Universe earth and man rudolf steiner pdf

We will now try to give some idea of how it is with the more external manifestations of these Beings. When we consider the earth from the ordinary physical standpoint we see it is made up of what we call earth, water, air, and fire. These are the four primary conditions of external matter. Now the Spiritual Beings of whom we have spoken live in these various material elements, as if in external bodies. To anyone able to observe the world with clairvoyant vision that which is known as the fluidic element, especially water, is not only inhabited by the Beings we know as aquatic creatures, such as fish, but, in spite of the ever-changing substance, in spite of the fact that no solid form endures in this watery element, Spiritual Beings live in it, and are actually embodied in it in continually changing forms, although it is not possible to distinguish them with external vision.

In this element live the Beings whom we have described as Angels, or Spirits of Twilight. Their physical body is in a form not represented by any solid, clearly defined corporation; and when old myths and legends tell of such water-beings it is no phantasy, but is entirely in accordance with reality.

It is no fairy tale when in streaming currents of air, in the rushing storm, we see the bodily manifestation of this Spiritual Kingdom. In that which we know as warmth we have the embodiment of Beings known as the Spirits of Personality or Archai. As man is made up of these four elements: earth, water, air, and fire, he has mingled within him not only the four elements, but also the Beings we have just named; they fill his body to a certain extent, they pass in and out of his physical body just as material substances do.

The series of Beings connected with man is not exhausted with those I have mentioned. Still higher Beings have to do with the earth, the universe, and man, Beings who are at a higher stage even than the Spirits of Personality. There are Beings, for example, who stream towards us in the light for light to us is a still finer condition than warmth.

Wherever there is anything that sends forth light we recognize in this light the garment of exalted Beings, those to whom Christian esotericism gives the name of Exusiai, or Powers, or Spirits of Form. It is they who give form to everything around us.

Wherever things are seen with a distinct form this is due to the activity of these Spirits. The task of the Spirits of Form is still higher. Since the mission of mankind first began on earth, Spiritual Beings have taken part in work upon humanity, and it is they we have to thank for the fact that we can be active as human beings.

As if from a higher kingdom, the Spirits of Form have ruled from the beginning of the earth over that which appeared as the Spirits of Personality in the Zeitgeist; as Archangels in separate communities; and as Angels in regard to individual men; they are the principal guides and directors of all these Spiritual Beings. These Spirits of Form have the task of working on the earth as a whole, theirs is a planetary activity. Now you are aware that our earth, as a planet, is under the law of re-embodiment, just as man is.

Previous to its present embodiment our earth was what is called the ancient Moon. What we now regard as the mission of the earth did not then exist. The mission of the Moon was different; each planetary condition has its own mission to fulfil within the mighty whole; nothing is repeated, everything is under the law of evolution. During that incarnation of the earth which we call Ancient Moon certain Beings had a duty similar to that of the Spirits of Form on the earth, and these are called, according to Christian esotericism, Spirits of Motion, or Virtues, or Dynamis.

If we go back still further in evolution we arrive at a planetary condition of our earth which preceded that of the Ancient Moon; this is, the Ancient Sun condition, which as you are aware has nothing to do with the globe we now see in the heavens as the sun.

A very exalted principle ruled upon the Ancient Sun, as the Spirits of Form rule upon the earth, and as the Spirits of Motion ruled upon the Moon, this principle is named in Christian esotericism the hierarchy of the Spirits of Wisdom, called also Kyriotes, or Dominions.

These Beings were in command during the Sun condition. We now come to a still earlier planetary condition, that of ancient Saturn and the Beings who at that time superintended the guidance of the world we call the Thrones, or Spirits of Will. All these Hierarchies are continually in some sort of connection with us, although not in such close, directly perceptible connection as the lower Hierarchies. We will try by an example to show how these work into our earthly evolution, but in order to do this it will be necessary first to consider the evolution of the Angels, Archangels, and Archai.

These Beings are all greater than the man of today, but in the next incarnation of the Earth, which we call the Jupiter condition, he will be as great as the Angels are now; and he will continually expand to ever greater degrees of perfection. This is also the case as regards the evolution of the other Beings; they were not always what they are now, they also have passed through lower stages of development. Take for example the Angels. In earlier times these passed through their human stage as we are now doing on earth; this was on the Ancient Moon, and it was because of the work they carried out upon themselves at that time that they have become the higher Beings they are now.

In the same way Archangels passed through their human stage on the Ancient Sun; at that time they were Beings like us; today they have advanced two stages above us. The Archai had their human stage upon Ancient Saturn.

They were one stage higher than the Beings who passed through their humanity on the Sun, and about three stages higher than man is today. But those Beings whom we call the Spirits of Form, whom we look up to and reverence as very exalted Beings, passed through their human stage in a past that it is impossible for us to conceive of.

When the embodiment of the earth first began, when the earth was Saturn, they had already left their human evolution behind them. What exaltation must fill our souls when we look in thought up to these Beings! But even they are under the law of evolution, and although on Saturn they were greater than the humanity of today, they rose through ever higher and higher stages of development during the Sun and Moon periods, and on to the time of the Earth, till at last they have attained to such a degree of expansion and have so large a field of activity that they no longer have need of a planet in order, on it, to find the substances through which they can exist.

Other Beings have need of our earth in a certain way; the Angels have need of water, the Archangels of air, and the Spirits of Personality of fire; but the Spirits of Form no longer require our planetary conditions, hence it was necessary for them, when our earth began its development, to find another dwelling-place, and that was why they separated from it.

It was no merely mechanical splitting asunder of matter, but heavenly bodies separated off from each other in order to provide a dwelling place for Spiritual Beings. Spirits of Form tore from the earth its finer substances; in this way the sun originated and now sends its light down to the earth from outside. In the sunlight the spiritual nature of the Spirits of Form streams down to us, hence I said that light is the garment of these Spirits.

When we see the bright light of the sun streaming down to us we see in it the garment of these Spirits who send their guiding and directing forces to the earth from the sun, thus controlling the mission of the earth.

German mysticism appeared as a rich blossom of deep religious fervour. In order to keep pace with events, above all with the conquests of science, and in order that faith might stand firm in the darkness of a materialistic age, something further had to emerge.

The power of Belief had to yield to the certainty of Science. This new force was the aim of the Rosicrucian schools. They concerned themselves with the newly evolving forces of consciousness in the coming age. Rosicrucian esotericism, with its earnest striving after the new forces of human knowledge, with the tragic fate and spiritual tests laid upon its followers, was yet able here and there, as Rudolf Steiner has shown us, to raise the veil of its mysteries.

New forces of spiritual consciousness were born from it that were able to overcome materialism by cognition. In the hard struggle to recover the faculty of spiritual perception, once given to man and now lost, but which must be regained through the power of the ego, through the death and re-birth of the personality, the ego-being of striving humanity grows strong. When man consciously grasps this ego-being he can rise and unite himself once more with the Godhead.

The unique character of this event must be recognised as the decisive turning point of the earth's destiny. The personality had to come into being, it had to comprehend itself, to take itself in hand and recognize itself as a centre, to confront and then overcome itself, to learn to die, that it might realize itself again as a free ego-being whose central point is the Divine Ego.

This is the path of western esotericism; the European cannot avoid it. Formerly his task was to complete the education of the personality, entangled as it was in egoism; his present task is to overcome egoism, to transmute it by liberating the divine-willing, strong ego-nature within him. This he can only do through controlling the forces of his consciousness through knowledge and cognition. He must be willing to recognise the smallest in the greatest.

He cannot eliminate whole epochs of time with their tremendous significance for human development. Power will be given to him if today he desires knowledge and cognition of the Universe, Earth, and Man. This knowledge is now called Anthroposophy.

It gives its teaching and declares its creed quite openly; it hides nothing, for it knows the time has come when what was once nurtured in secret must step forth on to the plane of history. But men turn names to their own particular ends.

If one has such a contradiction before one, as for example the pseudo-Christian statement engineered by the Theosophical Society, one cannot strengthen it by means employed in the advocacy of truth.

The Theosophical Society is fast stuck in Oriental dogma, and rejects the intellectual permeation of Christian truths to which a rightly guided Theosophical movement should necessarily have come. That which the Theosophical Society did not accept is now represented by those calling themselves Anthroposophists. It has been necessary therefore in the publication of any cycles of lectures to employ the word Anthroposophy, or Spiritual Science, instead of Theosophy.

The ancient holy name Theosophy has been caricatured and falsified, and especially to the outer world must we make clear the difference, especially in all this confusion between Societies bearing great and honourable names.

It is undoubtedly our duty in memory of Rudolf Steiner to throw light upon the conditions of that conflict which aimed at crippling his world-embracing activity in Christian esotericism. It is our duty to show how necessary his action was in separating from a Society which saw in Thibetism, Hinduism, and Buddhism the sum of all wisdom, but in the Mystery of Golgotha only the karmic fate of a noble personality not yet matured to ultimate perfection.

And there may be a purpose in doing so. This purpose may be to confine goodness to a small circle, in order by the help of this goodness to dominate the helpless humanity who are thus led by evil into the follies of life.

II, No. Download and read the verses in four translations with commentary by Eloise Krivosheia of the Los Angeles Branch of the Anthroposophical Society. All rights reserved. Unsure where to begin?