, umgeben von einem Reigen geistiger Wesenheiten, die außerordentlich erhabener Natur sind. Man nennt sie im Sinne der christlichen Esoterik Throne, Cherubim, Seraphim. Es sind die dhyanischen Wesenheiten der östlichen Lehre.
[ 4 ] Nun fragen wir uns einmal: Woher kommt denn dieser Reigen erhabener Wesenheiten? Alles in der Welt, alles im Universum hat sich entwickelt. Und wenn wir uns eine Vorstellung machen wollen davon, woher diese Cherubim, Seraphim und Throne kommen, so tun wir gut, uns auf unser eigenes Sonnensystem zunächst einmal einzulassen und uns zu fragen, was wird denn aus unserem Sonnensystem einstmals werden? Wir wollen die Entwickelung unseres Sonnensystems einmal kurz zeichnen. Wir wissen, es ist ausgegangen von dem alten Saturn, dann hat sich dieser alte Saturn umgewandelt zur alten Sonne, diese wandelt sich um zum alten Mond. In der Zeit, in welcher die alte Sonne Mond wird, tritt eine besondere Entwickelung ein. Dieser Mond geht aus der Sonne zum erstenmal heraus, und wir haben in dem alten Mond zuerst einen Weltenkörper, der außerhalb der Sonne ist. Dadurch kann die Sonne sich höher entwickeln, daß sie das Gröbste aus sich herausgesetzt hat. Nun entwickelt sich das ganze System zum System unserer heutigen Erde. Unsere Erde kommt dadurch zustande, daß sich wiederum außer allem übrigen Mond und Erde als die gröberen Substanzen und die Träger der gröberen Wesenheiten von der Sonne heraussondern. Aber die Entwickelung geht weiter. Die Wesenheiten, die jetzt auf der Erde abgesondert wohnen müssen, die aus der Sonne sozusagen herausgeworfen sind, diese Wesenheiten entwickeln sich in ihrer Sonnenabgesondertheit immer höher und höher. Sie müssen noch einen Zustand durchmachen, den Jupiterzustand. Aber dadurch reifen sie allmählich heran, sich wiederum mit der Sonne zu vereinigen. Und wenn der Zustand der Venusentwickelung gekommen sein wird, dann werden alle die Wesen, die heute auf unserer Erde wogen und leben, sozusagen wiederum aufgenommen worden sein in die Sonne, und die Sonne wird selbst eine höhere Stufe der Entwickelung erreicht haben, eben dadurch, daß sie alle ihre Wesenheiten, die sie aus sich herausgesetzt hat, wieder zurückerlöst hat. Und dann kommt die Vulkanentwikkelung, die höchste Stufe der Entwickelung unseres Systems. Denn das sind die sieben Entwickelungsstufen unseres Systems: Saturn, Sonne, Mond, Erde, Jupiter, Venus und Vulkan. In der Vulkanentwikkelung sind alle die Wesenheiten, die sozusagen aus kleinen Anfängen des Saturndaseins hervorgegangen sind, im höchsten Sinne vergeistigt, sie sind zusammen nicht nur Sonne, sondern Über-Sonne geworden. Der Vulkan ist mehr als Sonne und damit hat er erlangt die Reife zum Opfer, die Reife dazu, sich aufzulösen.
[ 5 ] Das ist die nächste Stufe der Entwickelung, daß ein solches System, in welchem von einem Ausgangspunkte aus eine Sonne entsteht, diese Sonne sozusagen zuerst schwach ist und ihre Planeten hinauswerfen muß, damit sie sich selbst weiterentwickeln kann. Sie wird stark, nimmt ihre Planeten wieder auf, wird zum Vulkan. Und nun löst sich das Ganze auf, und es wird aus der Vulkankugel nachher eine Hohlkugel, es wird dann eben etwas Ähnliches, wie es dieser Reigen der Throne, Cherubim und Seraphim ist. Es wird also die Sonne sich auflösen, ins Universum hinaus sich hinopfern, ausstrahlen ihre Wesenheit. Und dadurch wird sie selbst ein Reigen von solchen Wesenheiten, wie die Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne es sind, der nun zum neuen Schaffen im Weltall fortschreitet.
[ 6 ] Warum können die Throne aus ihrer Substanz heraus dasjenige abgeben, was der Saturn braucht? Weil die Throne sich vorbereitet haben in einem früheren System durch solche sieben Zustände hindurch, wie unser Sonnensystem es jetzt durchmacht. Bevor etwas ein System wird von Thronen, Cherubim, Seraphim, muß es ein Sonnensystem gewesen sein; das heißt, wenn eine Sonne so weit ist, daß sie sich mit ihren Planeten wieder vereinigt hat, dann wird sie Umkreis, dann wird sie selber ein Tierkreis. Das, was wir im Tierkreis kennengelernt haben, diese erhabenen Wesenheiten, sind die Reste, die uns herübergekommen sind aus einem alten Sonnensystem. Was früher innerhalb eines Sonnensystems sich entwickelt hat, das kann jetzt herunterwirken aus dem Weltenraum und kann selber ein neues Sonnensystem aus sich gebären und schaffen. Deshalb sind diese Wesenheiten, die Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne, für uns zunächst die höchste Hierarchie unter den göttlichen Wesenheiten, weil sie ihre Sonnensystem-Entwickelung bereits durchgemacht haben und zum großen kosmischen Opferdienst aufgestiegen sind.
[ 7 ] Diese Wesenheiten sind dadurch erst in wirklich unmittelbare Nähe gekommen der höchsten Göttlichkeit, von der wir zunächst überhaupt sprechen können, der Trinität, der dreifachen Göttlichkeit. Jenseits also der Seraphim haben wir zu sehen jene höchste Göttlichkeit, welche Sie bei fast allen Völkern finden als die dreifache Göttlichkeit, ausgedrückt als Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, als Vater, Wort und Heiliger Geist. Dieser höchsten Göttlichkeit, der obersten Dreieinigkeit, entspringen gleichsam die Pläne zu einem jeden neuen Weltensystem. Blicken wir zurück zum alten Saturn, so sagen wir uns: Bevor irgend etwas ins Dasein getreten ist von diesem alten Saturn, ist in der göttlichen Dreieinigkeitder Plan erwachsen. Aber diese Dreieinigkeit braucht Wesenheiten zur Ausführung des Planes. Diese Wesenheiten müssen sich erst reif machen dazu. Die ersten Wesenheiten, die um die Gottheit sozusagen selber sind, die, wie man es schön ausgedrückt hat in der christlichen abendländischen Esoterik, «unmittelbar den Anblick Gottes genießen», das sind die Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne. Die nehmen nun die Pläne eines neuen Weltensystems entgegen von der göttlichen Dreieinigkeit, der sie entspringen. Es ist das natürlich, Sie verstehen, meine lieben Freunde, mehr bildlich gesprochen als wirklich, denn wir müssen mit menschlichen Worten solch erhabene Tätigkeiten ausdrücken, für die menschliche Worte wahrhaftig nicht geschaffen sind. Menschliche Worte sind nicht da, um solch hohe Tätigkeit auszudrücken, durch die zum Beispiel am Beginn unseres Sonnensystems die Seraphim entgegennahmen die höchsten Pläne der göttlichen Dreieinigkeit, die da enthalten, wie sich unser Sonnensystem durch Saturn, Sonne, Mond, Erde, Jupiter, Venus und Vulkan hindurchentwickeln soll. Seraphim ist ein Name, der von all denen, die ihn richtig im Sinne der alten hebräischen Esoterik selbst verstanden haben, immer so gedeutet worden ist, daß die Seraphim die Aufgabe haben, die höchsten Ideen, die Ziele eines Weltensystems entgegenzunehmen aus der Trinität. Die Cherubim, die nächstniedrige Stufe der Hierarchie, haben die Aufgabe, in Weisheit nunmehr auszubauen die Ziele, die Ideen, die von den höchsten Göttern entgegengenommen werden. Die Cherubim sind also Geister höchster Weisheit, die in ausführbare Pläne dasjenige umzusetzen verstehen, was ihnen angegeben wird von den Seraphim. Und die Throne hinwiederum, der dritte Grad der Hierarchie von oben, der hat die Aufgabe, nunmehr, natürlich sehr bildlich gesprochen, Hand anzulegen, damit das, was in Weisheit ausgedacht ist, damit diese hehren Weltengedanken, die die Seraphim von den Göttern empfangen, die die Cherubim durchgedacht haben, in Wirklichkeit umgesetzt werden.
[ 8 ] Wir sehen förmlich, wenn wir nur mit der Seele sehen wollen, wie durch das Herunterfließen der Feuersubstanz durch die Throne die erste Stufe der Verwirklichung der göttlichen Pläne geschieht. So stellen uns die Throne diejenigen Wesenheiten dar, die die Kraft haben, das zunächst durch die Cherubim Ausgedachte umzusetzen in eine erste Wirklichkeit. Das geschieht, indem diese Throne hineinfließen lassen in den Raum, der sozusagen in Aussicht genommen worden ist für ein neues Weltensystem, ihre eigene Substanz, die Substanz des ursprünglichen Weltenfeuers. Wenn wir uns das recht bildlich vorstellen wollen, so können wir sagen: Ein altes Sonnensystem ist verschwunden und verklungen; innerhalb dieses alten Sonnensystems sind herangereift zur höchsten Reife der Reigen der Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne. Nun suchen sich diese nach den Angaben der höchsten Dreieinigkeit einen Kugelraum im Weltenraum aus und sagen sich, hier wollen wir beginnen. Und jetzt nehmen die Seraphim die Ziele des Weltensystems entgegen, die Cherubim arbeiten dieses Ziel aus, und in diesen Kugelraum lassen fließen aus ihrer eigenen Wesenheit heraus die Throne das Urfeuer. So haben wir den Anfang unseres Weltensystems erfaßt.
[ 9 ] Aber es sind nun auch noch andere Wesenheiten in einer gewissen Weise schon dabeigewesen bei dem früheren Sonnensystem, dessen Nachfolger das unsrige ist. Diese Wesenheiten sind nur nicht so hoch gestiegen wie die Seraphim, Cherubim, Throng; sie sind auf niedrigerer Stufe stehengeblieben, sind so herübergekommen, daß sie selber noch eine gewisse Entwickelung durchmachen müssen, bevor sie schöpferisch tätig sein können, bevor sie Opfer bringen können. Diese Wesenheiten sind nun die Wesenheiten der zweiten dreigliederigen Hierarchie. Die erste dreigliederige Hierarchie haben wir soeben betrachtet. Die Wesenheiten der zweiten sind diejenigen, deren Namen wir auch schon angeführt haben: die Kyriotetes oder Herrschaften oder Dominationes oder auch Geister der Weisheit, dann die sogenannten Mächte oder Dynamis, wie sie Dionysius der Areopagite nennt und nach ihm die Lehrer des Abendlandes Virtutes, Tugenden. Das ist die zweite Stufe der zweiten Hierarchie. Und die dritte Stufe sind die sogenannten Gewalten. Es sind die Geister der Form, die auch genannt werden von den Lehrern des Abendlandes Potestates, das ist Gewalten.
[ 10 ] Nun wollen wir uns einmal fragen: Wenn wir auf den alten Saturn zurückblicken, wo sind denn nun, nachdem wir gesehen haben, daß die erste Hierarchie im Umkreis des Saturn ist, die Wesenheiten dieser zweiten Hierarchie? Wo haben wir die Herrschaften, die Mächte, die Gewalten zu suchen? Wir haben sie innerhalb des alten Saturn zu suchen. Wenn die Throne sozusagen gerade bis an die Grenze heranreichen, so haben wir innerhalb des alten Saturn die Herrschaften, Mächte und Gewalten. Also im alten Saturn, in seiner Masse drinnen, wirken wiederum wie drei Reigen die Gewalten, die Mächte, die Herrschaften. Sie sind innerhalb der Saturnsubstanz wirkende geistige Wesenheiten.
[ 11 ] Jetzt wollen wir uns einmal ein wenig verständigen mit der so außerordentlich phantastischen modernen Weltentstehungstheorie, indem wir uns noch einmal vor Augen führen, was diese als KantLaplacesche Theorie hingestellt hat. Eine Nebelmasse hat sie hingestellt als Ausgangspunkt für unser Sonnensystem, und nun stellt sich ja diese Kant-Laplacesche Theorie vor, daß diese ganze Riesengasmasse anfängt, sich herumzudrehen, herumzuwirbeln. Bekanntlich findet sie das außerordentlich einleuchtend, daß, wenn sich das herumdreht, sich nach und nach die äußeren Planeten abspalten. Zuerst werden es Ringe, die ziehen sich dann zusammen; in der Mitte bleibt die Sonne und die anderen rotieren um sie herum. Sie stellt sich das ganz mechanisch vor. Nun, nicht wahr, es wird ein sehr niedliches Schulexperiment zur Verdeutlichung dieser Sache gemacht. Man zeigt, wie im kleinen ein solches Sonnensystem gebildet wird. Man nimmt ein Gefäß mit Wasser, nimmt einen großen Öltropfen, dann schneidet man, so daß man die Größe des Äquators ins Auge faßt, ein Kartenblatt, steckt es in der Äquatorrichtung durch und von oben eine Stecknadel hinein. Dann bringt man diesen Öltropfen zur Rotation. Es spalten sich kleine Tröpfchen ab und kreisen herum, und da sagt derjenige, der das den Schülern vorgeführt hat, manchmal recht alten Schülern: Nun seht einmal, da habt ihr die Entstehung eines Weltensystems im kleinen! — Und es leuchtet das sofort ein. Denn was sollte mehr einleuchten, als wenn man mit seinen Augen sieht, wie ein solches Sonnensystem entsteht? Warum sollte man nicht begreifen, daß da draußen einmal ein Riesenweltennebel war und sich gedreht hat und daß sich Planeten abgetrennt haben wie die Tröpfchen, die Miniatur-Merkure und -Saturne von dem großen Öltropfen? Man muß allerdings ein wenig über die Naivität, mit der da vorgegangen wird, staunen. Denn die Betreffenden, die also das Kant-Laplacesche System recht begreiflich zu machen versuchen, die vergessen dabei nur eins, was sonst ja ganz gut ist zu vergessen, aber in diesem Falle geht es halt nicht - sie vergessen nämlich sich selbst, sie vergessen, daß sie dagestanden und erstgedreht haben. Das ist natürlich eine unglaubliche Naivität, aber die Naivität der modernen matersalistischen Mythologie ist eben sehr groß, größer als die irgendeiner anderen Mythologie war. Das werden erst zukünftige Zeiten einsehen. Also, es ist da einer, der veranstaltet das Ganze, der dreht das Ganze. Es muß also notwendig, wenn man überhaupt denken kann, wenn man nicht verlassen ist von allen guten Geistern der Logik, vorausgesetzt werden, daß geistige Mächte beteiligt sind da draußen bei der Drehung der Weltenkörper. Wenn man also schon absehen will von dem Fehler, daß ein Urgas an die Stelle des Urfeuers gesetzt wird, so darf man doch nicht voraussetzen, daß diese Gasmasse von selber anfängt herumzuwirbeln. Man muß fragen: Wo sind die geistigen Kräfte und Mächte, die diese Masse, also für uns die Masse des Urfeuers, in Bewegung versetzen, so daß drinnen etwas geschieht? Wir haben sie jetzt aufgezählt: Aus der Umgebung und im Innern arbeiten die geistigen Kräfte. Die da ringsherum sind, die Wesenheiten, die ihre Fähigkeiten erworben haben in früheren Systemen, die arbeiten von außen; da drinnen sind Wesenheiten von geringerer Reife, die nun im Innern die Masse differenzieren, die das hervorbringen, was wir im Auge hatten, als wir sagten, daß da drinnen Gebilde von Wärme entstehen und so weiter. Es sind das Wesenheiten von höchster Intelligenz, die alles das anordnen, was da geschieht.
[ 12 ] Was für eine Aufgabe haben zunächst die ersten Wesenheiten dieser zweiten Hierarchie? Die Herrschaften oder Dominationes nehmen dasjenige, was die Throne sozusagen aus dem Universum herunterbringen, zunächst auf und ordnen es so an, daß eine Zusammenstimmung stattfinden kann zwischen dem einzelnen Weltenkörper, der da entsteht, zwischen dem Saturn und dem ganzen Universum. Es muß ja im Innern des Saturn alles so angeordnet werden, daß drinnen alles dem entspricht, was draußen ist. Es muß also das, was die Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne aus der Hand Gottes herunterbringen auf den Saturn, so geordnet werden, daß drinnen diese Befehle ausgeführt und diese Impulse auch verwirklicht werden. Also es empfangen die Herrschaften oder Kyriotetes aus dem Umfang des Saturn dasjenige, was durch die Vermittelung der höchsten Hierarchie herunterkommt, um es umzugestalten, daß es in den Saturn hineinpaßt.
[ 13 ] In einer weiteren Art wird das umgearbeitet, was die Herrschaften entgegennehmen, durch die Mächte, Dynamis. Und zwar geschieht das so, daß, wenn die Herrschaften innerhalb des Saturn gleichsam die obersten Anordnungen treffen, die Mächte nunmehr die nächste Ausführung dieser Anordnungen übernehmen. Die Gewalten dagegen, die sorgen dafür — wir werden noch genauer darüber sprechen, wir wollen jetzt nur im großen die Sache charakterisieren —, daß dasjenige, was also gebaut worden ist nach der Absicht des Universums, Bestand hat, solange es notwendig ist, daß es also nicht sogleich wieder zugrunde geht. Sie sind die Erhalter. So haben wir in den Herrschaften die Anordner innerhalb des Saturn, in den Mächten haben wir diejenigen, die diese Anordnungen zunächst ausführen, und die Gewalten sind die Erhalter dessen, was die Mächte also gebaut haben.
[ 14 ] Nun wollen wir heute einmal davon absehen, wie die nächste Hierarchie, von der wir ja auch schon gesprochen haben, arbeitet, die Geister der Persönlichkeit, die Feuergeister und die Engel. Wir wollen aber heute noch mit den neu gewonnenen Erkenntnissen den Übergang vom alten Saturn zur alten Sonne einmal in Betracht ziehen. Ich habe Ihnen ja die wesentlichen Vorgänge bereits gestern beschrieben. Was da geschieht, wenn der alte Saturn Sonne wird, ist, daß das Urfeuer nun übergeht in den Gas- oder Luftzustand, so daß also die alte Sonne aus dem besteht, was man nennt den Rest des gebliebenen Urfeuers. Hineingemischt und untermischt ist dieses Urfeuer jetzt mit dem, was sich verdichtet hat zu Gas oder Rauch. Also zwei Substanzen sind da vorhanden: Urfeuer und ein Teil des Urfeuers, verdichtet zu Gas oder Rauch oder Luft - wie Sie es nennen wollen. Das gilt im wesentlichen für die alte Sonne. Wir werden schon sehen, daß es anders geworden ist bei unserer Sonne; die hat sich bis heute durch Zwischenzustände zu etwas anderem entwickelt, obwohl es Leute gibt, die da behaupten, daß das Innere unserer Sonne heute auch bloß eine Art von Gas sei.
[ 15 ] Wenn Sie aber sich überhaupt ein klein wenig einlassen auf allerlei Theorien, zu denen unsere materialistische Naturwissenschaft kommt, da werden Sie, wenn Sie das denkend tun, überhaupt rechte Wunder erleben. So findet sich ein populäres Büchelchen, das durch seine Billigkeit viel gekauft wird, worin behauptet wird von der heutigen Sonne, sie müsse in der Mitte nicht etwas Festes haben, sondern eben Gas. Nur sei dieses Gas — man sollte es eigentlich nicht glauben, aber es steht in einem populären Schriftchen - so dick wie Honig oder Teer. Nun, demjenigen, der sich zu der Anschauung aufschwingt, daß ein Gas unter Druckverhältnissen wie Honig oder Teer aussieht, dem will ich zwar gerne gönnen, daß er in einem solchen Schlaraffenland wandeln kann, wo er sich in einer Luft bewegt, die aus Honig besteht, und will ihm nicht wünschen, sich in einer Luft bewegen zu müssen, die so dick ist wie Teer. Solche Auswüchse der materialistischen Theorie gibt es.
[ 16 ] Also wir sprechen nicht von unserer heutigen Sonne, sondern von jener alten Sonne, die wirklich besteht aus dem Urfeuer und aus dem, was man nennt Feuernebel oder Feuerluft. Sie finden im «Faust» den Ausdruck, weil Goethe ihn sehr gut kannte, und in der theosophischen Literatur finden Sie den Ausdruck Feuernebel durchaus vertreten. Also aus einem Gemisch dieser beiden Substanzen müssen wir uns diese alte Sonne denken. Das ist aber nicht von selbst gekommen. Es verdichten sich Weltenkörper nicht von selbst; es müssen geistige Wesenheiten diese Verdichtung bewirken. Welche geistigen Wesenheiten sind es nun, die die Verdichtung der Substanz vom alten Saturn zur Sonne herüber bewirken? Das sind die Wesenheiten, welche wir Herrschaften genannt haben. Diese Herrschaften sind es, die nunmehr von außen hereindrücken und die ursprünglich gewaltige Saturnmasse zusammendrängen, so daß sie kleiner wird. Und so lange haben die Herrschaften gedrückt, daß nun diese alte Sonne geworden ist von der Größe einer Weltenkugel, deren Masse Sie sich, wenn Sie die Sonne in den Mittelpunkt setzen, bis zum Jupiter denken müssen. Also der Saturn war so groß wie eine Weltenkugel, die die Sonne zum Mittelpunkt hat und bis zum heutigen Saturn reicht — eine gewaltige Kugel, so groß wie unser ganzes Sonnensystem, bis zum Saturn. Die Sonne, von der wir jetzt sprechen, war eine Weltenkugel, die sich ausdehnte bis zum heutigen Jupiter. Dieser ist die Grenzmarke für die Ausdehnung jener alten Sonne. Sie tun überhaupt gut, in diesen Planeten draußen sich Grenzmarken für die Ausdehnung der alten Weltenkörper vorzustellen.
[ 17 ] Sie sehen, so nähern wir uns allmählich der Theorie der Planetenentstehung, indem wir sie herleiten aus der Tätigkeit der Hierarchien. Und gehen wir jetzt weiter. Wir wissen ja nun, daß der nächste Zustand wiederum ein Verdichtungszustand ist. Der dritte Zustand unseres Weltensystems ist der des alten Mondes. Diejenigen, die sich beschäftigt haben mit den Mitteilungen aus der Akasha-Chronik, wissen, daß der alte Mond dadurch entstanden ist, daß sich wiederum die Substanz der Sonne weiter verdichtet hat bis zum Wässerigen. Der Mond hat noch nicht feste Erde, aber er hat Feuer, Luft und Wasser. Er hat das wässerige Element sich eingeordnet. Es hat sich das Gas oder die Luft verdichtet zum wässerigen Element. Wer hat das bewirkt? Das hat die zweite Gruppe aus dieser Hierarchie der geistigen Wesenheiten bewirkt, diejenige Gruppe, die wir Mächte, Virtutes, nennen. Und es ist also durch die Virtutes geschehen, daß die Masse der alten Sonne zusammengedrängt worden ist bis zur Grenze des heutigen Mars. Der Mars ist wiederum der Grenzstein für die Größe des alten Mondes. Wenn Sie sich eine Kugel vorstellen, in der Mitte die Sonne und die Masse ausgedehnt bis dahin, wo heute der Mars kreist, dann haben Sie den alten Mond in seiner Größe.
[ 18 ] Jetzt sind wir an demjenigen Punkt angelangt, wo wir uns erinnern wollen, daß, als aus Saturn und Sonne der alte Mond entstand, etwas ganz Neues geschah. Es wurde jetzt ein Teil der dichten Substanz hinausgeworfen, und es entstanden zwei Körper. Der eine Körper nahm die feinsten Substanzen und Wesenheiten und wurde eine feinere Sonne, der zweite Körper wurde ein um so dichterer Mond. Es entwickelt sich dieser dritte Zustand unseres Planetensystems also so, daß er nur eine Zeitlang ein einheitlicher Planet ist; dann aber wirft er einen Planeten aus sich heraus, der nun neben ihm ist. Zuerst reicht also der Mond, solange er ein einheitlicher Körper ist, bis zum Mars. Dann aber zieht sich die Sonne zusammen, und sie wird umkreist von einem Körper, und zwar ungefähr da, wo der heutige Mars sie umkreist, das heißt ungefähr in der Peripherie des ursprünglichen einheitlichen Körpers.
[ 19 ] Wodurch ist nun überhaupt diese Abspaltung zustande gekommen? Wodurch ist ein Weltenkörper zu zweien geworden? Es ist das geschehen zur Zeit der Herrschaft der Mächte, Dynamis. Für diejenigen, die mancherlei auf diesem Gebiet mit mir schon verfolgt haben, ist es nicht unbekannt, daß im ganzen Weltenall etwas ähnliches geschieht wie im gewöhnlichen Menschenleben. Wo sich Wesen entwickeln, da gibt es solche, die vorschreiten, und andere, die zurückbleiben. Wie mancher Vater hat es zu beklagen, daß sein Sohn sitzenbleibt im Gymnasium, während andere rasch vorschreiten. Also wir haben es mit einem verschiedenen Tempo der Entwickelung zu tun. So ist es auch im ganzen Kosmos. Und insbesondere tritt durch gewisse Gründe, die wir noch kennenlernen werden, jetzt, wo die Mächte ihre Mission, ihre Funktion angetreten hatten, etwas ein, was man in der ganzen Esoterik, in allen Mysterien nennt den Streit am Himmel. Und diese Lehre vom Streit am Himmel bildet einen wesentlichen, einen integrierenden Teil in allen Mysterien; sie enthält auch das Urgeheimnis über die Entstehung des Bösen. Die Virtutes, die Mächte, waren nämlich in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt der Mondenentwickelung von sehr verschiedenen Reifegraden. Die einen sehnten sich danach, so hoch wie möglich geistig zu steigen, andere wieder waren zurückgeblieben oder wenigstens in normaler Weise in ihrer Entwickelung weitergeschritten. Also es gab Mächte, welche ihren Genossen auf dem alten Monde weit vorangeschritten waren. Die Folge davon war, daß sich diese zwei Klassen von Mächten oder Virtutes trennten. Die Fortgeschritteneren, die zogen den Sonnenkörper heraus, und die mehr Zurückgebliebenen bildeten den ihn umkreisenden Mond. So also haben wir zunächst skizzenhaft geschildert den Streit am Himmel, das Auseinanderzerren des alten Mondes, so daß der Nebenplanet, der alte Mond, unter die Herrschaft der zurückgebliebenen Virtutes kommt und die alte Sonne unter die Herrschaft der fortgeschritteneren Virtutes.
[ 20 ] Etwas von diesem Streit am Himmel klingt hinein in die ersten Sätze der Göttlichen Gita, die symbolisch im Kampf am Anfang manches nachklingen läßt von diesem gewaltigen Streit am Himmel. Oh, es war ein mächtiges Kampffeld, das da vorhanden war. Von der Zeit an, wo die Herrschaften oder Dominationes oder Kyriotetes gewirkt haben zur Herstellung der alten Sonne bis hinein in die Zeit der Herstellung des alten Mondes, wo angetreten haben die Mächte oder Dynamis ihre Mission, da war ein mächtiges Kampffeld, ein gewaltiger Streit am Himmel. Zusammengezogen haben unsere gesamte SonnensystemMasse die Herrschaften bis zum Markstein des Jupiter, zusammengezogen haben die Virtutes oder Mächte dann das ganze System bis zum Markstein des heutigen Mars. Zwischen diesen beiden planetarischen Marksteinen am Himmel liegt das große Kampffeld des Streites am Himmel mitten drinnen. Sehen Sie sich an dieses Schlachtfeld am Himmel! Erst das 19. Jahrhundert hat mit physischen Augen sozusagen wiederentdeckt die Verwüstungen, die angerichtet worden sind durch den Streit am Himmel. Zwischen Mars und Jupiter haben Sie das Heer der kleinen Planetoiden hineingesprengt. Das sind die Trümmer des Schlachtfeldes vom Streit am Himmel, der ausgefochten worden ist zwischen den zwei kosmischen Zeitpunkten, da zusammengezogen wurde unser Sonnensystem bis zum Jupiter und später bis zum Mars. Und wenn unsere Astronomen die Fernrohre hinausrichten in den Himmelsraum und noch immer Planetoiden entdekken, so sind das Trümmer jenes großen Schlachtfeldes des Streites zwischen den fortgeschritteneren Virtutes und den weniger fortgeschrittenen Virtutes, die auch das Absprengen des Mondes von seiner Sonne zustande gebracht haben.
[ 21 ] So sehen wir: Wenn wir die Taten der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten betrachten, erscheinen uns die äußeren Dinge als Ausdruck, als äußere Physiognomie der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten.
Fifth Lecture
[ 1 ] We have considered the workings of higher spiritual beings within our cosmos using two examples: the example of old Saturn and that of the sun, which emerged from him as his reincarnation. It will now be necessary for us to penetrate into the spiritual realm itself, where these higher spiritual beings are, and to show us their way of working from another perspective. In the course of the first half of the lectures, some things will have to be said that a large proportion of you, my dear friends, have already heard here or there. But apart from the fact that there are many listeners here who have not yet heard much about the prerequisites, it is also necessary, precisely because we have to ascend high into the regions of spiritual life in this lecture cycle, to mention some things again, which is a prerequisite in itself.
[ 2 ] From what has been said so far, you will have realized that spiritual beings are active in the most diverse ways within an evolving world system. What actually is this old Saturn, basically? Let us form a precise idea of it. Of course, the old Saturn has nothing to do with the present Saturn. You can imagine that everything that belongs to our entire solar system today was already present in the germ of the old Saturn: our Sun, our Moon, our Mercury, our Venus, our Mars, our Jupiter, all these world bodies were contained in the old Saturn and formed out of it. So imagine a world body that today would have the sun at its center and would extend out so that today's Saturn would still be inside. Only then would you really have this old Saturn, which exceeds our present solar system in size, in your imagination. So, our entire solar system emerged, so to speak, from this old Saturn. It could even be compared, not completely, but approximately, with the entire Kant-Laplacean primeval nebula, from which, according to many modern people, our solar system has formed. But the comparison is not entirely correct, since most people think of some kind of gas as the starting point of our solar system, whereas we have seen that it was not a gas, but a body of heat. A giant body of heat, that is the old Saturn.
[ 3 ] And now we said yesterday: where this old Saturn has already transformed itself into the later sun, the cherubim are at work from the circumference, from the universe. Now you have to imagine that these cherubim, who are active in the vicinity of the old sun, were also already present in the vicinity of the old Saturn. Only they had not yet been called to their activity, so to speak; if it may be said in a trivial way, it had not yet come to them to do something significant, but they were already present in the vicinity of the old Saturn. And there were also other entities present in the vicinity of old Saturn, a class of even more exalted entities than the cherubim: these are the seraphim. And the thrones also come from the same region. Only the substance of the thrones, which are one degree lower than the cherubim, flows down and forms the heat substance of Saturn, as we have explained. So we can imagine this Saturn as a giant ball of heat, surrounded by a host of spiritual beings of an extraordinarily exalted nature. In Christian esotericism they are called thrones, cherubs, seraphim. They are the dhyanic entities of Eastern teaching.
[ 4 ] Now let us ask ourselves: Where do these exalted beings come from? Everything in the world, everything in the universe has developed. And if we want to get an idea of where these cherubs, seraphim and thrones come from, we would do well to start with our own solar system and ask ourselves what will become of our solar system one day. Let us briefly sketch the development of our solar system. We know that it started with the old Saturn, then this old Saturn transformed itself into the old sun, which is transforming itself into the old moon. In the time when the old sun becomes the moon, a special development occurs. This moon emerges from the sun for the first time, and in the old moon we first have a world body that is outside the sun. The fact that the Sun has cast off the coarsest part of itself enables it to develop further. The whole system now develops into the system of our present Earth. Our Earth comes into being because, in addition to all the other moons and Earths, the coarser substances and the vehicles of the coarser entities separate from the Sun. But the evolution continues. The beings that now have to live separately on Earth, that have been thrown out of the Sun, so to speak, develop ever higher and higher in their separation from the Sun. They still have to go through one more state, the state of Jupiter. But through this they gradually mature to unite with the Sun again. And when the state of Venus development has come, then all the beings that now live and surge on our Earth will, so to speak, have been taken up again into the Sun, and the Sun itself will have reached a higher level of development, precisely because it has redeemed back all its beings that it had set out of itself. And then comes Vulcan development, the highest stage of development of our system. For these are the seven stages of development of our system: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. In Vulcan development, all the beings that emerged, so to speak, from the small beginnings of Saturn's existence are spiritualized in the highest sense; together they have become not only the Sun, but the Super-Sun. Vulcan is more than the Sun, and with this it has attained the maturity for sacrifice, the maturity to dissolve.
[ 5 ] This is the next stage of development: that such a system, in which a sun arises from a starting point, this sun is, so to speak, weak at first and has to throw out its planets so that it can develop further itself. It becomes strong, absorbs its planets again, becomes a volcano. And now the whole thing dissolves, and the volcanic sphere subsequently becomes a hollow sphere; it then becomes something similar to this dance of thrones, cherubim and seraphim. So the sun will dissolve, sacrifice itself into the universe, radiate its essence. And through this it itself becomes a dance of such entities as the seraphim, cherubim and thrones are, which now progresses to new creation in the universe.
[ 6 ] Why are the thrones able to give out of their substance that which Saturn needs? Because the thrones have prepared themselves in an earlier system through seven states, as our solar system is now going through. Before something can become a system of thrones, cherubim and seraphim, it must have been a solar system; that is to say, when a sun has progressed so far that it has reunited with its planets, then it becomes a sphere, then it itself becomes a zodiac. What we have come to know in the zodiac, these exalted beings, are the remnants that have come down to us from an ancient solar system. What used to develop within a solar system can now work its way down from space and give birth to a new solar system. That is why these beings, the seraphim, cherubim, thrones, are for us the highest hierarchy among the divine beings, because they have already gone through their solar system evolution and have ascended to the great cosmic sacrificial service.
[ 7 ] These entities have thereby come into close proximity to the highest divinity of which we can speak at all, the Trinity, the threefold divinity. So, beyond the seraphim, we see that supreme divinity, which you find in almost all nations as the threefold divinity, expressed as Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, as Father, Word and Holy Ghost. From this highest divinity, the supreme Trinity, so to speak, the plans for each new world system arise. If we look back to ancient Saturn, we say to ourselves: Before any of this ancient Saturn came into existence, the plan arose in the divine Trinity. But this Trinity needs entities to carry out the plan. These entities must first mature for this purpose. The first beings, who are, as it were, around the Divinity Itself, who, as it is beautifully expressed in Christian Occidental esotericism, “directly enjoy the vision of God”, are the seraphim, cherubim, thrones. They now receive the plans for a new world system from the Divine Trinity, from which they originate. Of course, my dear friends, you understand that this is more figuratively speaking than really, because we have to express such sublime activities with human words for which human words are truly not created. Human words are not there to express such high activity, by which, for example, at the beginning of our solar system, the seraphim received the highest plans of the divine Trinity, which contain how our solar system is to develop through Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. Seraphim is a name that has always been interpreted by all those who have understood it correctly in the sense of ancient Hebrew esotericism as meaning that the Seraphim have the task of receiving the highest ideas, the goals of a world system, from the Trinity. The cherubim, the next lower level of the hierarchy, have the task of now developing in wisdom the goals and ideas that are received from the highest gods. The cherubim are therefore spirits of the highest wisdom, who understand how to implement what they are given by the seraphim. And the thrones, in turn, the third degree of the hierarchy from above, have the task, now, of course, very figuratively speaking, of lending a hand so that what is conceived in wisdom, so that these lofty world thoughts, which the seraphim receive from the gods, which the cherubim have thought through, are realized in reality.
[ 8 ] We can literally see, if we only want to see with our soul, how the first step in the realization of the divine plans takes place through the flowing down of the fire substance through the thrones. Thus the thrones represent those entities that have the power to implement the ideas conceived by the cherubim into a first reality. This happens when these thrones allow their own substance, the substance of the original world fire, to flow into the space that has been envisaged, so to speak, for a new world system. If we want to visualize this quite clearly, we can say: an old solar system has disappeared and faded away; within this old solar system, the seraphim, cherubim and thrones have matured to the highest degree. Now these seek out a spherical space in space according to the indications of the highest Trinity and say to each other, here we will begin. And now the seraphim receive the goals of the world system, the cherubim work out these goals, and in this spherical space the thrones allow the primal fire to flow out of their own being. This is how we have grasped the beginning of our world system.
[ 9 ] But there are also other entities that were present in a certain way in the earlier solar system, of which ours is the successor. These entities have not ascended as high as the seraphim and cherubim, who throned, remained on a lower level, and came over in such a way that they themselves still have to undergo a certain development before they can be creatively active, before they can make sacrifices. These entities are now the entities of the second threefold hierarchy. We have just considered the first threefold hierarchy. The entities of the second are those whose names we have already given: the Kyriotetes or dominations or dominationes or spirits of wisdom, then the so-called powers or dynamis, as Dionysius the Areopagite calls them, and after him the teachers of the West, virtutes, virtues. That is the second level of the second hierarchy. And the third level are the so-called forces. They are the Spirits of Form, which are also called Potestates by the Teachers of the West.
[ 10 ] Now let us ask ourselves: if we look back at old Saturn, where are the entities of this second hierarchy now that we have seen that the first hierarchy is in the vicinity of Saturn? Where do we find the dominions, the powers, the authorities? We have to look for them within old Saturn. If we may say that the Thrones extend as far as the boundary, then within old Saturn we have the Dominations, Powers and Authorities. Thus within old Saturn, within its substance, the Forces, Powers and Dominations are at work in three circles. They are spiritual beings active within the substance of Saturn.
[ 11 ] Now let us try to understand the extraordinarily fantastic modern theory of the origin of the world by once again considering what this theory presented as the Kant-Laplacean theory. It presents a nebula as the starting point for our solar system, and now this Kant-Laplacean theory imagines that this entire giant gas mass begins to rotate and swirl. As is well known, she finds it extremely plausible that when it starts to turn, the outer planets gradually split off. First there are rings, which then contract; in the middle remains the sun and the others rotate around it. She imagines it quite mechanically. Now, a very cute school experiment is done to illustrate this. They show how such a solar system is formed on a small scale. They take a container of water, take a large drop of oil, then they cut a map sheet so that they can see the size of the equator, stick it in the equator direction and insert a pin from above. Then you make this drop of oil rotate. Small droplets split off and circle around, and then the person demonstrating this to the students, sometimes quite old students, says: Now look, there you have the formation of a planetary system in miniature! — And it makes perfect sense immediately. After all, what could make more sense than seeing with your own eyes how a solar system like this is formed? Why shouldn't we understand that out there there was once a giant nebula and that it rotated and that planets separated like the droplets, the miniature Mercuries and Satellites from the large oil drop? One must indeed be a little amazed at the naivety with which this is done. For those concerned, who are trying to make the Kant-Laplace system quite understandable, forget only one thing in doing so, which is otherwise quite good to forget, but in this case it just does not work - they forget namely themselves, they forget that they stood there and turned first. That is, of course, an incredible naivety, but the naivety of modern materialistic mythology is very great, greater than that of any other mythology. Only future times will realize this. So, there is someone who organizes the whole thing, who turns the whole thing. Therefore, if one is at all capable of thinking, if one is not abandoned by all the good spirits of logic, it must be assumed that spiritual forces are involved in the rotation of the worlds. Even if one disregards the mistake of substituting primeval gas for primeval fire, one still cannot assume that this mass of gas begins to swirl around by itself. One must ask: Where are the spiritual forces and powers that set this mass, that is to say for us the mass of the primeval fire, in motion, so that something happens inside? We have now listed them: the spiritual forces work from the environment and from within. Those around there, the entities that have acquired their abilities in earlier systems, work from the outside; inside are entities of lesser maturity, which now differentiate the mass inside, which bring about what we had in mind when we said that structures of warmth arise inside and so on. These are entities of the highest intelligence, which arrange everything that happens.
[ 12 ] What is the initial task of the first entities of this second hierarchy? The dominations receive what the thrones bring down from the universe, so to speak, and organize it in such a way that a harmony can take place between the individual world body that is emerging, between Saturn and the whole universe. Everything inside Saturn must be arranged in such a way that everything inside corresponds to what is outside. So what the seraphim, cherubim and thrones bring down from the hand of God to Saturn must be arranged in such a way that these orders are carried out and these impulses realized within. Thus the Lords or Kyriotetes receive from the circumference of Saturn that which comes down through the mediation of the highest hierarchy to transform it so that it fits into Saturn.
[ 13 ] In a further way, what the Lordships receive is reworked by the Powers, Dynamis. And this happens in such a way that when the lordships within Saturn, as it were, give the supreme orders, the powers now take over the next execution of these orders. The authorities, on the other hand, ensure – we will talk about this in more detail, we just want to characterize the matter in general terms for now – that what has been built according to the intention of the universe lasts as long as it is necessary, that it does not immediately perish again. They are the sustainers. Thus, in the dominions, we have the arrangers within Saturn; in the powers, we have those who initially carry out these arrangements, and the authorities are the sustainers of what the powers have built.
[ 14 ] Today, let us disregard how the next hierarchy, which we have already spoken of, works: the spirits of personality, the fire spirits and the angels. But today, let us consider the transition from the old Saturn to the old Sun with the newly acquired knowledge. I already described the essential processes to you yesterday. What happens when the old Saturn becomes the Sun is that the original fire now changes into the state of gas or air, so that the old Sun consists of what is called the rest of the original fire that has remained. This original fire is now mixed and blended with what has condensed into gas or smoke. So there are two substances present: primal fire and a part of the primal fire, condensed into gas or smoke or air – as you will. This applies essentially to the old sun. We will see that it has become different with our sun; through intermediate states, it has developed into something else to date, although there are people who claim that the interior of our sun today is also just a kind of gas.
[ 15 ] But if you open yourself up even a little to the various theories that our materialistic natural science comes up with, you will experience real wonders if you do so with an open mind. There is a popular little book that is bought a lot because of how cheap it is, in which it is claimed that today's sun does not have to have something solid in the middle, but rather gas. Only this gas - one should not actually believe it, but it is in a popular booklet - is as thick as honey or tar. Well, to anyone who is willing to believe that a gas under pressure looks like honey or tar, I will gladly allow him to walk in such a land of milk and honey, where he moves in an air that consists of honey, and I certainly don't want to wish that he has to move in an air that is as thick as tar. Such are the excesses of materialistic theory.
[ 16 ] Now, we are not talking about our present sun, but about that ancient sun, which really consists of the primal fire and what is called fire mist or fire air. You find the expression in Faust because Goethe knew it very well, and in theosophical literature you will find the expression 'fire mist' quite common. So we have to imagine this old sun as a mixture of these two substances. But this did not come about by itself. World bodies do not condense by themselves; spiritual beings must bring about this condensation. What spiritual beings are it then that effect the condensation of the substance of the old Saturn into the sun? They are the beings that we have called Lordships. These Lordships are now pressing in from the outside and compressing the original mighty mass of Saturn so that it becomes smaller. And the forces have been pushing for so long that this old sun has now become the size of a globe, the mass of which, if you place the sun at the center, you have to imagine reaching to Jupiter. So Saturn was as large as a globe with the sun at its center and reaching to present-day Saturn – an enormous globe, as large as our entire solar system, as far as Saturn. The Sun of which we are now speaking was a globe that expanded to the size of the present-day Jupiter. This is the boundary mark for the expansion of that ancient Sun. It is good to imagine boundary marks for the expansion of the ancient world bodies in these planets.
[ 17 ] You see, in this way we are gradually approaching the theory of the formation of the planets by deriving it from the activity of the hierarchies. And now let us move on. We now know that the next state is again a state of condensation. The third state of our world system is that of the old moon. Those who have studied the messages from the Akasha Chronicle know that the old moon was formed when the substance of the sun condensed further into the watery. The moon does not yet have solid earth, but it has fire, air and water. It has organized the watery element. The gas or the air has condensed to the watery element. Who has brought this about? This has been brought about by the second group of this hierarchy of spiritual entities, the group that we call Virtutes. And so it has happened through the Virtutes that the mass of the old sun has been pushed together to the boundary of today's Mars. Mars is again the boundary stone for the size of the old moon. If you imagine a sphere, with the sun in the center and the mass extended to where Mars orbits today, then you have the old moon in its size.
[ 18 ] Now we have arrived at the point where we want to remember that when the old moon was formed from Saturn and the Sun, something completely new happened. Now a part of the dense substance was thrown out, and two bodies were formed. One of the bodies took the finest substances and entities and became a finer sun, the second body became an all the denser moon. So this third state of our planetary system develops in such a way that it is only a unified planet for a while; but then it throws out a planet that is now next to it. At first, as long as it is a unified body, the moon reaches as far as Mars. But then the sun contracts, and it is orbited by a body, roughly where today's Mars orbits it, that is, roughly on the periphery of the original unified body.
[ 19 ] How did this separation come about in the first place? How did a cosmic body become two? This happened at the time of the rule of the powers, dynamis. For those who have followed my work in this area, it is not unknown that something similar happens in the whole universe as in the life of an ordinary human being. Where beings develop, there are those who advance and others who lag behind. How many a father has had to lament that his son has to repeat a year at school while others are making rapid progress. So we are dealing with different rates of development. This is also the case in the cosmos as a whole. And now, for certain reasons that we will come to know, something occurs that is called the Conflict in Heaven throughout esotericism, in all mysteries. And this teaching of the conflict in heaven forms an essential, an integral part of all mysteries; it also contains the primal secret of the origin of evil. The Virtutes, the Powers, were namely at a certain point in the development of the moon at very different stages of maturity. Some longed to rise as high as possible spiritually, others were retarded or at least advanced in their development in a normal way. So there were powers that were far more advanced than their comrades on the old moon. The consequence of this was that these two classes of powers or virtutes separated. The more advanced ones pulled out the solar body, and the more retarded ones formed the moon orbiting around it. So, in a nutshell, we have described the quarrel in the sky, the tearing apart of the old moon, so that the satellite, the old moon, comes under the rule of the retarded virtutes and the old sun under the rule of the advanced virtutes.
[ 20 ] Something of this conflict in the heavens is echoed in the first sentences of the Divine Gita, which, symbolically, in the beginning of the battle, resonates with some of this mighty conflict in the heavens. Oh, it was a mighty battleground that was present there. From the time when the dominions or domineering powers or kyriotetes were at work creating the old Sun until the time of the creation of the old Moon, when the powers or dynamis began their mission, there was a mighty battleground, a tremendous conflict in the heavens. The rulers contracted our entire solar system mass up to the marker of Jupiter, and the Virtutes or powers then contracted the whole system up to the marker of today's Mars. Between these two planetary markers in the sky lies the great battle field of the dispute in the sky in the middle of it. Take a look at this battlefield in the sky! It was only in the 19th century that physical eyes, so to speak, rediscovered the devastation caused by the conflict in the heavens. You have blown up the host of small planetoids between Mars and Jupiter. These are the debris of the battlefield of the conflict in the heavens, which was fought between the two cosmic points in time when our solar system was drawn together to Jupiter and later to Mars. And when our astronomers point their telescopes into space and still discover planetoids, these are the debris of that great battlefield of the struggle between the more advanced Virtues and the less advanced Virtues, which also brought about the blasting off of the moon from its sun.
[ 21 ] Thus we see: When we contemplate the deeds of the divine-spiritual entities, the external things appear to us as an expression, as the external physiognomy of the divine-spiritual entities.