Earth

"The Blue Marble" is a famous photograph of the Earth taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft

The Earth (Old High German: erda; Hebrew: הָאָרֶץ ha-Aretz "earth, land"; astronomical sign: ♁ or LaTeX: \oplus) is, from a heliocentric point of view, the densest, fifth largest and third closest planet to the Sun in our solar system. Together with the other planets, the Earth is, from a spiritual-scientific point of view, the fourth embodiment of our planetary system, which emerged from the Old Moon that preceded it after passing through a purely spiritual Pralaya.

The spiritual mission of the Earth and its evolution

The Earth is the setting of the evolution of man and the natural kingdoms associated with it. In mythology, the Earth is often regarded as a living and life-giving feminine-maternal being and is addressed, for example, as Mother Earth, Earth Mother, Magna Mater (Great Mother) or Gaia.

According to Rudolf Steiner, the goal of the Earth's evolution is to become the Cosmos of Love, for its spiritual mission is to bring love into the world. For this it needs the human being, who here develops his independent ego. For the bearer of love can only be a being that is able to give itself away of its own free will. The prerequisites for this were created by the incarnation of the Christ on Earth and the [[Mystery of Golgotha.

The Earth's evolution will be followed as the fifth planetary stage of development by the New Jupiter, which is called the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse of St. John.

Previous and subsequent stages of world evolution

A long preparation was necessary for the Earth to fulfil its mission. In the course of the planetary stages of world evolution, the Earth has already gone through three previous embodiments before it entered into external existence in its present form. These earlier embodiments of the Earth, which must not be confused with the present celestial bodies of the same name, are called, according to anthroposophical terminology: Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon. The Earth's evolution will be followed by three further stages of world evolution: the New Jupiter, the New Venus and the Vulcan. On these, man will be able to rise to even higher levels of development.

The Earth as a creation of the Elohim

The entire evolution of the Earth is under the dominion of the Spirits of Form, the Elohim, who are spoken of in the creation report of Genesis. At the beginning of the first day of creation, the heaven (Hebrew: שמים Shamayim "heavenly waters", with article: Hebrew: השמים ha-Shamajim) separated from the Earth. According to Rudolf Steiner, this primarily refers to the separation of the earth from the Sun:

„In the beginning the Elohim created the heavens and the earth.
Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
Bereschit bara Älohim et ha-Schamajim we'et ha-Áräz“

– Genesis 1:1

The Earth sphere

→ Main article: Earth sphere

In the broadest sense, the Earth sphere can be defined as any sphere belonging to the Earth that surrounds the centre of the Earth as an approximately spherical area - even far beyond the solid, mineral Earth. In the external geophysical sense, this can be the atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, biosphere and lithosphere (the uppermost part of which is the pedosphere) or the solid or plastic Earth made up of concentric shells, which is also called the geosphere and, according to the current view, consists of the inner and outer core of the Earth, the Earth's mantle and the w:Earth's crust.

In the anthroposophically extended sense, the Earth sphere also includes all spheres that can only be perceived spiritually and that are directly connected with our Earth. These include the nine layers of the Earth's interior, as described by Dante Alighieri in his "Divine Comedy" with the nine circles of hell. Furthermore, the etheric sphere and the astral sphere of the Earth should also be mentioned, from whose forces the etheric body and the astral body of the earthly embodied human being are taken. The Spirit of Earth comprises the totality of all spiritual beings who have united themselves with the Earth. At its centre is the Christ Himself, who through the Mystery of Golgotha has completely united Himself with the evolution of the Earth and of man.

Properties of the physical earth

Earth is the heliocentric view, the densest, fifth largest and third closest planet to the Sun in our solar system and has a diameter of more than 12,700 kilometres. Its age is now estimated at about 4.6 billion years. The Earth's mass' (short M_⊕, sometimes M_E) is about 5.9722-10²⁴ kg (5.97 quadrillion tonnes). Since the Earth's surface is about 2/3 covered with water and therefore appears predominantly blue when seen from space, it has also been called the Blue Planet since the era of manned space flight.

The daily and annual motion of the Earth

The Earth moves in the copernican system prograde on the approximately elliptical Earth's orbit' at an average distance of 149.6 million km around the Sun. The plane in which the Earth's orbit lies is called the ecliptic. The sderial period of the Earth measured at the fixed stars background is about 365.256 days. The sidereal year (also called stellar year), with 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 9.54 seconds, is 20 minutes and 24 seconds longer than the tropical year, which is counted from spring equinox to spring equinox and forms the basis of the civil calendar with 365 or 366 days (leap year).

The earth rotates relative to the fixed stars sky prograde in eastern direction once in 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.10 seconds. This time span is a sideral day. Because the Earth also continues to move along its orbit at the same time, it is somewhat shorter than the true solar day, the time span between two meridian passages of the Sun, which approximately corresponds to the time between two solar zeniths. Due to the Earth's orbital motion, its length varies slightly over the course of a year. Its annual average, the mean solar day, is fixed at 24 hours, which in turn are divided into 60 minutes each and these in turn into 60 seconds each. In total, a day therefore has 86,400 seconds.

The Earth's axis pierces the Earth's surface at the two geographic poles, the geographic North Pole and the geographic South Pole. The geomagnetic poles currently deviate from this by about 11.5 °. The Earth's axis is inclined at 23°26' to the Earth's orbit. As a result, the Sun shines differently on the northern and southern hemispheres of the Earth during the course of the year, resulting in the seasons that shape the Earth's climate. They not only have a decisive influence on earthly life, but also impulse the mood of the human soul in a very differentiated way. How differently the soul sounds in the course of the year becomes clear from the weekly verses of the soul calendars given by Rudolf Steiner.

The seasons and some of Earth's orbit's characteristics. The elliptical form is strongly exaggerated.

The inner physical structure of the Earth

The inner physical structure of Earth, which is mainly studied by geophysics, namely seismology, consists, in idealised terms, of concentric spherical shells, each of whose material has a distinctly different density. The spherical shell with the lowest density lies furthest out and is called the w:Earth's crust. This is followed by the Earth's mantle. The spherical shell with the greatest density, actually a full sphere, lies in the centre of the Earth's body and is called the Earth's core. It is divided into a liquid outer core and a solid inner core. From a geophysical point of view, the earth's magnetic field, which penetrates and surrounds the earth, is predominantly caused by the geodynamo in the liquid outer core of the earth. According to Rudolf Steiner, magnetism is primarily related to the ahrimanic forces.

The physical structure of the Earth is not to be confused with the only spiritually perceptible division of the Earth's interior into nine layers, as described by Rudolf Steiner and in a somewhat different way by Dante Alighieri in the Inferno of his "Divine Comedy".

Earth evolution

At the beginning of the Earth's evolution, these ancient planetary states were repeated in an abbreviated form. Between the individual repetitions, the Earth withdrew again and again from the outer physical appearance, first into a soulish and then into a purely spiritual existence, a so-called small Pralaya. Gradually, the present form of our planetary system was formed:

• In the 1st round of the Earth's existence, the Old Saturnian state repeated itself. The physical body and the sense organs already predisposed in it at that time were thereby made ripe for the reception of the I. During this time, first Uranus and then the present Saturn split off from the originally unified celestial body.
• In the second round, the Old Solar Existence was repeated and the etheric body and the glandular organs in the physical body were prepared for the development of the I. At that time, today's Jupiter emerged as an independent planet.
• In the 3rd round the Earlier Lunar State was repeated in order to prepare the astral body and the nervous system for the penetration of the ego force. Mars was then eliminated from the structure in which the Sun, Moon and Earth were still united.
• It was not until the 4th round, when the earth had re-emerged from the Pralaya into physical appearance, that the actual development of the Earth in the narrower sense began. It unfolds in seven main ages or root races. In the first main age, the Polar Age, all forces were again united in a single celestial body. Only in the next epoch, the Hyperborean Age, did the Sun break away from the common structure and then Venus and Mercury as well. It is around here, where the Sun and the Earth separated from each other, that the descriptions of the biblical story of creation begin. For the time being, the Earth remained united with the Moon. Only when, in the following Lemurian Age, the Moon also separated from the Earth, did the mineral kingdom (the sea of glass in the imagery of the Apocalypse) begin to emerge in the form of the first crystals; until then the Earth was still in a molten state. At this time, man also entered the Earth for the first time in physical form. When the Sun and Moon separated from the Earth, the so-called Mars passage also occurred, in which Mars passed through the Earth in etheric form. This brought iron into the Earth and made it possible for man to develop the sentient soul. The Lemurian epoch was followed by the Atlantean Age and finally the post-Atlantean Age, in which we are still standing now. It is divided into seven cultural epochs. Our present consciousness-soul age is the fifth epoch. After the end of the seventh epoch, two more root races will follow ours before the Earth retreats again into the Pralaya. Then a Mercury passage will also take place, in which the etheric Mercury will penetrate the Earth, which will then already be in the astral state. The Mercury forces, however, have been active since the middle of the Atlantean period; through their influence Mercury came to Earth and man was able to develop the consciousness soul (Lit.:GA 89, p. 73ff).
• In the course of the Earth's evolution, three further rounds will be passed through, in which future states of development of the Earth will be foreshadowed and thus prepared.

Literature

• Dankmar Bosse: Die gemeinsame Evolution von Erde und Mensch: Entwurf einer Geologie und Paläontologie der lebendigen Erde, Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgat 2002, ISBN 978-3772515934
• Klaus Podirsky: Fremdkörper Erde. Goldener Schnitt und Fibonacci-Folge und die Strukturbildung im Sonnensystem. Die faszinierende These einer gemeinsamen Evolution von Kosmos, Erde und Mensch, 4. Auflage, Info3-Verlag 2009, ISBN 978-3924391294
• Rudolf Steiner: Bewußtsein – Leben – Form , GA 89 (2001), ISBN 3-7274-0890-1 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Die Apokalypse des Johannes, GA 104 (1985), ISBN 3-7274-1040-X English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Erdensterben und Weltenleben. Anthroposophische Lebensgaben. Bewußtseins-Notwendigkeiten für Gegenwart und Zukunft, GA 181 (1991), ISBN 3-7274-1810-9 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Mysterienstätten des Mittelalters, GA 233a (1991), ISBN 3-7274-2335-8 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

The seven planetary stages of world evolution

Old Saturn | Old Sun | Old Moon | Earth | New Jupiter | New Venus | Vulcan