World evolution

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The first 4 planetary world evolutionary stages: Old Saturn - Old Sun - Old Moon - Earth; blackboard drawing from GA 354, p. 17.[1]

The world evolution unfolds from the anthroposophical and theosophical viewpoint in seven planetary stages of world evolution. Each cosmic-planetary stage of evolution comprises a world age (Sanskrit: कल्प Kalpa) and proceeds according to three fundamental principles, according to which the creation arising from the creative spiritual source is gradually condensed into material appearance - and then gradually spiritualises again. These three principles are called the Conditions of Consciousness, the Conditions of Life and the Conditions of Form.

World metamorphoses - reincarnation on a planetary scale

The seven planetary stages of World evolution correspond to seven successive planetary embodiments that form our planetary chain. The principle of reincarnation is universal and applies not only to individuals but also to entire worlds. Three planetary embodiments are already in the past. Rudolf Steiner calls these ancient planets Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon. Then follows our present Earth as the fourth stage. Three more embodiments will follow in the future, the New Jupiter, the New Venus and the so-called Vulcan.

Between the planetary embodiments, the so-called Manvantaras, lie purely spiritual states called Pralayas. The names of these Occult Planets are based on our present planets for certain inner reasons, but they must not be confused with them. Only a deeper occult contemplation reveals certain connections which justify the same naming for the Occult Planets and for certain present-day planets. Old Saturn, for instance, was so large that it reached to where today's Saturn moves in its orbit through celestial space. Rudolf Steiner describes these connections in more detail in his "Occult Science":

„In individual chapters of this book it has been shown how the world of man and he himself pass through the states which have been designated by the names Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, Vulcan. It has also been indicated how human development relates to celestial bodies which exist beside the Earth and which have been named Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, etc. These latter celestial bodies make up the natural world of the human being. These latter celestial bodies are naturally also undergoing their evolution. In the present period they have reached such a stage that their physical parts show themselves to the perception as what in physical astronomy is called Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, etc. If now the present Saturn is considered in the spiritual-scientific sense, it is, as it were, a re-embodiment of what Old Saturn was. It came into being because before the separation of the Sun from the Earth there were certain beings which could not take part in the separation, because they had incorporated into themselves so many of those qualities which are appropriate to Saturn's existence that their place could not be where the Sun's qualities are especially developed. The present Jupiter, however, came into being because beings existed which had qualities that could only develop on the future Jupiter of the total evolution. For them a dwelling-place came into being in which they could already anticipate this later development. Thus Mars is a celestial body in which dwell beings who have gone through the lunar evolution in such a way that further progress on Earth would be of no use to them. Mars is a re-embodiment of the Old Moon on a higher level. The present Mercury is a dwelling-place for beings who are ahead of the Earth's evolution, but precisely because they have developed certain Earth qualities in a higher way than can happen on Earth. The present Venus is a prophetic anticipation of the future state of Venus in a similar way. From all this it is justified if the names of the states which have preceded and succeeded the earth are chosen according to their present representatives in the universe.“ (Lit.:GA 13, p. 324f)

The evolution of the Earth is divided into a half of Mars, determined by the so-called passage of Mars, and a second half of Mercury, connected with the passage of Mercury. The great initiates who give important impulses for the future development of the Earth and Man are therefore also called Mercury initiates.

The whole evolution was initiated by the Thrones, the Spirits of Will, sacrificing a part of their will substance and thereby producing the heat substance from which Old Saturn was built. Only on the Old Sun was the air element added, on the Old Moon the water element, and only on our Earth the solid crystalline earth element.

The 7 planetary embodiments are thus in the order of their emergence:

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

This arrangement of Occult Planets corresponds to the Chaldean series, from which the sequence of our weekdays is also derived.

„Just as man undergoes embodiment after embodiment, metamorphosis after metamorphosis, so all beings in the world undergo embodiments and re-embodiments, from the smallest to the largest, and even such a being as our Earth itself is, that is, a planetary being, undergoes re-embodiments. Our Earth was not already created as an Earth, but was preceded by another state. There has always been a great deal of talk in our circles about the fact that, just as man in this existence is the re-embodiment of a previous life, the Earth is also a re-embodiment of an old planet which preceded it. We call this previous planet the Moon, and we do not mean the present Moon, which is only a piece, a remnant, of the Old Moon, but a previous state of our Earth, which once existed and passed through a spiritual life, which is usually called Pralaya, just as man passes through a spiritual state after death. This lunar planet has been reborn, just as man is reborn. But what we have thus called the planetary state of the Moon is again only the embodiment of a previous planetary state, which we call the Sun. This Sun, not the present Sun, but a quite different being, this Sun is the re-embodiment of the last planet to which we must first look back when we speak of the embodiments of our Earth, the Old Saturn. Thus we have four successive embodiments: the Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth.“ (Lit.:GA 110, p. 48)

„Let us briefly sketch the development of our solar system. We know that it started from the Old Saturn, then this Old Saturn changed into the Old Sun, which changed into the Old Moon. At the time when the Old Sun becomes the Moon, a special development takes place. This Moon emerges from the Sun for the first time, and in the Old Moon we first have a world body which is outside the Sun. Through this the Sun can develop higher, that it has put the grossest out of itself. Now the whole system develops into the system of our present Earth. Our Earth comes into being through the fact that, apart from everything else, the Moon and the Earth separate themselves from the Sun as the coarser substances and the bearers of the coarser entities. But the development goes on. The beings who must now dwell apart on Earth, who have been thrown out of the Sun, so to speak, develop higher and higher in their seclusion from the Sun. They still have to go through a state, the Jupiter state. But through this they gradually mature to unite again with the Sun. And when the state of Venusian evolution has come, then all the beings who are now living on our Earth will, so to speak, have again been absorbed into the Sun, and the Sun itself will have reached a higher stage of evolution, precisely because it will have redeemed again all the beings which it has set apart from itself. And then comes the Vulcan evolution, the highest stage of the evolution of our system. For these are the seven stages of development of our system: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus and Vulcan. In the Vulcan evolution, all the beings that have emerged, so to speak, from small beginnings of Saturn's existence, have become spiritualised in the highest sense; together they have become not only Sun, but Super-Sun. The Vulcan is more than the Sun and has thus attained the maturity to sacrifice, the maturity to dissolve.

This is the next stage of development, that such a system, in which a sun arises from a starting point, this sun is, so to speak, weak at first and must throw out its planets so that it can develop itself further. It becomes strong, takes up its planets again, becomes a volcano. And now the whole thing dissolves, and the vulcanic sphere later becomes a hollow sphere, it then becomes something similar to this round dance of Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. So the Sun will dissolve, sacrifice itself out into the universe, radiate its essence. And thereby it will itself become a round dance of such Beings as the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are, which will now progress to the new creation in the Universe.

Why are the Thrones able to give out of their substance that which Saturn needs? Because the Thrones have prepared themselves in a former system through such seven states as our solar system is now passing through. Before something becomes a system of Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim, it must have been a solar system; that is to say, when a sun has reached the point where it has reunited with its planets, then it becomes a circumcircle, then it itself becomes a zodiac.“ (Lit.:GA 110, p. 78ff)

Simultaneous existence of all world evolutionary stages in the cosmos

We are currently standing with our Earth on the 4th world evolutionary stage. At the same time, however, other beings on other worlds are going through other of the aforementioned stages of development. All stages of development are present in the cosmos at the same time without interfering with each other.

„In spiritual science it is said that our Earth was formed gradually, first passing through a Saturnian, a solar, a lunar time and then advancing to this Earth time. But of course everything is always there. In the existence in which we now live as the Earth existence, other worlds are preparing their Saturn existence, other worlds their Sun existence. This can be observed in spiritual science. Saturn's existence is still there now. We only know that our Earth has overcome this stage; other worlds are only in this Saturn stage. There one can observe how it protrudes in. But to be able to observe this Saturn stage, that depends on the fact that one first changes the speed with which one follows the events, otherwise one cannot see them.“ (Lit.:GA 187, p. 149)

Consciousness - Life - Form

In the course of the evolution of our planetary system, seven conditions of consciousness are passed through, which are subdivided into seven conditions of life, each of which again passes through seven conditions of form. The conditions of consciousness are also called occult planets or planetary conditions, because each condition of consciousness is acquired in a specifically shaped planetary existence that manifests itself in the spatial world. This spatial manifestation of the planetary condition is called manvantara, following oriental terminology. After the corresponding condition of consciousness is attained, the planetary existence dissolves again, disappears from the spatial world and passes for a certain time into a purely spiritual state, which, again following oriental terminology, is also called pralaya.

The Trinity guides the entire development, in such a way that the First Logos or Father God effects the transition from one planetary state to the next, the Second Logos, the Son, effects the transition from one state of life to the next, and the Holy Spirit, the Third Logos, leads over from one condition of form to the next. (Lit.:GA 94, p. 97)

Every developing being passes through these stages many times during its evolution and shows the traces of this rhythmically repeating process in its being. As a result of this development, the human being, for example, is divided into body, soul and spirit.

7 Conditions of Consciousness (Planetary Conditions)

Rudolf Steiner distinguishes seven conditions of consciousness which correspond to the seven stages of evolution of our planetary system, the so-called occult planets.

  1. Trance consciousness, all-consciousness (Old Saturn)
  2. Deep sleep consciousness, dreamless consciousness (Old Sun)
  3. Image consciousness, dream consciousness (Old Moon)
  4. Waking consciousness, object consciousness (Earth = Mars + Mercury)
  5. Psychic consciousness, conscious image consciousness (New Jupiter)
  6. Supra-psychic consciousness, conscious sleep consciousness (New Venus)
  7. Spiritual consciousness, conscious all-consciousness (Vulcan)

After each planetary stage of evolution, a state of rest (pralaya) occurs in which the entire outer creation withdraws into a purely spiritual existence. Thereafter, a new revelatory state (manvantara) gradually begins.

Literature

German
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

  1. ↑ The colours are only for better illustration and have no deeper symbolic meaning.
The Earth seen from Apollo 17 (7. December 1972)
The seven planetary stages of world evolution

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

 
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