On the Origin of the Earth
As INDIVIDUAL man has to pass through different
stages after his birth, as he must ascend from infancy through
childhood and so on to the age of the mature adult, so too must
mankind as a whole go through a similar process. Humanity has
developed to its present condition by passing through other stages.
With the methods of the clairvoyant one can discern three principal
stags of this development of mankind which were passed through before
the formation of the earth took place and before this sphere became
the scene of that development. Therefore at present we are concerned
with the fourth stage in the great universal life of man. For now we
shall relate the relevant facts here. The deeper explanation will
appear in the course of the description, insofar as is possible in
the words of ordinary language, that is, without having recourse to
the form of expression of mystery science.
Man existed before there was an earth. But one
must not imagine — as has already been suggested — that
perhaps he had previously lived on other planets and then at a
certain time migrated to earth. Rather, the earth has developed
together with man. Just as man has passed through three main stages
of development, so has the earth, before becoming that which one now
calls “earth.” For the time being, as has been indicated
above, one must completely liberate oneself from the significance
which contemporary science connects with the names
“Saturn,” “Sun,” and “Moon,” if
one wants to see the explanations of the scientist of the spirit in
this area in their proper light. For the present one should connect
with these names no other significance than that directly given to
them in the following communications.
Before the heavenly body on which the life of man
takes place became “earth,” it had had three other forms
which one designates as Saturn, Sun, and Moon. On can thus speak of
four planets on which the four principal stages of the development of
mankind take place Moon, before that Sun, and yet earlier, Saturn.
One is justified, as will appear from the following communications,
to assume three further principal stages which the earth, or better
the heavenly body which developed into the present earth, still has
to pass through. In mystery science these have been named Jupiter,
Venus, and Vulcan. Thus the heavenly body with which human destiny is
connected has passed through three stages in the past is now in its
fourth, and will in the future have to pass through three more until
all the talents which man has within himself are developed, until he
arrives at the peak of his perfection.
One must realize that the development of man and
of his heavenly body does not proceed as gradually as for instance
the passage of an individual human being through infancy, adolescence
and so forth, where one condition goes over into another more or less
imperceptibly. Rather there are certain interruptions. The Saturn
condition does not go over immediately into the Sun stage. Between
Saturn development and Sun development, and similarly between the
subsequent forms of the heavenly body inhabited by man, there are
intermediate conditions which can be compared with the night between
two days or with the sleeplike condition of a plant seed before it
again develops into a full plant.
In imitation of oriental descriptions of this
state of affairs, contemporary theosophy calls a stage of development
in which life is externally furthered, Manvantara, the
intermediate condition of rest, Pralaya. In accordance with
the usage of European mystery science, one can use the word
“open cycle” for the former condition, and on the other
hand, “hidden or closed cycle” for the latter. But other
designations are also in common use. Saturn, Sun, Moon, earth, and so
forth, are “open cycles,” and the periods of rest between
them are “closed” ones.
It would be quite erroneous to think that in the
periods of rest all life is extinct, although today this idea can be
encountered in many theosophical circles. Just as little as man
ceases to live during his sleep, so little does his life and that of
his heavenly body become extinct during a “closed cycle”
(Pralaya). It is only that the conditions of life in the
periods of rest cannot be perceived with the senses which have been
developed during the “open cycles,” just as during his
sleep man does not perceive what is taking place around him. Why one
uses the expression “cycle” for the stages of development
will become sufficiently clear in the course of the following
discussion. Only later can we speak about the enormous periods of
time which are required for these “cycles.”
One can find a thread through the course of the
cycles by following for a moment the development of human
consciousness through them. Everything else can suitably arise
out of this consideration of consciousness.
The consciousness which man develops during his
life-course on earth will be called — in accordance with
European mystery science — the “clear consciousness of
day.” The latter consists in the fact that through his present
senses, man perceives the things and beings of the world and that he
forms conceptions and ideas concerning these things and beings with
the help of his understanding and of his reason. He then acts in the
world of the senses according to these perceptions, conceptions, and
ideas. Man formed this consciousness only in the fourth principal
stage of his cosmic development; on Saturn, Sun, and Moon it did not
yet exist. There he lived in other conditions of consciousness. As a
result, one can describe the three previous stages of development as
the unfolding of lower conditions of consciousness.
The lowest condition of consciousness was passed
through during the Saturn development; the Sun condition is higher,
then follows the Moon consciousness and finally that of earth.
These former consciousnesses are primarily
distinguished from the earthly one by two characteristics: by the
degree of clarity, and by the area over which the perception of man
extends.
The Saturn consciousness has the lowest degree of
clarity. It is entirely dull. It is difficult to give an exact idea
of this dullness, since even the dullness of sleep is somewhat
clearer than this consciousness. In abnormal, so-called deep states
of trance, modern man can still fall back into this state of
consciousness. The clairvoyant in the sense of mystery science can
also form a correct conception of it. But by no means does he himself
live in this state of consciousness. On the contrary, he ascends to a
much higher one, which however in certain respects is similar to the
original one. In the ordinary man at the contemporary terrestrial
stage, this condition, through which he once passed, has been effaced
by the “clear consciousness of day.” The
“medium” who falls into a deep trance, however, is
transported back into it, so that he perceives in the same way in
which all men perceived during the “Saturn period.”
Either during the trance or after awaking, such a medium can then
tell of experiences which are similar to those of the Saturn stage.
One must be careful to say that they are “similar,” not
“identical,” for the events which took place on Saturn
are once and for all past; only events which have a certain affinity
with them still take place in the environment of man. These can only
be perceived by a “Saturn consciousness.”
Like the medium, the clairvoyant in the above
sense acquires such a Saturn consciousness, but in addition to it he
keeps his “clear consciousness of day,” which man did not
yet have on Saturn, and which the medium loses in the state of
trance. Such a clairvoyant is not in the Saturn consciousness itself,
but he can form a conception of it.
While this Saturn consciousness is by some degrees
inferior to the one of today with respect to clarity, it is superior
to the latter with respect to the extent of what it can perceive. In
its dullness it can not only perceive everything which takes place on
its own heavenly body down to the last detail, but it can also
observe the objects and beings on other heavenly bodies which are
connected with Saturn. It can also exercise a certain influence on
these objects and beings. (It hardly need be said that this
observation of other heavenly bodies is quite different from that
which contemporary man can undertake by means of his scientific
astronomy. This astronomical observation is based on the “clear
consciousness of day” and therefore perceives other heavenly
bodies from the outside. The Saturn consciousness, on the other hand,
is immediate sensation, an experiencing of what takes place on other
heavenly bodies. One does not speak altogether accurately, but still
fairly so, if one says that an inhabitant of Saturn experienced
objects and events of other heavenly bodies — and of his own
— as a man of today experiences his heart and his heartbeat or
something similar in his own body.)
This Saturn consciousness developed slowly. As the
first principal stage in the development of mankind it passed through
a series of subordinate stages, which in European mystery science are
called “small cycles.” In theosophical literature it has
become customary to call these “small cycles,”
“rounds,” and their further sub-divisions — still
smaller cycles — “globes.” These subordinate cycles
will be dealt with in subsequent discussions. For the sake of greater
clarity, we shall first follow here the principal stages of
development. For the moment we shall speak only of man, although the
development of subordinate and superior entities and objects proceeds
concurrently with his own. That which concerns the development of
other entities will then follow the discussion of man's progress.
When the development of the Saturn consciousness
was completed, there occurred one of the long rest periods (a
Pralaya) mentioned above. After this there developed out of
the heavenly body of man what in mystery science is called the
“Sun.” On the Sun, the human beings again emerged from
their sleep. The previously developed Saturn consciousness was
present in them as a predisposition. First they again developed it
from this germ. One can say that on the Sun man repeated the
condition of Saturn before ascending to a higher one. However, it is
not a simple repetition which is meant here, but one in another form.
These transformations of forms will be discussed later when we deal
with the smaller cycles. At that time the differences between the
individual “repetitions” will also become apparent. Now
we shall describe only the development of consciousness.
After the repetition of the Saturn condition, the
“Sun consciousness” of man appears. This is somewhat
clearer than the preceding consciousness, but on the other hand it
has lost something with respect to broadness of vision. In the deep,
dreamless sleep of his present life, man has a condition of
consciousness similar to that which he once had on the Sun. However,
he who is not a clairvoyant or a medium cannot perceive the objects
and beings corresponding to the Sun consciousness. With the trance of
a medium reduced to this condition, and with the higher consciousness
of the true clairvoyant, the case here is similar to what has been
said with respect to the Saturn consciousness.
The extent of the Sun consciousness is limited to
the Sun and the heavenly bodies most closely connected with it. It is
only these and their events which the inhabitant of the Sun can
experience as — to use once again the simile employed above
— man of today experiences his heartbeat. In this way the
inhabitant of Saturn could also participate in the life of those
heavenly bodies which did not belong to the immediate sphere of
Saturn.
When the Sun stage has passed through the
appropriate subordinate cycles, it also enters a period of rest. From
this the heavenly body of man awakes to its “Moon
existence.” Before ascending higher, again man passes through
the Saturn and Sun stage in two smaller cycles. Then he enters his
Moon consciousness. One can more easily form an idea of the latter,
for there is a certain similarity between this stage of consciousness
and a sleep filled with dreams. It must be explicitly stated that
here again one can only speak of a similarity, not of an
identity. It is true that the Moon consciousness is composed of
images such as appear in dreams, but these images correspond to the
objects and events around man in a way similar to the ideas of the
present “clear consciousness of day.” But everything in
this correspondence is still dull, in fact, image-like. One can
represent this state of affairs to oneself in approximately the
following way. Assume that a Moon-being comes near an object, let us
say near salt. (Of course, at that time there was no
“salt” in its present form, but after all, in order to be
understood, one must remain in the area of images and similes.) This
Moon-being — the precursor of present-day man — does not
perceive an object with spatial extension and a definite coloring and
form outside itself; instead, the approach to this object causes a
certain image — similar to a dream image — to arise as it
were within this being. This image has a certain coloring which
depends on the characteristics of the object. If the object is
agreeable to the being and useful for its existence, the coloring is
light in yellow nuances, or in green; if the object is disagreeable
or is one which is harmful to the being, a blood-like, reddish color
nuance appears. The clairvoyant also sees in this way today, only he
is fully conscious during this seeing, while the Moon inhabitant had
only a dreamlike, dim consciousness. The images appearing
“within” these inhabitants had an exactly defined
relationship to the environment. There was nothing arbitrary in them.
It was possible to direct oneself by them; one acted under the
impression of these images as today one acts under the impression of
sensory perceptions.
The development of this dreamlike consciousness
— the third principal stage — was the task of the
“Moon cycle.” When the “Moon” had passed
through the appropriate “small cycles,” a period of rest
(Pralaya) again occurred. After this, the “Earth”
emerged from the darkness.
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