The Life of Saturn
IN ONE of the preceding descriptions, the great
development of humanity through the seven stages of consciousness
from Saturn to Vulcan has been compared with the progress through
life between birth and death, through infancy, childhood, and so on,
to old age. One can extend this comparison further. As among
contemporary humanity, men of different ages do not only follow upon
one another, but also exist side by side, so it is with the
development of the stages of consciousness, The aged man, the mature
man or the mature woman, the youth, travel through life side by
side. Thus the ancestors of man existed on Saturn not only as
beings with the dull Saturn consciousness, but also along with these
as beings which had already developed the higher stages of
consciousness. When the Saturn development began, there already
existed natures with Sun consciousness, others with image
consciousness (Moon consciousness) those with a consciousness similar
to the present consciousness of man, then a fourth kind with
self-conscious (psychic) image consciousness, a fifth with
self-conscious (supra-psychic) object consciousness, and a sixth with
creative (spiritual) consciousness. This does not exhaust the series
of beings. After the Vulcan stage, man will develop yet further, and
will ascend to still higher levels of consciousness. As the external
eye looks into misty gray distances, so the inner eye of the seer
looks upon five more forms of consciousness, as far off as distant
spirits, of which a description, however, is quite impossible. In
all, one can speak of twelve stages of consciousness.
The Saturn man was surrounded by eleven other
kinds of beings. The four highest had had their tasks on levels of
development which preceded the life of Saturn. When this life began
they had already arrived at such a high stage of development that
their further existence took place in worlds which lie beyond the
realms of man. Therefore, we cannot and need not speak of them
here.
The other kinds of beings, however — seven
of them in addition to the Saturn man — are all concerned in
the human development. In this they act as creative powers,
performing their services in a way which will be described in the
following pages.
When the Saturn development began, the most
sublime of these beings already had attained a level of consciousness
which man will reach only after his Vulcan life, that is, a high
creative (supra-spiritual) consciousness. These
“creators,” too, once had to pass through the stages of
man. This took place on heavenly bodies which preceded Saturn.
However, the connection of these beings with the development of
mankind lasted until the middle of the life of Saturn. Because of
their sublime, delicate body of rays, in mystery science they are
called “Radiating Lives” or “Radiating
Flames.” Because the substance of which this body consisted had
a remote resemblance to the will of man, they are also called
“Spirits of Will.”
These spirits are the creators of the man of
Saturn. From their bodies they pour the substance which becomes the
carrier of the human Saturn consciousness. The period of development
during which this takes place is called the first small Saturn cycle.
(In the language of theosophy, this is the “first
round.”) The material body which man receives in this way is
the first rudiment of his later physical body. One can say that the
germ of the physical human body is planted during the first Saturn
cycle by the Spirits of Will, and that at that time this germ has the
dull Saturn consciousness.
This first smaller Saturn cycle is followed by six
others. In the course of these cycles man does not attain a higher
degree of consciousness. But the material body which he has received
is further elaborated. The other kinds of beings indicated above
participate in this elaboration in the most diverse ways.
After the “Spirits of Will” there
follow beings with a creative (spiritual) consciousness, similar to
that which man will attain on Vulcan. They are called “Spirits
of Wisdom.” Christian mystery science calls them
“Dominions” (Kyriotetes), while it calls the
“,Spirits of Will.” “Thrones.”* During the second cycle of
Saturn they advance their own development to some extent, and at the
same time work on the human body in such a way that a “wise
arrangement,” a rational structure is implanted in it. To be
more exact, their work on man already begins shortly after the middle
of the first cycle and is completed in about the middle of the
second.
The third kind of spirits with the self-conscious
(supra-psychic) object consciousness is called “Spirits of
Motion” or of “Activity.” In Christian mystery
science they are called “Principalities”
(Dynamis). (In theosophical literature, the expression
Mahat is to be found for them.) From the middle of the second
Saturn cycle onward they combine with the progress of their own
development, the further elaboration of the human material body, in
which they implant the capacity of movement and of forceful activity.
This task comes to a conclusion around the middle of the third Saturn
cycle.
After this point, the work of the fourth kind of
beings, the so-called “Spirits of Form,” begins. They
have a self-conscious image consciousness (psychic consciousness).
Christian esoteric teaching names them “Powers”
(Exusiai). Through their work, the human material body, which
previously was a kind of mobile cloud, receives a bounded, plastic
form. This activity of the “Spirits of Form” is completed
around the middle of the fourth Saturn cycle.
Then follows the activity of the “Spirits of
Darkness.” which are also called “Spirits of
Personality” or of “Self-hood” (Egoism). At this
stage they have a consciousness similar to the present human earthly
consciousness. They inhabit the formed human material body as
“souls” in a way similar to that in which the human soul
inhabits its body today. They implant a kind of sensory organs in the
body, which are the germs of the sensory organs which later develop
in the human body in the course of the development of earth.
One must realize, however, that these
“sensory germs” are still substantially different from
the present sensory instruments of man. Earth man could not perceive
through such “sensory germs.” For him, the images of the
sensory instruments must first pass through a more refined ether
body, which forms on the Sun, and through an astral body, which owes
its existence to the Moon development (All this will become clear in
the following chapters) But the “Spirits of Personality”
can treat the images of the “sensory germs” through their
own soul in such a way that, with their aid, they can perceive
external objects, as does man during his earthly development. In
their work on the human body, the “Spirits of
Personality” pass through their own “stage of
humanity.” Thus they are men from the middle of the fourth to
the middle of the fifth Saturn cycle.
These spirits implant selfhood, egoism in the body
of man. Since they only attain their stage of humanity on Saturn,
they remain connected with the development of mankind for a long
time. Thus they have important work to perform on man in subsequent
cycles as well. This work always acts as an inoculation with
selfhood. The degenerations of selfhood into selfishness must be
ascribed to their activity, while on the other hand they are the
originators of all of man's independence. Without them man would
never have become a self-enclosed entity, a
“personality.” Christian esoteric teaching uses the
expression “Primal Beginnings” (Archai) for them,
and in theosophical literature they are designated as
Asuras.
The work of these spirits is succeeded around the
middle of the fifth Saturn cycle by that of the “Sons of
Fire,” who, at this stage, still have a dull image
consciousness, similar to the Moon consciousness of man. They attain
the stage of humanity only on the next planet, the Sun. Their work
here is therefore to a certain degree still unconscious and
dreamlike. But it is through them that the activity of the
“sensory germs” from the previous cycle is enlivened. The
light images produced by the “fire spirits” shine outward
through these sensory germs. The ancestor of man is thereby elevated
to a kind of shining entity. While the life of Saturn is otherwise
dark, man now shines in the general darkness.
The “Spirits of Personality” on the
other hand, were still awakened to their human existence in this
general darkness.
The human being himself can make no use of his
luminosity on Saturn. The luminosity of his sensory germs could not
express anything in itself, but through it other more exalted beings
are given the possibility to reveal themselves to the life of Saturn.
Through the sources of light of the ancestors of man, these beings
radiate something of their nature down to the planet. These are
exalted beings from among those four ranks of which it has been said
above that they have grown beyond all connection with human existence
in their development. Without any necessity for them to do it, they
now radiate something of their nature out of “free will.”
Christian esoteric teaching here speaks of the revelation of the
Seraphime (Seraphim), the “Spirits of Love.” This
condition lasts until the middle of the sixth Saturn cycle.
After this begins the work of those beings which
at this stage have a dull consciousness such as is found in man today
when he is in a deep, dreamless sleep. These beings are the
“Sons of Twilight,” the “Spirits of Dusk.”
(In theosophical writings they are called Lunar Pitris or
Barhishad-Pitris.) They attain the stage of humanity only on
the Moon. On earth they, as well as their predecessors, the Sons of
Fire, have already grown beyond the stage of humanity. On earth they
are higher beings which Christian esoteric teaching calls
“Angels” (Angeloi), while for the Sons of Fire it
uses the expression “Archangels” (Archangeloi).
These Sons of Twilight develop in the ancestor of man a kind of
understanding, of which however, in his dull consciousness, he
himself cannot yet make use. Through this understanding, exalted
entities now again reveal themselves, as previously the Seraphim did
through the sensory germs. Through the human bodies, understanding is
now poured out over the planet by those spirits whom Christian
esoteric teaching calls Cherubime (Cherubim).
Around the middle of the seventh Saturn cycle a
new activity begins. Man has now reached the point where he can work
unconsciously on his own material body. Through his activity in the
utter dullness of Saturn existence, man produces the first germinal
predisposition to the true “spirit man,” who reaches his
full development only at the end of the development of mankind. In
theosophical literature this is called Atma. It is the highest
member of the so-called monad of man. In itself it would be quite
dull and unconscious at this stage. But as the Seraphim and the
Cherubim reveal themselves out of their free will in the two
preceding human stages, so the Thrones now reveal themselves, those
beings who, at the very beginning of Saturn existence, radiated the
human body out of their own nature. The germinal predisposition of
“spirit man” (Atma) is completely penetrated by
the power of these Spirits of Will and retains this power through all
subsequent stages of development. In his dull consciousness at this
stage man as yet cannot realize anything of this germinal
predisposition; but he develops further, and later this germinal
predisposition becomes clear to his own consciousness. This work is
not yet completed at the end of the life of Saturn; it continues into
the first Sun cycle. One should consider that the labor of the higher
spirits which has been described here does not coincide with the
beginning and end of a smaller cycle (of a round), but that it
continues from the middle of one to the middle of the next. Its
greatest activity is developed in the periods of rest between the
cycles. It increases from the middle of a cycle
(Manvantara) onward, becomes strongest in the middle of a
period of rest (Pralaya), and then ebbs in the next. (It has
already been mentioned in the preceding chapters that life by no
means ceases during the periods of rest.)
From the above it also becomes apparent in what
sense Christian esoteric science says that in the “beginning of
time” the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones first revealed
themselves.
With this, the course of Saturn has been followed
to the time where its life develops through a period of rest into
that of the Sun. Of this we shall speak in the following
discussions.
For the sake of greater clarity, here we shall
give a summary of the facts of development of the first planet.
- This planet is the one on which the dullest human consciousness
develops (a deep trance consciousness). Together with this, the
first rudiment of the physical human body develops.
- This development passes through seven subsidiary stages
(smaller cycles or “rounds”). At each of these stages
higher spirits begin their work on the development of the human
body, namely in the
1st cycle, the Spirits of Will (Thrones),
2nd cycle, the Spirits of Wisdom (Dominions),
3rd cycle, the Spirits of Motion (Principalities),
4th cycle, the Spirits of Form (Powers),
5th cycle, the Spirits of Personality (Primal Beginnings),
6th cycle, the Spirits of the Sons of Fire (Archangels),
7th cycle, the Spirits of the Sons of Twilight (Angels).
- In the fourth cycle, the Spirits of Personality raise
themselves to the stage of humanity.
- From the fifth cycle onward, the Seraphim reveal
themselves.
- From the sixth cycle onward, the Cherubim reveal
themselves.
- From the seventh cycle onward, the Thrones, the true
“creators of man,” reveal themselves.
- Through the latter revelation, there develops in the seventh
cycle of the first planet, the predisposition to the
“spiritual man,” to Atma.
* He who really knows Christian doctrine is aware
that the conceptions of these spiritual beings superordinated to
man form an integral part of it. Only for some time they have been
lost by an externalized religious teaching. The one who really
enters into these matters and looks deeper will realize that there
is not the slightest reason for Christianity to combat mystery
science, but that on the contrary the latter is in complete harmony
with true Christianity. If, for the sake of their Christianity, the
theologians and teachers of religion were to agree to study mystery
science, they would have to recognize in it their best helper and
means of advancement today. But many theologians think in a
completely materialistic manner, and it is characteristic that in a
popular publication intended for the furthering of a knowledge of
Christianity, today one can even read that “Angels” are
for “children and nurses.” Such a statement springs
form a complete misunderstanding of the true Christian spirit. Only
the man who sacrifices true Christianity to a supposedly advanced
“science” can make such a statement. But the time will
come when a higher science will go beyond the childishness of such
utterances to matters of real importance.
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