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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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An Outline of Occult Science
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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An Outline of Occult Science
THE EVOLUTION OF THE COSMOS AND MAN
FROM the foregoing considerations it may be seen that the being of man
is composed of four members: physical body, life body, astral body,
and the vehicle of the ego. The ego is active within the three other
members and transforms them. Out of this transformation, at a lower
level, are developed sentient soul, intellectual soul, and
consciousness soul. At a higher stage of human existence, spirit self,
life spirit, and spirit man are formed. These members of the human
being stand in the most manifold relationships to the whole cosmos and
their evolution is bound up with cosmic evolution. By considering this
cosmic evolution, an insight may be gained into the deeper mysteries
of man's being.
It is evident that human life is related in the most diverse ways to
its environment, to the dwelling place in which it evolves. By means
of existing facts even external science has been forced to the opinion
that the earth itself, this dwelling place of man in the most
comprehensive sense, has undergone an evolution. It points to the
conditions of earth existence in which the human being, in his present
form, did not yet exist upon our planet. It shows how mankind has
slowly and gradually evolved from simple states of civilization to the
present conditions. Thus, science also has come to the opinion that a
relationship exists between the evolution of man and that of his
heavenly body, the earth.
Spiritual science1
traces
this relationship by means of knowledge that gathers its facts from
perception sharpened by spiritual organs. It traces back the process
of human development, and it becomes clear to it that the real inner
spiritual being of man has passed through a series of lives upon this
earth. Spiritual science thus reaches a point of time, lying far back
in the remote past, when for the first time this inner being of man
enters an external life in the present sense of the word. It was in
this first earthly incarnation that the ego began to be active within
the three bodies, astral body, life body, and physical body, and it
then carried with it the fruits of this activity into the succeeding
life.
If one goes back in one's consideration to this point of time, in the
manner indicated, one then becomes aware that the ego meets with an
earth condition in which the three bodies, physical body, life body,
and astral body, are already developed and have already a certain
connection. The ego unites for the first time with the being composed
of these three bodies. From now on, it takes part in the further
evolution of the three bodies. Heretofore, these bodies developed
without this human ego up to the stage at which the ego came in touch
with them.
Spiritual science must go still further back in its research, if it
wishes to answer the following questions: How did the three bodies
reach the stage of evolution at which they were able to receive an ego
into themselves, and how did this ego itself come into existence and
acquire the capacity to be active within these bodies?
An answer to these questions is only possible if one traces out the
development of the earth planet itself, in the sense of spiritual
science. By means of such research one arrives at the beginning of
this earth planet. The mode of observation that relies merely upon the
facts of the physical senses cannot come to conclusions that have
anything to do with this beginning of the earth. A certain point of
view, which makes use of such final conclusions, decides that all
earthly substance has been formed out of a primeval mist. It cannot be
the task of this work to enter into these ideas because for spiritual
research it is a question of not merely considering the material
processes of the earth's evolution, but chiefly of taking into account
the spiritual causes lying behind matter. If we have before us a man
who raises his hand, this raising of the hand can suggest two
different ways of considering the act. We may investigate the
mechanism of the arm and the rest of the organism and describe the
process as it takes place purely in the realm of the physical. On the
other hand, we may turn our spiritual attention to what is taking
place in the human soul, to what constitutes the inner impulse of
raising the hand. In a similar way the researcher, schooled by means
of spiritual perception, sees spiritual processes behind all processes
of the physical sense-world. For him, all transformations in the
substances of the earth planet are manifestations of spiritual forces
lying behind these substances. If, however, this spiritual observation
of the life of the earth goes further and further back, it comes to a
point in evolution where all matter has its primal beginnings. Matter
evolves out of the spiritual. Prior to this, only the spiritual
exists. By means of this spiritual insight, the spiritual is
perceived, and on further investigation it can be seen how this
spiritual element in part condenses, so to speak, into matter. Here we
have before us, on a higher level, a process that may be likened to
what would take place if we were observing a container of water in
which lumps of ice were gradually forming by means of ingeniously
controlled refrigeration. Just as we see here ice condensing from what
was formerly water, so also, through spiritual observation, we are
able to trace out the manner in which material things, processes, and
beings are condensed from an element that was formerly spiritual. In
this way the physical earth planet has evolved out of a spiritual
cosmic being, and everything material connected with this earth planet
has condensed out of what was spiritually bound up with it previously.
We must not imagine, however, that at any time all that exists of a
spiritual nature is transformed into matter, but in matter we have
before us transformed parts only of the primeval spiritual substance.
Moreover, also during the period of evolution of matter, the spiritual
remains the directing and guiding principle. It is obvious that the
mode of thought that restricts itself to the processes of the physical
sense-world, and to what the intellect is able to infer from them, is
incapable of giving information concerning the spiritual element in
question. Let us imagine a being having only the senses that can
perceive ice, not, however, the finer condition of water, out of which
ice is formed by means of refrigeration. For such a being, water would
be non-existent, and only when parts of this water had been
transformed into ice would the water be at all perceptible to it. Thus
the spiritual part lying behind the earth processes remains concealed
to anyone who admits only what exists for the physical senses. If,
from the physical facts he observes now in the present, he forms a
correct conclusion concerning earlier conditions of the earth planet,
he merely arrives at that point in evolution where a part of the
preceding spiritual element condensed into matter. This method of
observation perceives just as little of the preceding spiritual
element as it does of the spiritual element that holds sway, also at
the present time, invisibly behind the world of matter.
Only in the last chapters of this work shall we be able to speak of
the paths upon which man must travel to acquire the capacity for
looking back, with spiritual perception, at those earlier conditions
of the earth under discussion here. Here we only wish to indicate that
for spiritual research the facts even of the remote past have not
disappeared. When a being reaches corporeal existence, the substance
of his body disappears with his physical death. The spiritual forces
that have expelled these corporeal elements from themselves do not
disappear in the same way. They leave their impressions,
their exact counterparts, behind in the spiritual foundations of the
world, and he who, penetrating the visible world, is able to lift his
perception into the invisible, is finally able to have before him
something that might be compared with a mighty spiritual panorama, in
which all past world-processes are recorded. These imperishable
impressions of all that is spiritual may be called the Akashic
Record, thus designating as the Akashic essence the spiritually
permanent element in universal occurrences, in contradistinction to
the transient forms of these occurrences. It must be repeated, once
more, that research in the supersensible realms of existence can only
be carried on with the help of spiritual perception, that is, in the
realm with which we are now dealing, only by reading the
above-mentioned Akashic Record. Yet what has already been
said in earlier parts of this work in a similar connection applies
here also. Supersensible facts can be investigated only by means of
supersensible perception; if, however, they have been investigated and
are communicated through the science of the supersensible, they may
then be comprehended by ordinary thinking, provided this thinking is
really unprejudiced. In the following pages, information concerning
the evolution of the earth will be imparted from the standpoint of
supersensible cognition. The transformations of our planet will be
traced down to the condition of life in which we find it today. If a
person observes what he has actually before him in pure
sense-perception, and then grasps what supersensible cognition has to
say in regard to the way in which what exists at the present time has
been evolving since time immemorial, he is then able to say, if he
really thinks impartially: in the first place, the information
imparted by this form of cognition is thoroughly logical; in the
second place, I can understand that things have become what they now
are, if I admit the truth of what has been communicated through
supersensible research. Naturally, when we speak of logic in this
connection, we do not infer thereby that it is impossible for errors
in logic to be contained in some presentation of supersensible
research. We shall here speak of logic only as that word is used in
the ordinary life of the physical world. Just as logical presentation
is demanded in the physical world, even though the individual person
presenting a range of facts may fall into logical error, so it is also
the case in supersensible research. It may even happen that a
researcher who has the power of perception in supersensible realms may
fall into error in his logical presentation, and that someone who has
no supersensible perception, but who has the capacity for sound
thinking, may correct him. Essentially, however, there can be no
objection to the logic employed in supersensible research. Moreover,
it should be quite unnecessary to emphasize the fact that nothing can
be charged against the facts themselves on purely logical grounds.
Just as in the realm of the physical world it is never possible to
prove logically the existence of a whale except by seeing one, so also
the supersensible facts can be known only by means of spiritual
perception. It cannot, however, be sufficiently emphasized that it is
necessary for the observer of supersensible realms first to acquire a
view by means of the above-mentioned logic, before he tries to
approach the spiritual world through his own perception. He must also
recognize how comprehensible the manifest world of the senses appears
when it is assumed that the communications of spiritual science are
correct. All experience in the supersensible world remains an
insecure, even dangerous, groping, if the above-mentioned preparatory
path is ignored. Therefore in this work the supersensible facts of
earth evolution are first communicated, before the path to
supersensible knowledge itself is dealt with. We must also consider
the fact that anyone who finds his way purely through thinking into
what supersensible cognition has to impart is not at all in the same
position as someone who listens to the description of a physical
process that he himself is unable to observe, since pure thinking is
itself a supersensible activity. Thinking, as a sensory activity,
cannot of itself lead to supersensible occurrences. If, however, this
thinking be applied to the supersensible occurrences described by
supersensible perception, it then grows through itself into the
spiritual world. In fact, one of the best ways of acquiring one's own
perception in the supersensible realm is to grow into the higher world
by thinking about the communications of supersensible cognition, for,
entrance into the higher realms in this way is accompanied by the
greatest clarity of perception. For this reason a certain school of
spiritual-scientific investigation considers this thinking the most
excellent first stage of all spiritual-scientific training. It should
be quite comprehensible that in this book the way in which the
supersensible finds its verification in the outer world is not
described in all the details of earth evolution as it is perceived in
spirit. That is not what was meant when it was said that the hidden is
everywhere demonstrable by its visible effects. The idea is, rather,
that whatever is encountered can become entirely clear and
comprehensible to man, if the manifest processes are placed into the
light afforded by spiritual science. Only in a few characteristic
instances will reference be made in the following pages to a
verification of the concealed by means of the manifest, in order to
show how it can be done at any point in the course of practical life.
If we trace back the evolution of the Earth by means of the
spiritual-scientific method of research mentioned above, we come to a
spiritual state of our planet. If we continue still further back on
our path of research, we find that this spiritual element previously
existed in a sort of physical embodiment. Thus we come upon a past
physical planetary state that later became spiritualized and then,
later still, through repeated materialization, became transformed into
our Earth. Our Earth appears, therefore, as a reincarnation of an
ancient planet. But spiritual science is able to go still further back
and it then discovers the whole process repeated twice more. This
Earth of ours passed through three preceding planetary stages, and in
between these stages there lie intermediate stages of
spiritualization. The physical element appears ever more subtle, the
further back we trace the Earth's incarnations.
One may ask: How can a sound power of thought accept the existence of
world stages lying so far back in the past, such as these that are
spoken of here? This is a natural objection to the descriptions that
are to follow. Our reply is that for anyone who with understanding is
able to see the present hidden spiritual element in what is revealed
to the senses, an insight into the earlier evolutionary states,
however remote, presents no impossibility. Only for someone who does
not acknowledge this hidden spiritual element finds that, in his
perception of the present stage, the earlier ones are also contained,
just as in his perception of a man of fifty the one-year-old child is
still contained. But, you may say, in the latter case you have before
you, besides the man of fifty, one-year-old children and all the
possible intermediate stages. That is true, but it is also true for
the evolution of the spirit as it is meant here. Whoever has come to
an objective understanding in this field sees also that in a
comprehensive survey of the present, which includes the spiritual, the
past evolutionary stages have really survived, alongside the perfected
stages of present-day evolution, just as alongside a man of fifty,
one-year-old children are present. Within the earthly events of the
present, the primeval happenings of the past may be seen if we are but
able to distinguish between these different successive stages of
evolution.
In the form in which he is evolving at present man appears for the
first time during the fourth of the planetary incarnations
characterized above, the actual Earth itself. The essential nature of
this form shows the human being to be composed of the four members:
physical body, life body, astral body, and ego. Yet this form would
not have been able to appear had it not been prepared through the
preceding processes of evolution. This preparation took place because
within the previous planetary incarnation there were beings evolving
who already possessed three of the present four human members the
physical body, life body, and astral body. These beings, who in a
certain sense may be called our human ancestors, did not yet possess
an ego, but they developed these three other members and their
inter-relationships to the degree that made them mature enough later
on to receive the ego. Thus the human ancestor, in the previous
planetary incarnation, reached a certain stage of maturity in his
three members. This state passed over into a spiritual one and out of
it a new physical planetary state developed, that of the Earth. Within
this Earth, the matured human ancestors were present, as it were, in a
germinal state. Because the entire planet had passed over into a
spiritualized condition and had reappeared in a new form, it offered
to the embryonic human entities contained within it, with their
physical, life, and astral bodies, the opportunity not only of
developing again to their previous level, but also the further
possibility, after having attained this point, of reaching out beyond
it through the reception of the ego. The Earth evolution, therefore,
falls into two parts. In the first period, the Earth itself appears as
a reincarnation of the previous planetary stage. This recapitulatory
stage, however, stands at a higher level than that of the previous
incarnation because of the intervening stage of spiritualization. The
Earth now contains within itself the germinal nuclei of the human
ancestors from the previous planet. These at first develop to their
previous level; then, when they have attained this point, the first
period is concluded, but because of its own higher stage of evolution,
the Earth can now develop the nuclei still further, namely, by making
them fit to receive the ego. The unfoldment of the ego within the
physical, life, and astral bodies is characteristic of the second
period of Earth evolution.
In this way, by means of the evolution of the Earth, man is brought a
stage higher. This was also the case in the previous planetary
incarnations, for even in the first of these incarnations some element
of the human being was present. Therefore, light is shed upon the
human being of the present if his evolution is traced back to the
distant past of the very first of the planetary incarnations
mentioned. In supersensible research, the first of these planetary
incarnations may be named Saturn, the second may be designated Sun,
the third, Moon, and the fourth, Earth. It must be clearly understood,
however, that these designations must not, at the outset, be
associated with the same names that are used for the members of our
present solar system. Saturn, Sun, and Moon are to be names for bygone
evolutionary forms through which the
Earth has passed.2
The relationship that these worlds of the ancient past hold to the
heavenly bodies constituting the present solar system will appear in
the course of the subsequent descriptions. It will then become clear
why these names have been chosen.
The conditions of the four planetary incarnations mentioned can be
described only in outline, because the processes and the beings and
their destinies upon Saturn, Sun, and Moon are truly as manifold as
upon the Earth itself. Therefore in our descriptions of these states
only single characteristic points will be brought out that illustrate
how the Earth's states have developed out of earlier ones. We must
also consider the fact that the further back we go, the more do these
states become dissimilar to those of the present. Yet in
characterizing them, they can only be described by employing mental
representations borrowed from present earthly relationships. When, for
instance, we speak of light, heat, or other phenomena, in connection
with these earlier states, we should not overlook the fact that we do
not mean exactly what is meant by these words, light and heat, at the
present time, and yet this terminology is correct, because for the
observer of supersensible realms something appears in these earlier
stages of evolution out of which the light and heat of the present
have evolved. Those who follow the descriptions given here will indeed
be well able to gather from the connection in which these things are
placed what mental pictures are to be made in order to have
characteristic images and symbols for things that have occurred in the
distant, primeval past.
To be sure, these difficulties become especially significant for the
planetary conditions that preceded the Moon incarnation, for, during
this latter period, conditions prevailed that still show a certain
similarity to earthly conditions. He who attempts to describe these
conditions has in this similarity to the present a certain starting
point for expressing in clear mental pictures the supersensibly
acquired perceptions. It is a different matter when the evolution of
Saturn and Sun are to be described. What presents itself there to
clairvoyant observation is very different from the objects and beings
belonging at present to the sphere of human life, and this
dissimilarity makes it difficult to the highest degree to bring the
ancient matters in question within the scope of supersensible
consciousness. Since, however, the present being of man cannot be
understood unless we go back as far as the Saturn state, the
description must nevertheless be given. Surely such a description will
not be misunderstood by the one who holds the existence of such
difficulties in mind and who remembers that much of what is said must
of necessity be considered more in the light of an allusion and a
reference to the corresponding facts than as an exact description of
them.
A contradiction might be found between what is given here and in the
following pages, and what is said
on page 109 [e.Ed link]
concerning the
continuation of the past into the present. One might imagine that
nowhere does there exist, alongside the present Earth state, a
previous Saturn, Sun, and Moon state, or even a human form such as is
described in this exposition as having existed in these earlier
stages. It is true that Saturn human beings, Sun and Moon human beings
do not move about side by side with Earth humanity in the same way as
three-year-old children move about alongside fifty-year-old men and
women, but within the earthly human being the previous states of
humanity are supersensibly perceptible. In order to know this we must
have acquired the power of discrimination and extend it to include the
full scope of the conditions of life. The three-year-old child exists
alongside the fifty-year-old man; similarly, the corpse, the sleeping,
and the dreaming human being exist alongside the living, waking Earth
man. Although these various forms of existence of the being of man as
they are at present do not directly correspond to the various stages
of evolution, nevertheless a genuine perception sees in such forms of
manifestation these various evolutionary stages.
Footnotes:
-
The term spiritual science, as is
apparent from the context, is here synonymous with the terms
occult science and supersensible knowledge.
-
In order to
make clear the difference between the designations of the Planetary
Evolutions and our present planetary bodies, which bear the same
names, the following system has been worked out. Saturn, Sun,
Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, Vulcan printed
in italics with initial capitals
designate the great cosmic planetary cycles of evolution. In the Sun
evolution, after the separation of the main cosmic body into two
parts, the designation is Sun and Saturn, spelt with initial capitals,
but not with italics. In the Moon evolution, when a separation takes
place, the remaining main body is spelt Moon, with an initial capital,
the separating planetary sun is spelt with small letter. In the Earth
evolution, the separated planetary bodies are spelt as is customary,
that is, the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury with
initial capitals; sun, moon, earth with small letters. (Tr.)
Last Modified: 07-Oct-2024
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