The Earth and Its Future
THE FOURTH principal stage of human development is
lived on earth. This is that condition of consciousness in which man
finds himself at present. But before he attained it, he, and with him
the whole earth, first had to repeat successively the Saturn, Sun,
and Moon stages in three smaller cycles (the so-called
“rounds” of theosophical literature). Man now lives in
the fourth earth cycle. He has already advanced a little past the
middle of this cycle. At this stage of consciousness man no longer
perceives in a dreamlike manner the images which arise in his soul
through the influence of his environment only, but objects appear to
him “outside in space.” On the Moon and also during the
stages of repetition on earth, there arose for example, a colored
image in his soul when a particular object came near him. All of
consciousness consisted of such images, tones, and so forth, which
flowed and ebbed in the soul. Only with the appearance of the fourth
condition of consciousness does color no longer appear merely in the
soul, but on an external, spatially circumscribed object; sound is no
longer merely an inner reverberating of the soul, but the resounding
of an object in space. In mystery science therefore, one also calls
this fourth, the earthly condition of consciousness, the
“objective consciousness.” It has been formed slowly
gradually in the course of development in the way that the physical
organs of sense slowly arose and thus made perceptible the most
diverse sensory qualities in external objects. Apart from the senses
which are already developed, others exist in an as yet germinal state
which will become fully developed in the subsequent earth period, and
which will show the world of the senses in a diversity still greater
than is the case today. The gradual growth of this earth
consciousness has been described in the preceding pages, and in the
discussions which are to follow this description will be amplified
and supplemented in essential points.
The colored world, the sounding world, and so
forth, which earlier man had perceived within himself, confronts him
outside in space during his life on earth. But on the other hand, a
new world appears within him: the world of ideas or thoughts. One
cannot speak of ideas and thoughts in relation to the Moon
consciousness. The latter consists solely of the images we have
described. Around the middle of the development of earth —
although this state of affairs was already preparing itself at a
somewhat earlier time — there developed in man the capacity to
form ideas and thoughts about objects. This capacity constitutes the
basis for memory and for self-consciousness. Only conceptualizing man
can develop a memory of that which he has perceived; and only
thinking man reaches the point where he differentiates himself from
his environment as an independent, self-conscious being, where he
recognizes himself as an “I.” The first three stages we
have described were stages of consciousness; the fourth is not only
consciousness, but self-consciousness.
But within the self-consciousness, the present-day
life of thoughts, there is already developing a disposition toward
still higher states of consciousness. Man will live through these
states of consciousness on the next planets into which the earth will
change after its present form. It is not absurd to say something
about these future conditions of consciousness, and therewith about
life on the following planets. For in the first place, the
clairvoyant — for certain reasons which are to be given
elsewhere — strides ahead of his fellows in his development.
Thus those states of consciousness which all of mankind must attain
with the advance of planetary development are already developing in
him at this time. In the consciousness of the clairvoyant one finds
an image of the future stages of mankind. Moreover, the three
subsequent conditions of consciousness are now already present in all
men in germinal states; and clairvoyant research has means for
indicating what will emerge from these germinal states.
When it is said that the clairvoyant is already
developing in himself the states of consciousness to which in future
all of mankind will advance, this must be understood with one
restriction. The clairvoyant, for example, is developing a seeing in
the spiritual world today which in future will appear in man in a
physical way. But this future physical condition of man will be a
faithful likeness of the corresponding contemporary spiritual one in
the clairvoyant. The earth itself is going to develop, and therefore
quite different forms from those which exist today will appear in its
future physical inhabitants; but these physical forms are being
prepared in the spiritual and mental ones of today. For example, what
the clairvoyant today sees in the form of a cloud of light and color
around the human physical body as a so-called “aura,”
will later change into a physical form; and other organs of sense
than those of today will give the man of the future the capacity to
perceive other forms. However, already today the clairvoyant sees the
spiritual models of the later material entities with his spiritual
senses (thus for example, the aura). A view into the future is
possible for him, although it is very difficult to give an idea of
the character of this view through the language of today and for
present-day human conceptions.
The conceptions of the present state of
consciousness are shadowy and pale in comparison with the colorful
and sounding objects of the external world. Man therefore speaks of
conceptions as of something which is “not real.” A
“mere thought” — is contrasted with an object or a
being which is “real” because it can be perceived through
the senses. But conceptions and thoughts bear within themselves the
potentiality of again becoming real and image-like. If man speaks of
the conception “red” today without having a red object
before him, then this conception is, as it were, only a shadow image
of real “redness.” Later, man will reach the point where
he can not only let the shadowy conception of the “red”
arise in his soul, but where, when he thinks “red,”
“red” will actually be before him. He will be able to
create images, not merely conceptions. Thereby something will
be achieved by him similar to that which already existed for the Moon
consciousness. But the images will not ebb and flow in him like
dreams; instead he will evoke them in full self-consciousness,
as he does today's conceptions. The thought of a color will be the
color itself; the conception of a sound will be the sound itself, and
so forth. In the future, a world of images will flow and ebb in the
soul of man through his own power, whereas during the Moon existence
such a world of images filled him without his acting. In the meantime
the spatial character of the objective external world will not
disappear. The color which arises together with the conception of
color will not be merely an image in the soul but will appear in
outside space. The consequence of this will be that man will be able
to perceive beings and objects of a higher kind than those of his
present environment. These are objects and beings which are of a more
delicate spiritual and soul nature, hence they do not clothe
themselves in the objective colors which are perceptible to the
present physical sense organs; however, these are objects and beings
which will reveal themselves through the more delicate spiritual and
mental colors and sounds which the man of the future will be able to
create from his soul.
Man is approaching a condition in which he will
have a self-conscious image
consciousness* appropriate for such perceptions. On the one
hand, the coming development of earth will raise the present life of
conceptions and thoughts to an ever higher, more delicate, and more
perfect condition; on the other hand, the self-conscious image
consciousness will gradually develop itself during this time. The
latter, however, will attain full life in man only on the next planet
into which the earth will transform itself, and which is called
“Jupiter” in mystery science. Then man will be able to
enter into intercourse with beings which are completely hidden from
his present sensory perception. It will be understood that not only
does the life of perception thereby become totally different, but
that actions, feelings, and all relations to the environment, are
completely transformed. While today man can consciously influence
only sensory beings, he will then be able to act consciously on very
different forces and powers; he himself will receive what to him will
be fully recognizable influences from very different realms than at
present. At that stage there can no longer be any question of birth
and death in the present sense. For “death” occurs only
because the consciousness has to depend on an external world with
which it enters into communication through the physical sense organs.
When these physical sense organs fail, every relation to the
environment ceases. That is to say, the man “has died.”
However, when his soul is so far advanced that it does not receive
the influences of the outside world through physical instruments, but
receives them through the images which the soul creates out of
itself, then it will have reached the point where it can regulate its
intercourse with the environment independently, that is, its life
will not be interrupted against its will. It has become lord over
birth and death. All this will come to be with the developed
self-conscious image consciousness on “Jupiter.” This
state of the soul is also called the “psychic
consciousness.”
The next condition of consciousness to which man
develops on a further planet, “Venus,” is distinguished
from the previous one by the fact that the soul can now create not
only images, but also objects and beings. This occurs in the
self-conscious object consciousness or supra-psychic
consciousness. Through the image consciousness man can perceive
something of supersensible beings and objects, and he can influence
them through the awakening of his image conceptions. But in order for
that to take place which he desires of such a supersensible being, at
his instigation, this being must use its own forces. Thus man is the
ruler over images, and he can produce effects through these images.
But he is not yet lord over the forces themselves. When his
self-conscious object consciousness is developed, he will also be
ruler over the creative forces of other worlds. He will not only
perceive and influence beings, but he himself will create.
This is the course of the development of
consciousness: at first it begins dimly; one perceives nothing of
other objects and beings, but only the inner experiences (images) of
one's own soul; then perception is developed. At last the perceptive
consciousness is transformed into a creative one. Before the
condition of earth goes over into the life of Jupiter — after
the fourth earthly cycle — there are three more smaller cycles
to be passed through. These serve for the further perfection of the
consciousness of earth in a manner to be described in the following
essays, when the development of the smaller cycles and of their
subdivisions will be described for all seven planets. When, after a
period of rest (Pralaya), earth has changed into Jupiter, and
when man has arrived on the latter planet, then the four preceding
conditions — Saturn, Sun, Moon, and earth condition —
must again be repeated during four smaller cycles; and only during
the fifth cycle of Jupiter does man attain the stage which has been
described above as the real Jupiter consciousness. In a corresponding
manner does the “Venus consciousness” appear during the
sixth cycle of Venus.
A fact which will play a certain role in the
following essays will be briefly indicated here. This concerns the
speed with which the development on the different planets takes
place. For this is not the same on all the planets. Life proceeds
with the greatest speed on Saturn, the rapidity then decreases on the
Sun, becomes still less on the Moon and reaches its slowest phase on
the earth. On the latter it becomes slower and slower, to the point
at which self-consciousness develops. Then the speed increases again.
Therefore, today man has already passed the time of the greatest
slowness of his development. Life has begun to accelerate again. On
Jupiter the speed of the Moon, on Venus that of the Sun will again be
attained. The last planet which can still be counted among the series
of earthly transformations, and hence follows Venus, is called
“Vulcan” by mystery science. On this planet the
provisional goal of the development of mankind is attained. The
condition of consciousness into which man enters there is called
“piety” or spiritual consciousness. Man will attain it in
the seventh cycle of Vulcan after a repetition of the six preceding
stages. Not much can be publicly communicated about the life on this
planet. In mystery science one speaks of it in such a way that it is
said, “No soul which, with its thinking is still tied to a
physical body, should reflect about Vulcan and its life.” That
is, only the mystery students of the higher order, who may leave
their physical body and can acquire supersensible knowledge outside
of it, can learn something about Vulcan.
The seven stages of consciousness are thus
expressed in the course of the development of mankind in seven
planetary developments. At each stage, the consciousness must now
pass through seven subordinate conditions. These are realized in the
smaller cycles already mentioned. (In theosophical writings these
seven cycles are called “rounds.”) These subordinate
states are called “conditions of life” by the mystery
science of the Occident, in contrast with the super-ordinated
“conditions of consciousness.” Or, one says that each
condition of consciousness moves through seven “realms.”
According to this calculation, one must distinguish seven times seven
in the whole development of mankind, that is, forty-nine small cycles
or “realms” (according to common theosophical usage,
“rounds”). And again, each small cycle has to pass
through seven yet smaller ones, which are called “conditions of
form” (in theosophical language, “globes”). For the
full cycle of humanity this amounts to seven times forty-nine or
three hundred and forty-three different “conditions of
form.”
The following discussions which deal with this
development, will show that a survey of the whole is not as
complicated as might at first appear at the mention of the number
three hundred and forty-three. It will become apparent how man can
only truly understand himself when he knows his own development.
* The combination, “self-conscious image
consciousness,” may appear odd, but it probably best
expresses the state of affairs. If one wished, one could also say,
“image self-consciousness.”
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