# Introduction to the Basics of Theosophy

## GA 111 — 6 March 1908, The Hague

### XVIII. Occultism and Esotericism

Man in his totality is not a simple being, as is well known, but a being composed of four members or principles.

The physical body is the oldest link in our being, the one that arose first. The etheric body is already more recent, the astral body is even younger, and the youngest of all is the principle that carries the power of the ego. When we look at the physical body with the eye of the spirit, it must seem to us to be arranged with infinite wisdom. (The speaker takes as examples a joint and then the human heart.) This material heart, so perfect, is exposed to the attacks that the impetuous astral body, moved by passions, directs at it every day. Later, the astral body and finally the ego - the baby among human principles - will also achieve greater perfection.

To follow the development of the ego, we have to look at the development of the earth, of which man is an essence. All beings have various embodiments behind them, even if they cannot be called incarnations in the same sense as in the case of man.

Our earth emerged from what we call the old moon in occultism. This was the predecessor of our earth. We can go back even further, and we then find the [previous] stage of development of our earth evolution embodied in what we call the sun in occultism: a very different entity from our present fixed star, the sun. A fixed star also emerges from an evolutionary process; every fixed star was once a planet. At that time, our earth was within [the sun] and formed a whole with it.

Even earlier, the Earth was embodied in the ancient Saturn, which again has nothing to do with the planet currently called Saturn. This planet is related to the ancient Saturn in a certain sense, like a ten-year-old child to a forty-year-old person, who may well have been ten years old, but has not grown out of that age. We speak of Saturn in occultism in the same way that we always speak comparatively.

We therefore have four states of formation: the Saturn, the Sun, the Moon and the Earth state. In a similar way, one can also foresee future states.

The Saturn state is also called the first planetary chain; the sun state is the second planetary chain, the moon state a third and so on. What is called a planetary chain seems to us like a phase of development of our earth.

In the Saturn condition, the first foundation of the physical body of man was laid. At that time, nothing else existed but this physical body, the other bodies of man did not yet exist. But this physical body cannot really be compared to what we call it now.

In occultism, we distinguish four states of becoming: the densest state (earth), the liquid state (water), the gaseous state (air) and the state of heat (fire), which is currently no longer recognized as matter in science.

The old Saturn state now has no earthly, no watery, no aerial forms, but only fire. Differentiation in the warmth of matter was the very first disposition for the human body. This is only possible because at that time the higher bodies had not yet descended from the spiritual atmosphere of old Saturn into the physical body.

If you want to have a way of comparing to visualize such an initial body, then look at another person. Just as you see something like a mirror image of yourself in the eye of another person, our very first physical body was not even a hint of an image of it, but a mirror image, cast into the warm matter by the higher bodies, Atma - Budhi - Manas.

The initial images were now, so to speak, fanned and thrown around in space. After a state of pralaya, the old solar state emerged from the old state of Saturn. Here the second link of the human being was formed: the etheric body. Thus we went through the second stage of development of our physical body, the first stage of the development of the etheric body.

On the old sun, human beings had a kind of plant-like existence. Now, as with every evolution, there were also beings on the old planetary sun that had not progressed far enough in their evolution to receive an etheric body. Thus, a kind of mineral kingdom formed alongside the plant-like existence of the human beings. We can think of the human forms on the old sun as a mirage in our atmosphere. From the warmth, images were formed and expressed in forms of air. Then, after a state of pralaya, we come to the old moon state. Here the astral body is added to the human being. Matter condenses to such an extent that it enters a watery state. Thus, in truth, we are born in fire, guided through air and pass through water, in which latter we have received the astral body. What we call our 'ego' is then still contained in the spiritual atmosphere of the moon.

In order to distinguish the state of beings in which the individual ego is active from beings that do not have the ability to express their individuality to the outside world, the speaker uses the occult terms 'sounding® and 'non-sounding (mute) beings. Those who have a sound to express their individual suffering and joy have something more than the soundless or dumb animals. The man in the moon phase did not yet possess an individual sound, an I-ness.

In the old moon state we find two other realms that are more and even more underdeveloped in their development: a plant realm and a mineral realm alongside the human realm.

Now man is a being standing between higher and lower beings. The higher beings also undergo a development at the same time as man and are connected in a certain way to his development. Certain entities, connected with us through the preceding processes, needed a faster development than man could provide. This resulted in an important stage in the development of this embodiment of the earth: it split in two. Next to the old moon, a sun was formed, a body that has the potential to become a fixed star. But this created a state of greater solidity in the moon body: a second stage in the moon condition. And with that, all three realms on the old moon experienced a condensation. A state arises, not unlike the egg white — the “ We can still find certain entities of the old moon stage on Earth today: mistletoe, for example, can only live on the living substance of other beings (trees), not on the usual soil that is dead to them. That is why mistletoe is a symbol for occultists and clairvoyants of the beings that could not make the transition from the old lunar state, but also of the great perspectives that lie beyond our stage of development. A great deal of knowledge is often hidden in ancient myths and traditions. The old moon is called the planet or cosmos of wisdom; the earth is called the planet or cosmos of love. Each planetary chain has its own goal, its own special destiny: the old wisdom is developed on the moon chain, just as it is the mission of the earth to implant love in all beings. Now the development continues: the I, the fourth link of the human being, must be added. But love can only come to a being if it is not directed from above, but when one I faces another. Much remained behind on the old moon, and so we still find much “unloving” on earth. But let us bear in mind that we too have only arrived at a certain stage in our development of love. The ideal of which we so often speak, of a human being based on love, this ideal is taken directly from the cosmic destiny of the earth. Thus we have recognized in man his four bodies or principles. And we have also found how three other realms exist alongside his realm. And what happened in the moon period also happens in the earth period: the sun separates with its faster evolution of higher beings. The beings that remained on earth – something spiritual that emerged from the old moon – now had the disposition of the actual self. On the moon, there was an evolution of beings that could not follow the human evolution as quickly and proceeded at a slower pace. So the Earth evolution had a pace that lies between that of the sun and the moon. The separation of the moon and the Earth coincides with the Lemurian period. From that time on, man began his present development. As always, some beings were left behind in evolution. But there were also beings whose evolution had to go faster than that of humans, although they were not able to follow the solar evolution. The residences of these beings became the planet Venus, closer to the sun than the earth, and Mercury, even closer to the sun. The separation of Mars, Jupiter and so on was due to similar reasons. When man now appears on earth, he has to go through the whole process again, and the first thing that is formed is a very imperfect material body. Looking back on the process of development, the lower animal forms are man's retarded brethren. They indicate stages of earlier human development, so that the animals are descended directly from man and not the other way around. Only higher beings could give people the impetus to develop higher qualities. So higher beings, inhabitants of Venus (also called Luciferic Entities), embodied themselves among us to give people the first impetus to develop the ego - through love. For the most advanced people, even higher beings lent their help: the inhabitants of Mercury, who were the teachers of the mysteries. Thus the development of the individual human being is connected with the development of the cosmos outside. We learn to see the structure of human development in cosmic development. The purpose of the cosmic development of our earth is to bring love into harmony with the inheritance of the old moon, of wisdom. From the harmony of cosmic development and human development, we learn to understand the great problem of life.