V
YESTERDAY we saw how
the human race will develop when our present epoch has run its
course, how it will divide, so to speak, into two streams, into
the good and the evil races, and how the secrets of this future
are unsealed through the “seven seals” which are symbolically
unloosed in the Apocalypse of John. After this general
analysis concerning the manifestation in the outer
physiognomy of what is being prepared in our epoch in the
souls of men, one might well ask: How is it that the
Apocalyptist describes the seals in such frightful pictures?
We shall best answer this question if we now introduce an
intermediate consideration into our whole study of the
Apocalypse.
So far we
have tried to confirm the statement that the Apocalypse of
John represents an initiation, the Christian initiation,
through which the future of humanity is revealed. We shall
best understand what follows if we now look back and consider
once more the past epochs of human evolution. We will do this
to the extent which is necessary for the explanation of the
Apocalypse. We know already the general outlines. We know
that our earth, which forms the present dwelling-place of
man, took its rise in the far-distant past, but that as earth
it was the reincarnation of another planetary being usually
called the old Moon or the Cosmos or Planet of Wisdom, in
contradistinction from our present earth, which we designate
as the Cosmos or Planet of Love. The Cosmos of Wisdom or the
ancient Moon is again only the re-embodiment of a still
earlier condition which we call the Sun-planet; that is not
the present Sun, which is a fixed star, but the Sun-planet.
And the Sun-planet is the reembodiment of ancient Saturn. We
have therefore to distinguish four consecutive conditions of
our planetary existence which we call Saturn, Sun, Moon and
Earth.
We will now
describe these four conditions so far as we need this for the
explanation of the Apocalypse of John. When with spiritual
vision we go back to the ancient Saturn existence, we come to
a remarkable planet. This ancient Saturn is a heavenly body
upon which is to be found nothing of our present minerals or
solid earthly substances, no animals or plants, no water or
fluid substances, no current of air or gas. If you were to
imagine that with the present eyes — which did not then
exist — you were somewhere in space and approached this
Saturn, you would be able to see nothing of its first
condition, for it did not yet shine. With your eyes you would
have been unable to see anything of Saturn from outside in
the first half of its existence. Had you approached it and
penetrated into the space it filled, you would have felt
somewhat as if you had crept into a heated oven, if you had
then been able to use the present senses. You would only have
been able to distinguish this globular space from the rest by
its being warmer than its surroundings. Of all the conditions
we now know, warmth is the only one we meet with on ancient
Saturn; but it is a remarkable kind of warmth. You would not
find it equally warm in all parts. In some parts it is warmer
and in others colder, so that if you were to trace and
connect the parts of equal warmth by lines, there would
appear figures perceptible only through the difference in
warmth. Every-thing is warmth, but organized, differentiated
warmth. Were you to fly through the whole of Saturn in this
way you would say, “There is indeed something present, but
something which I can only perceive through the various
degrees of warmth.” These differentiated conditions of warmth
were all that existed of the present characteristics of our
earth, and the first beginnings of the physical human body
were expressed at that time in this warmth. That which then
existed you still have within you to-day, only it has
withdrawn from outer space and is within your being it is the
warmth of your blood. If you were to construct figures from
your blood-warmth you would have the echoes of that part of
your physical body which existed on ancient Saturn. The
warmth you now have in your blood is the first foundation of
the physical body, the oldest part of it, so that you may
also say: The whole of Saturn consisted of blood-warmth. You
would be able to find something like the figures which could
be drawn to-day, if you were to trace the various channels of
your blood according to the different degrees of warmth. That
is the physical existence of ancient Saturn. Of all the
present physical substances it only possessed warmth, and of
all the beings now peopling the earth there was only man, and
of him there existed only the foundation of the physical
body. Saturn consisted only of such foundations of physical
human bodies formed out of warmth. Just as a blackberry is
made up of separate little balls, so was Saturn composed at
that time, but of human beings such as we have just
described.
On the other
hand it was surrounded by spiritual beings. Just as the earth
is now enveloped in air, Saturn was enveloped in a spiritual
atmosphere. Beings lived there who were at various stages of
development, but they all needed this dwelling-place of
Saturn at their stage of development at that time. It was
necessary to them; they could not have done without this
dwelling-place. There were those, for example, who also had
seven principles, but not like the present man. The latter
has his seven principles, which we call the Seven Spirits of
God, in such a way that one begins with the physical body.
With these beings it was not so. For example, there were
beings who had an etheric body as their lowest principle.
They had a physical body only by anchoring their etheric
body, as it were, to the physical bodies of Saturn and so
using these.
Thus as
compared with our present earth this Saturn is in substance a
very rarefied cosmic body; it did not possess any-thing like
our air or gas; these would have been too gross for it. It
possessed only warmth, and surrounding the warmth were
spiritual beings. Now through the beings in its environment
developing further, Saturn passed through various changes.
One of these changes may easily be described by saying that
in the middle of its development Saturn actually begins
externally to light up; so that if one follows it, it appears
at the beginning as a dark warmth-body, then it begins to
glimmer, and towards the end sends forth a dim light into the
world. This spiritual atmosphere around Saturn which contains
various beings, contains amongst others a certain definite
kind of beings in whom we are particularly interested. About
the middle of the Saturn evolution these beings passed
through the stage man is now passing through upon the earth.
They are the Spirits of Personality. About the middle of the
ancient Saturn period they have approximately reached the
stage of development of man. You will, of course, not fall
into the mistake of asking, “Did they then have bodies such
as the present human beings? “It would be a great mistake to
suppose that these men had human fleshly bodies. It is
possible to pass through the human stage in the most varied
forms, and these Spirits of Personality passed through their
human stage on Saturn in such a way that to begin with they
used as physical body that which was present in the
atmosphere as warmth; that as ether body (which they did not
yet possess) they used what was contained in the atmosphere;
and lastly they also used what existed as astral substance;
as yet they possessed nothing of this themselves. Essentially
they had at that time an “I”-vehicle, an “I,”
and this “I,” which was at the human stage, which lived
exactly as the present human “I” upon the earth, passed
at that time through these various stages of humanity upon Saturn
in another form and un another way. Thus about the middle of the
Saturn period we have the Spirits of Personality in this human
stage. If one reckons in this way, that which I have just
related is the middle stage of the Saturn evolution. There are
three others which precede it and three others following it.
These are called “Rounds” or “Epochs” of
Saturn. If you imagine the whole evolution of Saturn you may
picture it thus:
In
the middle (X) are the Spirits of Personality. At each
of the three preceding and the three following stages certain
beings become man just as our earth can be divided into seven
epochs, so too can the Saturn evolution — at every stage
some beings or other, and it was always just when the time
had come for them to be able to use what was on Saturn in
order to pass through the human stage. Thus we have seven
kinds of beings upon Saturn, who there passed through their
human stage, who rose to the human stage, who therefore in
the ensuing stages no longer need to develop this. The
present man was not yet man upon Saturn. The beings who have
become man upon Saturn — whose representatives are the
Spirits of Personality — progress further and are to-day
exalted above man, they have man within themselves, so to
speak. They carry him within them as, for them, a past stage
of evolution.
Now after
Saturn had proceeded with its evolution for a certain length
of time, the whole passed over into a spiritual sphere, into
a condition not externally perceptible to senses like those
of the present day. Then came the second embodiment of our
earth, the Sun-planet. This was distinguished by the fact
that comparatively early in its development it had progressed
so far that it radiated light. This was because it consisted
not only of warmth but because the warmth material had
already condensed into gaseous, airy material. There was
neither water nor solid substance; it consisted of an airy or
gaseous mass. But it was already able to be a luminous body;
it could have been seen by the present eye as a planet
shining in space. When this planet had so far developed, it
was possible for the etheric body to be membered into the
first rudiments of the physical human body. Thus man now
consisted of physical and ether body, while on Saturn he
possessed only the first rudiments of the physical body. But
he had not progressed far enough to have his own astral body.
Human forms looked quite different from those of to-day. Man
had the form of plant existence, for like a plant he
possessed a physical body and an etheric body, but upon the
Sun he looked quite different from our present plants. With
this progress of development was connected the fact that a
second kind of being appeared on the Sun. Upon Saturn there
were only men, no other beings. It consisted only of men, as
a blackberry consists of little berries. Now some of these
human germs remained at the Saturn stage, they had not all reached
as far as was possible. These backward beings coming from
Saturn cannot therefore acquire an etheric body and must
remain on the Sun merely with a physical body, thus they have
only progressed as far as man upon Saturn. These beings who
upon the Sun have merely the physical body are the first
germs of our present animals, so that upon the Sun we have
human germs with physical body and etheric body, and animal
germs with physical body only.
Again
it is the case that in the middle of the Sun period
certain beings pass through the human stage. This the present
man could not yet do. The spiritual beings around the Sun who
then pass through the human stage are called the Fire
Spirits, Archangels. To-day they are two stages above man.
They bear man within themselves; they experienced in another
form what man experiences now in his earthly existence. But
the Sun also passes through seven stages, and at each stage
there are beings who reach the human stage, so that again
during the Sun period we have seven phases of development. If
they go back into their own past, they see, as it were, a
peculiar stage in their life, of which they may say, “At
that time when beneath me there was no solid earth and no
watery globe, I experienced what man experiences to-day. I
can therefore feel and experience what man experiences upon
the earth.” These beings can say this to-day. They understand
it because they too have experienced what man now experiences
during, his earthly life.
Then
once again came a kind of intermediate condition in
which to outer observation (if this had indeed been possible)
the luminous planet gradually ceases to glow, then it
disappears from a certain stage of clairvoyant observation
and is only apparent to the highest spiritual vision. Then it
again emerges in a new form of existence, to a third condition
which we call the Moon condition. This is the third
embodiment of our planet, the ancient Moon. This has now
developed so far in the evolution of its substance that what
formerly upon the Sun was merely gas has now condensed to
water. Through the entry of the watery element, man — who
gradually develops again like the plant from
the seed — can receive the astral body; so that man now
consists of three parts, the physical body, etheric and
astral bodies. He is not yet really man, for he does not yet
possess an “I” in these three bodies.
Certain
beings always remain behind at every stage,
there-fore the beings who remained behind upon the Sun, who
were unable to attain to the Moon stage and who only passed
through their Sun stage on the Moon, are now unable to
incorporate the astral body; upon the Moon they consist only
of physical and etheric body. These are especially those who
already remained behind upon the Sun, but who in the meantime
had developed so far that they could take up an etheric body.
These are again the ancestors of our present animals. Those,
however, which were not yet so far advanced upon the Moon
that they could take up an etheric body, are the ancestors of
still lower beings, the present plants. Thus upon the Moon
we have three kingdoms, the human kingdom, consisting of
physical body, ether body and astral body; the animal
kingdom, consisting of physical body and etheric body; and
the vegetable kingdom consisting only of physical body.
Again
there are certain beings who about the middle of the
Moon period pass through their human stage. They are the
spirits who in the literature of spiritual science are
usually called the Spirits of Twilight or Angels. They also
carry man within them as memory. And again the Moon passes
through seven such stages. At each stage there are beings who
can pass through human existence. It is always the case that
some beings hurry forward and others remain behind. Thus upon
the Moon too we have seven grades of beings who had passed
through their human stage when the Moon had finished its
evolution.
Now
in order to understand the ancient Moon fully, we must
mention something of importance which took place in the
course of the old Moon evolution. When it began, or at least
shortly after the beginning, it was a fluid globe. Had it
developed further in this way throughout its seven stages it
would not have been able to give man the right foundation for
his further development. It was only fitted to be a preparatory
stage for earthly humanity by dividing first into two planetary
bodies. One of these was the forerunner of the present sun, and
the other which separated was the forerunner of the present
earth, but in such a way that you must imagine the earth
mingled with the present moon, so that the present earth and
moon were then one. Now imagine these two bodies, earth plus
moon on the one hand and the sun on the other, separated from
each other; the ancient Moon as a watery body and the ancient
Sun on the way to becoming a fixed star. Something very
essential was connected with this division. It was primarily
the sun which brought about the separation and took with it
the finest parts, the most etheric substances, while the
grosser substances remained behind in the Moon, that is, the
present earth plus the present moon. Hence the sun is
composed of extremely fine substances, while the Moon becomes
a much denser body, a watery mass. Through the sun taking
with it the finest and most spiritual forces, it could now be
the arena for much more highly developed beings. In fact,
many of those high beings who were still able to bear the
Saturn existence would have been hindered in their
development if they had been bound to the Moon any longer.
They needed a field of activity with the finest materials;
only there could they develop. So they drew their field of
action forth and developed further upon the sun. On the other
hand, with the Moon, which had suffered a densification
through the exit of the finer substances, there were
connected those human germs which consisted of physical body,
etheric body and astral body, and there were also the germs
of the animals and plants. Now this ancient Moon had an
extraordinary appearance. You would not yet ford anything
like rocks or arable soil, although it already circled round
its sun. Mineral substances did not yet exist. The principal
part of this Moon, upon which these beings hopped about, so
to speak, was a kind of mush, a kind of pulp or puree. The
basic substance of the ancient Moon consisted of this puree,
just as the basic substance of our earth consists of soil. In
it were embedded masses, like, shall we say, wood and the
bark of trees. If you were to climb a mountain to-day you
would walk upon rocks. At that time you would have passed
over a basis which, if it was
solid, was something like a surface of wood substance.
Instead of granite you would have found blocks which might be
compared to wood. Of course this is speaking comparatively.
Such was the basic substance and out of it came continually
luxuriant growths. This was the lowest kingdom, the present
mineral kingdom, which at that time lay between the present
mineral and vegetable kingdoms. In a certain way it was
alive. It continually produced luxuriant growths. It was not
like it is now. If to-day there should be a deposit of soil
which one wishes to be rid of, it must be carried away by
external means. This substance of the ancient Moon died
away — but not like separate plants — it died away
and formed itself afresh. It was continually in inward living
motion. The fundamental substance of the Moon was in a
continuous state of decay and growth. And out of this
foundation grew another kingdom. Through the exit of the Moon
from the Sun the earlier kingdoms had changed. Upon the Sun
they corresponded approximately to our kingdoms. Through the
exit of the Moon the ancient plant kingdom was forced down
about half a stage, and so were the other kingdoms, so that
the next kingdom was a kind of animal-plant kingdom, but it
grew out of the ground. The animal-plants grew out of the
ground; they were in the form of plants, but when one took
hold of them they had sensations, they squeaked, etc. They
were actually half animal and half plant; plants inasmuch as
they grew on the ground, most of them firmly rooted to the
ground, and animals inasmuch as they had a certain capacity
for sensation. And the kingdom which preceded the present
human beings were human-animals, beings standing between the
present man and the present animals; higher than the present
apes, but not as high as the present human beings. That was
approximately the form of our human ancestors upon the Moon.
Legends
and myths have preserved these truths in a wonderful
way. Think how a German legend has preserved the secret
hidden behind all this. Certain beings always remain behind.
Beings between the present plants and the present animals,
which could only take root in a vegetable basis such as was
the substance of the ancient Moon — these beings also
remained behind,
and on this account are incapable of thriving on the mineral
ground of our present earth. Our present plants can grow in
this, but those which stood between the plants and animals
and which needed a living basis, cannot, if they have
remained behind, grow in mineral soil. Mistletoe is such a
plant. Hence it has to “sponge” upon the present plants
because it is a backward being. It no longer has sensation,
although the astral body enveloping mistletoe is quite
different from that of other plants. The German legend
perceived that mistletoe does not belong to our earth, that
it is a stranger. In the god Baldur the legend recognizes the
god of the earth-sun, the earth force. No being of the earth
can approach him with hostile feelings. Hence also the god
whom the German legend knew to be a straggler, namely, Loki,
cannot kill Baldur with anything belonging to the earth; he
has to kill him with a branch of mistletoe, because this is a
stranger among the creations of the earth, and for this
reason can serve the straggler, Loki, who is not related to
the earth gods. Deep wisdom is hidden behind these legends,
and in this legend of Baldur-Loki, this can be clearly
traced. It can also be seen in the customs connected with the
mistletoe. If you were to study these you would find that
what is said about them proceeds from an ancient wisdom.
Then
in the second half of the Moon-evolution came the time
when the Sun-beings, as well as the beings who had remained
behind upon the Moon., had attained what had to be attained
during the old Moon period. And then the Sun and Moon united
again; they came together and for a time continued their
evolution as one body.
Then
the evolutionary condition gradually darkened and passed
through the purely spiritual condition usually called
Pralaya, and then came the dawning of our Earth evolution.
At first this dawning cosmic body contained not only our
present earth substance; it consisted of what you would
obtain if you were to mix together in a gigantic cauldron the
substance of the present sun, earth and moon. That was
approximately the condition at the beginning of the earth's
evolution. This was first a kind of repetition of the Saturn
condition and then of the Sun condition and then of the Moon
condition.
Now
the most important thing for us to realize is that man
really only becomes man in the present sense in the middle of
the Earth evolution. In the Earth period also we have to
distinguish seven conditions. We are now in the fourth. Three
have gone before and three will follow. It was in the fourth
principal cycle that our present human race was to become
man. Now, just as in all the Rounds upon Saturn, Sun and
Moon, certain beings reached the human stage (upon Saturn the
Asuras or Original Forces, upon the Sun the Archangels, and
upon the Moon the Angels), there were always beings who
remained behind. Upon the Moon there were also beings who
could no longer reach the human stage, backward Angels, shall
we say, who could only catch up their human stage upon the
Earth planet during the first three Rounds. Man reached this
stage at the fourth. We therefore say: Before man three other
kinds of beings passed through the human stage upon the
earth, and the fourth to pass through the human stage upon
the earth is man himself. At that moment in cosmic evolution
when man is about to become man, all the beings who have been
able to pass through the human stage, throughout Saturn, Sun,
Moon and the first three Rounds of the Earth, are beings who
have more or less progressed beyond man. But they are all
able to look back, as it were, and remember the stage at
which they themselves passed through the human stage. They
could look down upon the evolving human being and say, “He
is now becoming something which we have already been,
something which we can understand; although we passed through
the stage under different circumstances.” For this reason
they could guide and regulate his evolution from the
spiritual world.
Let
us enumerate how many of these beings there are who are
able to look back at the human stage, who are able to
under-stand evolving man. Seven from the Saturn evolution,
plus seven from the Sun, plus seven from the Moon stage, plus
three from the Earth; twenty-four beings in all. Twenty-four
“Men” look down upon the present man. These are the beings
whom for good reasons we have called the guides of evolution, the
directors of time. Time is connected with evolution. They are
the twenty-four Elders who meet us in the Apocalypse of John.
They are the same beings who are described in the part
relating to the secret of the seven seals. They are described
as the real directors of history, the true Alpha and Omega.
Thus we have also found the twenty-four Elders again here and
you see how the Apocalyptist who wrote this important
document has secreted in his pictures in a wonderful way what
we ourselves are able to find from the study of the spiritual
evolution of the world.
Now
certain beings had remained behind at every stage; so
that the backward Saturn beings came out upon the Sun as the
first foundations of the present animal kingdom, and the
backward Sun beings came out at the Moon stage as the first
foundations of the present plant kingdom. Only upon the Earth
did a stage of evolution appear as the mineral kingdom. We
have stressed the fact that upon the Moon there was as yet no
mineral kingdom, man had as yet no rocks to walk upon. At the
time when present man began to pass through the human stage,
the first mineral masses, the first crystals appeared in the
planet which then stood at a stage between the substances of
the ancient Moon and the present earthly substance. This was
the moment when the mineral kingdom burst forth, and you find
this bursting forth described in a very unique manner in the
Apocalypse of John where he says: “Around the throne it was
crystallized like a glassy sea.” This “glassy sea” is to
indicate the bursting forth, the budding forth of the mineral
kingdom in its primary form. Thus we see that this secret of
cosmic evolution is also indicated in the Apocalypse of John.
And from it we have also learnt to perceive that to this
degree the writer wishes to present to us in his mighty
pictures exactly what we are able to recognize in the
development of the earth from the spirit life itself. But in
this way the Apocalyptist has led us, at the beginning of his
book, to the heights where man can see the pictures of the
future stages of evolution.
We
have now laid a good foundation to link up again with what
we have already learnt about the first ages of the future
evolution of humanity. In this digression we have now cast
a glance into the past, to where man is ready to become
man, where the mineral kingdom shoots forth. And now we shall
see how human evolution proceeds further as far as to our own
age and thence into the future. We shall find the connection with
the secret of the seven seals and their unsealing, up to the
outpouring of the vials of wrath.
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