The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Eighth Lecture

[ 1 ] Today we come to a chapter in the description of the higher beings and their relationships to our world and solar system that actually belongs to those chapters which must be most objectionable to the modern person, who learns about the world and its conditions from ordinary popular science, for it will be necessary to touch upon things about which the modern scientist can imagine absolutely nothing. Of course, this is by no means a two-way street; rather, those who stand firmly on the ground of occultism can, from their perspective, fully grasp the facts of modern science. And nowhere will you find any contradiction between what has been said in these lectures and the facts of modern science; it is just that, of course, harmony is not always easy to establish. But those of you who have patience and follow everything step by step will see how the individual elements come together to form a great whole.

[ 2 ] On this occasion, it might also be worth mentioning that some of what is discussed here in these lectures has been examined from other perspectives—for example, in the lecture series in Stuttgart and Leipzig. Anyone who looks at these series from the outside and compares them may indeed find some contradictions between this or that statement. This stems solely from the fact that my task in these lectures is not to speak about speculative theories, but about the facts of clairvoyant consciousness, and that facts do indeed appear differently when viewed from one side versus the other. By way of comparison, a tree that you paint from one side will appear different to you than if you paint it from the other side, and yet it is the same tree. So it is with the description of spiritual facts when they are illuminated from different angles. Of course, if one starts with a few concepts and constructs a system from them, it is easy to establish an abstract system from the outset; but we work from the bottom up, and the harmonious unity will then emerge as the crowning achievement. In particular, however, one must always consider, with regard to every statement, in what sense and in what direction it is made. If, for example, it was said that one finds in a popular work that air, or gas, on Jupiter must be as dense as tar or honey, and that from the standpoint of spiritual science this is in a certain sense even a grotesque notion—and the phrase I used was meant to suggest the grotesqueness of the matter—then from the standpoint of today’s science one can certainly say: Don’t you know that physics can currently produce air in a state as dense as honey or tar? Certainly, this is a self-evident fact of science, but that is not the point, for the line of reasoning does not proceed along those lines. What science calls air can certainly be condensed to that degree; but from a spiritual-scientific perspective, this is nothing other than another example of how water can be made as hard as a stone—namely, into ice. Certainly, ice is water, but the question is whether one views things in their living functions or in the dead sense of modern science. That ice is water goes without saying, but if one were to advise someone who is accustomed to powering his mill with water all year round to power his mill with ice, what would he say? So, it does not depend on the abstract notion that ice is water, but on understanding the universe in its activity. Here, entirely different perspectives must prevail than in the abstract discussion of purely material metamorphosis with regard to density. Just as one cannot power mills with ice, so naturally one cannot breathe air that is as thick as honey or tar. And this is what matters in the spiritual-scientific perspective. For we do not view the celestial spheres in the way they are viewed today—as those material lumps of a certain size moving about in outer space, in which modern astronomical mythology sees nothing but spheres of a material nature—but rather we view them in their living, soul-spiritual existence; in other words, we view them in their entirety. It is within this wholeness, then, that we must consider what we call, in the spiritual-scientific sense, the formation of the individual celestial bodies. And now, as our first example of the formation of a celestial body, let us choose the ancient Saturn—that ancient Saturn from which we know our evolution originated. I have already told you: this ancient Saturn was initially as large as, in essence, our entire present-day solar system. So what is called, in a broader sense, the ancient Saturn in its initial state is roughly as large as our entire solar system. We must simply not imagine this ancient Saturn as merely a material sphere. We know, after all, that it possesses none of the three material states we call today solid, liquid, and gaseous, but consists solely of heat or fire. And now let us imagine that this ancient sphere of heat is this circle. You will recall at the same time that we said: Where this Saturn sphere developed into the solar sphere, there appear, clearly within the sphere of the sun, those beings that constitute the zodiac. — But I already indicated back then that this zodiac, even if it was not yet—I would say—as dense, as compact as it is during the Sun’s existence, was already present around the old Saturn. So, in the sphere of the old Saturn, we imagine Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim reigning, and these are actually, for us, the zodiac in the spiritual sense. Let this line be, for the time being, the zodiac in a spiritual sense. You will say: How does this correspond to the current designation of the zodiac? — Oh, it corresponds perfectly, as we shall become fully convinced in the course of the last lectures. You must simply imagine it this way at first: Imagine that you could position yourself somewhere on this ancient sphere of Saturn at a specific point. Now raise your hand and point outward; above this spot lies the region of certain Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim. If you move a little further and point outward, another of the Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim is at the spot you are pointing to, for these three groups of beings form a circle all around the ancient Saturn. And now imagine for a moment that you wanted, so to speak, to indicate the direction in which certain Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim are located. They are not all alike; they are not like twelve completely identical soldiers, but rather differ from one another very significantly; they are all individualized, so that one points to different beings when pointing outward from different points. And so that one can, so to speak, point to the correct thrones, cherubim, and seraphim, one marks this by a specific constellation. This is, then, a marker. And so one says: In this direction lie those thrones, cherubim, and seraphim called Gemini; in another, those called Leo, and so on. So these are, as it were, markers to indicate the direction where the respective beings are located. We initially regard the distinctive constellations as such markers. They are also something else, but first we must realize that we are dealing with spiritual beings when we speak of the zodiac.

[ 3 ] First of all, it is the Thrones that exert their influence on this fiery formation we call Old Saturn. The Thrones have advanced so far in their development that they can allow their own substance to flow out. They let their heat substance, so to speak, drip into this Saturn mass. As a result, as I have told you, these formations arise all around it, which we have somewhat grotesquely referred to as “eggs”—somewhat grotesque, but they really do have this shape.

[ 4 ] Now you might ask: What exactly is the situation regarding substance? Was there already a thermal substance there before? — What existed before can really only be described as a kind of neutral cosmic fire, which is essentially one with cosmic space, so that I might just as well say: In the past, there was only space, which had been demarcated, and now what can be called the heat substance of the old Saturn is being dripped into its surface. At the very moment this heat substance is dripped into the old Saturn, the beings involved are also active from both sides. We have already said: Here within the space of Saturn we find the powers or spirits of form, the spirits of movement or powers, and the dominions or spirits of wisdom. These are active within. From the outside, cherubim, seraphim, and thrones are active, and the result is that a cooperation takes place between the beings from the outside and the beings from the inside.

[ 5 ] In the first lecture, it was said that one can distinguish between the inner, spiritual fire—which is felt as a sense of inner warmth and comfort—and the fire that is perceptible externally. Between the two lies the neutral warmth right in the middle. This neutral warmth is actually contained within this egg-shaped form. Above it, however, we find the spiritual warmth spread out, as if radiating in from the outside, yet holding back. It is as if the spiritual warmth were radiating in from the outside, yet holding back from what is inside as neutral fire; from within, the actually perceptible warmth is repelled. So that you have actually enclosed what was previously depicted as such a heat-egg between two currents, an external soul-heat current and an internal heat current that would be perceptible to an external sense. Thus, only what is inside is physically perceptible heat. And now, through the interaction of the outer and inner heat, each such Saturn egg enters into actual rotation. Each such Saturn egg moves around and comes under the influence of each of the Thrones, Seraphim, and Cherubim that are there all around. And now something very peculiar occurs. Imagine that, in its wandering, this egg finally returns to the very point where it was originally generated—as I said, I am recounting the facts of spiritual scientific observation—; when it arrives there, it comes to a standstill; it cannot go any further; it is held back. Each such egg is produced at a specific point, then travels around the circle and is held back when it reaches the place where it was produced. However, the creation lasts only up to a certain point in time; then it ceases, and no more heat-eggs are produced. When all these eggs are held at that one point, they fall upon one another; as they come together to cover one another, they form, so to speak, a single egg. Thus, at the place where the eggs were originally created in the first place, there they finally come to rest; there they come to a standstill. And, of course, from the moment when no new ones are formed, they all come together here and finally merge. A sphere thus forms here in a circular pattern. This sphere, of course, only forms over time. It is, so to speak, the densest fiery matter; it is also what can now be called Saturn in the strict sense, for it stands at the very spot where today’s Saturn stands. And since everything repeats itself in a certain way, the entire process also repeated itself in the formation of our Earth. Today’s Saturn, too, came into being in such a way that it was actually held in a specific place—not exactly where the old Saturn was held, because things shift for certain reasons—but the process of the formation of today’s Saturn is the same. Thus, so to speak, a small Saturn sphere is born from the large, expansive, original Saturn through the interplay of all the world forces belonging to the hierarchies.

[ 6 ] Let us now consider the point at which all these spheres finally came to rest on the very first Saturn. The sages of primordial wisdom had this to say about this point. On this ancient Saturn, the first rudiments of the physical human body were formed. In its very earliest form, it is actually shaped by heat, but all the later organs are already predisposed, so to speak, in this body of heat. At the point where the initially stirred movement comes to rest again, the rudiment of that organ in the human body has arisen which, later on, when it ceases its movement, also brings the entire machinery of the physical body to rest—that is the heart. Here, from the first stimulation of movement, the rudiment of the heart arises, but it comes into being in its initial form only because, at this point, the movement is brought to rest. Through this, the heart becomes the organ through which the entire physical body is brought to rest in its functions when it ceases to beat.

[ 7 ] In the ancient language, every part of the human body was designated by a very specific name. The heart was referred to as the lion within the body. Thus, ancient wisdom asked: In which direction of the zodiac must one point if one wishes to locate the region from which the first seed of the human heart was sown? One pointed upward and called this region of the Lion, where the Thrones, Seraphim, and Cherubim worked from there. Humanity has projected its essence out into outer space, and the region of the body that one has come to call the Lion inwardly, it has also called the region of the Lion outwardly in the zodiac. Thus these things are connected.

[ 8 ] In the same way, all of man’s other faculties have been formed by this zodiac. The heart was formed from the region of Leo. What is near the heart—the structure of the ribcage, that is, what must be there to protect the heart—was called the breastplate in the human body. Naturally, it had to be formed in the structure one region before the heart. And another name for the breastplate has emerged, since the term was taken from an animal that naturally possesses such a shell, namely the crab. Actually, what is out there in the zodiac is called the “breastplate,” but in the case of the crab, there is a natural shell; therefore, this region was named the “Crab.” It lies on one side of the Lion.

[ 9 ] The other regions of the zodiac were named according to the same principle. In fact, it is the human being projected out into outer space who provided the names for the various regions of the zodiac. However, it is sometimes quite difficult to discern this original intention from the often distorted names, as you can see in the example of Cancer. The name has not always been passed down in a direct line; rather, one must often go back to the original meaning of the matter if one wishes to gain clarity.

[ 10 ] But let us now set aside the question of how this Saturn era comes to an end, how it dissolves once again. Let us now discuss how evolution proceeds after a Pralaya has run its course. So, once this Saturn formation has dissolved, a new evolution, a new formation, begins, so to speak. The first thing that happens is exactly the same as what took place previously on Saturn. Then, after this entire Saturn existence has repeated itself in this way, a second formation begins, moving further toward the center. We proceed to that stage of development which we usually refer to as the development of the ancient Sun. This occurs in such a way that, just as the Thrones sacrificed themselves earlier, it is now another level of the spiritual hierarchy that sacrifices itself—those beings we call the Lords or the Spirits of Wisdom. The Thrones are more powerful beings; they can exude physical substance and thermal substance from within themselves. Therefore, as we have described, they can exude the substance of Saturn from their own bodies. The Dominions or Spirits of Wisdom, however, can only sacrifice an etheric body, which is more subtle. Humanity already possesses the physical body in its potential; the etheric body is now added to it by the Dominions or the Spirits of Wisdom. And this takes place, so to speak, within a second circle. I will now draw a second circle. This would be the original size of the old Sun; it has contracted in comparison to the large earlier circle. Because it has contracted, it has become denser. This makes it possible for there to be within the old Sun not merely heat substance, but condensed heat substance—a gaseous, airy substance. Now the lords are working from the circle together with the other beings mentioned earlier, and inside this solar circle there are only the forces and powers, or the spirits of form and movement. Everything else works in from the circle.

[ 11 ] In a manner very similar to that of ancient Saturn, the following now occurs. Certain currents are formed, generated by the spirits of the surrounding environment, though now the Rulers are also involved. As a result, these currents are somewhat denser than those that were previously produced solely by the Thrones. Inside, the mass contracts, and one misty sphere after another is now compressed between these two currents. This sphere differs from the Saturn sphere in that Saturn, with all its entities, consists essentially only of heat substance and merely shuffles everything about in space, so to speak, but this sphere here is now permeated by ether, by ethereal corporeality. Although it is dense like gas, it is permeated by ethereal corporeality. This is what gives life to the entire sphere; it is an inwardly living being. While Saturn is an inwardly mobile being, full of activity, until its movement is brought to a standstill by Leo, Jupiter—one can also call it Jupiter, because what stands in the sky as Jupiter is a repetition of what once separated from the Sun as a fragment—Jupiter is inwardly alive. So, we have the ancient Sun; the spheres are now circling around, they are living spheres, great living beings.

[ 12 ] Now, instead of the Lion, you must imagine another region of the zodiac where these spheres are originally generated and stimulated—namely, the region I mentioned at the beginning, the region of the Eagle. It is in this region that the stimulation for this solar sphere, for this living being in cosmic space, originally takes place. Now, after this living sphere has made a full circuit, completing the entire orbit, it returns to the region of the eagle. But now something else happens. While the sphere had previously begun to live internally at this point, when it returns to the same spot, it is killed by the very same influence that originally brought it to life. One sphere after another is killed. Then, when all have been killed and no new ones arise, the life of this old sun also comes to an end. Life consists in the fact that new spheres arise here and ultimately converge here, at the point where they are killed as they enter from outer space. This death-sting, which the life of the old sun receives from outer space, was perceived as the “Scorpion’s” sting. Therefore, because it simultaneously kills, this region has been called the region of the Scorpion. Thus, at this point, one can see the constellation that brings dead matter to life, the Eagle, but also the one that sends in the forces that kill, the constellation of the Scorpion.

[ 13 ] We can therefore say that in the region of Leo are those forces in the zodiac that have brought the original life of the physical human constitution to rest; in the region of Scorpio are those forces capable of killing life itself. We will come to understand the connection with today’s different circumstances, but this can only happen gradually. For a dense Maya, a dense veil, has been drawn over the original conditions.

[ 14 ] Now let us move on. We no longer need to examine the next relationships in such detail, since the meaning of these terms and of the entire process has now become clear to us. There is just one thing that must still be remembered; it is the following. What, after all, is Saturn as a body? It is a body of heat. When you look at Saturn, you are completely mistaken if you assume that it is a body you can compare to other celestial bodies, such as Jupiter or Mars. What is there is, in fact, nothing but a space of heat. And the fact that you see it as you do stems from the fact that you can view it through a space of light, that you perceive it through a luminous space. Imagine what something looks like when you view it as unlit through an illuminated space. It looks bluish. You can observe this with an ordinary candle flame; it looks blue in the center, and all around there is a kind of glow. Whenever you look at the dark through the light, it looks blue. I say this with full awareness; I know that I run the risk of speaking nonsense in the face of all the modern mechanical optics. But this nonsense is, once again, the truth. Modern physics does not know why the entire expanse of the heavens appears blue. It appears blue for the simple reason that it is dark, black, and we see it through the illuminated space. Everything dark, when viewed through a luminous space, appears blue. That is why Saturn, too, when you look at it, appears as a somewhat bluish celestial body. The things said here are in complete agreement with the facts of science, just not with the fanciful theories that are concocted. Unfortunately, it would take us too far afield if I were to show you how the so-called ring formation around Saturn also arises from this perspective, because with every Saturn one is dealing with a neutral heat layer, a soul-heat layer, and a physically perceptible heat layer. Thus, when observing these various layers through the illuminated space, the illusion arises as if one were looking at a gas sphere surrounded by a kind of dust ring. One is dealing merely with an optical phenomenon. Even today, Saturn is still a body consisting solely of heat substance.

[ 15 ] Of course, these things can only be said in a context like the present one; otherwise, they could not be understood. Every Saturn must therefore be understood as essentially consisting of thermal substance, and everything about this Saturn can be explained in this way. Every Jupiter, which is nothing other than a stage of the Sun, is a formation consisting essentially of gas and heat. This is also the case with today’s Jupiter, which is a repetition of the ancient Jupiter [the ancient Sun]. Of course, the spatial and dynamic conditions change somewhat. Today’s Jupiter is not in the same position as the earlier one, but essentially this is the case. And now we move on and would have to explain Mars in the same way. We would therefore have to explain it as a large sphere cooled to the point of becoming watery, and we would likewise have to see, in the end, a water sphere compressed in one place detaching itself from the general, very thin water. Again, it arises because all the individual water spheres that form in the surrounding area are ultimately held back at a specific point. Just as movement is hindered on Saturn by Leo, just as death is brought about on Jupiter by Scorpio, so these water spheres are held back on Mars. However, the details are somewhat different on Mars than on Jupiter and Saturn. Today’s Mars is thus a repetition of the ancient Moon. It stands in the same place as far as the ancient Moon extended. It is the other part of the old Moon. One part is our Moon, which is the dross; what remained alive, representing the other pole, has remained in the repetition in today’s Mars. When we speak of Mars as the third stage of our planetary evolution, this stage corresponds to that of the old Moon. Mars is thus essentially a watery body. And incorporated into the human being on this ancient Moon—or ancient Mars, if you will—was the astral body, that is, the first consciousness. And this human being consisted, in terms of its body, of the substance of Mars or lunar water. Just as today the human body is composed of the substances of the Earth, so back then the human body was composed of fire, air, and water. Based on the densest substance, you could have called the human being of that time the water-human. He became so in particular because the astral body was instilled in him. He was not yet an “I”-human, but a human endowed with the astral. This had happened after the impulse had been given at a certain point; then it moved in a circle and returned to the same point from which it had originated. This was the region of the zodiac known as the Water Man or Aquarius. Thus, in Aquarius you have the zodiac sign that brought consciousness to humanity on the ancient Moon or ancient Mars after a single revolution.

[ 16 ] And now we move on to the Earth. It is the fourth stage of development. The three earlier stages are repeated: a Saturn forms, a Sun forms and leaves behind Jupiter, which is the repeated Sun; a Moon forms, leaving Mars behind; and finally, the Earth arises with what I have described, with the separation of the Sun and with the fragment that separates as lunar dross. You know that the first predisposition toward the I took place in the ancient Lemurian era, when the present Moon separated from the Earth. This could only happen because the impulse for it was again given from the outer sphere, causing a revolution to take place; then, after it had revolved once, that for which the impulse had been given became ripe to receive the first germ of the I. This happened in the ancient Lemurian era. And one had to point to that part of the zodiac which we today call Taurus, for the reason that in the time when such names were created, human beings felt very vividly and very concretely. This designation essentially arose in the Egyptian and Chaldean esoteric teachings. There lay the origins of this designation, and today only within the true esoteric teachings does an awareness of the true meaning of the words still exist. The very first seed of the “I Am” is expressed in language, in the tone. However, all sound formation stands in a certain relationship—which is not to be discussed here, but which every occultist knows and which can indeed be explored in more intimate lectures—the formation of the voice stands in a very specific relationship to the processes of reproduction, as you can infer from the fact that in the male sex, the change in the voice occurs with sexual maturity. There is a hidden connection here. And now, everything connected with these human abilities and processes has been summarized by the ancient consciousness as the bull-nature of man. And this is actually the origin of the name of this particular constellation, which now has the same significance for the Earth as the Lion has for Saturn, as the Scorpion has for Jupiter, and as the Water Man has for Mars. When the Egyptian era then dawned, the third post-Atlantean culture had arrived. The first was the ancient Indian, the second the ancient Persian, and the third the Egyptian culture. These cultures are, as has often been explained, the corresponding repetitions of the entire developmental processes of the Earth. The Lemurian era is now the third Earth era. The Egyptian esoteric teaching therefore essentially repeats, in spiritual reflection, the events of the Lemurian era. The priests of the Egyptian secret teachings know best what took place during this Lemurian epoch, for it is reflected in the unique culture of Egypt. That is why Egyptian culture felt a kinship with the constellation of Taurus, and indeed with the cult of Taurus.

[ 17 ] So you see that it is not at all easy to point to the actual processes that took place during the formation of our celestial bodies and everything associated with them. For how do celestial bodies come into being? Our Saturn, our Jupiter, our Mars, and so on actually came into being because shells originally formed; one after another is destroyed, and when the process of bringing something into being ceases, all the spherical structures that previously formed the shells ultimately press together to form a spherical structure. In fact, every such celestial body—such as Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars—came into being because there was originally a kind of shell; as one sphere settled over another, this shell condensed into the structure that then appears visibly in the heavens. Here you have nothing of the mechanical process of the barren Kant-Laplacean theory of the origin of the world, but rather the living formation of such structures, drawn from the spiritual conditions of the hierarchies, as we see them today as celestial bodies in Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.