Foundations at the Periphery: Rudolf Steiner's Observations on Star Knowledge

“Now Plato looked upon mathematical science as a means of training for life in the World of Ideas emancipated from sense-perception. The mathematical images hover over the border-line between the material and the purely spiritual World. Let us think about the “circle”; we do not think of any special material circle which perhaps has been drawn on paper, but we think of any and every circle which may be represented or met with in Nature. So it is in the case of all mathematical pictures. They relate to the sense-perceptible, but they are not exhaustively contained in it. It is not the material circle which teaches me the laws of the circle; it is the ideal circle existing only in my mind and of which the concrete form is a mere representation. The essential property of mathematical perception is this: that a single sense-perceptible form leads me beyond itself; it can only be for me a representation of a comprehensive spiritual fact.

“We should consider what eminent persons have said about the relation of mathematics to natural science. Kant and many others like him, for example, have said that there is as much of true science as there is mathematics in our knowledge of Nature. This implies nothing else than that by reducing to mathematical formulae all natural phenomena, a science is obtained transcending sense-perception - a science which, although expressed through sense-perception, is visualised in the spirit. I have visualised the working of a machine only after I have reduced it to mathematical formulae. To express by such formulae the processes presented to the senses is the ideal of mechanics and physics and is increasingly becoming the ideal of chemistry.

“But it is only that which exists in space and time and has extension in this sense, which may be thus mathematically expressed. As soon as we rise to the higher worlds where it is not only in this sense that Extension must be understood, the science of Mathematics itself fails to afford any immediate expression. But the method of perception which underlies mathematical science must not be lost. We must attain the faculty to speak of the realms of Life and Soul, etc., quite as independently of the particular objective entity, as we are able to speak of the “circle” independently of the particular circle drawn upon paper.

“What I can state in terms of Euclid about a circle, a triangle or about the relations of numbers, is within the field of the finite, it is capable of construction in a sense-perceptible manner. This is no longer possible with the Differential Calculus with which Newton and Leibnitz taught us to reckon. For sense-perception, the Differential is but a point, a zero. For spiritual comprehension, however, the point becomes alive, the zero becomes an active Cause. Thus, for our spiritual perception, Space itself is called to life. Materially perceived, all its points, its infinitesimally small parts, are dead; if, however, we perceive these points as differential magnitudes, an inner life awakens in the dead “side-by-side”. Extension itself becomes the creation of the extensionless. Thus did life flow into Natural Science through Infinitesimal Calculus. The realm of the senses is led back to the point of the supersensible.

“In this way important indications have been set for Occultism. Even when mathematical thought ventures beyond the limits of sense-perception, it yet retains the strictness and sureness of true thought control. Even if errors do creep in, in this field, they will never act so misleadingly as do the undisciplined thoughts of the non-mathematical student when he penetrates into the realms of the supersensible.

“Plato and the Gnostics only recognised in mathematical science a good means of education, and no more than this is here implied about the mathematics of the infinitely small; nevertheless to the Occultist it does present itself as a good educational means. It teaches him to effect a strict mental self-education where sense-perceptions are no longer there to control his wrong associations of ideas.

“When the Occultist, who starts from a point of view like that of Plato, calls for research in the mathematical spirit, he can easily be misunderstood. It might be objected that he overrates the mathematical spirit. This is not the case. Such an overrating rather exists on the part of those who admit exact knowledge only to the extent to which mathematical science reaches. There are students of natural science at the present time who reject as not being scientific in the full sense of the word any statement which cannot be expressed in numbers or figures. For them vague faith begins where mathematics end; and according to them, all right to claim objective knowledge ceases at this point. It is precisely those who oppose this overrating of mathematics itself who can most thoroughly value the true enlightened research which advances in the spirit of mathematics even where mathematical science itself ceases. For in its direct meaning mathematical science after all has only to do with what is quantitative; where the qualitative begins, there its domain ends.

“Just as the mathematician builds the shapes of iron into machines according to mathematical laws, so does the Occultist shape life and soul in the world according to the laws of these realms which he has understood in the spirit of mathematical science. The mathematician is led back to real life through his mathematical laws; the Occultist no less through his laws.” (118, pp. 218-221)

“It is implicit in evolution that the currents in the universe do not develop with equal speed. Some must flow in advance, others catch up later. Because certain streams of evolution remain behind, conflicting interests arise in the world. This is a very important occult law. Theosophical literature describes certain ascending and descending phases of evolution. There are seven planetary evolutions, each with 49 conditions, thus, 343 conditions. These approximately divided into half, bring us to the middle of the Atlantean Epoch (Fourth Root Race, 4^th phase (physical form), Fourth Round (mineral kingdom), Fourth planetary evolution (waking condition). The ascent begins with the intervention of the Luciferic principle. During the descent, evolution slows down, but during the re-ascent its speed continually increases. This acceleration of development does not however apply to the whole physical plane, but only to individual entities.

“The Lords of Wisdom were at first involved in an ascending evolution; the middle of the Atlantean epoch represented what was to them an apex. In respect of Love (Budhi), the higher beings are only at the beginning. They instill Love into the macrocosm but in respect of Love they are in the descending line, in the slowing-off stage; on the other hand, the Lords of the Luciferic principle are going through their ascending evolution. That is why intellectuality is increasing very rapidly but ennoblement through Love is proceeding very slowly.

“Thus two streams must always flow into one another, and through the interpenetration of two streams, perfect in themselves, arises relative evil. In the world there is only relative Good and relative Evil. Jesus says to his disciples: `Wherefore callest thou me good? None is good save the Father.' Nothing in the world is good save the Primal Principle of the Father.” (119, pp. 1/3-1/4)

“In the `Substances' there is a certain connection between the Dhyanis and the Elemental beings. Man was in the condition of the `Substances' when he emerged from the condition of the Elemental beings, and united with the soul.. Men at that time were still only models, forms; they were luminous globes, surrounded by their souls. In the middle of the Lemurian race, man became `Substance'. He has now transcended the grade of `Substance' and is on the way to Dhyanic development. Esotericism calls the being who in the Lemurian time was ready to be taken possession of by man: the `Human Being'.

“Those in whom Consciousness predominates have a their own Form consciousness which is more all-embracing than their own Life, their own Form. Therefore, they can exercise power over other lives and other forms. In Christian Esotericism these beings are called: Angels of the Rotation of Time. A planet is only able to revolve around the sun because it has an Angel of the Rotation of Time who can exercise the power of driving it around the sun. These are Planetary Dhyanis, or Planetary Spirits. Our earth has its own Angel of the Rotation of Time, its earth-Dyani. (The Earth Spirit in Faust). Its body is the whole astral substance of the earth.

“Man is on the way to becoming a Planetary Spirit, but as yet he is only the image of the Godhead in the mineral part of his constitution. He has still to develop his astral, rupa-mental and arupa-mental nature. He can become an Angel of the Rotation of Time at the end of the Seventh Round. Then the highest of the Dhyanis will say to him: “All the animals and plants are given over to thee.” Thus on the seventh day of creation, man becomes a Dhyani-chohan, a Dhyanic cosmic spirit.

“The beings in whom Consciousness, Life and Form are equally balanced can exercise power over Form, and are themselves guided in respect of their consciousness. Beings of this nature are to a certain degree human; they then develop in such a way as to free themselves from being dominated by their Form. They strive to reach what is higher, to attain consciousness of their own.

“The Elemental Spirits are beings in whom Form is more powerful than Life or Consciousness; they therefore need other Life and other Consciousness if their Form is to be dominated. They are the exact opposite of the Dhyanic Beings. The Elemental Spirit must establish itself in the Life and Consciousness of other beings in order to use these for itself. Hence it is a retarding Spirit, keeping back for itself the Life and Consciousness of other beings.

“All parasitic beings are ruled and controlled by Elemental Spirits. These are the beings who had already completed their own particular development in the Lemurian epoch, hence Form predominates in them. They are now on the decline; so too, for instance, are all the animals which have an outer skeleton. On the Moon they had an inner skeleton. The inner skeleton has dissolved, and they surround themselves externally with a horny layer (e.g. beetles). These are preparing for their decline into the Eighth Sphere. The Moon has also had an Eighth Sphere, a companion moon. At that time these beings were complete, but they shot beyond their evolution and are now like over-ripe fruit. Spiders belong to the Eighth Sphere; and among plants, the mistletoe. For that reason Goethe described the kingdom of the spiders and the flies to Mephistopheles. Everything parasitical is an external expression of Elemental beings living on the astral plane. Man was formerly an elemental being himself. Not all that is physical in man is destined to be redeemed; the dross will be left behind. This dross is continually present in man, it is under the influence of the astral elemental beings.” (119, pp. 3/1-3/3)

“Every being must pass through the seven stages of consciousness, and all these stages of consciousness together are called in esoteric parlance: a Planetary System. When a being passes through the processes of a Planetary System, this means that such a being undergoes metamorphosis in these seven stages of consciousness. Man is now passing through the condition of Waking Consciousness - the Earth condition. Previously he passed through the condition of Dream Consciousness; this was during the Lemurian period of evolution. He had already passed through his Moon evolution.” (119, pg. 4/3)

“Physically we perceive only one part of the cosmos, a fragment of the whole. From this point of view a visible heavenly body is one which is in the phase of physical Form, and of the Mineral Kingdom among the stages of Life. Physical visibility arises gradually from Arupa downwards, and vanishes upwards also by degrees, towards Archetypal form.

“These conditions of form are called `Phases'. The Earth had passed through the Arupa, Rupa and Astral conditions before it became physically visible. After the physical it will have to pass through the Plastic, Intellectual and Archetypal conditions. On the Physical plane there is an occult relation between these phases of Form and the Phases of the Moon. Thus the passage through the seven Phases of Form from Arupa to Archetypal is called a `Cosmic Month' (though not in all esoteric terminology). The passage through all the conditions of Consciousness is called a `Cosmic Year'. Between the Cosmic Month and the Cosmic Year lies the Cosmic Day - the seven conditions of Life: longer than the Cosmic Month and shorter than the Cosmic Year.

“Esoterically, Consciousness is called the Sun; Form, the Moon; Life, the Earth. A condition of consciousness lasts the longest, a condition of life, not so long. Every condition of life must pass through the seven states of form. From the Arupic condition of form up to the Archetypal condition of form man passes, first, through the first elemental kingdom, then through the second and so on. In this way he passes through 7 x 7 successive metamorphoses. There are the seven Rounds which each passes through seven metamorphoses. Thus man passes through 49 Form-metamorphoses on the Earth; he passed through 49 on the Moon. 49 such metamorphoses are passed through on each of the Planetary Systems, making altogether 7 x 49 = 343 (the total of the digits of 343 = 10). These 343 conditions represent a Cosmic Year. We are now living in the 4^th Planetary System, the 4^th Stage of Consciousness (Waking Consciousness).

“On the Earth we are passing through the 4^th Kingdom of Life, the 4^th Round, the Mineral. The Mineral Kingdom is in the 4^th Phase of Form (Physical) and completes it in this Round. Therefore the physical body of man in its mineral constituents reaches completion in this Round; only after the completion of all 343 conditions will man become what we call a God (but not the supreme God). Humanity then becomes the Third Logos - in reality, the Logos of Form - who will have passed through the 343 metamorphoses and will represent form at its highest stage.

“The Consciousness of the First Planet was that of Deep Trance. Its horizon was the most extensive and was also the dimmest. In this state of consciousness man had a vista of the whole Planetary System. Consciousness in the Second Planetary System was that of Dreamless Sleep; in the Third, that of Dream-filled Sleep. In the consciousness of Dreamless Sleep man perceived life; and in Dream-filled Sleep he also became aware of feeling.

“The Consciousness of the Fourth Planet is Waking Consciousness, the most circumscribed of all; but it is also the state in which man learns to be aware of the process of ideation, thought, in other beings. It is a very clear kind of consciousness. The physical stage of Consciousness on the Fifth Planet will be far clearer than the present stage; it will extend over the whole astral world.

“Primordial Man passes first, in the Deep Trance Consciousness, through the seven Kingdoms in seven stages; the middle stage is the densest on each Planet. Thus man passes through the following development:-

“Everything is the same as in the First Planet, only at a higher stage; as is the case in the five succeeding Planets. The twenty-fifth stage is the Middle one: it is always the deepest, the densest. We are now at the twenty-fifth stage on the Fourth Planet, therefore in the densest condition of all.”

“The Physical rudiments arose as dense Physical balls. The Earth at that time was like our Ether, or the Light-Substance of our present Earth, and after the Fall of Consciousness into the Abyss, the Earth had the form of a mulberry.

“On the Second Planet, in the Deep Sleep Consciousness, man descended into Number. The balls that had come into being on the First Planet functioned in a mighty harmony. The outcome of this Second Condition is that the chemical elements are not chaotic combinations. Colours and Sounds are ordered according to Cosmic Number. Thus on the Second Planet everything is arranged in accordance with Measure, Number and Weight.

“In the First Stage, when man descended into Number, the possibility arose of division into two Kingdoms. There was one Kingdom which extended as far as man, and a second consisting of everything that was not able to develop to the human stage. This was separated as a special second Kingdom, as something superfluous. This developed into lower Kingdoms. Nothing can occur in higher evolution without something being separated off, higher development must always be at the cost of another development or evolution.

“On the Third Planet something more was added besides Number, namely, the Law of Elective Affinity. Beings develop sympathy and antipathy for one another. This law is to be found in all Kingdoms (for instance in chemistry, in the Mineral Kingdom). This created the possibility for the formation of a new kingdom: the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms are forged. Man as we see him today, did not then exist; he was still a sort of animal: the Spirit had not yet drawn into the bodies.

“On the fourth Planet, in the Day Consciousness, the possibility develops in certain beings of refusing to submit to the Law of Elective Affinity. A Force of Life which could be carried onward had now come into existence, namely Birth and Death, which until then were non-existent. Through Birth and Death, beings already separate are held together by a supersensible life-thread. The single incarnations are strung together as on a thread. Through Birth and Death, beings now become manifold in Time. Previously, they were manifold only in Space. Multiplication took place through severance and all beings lived in sympathy or antipathy with each other.”

“Human Karma is connected with Birth and Death. In the future Planets, man, with his enhanced consciousness, will no longer be conscious of the effects of Karma only. His inner forces will have so developed that he will have the will to represent his Karma. In his own form and physiognomy, he will be what he is in his astral and mental bodies. In that epoch, what is really Good will be outwardly perceptible as Good, and the Evil as Evil (such evil as, for instance, is present in black magicians). Then there takes place the great division between the Good and the Evil. This will take place on the Fifth Planet. From the Fifth Planet onwards we can speak only of the evolution of the Good.

“On the Sixth Planet, as evolution proceeds, everything that is meaningless, that reveals itself on the lower mental plane as stupid and illogical, will be split off. The Sixth Planet is the Planet of the Logos, of the Word, because the Word imparts the meaning.

“During the evolution of the body which passed through all these many stages, the Spirit was all the time present; but at first it hovered over the body. Only in the middle of the Lemurian epoch did it unite with the body. The Spirit is destined to amass experiences on the lower planes through the body.” (119, pp. 5/1-5/6)

“From the middle of the Fourth Round onwards, evolution must take another direction. Man enters into an external relation to the Cosmos. Minerals, Plants and Animals are more closely related to the surrounding Universe than he. The crystal lives unsevered from the Universe. Man is the most cut off, he is a self-enclosed being.

“This happened to physical man in the middle of the Lemurian Race. He created the house for the Spirit; the Spirit united with him, and man began, through community, to reunite with the rest of the world.

“Brotherhood -Lodges evolve into Dhyanic Beings. These Beings are, as it were, a collection of cells, forming one Spiritual Being. The Brotherhood-Lodge of the Adepts will guide as one Dhyanic Being. Here again is an enrichment of evolution. In the middle of the Fourth Round lies a very important point. Human Spirits begin to unite into a Brotherhood and to form a Dhyanic Being. In the first half of the Round man forms the organs by means of which his being radiates outwards; in the second half of the Round he draws these organs again into himself. The first half serves as preparation for the indrawing; in the second half, each being, according to the manner of its life, reaches a corresponding stage of redemption.

“In esoteric language, Rounds are called Cycles; in each Cycle, evolution runs its course from Arupa to the Archetypal. This is known as an Epicycle. A being can pass through Karmic development only during the second half of a Cycle. This Karma is of significance on the plane on which he is developing.

“Every people, every race, every racial stock, has a common Astral Substance, the material for the incarnation of the Folk-Spirit. The Folk-Spirit always develops rather sooner than the individual members of a people. The Folk-Spirit can gather Karma from the middle of a Cycle onwards. We all help to form the Karma of the race, of the people. This is collective Karma. Endeavors to promote internationalism belong to the Spirit who embraces the collective Astral Substance of the whole Earth, the true Earth-Spirit. The physical Earth is also the physical body for this Earth-Spirit, the Planetary Logos.” (119, pp. 6/4-6/6)

“During the first half of every cycle, man takes in - and gives out during the second half. Thus in the first half of a Cycle, the Mineral Kingdom is separated out, because it is a hindrance to man. Thus he uses for his advantage the whole force which would serve for the further development of this Kingdom, and later he draws it in again. Thus in the second half of the Cycle, the Mineral Kingdom will be redeemed, metamorphosed by man. In the second half of the Cycle he gives to the Mineral Kingdom the results of his own development.

“There is nothing in the evolution of man which is not subject to the metamorphosis of taking and giving. This conditions our ethical behaviour in the highest degree. Whatever we take we may take only in order to give it forth again.

“The Dhyanic Beings at earlier stages of their evolution passed through the phase of taking, therefore on the Earth they are now `giving' Beings. From the very beginning they were the actual Builders. When the one Globe split into many, these Beings were the Builders. At the second stage they organised these Globes according to measure, number and weight. At the third stage they introduced the law of Elective Affinity, of sympathy and antipathy. At the fourth stage they rule over Birth and Death, over Karma. They, the Dhyanis, are the Lords of Karma, the Lipikas, who are above all `taking', above sympathy and antipathy. They intervened at the fourth stage of consciousness, the stage of Day Consciousness. New Builders constantly intervene at the stage of evolution that has been attained by man.

“Let us try to understand the nature of these Builders. Beings at the human stage receive and give alternately. We can give only what we have first received. Man is subject, alternately, to perception, taking in, and to activity that is subject to the law of giving. The law of the Builders is the Law of Manifestation, their activity is called revealed, manifested activity. (The ordering of the world according to measure, number and weight, sympathy and antipathy, the division into Good and Evil.) There is a vast difference between the self-manifesting Beings and man.” (119, pp. 7/1-7/2)

“At that time, only the most highly evolved Pitris were able to incarnate; the others were not yet able to make use of their bodies. Until the end of the Atlantean race, new Pitris were constantly coming in; even now, incarnations of Pitris occur in lowest races, also in the lowest levels of population of our great cities, where we still find childish, little developed Pitris. But at the present time there are few who are incarnating for the very first time. There are now only very few young Pitris who are still completely under the sway of Kama.” (119, pg. 7/5)

“In the middle of the Lemurian epoch the force of propagation was divided into two parts in the human being. It was therefore only half as strong as before, and the second half of this force was used for the development of the faculty of thinking. Up to this time, man had developed at the cost of other Kingdoms which were separated off. Now man had to divide into two halves: the lower productive force and the higher productive force (the power of thought). The latter was developed at the expense of the former. Until then there were no warm-blooded beings; even men were cold-blooded beings. All the cold-blooded beings of to-day are the descendants of the cold-blooded beings of that time. All the warm-blooded beings in existence now were at that time still united with man and they split off by degrees: reptiles, birds and mammals. The apes separated off at a comparatively late period. All the warm-blooded animals are stages which man left behind, which he threw off as he previously threw off the Mineral Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom, and the cold-blooded Animals.” (119, pg. 8/1)

“At the time of the first human race, the Polarian, the Earth was an etheric globe. This soon condensed into matter - that is to say, several million years later - for as regards the whole evolution of the world this period may be described as `soon'. We see the beginning of the development of what we call `air'.

“In the air itself are formed the first rudiments of what we call `fire' and `water'. But the water in the air was a fiery mist. The Earth was then a vaporous fire-mist; this was at the beginning of the Lemurian epoch. Water as we know it to-day was formed only later, when the Earth began to cool down. We must remember that in all these stages of evolution, man was present in some form or other; man is always dependent upon his environment.” (119, pg. 9/1)

“Everything in the Universe comes into being in this way; all Being is the result of activity, and all activity implies the existence of something passive. These are the two poles; there is an active and passive element in even the tiniest atom. The forces lay the same little skins round the atom; it then becomes convex from outside and concave from within. As regards the Cosmos, we represent the passive part, for we continually receive impressions. These continuous impressions are felt by the astral body. We must distinguish both activity and passivity in the astral world.”

“Everything that is `passive Being' for man, is called the Physical plane. (This is the aggregate of passive Being). The aggregate of `passive Life' is called the Astral plane. The aggregate of all `passive Thought' is called the Rupa Mental Plane. The aggregate of all `active Thought' is called the Arupa Mental plane.

“If we have a clock, a mechanical instrument, we can know in advance how it will behave; but this is not so much so in the case of objects constituting lifeless nature, yet in a sense this also applies, as, for instance, in the case of an eclipse of the Sun which can be calculated. There we can speak of the element of necessity; as a rule we can know what it will do under certain circumstances. The higher we ascend in the kingdoms of Nature, the less we are able to say what a being will do in a certain situation. The higher a man stands as regards his talents and attainments, the less we can say what he will be likely to do. We must simply wait and see. We must accept the creation of the World as a free act of the Logos. We must not question the Why and Wherefore. All those who have true insight have never spoken of a Cause of the Creation of the Universe.” (119, pg. 12/4)

“The days of the week are named after the Planets. We shall learn how the names were given by the Chaldean sages. These Chaldean sages say that every day is divided into four: morning, afternoon, before midnight, after midnight. These four divisions they regarded as the first element in time, in the division of time. They related the fourfold day to the seven known Planets.

“They described the cycle of the seven planets by relating it to the fourfold day, until the starting-point is again reached. They took a number of days one after another, making the planetary cycles run through the fourfold days. They dedicated the morning to the Moon. At the end of the week each Planet has gone through a fourfold cycle. They named each day of the week according to the Planet to which the morning was dedicated.

Commercial civilization has no understanding for the naming of the days of the week according to the Planets. There is a very special relation to be noticed in this connection, namely, from four to seven, from the Quaternary to the Seven Principles. The giving of the names to the days of the week is a human institution, but it is not arbitrary. In those olden times men allowed the cosmic conditions to resound from all things, and their institutions were in accordance with the relation of the Microcosm to the Macrocosm.” (119, pp. 13/1-13/2)

“There now follows an important cosmic event. The sun is extruded. Thereby certain forces simply leave the earth. These forces are composed of part of what hitherto had existed on earth in the life ether and in the chemical and light ether.{see 26 Nov. 1906 } These forces, so to speak, were withdrawn from the earth. A radical change thereby took place among all groups of terrestrial beings which previously had contained these forces within themselves. They all suffered a transformation.

“The consequence of the extrusion of the sun was a further material densification of the earth. Solid matter developed from fluid; likewise the light ether separated into another kind of light ether, and into an ether which gives bodies the capacity to increase temperature . . . With this there had developed the firm skeleton of the mineral realm of earth. At first the higher natural realms did not act upon this rigid mineral skeleton. Thus, on the earth there exist a mineral realm which is solid, and a plant realm which has water and air as its densest substantiality. In the latter, through the events we have described, the air body had become condensed to a water body. There also existed animals of the most varied forms, some with water and some with air bodies. The human body itself had become subject to a process of densification. It had condensed to its most compact corporeality to the point of wateriness. The newly-developed heat ether coursed through this water body. This gave to his body a substantiality which could perhaps be called gaslike. This material condition of the human body is described in works on mystery science as that of the fire mist. Man was embodied in this body of fire mist.

“The scientist of the spirit must strictly avoid even representing anything to himself which is based on merely reflecting, combining, speculating, and so forth. Here he must practice the most far-reaching renunciation and be quite clear that all speculating, intellectual philosophizing, and so forth is a hindrance to true seeing. These activities still belong entirely to the lower nature of man, and truly higher cognition begins only when this nature raises itself to the higher nature in man. Here nothing is really said against these activities, which are not only wholly justified in their field, but are there the only justified ones.” (56, pp. 146-147)

“A fact which will play a certain role in the following essays will be briefly indicated here. This concerns the speed with which the development on the different planets takes place. For this is not the same on all the planets. Life proceeds with the greatest speed on Saturn, the rapidity then decreases on the Sun, becomes still less on the Moon and reaches its slowest phase on the earth. On the latter it becomes slower and slower, to the point at which self-consciousness develops. Then the speed increases again. Therefor, today man has already passed the time of the greatest slowness of his development. Life has begun to accelerate again. On Jupiter the speed of the Moon, on Venus that of the Sun will again be attained.” (56, pg. 171)

“In order to understand the development of mankind, one must realize that in this second great cycle {The great cycle means the evolutionary planet} the Sun was still a planet, and that only later did it advance to the existence of a fixed star. In the sense of mystery science, a fixed star is one which sends life forces to one or several planets situated at a distance from it. During the second cycle this was not the case with the Sun. At that time it was still united with the beings to which it gave force.” (56, pp. 184-185)

“Only during the next (third) great cycle did that detach itself from the Sun which in mystery science is called the Moon. This is not the present moon, but the predecessor of our earth, its previous embodiment (reincarnation), as it were . . .

“After the third (Moon) cycle there occurred another period of rest (Pralaya). During this period the two separate bodies (Sun and Moon) became united and together passed through the condition of the sleeping seed. In the fourth cyclic period, Sun and planetary Moon at first emerged from the obscurity of sleep as one body. During the first half of this cycle our earth, along with man and his companions, split off from the Sun. A little later it cast off the present moon, so there now exist three members as descendants of the former Sun planet.” (56, pp. 185-186)

“The third principal condition of the development of mankind presents itself as the one in which the `races' first came into being. This event was brought about by the separation of the moon from the earth. This separation was accompanied by the originating of the two sexes. This stage of the development of mankind has been repeatedly referred to in the descriptions from the `Akasha Chronicle'. When the earth, still united with the moon, split off from the sun, a male and female sex did not as yet exist within mankind. Each human being combined the two sexes within its still highly refined body.

“It must be remembered however that these double-sexed human ancestors were on a low level of development as compared with present-day man. The lower impulses acted with immeasurable energy, and nothing of a spiritual development as yet existed. That the latter was stimulated and that thereby certain lower impulses were confined within certain bounds, is connected with the fact that, at the same time at which earth and moon separated, the former came into the sphere of influence of other heavenly bodies. This extremely significant co-operation of the earth with other heavenly bodies, its meeting with foreign planets, in the time which theosophical literature calls the Lemurian, will be related in a further chapter of the `Akasha Chronicle'.”(56, pp. 223-224)

“The fourfold man of earth receives from sun and moon the influences of those forces which have remained connected with these heavenly bodies. From the sun those forces reach him which further progress, growth, and becoming; from the moon come hardening, forming forces. If man stood only under the influence of the sun he would dissolve in an immeasurably rapid process of growth. It is for this reason that formerly, after an appropriate time, he had to leave the Sun and to receive a retarding of his over-rapid progress on the split-off Moon. But if then he had remained permanently connected with the latter, this retarding of his growth would have hardened him in a rigid form. Therefor he advanced to the development of earth, within which the two influences counterbalance each other in an appropriate way. At the same time the point is reached where something higher - the soul - is integrated as an inner entity within the quadripartite human being.” (56, pp. 236-237)