The Inner Connection
of
World-Phenomena and World-Being
Cosmic activity is indeed the greatest of artists. The cosmos fashions everything according to laws which bring the deepest satisfaction to the artistic sense.
We have studied certain aspects of the connection between
earth-conditions, world-conditions, animals and man. We shall continue
with these studies during the coming days. Today, however, I wish to
find the transition to those wider spheres which we shall have to
consider later. I should like, in the first place, to draw attention
to what has already been described in my
“Occult Science”
as the evolution of the Earth in the cosmos — beginning with the
primordial Saturn-metamorphosis of the Earth. This Saturn-condition
must be thought of as already containing within itself everything
belonging to our planetary system. The separate planets of our
planetary system, from Saturn onwards to the Moon, were at that time
still within old Saturn — which, as you know, consisted only of
warmth-ether — as undifferentiated world-bodies. Saturn, which
had not even attained to the density of air, but was merely
warmth-ether, contained in an undifferentiated etheric condition
everything which later took on independent form, becoming
individualized in the separate planets.
We then distinguish as the second metamorphosis of earth-evolution,
what, in a comprehensive sense, I have called the Sun-condition of the
Earth. Here we have to do with the gradual formation — from the
fire-globe of Saturn — of the air-globe, the light-permeated,
light-irradiated, glittering air-globe, Sun.
Then we have a third metamorphosis, out of which, after the ancient
conditions had been recapitulated, there took form on the one hand all
that was of a Sun-nature, which at that time still comprised the earth
and moon — all this is described in
“Occult Science”
— and on the other hand all that was already externalized, and to
which Saturn in its state of separation belonged.
At the same time, however, during this period of the
Moon-metamorphosis, we meet the fact that the sun separated from what
was now a blend of earth and moon. I have often described how the
kingdoms of nature which we know today did not then exist, how the
earth did not enclose a mineral mass, but was, if I may so express
myself, of the nature of horn, so that the solid constituents freed
themselves, forming rock-like projections of horny substance, jutting
out from the Moon-mass, which was now of the consistency of water. And
then there arose the conditions of the fourth metamorphosis, which are
the Earth conditions of today.
Now when we depict these four metamorphoses in their sequence, we have
first the Saturn-condition, which still contained dissolved within it
everything later contained in our planetary system; then we have the
Sun-metamorphosis, the Moon-metamorphosis, and the
Earth-metamorphosis. These four manifestations fall into pairs.
Just consider how things were during the evolution of Saturn and on
into the Sun-epoch, where even then substance had only advanced to a
gaseous state! Evolution takes its start from the globe of fire; the
fire-globe becomes metamorphosed, densified to a globe of air, which
is, however, imbued with light, glittering with light. Here we have
the first part of evolution.
Then we have that part of evolution in which the Moon first plays its
own role. For it is the role played by the Moon which enables it to
fashion those horny rock-formations. And during the
Earth-metamorphosis the moon separates off, becomes a subsidiary
planet, leaving behind for the Earth the inner-earth-forces. The
forces of gravity, for instance, are essentially forces which, in a
physical connection, have remained behind from the Moon. The Earth
would never have developed the forces of gravity had not the residue
of what was contained in old Moon been left behind; the moon itself
departed. The present moon is that colony in cosmic space about which
I spoke to you from its spiritual aspect only a few days ago. Its
substantiality is quite different from that of the earth, but it left
behind in the earth what, speaking in the widest sense, may be called
earth-magnetism. The forces of the earth, namely the earthly forces of
gravity, the activities described as the effects of weight, these have
remained over from the moon. And thus we can say: on the one hand we
have (Saturn-and-Sun-condition) the essentially warm, light-irradiated
metamorphosis, when the two conditions are taken together; on the
other we have (Moon-and-Earth-condition) the moon-sustained, watery
metamorphosis, the watery condition which evolved during the
Moon-metamorphosis, and which then remained during the
Earth-metamorphosis; the solid element is called forth by the forces
of gravity.
These two pairs of metamorphosis differ from each other to a marked
degree, and we must be clear about the fact that everything present in
an earlier condition is again inherent in the later one. What
constituted the ancient fire-globe of Saturn remained as
warmth-substance in all the subsequent metamorphoses; and when today
we move about in the regions of the earth, and everywhere encounter
warmth, this warmth which is everywhere to be found is the remains of
the ancient Saturn condition. Wherever we find air, or gaseous bodies,
we have the remains of the ancient Sun-evolution. When, having imbued
ourselves with feeling and understanding for this epoch of evolution,
we look out into the sun-irradiated atmosphere, we can say to
ourselves with truth: In this sun-irradiated atmosphere we have
remains of the ancient Sun-evolution; for had this ancient
Sun-evolution not taken place, the relationship of our air with the
rays of the sun, which are now there outside, would not have existed.
Only through the fact that the sun was once united with the earth,
that the light of the sun itself shone in the earth which was still in
a gaseous condition — so that the earth was an air-globe
radiating light into cosmic space — only through this could the
later metamorphosis appear, the present Earth-metamorphosis, in which
the earth is enveloped by an atmosphere of air, into which the sun's
rays fall from outside. But these sun-rays have a deep inner
connection with the earth's atmosphere. They do not, however, behave
— as present-day physicists somewhat crudely state — as
though projected like small shot through the gaseous atmosphere; but
the rays of the sun have a deep inner relationship with the air. And
this relationship is actually the after-effect of their one-time union
during the Sun-metamorphosis. Thus everything is mutually
inter-related through the fact that the earlier conditions ever and
again play into the later conditions in manifold ways. But during the
time in which, speaking generally, earth-evolution took its course
— as you find in
“Occult Science”,
and as I have briefly sketched it for you here — everything on
and around the earth, everything also within the earth, has been
evolved.
And now we can say: When we contemplate the present-day earth, we have
within it what produces the solid element, the inner moon, actually
anchored in earth-magnetism; the inner moon, whose action is such that
it is the cause of the solid-element, the cause which produces
everything which has weight. And it is the forces of weight which form
the solid element out of the fluid. We have next the actual
earth-realm, the watery element which appears in manifold ways —
as underground water, for instance, but also in the water which is
present in the rising mist-formations, in the descending rain clouds,
and so on. And further we have in the circumference what is of the
nature of air. Moreover all this is permeated by the element of fire,
the remains of old Saturn. So that we also have to ascribe to our
present-day earth what, there above, is Sun-Saturn or Saturn-Sun. We
can always say to ourselves: Everything which is present in the warm
air, which is irradiated with light, is Saturn-Sun. We look up and
actually find our air imbued with what is Saturn-activity, what is
Sun-activity, evolving in the course of time into the actual
atmosphere of the earth, which, however, is only an after-effect of
the Sun-metamorphosis. Broadly speaking, this is what we find when we
direct our gaze upwards.
When we direct our gaze downwards, it is more a question of what arose
from the last two metamorphoses. We have what is heavy, the solid
element, or better expressed, the working of the forces of weight into
what is becoming solid; we have the fluid element, we have the
Moon-Earth. These two parts of earth-existence can be strictly
differentiated from each other.
If you read
“Occult Science”
again with this in mind, you will see that the whole style alters at
the place where the Sun-metamorphosis passes over into the
Moon-metamorphosis. Even today there is still a kind of sharp contrast
between what is above, what is of the nature of Saturn, and what is
below, what is of the nature of Earth-Moon-watery condition.
Thus we can quite well differentiate between the Saturn-Sun-gaseous
element and the Moon-Earth fluidic element.
When someone who sees into these things with initiation science
contemplates the general course of earth-evolution — everything
also which has developed along with the earth, which belongs to it
— his gaze falls first upon the manifold variety of the insect
world. One can well imagine that the very feeling engendered by the
fluttering, glittering insect world would bring us into a certain
connection with what is above, with what is of the nature of the
Saturn-Sun-gaseous condition. And this is indeed the case. When we
look at the butterfly with its shimmering colours, we see it
fluttering in the air, in the light-flooded, light-irradiated air. It
is upborne by the waves of the air. It hardly contacts what is of an
Earth-Moon-fluid nature. Its element is in the upper regions. And when
one investigates the course of earth-evolution, it is a remarkable
thing that just in the case of the small insect one arrives at very
early epochs of earth-metamorphosis. What today shimmers in the
light-irradiated air as the butterfly's wings was first formed in germ
during old Saturn, and developed further during the time of old Sun.
It was then that there arose what still today makes it possible for
the butterfly to be in its very nature a creation of light and air.
The sun owes the gift of diffusing light to itself. The sun owes the
gift that its light can call forth in substances what is fiery,
shimmering, to the working-in of Saturn-Jupiter-Mars. The
butterfly-nature cannot indeed be understood by one who seeks for it
on the earth.
The forces active in the nature of the butterfly, must be sought
above, must be sought in Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. And when we enter
more exactly into this wonderful evolution of the butterfly — I
have already described it, in its connection with the human being, as
what may be called the cosmic embodiment of memory — when we
enter into this more exactly, we find in the first place the
fluttering butterfly shimmering with light, carried up above the earth
by the air. It then deposits its egg. Yes, the crude materialist says:
“The butterfly deposits its egg”, because, under the
influence of present-day unscientific science, the things of greatest
importance are simply not studied. The question is this: To what does
the butterfly entrust its egg when it deposits it?
Now investigate any place where the butterfly deposits its egg;
everywhere you will find that the egg is deposited in such a way that
it cannot be withdrawn from the influence of the sun. The sun's
influence upon the earth is in fact not only present when the sun is
shining directly on to the earth. I have often drawn attention to the
fact that in winter peasants put their potatoes into the earth, cover
them with earth, because what comes towards the earth during summer as
the sun's warmth and the power of the sunlight, is, just during
winter, within the earth. On the surface of the earth potatoes become
frosted; they do not become frosted but remain really good potatoes if
they are buried in a pit and covered with a layer of earth, because
throughout the winter the activity of the sun is inside the earth.
Throughout the whole winter we must look for the sun-activity of
summer under the earth. In December, for example, at a certain depth
within the earth, we have the July-activity of the sun. In July the
sun radiates its light and warmth on to the surface. The warmth and
light gradually penetrate deeper. And if in December we wish to look
for what we experience in July on the surface of the earth, we must
dig a pit, and then what was on the surface of the earth in July will
be found in December at a certain depth within it. There the potato is
buried in the July sun. Thus the sun is not only where crude
materialistic understanding looks for it; the sun is actually present
in many spheres. Only this is strictly regulated according to the
seasons of the year in the cosmos.
The butterfly never deposits its eggs where they cannot remain in some
way or other in connection with the sun. Consequently one expresses
oneself badly when one says that the butterfly lays its eggs in the
realm of the earth. This it does not do at all. It lays its eggs in
the realm of the sun. The butterfly never descends as far down as the
earth. Where ever the sun is present in what is earthly, there the
butterfly seeks out the place to deposit its eggs, so that they remain
entirely under the influence of the sun. In no way do they come under
the influence of the earth.
Then, as you know, out of this butterfly's egg creeps the caterpillar.
When it emerges, it remains under the influence of the sun, but it now
comes under another influence as well. The caterpillar would be
unable to crawl did it not also come under another influence. And this
is the influence of Mars.
If you picture the earth with Mars circling around it, what emanates
from Mars in the upper region pervades everything, and remains
everywhere. It is not a question of Mars itself being anywhere in
particular, but we have the whole Mars sphere, and when the
caterpillar crawls in some direction, it does so in the sense of the
Mars sphere. Then the caterpillar becomes a chrysalis, building around
itself a cocoon. We get a cocoon. I described to you how this is a
sacrifice to the sun on the part of the caterpillar, how the threads
which are spun into it are spun in the direction of the line of light.
The caterpillar is exposed to the sun, follows the rays of light,
spins, stops when it is dark, spins on further. The whole cocoon is
actually cosmic sunlight, sunlight which is interwoven with matter.
Thus when you have the cocoon of the silkworm, for example —
which is used to make your silk garments — what is present in the
silk is actually sunlight, into which is spun the substance of the
silkworm. Out of its own body the silkworm spins its matter in the
direction of the sun's rays, and in this way forms the cocoon around
itself. But that this may happen it needs the intervention of the
Jupiter activity.
And then, as you know, the butterfly creeps out of the cocoon, out of
the chrysalis — the butterfly which is upborne by light, radiant
with light. It leaves the dark chamber into which the light only
entered as it did into the cromlechs, in the way I described this to
you, in the case of the cromlechs of the ancient Druids. The sun,
however, comes under the influence of Saturn, and it is only in
conjunction with Saturn that it can send its light into the air in
such a way that the butterfly can shine in the radiance of its
variegated colours.
And thus, when we behold that wonderful sea of fluttering butterflies
in the atmosphere, we must say: That is in truth no earthly creation,
but is born into the earth from above. The butterfly nowhere goes
deeper with its egg than to where influences come to the earth from
the sun. The cosmos bestows on the earth the sea of butterflies,
Saturn bestows their colours. The sun bestows the power of flight,
called forth by the sustaining power of the light, and so on.
Thus I might say that we actually have to see in the butterflies
little creatures, strewn down, as it were, upon the earth by the sun,
and by what is above the sun in our planetary system. The butterflies,
the dragonflies, the insects in general, are actually the gift of
Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Sun. And not a single insect could be
produced by the earth, not so much as a flea, were it not that the
planets beyond the sun, together with the sun, bestow upon the earth
the gift of insect life. And we do in truth owe the fact that Saturn,
Jupiter, etc. could so generously allow the insect world to flutter in
upon us to the first two metamorphoses experienced by earth-evolution.
And now let us look at the way in which the two last metamorphoses
— the Moon-condition and the Earth-condition — have played
their part. In view of the fact that the butterfly's egg is never
actually entrusted to the earth, it must be pointed out that at the
time when the Moon-metamorphosis, the third condition, was in its
beginning, the butterflies were not as yet as they are today. The
earth, too, was not so dependent upon the sun. At the beginning of the
third metamorphosis the sun was actually still united with the earth,
and only later became separated. The butterfly, therefore, was not so
averse to entrusting its germ to the earth. When it entrusted it to
the earth, it was at the same time entrusting it to the sun. Thus here
there arose a differentiation. In the case of the first two
metamorphoses one can only speak of a primal foreshadowing of the
insect world. But at that time to entrust something to the outer
planets, to the sun, still signified entrusting it to the earth. Only
when the earth condensed, when it acquired water, acquired the
magnetic forces of the moon, did matters change, and then it was that
a differentiation appeared.
Let us take everything to do with warmth-air as belonging to what is
above; and let us take what is below: water-earth. And let us consider
those germs whose destiny it was to be entrusted to the earth, whereas
others were held back and not entrusted to the earth, but only to the
sun within the earthly.
Now let us consider these other germs which were entrusted to the
earth at the time when the third metamorphosis, the Moon-condition,
arose. These germs, you see, now came under the influence of
earth-activity — of the watery earth-moon activity — just as
the insect germs had formerly come under the influence of the
sun-activity and of what is beyond the sun. And through the fact that
these germs came under the influence of earth-water-activity, they
became the plant-germs. And the germs which remained behind in
the upper regions, these remained insect-germs. When the third
metamorphosis began — through what at the time was of a
sun-nature becoming transformed into what was of the nature of
moon-earth — the plant-germs came into being, during this third
metamorphosis of earth-evolution. And what you now have in the
butterfly, under the development of the extraterrestrial cosmos, this
whole development from the germ, through the caterpillar, through the
chrysalis to the butterfly — this you are now in a position to
follow in the plant. In that the seed became earthly it was not the
butterfly which developed; but when the seed became earthly, entrusted
to the earth — not now to the sun — the plant root
developed, the first thing to arise out of the germ. And instead of
the caterpillar creeping out, under the influence of the forces which
proceed from Mars, the leaf arises, creeping upwards in spiral
formation. The leaf is the caterpillar which has come under the
influence of what is earthly. When you see the creeping caterpillar,
you have, in the upper regions, what corresponds, below, to the leaf
of the plant; the leaf develops out of what became root through the
fact that the seed was transplanted from the region of the sun to the
region of the earth.
Proceeding further upwards, we find contracted to the calyx what is of
the nature of the chrysalis. And finally the butterfly develops in the
blossom, which is coloured, just like the butterfly in the air. The
circle is completed. Just as the butterfly lays its egg, so does the
blossom develop within itself the new seed for the future. So you see,
we look up towards the butterfly, and we understand it to be the plant
raised up into the air. What the butterfly becomes from egg to full
development under the influence of the sun with the upper planets, the
plant becomes here below under the influence of the earth. When the
plant comes into leaf (see diagram) we have from the earth-aspect the
influence of the moon, then the Venus-influence and the
Mercury-influence. Then there is a return to the earth-influence. The
seed is again under earth-influence.
We can, therefore, place before ourselves two verses, which give
expression to a great secret of nature:
Behold the plant:
It is the butterfly
Fettered by the earth.
Behold the butterfly:
It is the plant
Freed by the cosmos.
The plant — the butterfly fettered by the earth! The butterfly
— the plant freed from the earth by the cosmos! [* Coleridge
describes the butterfly as Flos libertus vel libertinus. Ed.]
If one looks at the butterfly, indeed at any insect, from the stage of
the egg to when it is fluttering away, it is the plant raised up into
the air, fashioned in the air by the cosmos. If one looks at the
plant, it is the butterfly fettered to what is below. The egg is
claimed by the earth. The caterpillar is metamorphosed into
leaf-formation. In what is contracted in the plant we have the
metamorphosis of the chrysalis-formation. And then what unfolds into
the butterfly itself, in the plant develops into the blossom. Small
wonder that such an intimate relationship exists between the world of
the butterflies, the insect-world in general, and the world of the
plants. For in truth those spiritual beings which are behind the
insects, the butterflies, must say to themselves: There below are our
relatives; we must have intercourse with them, unite ourselves with
them — unite ourselves with them in the enjoyment of their juices, and
so on, for they are our brothers. They are our brothers who have
wandered down into the domain of the earth, who have become fettered
to the earthly, who have won another existence.
And again, the spirits who ensoul the plants can look up to the
butterflies and say: These are the heavenly relatives of the earthly
plants.
You see, one must really say that understanding of the world cannot
come about through abstractions, for abstractions do not attain to
understanding. Cosmic activity is indeed the greatest of artists. The
cosmos fashions everything according to laws which bring the deepest
satisfaction to the artistic sense. And no-one can understand the
butterfly, which has sunk down into the earth, unless he metamorphoses
abstract thoughts into artistic sense. No-one can understand the
nature of the blossoming plant, which, as the butterfly, has been
uplifted into the air by the light and by cosmic forces, unless once
again he can bring artistic movement into abstract thoughts.
Nevertheless there always remains something immensely uplifting when
we turn our minds to the deep, inward connection between the things
and beings of nature.
It is a unique experience to see an insect poised on a plant, and at
the same time to see how the astrality holds sway above the blossom.
Here the plant is striving outwards from the earthly. The plant's
longing for the heavenly works and weaves above the iridescent petals
of the blossom. The plant cannot of itself satisfy this longing. Thus
there radiates towards it from the cosmos what is of the nature of the
butterfly. In beholding this the plant realizes the satisfaction of
its own desires. And this is the wonderful relationship existing in
the environment of the earth, namely that the longings of the
plant-world are assuaged in looking up to the insects, in particular
the world of the butterflies. What the blossoming flower longs for, as
it radiates its colour out into world-space becomes for it fulfillment
in knowledge when the butterfly approaches it with its shimmer of
colours. Out-streaming warmth, out-streaming longing: in-streaming
satisfaction from the heavens — this is the interplay between the
world of the blossoming plants and the world of the butterflies. This
is what we should see in the environment of the earth.
Having thus established the connection with the plant-world, I shall
now be in the position to extend still further in the near future the
studies which lead from the human being to the animals. We can already
include the plant-world, and thus we shall gradually come to man's
connection with the whole earth. But for this it was necessary to
build, as it were, a bridge from the fluttering plant of the air, the
butterfly, to the butterfly firmly rooted in the earth, the plant. The
earthly plant is the firmly rooted butterfly. The butterfly is the
flying plant. Having recognized this connection between the
earth-bound plant and the heaven-freed butterfly, we have now
established the bridge between the animal-world and the plant-world,
and thus we can now look down with a certain unconcern upon all the
trivialities which are always saying how spontaneous generation, and
the like took place. These prosaic concepts will never lead us into
those regions of the universe to which we must attain. Those spheres
are only reached when prosaic concepts can be led over into artistic
concepts, so that we may then arrive at the picture of how, from the
heaven-born butterfly which is only entrusted to the sun, the plant
later arose through this butterfly's egg becoming metamorphosed in
such a way that, whereas it was formerly entrusted to the sun, it now
became entrusted to the earth.
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